December movie reviews

In theaters:

C'MON C'MON

A terrific, massively charming and thoughtful film in which Joaquin Phoenix winds up tasked with looking after his young nephew during a family emergency. The plot is somewhat secondary. What the film is built on is the interplay between Phoenix and young Woody Norman, and that material is simply a joy to watch. Phoenix again shows he is on the short list of the best actors on the planet, and for a change gets to show it in something lighter (in tone, not substance). Norman gives one of the most natural, engaging performances I have ever seen from a child. Also really good is Gaby Hoffman as the mother/sister, who really conveys the exasperation of parenthood. 

WOLF

A strange film set mostly in a medical facility dealing with patients who believe themselves to be animals. Rather than being a dark comedy or even having horror elements this thing is played almost completely straight. It only works sporadically. The performances are admirable given all the strange physicality required (the leads are George Mackay from 1917 and the gorgeous Lily-Rose Depp). The film has one of the more abrupt endings in a long time. 

HOUSE OF GUCCI 

Ridley Scott's weird, sprawling, trashy drama about the Gucci empire is less than the sum of its parts. I liked Lady Gaga in this quite a bit, and Al Pacino in particular among the supporting cast is terrific. But this did not need to be 2 1/2 hours. Not when it's going as much for camp as drama in places. Jared Leto is insufferably bad in a supporting role that has somehow received Oscar buzz. 

WEST SIDE STORY

Steven Spielberg's 1st musical, a remake of the Oscar winning original from the 60's (which iirc I watched in a music class in school) is a grand throwback. I wasn't as bullish on it as a lot of people have been, but I did enjoy it and did enjoy the way Spielberg made it feel both classic and modern. A couple of the performances (Rachel Zegler and Arianna Dubose) are really excellent. 

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

A seriously dull sports drama focusing on a star college QB, who on the eve of the championship boycotts in an attempt to get the NCAA to financially compensate athletes. I'm guessing this was made before the NCAA decided to let players make money off their notoriety, not that it contradicts the point. But being right doesn't make the movie entertaining. The performances are solid enough, but the whole movie is just characters standing around in hotel rooms and speechifying.

NIGHTMARE ALLEY

Guillermo Del Toro's 1st film since he won the Oscar. It's about a mysterious drifter type played by Bradley Cooper who comes to work with a team of carnival workers. I liked most of the film's first half, when it is amongst the carnival world. Del Toro goes all out with the production design. There are some vivid performances, particularly Willem Dafoe. 

But then the film leaves the carnival, has a time jump, and becomes a wholly different film, and not for the better. I just did not get into the 2nd half of the film at all. Pretty good ending though. 

LICORICE PIZZA

Yes! Paul Thomas Anderson made a film you can just ENJOY again! Not that I haven't at least respected the filmmaking with stuff like Phantom Thread or The Master, but really nothing he had made for nearly 20 years had really clicked with me like his brilliant back to back of Boogie Nights and Magnolia. This clicks. Within about 5 minutes I knew this was going to be a great time. It's just an upbeat, heartfelt film, even when it drifts into some darker stuff. Incredible debut performances from Cooper Hoffman (son of Phillip Seymour, a frequent PTA collaborator) and Alana Haim as the lead couple, dancing around a romance in early 70s So-Cal. This film is completely episodic and meandering, which in some hands can be annoying, but here I enjoyed almost every one of the little adventures. If there is a big knock on it it isn't maybe as flat out funny as I expected. But it's only a tiny quibble. The music, the camerawork, the performances, all stellar. I know PTA has had lots of success doing more serious work, but please don't make us wait another 20 years for something like this. 

AMERICAN UNDERDOG

Clearly this is a fantasy movie. I mean, you're telling me that any NFL quarterback was ever a success without being drafted with a top 5 pick by a team that got said pick through tanking?

Well, I suppose if you can get past that obvious fiction, then this movie about how Kurt Warner made it to the NFL is a solid addition to the football movie genre. I was worried it was gonna be all about God making Warner a success, but thankfully the film has very little religious stuff in it. It's mostly pretty straightforward stuff. Most of the football stuff is good. I particularly enjoyed the Arena League section. The movie is actually as much about the romance between Kurt and Brenda Warner. I didn't mind though cause Zachary Levi and Anna Paquin (where she been?) are both very appealing and have good chemistry. It has a few of those "based on a true story" moments that I know damn well didn't happen (largely once he goes to the Rams) but the movie as a whole accomplishes the simple task of not screwing up an inherently good story. 

RED ROCKET

I could not believe that a movie starring, of all people, Simon Rex was getting hyped up as a dark horse awards contender. So I had to see it for myself. I don't see awards here, but it's a decent dark comedy featuring a collection of scuzzy characters. Rex is pretty entertaining, but total newcomer Suzanna Son completely steals the movie from him.

Everything else:

THE TENDER BAR

George Clooney directed this fairly straightforward coming of age story (based on a memoir) about a boy (who grows up to be Tye Sheridan) who wants to grow up to be a writer. It hits a lot of the usual coming of age beats, but does so well. Ben Affleck is good in a key supporting role. 

JFK: REVISITED

Oliver Stone put together this new doc, a kind of companion piece to his now 30 year old masterpiece JFK. This is informative and interesting, but it's also a very standard talking heads doc. 

BRUISED

Halle Berry's directing debut, where she plays a disgraced MMA fighter trying to repair her life. Berry is excellent in her best role in years and shows some directing promise. The film sure piles on the drama though. I'm not sure we needed both Berry's fighting backstory and her dating an abusive guy and her being an alcoholic AND her having to now watch after her estranged son AND having the father being newly dead AND issues with her mom due to childhood abuse AND the drama with Berry's trainer/love interest. It's a lot. The big fight at the end is legitimately excellent though, even if the MMA rules evade me. 

PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND

A baffling Nicolas Cage movie that's similar to Escape From New York, only set in Japan. It ain't good at all, despite a few decent Cage moments. The great Sofia Boutella is totally wasted. 

DON'T LOOK UP

This one was very disappointing. I was initially skeptical of director Adam McKay's pivot into more serious (yet still comedic) films, but his last one was Vice, which I thought was a homerun. He goes for satire big time here, with a story of a pair of astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, reminding us all what a comedic force she can be) who discover a comet that is going to hit the earth and kill everyone. But nobody in America takes the threat at all seriously. Instead of saving the human race, the concerns are things like poll numbers and opportunities to profit. The problem is the film has just this one joke, and little else. And it gets beaten into your head while you watch. It's like agreeing with somebody, but then they just keep arguing with you anyway. For 2 hours. The cast is amazing (Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill and Ron Perlman are among the other big names) but everyone is just one note. Obviously the whole thing is a metaphor for climate change (though it works for COVID too) but it ain't subtle. But more crucially it just ain't funny.

MOTHER/ANDROID

A post-apocalyptic drama more or less just cobbled together from other genre entries. This particular premise has androids, having lived amongst humans as mostly servants, turn evil for some reason and start wiping out humans. That's done away with quickly though, so the rest of the movie is just a pregnant Chloe Moretz and her boyfriend trying to get to safety. It's not bad, it just doesn't have much new to offer.