Spin Me Round (2022)

Despite bad reviews, Jack and I didn't hate this spoof of a romance novel wherein Amber, the manager of an Olive Garden-type chain restaurant in Bakersfield, joins a group in an all expenses paid trip to Italy to meet the handsome founder. Alison Brie stars as Amber and co-wrote the script with director Jeff Baena. Alessandro Nivola is the effusive founder and Aubrey Plaza his mercurial assistant. Lil Rel Howery and Ego Nwodim are Amber's boss and best friend, respectively. The ensemble in Italy includes Molly Shannon (hilariously annoying character), Lauren Weedman, Zach Woods, and Ben Sinclair. There are plenty of laughs and, yeah, sometimes it slows down a bit, but I'll allow it. My regular readers know I am generous with my appreciation of cinema.

Pino Donaggio is credited as composer but this soundtrack isn't streaming anywhere that I can find. There is a list of songs, however.

The gorgeous location shots in Liguria and Pisa, Italy, and LA are thanks to Sean McElwee.

Brie, Baena, and Weedman were last blogged for The Little Hours. Plaza, who is married to Baena, was in that, too, but was most recently in these pages for Best Sellers. Howery was last blogged for I Love My Dad, Nivola for The Art of Self Defense, and Shannon for Wild Nights with Emily. After I wrote about Woods in Damsels in Distress, his work included 53 episodes of Silicon Valley. 

Nwodim, best known for 78 episodes of Saturday Night Live, was also in four of Brockmire and two of Love Life, among her dozens of credits. Sinclair created, produced, and starred in 52 episodes of High Maintenance (combining Vimeo and HBO) as well as other roles. Donaggio has scored hundreds of projects, mostly in his native Italy. The only one of McElwee's projects I have seen is Morris from America.

As noted, Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging a slow-moving 44%, and its audiences, at a nearly motionless 29, do not want anyone to see this. After we rented it on Apple TV/iTunes August 27, the screen recommended other low rated movies, some of which we liked!

Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)

We liked very much this sweet story about a recent college grad whose life changes when he meets his 13 year old brother's autistic classmate and her beautiful mother at a bar mitzvah. Cooper Raiff stars as Andrew and directs from his own well crafted screenplay, which has plenty of laughs and some poignancy. Dakota Johnson is the girl's mom Domino and Vanessa Burghardt, on the spectrum herself, makes a successful film debut as Lola. Leslie Mann is wonderful as Andrew and his brother David's mother and Brad Garrett's "Stepdad Greg" is stoic, taking grief from Andrew for comic relief. Raúl Castillo appears in the second act, but I prefer to let his character be a surprise to you as it was to us.

Este Haim and Christopher Stracey's 16 minutes of soundtrack is available on Apple Music and there are also great songs at the multiple bar mitzvahs. Here's a list.

Johnson was last blogged for The Lost Daughter, Mann for Welcome to Marwen, and Castillo for Little Fish. 

Raiff's previous feature (he made one before that and he directed, wrote, and starred in both as well) won the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and this one, so far, has won the Sundance US Dramatic Audience Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at that festival.

This interesting profile of Burghardt has a spoiler in it so I suggest you read it after watching the movie. Haim, the tall blonde sister in the band Haim, and Stracey scored all ten episodes of the series Maid, and make their own film scoring debut.

 
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are dancing to an average of 86% and, even though its audiences are moving off the dance floor at 61%, Jack and I think this is well worth watching. We rented it August 24 on Apple TV/iTunes.

I Love My Dad (2022)

Jack and I loved this dark comedy in which Patton Oswalt plays Chuck, a compulsive lying dad who, blocked on social media by his depressed grown son Franklin, catfishes him, pretending to be a beautiful waitress. James Morosini stars as Franklin and directs from his own well-paced screenplay. The movie begins by telling us that it actually happened but that Morosini's dad asked him to tell the audience it did not.

Claudia Sulewski is the lovely and kind waitress, Amy Landecker is Franklin's mom, Lil Rel Howery is Chuck's friend, and Rachel Dratch is Chuck's girlfriend, attractive and sexy for a change of pace for Dratch.

As I write I'm streaming the nice music by Jeremy Bullock on Apple Music.

The movie won both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this year, with more nominations and wins to come, no doubt.

Oswalt was last blogged for Sorry to Bother You, Landecker for Beatriz at Dinner (during the shooting of her 42 episodes of Transparent), Howery for Luck, and Dratch for Plan B.

