'Fatherland' A Review

Fatherland is a biographical period drama about the return to Germany of famous writer Thomas Mann(Hanns Zischler) to receive a Goethe Price accompanied by his daughter Erika(Sandra Hüller).

Both Zischler and Hüller give reserved, quiet performances, but with a lot going on below the service and a lot of emotion and information inferred. The acting style throughout is very still-waters-run-deep, it's not particularly energetic but it doesn't need to be. This is more of a vibe film, a feeling, a meditation.

In black & white with a truncated aspect ratio this plays almost like historical footage, there is incredible remove and restraint from co-writer/director Paweł Pawlikowski and it's effective, maybe not as transcendent or impactful as Ida or Cold War but any major release from Pawlikowski is a gift, worthy of eyes and consideration.

Subtle, at times overly subtle, but unobtrusively rich and speaking, through the lens of history, to our current time.

Currently in theaters.

See It.

'Digger' A Review

Digger is an environmentalist satire about the titular oil magnet(Tom Cruise) as he's confronted with the destruction of the planet of which he is significantly culpable. There's a meta element that's introduced about 20 minutes in recontextualizing the main action.

Cruise gives the most dynamic, layered performance he has since 1999's Magnolia. He's actually acting here, he's not being a movie star, and it's great to see. Unfortunately the story is unable to justify that effort. The supporting cast has a lot of talent but they are almost unilaterally not given anything to which they can apply their talent. Cruise's character takes up a lot of room in the movie and what remainder is taken up by the production design and all the "ideas" so the supporting cast are basically just props.

The production design is incredibly evocative and meticulous, reminiscent of something like Synecdoche, New York, the camera movement, the color pallet, the score, all very beautiful and effective. Unfortunately tonally the film is very confused, the comedy elements and jokes don't really work, the themes and plotting are at times both incredibly obvious as well as incredibly pretentions. Some of the core ideas behind it are explicitly stated by characters, Iñárritu has built in dialogue to preemptively push back on criticism. The whole experience is pretty pedantic and grating, maybe most importantly not entertaining. If this came out in 1996 it'd be different, 30 years ago the story would have some bite, now it's just a retread of a retread in different trappings. It falls flat as a satire just like Don't Look Up and is as equally self involved and self satisfied as Megalopolis.

Iñárritu appears more interested in the idea of the film rather than the film itself. More interested in the idea of art rather than producing it. Ambitious with a certain grandness, for all that pretty empty.

Currently in theaters.

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'Mother Mary' A Review

Mother Mary is a psychological drama about a pop star, the titular Mother Mary(Anne Hathaway) who returns to her estranged costume designer Sam(Michaela Coel) in a time of crisis.

Coel is incredible here- poised, present, and captivating. An absolute star. She's able to bring coherence and relatable emotion to an abstract and occasionally pretentious script. Hathaway is miscast. Whether her inclusion was more of a business decision to secure funding or she was simply not the first choice she really struggles in the role. She looks awkward in the pop star costuming, she looks clumsy in the choreography, and she's just generally not believable as a Gaga or Madonna stand-in.

Writer/director David Lowery has a sumptuous visual style and that is fully on display here, even on a limited budget the movie looks fantastic but he falls prey to the issues that have plagued his work on-and-off since the beginning, this proclivity for narrative vagueness and an artistic pretention that renders a lot of his film's somewhat inert.

Worth a watch for the visuals and Coel but don't expect coherence.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

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'The Death Of Robin Hood' A Review

The Death Of Robin Hood is a period drama, a gritty "realistic" take on the last days of the folk hero Robin Hood(Hugh Jackman) who(twist!) is actually a murderous villian.

Jackman is compelling and fierce in the role but the story itself is so bleak, so dull, so lacking in any kind of narrative purpose that it doesn't much matter. The supporting cast is good-to-great Jodie Comer is wonderful as a prioress and Bill Skarsgård is unrecognizable(in a good way) as Little John. But however good the cast is they cannot elevate or make sense of a script that is 100% DOA.

