Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023)

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Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023): Lots of well done chases involving cars, motorcycles, trains, and speed flying. Plot, otoh, is silly, a hunt for a physical key that controls a super AI that can rule the world. No character development. Forgettable acting. But that's not why you go to an MI movie. B+

Maestro (2023)

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Maestro (2023): Biopic of Leonard Bernstein, whose talent and private life are too big to be stuffed into two hours. The story is compressed, exhausting, and a little schizophrenic. A ten-hour TV mini-series might have been a better fit. Carey Mulligan as his wife grounds the man wonderfully. A-

El Conde (2023)

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El Conde (2023): Chile. Dictator Augusto Pinochet is a 250-year-old vampire. Aging Pinochet wants to die, but can't. His wife wants to be bitten, but he won't oblige. The kids just want their inheritance. Satire/horror/historical fiction. Shot in haunting B&W. The scene with the flying nun is beautiful. B-

Leave the World Behind (2023)

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Leave the World Behind (2023): Family on a "get away from it all" vacation finds themselves losing connection with the world: phones, TV, internet, GPS. Watch it not for the science but for the psychological study of people reacting to the same disaster in different ways at difference speeds. B+

May December (2023)

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May December (2023): Actress researching a part meets with woman who had a baby with a 7th grader 24 years ago. They interact warily as the tension builds. The last 20 minutes is where stuff happens. Raises more questions than it answers. Good performances by Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton as the adult 7th grader. B-

Bodies (TV 2023)

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Bodies (TV 2023): A sci-fi/mystery/thriller. A dead body appears in 4 eras (2023, 1941, 1893, and 2053), the very same dead body. As the season wears on, the stories come together, leading to a time-traveling, doomsday cult. Too many gaping plot holes and inconsistencies to recommend it, more than most time travel stories. D+

The Killer (2023)

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The Killer (2023): David Fincher thriller. A hired assassin botches the kill. Now the race is on for him to kill those coming after him before they kill him. More than an action movie, it's a good character study, with Michael Fassbender playing the icy, analytical, emotionless killer. B-

The Holdovers (2023)

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The Holdovers (2023): Paul Giamatti as a cranky, unliked teacher thrown together with an unlikable student. Eventually, they bond. A nice, old-fashioned movie, literally. Set in 1970, made to look like it was made in 1970, it was inspired by a movie from the 1930s. It felt like I saw this movie before, maybe several times. Not that there's anything wrong with that. C+

Strays (2023)

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Strays (2023): Raunchy comedy about a pack of stray dogs. Humor is poop and dick jokes. Who is the audience? Its crude humor seems aimed at adolescent boys, but its R rating should keep kids out. Movie avoids an F because of its talented dogs. 95% of the scenes use real dogs, not CGI. D+

Napoleon (2023)

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Napoleon (2023): The subject is too big to capture in a biopic. 25 years of Napoleonic Wars stuffed in a 2.5 hr movie is too much. Only history buffs will understand it all. Joaquin Phoenix's performance is disappointing. He's a coiled spring that never snaps, too mechanical, lacking passion, in both war and love. Oddly, I still liked it. B-

Nyad (2023)

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Nyad (2023): Annette Bening plays the egocentric Diana Nyad, whose goal is to be the first to swim from Cuba to Florida w/o a shark cage. Jodie Foster plays her friend and trainer. Their outstanding performances raise this sports movie of inspiring tenacity (or unhealthy obsession) above cliché. B-

All the Light We Cannot See (TV 2023)

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All the Light We Cannot See (TV 2023): WWII draws together the stories of a blind French girl and an underage German radioman until they intersect in the last violent days of war. Plot relies on too many tropes, but teens won't know that. Regardless, this adult enjoyed the movie, too. B+

Cigarette Girl (TV 2023)

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Cigarette Girl (TV 2023): Indonesian. A mystery. A romance. A tragedy. Dying man sets his son in search of a woman from his past. Old letters reveal family secrets dating back to the Indonesian mass killings of 1965. Everybody loves somebody, but nobody is married to whom they love. B-

A Thousand and One (2023)

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A Thousand and One (2023): Young, single mother gets out of prison and wants to get her young son out of foster care. A heart-wrenching drama with an arc that leads to a gut punch at the end. Excellent acting by Teyana Taylor. B-

Maggie Moore(s) (2023)

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Maggie Moore(s) (2023): A police procedural about a small town sheriff investigating the deaths of two women with the same name. A better than average black comedy with a romantic element with John Hamm and Tina Fey. Nick Mohammed brings the comedy as the sheriff's sidekick. An easy watch. B+

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023): Based on a true-crime nonfiction book, this is a multi-faceted story, as large as the Osage murders themselves and as intimate as the marriage between Ernest (Leo DeCaprio) and Mollie (Lily Gladstone). Scorsese succeeds in it all. A-

A Man Called Otto (2022)

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A Man Called Otto (2022): English-language remake of the 2015 Swedish film "A Man Called Uve," this time with Tom Hanks. Local curmudgeon and how he became one. He eventually becomes, not likable, but a little less unlikable. B-

The Black Book (2023)

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The Black Book (2023): Nigeria. After his son is murdered by corrupt police, a deacon sets aside religious things to seek justice. Bodies pile up. Nameless bodies, not the lead characters. Not always clear who the sides are in this political thriller, but you can bet they are all bad. B-

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023): Former hitman gets back into the game. Lots of fighting with fists, knives, swords, guns, and cars. Dead bodies quickly pile up. All shown with great style. Didn't need movies 2-4. B-

Invasion - S01 (TV 2021)

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Invasion - S01 (TV 2021): Earth is invaded. The show follows four stories around the world. How these individuals respond to the spreading awareness of the invasion is the focus of the show. By midseason, when the aliens are finally shown, we are fully invested in these characters. B+

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