I heard a ton of positive word of mouth on The Farewell as it currently holds a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and some of the online critics I like were raving about it.  I went to it today.  I liked it.  I would not rave about it, but it was definitely good.

Billi (Awkwafina) is a Chinese-American living in New York, struggling to get by.  When she discovered that her beloved grandmother Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) was dying of lung cancer.  Her parents were planning on going to China, but Billi was shocked when she discovered that no one in the family intended on telling Nai Nai about the diagnosis.

Apparently, it is tradition in China of family members to keep this type of fatal diagnosis a secret to allow the sick person to enjoy his/her last days worry free.

So, Nai Nai’s family was arriving in China under the pretense of a wedding for Billi’s only cousin Hao Hao (Han Chen) when no such wedding was planned.  It was only an excuse for her family to come and spend time with Nai Nai while she still had time.

At first, Billi was told by her father (Tzi Ma) and mother (Diana Lin) that Billi could not go because she would tell her grandmother the truth, or at least would be unable to hide her feelings from her.  Of course, her father and his brother were just as bad at this, if not considerably worse.

The film was a lot of interrelationship scenes between the people of this family who were continuing to debate whether what they were doing was the right thing or if they should tell Nai Nai the truth to allow her to say her goodbyes.

There is a lot of emotions here, but, honestly, I thought there would be much more than what was presented.  What they did have was a well-written and human story of guilt and grief, tip-toeing around something that none of them wanted to admit.

Awkwafina was excellent as Billi, playing her love for Nai Nai against the pain of knowledge that she had in her own heart.  I thought, as well, that the actress playing Nai Nai, Shuzhen Zhao, was spectacular.  She was funny, sweet and cute as could be.

There were some wonderful scenes detailing some of the cultural aspects of the Chinese and comparing them to those same cultural aspects in America.

This was based on the true story (or as the movie tag line states. “Based on an actual lie”) that happened with the film’s director and writer Lulu Wang.  The role of Billi is based on the real occurrences that happened to Wang’s family in 2013.  So much so that the character of Little Nai Nai (Nai Nai’s sister) was actually played by Wang’s real life Little Nai Nai.

The twist at the very end of the film wraps the whole film up with a perfect bow.  The film is very heartfelt and sweet, and is extremely well acted.  It also provided some depth to the life of people in China.  It is not my favorite film of the year, but it is very good.

3.9 stars  

I had been looking forward to this one for awhile.  I liked the trailers so I was hopeful.  Unfortunately, this was not a very good movie.  I did not hate it, but there are way too many problems to overlook.

Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elizabeth Moss play three wives of members of an Italian crime family in Hell’s Kitchen in NYC.  When the three men wind up captured and sent to prison by an FBI sting, the women decide to take matters into their own hands and fill their husbands’ shoes.

First problem was that these three women stepped into this role of mobster quickly and without much trouble.  One minute, they were wondering what they would be able to do for money with their husbands arrested and the next they are walking around to businesses in Hell’s Kitchen and convinced these people to stop paying protection money to Little Jackie (Myk Watford) and start paying to them.  The businesses did it as easily as if they were changing long distance providers.

Elizabeth Moss hooked up with psychotic killer played by Domhnall Gleeson and she went from shaky abused wife to cool hand killer in a few scenes.

I did like Melissa McCarthy, both her acting performance and her character.  She felt like the most developed of the three, although that may simply be the fact that she was a mother.  She turned to the life of crime very quickly however.  The three of them became criminals immediately, dumping bodies in the ocean, knocking off rabbis, and everything.  There was no second doubt about their actions, going from law abiding women to law breakers for money did not give the audience much reason to support these characters.

The storylines fly by with little to no development.  Things happen without explanation.  Other mob bosses get involved and they seem to not understand how the mob works.  McCarthy says once in the film that if they get in the car and go to Brooklyn, they are dead.  However, that could not be further from the truth as they meet with Alfonso Coretti (Bill Camp) and they have the most friendly and cooperative meeting ever.

The finale of the film was downright dumb and anti-climatic.  There were so much that they could have done, but what they ended up doing was so silly that it bordered on the ridiculous.

The Kitchen was based on a DC Vertigo series.  I had never read it and nor do I plan on it after seeing this movie.  As I said, I did not hate this as much as most critics did, but it is not one you should worry about seeing.

2.1 stars

The latest young adult books to make the big screen is the Scary Stories to Read in the Dark trilogy, bringing an air of horror to the world of YA.

