The Holdovers (2023)

Jack and I loved this dramedy about a prickly teacher forced to supervise students who can't leave their New England boarding school for the 1970 Christmas break. Paul Giamatti is reliably wonderful as the angry professor, Da'Vine Joy Randolph as the laid-back school cook, and Dominic Sessa as the arrogant student Angus.

The also-reliable Alexander Payne, who last directed Giamatti in Sideways (2004), does not disappoint, working from a snappy script by David Hemingson.

The soundtrack on Apple Music has grayed out the songs by artists other than some instrumentals by the score's composer Mark Orton but I found this You Tube playlist that has most of them. However, both are missing the boys choir tracks that I found delightful.

Giamatti was last blogged for Private Life, Randolph for United States vs. Billie Holiday, Payne for Downsizing, and Orton for My Old Lady. This is Sessa's feature debut. Same for Hemingson, who has written and/or produced dozens of TV episodes.

Rated 96% by Rotten Tomatoes' critics and 91 by its audiences, this is on many lists of the best movies of 2023. We rented it (iTunes/Apple TV) at our first opportunity on December 1.

Nyad (2023)

Jack and I really liked this biopic about the driven, narcissistic Diana Nyad attempting to swim from Havana to Key West in open water. Beginning in 2009 on Nyad's 60th birthday, the movie mixes new scripted material with archival footage, including in the credits. Don't leave the room! It was even more thrilling because we couldn't remember if she made it or not (see below*) but don't worry if you do remember––it'll still be good.

Annette Bening and Jodie Foster are terrific as Nyad (I'm not a mental health professional but it's possible she is on the spectrum) and her stalwart best friend Bonnie Stoll, as is Rhys Ifans as their navigator.

It is co-directed by the married couple Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi from the screenplay by Julia Cox, based on Nyad's 2015 memoir Find a Way. I would have liked Bonnie's back story to be a tiny bit more fleshed out but if you play close attention, you'll get some of it.

Alexandre Desplat's score can be streamed on Apple Music and elsewhere. And, because we enjoyed the vocals, I made a playlist on Spotify with eight of the ten popular songs from the movie.

Director of photography Claudio Miranda brings some glorious pictures. And kudos to the makeup department head Felicity Bowring for Benin's chapped, swollen face.

Bening was last blogged for Jerry & Marge Go Large, Foster for acting in Elysium, Ifans for Snowden, Chin and Vasarhelyi for Free Solo, and Desplat for Asteroid City. Miranda was Oscar nominated for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and won for Life of Pi, and nominated by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers for both plus Top Gun: Maverick. Bowring's illustrious career includes Greedy (1994), Along Came Polly (2004), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), The Social Network, The Front Runner, and the aforementioned Top Gun: Maverick.

*In case you do not know how her swim ended, I promise not to spoil it for you. Wikipedia does, giving quite a bit of history, and I loved this long New York Times profile of Bening, which also throws in the result of the Cuba-Florida swim.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are happily splashing with averages of 85 and 82%, respectively. We watched it November 14 on Netflix.

Quiz Lady (2023)

You can't go wrong with Awkwafina and Sandra Oh. In this comedy they play sisters of very different personalities who, suddenly needing money, capitalize on one sister's skill at a Jeopardy! type game show. Jack and I loved it. Awkwafina is proving to be capable of meaty roles as the OCD Anne, while Oh demonstrates excellent comedy chops as the vapid Jenny. 

Will Ferrell plays an Alex Trebek type, Holland Taylor a cranky neighbor, Jason Schwartzman a smarmy champion, and Paul Reubens has a cute cameo (photography wrapped eight days before he died in July 2023).

Jessica Yu directs from a script by Jen D'Angelo, and the music by Nick Urata is available for streaming on Apple Music. Here's a list of songs. Locations in British Columbia stand in for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Awkwafina was last blogged for Swan Song, Oh for Raya and the Last Dragon, Ferrell for Barbie, Schwartzman for Asteroid City, and Urata for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Taylor's long resume includes Legally Blonde (2001), 101 episodes of Two and a Half Men (the only one on this list I didn't watch), 37 of Bosom Buddies, 29 of The Practice, six episodes of The Chair (starring Oh), and ten of The Morning Show.

Reubens, best known for playing Pee-Wee Herman on screens big and small, also has many other credits, including Batman Returns (1992) and Life During Wartime. Yu, new to me, has directed a handful of features and dozens of TV episodes and short films, one of which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short. D'Angelo has two other feature screenwriting credits to her name, one of which has been in some festivals this fall and not yet released wider.

What are 80 and 84%? Rotten Tomatoes' critics' and audiences' averages. We streamed it on Hulu with our subscription on November 7.

Jules (2023)

We loved this story about an elderly man caring for an alien whose spaceship has crashed into his small town back yard. Funny and touching, it features Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, Jane Curtin, Zoe Winters as his daughter, and Jade Quon, in four hours a day of makeup and prosthetics, as the alien.

The amiable pace is thanks to director Marc Turtletaub and writer Gavin Steckler. And I'm streaming the original score by Volker Bertelmann on Apple Music as I type.

Every synopsis calls it Boonton, Pennsylvania, but indb says it was actually shot in Paterson and Boonton, New Jersey. Go figure.

Kingsley was last blogged for The Jungle Book, Curtin for Queen Bees, Turtletaub for directing Puzzle (but I have yet to mention his distinguished producing credits, including indie darlings Everything Is Illuminated (2005), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Sunshine Cleaning, Away We Go, Jack Goes Boating, Safety Not Guaranteed, Loving, The Farewell, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), and Bertelmann for Downhill. Harris looked familiar to me, perhaps because her many credits include Nurse Betty (2000), 28 episodes of Desperate Housewives, and eleven of Frasier. Fans of the series Succession will recognize Winters with her signature brunette long hair and bangs. Quon has done some acting and over a hundred stunt and stunt double jobs. This is Steckler's feature screenwriting debut.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are phoning home with good reviews, averaging 84 and 90%. Jack and I rented it on November 2.

Love at First Sight (2023)

We didn't hate this light, fluffy, dare I say cliche, rom-com with snappy dialog about travelers meeting on a plane and almost not keeping in touch. We're fans of Haley Lu Richardson so Jack and I gave it a try for some light entertainment. Ben Hardy is the love interest, Jameela Jamil the narrator, and Rob Delaney, Sally Phillips, and Dexter Fletcher the next generation.

Directed by Vanessa Caswill from a screenplay by Katie Lovejoy, it is based on Jennifer E. Smith's 2011 novel The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

Paul Saunderson's pleasant original score by can be streamed on Apple Music, as well as this album of songs.

Richardson was last blogged for After Yang, Hardy for Pixie, Delaney for Deadpool 2, and Saunderson for Three Identical Strangers. Former model Jamil is best known for 30 episodes of The Good Place. Phillips' long resume includes the Bridget Jones movies (I missed the third in 2016) and five episodes of Veep as the Finnish Prime Minister. I've apparently seen Fletcher in some of his dozens of roles but his only mention in these pages is as director of Rocketman. This is Caswill's feature debut and Lovejoy's second time around.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are waiting for a few dates to proclaim their adoration, averaging 72 and 81%, respectively. We watched it on October 25 on Netflix.

