November 2018

I kicked off the month by flying to Fort Lauderdale to cover the boat show for Speedboat Magazine, and ended the month by signing off on the story I wrote about the event. I had a fun lunch, and a fun dinner, with Chris Davidson and Jim Wilkes. When I got home, my car had a dead battery, which led to a bad experience with the garage that came to swap out the battery. (AAA ended up refunding my annual dues as a result of the incident.) This was also the month that Joan and I saw Joan Baez perform at UCLA’s Royce Hall. All month long, I looked forward to going on my 20th cruise (on Carnival again) on Dec. 2. MUSIC: I listened to a bunch of songs by the Rolling Stones, and thoroughly enjoyed the new album by the Grip Weeds. BOOKS: On the audiobook side, I finished B.A. Paris’s book Bring Me Back, which was mostly a drag. Then I read Stephen King’s new novella, Elevation; it was just OK, but he included a truly marvelous short story called “Laura” that I just loved. I also “sight read” a great play called June Evening by Bill Naughton, then devoured some new Alan Ayckbourn plays, including A Brief History of Women, Arrivals and Departures and Hero’s Welcome. Looking forward to reading more Ayckbourn!

Here are the movies I saw in November:

BAD BEN (2016)—This was a low-budget “found footage” horror film along the lines of Paranormal Activity. Same basic concept: security-cam footage records some ghostly things going on in a house. No one is going to confuse it with Citizen Kane (or even The Exorcist), but it was a decent time-waster, which I watched on my iPad during the flight to Fort Lauderdale. (8)

HUNTER KILLER (2018)—While I was in Fort Lauderdale, I needed to waste most of a Sunday, as my flight was leaving about 10 hours after I had to check out of my hotel. So I saw a couple of movies. This first one was kind of a Hunt for Red October flick about some submarines and some politically tense maneuvers. Totally forgettable, but not bad as a time-waster. (7)

INDIVISIBLE (2018)—This was the second Sunday time-killer. I knew nothing about this movie going in, other than the reviews were fairly decent. Well, I got tricked—it turned out to be one of those “faith-based movies” that I try to stay very, very far away from. Fortunately, the religious angle took a backseat to the main story, about a priest suffering from a crisis of faith after some heavy-duty wartime tragedies. Like my other Florida movie, this one was also forgettable, but it did do its job. (6)

WILDLIFE (2018)—Finally, an excellent movie! Based on Richard Ford’s novel and directed by Paul Dano (who was so good playing Brian Wilson in Love and Mercy), this film takes place in 1960. An adolescent boy copes with the breakdown of his parents’ marriage. Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal are outstanding as his mom and dad. (9)

BEAUTIFUL BOY (2018)—Here’s the other totally worthy movie I saw this month. Steve Carell plays real-life writer David Sheff, whose son (Timothée Chalamet) is having some major drug-dependancy issues. Great performances by all involved, including Maura Tierney as his wife and Amy Ryan as his ex. (9)

BOY ERASED (2018)—A preacher (Russell Crowe) and his wife (Nicole Kidman) send their homosexual son to a rehab center where they try to pray his gay away. There’s an admirable story here about the evils of conversion therapy, and Joel Edgerton is deliciously evil villain, but I found the movie mostly lifeless. (6)

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET (2018)—The original 2012 movie, Wreck-It Ralph, was one of my favorite Disney animated movies. This long-delayed follow-up features the same basic cast, and a pretty good story—at least until the final 20 minutes. So many Disney cartoon films have to end with a gigantic, seemingly unstoppable villain who is ultimately brought down by our much smaller protagonist. So I was rolling my eyes when the filmmakers went the same, tired route with this movie. But the first half is fun. Unfortunately, most of the characters we loved from the film movie are given short shrift in the sequel, which is way, way too long. The one truly great sequence in the sequel involves Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) interacting with all of the other famous Disney princesses. There’s also a charming song written by Alan Menken. (8)

October 2018

October highlights included seeing one of my favorite musicals, Dear Evan Hansen, at the Ahmanson Theater with Joan—and receiving the gift of a Macbook from her as well. (Thank you so much for bankrolling so many of my favorite things, JM!) We also saw a pretty good play called VietGone as well! I continued to ride Bird and Lime scooters, and unfortunately fell off a Bird, skinning both knees and scratching up my right arm, due to my own stupidity. This was also the month I tried a few different juicers for making lemonade. My most recent acquisition is a lemon press that squashes the lemons by pulling a handle. I have been enjoying many batches of fresh lemonade! I ended the month by flying to Fort Lauderdale to attend the boat show. TV: I’m still enjoying all of my favorite shows. BOOKS: I finished Brian Kiley’s novel, and listened to Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris. I quickly began another of her books, Bring Me Back. I also read an excellent newer Alan Ayckbourn play called A Brief History of Women. MUSIC: I finally finished grading every song by the Moody Blues.

Here are the movies I saw in October:

A STAR IS BORN (2018)—This latest remake of the perennial celebrity-couple romance features a terrific performance by Lady Gaga, who trades in her platinum-blonde persona for a more natural (and infinitely more pleasing) look—you cannot take your eyes off of her. But the movie is really all about the music, which is incredibly well done. Basically the same story as all the other versions, but updated to modern styles, dress, etc. (9)

BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE (2018)—In April 2015, I saw the 2003 movie Identity, about a bunch of strangers (Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John C. McGinley) who find themselves holed up in a motel during a terrible storm...while being stalked by a serial killer. Bad Times is an extremely similar film with the same basic plot, with things quickly going from bad to worse. It’s extremely entertaining, with outstanding performances by Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, Dakota Johnson, et al. (10)

FIRST MAN (2018)—Ryan Gosling plays Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. The problem is that in this biopic, Gosling portrays him as a cold, insensitive husband and father, stoic and emotionless to the point of absurdity. One of the most agonizingly boring and ridiculously overrated movies of recent memory. (4)

THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN (2018)—Ho-hum real-life drama starring Robert Redford as an aging bank robber who just can’t resist getting into trouble. Sissy Spacek plays his love interest. Unremarkable. (6)

THE HATE U GIVE (2018)—This “ripped from the headlines” drama tries to pack so many controversial subjects into one movie that it seems to be bursting at the seams. We’ve all read stories about innocent black people targeted by menacing cops (as well as black drug dealers and gang members). T.H.U.G. tries valiantly to address many of these subjects, but a little less might have been a bit more effective. What’s here is certainly not boring, and I give the filmmakers credit for exploring all angles of racial tension. (8)

