Tag: Drama

SONG SUNG BLUE – Review

(L to R) Hugh Jackman as Mike Sardina and Kate Hudson as Claire Stengl in director Craig Brewer’s SONG SUNG BLUE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

So who’s up for some great tunes on this big holiday…, at the multiplex? No, we’re not talking about any Christmas carols (you’re probably hearing those jingle bells in your sleep by now). We’re talking a full-fledged musical movie, though it’s not another bold brassy big-screen version of a stage musical in the wake of WICKED: FOR GOOD (though it’s really an expanding of its second act). This new release may be more in that subgenre of the “jukebox musical” as it focuses on the pop songs of an iconic star, although it’s not a biopic of him (much like ELVIS or ROCKETMAN). You see, this is a true life dramatic love story about a “tribute band” of that singing superstar. Sounds confusing? It’ll all be clear with the first few notes (and scenes) of SONG SUNG BLUE.

That title tune is heard in the opening scene, in which Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) serenades his AA support group after he has hit a big sobriety milestone in late 1980s Milwaukee. From there he’s off to his sweet “side gig” as part of a “tributes” show at the state fair. Mike walks out after the organizer insists that he take on the songs of Don Ho (“Tiny Bubbles”). No, Mike wants to perform the works of his idol, Neil Diamond. As he exits, Mike stops to catch the fetching Patsy Cline (“Walkin’ After Midnight”) songstress Claire Stingl (Kate Hudson). He strikes up a conversation with her later that night, leading to a date for the two divorced parents (Mike’s teenage daughter visits once a month or so). He tries to bond with Claire’s energetic pre-teen son Dayna (Hudson Hensley) and her somewhat surly teenage daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson). After a quick “jam session” Mike asks Claire if she would consider partnering with him for his “dream Diamond tribute review” that he dubs “Thunder and Lightning” (the latter being his stage persona while she’d be the former). Claire is thrilled and seals their partnership with a kiss. They assemble a back-up band and begin performing in bars, wedding halls, and eateries in the Wisconsin/Illinois area. Through it all, the two become much more than a singing duo, eventually tying the knot. Their reputation is on the rise, leading to an “opening act” slot at a Pearl Jam concert. The sky seems to be the limit, but the joyful music is almost silenced as fate hits several “sour notes” to challenge their sweet harmonies.

I’ll just get this out of the way: Jackman and Hudson are superb singers. Yeah, that’s not a big revelation, since Hugh has a couple of Tonys on his mantle and Kate cut an album (they still call them that) last year. But that skill is certainly essential in these roles in order to “sell” them as a vocal duet. As for the other aspects of their performances, Jackman may have a bit more to do, as Mike is the “entry point” to this true tale. The “movie mutant” has swagger to spare, as he pushes past the goofy hairstyle and the flashy fashions to give us a man who overtakes the inner demons from his past by reinventing himself. His furrowed brow hints at Mike’s PTSD from serving in Nam, while he still has a vulnerability with the knowledge that his body is failing him and his “time clock” may halt at any time. The bubbly Hudson brings out the best in him. Beneath that beaming smile, Claire has had lots of heartbreak in his own past, and decides to bask in the high she gets from singing. In the story’s second act, we see that life tries to snuff out that spark, until family and friends re-ignite it. It’s no wonder Hudson was the “queen of rom-coms” as she conveys Claire’s joy in getting another chance at love. The film’s other great standout is Anderson as Claire’s teen daughter, Rachel. Sure, she starts as a clichéd snarky “eye-roller”, but she shows how the love of Mike for her mom warms that cynical heart, even making her an ally of his when things get tough, and as she faces her own big life-changing decision. Oh, and there are a couple of 1980s movie stalwarts on hand for support. Fisher Stevens is solid as Mike’s dentist-backer, and Jim Belushi goes all “cheese-head” (right outta’ FARGO) as the tour bus-drivin’ manager. The 90s are repped by Michael Imperioli from “The Sopranos” as the tributes show boss (and resident Buddy Holly) who plays back-up guitar for the revue.


Though no stranger to movies with music, this film is an interesting detour for director/ screenwriter (adapting the same-titled documentary by Greg Kohs) Craig Brewer, after making his 2005 breakout hit, the hip-hop-flavored HUSTLE AND FLOW followed by the 2011 remake of FOOTLOOSE. He takes us past the high camp (exploited in 2001’s SAVING SILVERMAN) of Diamond’s 70s heyday, though we get some Elvis-style kitsch, to get us into the minds and hearts of Mike and Claire. This lulls us into thinking that their love story will always prevail. The huge chaotic challenges make for an abrupt shift (though it seems too extreme, it’s all true), one that may be too much for some viewers, Brewer never veers too much into the melodramatic while keeping the story firmly planted in its frigid northern US roots. Brewer also keeps the pacing smooth, breaking up the dialogue with a burst of song, and not overdoing the big rehearsing and performing montages. Aside from those great hairstyles and fashions, the music selection is pretty terrific, touching on all the big Diamond hits while introducing some often neglected tunes (I now know a whole lot about “Soolaimon”). Hey, there’s even a couple of Patsy Cline and Buddy Holly classics. And the set decorators really capture the tone of the early 1990s. Some of the more jaded filmgoers may think that this is merely a sweet little flick to see with your older relatives, but they may be surprised by the endearing look at the performers that don’t fill arenas, the bus-travelin’ workin’ stiff weekend warriors. That and the chemistry of Hudson and Jackman really blend for a nearly pitch-perfect romance in SONG SUNG BLUE.

