Liquor Bank knows that audiences don’t often see the stories that continue after the big commitment to change. They don’t see the temptations, choices, relapses, and secondary victories. In showing Eddie broken in losing a benchmark achievement, Marcellus Cox is unshy to shed light on a time of defeat instead of victory with Liquor Bank.
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Audrey’s Children chisels an important story into an extremely well-meaning film. Not all life-saving feats are glamorous and marked with crowds and cheers. Sometimes, all they are is a stabilized vital signs, hopeful test results to live longer, or a family that walks out the door of a hospital intact instead of grieving a loss. To enjoy and appreciate this film is to watch an uncompromising woman taking risks to put in the diligent work to make a difference for, once again, “her kids.”
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These behaviorial swerves and jolts are meant to be psychologically jarring, and they do more than frazzle the marriage stability of Mia and Aaryan. However, when these antics again are delivered by a grown adult we know can turn this persona on or off, they nullify believability. Every silly ass peril orchestrated by Virginia, even as they get more brazen and unorthodox as the week continues, are ridiculously overblown and, more often than not, completely preventable.
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There is an unmistakable lure to the intensity and damaged textures. Majors’ narration, reactions, and jaded silent acts infuse a more layered human lost underneath the monstrous muscles and vices. He is undeniably impressive in those feats. True to form—beast and all, the actor and the film deservedly earned fair and imposing recognition for never shying away from the good and bad light cast against them on screen and off.
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Many would say, going by that selection of talent thrust together in this predominantly single-setting premise, the stars were aligned for a peppy crime comedy in Riff Raff. The potential combinations offer interesting mixes of presences and styles. It’s too bad because the script and the director cannot align characters and tones with any semblance of congruency. Simply put, everyone is in a different movie from their scene partners.
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Assembling this esteemed cast of respected performers, Millers in Marriage pervades more and more audacious questions. While everyone has their share of golden parachutes compared to commoners, the inquiries of who’s jealous, curious, sad, or happy—and with whom—carry plenty of pertinence. Each relationship reaches crucial decision points with those feelings, and the movie unveils who makes the right ones and who makes the wrong ones
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Moral challenges and splits involving personal truths increase as the days and hours dwindle to do something about them. Depending on the viewer’s acceptance and temperament, When I’m Ready is a complicated blend of the morbid and the soulful. Cynics will call it soft and over-convenient. They’ll be missing the attempted love letter-level poetry championing companionship. Instead, those who lean to and shine with the positive latter will be rewarded with a lovely odyssey of warmth fighting back bleakness.
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Witnessing this journey is an absolute pleasure to behold in Suze, a little gem that can unite wayward young audiences with the jaded adult parents out there both trying to make sense of shifting crossroad moments of their lives. When Suze and Gage come to say “I’m really glad you’re here,” you will find yourself nodding in agreement about the sweet movie itself, and it all started with a convincing himbo.
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With its idyllic morals and rural accoutrements, Green and Gold champions hopeful and wholesome vibes. Green and Gold embraces that soft touch without thumping Bibles to support and celebrate the challenges and resilience found in the endangered American farmer. There’s an under-filled soft spot place for quaint family fare tipping a hat like this.
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The grand searches for meaning and the combination of their little ventures are not quite expressive or poignant enough to sear hearts and call upon the need to tug on the tissues, despite a promising effort from Julia Stiles taking on a new role in her lifelong medium. While Wish You Were Here may not fully succeed for many, she deserves more chances in the big chair.
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As the flashbacks thicken the ugly and sordid details, every call for caution is correct, and every sincere attempt at concern is warranted. But, with every chewed fingernail of unchecked nerves, Jane refuses to talk or share any shred of explanation. Through its sobering effort to present an always-successful-until-now young woman carrying unhealed pain, Disfluency sheds light on an ominous emotional burden far too many people have experienced and far too many people have sought to carry silently.
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What could possibly hurt the good intentions and try-hard effort of Autumn and the Black Jaguar? The answer, unfortunately, manifests in one abundantly blunt place. It’s the insertion of a distracting supporting character that steals the oxygen and becomes the movie’s regrettably more dominant mouthpiece.
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