WHAT THEY HAD (2018)—Blythe Danner is the mom with Alzheimer’s; Michael Shannon and Hilary Swank are her children trying to help her (and possibly get her into an assisted living facility); and Robert Forster is Danner’s husband, who just wants to take care of her in their apartment—despite the fact that she keeps busting out. This family drama is extremely well acted, and its emotional intensity is occasionally buoyed by dollops of much-needed humor. Very memorable and touching; one of the year’s best. (10)

THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952)—Vincente Minelli, one of my favorite directors, does a superb job with this Hollywood-centric story all about moviemaking. Kirk Douglas is a studio chief who manipulates the lives of his director (Barry Sullivan), writer (Dick Powell) and leading lady (Lana Turner) to get what he wants. The movie is told mostly in three long flashbacks that focus on each of his cronies. Gloria Grahame won an Oscar for a relatively small role as Powell’s Southern belle wife, but she is really amazing in the movie. I really need to watch more black-and-white movies from the ’50s...and more movies featuring Grahame. (9)

September 2018

Like August, September was definitely a slow movie month (and an uneventful month in general). But on the bright side, I really loved all four movies I saw, which is a rarity verging on a miracle. The new TV season is in full swing, with many of my favorites (This Is Us, The Big Bang Theory, Mom and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit) debuting. I’m very sad about this being the final year for Big Bang—I sure will miss Sheldon, Raj, Howard, Penny and the gang. This month, I was busy using Tandem and chatting a lot with my new Chinese friend, Joanna, a lot. She is a very kind and funny young woman who shares my love for The Big Bang Theory. This was also the month I started riding those Bird scooters a lot. MUSIC: I have been working through the entire Moody Blues catalogue and making some very cool song discoveries from the 1970s and 1980s. BOOKS: I listened to the audiobook of Shari Lapena’s An Unwanted Guest and started Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris. Meanwhile, I am “sight reading” The Astounding Misadventures of Rory Collins by comedian Brian Kiley, a self-published comic novel that contains a lot of typos but is interesting nonetheless. I was also very active using an online book-trading site called MyAnonamous this month.

 Here are the movies I saw in September:

JULIET, NAKED (2018)—This is an adaptation of Nick Hornsby’s sixth novel, about a music fan (Chris O’Dowd) who is so obsessed with a long-retired musician (Ethan Hawke) that it starts to take a toll on his relationship with his girlfriend (Rose Byrne). It’s a funny, charming and moving comedy-drama directed by Jesse Peretz and really well acted by the entire cast. (10)

SEARCHING (2018)—Suspense yarn about a dad (John Cho) searching for his missing daughter (Michelle La), and putting clues together through her social-media footprint. Like 2014’s Unfriended, this is a found-footage type thriller completely from the point of view of webcams, TV screens and Facetime videos. It’s extremely well done and very imaginative, with some twists I did not see coming. (10)

A SIMPLE FAVOR (2018)—Darcey Bell’s 2017 psychological thriller gets a great cinematic transfer courtesy of director Paul Fieg. Anna Kendrick plays a single mom and online blogger whose new friendship with the mother (Blake Lively) of her son’s best friend takes some truly harrowing turns. “Hitchcockian” might be overselling it a bit, but I was thoroughly entertained by this intriguing mystery. (10)

THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS (2018)—Jack Black plays a magical warlock who invites his orphaned young nephew to come live in his mansion...and teaches him a few tricks in the process. Based on the books by John Bellairs, it seems obvious that the filmmakers wanted to capture a bit of the Harry Potter flavor with this macabre and scary juvenalia...and as far as I’m concerned, they did a great job, because this was far more entertaining and absorbing than the Potter movies. Cate Blanchett plays Black’s friend and neighbor, a friendly witch. A great family picture, but definitely too scary for smaller kids. (10)

August 2018

It was not a great month for movies. MoviePass has changed its rules to the point where I can’t even see the movies I want anymore. What a disappointment.
In August, I traveled to Michigan City, IN, for the boat races. It was hotter than hell there. I enjoyed staying at the local Blue Chip casino and had some fun meals there. I was able to report on the story and get the September issue of Speedboat Magazine out before the end of the month—we really hauled ass on that issue.
This was the month where I did a load of laundry and was shocked by the thick layer of lint-like paper shavings that covered all of my shirts. I never did figure out how that happened, but getting those particles off about 50 shirts turned out to be quite an ordeal. Wow, this blog is incredibly interesting, isn’t it?
TV: I watched relatively little outside of Better Call Saul, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, the late-night talk shows and old episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. BOOKS: I listened to the audiobook of J.P. Delaney’s Believe Me and read “Uncle Jimbo’s Marbles,” a cool short story by Evan Hunter. MUSIC: Listened to a bunch of Moody Blues music, Norah Jones’ first album and some miscellaneous Chinese pop.
Here are the movies I saw in August:

BLACKKKLANSMAN (2018)—Spike Lee botches the interesting story of a how a black police officer infiltrates a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Overlong, full of weird musical-score choices and fairly ponderous, Lee should stop making movies. The best thing about this amateurish movie was watching beautiful Laura Harrier playing the president of the local university's Black Student Union. (5)

PUZZLE (2018)—As a big fan of actress Kelly Macdonald (Black Mirror, Swallows & Amazons), I was drawn to Puzzle because of her participation in this film about Agnes, a married woman who teams up with an Indian man to participate in a jigsaw puzzle-solving competition. Macdonald is excellent, although I miss her natural Scottish accent, and the movie is only OK—much of the movie is about Agnes’s stale marriage to David Denman, which I didn’t find all that compelling. (7)

CRAZY RICH ASIANS (2018)—For the first time ever, an all-Asian cast stars in an American hit movie. Based on Kevin Kwan’s comic novel (the first of a trilogy), the movie tells the story of Rachel Chu (Constance Wu of TV’s Fresh Off the Boat), an Chinese-American who doesn’t realize her boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) is “crazy rich” until she flies with him to attend a wedding in Singapore. It’s there that we meet the highly pedigreed Chinese families experience all of the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding. It’s funny, engaging and features a cast full of lovely Chinese women. Between this movie and Ocean’s 8, Awkwafina is having a massively successful year. (9)

THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984)—Caught this revival at the Arclight Hollywood theater with star Lance Guest in the audience. I’m sure he doesn’t get to experience fan accolades like this every day. Starfighter is a mostly lame fantasy for small children; it’s not very well acted, loaded with cheesy (by today’s standards) special effects, and the story is beyond preposterous. But it was fun to see Robert “The Music Man” Preston in one of his very last roles (he died three years following the release of this movie).