A Rainy Day in New York (2019)

Yes, we know: Woody Allen has been canceled (see below*). But we can still appreciate the art despite how we feel about the artist. And we enjoyed this rom-com in which Timothée Chalamet plays the Woody role of an eccentric, pessimistic, yet romantic New Yorker with bad posture, Elle Fanning a naive, cornfed blonde, and Selena Gomez a beautiful, snarky sidekick. The star-studded cast boasts Liev Schreiber, Annaleigh Ashford, Jude Law (with a terrific New York accent), Cherry Jones, Diego Luna, and more.

Perhaps liking a Woody Allen directed and written movie is one of my guilty pleasures. They're sort of old-shoe comfortable, going back to my youth. I expect snappy dialogue, beautiful photography, classic jazz tunes whose titles reflect the scenes into which they are placed, and gorgeous sets and wardrobe representing the upper crust of Manhattan, and I get them nearly every time. Speaking of upper crust, Chalamet's character's name is Gatsby, for goodness' sake.

As noted, there are many delightful tunes to hear during the movie. Here's a list of the songs. Though not credited, Chalamet sings Everything Happens to Me, with Conal Fowkes sitting in on the piano. No original score, as usual. Vittorio Storaro is behind the camera and Santo Loquasto heads the production design team.

Allen and Storaro were last blogged for Wonder Wheel, Chalamet for Dune, Fanning for Teen Spirit (in between we loved her in 30 episodes of The Great), Gomez for Spring Breakers (she's worked a lot since then, notably in 30 episodes of Only Murders in the Building), Schreiber for Isle of Dogs, Ashford for Bad Education, Law for The Grand Budapest Hotel, Jones for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Luna for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Loquasto for Allen's Café Society.

*In 2017 in my post on Wonder Wheel I wrote a long paragraph about Allen's literal trials and tribulations. This movie began shooting that year but Amazon, which was financing it, halted the production because of the accusations against him. He sued, settled, and completed the movie, and it was distributed in other countries to much success. It was released here in late 2020.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, at 47% and its audiences at 56, have dampened enthusiasm. Sure, it's not his best work. But we're not sorry we saw it with our subscription to Amazon Prime (also available with a subscription to Peacock) in late October.

Joy Ride (2023)

Jack and I had some laughs at this raunchy comedy about four Asian-American women on a business trip (funny business) to China and making some life changes. Starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu, the enormous cast includes appearances by Annie Mumolo, David Denman, Timothy Simons, Ronny Chieng, pro basketball player Baron Davis, Lori Tan Chinn, and Daniel Dae Kim.

Adele Lim directs from a screenplay co-written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsaio (story credited to all three).

Nathan Matthew David is credited with the score, but the R-rated (for language) soundtrack on Apple Music has fifteen tracks by various artists and five by David. I remember liking the music of many genres. I also remember liking the gorgeous production values––sets and locations––shot by Paul Yee.

Cola, Hsu, and Chieng were last blogged for Shortcomings, Mumolo for Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar, Denman for Puzzle, Simons for Inherent Vice, and David for The Last Word.

I've enjoyed Park's work in nine episodes of Girls5eva, 30 of Emily in Paris (she's a good singer!), seven of Beef, and six of Only Murders in the Building (she sings in that one, too). Wu and Davis make their feature debuts here. Chinn is known for some stand-out scenes in She-Devil (1989), What About Bob? (1991), one of my all-time favorites Living in Oblivion (1995), and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999), as well as 27 episodes of Orange Is the New Black and 27 of Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. Kim has a massive resume on imdb, but will always be best known to me for 119 episodes of Lost.

Lim was last blogged for co-writing Raya and the Last Dragon and this is her feature directing debut. Chevapravatdumrong and Hsaio have some TV writing credits, including the aforementioned Awkwafina show, and this is their first screenplay as well. Yee has shot six other features and a bunch of TV episodes and shorts.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are riding joyfully along with an average of 91%, while its audiences are somewhat less engaged at 82. We rented it on September 21 from iTunes/Apple TV and, because I forgot to start a blog draft that day, didn't remember to write about it until I was reading up on Shortcomings a few days ago.

Shortcomings (2023)

Jack and I liked a lot this biting comedy about three Bay Area people managing their love lives and careers. Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, and Ally Maki lead the large cast that includes Tavi Gevinson and Debby Ryan and cameos by Ronny Chieng, Stephanie Hsu, and Randall Park. 

Park makes his feature directorial debut, working from a tight script by Adrian Tomine, based on his graphic novel. It's notable that the main protagonist Ben (played by Min) is amusingly snarky and unlikeable. This just in: Tomine drew a New Yorker cover that I particularly loved, depicting lockdown dating. Enjoy it at this link.

Gene Back provides the soundtrack, streamable on Apple Music and probably elsewhere.

I think I recall fun location shots of San Francisco and New York.

Min was last blogged for After Yang, Hsu for Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which she was Oscar-nominated, Park for acting in Straight Up, and Back for Holler. After Cola's seven episodes of I Love Dick and much more, she starred in Joy Ride, which we saw in September but I forgot to write about it––I'll get to it soon. Maki's 20 year resume includes three episodes of Hacks and Gevinson's includes Enough Said and one episode of The Other Two as herself. Ryan looked familiar to me but I can't say why.

Chieng is a hilarious Daily Show correspondent and has made appearances in Joy Ride, Crazy Rich Asians, and one episode of Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. This is Tomine's second screenplay

Rotten Tomatoes's critics and audiences, averaging 84 and 85%, respectively, find few shortcomings with this picture. I was eager to see it and we rented it on iTunes/Apple TV at our first opportunity, October 19.

Theater Camp (2023)

Camp is right! Jack and I laughed a lot at this slapstick mockumentary of AdirondACTS, a summer camp with eccentric staff and kids. Already starting to win awards, it features Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Amy Sedaris, Patti Harrison, and so many more, including some very talented children, one of whom, Alan Kim, earned dozens of nominations and wins for his role in the drama Minari.

Galvin, Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Platt co-wrote the script for a 2020 18 minute film of the same name, co-directed by Gordon and Lieberman. All six are making their feature directing and/or writing debuts by working the same jobs in this fleshed out version.

The soundtrack album, available on Apple Music, is all vocals (the camp makes musicals!), and worth hearing. The only instrumental from the movie I could find was this three+ minute suite by composers James McAlister & Mark Sonnenblick.

Platt and Gordon met as kids at a Los Angeles theater after-school and summer program, and Galvin, who played the title role in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway after Platt won the Tony for it, is now Platt's fiancé. 

