Cate Marquis

BUGONIA – Review

Jesse Plemons stars as Teddy in director Yorgos Lanthimos’ BUGONIA, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

Jesse Plemons gives a jaw-dropping performance as conspiracy-obsessed young man who convinces his pliant cousin to help him kidnap the high-powered woman CEO, played by Emma Stone, of a Big Pharma/agra-chemical company, driven by the belief that she is an alien from another planet who is set on destroying the world, in BUGONIA, Yorgos Lanthimos’ darkly comic, oft horrifying but ultimately humanly touching social commentary on our crazy modern world. Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is known for his award-winning, imaginative films with a dark world view, such as THE LOBSTER, THE FAVOURITE, and POOR THINGS. BUGONIA is actually a loose re-make of a South Korean film, SAVE THE GREEN PLANET, and the pair of young men plan to force the CEO alien to contact her emperor and call off the destruction of Earth. Basically, it comes down to a face-off between the obsessed conspiracy-theorist and the heartless corporate CEO, in a battle of the wills filled with twists and enough unexpected turns to spin your head around.

The strange title actually comes from an ancient Greek ritual in which a bull is sacrificed in such a way that it was believed that the carcass would produce bees. This plan to have the alien CEO contact her space alien emperor seems as likely to succeed.

While this premise seems ripe for comedy, audiences should be warned that the film has plenty of violence, and a horror aspect, not just talking in the basement where the two are holding her.

What really makes this film is Jesse Plemons’ startling performance. Plemons gives an Oscar-worthy performance unlike anything you have ever seen from him, as a young beekeeper and environmentalist in a fading small town, who has been driven mad by terrible events in his life and too much time spent on the conspiracy-theory drenched internet. He lives in the crumbling old house outside of town where he grew up with his mother, along with his neurodivergent cousin.

Beyond saving the planet, Jesse Plemon’s character has more personal issues with Emma Stone’s CEO. One of his issues with her company is linked to colony collapse disorder, which the beekeeper links to certain chemicals, and the other has to do with his mother’s experimental treatment for drug addiction, which had devastating results.

While Plemon’s character is a lost soul with a tragic history, Emma Stone’s CEO is a soul less, hard-driven executive in spike heels who works out with martial arts and seems to have little feeling for people. In one of her first scenes, the CEO is recording a diversity message for her employees, when she flubs a line saying “diversity” too many times, with an expression that makes it clear she’d rather not say it at all. She walks down a hall, reminding her employees they now can leave work at 5:30pm. adding “Your call!” but then “unless you have work to finish,” undercutting the whole work-life balance initiative she is launching. “Your call!” she repeats.

Plemon’s character Teddy’s partner in crime is his pliant cousin Don, played well by fuzzy-haired newcomer Aidan Delbis, who lives with Teddy because he has no one else. Don adores his smart, slightly older cousin, who apparently is the only one in town who treats him with kindness and a level of respect. Plemon’s Teddy is clearly smart but absorbed in his elaborate tin-hat theories, which the pliant cousin listens to and accepts – partly because he feels he has no choice.

Teddy wants to kidnap alien CEO Michelle to force to contact her Emperor and call of the attack on Earth. The kidnapping doesn’t go smoothly but the pair do get her back to Teddy’s basement. However, he does not want her to contact her Mothership for rescue, so he cuts off her hair – which is how she sends messages to other aliens.

At first our sympathies are more with the broken, lost Teddy, but that turns rather quickly. And turn back again, and again, with a series of shockers and twists that continue to the end.

None of these characters are simple or black-and-white. The film gives all the characters depth and complexity, which adds an unexpected layer of humanity and heart to the tale, despite the sometimes awful events than unfold.

Whether it is aliens or just alienation, BUGONIA delivers a punch, but primarily through the outstanding performances, especially by Jesse Plemons, one that should win him an Oscar nod at a minimum.

BUGONIA opens Friday, Oct. 31, in theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION Documentary – Review

Many St. Louisans who know a bit of Civil Rights history, Percy Green is known as the man who climbed the Arch, when it was partly built, to protest the lack of minority hiring by the company that was building it. As the 60th anniversary of the St. Louis Arch approaches, it is the perfect time for PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION, the documentary the local legend by Joseph Puleo, which airs on PBS Nine on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025 at 7pm.

But there is much more to this Civil Rights activist – icon, actually – than that one spectacular protest, as you will learn in this insightful, engrossing documentary. Now 90 years old, Percy Green is still committed to Civil Rights, and worked with documentary filmmaker Joseph Puleo in the making of this first-rate, inspiring documentary. PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION delves into Green’s life and work, and the Civil Rights movement generally, offering insights and information through archival stills, footage and interviews, as well as some excellent animated sequences.

For one, Percy Green participated in one of the earliest Civil Rights actions in the country, the groundbreaking Jefferson Bank protest in 1963, where protesters didn’t just march but laid in the street to block trucks as part of their non-violent resistance. Green is truly a man of action, which is what he named the Civil Rights organization he founded, ACTION.

Joseph Puleo’s film PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION is skillfully-made, both informative and enjoyable, spotlighting a local hero of the Civil Rights whose name and actions should be known by all. Puleo’s previous documentaries include 2020’s AMERICA’S LAST LITTLE ITALY: THE HILL, about St. Louis’ Hill neighborhood, 2022’s A NEW HOME, about the Bosnian War refugees who settled in St. Louis and transformed the area around Bevo Mill, and the filmmakers has won awards for this work, including a Mid-America Emmy for Best Documentary – Cultural for the latter one. He is currently working on another documentary, BROTHERS IN BLOOD: BALCK IN VIETNAM.

