Category Archives: 2024 Movie Reviews

Nightbitch

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I thought I was done with new movies in 2024. I was working on the year in review stuff, organizing the best and worst lists when I decided to go to Disney + and see if anything was there. I couldn’t believe what I saw as the movie Nightbitch starring Amy Adams was available to stream. I did not expect Nightbitch on Disney + (it was through the Hulu subscription) so I decided I could watch another movie in 2024.

I am glad I did because I enjoyed the movie very much. It was a weird, unlikely story using dogs as a metaphor for motherhood and the struggles that it brings.

I saw Amy Adams with six nipples.

So that happened.

According to IMDB, Nightbitch is the story of “A woman (Amy Adams), thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog.“

Scoot McNairy played Adams’ unobservant husband and their relationship was at the center of the existential crisis Adams was going through. She was finding that she was losing herself in her attempt to be the wife and mother, including sacrificing her art to stay at home. The burden of motherhood weighed on her and her life became more and more out of control. Adams could only find release by transforming into a dog and running around the neighborhood.

Amy Adams does a great job in the lead role. I had no idea that the title of the film was intended to be literal. Although I believe that the whole dog stuff is really just in Adams’s head and that she was just doing these things. How much of this was actually happening and how much was an unreliable narrator in Adams’s character telling us what is happening?

I liked this movie a lot. I was surprised to see it at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes and even lower with the audience score. It does have a female lead and a message of struggles that the woman goes through so maybe it is one of those films that has been dropped down because of the anti-woke crowd who can’t stand a movie from the POV of a woman. I don’t know, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

4 stars

Getting Lost

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What a treat.

I think I had a knowledge in the back of my mind that there was a documentary in the works for LOST, but I had not gone looking for it. Then, I was on social media (I do not remember if I was on X or Facebook or Bluesky to be honest) and I found someone talking about the documentary being available on Prime for rental. I rushed over to Prime immediately to see if I could find it. And there it was.

I have to explain this. I have never been as connected to a TV program as I was with LOST. It was at the very heart of my being. When it ended, I felt like I had a hole in my heart that I just could not fill. It was a physical gap that had an emptiness about it. All these years later, I still think back on the show with so much love.

I was excited to watch this documentary and it immediately grabbed my attention. It had interviews with nearly everyone in the cast, producers, writers, fans and they were talking about all of the major aspects about LOST, from the cultural significance to the influential impact on TV to the importance of the show on people’s lives.

They talked about the pilot and how they were making the pilot without any expectation that it would ever be picked up. They talked about the Tailies, “The Constant,” Not Penny’s Boat, Charlie’s Death, “We have to go back,” Walt, the finale etc.

The documentary did not shy away from controversy either. They addressed how the finale is a divisive episode that split the community apart. They talked about the report a few years ago stating that the LOST writer’s room was filled with bullying, racism and sexism (which I had not heard about before this) and they asked Damon Lindelof about it. Matthew Fox did not appear via an interview for the doc and there was an ending moment where J.J. Abrams asked if they did not get an interview with anybody and the voice off camera said Matthew Fox. Abrams said, “Seriously? You never got Foxy? Come on, really?” and then said “That’s too bad. His loss.” I wonder if there was something contentious going on there. Dominic Monaghan apparently also declined an invitation to talk.

Filmmaker Taylor Morden included some specific details about the LOST fan community, including the podcasts that sprung up and also some of the charitable work done by the LOST community, especially dealing with cancer. There were some famous fans that were interviewed such as Samm Levine and Bobby Moynihan.

I loved this documentary. I may not be the most unbiased when it comes to my thoughts on it, but I do think that they went out of their way to include everything about the series, even the bad things.

AND IT WAS NOT PURGATORY! THEY WERE NOT DEAD ALL THE TIME!

Um.. sorry about that.

Nosferatu

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I have been looking forward to this movie for quite awhile. I have enjoyed every time Nosferatu has found his way onto the screen and so I expected to enjoy this too.

This is basically the Bram Stoker Dracula story with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) in the lead vampire role. Orlok has become obsessed with a young recently married woman named Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and he stalks her while tormenting the people of her town.

There are so many things that are great about Nosferatu. The acting was sensational from everyone. Nicholas Hoult played Ellen’s husband Thomas brilliantly. Willem Dafoe was Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz, the bizarre professor with the idea on what needs to happen. Aaron Taylor-Johnson played Thomas’s friend whose wife, Anna (Emma Corrin) was friends with Ellen.