Platt was last blogged for acting in The People We Hate at the Wedding, Gordon for Shiva Baby, Harrison for Together Together, and Kim for Minari. Galvin has a number of acting credits, mostly TV. Tatro has worked a lot, including Stuber, nine episodes of The Guest Book, six of Modern Family, and 42 of Home Economics. Sedaris, briefly mentioned in Romance & Cigarettes, has a long resume, most of which I haven't seen, although she is quite familiar to me for her social media humor and for being the sister of David Sedaris. Lieberman directed eight of Platt's ten music videos. This is the first feature composing gig for McAlister and Sonnenblick.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are applauding with an 85% average, while its audiences are slightly less enthusiastic at 79. We streamed it on Hulu on October 13.

Flora and Son (2023)

Jack and I enjoyed this story of a divorced Irish woman who finds common ground in music with her rebellious teenage son. Eve Hewson is terrific as the headstrong Flora as is Oren Kinland as her son Max. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is her teacher and Jack Reynor Max's father.

The latest offering from acclaimed Irish director/writer John Carney, this has some laughs, clever camera gags in Gordon-Levitt's scenes, and lots of nice musical sequences in several genres.

Carney and Gary Clark are credited with the soundtrack, available on Apple Music. Much of it has vocals so I have to skip past them while I write so I can compose sentences, but, as I said, the music is good. Hewson and Gordon-Levitt sing and play well.

Carney, Reynor, and Clark were last blogged for Sing Street and Gordon-Levitt for The Trial of the Chicago 7. Hewson is the daughter of U2 front man Bono (trivia: his real name is Paul Hewson) and can boast playing Becka in all ten episodes of Bad Sisters and James Gandolfini's daughter in Enough Said (though I didn't mention her) among her dozens of credits. This is Kinlan's feature debut.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are singing its praises, averaging 94%, while its audiences are backup at 86. We streamed it on Apple TV on October 11 after being bombarded with the trailer every time we booted up the device.

Past Lives (2022)

I loved this dreamy story of a South Korean woman who, after immigrating to the US at 12 and leaving behind her childhood sweetheart, gets a chance to see him again as adults. With magnificent cinematography and wonderful Seoul and New York locations, it features an understated performance by Greta Lee in the lead with support from Teo Yoo and John Magaro.

Director/writer Celine Song is already racking up festival nominations with this, her feature debut after one TV movie. The music by Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen (of the band Grizzly Bear) is available to stream on Apple Music and elsewhere. We can thank Shabier Kirchner for the lovely photography.

Magaro was last blogged for Showing Up, Grizzly Bear for Blue Valentine and Kirchner for Bull.
Notable credits in Lee's long resume include two episodes of High Maintenance, five of New Girl, nine of Inside Amy Schumer, fourteen of Russian Doll, and sixteen and counting of The Morning Show. Yoo was in Decision to Leave, though I failed to mention him.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are living it up with averages of 98 and 92%, respectively. I rented it on Apple TV/iTunes October 3.

On the Count of Three (2021)

Jack and I both liked this dark dramedy about two young men, friends since childhood, making a suicide pact. Jerrod Carmichael, who directed, stars with Christopher Abbott, and the supporting cast includes funny people Tiffany Haddish and J.B. Smoove, neither of whom makes a joke here. Still good, though! 

Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch's screenplay does have plenty of laughs, often when we least expect them.

Oscar-nominated composer Owen Pallett provides the score, which is nowhere to be found online. I did find this playlist of songs from the movie on Spotify, however.

Abbott was last blogged for Black Bear, Haddish for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Smoove for Spider-Man: Far from Home, and Pallett for Her, which is what earned that and other nominations. Interestingly, the Her soundtrack, which was not available when I blogged about it over nine years ago, is online now and I'm listening to it as I type. 

Carmichael is no newbie to acting, with roles in a number of movies and TV, including 32 episodes of his The Carmichael Show, which I haven't seen. On the Count of Three is his directorial debut. Katcher was a co-writer on all 32 episodes of The Carmichael Show and Katcher and Welch co-created and co-wrote all 30 episodes of Ramy, which I have seen.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics counted all the way up to an average of 85%, with its audiences at 81. We saw it on Hulu with our subscription on October 6. You can also rent it on the usual platforms.

Barbie (2023)

Yep, Jack and I both loved it. A tongue-in-cheek bubble gum fantasy with feminist underpinnings, this story of the iconic doll(s) going on adventures is definitely fun for all ages. The massive cast is led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as the main Barbie and Ken, with extra Barbies and Kens played by Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa, John Cena, and so many more. More star power comes from America Ferrera, Michael Cera, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell, and Helen Mirren as the narrator, just to name a few.

Greta Gerwig directs with a practiced hand from a script by her and (her life partner) Noah Baumbach. Ferrera’s monologue in the second act is so good I made a note to mention it. They made sure of the accuracy of the Barbie history, too, with the clothes and accessories and other dolls.

I'm currently streaming Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt's original score on Apple Music and there's an album of songs available there. I'm sure they're streaming elsewhere, too. The candy-colored photography is by Rodrigo Prieto.

When we started watching the wonderful series Sex Education (now in its final season on Netflix) in 2019, we were taken by Emma Mackey's (here's a photo) resemblance to Margot Robbie, so I wasn't surprised to learn that Mackey would be in this movie. Ncuti Gatwa and Connor Swindells (in this photo Swindells is bottom left and Gatwa next to him) are also major players in that series and here they are in Barbieland.

As we were getting ready to rent it, I saw that, for an extra $5, not only could we watch it again later, but we would also get over 45 minutes of extras. So we now own the movie and those extras: terrific short subjects going into depth on the cast, production design (thanks to Sarah Greenwood and her team), wardrobe (by Jacqueline Durran), makeup and hair (too many to name), and choreography (Jennifer White).

I assiduously avoided reading about the movie until we could watch it. Here's an article I saved and enjoyed two months later.

Robbie was last blogged for Asteroid City, Gosling for First Man, Rae for Vengeance, McKinnon for Bombshell, Ben-Adir for One Night in Miami, Cena for Blockers, Cera for Molly's Game, Ferrell for Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, Mirren for The Duke, Gerwig for Little Women, Baumbach for White Noise, Greenwood for Darkest Hour, and Durran for Cyrano. Perlman was covered in I'll See You in My Dreams before being mentioned for making a cameo in You People.

Nef was new to me until I saw her this week in the penultimate episode of the terrifying, stranger-than fiction, climate change series Extrapolations (Apple TV) and Lipa is a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter making her feature debut. Liu's dozens of credits include 66 episodes of the hilarious Kim's Convenience (we haven't seen his Marvel action movie). Ferrera is best known for 103 episodes of Superstore and 85 of Ugly Betty and voicing in the How To Train Your Dragon movies (one and two). Ronson and Wyatt won an Oscar and more for writing Shallow for A Star Is Born, Ronson also wrote Uptown Funk for Bruno Mars and produced Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album and lots of other hits. This is the second feature score for Ronson and the first for Wyatt, who is the frontman of the band Miike Snow. White has been main choreographer on four other features and movement coach for Elizabeth Olsen on three Avengers movies and the WandaVision series.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, averaging 88 and 83% respectively, aren't playing around. But I suspect my readers have already decided whether they'll see it or not, as we did on September 26 on Apple TV/iTunes.