The other big action Percy Green was famous for was the “unveiling” of the Veiled Prophet, an invented pseudo-Middle-Eastern figure, created by an old restricted, whites-only social organization of wealthy and powerful St. Louis “old family” elites, a club that dated back to at least the 19th century. The role of the Veiled Prophet was played by a top-ranking member of this segregated club, whose identity was kept secret, and in that role, presided over a parade and then a debutantes ball. Green didn’t do the un-veiling but he organized that action, which drew attention to this segregated organization.

The documentary personalizes the stories as it tells them, and recounts Civil Rights history, and Percy Green’s history, that should be much better known, not just in St. Louis. The documentary highlights the efforts of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover to attack Green and ACTION, and leaves us with a feeling of uplift and inspiration to see a good man who could not be kept down, and who gave so much to the Civil Rights movement and this country.

Do not must this stirring documentary about a local Civil Rights hero, but if you do, hopefully it will become available through PBS’s Passport streaming service.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

*Percy Green in PERCY GREEN: MAN OF ACTION*

FRANKENSTEIN – Review

Director Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN does a startling thing: it goes back to the original Gothic novel written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in 1818, “Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus.” While there have been seeming endless numbers of screen versions of the Frankenstein story, generally in some form all are based in James Whale’s classic 1931 film and its sequel, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Whale’s film has thrilled countless film fans and inspired many future filmmakers, including Guillermo del Toro. but the story the 1931 movie tells departs greatly from Mary Shelley’s terrifying but more philosophical novel about the hubris of a man playing God.

Now, to be clear, del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN is not a faithful screen adaptation of the novel, but something more based on it. or in parts even, “inspired by” it. In truth, the director of Oscar-winning films PAN’S LABYRINTH and THE SHAPE OF WATER makes this story his own, stamping it with his own unique signature style, using the parts of the original novel that suit his purpose in building his own creation. That creation includes plenty of references to various Frankenstein versions.

Still, this return to Shelley’s Gothic tale makes the film much more strikingly unusual, in a gripping way that other Frankensteins iterations have not. And the director takes full advantage of that fresh approach to what could otherwise be overly familiar.

Like the book, the film starts at the end of the story, with Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) in an Arctic wasteland. He tells his tale, in this case, to the captain of a ship searching for the North Pole. How the doctor got there and why is part of his story. But del Toro then does something else startling in this film: after we see and hear Dr. Frankenstein’s story, the director turns things around and allows the Creature (Jacob Elordi) to tell his version. Yes, the Creature in this one, like the original novel, is intelligent and articulate, although not at first.

FRANKENSTEIN is Guillermo del Toro’s dream project, long planned. The film has the director’s distinct style and many of the same themes that run through other del Toro films, such as man as the real monster, sympathy for the creature, father and son issues, and good versus evil. Visually, the film is very much in the director’s bold style, color-drenched, creepy, and filled with striking cinematic images. The dramatic creation moment, when the creature comes to life, takes place in a huge, strange, foreboding building, one that looks like it was built as some kind of waterworks or water-driven factory, but with echoes of James Whale’s 1931 film. The reference to the link between water and life is inescapable, while the imposing structure itself, visually, is dramatically gothic.

Instead of the frenetic Dr. Frankenstein of James Whale’s classic, Oscar Isaac plays the doctor obsessed with building a man as a brooding, cold, dark, and even heartless fellow, with a huge ego and few ethics constrains. The social commentary on unlimited ambition and power is there.

Mia Goth plays Elizabeth, but in this telling she is not the fiancee of Victor but his younger, sunnier brother William (Felix Kammerer). Elizabeth is both beautiful and intelligent, with a keen interest in science and nature. She is very close to her wealthy uncle (Christoph Waltz), who offers to fund Victor’s experiments in reanimating dead tissue with the aim of creating life. The uncle gives no reason for this decision but hints that he does have an agenda in mind.

Although inspired by the novel, del Toro still references various versions of the the Frankenstein story, in movies and even comics. including the 1931 classic film that so riveted the director as a young child. Those references are sprinkled throughout the film, and it even has a glancing reference to ROCKY HORROR, a kind of Frankenstein tale, in the early appearance of the Creature himself but without the camp.

The cast all turn in fine performances, although the story and its vivid telling is the really strength of the film. Oscar Isaac plays Dr. Frankenstein as a very dark, hard character, an unlikable person who becomes less appealing as we see what he does. The story begins with his childhood to help us understand the character, in a brooding, gothic tale in a world of with funeral black and winter white, splashed with dramatic touches of blood red. The doctor makes himself the hero of his own story but we will hear another version next. The Creature is like a newborn in a grown body at first but grows up quickly, with his innocence turning to resentment and more toward his “father.”

The director caused some uproar by casting handsome Jacob Elordi as the Frankenstein;s creation, but it is worth noting that in the original novel the creation has more the appearance of a man, albeit a large one, than Karloff’s monster. Del Toro doesn’t quite do that, as the creature is a patchwork of sewn-together skin but, like in the book and others versions, of monstrous strength, if not size.

Speaking of monsters, director del Toro makes it clear at the very start of the film who the “monster” is, and it is not the creature. The creation here has more the enormous strength than size, which allows us to see him as a young man, even a big child at the start, the son of the doctor who built him.

Art direction is one of the real stars of this film. The visual side is eye-popping and very effective in creating a sense of awe and terror. The set, costumes and visual effects are all bold, often color-drenched and sometimes massive, a Gothic look on steroids which feels perfect for this film.

One of the most striking sequences is the one where the Creature is brought to life, a process that involves lightning like the 1931 classic film, but taking place in a weird, water-themed building of tile and smooth spouts, ducts, and channels, set on the edge of a cliff plunging into the sea.

Although Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN is not a faithful adaptation of the original novel, going back to that groundbreaking book, and some of its themes, does open the door for some other filmmaker to do that full adaptation. Hopefully that will happen, but until then we have this wonderfully creative new retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic novel.

