Honesty is the best policy until it isn't in You Hurt My Feelings, a lighter than air lifestyle comedy perfect for Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The story shows even the problems of the one per cent make an entertaining yarn. She's a writer, who teaches at the New School (already some post Woody Allen drift.) He's a therapist who discovers his patients don't exactly think he helps. One hilarious sequence features real life couple Amber Tamblyn and David Cross asking for their money back. The plot turns when Julia Louis- Dreyfus and her younger sister sneak up on their husbands, only to hear Julia's husband confess he doesn't think much of her writing, although he's praised it for years. The break in trust and pain that comes across Julia Louie-Dreyfus face produces a jolt. You Hurt My Feelings combines a wonderful cast (Jeannie Berlin, Tobias Menzies, and an especially good Michaela Watkins) with laugh out loud throw away lines. Nicole Holofeener directs. She makes a movie every few years. I fondly remember Lovely and Amazing from the early 2000s and Julia Louis-Dreyfus fans will remember Enough Said. I plan to remember Nicole Holofeener's name and look for whatever she creates next. In this time of Super Heros and Action Figures at the Cineplex, a little light comedy is a tonic. Holofeener's got the touch.
Arch Campbell
I hope you see something good at the movies
Monday, May 29, 2023
Sunday, May 28, 2023
2023 Movie Guide
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Mark Rylance stars in The Phantom of the Open |
The Quiet Girl - 4 Stars - THEATERS - March 10, 2023 - Extraordinary story of a young girl's summer with relatives who treat her with kindness and respect. Quiet, languid, and compelling.
Sunday, May 14, 2023
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie - 3 1/2 Stars - May 12, 2023 - APPLE TV
Michael J. Fox says he never stayed still growing up. Always the smallest kid in his class, in high school, Fox discovered acting. He also discovered his small stature gave him a boost when a production needed someone who looked young but possessed adult abilities. Stll: A Michael J. Fox Movie mixes the story of his rise to fame - with his diagnosis with Parkinson's, the degenerative disease with no cure and a certainty of progression. Fox allows us to see his struggle in scenes of physical therapy sessions and in glimpses of his daily life. Interviews include his children and his longtime wife Tracy Pollan. The mix of Fox's great achievements - Family ties, Spin City, Back to the Future - contrast with his life with Parkinson's. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie tells a powerful story with honesty and truth. Director Davis Guggenheim has fashioned one of the year's great documentaries.
Saturday, May 13, 2023
BlackBerry - 3 Stars - May 12, 2023 - THEATERS
I faintly remember using a BlackBerry --- the mobile phone that sent texts and received e mail as well as made phone calls. Maybe you remember. The BlackBerry came with a small keyboard operated with your thumbs. The keyboard clicked, like a typewriter keyboard only more new age style. I'd just begun working for channel 7 and they provided me with a cell --- so they could find me and I could find them. Whatever phone Channel 7 gave me stopped working, and PRESTO! I received my first iPhone as a corporate tool. I never looked back. BlackBerry tells the somewhat hilarious and a little tragic story of the computer nerds who invented the BlackBerry, the shark who sells it, and the forces that made them miss Apple's coming dominance. Jay Baruchel plays Mike Lazaridis, a brilliant nerdy computer engineer with poor communication skills. Matt Johnson (who also directs) lays Doug Fregin, an equally brilliant engineer with a bit too much creative juice and a tendency to party rather than work. The triangle completes with Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie, a hard driven corporate shark who pushes the envelope to dizzying heights, only to watch it crash like the Hindenburg. I laughed out loud several times and gasped as the story unfolded. BlackBerry stands alongside Air, the story of Nike shoes and Michael Jordan. Except Air told a successful story. BlackBerry tells a mammoth rise and fall. Great fun. Also a bummer.
Saturday, April 15, 2023
Air ---3 1/2 Stars --- THEATERS --- April 7, 2023
Air proves several things including: when Viola Davis makes a movie, it's worth seeing. Also, when Matt Damon and Ben Affleck team up, the result's usually great. Air takes the story of how Nike convinced Michael Jordan to endorse their basketball shoes and turns it into a compelling human story about business and sports and thinking outside the box. Matt Damon does the heavy lifting as basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro. Working for Nike, Sonny's determined to find the key to Nike basketball shoe marketing success. He keys on up-and-coming player Michael Jordan. Sonny's gut feeling leads him to challenge Nike founder Phil Knight, played with goofy charm by Ben Affleck. Ignoring custom, Sonny travels to Jordan's parent's North Carolina front door, where he meets Deloris Jordan played by Viola Davis. Once Davis enters she steals the movie. Nothing happens without her. Air takes viewers into the world of reptilian agents, represented by Chris Messina in a hilarious portrait of Jordan's agent Daivd Falk, as well as Nike office politics, including colleagues played with gusto by Jason Bateman and Chris Tucker. A great soundtrack and recreation of 80s style adds to the fun. Air melds a great business story, a great sports story, and a great story about a guy willing to ask the right questions at the right time.
The Lost King --- 3 Stars ---THEATERS --- March 31, 2023
This really happened. In 2012, a woman named Philippa Langley convinced a group of researchers that the bones of long-lost King Richard III lay under a parking lot in Leicester, a small city 80 miles from London. Sally Hawkins brings Philippa to life, with chronic fatigue and a mousey appearance. She's the sort of person nobody pays attention to. One night, watching Shakespeare's Richard III, she finds inspiration to research his life which ultimately leads her to his bones. As the story unfolds, Philippa enjoys visits from Richard III's spirit, played by Harry Lloyd, who also plays the actor in the production that inspires her. The Lost King spins a delightful David versus Goliath story, hitting the right notes as others step in to take credit for her work. The Lost King sets the record straight and tells an entertaining story doing so.