Mean Girls (2024)

Jack and I both like musicals and this one is good fun with high production values. The enormous cast is led by Angourie Rice as the new girl in high school Cady and Reneé Rapp as Regina, the meanest girl of them all. Cady's friends are Auli'i Cravalho as Janis and Jaquel Spivey as Damian and Regina's posse is Bebe Wood as Gretchen who tries so hard and Avantika as the dim-witted Karen (that's her character's name, not her stereotype!). Some of the adults making appearances are Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, and Jon Hamm as teachers, Busy Philipps as Regina's mom, Jenna Fischer as Cady's mom, musician Megan Thee Stallion as herself, and Lindsay Lohan in a cameo as the Mathletes moderator.

It's co-directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. and written by Fey, based on her stage musical, based on her 2004 film, based on Rosalind Wiseman's 2002 book Queen Bees and Wannabes. We saw the touring company on stage in 2019.

Fey's husband Jeff Richmond composed the music for both the stage musical and this film one, but not the 2004 version. The soundtrack on Apple Music is all songs with lyrics, so I'm not streaming it as I write. We did, however, listen to it after we watched the movie weeks ago.

If you watch it now, look at Fischer's arms. She apparently broke her shoulder before shooting some scenes and couldn't move her right arm. Fey and Richmond's daughter Alice Richmond, now 19, made some of the art. 

Rice was last blogged for The Beguiled, Cravalho for the TV series Rise, Fey for acting in Soul, Hamm for Top Gun: Maverick, and Fischer for Brad's Status. 

I enjoyed Rapp's acting in all 20 episodes of The Sex Lives of College Girls. She's a singer/dancer in her own right, too, with albums and music videos. This is Spivey's feature debut after his Tony nomination for the lead in A Strange Loop on Broadway. Wood and Avantika have plenty of credits but are new to me. Meadows, best known for 182 episodes of Saturday Night Live in the 1990s, has been in a bunch of movies and hundreds of TV episodes. My favorites of Philipps' roles are 102 episodes of Cougar Town and 22 of Girls5eva. And if you didn't know, Lohan starred as Cady in the 2004 Mean Girls.

Jayne makes her feature directing debut and it's the second time around for her husband Perez. Fey's writing career is extensive and almost all TV except for the first Mean Girls. This is Richmond's second feature, after Baby Mama (2008), co-starring Fey, and he's written music for many of Fey's TV projects.

Rotten Tomatoes audiences are meaner than we are, averaging 62%, and its critics are only slightly nicer at 70.  We streamed the movie on Paramount+ on March 22, but it's now available on most streamers, including Prime and Apple TV.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Jack and I enjoyed many parts of this animated sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, particularly the rescue in "Mumbattan" and the old school POWs and BAMs but, unlike the public at large (see below), we liked the first chapter more. Returning from the previous movie are the voices of Shameik Moore as Miles, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen, Brian Tyree Henry as Jeff, Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, Mahershala Ali as Aaron, and many more in the cast of hundreds.

Co-directors are Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, working from a script by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callaham. All but Lord are new to the Spider-Verse series. At one point when the story focused on Miles' and Gwen's relationship, I called it a rom-comic.

I'm still digging Daniel Pemberton's new score, streaming on Apple Music and elsewhere.

Noticeably missing from this Marvel movie are a Stan Lee (1922-2019) cameo and a full bonus scene after the credits. We see only the words TO BE CONTINUED before the credits (and the third movie is in production now with the same directors and writers).

Lord and Pemberton were last blogged for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Powers for Soul, and Callaham for Wonder Woman 1984. This is the feature directing debut for Dos Santos, after some action TV episodes and shorts, and the directing debut, period, for Thompson. Miller has written or co-written several other movies and TV shows, including The Afterparty, which he created.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are spinning with joy, averaging 95 and 94%. We watched it on Netflix March 26.

Dumb Money (2023)

Jack and I liked a lot this frantic fictionalization of the GameStop 2020 stock market phenomenon (more in a moment)--frantic because some of the action takes place online with busy, loud, multi-screen reactions. The big ensemble includes Paul Dano, well cast as determined financial analyst Keith Gill, as is Pete Davidson as his loose cannon brother Kevin. The hedge fund guys (the 1% we love to hate) include Seth Rogen (so good at acting so anxious), Vincent D'Onofrio, and Nick Offerman. Some of the "little guy" investors are Talia Ryder as a college student, America Ferrera as a nurse, and Anthony Ramos as a GameStop branch employee. My top ten are rounded out by Shailene Woodley and Olivia Thirlby as the supportive wives of Keith Gill and Rogen's character Steve Cohen.