FRANKENSTEIN opens Friday, Oct. 24, in theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE – Review

A House of Dynamite. (Featured L-R) Tracy Letts as General Anthony Brady and Gbenga Akinnagbe as Major General Steven Kyle in A House of Dynamite. Cr. Eros Hoagland/Netflix © 2025.

To many of us, nuclear weapons seem like something relegated to the Cold War past, but in Kathryn Bigelow’s chilling psychological thriller A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE, we are reminded that threat is still very much with us.

An ICBM of unknown origin is detected by military sensors, and is headed towards the continental United States. The assumption is that it has a nuclear warhead but there are many unanswered questions. Who launched it? Was it launched by mistake? Is it the start of a barrage or a single missile? Most importantly, what do we do?

Military sensors detected the single missile after its launch, so determining it’s origin is difficult. The missile is coming from somewhere in Asia, but the exact source is hard to pinpoint, as the missile was not detected until it was far up in the atmosphere. The source could be North Korea or China, even Russia but all is unclear. Questions must be answered: Who launched it? Was it accidental? Will there be more? And can this lone missile be stopped?

The military has plenty of plans for responding to attacks but not knowing who launched it and whether it was deliberate plays a enormous role in how to respond. A HOUSE DYNAMITE follows the response of the U.S. on differing levels to this mysterious threat headed our way. There are only a few minutes until the ICBM reaches the U.S., and those minutes tick down quickly.

Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow is a past master at taut action and suspense, a skill showcased in her films ZERO DARK THIRTY and THE HURT LOCKER. Besides the ticking clock, she loops the action back so that we see events and decision-making from three points of view, ascending the chain of command, and frames this shocking situation with the human element and their personal emotional reactions as well as their professional ones. The film sports an outstanding cast, including Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Rebecca Ferguson and Gabriel Basso, all who deliver the goods in this nail-biting psychological – political thriller.

The events that unfold are terrifying, and even more so because of all the uncertainty and unanswered questions. Looping the events back, to see from different viewpoints, makes things even more tense.

Bigelow tells this story in three over-lapping viewpoints, starting with the rank-and-file who first detect it, the boots-on-the-ground charged with carrying orders to destroy it, as well as the lower-level White House staff, White House reporters covering it, and technical experts charged with providing information to the decision-makers. The next two versions move us up the chain of decision-making, overlapping what we saw happening but now from a new viewpoint, advancing events a few steps as well, and with the last one including the President. Presenting the same unfolding events from different viewpoints builds both suspense and fear, as we see some of the same confusion, or sometimes more, as we move up the level of responsibility, reaching into the highest levels.

The scenario is not far-fetched as one might think, but it takes by surprise the characters in this dramatic thriller as much as it does us in the audience. The mystery of who would launch this nuclear missile now headed towards the U.S. is a major puzzle, one that limits what can be done to counteract or respond. The launch could be accidental or deliberate, part of a larger coming attack or just a single missile on its own. The questions sow confusion that magnifies the paralyzing disbelief, disbelief that consumes everyone involved, top to bottom.

The film’s title refers what one character says about the world, that it is a house built of dynamite – explosive material – just awaiting a blow to set it off. It is a good metaphor for the pile of nuclear weapons – “dynamite” – built during the Cold War, but built during that time but never disarmed or disposed of after the Soviet Union fell apart, and now largely forgotten about. A danger forgotten but still very deadly.

That forgetting comes back to bite the United States in this fictional tale but the danger it reminds us about is very real. Disbelief is a big factor complicating this situation, as well as confusion about what to do. Too many unanswered questions, about who and why, cloud the search for solutions, and the lack of knowledge and direct experience is even more chilling.

The film is terrifying as well as engrossing. Bigelow crafts the story written by Noah Oppenheim with a sure hand and builds both tension and human emotion as it unfolds in it triple form, a process aided by its terrific cast. The cast humanize this story, as things twist and go down the dark alleys, and they struggle to cope with an emergency they never expected to face, as if the past has come back to haunt them, which it kind of has.

In the first iteration, Rebecca Ferguson plays Captain Olivia Walker, who is in charge of the technical military team who discovered the threat and are tracking the progress of the mysterious missile. Gabriel Basso has a major role that runs through the film as a Deputy National Security Advisor, pressed into service as an expert on nuclear policy and political dynamics when his boss is unavailable. Much of the time we see Basso on video screen in the first version, as he hurries through the street to reach the White House.

The further in we go, the more we learn of the individuals facing this crisis, and their personal fears. Jared Harris, as Secretary of Defense Reid Baker, and Tracy Letts, as General Anthony Brady, are stand-outs. Harris’ and Letts’ characters play smaller parts in the first telling of events but more significant ones in the second and third iterations.

The overlapping, looping-back technique, gives us different takes on events, adds information others did not know, and gives both insights and a particularly human perspective. Information is revealed as we move up the chain of command, as well as upping the fear. The three-version approach is far more chilling than one might expect, for what is known and for what is unknown, about the unfolding situation and the human aspects.

Writer Noah Oppenheim’s script delves deep into the unexpected situation, as well as the lack of experience or knowledge that nearly everyone has about nuclear war. Different personalities react with varying levels of emotion or coolness, with the military characters the coolest heads but also the ones with the strictly military point of view.

The film is also an eye-opener for the audience, and it opens with a reminder of the too-common mistaken idea that many people have of nuclear weapons have somehow vanished, deactivated after the Cold War, a process that actually started but was never finished.

This is a powerful film, gripping as a fictional thriller, but so close to the possible that the terror rises to a fever level. The sterling A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE may be Kathryn Bigelow’s most significant film, as well as her most terrifying. Hopefully, it will also spark some thought, and alarm, in all of us about the unseen cliff on which we are unconsciously teetering.