Visually the film is dark and atmospheric, beautifully moody and transportive. The score is at times incongruous but period appropriate and evocative. The big and glaring issue is the story itself, the "take" on the Robin Hood legend the premise of which is- what if that was all a lie and he's actually just a thoughtless violent selfish murderer? Which like, fair I guess, if he ever did exist this is probably more "true" but this "spin" is not entertaining, it has nothing to teach the viewer, there is no lesson to be learned, no discoveries. The film basically opens with a child murder(the first of several) and although the fight choreography is compelling in-and-of-itself the context in which it exists is mostly repugnant and/or woefully uninteresting.

Successful at what it sets out to do but spectacularly miscalculates that that outcome is in anyway something people would want to see. Maybe worth a distracted viewing for the cast and the production for those with a strong stomach.

Currently available to rent on most VOD platforms, streaming soon on HBO Max.

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'Late Fame' A Review

Late Fame is a drama about NYC poet turned mailman Ed Saxberger(Willem Dafoe) who is "re-discovered" by a trust-fund would-be artist Meyers(Edmund Donovan) and his affluent group of friends that includes the mysterious actress Gloria(Greta Lee).

Dafoe is always watchable(as he is here) but the character is so kind of obvious, oblivious, and thin, the script so upper-class arts-school thesis-project there's nothing he can do. Donovan is both interesting and funny as is Lee but neither can really contend with how bludgeoningly undergraduate the whole affair is.

Shot on location in NYC the place at least feels authentic, unfortunately seemingly every other aspect does not. For a movie about a poet there's very little poetry, for a movie about artists there's very little art, the whole thing just feels very flat, uninspired, and predictable. It comes across as written by someone who's lead a privileged life trying to tell a story about a struggle they have only fantasized about.

An insult to poetry and poets.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.

'Don't Say Good Luck' A Review

Don't Say Good Luck is a family drama about high schooler Sophie(Sunny Sandler) whose eventful but relatively normal sophomore year(auditioning for the school musical, kissing, learning to drive etc.) is upended by her mother Elizabeth's(Melanie Lynskey) battle with cancer.

Sandler is good here, you can tell she's getting better, more natural and comfortable onscreen. Her emotions and her inner life feel authentic. The script is relatively paint-by-numbers coming-of-age and the beats are somewhat predictable but she holds the center well. She's in company with the likes of Mia Hawk in that she's a relatively rare legacy that has talent and continues to improve. Lynskey is, as always, compelling but this is more a showcase for Sandler. Elizabeth's whole character arc sole purpose, basically, is to effect Sophie's. The mom dying of cancer basically has no interiority, at least as written, Lynskey's able to inject some juice into it but she can only do so much. The supporting cast- Max Greenfield as the dad(great to see him), Stephanie Beatriz as the drama teacher, Jon Lovitz in a delicious extended cameo- are all great.

Visually the film is competent but nothing more, it's effective but there's no moment or shot that shows any real artistry. Which is fine, this is clearly relatively low budget, produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison, good on him for making this kind of movie which is exceedingly rare. The soundtrack is nice if not evocative with a couple engaging needle drops even if quite a bit of the diegetic singing is autotuned. It's simple, it's entertaining, it has a message. Is it amazing? No. But it works.

A less stirring version of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

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'Remarkably Bright Creatures' A Review

Remarkably Bright Creatures is a drama based on the 2022 novel of the same name about Tova(Sally Field) a an introverted widow who is the night janitor at an aquarium in small town Washington. She befriends a drifter Cameron(Lewis Pullman) and the two grow closer as they care for Marcellus the octopus who's thoughts serve as narration(voiced by Alfred Molina).

Field is as good as she's ever been but she doesn't reach the heights that she did in her last lead performance Hello, My Name Is Doris not through any fault of hers but of the script and the direction. She does what she can with the melodrama in the script and almost single-handedly corrects the tonal confusion but even with all her powers deployed she can only do so much. Pullman, who showed quite a bit of promise and range in Thunderbolts, puts up a bit of a dud here. He's not overtly bad but he just doesn't have the experience or juice to do anything with such a nothing script.

