Hard Truths (2024)

Marianne Jean-Baptiste's character Pansy, a relentlessly argumentative Englishwoman of Jamaican heritage, may send some viewers screaming from the room, but Jack and I liked the latest from notable director/writer Mike Leigh and actually laughed at some of her antics. Jean-Baptiste is ably supported by Michele Austin as Pansy's sister, David Webber and Tuwaine Barrett as Pansy's long-suffering husband and son, and more.

The movie has 26 wins and 56 other nominations (none from Oscar) as of this writing. Nineteen of the wins are for Jean-Baptiste's performance and the rest are for Leigh's screenplay and Austin's performance.

I am streaming Gary Yershon's lovely (albeit brief) score on Spotify since it isn't available with our subscription to Apple Music. Oh, and after the movie I craved chicken, rice, and plantains. 

Leigh and Yershon were last blogged for Mr. Turner. Early in her career, Jean-Baptiste made a splash in Leigh's Secrets & Lies (1996) and I have seen and enjoyed her in a number of other projects. Austin was in Secrets & Lies and Leigh's Another Year, among others. I didn't recognize Webber, but his credits include a role in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. Barrett is new to me.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics did not run screaming from the room (a line I once heard attributed to Frank Zappa's music, of which I'm a big fan) with their 95% average, and its audiences stayed in their seats as well, averaging 81. We streamed it on January 29 with our Independent Feature Project privileges but it's now available to rent on the major platforms.

Babygirl (2024)

Jack and I liked this explicit movie about a successful woman executive with a sex addiction. Nicole Kidman can choose any role she wants and she goes all out in this one. Conan O'Brien called it his favorite of the year at the Oscars the other night (it had no nominations there but plenty elsewhere) and made a funny joke about Antonio Banderas playing the husband. Harris Dickinson plays the sexy intern at her company.

Director/writer Halina Reijn keeps the pace up and the moody music by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, supplemented by plenty of songs, uses heavy breathing as percussion from time to time and is streamable on Apple Music.

Kidman was last blogged for Being the Ricardos and Banderas for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Dickinson, a former model, has experience as an actor. His malleable face––the contrast between serious and smiling is remarkable––is evident in a short TikTok video with other models (I don't have a TikTok account but was able to watch it from this link).

This is Reijn's third feature after dozens of credits as an actress, with wins and nominations for both. De Veer scored fourteen episodes of The White Lotus and more.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are smiling weakly with a 76% average but its critics are not at 48. We rented it on January 31 and you can, too.

Millers in Marriage (2024)

I loved director/writer/star Edward Burns' latest, about three 50-something siblings dealing with relationships and careers. Jack enjoyed it but not as much as I––he said, "Are we supposed to like any of these people?" Burns assembled a star-studded cast: Morena Baccarin, Benjamin Bratt, Brian d’Arcy James, Minnie Driver, Julianna Margulies (who plays one sister of Burns' character), Gretchen Mol (the other sister), Campbell Scott, and Patrick Wilson.

The words "champagne problems" are uttered in the movie, and the characters are certainly well-off, which may repel some viewers, but I enjoyed the sumptuous sets by production designer Jason Singleton and the locations in New Jersey.

This is where I would write about the music, but there's nothing online––no composer, no list of songs, only two crew members who worked on music clearance. And because we streamed it over three months ago with membership in the Independent Feature Project, I can't remember the music.

Burns was last blogged for The Fitzgerald Family Christmas, Baccarin for Deadpool 2, Bratt for Coco, d'Arcy James for Sisters, Driver for Beyond the Lights, Margulies for City Island, and Wilson for The Founder.

Mol had some buzz in Manchester by the Sea (2016) and was terrific in 53 episodes of Boardwalk Empire (2010-14) and eight of Mozart in the Jungle (2015). Her long resume also includes Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and the title role in The Notorious Bettie Page (2005). Scott is best known for Big Night (1996), Roger Dodger (2002), and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) and I recall liking him in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) and The Spanish Prisoner (1997). He's currently more active than that list would imply. Singleton is new to me.

November 22, 2024 is when we watched it. I jotted a few notes at the time but waited to finish until the rest of you could see it, and it can now be purchased ($9.99 on Apple, 19.99 on the others). Maybe after a while it'll be rentable. Rotten Tomatoes' critics are heading for a separation with a 58% average, but its audiences want to renew their vows at 98.

