March 11, 2025
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Black Bag, Cate Blanchett, David Koepp, Marisa Abela, Michael Fassbender, Naomie Harris, Pierce Brosnan, Regé-Jean Page, Steven Soderbergh, Tom Burke
What’s in the Black Bag?! (CREDIT: Claudette Barius/Focus Features)
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Rating: R for Adults Talking About Their Adult Affairs, as Well as a Few Bursts of Violence
Release Date: March 14, 2025 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: George Woodehouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) are a happily married childless couple. But it’s a little complicated because they’re both spies and therefore can’t exactly always be 100% honest with each other. But somehow they’ve managed to make it work! It perhaps helps that they carefully cultivate relationships with some of the younger employees at their agency, even if things do occasionally get a little (or a lot) messy. When Kathryn flies out for her latest covert meeting, it looks like she might be turning treasonous, or perhaps it’s all a setup. So how far will George go to protect his wife, and is anyone foolhardy enough to stand in his way?
What Made an Impression?: Confusing, Until It’s Not: I’ve long since given up on trying to understand the plots of espionage movies, and the beginning of Black Bag didn’t do anything to change my mind. Instead, it felt like an homage to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? that had me going, “Did the trailer just straight-up lie about this movie’s plot?” But then after about 40 minutes of finely deliberate setup, screenwriter David Koepp and director Steven Soderbergh finally showed their hands, and they had me going, “Ah, there are the stakes.” I won’t delve too much more into this point because much of the pleasure of Black Bag is that “a-ha” feeling. But let’s just say that Soderbergh has demonstrated once again that it pays to figure out what you want to do ahead of time and then go ahead and execute that plan.
Scenes From a Marriage: Are George and Kathryn #couplegoals? I’d certainly be happy to see that conversation play out in the wake of Black Bag‘s release. They undoubtedly have each other’s backs, and they also consistently give each other the benefit of the doubt. But on the other hand, they leave a bit of a trail of destruction in their wake, although that might say more about their profession than it does about them. And though they don’t have any kids, you can kind of think of the characters played by Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, and Regé-Jean Page as their stand-in children. But that interpretation makes things go a little wibbly-wobbly, as it probably isn’t the best idea for parents to subject their kids to a round of polygraph testing. And yet, that is something that indeed happens in this movie. In conclusion, George and Kathryn’s ultimate suitability as a couple remains uncertain, but their turns as Spy Daddy and Spy Mommy are finely fulfilled.
Black Bag is Recommended If You Like: Leather and wine
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Satellite Feeds
September 3, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Adria Arjona, Aileen Wu, Alex Neustaedter, Alia Shawkat, Alien: Romulus, Alison Pill, Amy Morton, Archie Renaux, Ariana Greenblatt, Ariel Donoghue, Édgar Ramírez, Barbara Hershey, Between the Temples, Blake Lively, Blink Twice, Bobby Lee, Borderlands, Brandon Sklenar, Cailee Spaeny, Carol Kane, Caroline Aaron, Cate Blanchett, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Daniel Betts, David Jonsson, Dolly de Leon, Ed Begley Jr., Eli Roth, Fede Álvarez, Florian Munteanu, Geena Davis, Gina Gershon, Haley Bennett, Haley Joel Osment, Hasan Minhaj, Hayley Mills, Isabela Ferrer, Isabela Merced, It Ends with Us, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janina Gavankar, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Slate, Jonathan Langdon, Josh Hartnett, JT Mollner, Justin Baldoni, Kevin Hart, Kevin McKidd, Kid Cudi, Kyle Gallner, Kyle MacLachlan, Levon Hawke, Liz Caribel, m. night shyamalan, Madeline Weinstein, Marnie McPhail, Matthew Shear, Naomi Ackie, Nathan Silver, Robert Smigel, Saleka Shyamalan, Simon Rex, Spike Fearn, Strange Darling, Trap, Trew Mullen, Willa Fitzgerald, Zoë Kravitz
CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures (CREDIT: Screenshot)
I saw a bunch of movies in August 2024 that I haven’t released my full thoughts about yet, as it’s been too hot to say too much about any one movie. So I waited until September in the hopes that it would cool down at least a little bit and that I wouldn’t overheat from all this film analysis.