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE opens in theaters on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY – Review

BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY, from AFTER YANG director Kogonada, has two beautiful people, played by Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, who meet at a wedding and then find themselves on an inexplicable, fantasy journey that leads through childhood memories and might lead to love. Big certainly describes the budget and high-quality production values for this romantic fantasy, and beautiful certainly describes the lush photography, scenery and colorful costumes but bold is another matter when it comes to the story itself. While there will be audiences who fall for this romance, for this reviewer, and many others, the title should have been more like “Big Boring Beautiful Hallmark Movie.” This contrived, leaden romance is one of those cases where the film feels longer, much longer, than it’s actual about two-hour running time.

It certainly is a beautiful film to look at, and it is stylishly and artistically shot. One cannot fault the cast, which includes Kevin Kline and Phoebe Waller-Bridge along with Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell in this fantasy tale. But the tale is very tall, and not entertaining or profound as it hopes to be, and admiring its beauty fades as the couple roll down the seemingly endless road.

The main characters are drawn to each other at the wedding but both have rocky romantic histories that make they hesitate. However, the film begins a bit earlier, when Colin Farrell’s character leaves his house in the big city to drive hundreds of miles to attend this wedding. Getting a late start, Colin Farrell’s character rushes down the street to his car, planning to drive there, only to find himself staring a “boot” attached to his tire. Luckily, he turns around to see a poster on a brick wall advertising a car rental, and decides to call. The car rental tucked away is in nondescript warehouse, which he has to be buzzed into. Inside, he sees two people at a table and exactly two cars at the far end of the space. The two people, played by Kevin Kline and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, ask him a series of questions as if he is auditioning for an acting part instead of renting a car, and then offer him only one car, a 1984 Saturn, take it or leave it. With little choice, he takes it.

If you find that intro enchanting, and have a particularly romantic bent, you may like this movie but my reaction was that it all felt very contrived and a bit stage-y, rather than magical. After this strange start, things are a big more rational of a bit but it eventually returns to this fantasy world with one foot in the realm of stage, as the two strangers embark on a journey conducted by the car’s GPS voice. Writing this now, it seems that all this could have easily been played for Monty Python-style laughs had the director chosen that, but instead, everything has a ponderous seriousness to it, with many more sentimental tears than laughs.

The car’s magical GPS directs them to stop at various points along the road, where they go through a series of doorways that lead to youthful memories. At each stop, they encounter a door, sometimes just a door in a frame, in the middle of nowhere. But when they go through it, both are transported back to one or the other’s childhood, with lessons to be learned and insights to be gathered.

However, the film does have a few rare moments of fun, such as Colin Farrell, transported back to high school in his adult form, singing and dancing in the school production of the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” He’s surprisingly good, and enough so, that one might wish the movie would linger there a bit longer, instead of returning to its deadening slog. Alas, it doesn’t happen.

Yet despite the premise of a fantasy journey through memory to explore the chance of romance, there is a surprising lack of any believable romantic chemistry between these two leads. The film focuses more on hesitancy and fear, based on past experiences, than a longing for love. One gets the sense the characters are only trying to convince themselves that they can put up with the other. Hardly a “bold” romantic story of two people falling in love.

A big ambitious romance needs at least give audiences the feeling of passionate attraction between the two leads but that never develops here, for whatever reason. In fact, in the end, the film philosophizes that just being content with a partner is good enough. Not much big or bold in that, not matter how beautiful the film or the leads look.

BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY opens Friday, Sept. 19, in theaters.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars

DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE – Review

(L to R) Laura Carmichael stars as Lady Edith, Harry Hadden-Paton as Bertie Hexham, Elizabeth McGovern as Cora Grantham, Hugh Bonneville stars as Robert Grantham and Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary in DOWNTON ABBEY: The Grand Finale, a Focus Features release. Credit: Rory Mulvey / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

It has been a good, long run but DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE is the final bow for the British world of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants, which fans have followed through several seasons on British TV (and PBS here) and then three movies, which have continued the saga.

Series creator/writer Julian Fellowes followed up his successful film GOSFORD PARK and followed the lead of earlier British series “Upstairs, Downstairs” in crafting this tale of a likable noble family in Yorkshire and their equally appealing servants, but made it so much more, by following the changes in Britain in the early 20th century. Starting in 1912 and ending in 1930, the tale of the Crawley family is set in a period of great change in Britain for both the aristocratic class and, with expanding democracy and opportunities, for the people who worked for them.

So many things came together just right in this series to make it both entertaining and engrossing. Julian Fellowes’ great writing and historical research, and a great cast, made this combination of historic storytelling, family drama, and character-driver stories (spiked with plenty of humor) into a surprisingly enjoyable ride, even if costume drama is not your cup of tea. Add to that the incomparable late Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess, whose smart, snappy comebacks and biting, sharply observed comments, became the highlight of many an episode. The mostly British cast was outstanding, included American ex-pat Elizabeth McGovern and Hugh Bonneville, and launching the careers of Michelle Dockery and Dan Stevens, and others. Plus there were all those fabulous British manor house locations and wonderful early 20th century fashions (especially in the 1920s), and it made for great escapist fun. The popular TV show was such a hit that the actual manor house where it was filmed, Highclere Castle, became a tourist destination.

But the time finally comes to say goodbye, and DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE is a good an exit as one could hope for. In this final chapter, the Crawley family is in a kind of holding pattern, as Lady Mary is poised to take over the estate from her father, Lord Grantham, Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), but with dad a bit reluctant to let go. But there is something else to deal with: visitors from America. Lady Grantham, Cora Crawley’s (Elizabeth McGovern) brother Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti) has arrived from the States, with a friend Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), a financial advisor of sorts, and some bad financial news. While the British Crawleys’ fortune survived the Crash, the brother has not done as well. The brother’s American companion is charming if bold, and is also in Britain to see his horse race at Ascot, while helping the brother with his financial mess after the stock market crash.