3 Out of 4

SONG SUNG BLUE opens in theatres everywhere on Christmas Day, 2025

HAMNET – Review

Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in director Chloé Zhao’s HAMNET, a Focus Features release. Credit: Agata Grzybowska / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal give striking performances in Chloe Zhao’s lushly beautiful, romantic and heartbreaking tale of William Shakespeare’s marriage to his wife Anne and the death of their young son Hamnet, whose loss led the Bard to write perhaps his great play “Hamlet.” As a title card at the film’s start tells us, the names Hamnet and Hamlet were considered essentially the same, alternate ways of spelling it. In Zhao’s drama, Shakespeare’s mysterious wife is renamed Agnes. As little is actually known about Shakespeare’s wife Anne and their marriage, which gives director Chloe Zhao free rein to be inventive. Love, death, pain and hope are the themes.

The film was inspired by Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning novel “Hamnet” and written for the screen by director Zhao and the author, the resulting drama is more Chloe Zhao’s vision than a true adaptation of the book. Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao proved herself a master of powerful imagery framing human questing and connection in NOMADLAND, and brings those gifts to this tale as well, but in this case in a more intimate way, of two people falling in love and having a family.

While the real William Shakespeare was 18 when he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the director chose to ignore that age gap in casting Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. In the film, William Shakespeare is a young struggling Latin tutor, now doing farm work for neighboring families to help out his parents who had fallen into debt. Anne, now Agnes, is the strong-willed oldest daughter of a more well-off family, where Will is doing some manual labor. Smitten on first sight, the young tutor offers to teach the family’s younger children, as a way to be closer, in order to woo Agnes.

Beautiful, wild, independent Agnes, for her part, is less keen on young Will, but he wins her over with poetry and persistence. Despite opposition by both families (with an excellent Emily Watson as Will’s severe mother), they wed and have three children, oldest daughter Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and fraternal twins, Judith (Olivia Lynes) and Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe).

The drama follows their marriage and the launch of Shakespeare’s career in London, while wife Agnes and the children stay behind in the English countryside. Their bond is strong but nothing is more tragic for any couple than the loss of a child, and it has a transformative effect on their lives and relationship.

HAMNET is visually stunning throughout and particularly magical in the early portions. Period costumes and props are perfectly done. The setting is often a wild English countryside of old forests haunted by secrets and ancient Celtic magic. The film ranges from that wild, natural world beginning to the London stage of the Globe Theater where the play born of tragedy takes form.

Jessie Buckley is particularly moving in this drama, as a wild soul who seems as much a child of forest as anything human. There are references that her true mother was a forest-dweller, with all the magical implications of that, and the daughter is only partly of this staid village world, hints often presented in vivid, visual form. Zhao blends the visual and the dramatic well in creating these characters and their lives but she is aided greatly by Jessie Buckley’s strong performance. Paul Mescal’s William Shakespeare comes across as more grounded but firmly determined to have this wild woman and to build their lives.

HAMNET does not try to answer all questions about Shakespeare’s marriage or the creation of “Hamlet.” The film is, of course, romantic but in a human, passionate and believable way, rather than a conventional film romance. Tragedy breaks that lovely dream, throwing the characters in conflict, as they each grapple with grief in their own ways. Unlike many films this year, this one focuses purely on the personal and the individual rather than the large world, putting the experience of love and of grief at its center. The stunning natural-world photography suggests something epic and enduring, but real focus of this drama are the human emotions, of love and heartbreak, from which comes the creation of something that endures for the ages.

HAMNET opens in theaters on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

UNIVERSAL – Review

Joe Thomas as Leo, in UNIVERSAL. Courtesy of Subspin/Dominion 3.

Every once in a blue moon, two or more young adults can go to a cabin in the woods and not be besieged by cannibals, psychos or demons. Thank goodness! So long as threats to life and limb aren’t inevitable, city folk might still venture out into nature occasionally, thereby supporting rural economies. But such apparent safety is no guarantee of grist for an entertaining non-gory movie.

In UNIVERSAL, writer/director Stephen Portland delivers a nerd-fest of science and computer stuff, presented by a cast of three. Leo (Joe Thomas) and Naomi (Rosa Robson) are an overworked academic couple who vow to unplug COMPLETELY for a weekend to just stay focused on each other. He’s a geneticist on the verge of some big breakthrough in understanding more about DNA that could explain much of the universe and the nature of our existence. He’s also under pressure from his funding source to deliver something tangible ASAP; Naomi’s field is different, but close enough to understand his project. He’s been avoiding a persistent fanboy named Ricky, who claims to have helpful information.