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December 13, 2022
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Burn Gorman, Cate Blanchett, Christoph Waltz, David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Finn Wolfhard, Gregory Mann, Guillermo del Toro, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, John Turturro, Pinocchio, Ron Perlman, Tilda Swinton, Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Kenny
What’s up, Pinocchio? (CREDIT: Netflix © 2022)
Starring: Gregory Mann, David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Burn Gorman, Tim Blake Nelson, John Turturro, Tom Kenny
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Running Time: 117 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: November 9, 2022 (Theaters)/December 9, 2022 (Netflix)
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – or as I refer to it, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pistachio” (because of that Rugrats episode where the babies call Pinocchio “Pistachio”) – is pretty dang lovely. It hasn’t quite inspired some baby-speak-style quoting from me to follow in the footsteps of the Rugrats version, but that’s okay. Furthermore, I thought that it was Cate Blanchett who was voicing the Fairy and her sister Death, but that was actually Tilda Swinton, while Cate was the voice of the monkey. That realization pretty much sums up my reaction in general to this whole movie, as Pinocchio’s stop-motion wooden walking was similarly mind-altering.
Grade: Cate Blanchett Voiced the Monkey?!
October 6, 2022
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Allan Corduner, Cate Blanchett, Julian Glover, Mark Strong, Mila Bogojevic, Nina Hoss, Noémie Merlant, Sophie Kauer, TÁR, Todd Field
Covered in TÁR (CREDIT: Courtesy of Focus Features)
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mila Bogojevic, Mark Strong
Director: Todd Field
Running Time: 157 Minutes
Rating: R for A Few Swears and Some Weird Incidental Nudity
Release Date: October 7, 2022 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Lydia Tár is one of the greatest living conductors. Does that sound like a role that Cate Blanchett was born to play? Todd Field apparently thought so, to the point that TÁR is the first movie he’s directed in sixteen years. Anyway, we’re introduced to Lydia at a live New Yorker interview, and it looks like it’s mostly going to be about her preparing for her next great orchestra performance. You know, one of those “process of genius” chronicles. But a messy personal life, and an even messier series of scandals, lurk barely underneath the surface. If you’re getting a sense that Lydia’s about to alienate all of her colleagues, friends, and family members, then you might be onto something.
What Made an Impression?: I’ve lately been reading Classical Music for Dummies, so I was all primed for TÁR to be more viscerally thrilling for me than it would have been, say, a year ago. But as it turns out, the classical setting is more or less incidental. Oh sure, there’s plenty for aficionados to dig here, as it’s likely to inspire passionate debates about the relative merits of Mahler and Bach, or someone more contemporary like Anna Thorvaldsdottir. But this is a story of the ego destroying everything else, which can happen in any high-powered artistic pursuit.
Lydia’s downfall could be read as a portrait of cancel culture, but that term is a bit too charged and complicated to be the most accurate description. For a good chunk of the movie, I found myself thinking, “She’s not guilty of exactly what she’s being accused of. Although, she is guilty of a lot.” Her instincts are to retreat, hide, get back to work, and in the process fail to acknowledge the humanity of pretty much everyone around her. What happens after that alienation? As TÁR posits, your whole world becomes warped beyond recognition, resulting in a wild fish-out-of-water conclusion and one of the most unexpectedly goofy final shots I’ve ever seen.