In the movie, we find a group of teens who go into the local haunted house on Halloween and find a book, allegedly belonging to the girl Sarah Bellows, who was rumored to have killed a bunch of kids by poisoning them before she hanged herself.  The kids notice soon that inside this book, stories are being magically written in blood and their friends begin dying.

This movie has a connective storyline throughout the film whereas the book series (there were three of them) is basically a series of short stories.  The short stories from the book wind up being used in the movie when Sarah’s ghost writes them.  This was a clever way to incorporate the stories into the feature film and make them viable and relevant to the characters that we have been introduced to.

And these characters are fairly likable.  Our main protagonist is fellow writer Stella (Zoe Margaret Colletti), who found the book at the haunted house and took it with her.  Colletti does a strong job leading the kids and showing the guilt and regret of starting this snowball metaphorically rolling downhill.  She has a background trauma involving her mother leaving her and her sad father (Dean Norris) too.  This is not dived too deeply into, but the subtext is there for the character.

We have the stranger in town, Ramón (Michael Garza), who has a story to hide as well.  He gets caught up with the kids, seeing early what happens when these stories start to appear.  Garza (who was in the Hunger Games series) has a nice presence about him and I think he has a nice career ahead of him.

Some of the moments in the stories are creepy and effective.  There is a specific scene involving Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn), sister of Stella’s friend Chuck (Austin Zajur), that was creepy as all get out and gross.  Hint… there are spiders.

One of my problems with the film was that it was set in 1968, but I did not feel as if it were set during that time.  Oh sure, they hit us over the head with allusions of the period (Nixon being elected president, Vietnam war etc), but the kids did not make me feel like they were from the 1960s.

This was produced by Guillermo Del Toro and he has always been effective with his horror.  This was a PG-13 film so there was not much blood or gore, but they were very effective with their creepy crawlers and gross-looking creatures.  The creature at the hospital looked silly at first, but I have to say, what happened with it was one of the scarier moments of the film.

I came out of this movie enjoying my time watching it.  Sure there are some problems in the basic narrative and a few of the designs, but nothing too bad that it pulled me out of the film.  This is a decent way to introduce some teens to the world of horror, and I believe that is one of the goals of this film.

3.75 stars  

Surprise!  Dora is actually good.

Would have lost that bet if I made it.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a live action adaptation of the cartoon Dora the Explorer and this is just about as good as that source material could be portrayed in a live action movie.  I had never seen a Dora cartoon, but I knew of the character.  This movie was well down on the list of expectations.  Who knew that it would be decent.

Dora (Isabela Moner) is right at home in the jungle.  Home schooled by her professor parents (Michael Peña & Eva Longoria), Dora is very happy.  However, before heading out to try to find a lost Incan city, her parents sent Dora to the city to go to school with her cousin and former best friend Diego (Jeff Wahlberg).  Dora’s plucky, upbeat attitude gets her labeled a weirdo quickly, but she is unable to address these issues because she, Diego and two other kids from high school are kidnapped by some villains, looking for the lost city as well, and planning on using Dora to force her parents to cooperate.

Dora and her friends, however, are freed from their captivity by a friend of Dora’s father, Alejandro (Eugenio Derbez) and the group try to find the city before the villains do.

Now, do not get me wrong.  There were some spots in the new film that made me role my eyes.  Specifically, the appearance of an animated fox called Swiper (voiced by Benicio Del Toro) who was among the bad guys and would “swipe” things.  There was also an almost too human like monkey named Boots (voiced by Danny Trejo).  These characters were weird additions, but I assume they are major parts of the animated show and fans of that show would enjoy their inclusion.  Boots wasn’t bad, but Swiper was a tough sell for me in this film.

Other than that, I enjoyed the film quite a bit.  The performance of Isabela Moner was spot on and helped carry this movie.  She delivered her role in both a childlike innocence and a confident teen.  She was remarkably cheerful, almost too much so, but, for the most part, her positivity was a winning characteristic.  Her bright and positive manner brought the explorer to life and she was a force on the screen.

There were funny parts, but there were also way too many poop jokes for my taste.  That part is targeted for the younger audience and the movie is clearly made for kids.  However, there are other parts of this movie that adults could appreciate.  Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a solid film for families to watch together and should provide enough entertainment that neither the kids nor their parents are bored.

There are times when this movie goes a long way into weirdness, including an animated section and a dance number, but those both felt very in tone with the rest of the film.

I believe fans of Dora the Explorer will be pleased with the adaptation of this movie and those people who have never seen an episode before will be able to find parts to enjoy as well.  I know I did.

3.5 stars