Call Jane (2022)

Jack, Amy, Travis, and I really liked this story of a 1968 woman who discovers a collective that helps women in need get abortions. Timely now, it's based on a real network of 60s Chicago activists who all called themselves Jane. Elizabeth Banks leads a fine cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Chris Messina, Kate Mara, and more. Grace Edwards plays Banks' teenage daughter.

A teaching companion to Happening, which I saw three weeks earlier, this one is slightly more hopeful. Phyllis Nagy directs from a screenplay by Hayley Schore & Roshan Sethi.

The score by Isabella Summers doesn't seem to be available online, but, as usual for twentieth century period pieces, we two boomers loved the lots of fun songs accompanying the movie. Here's a list.

With 36 producers, it doesn't win my Producers Plethora Prize, but it does make the list.

Banks was last blogged for Lovely, Still, Weaver for Chappie, Messina for Air, and Mara for Women Talking. Edwards was part of the huge cast of Asteroid City. Nagy makes her feature film directing debut  after writing and directing a TV movie and writing Carol. Schore & Sethi co-created a TV show (The Resident--haven't seen it) and it's a screenwriting debut for Schore and the second picture for Sethi. 

Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences are using their phones, averaging 82 and 87%, respectively. We watched it on Hulu September 12. It's also available to rent if you don't have Hulu.

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023)

Jack and I found this uneven but with plenty of laughs as wealthy girls plan their lavish coming-of-age parties (way more important to them than the Jewish religious ceremonies) while navigating teen drama. It's a family affair, with Adam Sandler's daughter Sunny playing the protagonist Stacy, Adam as her laid-back indulgent father (and not the lead role), another daughter Sadie Sandler as Stacy's sister Ronnie, and their mother Jackie Sandler as the mother of Stacy's best friend Lydia, who is played by Samantha Lorraine.

As she did in Uncut Gems, Idina Menzel plays Sandler's wife and Sarah Sherman is hilarious as the unhinged rabbi. The cast is enormous and includes appearances by Jackie Hoffman and Luis Guzmán.

Directed by Sammi Cohen from a script by Alison Peck, based on Fiona Rosenbloom's 2005 young adult novel, the movie is, as previously noted, pretty funny. The filmmakers were able to add diversity to the cast with character names such as Lydia Rodriguez Katz and Kym Chang Cohen.

Amanda Yamate and Este Haim are credited with the 17 minute soundtrack, streaming on Apple Music and, no doubt, elsewhere. Imdb lists 39 songs. Apple Music also has a two hour+ playlist with 32 of the songs plus the short soundtrack. 

Adam Sandler was last blogged for Hustle, Menzel for Uncut Gems, Guzmán for Keanu, and Haim for co-scoring Cha Cha Real Smooth. Sunny Sandler has had parts in twenty-one features (including Hustle), Sadie has had twenty, and Jackie has over three dozen. Sherman is best known for twenty episodes of Saturday Night Live. I'm a big fan of Hoffman's and some of my favorites of her work are Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), Garden State (2004), (four episodes of) The New Normal, Birdman, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, (three episodes of) The Marvelous Mrs, Maisel, and (fifteen episodes of) Only Murders in the Building (which we finished last night!). 

Cohen has one other feature and several TV shows and shorts to her credit. This is Peck's third feature and Yamate's fourth.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics RSVPed yes enthusiastically with an average of 91%, while its audiences had some no-shows at 61. Apparently it is Adam Sandler's highest rated movie. We watched it on Netflix September 4.

No Hard Feelings (2023)

We enjoyed this raunchy, slapstick comedy in which Jennifer Lawrence's Maddie, who desperately needs to make a buck, answers an ad from parents who want someone to "date" their naive son the summer before college. Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman, who plays the son, are close to the 32 and 19 year old ages of their characters.

Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick are hilarious as the helicopter parents as is Natalie Morales as Maddie's friend, supported by a cast with too many noteworthy players to mention.

Directed by Gene Stupnitsky from a script co-written by him and John Phillips, the pace flags a bit here and there but not enough to matter. A real Craigslist ad inspired the movie and Lawrence was Stupnitsky's first choice to play Maddie. And in one pivotal scene, she did not use a body double nor CGI. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it.

I'm streaming the soundtrack by Mychael Danna and Jessica Rose Weiss on Apple Music as I type. In addition there are plenty of great songs, listed here, including a version of Hall & Oates' Maneater, sung on camera by Feldman, whose credits include the title role of Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway when he was 16.

Lawrence was last blogged for Causeway, Morales for Language Lessons, Stupnitsky for his directing debut Good Boys, and Danna for The Addams Family (animated-2019). Though I've mentioned Broderick's cameos in Rules Don't Apply and Manchester by the Sea, I last wrote about my favorites of his film work in Tower Heist. Besides stage work, Feldman has been in two other features, including White Noise, which we did not like. Benanti has had dozens of movie and TV roles, one Tony win, and five more nominations to her credit. She's also a talented impressionist and appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert quite a few times as Melania Trump. This is Phillips' second screenplay (he wrote the first on his own). Weiss has worked on many projects as composer, co-composer, and various positions in the music department.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are hard on this, averaging 71%, while its audiences' average of 87 demonstrates that they're feeling it. Jack and I rented it on August 29 on iTunes/Apple TV.

Happening (L’evenement - 2021)

I was moved by this powerful and eventually harrowing story of a 1960s college student in France who needs an abortion when it was a jailable offense to provide or receive one. Annamaria Vartolomei's Anne is a hard-working young woman determined not to let her studies and career be derailed. Sandrine Bonnaire, the only name in the credits that I recognized, plays her mother.

Director/co-writer Audrey Diwan and co-writer Marcia Romano, with collaboration from Anne Berest and Alice Girard, adapted the 2000 novel/memoir by Annie Ernaux.

I noticed very little music during the movie, but what there was was composed by brothers Evgueni and Sacha Galperine. Here's a YouTube video with the music from the closing credits.

Among its 25 wins and 46 more nominations, the movie won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and had been on my list for a while.

Bonnaire was last blogged for Queen to Play and the Galperines for The Family. Vartolomei has ten other acting credits. This is Diwan's second feature directing but has written or co-written eight altogether and Romero has written dozens of feature films.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics gave it a near-perfect 99% but its audiences, not so much at 76. I watched it on Hulu on August 24.

Happiness for Beginners (2023)

Fluffy and uneven, this story of a woman on a hiking adventure after a breakup isn't a total waste of time––sort of a Hallmark/Nancy Meyers mashup with beautiful scenery––but not on anyone's top ten list. We picked it because we like Ellie Kemper (in the lead), because something we were planning on streaming that day turned out to be as yet unavailable, and because Netflix was promoting it heavily. Kemper's co-stars include Luke Grimes, Nico Santos, Blythe Danner, and Gus Birney.

Vicky Wight directs and adapted the screenplay from the 2015 novel by Katherine Center. I must admit that the method by which beginners can find happiness (second act) did resonate with me as something we can all stand to remember. If you want to know without sitting through the whole thing, just write me and I'll tell you!

