Powerful. Emotional. Devastating. Cathartic. Beautiful.

Ryan Coogler returned to write and direct the sequel to his Oscar nominated and winning Black Panther, but everything got messed up with one tragic, unexpected moment.

T’Challa, the Black Panther, played by the awesome Chadwick Boseman passed away from colon cancer in 2020 throwing the entire production into uncertainty. The cast, crew and company were caught unaware from the loss of Chadwick and no one was quite sure what was going to happen. Marvel Studio’s head honcho Kevin Feige announced that the role of T’Challa would not be recast. It was controversial, but after seeing Wakanda Forever, you could see why they made the decision.

Wakanda Forever was a celebration of Chadwick Boseman’s life and gave the cast a chance to grieve the loss of their “King.” You could absolutely feel the presence of Chadwick throughout the film, especially in the performances of his castmates from Black Panther. More on that later.

King T’Challa passed away from an unexpected disease and the country of Wakanda is in mourning. His sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) was completely devastated from the death of T’Challa and was finding it particularly difficult to move on with her life. Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) tried to help her daughter accept the loss of her brother.

However, they ended up being confronted by the head of the undersea kingdom of Talokan, Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) who was angry over an attempt from US forces on an undersea mound of vibranium. Namor said a US “scientist” was behind creating a machine capable of locating vibranium. The scientist turned out to be Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne).

I don’t want to go into any further detail about the plot because there are plenty of awesome moments that could be spoiled.

Though she was an absolute highlight, Letitia Wright’s Shuri was initially just a secondary/supporting character in Black Panther. It is very challenging for a supporting character to step up and take the lead of a movie, but Wright is totally savage and knocks it out of the park. I was not sure if she had it in her, but she was compelling as could be. You could see how the loss of Chadwick Boseman informed her performance to the point where, at times, it did not feel as if she was acting.

However, as amazing as Letitia Wright’s work was, the standout of the performances in Wakanda Forever was the spectacular Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda. If Angela Bassett does not, at the very least, receive an Oscar nomination for this role, then there is something terribly wrong with the system. The power she displayed with every minute she was on screen was astounding. Everybody has seen the powerhouse line about her family from the trailer, but she was just as epic in the quieter moments as well. Queen Ramonda was a pillar of strength and gave us examples of why she was such a wondrous leader.

Every performer brought their A game. Tenoch Huerta debuted the classic Marvel character Namor and, while there were some changes made to the character, everything worked so well. He created an amazingly complex and deep “villain” that will have a major place in the MCU moving forward. I thought tying Namor to the culture of Central America was a stroke of genius and worked really well with the character. I know there are people out there who hate when Marvel Studios does anything different with a character, especially when they change the race/nationality of a character, but those people were never going to be happy. The character of Namor was well served by this script and any changes made did not effect who Namor was at his core.

Danai Gurira had one of the best arcs of the film as General Okoye of the Dora Milaje. This may have been the best work that I have ever seen from Gurira as the emotion of the situation was echoing in her performance. I also enjoyed the inclusion of Riri Williams, who will be starring in her own Disney + series, Ironheart, next year. She brought some much needed humor to the film. The humor was used in just the right level. This is still an MCU film and there will always be humor in these movies, but it does not overpower the scenes like it did at times during Thor: Love and Thunder.

I heard a review complaining about the lack of screen time for Winston Duke as M’Baku, but I thought he was used very well and I loved where the film left off with him. Another actor from the original film who returned to a great part, albeit somewhat smaller than the last time, was Lupita Nyong’o with Nakia.

The music was outstanding again and the CGI was great. Some of the issues with the third act of the original film was the CGI effects. I thought this film did a much better job with that and only had a few minor faults.

I have also heard some gripes about the length of the film, but I did not feel that. I thought it was paced extremely well and I did not feel the length, despite being 2 hours and 40 minutes long.

