You’re Cordially Invited

Posted on January 30, 2025 at 5:00 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language throughout and some sexual references
Profanity:	Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and drunkenness
Violence/ Scariness:	Comic peril and violence with some grisly wounds
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	January 31, 2025

There are so many brilliant, funny, wildly talented people in and behind this movie that it is difficult to understand why it is so hard to watch.

Writer/director Nick Stoller is responsible for comedy hits like “Get Him to the Greek,” “The Muppets” (2001), and “Yes Man” along with lesser entries like “Zoolander 2” and “Night School.” He filled the movie with top comedy powerhouses Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, supported by immensely talented up-and-coming performers Geraldine Viswanathan (“The Broken Hearts Gallery,” “Blockers”), Meredith Hagner (“Bad Monkey”), Jimmy Tatro (“Theater Camp,” the under-appreciated television series “Home Economics”), and solid supporting comic actors Fortune Feimster, Jack McBrayer, and Rory Scovel, plus the very funny stand-up comic Leanne Morgan and Keyla Monterroso Mejia, a standout in this month’s “One of Them Days.”

But one crucial ingredient is missing: the stakes. The entire premise for the film is that a luxury island destination off the coast of Georgia has been double booked. Why? Because the elderly lady who took one of the reservations had a heart attack and died before she could write it down with a working pen in the hotel’s calendar book. Fun, right? It is close to impossible to care which bride gets what services and even more difficult to care about any of the people who do care about it.

There is single dad Jim (Ferrell), whose entire life has revolved around his daughter, Jenni (Viswanathan) since her mother died when she was a little girl. It is supposed to be both funny and endearing that she is his whole world. It is not. For example, the two of them have a “cute” little musical number they like to perform together, apparently without ever having listened to the lyrics. It’s “Islands in the Stream,” which is of course a love song duet with the couple singing about making love.” Ew. Jenni wanted her best friend and maid of honor Heather (Mejia) to make all the plans, so Jim has not confirmed any of the details.

In the other corner is reality television producer Margot (Witherspoon), who does not get along with anyone in her family except for her baby sister Neve (Hagner), who is her favorite person in the world. As a producer and, if this is not redundant, control freak, Margot has made three visits to the island to nail down everything up to and including the canapés. And as someone who feels her family does not appreciate or approve of her, she is ready for battle over every one of those details.

Both have emotional attachments to the venue. Jim and his late wife were married there. Margo and Neve spent summers on the island with their late grandmother. At first they try to get along but very soon this leads to a succession of petty, silly, and mostly dull efforts to obliterate each other, with escalating hijinks that make these people more and more unpleasant. A bride gets hit in the face, leaving a huge bruise. A wedding party gets knocked into the water. There is a sharp contrast between the slapstick and the exquisite music (not “Islands in the Stream” — the soundtrack also features a gorgeous song from Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and operatic selections). It is a nagging reminder of the gulf between the meaning of the events, which even the couples seem to have overlooked, and the ridiculous pettiness of the conflicts.

Parents should know that this movie has a lot of very strong and crude language with sexual references. There is also a lot of comic peril and violence. No one is badly hurt but we do see some bloody woulds and a bad bruise.

Family discussion: Would you want to attend either of these weddings? What weddings have you been to that you especially enjoyed?

If you like this, try: better movies with the cast including “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” “Stranger than Fiction,” and “Legally Blonde”

Flight Risk

Posted on January 23, 2025 at 7:12 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for violence and language
Profanity:	Very strong and crude languagecdure
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended peril and violence, airplane peril, characters injured and killed, some grisly and disturbing images
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	January 24, 2025

“Flight Risk” has all of the ingredients for a tight little thriller except one. There’s a good set-up — transport of a cooperating witness, accompanied by just one US Marshal in her first return to field work after a failure that left her feeling vulnerable, and a pilot sent by the bad guys to kill the witness. It has a good setting — a small plane flying through the snowy mountains of Alaska. And a good run-time — just over 90 minutes. But the direction by Mel Gibson is sloppy. Not the editing or special effects, which range from serviceable to tense, but some of the choices that interfere with the best the movie has to offer.

Topher Grace, who plays Winston, is, as always, immediately engaging, well cast as the talkative prisoner. He’s first seen in a low-end motel, sitting on the bed and staring into an aged microwave waiting for it to warm up a styrofoam cup of soup. US Marshals break in and he immediately offers to cooperate with them. Like Charles Grodin in the infinitely better “Midnight Run,” Winston was an accountant for a vicious mob boss. He agrees to tell law enforcement everything he knows if they will give him immunity and protection.

Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”) is Madolyn Harris. She has to bring Winston east to testify in the gangster’s trial. Without his testimony, there will not be enough evidence to convict him. She charters a plane, gets Winston settled with handcuffs, and takes the only other seat, next to the pilot (Mark Wahlberg), who says his name is Booth. His backwards baseball cap, chewing gum, and cornpone accent do not create a great deal of confidence, but he assures Madolyn that they’ll be in Anchorage and on their way to Seattle in 90 minutes.

Except he was never told their next stop was Seattle. Madolyn gets suspicious. “Booth” is there to kill Winston. He is also the only pilot on board. There is nothing around them but snowy mountains. The rest of the movie is the very bumpy ride.

The problem is that the fun of all the tension and action is interrupted by weird dialogue that is as off-balance as the plane. As Madolyn is using the limited access to her phone to update her colleagues (and try to figure out who has been leaking key information to the gangster), she is also on with Hassan (Maaz Ali), a pilot who is talking her through the instrumentation. He is creepily predatory, in the midst of the direst possible situation insisting that she go on a date with him. What is the idea behind this? Is there any world where someone might imagine this could be reassuring? It j’ust kept taking me out of the film.

And then there is “Booth.” Reportedly, Gibson let Wahlberg write some of his own dialogue, which gives his character a chance to free-associate a series of comments that he and Gibson may have considered evidence of recklessness and pleasure in hurting people, showing us why he is so dangerous. But they are crude and off-kilter (too many references to prison rape, for example) in a way that is at odds with the tempo and tone of the film. They’re also tedious. They do not add anything to the sense of menace or the stakes. It just comes across as self-indulgent, the last thing you want in a 90-minute thriller.

Parent should know that this is a very violent film with a knife, a flare gun, a very dangerous plane flight, criminal behavior and corruption, and extended strong language with very crude sexual references.

Family discussion: How did Madolyn decide who she could trust? How did her past experience help or hurt her ability to handle the challenges of this transport?

If you like this, try: “Plane,” “Fathom,” and “Con Air”

Brave the Dark

Posted on January 23, 2025 at 5:31 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for domestic violence/bloody images, suicide, some strong language, teen drinking, drug material and smoking
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Teen drinking and smoking, drugs
Violence/ Scariness:	Domestic violence, murder, suicide, abuse, guns
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	January 24, 2025

An angry teenager can seem like an immovable object. Most adults have a hard time finding the patience to be the irresistible force that reflects back unconditional support. “Brave the Dark” is based on the true story of a teacher who was that for many students over the years, especially for Nate, a boy who desperately needed a reason to believe that life had more to offer than abuse, trauma, and disappointment. It was made with love by the now-grown boy himself, with three brothers from the other side of the ocean who saw a story that needed to be shared.

The three brothers are the sons of actor Richard Harris (“Camelot” and the original Dumbledore). Damien Harris directed and co-wrote the screenplay. Jared Harris (“Chernobyl” and “Mad Men”) plays teacher Stan Deen. And Jamie Harris plays Barney, the tough probation officer assigned to Nate when he gets in trouble. While the heart of the film is the relationship between Nate and Stan, the scenes with Stan and Barney are among the highlights. The two characters have a history that left them respecting one another but they are very different. Stan is almost preposterously optimistic and Barney is as tough and cynical as you might expect a parole officer whose job is riding herd on acting-out teenagers to be. Jamie and Jared have great chemistry and really spark off each other so well we could imagine a whole other movie about them.

But this is Nate’s story. When we first see him, he’s running track at his high school. We won’t find out why until later, when we learn he has been living in a car after eight years in an orphanage starting at age 6 and failed placements with four foster families. And he has friends who invite him to go along on a break-in. For them it’s fun. For him it’s a way to get some money for food. But he is caught. He gets sent to prison.

Stan Deen cannot let Nate stay there. He is just that guy, as we see when the prison guard explains that only family is allowed to see Nate, and Stan glances at the portrait on the wall and asks to see the warden. This is not some “I need to see the manager” thing. As we will learn, Stan has made the lives of everyone in Lancaster County better, teaching them or their kids, helping them through tough times. Of course the warden is a former student. And many of the movie’s best moments are like this one, when Stan always just seems to know and be loved by everyone.

Stan is a bit of an oddball. He’s a bit awkward but he is incapable of being anything but completely authentic. That, more than anything else, is what gets Nate started on thinking of himself and his life’s possibilities differently. But in order to move forward, he has to be willing to be honest about the past, about the unthinkable tragedy he witnessed as a child. It is something his grandparents insisted he lie about, even to himself. Witnessing Stan’s natural honesty shows Nate that he can be honest, too.