The visuals are mostly glossy and bright reminiscent of a Lifetime or Hallmark movie. The fisheye shots from Marcellus's POV are jarring and ineffective. Director Oliva Newman fails utterly in her job of tone management. What we get is this bizarre treacly downer which is 95% conflict and the characters inability to communicate all while piling on overwrought plot devices.

A maudlin, confused, emotionally regressive feature masquerading as a feel-good. Grating to watch.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

'Rose Of Nevada' A Review

Rose of Nevada is a sci-fi drama about two men in a Cornish fishing village in economic decline, Liam(Callum Turner) a itinerant worker and Nick(George MacKay) a struggling husband and father, take work on the titular fishing boat which has mysteriously reappeared after 30 years lost at sea.

Both Turner and MacKay do some of their best work here, both giving subtle but deep performances. Inhabiting the lives of the characters and the bizarre situation at it's heart with a commitment and authenticity that harmonizes perfectly with the story as well as the expressionistic design elements. The supporting cast is limited but are equally well-cast and locked-in particularly Rosalind Eleazar and Francis Magee.

Shot in a truncated aspect ratio and on grainy film stock(or with a digital effect to evoke such) the film has an eerie, timeless quality from the jump, enhanced by a simple, repeating, monotonous score and protracted seemingly innocuous shots of rusted equipment, robes, chains, feet etc. It's all very avant garde and experimental but grounded by MacKay and Turner and evokes a dream-like journey. 

Avant-garde indie cinema at its best. Artistic and rich without being pretentious or losing sight of the humanity at the core.

Currently in theaters.

Don't Miss It.

'Miss You, Love You' A Review

Miss You, Love You is a drama that follows Diane(Allison Janney) in the wake of her second husband's passing, her semi-estranged son Tyler sends his assistant Jamie(Andrew Rannells) to help her make arrangements.

Janney and Rannells are marvelous actors and they have chemistry but they are smothered by the pages and pages of overwrought and overwritten dialogue. The premise sounds like an elevator pitch for a comedy but this attempts to not only be dramatic but deep. The problem being Diane's seemingly only way to deal with grief is cruelty, regardless of how 'true' this may be to life it makes for a punishing watch particular given the movie is staged like a play. The off-screen Tyler looms large both in his estrangement with his mom(who's history, when reveled is laughably pedestrian) as well as Rannells romantic feelings towards him. But he's off screen! So much of this movie is taken up with a character who isn't there and doesn't appear! And the behaviors that both but particular Diane engage in are immature and petulant, as good as Janney is she can't make the shallow character compelling.

As much as I loved The Way Way Back writer/director Jim Rash puts up a stunning miss here. An investigation of grief without insight, a living room drama populated by cliches and cruelty rather than humanity.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

Don't See It.

'Wuthering Heights' A Review

Wuthering Heights is a gothic romance about the tortured relationship between Cathy(Margot Robbie) and Healthcliff(Jacob Elordi).

Although populated by talented actors the casting here is off from the jump. In the source material Cathy, Healthcliff, and Nelly(played by the criminally underused Hong Chau) are supposed to be in their late teens and the main three are all too old for the roles and the chemistry between Robbie and Elordi is spotty. That on top of the melodramatic machinations of the plotting make much of it, including the central romantic connection, hard to buy into.

The production design is ambitious, with some wonderful costuming and an appropriately mournful score, but it's tonally inconsistent, it's not period but it's not-not period so ultimately a lot of the choices seem unmotivated or at least seem to be driven by- is x cool? There's some BDSM stuff but that's not fully explored, some agency and relationship stuff that's not fully explored, thematically a lot is just left on the table and it's unclear if there's anything unifying behind any of it.

Maybe this is true of the source material(I haven't read the novel) but here, everyone is kind of a selfish scumbag so none of it really has any stakes. Whoever ends up with who, whoever dies, whatever the cost of any of the choices being made, none of it really has any narrative weight. And it's too long. The tragic ending leaves you relieved not effected.

Talent and ability desperately in search of coherent vision.

Currently in theatres.

Don't See It.

