Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

M3GAN

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It is January now and we have a horror movie. January typically is the dumpster of the movie release dates. It is the month where the studios drop the films they think are not very good because the studios know people aren’t going to go see them. Every year in the Year in Review Worst List there are films from January in the Top 10 (some in the top 5 even). Most of the time, my expectations are low during the month.

There are exceptions to that rule and M3GAN is one of them. This movie was fun and highly entertaining. Silly perhaps, but entertaining nonetheless.

Young Cady (Violet McGraw) lost her parents in a car accident involving a snow plow on their way to a ski trip and had to go live with her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), who was a toy designer for a huge company. Gemma was working behind the scenes on a project to create an interactive and engaging life-like girl robot named M3GAN (pronounced Megan) which stands for Model 3 Generative Android.

M3GAN and Cady bonded and became close. Gemma told M3GAN that her prime directive was to protect Cady, both physically and mentally, above all else. As things start to get tougher and Cady started to show strains from the loss of her parents, things started to get dangerous.

The tone of this was awesome. It bounced between a silly, almost humorous tone and tense and anxiousness one. When M3GAN was going through murderous sprees, the film was filled with dramatic moments and an uneasiness fairly earned. And yet, there were many funny, almost ridiculous moments as well and they blended together extremely well.

Jenna Davis was the voice of M3GAN, who was played physically by Amie Donald. Jenna Davis is great as both the caring robot and the menacing killer. Her voice work was exceptional. And the look of the character of M3GAN was sensational. It had the necessary creepiness of the robot doll.

Although many may see this as a female version of Chucky, I think there is more characterization of M3GAN than there was with Chucky. Where as Chucky had an evil spirit involved, M3GAN is that well known theme of the technology gaining sentience and becoming a danger. We have seen this in plenty of other films but this worked well.

The new film from Blumhouse overcame the curse of January and delivered a remarkably engaging and fun film with plenty of violence and some excellent kills and shocking moments. Admittedly, some of the secondary actors felt like they were not the best of actors, but the main performers were great. M3GAN was a much better film than I thought it would be.

2023 is starting off strong.

3.75 stars

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

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Day: January 5th, Movie: 5

A 2-hour delay for school today opened up an opportunity to complete the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView right away this morning. I am heading to see Megan tonight so I had scheduled a short to watch and, thanks to HBO Max, I was able to watch the original sci-fi short, Georges Méliès’s groundbreaking film, A Trip to the Moon.

This is the oldest movie on the site, being listed at 1902. A Trip to the Moon is an influential film by the French filmmaker and is widely considered the first science fiction movie. The version I saw on HBO Max had some color added to it. I do not know if that color was added recently or if it was from the original. According to Wikipedia, color prints “were produced for a small percent of Méliès’s films and advertised alongside the black-and-white versions at a higher price.” This make me suspect that this version on HBO Max could be one of these.

The film is an amazing achievement by Georges Méliès as the 14-minute film included a narrative structure, despite not having any dialogue or any word screens as many silent films would use. Some of the effects were very creative for the time and Méliès effectively used several camera techniques to create the illusion of what he wanted to happen. I can only imagine the stir that this film and its originality and its subject matter caused.

Inspired by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells among others, Georges Méliès brought the idea of science fiction to the movie world. He included a score over the film and, apparently, there were times when a narrator spoke over the film, explaining what was happening. Georges Méliès starred in the film as Professor Barbenfouillis, the president of the Astronomy Club and your main character.

The imagery of the cannon-powered rocket ship embedded in the “face” of the moon is an iconic image that has been used many times. My first memory of the image and reference to this film came from Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film Hugo. A Trip to the Moon brought a sensation to the film industry, which was just starting out, proving that you could tell a story and involve the audience in a piece of entertainment. The film helped show that anything was possible and the only limitations was the imagination.

Attack the Block (2011)

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Day: January 4, Movie: 4

The fourth film in the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView is the 2011 British film, Attack the Block.

I started off this movie disliking what the film was giving me. We met the street gang led by Moses (John Boyega) as they were mugging an innocent woman, Sam (Jodie Whittaker). The five kids seemed to be nothing more than a group of punks and I found myself wondering if these characters are meant to the protagonists. Moses seemed to be a horrendously cruel punk who was not easy to like.

