Movie Review: Woman Of The Hour (2023)

Genre: Crime Drama  

Director: Anna Kendrick  

Starring: Anna Kendrick  

Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: The story unfolds across several timelines. In 1977, serial killer Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) pretends to be a photographer and murders a woman on the isolated plains of Wyoming. In 1971 he targets a flight attendant in New York City, and in 1979 he picks up a runaway teenager (Autumn Best) in California. In 1978, Sheryl Bradshaw  (Anna Kendrick) is a struggling actress in Los Angeles. She lands a role on the television gameshow The Dating Game as the eligible woman choosing one of three batchelor contestants, one of whom is Rodney. 

What Works Well: Anna Kendrick's directorial debut is a robustly assembled crime and suspense drama based on actual events. The chilling scenes of Rodney preying on vulnerable, isolated women are balanced by Sheryl's experience on the tawdry The Dating Game, where desperation is dressed up under bright lights and beamed into living rooms. The common theme is a society more than willing to exploit susceptible women but otherwise quick to delegitimize their concerns, enabling monsters to hide in plain sight. The 1970s are recreated in all the garish brown-orange wide-collars-and-broad-sideburns beauty of the decade.

What Does Not Work As Well: The focus on Sheryl is misguided, as she is at best a side presence in the bigger story, with another woman grabbing the initiative late in the third act. Unfortunately Alcala emerges as the most intriguing study, but his background and deeply damaged psychology remain unprobed. The frequent jumps in time demand some-assembly-required levels of attention.

Key Quote:

Rodney: Did you feel seen?

Sheryl: I felt looked at.



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Movie Review: Anora (2024)

Genre: Romantic Dramedy  

Director: Sean Baker  

Starring: Mikey Madison 

Running Time: 139 minutes  

Synopsis: New York City stripper and private dancer Ani (Mikey Madison) meets customer Ivan, the irresponsible son of a wealthy Russian businessman. He lives at a swanky mansion and invites Ani to become his paid-for girlfriend for a week, after which they fall in love and get married in Las Vegas. Ivan's parents are scandalized, and dispatch fixer Toros and goons Igor and Garnik to clean-up the mess. Ani has to fight for her right to stay married, and demands that Ivan confirm his love.

What Works Well: Director and writer Sean Baker boldly mixes plenty of raunchy sex, endless profanity, parties, drugs, broad comedy, suspect romance, and raw human emotions into a granular story. In this darker and much edgier version of Pretty Woman, the elements meld into an often compelling search-for-a-prince crashing into cross-ocean class realities. Ani (which she prefers to her full name Anora) is a sassy and savvy woman confidently wielding sex as a means to prosperity, and Baker's other magic ingredients include caring enough for Toros, Garnik, and especially Igor to unexpectedly round them into humans worth noticing beyond the fixer/goon archetypes. And as a bonus, Baker lands an ending that manages to be simultaneously crushing and hopeful.

What Does Not Work As Well: The running time is inexcusably long, and by a good 30 minutes. The scene introducing Igor, Garnik, and Toros is stretched from slapstick/screwball comedy to just exhausting, and the subsequent search for Ivan contains more padding than content. About half the movie shifts focus away from Ani and to the Russian/Armenian trio, resulting in tonal degradation.

Key Quote:

Ani (to Jimmy, the strip club manager): When you give me health insurance, workers' comp, and a 401k, then you can tell me when I work.



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Movie Review: Lee (2023)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Ellen Kuras  

Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh O'Connor, Alexander Skarsgård, Andy Samberg, Marion Cotillard  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1977, renowned wartime photographer Lee Miller (Kate Winslet) is at her home in England answering questions from an interviewer (Josh O'Connor). Flashbacks reveal her story starting in France of 1938, where she gives up a modeling career and takes up photography. She starts a romance with artist Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård) and they relocate to England, where Lee secures a job with Vogue magazine covering the homefront during World War Two. She befriends Life photographer David Scherman (Andy Samberg), and with D-Day looming, finally secures a reassignment to the front lines. In Europe, Lee's cameras capture the horrors of war, from badly wounded soldiers to the chaos of combat - and more.

