November movie reviews

In theaters:

TILL

The Emmett Till story gets, to my knowledge, its first proper film. The murder is horrifying, the lack of justice is infuriating. This film itself will endure most due to the extraordinary and moving lead performance by relative newcomer Danielle Deadwyler as Till's mother. 

ARMAGEDDON TIME 

A coming of age type story about a Jewish kid in the early 80s. I guess it is fairly autobiographical for the director James Gray, but as a movie it felt pretty aimless and inconsequential. Solid performances though, both from the established stars (Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins) and the main kids. 

TICKET TO PARADISE

This is nothing special, but they don't make them like this anymore. Just stick George Clooney and Julia Roberts in a movie and rely on their natural movie star charisma to carry the day. That...kind of works, but if anyone had bothered to actually write a real script for them it could have been a whole lot better. 

SHE SAID

The story of the reporters uncovering the history of abuse by Harvey Weinstein is a compelling story and worthy if a film. But man, this took the absolute most boring route on every part. A movie needs to work as a movie, and this just doesn't. It is just an endless series of scenes of people talking on cell phones and trying to get people to go on the record. Carey Mulligan is always good, but I wouldn't put this among her finest work. Zoe Kazan kind of bugged me here. 

DEVOTION

I went into this film pretty cold, and was often riveted. This is a really engrossing drama, showing the true life story of a Naval pilot (Jonathan Majors) and his bond with his new wingman (Glen Powell taking time the air again) against the backdrop of the Korean War. The performances are tremendous across the board (Majors wife makes a huge impression in a few scenes). There is not a ton of action but what it does have is very good. 

THE MENU

A terrific black comedy with a bunch of rich snobs dining at the secluded restaurant led by a cult leader-esque chef (Ralph Fiennes, as good as he has been in years). The trailer kind of gives away that it goes to a dark place, but each step of the "dinner" makes for almost it's own great little short film. The ever stunning Anya Taylor-Joy has one of her best parts yet here. Nicholas Hoult is hilarious as the most clueless character in the film. 

BONES AND ALL

I'll give this to director Luca Guadagnino: he certainly pivots. This time it's a romantic drama involving cannibals. And it's actually.pretty good. With the often quiet midwestern landscapes (including Minnesota) it's like a Terrence Malick movie at times. The ever captivating Taylor Russell is again superb. There is nobody out there right now who can underplay as effectively as her. Timothy Chalamet is good, and Mark Rylance goes way over the top in a performance that I'm not sure is good or bad. It gets pretty gross with some of the actual cannibalism. It feels more real than typical movie gore. I like movies like his that manage to effectively mix genres together. 

Everything else:

BANDIT

Movie about a guy who robbed a bunch of banks in Canada. It's alright. Josh Duhamel is one of the blandest leading men of all time but he's okay here. The movie provides proof of life of Elisha Cuthbert. Mel Gibson plays a guy you are 100% certain will betray the lead, yet never does. 

CAUSEWAY

Hey, welcome back Jennifer Lawrence! J Law gives by far her best performance in years as a soldier recovering from a brain injury. Much of the story pairs her with Brian Tyree Henry, also superb, as her mechanic turned friend. It's a small film, but a welcome throwback to early Lawrence and I hope she goes back to this well a lot more. 

THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN

This had been laying around for a few years as the only Natalie Portman movie I hadn't seen. It wasn't released anywhere I'm aware of. I figured she wasn't in it much, but no, it's a a sizable role. She's Jacob Tremblay's mom, and she has a few stellar scenes with him. She's also saddled with a wig that should be a war crime. The movie has two parallel storylines, and the one set in the future with Thandie Newton and the older Tremblay, and no Natalie is easily the inferior one. 

KILLERS ANONYMOUS 

A kind of a nothing movie. I watched it cause it touted having Jessica Alba and Gary Oldman, but Alba has 2 scenes and Oldman spends most of the movie off screen. So we spend most of our time with a collection of other characters who are not very compelling.