The cinematography and images on the screen were absolutely stunning. The shots of the sea with the Demeter was artistic as could be. The imagery of every shot on the screen was beautiful and compelling. There was a shot of Orlok’s shadow with Ellen at the very beginning of the film which was amazing. There were images everywhere in the movie that stood out, showing what an amazing job director Robert Eggers has done on this movie.

I loved the coloring of the film too. It made it feel special and even the most frightening moments of the film looked lovely. The craftsmanship of the film is stunning and this film will be earning several tech Academy Award nominations when it comes time.

The movie was violent and brutal. There are moments where the images were difficult to watch.

The only drawback I can say is that it is basically the Dracula story retread and it might be a touch long. Other than that, this is a masterful reboot of the iconic film. I had went into the film with high expectations because I had heard so many positives about it, so that is always a danger. All of my expectations were reached and exceeded. This is a fantastic movie.

5 stars

I Saw the TV Glow

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The other film I rented off Fandango at Home/Vudu was entitled I Saw the TV Glow, and Zi had heard plenty of buzz about this, in both positive and negative ways. I thought this would be a good film to give a try.

I have to say that this was very surreal, dream-like and metaphoric. It was a difficult movie to follow and so much of it was shot intentionally to create that feeling of confusion or interpretive.

According to IMDB, “Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”

One of the film’s main themes deal with reality and identity… who they were on the inside. I do believe that this was a metaphor showing the way some people can deny whom they are, pretending that they are something else. I have a feeling that this movie will reverberate with some people considerably more because of that theme.

I also believe that there are several ways that this movie could be interpreted and that no one way is exact. Since this narrative is not one with straight-forward situations and answers, the audience member brings a lot of what they infer with them centered around their own personal knowledge and background. That makes this material quite rich.

The film was trippy and psychedelic in the best ways. Some people are going to look upon this movie with disdain for any number of reasons, but I was fascinated with it and I was intrigued with what was happening with these characters. I’m not sure how many times I would watch this movie on rewatches, but the first time experience was worthwhile of my time.

3.6 stars

The Apprentice

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This was one that I was not anxious to see. However, I had hear some of the buzz for Sebastian Stan’s powerhouse performance as Donald Trump and, since it became available to rent on Vudu, I decided to give it a chance.

Stan does a tremendous job in portraying Trump, not just by imitating him or parodying him, but by using certain mannerisms to get across what he is trying to show.

The film takes the young Donald Trump and shows you how he went from that young guy who was collecting rent for his father to a mogul that would do whatever he wanted under any circumstance.

Ironically, the film scenes may have been stolen by Jeremy Strong, who played Roy M. Cohn, Trump’s lawyer who helped teach the young Trump the rules of business that became such a major aspect of Trump’s life. After Trump could no longer get anything from Cohn, he tossed him aside like yesterday’s news. Strong’s performance was even better than that of Stan’s, albeit in less screen time.

The film does a good job of displaying a man who would become one of the most polarizing figures in American history.

3.7 stars

Doctor Who Special 5: Joy to the World

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Spoilers

Doctor Who returned to Disney + with the fifth special, Joy to the World, a Christmas story featuring Ncuti Gatwa and Nicola Coughlan.

I believed Nicola Coughlan was going to be the next companion, Joy, but that turned out to be incorrect. She becomes even more as she becomes a star and it turned out to be a star shining over Jerusalem in the year 0001.

The Doctor had to figure everything out by rushing through the Time Hotel, where he had to spend a year waiting to be able to access the Time Hotel once again. During that time, he befriended a co-worker at the hotel, Anita, and spent the year befriending her and spending time with her in chairs, something he realized that he did not have on the Tardis.

I loved the section where the Doctor had to wait a year and then just went and told his old self the briefcase code, which he had been told by himself. It was a loop and I loved how clever it was to have him find out the code by having himself tell it.

The whole time travel idea can be difficult, but I did like how this episode removed the potential time paradoxes with the Time Hotel.

This was emotional, joyous and a treat during this holiday season. I have loved Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and I hope he has a good long run as the character. I am looking forward to the next season and the potential return, at least for some episodes, of Ruby.

4 stars

A Complete Unknown

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I do like Bob Dylan, but I would not say that I love him. I enjoy some of his music and I got to enjoy him more when he became part of the Traveling Wilburys in the late 1980s. Even so, I was looking forward to this biopic A Complete Unknown from director James Mangold and starring Timothée Chalamet.

I had an undeniably good time with this movie as I was completely entertained.

This film takes a look at Dylan’s life and career spanning from 1961 until 1964. The first part of the film is the typical musical biopic with many of the same beats that you see in all of these, but, in the second part of the film, the story becomes less about Bob Dylan and his genius at writing and creating music, and more about his change from the basic folk music style into something more electric, which caused a great deal of anxiety among the folk community and the fans of the world.

