Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Tuesday

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June 24

I have not seen a movie start off with a bigger WTF in a long time than Tuesday, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

A24 has used some bizarre concepts to deal with serious issues, from farting corpses to being transformed into animals if they can not find love. On the surface, it may seem absurdist at times, but there are always deeper undertones in the narrative than what you would expect.

This movie deals with death, but not just the grief and pain of the loss, but specifically the inability to accept the inevitability of the end and the strides someone will go to to avoid that acceptance.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus played Zora, the mother of Tuesday (Lola Petticrew), who is a 15-year old, wheelchair bound girl with an incurable fatal disease. Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives the best performance of her career, which is saying something, as she struggled with the denial, taking steps to avoid the loss unlike anyone has every done before.

I am trying to remain somewhat vague in my details of this movie, because I went into it with no expectations for it and I was blown away by the surreal aspects of the film. If you can go into this film without any knowledge of the way the story progresses, the better your experience will be.

Tuesday is a powerful piece that deals with something that everyone can relate to and does it in a poignant and emotional way. It is another winner for A24 and their amazing catalogue of films. It is available on HBO Max.

Nonnas

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June 23

For the second film of the day for the June Swoon, I went to my queue at Netflix for a film recently released starring Vince Vaughn. It was a comedy/drama called Nonnas.

After the death of his mother, Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn) impulsively decided to open an Italian restaurant on Statin Island, using real life Italian nonnas as the chefs. He wanted their homemade feel of family for the restaurant, warm and loving.

Of course, there are a bunch of troubles that spring up for Joe in his attempt to create his dream restaurant that would honor his mother.

The four women the film cast as the nonnas have a fun chemistry together and their Italian flair truly is the strength of the film. The actors included Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, and Brenda Vaccaro. They were as real as you could expect, right down to some of the same stereotypical flavors. Still, I think these ladies were the best part of the film.

I did feel like I was watching a sweeter version of The Bear in movie format. Many of the challenges that we saw play out on The Bear were also on display in Nonnas and I am certain that the reason this was made was to play off the success of the FX TV show. That is not a bad thing, but it does limited anything new that we could see.

The sweetness and warmth of the script and cast go a long way here, as some of the moments were very warm-hearted. Vince Vaughn played his role beautifully, holding everything together even when things were never going to work. I do think the ending is a bit predictable, and seemed to come out of nowhere quickly, but it does work for what we get here.

This may not be the greatest film ever made, but it is a very enjoyable watch with some characters that will make you feel good and a menu that might make you hungry.

3.5 stars

Nickel Boys

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June 23

Today’s June Swoon film is the final of the 2025 Academy Award nominated films for Best Picture that I needed to see. Nickel Boys was directed by RaMell Ross.

Nickel Boys tells the story of its two main protagonists, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), who meet at Nickel Academy, an abusive and brutal reform school in Florida during the 1960s.

The film is told through the first-person perspective of both Elwood and Turner, though never at the same time. The perspective of either Elwood or Turner is used as the camera, with the supporting actors looking directly at the camera. The technique makes this film different than most other movies that I have seen.

The story is also told in a nonlinear format with flashforwards to Turner’s future. There were some moments that were difficult to follow during the movie, considering the switching of the POVs.

There are several artsy scenes throughout the film including a few scenes from the Sidney Poitier film “The Defiant Ones” as well as clips with Martin Luther King Jr.

There are some powerful scenes during the horrors of the reform school. It is a long movie and I had some trouble focusing on it, but there is no doubt that this is an amazing piece of art.

Another Simple Favor

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June 22

2018 saw the release of a movie that caught the world by surprise. A Simple Favor was directed by Paul Feig and starred Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in a black comedy/mystery that was really clever and creative. In 2025, Amazon Prime streamed a sequel to the film, Another Simple Favor trying to catch magic once again.

I will say that this sequel is not as great as A Simple Favor, but it is entertaining as well.

According to IMDB, “Stephanie Smothers and Emily Nelson reunite on the island of Capri, Italy for Emily’s extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman, which is interrupted by murder and betrayal.“

Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) becoming an author of true crime books and an online vlogger about other cases she investigated worked well for the character. Part of the key to the success of the original was the clever dialogue and interactions and this kept Stephanie active in that part. Then, with Emily’s unexpected return from prison and immediate reinsertion into Stephanie’s life, the film started to keep the audience on its toes with what was about to happen.