While the Crawley’s try to sort out Harold’s financial mess, there are subplots aplenty, with is a little scandal with Lady Mary, a truce of sorts from oft- battling sisters, and updates on all the characters’ lives. The story lets us check in with the family, daughters Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) and Edith, Lady Hexham, and son-in-law Tom Branson (Allen Leech), as well as beloved servants, Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and Bates (Brendan Coyle), and butler Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) and housekeeper Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan), and more. There are also returns of earlier characters who have gone on to other things, like Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier), now a theatrical director, and movie star Guy Dexter (Dominic West), who have arrived with playwright Noel Coward (Arty Froushan).

Fellowes weaves the story elements together well, and director Simon Curtis gives us plenty of eye candy with elegant fashions, particularly on Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary, and shots of gorgeous locations and period decor, as the aristocratic Crawley family makes the rounds of upper crust London, back home at Downton Abbey, and capped with a trip to Ascot. Meanwhile, the servants’ lives are working out well, with many set to retire to comfortable cottages and with their newfound spouses, and a country fair sequence near the end lets everyone mingle.

This final chapter captures all the charm of the series, TV and film, and even gives a grand outing at the Ascot races as a last big splashy fling, and ties up all the stories nicely. In fact, this third film is better than the last one as storytelling. The show’s creator Julian Fellowes cleverly sets this final chapter in 1930, not long after the stock market crash of October 1929 that began the Great Depression but before its effects are yet widely felt. That choice puts the characters in a comfortable bubble, where they are unaware of the economic hardships ahead, although viewers are aware that the old high life is coming to an end. The early 1930 time period allows the audience to enjoy a bit more of the fashions and fun of the Downton Abbey world before the darkness of the 1930s Great Depression really descends on their world.

While there are twists and surprises, some tight spots and difficult moments, enough to give the film some tension, things are generally tied up nicely by the story’s end, leaving the audience satisfied that the characters’ lives, while profoundly changed, will go on, with no need for a sequel.

DOWNTON ABBEY THE GRAND FINALE opens in theaters on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE ROSES – Review

*Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman in THE ROSES. Photo by Jaap Buitendijk, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.*

If you are going to remake a movie, the dark comedy THE ROSES is the way to do it. The dark comedy THE ROSES proves that there is a right way to do a remake, telling the same story but in a refreshingly different way. With biting British-style humor, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are the perfect couple, battling or not, in this love story gone wrong.

Based on the novel, “The War of the Roses,” the original 1989 comedy/thriller of the same name starred Michael Douglas and Kathlees Turner as a successful American couple whose marriage turns sour, and then some. In that version, the romance was pretty conventional but sparks flew and the dark comedy came to the fore once the battle was on. In this one, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman play a quirky British couple relocated to the US early on, a pair of snarky, unique individuals with a biting sense of humor. We get more of a sense of their own weird, very British humor, and creative natures, with more humor and quirky romance before they head for divorce and a showdown over the house like the original.

Centered on a couple of creatives who share that same sense of stinging humor means comedy is at the forefront from the start, not just when the battle begins. Humor is a very personal thing, individual tastes vary, and styles of humor differ culture to culture. With this couple being British, it also means that one has to have an appreciation for British humor, if not an outright love of it. The humor style is very British, although it is fully accessible American audiences, and not loaded with unfamiliar British references. The fact that these two unique individuals are so creative and off-kilter means not everyone gets them, so meeting and falling for someone who truly does get them gives this marriage something extra, with a lot more romantic spark between them.

Although the film is set in the US, the style of humor is tongue-in-cheek, snarky British. The audience gets a quick preview of the couple’s style of humor (and the film’s) in an opening scene where they are getting couple’s counseling with an American therapist. The therapist has given them an assignment to write down ten things they like about the other but these snarky souls can’t help themselves, and the “ten things I like about you” go from back-handed to pure snark. After Ivy reads her list, Theo bursts out laughing, and they laughingly trade more insults, while the therapist looks on in horror. “It’s called repartee,” Theo says, rolling his eyes. The Brits think this verbal sparring is hilarious and normal, but the American therapist recoils and ends the session. If your reaction to that scene is more like the therapist’s, you might not find this film as hilarious as I did.

The humor is snarky but less dark that the original film, although these creative people know how to bring the crazy to the fight too. Because these two are so unfiltered and satiric, they (and we) know they are the kind of couple who are made for each other, and no one else will really do. That doesn’t mean that they don’t know how to fight. Strong-willed, neither wants to lose an argument, and with two such sharp-tongued people, there are bound to be sparks and spats, even if underneath they love each and know no one else will ever get them like the other does.

THE ROSES has one the best meet-cutes ever, when architect Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch) becomes frustrated during a company meeting in a restaurant and storms away from the group – and into the kitchen. There he comes face to face with chef Ivy (Olivia Colman). The two trade quips, then their dreams, lock eyes, and fall in love. Cumberbatch and Colman do this beautifully, fully believable, romantic and charmingly funny. It’s like watching classic screwball comedy, the kind that starred Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, but with the personalities reversed.

Like in the original comedy, Theo and Ivy are financially successful couple but we get to see a lot more up-and-down of how they got there, which makes for a more interesting story. From the London meet-cute, we flash forward to the married couple living in California, in a modest house near a beach. Now with two kids, Ivy stays home to care the the kids, making fabulous meals for the family, while Theo pursues his architectural career. Worried that Ivy is feeling a bit unfulfilled, as her culinary efforts for the kids are getting more and more elaborate, Theo encourages her to open a little seafood restaurant in an old building nearby. She does, naming it, in her own style, “We’ve Got Crabs.” The crab shack draws only a handful of customers on the three days a week it is open (“Is it the name?” Theo wonders aloud, tongue-in-cheek), but Ivy is fine with that.