If you excuse the pun, Timothée Chalamet is electric with his performance of the enigmatic musician. He absolutely becomes Bob Dylan and he does an amazing job here, as Chalamet not only acts, but he plays the guitar and sings the songs. And he does all of this with a wonderful proficiency that never breaks the illusion that he is building as Bob Dylan. It is an Oscar-worthy performance in my opinion.

The cast around Chalamet is sensational too. Edward Norton as Pete Seeger does a fantastic job as Dylan’s mentor before he pulls away when Dylan added electric guitar to his repertoire. Boyd Holbrook has a precious few scenes that he completely dominates as Johnny Cash. Scoot McNairy played a sick and unable to talk Woody Guthrie, an idol to Dylan and someone who inspired Dylan to push on. Monica Barbaro played folk singer Joan Baez, who carried on an affair with Dylan but struggled with some of his choices and Elle Fanning played Dylan’s girlfriend Sylvie, whose performance was fine, but whose character did not make a lot of sense and so was the weakest part of an amazing film.

The music of Bob Dylan (and a few others) was used brilliantly to keep the energy of the film flying through most of the two hour and twenty minute runtime. I could not stop tapping my toes or singing under my breath with the music as we got all of Bob Dylan’s classics from the time period (one of my favorites- Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door came out in 1973).

Admittedly, we do not go into too much depth of the characters in the film. We do not learn anything about Bob Dylan that wasn’t common knowledge, but I do not think that was a negative necessarily. There is an aura around Bob Dylan and this movie definitely creates that aura around Timothée Chalamet.

I loved this movie and I think it has a chance to make the top 10 of the year in a few days when I make the list. It is certainly going to find its way on the top 30 list for sure. I found this thoroughly entertaining and engrossing and I loved hearing this music. I was impressed with the performances, with Chalamet standing out as a major success.

4.85 stars

Elton John: Never Too Late

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Elton John is one of the greatest musicians from the 1970s and early ’80s, and there have been several versions about his life from A Life in Song to Rocketman. The latest Elton John documentary came to Disney + this month called Elton John: Never Too Late.

Fans of Elton John should love this documentary. The music is a highlight as they use some of his greatest songs as a soundtrack for the doc. There are moments in Elton John’s life that could have had more details developed within the doc.

Some of my own personal favorite parts of the doc included the section involving John Lennon, the details surrounding Elton John’s suicide attempt and his initial relationship with Bernie Taupin.

I also enjoyed how the doc used animated sections to visualize a series of interviews or tape recording that were used in the doc for the first time. Some of the pain from Elton John’s life was tough to hear and I appreciate how he was willing to go into the story for the doc.

I did enjoy the new song, ‘Never Too Late’ with Brandi Carlile, that played over the credits of the documentary.

This was an engaging documentary, but it could have gone into more depth than it did. However, it does touch on some things that are intriguing and the music is fantastic.

3.85 stars

A Different Man

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As the year is coming to an end, I went to Fandango At Home to see if I could find several films that I missed during 2024. I picked up a few rentals to watch over the next couple of days. The first one I watched was A Different Man, an A24 film starring Sebastian Stan and directed by Aaron Schimberg.

According to IMDB, “Aspiring actor Edward (Sebastian Stan) undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance, but his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost.“

There are many A24 films that are like this one, though different. There are wild, bizarre situations that seem to be taken in a normal, typical way. In this case, there is a sci-fi technique that led to Edward, who had Neurofibromatosis- a genetic condition that sees tumors grow on the body, to fixing his face, and it just was a way to change his appearance in the film.

Stan was excellent as the twitchy, malformed Edward. His change of facial appearance did not truly change him at all. It just opened some areas up to Edward, but he was just as uncertain and shaky as he ever was.

Adam Pearson played Oswald, another misshapen man, who brought himself into the play Edward was working in and kind of took over the stage. Pearson was amazing in the role and he had a complex character who seemed to be trying to take over the play while still being extremely likable.

Renate Reinsve played Ingrid, the playwright who had lived next door to Edward, gave a fantastic performance. She was very compelling with her relationship with Edward and Oswald.

I thought this was a very interesting film that was difficult to watch at times. The scenes where the tumors were being peeled off Edward’s face was horrific. Still, it is interesting that the film clearly is saying that the looks were not going to make everything better and that Edward regretted his decision in the end. Sebastian Stan did a great job in this role.

