‘Warfare’ Leading to ‘The Amateur’

May 1, 2025

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A Warfarer and an Amateur (CREDIT: A24; 20th Century Studios/Screenshot)

Warfare

Starring: Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henry Zaga, Alex Brockdorff, Nathan Altai, Donya Hussen, Aaron Deakins

Directors: Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 11, 2025 (Theaters)

The Amateur

Starring: Rami Malek, Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Danny Sapani, Jon Bernthal, Adrian Martinez, Marc Rissmann, Joseph Millson, Barbara Probst, Alice Hewkin, Henry Garrett, Takehiro Hira

Director: James Hawes

Running Time: 124 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 11, 2025 (Theaters)

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Meeting Up with ‘Thelma’ and Landing on ‘Janet Planet’

July 2, 2024

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Thelma Being Thelma (CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures)

Thelma

Starring: June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell, Nicole Byer, Coral Peña

Director: Josh Margolin

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: June 21, 2024 (Theaters)

Janet Planet

Starring: Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler, Elias Koteas, Sophie Okonedo, Will Patton

Director: Annie Baker

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: June 21, 2024 (Theaters)

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How Dreamworthy is ‘Dream Scenario’?

November 16, 2023

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What a dreamboat! (CREDIT: Jan Thijs/A24)

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, Dylan Baker, Kate Berlant, Lily Bird, Jessica Clement, David Klein, Cara Volchoff, Noah Centineo, Nicholas Braun, Amber Midthunder, Lily Gao

Director: Kristoffer Borgli

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Rating: R for Dream Slaughter and Awkward Encounters

Release Date: November 10, 2023 (Limited Theaters)

What’s It About?: Biology professor Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) would just like to publish a book about ants one day. But the universe has different plans. A bizarre phenomenon takes hold as hundreds of people start having dreams about him: his daughter, old friends, students of his, and even people he’s never met before. And they all report pretty much the same thing: he doesn’t do much except linger in the background. His story becomes a bit of a media sensation, so he tries to parlay his newfound virality into a publishing opportunity, but his new handlers just aren’t on the same page. Meanwhile, those reveries start turning into nightmares, as Dream Paul becomes sadistically violent and the fallout spills over into his waking life.

What Made an Impression?: For my review of Dream Scenario, I’m going to do things a little differently than I normally do, as the subconscious is a favorite subject of mine. I’ve been keeping a dream journal since I was in high school, and I also keep a running tally of the number of times that people appear in my dreams each year. So my question for Dream Scenario is: is it dream-worthy? Which is to say, do I suspect that it will return to me in my sleep in the years to come? And do I want it to?

To answer all this, I first looked up how often I’ve dreamed of Nicolas Cage. He is one of my favorite actors, after all, and he’s also eminently memeable, so surely he’s an apt fit for the more surreal corners of the brain. But according to my records, he’s only shown up in three of my dreams in the past ten years. Of course, I don’t see Nic Cage while I’m awake as often as I do my immediate family, who show up in my dreams a lot more often.

In general, my dreams are typically related to lingering concerns in my waking life. And a movie certainly could become a lingering concern, if it’s especially unsettling or ambiguous, or if it otherwise just makes some sort of indelible impression. And while Dream Scenario has some fascinating ideas swirling around, it doesn’t strike me as hard-hitting enough that I won’t be able to shake it. (Unless this review becomes an accidental self-fulfilling prophecy. Or anti-prophecy, considering my doubts.)

This is all to say, my concerns about Paul’s story felt mostly wrapped up as the credits rolled. His insecurity made him ill-prepared to handle his sudden fame, but by the end, he seems to have realized who he is. Or at least learned enough about himself that it doesn’t feel like we need to worry. I won’t mind if little nuggets of Dream Scenario ever do return to me in my subconscious, but I also won’t be waiting breathlessly in the meantime.

Dream Scenario is Recommended If You Like: Watching people be misunderstood and then make a fool of themselves

Grade: 3 out of 5 PR Firms

‘Weird,’ But True: This is the Most Accurate Movie Review Ever

October 31, 2022

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Weerd. (CREDIT: The Roku Channel)

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Toby Huss, Julianne Nicholson, Rainn Wilson, Spencer Treat Clark, Tommy O’Brien, Jack Lancaster

Director: Eric Appel

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Rating: Unrated (It’s a little over-the-top, but fun for all ages)

Release Date: November 4, 2022 (The Roku Channel)

What’s It About?: Did you see that fake trailer for a Weird Al biopic when it dropped on Funny or Die back in 2010? Now it’s fake no more! Well, the movie is real, but the trailer is still kind of fake, insofar as it was produced separately from the actual movie and most of the cast is different. Also, much of the biographical aspect of the whole endeavor is purposefully fake, befitting its subject.