The only complaint I might be able to muster was there was a tad too much exposition when dealing with the past of Namor and a few other flashbacks, but it was such a minor issue that I almost did not mention it. I guess one could say that Namora (Mabel Cadena) and Attuma (Alex Livinalli) were really underused and did not standout among the warriors of Talokan.

I loved this movie. It was such an emotional roller coaster and it served as a wonderful tribute to Chadwick Boseman while continuing to build the world of Wakanda for the future of the MCU. The one mid credit scene (none at the end of the credits) was amazing and speaks well of the future.

For me, this is one of the best movies of the year and will challenge for the top spot next month in the Top 30 Best of 2022 list.

5 stars

Yes we have arrived in Oscar season when those movies that believe they have Academy Award chances start coming out, many of which had already debuted at film festivals around the world. One of these films that have some Oscar buzz (and well deserved too) is The Banshees of Inisherin.

According to IMDB, “Lifelong friends Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), who find themselves at an impasse when Colm unexpectedly puts an end to their friendship. A stunned Pádraic, aided by his sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) and troubled young islander Dominic (Barry Keoghan), endeavours to repair the relationship, refusing to take no for an answer. But Pádraic’s repeated efforts only strengthen his former friend’s resolve and when Colm delivers a desperate ultimatum, events swiftly escalate, with shocking consequences.”

The basic story is how one day, from out of nowhere, Colm, played by Brendan Gleeson, decided that he did not want to be friends with his longtime friend, Pádraic, any more. That was truly a strange plot point, and things truly do get out of control soon after that.

While Brendan Gleeson was excellent here, if Colin Farrell does not receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, something is truly wrong with the entire process. Farrell was unbelievable in this role of a blindsided man who just could not understand why his friend decided to cast him aside for, what seemed to be, no reason.

Farrell had every emotion imaginable, from confusion to anger to hurt, and you could see how the events of the situation took pieces of his heart away. He ended up doing things that the Pádraic at the beginning of the film would never have done, all in the grief over the loss of this friendship.

Colm was clearly unbalanced too as he does some things that I, of course, will not spoil, but were shocking to say the least.

There were a couple of real standouts in the cast despite the two main actors. Kerry Condon played Pádraic’s sister Siobhán with a ton of passion and Eternals’ star Barry Keoghan played the local island dimwit, Dominic.

The shots of this fictional Irish island Inisherin were gorgeous and brought some special imagery to add to the drama of what was going down. The Irish landscapes were brilliantly used by cinematographer Ben Davis.

However, this was not just a dramatic story. In was actually quite funny with these oddball characters reacting to the insanity with lines and decisions that were both right in character but also hilarious.

Of course, there were some Irish brogues going on that, at times, made the dialogue difficult to understand. It was as if we needed to translate what they were saying to each other, but we did not get it. Sometimes the Irish dialogue really popped and you could see where it was intended to go.

The story was set in 1923 and had the Irish Civil War as a backdrop, which probably is meant to echo the splitting apart of the friendship of Pádraic and Colm.

The dark comedic film was directed by Martin McDonagh, who reteamed Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell from In Bruges. You can tell why this is an important fact considering how excellent this pairing worked. The Banshees of Inisherin was funny, shocking and dark. At first, the film seemed to be very small and unassuming, but the stakes for the characters rose rapidly as the film continued.

The Banshees of Inisherin should most definitely receive its share of Oscar nominations.

4.3 stars

William Shakespeare wrote several classic plays, but few are more well-known than Romeo & Juliet. The tragic results of the love between the warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets, are considered one of the great love stories of all time. There was a movie that debuted last month on Hulu that took the Romeo & Juliet story and turned it on its head. By telling the story through the POV of Rosaline, Romeo’s jilted ex-love and Juliet’s cousin.

Rosaline (Kaitlyn Dever) was in love with Romeo (Kyle Allen), but the fates were against them. When Rosaline stood Romeo up at a masquerade ball because she was on a father-organized date with Dario (Sean Teale), he was crushed. However, he then met the fair Juliet (Isabela Merced) and fell in love with her.