A pleasant half hour of music by composer Sherri Chung is streamable on Apple Music and is accompanied by a bunch of songs, one sung by Danner and two by Birney. Cinematography, including lovely location shots, is courtesy of Daniel Vecchione.

Kemper was last blogged for Laggies, Santos for Crazy Rich Asians, Danner for Hearts Beat Loud, and Birney for Plan B. Jack recognized Grimes from the TV series Yellowstone. This is the third feature for Wight, the ninth for Chung, along with lots of shorts and TV, and the 20th for Vecchione.

Rotten Tomatoes' experienced critics are not pleased with an average of 33%, while its audiences are only slightly more contented at 53. We watched it on Netflix on August 17.

Hit the Road (Jaddeh Khaki - 2021)

This highly-reviewed Iranian movie about a family's road trip is amusing with beautiful pictures of the countryside but left me confused about the purpose of their travel. I had some guesses but didn't figure it all out (more on that in a moment). The parents and two sons (a rebellious six year old and a taciturn young adult) all have well-defined characters, as played by Pantea Panahiha (mother), Hassan Madjooni (father), Rayan Sarlak (little brother), and Amin Simiar (big brother).

Director/writer Panah Panahi, whose father Jafar Panahi is evidently an acclaimed filmmaker, makes his feature debut inspired, according to Wikipedia, by Panah's and others' exiles from Iran. Wiki also says they're driving to the Turkish border to smuggle their older son out of the country and this New Yorker review explains why. New Yorker reviews are usually rife with spoilers (so I read them only after watching) but, this time, there's an actual warning.

A Spotify playlist has about a half hour of music, none of which is by the composer Peyman Yazdanian.

As I mentioned above, Rotten Tomatoes' critics are riding high with a 95% average (so far it has 11 wins and 16 other nominations) while its audiences are cruising more slowly at 75. I watched it on Showtime (it's also available on Paramount+) on August 9.

Rye Lane (2023)

Jack and I loved this delightful, smart rom-com about a young British couple getting to know each other in South London. Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson are terrific as Yas and Dom, with excellent comic timing in the sparkling script written by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia and directed by Raine Allen-Miller. I jotted down one favorite line: "I was snoozing through the alarm bells." Watch for Colin Firth's cameo selling burritos.

The locations of the Peckham and Brixton neighborhoods (I should spell it neighbourhoods) are wonderfully colorful and there is a real Rye Lane Market there. Like so many movies set abroad and even at home, it shows the viewer places we might not have seen otherwise.

Apparently the soundtrack by Kwes is due to be released in November but six songs can be streamed from this link. 

This is Oparah's second feature and Jonsson's first but with three more in post-production. It's the third feature for Bryon and first for Melia and Allen-Miller (all five have worked on TV shows). Firth was last blogged for Empire of Light.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are loafing this (sorry!) with a 98% average, while its audiences have sliced off a bit at 88. We watched it on Hulu on July 25 and kept the TV on for the blooper reel at the end.

Showing Up (2022)

I loved this dreamy story of an angry sculptor preparing to show her work while juggling an administrative job, working for her mother, at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland. Michelle Williams is brilliant, as always, with body language to convey Lizzy's frustrations. Hong Chau plays a more successful artist who is Lizzy's selfish landlord, Maryann Plunkett and Judd Hirsch are Lizzy's parents, and John Magaro appears as her brother in the third act. There are plenty of other fine actors on screen, too numerous to mention.

Directed by Kelly Reichardt from a script by her and Jon Raymond, it does not move fast. In fact, Vanity Fair calls Reichardt "the American slow-cinema maestro" and Jack is not a fan of slow cinema so he was less enthused than I. But I was transfixed by the long sequences of artists making art, shot at the actual school. Portland sculptor Cynthia Lahti was about to retire when Reichardt hired her to create Lizzy's pieces.

Ethan Rose is credited for the  soundtrack but I can't find it streaming. However, someone has created an Apple Music playlist of songs from the movie, many of which I've had to skip because the lyrics interfere with my composing sentences.

Williams and Hirsch were last blogged for The Fabelmans, Chau for The Menu (I didn't mention her in the cast of dozens in Asteroid City), Plunkett for The Family Fang, and Magaro, Reichardt, and Raymond for First Cow. This is Rose's fifth feature.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics made appearances with an 88% average, while its audiences preferred not to, at 45. We rented it on Apple TV/iTunes on July 29, and kept watching for more sequences of artists making art over the end credits.

Sharp Stick (2022)

Jack said it was "extra" but I liked, and we both had some laughs with, this story of naive 20-something Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth) who is eager to become sexually active while living with her worldly sister Treina (Taylour Paige) and mother Marilyn (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Lena Dunham writes, directs, and has a part as the wife of Jon Bernthal, who hire Froseth's character to babysit their Down syndrome son. Scott Speedman figures into the plot as online porn star Vance.

I just paused writing to read this essay Dunham wrote about her hysterectomy at age 31 (six years ago), because the character Sarah Jo had a hysterectomy as a teenager. 

The on-set production company, including an intimacy coordinator, was all female.

Dunham's husband Luis Felber (AKA Attawalpa)) co-composes the score with Matt Alchin (affiliated with the band Florence and the Machine) but I can't find it streaming. There are 26 songs credited at the end, some of which are listed on this spoiler-ridden list. 

Paige was last blogged for Zola, Leigh for Annihilation, Dunham for directing and writing Catherine Called Birdy and for (voice) acting in My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, although she had a small part in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, and Bernthal for King Richard.

Froseth (Frøseth) is Norwegian and formerly a model with nine other features, including The Assistant, to her credit. After I wrote about Speedman in Barney's Version he was in 32 episodes of Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Nick Marsh, and he's been in 27 other features and 84 episodes of Felicity, which I never saw. Felber and Alchin were Executive Music Producers for Catherine Called Birdy

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences found it dull, averaging 49 and 40%, respectively. We watched it on Hulu on July 14.

Asteroid City (2023)

So fun, as expected, and so many layers. We have a TV special about a playwright and his trials and tribulations, and, mostly, the play about teenagers competing in a 1955 astronomy contest in a place called Asteroid City.

Over 150 actors are listed, including Bryan Cranston as the narrator, Edward Norton as the playwright, Adrien Brody as the director, and, in the play within the special within the movie, Jake Ryan as the main teenager, Jason Schwartzman as his dad, Tom Hanks as his grandfather, Scarlett Johansson as a movie star, in a role written for her. So many more, such as Hope Davis, Steve Carell, Tilda Swinton, and cameos by Rita Wilson and Margot Robbie. The six-year-old Faris triplets (no relation to Anna) are particularly adorable.

Auteur Wes Anderson directs from his own script with the story written by himself and Roman Coppola (Schwartzman's cousin). 