Yes, I’m talking about Lynwood’s Alfred Matthew Yankovic, master musical parodist nonpareil! He’s played this time around by none other than Daniel Radcliffe, who doesn’t exactly resemble Al much beyond skin tone (and perhaps comedic sensibility). In case you haven’t figured it out by now, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story isn’t exactly sticking to the facts in the strictest sense of the term. We’ve already been blessed both with musical biopic parodies and with Weird Al sensing his cinematic muscles, so can this latest venture possibly meet those high standards?

What Made an Impression?: I am a Weird Al devotee. Whenever I encounter anything he’s ever done, I’m comforted by a sense of everything feeling right in the world. That’s all to say: Weird was kind of burdened by unfairly high expectations. How I can go on living if this movie weren’t non-stop hilarity?!

But within just a few minutes of the projector rolling, something magical happened: I laughed. And then I laughed some more. This was no mere forced tittering, my friends, but instead the most natural reaction in the world. Pulling this off couldn’t have been easy. We Weird Al fans are by definition uber-savvy about pop culture, so we can spot every predictable plot twist and turn from a mile away. And while occasionally Weird can’t help but be straightforward, there are enough times that had me going, “Whoa, where the heck did that come from?”

One of those bizarre decisions is a propensity towards a multiplicity of shots of characters watching major developments happen on small TVs. That was certainly a directorial CHOICE from Eric Appel, and I’m not sure why he did it, but it definitely stuck with me.

Besides its slippery relationship with reality, Weird‘s other major attraction is its whirlwind of celebrity cameos. You could certainly look them up ahead of time on a thoroughly maintained online database, but I’ll keep it a secret on my little corner of the Internet. Instead, I’ll describe my reactions to seeing these cameos arrive: “Oh wow.” “This is just too much.” “Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.” “I hope this never ends.” “There she is!” “How are we so blessed?” “Gah!” “Oh, man.” “!!!” “!!!!!” “!!!!!!!”

And for the record, yes, I did eat a cup of Rocky Road afterwards.

Weird is Recommended If You Like: UHF, Walk Hard, Bologna

Grade: 4 out of 5 Accordions

This Is a Movie Review: ‘I, Tonya,’ You, Enthralled Audience

December 5, 2017

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CREDIT: Neon

This review was originally posted on News Cult in December 2017.

Starring: Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Sebastian Stan, Julianne Nicholson, Paul Walter Hauser, Bobby Canavale

Director: Craig Gillespie

Running Time: 121 Minutes

Rating: R for Rinkside Potty Mouth and Redneck-Style Violence

Release Date: December 8, 2017 (Limited)

Every story needs a villain, but that’s not always how life works. Even when somebody gets clubbed in the knee leading up to the Olympics, separating the good guys from the bad guys is not always so clear-cut. This is all to say, Tonya Harding has lived a very colorful life, and some pretty illuminating details often get left out in the telling, so she deserves for us to hear her out. It would help, though, if all the parties involved could actually agree on what happened. Nevertheless, I, Tonya, the spirited biopic pieced together by director Craig Gillespie is a record of fantastically entertaining recent tabloid history that is can’t-look-away tawdry but also fair-minded and humanizing.

Harding is one of the all-time greats in American figure skating, but her reputation has forever been marked by the attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan in the lead-up to the 1994 Olympics. In the popular imagination (and in a gleefully sadistic fantasy scene in the film), Harding was the assailant herself, but it was actually some guy hired by her ex-husband and her bodyguard, and it is questionable how much she ever knew about it in the first place. All of I, Tonya is building up to “The Incident,” but it takes up a relatively small portion of the runtime. After all, Harding’s life was enough of a whirlwind before then for her to already be the wild child in the public eye.

Betting that his big hook is conflicting testimonies and fluffing of image, Gillespie frames the film as a mockumentary consisting of interviews with the principal actors in character, disputing the accounts of the others as they see fit. This is a recipe for raucous storytelling, as every character is oozing with personality to spare. Margot Robbie is dangerously feisty and undeniably winning as she absolutely gives Tonya a chance to redeem herself and just let her voice be heard. Her mother LaVona (Allison Janney), accompanied with a parrot on her shoulder (credited as “LaVona’s Sixth Husband”), is a piece of work, egging her daughter on with profanity-laced tirades and motivational negging. Ex-husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) has mellowed a bit in the present day, but his fiery, mustachioed presence of yore gets a lot of mileage. And an unnamed producer (Bobby Canavale) of the ’90s tabloid news show Hard Copy fills in the blanks with maximum slickness. Not interviewed, but looming large, is Paul Walter Hauser as Shawn Eckhardt, Jeff’s close friend and Tonya’s supposed bodyguard, who earns the biggest laughs of the film, occasionally by just repeating verbatim some of Eckhardt’s most ridiculous claims (like how he is an expert in counterterrorism).