July 2018

Highlights of July included a visit from Fiona from Guangzhou and from Mark and Janet from New Jersey (in SoCal to see their son Brian get married). Mark, Janet and I went to Disneyland, where I lasted for exactly three rides. Meanwhile, Joan and I saw some movies and ate a bagel, and I spilled soda on my keyboard, ruining the second keyboard in as many months. By the end of the month, MoviePass was already on the verge of bankruptcy. This was also the month of crippling heat waves resulting in numerous power outages that actually led to my sleeping in my car with the air conditioner on. BOOKS: I read and thoroughly enjoyed the British suspense thrillers Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough and Come a Little Closer by Rachel Abbott. TV: I binge-watched the four-season show Inside No. 9, a very clever anthology series from the UK. MUSIC: I “drilled” great new albums by Astral Drive, fashioned as a great, lost Todd Rundgren album from the 1970s, and The Beatnix, a band that covers songs that Lennon & McCartney gave away, in the style of the Beatles.

Here are the movies I saw in July:

THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS (2018)—Fascinating documentary about three brothers, separated at birth, who accidentally connected as adults. (9)

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018)—One of the best and funniest Marvel superhero movies, very imaginative, exciting and funny. (10)

SHOCK AND AWE (2018)—Earnest but largely ho-hum story featuring Rob Reiner (the movie’s director) about how the Knight Ridder news organization refused to cowtow to the Bush Administration’s myth that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. This is what I call a “textbook movie”—more educational than entertaining. Good cast includes Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones and Richard Schiff. (7)

EIGHTH GRADE (2018)—Standup comedian Bo Burnham’s comedy about an eighth-grade student (played by Elsie Fisher) “coming of age” in a world full of horny boys, self-obsessed girls, her loving dad and social media. A triumph; one of the best movies of the year. (10)

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT (2018)—Sixth film in the MI series is the best one yet, with nonstop action and great characters. (10)

MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN (2018)—I saw this one during one of our power outages, because it happened to be playing at the ideal time. Pretty ridiculous; redeemed mostly by the two pretty leads (Amanda Seyfried and Lily James) and Cher. Some good ABBA music, but the best parts belong to the story. (7)

June 2018

June was clearly a major movie month for me, as I tried utilize my MoviePass membership as much as possible. The downside to this system is that you tend to see a lot of the same trailers over and over again—I already feel like I’ve seen The Darkest Minds, Crazy Rich Asians and Ant-Man and the Wasp already. But overall, it’s a great deal—the $100 a year membership has already paid for itself!
This month, I had dinner with Choiwan down at the Howard Hughes Dave & Buster’s, where she was revealed to be a “coin pusher” slot-machine junkie. We had fun collecting Star Trek cards, but the place was a little too noisy for me. I got a root canal on tooth #31, as it’s known in dental circles, and July should bring a new crown for that tooth. I flew up to see Jay perform as the villainous Frollo in the musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was very well executed. BOOKS: I listened to the 18-hour audiobook of Stephen King’s new horror novel The Outsider, which was excellent, and am currently about halfway through reading Tomorrow’s Children, a sci-fi short-story anthology edited by Isaac Asimov (a book I admired a lot in my youth but never actually read). Also, I received and devoured the latest Dick Tracy comic-strip anthology. TV: The Affair and Penn and Teller: Fool Us have returned, so I’ve been enjoying those, and am looking forward to Better Call Saul and Orange Is the New Black returning in the coming month or two. MUSIC: I “drilled” the Hunchback soundtrack, enjoyed a new release by Pugwash and listened to a bunch of current radio hits.

Here are the movies I saw in June:

UPGRADE (2018)—This science-fiction actioner was likely pitched as John Wick meets The Six Million Dollar Man. After mechanic Grey (Logan Marshall-Green) and his lovely wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) are in a devastating car accident, paid assassins leave her dead and him a paraplegic. Enter billionaire biotech scientist Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson), who offers to restore Grey’s physical capabilities. The operation is a success, but the miracle chip has a mind of its own, and through a series of mental conversations, starts helping Grey solve the mystery of his wife’s murder. It’s the kind of thing we’ve seen a bunch of times before; it’s plotted so briskly that you tend to overlook a lot of nagging questions, implausibilities and an ending that makes very little sense. It is difficult, however, to overlook the embarrassingly awful performance by Gilbertson as the scientist—it’s total amateur hour whenever he’s onscreen. The movie borrows its storyline from numerous sources, including The Matrix. It’s more like a comic book than a movie, but at least it’s not a boring comic book. (8)

FIRST REFORMED (2018)—Ethan Hawke stars as the pastor of a historical church in upstate New York who suffers a crisis of faith after the violent death of resident in his town. Paul Schrader, the screenwriter of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and writer/director of many others, gives a slow-moving but chilling story of Hawke’s transformation from a thoughtful religious leader to a potentially dangerous psychopath. Amanda Seyfried co-stars as a pretty member of Hawke’s flock, with whom he forges a strong bond. Watching this movie felt like I was reading a short story—it has a literary feel to it. Hawke is very good at showing numerous layers to his complex character. The movie perfectly illustrates one man’s gradual undoing, and contains several shocking twists. (8)

THE SEAGULL (2018)—Two movies opened last month featuring Brooklyn star Saoirse Ronan: On Chesil Beach and The Seagull. Both films are above average, with Ronan outshining the material in both cases. The Seagull takes place in Russia, with all Russian characters, except for once, nobody speaks English with a Russian accent; they’re all speaking in their natural American drawls. (Well, except Ronan is Irish, so she is doing a fake accent—just not a Russian one.) This is a film version of the famous Anton Chekhov play, in which an aging actress (Annette Bening) is dating a popular writer (Corey Stoll), who in turn flips for Ronan, who is dating Bening’s son (Billy Howle), who is loved by Masha (Elisabeth Moss). So it’s basically a triple love triangle story, and there are a bunch of petty jealousies and suicide attempts. None of it really adds up to a whole hell of a lot, but Bening is terrific. (8)