Director Craig Gillespie keeps up the pace from the script by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, based on Ben Mezrich's 2021 book The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees. The action is firmly set during lockdown with most of the characters observing safe pandemic practices, though not all.

Here's a brief summary, though I am no expert. Correct me on any details by writing to babetteflix at gmail. GameStop, still in existence now, is a retail chain selling "consoles, collectibles, video games, and more." Just before the pandemic, people on Wall Street Bets, described by Stephen Colbert as "a popular, juvenile, foul-mouthed Reddit page," noticed that hedge funds were short selling GameStop, essentially betting (big) for the stock to fail. Those users, inspired by Keith Gill, launched a coordinated buying spree, which is called a short squeeze, and drove up the share price, costing those 1% guys a LOT. Here's a Wikipedia article with more detail.

I'm streaming Will Bates' soundtrack on Apple Music. There are some rap and other songs on that album as well. Here's a song list. After the movie Jack and I listened to the long version of White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, which plays over the credits.

More trivia. The real Ken Griffin, played by Offerman, spent a little of his enormous wealth on legal fees trying very hard to prevent this movie from being made. He even sued afterwards but couldn't stop it. Speaking of lawsuits, the Winklevoss twins Tyler and Cameron, whose case against Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Facebook is depicted in The Social Network, are among the executive producers of this movie. And, lastly, The Social Network and this one are both based on books by Ben Mezrich.

Dano and Rogen were last blogged for The Fabelmans, Davidson for The King of Staten Island, D'Onofrio for Jurassic World, Offerman for Frances Ferguson, Ryder for Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Ferrera for Barbie, Ramos for In the Heights, Woodley for Ferrari, Thirlby for Being Flynn (though she was one of the many in Oppenheimer), Gillespie for Cruella, and Bates for Another Earth. This is the feature debut for Blum and Angelo, both of whom were staff writers for Orange Is the New Black.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are happy to spend some smart time on this, averaging 84 and 86%. We watched it on Netflix on March 20.

Perfect Days (2023)

Deb, Angela, and I loved this languid tale of a Tokyo public toilet cleaner contentedly living his well-ordered life. Some things do happen but this is not for the impatient. Some of the movie's seven wins and 35 other nominations have gone to star Koji Yakusho and others to German director Wim Wenders, the first non-Japanese director to helm an Oscar-nominated Japanese language movie.

The screenplay was co-written by Wenders and Takuma Takasaki. No composer is credited but our hero listens to audio cassettes of 70s and 80s American and British music (here's one list, including the ad hoc title track of Lou Reed's Perfect Day).

The nine public toilets in the movie are architecturally and sometimes technologically fascinating. Apparently they were built to welcome people to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Obviously, the games were delayed but the restrooms are still standing. An executive with the company Uniqlo spearheaded the idea of making a documentary about the buildings, and Wenders was one of the directors contacted. Wenders decided to make a fiction feature instead.

The second item on my list of Rules for movies and television is that the Eiffel Tower is visible in nearly every shot of Paris. Further down is Big Ben, London Bridge, and/or Buckingham Palace and the guards for London. In this movie, Tokyo's Skytree tower is ubiquitous.

Wenders was last blogged for Pina and this is the second feature for Takasaki. Yakusho's resume includes Tampopo (1985), Shall We Dance (1996), and Babel (2006).

Rotten Tomatoes' critics reviews are practically flawless, averaging 96% and its audiences are close at 90. Not St. Patrick's Day fare, but we rented it on March 17 anyway.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

I forgot to write about this silly movie about brothers who unwittingly bring wild con-women to their sister's destination wedding, but I remember that Jack and I thought it was pretty funny eight years ago. Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick, and Aubrey Plaza star. The latter two are always good and we're big fans.

Jake Szymanski directs from a script by Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O'Brien and the music is by Jeff Cardoni. The internet reminds me that the movie is raunchy.