According to Tonya’s telling, there is one big constant: nothing is ever her fault. And certainly she has been a major victim, suffering at the hands of an abusive mother, an abusive husband, and a father who left her. Plus, there is the figure skating establishment that never accepted her, that would never hold up a white trash girl who performed to ZZ Top as their crown jewel. But for all the ways she has been wronged, it is so clear that she needs to shoulder some responsibility herself (as does anyone who wants to have peace). Yes, her ex beat her up, but she also pulled a shotgun on him (though she disputes that part). And sure, the stuffy figure skating establishment probably never gave her a fair chance, but she was intimidating and probably scared a few judges away from reasonability. Ultimately, Tonya implicates everyone watching in creating the monster she has come to be. To which I say: I don’t think you’re a monster! If Margot Robbie has portrayed you accurately, then I like you, Tonya! Chances are I won’t be the only one, as we all get to see the human within this crazy delicious mess.

I, Tonya is Recommended If You Like: The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, Tyson, Thelma & Louise

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Triple Axels

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Novitiate’ is the Latest Harrowing and Also Inspiring Peek at the Inner Workings of the Catholic Church

October 24, 2017

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CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics

This review was originally posted on News Cult in October 2017.

Starring: Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Julianne Nicholson, Dianna Agron, Denis O’Hare

Director: Margaret Betts

Running Time: 123 Minutes

Rating: R for Sexuality and Profanity-Laced Anger That Can Be Suppressed for Only So Long

Release Date: October 27, 2017 (Limited)

An institution as massive and long-lasting as the Catholic Church is bound to be filled with corners that many of its members are completely unfamiliar with. Sometimes those areas are not even the ones that are shamefully hidden. They may actually be intrinsic features, but if allowed to function independently, they can involve into a weird hybrid of both doctrinaire and renegade. I was raised (and remain) Catholic, but I was born decades after the reforms of Vatican II, which rendered the most extreme practices of convents as seen in Novitiate verobten. But even if I had been a churchgoer in the ’60s, I doubt I would have been familiar with the ins and outs of the nuns’ rigorous training. And yet, this story does not feel fully alien, nor should it feel so to anyone of any background who has ever desired feelings of deep love and devotion.

This examination of religious life is mainly told through the story of Sister Cathleen (Margaret Qualley), who in 1964 is one of the convent’s new class of postulants (candidates to become nuns) who eventually become novitiates (nuns-in-training). Margaret’s ready acceptance of the convent’s extreme practices, e.g. self-abnegation, has nothing to do with lifelong indoctrination, as she comes from a family of bitterly divorced, agnostic parents (at least Mom is agnostic, Dad is never much around). Her attraction to marrying God is perhaps a desire for stability, but it is also more than that. Stirring in her is an aching for transcendence that cannot easily be explained by nurture (or lack thereof). Setting her up as the novice character to follow in this secretive world is crucial, because otherwise the convent’s frightening elements would feel almost abstract and theoretical.

As the convent is resisting the reforms of Vatican II that were then being enacted, the message is clear that this is not the right way to practice religious devotion. But that historical background of rebuke is unnecessary to make that point, except perhaps for viewers with the most hardened of souls. The training and practices – oppressive silence, avoidance of eye contact, asceticism, confession in a group setting – are reminiscent of the auditing of Scientology, so memorably approximated in The Master. Ostensibly designed to make its adherents better people and closer to God, its true effects are vulnerability and surrender to authority. Overseeing all this is the Mother Superior (Melissa Leo), who while sitting on her throne of a central chair, is reminiscent of Pan’s Laybrinth’s Pale Man.

Novitiate is powerful grist for the mill for those who decry the problems inherent to all religions and for those who remain religious but point to this as an example of the wrong way of doing things. And quite frankly, it may very well also make such a connection to the ultra-traditionalists and reactionaries, who might see this as a lament for the old, better way. It is a fascinatingly human look at all those urges, appealing both to a desire to connect to a higher power and a desire to not be wrong.

Novitiate is Recommended If You Like: Spotlight, The Master, Silence

Grade: 4 out of 5 Grand Silences