Allison Janney appeared as Emily’s Aunt Linda, and she provided her acting chops to a story that does get crazily weighed down with weird story elements.

The key to the film is the banter between Lively and Kendrick. This is the strength of the film as their dialogue is crisp and funny. Their barbs back and forth keep you guessing about what is actually going on with a convoluted story.

The story itself is really not great. It turned out to be more of a parody of the first film than anything else. There are so many bizarre choices that it made me wonder if that was the overall purpose of the sequel.

As an Amazon Prime streaming film, this is fun. A solid watch on a Sunday afternoon. There is a reason why a sequel to a surprise hit was not released in the theaters. It is because the film is not strong enough for that. However, I did enjoy this on the power of the two lead actresses, even when they are in the most ridiculous, bordering on stupid, situations.

3.2 stars

The Fire Inside

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June 22

The June Swoon continued this morning with a boxing movie detailing the pursuit of the Olympic gold medal by Claressa “T-Rex” Shields.

Claressa Shields became the first American woman to win a Gold Medal in boxing but she discovered that, even after the ultimate success, there is nothing in life that is guaranteed.

Ryan Destiny played Claressa Shields, teenager whose dream was to become a star in the boxing ring. She was trained and supported by Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry). Claressa did not have a perfect life. She had troubles with her mother and struggling with the dedication required in her training.

In most sports biopics, the big victory is the ending of the film, but, in this case, Claressa success at the Olympic games in 2012 was just the start of the story. She discovered how difficult it was for a woman to translate her success in the boxing ring into big time success in life. The product endorsements were not coming and Claressa was being offered less than the male boxers were to go for another gold medal.

The struggle for Claressa became the chunk of the movie, detailing how she nearly hit the bottom, nearly pawning her gold medal. The film is also inspiring to see how she was able to overcome these problems in a push for a second gold medal.

I did like how this movie flipped the general formula of the sport biopic upside down and told the story in a different way. Strong performances made the film even more compelling.

The Friend

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June 21

The second film of the June Swoon today was one I rented off Fandango at Home and I rented it because they had Bill Murray on the cover and had a decent Rotten Tomatoes score. We are under ten days now left in the June Swoon and the 2025 movies have been tough to find to watch.

According to IMDB, “Novelist and creative writing teacher Iris (Naomi Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Bill Murray) commits suicide and bequeaths his beloved Great Dane to her. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly reminding her of her friend’s choice to take his own life. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding to the animal, she begins to come to terms with her past, her lost friend, and her own creative inner life.“

I had no idea what this movie was about. I did not know that this was going to be a story about a girl and her dog. I’ve never been a big fan of dog movies that try to tug on the heartstrings. However, this added more to the story than just the dog. The story of Walter (Bill Murray) having committed suicide and how that affected the people around him was very interesting for me.

Naomi Watts is always great. There could have been more Bill Murray for my tastes, but I understand why that is the case with the story.

I am not a dog person, but this was a nice film. I liked the balance between the guilt and sadness of one aspect of the story and the bonding between a very charismatic dog and a human.

3 stars

I’m Still Here

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June 21

Another Academy Award winning film came next in the June Swoon. This film won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film and had received nominations for Best Picture and Best Lead Actress. I’m Still Here is a political biopic from Brazil that detailed the story of Eunice Paiva, whose husband, a former congressman, was a victim of a forced disappearance during the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1971.

Fernanda Torres did win a Golden Globe for her role as Eunice Paiva, along with the Academy Award nomination. She was a powerful force in this film, showing so much depth of her character. It could have easily degenerated into a sob story, but the strength of Eunice and her constant desire to protect her family while searching for the truth really marked her as an amazing woman. Fernanda Torres brings all of the emotion and power to the role.

The resiliency of the Torres family was on full display as they had to go through so much uncertainty after armed men came into their house and took away their father. Then, Eunice and one of her daughters were taken for “questioning” and held for an extended period of time. Such behaviors of a government is and was unacceptable and I’m Still Here makes that argument clearly.

As an audience, we are given time at the beginning to get to know Rubens Paiva and see how important he was to his family before he was removed by the military. We could see the hole that his forced disappearance put in his family and how Eunice did everything she could to fill that gap herself.