TÁR is Recommended If You Like: Geniuses losing it all, Finger dexterity, EGOT discussions
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Symphonies
December 15, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Clifton Collins Jr., David Straitharn, Guillermo del Toro, Holt McCallany, Jim Beaver, Mark Povinelli, Mary Steenburgen, Nightmare Alley, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Rooney Mara, Tim Blake Nelson, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe
Nightmare Alley (CREDIT: Kerry Hayes/20th Century Studios)
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, David Straitharn, Holt McCallany, Mark Povinelli, Mary Steenburgen, Clifton Collins Jr., Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Beaver
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Running Time: 150 Minutes
Rating: R for Some Gunfire and a Little Hanky Panky
Release Date: December 17, 2021 (Theaters)
If you can’t trust circus folk, who can you trust? Actually, if Nightmare Alley is to be believed, carnies are the only people who can be believed (well, most of them anyway). It’s everyone else who’s trying to pull one over on you. This movie is two and a half hours long, which is to say: it takes Bradley Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle way too long to realize the truth about Truth. That’s probably because he’s fooling himself.
The movie itself is pulling a trick on us as well. Considering its spooky title, and its writer-director, we’re primed for some horror, or at least something supernatural. But instead it’s a full-on noir thriller, with all the moral prisons, femmes fatales, and cigarettes to prove it. We first meet Stanton burning away his past, quite literally. Then he wanders into the local big tent, and it’s unclear if he actually has any plans for anything at this moment. Only later do his machinations come to the fore. He gets roped into a job, which at first pays him a mere 50 cents (it would have been a dollar if he hadn’t snuck into the geek show), but then that’s followed up by steadier employment at the next town, and soon enough he’s one of the top mentalists around. That trajectory eventually leads to him teaming up with a psychologist (Cate Blanchett) for a con to bilk some big, big money out of a rich man (Richard Jenkins) who’s overcome by Stan’s promises that he can commune with the dead. But of course, there’s enough doubt and double-crossing in the air for everything to go sideways.
By the end of the whole plot, Stan essentially circles back to his original destitute and anonymous status quo. I was struck by both the futility and durability of his con man nature. The Universe, or the Fates, or God or whatever, or simply the randomness of existence has decided that his deception can go only so far. And while his reach exceeding his grasp might send him down to rock bottom, he’ll find a way to survive in the gutter if he has to. But why not do it a little differently? If Stan were a real person, and he were my friend, I would remind him that he seems happiest when he’s just hanging out with the circus crew. He found a family, but the genre that he lives in has ensured that he’s a nowhere man who’s never fully at home anywhere.
Nightmare Alley is Recommended If You Like: Hucksters, Snow, Trenchcoats, Biting heads off chickens
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Cold Reads
December 13, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Adam McKay, Ariana Grande, Cate Blanchett, Don't Look Up, Himesh Patel, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Rylance, Melanie Lynskey, Meryl Streep, Michael Chiklis, Rob Morgan, Ron Perlman, Scott Mescudi, Timothée Chalamet, Tyler Perry
Don’t Look Up (CREDIT: Niko Tavernise/Netflix)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Mark Rylance, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi, Himesh Patel, Melanie Lynskey, Michael Chiklis
Director: Adam McKay
Running Time: 138 Minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: December 10, 2021 (Theaters)/December 24, 2021 (Netflix)
Timothée Chalamet should have been in all of Don’t Look Up.
Or at least like 75% of it. I’m thinking the ideal situation would be that he’s a main character, but he’s barely in the trailer, if at all. So when he shows up, you think he’ll hang around for just a few scenes, but instead he gradually just takes over the whole affair. A miniature version of that is what actually happens in the Don’t Look Up that we did get, as he shows up about 2/3 of the way through and plays a fairly large part from that point forward.
What I’m trying to say is, instead of recreating the broad reality of people yelling at clear and present disaster, Don’t Look Up probably would’ve been better off primarily focusing on the peculiarities of random skater boys rolling through the apocalypse.
