‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Review: Our Prayers Are Answered

April 26, 2023

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They’re all here, God! (CREDIT: Dana Hawley/Lionsgate)

Starring: Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Benny Safdie, Elle Graham, Echo Kellum, Amari Alexis Price, Katherine Kupferer, Isol Young

Director: Kelly Fremon Craig

Running Time: 106 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for “Thematic Material Involving Sexual Education” (So You Can Basically Replace the “13” in “PG-13” with Whatever Age Sex Ed Happens At)

Release Date: April 28, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Are you there, lovers of coming-of-age movies? It’s me, your fellow film freak. Have you heard about Margaret Simon? Judy Blume wrote a book about her more than 50 years ago, and now we finally get to see the big screen version, with Abby Ryder Fortson stepping into the title role. Margaret is excited to start sixth grade, but she’s a little aghast that she and her family are moving from Manhattan to New Jersey. Her mom Barbara (Rachel McAdams) grew up Christian, while her dad Herb (Benny Safdie) is Jewish, but they’ve chosen to raise her without religion. But that hasn’t stopped Margaret from seeking some essential heavenly advice. And she’s going to need it, because she’s starting to notice boys, she’s ready to wear a bra, and she can’t wait to have her first period. And while God might not answer her directly all the time, at least her force-of-nature grandmother Sylvia (Kathy Bates) is always just a phone call away.

What Made an Impression?: I’ve heard that ever since its 1970 publishing, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret the novel has helped a legion of young ladies emerge from puberty relatively unscathed. I’ve unfortunately never read it, though I have encountered Judy Blume via her “Fudge” novels. But I’m fully aware of the reputation, and I knew that this movie had a lot to live up to. And folks, I am happy to report that it does in fact live up to those expectations. This is such a tender and thoughtful portrayal of adolescence, friendship, and family dynamics.

It all comes down to vulnerability. This story is just so honest and open about each of its character’s hopes and desires. Margaret and her friends are curious about what’s going on with their own bodies, as well as everyone else’s. It’s no great revelation to say that that’s completely normal, but it’s still always nice to be reminded that those aspects of growing up are as natural as eating and sleeping. And when they get a little too gossipy, it’s still clear that that’s born out of a very human desire to make genuine connections.

That grace in storytelling is extended to the adult characters as well, especially Barbara. She’s a formerly working mom who’s eager to step away from her job teaching art so that she can spend more time at home. But she quickly overextends herself by volunteering for pretty much every PTA committee at Margaret’s school. Her most triumphant moment happens when she is able to gleefully say no to the next volunteer request. And that sums up the irresistible appeal of the whole movie: if you’re willing to admit how you’re feeling, chances are you’ll make someone who feels the same way suddenly feel a lot better.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is Recommended If You Like: Baby boomer soundtracks, Old-timey sex-ed videos, Revisiting your most awkward memories

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Sanitary Napkins

‘Richard Jewell’ Fits the Profile of a Classic Clint Eastwood Biopic

December 11, 2019

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CREDIT: Claire Folger/Warner Bros.

Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Nina Arianda, Ian Gomez

Director: Clint Eastwood

Running Time: 129 Minutes

Rating: R for Some Language (Including Innuendo) and a Bloody Crime Scene

Release Date: December 13, 2019

The real life stories that Clint Eastwood chooses for his films make me think he wants to say something grand about society at large. But then he tells them in such a way that makes it clear that he is just talking about this one particular story, especially in the case of Richard Jewell. (That statement comes with the caveat that there are several moments that viewers can extrapolate to draw their own broader conclusions.) During the 1996 Summer Olympics, the title fellow discovered a backpack packed with a bomb while working security at a concert at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park. After alerting authorities and helping spectators clear the area, he was initially hailed as a hero in the media. But then the FBI leaked information to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution indicating that Jewell was considered a suspect, leading to him being constantly hounded by an invasive investigation and a phalanx of relentless reporters outside his home.