ADRIFT (2018)—True story of Tami Oldham (here played by Shailene Woodley), who along with her boyfriend Richard Sharp (Sam Clafin) attempt to navigate a friend’s sailboat across the Pacific Ocean—and run straight into a hurricane. Their boat badly damaged, Oldham must move heaven and earth to survive what will prove to be a seemingly endless search for rescue. Woodley does a marvelous job showing us the immense strength and fortitude of this movie’s exceptional heroine, and director Baltasar Kormákur gives us a great deal of intrigue and suspense. I’ve seen other survival dramas like this one (most recently Robert Redford’s All Is Lost), but Adrift is among the best, with incredible special effects and a storyline that is both gripping and romantic. Bring a box of Kleenex for that ending! (10)

HEREDITARY (2018)—In The Sixth Sense, Toni Collette had a son who could see dead people. In the new horror movie Hereditary, her daughter can see dead people (although sooner or later, pretty much all of the characters in the film can see them). Collette has no sooner buried her estranged mother than creepy things start to happen involving her husband, son and daughter. There are three or four excellent scenes when the movie suddenly springs to life, but the rest of it is a confounding, scattershot mess. Much of the time it moves along like molasses, and the rest of the time very little of it makes sense, with very little of it adding up by the time the credits roll. As of this writing, the movie has a very high rating on the Tomatometer (94%), which is arguably scarier than anything in the movie. (5)

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (2018)—A documentary about Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood creator Fred Rogers, who was an ordained minister, television pioneer and savvy child whisperer. I watched his groundbreaking series as a child, and the film perfectly illustrates how this gentle, soft-spoken man was able to connect with kids in ways other TV hosts were simply not interested in doing. Family members, co-stars and colleagues all provide insights into the Rogers psyche, but it’s the words of Rogers himself that best speak for the subject of this thoroughly thought-provoking documentary. (9)

BOUNDARIES (2018)—Irene Tsu invited me to see this comedy-drama screener at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. It’s a road-trip comedy about a daughter (Vera Farmiga) who must take her frequently estranged and aging dad (Christopher Plummer) to her sister’s house to live. Although it is a typical road-trip movie, it’s wittier than most. Director Shana Feste and co-star Peter Fonda were interviewed after the movie. (9)

RIFFTRAX LIVE: SPACE MUTINY (2018)—The comedy team riffs on this execrable Star Wars ripoff from 1988. As usual, a truly ghastly movie makes excellent fodder for Michael J. Nelson and his wisecracking crew. (9)

JURASSIC WORLD FALLEN KINGDOM (2018)—When we first see Bryce Dallas Howard in this dinosaur sequel—the fifth in the series that began in 1993—she’s using a smartphone, and we fans of Black Mirror will be excused for remembering all of the trouble she got into swiping on that app in the episode Nosedive. But there is way, way more in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom that deliberately reminds us of the four previous movies: all of the old tropes are here (such as the scene where a T-Rex is about to munch on the hero, when all of a sudden, another dinosaur attacks the T-Rex). As dumb as the story is, the movie follows the template of the predecessors, giving us great dinosaur effects, a cute-as-a-button kid, some evil humans and lots of explosions. (The only new element is the lava, because there’s an active volcano.) Silly but enjoyable. (9)

HEARTS BEAT LOUD (2018)—Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) is the dad; Kersey Clemons is his beautiful mixed-race lesbian daughter. She’s bound for college to become a doctor, but her dad—understandably proud of her musical gifts—wants her to take a year off and write songs with him. Together they record some admittedly catchy music, but she’s reluctant to pursue his dream. This is the basic premise of the film, and while it’s not much to hang a screenplay on, it works. Key to the movie is the charm of the two leading actors and the music they make. The ending is fairly predictable, but it’s a warm, embraceable movie—a close cousin to 2013’s Begin Again and 2007’s Once, with their shared stories of how two talented people come together to create some extraordinary pop music. Ted Danson, Blythe Danner and Toni Collette are along for the ride. (9)

INCREDIBLES 2 (2018)—Fourteen years after Pixar’s original superhero sendup, writer/director Brad Bird unleashes the sequel, and it’s every bit as fun, lively and funny as the original. Bob, Helen, Dash, Violet and Jack-Jack once again save the world, this time from a villain who isn’t unmasked until late in the film. The voice cast is wonderful, with Catherine Keener and Bob Odenkirk doing great guest-star work. (10)

AMERICAN ANIMALS (2018)—Here’s the first of two heist movies I saw in a row. This one could be dubbed Ocean's 4—it’s the true story of four young male students who plot to rob a Kentucky library of some extraordinarily rare books, including a priceless edition of John James Audubon's The Birds of America. Interviews with the actual four thieves (post-prison) make this kind of a docu-drama, and an informative one at that. Nicely done and well-directed. (8)

OCEAN’S 8 (2018)—Although I haven’t seen the other films in the Ocean’s series, and this spinoff features a few running characters, it can be enjoyed independently of the others. The “eight” refers to a group of women (played by Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter and Awkwafina) who plot the heist of a diamond necklace valued at $150 million. It’s a mildly amusing, sometimes suspenseful caper film with a great cast; some of these ladies’ talents are wasted (especially Kaling), but the movie is worth seeing for Helena Bonham Carter’s character. (8)

LEAVE NO TRACE (2018)—A slowly paced but absorbing film directed and co-written by Debra Granik, Leave No Trace tells the story of a former soldier suffering from PTSD and his 13-year-old daughter, both of whom are living completely off the grid in the forest of a public park in Oregon. There they live off the land and seem to quite happy, until they are discovered by the authorities…and the story moves on from there. The film is sensitive, sometimes frustrating and ultimately deeply moving. One of the best films of the year and guaranteed to be an Oscar contender; currently it holds a well-deserved 100% on the Tomatometer. (10)

THE PARTY (2018)—The good news is that I can scratch a 2017 release off my list of “movies I was sorry I missed.” The Party, a short (70 minutes) film shot in gorgeous black and white, is a black comedy about a party celebrating Kristin Scott Thomas’s professional advancement, but the soon-to-be-exposed secrets and escalating emotions bubbling beneath the surface of the other six people attending the shindig (notably husband Timothy Spall and best friend Patricia Clarkson) could mean tragedy before the end of the evening. From what I’ve read, the film is a thinly disguised metaphor for Brexit or some other British current events; in any case, the movie didn’t really work for me, as I found it a bit of a bore. (5)

