The Out-Laws (2023)

As a fan of The Vampire Diaries, I’m always interested when Nina Dobrev shows up in a movie. The last one I saw her in was 2021’s Christmas movie, Love Hard. And with Adam Devine and Pierce Brosnan in The Out-Laws, I was definitely interested in checking it out.

Bank manager Owen (Devine) and yoga instructor Parker (Dobrev) are about to get married. Parker’s parents, Billy (Brosnan) and Lilly (Ellen Barkin), have been absent from her life but they have finally emailed her to say they will be attending the wedding. Shortly after they arrive, Owen’s bank is robbed by the Ghost Bandits. Owen is pretty sure Parker’s parents are the Bandits but before he can completely confirm his suspicious, Parker is kidnapped by Billy and Lilly’s former bank robbing partner, Rehan (Poorna Jagannathan). Rehan demands five million dollars or she will kill Parker. Desperate to save his future wife, Owen helps Billy and Lilly rob banks to save her.

The plot of the movie was obvious from the title. As soon as I saw that Owen was a bank manager, I knew Parker’s parents were going to rob him. The only thing I didn’t know was that Parker wasn’t in on it. I expected there to be a twist that she had been setting him up the entire time but, no, she was actually completely innocent. Which was nice. I liked that they didn’t turn Owen’s pure love for her into something that would break his heart. No, this is just a story of a man who loves a woman so much that he would do anything for her. And parents who are kinda crappy.

I did enjoy The Out-Laws a lot. It helps that I don’t mind Adam Devine’s acting. I’m sure he gets on a lot of people’s nerves but I find him charming. And he is a really good comic actor. There isn’t a ton of comedy here but all of it does fall on Devine’s shoulders. And he handles it well. I would definitely say this is one to check out.

Rating: B

Good Grief ( 2024)

So I decided to do a February romcom/romance movie thing. I turned on Netflix and went to their romance movies and found Daniel Levy’s new movie, Good Grief. Since I generally enjoy his work, I popped it on. I don’t think this is how I wanted to start the month of romance.

Marc (Daniel Levy) is living the good life with his husband, Oliver (Luke Evans). A year after Oliver died in a car accident, Marc opens a card from him confessing that he found someone else in Paris, where Marc discovered that Oliver had secretly been renting an apartment. Determined to find out more, Marc travels to Paris with his best friends, Thomas (Himesh Patel) and Sophie (Ruth Negga). The three of them come to terms with the difficulties each of them have faced in their personal lives.

This was a really sad movie. I mean, I should have known it from the title but I didn’t expect it to be this sad. It is entirely about Marc’s transition through the stages of grief and accepting that, while he loved Oliver and Oliver loved him, his husband was not the person Marc thought he was. At the same time, we have secondary plots with Sophie having commitment (and maybe alcoholism) issues and Thomas being afraid of not being enough for his boyfriends (and maybe still being in love with Marc since they previously dated).

Don’t get me wrong. Good Grief isn’t a bad movie. It is very well done. But if you aren’t in the right mindset to watch three very broken people learn how to better themselves, it might not be for you. I’m glad I watched it, I’m just not sure it should have been the first movie of February.

Rating: B

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

My husband is a big fan of Godzilla. Whenever a new film hits the theaters, we are there to see it. We first saw Godzilla Minus One when it came out in theaters in early December. We saw it a second time when they released the black and white version earlier this month. But this time we got to see it in 4DX.

Near the end of World War II, kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) diverts his plan to an outpost on Odo Island, pretending that there is a mechanical failure. That night, the island is attacked by a giant sea monster the locals call Godzilla. Everyone except lead mechanic Sosaku Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) and Shikishima are killed. Ashamed of his cowardice, Shikishima returns home to Tokyo, only to find his parents died in an air raid. He meets Noriko Oishi (Minami Hamabe), a young woman who is caring for an orphaned baby named Akiko. Knowing that they need money to keep Akiko alive, he takes a job detonating mines in the ocean around Japan. When he finds a much larger and more powerful Godzilla is on the way to attack Japan, he teams up with other veterans from the war to defeat the monster.

There are quite a few Godzilla movies that mostly focus on the monster. (I’m pretty sure most of those are American-produced versions.) Minus One is an extremely emotional story about the effects of war and survivor’s guilt and doing what is necessary in order to survive. While I know these are somewhat common themes in the Japanese-produced Godzilla movies, I have never seen one this emotional. We really get to see Shikishima break down over his perceived failures as a man. And Noriko’s anguish at not being able to help someone she loves overcome what the war has done to him. Seeing all of this in color was already amazing and beautiful. Seeing it in black and white was very different. Somehow it made everything feel more important or more heartbreaking. I didn’t think I could enjoy this movie more, but the black and white version proved me wrong.

Rating: A

Destroy All Neighbors (2024)

My husband is a pretty big fan of horror movies. Personally, I prefer comedies. Horror-comedies like Destroy All Neighbors is a perfect middle point for both of us to watch and maybe enjoy.