Rosaline was angry and jealous over the betrayal and she wanted Romeo back so she planned to break apart the young lovers.

This was a funny film. I really enjoyed Rosaline. Kaitlyn Dever did a great job as the leading protagonist walking her way through the famous story of Romeo & Juliet. She and Sean Teale had some great chemistry with each other and you could tell immediately where this was heading. This was a good example of how predictability is not always a bad thing.

The writing of Rosaline was very clever as it weaved the new narrative with Rosaline into the existing story by Shakespeare seamlessly. They blended together beautifully and led to a third act that was very funny and well constructed.

Of course, Rosaline had more present day ideas and beliefs than you would expect someone to have in the days of Shakespeare. She was outspoken and unwilling to go along with the day’s expectations. It reminded me of Catharine Called Birdy, a film I saw a few weeks ago, as Rosaline was sabotaging the men her father (Bradley Whitford) was trying to set her up with as a husband to be.

One of the funniest things was one of the drawbacks many people have to Shakespeare. Romeo showed up to Rosaline speaking in the well-known vernacular of a Shakespeare play and Rosaline immediately asked him why he was speaking like that. The rest of the film the characters spoke in normal language, removing that obstacle for many viewers.

Kaitlyn Dever showed her skills in this picture and she carried much of the film on her shoulders. I had a lot of fun watching this movie on Hulu. You do not have to be a Shakespeare aficionado to enjoy this.

4 stars

I went to Apple TV + this morning to see if there were any movies on that streamer that I needed to watch. Apple TV + does not seem to promote their films as well as some of the other streaming services, or, at least, I don’t come there as much as I do the others and I just miss some films. I found one this morning that, apparently, debuted on Apple TV + this past Friday starring Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry called Causeway.

I did not know anything about Causeway, so I was intrigued. I do not have a problem with JLaw, but she does not automatically mean her film is a must see either. I do like Brian Tyree Henry though and it was an A24 film, which is usually a positive sign.

Causeway featured the two main characters played by Lawrence and Henry at the center of a slow, psychological drama that dealt with trauma and the results of it. Both Lawrence and Henry had to face their own personal trauma and were suffering the after-effects of it.

Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence)was a soldier who returned from Afghanistan with a brain injury after being involved in an explosion. Her recovery was slow, but steady and she wanted to return for redeployment. She met James (Brian Tyree Henry) when her truck began smoking and she took it to James’s repair shop. She realized soon after that James had an artificial leg since his own had been amputated after a car wreck.

Of course, both incidents of trauma had much more involved than just the moment and their relationship grew while they tried to overcome the PTSD they faced.

I thought Jennifer Lawrence was solid in this role, but I definitely thought that Brian Tyree Henry was exceptional. He stood out from the film with enough realness that while he was on screen, the film really worked.

The performances carried this movie because it was slow and, at times, the story dragged. Both Lawrence and Henry’s performances were subtle and understated and fit amazingly with the tone of the movie. However, at times the film felt withdrawn from the audience.

There have been plenty of films over the years where the performances elevated the script and I think this is another example of that. Lawrence and Henry are the reasons to see this movie, but the deliberate pacing could lose some. Causeway does a strong job at looking at the results of trauma and how it can affect people. It feels like a shot of a normal life of a couple of damaged people, and that can be enough.

3.5 stars

I was on Peacock and I saw a giant picture of John Cena. I did not know what it was, so I investigated a bit. It was the link for a movie called The Independent, which, as I said, I had no idea about. I like John Cena and the film is listed as a thriller, which intrigued me. I placed it on my list and I was able to watch it this morning.

The Independent is a political thriller focused around the upcoming presidential election that involved the incumbent Democrat president (Victor Slezak), a Republican senator (Ann O’Dowd) and Independent candidate Nate Sterling (John Cena). Meanwhile, journalist Eli James (Jodie Turner-Smith) was teaming up with legendary Journalist Nick Booker (Brian Cox) to look into a major story involving the candidates and corruption.

