May Movie Reviews

*****  Exceptional

****    Great

***      OK

**        So So

*          Blah

The Bookshop was about a widow (Emily Mortimer) in 1959 who fulfills her dream to open a bookshop in a small town in England. The whole town conspires to force her to close at the whim of a self-centered rich woman (Patricia Clarkson).  I thought this would be a cute, warm-hearted British movie with a little comedy...it was dark and depressing. The rich recluse who supports the bookstore owner and seems to be a possible love interest, but he is way too old for her...I think Emily Mortimer was too young for the part of a widow who was married for a long time. Love the costumes and everything English. Love the women wearing rubber farm boots with their dresses. Can I do that? LOL. It was a little slow. **

Burn After Reading Cohen brothers movie...that should say it all. Strange story about a group of bizarre, often stupid people entangled in each other's lives. All-star cast (George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances MacDormand, Richard Jenkins) with excellent performances. Brad Pitt as a dim-witted gym employee/trainer was hilarious. Unusual role for him. ***

The Favourite is about Queen Anne of England and her assistant/handmaids/lesbian lovers. Olivia Colman who is Queen Anne is exceptional and hilarious. All performances were great, but I didn't care for the story! I'm really disappointed. The presentation with the different chapters and chapter headings was clever. Costumes and setting were excellent. I just didn't like the story. Other than these details, I had no reason to keep watching. It just wasn't interesting. I had high hopes for this based on the previews. Disappointing. *

Green Book is about a highly-educated, cultured, wealthy, black concert pianist in the early 1960s who opts to tour the Deep South and put up with the racist attitudes in order to effect change. He hires a white, racist club bouncer from the Bronx to be his driver. They have absolutely nothing in common, develop a friendship while crossing all kinds of cultural boundaries learning how different yet how similar they are. At one point the driver tells the piano player, who seems to know very little about black music, black food, and black culture, "I'm more black than you are!" Great story. Outstanding performances, costumes, 1960s sets. I'm not sure how Viggo Mortensen could eat so much in each scene. ****

If Beale Street Could Talk I had bad feelings about this movie based on the DVD cover. It looked like a mushy love story in the 70s...the worst of all plots. BUT I ran out of options so thought I'd give it a chance. I couldn't get through the first fifteen minutes of the dreamy looks, hand-holding, the monotony, melancholic narration, and MATCHING CLOTHES. Really? The love birds had brand new, matching bright yellow and blue clothes. BLAH! Then she's pregnant and he's in jail and I'm thinking this is way too cliche. Then for lack of other movie options the next night I tried watching it again...and turned it off again. *

John Wick Shoot 'em up movie. An extraordinary amount of gun play in every scene. Not my type of movie, usually. It's about a hitman who used to work for the Russian mafia (or something). He retires for love and years later his wife dies from some unexplained illness. After she's dead she has a puppy delivered to him. The Russian mafia bossman's son steals John Wick's car and kills his puppy just for fun not knowing who he is. John Wick is not happy. I think their honor code is a little idiotic...at one point the mafia bossman tells John if he promises not to kill him he'll give him information...this is after he tried to kill him. Why would he keep his promise? Then near the end again he has his gun on the bossman and bossman says,"No guns, just hand to hand." WHY WOULD HE JUST NOT SHOOT HIM DEAD? It was goofy, but somewhat entertaining. I'm curious if the other movies in the series are the same...the next one coming out has Halley Berry with dogs. She had to train with them for six months so I was intrigued to see what this series was all about. ***

Juliet, Naked is about a woman who's boyfriend, Duncan, is an obsessed fanboy of an obscure, alternative rock star, Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), who disappeared after his last performance twenty five years ago. He runs the fan club which boasts 200 [male] members who chat online, following any rumor about the musician, interpreting and reinterpreting his lyrics ad nauseam , and his man cave is lined with collected memorabilia, obscure posters, photos, and recordings. Annie is so tired of hearing about Tucker Crowe for the last fifteen years. Although they agreed not to have children, she now wants them, is re-thinking her relationship, and wonders why her life has always been so responsible and lifeless. Duncan is sent old demos of the rough draft songs from Crowe's one and only album Juliet, titled Juliet, Naked. Annie listens to it and as usual deems it amateurish and depressing. As revenge, she writes an anonymous review of it on Duncan's fan site. Duncan is not pleased. Duncan has an affair with a woman who enjoys Crowe's music and his relationship with Annie falls apart, although I get the impression she's more than relieved not to ever hear about Tucker Crowe again. Then she gets an email...from Tucker Crowe. He agrees with her review. The real Tucker Crowe, really? They begin an online relationship and come to find out the fan club knows nothing about him and has misinterpreted everything he has done and said. It was a fun movie with some LOL moments about human relationships. It was funny when Annie introduces Tucker to Duncan the first time..."Yeah, right and I'm Stevie Wonder." He's so out of context he doesn't even recognize him. ***

Mary Poppins Returns I was worried it would be a cheap copy but it was an excellent sequel. Emily Blunt's Mary Poppins was practically perfect in every way which was really surprising. I don't remember the original Mary Poppins so ARROGANT. She was confident but not arrogant. And this one is a compulsive liar. When did Mary Poppins get so dishonest? Seems like a strange lesson to teach. Great cast: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Colin Firth, Emily Mortimer, Angela Lansbury, Meryl Streep (!) and Dick VanDyke resurrected the bank president role. Streep's dialogue had to be a challenge. Lots of nods to the original. and I think even a slight nod to Harry Potter with the mysterious alley...looks just like Diagon Alley. OUTSTANDING costumes and great themes. The music didn't disappoint either - same tone and flavor following the same storyline as the original, but a couple songs about loss and grief that were beautiful and tear-jerking. I would have liked to see the kids sing more as they did at the very end, but they were really adorable. Great art and wonderful sets. The choreography is outstanding, not just the dancing, but the staging of some of the scenes where the timing had to be perfect. I wish they had some footage of how they filmed it. There were moments I got tears in my eyes and that happens every time I watch the original, too. Very heartwarming. Kids would love it. Adults, too. *****

Operation Finale is about the 1960 capture of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS commander who masterminded the Holocaust and hid in Argentina after the war. Great performances, very intense. Ben Kingsley was superb. ****

A Simple Favor was a comedy (I think?) about the new friendship of very opposite women. When one of them disappears, the other starts investigating. Very dark humor. Anna Kendrick was absolutely superb as the wacky mom with the vlog. ***

Widows is about the wives of a dead crime ring who were obliterated after a heist gone wrong. The money that was stolen was blown to smithereens with them and the other bad guys who were robbed are not happy. They tell the crime ring leader's wife (Viola Davis)  they want their money and she is instructed to liquidate all her assets, the expensive condo, fancy cars, sparkly jewels, and hand it over. She has a month. Problem is, she owns nothing, except the book her husband left with all his heist plans including the one he was planning. She contacts the other widows to get them to help her and they've all been left with nothing as the creditors move in to take everything that was owed. It was interesting especially with a sleazy, corrupt political theme that is behind all the crime. I like the twists. Performances were great. ***

The Wife What a horrid story. It's about a woman Glenn Close) who in the 50s is told that because of the male-dominant publishing industry, she'll never be accepted as a writer. So she has an affair with her married college professor (Jonathan Pryce), who gets fired for this indiscretion, leaves his wife, and marries her. He's a horrid writer so she spends her life as his ghostwriter. Many years later he wins the Nobel Peace Prize while she stands in his shadow being ignored. Great performances. ***