Soon after arrival, their solitude is shattered when Ricky shows up. The fanboy turns out to be an attractive, determined young woman (Kelley Mack) with boundless energy and no sense of boundaries. Her social skills are severely lacking (probably somewhere on the high-functioning end of the spectrum; no mention of whether she was vaccinated), but her findings may significantly advance Leo toward his pressing goal. Naomi resents the hell out of the intrusion that decimates their promise to each other. But Ricky’s urgency draws both in, making the computer analysis of her data the centerpiece of their weekend, and our movie experience.

Maybe I’m not the best audience for this film, since the science and its implications largely flew over my head. Every scene occurs in and around the cabin, as if it could have been adapted from the stage. The dialog-heavy script, with little visual variety, makes MY DINNER WITH ANDRE seem like an action-adventure flick. The main source of suspense comes from Kelley Mack’s character. Is she really just a devoted scientist, or does she have some more sinister agenda? If they find a big breakthrough, will they agree on how to claim credit and monetize the results?

No more is possible without spoilers, other than the sad note that Mack died of cancer shortly after filming, making this her last on-screen appearance. Besides serving as a producer here, she brought an enigmatic sparkle that energized what could have been a total snooze-fest. It’s a shame we won’t be able to see more from her.

UNIVERSAL is available On Demand starting Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars

TRAIN DREAMS – Review

In this high-speed modern age, it’s hard to recall a time when much of the country was nearly inaccessible. No airports or interstate “super-highway” systems existed, just a little over a hundred years ago. Well, somebody had to “clear the way” for the ever-expanding US population as it headed west. So, what were these hard-toiling workers like, emotionally. What were their desires, and how did they carve out a life for themselves, and, eventually, their families? This new film, based on a recent celebrated literary work, tries to answer those questions as it focuses on one such man in the early part of the previous century. After several grueling hours of laying track, did he close his eyes, and drift away into a slumber filled with TRAIN DREAMS?

That laborer at the heart of this story is Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), who relates his humble beginnings as a young orphan arriving via train to Idaho in the late 19th century. Most of his early memories revolve around the railroad and the surrounding forests. He sees Chinese immigrant rail workers being driven out of town, and even gives a water-filled boot to a dying man near the bottom of a ravine. In his teenage years, he hops on to a locomotive that takes him far away from his adopted family, to Washington state. After a long stint as a logger, he settles in a small town and meets a lovely young woman at a church function. Robert and Gladys (Felicity Jones) begin a romance that culminates in marriage. They build a home near a stream on the edge of the woods far from their village. Robert is happy, but he’s haunted by dreams of an incident in which he failed to intervene in an attack on a Chinese co-worker. Soon the couple welcome a daughter, Kate. But Robert soon leaves once more, to work on the railway expansion hundreds of miles away. He keeps to himself, but befriends a colorful old explosives excavator named Arn (William H. Macy). When that job is completed, Robert rushes back to his cabin for a happy reunion. Sadly, fate has other plans. He must decide whether to drift from job to job or try to put down roots near the site of his great, heartbreaking loss.

In the lead role, Edgerton must make Robert compelling without reciting much dialogue. And he certainly succeeds, making his tired eyes a window into the stoic man’s soul. We can almost share his aches and pains as Robert toils to make a better life for his family. This gives an extra emotional wallop as Edgerton conveys his joy (falling in love, playing with Kate) to his sorrow (that tragedy and the horror of the work camps). Many of the most powerful moments are the scenes shared with Jones, whose Gladys is the bright, shining light in Robert’s dreary drudgery. It’s surprising to see her as the main catalyst to the relationship, catching him “off guard”. Jones’ beaming gaze at him informs us of her passion for the new life she has begun as wife and mother. Another terrific actress, Kerry Condon, also brightens Robert’s life as a new-found friend who begins a job at a nearby forest preserve. Their interplay is quite engaging, as she describes her own love of the solitude of nature. As is the case in his superb supporting work, Macy makes the most of his scant screen time as the lazy bur lovable “blaster” who makes Robert the “sounding board” for his philosophy, while generating laughs as he tinkers with faulty equipment (“Stand back, boy…aw, c’mon now!”).

With his sophomore feature, director Clint Bentley carefully crafts a somber saga of early American life in the West. He also co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of the Denis Johnson novella with Greg Kwedar, which eschews showy histrionics in order for Robert to tell his own story of love, loss, and regret. There’s a dream-like quality to the early scenes of young Robert collecting lifelong memories that will shape his later years. Adding to the dreamscape of the title, Bentley presents images and sequences that could be fantasy or fact, as Robert deals with his own fractured history. All this is enhanced by the rich, luminous cinematography of Adolpho Veloso (tough to go wrong with that lush scenery). For those film fans in need of a quiet, contemplative respite from the usual “rapid_fire”, bombastic movie fare, TRAIN DREAMS is cinema serenity.