This film has an excellent cast. Jodie Turner-Smith is fabulous and has been on the way up. John Cena is cast extremely well in this character. Ann O’Dowd is great. Brian Cox is always solid. There is also Stephen Lang, Luke Kirby, Margaret Odette, Timothy Busfield, Michael Gandolfini, Kecia Lewis, Zane Pais, Andrew Richardson, Julianne Arrieta, and George Aloi.

However, the rest of the film was average to below average. The story was fine, but the dialogue was weak. The direction was unremarkable. There were no shots or moments that made this stand out. It looked boring and simply felt like a normal TV movie.

The film is not offensively bad, but it is just nothing that will be remembered in the long term. The film is a fine time waster, trying to be relevant in the world of politics today, but it does not take any real steps to make this more than just another movie.

2.5 stars

Millie Bobby Brown is a star!

We knew that she was a special performer in her time as Eleven on Stranger Things, but her second time playing the role of Sherlock Holmes’s little sister has shown that Millie Bobby Brown is fully capable of leading a franchise and that the best days are still ahead of her.

In Enola Holmes 2, we return to London to see where the first film left off. Enola was struggling with her new detective agency because of her client’s expectations and her brother Sherlock’s (Henry Cavill) immense shadow. However, a little girl hired Enola to find her missing sister, Sarah Chapman (Hannah Dodd) and the situation gets out of hand quickly, engulfing Enola in a murder case that runs smack into Sherlock’s latest case.

As I mentioned, Millie Bobby Brown is all over this sequel and she works so well. She is charming and engaging. When Enola breaks the fourth wall, she makes the audience feel as if they are a part of the story. Brown worked very well with her on-screen brother Henry Cavill, who makes a really great, if not unconventional, Sherlock Holmes, as well as the returning love interest, Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge).

Then we have one of the film’s antagonists, Grail (David Thewlis), who is exceptional. David Thewlis has been an awesome force in such shows as the TV series Fargo, Wonder Woman, the Harry Potter franchise, and Netflix’s Sandman. Thewlis is such an easy adversary that the audience could root against. It was a great performance from a great actor.

The story had a lot of twists and turns, but I did not have issues following it. Many movies with a storyline like this would be convoluted and difficult to understand, but this worked well too. It was really mapped out beautifully and combined with the different sections perfectly.

There are a couple of things that the Internet trolls will probably hate, but, without spoiling any of it, I found all of it epic.

Helena Bonham Carter is back again and the sections with her are so much fun. She and Brown work brilliantly together and I totally believed their mother/daughter dynamic. Carter is just one more member of an exceptional cast that brings the goods in this franchise.

Enola Holmes 2 is a ton of fun and entertaining as can be.

4.6 stars

I am a huge fan of “Weird Al” Yankovic. I have been a fan since the early days of the Dr. Demento show with “Ricky” and “I Love Rocky Road” so I was extremely hyped for the “biopic” of Weird Al that was debuting on the Roku Channel today.

I was not disappointed.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is 100% an “unexaggerated true story” according to Al who introduced the film. He, of course, is exaggerating, if not outright lying. This movie is a parody of the biopic genre of films, taking many of the tropes of a typical Oscar-bait movie and turning it upside down. And while there are a few moments where there would be a kernel of truth in the life story of Al Yankovic, there is considerably more here that is basically fiction.

In truth, the movie portrays Al in a much more bad boy role, like many of the rock-n-roll biopics, which goes in total opposite of the real Weird Al, who is considered one of the nicest and most clean-cut individuals in pop culture, lacking any sign of controversy in his life.

The film takes us through the life of Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) from child to young adult to the most successful recording artist in the world. Al reaches these heights by taking other people’s songs and changing the lyrics to make them funny. Despite the objection from his ill-tempered father (Toby Huss), Al gets his hands on an accordion and begins to learn how to play.