The film did have a couple of sections at the end showing the family in the future, including one in 2016 where Eunice was in a wheelchair and suffering from Alzheimer’s. There was still a powerful hope within that family, a trait that came from Eunice’s decade long fight for the truth. I am not sure if these last two scenes were really needed, but it was nice to see how these people’s lives moved on after they realized that their father was not coming back.

This is a long film, but it was worthwhile thanks to an amazing lead performance and a story that helps us understand what life under a dictatorship could be like.

28 Years Later

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I recently rewatched 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, the two other films in this franchise in preparation for this new film, 28 Years Later, which reunited Danny Boyle as director and Alex Garland as a writer (they worked together on 28 Days Later). After watching 28 Years Later, I realized that I really did not need to do that homework.

28 Years Later does pick up the story of the Rage Virus, with England now being a fully isolated and quarantined. It started off with an action set featuring boy named Jimmy. After we see this, the film is set in a village on the island of Lindisfarne, where we meet Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his sickly wife Isla (Jodie Comer). They have a son named Spike (Alfie Williams) and Jamie is preparing to take Spike to the mainland on his first infected kill, a right of passage for the young boy.

The father-son had some harrowing adventures on the mainland and had to struggle to avoid an Alpha infected (zombie?) to make their way home.

Spike is very concerned with his mother’s mysterious illness and he takes her on a journey to the mainland in search of help for her.

This movie feel like two parts. The first part is the father-son adventure of Jamie and Spike and the second part is Spike’s adventure with his mom. Spike is 100% the main character and Aaron Taylor-Johnson disappears in the second part of the movie. Alfie Williams does an exceptional job as the main protagonist and we see Spike mature throughout the movie as he faces more and more dangers in the world. Alfie Williams has to carry way more of this film on his back than I ever thought possible and the young actor does a remarkable job of it.

Ralph Fiennes showed up eventually in a great role, but what would you expect? Ralph Fiennes is one of our greatest working actors.

The film has an old timey feel to it, which I believe is in the manner in which Danny Boyle shot the film. It was reported that he shot much of the film using iPhones and you could see the way that made the film appear. However, this film had several strange and experimental type shots that did not work as well for me. There were many film footage spliced in with the movie, which, at times, felt out of place. In particular, shots of a group of, what seemed to be knights shooting arrows in medieval times were used and I did not like that. They also inserted several flashes of infected just out of nowhere, in an attempt to make the shot feel more dreamlike. Many of these interludes felt out of place for me as well.

Without spoiling it, I was not a fan of the ending of the movie. I had not known that there was a sequel to this movie already done filming. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is scheduled to come out January 2026 and the ending of this movie is so much of a set up for the next movie that it is kind of irritating.

This is very much a different film than either of the first two that I think there may be some viewers who find it annoying and not what they were after. I did feel the length of the film at times and the distinctly different parts of the film did feel weird. You could almost call this an artistic vision of a zombie movie and not be too far off.

There were a lot of tense moments, but, if I am being sincere, I felt more tense watching the trailers for this movie than I did during the actual film. There were some solid emotional moments and there were some frightening scenes too, but those trailers were really good and built up a tone that the film did not sustain throughout.

Overall, I liked this movie a lot, even if I had some questions about some choices made, both in the story and in the presentation. Alfie Williams is a star in the making and he stands out here among some great actors.

3.9 stars

Elio

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The latest Pixar movie was released this weekend. It is entitled Elio and, to be honest, it was a film that I was not looking forward to because I just did not enjoy the trailers for the film. It is a brand new IP from Pixar and, while I have enjoyed most of Pixar movies, I just was not excited for this one.

After seeing this, I would say that it is a solid Pixar movie, but that I would not consider it in the top tier of the company’s oeuvre.

According to IMDB, “Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be.“

I did like the character of Elio, which was something that I worried about from the trailers. The film does a really good job of setting up Elio’s troubles and issues that lead him to look to the stars. Yonas Kibreab (who played Finn in Netflix’s adaptation of Sweet Tooth) does a solid job of voicing Elio, and I bought the relationship between him and his alien friend Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly). Much of the film will be centered around that relationship and if it does not work, the film will be in trouble.

The script does a good job of, while being familiar to other Pixar type films, avoiding the Pixar tropes that we have become used to over the years.

The voice cast is very good for the film including Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett, Brendan Hunt, Jameela Jamil, Matthias Schweighöfer, and Brandon Moon.