Then Moses killed an alien and things went off the charts. The death of the alien drew an invading force of larger, meaner creatures that appeared to be on a path of vengeance.

Suddenly, the character of Moses took a turn and started to realize how much of what is happening was his fault and, when he had to come into connection with Sam once again after mugging her, Moses is taken on a definite journey as a character. By the end, I had a much better mindset about Moses, even liking the character.

I especially enjoyed the gang member Pest (Alex Esmail), who felt like the audience’s voice as the film moved along. He was funny and quite witty. I also enjoyed the dialogue from Pest and the other kids because half of the British slang that was used was nearly undeterminable. I did not know what he was saying a lot of the time. It was funny.

I was surprised that this sci-fi/comedy/horror film’s biggest draw for me was how well the characters developed and interacted with one another. The action was good and the creature design was solid, using what was clearly mostly practical effects. In a film that I initially thought that I was going to dislike because I did not like the characters, I ended up liking this a lot.

Akira (1988)

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Day: January 3rd, Movie: 3

Today’s entry in the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView is the classic Anime animated film, Akira from 1988. This animated movie was adapted from a manga of the same title.

Right off the bat, I want to say that I watched the English dubbed version of this. Usually in live action, I try to watch the English subtitled version instead of the dubbed, but I did not think that the animated film would matter much. However, I was wrong. The dialogue and the voice acting of the English dub was poor and it took a lot of my concentration to focus in on the film with the distractions. If I had it to do it again, I would go with the Japanese voice/English subtitles version.

But I did not choose that one and so my opinion on the film is tainted a touch.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after nuking the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles against anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo’s supernatural power suddenly manifest.”

The animation was amazingly cool for the year. It may not be up to the quality of animation today, but there was a special quality to it that made it work very well with this story. It definitely had that Anime feel to it and you can tell how this inspired all kinds of Anime films that followed it.

I had a little trouble getting into the story at first, but as the story progressed, I became more interested in what the movie was trying to show. There were some high concepts in the story and some impressive science fiction themes.

I enjoyed this movie, but I would be lying if I said that the dialogue and the English voice acting did not affect my overall feelings of this version. I still like this, but I would have liked to have seen the film the way it was meant to be seen.

Dark City (1998)

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Day: January 2nd, Movie: 2

The second day of the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView is underway with a cool sci-fi flick that I had never seen before, starring some big named actors. It was a neo noir film called Dark City and it featured Kiefer Sutherland and William Hurt.

However, the lead star was an actor named Rufus Sewell, who I did not know very well. Checking out his filmography at IMDB, I saw that he had been in several films that I had seen (as well as several TV shows that I had not), but none of them stood out as the “Oh yeah, I saw him in that” memory.

Dark City has a complicated story that grabbed me right away. I was engaged with the central mystery of what was happening and wanted to know the answers. Directed by Alex Proyas (which is a follow up to The Crow), the film is extremely stylish and truly surprising.

According to IMDB, “John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to find that he has lost his memory and is wanted for a series of brutal and bizarre murders. While trying to piece together his past, he stumbles upon a fiendish underworld controlled by a group of beings known as The Strangers who possess the ability to put people to sleep and alter the city and its inhabitants. Now Murdoch must find a way to stop them before they take control of his mind and destroy him“

The film gave me some The Matrix feeling about it, and then I realized that this film came out in 1998 whereas The Matrix came out in 1999. So perhaps The Matrix gave me some Dark City vibes instead.

Kiefer Sutherland gave an interesting performance as Dr. Daniel Schreber. He gave the character several intriguing traits, such as a breathy way of speaking and physical limps that you do not normally see from a Kiefer Sutherland role. Where he falls in the story is one of the key mysteries of the film.

I believe there was too much use of exposition, especially at the very beginning of the film which feels unnecessary. I understand the need for an explanation as you go, but some of the information they presented in the film was shown rather sufficiently using the imagery.

I will say that when the big revel came around, I was surprised. I was impressed by the reveal and, even more so, since the film had been dropping hints throughout about what was going on. I am sure that upon a second watch, you could pick up plenty of clues that would make more sense with the knowledge of what was happening.

Dark City was a well design science fiction tale with some fascinating ideas. The Strangers were creepy and menacing. The film’s look was exceptional with some definite dark tones and creative images. I am not sure how I feel about the third act confrontation (which I will not spoil), but everything else was so strong that I am happy to put aside any minor gripes.

