Adam Sandler makes you squirm lots in Uncut Gems

You know the guy who won’t shut up? Won’t realize that you’re not kidding when you act that you don’t want him to come around anymore? Won’t stop doing the bad things that make his life worse and worse and worse? Meet Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems. And wow, does Adam Sandler play this manic…

Hathaway wastes a lot of energy in The Last Thing He Wanted

Choosing movies during the never-ending stay-at-home has turned into a Netflix scroll. Oh, look, Anne Hathaway and Ben Affleck in a 2020 thriller adapted from a Joan Didion novel. Click for The Last Thing Wanted. Dee Rees directed and co-wrote with Marco Villabos this adventure set in the 1980s. It’s based on the Iran Contra…

All the Bright Places brings tenderness, warmth and more than a little darkness

Many movies made from the world of YA fiction have mined the deep wells of young and growing love, awareness, intelligence, joy, yes, sadness. Perhaps you remember the thrill that was The Fault in Our Stars</em> with its wonderful elevator relationship roles for Shailene Woodard and Ensel Egort? Elle Fanning and Justice Smith take their…

Dangerous Lies feels a little creepy from the start, gets worse

You’re going to find a lot of unanswered questions as the story unwinds in Dangerous Lies. You’re going to guess who’s pulling what kind of wool over who’s eyes. Who done what to these young people who found this unbelievably lavish house fall into their laps? Are they true to each other? Can their be…

Get sad as good people spiral in Marriage Story

Marriage Story is as sad a movie as I’ll see during this stay-at-home, I’m quite certain during and right after watching it on Netflix with my dear wife Karen, blotting my eyes with a tissue and knowing in my heart that it deserved the praise and honors of this year’s award shows. Oh, how these…

Let Mark Wahlberg run around Boston as Spenser and it will be entertaining

The private eye Spenser has been running around the American crime consciousness via the novels by Robert B. Parker and then the Tv show starring Robert Ulrich for just shy of a halfhearted-century. Now Netflix has delivered a new chapter brimming with the bravado of Mark Wahlberg as our title investigator. Directed by Peter Berg…

Falling Inn Love shows off the charms of New Zealand

Picture if you will a hard-working woman totally unsatisfied with her job. Her boyfriend. Her life, really. Online she stumbles upon a contest where the top prize is an inn tucked into the hills of New Zealand. (I’d think it was some sort of a scam, but, you know, the movies …) Anyway, she wins,…

When they label this Jumanji: The Next Level, they speak the truth

When a studio goes back for another bucket from the well, movie-watchers will wonder if what comes up this Time will quench their need, cue the gag reflex, or maybe even make them thirst for more. Director and co-writer Jake Kasdan has come up with a refreshing tale in Jumanji: The Next Level. With screenplay…

And the 1996’s wrongfully accused gold goes to Richard Jewell

In a year prior to a Summer Olympics, the Hollywood folks decided it was time to bring back the story of the addled Atlanta security guard who saw a suspicious backpack during a 1996 Games celebration in Centennial Park, took the exact steps under protocol, and after a short time as a national hero for…

Bombshell truly depicts the horrid newsroom atmosphere the women anchors faced

Bombshell concentrates on one news network, a single leader and three women who had to fight his unwanted attention and advances. Yes, the 1-hour, 49-minute bio-drama directed by Jay Roach from a screenplay by Charles Randolph revolves around the Fox News Network, Roger Ailes, Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson and Kayla Pospisol. As the news has…