The design of the characters and the setting is standout, creating a glorious fantasy setting for our characters to work through. It will absolutely give young children something to keep their focus on.

I do think it takes some time getting going and has characters doing things that they may not be capable of doing, but there are some good messages in the film and I do think it will be a good family watch. It certainly was better than I initially thought it would be even if it is near the bottom of the Pixar film list.

3.75 stars

The Surrender

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June 20

So I did a second Shudder movie this morning for the June Swoon. It seemed like a good double feature with In a Violent Nature, and the fact that I am going to 28 Years Later this afternoon. The Surrender fit nicely into the schedule.

According to IMDB, “When the family patriarch dies, a grieving mother and daughter risk their lives to perform a brutal resurrection ritual and bring him back from the dead.“

Colby Minifie (who plays Ashley on The Boys) starred as Megan, whose mother Barbara (Kate Burton) was helping her ailing husband Robert (Vaughn Armstrong). Robert was stricken with cancer and was in terrible shape, in pain and agony.

Colby Minifie and Kate Burton did a tremendous job together in this film, which was, at times, very difficult to watch. Their performances stood out among the best parts of the film.

In fact, I would say the first two acts of this movie were excellent. There was deep issues between the mother and daughter and the grief over what was happening to Robert, as well as his ultimate fate, were creating high levels of stress and anxiety.

However, the third act of this movie really went off the rails. The first two acts dealt with the difficulty of caring for a loved one who was desperately sick and dying and another act handled the relationship between the family members. However, it is when the supernatural things start to happen that the film ceases to work. The character development that was alive in the first two acts of the film really take a back seat to the body horror or scary circumstances that are nowhere near as intense.

With the arrival of The Man (Neil Sandilands), the film still is working because of the uncertainty and the mysterious nature of everything that he is doing with the grieving wife and daughter. After that, things just get weird and there are no explanations for what happened or why things went as they did.

This started strong but ended with a very disappointing result. I still was impressed with Colby Minifie and Kate Burton and their work in their roles. I just wish they would have been given something better to wrap the story up with.

2.6 stars

In a Violent Nature

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June 20

In a Violent Nature is a film that I have had on my queue on Amazon Prime for quite a while. I remember seeing it playing at Cinemark, but never getting around to go to it. I also had it on a list of possible horror movies for last year’s October 13 watch, but it did not make the cut. I finally watched the slasher film for the June Swoon, and I tell you what, I was entertained.

According to IMDB, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 70-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it.“

This movie was really brutal and bloody, with Johnny, played by Ry Barrett, marching through the woods in pursuit of these dumb individuals who took the locket. He found some horrific brutality to murder them as he tried to reclaim his property.

I mean… all he wanted was his locket back. These kids were basically grave robbers. You can’t blame poor Johnny for wanting to bend someone’s head through their torso.

The film is intentionally trying to keep you uneasy as much of the dialogue from the kids were off screen, and we spent most of the film from Johnny’s POV. That meant there was a ton of trudging through the woods. That is obviously meant to be unsettling as was most of the sound design of the picture. You get to a point where you are desperate for some of the sound cues to end.

The film’s pacing is very slow, again on purpose. It really does take the subgenre of slasher films in a direction that it has not gone before. I can see people not being a fan of this because of the pacing and the feel that the creators of the film were going for. Still, I found it to be entertaining and one of the better, more original slasher films we have had in awhile. In a Violent Nature was worth the long wait to finally see it.

Titan: The OceanGate Disaster

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June 19

This is the second film of the June Swoon today, and it is a second documentary. However, unlike Black Barbie, this tells the recent tale of a horrible tragedy from this decade. The documentary focuses on the disaster of OceanGate, the submersible that was intended to take people to see the remains of the Titanic, only to have its own catastrophe.

According to Netflix, “The Titan submersible’s ill-fated journey to the ruins of the Titanic dominated headlines in June 2023, yet the shocking decisions that led to the disaster have never been revealed like this. Titan: The OceanGate Disaster delves into the psyche of billionaire OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and explores his relentless quest to bring oceanic exploration to the masses – at any cost. Through exclusive access to whistleblower testimony, pivotal audio recordings, and footage from the company’s early days, the film provides an unprecedented look at the technical challenges, moral dilemmas, and shockingly poor decisions that culminated in the catastrophic expedition. Titan examines the doomed underwater endeavor that forced the world to reconsider the price of unchecked ambition in the depths of the ocean.”

