The High Note (2020)

This lightweight story of a pop superstar and her assistant is a nice way to spend a couple of hours. Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of Diana and co-star of Black-ish, and Dakota Johnson, daughter of Melanie Griffith, bring much to the screen as the singer and the assistant who aspires to producing records. Griffith makes a cameo as Johnson's mother Tess, the same name as Griffith's famous role in Working Girl (1988). Dozens of others round out the cast.

Nisha Ganatra directs from a script by Flora Greeson in the latter's debut. The subjects of sexism and racism in the music industry are part of the story.

The original music by Amie Doherty isn't available online but I suspect you'll notice only the many songs, listed here, which you can play on youtube or Apple Music. Ross is no slouch behind the microphone.

There's a little bonus at the end––some dialogue, so wait for the the credits to finish before turning it off.

Johnson was last blogged for The Peanut Butter Falcon and Ganatra for Late Night.

Rotten Tomatoes' critic and audiences averages are 70 and 72, which is respectable. It's a fun musical interlude.

We rented it in mid-July. According to ReelGood, you have several options to do so now.

Kajillionaire (2020)

We were drawn to this story of L.A. grifters by the formidable cast of Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, and Gina Rodriguez. Their performances are unimpeachable. Director/writer Miranda July is no stranger to peculiarity and her touch is evident here. The laughs are uneven but they're there, along with loads of cringing. If you don't use closed captions, let me help: Wood's character is named Old Dolio (DOE-lee-o), which is explained late in the movie.

The soundtrack by Emile Mosseri is available YouTube and I'm streaming it right now on Apple Music. I like it! Here's a list of the songs.

Wood was last blogged for The Ides of March, Jenkins for The Shape of Water which earned him an Oscar nomination, Winger for The Lovers, Rodriguez for Annihilation, and July for The Future, which we didn't like. Mosseri's last score was for The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019), which we rented in January and I forgot to write about. I'll take care of that shortly.

This is July's first feature in which she didn't act. Maybe that has something to do with our liking it better than her other work?

Jack and I fit somewhere in between Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 89%, and its audiences at 47.

We rented it in late October from Amazon Prime. ReelGood has other options, too.

Frances Ferguson (2019)

I enjoyed this cringey story of an unlikeable young woman dealing with the scandals she has willfully caused. Kaley Wheless stars in the title role and she co-wrote the story with director Bob Byington. Scott King gets screenplay credit.

The dulcet tones of Nick Offerman provide narration and the cast includes Martin Starr and David Krumholtz. The movie earned a few festival wins and nominations.

There's no online streaming for the soundtrack by Chris Baio from Vampire Weekend and a band called Burgess Meredith. When I watched this, the same day as Mary Goes Round, I wrote down "Jenny Parrott song at end." I can't find that online either, though I learned that Jenny Parrott is a singer-songwriter now recovering from a severe bout of COVID.

Offerman was last blogged for Hearts Beat Loud and Starr for Spider-Man: Far from Home. This is the second feature for Wheless who, by the way, wears her own high school cheerleading uniform in one awkward scene. Byington has a handful of other credits and King has one. Krumholtz first came to my attention in The Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) and Liberty Heights (1999). My favorite line from Liberty Heights was when his character Yussel, a poor Jewish teenager, looks around the home of a wealthy WASP family. He sees the Persian rugs and says something like, "What? Area rugs? They couldn't afford wall-to-wall?" Krumholtz' TV credits include 119 episodes of Numb3rs, 22 of The Deuce, seven of The Good Wife and five of Mom.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics liked it less than I did, averaging 78% and its audiences less than that at 63.

As of this writing you can rent it on Amazon Prime for 99¢.

Mary Goes Round (2017)

Aya Cash plays a substance abuse counselor with substance abuse problems who returns to her estranged family in this interesting little independent movie. The movie earned a handful of festival wins and nominations.

This is the feature debut for director/writer Molly McGlynn. Afterwards she worked on various TV shows including writing 8 and producing 17 out of 26 episodes of Bless This Mess, which we liked. 

There are no links online to the score, composed by Dillon Baldassero and Casey Manierka-Quaile.

Cash was last blogged for Social Animals. Baldassero and Manierka-Quaile have each scored a number of projects separately with more in the pipeline.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are merry over this, averaging 89 and 95%, respectively.

I saw it, while my housemates were otherwise engaged, in May as part of benefits for members of Film Independent, which I joined in order to watch screeners of nominated movies not necessarily showing at a theatre near me.

As of this writing it's available on Amazon Prime and perhaps there are other platforms sown on ReelGood. 