Nine Days (2021)

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As I was compiling my list for the Genre-ary DailyView, I came across a film called Nine Days. However, as I read the synopsis, I did not think it fit in with the Sci-Fi genre. It was more of a fantasy film so, instead of using it as a Genre-ary film, I decided to watch it today.

Will (Winston Duke) is someone who judges souls and decides which one deserves to have a chance to be born. He goes through a series of interviews with the individual souls about what they would do in certain situations. Will is able to view the lives of the people who he sends to the world.

When a new opening on earth comes available, a new group of souls come for the interviews that take place over the stretch of nine days. Will was caught off guard by one of the unconventional souls, Emma (Zazie Beetz) and she shook his personage to the core.

This was one of the most creative and original films I have seen in a while. The story, which could have been corny, really worked well and was tightly organized. The premise was solid and something I have never seen before.

Then, Winston Duke gave us a performance for the ages. Duke was exceptional in the film and he had amazing chemistry with Zazie Beetz. He was also great with co-star Benedict Wong, who played Will’s assistant who was there to make sure Will did everything right. Benedict Wong and Zazie Beetz were outstanding

There were other excellent actors involved in the film too such as Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, David Rysdahl, Arianna Ortiz and Lisa Starrett. The ensemble of the film brought their best work and they were very emotional as they faced possible oblivion.

Great performances and an original premise make an enjoyable film to watch.

Vesper (2022)

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Day: Jan. 1, Movie 1

2023 starts off with the first of the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView which was a film I heard about from Robert Meyer Burnett’s films of the year from 2022. It was a sci-fi film called Vesper, a film that I had never heard about before. I went to Vudu and was able to rent it and I kicked off the Genre-ary with it this morning.

Directed by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, Vesper is a post-apocalyptic film where engineered viruses escaped into the world and wiped out a large portion of life. Enclosed cities, known as citadels, were where the well-off went to thrive while others struggled to survive in search of food.

Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) is a 13-year old who is taking care of her father Darius (Richard Brake) who is paralyzed and can only communicate with Vesper through a flying drone. Vesper’s uncle Jonas (Eddie Marsan) runs an orphanage where he would harvest blood from the children that he sells to the citadels. Jonas was not motivated by a family bond.

One day, Vesper discovered a young woman named Camellia (Rosy McEwen) who had crashed, along with her father, in one of the citadel’s ships. Vesper took Camellia back and helped heal her, but there is more to her than what we see.

The movie was well shot and required specific attention because there were some really creative and intriguing ideas being used in the movie. Some of the concepts really worked well and created the feeling of hope among the desperation that enveloped the world.

Speaking of the world, this film did a fantastic job of world building. Creating a futuristic society with rules and dangers can be a difficult thing that, at times, weighs down a film. It many times leads to an excess of exposition, but Vesper handled the introduction of the ideas extremely well and the film worked it in to the story smoothly. In fact, several of the details that the film brings up are never expanded upon and feels as if there is significant story yet to tell. It is a setting where I would welcome further exploration.

The visuals were done vey well, helping to build the feeling of a world that felt dirty, grimy, but it never feels hopeless. You believe that Vesper is going to overcome with her intelligence and heart.

A nice start to the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView.

Boy Interrupted (2009)

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I was looking for an interesting documentary to fill the afternoon hours here on New Year’s Eve before I started by Avengers binge, and I found a fil on Hulu (by way of HBO Max) that I started to watch. I immediately realized that this was not the kind of doc that was in the celebratory range.

Boy Interrupted was the story of 15-year old Evan Perry, who had a short life suffering from depression and bipolar disorder and ended up committing suicide by jumping out of his window. The doc recounted the story of his life through his family members and close friends.

It was desperately sad watching his mom and dad telling the details that led to the eventual suicide as a 15-year old. It was clear that the wounds were not healed by any stretch and you could see the pain etched on their faces when talking about everything.

I can’t imagine the pain that goes along with a child who you love taking his own life. I know that the few students that I have had who have committed suicide was always painful, but I have no idea what it is like for a parent. I can only imagine it is the worst nightmare someone could live through.

