No Other Choice is a tale of two movies. I enjoyed the satire and slapstick-filled first half, less so its cold and didactic second half. Overall, the movie’s dizzying style and committed performances won me over. Recommended. Continue reading No Other Choice (South Korea, Park Chan-wook)
In The Choral, a small British town struggles to put on their annual choral program as WW1 steadily depletes their ranks. The theme of an unlikely bunch of characters overcoming adversity to accomplish something amazing is both conventional and familiar, and given the context, you would expect this movie to be very respectful and sentimental. Well, not entirely. On the one hand, what the movie says about the importance of music during dark times is very thoughtful and touching. On the other hand, the movie delivers that message in a very unexpected way. While there is no doubt the British had sex during WW1, the movie goes out of its way to show that the British were quite randy back then. In fact, the only time they’re not thinking about sex is when they’re singing.
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What do you do when your friend asks you for a favor above and beyond what you would normally do for them? For example, “Would you look after my dog after I’ve checked out?” That kind of request can affect your life dramatically, especially when that dog is a Great Dane, you live in a small studio apartment and the building has a no pets policy. How do you turn down your friend’s dying request? And more importantly, what does the dog think about this arrangement?
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If you enjoy watching well-made movies about beautiful people doing all the wrong things, The Housemaid is for you. The trio of Amanda Seyfried, Sydney Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar make this trashy psychosexual thriller a blast. Recommended. Continue reading The Housemaid
A lot has changed since Zootopia was released in 2016. For starters, the buddy cop movie is practically nonexistent. Decades ago, these movies regularly appeared in theaters in the form of action-comedies (Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour), spoofs (21 Jump Street), satires (The Other Guys) or fresh takes on the genre (The Nice Guys). Besides the evergreen Bad Boys franchise, I’m hard-pressed to recall a notable buddy cop movie from the past ten years besides the one starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. If sneaking the genre into a family film helps keep the genre alive, I’m all for it. I wish the filmmakers had given their animal detectives a better case to crack than the one in Zootopia 2. Ah well, perhaps they’ll get one in the next sequel, which is hinted at in a credit cookie.
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If grief appeared before me as a gangly, foul-mouthed, eight-foot tall crow who spewed insults, I’d assume I was done for. Which is what makes The Thing With Feathers so oddly compelling. The crow doesn’t appear before the Sad Dad in this film (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) to harm him, but help him. The crow wants to shock him out of his grief so that an even worse creature doesn’t do him in, Despair. As far as therapy options go, this one beats Yoga and keeping an “emotion journal”, either of which would push me off the deep end.
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In Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, the myth roars back to life in this mostly successful adaptation. Jacob Elordi’s performance is a standout, while Oscar Isaac is miscast. Filled with beautiful and grotesque imagery, the film struggles for greatness and occasionally reaches it. Recommended. Continue reading Frankenstein (2025, Netflix)
WWII movies fall into two categories, those that following tradition and those that chart new territory. Those that opt for the former envelop you in their warm, cozy familiarity with the genre, like your favorite quilt. They don’t challenge you, but they’re entertaining. WWII Movies that eschew tradition in favor of bold and daring choices are more admired than loved. They’re the quilts you receive with a polite “thanks” that currently reside in the dark recesses of your closet. Nuremberg is solidly in line with the first approach, a direct descendant of the WWII movie from the Forties or Fifties.
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Raising children is expensive. Combine that with how difficult it can be for veterans to find suitable work after leaving the military and you have the origins of Roofman. The movie is about a thief who earns his nickname by chopping through the roofs of businesses before robbing them at gunpoint. Since Channing Tatum is in the leading role, I’ll confirm what’s most important to his fans: his trademark abs and glutes are prominently on display. That said, Tatum is far more than a beefcake actor, and this movie provides him with an opportunity to showcase his seldom-used range.
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Blue Moon is an engrossing snapshot of the artist in free-fall, with a delightful performance by Ethan Hawke at its center. Its insistence on shrinky-dinking Hawke down to size is a humorous distraction, but not a fatal one. Margaret Qualley radiates glamour as his potential love interest and lifeline. Recommended. Continue reading Blue Moon
Detroit Cineaste 