'Father Mother Sister Brother' A Review

Father Mother Sister Brother is a drama triptych about parental relationships. The first feature from writer/director Jim Jarmusch since 2019's The Dead Don't Die.

The cast is filled with talent and all deliver great, simple, not quite understated but natural, performances. There's not a tone of flash but there is nuance and authenticity. Where the film falls short is in the script. But making it a triptych none of the three storylines has the time to develop any particular depth, once we begin to get below the emotional surface on each, they conclude.

Visually the film has the same patient clarity Jarmusch deploys in most of his work, calling attention to subtleties in performance and the beauty of the landscape(be it natural or architectural). There is no score or soundtrack but the film is book-ended by a singular, not particularly effective, needle drop. The production overall is just a clinic effective, focused, no-frills filmmaking.

Slick but simple, mildly resonant, but ultimately falls short in offering any actual insight.

Currently in theaters.

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'Hamnet' A Review

Hamnet is a period drama, an adaptation of the 2020 novel, about the courtship and marriage of Agnes(Jessie Buckley) and Shakespeare(Paul Mescal) and how the two deal with the untimely death of their 11 year old son, the titular Hamnet(Jacobi Jupe).

Buckley gives an incredible, almost elemental performance. Raw and open and unadorned. Mescal struggles a bit to get to her level, he's still good and they have good chemistry, but she clearly outshines him which all-in-all is mostly appropriate given it is really Agnes's story. The supporting characters are well cast and effective although Emily Watson is somewhat underused and the child actors are surprisingly natural and give full-bodied performances particularly Olivia Lynes as Judith. The issue isn't with the actors or what they do and Buckely will, justly, get some awards attention this year.

There are two big issues with the film. The first is the camera work. It deploys an absolutely relentless shaky hand-held close-up focused approach that feels claustrophobic and bludgeoning displaying a distrust of the actors, Buckley in particular, and a coldly mercenary view as to eliciting an emotional reaction from the audience.

Two, on that same track, the emotional beats are profoundly unsubtle and the script exploits the child-death at the center of the story enormously to the point where the clear manipulation of the audience is recognizable and offensive ie the fifteen minute long scene of 11-year-old Jupe wailing and thrashing as he dies along with Buckley's primordial screams all shot in 6 inch close ups is all just too much. We get it. The situation and the performances are effective, the audience does not need to be dragged along by the ear and beaten over the head with the idea that a child's death is tragic. The film clearly relishes this moment and that's simply wrong.

This juxtaposed with the final scene of the film during a staging of Hamlet where both Agnes and Shakespeare finally gain understanding and catharsis is nothing short of transcendent. The inconsistency is frustrating. The film looks beautiful, the cast is great, the story is compelling, but it gets in its own way.

A career best from Buckley mostly weathers co-writer/director Chloé Zhao's periodic lack of confidence in her material and audience.

Currently in theaters.

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'Sentimental Value' A Review

Sentimental Value is a drama about a dysfunctional Norwegian family. Gustav(Stellan Skarsgård) returns to Oslo in the wake of his ex-wife's death and attempts to reconnect with his daughters Nora(Renate Reinsve) and Agnes(Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) and get a new film made after a long hiatus.

Skarsgård continues to deliver in his later career, here he is constrained by the character's emotional limitations but compensates beautifully with subtlety, nuance, and portrays an artist with the kind of insight and contradictions you'd expect from a life long creative. Reinsve's performance is more limited, it is in essence a version of the same character she played in Worst Person In The World an individual who is selfish, mentally ill, impenetrable, with little to no interest in changing(until the very end). Maybe that character arc is particularly appealing to co-writer/director Joachim Trier but as a viewer is pretty frustrating. The real star is Lilleaas who plays the only relatable human in the cast, she feels real, has recognizable emotions, and grows and shrinks and changes as the story progresses. The 'artist' characters swirl around her while she lives in reality. The other notable supporting cast member is Elle Fanning as Rachel Kemp an American movie star. She's compelling but the whole movie-within-a-movie subplot feels unnecessary, feels like a delaying tactic to not have to show the characters change or transform.