May 2018

May was a pleasant month. The issue of Speedboat that I was working on mostly went smoothly. I attended a choir concert in Beverly Hills in which my goddaughter Jenna sang beautifully. I put a down payment on my next cruise, a four-nighter on Carnival set for Dec. 2-6. Joan and I saw “Weird Al” Yankovic in downtown L.A., where my comedy idol Emo Philips not only opened, but he also posed for a few selfies with me in the lobby. I joined MoviePass, a deal where you can see a movie every day for just $10 a month. Cindy and I finished our fifth year of tutoring at an elementary school in Santa Monica. One night I made a midnight trip through the local Jack in the Box drive-through, and after ordering, the line seemed to not be moving. Turns out the guy in the car ahead of me actually fell asleep behind the wheel! Finally, I made plans to fly to San Jose in early June to see Jay Steele in the musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where he plays the bad guy. TV: Now that all of my regular broadcast shows have ended their season, I started watching an anthology show called “Inside No. 9,” and continued to enjoy David Letterman’s talk show on Netflix. BOOKS: I finished reading Listen, Please Listen by Naomi Hintze and the audiobook of The Broken Ones by Sarah A. Denzil. I am now about two hours into the new, 18-hour long Stephen King novel The Outsider. 
Here are the movies I saw in May:

DISOBEDIENCE (2018)—I started the month seeing two movies that got excellent reviews on RottenTomatoes, but that were both disappointing in their own ways. Both films also feature standout performances by their two lead actresses. Based on Naomi Alderman’s novel, Disobedience stars Rachel Weisz as a woman reconnecting with her estranged Orthodox Jewish family after her dad dies. That includes her father’s disciple (Alessandro Nivola) and his wife (Rachel McAdams), the latter whom we come to learn had a lesbian fling with Weisz some years ago. It all turns into a bisexual love triangle, with rabbi-to-be Nivola coming to grips with the revelation that the two Rachels may be planning to hit the hay again. There’s too much smoking in the movie for me, and at least two-thirds of the movie crawls along too slowly and is too amateurishly directed for my liking. But there is a good movie in here struggling to get out. I think this would have been a much better movie in the hands of a better director. (6)

TULLY (2018)—There was a random line in this new film written by Diablo Cody (of Juno fame) in which somebody asks, “What was your dog’s name?” And the answer that came into my head was…Tully! Because oddly enough, that was my very first dog’s name. This movie features Charlize Theron as the pregnant wife of Ron Livingston, who already have two kids. In the first 30 minutes or so, we see her struggling with the pregnancy, having the baby, and showing signs of postpartum depression—her son has some kind of behavioral disorder, and she and her husband seem to be growing distant. Then Theron’s brother (always excellent Mark Duplass) insists on hiring her a “night nanny” named Tully, a pretty and fit 27-year-old who alleviates Theron’s struggles in many ways. The middle third of the film, where we see how the au pair infiltrates and benefits this couple’s life, is excellent. Unfortunately, there’s a plot twist in the final third that makes the film “jump the shark” in a truly disastrous way, and the film sinks like a rock. There are also about three too many montages in the movie—I couldn’t figure out why there were so many montages; it seemed a really lazy way to convey that some amount of time and progress was being made. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy seeing super-gorgeous Elaine Tan (playing Duplass’s wife)—they could have just pointed the camera at her for two hours and it would have been a better movie. Having said that, Theron and Mackenzie Davis as Tully are superb. (7)

BOOK CLUB (2018)—With a terrific cast of aging and elderly female actors, including Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, Book Club is like a Nancy Meyers movie, but lacking the wit and finesse of her excellent comedies (It’s Complicated). It’s a lighter-than-air comedy with a fairly entertaining first half; then it just coasts from there. My friend Robert referred to it a “geriatric sex comedy,” and that’s not far from the mark. Several aging male stars make an appearance, including Richard Dreyfuss, Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson, Don Johnson, Ed Begley Jr. and Wallace Shawn. None of them embarrass themselves, exactly, but even a couple of weeks after seeing the film, I can barely remember much of it. (6)

ON CHESIL BEACH (2018)—Ian McEwan’s prize-winning novella has been made into a feature film starring Saoirse Ronan (of Brooklyn, Lady Bird and other fine movies). She plays a young newlywed who, on her honeymoon, has some trouble consummating her marriage to Billy Howle. We learn their backstory through numerous flashbacks and there is a post-honeymoon epilogue. This is a movie that takes its sweet time unfolding its story, and without Ronan, it probably wouldn’t be terribly interesting. Fortunately, she is spectacular in it. I will see any movie that she appears in. Note: This was the first movie I saw using my MoviePass membership. (8)

April 2018

April was a fairly uneventful month. Norma and I saw Arlo Guthrie at the Saban Theater on April 5. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it, but it was a very fun evening with lots of great music, much of it from Arlo’s daughter. I actually walked away wishing the show had been longer! The following week, my work colleague and I conducted our annual Speedboat Magazine Swimsuit Issue photo shoot at Lake Elsinore, which was fun. I guess those were the big highlights. I also got a new crown on an eight-year-old implant after the original crown became loose (and got the ball rolling on replacing another crown as well). Oh, and I solved a great deal of Jumble puzzles in April. BOOKS: I listened to the audio version of When You Disappeared by John Marrs, and started to listen to The Perfect Roommate by Minka Kent as well as to “sight read” Listen, Please Listen by Naomi Hintze. TV: Homeland ended its seventh season, and many of my regular series (Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Special Victims Unit, etc., will have their season finales in May. Here are the movies I saw in April:

READY PLAYER ONE (2018)—Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s sci-fi novel is set in dystopian 2045, where most of the country’s residents alleviate their depressing real lives by plugging into the virtual reality world of OASIS. Protagonist Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) spends the whole movie searching for an Easter Egg in the game left there by OASIS founder James Halliday, who is dead. It’s a real hodgepodge of a movie with some excellent special effects, but most of it is forgettable nonsense. There’s a very interesting sequence that revolves around the movie The Shining; that is probably the only thing I’ll remember about this movie. Oh, and that it reminded me a lot of the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” (which is far superior to this). (7)

A QUIET PLACE (2018)—John Krasinski, star of the sitcom The Office, stars in and directs this scary horror movie, which more than anything else resembles the aliens-will-get-you shocker The War of the Worlds. The (by now) well-known gimmick is that it’s almost a silent movie, because the aliens are blind—they use their sense of hearing to hunt and catch you, so you have to be very quiet. As Krasinski’s wife (Emily Blunt) discovers, that gets really tricky if you step on a nail with your bare feet, or if you give birth to a baby. The movie leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but it’s very engrossing nonetheless. (8)