Escaping from his father’s hard hand, Al roomed with a bunch of guys and wound up composing his first song, “My Bologna” by accident. Al was seen by radio host Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson) while he was performing at a punk club and he saw something in the parodist.

Being dubbed Weird Al, Al started on a journey of success. He was rejected at first by music executive Tony Scotti (Al Yankovic), but almost immediately after that rejection, Al went on a meteoric rise. That was when Weird Al caught the eye of Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood).

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was full of silly humor, outrageous characters and a ton of celebrity cameos. The humor is not subtle, as it smack you across the face, but it was almost always hilarious. Based on a Funny or Die short from 2010, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was a parody of biopics and told the story of the great parody singer of our time.

Daniel Radcliffe would have been one of the last actors I would have thought of to play Weird Al, and that is why it is a genius move to cast him in the role. Radcliffe has been in a ton of strange, creative films since the end of the Harry Potter franchise and he always gave his best effort, no matter how weird. This film is no different as Radcliffe throws himself into the role with a gusto and passion that makes him a perfect casting.

Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna nearly steals the film. She played the role wonderfully, turning the pop superstar almost into the villain of the film. It is funny how many people, after seeing the trailer, believed that Al and Madonna had a relationship in real life.

The music is fantastic. Weird Al Yankovic did the singing of the film while Daniel Radcliffe did the lip synching. There are a bunch of the classic Al parodies included in the soundtrack such as “I Love Rocky Road,” “Another One Rides the Bus,” “Eat It,” and “Amish Paradise.” The end credits include a new song by Weird Al called “Now You Know” which is very meta and basically talked about the movie that was just shown and how many credits there are.

The film is chocked full of celebrity cameos, dozens of them from some of the most well known comedic actors available. There were other cameos of actors playing certain 1980s celebrities. I won’t spoil any of these, but there is one brilliant cameo of an actor playing Wolfman Jack.

Weird Al co-wrote the film with director Eric Appel, who also directed the original Funny or Die short. Appel does a great job as director and set up some ridiculous scenes and situations and made it amazing. I loved Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and I am so happy for Al. No one deserves the success more.

4.85 stars

I have mostly enjoyed the DC Animated movies that come out in the direct-to-video market, but I have always found them to be a little cheap. What i mean by that is in many of them, the animation was nowhere near the levels that the stories deserved and brought the level of video down on many different occasions.

That problem may be in the rear view mirror now. The latest animated movie from DC Animation was Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons, which featured the sons, Jonathan Kent and Damien Wayne, of the World’s Finest, Batman and Superman.

These characters have been involved in DC Comics for several years now and Damien Wayne has been included in some of the Batman animated movies over the last few years. This, however, is the debut of Jonathan Kent in the films.

Battle of the Super Sons gave us the details of Jonathan Kent gaining his powers, learning the truth about his father’s secret identity, and being introduced to Damien as Batman was analyzing Jonathan to see what powers he may have or will develop.

Jonathan Kent is voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer (of It Chapter One and Shazam fame) and Damien is voiced by Jack Griffo. Grazer, who has appeared in some major films, brings a real light-hearted and enthusiasm to Jonathan. Damien Wayne is a dramatically complex character, which is only touched on here. The pair of these young heroes are the selling point of this movie and they are truly great together. As much fun as it is to see Superman and Batman team up, the new generation is just as fun.

And what of the animation? This is the first fully CGI animated movie from DC and it is fabulous. I really enjoyed the look of this movie and it made this feel more important than some of the other DC animated films.

The story does not go too deep and it does not explore the characters with much focus, but the movie is still really fun and does a solid job of portraying Starro as the major villain once again (after the turn by the starfish in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad).

Other voice actors included in the film were Troy Baker, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Nolan North, Darin DePaul, Tom Kenny, and Myrna Velasco.

A simple story can still be well done and fully entertaining if done well and Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons is done very well. It was engaging, funny, and had some wholesome characterization between two young characters that are at teh different end of the spectrum and yet work great as friends.

I want more DC films like this.