3.75 stars

200% Wolf

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This was an animated movie that I missed during its theatrical run this year despite it being in our area. I spotted it on Disney + and figured it would be a nice film to add to the list of movies I saw this year.

As I was on Disney +, I discovered that this is actually a sequel to a movie called 100% Wolf, which I had never heard of before but had been released in 2020. It is also on Disney +, but I did not watch it, deciding to go with just this movie.

According to IMDB, “Heroic poodle Freddy Lupin has everything it takes to lead his werewolf pack. Except respect. If only he were more… wolfish. But when a wayward wish transforms him into a werewolf and deposits a mischievous moon sprite on earth, Freddy must restore the cosmic order before earth and moon collide. Oops. One thing’s for sure – Freddy will never question being a poodle again.”

This movie was fine. It was an enjoyable enough film. It looked great and the character designs were cool.

It was funny and clever. It would be a wonderful family film to share during the holiday season.

3.5 stars

Blink

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Disney + streamed this documentary entitled Blink, which is basically a travelogue film of a family with a tragic twist. Three of the four children of the Pelletier family are diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder that causes those with it to eventually go blind. In order to help their children log their visual memory, their parents, Sébastien and Édith, take their children on a year long trip around the world to do a bucket list.

The film then followed the family across the world to do things such as explore the rainforest or drink juice on a camel in Egypt or hike across the Himalayas.

Much of the travel aspect of the film was things that we saw before, but the real moments of this was the interactions between the family members and the moments where they approached the idea of being blind.

One of the toughest moments came when Édith realized that her youngest child, Laurent, did not understand what it meant to be blind. She handled it in as kind of a way as possible, but the boy’s reaction and responses were heartbreaking.

There was another moment where the family was on a cable car and it broke down, trapping them for hours. It got dark, it rained, they had little to no water. The inadvertent metaphor for being trapped in this cable car as everything went dark around them was almost to cruel to believe. It was the most harrowing moment on the trip that the family had to face.

It is definitely a challenging watch as the reality of what these children will be facing is always under the surface of what they were doing. Yet, it was able to maintain the joy and hope life can offer.

This is a very compelling documentary.

3.8 stars

Mufasa: The Lion King

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When the 2019 Lion King “live-action” remake broke the billion dollar club at the box office, you should have known that we were getting something more. My guess is that Mufasa: The Lion King will not be the same kind of demand.

Mufasa: The Lion King from Disney came out this weekend. The film was directed by Barry Jenkins and featured a “live-action” cast of CGI animals in a CGI generated African land. How this could be considered a “live-action” film is up for an argument.

Unfortunately, I did not like the 2019 remake of the Lion King and I am not a huge fan of this new film either. I do think that this film is better than the 2019 version. Specifically because this film does a better job of avoiding the uncanny valley of the 2019 film. Those lion characters in 2019 did not show us any emotion on their faces at all, lacking any ability to emote, making them all seem very distant from the audience. That is considerably better with this movie.

In fact, the strength of Mufasa: The Lion King is easily the CGI. This film looks absolutely gorgeous and it has some of the most realistic artwork that you are ever going to see in a film. In fact, I could see people claiming that some of these animals were real and not contrived on an artist’s board.

I did have some major issues with Mufasa: The Lion King, most notably that there was not much new in the story. It was basically the origin story of Mufasa and Scar as the two lions went on an adventure and met other characters from the original Lion King. Not much else.

There was a devise used to tell the story with Rafiki (John Kani) telling the story to Simba’s daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogan) which was a total waste of time. Nothing that happened in this framing device was funny or worth taking away from the main story.

I also thought that the sound mixing was horrendous. Perhaps this is the theater I was in, but I had trouble hearing a lot of the dialogue because the music in the background was playing so loudly or dominating the moment of the scene. Speaking of the music, I did not find any of the songs interesting or song that I would remember later. Even the songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda were unremarkable. They were fine when watching it, but there is not one song that I can recall as of this minute.

Mufasa: The Lion King had its moments for sure. It is a stunning accomplishment of visual arts, but there just seems to be little else that makes this an important story to tell. While it is not a waste of time, it is anything but a great movie.

2.8 stars

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

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The Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy is a pretty decent trilogy, as the third film in the franchise debuted this weekend.

I liked this movie, although, to be fair, it felt very much like the last one, with the arrival of Knuckles. This time, we get Shadow and the beats are similar to the previous film.