THE ENDLESS (2018)—Two escapees from a “UFO cult” return to the camp years later, mostly out of sheer curiosity, and find some extremely weird supernatural things going on there. Some of it is interesting, but as the movie goes on, it gets more and more ludicrous and bizarre (there are a bunch of time-loop domes spread around the countryside for some reason). The first half of the movie is very compelling, but then it kind of goes off the rails. (7)

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (2018)—This is the third and (so far) best of the Marvel Avengers movies. There are so many stars and superheroes in the film—too many, to be honest—that it’s difficult to keep track of them all. As always, the thing I love about these Marvel movies is the humor. They can’t put too much comedy in these movies, because there’s so much sinister stuff and fighting and evil villains…it’s nice to be able to laugh and relieve the tension. (Robert Downey Jr. is the funniest of the superheroes, although Chris Pratt is a close second.) This is essentially a good guys vs. the bad guy movie, and it all ends on an extremely somber note where half of the cast perishes—at least, until they can all be revived in next year’s sequel. And Zoe Saldana is the most heavenly green goddess of all time. I enjoyed it! (9)

March 2018

Highlights in March included seeing my goddaughter Jenna perform in a high-school performance of the musical The Drowsy Chaperone, and seeing the musical Allegiance with Joan. In addition to having problems with two molars, a crown on an implant came loose, and I spent time dealing with that problem. Meanwhile, after a long wait, I finally got the battery in my iPhone 6+ replaced. Otherwise, the month was largely uneventful. MUSIC: I spent time listening to the songs of Eddie Baird and Co-Pilgrim. BOOKS: I’ve been enjoying short stories of W. Somerset Maugham.

Here are the movies I saw in March:

ANNIHILATION (2018)—Director Alex Garland, whose film Ex Machina was one of the best films of 2015, returns with another sci-fi horror movie, this time adapting the first book in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy. The story involves some commandos infiltrating an gradually expanding alien presence on earth known as The Shimmer, where people go in, but they don’t come out. Natalie Portman and a team of other female scientist-soldiers go into the time- and mind-bending zone (called Area X in the book) to figure out what is going on. Inside, both animals and plants seems to be merging their DNA, creating new life forms. It is occasionally heady and trippy in a 2001: A Space Odyssey way, where questions pile up much faster than answers, but it’s all mildly engrossing. (8)

FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (2017)—This free screening at Paramount stars Annette Bening as American actress Gloria Graham (star of two of my favorite movies, It’s a Wonderful Life and Oklahoma!) in her twilight years, when she was suffering from breast cancer. In this true story, she meets up with a much younger British man and has an affair with him, with the usual age-difference consequences; Graham is vain and loath to combat her disease for fear of losing work, and the young man can’t really connect with her on her level. I found the movie to be mostly a slog, while Joan enjoyed it. (6)

OSCAR-NOMINATED ANIMATED SHORT FILMS (2018)—Five short animated films were nominated for an Oscar this year; in addition to those five, an extra three (not nominated) are tacked on to pad out a feature showing to beyond an hour. As with previous years, they were all presented at a local cinema for screening, although not many people showed up. All of the films nominated were outstanding: Dear Basketball (featuring basketball legend Kobe Bryant), the winning film, is a touching love letter to his sport; Negative Space is a moving portrait of a boy reminiscing about his father teaching him how to pack a suitcase; Lou is a heartwarming Pixar short in a Toy Story vein; Revolting Rhymes is an engrossing adaptation of a Roald Dahl book; and Garden Party is a curious frog-centric tale of an abandoned mansion. Of the ones that were not nominated, Lost Property Office was the best, about a guy working at a train station’s lost and found office. It’s hard to say which one of these I liked best, as they were all good, but Dear Basketball was certainly not the best. Revolting Rhymes was Part 1 of a two-parter; I rushed to download Part 2 as soon as I got home. (10)

OSCAR-NOMINATED LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILMS (2018)—Five short live-action films were also nominated for an Oscar this year. DeKalb Elementary, a fact-based story about a would-be school shooter, is a real nail biter, and mostly a two-hander, as an armed teenager is “talked off the ledge” by a brave office worker (astonishingly good Tarra Riggs). The Silent Child, the winning film, involves a mostly deaf child whose parents initially hire an experienced and loving young woman to work with her, but who develop doubts about her receiving training in sign language; it’s extremely moving. The Eleven O’Clock is an amusing comedy sketch about a psychiatrist whose 11:00 appointment is with a man who thinks he’s a psychiatrist. Watu Wote: All of Us, another real-life story, is about a busload of Muslim and Christian passengers who are confronted by a deadly band of terrorists, and how they survive their ordeal. Finally, My Nephew Emmett (yet another true story) is about a violent racial confrontation in Mississippi during the mid-1950s. All of the movies were very well done, and have inspired me to seek out short movies from previous years. (10)

THOROUGHBREDS (2018)—Black comedy involving two high-school friends: a sociopath (Olivia Cooke) and a psychopath (Anya Taylor-Joy). Together, the girls hatch a plot to kill Taylor-Joy’s stepfather, who is unpleasant but hardly worthy of murdering. The plot involves Anton Yelchin (Chekhov in the Star Trek reboot; this was his last film). The poster’s tagline describes it as Heathers meets American Psycho; would that it were that good. At best, the movie is a mild diversion, but it’s often slow and pointless. Both girls are very attractive, however; Cooke is like a young Natalie Portman. (7)

LOVE, SIMON (2018)—Straighter-than-straight Nick Robinson plays Simon, a closeted gay (!) teenager who is blackmailed and eventually outed by a classmate. The extremely “YA” film explores his friendships, his problems and his family relationships. Directed by Greg Berlanti, it’s clearly targeted at teenagers, but the cast is so good that adults can enjoy it as well, especially with actors like Tony Hale (Arrested Development) as the school principal. Quite moving in parts. (9)

ICE PALACE (1960)—Having previously enjoyed movies based on Edna Ferber’s novels (Cimmaron and So Big), here’s the next in the series. This one stars Richard Burton and Robert Ryan as Alaskan fisherman who spar over a woman (Carolyn Jones, who played Morticia on The Addams Family). Like the other Ferber adaptations, it’s a very atmospheric and melodramatic piece about personality conflicts set in a period of American history. Also featuring Jim Backus (Gilligan’s Island) and George Takei (who would go on to do Star Trek). (9)

