His Three Daughters (2023)

Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen are brilliant as estranged sisters dealing with their father's hospice in the New York apartment he shares with one (Lyonne in bright pumpkin colored hair). You may recognize the face of character actor Jay O. Sanders as the comatose father. Most reviewers have called it funny, but Jack and I would disagree. However, it is very moving.

Director/writer/editor Azazel Jacobs keeps up the momentum in the claustrophobic setting of (mostly) the apartment. 25 minutes of Rodrigo Amarante's soundtrack is available on Apple Music and elsewhere.

All three main actresses have done some great TV work besides features. Coon was fun in ten episodes of Fargo season 3 and all seventeen of The Gilded Age after I mentioned her in my post on Gone Girl. Lyonne was last blogged for United States vs. Billie Holiday and then she was wonderful in fifteen episodes of Russian Doll, ten of Poker Face, and more. And Olsen, most recently in these pages for Avengers: Infinity War, played the same Marvel character in nine of WandaVision. Jacobs was last blogged for French Exit. Sanders is, according to imdb, best known for The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Revolutionary Road, and others that I haven't seen. This is Amarante's second feature as composer.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are all in the family with a 98% average and its audiences are showing up for Thanksgiving at 85. We watched it on Netflix on September 25.

Jackpot! (2024)

It's not very good, but this uneven action/sci-fi movie, about a dystopian future California where lottery winners can be hunted down for their murderers to legally claim the prizes, did give Jack and me some laughs. The huge cast is headed by Awkwafina as the winner and includes John Cena, Simu Liu, Becky Ann Baker, and Colson Baker AKA Machine Gun Kelly, as himself. 

I expected more from director Paul Feig, best known for Bridesmaids. Maybe we can blame the writer  Rob Yescombe? Theodore Shapiro's exciting score is streaming on Apple Music as I type.

Because The Fall Guy reopened the conversation about stunt people getting recognition from the Oscars and elsewhere, I need to point out that the stunt department on this one did a lot of great work.

Awkwafina was last blogged for Quiz Lady, Cena and Liu for Barbie, Becky Ann Baker for Holler, Feig for A Simple Favor, and Shapiro for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Colson Baker/Kelly is a rapper who has acted in Beyond the Lights, The King of Staten Island, and more. This is Yescombes' second feature after several video games and shorts.

Rotten Tomatoes critics lost the ticket, averaging a rotten 31% and its audiences liked it only a little better at 51. We watched it on Prime Video with our subscription on October 2. If you go for it, keep the TV on for outtakes during the entire credits, followed by a scene.

Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

We were very entertained by this rom-com about a clever marketing professional helping NASA get public support for Apollo 11, the first moon landing, in 1969. Scarlett Johannson is delightful in that role as is Channing Tatum as her adversarial launch director. Woody Harrelson and Ray Romano are key in the enormous cast.

Greg Berlanti directs from a fleshed out screenplay by Rose Gilroy, with story credit given to Keenan Flynn & Bill Kirstein. I've read that the 2014 nonfiction book Marketing the Moon by David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek had an influence. And a real public relations expert Julian Scheer did help sell the moon launch to a skeptical America.

Daniel Pemberton's 60s-influenced lively score is available to stream on Apple Music and elsewhere. Luscious photography, production design, and wardrobe are thanks to Dariusz Wolski, Shane Valentino, and Mary Zophres, respectively.

Johansson was last blogged for Asteroid City, Tatum for Logan Lucky, Harrelson for Zombieland: Double Tap, Romano for Somewhere in Queens, Pemberton for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Wolski for House of Gucci, and Zophres for Babylon.

Berlanti, who has directed three other features, is better known as the prolific TV producer of Dawson's Creek, Brothers & Sisters, The Flight Attendant, and dozens more. This is the first script for Gilroy, who happens to be the daughter of actress Rene Russo and writer Tony Gilroy. Flynn & Kirstein also make their feature debuts, and the latter is also a cinematographer, having shot Mean Girls and others. Valentino has a few nominations for his work on Nocturnal Animals and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics aren't flying so high with a 65% avergae, but its audiences are soaring at 90. We rented it on August 30 on Apple TV but today it appears to be available only to buy for $19.99 there and on Prime Video. Give it time and it'll come down (see what I did there?).

Twisters (2024)

Jack and I really liked this sequel to the 1996 tornado chasing original, this time starring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney, and dozens more. 

Director Lee Isaac Chung keeps it tight, working from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, story by Joseph Kosinski, and characters created by Michael Crichton & Anne-Marie Martin.

Benjamin Wallfisch's exciting score can be streamed on Apple Music, though you will probably better remember the kick-ass country songs, available on Apple Music's official playlist.

Enormous visual effects and stunt departments were utilized and we're hoping that, after The Fall Guy brought attention to it, stunts get their own Oscar category.