An American Pickle (2020)

This lightweight comedy, with Seth Rogen playing both a man born in the 1880s and his great-great-grandson, has a fair number of jokes and isn't a total waste of time. Rogen's Herschel falls into a Brooklyn pickle vat in 1919 and is preserved for a hundred years, where he meets Ben and they try, with little success, to understand each other's ways of life. Sort of a buddy comedy with one actor playing both buddies. Among the dozens of credited and uncredited roles, Sarah Snook has a nice bit as Herschel's wife in Russia.

Directed by Brandon Trost from Simon Rich's screenplay, adapted from his own short story Sell Out.

Marc Maron interviewed Rogen on his WTF podcast last summer and that piqued our interest. Jack and I love Maron's work. Here's the link to the Rogen segment but be careful, the WTF free links expire and go behind a paywall after a while.

The klezmer-influenced soundtrack by Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad is available on Apple Music and YouTube, among others.

Rogen was last blogged for Long Shot. I've enjoyed much of Snook's work, including The Dressmaker and The Glass Castle, but she may be best known to you for her Emmy-nominated 21 episodes of Succession. Trost has a long list of credits as cinematographer, including The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and he co-directed one feature. This is his solo feature debut as director. Rich, the son of New York Times editor Frank Rich, is a Saturday Night Live writer making his feature screenplay debut here.

Rotten Tomatoes' audiences, averaging 48%, are saltier than its critics at 73. We're more in line with the critics.

We saw it on HBO in mid-August. Check ReelGood for other streaming possibilities.

The King of Staten Island (2020)

Comedian Pete Davidson co-wrote and stars in a story of a slacker named Scott mourning the loss of his firefighter father on 9/11. I don't remember much so can't give a firm opinion. Plenty of star power joins Davidson: Marisa Tomei as his mother Margie, Steve Buscemi as his father, Bel Powley as Scott's girlfriend, and Bill Burr as Margie's boyfriend.

And, speaking of star power, comedy king Judd Apatow directs and co-produces from a script by him, Davidson, and Dave Sirius. Maude Apatow, daughter of Judd and Leslie Mann, plays Scott's sister.

Davidson was seven years old when his father Scott died rescuing people at the World Trade Center. And Buscemi was a firefighter until, at age 27, he quit to take up acting, although he briefly rejoined his Engine 55 station in Little Italy in 2001 to help search for survivors in the rubble. Davidson's grandfather Stephen Davidson plays Grandpa.

Twelve minutes of soundtrack by Michael Andrews can be streamed on Apple Music and Spotify, and there's a long list of songs, listed here, which you can play on Spotify if you like. I'm sure they'll be good but I don't listen to songs with lyrics while I write.

Powley was last blogged for The Diary of Teenage Girl (after which we liked her in all ten episodes of The Morning Show), Tomei for Spider-Man: Far from Home, Buscemi for The Dead Don't Die, Apatow for Trainwreck, and Andrews for The Big Sick. Davidson is a six year veteran of Saturday Night Live (132 episodes), and Sirius is an SNL writer with 23 episodes to his credit.

Rotten Tomatoes's audience give a slightly better royal reception, averaging 84%, than its critics at 74. As I said, I don't remember much because we streamed this in mid-June. According to ReelGood, you can rent it from several outlets.

Palm Springs (2020)

I may be the millionth person to cite Groundhog Day (1993) in writing about this stuck-in-time story of a jerk who is, well, stuck in time at a destination wedding. We enjoyed it and critics adored it. Andy Samberg, whom we love in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, makes the jerk appealing. Co-stars include Cristin Milioti as the prickly maid of honor and J.K. Simmons as a wedding guest.

Max Barbakow directs from a script by Andy Siara.

The original music by Matthew "Cornbread" Compton can be found on Apple Music and Spotify. Lots of songs, listed here, have their own playlist on Spotify.

Santa Clarita locations filled in as Palm Springs, and the more rugged locale was in Palmdale, California.

This movie broke a couple of records: biggest sale of a Sundance Film Festival movie ($17,500,000.69, beating the previous record holder by 69¢) and most viewed Hulu release in its first weekend.

Samberg was last blogged for Brigsby Bear and Simmons for The Front Runner. Milioti starred in the TV adaptation of the New York Times Modern Love column "When the Doorman Is Your Main Man," nine episodes of the 2015 season of Fargo, and much more. This is the feature directing debut for Barbakow and Siara was a writer and showrunner's assistant on ten episodes of Lodge 49, which also had some supernatural elements.

Yes, Rotten Tomatoes' critics are springing for it, averaging 94%, while its audiences aren't far behind at 88.

It's a Hulu original and we streamed it from there in mid-July.