The Penguin Lessons (2024)

Jack and I are Steve Coogan fans and this based-on-a-true story of Tom Michell, a disaffected, cynical English teacher in 1976 Argentina who adopts a Penguin, checks many boxes with its humor, heart, and history. Good support comes from Jonathan Pryce as the strict headmaster, Vivian El Jaber as the sweet housekeeper Maria, and Alfonsina Carrocio as Maria's grown granddaughter Sofia, among others.

Director Peter Cattaneo works from a script that Jeff Pope adapted from the 2015 memoir of the same name by the real Michell (Michell was in his 20s when the events happened and Coogan is almost 60 so it's far from a documentary). I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the middle act had me thinking of the lyrics to the nursery song Mary Had a Little Lamb. And here's a fun bit of trivia: the penguin is named Juan Salvador Gaviota, which is the Spanish translation of the 1970 novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Federico Jusid is listed as the composer but I found only this short suite of his score on YouTube (sorry about the ad). There are a lot of songs in the movie, though, compiled in this playlist on Apple Music.

This YouTube video (with multiple ads) is fascinating and I recommend it for after you watch the movie. I learned from it (not a spoiler) that there were two penguin actors, who are mated in real life, plus one animatronic penguin and one puppet penguin.

With 31 producers, this movie earns a spot about halfway down my Producers Plethora Prize list.

Coogan was last blogged for two pictures in my list of Random food movies plus Stan & Ollie the following year, Pryce for The Two Popes, Pope for Stan & Ollie, and Jusid for The Last Suit. El Jaber and Carrocio are new to me. Cattaneo has worked a lot since he was much lauded for The Full Monty (1997) but I haven't seen any.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics give it only a C+ with their 78% average, while we and its viewers award it a solid A at 95. On Kathleen's hearty recommendation we rented it on Apple TV on May 21.

Sea Lions of the Galapagos (2025)

Jack and I always love the Disneynature animal documentaries and this year's Earth Day release is no exception. The magnificent pictures and the writing that typically anthropomorphizes the creatures overcome Brendan Fraser's less-than-lively narration.

Add to our delight the fact that we visited Galapagos (we were taught not to say "the Galapagos," unless saying "the Galapagos Islands," but I guess the Disney folks didn't get that memo) in 2022.

Co-directors Keith Scholey and Hugh Wilson work from the work by co-writers David Fowler (narration), Richard Wollocombe, Wilson, and Scholey (those three are credited with the original story).

I'm streaming composer Raphaelle Thibaut's lovely soundtrack on Apple Music and remembering the beautiful work by cinematographers Paul Stewart and Wollocombe.

As far as I know this is the 18th Disneynature documentary. We have seen almost all and I've listed them in this post.

Fraser was last blogged for his Oscar-winning performance in The Whale and Scholey and Fowler for Dolphin Reef and Diving with Dolphins. This is Wilson's directorial and writing debut but he has worked as producer on a few other nature documentaries. Wollocombe has shot a number of nature documentaries and Thibaut has over two dozen credits. Stewart also has over two dozen credits, including the Disneynature Born in China.

This movie (actually listed on imdb as a TV Special) has no Rotten Tomatoes averages, although four out of the five reviewers listed liked it and the single audience member who weighed in gave it 5/5 stars. At the moment, it's available to stream on on Disney+ with a subscription, which we did on May 2.

The Room Next Door (2024)

This moving story stars Tilda Swinton as Martha and Julianne Moore as Ingrid, two writers who knew each other long ago but had drifted apart when Martha, looking for someone to help her euthanize herself, contacts Ingrid. It's not as sad as it sounds and the actresses are terrific. John Turturro and Alessandro Nivola also appear, but it's the women's story.

Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar directs his first English language movie and adapted the screenplay from the 2020 novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez.

Composer Alberto Iglesias' lovely score can be streamed on Apple Music and Eduard Grau's photography of the beautiful sets and locations is stunning.

Swinton was last blogged for Asteroid City, Moore for May December, Turturro for Licorice Pizza, Nivola for The Brutalist, Almadóvar and Iglesias for Parallel Mothers, and Grau for Passing.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are staying in the house with averages of 81 and 76%, respectively. Jack and I rented it from Apple TV/iTunes on April 12, but it's now also available on Netflix.

Maria (2024)

We think Angelina Jolie is good in the title role of this biopic about the last years of renowned opera singer Maria Callas. The actors familiar to me in the supporting cast are Kodi Smit-McPhee as her interviewer Mandrax and Valeria Golino as her sister Yakinthi.

Pablo Larraín directs from the script by Steven Knight. This is the third and final movie in Larraín's "Ladies with Heels" trilogy, after Jackie and Spencer, which are about, if you didn't know, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and Diana, Princess of Wales, respectively. Jolie did not get an Oscar nomination for this role, although Natalie Portman did for Jackie and Kristen Stewart did for Spencer.