Two things happen to upset the dynamic in the marriage: a traumatic fail for Theo as he unveils a grand new building and Ivy’s crab shack getting a glowing review from a big city food critic. Suddenly the economic situation flips, as Theo, suddenly unemployed, decides to stay home with the kids while regrouping while Ivy concentrates on her suddenly successful restaurant. It’s supposed to be temporary, while Theo rebuilds his reputation and Ivy seizes an opportunity.

That shift provides the spark that leads to other changes, then conflict and resentments. The more money they have, thanks to Ivy’s widening success, the more tensions the couple have, as they are pulled in different directions. With two creative, competitive, sharp-tongued characters, sooner or later things will blow up.

Colman and Cumberbatch are absolutely marvelous in this film, with spot-on perfect verbal sparring and charmingly quirky romance. The characters are so alike, which is part of their problem, so compromise is hard. Director Jay Roach paces this growing battle perfectly, with more back-and-forth, on-and-off romance than the original, making the battle of the Roses feels fresh rather than like a retread. The humor is distinctly British and sharp, delivered by two of the most skilled professionals alive, making it both hilarious and a joy to watch. Jay Roach backs all that comic gold up with a perfect supporting cast, including Kate McKinnon and Andy Samburg, who are wonderful as the couple’s American best friends.

Writer Tony McNamara takes full advantage of the Brits in America situation, with plenty of fish-out-of-water, culture-clash humor and a bit of social commentary, especially in a hilarious scene at a shooting range.

Visually, the film is a delight as well. The film is beautifully shot by Florian Hoffmeister, highlighting the lovely California scenery, and appropriately showcasing the architecture. THE ROSES has some of the most tempting food photography I’ve seen, with one gorgeous plate or sculpted dessert after another. Another wow are the costumes Olivia Colman sports throughout, emphasizing her creative and unconventional spirit, so that one looks forward to seeing what creative outfit her Ivy will don in the next scene.

With the caveat that British humor isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, for those who enjoy that style of comedy,

THE ROSES is that rarest thing, a romantic comedy that is just an excellent film, and which hearkens back to the classic Hollywood era when romantic comedies were the best comedies. THE ROSES is the whole package, a dark romantic comedy that has plenty of comedy and romance before the mayhem begins, with a brilliantly matched lead couple, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, a perfectly-paced script with nearly non-stop laughs but lots of heart, wonderful supporting cast, gorgeous visuals, delightful costumes, and a perfect finish. It’s a film worth seeing more than once to laugh again, and proves that sometimes it is worth remaking a film. It also leads one to hope for more pairings between Cumberbatch and Colman.

THE ROSES opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

EDEN – Review

Little is heavenly in EDEN, a drama based on a true story of jealousy, deceit, revenge, sex and murder, on a tiny island in the Galapagos, in which a group of people destroy each other instead of finding the paradise they sought. Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Bruhl, and Sydney Sweeney star in a crime drama that director Ron Howard and writer Noah Pink set in 1929, at the very end of the Roaring Twenties, the post-WWI decade of prosperity and exuberance everywhere. Everywhere except in Germany, which was saddled with both paying war reparations and soaring inflation, which drives some of the people in this chilling tale to flee all that. One is a German doctor-turned-writer, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law), who has sought to escape civilizations strictures and Germany’s problems by moving to a barely-habitable island with his lover, Dora Strauch (Vanessa Kirby), a free-spirited idealist who also rejects convention. While Dora struggles to raise produce in their garden for their vegetarian diet, Dr. Ritter writes newspaper columns, to pay for supplies to supplement their meager but free life. Dr. Ritter’s columns praise their Eden, their free life off the gird, in glowing terms, which ironically becomes the problem.

Those columns provide them funds for occasional deliveries of supplies but they prove surprisingly popular, which also yields something unexpected: visitors who wan to join them in the “Eden” the columns describe. First to show up is another German, Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Bruhl) along with his wife Margret (Sydney Sweeney) and ailing young son, who plan to establish a back-to-land farm on this marginal island. Next comes the Baroness (Ana de Armas), a self-styled aristocrat, international celebrity and wild hedonist, with two lovers in tow (Felix Kammerer and Toby Wallace) and plans to build a grand hotel for all the tourists who will soon arrive. Friedrich’s and Dora’s dream of solitude and freedom are now shattered, as the world they sought to escape follows them to their island Eden.

It never occurred to Dr. Ritter that essays he was writing would draw people who want to emulate his back-to-the-land life but he seemed to omit that this Eden was an unforgiving place. An unforgiving it is: water is scant, soil is thin, and everything, from the wildlife to the plants to the weather, is trying to kill you.

There is, of course, a note of dark, ironic humor in this situation, but director Ron Howard’s crime drama has little humor in it, and the real story the film is based is pretty grim. At first, the doctor-turned-reclusive author tries to re-direct his earnest admirers, who have arrived to emulate his life, to another part of the island, one with the only other source of water but with less land suitable to farm. He hopes they will become discouraged by the harsh life but instead, Daniel Bruhl’s back-to-the-land idealist and Sydney Sweeney as his stoic, hard-working wife proves industrious. They do not leave.

Friedrich and Dora maybe could have lived with that, but when Ana de Armas’ the Baroness and her entourage show up it introduces a lot more chaos. At first tensions between the three groups are dealt with largely by ignoring each other, but soon things escalate, alliances are formed and broken, and all descends into total madness. Late in the unfolding events, another visitor arrives, Allan Hancock (Richard Roxburgh), one of Dr. Ritter’s financial supporters. Allan brings some welcome supplies, as he periodically does, and a bit of break in the building toxic events. But ultimately don’t stop things from going down on their deadly path.