ISLE OF DOGS (2018)—Director Wes Anderson (The Fantastic Mr. Fox) is back with another animated feature. This one is Japan-centric, about an island of diseased castaway dogs and a young boy searching for his beloved pooch. It is creatively animated, features a wonderful voice cast, and contains some of the most original and imaginative storytelling I’ve seen on film in quite a while. Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson and many others do a great job in the roles of various humans and canines. What a wonderful movie! (10)

I KILL GIANTS (2018)—A misfit girl in middle school displays delusional tendencies and lacks social skills. She fancies herself a killer of giants—even though we are unaware of any actual giants that are threatening her town. She is a girl with some big problems, and we wait until the end of the movie for her psychological issues to be addressed. Meanwhile, she sees a school therapist (Zoe Saldana) and is teased by school bullies. My patience for this main character wore very thin over the course of the movie, and the “big reveal” didn’t exactly make the rest of the film worth sitting through. Based on a popular graphic novel. (6)

UNSANE (2018)—This is the second movie in a row where the female protagonist is suffering from some psychological issue based on a traumatic event from her past. The adult character in this movie inadvertently checks herself into a mental ward and spends the movie trying to escape from it. Filmed using several iPhone 7 cellphones, this psychological thriller is fairly absorbing and suspenseful, if somewhat farfetched. Matt Damon appears for about two minutes. (8)

February 2018

I am so glad to say goodbye to February. The month was a spiritual low point for me, embodied by a series of nightmarish dental problems and a certain personal setback I’m going to have a hard time moving beyond. I’ve also been experiencing some dizziness, which is rather alarming, as well as the phantom smell of exhaust fumes pretty regularly. (Amazingly, I have discovered a bunch of other people complaining about this phenomenon on the Internet.) Finally, I took a three-day business trip to Washington, NC, that unfortunately turned out to be a colossal a waste of time. On the bright side, I did finally get my car window fixed. Hurray! Here’s hoping March brings brighter skies. MUSIC: I listened to and graded albums by Portugal the Man, Let Em Riot and the Wombats. BOOKS: I have been working my way through the short stories of W. Somerset Maugham. TV: Homeland is back!
Here’s what I saw at the movies:

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (2017)—What a surprise! With a paltry 55% on the Tomatometer, I was prepared to encounter a train wreck at worst and a disappointment at best…but this musical re-creation of the P.T. Barnum story, replete with non-period songs and stylishness, is an utter delight. Hugh Jackman is a memorable Barnum, head of the traveling circus, and Zendaya is lovely as trapeze artist Anne Wheeler. (10)

THE COMMUTER (2018)—Stephen King gave this Liam Neeson locomotive thriller a big thumbs-up, but why I believed him after he endorsed the movie version of The Dark Tower is a mystery for the ages. Director Jaume Collet-Serra strives for a Hitchcockian Strangers on a Train-type story, except the plot is at least 10 times more preposterous, with implausibilities running amok. Sporadically entertaining, but it’s all so unbelievable. (6)

EARLY MAN (2018)—Nick Park of Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run fame returns for more stop-motion animation fun, telling the story of a football match between cavemen (led by Eddie Redmayne) and the Bronze Age sportsmen, with evil Tom Hiddleston defending his team’s reputation. While no Park movie will ever surpass Chicken Run, the movie is generally a lot of fun, with plenty of puns and sight gags. (8)

SEA OF GRASS (1946)—The most profitable of all the films Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made for MGM, this one is directed by Elia Kazan and based on Conrad Richter’s saga of the Old West. Land owner Tracy marries Hepburn, who can’t understand her husband’s odd resistance to allow anybody to actually settle on his vast tracts of land. Melodramatic developments threaten to separate them forever, even after their children become young adults. Never boring and very well acted. Weirdly, neither Spencer nor Kate seem to age a day after the passage of decades! (9)

BLACK PANTHER (2018)—I am a proud fan of the Marvel superhero movies—the Iron Man, Ant-Man, Thor and Dr. Strange series have all been very entertaining and full of humor. Black Panther is the studio’s first black superhero movie, and despite stellar reviews, I found the Shakespearean-type story very confusing, and the movie dooms itself with its nearly complete lack of humor. Lupita Nyong’o and Letitia Wright are the best reasons to see the movie—they are both gorgeous! (7)

GAME NIGHT (2018)—Here was another bright spot this month: a comedy that made me laugh pretty consistently. Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman are a married couple who enjoy a periodic “game night” with their friends, but one of them gets a little…out of hand. We’re talking kidnapping, murder and shooting-level out of hand. The ubiquitous Jesse Plemons is on hand as the cop who lives next door. (8)

PHANTOM THREAD (2018)—A fairly boring examination of a Versace-type clothing designer in the 1950s who really, really enjoys sketching during breakfast—in silence, thank you very much. He gets involved with a much younger waitress, and the movie explores their troubled romance. The movie, which is 2 hours and 10 minutes, could easily have been a 30-minute short. I really enjoyed “House of Woodcock,” one of composer Jonny Greenwood’s musical pieces that is played a few times on the soundtrack. Otherwise, the movie was a bit too slow-moving for my tastes. (6)

January 2018

The main things I remember about January are that I worked a lot, and that my good friend Merf died. That was enormously sad—I’d been out to visit her in Wisconsin last year, and we had been planning a second visit this year. I keep thinking of questions I want to ask her that will go unanswered. Fortunately, I was sufficiently distracted by teaching Chinese people how to perfect their English pronunciation using Tandem, a language-sharing app on my iPhone. Meanwhile, Joan and I saw comedians Wendy Liebman and Brian Kiley perform at Vitello's Italian Restaurant in Studio City, along with some people on the lineup who weren’t nearly as hilarious. I was excited to chat with Brian and his lovely wife after the show. Finally, my dental problems are getting worse. Another crown broke off on a lower left molar, and I desperately need to get an implant on my lower right side. BOOKS: I read (and just finished) Kathryn Croft’s latest mystery, Silent Lies. MUSIC: I listened to I Like Fun, the new album by They Might Be Giants.