The documentary does a really great job of telling this story up until the actual journey of the Titan. The time spent with the Titan during the time before the implosion gives me a clear and obvious picture of why this tragedy occurred and why this was pushed forward. I feel as if the doc needed to focus in on the time during when the world was unsure of what was going on and were hoping that the people aboard the Titan could be saved.

There were some fascinating interviews with people who had worked on the project or who were scheduled to be in the exposition. These were all really well done. It just felt like the time about the actual submersible’s destruction was handled through box text on the screen.

The most anxious moments of the doc was the sound of the popping during some of the footage, popping sounds that were the submersible cracking. These recordings were tense and astounding.

The doc certainly sets up OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush as our film’s villain, but it would have been nice to go even deeper than what they did. I can see the arrogance and the narcissism, but I would like to know more about it than what was given. He is made out to be the bad guy here though, and he very well may have been.

Overall this was a compelling story that seemed to be missing a few specifics or some more depth that would have made this an absolutely powerhouse of a documentary. As it is, it is fine.

3.6 stars

Black Barbie: A Documentary

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June 19

It is Juneteenth and, for the June Swoon today, I am watching a documentary that debuted on June 19th last year on Netflix. It had been at SXSW film festival in 2023. Lagueria Davis is the writer/director of Black Barbie: A Documentary.

The documentary looked at the creation of and the history of the black doll and how the process of Black Barbie came to be.

According to IMDB, “Love her or hate her, almost everyone has a Barbie story. Even if they don’t have a story, there’s a story as to why they don’t have a story. In this film, we tell the story behind the first Black Barbie, because yes, she has a story too. It started with the filmmaker’s 83-year old aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell and a seemingly simple question, ‘Why not make a Barbie that looks like me?‘”

Where as it seems like a trivial concept, the importance of black dolls, specifically Barbie, have upon the self-image and self-esteem of young black girls. Some of the most powerful comments of the film indicate how the young black girls would see themselves as ugly because of the color of their skin.

It is one more example of how important it is for play for children. How important it is for the people in the doc to have a doll that resembled them, and not just Barbie with brown skin.

Mountainhead

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June 18

HBO Max has a movie called Mountainhead on its streaming service released in 2025. I scheduled this as the second film for the June Swoon today.

Mountainhead is a dark comedy that takes four characters who are the richest men in the world, who come together for a boys’ weekend, to discuss how much money they have and how they can control the world through economic turmoil with their technology and their influence.

Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef played the four tech billionaires who are preparing their ideas for creating a Utopian society with their AI and their tech skills.

The film started off with a lot of dialogue dealing with their plans and how they can use their manipulative abilities. The second part of the movie went into a dark and possibly ridiculous plan to eliminate one of their own.

This is clearly a satire poking fun at billionaires and their narcissism. The first part of the dialogue was difficult to follow. With all of the tech terms, it could have been as if they were speaking a different language. After that, the talented actors made the film wild. Looking at it like a satire helps it our.

2.75 stars

The Last Showgirl

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June 18

Hulu was the destination this morning for today’s June Swoon entry, the independent film The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson.

Pamela Anderson was most well known for her role on the television show Baywatch, a role which she parlayed into an infamous lifestyle and career. Whether fairly or not, Anderson was perceived in a manner that may not have been too positive.

However, Pamela Anderson completely dominated this role in The Last Showgirl, bringing an energy and an emotion that she has never shown before. She was a revelation.

According to IMDB, “When the glittering Las Vegas revue she has headlined for decades announces it will soon close, glamorous showgirl Shelly sets out to plan her next act. Reconciling the decisions she’s made and the community she has built, Shelly decides to repair her complicated relationship with her daughter.”

I kind of get the same kind of feeling with this movie that I had with The Wrestler. Performer, getting old, and desperately hoping to hold on to what they know best. Anderson’s character, Shelly, is less miserable than Randy “The Ram” Robinson, but she definitely has parts of her life that she looks back upon with regret.

The film has a solid cast around Pamela Anderson, including Dave Bautista, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Billie Lourd, and Jason Schwartzman.

Pamela Anderson proved that she was more than just her red bathing suit. She was compelling, passionate, emotionally-charged and carried this movie completely. She showed that she was more than what people gave her credit for back int he Baywatch days. She is an actor.