We have an early leader for worst movie of the year.

Tom & Jerry, the classic cartoon cat and mouse, debuted this weekend in some open theaters and on HBO Max and jumped to the lead in terribleness. Honestly, I would not feel right even saying the line, “This is a film that kids will like, but parents will not” because the fact of the matter is this… kids should not be exposed to stupidity of this caliber.

There is a plot, sort of, but it revolves around the human characters. Tom & Jerry are cartoon animals living in a real world with humans around. They find themselves in a hotel to cause shenanigans after our heroine Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz) sabotaged another person’s job interview at the hotel, stole her resume and took the interview herself. Nice message to the little children watching.

There was a great cast in Tom & Jerry reduced to slapstick and a brain damaged script. Not only was there Moretz, but there was Michael Pena, Ken Jeong, Rob Delany (Peter from Deadpool 2), Colin Jost (of SNL fame) and Jordan Bolger. The cast was wasted, and yet seemed to take up a lot of screen time. Perhaps that is because Tom and Jerry do not speak and someone had to carry the narrative.

There was rapping pigeons too. In the first scene of the movie with the rapping pigeons, one of them let off a pigeon poop at the other. I knew what kind of movie this one would be. There was also a scene where poor Michael Pena had to stop to clean up the poop that the dog Spike (Bobby Cannavale, no really) took in the middle of the crosswalk. High brow comedy, for sure.

The poop jokes could be excused if they were actually funny, but they were only cringy. I was looking at the time after only a half hour (which felt like triple that time). This movie was long too. Over a hundred minutes is way longer than this movie had any right to be.

The plot surrounding a wedding of a rich couple was the main driving force of the film, but it made little to no sense and depended upon a bunch of stereotypes. There was no need for it.

Characters bounced around, changing characteristics depending on what the plot required them to have. No one in the film was smart or elevated the film above the words on the page. It was a painful watch, but I was proud of myself for finishing it because, since I was viewing it at home on HBO Max, it would have been very easy to shut it off and turn to something else. Minari is available on Vudu this weekend.

Tom & Jerry is an utter waste. Go watch some of the classic Tom & Jerry shorts instead. They’re much better.

1 star

I Care a Lot is the first movie ever that has made me want to root for the Russian drug dealing gangster.

Released this weekend on Netflix. I Care a Lot is a black comedy featuring a group of characters that are, simply put, the worst people around. It’s like Ruthless People and Horrible Bosses without the cartoonish moments.

Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) is a legal guardian who uses her court appointed position to drain the bank accounts of elderly people who are court-determined to be unable to take care of themselves. Her manipulation of the court system made me feel bad for the other lawyer. When her doctor friend sends her an older woman without family, friends, but a tone of money, Marla realizes that she has found a “cherry,” an absolute easy mark. Easy money.

However, the woman, Jennifer Peterson (Dianne West) was more than what she appeared. Turns out that Jennifer Peterson had her own dark secret that was coming into conflict with Marla’s plans. SPOILERS We discover that Jennifer Peterson was not her real name and the woman was the mother of the presumed dead Russian gangster Roma Lunyov (Peter Dinklage). END OF SPOILER.

Marla, along with her partner and lover Fran (Eliza Gonzalez), are such rotten people that I found myself openly rooting against them and hoping that they would pay to karma. Rosamund Pike does a fantastic job of making me hate her. Her performance was great as I never once thought of her as Rosamund Pike. Instead, she was the selfish manipulator of these helpless elderly people.

She was very much like a cockroach too since everything that happened to her would never get rid of her. Peter Dinklage was a frightening presence in the film and these two characters had some powerful scenes together.

What was keeping me watching the movie was the hope of seeing Marla get her comeuppance. Even when the film switches gears and wants you to support Marla and Fran, I did not want to do it. I wanted this character to face justice for her ill-gotten gains, and when it started to look as if she was not going to pay the price, I was getting upset with the film.

SPOILER Yet, when the ending arrived, I was very satisfied on the fate of Marla with a call back from the beginning of the movie. END OF SPOILER.

I can see where some audience members may be split by this movie. Still, I found it to be very entertaining and I was pleased with the result of the movie. Rosamund Pike was exceptional as this horrendous woman and she easily matched the presence of the counter-balance of the film.

4.25 stars

You know a movie that starts out with animated clips of the Silver Surfer and Wolverine was going to be right up my alley.

Based on the children’s novel by Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses dropped on Disney + this weekend and gave us what we never knew we wanted… a super hero squirrel. And I am not talking about Squirrel Girl, either.

Flora (Matilda Lawler) was a ten-year old cynic, who loved comic books, especially those drawn by her father George (Ben Schwartz). Unfortunately, George had fallen on hard times in the comic industry and was currently separated from his author wife Phyllis (Alyson Hannigan). Flora was looking for something hopeful and she found it in the form of a squirrel, who after being accidentally sucked up by the neighbor’s runaway rumba-like vacuum, gained super powers.