Nickel Boys (2024)

Jack and I both really appreciated (it's difficult to say we "liked" it) this nominated movie about a young Black man in 1960s Florida whose promising future comes to a halt when he's sent to a brutal, racist reform school. The main cast is Ethan Herisse as Elwood, Brandon Wilson as his friend Turner, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Elwood's grandmother (in real life she is 31 years older than he), Hamish Linklater as a nasty "teacher" at the Nickel Academy, and Luke Tennie as another inmate, Griff. Daveed Diggs makes a cameo as the adult Elwood.

RaMell Ross directs and co-wrote the script with Joslyn Barnes, based on the 2019 book by Colson Whitehead. Whitehead based his book on a true, cruel and abusive reform school, The Florida School for Boys, also known as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, in the Florida panhandle from 1900-2011. The book won a Pulitzer the following year. The Oscar nominations are for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, among its 38 wins and 170 other nominations so far. 

While watching I made a note it has "weird music" by Alex Somers and Scott Alario, which I'm now streaming on Apple Music. Some of the tracks are intentionally staticky.

Director of Photography Jomo Fray is nominated by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers for a Spotlight Award, as well as eight wins and 33 other nominations, all for this movie. I had read in advance that the movie was shot from Elwood's point of view (so audiences see his face only in reflections), but after about an hour of the 2:20 running time, the POV changes to more typical views.

Ellis-Taylor was last blogged (as Aunjanue Ellis) for King Richard, Linklater for Magic in the Moonlight, and Somers for Causeway. Herisse has been in three other movies and a handful of shorts and TV episodes. Wilson was in The Way Back as one of the basketball players, among his credits, and Tennie's resume includes 22 episodes of the series Shrinking in the role of Sean. This is Ross's second feature and the first was a documentary. Barnes has written or co-written two other features (scripted), and Alario scored Ross's documentary. This is Fray's seventh feature.

Rotten Tomatoes' audiences are happy to pay dollars with an average of 90% while its audiences are keeping their change at 75. We watched it on a streamer from the Independent Feature Project on January 8. It is currently still in live theatres and is supposed to stream in the spring on MGM+ and Prime. 

Sing Sing (2023)

Jack and I loved this movie, based on a true story, about inmates at the titular New York prison who find joy in a theatre group. The reliable Colman Domingo shines as John "Divine G" Whitfield as does Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin playing himself. Paul Raci plays Brent Buell, the kind director of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program, and most of the other cast are literally ex-convicts playing versions of themselves, except for Sean San Jose (he plays Mike Mike), who is Domingo's real life friend. In an early scene, the actor asking for Divine G's autograph is the real John "Divine G" Whitfield.

Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley, filmmaking partners, wrote the script for Kwedar to direct (apparently the partners alternate who gets directing credit), based on John H. Richardson 2005 Esquire article The Sing Sing Follies (you can read the article here, but wait until after you watch the movie) and Buell's prison play Breakin' the Mummy's Code. Story credit goes to Bentley, Kwedar, Maclin, and Whitfield.

Bryce Dessner's score can be streamed on Apple Music, as can the Oscar-nominated song Like a Bird. Oscar has also nominated Domingo and the screenplay story writers. As of today, the movie has 57 wins and 178 other nominations.

Domingo was last blogged for Drive-Away Dolls, Raci for his Oscar-nominated role of the kindly therapist in The Sound of Metal, and Dessner for A Good Person. Maclin and Whitfield make their feature debuts and San Jose has been in a handful of other projects. Kwedar and Bentley have written and directed two other features with another scheduled to open this year.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging a liberated 97%. We watched it on a streamer from the Independent Feature Project Spirit Awards (anyone can join and I am a member) on January 18 but now it's available to rent. Everyone who worked on the movie received the same pay and was offered ownership depending on which phases they participated in: development, pre-production, production, post-production, and promotion. So when you rent it, you will be helping to pay the actual independent filmmakers.

A Real Pain (2024)

Jack and I liked a lot this story of adult American cousins of very different personalities traveling to Poland to research their family history, including a trip to a Lublin concentration camp. Jesse Eisenberg directs, wrote the screenplay, and stars as the organized, anxious Benji, a role he fills beautifully. Kieran Culkin was born to play spontaneous, pushy, relentless cousin Benji, who embodies one interpretation of the movie's title. It's not for everyone. In fact our friend Cathy cringed so much she had to turn it off and told me "maybe" she'll get back to it. There are plenty of laughs, though, between the cringes and tears.

The small ensemble includes Jennifer Grey as one of the tour guests, Will Sharpe as the tour guide, and eight year old Banner Eisenberg making his debut playing his real life father's son. 