It stirred up a lot of memories in myself watching this developing tragedy. Everyone can relate to this in some manner even if you can not fully grasp the anguish facing and guilt the parents and family members.

It is a tough doc to watch, but it is important to understand the signs that are being shown by kids, signs that you do not want to ignore.

White Noise

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One more in 2022.

I had watched YouTube critic Dan Murrell’s Top 10 movies of the year and he had listed White Noise as one of them. I had never heard of it, so I added it to the list for a potential June Swoon after five months. However, as I opened up Netflix this morning, I saw that White Noise was now available to watch, and I decided not to wait until June and to watch it today.

White Noise was adapted and directed by Noah Baumbach. It was adapted from a novel of the same name by author Don DeLillo. It was one of the stranger films that I have seen this year.

The plot synopsis is a bit challenging, because it felt a little all over the place. According to IMDB, White Noise “Dramatizes a contemporary American family’s attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world.”

That synopsis boiled the film down to its basic concept. How it gets there is quite the trip. It included a weird family, a mysterious drug, and an airborne toxic event that led to a city-wide evacuation. Jack (Adam Driver) is a professor of Hitler studies. His fourth wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig) is secretly taking an unknown medication. There is also another professor, Prof. Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle) who wants to develop an “Elvis” studies. Cheadle is not essential to the film, but he adds a lot of strange humor.

The dialogue of this movie was the best part and it was delivered so entertainingly by Driver, Gerwig and the entire group of kids from their family. They were all very intriguing characters with their own quirks and odd behaviors. The characters were certainly written as intelligent people, but they may not have a ton of social skills for the outside world.

Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig were great as the lead couple. Their grounding of their relationship and the relationship with their kids is what kept the movie from losing its way, which was absolutely a danger with all of the strangeness that was going on in the story. Without Driver and Gerwig’s work, the seemingly randomness of the plot points would never have worked.

Don Cheadle was hilarious with his apparent obsession with Elvis and his attempts to get the Hitler professor to help him out. The kids all were very solid acting wise as well.

There were some who believed that the White Noise novel was unadaptable for the screen, and, while I have not read the novel, the film held my attention and entertained me throughout. I was never quite sure where it was heading and I liked that.

3.75 stars

Babylon

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Damien Chazelle, director of such great films as Whiplash and La La Land, has a new film out wide in theaters right now entitled Babylon, and there have been plenty of pundits who believe that Babylon will receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

I, on the other hand, absolutely hated it.

I have not come out of a theater angry after watching a movie in a long time, but I was angry after spending time with this mess of a film. After fifteen minutes, I was ready to be done with Babylon, and I knew that I had another 2 hours and 45 minutes to go. I considered just leaving, but I have a rule about writing a review about a movie that I have left.

I hated this movie so much. Within five minutes of the movie, one of the actors is show getting literally shit on by an elephant. No joke… and I don’t care if that is a spoiler. He was shit on. By an elephant.

Set at the beginning in the later 1920s, the story of Babylon was all over the place following several different characters. The main ones were Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) a huge star in the movies and the eventual loss of his status in Hollywood as he got older and silent pictures left. Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) was an aspiring actress who claimed to be a star despite not yet being in any film. Margot Robbie’s story turned out to be a story taken from Singing in the Rain as they quite literally showed scenes in the third act from Singing in the Rain for anyone who did not catch the similarities. Then there was Manny (Diego Calva) who just seemed to be in the right place at the right time for his career, starting off as an assistant to Jack Conrad and winding up as a studio exec.

There were others that were tossed in for reasons, but not sure why.

I will say that I did like Brad Pitt’s arc and the character of Jack Conrad was the least ridiculous of the bunch. I thought his storyline worked fairly well for most of his time on screen. Margot Robbie’s Nellie was all over the place. She was the most inconsistent of the three ‘main’ characters. She had a gambling problem which was mentioned early in the movie, but was never important until the third act when they needed it to be important.

The film was chaotic, messy and filled with decadence and debauchery… and not in the good way.

If this movie receives an Oscar nomination, I will be very unhappy because this would be an example of something that I have noticed over the years. There are critics and pundits who have favorite directors that they like whatever they do no matter how bad it is. Directors such as Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, among others seem to get a pass. Damien Chazelle has been placed in that group. There is no way that Babylon was done by another no name director that anyone would be pushing it for an Oscar.