Flora and Ulysses bond quickly (Flora actually saved Ulysses’s life with mouth to mouth) and she took him home, leading to shenanigans and chaotic events.

I had some doubts heading into this film, but I was entertained thoroughly. I found Flora & Ulysses funnier than I thought it would be, engaging relationship between the characters and silly situations that make this film a decent family movie to share with the entire family.

Matilda Lawler was charming and did a great job as the lead protagonist, wrangling the super squirrel and doing what she could to straighten out her life. There was the arrival of another young character, William (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), who had been stricken with hysterical blindness. It may not have been a very sensitive representation of blindness, but William was more than his disability. The film gave us some quiet moments with the boy too as there was a nice character moment with him.

The young actors do a great job, and they are anchored by Ben Schwartz and Alyson Hannigan, a pair of experienced actors who carry a heavy load. Anna Deavere Smith appeared in a strong cameo role.

Slapstick humor and a natural cheesiness, Flora & Ulysses provided a energetic film with decent special effects and some positive performances. The film is fun and certainly worth a watch as a family on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Kids should love the misadventures of the super squirrel and the parents can engage with the problems faced by the adult characters. Flora & Ulysses is just the type of film that will find a level of success on Disney +.

3.4 stars

Nomadland was one of the films that was at or near the top of many critics for 2020, but it was not one that I was able to see until this weekend, as it just now dropped on Hulu and in selected theaters. Many consider it a leading candidate for a possible Oscar nomination. That raises the question… is Nomadland really that good?

Short answer is… yes, it is really good.

Director Chloé Zhao provides a beautifully looking film as we follow the story of Fern (Frances McDormand), a woman who had lost everything in the Great recession and decided to take to the American roads as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

The movie has that distinct independent cinema feel to it as we do not have a true narrative plot to follow as much as we see a slice of life of Fern and what her days are like. She interacts with the people she meets along her journey and continues to find the little joys in life. Nomadland is a deep character study of Fern and the people that she meets on her trip, and it is compelling to watch.

Frances McDormand is wonderful as she always is, but this is an even more impressive performance considering many of the other people in the movie are real life nomads, including Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells from the film. Many times the use of untrained actors is a stunt, trying to draw attention to the film and show how “unconventional” it is trying to be. Many times, these stunts backfire because of the untrained actors and their lack of “acting” ability. However, the characters in Nomadland are real and believable, giving the film a natural feel. These non-actors do a really great job here.

The film does have a slow pace to it, but since the plot is an extremely limited aspect of the movie, there is not a really need to go fast. The imagery of the American West is lovely and plays to support the decisions of these nomads to travel the land instead of going into the bustling modern life. There is a theme within the movie of a rejection of putting down roots, despite the draw that it creates. David Strathairn is one of the other career actors involved here as Dave, whose ties to the home become strong and tests his feelings for Fern.

This was a enjoyable, engaging film that has a great central performance and beautiful cinematography. Chloé Zhao does a masterful job on only her second feature film (and it makes me fascinated to see her MCU film late in 2021, The Eternals).

4 stars

This one is Nicolas Cage at his schlocky-best.

Willy’s Wonderland is a strangely odd horror/comedy with Nic Cage playing a character who does not speak and is only known as “The Janitor.” He is fighting monstrous animatronic possessed by the demon spirits of some of the worst serial killer of all time. These animatronics are in the form of Chunk E. Cheese-like mascots.

Yes, that is what I said.

These animatronic monsters are kept inside a rundown restaurant called Willy’s Wonderland and the people of the town are feeding them by tricking strangers and visitors to stay at the restaurant and be killed by the monsters.

Nic Cage’s car has tire troubles and he makes a deal to clean the interior of the restaurant in exchange for his tires being fixed. Little did he know that he was being set up.

There was a group of kids here too, who had been trying to burn the restaurant to the ground. These kids are as disposable as possible. None of them were given much anything of a character and are the typical victims arriving in a slasher movie.

Cage’s character had all kinds of quirks, masquerading as character development. He did not speak at all in the movie and there was no indication as to why. That was not the only thing that was never explained. Cage had an alarm on his watch that went off on a regular basis, and, no matter what he was doing at the time, he would stop and go drink a soda that he had brought with him. He would break until his alarm went off again. There was no explanation for this either (outside of the guy who set up Nic telling him to take breaks, although I believe he had done this before that comment anyway).

Once inside, Cage was locked in, and the animatronics would come to life and try to kill him. Unfortunately for them, Cage seemed to be the real slasher in this slasher movie, and he went about systematically killing these creatures.