Visually the film is beautiful. Shot with subtlety and richness with the occasional inspired flourish or bit of magical realism. The score is effective, the locations are evocative. The production all the way around is top notch. The story is just unfocused, the themes ambitious but muddily conveyed, the resolution too tidy and brief, unearned. There's a luxuriating within the past and present trauma of the characters but no real insight about that trauma. Reminiscent of movies about addiction like Crazy Heart where the bulk of the runtime is spent languishing in the pain of life and quickly montaging through the actual progress made as a result of that pain in the final minutes proceeding the credits. Especially now in 2025 our movies do not need to tell us about how painful life is and can be, most of the entire population is living it and has been. Not to mention this particular story is full up with a kind of oblivious economic privilege that may be cultural but is still off putting.

Trauma porn. Well made, well acted, and finely drawn but trauma porn nonetheless.

Currently in theaters.

Rent It.

'Jay Kelly' A Review

Jay Kelly is a drama about a sad and lonely rich boomer movie star the titular Jay Kelly(George Clooney). The movie opens on the wrapping of his latest movie after which he attempts to connect with his daughters who, after years of neglect, justly don't want much to do with him. He wanders around Europe and fails again and again to really learn anything or come to terms with his actions, life, or career in any meaningful or insightful way.

Clooney is decent, he seems a bit on auto-pilot which makes sense for the role but isn't particularly compelling. The supporting cast is a cavalcade of names but the only real standout is Adam Sandler as Ron Jay's manager, he's the only one who really seems like an actual, relatable human being with recognizable emotions, it would have been a more interesting story following his character.

The cinematography is bold and rich and compelling as is the score. The big issue is just the whole premise. Who cares about this rich, aging narcissist who's motivation in trying to connect with his friends and family seems to only be a self-centered loneliness and who displays a complete inability to take responsibility for his actions or understand, in any way, his failings. The whole central conundrum is very specific to a certain type of aging white male(presumably a lot of the themes are very close to co-writer/director Baumbach) and as such doesn't really have broad appeal. 

An incredibly made film that elicits no compassion or interest in its narrative or characters(aside from Sandman).

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

'Train Dreams' A Review

Train Dreams is a period drama based on the 2011 novella. An understated birth-to-death portrait of Idaho logger Robert(Joel Edgerton) from the turn of the century onward.

Edgerton is a bit lost, a bit listless in the role. It requires more stillness and abstraction than he's really able to provide, you can see him acting even when he's clearly struggling to do less. Edgerton is a fine actor but he's not a movie star and the kind of odd impressionistic tone requires that. He's not bad he's just not altogether successful. Nor is the film for that matter. Felicity Jones as Gladys Robert's wife is more in-line with the tone but she's in the movie only briefly. The supporting cast is full of talent, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy, Will Patton as the narrator, but there's just not a tone of substance overall to the story so they don't particularly matter.

Visually the film is beautiful, like a series of paintings, but whatever modern equipment was used there's an odd kind-of digital jittering anytime there's movement. It's a bizarre and ineffective choice given the period setting. The crystalline images are incongruous with the actors costuming(which is effective). The score is moody and transportive. For what it is, it's good not great, the real issue is that it's a mood piece but it's constrained by conventional editing, linear plotting, and ultimately seems to have no real message or if it does it's something as pedestrian and indisputable as "you only get one life" or "life sure is wild huh?"

Where the film really suffers is by comparison, which may be unfair, and yet the influence of Tree Of Life and Terrence Malick generally is kind of impossible not to see as far as style and by that metric Train Dreams is unambitious and thin. Nine Days investigates life and death in a much more emotional and inspiring way. The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford utilizes voice over and the period setting with more depth and intention. First Cow uses the truncated aspect ratio more effectively and the image coloring in service of the period setting. I could go on. This is all to say it feels reductive.

Pretty, mildly diverting, but unoriginal. A pastiche of better films in search of vision.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

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'The Mastermind' A Review

The Mastermind is a period drama about a listless Boston suburbanite father in 1970 J.B.(Josh O'Connor) who plots to steal paintings from a local museum as he's disinterested in working, his wife, and his kids.