3 Out of 4

TRAIN DREAMS streams exclusively on Netflix beginning on November 21, 2025

SAMURAI FURY – Review

A scene from SAMURAI FURY. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

The year is 1461 (for the movie, SAMURAI FURY, not us, though many think we’re regressing globally). Japan is in a state of chaos. The country is ravaged by plague, with 82,000 deaths, and counting; the peasants who haven’t succumbed are starving and besieged by different groups of debt collectors, using the most despicable tactics; a slew of ronin (samurai with no master to serve) are roaming the country without purpose; the Shogun ain’t doin’ diddly-squat to help anyone or stem the violence from the monks and warlords. In the midst of this, one ronin, Hasuda Hyoe (Ôizumi Yô) emerges as a good guy, who might just make a difference. That may require butting heads with his longtime friend Honekawa Doken (Shin’ichi Tsutsumi), who is in charge of forces defending the ruling class.

Hyoe picks up a spirited apprentice he calls “Frog” (Yuya Eendo) among the cringing masses and sends him off to an old sensei for a year of training. Then he gradually assembles a rag-tag army of other ronin and willing villagers to storm the capital in Kyoto. Their main goal is to destroy all the loan papers the monks holding them have been wielding to brutalize debtors and their families during this time of extreme hardship. His plans are intricate, building slowly to what will, ideally, become the Big Day.

Standard stuff, so far, as this sort of theme is quite common in East Asian martial arts and action period fare. Since it’s set in an era before guns, swords, spears, staffs and arrows are the non-anatomical weapons of the day, with occasional explosions. That calls for top-notch stunt choreography, and the film delivers superbly on that front, with relatively little wire work, thereby maximizing its grittiness.

Genre fans have seen the de rigeur training sequences in the majority of these films. Frog’s regimen for mastering the pole (the weapon, not the stripper support) is unique, and much more interesting than most, both visually and in content. The climactic battle sequences are huge in scale, bloody in execution and fascinatingly intricate. Kudos to writer/director Yu Irie for elevating the level of writing and action above the norm, and for crafting so many elaborate sets for the long course of events.  Frog’s character arc is particularly satisfying, as well as the frenemy situation that unfolds between Hyoe and Doken.

The 135-minute running time is just fine for the material presented. It seemed shorter, which is among the highest compliments I ever give.

SAMURAI FURY, in Japanese with English subtitles, is available from WellGo USA in digital format beginning Oct. 7, and in 4K and Blu-ray formats starting Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

“Petra” Season 2 – TV Series Review

A scene from the Italian TV crime series “Petra” Season 2. Courtesy of MHz Choice

It’s been three years since I reviewed the earlier episodes of the entertaining Italian procedural, “Petra.” This round not only provides a pleasant return to its picturesque Genoa setting, but gives us an engaging evolution of the eponymous star. Here’s the usual refresher link: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/11/petra-tv-series-review/

We rejoin Petra and Antonio after they’ve been on a long (by US standards) vacation. She stayed home alone with her pet tarantula – as would, of course, be her wont. He indulged in the uncharacteristic luxury of a long cruise, meeting a woman he adored (Beatrice, played by Manuela Mandracchia). But middle-aged shlub that he is, Antonio felt under-qualified to keep it going on land, since she was one of the VERY wealthy elite of the community. The class gap seemed to bother him, far more than her.

A more significant change manifests in Petra. She’s finally unpacked all those cartons from her move and filled that drab apartment with nice furnishings. Yet there’s still no artwork adorning the institutional gray walls. Baby steps towards normalcy. She’s opened up her personality appreciably, smiling and joking more than before. She’s still relationship-averse, assuming anything serious would end badly… again.

This second season has more heart, with greater emphasis on character development and personal story arcs, romantic and otherwise. Besides the spider, Petra continues another idiosyncrasy that fans of our “Quincy” series will recognize – keeping a memento from the clues at the end of each solved case.

But now to address the main course – the murders to be solved. As before, each 90-minute episode addresses new crimes, so bingeing isn’t as important for following the proceedings. In the first, a guy she meets from the web for a “zipless… shall we say, boink” turns up the next day as the season’s first murder victim. She keeps that one-nighter a secret for a while, so she’ll be allowed to stay on the case. It turns out that he was married with two kids and a complex set of personal and business activities, leaving a whole lotta motives and possible murderers to sort through. The second episode begins with a homeless guy in an alley being killed by a bullet, then brutally kicked by skinheads. Are those loathsome louts the culprits? Or was there more in the man’s pre-destitution life that caused his demise, along with others that followed?