What Works Well: A committed Kate Winslet portrays Miller as a woman determined to break down barriers, and traces an arc from the glamour of the pre-war French countryside to the grim sites of unimaginable atrocities. In the 1977 scenes, Winslet barely conceals entrenched trauma, smoking and alcohol repurposed from objects of picturesque pleasure to failing facades. Director Ellen Kuras finds intensity in the under-fire scenes in France, but bullets and explosions are also just a prelude to what awaits deeper in Europe.

What Does Not Work As Well: Despite a valiant effort, Winslet struggles to express the naive courage required for a woman in her early 30s to venture into war, defaulting to world-weary determination rather than young adventurism. By definition, this is the story of an observer rather than an instigator, and while Miller is admirably portrayed as an early feminist challenging man-made rules, the strength of the material resides more in the historic wartime milieu than within the photographer.

Key Quote:

Lee: There's so much life in a person's eyes. Right up until the moment that there isn't.



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Movie Review: Strange Darling (2023)

Genre: Suspense Horror  

Director: JT Mollner  

Starring: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner  

Running Time: 96 minutes  

Synopsis: The story unfolds in six chapters, shown out of sequence. In a rural area, a woman (Willa Fitzgerald) is escaping from a shotgun-wielding man (Kyle Gallner), first in a car then on foot. She seeks shelter at the secluded farmhouse of aging hippie couple Frederick and Genevieve (Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey). In an earlier chapter, the man and woman plan to go ahead with a night of kinky motel room sex, although she is worried about her safety and asks him in advance if he is a serial killer.

What Works Well: Beyond the synopsis, not much more should be revealed about the devious plot. Director and writer JT Mollner delivers a finely crafted and mischievous story of murder and mayhem, featuring a frothy mix of sexual tension, chase thrills, tense searches, and bloody assaults, often delivered with minimal dialogue. Even the police officers, once they arrive at one scene of carnage, are convincingly flummoxed. Willa Fitzgerald's layered performance is devastatingly complex and among the most impressive by an actress in a horror movie. Giovanni Ribisi turns producer and cinematographer, his rich and patient compositions delving into the characters' souls but only ever showing what is necessary. The understated songs by Z Berg (including the spine-tingling Love Hurts  and Better The Devil) add inner thoughts and haunting textures.

What Does Not Work As Well: Although only a small part of the film, the threats of sexual violence are a difficult watch.

Key Quote:

The Woman: Do you have any idea the kind of risks a woman like me takes every time she agrees to have a little fling?

The Man: Never thought about it that way.



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Movie Review: The Order (2024)

Genre: Crime Thriller  

Director: Justin Kurzel  

Starring: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Jurnee Smollett, Tye Sheridan  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: In the early 1980s, grizzled FBI Agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) relocates to Idaho and starts investigating white supremacist groups in the Pacific Northwest. Minister Richard Butler is running the Aryan Nations, but Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult) heads the more dangerous splinter group The Order. Inspired by The Turner Diaries, Mathews is focused on recruitment, training, and fundraising-through-crime to instigate a revolution. Husk, local police officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), and FBI Agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett) start hunting down Mathews, but he is determined to fulfill his mission.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, this Canadian thriller excels in creating a downbeat mood of rural economic despair, with director Justin Kurzel finding an excellent balance between sharply executed action scenes and character-enhancing interludes. The dreary aesthetic creates fertile recruitment grounds for the charismatic Bob Mathews, and Nicholas Hoult's chilling performance captures a dead-eyed ability to manipulate the uneducated and blame others (mostly Jews and blacks) for all ills. Jude Law finds a career highlight in the well-written role of Terry Husk, this FBI Agent carrying physical scars and psychological burdens. The tension seeps in multiple directions, officer Bowen's wife (Morgan Holmstrom) eerily describing the unease created by the intrusion of serious law enforcement into this community. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Jurnee Smollett is not given much to work with as the other prominent FBI agent on the case.