4.4 stars

The mockumentary has become a staple of movie films over the last few years. From Rob Reiner’s classic This is Spinal Tap to Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind or Best in Show to Taika Waititi’s What We Do In the Shadows, the mockumentary has proven to be a winner.

Joining this prestigious list of films is director Conor Boru’s new film When the Screaming Starts.

Down on his luck filmmaker Norman Graysmith (Jared Rogers) found himself a sure fire winner for his new documentary. The world’s fascination with serial killers is at an all time high, but Graysmith has a new hook. He found a guy who is planning on becoming a serial killer and Graysmith decided to follow the path of the serial killer, pre-killing.

The serial killer wannabe is Aiden Mendle (Ed Hartland) and he is happy to invite Graysmith into his inner circle and talk, on camera, about his plans to become a serial killer, though he has yet to kill anyone.

Things pick up dramatically when Aiden decides that he would be better off in the same vein as Charles Manson and have a family of his own, so he goes about interviewing people, with his girlfriend Claire (Kaitlin Reynell), who want to join his serial killer family.

This movie is a hoot. It reminded me very much of What We Do in the Shadows, but focusing on serial killers instead of vampires. They are 100% right when they say that there is a fascination with serial killers in the world, as you can tell by how much of a buzz there is for the Netflix series about Jeffrey Dahmer. Just the idea that a filmmaker would be willing to follow along with someone promising to be a murderer is something you can imagine happening in today’s society.

The humor is very British, heavily reliant on the well written dialogue for the laughs as well as the bizarre situations these characters find themselves in. It takes the humor right up until the end when the tone shifts from comedy to almost horror and we change direction. It works very well.

The other actors involved in the story included Ronja and Vår Haugholt, Octavia Gilmore, Katharine Bennett-Fox, Kavé Niku, Stuart Vincent, Yasen Atour, Louise Ann Munro, Steve Hodgetts, and John-Christian Bateman.

The film moves along at a crisp pace and does a great job giving moments to everyone in the ensemble. The performances all work very well in the film and rarely do the jokes miss. Each delivery of the satirical scenes fit together beautifully and help lead us to the point where everything changes.

I did not see this coming and I thought it was hilarious and extremely well constructed. When the Screaming Starts is a outstanding addition to the mockumentary subgenre.

4.6 stars

The V/H/S series f films have been a success in the horror genre for Shudder. I have never actually seen any of the V/H/S films prior to the newest one. I had a chance to watch V/H/S/99 on Shudder this Halloween weekend. It was an anthology found footage horror film with five separate stories, all set in 1999. There are several odd interludes between the shorts that focused on a bunch of toy soldiers that were being filmed in a stop-motion manner, filmed by Brady, who was shown later in the film. It was a weird, but enjoyable interlude.

As most anthology films, some of the entries are better than the others. V/H/S/99 have five entries which included: “Shredding”, “Suicide Bid”, “Ozzy’s Dungeon”, “The Gawkers” and “To Hell and Back.”

Each of the stories had protagonists that were horribly rotten people. However, many of them got some form of comeuppance as the story progressed, leaving some form of satisfaction.

My personal favorite of the five stories was either “Ozzy’s Dungeon” or “Suicide Bid.” My least favorite of the film was “Shredding,” by far. “Ozzy’s Dungeon” was about a horrendous game show that kids participated in for a chance to gain their heart’s wish. General Hospital’s Epiphany, Sonya Eddy, appeared as the mother of the girl who had been horribly injured in the game show’s obstacle course and her Eddy came back with vengeance against the host on her mind. I’ve never seen Epiphany this way before and her mouth was foul as could be.

“Suicide Bid” was a college freshman named Lily (Alexia “Ally” Ioannides) who was desperate to join a sorority. In order to be inducted into the sorority, Lily had to spend the night in a coffin, buried alive. The other girls were utterly horrible and tormented Lily beyond any reasonable level, but it created a ton of tension and anxiety over what was going to happen to Lily.