Six tracks by Alexandre Desplat are available as a soundtrack on Apple Music and are also part of this album of many songs on Apple Music,

Director of Photography Robert Yeoman, a regular Anderson collaborator, provides color-saturated earth tones from locations in Spain and Arizona. The distinct layers are shown in different aspect ratios, i.e.  some are letterboxed on the sides, some are letterboxed on the top and bottom.

Interesting trivia: Bill Murray was cast as the motel manager but tested positive for COVID-19 before shooting, so the role went to Carell. Murray did shoot some promotional videos later. Anderson's first feature was Bottle Rocket (1996), which is the only other Murray-less one he has made. This is Anderson's eleventh (I've seen every one). More trivia can be found here and, no doubt, elsewhere.

Cranston was last blogged for Jerry & Marge Go Large, Norton for Isle of Dogs, Brody for Blonde, Hanks for A Man Called Otto, Johansson for Marriage Story, Davis for Disconnect, Carell for Irresistible, Swinton for Three Thousand Years of Longing, Hanks' wife Wilson for Larry Crowne, Robbie for Babylon (skip it and see Amsterdam or something else), and Schwartzman, Anderson, Desplat, and Yoeman for The French Dispatch. Ryan, who is now 19 years old, has many credits, though I haven't written about him before, including Inside Llewyn Davis, Eighth Grade, Uncut Gems, and Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom and Isle of Dogs. Ella and Gracie Faris, who are identical, and Willan Faris, who is their triplet but looks a little different, have been working since they were babies (Ella and Grace have been in 29 episodes of Grey's Anatomy as Meredith's daughter Ellis) and are now six.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are less than starry-eyed, averaging 73 and 61%, respectively. Jack and I are big Anderson fans and loved it.

As those who read these posts know, we have turned entirely to streaming, so were thrilled that this one became available to rent so soon after its theatrical release. We saw it on Apple TV/iTunes on July 12. And we did not turn it off as the credits rolled, so were treated to a roadrunner dancing at the end.

Perfumes (Les parfums - 2019)

Deb and I really liked this French dramedy about a down-on-his luck chauffeur and a prickly woman who creates fragrances. Grégory Montel's Guillaume is a multi-layered divorcé with an adorable tween daughter and Emmanuelle Devos portrays Anne as on the spectrum (all the blurbs refer to her as a "diva" but I think not). Sergi López makes an appearance in the third act and I won't say his character's name because it's a bit of a spoiler. 

Director/writer Grégory Magne keeps the pace going accompanied by Gaëtan Roussel's score. It's not available online but I did find a clip on YouTube. Cinematographer Thomas Rames provides pretty scenes of various locations in the country.

Devos was last blogged for Wild Grass and Lopez for Potiche. Magne has one other feature to his credit and Roussel and Rames each have four

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are smelling oh-so-sweet with averages of 100 and 90%, respectively. We watched it July 9 on Amazon Prime Video with a subscription.

You Hurt My Feelings (2023)

Director/writer Nicole Holofcener is a master of cringe and we loved her story of an insecure writer/professor who accidentally discovers her struggling therapist husband has been hiding his opinion of her work. The sharp dialogue is interpreted by the spectacular cast headed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies as Beth and Don, with Michaela Watkins as Beth's sister Sarah, Arian Moayed (his character of Sarah's husband is also splendidly insecure), Owen Teague as Beth and Don's son, and Jeannie Berlin as Beth and Sarah's mother. Amber Tamblyn and David Cross, married in real life, are among the cameos playing Don's patients and their marital bickering is predictably hilarious.

It's been two busy weeks since we saw it so I can't remember much about the score by Michael Andrews and it's not available to stream. I did find this Spotify playlist of the songs.

Holofcener was last blogged for The Land of Steady Habits, Louis-Dreyfus for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Watkins for The Way Back, Teague for To Leslie, Berlin for The Fabelmans, Tamblyn for Nostalgia, Cross for Sorry to Bother You, and Andrews for The King of Staten Island. I haven't seen most of Menzies' many projects but did appreciate his work in five episodes of Catastrophe, ten of This Way Up, and twenty of The Crown as Prince Philip to Olivia Colman's Elizabeth. Moayed has been in, among many, eleven episodes of Madam Secretary, all nine of Inventing Anna, and twenty-five of Succession as Stewy.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are feeling thrilled with an average of 94%, while its audiences are a bit miffed at 64. We rented it June 27 on Apple TV/iTunes.

BlackBerry (2023)

Jack and I enjoyed this based-on-truth story of the rise and fall of the groundbreaking smartphone with Jay Baruchel and Matt Johnson as tech innovators Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin and Glenn Howerton as businessman Jim Balsillie.

Johnson directs and co-wrote the script with Matthew Miller, based on the 2015 book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff.

The soundtrack by Jay McCarrol is good, as I recall, but all I could find online is this 4:47 clip on YouTube. Twelve songs are listed on imdb (here are eleven), including Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks––appropriate because Lazaridis and Fregin are from Waterloo, Canada.

Baruchel was last blogged for the How to Train Your Dragon movies (one, two). Johnson, Miller, and McCarrol have worked together on several projects, none of which I've seen. Howerton is best known for 164 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and 42 of A.P. Bio, albeit looking very different in those series than as the buttoned-down Jim in this movie.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are sweet on this one, averaging 98 and 92%, respectively. We rented it on Apple TV/iTunes on June 14.

The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)

Jack and I shared a number of belly laughs with actors whom we like, acting up, which we like, in beautiful settings, which we like, in this movie with serious pacing problems. How can you go wrong with Kristen Bell and Allison Janney, backed up by Ben Platt and Isaach de Bankolé, the latter in a pivotal role? Well, I guess you can, but we did enjoy some of it.

Usually I begin the post with a line about the plot, but the title says it all. Claire Scanlon directs from a script by Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin and Wendy Molyneux, based on the 2017 novel by Grant Ginder.

Tom Howe's 26 minute score can be streamed on Apple Music music and plenty of good songs are listed here.

Janney was last blogged for To Leslie, de Bankolé for Black Panther, and Howe for Polite Society. After I wrote about Bell for Bad Moms, she starred in fifty episodes of The Good Place and eight of The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, among many. Platt is best known to me for starring in Dear Evan Hansen on stage and and the 2021 movie (we saw it on Broadway but missed the movie), as well as the title role in fifteen episodes of The Politician. He was apparently in Ricki and the Flash as well as Pitch Perfect and its sequel.

This is Scanlon's second feature after dozens of TV series directing gigs, including many of our/my favorites, including The Office, The Last Man on Earth, Fresh Off the Boat, Black-ish, GLOW, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and one of The Good Place, and it's the feature screenwriting debut of the Molyneux sisters.

Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences are hating, too, averaging 32 and 40%, respectively. Told ya. We watched it on Amazon Prime Video with our subscription June 20.

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

We couldn't finish this but not because we hated this story of writer and a genie. Apparently, if one turns on closed captions in English (Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba's accents are but one reason we did so), the foreign languages, containing much exposition, are NOT captioned. The movie is interesting, with spectacular visuals, but not worth pausing to turn the captions off and on every time they switch languages (which turns out to be the remedy--that's right, watch with English closed captions, then when they speak another language, pause the movie, turn captions off, then pause again when they return to English, and turn on closed captions again). No thanks! I was yelling at the TV and we finally gave up after almost an hour.