So far the movie has 52 wins and 90 other nominations, including Oscar prospects for Eisenberg's script and Culkin's Benji. Jack wonders how much acting Culkin had to do to portray that character. He heard an interview in which Eisenberg said that Culkin did not even read the script before showing up for shooting, but obviously it paid off, because Culkin alone has so far, by my count, 34 wins and 26 other nominations for the role.

The story has many themes mashed up: the odd couple's relationship, the caretaking required, the foreign tour, the history, the holocaust, and grief in general.

No composer is named and most of the music is piano solos composed by Frederic Chopin, who was Polish (I had assumed he was French – the Warsaw airport is named for him), and performed by Tzvi Erez.

Eisenberg was last blogged for acting in Zombieland: Double Tap after which I liked his annoying title character in all eight episodes of Fleishman Is in Trouble. He has directed one other feature which I haven't seen. Culkin was most recently in these pages for the COVID lockdown short Father of the Bride 3 which was shot on hiatus from his 39 Succession episodes. Grey is best known for starring in Dirty Dancing (1987) but she took no time off and has dozens of other credits, including all 26 episodes of It's Like, You Know... in which she played a version of herself named Jennifer Grey. Sharpe's credits include seven episodes of The White Lotus season two as Aubrey Plaza's character's husband.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are quite comfortable, averaging 96%, while its critics may have a little ache at 81. We watched it on a streamer from the Independent Feature Project on January 14 but it's now available to stream on Hulu or Disney+ with a subscription and to rent everywhere else.

Wicked (2024)

Loved it! Nominated for ten Oscars, dozens of wins and hundreds of other nominations, this extravaganza delivers. I don't think I have to tell you the story is about the early years of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) becoming besties with Glinda (the Good Witch of the North) in school--okay, I just did. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are delightful in those roles with their amazing vocals, supported by Jeff Goldblum as the wry Wizard, Michelle Yeoh as stern Madame Morrible, Jonathan Bailey as dancing Fiyero, and cameos by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth (original to the roles on Broadway). Listen for the voice of Peter Dinklage as the voice of the professor-goat, Dr. Dillamond.

My only quibble is it's overlong at 2:40. That's not a big problem for home viewers like us. The other reason I didn't want to see it in the theatre (in addition to my usual reasons) is that I heard many stories of audience members singing along or causing other disruptions.

Director Jon M. Chu keeps all the balls in the air--wait 'til you see the Dancing Through Life scene––from the script by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. Holzman also wrote the book for the Broadway musical, which as based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel and premiered in 2003. Amy, Emily, Marilyn, and I saw it in New York in 2006.

Stephen Schwartz's Broadway songs are available on on Apple Music and are supplemented by John Powell's instrumentals, also on Apple Music. Speaking of Dancing Through Life, watch this YouTube video about the making of the scene.

Also recognized by Oscar are production designer Nathan Crowley and costume designer Paul Tazewell.

Erivo was last blogged for Respect, Goldblum for Le Week-End, Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Menzel for You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, Dinklage for Cyrano, Chu for In the Heights, Fox for Cruella, Powell for Don't Worry Darling, and Tazewell for West Side Story.

Grande (birth name Grande-Butera) has done some acting, notably Penny Pingleton in the TV movie Hairspray Live! and a small part in Don't Look Up, but is best known as a pop music singer with a four octave range. Bailey has dozens of credits, but, to me, he's the sexy Lord Anthony Bridgerton in nineteen episodes of Bridgerton. Chenoweth, also with a remarkable vocal range, has nominations (including for Wicked) and wins from the Tonys and Emmys (including for Pushing Daisies and Glee).

Holzman wrote ten episodes of Thirtysomething, 19 of My So-Called Life, and 13 of Once and Again, as well as Executive Producing the latter two. Schwartz, Oscar-nominated with Powell for this score, shared two Oscar wins with Alan Menken for the score and Colors of the Wind in Pocahontas (1995), and was nominated for three songs in Enchanted, which is one of the five movies I wrote about on my very first day of blogging, September 3, 2008. This is Crowley's seventh Oscar nomination and we've seen them all, The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Dunkirk, First Man, and Tenet.

Rotten Tomatoes' audiences and critics are kind, averaging 88 and 95%.

We intended to rent it days after it dropped for streaming, but paid more to buy it on January 5 because of the extras (including a sing-along version to share with my chorus buddies), and today it's available to buy on the major streamers for what was then the rental price of $19.99. 55 trivia items give even more depth to my enjoyment. Read them if you like!