It should be noted that the film opens with some misleading text, suggesting that 1929 was a time of hardship. Actually, that was only true in Germany, whose broken post-WWI economy was saddled with paying war reparations and out-of-control inflation, while the rest of the world enjoyed the Roaring 1920s, a time of prosperity, technological and artistic innovation and wild exuberance. All that came to an end with the October 1929 stock market crash that launched the Great Depression of the 1930s, after the events the movie sets in spring, summer and fall of 1929.

Curiously, the true story the film is based on actually didn’t take place until the 1930s, but setting it at the end of the 1920s makes sense, as it lets the film tap into the decadence and irrational exuberance of the 1920s in setting the tone of the film. Ron Howard cleverly sets this story in 1929 specifically, the waning days to the optimistic 1920s and just before it all came crashing to a halt with the stock market crash of October 1929. Howard then breaks the narrative into sections labeled Spring, Summer and finally, Fall, so we are aware of the ticking time clock counting down to the crash and depression, a disaster the plotting characters are unaware is looming.

The conflict between the Ritters, the island’s original couple, and Whittmers, the new intruders, starts out with just resentment and snubs but that quickly escalates, going from just rude to nasty to sabotage and murder, once the chaotic Baroness arrives. With little in the way of comic relief, the sleight ride of settling scores and toxic competition is a fast, chilling ride. A recap at the film’s end, of what became of the actual people, is chilling as well.

The strength of EDEN is it’s fine cast, all of whom do well. Standouts are Jude Law, very good as the writer who abandoned his medical practice to live a life of freedom to write and little else, and Vanessa Kirby, who perhaps outshines him as the doctor/writer’s fiery, unconventional and idealist lover Dora, who pointedly asserts she is not his wife when anyone dares to assume that, and insists on their vegetarian diet, with produce from the garden she tills tirelessly, with the help of her beloved donkey and despite her periodic bouts of weakness from multiple sclerosis.

Unfortunately, the film is plot heavy, with one bad turn relentlessly sparking another. We don’t really get a deep sense of any of the individual characters. There isn’t really anyone we feel like we can cheer for, as bad behavior abounds, although much worse from some than others. Perhaps Daniel Bruhl’s idealist farmer and his dutiful wife come closest to sympathetic characters, although Sydney Sweeney’s nearly-stoic performance does not help much.

This is one of those true-story tales that you would not believe if it had not actually happened. Director Ron Howard makes the most of this fine cast and this wild, dark story, to create a historical thriller that really grabs you by the throat, but this is a pretty grim story. The Baroness is the major agent of chaos but soon she is matched by the good doctor. Howard gives the actors plenty of space to work as they lie and betray their way into craziness, but the emphasis on plot hardly gives us a moment. Periodically, scenes of the harsh natural world remind us that this unforgiving land has its own threats to survival, with rocky soil, poisonous plants, venomous wildlife and a hot, dry climate.

EDEN opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

EAST OF WALL – Review

EAST OF WALL is a low-key, low-budget, indie docu-drama, set near the South Dakota Badlands and just east of the town of Wall (home to the famous Wall Drug), where a youngish widowed rancher trains and rehabilitates rescued horses, the horses that no one wants, with the help of her teen daughters and gaggle of foster kids, mostly girls, who were abandoned or neglected by their own families. The rancher/cowgirl sells the rehabilitated horses at auction, to make a bare-bones living to support the kids and herself. EAST OF WALL’s greatest strength is its affecting portrait of this remarkable real woman doing her best to save both cast-off horses and neglected teens. That feeling is amplified by the docu-drama’s moving cinematography of the windswept scenery of the Badlands, with plenty of horses carrying joyful stunt-riding teens.

EAST OF WALL won the 2025 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for its affecting mix of documentary and family drama set in a striking western landscape. Writer/director Kate Beecroft was inspired to write this fictionalized tale after meeting rancher/horse trainer Tabatha Zimiga, a modern cowgirl in the New West. Shortly after Beecroft pulled off the rural road in South Dakota and onto Tabatha’s large ranch, she was introduced to a group of confident teen-aged girls, their hair half-shaved in warrior fashion, who poured out of a trailer and hopped onto horses. Tabatha invited Beecroft into their lives, and the result is this fly-on-the-wall drama that draws heavily on the reality of this family and life in this rural community.

In EAST OF WALL, Tabatha Zimiga stars as a version of herself, and along with her daughter Porshia, leads a cast of mostly non-actors, in a family drama of feminist grit, courage and commitment. The non-actor cast is supported by a couple of pros, Scoot McNairy as a prosperous horse buyer from Texas and Jennifer Ehle as Tabatha’s tough-gal mother Tracey, who lives on the spacious, ramshackle ranch with Tabatha and her teen charges.

Clearly, Tabitha has a good heart and a strong sense of responsibility but she is no sweet, timid flower. Frank, tattooed and often foul-mouthed, Tabitha is a rough-and-tumble cowgirl of the New West, who was raised by a tough, hard-drinking mother who had a hard life. They are surrounded by a circle of equally rough-edged women friends, plus a community of people, a mix of white and Indigenous, who also are struggling with their own hard lives, often amid an assortment of problems including abusive relationships, heavy drinking, and dysfunction. Tabatha is trying her best to keep her family together, to encourage the kids in her charge and to empower them, through what they can do for these unwanted horses.

To support the family, Tabatha sells the rehabilitated horses at local auctions, and sometimes even on TikTok, with the girls helping demonstrate how well-trained the horses are by performing stunt-riding tricks with them. But it is a struggle, profits are small, and they are on the edge financially. Tabatha worries about making a living and holding onto the ranch she inherited from her beloved husband.