If I haven’t said it yet, I hated this movie. Brad Pitt was good.

1 star

The Whale

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I am very torn about this one.

The new film from director Darren Aronofsky is entitled The Whale and it was at times, a triumph, and at other times, an insult.

Charlie (Brendan Fraser) was a morbidly obese English teacher who was carrying on his classes through Zoom. Charlie had suffered through some terrible personal tragedies that led to his weigh gain and his numerous health issues. His friend and nurse Liz (Hong Chau) was not only a protector and a helper, but also an enabler for Charlie’s deadly eating habit. Despite Liz’s insistence, Charlie refused to go to the hospital and be treated for his health issues that seemed prepared to kill him.

During this week, Charlie attempted to reconnect with his estranged daughter, the daughter he left when she was eight year old, Ellie (Sadie Sink). Ellie was a borderline sociopath and only kept coming to Charlie for the money he was going to give her. Or was there more that she was trying to do?

A local, young missionary Thomas (Ty Simpkins) was going door-to-door to preach for the local religious group and he came across Charlie in a state of pain. Thomas was convinced that God had brought him to Charlie to help him, though there was more to the young man than what he let on.

There is no doubt that the standout section of this movie is the remarkable performances, lead by Brendan Fraser himself. Fraser exceeded just the prosthetics and delivered one of the best individual performances of the year. He brought such an emotion and a power to Charlie that he was able to elevate the character above some of the cruelty that the film heaped upon him.

Brendan Fraser is supported with several really great performances in a film that is basically set in Charlie’s living room. Hong Chau is amazing as Liz, the nurse who tried to get Charlie to get help before it is too late. She was exceptional in every scene she was in. Plus, there was an unbelievable performance from Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink as Charlie’s daughter.

Of course, while I believe that all of the supporting performances were outstanding, there is not a single character among them that is not a rotten, horrible person that projects their own issues onto Charlie. Charlie, on the other hand, feels like a character that is positive and intelligent, but who is crushed beneath the hatred of the film toward him. There are so many attempts in the film to make him out to be disgusting that it avoided who he was as a character.

This was the reason I felt so uncertain about what I was watching. As a person who is fat and who has been extremely fat, there felt to me like there was a concerted effort to fat shame Charlie and to go out of the way to be cruel to him. Instead of dealing with his overeating as a symptom of his depression over the loss of his boyfriend to suicide, the film feels as if his eating is something to blame Charlie for and to make him gross. I could relate to Charlie in a lot of ways, but the film did not want people to relate to him so they went out of the way to show Charlie as a monster.

There was also a definite homophobic nature to several scenes in the movie and, while it is never specifically called out, it absolutely exists. There was a particularly gross scene between Charlie and Thomas that brings this to the light and is never dealt with properly.

There was a scene with a pizza delivery guy (Sathya Sridharan) that made me angry when it happened. It was a chance for the film to show some empathy toward Charlie, but it failed drastically to do so. There is a serious lack of empathy for Charlie. I am struggling to come up with an example of it, even among the characters that were supposed to be his friends.

So I am torn. While I found much of this movie to be cruel and gross, the actors take that grossness and cruelty and act the heck out of it. I had a general icky feeling coming out of The whale for the subject matter and the manner in which they address Charlie simply because of his disability, but I was impressed with the skill the actors displayed in having their characters be so horrible. It has several five star performances, but the overall rating or The whale is…

2.75 stars

Woooooo! Becoming Ric Flair

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Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

As a professional wrestling fan, that was a sound that we all know. It was the call of “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. But even as a lifelong wrestling fan, I had no idea about some of the twists and turns that happened in the life of the man known as the “limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheeling-dealing, son of a gun.”

The new documentary of the life of Ric Flair dropped today on Peacock and it was as sensational as it was shocking. Set around interviews from Tom Rinaldi, Ric Flair talked about the ups and downs he had over the years as one of the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots.

We weren’t in the doc more than a few minutes and my jaw dropped. When Rinaldi asked Flair was his birth name was, I was expecting him to say “Richard Fliehr” but instead he said “Fred Phillips.” My jaw dropped open. He said he did not know that until three years ago. Turned out that Ric Flair started life in an orphanage and that he may have been stolen from the hospital as a baby as a black market baby. Unbelievable.