Key Quote:

Bob Mathews: In every revolution, someone has to fire the first shot.



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Movie Review: Longlegs (2024)

Genre: Suspense Horror  

Director: Osgood Perkins  

Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt  

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: In Oregon, studious FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) displays psychic abilities. She is assigned the complex case of an at-large serial killer known only as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage), who is believed to have caused the murder of multiple families. Lee is soon contacted by Longlegs and decodes his messages, but as she delves deeper into the case, her strained relationship with her religious mother Ruth (Alicia Witt) takes on new meaning.

What Works Well: The dreary Pacific Northwest aesthetic provides a foreboding setting of secluded farmhouses where bad things happen to seemingly normal families for no apparent reason. The sinister mood is augmented by Maika Monroe's restless, on-the-edge performance, her FBI agent carrying at least as much doubt as confidence. Nicolas Cage is free to unleash his inner unpredictable insanity under a ton of outer makeup, his unhinged dialogue and unprompted singing responsible for a good few unsettling moments.

What Does Not Work As Well: Writer and director Osgood Perkins is better at generating ideas than developing them. Many narrative openings like Lee's clairvoyant powers, Longleg's coded messages, the common birth dates, possessed dolls, and satanic dominion over weak minds are tantalizingly dangled but then fade through either neglect or rushed non-explanations. The caliber of rudimentary evil on display is more suited to a mad clown than the devil.

Key Quote:

Ruth (to her daughter Lee): Are you still saying your prayers? Our prayers protect us from the devil.

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Movie Review: Carry-On (2024)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra  

Starring: Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Jason Bateman, Danielle Deadwyler  

Running Time: 119 minutes  

Synopsis: Ethan (Taron Egerton) lost all career ambition when he was rejected by the police academy, and is now satisfied with a do-minimum attitude as a Los Angeles airport security agent. While operating a luggage screening machine, he is contacted through an earpiece by "the Traveler" (Jason Bateman), who threatens to harm Ethan's pregnant wife Nora (Sofia Carson) unless a carry-on bag containing a biological weapon is allowed onto a departing plane. Ethan has to find a way to save Nora and the passengers from harm, while FBI Agent Elena (Danielle Deadwyler) rushes to investigate.

What Works Well: The production values are glossy, and the action maintains tension with breathless pacing. Jason Bateman is effective in an atypical villainous role, and the bustling setting around the airport security screening area provides a dynamic backdrop.

What Does Not Work As Well: The flimsy premise does not deserve anywhere near two hours of treatment, and the material is stretched with ever increasing doses of incredulity. The plot starts on the shaky foundation of a well-resourced but barely explained conspiracy bottlenecked by one scanning machine, but the plot holes only get larger as the meek Ethan activates his inner John McClane. In an unfortunate role, Danielle Deadwyler runs around issuing orders but is bamboozled by others at every turn.

Key Quote:

Traveler (to Ethan): All you have to do... is nothing.



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Movie Review: The Fall Guy (2024)

Genre: Action Comedy  

Director: David Leitch  

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson  

Running Time: 126 minutes  

Synopsis: In Hollywood, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the stunt double for movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). A serious injury knocks his confidence and he leaves the industry, abandoning girlfriend and cinematographer Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) in the process. 18 months later producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) convinces Colt to return to stunt duty for Jody's directorial debut Metalstorm, a sci-fi epic starring Tom and filming in Sydney. Colt arrives on set to find Jody in a vindictive mood, then Tom goes missing and Gail pleads with Colt to find her star.

What Works Well: An adaptation of the 1980s television series starring Lee Majors, The Fall Guy is a love letter to stunt performers specifically and big-screen entertainment more broadly. Stocked full of clever references to other films, the Drew Pearce script is also often hilarious (and features excellent use of unicorns), while stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt find perfect tones of self-deprecating dry humour. The action scenes are a throwback to real stuntwork and physical effects, and the search-for-the-missing-star-while-an-epic-is-filming plot allows director David Leitch to include manic chase and fight scenes in both the film and the Dune-like film-within-a-film.