I recommend the trivia list on imdb. Here are a few. Due to delays from COVID and the writers' strike, some scenes were shot just a few months before the July release and post production was still working in June. The references to the Wizard of Oz in the first movie (storm vehicles called Dorothy I-IV) and this one (theirs were called Lion, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Wizard) inspired a credit that reads, "The Wizard of Oz is still licensed by Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc." The word "twister" is never uttered in this movie. And I don't need to tell you not to click on the spoiler section of the trivia, do I?

Powell was last blogged for Hit Man, Ramos for Dumb Money, Tierney for Beautiful Boy, Chung for Minari (he was Oscar-nominated), Smith for The Midnight Sky, and Wallfisch for Blade Runner 2049. Edgar-Jones starred in all twelve episodes of Normal People, Kosinski is better known as the director of Top Gun: Maverick, and Crichton and Martin (now ex-spouses) wrote the first Twister script.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics were not blown away by this one, averaging 75%, but its audiences were, at 91. Stick around for scenes at the end of the first round of credits. We rented this on Apple TV on August 16.

Molli and Max in the Future (2023)

We enjoyed this silly sci-fi low budget rom-com with snappy dialog starring Zosia Mamet and Aristotle Athari meeting each other repeatedly in the distant future. If you liked Mamet's Shoshanna in the series Girls, you will love her in this. Director/writer Michael Lukk Litwak makes his feature debut and admittedly based the idea on When Harry Met Sally (1989).

Alex Winkler's alternately trippy and jazzy score can be streamed on Apple Music. I'm going to try to remember to listen to it again.

Mamet was last blogged for The Boy Downstairs and I did not recognize Athari, despite his 20 episodes of Saturday Night Live in 2021-22 and two of Hacks this year. This is Winkler's fourth feature after dozens of shorts, videos, and TV shows.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are eagerly looking ahead to this with a 98% average, while its audiences are a few steps behind at 89.

Jack and I watched it on Prime with our subscription way back on August 10. You can also rent it on Apple TV.

The Taste of Things (2023)

I enjoyed this delicious story of 1889 French cook Eugénie and her gourmet employer Dodin. Juliette Binoche is delightful as the inscrutable Eugénie, preparing, sometimes with Dodin's help, gorgeous meals for the household and its guests. Benoît Magimel, with whom Binoche has a daughter from their five years of marriage, plays Dodin.

Director Anh Hung Tran adapted Marcel Rouff's 1924 novel La vie et la passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet (The Life and Passion of Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet) into the screenplay. The character of Dodin-Bouffant was apparently inspired by the famous gourmet Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1926).

Because I watched it on a long flight–with distractions–I don't remember noticing that there was no composer and almost no music. Later I did find the song from the end credits, Méditation de Thaïs by Jules Massenet, arranged for piano and performed by Andrew von Oeyen. Here's an article explaining why Tran didn't use music.

French chef Pierre Gagnaire has a cameo and worked as culinary director (single card credit for Direction gastronomique) and there's a whole cuisine department not credited on imdb.

Watching it on my iPad with sunlight shining into the plane's cabin somewhat reduced my appreciation of the cinematography by Jonathan Ricquebourg and the glorious locations of the Chateau du Raguin in Maine-et-Loire, France, but they are lauded.

Binoche was last blogged for Non-Fiction. Magimel and Ricquebourg are new to me, despite dozens of credits for each. This is Tran's sixth picture but I haven't seen any, though a couple were on my list.

Nominated for 26 awards and winner of seven more, including 2023 Best Director at Cannes, the movie was eaten up by Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 97%, while its audiences got full sooner at 76.

This is going on my running list of food movies as #33. Binoche also starred in #15 Chocolat (2000). 

This can be rented from Apple TV and elsewhere but I had to buy it in order to download and watch it in airplane mode on July 31.

Coup de Chance (2023)

Woody Allen's 50th feature (this time in French) is a dramedy about Fanny, a young married woman who runs into handsome former classmate Alain and it's dependably watchable. Somehow Lou de Laâge as Fanny manages the classic Allen stutter, even in a language not his own. Niels Schneider is Alain and Melvil Poupaud is Fanny's controlling husband Jean. Coup de chance translates to stroke of luck in English.

As mentioned in these pages, I have some guilt feelings about supporting Allen's work but have such a nostalgic attraction that I go ahead and keep watching. He did say in a recent interview that this will be his last (I've seen all but one).

As usual, no composer is credited but there's a fun jazz playlist of six songs, available on spotify.

Vittorio Storaro provides the beautiful cinematography, shot entirely in Paris and environs, with the luxurious homes and wardrobe I've come to expect from an Allen joint.

Allen and Storaro were last blogged for A Rainy Day in New York and the French actors are new to me.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are somewhat lucky, averaging 82 and 81%, respectively. I downloaded it from Apple TV and watched it on a long plane ride on August 5, and now it can be rented.