Love and Mercy

Love & Mercy (2014)

I wish I had more time to watch movies than I do.  The list of them I’d be ashamed to admit I’ve never seen is quite long and grows by the day.  For example, when Brian Wilson, the former leader of the Beach Boys, died in 2025, memorial articles referenced Love & Mercy, which came out ten years prior.  Wilson’s passing finally motivated me to see the film, which had been routinely praised for its performances by Paul Dano and John Cusack.  That praise was well-deserved, because the movie is one of the best biopics about a musician I’ve seen.

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Minions & Monsters

Minions & Monsters

Minions & Monsters could be the funniest movie I see this year.  Two factors play into this assessment.  First, Hollywood studios rarely make pure comedies these days, which means that this one will have little competition for the title.  Second, this movie is hilarious.  Did it matter to me that this movie was made for kids?  Not at all.  If this is the best funny business Hollywood has to offer, I’ll take it.  All hail the Minions, the new kings of comedy!

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Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike

Did the fate of the free world really depend upon how American soldiers smoked their cigarettes during WWII?  Lucky Strike, named after one of the brands included in their rations, says that it did.  In this movie, that small part of military training played a key role in a soldier’s struggle for survival behind enemy lines during The Battle of the Bulge.  Accordingly, the movie is an interesting entry in the growing “little-known facts of WWII” genre, which emphasises small-scale stories over huge battle scenes.  But don’t worry–there are tanks and a flamethrower!

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