The third episode begins with the murder of a dude in a jester costume during the colorful festivities of Carnival. Since everyone frolicking in the crowded street was in costume, ID’ing the killer wasn’t helped much by footage from surrounding street cams. The solution had to be extracted from old business with old friends/frenemies as well as recent events. The last episode revolved around sex trafficking and prostitution – mainly affecting the lives of minors.

Though there are moments of levity along the way, these are all handled as dramas, without the comedy side of other Italian favorites like “Detective Montalbano,” “Makari” or “Monterossi.” Three of the four cases were harder to figure out than one. It would be interesting to know which episode any of you find to be the weakest mystery link in the chain. Perhaps your mileage will vary.

What I’d previously described as a miniseries turned out to be two four-episode seasons that end in a satisfactory place for most of the principals (i.e. no cliffhangers), but leaves the door open for a third season. Since this quartet aired abroad in 2023, which was three years after the first foursome, it’s quite possible that more will follow. Fine with me if that’s the way the renewal winds blow.

“Petra” Season Two, mostly in Italian with English subtitles, begins streaming on MHz Choice starting Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE SMASHING MACHINE – Review

Now, just two weeks ago, I reviewed the rare movie hybrid, a sports/horror flick called HIM. As it nears the end of its deservedly brief theatrical run, another sports film hits the multiplex. However, its subgenre is one that is most familiar in cinema history, the sports “biopic”. To be even more specific, this is a dramatic profile of a fighter. If you’re thinking about pugilists like LaMotta (of RAGING BULL) fame or Muhammad Ali, then you’re in a different arena. No, this week’s new release is set in the world of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), a backdrop in action flicks going way back to 1980’s THE OCTAGAN. In more recent years, diverse actors, from Kevin James to Halle Berry, have flexed their fists and feet on the canvas. Now an action flick superstar, who first gained fame in another fighting ring, gets a chance to show off his dramatic skills (along with his impressive pecs) as the athlete dubbed (in an acclaimed HBO documentary) THE SMASHING MACHINE.

Yes, that’s the intimidating nickname of Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson). We’re first introduced to him as he’s being interviewed at a UFC match in the late 1990s. The undefeated champ is asked how he’d feel if he lost a match. It’s something he’s never thought about, so he’s truly at a loss for words. Later, after another victory, we observe him grabbing an extra vial or two of painkillers. Luckily, he can’t hide it from his devoted but often annoyed (Mark doesn’t “open up”) girlfriend, Dawn (Emily Blunt). In search of bigger cash prizes, Kerr joins, along with old wrestling pal and trainer Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader), the rival UFC league in Japan, PRIDE. Ultimately, Kerr’s substance abuse takes its toll as he loses focus in the ring, with one big bout ending as “No Contest”. Finally he enters a rehab facility as Coleman’s star begins to rise as a solo MMA star. When Kerr completes the “program,” his sobriety puts an even greater strain on his relationship with Dawn. But he’s still a big draw at PRIDE, so Kerr is back at the training gym, guided by his mentor Bas Rutten (himself). But will the strain of addiction, paired with a chaotic home life derail his chances at a big championship event that could have him facing his old buddy Coleman?


The film truly rests on those (really, really big and broad) shoulders of Johnson, who utilizes his considerable charm and charisma, which propelled him on the big screen, making us believe him as this worldwide champion. And then he surprises (he’s “gone A24”) us by plunging into the darkness of this “sporting life”, showing us how the affable Kerr “cons’ the medical system with his infectious grin and “gentle giant” persona. Kudos to Johnson for getting out his “comfort zone” of the overblown action “tentpoles” (in some of them he looked a tad “unconnected”, to the point of “phoning it in”) to explore the psyche of the laser-focused competitor. Perhaps he’s at his best early on as Kerr describes the “rush” of delivering a knockout blow. Matching him in intensity is the versatile Ms. Blunt, who makes Dawn more than Kerr’s “eye candy” housemate, and keeps us “off kilter” as she lashes out over being on the “sidelines” and viewed by her beau’s team as a flitting “distraction” from battle. By the big “blow-up” in the third act, Blunt makes her a volatile “wild card’ in a verbal (and nearly physical) throw down reminicent of Albee’s George and Martha. In his first acting gig, Bader is very compelling as “friend to the end” Coleman, making us wish for a greater “dive” into his story, aside from a few brief minutes of him playing with his adorable offspring. Also solid is Rutten as, well, Bas Rutten, a tough but nurturing guru for Kerr, in and out of the ring.