O'Connor may be a decent actor with potential but he is not a leading man(at least not here), he absolutely crumbles under the weight of carrying this film. The character is on screen pretty much the entire run time and has very little dialogue, O'Connor basically does nothing, projects passivity and blankness aside from a moment or two where he tilts his head and gives a half grin, the only specific gesture he uses and one he does repeatedly. You get no interiority from him, no sense of depth, no understanding of what's going on with this character or why we should care about him. It's honestly baffling. He is, from minute one, profoundly boring. Since his meteoric rise in Challengers he's joined the underserving ranks of Austin Butler, Jacob Elordi, Glenn Powell, Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal etc. as Hollywood continues to try to force a new leading man on us(as opposed to letting talent and the box office speak for itself). The supporting cast(other than Alana Haim who, similarly seems to be cast because of industry hype rather than ability) is all great but they are all barely in the movie. It's extremely telling that, pretty much, the only compelling scene in the movie is when J.B. goes to lay low with his friends played by Gaby Hoffmann and John Magaro and the movie, finally, comes alive and it's because of Hoffman and Magaro.

Visually the film has writer/director Kelly Reichardt's patented understated meticulousness, the production design transportive, and the free-wheeling, chaotic, jazz score soars. Reichardt's craft has never been better but the story really begs the question why make this and why should an audience care.

A portrait of an uninteresting man being selfish and self-diluted.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.

'Materialists' A Review

Materialists is a rom-dram, the sophomore feature from Celine Song after her breakout debut Past Lives, about NYC matchmaker Lucy(Dakota Johnson) and the tension between her actual feelings towards working class John(Chris Evans) and the magnetism of wealth from Harry(Pedro Pascal). What's a girl to do?

Johnson struggles to create a believable human, part of that is she's never displayed a particularly wide range but also, as written, Lucy and more broadly the whole narrative, has little basis in reality or interest. Johnson delivers all of her lines like she's reciting a memorized monologue but to her credit, that's how a lot of the dialogue comes across, like a socio-economics paper, not subtext, all text, all this kind of shotgun-blast punishing(and dated) argument about the intertwining of marriage and capital. Evans and Pascal are both decent, both charming, but they also struggle because their characters aren't particularly believable or compelling and said characters inhabit an absurd narrative. Give them an actual honest-to-goodness romcom and that's something that'd put butts in seats. The supporting cast is small and mostly forgettable. More broadly, why would a general movie goer care about the romantic travails of terrible, racist, shallow people complaining about making a quarter of a million dollars a year.

Visually Song continues to impress, the film looks incredible, every shot like a piece of art, the colors and textures rich and evocative. The score is consistently good but inconsistent with the tone, is this a rom-com, a rom-dram, a straight up drama, or an erotic thriller? The movie is confused and so the score, at times, doesn't really make any sense.

The big issue is the script. The themes and ideas are muddled and ultimately kind of repugnant. The movie feints at playing with rom-com tropes, postures at satirizing modern dating and marriage, but ultimately the message is this dated, regressive, quite frankly disgusting embrace of this purely capitalist kind of Girl Boss/Lean In perspective i.e. you can have it all as long as you make enough money. Which is, one, simply not true(Scrooge anyone?) and two especially offensive given what's happening in the US this year/right now, the economics they are discussing are not within reach of 95% of the population.

Blatant(seemingly unknowing) propaganda for the patriarchal capitalist machine.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

Don't See It.

'One Battle After Another' A Review

One Battle After Another is a drama/thriller based on the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. It follows Pat/Bob(Leonardo DiCaprio) a member of a far-left militant group during his active years(in the prologue) with the bulk of the story happening years later as he is separated from his daughter and both of them are on the run from government agents.