Then the doc went through every major event in the life of Ric Flair, from the plane crash he survived that led to him sustaining a broken back, to being struck by lightning, to the death of his son Reid, to his near death experience from drinking.

And of course, they focused on his career in the world of professional wrestling, from his time under Verne Gagne in the AWA to his days as NWA and WCW Champion and his time in the WWE.

One of the main themes of the documentary was how the real life Richard Fliehr had disappeared inside the character of Ric Flair and how even Ric himself was unsure of who Richard Fliehr was.

It detailed a lot about the lack of confidence issues he dealt with later in his life around the profession that he had been thriving in for decades. It is fascinating to see Ric Flair speaking as if he had no confidence in himself while everyone interviewed spoke of him as the greatest of all time.

They interviewed multiple individuals about Flair, not just contemporaries of his, but other big time names. We heard from Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Charlotte Flair, Booker T, Eric Bischoff, JJ Dillion, Hulk Hogan, Lex Lugar, Sting, Dave Bautista, as well as Mike Tyson, Stephen A. Smith and Post Malone.

Some of the most emotional moments of the doc came when discussing the overdose death of Reid Fliehr, Ric’s youngest son. They spoke to the entire Fliehr family and the heartbreak was clear. When Ashley “Charlotte” Fliehr spoke about her brother, whom she had broken into the wrestling business with and she said she felt guilty at times because she was living Reid’s dream, it was heartbreaking.

The loss of Reid was a triggering factor in Ric Flair’s near death from drinking. Somehow Flair survived the bout, despite being given a 15% chance of survival, but he continues to drink. I’m not sure what kind of a picture that paints of Ric Flair, but it was a moment that I found disturbing.

There did feel like the early days as NWA/WCW champion was brushed through quicker than I would have liked, though I understand that you are looking at a long career for a great performer and something had to be brushed through. They mention it, but it just did not feel as if they focused enough about it.

Ric Flair is mor than just a character. He is more than just a persona. He is a legend and, no matter what you may think of him, Woooooo! Becoming Ric Flair is a powerful and intriguing look at a man and his identity.

4.4 stars

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody

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Whitney Houston had one of the greatest voices music has ever heard. Her tragic death was a tremendous loss for everybody. We now have a new biopic telling her story. Well, sort of.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody tells the story of Whitney Houston (Naomi Ackie) and her rise to superstardom, accomplishing feats on the Billboard music charts that were not accomplished by The Beatles or Elvis Presley.

The music in this biopic is stunning. Whitney Houston’s voice was unbelievable and she consistently drove the narrative of her talent with performances that was completely awe-inspiring. Hearing the songs was worth the entire film.

However, the biopic part of the movie was a tad lacking. It was a basic timeline of her life, touching upon both the good and the bad without diving into anything too deeply. Houston’s whole tumultuous marriage and relationship with Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) did not feel as if it was given the weight it should have been. Because of the lack of depth in any of the problems the singer faced downgraded the end result and made it more difficult to understand what happened to the singer.

As I watched the film, I enjoyed it enough. It is hard not to enjoy a film with such a powerhouse singer involved, but I do not feel as if I know Whitney Houston any better than I did before I watched it and I would not consider myself a large fan of her.

Naomi Ackie is amazing in the role of Whitney. She becomes the singer and it was hard, at times, to tell when they were using actual sounds of Whitney Houston. Reportedly, the film used Whitney’s voice about 95% of the time (according to IMDB) but Ackie is flawless with her performances.

When they allowed her to get into the role, she absolutely nailed it. A scene late in the film with Bobby Brown and Whitney’s best friend Robyn (Nafessa Williams) showed what Ackie was capable of doing. There was just not enough of that kind of moment.

Stanley Tucci was great in a supporting role as Whitney’s long time friend/producer/agent Clive Davis. Their relationship was fascinating and received more time than many of the other ones. Tamara Tunie was also really great as Whitney’s mother Cissy Houston. Her screen time was limited, but Tunie did a lot with what she was given.

In this movie, I was shown what a powerhouse of a singer Whitney Houston was, but I wanted to see what a powerhouse of a person she was and there was just not enough scenes like that in I Wanna Dance with Somebody. If you are a fan of Whitney Houston, this biopic is for you. If you are a fan of amazing music and singing, you can’t go wrong. If you don’t mind a basic, paint-by-numbers biopic, then this is also one for you. I would have liked some more.

