November movie reviews

In theaters:

THE HOLDOVERS

What a cozy gem of a film! Alexander Payne's film set at a boarding school in the early 70s over Christmas break is maybe his best work. It might even be a new Christmas classic. Terrific, Oscar worthy performances by all 3 leads, especially the pitch perfect Paul Giamatti. Really funny, and the best kind of sentimental. 

PRISCILLA 

Sofia Coppola's film about Priscilla Presley's relationship with Elvis boasts a couple solid lead performances, but also is quite boring and shapeless, particularly its 2nd half. And frankly it is also one note "Elvis bad" to the point of character assassination.

NEXT GOAL WINS

A very low scale sports comedy from Taika Waititi, a by the numbers underdog story (marginally true) where soccer coach Michael Fassbender is hired to lead the lowly American Samoa team. It has a few laughs in it, but it is entirely formulaic. I'd have thought Waititi would find a fresh approach to something like this. 

THANKSGIVING 

Spun off from the Grindhouse trailer from years ago, this is (clearing a very low bar) probably my favorite Eli Roth movie. It's mostly in the style and vibe of the 90s slashers. Creative kills. The lead actress, a total newcomer Nell Verlaque, is stunningly gorgeous. More of her, please. 

SALTBURN

Emerald Fennell's directorial debut was Promising Young Woman, one of the best films of the decade so far. Her follow-up is like if Call Me By Your Name and The Talented Mr. Ripley had a baby, and that baby grew up watching just A24 films. It's got some depraved stuff in it, and it's the kind of film I will likely never seek out to watch again. But it's stylish and never boring.

MAY DECEMBER

Oh hell yes! It's all about Natalie Portman here. This is an elite, pantheon-level performance by her in this film. Spectacular! 

She plays an actress, who is about to play the Julianne Moore character in a movie, and is spending time around her for research. Moore is notorious for having an affair with an underage kid, who she had kids by and later married (he's played by Charles Melton). The film is directed by Todd Haynes.

NAAAAT!

Holy shit is this catnip for me. It's the total package here. She gets to be nice and polite, but also goes to some twisted places that she has never gone before, not even in Black Swan. And I had heard there was a big monologue scene in there, and wooooow! If I ever am told I have 5 minutes left to live, I might just cue up that scene and go out on top.

I think she will get nominated for this, but I suspect her chances of winning are small.

Only part of the film that didn't really work was the kind of sloppy last 10 minutes, but this is a top ten movie of 2023 for sure. 

THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES

I didn't have much in the way of expectations for this prequel film. But it's pretty solid, especially the first 2 acts. Rachel Zegler is fantastic. Too bad this isn't primarily her story. You get a wild Viola Davis performance in there. The last act of the film is by far the weakest. 

DREAM SCENARIO

Nicolas Cage in an A24 movie where he's a boring middle aged man who for reasons unexplained behind showing up in everybody's dreams. I think it's a big metaphor for fame. I had a similar reaction to this as I did Being John Malkovich, where I thought it was creative and pretty funny early, but then turned me off with how dark and mean it got. It's not fun watching Cage's life ruined. 

Everything else:

THE SUNLIT NIGHT

Dull indie where Jenny Slate is an artist who goes to Norway. Slate is super underrated but the film is a bore. 

ROBOTS

Funny seeing Shailene Woodley in a bit of a disreputable comedy, with the premise being that people have robot clones of themselves. She uses hers for petty crime but her clone falls for one of her mark's clones and they have to team up to stop them. It's dumb as hell but kind of fun. 

BED REST

Melissa Barrera is a pregnant woman who is put on bed rest and is seeing visions. Standard horror movie stuff, but Barrera is excellent of course. 

THE LITTLE MERMAID

Never saw the original. Thought this was okay, pretty much in the middle of the pack of these Disney live action remakes. Too long for sure, and Melissa McCarthy was very grating. But once it's gets more on land it's okay. 

FIVE NIGHT'S AT FREDDY'S

What a boooooring movie. This thing made a lot of money but can't imagine it satisfied many. Poor scares, a dull lead, and bad supporting characters. 

ALBERT BROOKS: DEFENDING MY LIFE

Sometimes all it takes is to have an enjoyable conversation (between Brooks and Rob Reiner) interspersed with a slew of fabulous clips of Brooks' career, much of which I had not seen before. 

PLEASE DON'T DESTROY: THE TREASURE OF FOGGY MOUNTAIN 

The 3 guys who do those SNL videos (which are usually very funny) got to do a movie, and boy does it fall victim to that pitfall of sketch comedy stretched out to feature length. Their style only translates in small doses. There are some laughs, bit not enough. 

NOELLE

This Christmas movie is a few years old, and I watched it on a whim before I tapped out of Disney+ again for a bit. Glad I did. It's charming as hell, with a perfect role for Anna Kendrick. It's basically Elf, but with Kendrick instead of Will Ferrell. 

WAKE UP RON BURGUNDY 

I've been aware of this for years but never watched it. It's a movie assembled from deleted scenes and alternate takes from the great Anchorman. It's obviously a mess of a thing, and nowhere near as good as the real version. But it does have a handful of really funny bits in it. 

MODERN ROMANCE

The Albert Brooks doc inspired me to watch this film of his from 1981. It's a very Woody Allen-esque neurotic guy comedy. The Brooks character is incredibly irritating, but he's supposed to be. Very funny movie at times.