I did like the fact that it seemed as if the film was most practical effects and not just some CGI fest.

Overall, V/H/S/99 was mixed for me. There were some of the stories that I enjoyed and a few that felt like a chore to get through. There was some creative kills in the horror film and the use of the found footage technique was effective for this movie. This film did make me somewhat interested in previous V/H/S films and for the next sequel next year, V/H/S/85.

3.1 stars

It is almost Halloween and now we have a brand new stop-motion animated film on Netflix right out of the mind of the director of Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, Henry Selick. The new film included the talents of Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key.

Wendell & Wire is remarkably creative and original, with a ton of awesomely designed characters and some beautiful stop motion animation that takes the technique into some fantastic places.

The story starts out with young Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross) involved in a tragic car crash that killed her parents. Kat blamed herself for the accident and spent the next several years hardening up.

When she was finally sent to an all-girls school in her hometown of Rust Bank where she immediately started having memories of the events she lived through years before.

At the all-girls school, she met several classmates along with school headmaster Father Best (James Hong) and Sister Helley (Angela Bassett). Kat met Raul (Sam Zelaya) and became friends with him.

Meanwhile, two scheming brother demons, Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordon Peele) were stuck placing hair cream on their gigantic father’s head. The head demon, Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames), was working his sons hard and they were anxious to create their own design of a bemusement park called Dream Faire. They came up with a plan to escape their father’s dimension and go to the land of the living to set up their park.

Another pot thread was the Klaxons, Lane (David Harewood) and Irmgard (Maxine Peake) were trying to plot to open their own private prison in the rundown and near ghost town of Rust Bank.

These multiple plotlines emerged very cleanly, more cleanly than one would expect with the variety of stories being included in this animated movie. The voice acting was well done and it is always fun to reunite Key & Peele.

The stop-motion animation was exceptional, featuring some of the more creative imagery that you are going to see. There were blends of other styles of animation in flashbacks to distinguish between the time frames in a clever and enjoyable manner.

There are some really great themes sprinkled into the film as well as the movie deals with grief and trying to deal with moving on after a tragic loss. The film has a powerful theme dealing with family and friendship as well.

Wendell & Wild is a perfect family entertainment for the Halloween season. It is visually stunning and engaging for the audience and is able to blend several stories into a reasonably cohesive narrative.

4 stars

Based on a true story.

Some times those words are horrifying.

Especially in a case where there are more questions than there are answers.

The Good Nurse is based on the story of Charlie Cullen, a male nurse who wound up convicted on 29 counts of murder (though the total could be around 400) of hospital patients over years of working at multiple hospitals. All of these hospitals suspected what Cullen was doing but none of them took steps to stop him.

What else is frustrating is that, according to the film, he had never revealed the reason behind his killings. That may not be as accurate to the real world as some of the other aspects of the movie. This might be the “based on” part.

Charlie Cullen was played by Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne and the nurse Amy Loughren, who was friends with Charlie and helped the police’s investigation, was played by Oscar winner Jessica Chastain. Both excellent actors brought some strong performances to these roles.

There is a good cast along with Chastain and Redmayne. The other actors include Noah Emmerich, Nnamdi Asomugha, Kim Dickens, Devyn McDowell, David Lavine and Myra Lucretia Taylor.

The film was told in Amy’s POV, although it does change at times. The heart issues that she had felt tacked on, but apparently this was a true situation for the real person the character was based upon.

The biggest draw is the performances in The Good Nurse. The story was terrible in reality but, on screen, turned out to be more like a medical procedural. The story was fine, but it was certainly elevated by the characters.

3.8 stars

We got a new emotional biopic released this week. Till tells the story of the lynching of Emmett Till, a 14-year old boy from Chicago who went to Mississippi to see family and ended up being murdered because he innocently had done something that the white people took as insulting. Emmett, referred to as Bo, was beaten badly and his body was found in the river. His mother, Mamie, took up the mantel for justice for her son and became a huge leader among the Civil Rights movement.

