I have missed some movies recently in theaters because of schedules, sickness and time.  Then, because of the worldwide pandemic currently underway, movie theaters across the nation closed, basically putting an end to the hopes of seeing some of these movies any time soon.

However, some movie studios have made these movies available early on streaming services to expand the views.  This gave me an opportunity to see some of the films I missed.

Vudu started this off today with The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Emma.  Two of those I have seen, so that made a choice easy.

Directed by Autumn de Wilde, Emma is the latest adaptation of the classic novel from Jane Austen of the same name.  It is a period piece, set in England in the 1800s telling the story of a young woman named Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy), a well-meaning but selfish lady, who has assumed the position of meddlesome matchmaker for her friends.

I will admit that I had a difficult time getting engaged int he film at first.  Distractions around me at home made it more challenging to focus than it may have been in a theater.  Unfortunately, that is the situation I was in.  Still, as the film progressed, I found myself drawn into the comedy and the relationships developing before me.

By the last hour or so, I was fully enthralled in the film and I enjoyed the rest completely.

Anya Taylor-Joy was beautiful and shone on the screen like few others.  She is clearly a star in the making and you can see she has a bright future ahead of her.  Bill Nighy played Emma’s father, Mr. Woodhouse and he was a clear standout.  His character was both eccentric and easy to relate to, which is a difficult combination to accomplish.

I also found myself enjoying the work of Johnny Flynn as George Knightley, Emma’s friend and eventual love.  He was an intriguing looking star and I quite enjoyed his originality in the role.

I have not seen other Emma adaptations so I have nothing to compare.  Despite a lacking beginning, I did enjoy Emma and I was happy it was available for rental at this time.

3.75 stars

DC Animation has always given us some really great movies.  In particular, those movies that are directly adapted from the comic books.  They have done it once again with the debut of Red Son.

I have been waiting for this to drop on Vudu for a couple of weeks now as I spotted it in their movie section.  It was available to rent on March 17th and so I waited.  I had not read the Mark Millar graphic novel Red Son from DC Comics, although I was aware of it.

Basically, it was the story of what would happen if the rocket carrying baby Kal-El crashed in the Soviet Union instead of Smallville, Kansas.  The animated movie did not spend a lot of time with young Superman, choosing to highlight one basic scene of little boy Supes being saved from the Soviet bullies.

Once it was revealed that he had amazing abilities far beyond those of mortal men, Superman went to the state and became a weapon for Josef Stalin.  Stalin made it seem as if he were kind and helping the Soviet people, but, when Superman discovered the truth, things turned.

We saw versions of Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern during this film, as well as Brainiac and Lex Luthor.  There were some real differences with these characters, and, the fact that Lois and Superman aren’t forced together was a neat factor.

The animation was average. much like the other DC Animated movies.  If they would put some money into these films, they could be major hits.

It was a fairly straight forward story with little surprise.  In the end, it was a fun watch, but I have seen better animated movies this year.

3.5 stars

Continuing on the streaming services for new movies, I watched the new release Lost Girls on Netflix this morning and it was very compelling.

Based on a true story, Lost Girls tells about the disappearance of 24-year old Shannon Gilbert, and her mother’s desperate struggle to find her, to get any help from the local police and to deal with feelings of guilt.

Mari (Amy Ryan) was not a perfect mother, by any stretch of imagination, but when her daughter disappeared, she became an unapologetic tenacious warrior, butting heads with everyone involved in the situation.  Many of the police involved did not take the situation as seriously as they may have since Shannon was working as a sex worker at the time.

Gabriel Byrne played the police detective Richard Dormer, who was in charge of the case.  While searching for the missing girl, police accidentally uncovered the remains of several other girls.  These girls ultimately were shown as victims of the Long Island serial killer.

The film is painfully compelling and paints a picture of Mari, warts and all.  She is the most fascinating of characters here and her anger carried through the entire film.  Much of the anger she displayed came from a place of self-guilt.  She had plenty of struggles with Shannon over the years and she could not help but know that she had contributed to this moment in time for her daughter.  Amy Ryan does a wonderful job of bringing this woman to life.