Much like the creative parting of the Coen brothers, this is the first film from writer/director Benny Safdie after a long cinematic collaboration with brother Josh. And as I noted, he turns Johnson and Blunt into a potent screen team (we know her dramatic chops, but he’s doing a big career shift). It’s a shame that they’re not in service to a more compelling script. Focusing on three or four years in Kerr’s “sports rise”, we don’t get a chance to see him in his “hungry years” during the “climb”. In other ways, the story needs more ‘space”. We only see him enter and exit the rehab center, with no scenes of his “steps”. And often Kerr is so stoic, it makes us wonder what his motivations are (especially when he’s fixated on a demolition derby match), though it gives us a chance to appreciate the subtle, but superb make-up work of Kazu Hiro, chipping away at “the Rock”. Plus, the film’s pacing somewhat “lurches” from interchangeable matches (it’s often difficult to ID the fighters as they become “pretzels”) to another screaming match at the Kerr casa in Phoenix. The often overbearing (drowning out dialogue) music score (two ill-timed Elvis tunes and a “jackhammer” jazz drum solo during the big matches) doesn’t aid the film. Yes, there are a few interesting sequences, particularly when Kerr sweetly explains his job to a grandma in a doctor’s waiting area, or when he takes his pal to “press the flesh” with his Tokyo fans, but the script feels like it’s “spinning its wheels” until the big “updates” prior to the end titles. Fans of the two principals will be pleased with their taut performances, but many will find that there are more than a few hints of “rust” and strain in THE SMAHING MACHINE.

2 Out of 4

THE SMASHING MACHINES opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, October 3, 2025

HIDDEN FACE – Review

A scene from the Korean steamy suspense drama HIDDEN FACE. Courtesy of Well Go USA

The subtitled Korean export HIDDEN FACE is marketed as a suspense tale, but it’s a just-shy-of-soft-core drama about a romantic triangle that takes a few bizarre turns among a very attractive cast. Song Seung-heon plays the new conductor of a prestigious symphony orchestra, who landed his plum gig largely because he married the rich-bitch daughter (Cho Yeo-jeong) of a strutting soap opera star (Park Ji-young, looking alarmingly like Eddie Izzard in drag mode) who fancies herself the star of every scenario, on or off-camera… and convinces others to bend to her will. She provides the elegant apartment in which the newlyweds reside, as well as being the orchestra’s main benefactor. Mega-clout all around, wielded shamelessly by a mega-Karen.

The wife’s bestie and fellow cellist (Park Ji-hyun) have a chat in which the former pouts that she’s not getting enough attention from her stony-faced hubby and decides to disappear, leaving an unlikely suicide note behind. That opens up two spots for the bestie – a chair in the orchestra, and a horizontal one in the marital bed. With that almost Hitchcockian setup, we initially wonder how she vanished – is she dead, or just testing how much people will miss the preening Princess? Then the plot veers sharply into DePalma territory once we learn where she went and how she got there. The steamy bits come from several trysts with surprisingly generous displays of nudity for an East Asian production. Those scenes are beautifully staged and scored, both artistically and erotically.

The reveals are rather over-the-top, but the female performances and gorgeous sets are so compelling that one may not care about the logic or logistics of it all; or the fact that the male lead is a virtually blank slate, readily manipulated by the latest woman to pull his chain (or other appendage). The script is adapted from a 2011 Spanish film, THE HIDDEN FACE, which I haven’t seen. But some descriptions indicate it’s even more lurid. Time to start looking for that guilty pleasure, too.

Regular readers know how many Korean action flicks I’ve praised in the past few years. This tossed salad of psychological issues and titillation makes me think I should expand my genre repertoire.

HIDDEN FACE, in Korean with English subtitles, debuts on digital formats from Well Go USA as of Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

RELAY – Review

Ah, now here’s a real “under the radar” gem. Usually, the quirky modern-day ‘B” pictures are dropped into the multiplex in late Winter or mid-Fall. So, we’re almost past the Summer blockbuster season, the studio “wise men” (two words not often next to each other) are arriving well in advance of the December holidays with a gift for us. This one’s full of razzle-dazzle tech twists and intricate machinations, mixing in elements of crowd pleasers like THE EQLUAIZER (movie series and TV shows), THE STING, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, with a sprinkling from the IMF team for a spicy kick. There are no big action set pieces, but there is plenty of tension when you dive into the wild world of RELAY.


Much as with a Bond flick or Indiana Jones, we’re dropped into the conclusion of a recent “operation” involving the lead character in the film’s opening moments. It seems that everything’s gone according to plan as he observes a rich CEO getting his “just desserts” while his former employee vanishes into the night. We’re then whisked away to the start of another case. A jittery young woman cautiously enters the towering home of an NYC law firm. Sarah Grant (Lily James) was a top researcher/scientist at a major “bio-agricultural” company. She sounded the alarm about a new “insect-resistant” wheat that has the possibility of dangerous, even deadly side effects. The company fired her and insisted she turn over all the research. Sarah left with the files, but is having “second thoughts”. She’s being harassed and threatened, spurring a desire to return the docs rather than “blow the whistle”. Now she fears that her old bosses will “tie up loose ends”.The lawyer who hears her declines to take her as a client. Instead, he scribbles down the number of a person who acts as an “intermediary” to broker the “info exchange”. When she calls the number, she speaks to a rep at the Interstate Relay Service, a company that translates phone calls for the hearing impaired. The messages are not recorded, nor are they kept on file. Typing in at another location is the “barterer,” who we later learn is named Ash (Riz Ahmed). They establish an ID “passcode phrase” (“Cash or credit?” “Check”) and he gives her strict instructions (do it right or I’ll walk away) on how to get the files to him, along with payment, and who to contact at her old job. He keeps a copy of the files forever in a secret safe and makes copies to send to the feds and media in case the company goes after her. But first, she’s got to move to a much safer place, namely an incredibly secure high-rise apartment building. Somehow her move leaks out, and a dark van is parked across the street. Inside is a well-armed “cleaner squad” headed by a man going by “Dawson” (Sam Worthington), who gets her client’s Relay calls from Ash. Will things go according to his elaborate plan? And what happens when the exchanges between Ash and Saeah take a more intimate turn?

