A single mother struggles with her 14-year-old son. One afternoon she rescues a guitar from a trash heap in hopes the gift will bring them together. The guitar achieves its purpose just not the way you expect. Flora and Son arrives courtesy creative genius John Carney, the filmmaker behind the naturalistic musical Once. Fans will take particular notice of lead actress Eve Hewson who happens to be Bono's daughter. Actor Joeph Gordon-Levett adds another layer of delight as an online guitar teacher who takes Flora as a client when her son shows no interest in guitar. Gordon-Levett speaks to the love of music that drives Flora and Son's charm. A few sessions with him, and Flora finds her own voice. I especially love a scene in which Flora watches a video of Joni Mitchell singing her timeless Both Sides Now. I love the way Flora and Son lets the music play allowing us to cheer for these characters, even if we know where the story's going. Fans of the recent Academy Award winner CODA will warm to Flora and Son. The two films resonate.
Sunday, October 1, 2023
2023 Movie Guide
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| Mark Rylance stars in The Phantom of the Open |
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Theater Camp - 3 Stars - HULU - July 14, 2023
Theater Camp opens with a crisis. The founder of a longtime summer camp for drama nerds falls into a coma, turning her beloved institution over to her clueless son. Also, the camp is on the verge of bankruptcy. But faster than you can say "Let's put on a show!" Theater Camp puts on a show and roars to a delightful conclusion complete with a last-minute Peggy Sawyer type coming to the rescue. That Peggy Sawyer reference is an in-joke which is to say theater buffs will gets plenty of in-house laughs, but even if you never took a drama course, you'll find much to like in this breezy mockumentary comedy. Molly Gordon (I loved her in season 2 of The Bear) and Ben Platt hold the camp together with personal drama, hot tears of despair, and heart. Jimmy Tatro makes a fine villain. Noah Galvin saves the day, in more ways than one, including a laugh out loud come out of nowhere turn. I confess, I spent my first year in college taking drama courses and acting as silly as the characters in Theater Camp. Of course, I loved it. One more thing, the young campers of this production are talented and delightful. They help Theater Camp fill 94 minutes with good cheer.
Monday, August 14, 2023
Asteroid City - 1 Star - Theaters May 23, 2023 PEACOCK - August 11, 2023
I love Wes Anderson's work. The Grand Budapest Hotel remains one of my all time favorites. In his career, Anderson perfected the art of making comedies that take place in beautiful portrait like settings. He sets his camera wide and lets the action take place within the frame. Somehow in the Barbie and Oppenheimer rush of the summer, I never made it to Asteroid City. Once it opened, I began to hear disappointing feed back. As of August 11th, Peacock began streaming Asteroid City. Thanks to my Peacock subscription, I can tell you it's as bad as everyone says. As the film begins, Bryan Cranston introduces the story of playwright Edward Norton working out his scenes of a visit to a New Mexico village famous for rumors of a spaceship landing. The playwright scenes come in black and white - much the same as the technique used successfully in Oppenheimer. The play within a play comes in full color, set in an arid desert with dollhouse like settings in which the characters explain themselves. The retro 1950's setting and look play tio Wes Anderson's strength. Once the dialog gets going, the story turns boring, so boring that Anderson's usual settings can't pull this off. I think I might download Grand Budapest again, or watch Anderson's masterful The Royal Tenenbaums. Thanks to streaming, I can watch the classics. And thanks to streaming, Peacock saved me a disappointing trip to a theater.
Wednesday, August 2, 2023
Barbie - 3 Stars - July 21, 2023 - THEATERS
Director/Actress Greta Gerwig seals her place as one of our time's cleverest filmmakers. In Barbie, Gerwig fashions a story that manages to both lampoon and celebrate the iconic doll, raising consciousness while delivering laugh out loud lines and situations. Margot Robbie makes a perfect Barbie, finding her way from Barbie land to the real world in a journey with echos of The Wizard of Oz and Pinocchio. She's the doll who wants to be a real girl. Ryan Gosling turns Barbie's boyfriend Ken into a punchline with a message. Barbie gives movie fans both enjoyment and conversation long after the credits. I miss the days when movies made their way into almost every conversation almost every week. Thanks, Barbie, for bringing that back. A shout out to America Ferrara, who plays a Mattel executive and cues up a stirring monologue. I remembered America's wonderful turn in Real Women Have Curves and the echos of that story in Greta Gerwig's Ladybird. Kharma is a wonderful thing.
Friday, July 28, 2023
Oppenheimer - 4 Stars - THEATERS - July 21, 2023
Director Christopher Nolan creates an epic worthy of comparison to Citizen Kane. Cillian Murphy never loses our attention as the genius scientist recruited despite his left-wing past to organize and build the world's first nuclear weapon. Oppenheimer builds to a powerful high point leading to the atomic test in the New Mexico desert, followed by euphoria and equally deep depression. Cutting back and forth in time, and from color to black and white, Oppenheimer stiches the forces that will bring down the man credited with ending WWII. Passion and ambition. genius and betrayal combine for a rare grown-up epic