William (Jonah Ray) has been struggling for the past three years to finish his prog rock album. Things keep getting in his way like his day job as an audio engineer or needing the right speakers or the neighbors making too much noise. When a new neighbor named Vlad (Alex Winter) moves in next door and starts making tons of noise, William is hesitant to confront him about it. Finally getting up the courage to ask Vlad to turn the volume down, William accidentally kills the man. And his prog rock idol. And another neighbor. But to William, they aren’t really dead. They are just another step on the road to prog rock godliness.

While Destroy All Neighbors isn’t as funny as Tucker & Dale vs Evil, it is a fun time. The comedy lies with the weird things Vlad says and the utter insanity of prog rock itself. Maybe not knowing if William was going insane or if the undead were actually real was supposed to be funny. But I don’t think there were any points where I actually laughed out loud, only chuckled a bit. Instead, the horror part takes a bigger foothold in the movie. There is quite a bit of blood and there is a sort of gory running joke.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Probably not. I wish it had a little more comedy but that’s OK. I know not every horror comedy was meant for me.

Rating: C

May December (2023)

May December came out when I was deep in the holiday movie reviews. I actually thought this came out earlier this month instead of the beginning of last month. Christmas movies will do that to you.

Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) is an actress shadowing Gracie (Julianne Moore), who is the subject of her next movie. When Gracie was 36, she began a love affair with 13-year old Joe (Charles Melton). She gave birth to their first child, Honor (Piper Curda), in prison. When Elizabeth visits, the married couple is preparing to celebrate the high school graduation of their twins, Mary (Elizabeth Yu), and Charlie (Gabriel Chung).

This is such a difficult movie. It’s loosely based on the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau, a 34-year old teacher who started a sexual relationship with her 12-year old student. They did, indeed, get married and have children, both of which were born in prison (during different prison terms). So it’s already a little icky to watch. However, what makes it more difficult is that it seems like Elizabeth is trying to actually become Gracie, not just figure out who she is in order to portray her on screen. And it’s weird that THAT freaked me out more than the actual pedophilic relationship.

But was it a good movie? It’s honestly hard for me to say. I didn’t hate it but I spent a LOT of time trying to figure out Elizabeth’s motives and whether she really was an actor or some sort of weird stalker. It wasn’t a waste of time or anything like that. I think I would have liked a different ending though. Something a little more….substantial.

Rating: B

Self Reliance (2024)

Written, directed by, and starring Jake Johnson, Self Reliance is a little bit of a mind trip. I went into this movie hoping it wouldn’t be awful. I’m still not sure what to think of it.

Tommy (Johnson) is a man who is stuck in life. When he gets an invitation to participate in a game where he has to avoid being murdered for 30 days, he agrees to play. However, there is a big loophole. The hunters can only attempt to kill him when he is alone.

This is another movie where I kept expecting some sort of twist ending. There are suggestions that maybe Tommy is making this whole thing up for attention or maybe he’s having a mental breakdown. Even at the end, we can’t really be sure that we aren’t inside Tommy’s mind. Does this make it a good movie? Well, yes and no. Yes in that it does keep you watching the movie to see where it’s going to go. But also no because the movie is listed as a Comedy Thriller and it doesn’t really contain either. I literally said “Huh” out loud as the credits rolled. I was hoping that maybe there was a mid-credit or end-credit scene that would help explain what just happened. There isn’t. I honestly don’t know if I can recommend Self Reliance. It’s weird in a way that you kinda have to experience it and hope you haven’t wasted your time.

Rating: C

Asteroid City (2023)

The next movie that I wanted to see last year but missed out on due to a bunk eye is Asteroid City. I generally enjoy Wes Anderson films and, with this cast list, it couldn’t miss. But this may be a difficult synopsis to write.

Asteroid City is set as a televised documentary about a stage play, which we see acted out on screen. Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) writes a play about an unusual group of people brought together to Asteroid City for a Junior Stargazer convention. Brilliant teenagers have been invited to accept awards for their various inventions. However, when an alien lands a UFO in the middle of their ceremony, Asteroid City is locked down and no one is allowed to leave.

I think this is one of those polarizing types of movies. I remember hearing a lot of bad things about it. However, I actually enjoyed the movie. The transitions between the documentary and the actual play kept me interested where I probably would have grown bored if it was just the Asteroid City parts. I also found myself smiling at all of the various cameos. While I don’t think this will be one of Anderson’s most beloved movies, I do think that it deserves to be watched at least once. You should probably watch it twice, though, just in case you missed something.

Rating: B+

Lift (2024)

On January 12, Netflix released a new movie starring Kevin Hart titled Lift. Let’s see if this heist movie holds up against the others in the genre.

Cyrus (Hart) leads an international group of thieves. There’s master-of-disguise Denton (Vincent D’Onofrio), pilot Camila (Úrsula Corberó), hacker Mi-Sun (Yunjee Kim), engineer Luke (Viveik Kalra), and crazy safecracker Magnus (Billy Magnussen). After successfully stealing a Vincent Van Gogh painting in London while kidnapping a mysterious artist named N8, the group gets tasked by Interpol to help capture a terrorist named Lars Jorgensen (Jean Reno). In exchange for their freedom, the group agrees to the deal.

