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.