Efron was blogged (the following year) for The Greatest Showman, Kendrick in 2018 for A Simple Favor, Plaza early last year for Emily the Criminal, and Cohen and O'Brien in 2017 for The House. Devine's many credits include both Pitch Perfect movies and twenty episodes of Modern Family. Szymanski directed all eight episodes of Jury Duty, among other projects and Cardoni's long resume includes scoring 52 (out of 53) episodes of Silicon Valley.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are at the kids' table with a 39% average, while its audiences leave during the reception at 51. We saw it back then in a bricks and mortar theatre, but now you can rent it.

When I discover I've forgotten to write about something I like to put it in the blog anyway. Just a wee touch of OCD.

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Despite its fair to poor reviews, Jack and I really liked Ethan Coen's comedic caper about two lesbian best friends, one shy and the other cheerfully oversexed, who drive someone's car to Florida and are chased by hoodlums. Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley are adorable as the odd couple Marian and Jamie and Beanie Feldstein is hilarious as Jamie's ex. Supporting roles include Pedro Pascal as a collector, Joey Slotnick as a goon, Colman Domingo as the goon's boss, and Matt Damon as a senator. Miley Cyrus appears in an uncredited cameo and I couldn't believe that the flashback of the senator with Cyrus was not a digitally altered Damon but a completely different actor, Jordan Zatawski (here's his photo).

Coen, who usually co-directs and co-writes with his brother Joel, takes the helm by himself, working from a script he co-wrote with his wife Tricia Cooke.

Carter Burwell's score, plus some songs, can be streamed on Apple Music and some of the many songs are available on an Apple playlist

Coen solo directed one other movie, a documentary. He was last blogged for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Viswanathan for Bad Education, Qualley for Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, Feldstein for The Humans, and Pascal for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent before winning the SAG award and more for starring in nine episodes of The Last of Us. Slotnick was last in these pages for They/Them/Us, Domingo for The Color Purple, Damon for Oppenheimer, and Burwell for The Banshees of Inisherin. 

Cyrus, who has a million music videos to her credit, has been in eight other movies, starting with Big Fish (2003) at age ten. The Coen brothers usually edit their movies under a pseudonym but Cooke edits this one under her own name after almost two dozen other editing credits. This is her feature screenwriting debut.

As noted above, Rotten Tomatoes' critics are in the back seat with an average of 64%, while its audiences are looking for another ride at 36. We rented it on March 13 on Apple TV. It's R-rated for sexual situations and Coen-level cartoonish violence.

Monster (2023)

As expected, I loved the latest by Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda AKA Kore-eda Hirokazu. In three distinct acts, each from a different character's perspective, the viewer can't be sure who is truly the "monster" in this story about a mother, her son, his friend, and their interactions with their fifth grade schoolteacher. I have ideas and will be glad to discuss them in private. Koreeda always does wonderful and sensitive work with children and those who love them.

The seminal Japanese movie Rashomon (1950), which I haven’t seen, is one of the most cited examples of telling the same story from different points of view.

Monster's principal cast is Sakura Andô as the mother Saori, Soya Kurokawa as her son Minato, Hinata Hiiragi as his friend Yori, and Eita Nagayama as the teacher Hori.

Screenwriter Yûji Sakamoto based the story on some of his own childhood experiences.

36 minutes of the music by Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023) is available on Apple Music and the movie is dedicated to him. He and Koreeda are among my favorite filmmakers, period. 

The movie was shot on location in the Suwa region of Nagano Prefecture in mid 2022, with about 700 local elementary school students acting as extras. One of the many things I learned in my 2019 trip to Japan is that the Japanese customarily bow in greeting, but, when apologizing, they bow more deeply. Watch for that.

Ando was last blogged for Shoplifters, Koreeda for Broker, and Ryuichi Sakamoto for The Revenant. Kurokawa, now 13, has done a little TV and this is his first feature. Hiiragi, now 12, has been in one other feature and a bunch of TV episodes. Nagayama has been a busy actor since his 2001 debut, with dozens of features and episodes, and this is Yuji Sakamoto's seventh feature.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are hugely behind this, averaging 96 and 92%. I rented it on Apple TV on March 13 in Japanese with English subtitles but you can watch it dubbed into English if that's your preference.