Directed by George Miller, its music by Tom Holkenborg is pleasant, and can be found on Apple Music.

Swinton was last blogged for The Eternal Daughter, Elba for Avengers: Infinity War, and Miller and Holkenborg for Mad Max: Fury Road.

Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences aren't longing to see it either, averaging 71 and 73%, respectively. It's on Prime with a subscription. Amazon has not fixed the caption problem, according to dozens of people on Reddit and elsewhere. Our attempt was July 6.

The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin - 2022)

I really liked this story of a nine-year-old Irish girl, from a 1980s unhappy squalid home, whose circumstances change drastically. Be patient to find out what’s going on. And be ready for subtitles, as it is almost entirely in the Irish language, not English.

Catherine Clinch as title character Cáit won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role-Film for this, her debut, and she and Carrie Crowley as Cáit's cousin Eibhlín (pronounced AYV-lin) have a more nominations as well. 

Director/writer Colm Bairéad based his script on the short story Foster by Claire Keegan, told from the girl's point of view.

Lovely music by Stephen Rennicks is not on Apple Music but I found it on Spotify.

Rennicks was last blogged for Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and he also scored the Irish mini-series Normal People, which used the photographic talents of Kate McCullough, who shot this movie. I'm not familiar with the work of any of the rest of the main cast and crew, but this holds the distinction of being the first Irish language movie to be Oscar-nominated.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are cheering out loud, averaging 96 and 93%, respectively. I rented it from Apple TV/iTunes on June 6. The movie racked up lots of nominations and wins (practically swept the Irish awards) and had been on my list for a while.

A Good Person (2023)

Well done, hard to watch. Loved by audiences, panned by critics, Florence Pugh's Allison wants to be a good person but has to learn how. In the meantime she meets Morgan Freeman's Daniel, Celeste O'Connor's Ryan, and Zoe Lister-Jones's Simone. Allison's mother, played by Molly Shannon, is clueless and no help when Allison spirals

Director/writer Zach Braff was in a relationship with Pugh when the movie was announced but that is over now. A Rolling Stone reviewer called the movie a mash note (love letter) to his paramour, to showcase her scenery-chewing.

There's a movie trope known as the manic pixie dream girl. Definitions always include Natalie Portman's character in Braff's first feature Garden State (2004), though the Urban Dictionary says the term was coined by a movie reviewer to describe Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown (2005). Pugh's Allison takes it way over the edge of mania.

Bryce Dessner (the National)'s score, streamable on Apple Music, is supplemented by nineteen songs.

Pugh was last blogged for Don't Worry Darling, Freeman for acting in Going in Style and Braff for directing it, Lister-Jones for How It Ends (fans might like her explicit mini-series Slip), and Dessner for Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. O'Connor is new to me.

As noted above, Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 58%, and its audiences at 96, can't agree on what is good. We rented it on Apple TV/iTunes June 2.

Emergency (2022)

Jack and I liked a lot this comedy/thriller about college boys who aim to be the first Black kids to attend seven frat parties in one night. And then s*** happens. RJ Cyler and Donald Elise Watkins play best friends with different approaches to life and Sebastian Chacon joins them later in the first act. And then Sabrina Carpenter gets into the mix. I don't want to say much more.

Director Carey Williams and writer K.D. Dávila fleshed out their 2018 twelve minute multi-award winning short of the same name into this feature, which is the winner or nominee of a dozen festival awards so far.

I can't find the original music by Rene G. Boscio online, but imdb lists 22 of the movie's songs and this site allows you to play some of them, but beware of spoilers in the text.

Cyler was last blogged for playing Earl in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Watkins (who recently added his middle name to his professional credits) has a number of gigs in his resume and Chacon's affable drummer in ten episodes of Daisy Jones and the Six is but one of his many roles so far. Carpenter's face looks familiar to me, but after perusing her imdb page, I don't know why.

This is Williams' second feature after a number of shorts and TV episodes and Dávila makes her feature debut, while Boscio has scored fifteen other features and many shorts.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics aren't panicking, with a 92% average, while its audiences are a bit scared at 73. One google reviewer commented that only a racist would dislike this movie. Made for Amazon, it is available on Prime with a subscription and we watched it on May 30. Since the Amazon search isn't easy, here's the link.

Air (2023)

Jack and I liked this story of shoe manufacturer Nike's signing Michael Jordan in the 1980s, with Matt Damon as sports executive Sonny Vaccaro (who closed the deal) and Ben Affleck directing and playing Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Jordan approved the movie (we never see the face of the actor playing him), with the requests that Viola Davis play his mother Deloris and that his friend Howard White's character be depicted. White is played by comedic actor Chris Tucker. The large cast includes Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, and Davis' real-life husband Julius Tennon as Deloris' husband James Jordan.

Aspiring scriptwriter Alex Convery, who had a "graveyard of unproduced screenplays," was a 20-something intern on the docu-series 30 for 30, one 2015 episode of which, Sole Man, was about Vaccaro, and came up with the idea on his own. The script made the 2021 Black List, which names the best unproduced screenplays of each year (since 2005––Juno was on that first list). Damon and Affleck picked it up, made a few tweaks, still gave Convery sole writing credit, and the cast did a little dialogue improvisation. It came out great! I was a little annoyed that Damon's Vaccaro was referred to as "fat" at least three times. He didn't look all that huge to me, but I have just learned that he did wear a fat suit for production.

No composer is credited. I counted 43 songs in the credits and, amazingly, all of them are listed on imdb and thirteen of the 80s hits are on this Apple Music album.

Damon was last blogged for Ford v Ferrari, Affleck for acting in The Way Back and for directing Argo, Davis for The Woman King, and Tucker for The Silver Linings Playbook. After I wrote about Bateman for Game Night, he starred in 44 episodes of Ozark, and Tennon's dozens of credits include playing Moru in The Woman King.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are flying high, averaging 92 and 98%, respectively. We streamed it on Prime with our subscription May 23. It's also playing in a few theatres.

Polite Society (2023)

Here's another one I eagerly anticipated, because of director/writer Nida Manzoor's previous work, and loved. British-Pakistani teenager Ria longs to be a martial arts stuntwoman, and she and her friends scheme to rescue Ria's sister from a marriage that Ria thinks is ill-advised. Cartoonish in its action, the movie is exciting and good fun, with Priya Kansara kicking ass as Ria, Ritu Arya as her beautiful sister Lena, and Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri as Ria's supportive chums Clara and Alba.

Manzoor ably combines comedy, action, adolescent angst, culture differences, female empowerment, and family drama in one entertaining package.

Tom Howe and Shez Manzoor's (brother of Nida) soundtrack can be found on Apple Music and probably elsewhere and it's got the same high energy that I remember from the movie as a whole. And here's a list of the songs, just wonderful.

Howe was last blogged for Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.