Grade: Look Up About Half the Time
April 10, 2020
jmunney
Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Podcasts, Sports, Television
American Dad!, Cate Blanchett, George St. Geegland, Gil Faizon, Insecure, Joel McHale, John Mulaney, Ken Jeong, Mrs. America, NBA Horse Challenge, Nick Kroll, Oh Hello, Oh Hello the P'dcast, Saturday Night Live, SNL, SNL At Home, The Darkest Timeline, The Darkest Timeline podcast, The New Abnormal, The Strokes, What We Do in the Shadows
CREDIT: FX/YouTube Screenshot
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
TV
–SNL at Home (April 11 on NBC) – A remotely produced new episode of Saturday Night Live.
–Insecure Season 4 Premiere (April 12 on HBO)
–Killing Eve Season 3 Premiere (April on AMC and BBC America)
-NBA HORSE Challenge (April 12 on ESPN)
–American Dad! Season 17 Premiere (April 13 on TBS) – Still one of the most consistent shows on the air!
–Mrs. America Series Premiere (April 15 on Hulu) – Starring Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly.
–What We Do in the Shadows Season 2 Premiere (April 15 on FX)
Music
-The Strokes, The New Abnormal
Podcasts
A couple of great-so-far podcasts have recently launched:
–The Darkest Timeline – Community co-stars Joel McHale and Ken Jeong answer your questions.
–Oh, Hello: the P’dcast – Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland have discovered a new medium in which to deliver their tuna.
August 14, 2019
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Billy Crudup, Cate Blanchett, Emma Nelson, James Urbaniak, Judy Greer, Kristen Wiig, Laurence Fishburne, Richard Linklater, Where'd You Go Bernadette
CREDIT: Wilson Webb/Annapurna Pictures
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Emma Nelson, Kristen Wiig, Judy Greer, James Urbaniak, Laurence Fishburne
Director: Richard Linklater
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Arguments Between Neighbors and Family Members
Release Date: August 16, 2019
Where’d You Go, Bernadette is the sort of movie that I don’t want to say whether it’s good or bad. I’d rather just talk about what makes it unique. Because when you see more than a hundred movies per year like I do, uniqueness can seem like an endangered species, so when I come across it, I feel compelled to deconstruct it. First off, this movie doesn’t fully realize its premise until about two-thirds of the way through its running time – and that’s not a criticism! The title would seem to suggest that architect Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) runs right off from her family as fast as she can, but it actually takes quite a while until she is on her own in Antarctica. And get this – that destination was originally meant to be a family trip with her husband Elgin (Billy Crudup) and daughter Bee (Emma Nelson), so it’s not exactly like it’s supposed to be the most unpredictable hiding place.
You may have noticed that I mentioned that Bernadette is an architect, and that’s significant because this is a movie that cares A LOT about architecture. Director Richard Linklater apparently has a hidden passion for construction. Either that or he did his homework, because significant chunks of Where’d You Go, Bernadette could pass for an architecture mockumentary. The other major upending of expectations comes in the examination of Bernadette’s mental breakdown, or lack thereof. Everyone in her life is a little worried about her, but it turns out that the best solution is much less drastic – and much more fulfilling – than this genre has us conditioned to anticipate.
Pretty much everything about Where’d You Go, Bernadette is both slightly off-key and generally pleasant. A marriage that looks like it’s on the brink of disaster is actually quite healthy! Kristen Wiig plays a queen bee suburban mom who it turns out is actually a genuine human being! There’s a dog named Ice Cream! Anyone who is mildly adventurous will find something to enjoy.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette is Recommended If You Like: Crucial James Urbaniak Supporting Performances
Grade: Not Applicable out of 5 Russian Identity Thieves
February 20, 2019
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Ferguson, David Tennant, Dean DeBlois, F. Murray Abraham, Gerard Butler, How to Train Your Dragon, How To Train Your Dragon: THe Hidden World, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Kit Harington, Kristen Wiig
CREDIT: DreamWorks Animation
Starring: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, F. Murray Abraham, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, Kit Harington, David Tennant
Director: Dean DeBlois
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Rating: PG for High-Flying Fantasy Danger
Release Date: February 22, 2019
I do not remember a whole lot about the first two How to Train Your Dragon films other than the fact that I generally enjoyed them. The first one was among the initial wave of expansive 3D animated blockbusters. But nine years later, studios hardly ever bother to even screen their films in 3D, and I almost never seek the extra dimension out myself. But the CG animation is still of the utmost quality. Hair blows delightfully in the wind, and from what I have heard from the trenches of animation, realistic hair movement has been one of the biggest bugaboos in this medium. And this is a franchise about dragons, which don’t have a lot of hair! So the fact that the HTTYD team cares that much about rendering its human characters as well as its fantastical creatures should tell you all you need to know about the level of craft at play.