And this is the key to this movie. It is silly, B-level film (at best) but, if you watch this with the expectation that this film is just Nicolas Cage out killing weird monsters, then you’ll probably enjoy it. There is zero character depth or development. The story is silly. The local residents are horrific and caricatures. There were no surprises.

And yet, Willy’s Wonderland was fun. It was stupid, but engaging. The special effects fit the type of movie we had. I’d be lying if I said that I did not enjoy watching this. So, while this movie can not be considered good, it can be considered amusing. It is lively and entertaining. It might fall into that cult classic category eventually.

3 stars

The time loop/repeating day film has started to become its own genre as there have been a bunch of these films over the years. Groundhog Day is what everyone always goes to at first, but there has also been Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt’s action adventure Edge of Tomorrow and last year’s surprise hit on Hulu, Palm Springs. If done correctly, these can be very compelling films.

We have reached the next installment in this type of movie with Amazon Prime’s new movie, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things.

Mark (Kyle Allen) is a high school teen who appears to have everything in control. We then discover the secret. Mark is repeating the same day over and over on a loop. Becoming complacent with his life, Mark’s world was suddenly rocked when a blonde girl walked through his sight. changing what he knew. He became fascinated in who she was and started trying to find her. When he finds Margaret (Kathryn Newton), he discovers that she is in the same situation as he is.

The two of them began spending time together and started looking for those tiny perfect things that fills out the time in life between the major events.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is a charming, fun and entertaining and uses the familiar idea of the repeating day in a new and creative manner. One of the key aspect of the success of the movie is the wonderful leads, Kathryn Newton and Kyle Allen. They carry much of the film with their chemistry and their allure. You enjoy watching these young actors whether they were together or alone.

There are some strong moments as we follow the pair along, adapting to their new regular circumstance. Both have internal struggles with their lives and facing them are developing their characters. They approach the idea that maybe they did not want to escape the time loop, which is something that we have not seen yet.

This is a enjoyable movie that is romantic and funny, with some very good performances from young and charming lead characters. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things makes for a good time.

4 stars

One of the big Oscar possibilities for this year dropped this weekend on HBO Max, as well as select theaters. It is a biopic set in the racially explicit 1960s after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X where the chairman of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton, rises to the top of the FBI’s target list and an FBI informant is sent into the world of the militant organization to gather information.

Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) was a small time car thief who would pretend to be an FBI agent to make it easy to rip off the automobiles. Caught by the police, O’Neal was pressured into becoming an informant and sent into the Black Panthers. The film then records the tragic events that followed involving Hampton and the rst.

Daniel Kaluuya is wonderful as Fred Hampton, showing both his dedication to the ideas of the organization as well as his connection to his family. Kaluuya most likely will receive an Oscar nomination for his work here and it would be very deserving.

LaKeith Stanfield is compelling as William “Bill” O’Neal, showing us the conflict he had within himself over what he was being forced to do by the FBI, in particular, Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). It was obvious that O’Neal did not want to be in this situation, but he found himself stuck and he made a decision that put himself first.

The one actor who stood out like a giant prosthetic nose was Martin Sheen, who had a limited role as FBI head J. Edgar Hoover. I have always enjoyed the work of the former President Jed Bartlett (from West Wing), but as soon as I saw him with that nose, I was completely distracted and it pulled me out of the film. As I said, Hoover had very limited screen time and that was a good thing for me.

Unfortunately, Judas and the Black Messiah continues to feel relevant for the world today, as black people continue to be treated poorly, if not fatally, by police. You can see some of the outright cruelty shown by the police and the FBI of the time and the use of the black revolution as an excuse to attempt to keep them down and maintain the white privilege that has, sadly, remained active to this day. There are some shocking moments in this film and it is an important story to tell.

Some of the quieter moments of the film were less intriguing as the conflict within, but the film is elevated by some top line performances from both Kaluuya and Stanfield.

3.75 stars

John David Washington and Zendaya are the only actors in this film from Sam Levinson that arrived on Netflix this past weekend. It is shot in beautiful black and white, and both actors are strong. Unfortunately, the film is chock full of anger and resentment that it is simply an uncomfortable watch,

Malcolm (John David Washington) and Marie (Zendaya) are a couple, returning from Malcolm’s movie premiere, a “tour de force” that was certain to be a rave review from critics. However, as they return to their home, deep seeded issues come to the surface, threatening their relationship.

Both of these characters then proceed to rip into each other with a viciousness and a cruelty that made me really want to shut it off. It was brutal and off-putting. Malcolm was so verbally out of control that you could not help but wonder why Marie would stay with him. It made me think about the abusive relationships out there that are toxic and do damage to people’s self-image. However, Marie had her moments of destructive tendencies as well.