In referring to this as a modern “B” movie, I didn’t wish to imply that the stellar cast is anything other than “A+”, particularly the two main leads. First, there is the interesting and intense Ahmed, who has been so great in supporting roles (NIGHTCRAWLER) and terrific as the main focus (acting students will study his work in SOUND OF METAL). For a moment, I thought he was following up on that film due to Ash’s use of the relay service, but it’s a way to avoid making a personal connection. Through those immersive dark eyes will look into the soul of an emotionally wounded, haunted man who must stay in control at all times. This quality doesn’t help him away from work as he sits silently at AA meetings. Ahmed wants to become invisible as he flits from one shadow to the next. But then someone flips the light switch, and we see his defensive cocoon slowly begin to crack. Taking a hammer to it is the ethereal charisma of Ms. James, who lets us see, in her vocal delivery and body language, Sarah go from vulnerable victim to staunch champion of her own destiny. She’s overwhelmed by dealing with the rapid, specific details from Ash, though soon she’s bobbing and weaving like a trenchcoated spy. Their engaging chemistry has us rooting for them to connect beyond the “case”. That’s complicated due to the dead-eyed killers headed by the gravel-voiced Worthington. Every line is spat out like venom, though we can get a glimmer of his reserved respect for his worthy opponent’s intellect. However, he lets us know that he’ll bash in that skull housing that brain, if he gets a chance. I should mention his also intimidating “second-in-command” Rosetti played by the captivating Willa Fitzgerald (who burnt up the screen last year in the fantastic STRANGE DARLING), who is both slinky and sinister as she pursues both Sarah and Ash.

As for the filmmaker who keeps “all the plates spinning”, here’s a big “Welcome back to the big screen” for David Mackenzie, whose last theatrical feature (aside from the Netflix showcase OUTLAW KING) was another engaging thriller, 2016’s HELL OR HIGH WATER. Working from an endlessly clever script from Justin Piasecki (no surprise that it was on the 2019 “Blacklist” of most-liked unproduced screenplays), Mackenzie almost turns the Big Apple into another character, as every street lamp or crowded walkway could lead to a fatal showdown. We’re guided to familiar locales made mysterious with bystanders giving the “stink eye” before possibly lashing out at Sarah or Ash, or maybe walking past. And even though they’re kept apart, Mackenzie and Piasecki convey the longing and yearning for contact that’s denied. Somehow, they make the relay service jargon somewhat “steamy” (at the end of every reply, rather than “stop” in telegrams, they say “go ahead”). I can’t give away too many details of Ash’s “playbook”, I will say that he uses state-of-the-art tech (lots of “burner phones” while making considerable use of the much maligned under-appreciated USPS. Yes, I’m talking about the post office, as Ash gets their tracking numbers, while dropping some unique postal trivia (when this film was shot, there were active post office service centers inside the gate area of a few major airports). As I mentioned, there aren’t elaborate stunt sequences, but many of the near-misses and “drops” will have you on the edge of your seat. That’s before you fall off of it during the stunning, whiplash-inducing finale reveal. There’s been little fanfare about this engaging entertainment (so many talk shows are taking early Labor Day breaks), so I hope that word will spread on this original film that takes its inspiration from so many classic thrillers (could Ash be a 21st-century spin on the Scarlet Pimpernel). Moviegoers will be well rewarded for their effort (it may be tough to locate at the multiplex) and time (clocking in at under two hours) with the cinematic and storytelling delights of RELAY.

3.5 Out of 4

RELAY is now playing in select theatres

HIGHEST 2 LOWEST – Review

Even though the sweltering temps haven’t abated, it seems that the 2025 Summer movie season is nearing an end with the return of one of the most acclaimed filmmakers working today. Yes, this is an award contender premiering in August. Oh, and this director is “doubling down” with a “re-working” of a film from one of the true “masters of international cinema”. And did I tell you that this is the fifth collaboration between the filmmaker and a two-time Oscar-winning actor? It all appears to get all the “boxes checked” for the big nominations and the critics’ lists. So, with this elite “pedigree”, just how does HIGHEST 2 LOWEST really “stack up” (is it more the latter than the former)?