The Hidden World, the third in the series, finds Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his trusty dragon Toothless realizing that they are running out of room on their little island for all the humans and dragons to fruitfully co-exist. Meanwhile, an infamous dragon hunter named Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham) has declared he has his sights set on Toothless and all the other domesticated fire-breathers. There are admirable messages here about looking past surface differences and treating nature with respect, but there is also a bit of a sense of same-old, same-old. At this point, shouldn’t everyone know that these dragons are as loyal and affectionate as dogs? But while the story may be a little pedestrian, the animation continues to stun. Toothless develops himself a bit of a crush, and let’s just say, the dragon seduction dance is a (family-friendly) sight to behold.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is Recommended If You Like: The Most Thorough Animation in the Business
Grade: 3 out of 5 Night Furies
September 21, 2018
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Cate Blanchett, Colleen Camp, Eli Roth, Jack Black, Kyle MacLachlan, Lorenza Izzo, Owen Vaccaro, Renée Elise Goldberry, Sunny Suljic, The house with a Clock in Its Walls
CREDIT: Quantrell D. Colbert/Copyright: © 2018 Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
This review was originally posted on News Cult in September 2018.
Starring: Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Kyle MacLachlan, Renée Elise Goldberry, Sunny Suljic, Lorenza Izzo, Colleen Camp
Director: Eli Roth
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Rating: PG for Children in Danger and Creepy, Occasionally Macabre, Magic
Release Date: September 21, 2018
Despite some spirited performances and thorough production design and effects work, The House with a Clock in Its Walls ultimately feels rather perfunctory. But would I have this way if I saw it for the first time when I was eight years old, or would I have instead been truly excited? And as a PG-rated fantasy flick, perhaps we should primarily be asking what pre-teens will think about it. But maybe we should also be asking if it is good enough for them to continue to cherish it (beyond nostalgia value) as they grow older.
There is definitely plenty in here for kids to identify or empathize with, as recently orphaned 10-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) makes his way to his uncle’s house in New Zebedee, Michigan. Any youngsters who have ever struggled to fit in – whether because of a new school, a weird new home, cruel classmates, or whatever else – will be able to see themselves in Lewis, and that shouldn’t be discounted. But beyond his fashion signature of goggles based on his favorite sci-fi TV show, he doesn’t have the most memorable personality.
Luckily, the adults around Lewis do make more of a lasting impact. Jack Black leans into his bumbling side as Uncle Jonathan, a warlock who constantly downplays his own abilities, perhaps to his detriment. His neighbor Florence (Cate Blanchett) is a much more regal magical presence. Black and Blanchett have decent platonic chemistry, with their insistence that they are nothing more than friends never undercut by their repartee. As Jonathan’s sinister former partner Isaac, Kyle MacLachlan displays plenty of charisma despite working under mounds of makeup. And the house itself, in which the furniture acts like a pack of friendly dogs, is fun enough, with director Eli Roth demonstrating his knack for rendering fully realized, character-rich settings (but obviously more kid-friendly than what we’re used to from him). But at the end, you’re liable to be left thinking, “Welp, that all happened.” The stakes are apocalyptic, but they never feel that dire. Lewis saves the day, and that’s nice and all, but there could have been more zip and zaniness.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls is Recommended If You Like: The Pagemaster, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The NeverEnding Story
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Magic Keys
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