The film also had some strange obsession with a “white woman writer from the L.A. Times” as well as a couple of other critics. She is apparently based on a real person at the LA Times. They spent a lot of time in this movie slamming this writer for her opinions and her criticism. It was really ugly and truly petty. There was so much time donated to the attack on this critic that it feels as if it was nearly as important of a plot point as anything that came out of these two people’s mouths.

Malcolm & Marie is supposed to be a romantic film, but I did not find anything here romantic. Not even in the least. In fact, this had more moments of me felling dirty and disgusted that someone believed that this is what a relationship had to be. While Zendaya and Washington are really passionate and powerful while delivering their monologues (and oh, there are lots of monologues), there is little character development and I felt nothing in chemistry. In fact, it feels as if the film used some sexual situations and titillating imagery to force the chemistry between them. I never felt it. The anger and vitriol overcame any sensuality. It was an unhealthy relationship and I wanted Marie to just leave the house.

Whatever positives I get from Malcolm & Marie come directly from (to a lesser extent) John David Washington, whose Malcolm is an unlikable, verbally-abusive dick, and (to a greatest extent) Zendaya, whose Marie felt as if she was trying to defend herself more than just be cruel. Zendaya embodied Marie with a lot of sadness and her pain comes across considerably more than any professed love does.

There is just too much bile in this film for me. Bile between the characters and bile towards the “white woman from the LA Times.” It was not an enjoyable experience. Sorry if my criticism offends anyone.

2.1 stars

There was a new original science fiction film on Amazon Prime this weekend starring Owen Wilson called Bliss. I was unimpressed.

It had been a bad stretch for Greg (Owen Wilson). He had gotten divorced and then fired from his job. After making a huge mistake, he found himself in a bar looking to drown his sorrows. There he came across a mysterious woman named Isabel (Salma Hayek), who tells him that the world that is falling apart around him is not real, that he is trapped in a computer simulation.

I have to say that I think Owen Wilson does an admirable job here. Despite the silliness of the film, he is giving his very best performance and effort. The problem is there is just not enough here to justify it.

I have always enjoyed Salma Hayek too, but this character of Isabel is just not one that I can connect to. She seems to be all over the place and I am just not certain what she is meant to be. That maybe is done for a purpose, but it made her unlikeable and she was hardly written in a manner that made her someone I wanted to root for.

The story itself was was messy and lost my attention several times. Much of what happened felt coincidental and unearned while the movie spent more time explaining the rules of the film and then breaking them as it went. Some of the dialogue was unintentionally funny and really gave a disservice to Wilson and Hayek.

The third act just took the entire setup and just flushed it down the toilet. The ridiculousness of the third act took any of the possible good will from earlier in the movie or the potential of the premise and tossed it aside.

Bliss’ core premise has some possibilities, but the execution of this film does not come anywhere near those. Despite the likeable actors involved, Bliss is just not worth the time.

2.1 stars

Boy, oh boy.

I was watching Fatman Beyond last week, as much to catch Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin’s views on the new episode of WandaVision as anything else. Then, Marc Bernardin made a recommendation of a film on Hulu called In & Of Itself, and he said it the was the best thing he had seen that week. He said it was a filmed version of a stage show featuring magic and storytelling and he called it “revelatory and remarkable.” So with that recommendation committed, I wrote the movie title down on my notepad to remind me to catch it when I could.

Marc Bernardin was 100% correct. This was a masterful piece of entertainment that was both awe-inspiring and emotionally transcendent. This film grasped me and took me to a place where I didn’t know that I wanted to be. Honestly, the last film that has made me feel like this one did was the Mr. Rogers’ biopic documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor.

Derek DelGaudio is a magician and this is a one man show where he uses the magic he does, some of which is utterly amazing, to emphasize and illuminate the stories that he would tell. The idea behind the stories was to reveal to the audience not only who Derek DelGaudio was, but who they were are as well. The use of the audience in this film was part of the masterful manner DelGaudio makes these stories feel universal and connects us to the emotions and feelings of a group of strangers.

It is the type of interactions that we really need to have in this time in our history.

I do not want to go into too many specifics because part of the magic of the film is not being sure exactly where it is heading as it moves you along. The very first story DelGaudio tells us was tremendously gripping and carried through as a throughline, effectively connecting everything together. It was truly powerful.

The whole time, Derek DelGaudio looked haunted or ravaged as the stories continued, draining the emotions rom him. I cannot imagine how he could do this as a one-man play for a year and a half without being overcome with emotion constantly. It is an amazing performance.

The film is directed by Frank Oz and was executive produced by Stephen Colbert and Evelyn McGee-Colbert. Colbert had seen the stage show and was so impressed with the manner of the show that he wanted to help create the film version to preserve the experience.

In & Of Itself is a powerful film that is truly an important piece for the world we live in now.

5 stars