The soundtrack is comprised of various opera recordings, mostly performed by Callas herself, and the closing credits has a song by Brian Eno. Jolie sings for the older, failing Callas, and the first two items in this list of the movie's trivia tell us a bit about how that came to be. Danish actor Caspar Phillipson plays JFK in this movie, as he did in Jackie and Blonde (the Marilyn Monroe biopic--not directed by Larraín).

Although the movie's pace is on the slow side, I, for one, was captivated by the magnificent cinematography by Edward Lachman and the opulent wardrobe by Massimo Cantini Parrini. Details on their work are in this article.

If you would like to watch this movie, I recommend waiting to read this spoiler-laden article until afterwards.

One of the running lists on my blog is of tropes that I call rules. Here's the complete list. Maria observes Rule #2 by showing the Eiffel Tower in so many scenes of Paris.

Jolie was last blogged for Salt, Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog, Golino for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Larraín and Knight for Spencer, Lachman for Wonderstruck, and Parrini for Cyrano.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are a bit pitchy, averaging 75 and 76%. Jack and I watched it on Netflix on March 23.

Flow (2024)

Jack and I loved this Oscar-winning (Best Animated Feature), wordless, magical fairy tale from Latvia about a cat banding together with a disparate group of animals to survive an apocalyptic flood. Gints Zilbalodis served as director, co-writer, one of only four producers, co-composer, cinematographer, editor, and art director. The other writers were Matiss Kaza and Ron Dyens (also among the producers) and the other composer was Rihards Zalupe.

The entire movie was made with the free open-source software Blender, which is one of the fascinating trivia items on imdb. Read that link to find out how the cat's sounds were recorded, as well as the other animals'.

Do not turn it off before the credits have finished. There's a bonus, which we appreciated!

Every person named above is new to me and to this blog.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences loved it, too, averaging 97 and 98%, respectively. We watched it April 4 on Max with our subscription. It's also available to rent everywhere for about $4.

I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui - 2024)

Amy and I really liked this intense, Oscar-winning (Best International Feature) movie about a woman whose family is torn apart in the 1970s Brazilian military dictatorship. Fernanda Torres, nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, gives us love and determination as the young matriarch, and everyone else, including the actors playing her children, is terrific. In all, this has 50 awards and 63 other nominations, including the Best Picture Oscar nomination, which is rare for a foreign film.

Walter Salles directs from the screenplay adapted by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega from the 2015 memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva (one of the children). We commented at the time how sweet the first act is, showing happy times.

Here's where I usually talk about the music, but Warren Ellis' score is not available anywhere, even though I jotted down that I liked it. If they had asked me, I would've told them to post it!

 

I was also a fan of the cinematography by Adrian Teijido and the period wardrobe by Cláudia Kopke.

Salles was last blogged for On the Road and Ellis, a musical partner of Nick Cave, for Blonde.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are very much present, both averaging 97%. We rented it on Apple TV on March 16 and it's still available to rent there and elsewhere.

The Last Showgirl (2024)

Jack and I found Pamela Anderson to be very good as a woman whose long-running job in Las Vegas is coming to an end. Her naturally breathy voice fits the character of Shelly, who is determined but not realistic about life. Strong support in this R rated movie comes from, among others, Jamie Lee Curtis (in makeup that made me laugh), Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Dave Bautista, and Billie Lourd, who is Carrie Fisher's daughter in real life and plays Shelly's daughter Hannah.

Gia Coppola (Francis' granddaughter) directs with a firm hand from the script by Kate Gersten. Watch for the cameo by Coppola's cousin Jason Schwartzman.

Andrew Wyatt's score, ranging from jaunty to thoughful, can be streamed on Apple Music and elsewhere. The movie has seven wins and 25 other nominations, nine of which are for the closing song Beautiful That Way by Miley Cyrus, Wyatt, and Lykke Li. It's the last track on the soundtrack album.

It won't take you too long to read the fun trivia, including the fact that the showgirls' headdresses, designed by Jacqueline Getty and Rainy Jacobs, were so heavy that the actresses needed massages! We also liked all the Vegas locations.

Curtis was last blogged for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Song for Brave though she has many other credits, Bautista for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Lourd for Ticket to Paradise

Coppola for Palo Alto, Schwartzman for Megalopolis, and Wyatt for Barbie.

I wasn't among Baywatch's billion+ weekly viewers, so didn't know much about Anderson, but she has been in many other movies, videos, and TV series besides her 100 episodes of Baywatch, and there's a documentary out about her, not to mention (oops, I just did) the infamous sex tape with her then-husband Tommy Lee (didn't see that either).

Shipka, now 25 years old, is best known for 89 episodes of Mad Men (2007-2015) as young Sally Draper but has dozens of other roles to her credit, including Twisters. This is Gersten's first produced screenplay, but she was executive story editor and writer on two wonderful serieses: Mozart in the Jungle and The Good Place.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 83%, are betting more on this picture than its audiences at 72. We rented it on Apple TV on March 19 and it's still widely available as a rental.