Jewell fits the profile of a particular type of lone bomber terrorist: white, male, former military or law enforcement, or wannabe law enforcement, and presumably with a hero complex fantasy wherein he plants a deadly weapon so that he can save people by “discovering” it. Paul Walter Hauser plays Jewell with a confidence and sureness of himself that keeps underlining how much he fits that profile. He has a cache of hunting weapons, a hollowed-out grenade from a military surplus store that he uses as a paperweight, and a deep knowledge of terrorism and anti-terrorism techniques that he is perfectly happy to regale his friends and family with. He’s a bit naive, but not so naive that he doesn’t recognize when public opinion has wildly swung against him. He may not be the culprit, but that by no means absolves all people like him. The message of this one movie is that in this one case, this one guy who fits the profile isn’t guilty.

So when considered as just one particular story that doesn’t deign to have broader implications, Richard Jewell is a riveting tale of someone who was forced to stand up for himself in a way he never thought he would need to. The most crucial scene happens when his lawyer (a nimble and righteously angry Sam Rockwell) exhorts him to stop being so meek and get upset. Hauser lets down his armor and reveals that he could hardly be any angrier, but that doesn’t mean he can change who he fundamentally is as a person. And that is someone who has always believed in the virtue of respecting authority and is now coming to grips with how that authority can be weaponized against the wrong person. Richard Jewell is just one guy, and this one big thing just happened to happen to him. Somehow he survived, and Clint Eastwood was happy to let us know how.

Richard Jewell is Recommended If You Like: The Mule, Classic Olympics highlights, Vintage news clips

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Suspicious Backpacks

This Is a Movie Review: Felicity Jones’ Spirited Ruth Bader Ginsburg Portrayal Helps ‘On the Basis of Sex’ Overcome Some Biopic Clichés

December 21, 2018

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CREDIT: Focus Features

This review was originally published on News Cult in December 2018.

Starring: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Cailee Spaeny, Sam Waterston, Stephen Root, Jack Reynor, Kathy Bates

Director: Mimi Leder

Running Time: 120 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for The Occasionally Offensive Language of the Law

Release Date: December 25, 2018 (Limited)

It is slightly disorienting to have both a documentary and a based-on-true-life narrative film about the same living person open in one year. But for certain subjects, there is value be to had in exploring familiar territory via multiple formats. For someone as influential as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her increased level of media attention has not diluted her potential for cinematic inspiration. On the Basis of Sex, Mimi Leder’s portrait of a young and hungry Ginsburg, wisely focuses on one chapter in her legal journey. And when it missteps, it is not because it retreads the same territory that RBG already covered sufficiently.

The focus is on the 1970 case of Charles Moritz, a never-married bachelor caring for his sick mother who is denied a caregiver tax deduction because at the time it was available only to women, widowers, and divorcees. Ginsburg, who was then a law professor at Rutgers, teams up with the ACLU to take on Martin’s case, and in addition to representing this one man, they set out to demonstrate how so much of the U.S. legal code discriminates (as the title says) “on the basis of sex,” and how that harms both women and men. That could be cinematic overreach, except for the fact that the real Ginsburg has very much committed her career to making the law more equitable.

On the Basis of Sex works best when it focuses on the truths of relationships, and there is plenty of material to be mined within the Ginsburg household. Ruth and her husband Marty (Armie Hammer), here seen as a fast-rising tax lawyer, are equal partners, though not without their disagreements (like any marriage). But what makes their tension bearable, or even admirable, is that it is based on a shared desire to fight for what is right. Ruth’s relationship with her teenage daughter Jane (Cailee Spaeny), however, is much more explosive, in the way that mother-daughter relationships often are at that age. You kind of want Jane to cut her mom some slack, because she is Ruth Bader Ginsburg after all. But sometimes kids can be their parents’ toughest critics, sometimes unfairly, sometimes rewardingly, or both in this case. There are a few moments that reek of over-inspirational biopic excess, like Ruth suddenly becoming struck with inspiration in the middle of a rainstorm. But for the most part, On the Basis of Sex knows how to capture the fight for justice and its beating human heart.

On the Basis of Sex is Recommended If You Like: Inspirational clichés, To Kill a Mockingbird, Legally Blonde

Grade: 3 out of 5 Closing Statements