What Does Not Work As Well: All the elements of the absurd plot and buffoonish villains comfortably reside at preposterous levels, resulting in a loony vibe populated by shallow characters.

Key Quote:

Colt: Getting hit by a car hurts. Being thrown out of a window hurts. Getting set on fire really hurts. But, uh... none of it ever hurt as much as not being with you.

Jody: Where are you?

Colt: Is that from a movie, or did I just make that up? It's pretty good. You can use it, if you want.



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Movie Review: Challengers (2024)

Genre: Romantic Tennis Drama  

Director: Luca Guadagnino  

Starring: Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist  

Running Time: 131 minutes  

Synopsis: In the lead-up to the US Open, tennis tour superstar Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) meets unheralded Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) in a warm-up event final. Watching them both is Art's wife and coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). Flashbacks reveal their backstory starting from 13 years prior, when youth players Art and Patrick were best friends and doubles partners. They both fall in love with rising women's youth player Tashi, and she starts dating the more talented Patrick. When an injury curtails her progress, Tashi turns to coaching and marries Art, whose career is taking off. Patrick's lackadaisical personality prevents him from fulfilling his potential, but he never gives up his pursuit of Tashi.

What Works Well: A love triangle within the tennis world, this is a stylish sport-as-a-metaphor-for-life drama, contrasting a winning obsession with a more relaxed attitude. Art (effort complementing talent) and Patrick (indolence eroding potential) are destined to only compete early and late in their careers, but off the court they sustain an often covert and nasty rivalry for Tashi. She is plotting her own moves with a single-minded pursuit of being on the winning side, whether playing or coaching. The three-way machinations contain enough attitudinal thorns to sustain attention.

What Does Not Work As Well: The close-up shots, scene prolongations, and dizzying time jumps are carried to excess, resulting in an unnecessarily bloated running length and jumbled storytelling. Tashi is stubbornly one-dimensional in her single-minded determination to win in-person or by proxy, and ultimately all three main characters lean into their most distasteful and selfish traits, shedding empathy like sweat on a hot match day.

Key Quote:

Tashi (to Patrick): You are the most egotistical person I have ever met in my life.



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Movie Review: Here (2024)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Robert Zemeckis  

Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly  

Running Time: 104 minutes  

Synopsis: Multiple stories unfold non-linearly but in one geographic location (likely in Pennsylvania), as seen from a single fixed vantage point. The main story starts with World War Two veteran Al Young (Paul Bettany) and his wife Rose (Kelly Reilly) purchasing a house after the war. Al settles into a career as a dissatisfied vacuum cleaner salesperson. Their eldest son Richard (Tom Hanks) falls in love with Margaret (Robin Wright), who moves into the house. They raise a daughter Vanessa, and Richard gives up his love of art to sell insurance. Others who occupy the same location in different eras include an indigenous couple; the son of Benjamin Franklin; an early aviator in the 1920s; a furniture designer in the early 1940s; and a black family during the Covid pandemic.

What Works Well: A technically audacious drama co-written by director Robert Zemeckis and Eric Roth weaves time through one small patch of geography, simultaneously conveying intimate individual emotions and the transient human experience. The remarkably fast passage of time is an underlying theme, but also the rich experience that can be packed into one living room, spanning from Al to Vanessa in 60 years. Humour, tragedy, conflict, love, and loss pass in front of the camera's steady gaze, Zemeckis deploying on-screen panels, fluid transitions, and AI-enhanced de-aging to effortlessly maintain coherence across centuries. Brisk pacing adds to the fly-on-the-wall joy.

What Does Not Work As Well: By definition the focus is on snippets and vignettes rather than any depth, and the flash-fried storylines surrounding the Young family suffer from comparative neglect.

Key Quote:

Richard (at 18 years old): You know, if you like, you could spend the rest of the night here.

Margaret: I could spend the rest of my life here.



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