Into this dire financial picture comes a new buyer, a man from Texas with deep pockets named Roy (Scoot McNairy). Roy offers to buy Tabatha’s ranch and then hired her and her teens as trainers for horses, which he will then sell in Texas for much higher prices. But Tabatha is wary and uncertain about the offer, so they enter into a temporary arrangement while she considers it.

EAST OF WALL leans heavily into observational documentary, and moves at a languid pace until late in the film. This gives the audience plenty of time to take in details of this hardscrabble life of rodeos, horse auctions, and honky-tonk bars but does not serve the fictional plot as well. Many of the people we meet are wanderers, following rodeos or dreams, while often struggling with past or even present of abuse, alcoholism and broken families. Tabatha represents a steady strength in that sea of chaotic lives, and ground that strength in her love for caring for both horses and kids.

The fictional story line is thin, enough so that one might wish that director/writer Beecroft had chosen instead to make this film as just a documentary. Scoot McNairy and Jennifer Ehle turn in nice performances, as does the cast of non-actors, but it takes awhile for the story to get going.

However, the film’s cinematographer Austin Shelton takes full advantage of the striking scenery of the Badlands. There is plenty of footage of the teens riding and doing stunts in that landscape, as well at the auctions and rodeos. The docu-drama gives a frank, slice-of-life look at this world, with various people drifting in and out, and shots of the ranch, littered with discarded cars, mining and farm equipment, as the kids hang out and bond with each other.

The slow pacing, until near the end, does not serve the fictional part of the film particularly well but audiences may still be drawn in by the real people in this film and it’s rare glimpse into a little-see world in the modern west, and particularly by the remarkable Tabatha doing her excellent, admirable work. The glimpse into that world, and the spotlight this film throws on this strong woman doing good work in rescuing both horses and teens, makes it worth a little extra patience and an ultimately rewarding experience.

EAST OF WALL opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

FREAKIER FRIDAY – Review

(L-R) Jamie Lee Curtis as Tess Coleman and Lindsay Lohan as Anna Coleman in Disney’s live-action FREAKIER FRIDAY. Photo by Glen Wilson © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Long after Disney’s FREAKY FRIDAY hit screens, the House of Mouse is back with a sequel. FREAKIER FRIDAY. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are back but this time it’s a double switch. Fans of the original should enjoy this new switcheroo, with plenty of teen in the adult body and adult in the teen body farce humor and ample jokes, and a nice performances from the stars of the first one. Even if you aren’t particularly fan of the first one, Jamie Lee Curtis brings a lot of goofy humor to deliver some smiles, aided by a script that keeps things fun without going too absurd with the already absurd premise.

A quick recap: in the original, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan played a battling mother and teen-aged daughter who magically switch bodies, letting each see other’s point-of-view by walking around in the other’s shoes – quite literally. In Disney’s new fantasy comedy sequel, Curtis and Lohan are back as mother-and-daughter duo, Tess and Anna Coleman, but it is the teen-aged daughter of the now-grown Anna (Lohan) who is causing trouble. Anna is planning to marry hot British chef Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto) but daughter Harper (Julia Butters) is rebelling because 1) the couple plan to relocate the family to Britain, and 2) Harper’s school enemy is Eric’s snooty daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons. The prospect of both having her hated rival as a stepsister and being isolated from Southern California and surfing in not-so-jolly old London is just too much for Harper. Harper and Lily, who agree that they don’t want to be sisters but disagree about the plan to move to London, come together to take action. At a pre-wedding party, the girls encounter a psychic, Madame Jen (a funny Vanessa Bayer) with a million side hustles, who agrees to help, but instead weaves her magic to pull another body switcheroo, without telling them and leaving them with a cryptic phrase, about reaching peace (or at least agreement), in order to switch back.

Silly comedy ensues, with director Nisha Ganatra keeping things moving along, and scriptwriter Jordan Weiss supplying plenty of jokes. The sequel is less messaging about understanding between generations, and more focused on just plain fun and silliness. The humor is mostly farcical and slapstick, with the young pair in the older bodies and adults in the younger bodies as parallel comedy shows. The 15-year-olds are horrified to find themselves in “old bodies,” with wrinkles and sags, particularly fashion-obsessed, would-be designer Lily, who is now in Curtis’ Grandma Tess’ body. The girls have to deal with knees that don’t work, and with Anna’s job obligation’s as manager of pop star Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who is enduring a painful romantic break-up as she it launching a new album. On the other hand, it’s not all bad since the teens can now do adult things, like order drinks and drive – at least when they are out of sight of the adults who are now in their teen bodies.

Likewise, Anna and Tess have a little fun, eating forbidden treats without digestive payback pain, and falling without breaking anything, while trying to keep track of the newly-liberated teens, as they try to damage control while figuring out how to get things back to normal.

Jamie Lee Curtis pretty much makes this film, milking all that silly stuff like the pro she is. Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are the best part of the film, and have fun with it all, with Curtis chewing scenery with abandon (and stay for the outtakes at the end for more of that). Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons do fine too, handling their silly stuff and teen drama and tantrums well. Manny Jacinto as fiance Eric and Mark Harmon as Tess’ husband have little to do, but Vanessa Bayer adds a few extra laughs as the goofy psychic with multiple jobs pops up unexpectedly from time to time. The only side plot that falls a bit flat is the one about broken-hearted pop star Ella, as Ramakrishnan is rather unconvincing as a pop princess, although the side story gives Lohan a little chance to rock out.

Overall, FREAKIER FRIDAY is a somewhat funny, generally painless sequel to the 2003 Disney original, a sequel whose greatest comic asset is Jamie Lee Curtis. The audience who will enjoy this sequel to most are fans of the original, but Jamie Lee Curtis makes it a bit fun for anyone.

FREAKIER FRIDAY opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 8, 2025.

RATING: 2. out of 4 stars

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