Nida Manzoor's mini-series We Are Lady Parts––fleshed out from her short called Lady Parts––about a Muslim female punk band in London, was just terrific, and is the second reason we subscribed to Peacock TV (the first was Girls 5Eva, about a female musical group of a different genre). This is her first feature. It's also Kansara's feature debut after two episodes of Bridgerton as Lady Eaton and a handful of other credits. Arya has 20 credits, including one other feature, and Beh and Bruccoleri have a number of TV credits. Shez Manzoor scored the Lady Parts short (with another sister) before this.

Rotten Tomatoes' well-mannered critics agree with me, averaging 9o%, and its audiences give it a considerate 84. We streamed it on Peacock on May 16. It can also be rented from iTunes/Apple TV, Prime, and Vudu.

Broker (Beurokeo - 2022)

As expected, I loved this story of intermediaries between orphans and adoptive parents in Korea. Directed and written by Hirokazu Koreeda, who is Japanese and one of my favorites, it's compelling in its subject matter, acting, photography, music, you name it.

Song Kang-ho (the father in Parasite) leads his troupe with humor and compassion for his little charges. Bae Doona plays the multi-layered mother of the first baby in the movie and Seung-soo Im is adorable as the irrepressible boy Hae-jin.

Apple Music has the lovely soundtrack by Jung Jae Il. I began listening to it in a mechanics' waiting room, blogging while my car's oil was being changed this morning and, about ten minutes in, I realized that the music was coming out of my laptop's speakers and not my headphones. I apologized but the technicians asked that I keep playing it because it's so pleasant!

Koreeda (AKA Kore-eda Hirokazu) was last blogged for Shoplifters and Song for Parasite. Bae, a former model, has 37 credits on imdb, none of which I've seen, and Im, now ten years old, who is listed on asian wiki and instagram as Lim Seung-soo, makes his big-screen debut after three Korean TV gigs.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are making a big deal of this, averaging 94%, and its audiences aren't far behindat 87. I rented this on iTunes/Apple TV as soon as it became available, May 12, and now you can watch it on Hulu with a subscription or rent it.

Acidman (2022)

Jack and I quite liked this drama about an adult daughter reconnecting with her reclusive father in the wilds of Oregon where he obsesses over UFOs. Thomas Haden Church is reliably wonderful as Lloyd and Dianna Agron is good as his daughter Maggie.

Director/co-writer Alex Lehmann and co-writer Chris Dowling give us a languid family drama with a bit of sci-fi. I think I liked the music (we saw it five weeks ago) by Christopher French, but I can't find it to stream online––it didn't help my search that there is a music group called Acidman––and only one song is listed on imdb.

Church was last blogged for The Peanut Butter Falcon and Agron for Shiva Baby. This is Lehmann's sixth feature, Dowling's tenth, and French's eighth.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are fairly neutral, averaging 75 and 79%, respectively. We rented it May 10 on iTunes/Apple TV and it's also available to rent on Prime and Vudu.

A Man Called Otto (2022)

This remake of a Swedish movie, with Tom Hanks in the cranky title role, is very good, though arguably not as good as the 2015 original, A Man Called Ove, which I described as funny and moving. Hanks' version leans heavily into moving with a little comic relief, especially from Mariana Treviño as his relentless neighbor Marisol.

The cast of dozens includes Truman Hanks, Tom's 27 year old son with Rita Wilson, playing the young Otto in flashbacks. Truman doesn't resemble his father as much as his half brother Colin, but Colin is 45 and too old for the part.

Mark Forster directs from the screenplay adaptation by David Magee. I would've preferred more laughter and fewer tears, but maybe that was my mood that day. 

Jackpot on the music! Thomas Newman is one of my favorite soundtrack composers and his score can be streamed on Apple Music, including a song sung by Wilson, who serves as one of the producers.

Hanks was last blogged for Elvis, Magee for Mary Poppins Returns, and Newman for Let Them All Talk.

Forster's previous work includes Monster's Ball (2001), Finding Neverland (2004), Stranger Than Fiction (2006), and The Kite Runner (2007). I loved the last two. He also directed Quantum of Solace but I didn't mention anyone besides the actors in that post which was among the first of this blog in the fall of 2008.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 69%, label this mediocre, while its audiences, at 97, proclaim it wonderful. We streamed it on Netflix on May 6.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)

Jack and I really liked this sweet animated story of the tiny anthropomorphic shell being filmed in his home for a documentary by a human while yearning for his missing family members. Drawn from a trilogy of online short films, all versions feature co-writer Jenny Slate as Marcel's voice and were directed and co-written by Dean Fleischer Camp, who plays the documentarian in the flesh this time. Isabella Rossellini provides the voice of Nana Connie and there's a cameo that I think I'll let you find out for yourself because revealing it ahead of time might be a spoiler.

Nick Paley is another co-writer of the screenplay and has "story by" credit, along with Slate, Camp, and Elisabeth Holm.

The nice music by Disasterpeace is available on Apple Music and probably elsewhere. The three original videos can be streamed on YouTube (One, Two, Three).

Slate was last blogged for acting in Everything Everywhere All at Once and this is her first screenplay. Rossellini was previously in these pages for The Zigzag Kid and Holm for Landline, which starred Slate. This is Camp's acting and feature directing debut and Paley's first released feature screenplay.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are all laced up, averaging 98 and 90%, respectively. We watched it on April 25 and it can be streamed on Showtime or Paramount+ or you can rent it from the usual outlets.

Babylon (2022)

Three hours and nine minutes is too long for most movies and this one is an unrelenting mess with frenetic scenes of orgies and other debauchery, set in late 1920s Hollywood. The trivia is fascinating, with Margot Robbie's flamboyant starlet inspired by Clara Bow and others, and Brad Pitt's movie star based on John Gilbert and more, but watching the whole thing is quite a task. So glad Jack and I were alone in our house so we could catcall at the screen and take several breaks. Diego Calva is arguably the protagonist, as a young man with dreams of moviemaking, aided and abetted by a cast of hundreds, plus the rear end of an elephant making an explosive appearance towards the beginning (I was warned about that one in advance). No animals were harmed in the making of this movie.

I'm not sorry to have seen it but ... it's a lot. 

The good news is that there are some wonderful big band numbers, with some of the players having plotlines. Chazelle's musical collaborator Justin Hurwitz' Oscar-nominated score can be streamed on Apple Music. That album, too, is unusually long, clocking at over an hour and a half, and mostly doesn't include these songs.

More good news: Florencia Martin's production design and Mary Zophres' costumes were deservedly nominated for Academy Awards, with 41 wins and 144 other nominations listed on imdb.

Robbie was last blogged for Amsterdam, Pitt for Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood which shares some thematic elements but is way way better, Chazelle and Hurwitz for First Man, Martin for Blonde, and Zophres for La La Land which earned her another nomination.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are pretty much in tune with us, averaging 56 and 52%, respectively. Jack and I watched it on April 16 with our subscription to Paramount+. If you're curious and have the time to spend, it also can be rented on Prime or Vudu.