In the story’s opening moments, we’re whisked around and about the gleaming towers of Manhattan. On the balcony of one of them is a man barking into a cell phone. Speaking of “stack”, he is David King (Denzel Washington), chief executive and co-founder of the music label “Stackin’ Hits”, and he’s putting all his “ducks in a row” in this life-changing “deal”. But first, there are family obligations. His beautiful wife Pam (Iifenesh Hadera) needs this year’s contribution to a local charity. Her “radar” goes on as David suggests just half the usual “check”, for now. Then it’s on to their teenage son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), who goes with dad to his elite basketball camp (one of the coaches is Rick Fox). There, Trey meets with his BFF Kyle (Elijah Wright), who happens to be the son of David’s personal chauffeur, Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright). He’s late because he’s gathering the proper papers for the big business “play”. After “touching base” with other company execs, David returns to his lush penthouse apartment to share the big news with Pam. He’s taken out loans, set up several accounts, and called in lots of favors in an attempt to acquire sole ownership of his recording empire. As she processes this news, David takes another call, thinking it’s a possible investor. He’s stunned when the unknown caller informs him that he’s grabbed Trey, and ransom instructions will soon follow. The police are called, while Paul realizes that his son Kyle hasn’t returned yet and isn’t picking up his calls. As the NYPD set up a command center in the dining room, another call occurs. The voice informs David to put together over 17 million dollars in Swiss currency, with drop-off details to come. David assures Pam that he will pay, while a new development has the police scurrying. A patrol car has picked up Trey and is bringing him home. He tells the stunned group that Kyle was grabbed instead. When David gets a new call from the criminal, he boasts that his son is safe, that he has Paul’s son. Nonetheless, the “voice” still insists on the ransom money; otherwise, he’ll murder Kyle. Paul doesn’t have the funds, while David balks at paying, since it would almost wipe out the needed capital for his company’s takeover. Will he make this huge sacrifice for his old friend’s boy? His decision plunges the affluent David into the seedy, crime-ridden underbelly of the Big Apple…

In case we all needed to be reminded of true movie star charisma, Mr. Washington easily delivers that quality from that slow tracking drone shot in the film’s opening minutes to the final fade-out. As King contemplates his “power move”, Washington displays a jovial swagger as he prepares for that day. When it takes that awful turn in the evening hours, we see the darkness consume him as he strains to keep control as his life crumbles. And as a deadly decision weighs on in shoulders, Washington allows us a glimpse of King’s vulnerability as the world seems to turn against him. He then taps into all those qualities in the rousing finale, when David dives into the abyss to demand justice. He’s got a great rapport with the stunning Hadera, who makes the perfect life partner for David. She’s his sounding board and fierce beacon of empathy. They’re a true power couple, though the more volatile pairing is with the always wonderful Wright as Paul. He’s been beaten down by life after losing his wife and spending too many years in the system. Wright gives him an inspiring dignity, pushing back at the police who suspect him (such “side-eye”), while struggling against despair as his beloved son is taken from him. Kudos are also due to the main law-enforcement trio of John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze, and the surly, snarky Dean Winter (“Mayhem” in a superb TV ad series). The biggest “find” may be the fiery performance of rapper A$AP Rocky as fledgling “wannabe” Yung Felon. He’s got an unpredictable energy that gives Washington a chance to reveal another facet to King.

The entire cast is stellar, guided by an elder cinema statesman who is still a “firebrand” after nearly 40 years of films, Spike Lee. He, along with screenwriter Evan Hunter, has put a remarkable spin on a classic crime film from 1963 by Akira Kurosawa, HIGH AND LOW, which he adapted from the novel by Ed McBain, “King’s Ransom”. They’ve taken most of that story’s structure and used it as a reflection on current society, from hip hop culture to the smothering, all-surrounding online community. Lee is in full command as he makes use of a few of his stylistic tropes (the “slow-rolling close-up” is here), an eclectic music soundtrack (the opening song is a strange stunner), and background images that reflect and comment on the characters. Plus, he and cinematographer Matthew Libatique give us a very vibrant NYC, more vivid than most recent flicks. What may surprise most filmgoers is the humor that finds its way into a dark tale of teen kidnapping, while not taking away the “high stakes” involved in the terrible crime. It’s tough stuff, for sure, but Lee sprinkles in lots of levity, even as we worry about the fate of the Kings and the Christophers. For fans of the “source” film, Lee takes a sharp “left” from that story’s third act, which gives the drama and social commentary an added heft. My only problem is the use of the musical score as a smothering “blanket” for many of the pivotal plot sequences, hammering in the emotional “stakes”. It’s a minor quibble with such a thought-provoking and entertaining film, proving that there’s still lots of juice and enjoyment in the fifth collaboration of Lee and Washington. Now they’re truly “stackin’ the hits” with the compelling HIGHEST 2 LOWEST.

3.5 Out of 4

HIGHEST 2 LOWEST is now playing in theatres everywhere