Welcome to my first monthly Film Roundup!

I watched 7 movies this month and have watched 28 so far this year.

I watched Rogue One. A Star Wars Story because I just finished Andor Season 3 and wanted to see what happened next…again. I saw this one when it first came out but the Andor series was excellent and left me wanting a fresh visit to Cassian’s story now that I understood where he had been and all that had happened to him. I like Star Wars but I am an unapologetic Trekkie. I prefer Roddenberry’s utopian adjacent universe to the Wild West meets Roman Empire universe Lucas created. Still, Rogue One is a good story and it’s told well in this film.

Nonnas with Vince Vaughn has been getting a lot of attention and for good reason. It’s fun and it’s heart-warming. Vaughn plays a man named Joey, who’s life has been shaped by the loving women that raised him, and both of whom he lost. As part of his journey through grief, he risks everything to honor his mother by opening an Italian restaurant with actual nonnas — Italian grandmothers, as the chefs. This is not a “great” movie, but it does what you want something like this to do. It makes you laugh, it makes you teary eyed, it makes you feel things about family and food and love and friendship and regret and all the things. It’s also based on a true story, which is nice. If you’re looking for a fun, not too deep, film to watch with some pizza one night, this is a good one.

I watched Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose because it stars Simon Pegg and because of the weird title. That’s all I knew about it going in. Dr. Nandor Fodor (Pegg) is a famed paranormal expert who investigates a family’s claim that a talking mongoose lives in their barn. He begins to uncover a mysterious web of hidden motives–including his own–and soon, everyone becomes a suspect in his relentless pursuit of the truth.

Ultimately, this film attempts an answer to the question, “What if there is nothing after this? No heaven. No hell. Nothing?” As Dr. Fodor searches for the truth about the talking mongoose, he is really on a desperate search to believe in something. He wants to believe but he is terrified that there is nothing to believe in.

There are characters in the movie who just believe in the talking mongoose, who’s name is Gef by the way, and others who don’t believe but don’t care that others do because it makes them happy. But that’s not good enough for Dr. Fodor. He starts from the assumption that everything anyone believes is a lie and he must force them to see the truth whether they want to or not. Even though, the “truth” has made him a miserable man.

The movie is an amusing attempt at answering the big questions of life but it doesn’t provide any satisfying answers. And I think that’s a good thing. At least it gets you asking the questions.

Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub are two of my favorite actors so I have no idea how I missed The Big Night, when they both star in it, but I am glad I finally watched it and I love it.

Chef Primo (Shalhoub) and his brother Secondo (Tucci) are immigrant brothers from Italy who open their dream restaurant, Paradise, in New Jersey. Primo is a truly brilliant chef but his authentic food is too unfamiliar for the local tastes, and the restaurant is struggling. When famous Italian-American bandleader Louis Prima is scheduled to appear at Paradise, the two brothers put all of their efforts (and dwindling cash) into the important meal, which will likely decide the fate of their restaurant.

This is a film about family and forgiveness and trust and betrayal and risk. It’s funny but the humor is subtle. It’s emotional but not sappy. The script is brilliant. It’s shot in a quiet and unobtrusive way. And the acting is just incredible. Not just from the stars, from everyone in the film. Ian Holm, Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, and Campbell Scott all turn in superb performances.

I am rebuilding my DVD collection. I got rid of it years ago and have been buying films digitally only, but I don’t like the idea of having digital media that some company can just decide to take away from me, but as I rebuild my collection, I am being highly selective in what I buy.

THE BIG NIGHT, is going into my collection.

Watching Marvel movies feels more like an obligation than anything else so I did watch Captain America: Brave New World. It feels somehow wrong not to watch every thing Marvel churns out. I keep thinking, maybe this one will recapture that old Marvel mojo. It didn’t.

One glaringly obvious flaw I noticed was the simplicity of the motives the main characters had. And they were so obvious they may as well have been wearing t-shirts with things like, revenge, reconciliation, insecurity, and bitterness printed on them. I wondered, are we as human beings really that basic? In some ways, maybe, but it made the characters two-dimensional and rather dull. There were some nice fight scenes, and watching Harrison Ford turn into Red Hulk was fun, but besides that, there wasn’t much to it.

I watched The Wild Robot because some friends enjoyed it. I did not. I like animated films, I just didn’t like this one, and I cannot really explain why.

Finally, I caught The Return with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. After 20 years away, Odysseus (Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The king, whom everyone believes to be no more than a beggar, finds much has changed since he left to fight in the Trojan War. His wife, Penelope, (Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home and hounded by unworthy men to choose one of them as her new husband. Their son faces death at the hands of these suitors who see him as an obstacle in their pursuit of Penelope and the kingdom.

I want to think and write more about this one and it will probably become a longer post later. I liked it and found the imagery rich with meaning. I also enjoyed the fact that this movie was in no hurry. Sometimes, the slowness increased the tension and I had to remind myself to be patient and let the story unfold. I may need to give it a second viewing before I write about it.

On the Small Screen

In TV Land, I have been enjoying the latest season of Top Chef and I watched Andor Season 3 as I already mentioned. My wife and I also started Tucci in Italy, and we already like it.

I quit watching Season 2 of The Last of Us. It just grew tiresome and it seemed like the writers knew that so they thought, “Hey, let’s make it even bloodier!!! That’ll get everyone’s attention”. It did get my attention, but not in a good way.

I started watching season one of the show Evil based on a recommendation from a friend of mine. It’s…interesting. I find the tug-of-war between the natural and the supernatural intriguing, especially within the characters themselves. The theology is completely bonkers, but what else would you expect? The problem is that it’s a religious humanism show. The power over evil is within ourselves. God is some nebulous concept “out there”. The power over evil is almost entirely self manufactured.

Like I said, bonkers. But it is an interesting show. I’m going to keep watching and see what happens.