Stan, who once dreamed of being an actor, is directing a school production — tellingly — of “Flowers for Algernon.” That story is the basis for the movie “Charly,” which won an Oscar for Cliff Robertson as a man with low cognitive skills who has an experimental surgery that — temporarily — gives him superior intelligence. The brief moments we see in the play parallel the movie’s themes about increased understanding as Nate’s interactions with one of the play’s leads, the girl who broke up with him after he was arrested. Viewers should know those scenes were shot in the school auditorium where the real Stan Deen staged plays with his students, and that it is now named in his honor.

Stan was feeling stuck after the death of his mother. He is able to move forward by allowing Nate to move into his home, even into what was his mother’s bedroom. There are setbacks and struggles, but that makes the conclusion and the images of the real Stan and Nate at the end especially moving.

Parents should know that this film has strong language, drinking, smoking, and drugs, and a mostly off-screen depiction of murder and suicide witnessed by a small child. The story includes abuse, abandonment, homelessness, and teen crime.

Family discussion: Why was Stan different from the other teachers? What teachers have made the biggest difference in your life? Can you be more like Stan?

If you like this, try: “Stand and Deliver” and “Coach Carter”

One of Them Days

Posted on January 15, 2025 at 8:34 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for brief drug use, sexual material, and language throughout
Profanity:	Constant strong language including the n-word
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Brief drug use
Violence/ Scariness:	Comic peril and violence, one very bloody scene, gangster violence, fire
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	January 17, 2025

If winter seems unending and the headlines have you down, “One of Them Days” will cheer you up. Keke Palmer (Dreux) and SZA (Alyssa) play best friends and roommates having a day that gets even more wildly and more hilariously wrong, It is crazy, silly, over-the-top, and a ton of fun.

We first see Dreux near the end of her overnight shift at Norm’s, part of a chain of diners. We can see that she is good at her job, friendly, capable, caring with her regular customers. Dreux is organized and focused. Alyssa is more of a free spirit, an artist who says she is in touch with her ancestors and trusts to the universe to take care of her.

Dreux leaves Norm’s at 7 am. At 4, she will have an interview for a job as a manager that she very much wants. She is nervous because she does not have some of the academic credentials of her competition, but hopes that her experience will be enough to persuade them to take a chance on her. All she needs to do is get home, get some sleep, and get ready.

But her landlord (Rizi Timane as Uche) tells her that her rent has not been paid and if he does not get the money by 6 pm she and Alyssa will be evicted, with everything in their apartment moved to the curb. It turns out Alyssa gave the rent money to her feckless boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua David Neal) and he never gave it to Uche. A clock appears on screen to tell us how much time the women have before they’re evicted.

Keshawn lies about more than the money. He’s cheating on Alyssa with fiery red-head Berniece (Aziza Scott). When she blames Alyssa and Dreux for humiliating her, she decided to go after them to beat them up.

Thus, there’s a set-up with three ticking clocks, to be on time and presentable for the interview, to have the money for the landlord, and to hide from Berniece. More tension piles up as their car gets towed, their efforts to get money go haywire, and they manage to get in trouble with the local kingpin, who demands $5000 by midnight, adding another ticking clock.

But in the midst of all this the tension is just enough to create a frame around the Lucy-and-Ethel level of crazy shenanigans I do not want to spoil. I’ll just say there’s a lot of mayhem and ups and downs plus some harsh words and a reconciliation.

This movie is a lot smarter and, yes, even in the midst of the wild and crazy stuff, it has a lot more heart than you might expect. There are echoes of films like “Friday” and “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” but this is kinder to the characters (most of them) and to us. They are not clowns. They are just a couple of young women trying to make it in a world stacked against them, with resilience and ingenuity.

Early in the film, Dreux and Alyssa learn that their building (which they call “the jungle”) is getting its first white tenant. It turns out to be a friendly young woman named Bethany (Maude Apatow). Thankfully, she is neither presented as someone who is there to teach Dreux and Alyssa or to learn from them. She may have a different experience and vocabulary. Her apartment, unlike theirs, looks like the pictures on the building’s website, with crown molding and a working air conditioner. But she is genuine and would like to make friends.

Palmer and SZA are outstanding, but so is the supporting cast. Every encounter Druex and Alyssa have is buoyed by the actors in even the smallest roles. It is difficult to pick just a few to mention, but the most memorable include Katt Williams as a man who tries to warn the young women to stay away from a predatory lender (“If you don’t have the money this month, you won’t have it next month”), Keyla Monterroso Mejia as the intake officer at the lender who cannot hide her laughter at Dreux’s credit score (and listen for the voice of producer Issa Rae in the audio recording in the lender waiting room). There is some cartoonish slapstick at the blood bank and a power line, but there are also moments of kindness and support, with Vanessa Bell Calloway as a neighbor who runs a mini-bodega out of her apartment and Gabrielle Dennis as one of the executives interviewing Dreux. And there’s an almost Capra-esque moment of the community coming together as the young women learn that they had what they needed all along.