Morosini directed and co-wrote one other feature and has a lot of acting credits. Sulewski and Bullock are are new to me though not to acting and composing, respectively. I heard Sulewski say in an interview that her photo has been used by catfishers in real life.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are only in like, with a 70% average, but its audiences are more affectionate with 83. We rented it on Apple TV/iTunes on August 17.

Hustle (2022)

Jack and I loved this story of a basketball scout, yearning to become a coach, and his Spanish protegé. Adam Sandler is terrific as Stanley and Juancho Hernangomez, an actual pro basketball player, is quite good as Bo. Supporting strength comes from Queen Latifah, Ben Foster, Robert Duvall, Heidi Gardner, and a host of athletes and others playing themselves (identified in the credits with photos––don't skip the credits!), among the enormous cast.

Directed by Jeremiah Zagar from a script by Taylor Materne and Will Fetters, it moves right along.

The lively soundtrack by Dan Deacon with the London Contemporary Orchestra & Royal Scottish National Orchestra, available on Apple Music and elsewhere, adds to the fun.

Adam Sandler was last blogged for Uncut Gems, Latifah for Girls Trip, Foster for Leave No Trace, Duvall for Widows, Zagar for We the Animals, and Fetters for A Star Is Born.

Gardner, best known for 99 episodes of SNL, has also been in several movies and lots of TV.  This is Materne's feature debut and my first time hearing music by Deacon, who is not new to the business.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences average a bouncy 93. We enjoyed it on Netflix on August 9.

Luck (2022)

Jack loves watching these animated features more than I do and this one is perfectly serviceable. It is fun to watch them with a grandchild or three, however. Sam, a clever and sweet girl with terrible luck, has aged out of her orphanage, and travels to an alternate universe that's all about luck. Eva Noblezada voices Sam, Lil Rel Howery is Marv,  Simon Pegg is Bob the Cat, Whoopi Goldberg is Captain of the Luck universe, and Jane Fonda is Dragon. John Ratzenberger has a cameo as a bartender named Rootie.

The director is Peggy Holmes and the screenwriter is Kiel Murray with many other credits for story and concept. John Debney's score is available on Apple Music and probably elsewhere. Noblezada sings the Madonna song Lucky Star both at the beginning and middle.

Howery was last blogged for Good Boys, Pegg for 2013 Oscar nominated shorts and The World's End. After Book Club and during 94 episodes of Grace and Frankie (2015-22), Fonda was most recently in these pages for Death to 2021. Debney was last blogged for Elf, which came out 18 years before I wrote about it and 14 years before The Greatest Showman.

Noblezada, a good singer, is new to me. Though I haven't actually written an introductory profile for Goldberg (she had a cameo in Top Five) I think everyone knows all about her––you might want to learn that Sister Act 3 is in pre-production.  Since his 270 episodes of Cheers (1992-93) Ratzenberger has been very busy, including all the Toy Story movies and much more. Holmes has directed one other feature, also animated, and Murray co-wrote two of the Cars animated movies, which I didn't see, among others.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is an unfortunate 49%, while its audiences come in at 68. We watched it on Apple TV+ on August 15 with our amused eight year old, who liked it a lot.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Not my genre and too long at 2:19 but I did laugh from time to time as Chinese immigrant Evelyn travels between parallel universes. Highly rated, with a high body count and lots of blood and mutilation, it has hints of Inception; The Matrix (1999); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000); Kill Bill (2003 and '04); and the Keystone Kops (1912-17), with a dash of family melodrama. Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn (she also starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Ke Huy Quan plays her husband Waymond (not a typo), and Stephanie Hsu their daughter, who refers to at least one of their worlds as a “swirling bucket of bullshit.” Also appearing are Jamie Lee Curtis and Jenny Slate, among others, and Randy Newman lends his speaking voice to Raccoonie.

It is directed and written by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who sometimes use the collective name Daniels.

The music by Son Lux (Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang) is available on Apple Music and elsewhere, and here is a list of songs.

Yeoh was last blogged for Crazy Rich Asians, Curtis for Knives Out, Slate for I Want You Back, and Newman for scoring Marriage Story (he also scored Ratatouille, which is referenced in the Raccoonie gag). Quan was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), The Goonies (1985), Encino Man (1992), and 27 episodes of Head of the Class (1990-91), among other credits. This is the third feature for Daniels after a bunch of shorts and music videos, and this is Son Lux's second feature as composer, while Lott singly scored Paper Towns (2015), which I apparently forgot to write up back then.

Told ya it was highly rated: 95% from Rotten Tomatoes' critics and 89 from its audiences.

You can take a break at 1:25 with an hour left. I took more breaks than that. Jack did not watch it when I rented it August 1 on Apple TV/iTunes.