I don’t think I have ever seen a more boring heist film. For most of the movie, I was wondering when the action was going to start. Even though the movie begins with a massive art heist, we don’t see anything interesting until around an hour and fifteen minutes into the 90 minute runtime. I wanted to like this movie so much but is was so utterly bland. How can they take someone like Kevin Hart and make him dull?? Who was OK with this?

Rating: D

Beau Is Afraid (2023)

Beau Is Afraid is a three-hour monster of a movie. I wanted to see it when it came out in April 2023 but I was still having eye issues and there was no way I was going to make it through a three hour movie. Well, now that my eye is doing better, let’s see if this is worth it.

Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is an anxiety-riddled man who lives in a rather dangerous part of town. As he gets ready to take a trip to visit his mother, Mona (Patti LuPone), both his suitcase and the keys to his apartment are stolen. He calls his mother to both cancel his trip and figure out what steps he should take. Mona resigns to the fact that he is not coming to visit and hangs up on him. Beau calls back, only to have a random UPS guy pick up the phone. The UPS man tells Beau that his mother is dead. Now Beau has to figure out how to get to his mother’s house for the funeral.

This description barely scratches the surface of what happens in Beau Is Afraid. So much weird stuff happens that I kept waiting for the big twist that explains everything. But that twist never comes. I still don’t know how to interpret this movie. It feels like they were trying to make a movie like Big Fish, where we are supposed to assume the main character’s tales are unreliable only to find out they aren’t. However, we don’t get that sort of sense here. Fantastical stories are told that we are supposed to believe are true. But, seriously, there is a giant penis-monster locked in an attic. Am I supposed to believe that the monster is real or that it’s a allegory for an actual person? There isn’t anything that happened previously in the movie to tell me which way to go.

So, I don’t know. I didn’t hate it but it is way, way, way too long and parts of it were way too boring. I do know that I can’t recommend this movie to anyone. That feels like torture.

Rating: D+

Mean Girls (2024)

Mean Girls started off as a movie in 2004 with Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. In 2018, Mean Girls hit Broadway as a musical with Erika Henningsen and Taylor Louderman. On January 12, 2024, the musical version was released as a movie with Angourie Rice and Reneé Rapp. I have seen all three versions so let’s talk about the newest one.

Homeschooled Cady Heron (Rice) and her mother (Jenna Fischer) have moved from Kenya to Illinois so Cady can attend high school. At North Shore High school, Cady realizes that she does not have the necessary social skills to survive. She meets Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) who introduce her to the various cliques, including The Plastics: Karen (Avantika), Gretchen (Bebe Wood), and Regina (Rapp). Regina decides to take the new girl under her wing, making Cady understand just how mean girls can be to each other. Janis convinces Cady to get revenge on Regina, which causes all sorts of chaos in the halls of the school.

I was already in my late 20s with a 2-year old daughter when the original Mean Girls movie came out. So while I was never the intended audience for the movie, I did enjoy it. Then in 2019, we saw the Broadway musical with most of the original cast. Let’s just say I’m very familiar with all of the various versions of the story. The 2024 movie made a lot of changes to the musical. Unfortunately, not all of the changes were very good.

First, they cut a LOT of songs. Including reprises, fourteen songs were cut for the movie. I would say fifteen were cut since “Meet The Plastics” only includes Regina’s part of the song and cuts both Karen and Gretchen’s parts. They also added a new song for Cady “What Ifs.” This completely replaces “It Roars,” which I think is the better song. (The second new song, “Not My Fault” by Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion, is only used during the credits so I’m not counting it.) I get that these songs were cut for time (the musical is 2 1/2 hours long, the movie version is just under 2 hours) but some of these songs would have made the movie so much better.

Second, a lot of the songs that they had were very flat. The movie felt like it was entirely focused on Rapp’s singing until about halfway through when they realized that Cravalho is also a powerful singer. All of Rice’s songs had zero emotion or personality. Songs that should have been filled with emotion were just flat.

Finally…I’m not sure how to explain this. The movie just felt off. Some of the costuming was weird, the usage of real life influencers in the social media montages took me out of the movie, and of all of the possible makeup/beauty brands they could have partnered with, they chose e.l.f. cosmetics? Regina literally references Louboutin shoes but she uses makeup you can buy at Target? I don’t buy it.

There were good things about the movie - even three years later, Rapp is still amazing as Regina; Spivey’s Damian made me laugh out loud; Cravalho’s version of “I’d Rather Be Me” put the biggest smile on my face; and all of the dancers absolutely ate every scene they were in. (Shout out to Kyle Hanagami’s choreography!) I just wish that they didn’t scrimp on the rest of the movie. Unfortunately, this was the first feature length movie for the directors, Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., and it shows. I would love to say that this is a good replacement for the Broadway musical but it’s not. If you get a chance to see a live performance of the musical, please go see it. It deserved so much better than this.

Rating: C