Parents should know that this movie has constant very strong language and slapstick violence, including a visit to the blood bank gone very wrong. There are humorous sexual references including a man’s revealing underwear and brief drug use. A gangster’s henchmen drop someone out of a window.

Family discussion: What would you do if you were in Dreux’s and Alyssa’s situation? How do they feel about Bethany and why? What did you think Maniac’s story was going to be?

If you like this, try: “Friday” and its sequels and “Up in Smoke”

A Complete Unknown

Posted on December 25, 2024 at 9:00 am

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language
Profanity:	Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking, and marijuana
Violence/ Scariness:	References to war, some scuffles
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	December 13, 2024

“A Complete Unknown” is the story of Bob Dylan’s early years in New York, based on Elijah Wald’s book Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties. It begins with Dylan’s first stop after he arrives from Minnesota, a visit to see Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who was paralyzed and unable to speak, with Huntington’s disease. Guthrie has another visitor, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton, capturing Seeger’s nerdy, generous, gentle optimism). Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) takes out his guitar to play a song he wrote in tribute to Guthrie. The two folk singers are impressed. We then follow the 21-year-old singer/songwriter as he creates some of the century’s most groundbreaking and influential music while mistreating most of the people around him, until he creates a near-riot at the Newport Folk Festival by plugging in his guitar and “going electric.”

Biographical films, especially those about musicians, tend to have the same format, as so devastatingly destroyed in the parody “Walk Hard.” There’s the precocity and one or two formative childhood experiences, then the moment someone on the board in the recording studio says, “Hey, wait, this kid can play/sing!” Success, setback, moments of inspiration, fights with managers/bandmates/romantic partners, often a descent into drugs and/or alcohol, various breakups, possibly a health crisis, and then either an early death or some kind of rebound.

Wisely, this film, from director James Mangold, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks, avoids most of the cliches, and makes no kind of effort to understand or reveal the inner workings of the famously inscrutable Dylan. The title of the film, of course taken from the lyrics of “Like a Rolling Stone,” applies to its subject. It is not that the movie tries and fails to help us understand Bob Dylan; on the contrary, it recognizes that Dylan defies that kind of simplification. And that he doesn’t need it and we should not attempt it. Anything we need to know is in the songs.

And so, this movie does give us the songs, full performances with Chalamet’s singing close enough to Dylan’s voice in the 60s, and perhaps with just a bit more lyrical clarity and tunefulness. The movie thus seems like one brilliant song after another, with interludes of Dylan being a terrible boyfriend. For the fans of Dylan the icon as well as Dylan the musician, there are several well-known highlights of his biography, like encounters with other future luminaries. Joan Baez is played with verve and a sweet, clear singing voice by Monica Barbaro, but with no sense of the complexity and conflicts portrayed in the recent documentary . The most amusing is Boyd Holbrook as a young Johnny Cash, who exchanges supportive letters with Dylan and, when they finally meet at Newport, encourages him to “muddy the carpet,” and stir up some trouble. Elle Fanning plays Sylvie, a character based on Suze Rotolo, the young woman pictured holding Dylan’s arm on the cover of his Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan record. She is credited with exposing Dylan to social activism. She tells him songs should be about more than Johnny Appleseed and the Dust Bowl, but Fanning’s scenes are mostly about being disappointed at what a bad boyfriend Dylan is.

At first, Dylan says all he wants is to be a musician and eat. But then he gets successful. He feels oppressed and under pressure. The fans want him to stay the same. He wants to try new ideas. More than that, he does not want to be told what not to do. He gets more reserved, more internal. but his hair keeps getting fuzzier.

The best scene in the movie is when Pete Seeger is hosting his low-key public access television show. He thought Dylan, by then very famous and very busy, was not going to show up. He invited a back-up guest, a Black folk musician. Dylan does show up. Another performer might have apologized and taken over or just rescheduled and allowed the substitute musician to play. But Dylan lights up at the prospect of jamming with him. He starts to play. Seeger joins in. It is the most illuminating, touching, and engaging moment in the movie.

Parents should know that this film includes some strong language, drinking, constant smoking, and marijuana. There are some unhappy confrontations and references to wartime violence.

Family discussion: Was Dylan right about what people wanted to hear when they asked where the songs come from? Which song means the most to you and why? Was he wrong to play electric music at a folk festival? Why did he do it?

If you like this, try: the classic documentary about Bob Dylan during these years, “Don’t Look Back” and a later documentary, Bob Dylan–The Never-Ending Narrative