Though the film does not have a satisfactory conclusion, the filmmakers did an admirable job of providing the viewers with as much closure as they could.  I understand that they were working with an unsolved case, as the film states at the very beginning, and a certain amount of disappointment was going to come with that.

There does feel as if there are several ways this could have been taken that would have made this movie even more compelling, yet the film has some solid performances and is worth the watch.  Just be aware that there will not be a happy ending with the story wrapped into a tight little bow.  Plus, there is text to read at the end that really could have sent this movie into a different direction.

4 stars

The latest family friendly film arriving on Disney + is based on the YA novel of the same name by Jerry Spinelli, called Stargirl and it was sweet.

Teenager Leo Borlock (Graham Verchere) was an average student at Mica High School until he meets a charismatic, free-willed new student named Stargirl (Grace VanderWaal), and his life was never the same.  Her ukulele playing at the football game made her into a good luck charm as the school embraced her quirkiness.  Popularity can be fleeting in high school so when things went wrong, Stargirl found herself shunned and Leo found himself confused and desperate to figure things out.

This is the type of film you would expect to find as an original on Disney +.  It featured a healthy dose of magic and goodness, just the type of fare that Disney has thrived on over the years.

Grace VanderWaal is an absolute star.  She had an amazing aura about her that made her someone who you had to keep your eyes on every second she was on the screen.  She had an undeniably special feel about her.

But she was not on screen alone and her co-star, Graham Verchere was solid as well.  He was a perfect foil to Stargirl’s magic.  Verchere’s Leo came alive when he was with Stargirl and Verchere played this beautifully.  His vulnerability filled his performance opposite Stargirl’s confidence.  There was a magic between them.

The story was fairly simple and did not go into a great deal of specifics, but there are some solid moments.  I especially liked how Stargirl did not make the right decisions every time and, unwittingly, does something that hurts a fellow student.  Stargirl was not perfect.  She was flawed as anyone.

The music of the movie was weaved into the story in a wonderful manner.  The music at the football game and then, eventually, at the dance really helped capture the imagination of the audience and created a dream-like state.

Stargirl is a coming of age movie with a lot of Disney magic involved and some great musical numbers.  Some characters are shorted in their development, but the pairing of Stargirl and Leo is what the film is about.

3.75 stars

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm

The Hunt was originally intended to come out in September 2019, but wound up being delayed until this weekend.  The controversy surrounding this movie was clear and the battle lines were drawn.  Lots of controversy and complaining from people who had never seen the movie.

After seeing The Hunt, I can understand why there are people who are polarized about it because it is very clearly a movie that is divisive.  However, I do not understand the anger directed at it since it is obviously a satire and both sides of the political world is lambasted equally.

A group of people from the “deplorables” are kidnapped by some “lefty elitists” and taken to a mysterious location.  They are drugged, gagged and scattered around.  Once they come to, they start being picked off, one by one.  Scattering, the group attempts to avoid the people hunting them.

The first act of this movie was extremely unexpected because as you meet a character that feels as if this was the main protagonist that you are meant to follow, something would happen that makes it clear that this was not the person we were meant to follow.  It’s shocking and it is funny.

Betty Gilpin from GLOW eventually is revealed as the main protagonist of the film and she is just amazing.  This is a star-making performance for her and she is unbelievably likable here.  This is even more impressive since there really is very little effort made to develop characters.  Most of the characters do not get past their surface structure. Betty Gilpin is no exception.  Her development is minimal, but that does not prevent her from being an awesome, kick-ass character.  The end shows that there may have been a reason for the lack of character here, and it may even be worth it.

The violence is vicious and gory.  Some of the kills are well designed and entertaining while others felt as if they were simply there for shock purposes.  I have seen more violent movies so this is not a disqualifying feature for me.

The movie does have a message, in particular, about social media and the nature of it, but the message is not pounded into your heads, although it is not necessarily subtle either.

This was a funny satire with some cool action involved.  Betty Gilpin is an early season leader for Kick Ass Female of the Year in what should be a competitive year in that category.  You may be offended by The Hunt, but, if, like me, you are not, then you will probably laugh and have some good time with an over-the-top movie.