This was so powerful that I was moved to tears a couple of times in the theater. At one point, I had considered not going to this movie, but I am so happy that I did. This was a difficult watch, but so emotionally moving.

Mamie was played by Danielle Deadwyler and she completely dominated the movie. Deadwyler deserves an Academy Award nomination for this performance. The absolute anguish that poured out of her when she got her son’s body back from Mississippi was completely brutal and tumultuous. But it was not just the visceral pain that Deadwyler showed, but also the bravery and the leadership she displayed having to face the hatred and the bigotry from the white people in the south.

The film started off by giving us some wonderful interactions with Mamie and Bo. Bo was played by Jalyn Hall who brought a lot of charm to the young boy. You could see what a promising man Bo was going to grown into, if he had been given a chance, and that made this tragedy all the more intense.

Whoopi Goldberg was in the film as well, providing a fabulous supporting performance as Mamie’s mother. Frankie Faison played Mamie’s father and he brought a lot to the role. I would have liked even more from Goldberg.

Part of the horror of the movie was how much guilt everyone involved was feeling over the death of Bo. Everyone from Whoopi, who blamed herself because she had encouraged Bo to go to Mississippi, to Bo’s cousins who were there when he made the mistake that would eventually cost him his life. Guilt is so horrific because you are not at fault and yet you punish yourself as if you were. This was shown brilliantly through the entire ensemble cast.

However, this is Deadwyler’s film and she runs away with it.

It is so sad that such hatred exists in our country and that there are people who feel it is acceptable to respond with such a violent manner. It is also shameful that there had not been a Federal law making lynching illegal until 2022. In fact, I thought that law had failed in Congress so when I saw that the Emmett Till Antilynching Act had been signed into law by President Biden this year I was surprised, but thrilled. It was a LONG time coming.

Till is an outstanding movie that was filled with emotion and a amazing lead performance from Danielle Deadwyler.

4.4 stars

I may have just watched this year’s Academy Award winner for Best International Feature Film on Netflix.

Based on the 1929 novel of the same name, this is the new German version of the classic war movie All Quiet on the Western Front debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last month and arrived on Netflix today, and this was completely epic.

Teenagers Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) and his friends Albert (Aaron Hilmer) and Müller (Moritz Klaus) decide to enlist in the German Army during the days of World War I. They were excited and thrilled to runoff to war, with images of glory flashing through their eyes.

Unfortunately for them, their passions did not last long when they arrived at the front and they discovered the horrors that the soldiers of World War I had to face. Reality was harsh and heartless.

All Quiet on the Western Front was bleak, painful, and brutal. There have not been near as many movies based in World War I than in World War II. A few years ago, 1917 became one of the best films of the year by using the historical setting. Now, All Quiet on the Western Front takes the anguish to a new level.

Felix Kammerer did not have a film credit since 1998 until he led this film as Paul. Kammerer was amazingly compelling with every second he is on screen, suffering through the loss of his wide-eyed innocence and the realization of how much pain and randomness war brought to his life.

The film spared nothing in the area of violence and brutality. It showed the horrors of the battlefield, especially in the trench warfare on the Western Front which was one of the most horrid areas of loss of life in the bloody war. You could not take a breath as the characters ran across the field with bombs exploding and guns firing at them. Adding to the tension of the situation, the film employed one of the most anxiety creating scores that I have heard in years. The sudden pounding bursts kept me anxious and off-balance, creating a fantastic mood.

It was also pretty cool when, after a group of actors who I did not know, suddenly there was the ever awesome Daniel Brühl as a German Matthias Erzberger. Brühl is always an amazing actor and he never fails to be anything but excellent.

You can’t help but sit and watch All Quiet on the Western Front with a tight feeling in your gut. You can never be sure what was going to happen next and the helplessness or hopelessness is strong, bringing an ache inside you.

The epic war film is brilliantly put together and difficult to watch.

4.5 stars