3 stars

A Christmas Carol (1951)

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There have been dozens of adaptations of 19th century novelist Charles Dickens’ iconic classic A Christmas Carol. While The Muppets Christmas Carol is my personal favorite version, the version that is considered by many to be the best was the 1951 film starring Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge.

This was the version that I remember watching as a young boy and learning the story of Scrooge. Reflecting back on it, I remembered thinking that I did not like how Scrooge only came around when he saw his tombstone. I wanted him to show more change going through the different scenarios that he was placed in by the Ghosts. Watching it now today, there is more of that than I remembered with Sim showing that the past and present affected him too. However, I do think I like versions that show Scrooge changing more obviously than right at the end.

This was a fascinating watch considering I hadn’t seen it since I was young. There was way more scenes included in the past than any other version that I have seen, which was interesting. Some of the things included in the trip to the past felt as if it could have easily been dropped out, such as Scrooge’s power play with Jacob Marley (Michael Hordern) with their business. There were some new info that I did not know before, but I am not sure that it was as impactful as it could have been.

Then, I thought the scenes with the Ghost of Christmas Present (Francis De Wolff) were short changed, especially the scenes involving Fred (Brian Worth). Fred’s Christmas party showed a little dancing and that was it. The scenes at the Cratchit’s house with Bob Cratchit (Mervyn Johns) were fine, but this was also the biggest Tiny Tim (Glyn Dearman) I had ever seen. This kid did not seem too sick and that pulled me out of his scenes every time I saw the giant lad. I also thought that poor Bob Cratchit would never be able to carry him on his shoulders (he did though).

Alastair Sims was the reason to watch this film as he brought a sensational performance, especially when Scrooge returned from the future and was bouncing around his room and scaring Mrs. Dilber (Kathleen Harrison). I nearly fell off the couch laughing when he went to stand on his head. Sims brought an undeniable energy to that scene in particular and it was amazing to watch.

I appreciated the effects used on the ghosts too considering this was 1951. The different ghosts, especially Jacob Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past, looked really good. There have been scarier versions of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come before and this one was just basic.

Another weird thing was Scrooge’s fiancé from the past, which I always knew of as Belle, was named Alice (Rona Anderson) in this version. I am not sure why the film changed the name of Belle to Alice. The recent Spirited also changed the name of Belle. This made me wonder what the novel called her and, after a touch of research, I do see that it is listed as Belle in Dickens’ original novel.

After rewatching this version, it is pretty clear that this is a great adaptation that still holds up. Alastair Sim stood out among the rest of the film as the highlight, and, despite the fact that I thought they could have cut some of the past and increased some of the present, A Christmas Carol (1951) was one of the best adaptations still.

Aftersun

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I’m not sure there has ever been a more independent of an independent film than Aftersun. It is everything that you might expect from an independent film, including the lack of a general plot.

Calum (Paul Mescal) and his 11-year old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) were together on summer vacation in Turkey. Calum and Sophie’s mom were separated. Calum was having plenty personal issues, but he clearly loved his daughter. They spent time together.

Honestly, I am not exactly sure what I watched. There was not a lot of throughline to the story and there was not a ton of character development either. We got some examples of Calum struggling, but we did not find out why. There was also scenes interspersed in the story of an adult Sophie and a weird dance club with a strobe light making it tough to tell what was happening. It looked as if Calum was there and was very out of it and the relationship with Sophie seemed to be on the rocks, but, as I said, the scenes were tough to wath.

I believe the film was meant to be shown as memories, as we see Sophie later reflecting back upon the Turkey trip. Perhaps the disjointed feeling was intended as a way to illustrate memory. Either way it was diffiuclt to follow.

When the scenes were more straight forward, I thought Frankie Corio did a great job as the young Sophie. She and Paul Mescal were magic together as their performances kept me engaged in a movie that I did not feel was telling me much of a story or that I was fully understanding what was going on.

I have to say that final section of strobe-lit dance club made me feel very uncomfortable as my imagination played with what I was trying to see. It just made me feel odd.

I am sure that critics love this movie, but I had a tough time with it. There just seemed to be too much independent movie about it for my tastes.

2.75 stars