4 stars

This one is better than the last one.

All the Bright Places is a coming-of-age/teen drama movie featuring Elle Fanning and Justice Smith and it is based on an international bestselling novel by Jennifer Niven.

Theodore Finch (Justice Smith) is out running one day when he comes across Violet Markey (Elle Fanning) on the edge of a bridge.  Stopping, he brings her back from the edge and they eventually begin a relationship.  However, there are problems because Finch has his own baggage from a childhood of trauma.  There are some serious mental health issues on both sides of this relationship and yet they seem to find the best in each other.

The story itself is only average.  The two of these characters are quite inconsistent through much of the film and, while that could be a trait of the age, it does not help us connect with them.

However, both Elle Fanning and Justice Smith are charismatic and charming.  They share a great chemistry and fill the screen with the power of their personalities.  You connect with them considerably more because of the actors playing them than the story they are playing out.

There was a bit too much melodrama in the movie for my tastes.  They bounced back and forth between the two of them for much of the run time.  Maybe that is the point, but it feels as if they left too much out from the story of these people.

I have not read the book, but I wonder if it provided more of a opportunity to understand who these characters were and why they acted the way they did.

Still, this was a fine film, if for nothing more than the performances of the two lead actors.

3.4 stars

I have begun my “Not Going to Theater While Coughing” streaming service watch today on Netflix with a film called Twin Murders: The Silence of the White City.  The summary on Netflix made me believe that this would be an interesting film.

Nope.

A criminal profiler (Javier Ray) returns to Vitoria-Gasteiz  at the same time that a serial killer, thought to be in jail and being prepared to be released, has begun leaving corpses killed using bees.

I lost interest in this fairly quickly.  The story was not intriguing as I had hoped it would be and was predictable and uninteresting.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it is actually a Spanish language film, but this version is dubbed in English.  Because of that, the actors on screen do not match with the words they are saying and the voice over acting is hardly as emotional or human as it should be.  The voices lack the impact of the real voices.  I would rather had heard the real voices in Spanish and read the subtitles than hearing this half-hearted English translation.  It is nearly impossible to grasp the real performances these actors give because of it.

I hope the next one is a better film.

2.1 stars

One has to admire the bravery of the performance in this movie from Ben Affleck.  He has recently suffered from alcoholism and had checked himself into a treatment center and this could not have been easy to play this role.  Yet he did it and he was tremendous in it.

The Way Back is a sports movie with more.  Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) was a former star high school player at the Catholic High School.  The basketball world was at his feet, but he chose to leave it behind.  A troubled life followed which included a separation with his wife (Janina Gavankar) and an alcohol problem.

When his old high school’s coach had a heart attack, Jack is offered the position of head coach, working alongside assistant coach Dan (Al Madrigal) of a team with a group of problematic players who have not been successful.

The basic basketball scenes in this movie are nothing new.  In fact, it would be fair to say that most of the basketball scenes here are extremely formulaic.  Not to say they were not well done, but there was absolutely nothing new about any of them.  Everything that happened was something that we had seen before.

However, the scenes with Jack and his troubles were very well done and brought an uncertainty to the story.  The final act of the film was just strong and really took the film into an area where you were not sure what was going to happen.  That was a refreshing switch from what had been a predictable tale.

Ben Affleck was magnificent here.  He brought a depth and an anguish to Jack Cunningham that was relatable and understandable.  You wanted to see this guy overcome his demons, but the film does not take that easy route.  Just because his basketball team was having success, it did not mean that the problems that had haunted him and had driven him to hide in a bottle were gone.  In fact, it may have made those issues all the worse.

I do think the film felt a little long, but I am not sure where you would have cut.  The film was more about Affleck than it was the game of basketball.  Because of that, some of the characters on the basketball team were shorted in development.  The movie was Affleck’s story and it gave him the minutes to show it.

Directed by Gavin O’Connor, who also directed feel good sports movies Miracle and Warrior, found a way to subvert the expectations of the genre with this movie.  It seemed that this was going to be just another formulaic sports movie, until it wasn’t.

Powerful and difficult to watch at times, The Way Back is a good movie with a strong lead performance.

3.8 stars