According to IMDB, “Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.“

Shadow is voiced by Keanu Reaves and he does a solid job as the villain. The film does take a different step at first with the use of Doctor Robotnik, played once again by the amazing and manic Jim Carrey, who also plays Robotnik’s grandpa, Gerald Robotnik. Carrey feels as if he is always having the time of his life playing this character as he has a free and compelling flow to everything he does as Robotnik.

The action and the CGI are all top notch, and the final act of the film was filled with tension and unexpected action. It is just that everything seemed very familiar leading up to it.

Since I am not familiar with the video game or Sonic’s general world, watching the post credit scenes did nothing for me. I bet this is the way that others feel at the end of Marvel Studios movies when I am flipping out over some reveal of a character. Both post credit scenes were definitely designed for fans of the video game. That is okay.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is better than it had a right to be. It was fun, had a lot of humor and was an exciting family friendly adventure with a good message. Jim Carrey is outstanding as always and the rest of the returning actors feel comfortable and confident in their roles.

3.75 stars

Carry-On

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Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman star in a New Netflix action flick called Carry-On, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who was known for The Shallows, Orphan, Non-Stop and Black Adam.

Carry-On is like Die Hard 2 meets Phone Booth. It is an exciting action movie with some preposterous situations that should not work. However, everything is so thrilling and dramatic that you excuse the improbable and embrace the excitement.

Egerton played Ethan Kopek, a down on his luck TSA agent whose girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson) is pregnant. Kopek, who was denied his dream job of joining the police force, is going through the motions at his TSA job at the airport. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Kopek gets blackmailed by a man (Jason Bateman) who wants him to make sure a carry-on case gets through the security check and he says that if he does not, Nora will be killed.

Most action movies requires a lot of suspension of disbelief and this is no exception. However, the film is very exciting and everything is put together so well that even on those time when it feels like the film has stretched credibility, you are okay with it because of the well done story.

Egerton and Bateman carry on a conversation over a headpiece for much of the film and they are very engaging during this time. I did not expect Bateman to be able to play such a cold monster as he does in this film, but he does it exceedingly well. Egerton is a perfect foil for Bateman as he played the young, lacking confidence hero beautifully and we see him slowly gaining more strength as the risks pile up.

It does a good job of building the tension in each scene and the anxiety of the situations. The over the top scenes are still set up and executed well. If you have to pick apart the situations, a lot of the film would not hold up, but you could say that about most action/adventure movies, especially this type of action movie like Die Hard.

There is one scene involving a car crash that has some wonky special effects, but most of the movie is practical effects and looks pretty solid.

And I suppose we could argue about this being a Christmas movie.

Carry-On is a lot of fun and brings an electric action thriller despite some of the most implausible moments. Egerton and Bateman were excellent and carry the film on their backs.

3.75 stars

Kraven the Hunter

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Kraven the Hunter is the final film in the Sony Extended Spider-Man Universe, which has included the Venom movies, Morbius, and Madame Web. And I think I can speak for everybody when I say, THANK GOD!

I had a lot of hopes that Kraven could be an exception for the Spider-Man-less films. Unfortunately, this was the rule instead.

Kraven the Hunter was terrible.

I am not sure what this movie was supposed to be. The story was all over the place and the film jumped about willy-nilly.

Where to start? I mean… everything that we saw in this film made no sense and the film did not seem to care much about making it make sense.

There was a tremendous cast here that somehow brought some of the worst acting you have ever seen. Aaron Taylor Johnson was okay as Kraven, but Russell Crowe and Ariana DeBose, both who had won Oscars, gave some of the worst performances I have ever seen. How does this happen?

Part of it was that the writing was some of the worst of the year. The dialogue was horrendous, laughable and did no favors for any of these actors. It was on the level of Madame Web which was one of the worst of the year.

Another part of the dialogue that was terrible was all of the ADR. This is a thing when the movie will have voice overs, re-recording scenes for whatever reason. The fact is that the ADR is done really poorly. I swear the character The Foreigner never moves his mouth. It was very noticeable and distracting. All movies do ADRs, but why does the Sony Spider-Man movie do this so badly (because Madame Web was terrible too).

There were some action that was okay, particularly a chase scene with a car and Kraven on foot. However, most of the action of this movie were average, at best. With the action being okay, the film needed it to be much better to overcome the other negatives of it.

Sadly, it feels like Kraven the Hunter has joined the race for the worst movie of the year. There are legit 6 films that could be in that number one slot at the end of the month for my Worst Movie List. There was just no life or any sort of joy here. Every time Kraven cracks a quip, it was totally flat and felt out of place. Some of the CGI was as poor as you would expect. There just is not much to enjoy about Kraven the Hunter. He has always been one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, but this does not work on any level.

0.9 star