DiCaprio continues a bit of a plateau in his career, he's not bad here he's just not particularly interesting or dynamic, and as the lead that's a problem. Surprisingly, the most nuanced character is Sean Penn as the heavy, his performance full of eccentricity and depth. Closely followed by Benicio del Toro who also builds in quirk and backstory and makes the character come alive. Teyana Taylor is wonderful and electric but she's only in the prologue. Regina Hall is woefully underused and Chase Infiniti is good but her subplot seems like an after thought. The rest of the extensive supporting cast have such brief appearances they can't do much.

Visually the film is dynamic and rich, a return to form for writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson after the bland look of Licorice Pizza and the script is an improvement too but it is bloated and unfocused. There are too many threads, too many subplots, too many ideas, and none of it really comes together. At a sprawling almost three hour runtime the storytelling feels indulgent and isn't particularly satisfying either as a character study or as a socio-political message.

Not equal to the sum of its parts.

Currently in theaters.

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'East Of Wall' A Review

East Of Wall is an indie drama about South Dakota horse trainer Tabatha Zimiga(playing herself) as she struggles with finances, a group of wayward teens she fosters, as well as unresolved grief. With most of the cast playing versions of themselves the film blends documentary and fiction to create a potent and effecting mood.

Zimiga is a compelling lead, she's strong but vulnerable, harsh but sensitive, if she's a bit rough around the edges acting wise that's understandable as she(and pretty much everyone) is a non-professional. But she's able to communicate the essence of who she is and her situation, she's able to achieve what Herzog calls the Ecstatic Truth. The same is true of the rest of the cast notably Zimiga's daughter Porshia who serves as the co-lead and narrator who seems more comfortable in front of the camera than her mother. The two professional actors are Jennifer Ehle as Zimiga's mother Tracey who's great to see and feels relatively authentic but certainly in the tradition of lauded character actors playing questionable working-class roles(see Frances McDormand in Nomadland and Glenn Close in Hillbilly Elegy). The other is Scoot McNairy who struggles to make his character more than a caricature, partly because he's not really up for it and partly because his inclusion in the script is pretty rote. The times spent with the main cast, the ones playing themselves, simply living their lives is really truly wonderful and that's where the bread-and-butter of the film lies.

Visually the film is kinda glorious. Sweeping plains, long tracking shots of the girls riding horses, fly-on-the-wall slice-of-life vignettes- it's all really beautiful and evocative. The soundtrack is contemporary and feels authentic to this group of people we're spending time with. If there's a fault it is that, at times, the dialogue feels a bit clunky and the plot machinations with McNairy's character feel unnecessary or contrived. This is counterbalanced by the many many effective, moving, honest scenes that weave throughout, particularly a scene towards the end where Zimiga finally opens up in a circle of other women. 

A bold and inspiring debut from writer/director Kate Beecroft.

See It.

'F1 Movie' A Review

 F1 is a sports drama about a struggling Formula One team owned by Ruben(Javier Bardem) who, in a last ditch effort to avoid a forced sale, enlists his former teammate and wandering savant driver Sonny(Brad Pitt). Sonny has to reacquaint himself with F1 and learn to get along with his team- primarily up-and-coming talent Joshua(Damson Idris) and tech director Kate(Kerry Condon).

Pitt brings his patented movie star charm and ease and it works well if not pitch perfect like his turn in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Idris struggles a bit to carve out a full character but he's still compelling and a decent foil for Pitt. Condon is wonderful(if woefully age inappropriate as Pitt's love interest), it's great to see her in a blockbuster as she's mostly been turning in great performances in indie fair the last decade or so. The rest of the supporting cast bolster the leads and fill out the movie well, there's not a lot of nuance or depth but this isn't that kind of movie, it's a spectacle blockbuster.

Visually the movie is thrilling, the multiple races all shot with an evocative POV where you real feel like you're there, it's more transportive and exciting than actually watching Formula One racing. The score is simple and effective, the runtime is a bit overlong but it's easy not to begrudge director Joseph Kosinski given how much action there is and similar to his last summer movie success Top Gun: Maverick it is extremely potent at what it is trying to be- a popcorn movie with broad appeal.

Not particularly complicated, a transparent commercial for Formula One, yet a solid, effective, exciting piece of entertainment.

Currently in theaters.

See It.