Here are the three movies I saw in January:

THE HOUSEMAID (1960)—This Korean noir is about a married music instructor who has problems with an assortment of moon-eyed female students, one of which into a Fatal Attraction-type situation; there’s enough blood, blackmail, murder and tension for two movies here. Only debit: a tacked-on “This could happen to you!” ending that negates everything we’ve been watching for 90 minutes. What a ripoff! Still, an interesting curio. Watch out for that rat poison! (8)

DOWNSIZING (2017)—Matt Damon is one of a large group of people chosen to get shrunk down to miniature size to join a society of folks who solve the overpopulation problem by being 7 inches tall. The movie starts as a kind of lighthearted comedy and gradually grows more serious. I was distracted by the myriad of physical anomalies that populate the film (i.e., sand and water wouldn’t look like that to a tiny human! A little boat wouldn’t float like that! and so on). The movie is single-handedly redeemed by Hong Chau, playing a female Vietnamese amputee whose romance with Damon is one of the movie’s few saving graces. My favorite director, Alexander Payne, stumbled this time around. (7)

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD (2017)—After Kevin Spacey finished filming this movie, charges of sexual assault forced the filmmakers to re-cast his part and re-film all of Spacey’s scenes with actor Christopher Plummer, who is excellent as cheapskate billionaire John Paul Getty. The movie tells the true story about how his grandson (J. Paul Getty III) is kidnapped, and how grandpa doesn’t want to pay the ransom. A little slow-moving at times, but an interesting history lesson nonetheless. (7)

Best & Worst Movies of 2017 • Most Anticipated Films of 2018

I saw 90 movies last year (up from 73 in 2016). Of those, 65 were released in 2017, and 25 were older films. On  my 1-10 scale, I awarded five first-run films a perfect "10" in 2017, which is one more than in 2016.

As with previous years, I know I missed some outstanding movies in 2017, and I’ll need to catch up on some of them (see “Sorry I Missed You,” below).

The best movie I saw in 2017 was Baby Driver. I saw it twice in the theater, including once with Cindy.

The rest of my “perfect 10” movies were Wind River, Wonder, Last Flag Flying and The Big Sick. Rounding out my Top Ten movies of 2017: Lady Bird, Brad’s Status, Gifted, Ingrid Goes West and Hero. Honorable mentions go to The Beguiled, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Get Out, Wonder Woman, Maudie, The Little Hours and Hero.

WORST MOVIE OF 2017: Mother! Close behind: A Ghost Story, Personal Shopper, The Discovery, The Lovers, The Meyerowitz Stories and Suburbicon.

VASTLY OVERRATED MOVIES OF 2017: The Lovers, Personal Shopper, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO.

BEST OLDER MOVIES I SAW IN 2016: Cass Timberlane (1947), Cimarron (1960), The Hanging Tree (1959), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), and the following movies from 2016: Fences, Moka, Swallows and Amazons, Passengers, La La Land and Moana.

SORRY I MISSED YOU:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Mudbound
Menashe
Stronger
Good Time
John Wick: Chapter 2
The Lost City of Z
A Quiet Passion
Your Name
Raw  
Super Dark Times
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Marjorie Prime
Lady Macbeth
I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House



MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS OF 2018

For the last several years, I have posted a blog about the movies I’m most anxious to see in the forthcoming 12 months. And each year, as I look back on my previous list, I realize what a folly it was to compile such a list, because many of the movies I look forward to end up being turkeys and I don’t even end up seeing some of them.

For example, a year ago, I wrote that I was eager to see Kong: Skull Island, Ghost in the Shell, Life, Beauty and the Beast, Alien Covenant, Okja and Suburbicon, none of which were particularly good. I also listed Trainspotting 2, The Dark Tower, The Snowman and Wonder Wheel—none of which I ended up seeing, based on mediocre or bad reviews.

Yet I always make the list, and so I have done so yet again. When will I learn? Apparently never. A year from now, I will wonder why I listed some of these movies.

The irony is that the best movies I saw in 2017 are ones I knew nothing about at the beginning of the year: Baby Driver, Last Flag Flying, Wonder, The Big Sick, Lady Bird, Brad’s Status, Gifted, Ingrid Goes West, Maudie and so on. And so, as I do every year, I wonder what the truly great movies will be in 2018. They are definitely not on the list below. But they are being filmed and edited as I type this. If only I knew which movies to see and which to avoid!

Here’s what at least looks interesting to me in 2018:

HUMOR ME—Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) moves in with his eccentric father (Elliott Gould) and gets a job at an old folks home, where he helps the elders put on a new play. I really like both of these performers, so I’m hoping this comedy delivers the goods. (Jan. 12) UPDATE: Lost interest.

EARLY MAN—I’m a huge fan of Nick Park’s stop-motion animation films Chicken Run and his Wallace & Gromit series, so I’m naturally curious to check out his new movie. The great voice cast includes Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne and Timothy Spall. (Jan. 26) UPDATE: Doesn’t reach the heights of Chicken Run or Wallace & Gromit, but pretty darn good overall!

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX—Wow. Paramount’s much-anticipated sci-fi film had been pushed back from its original release date, then unexpectedly sold to Netflix for immediate streaming after the Super Bowl; the title was unknown right up until the day of its release. (Feb. 4) UPDATE: And boy, did it suck. (The movie, not the Super Bowl.)

THE FEMALE BRAIN—Written and directed by comedian Whitney Cummings, this movie (featuring Cummings, Sofia Vergara and Cecily Strong) is said to explore the real-life science behind our often regrettable romantic impulses. (Feb. 9)

BLACK PANTHER—New Marvel superhero flick features Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, aka the Black Panther. Co-starring Lupita Nyong’o, which is all the reason I need to see it. (Feb. 16) UPDATE: So-so.

THE PARTY—Dark comedy featuring Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall and Patricia Clarkson. It’s gotten great reviews. (Feb. 16)

ANNIHILATION—Natalie Portman stars in the new thriller by visionary Alex Garland (Ex Machina). The trailer looked great! I believe this is Paramount’s next hit. (Feb. 23) UPDATE: Not bad.

EVERY DAY—Angourie Rice plays a 16-year old girl who falls in love with a mysterious spirit named "A" who inhabits a different body every day in this romantic drama. (Feb. 23)

RED SPARROW—Jennifer Lawrence’s new mystery-suspense film co-stars Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling and Joel Edgerton. (March 2)

A WRINKLE IN TIME—Big-budget Disney film adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle’s popular young-adult fantasy novel (which I read last year) stars Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Chris Pine, Storm Reid and Zach Galifianakis. (March 9) UPDATE: Reviews were lukewarm at best.

ISLE OF DOGS—Animated feature follows a young boy on an epic search for his lost canine companion in Japan. Voices by Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Greta Gerwig and Bryan Cranston. Directed by Wes Anderson. (March 23) UPDATE: Absolutely fantastic!!

MIDNIGHT SUN—Pushed back from 2017, this remake of the Japanese romantic drama centers on Katie, a 17-year-old sheltered since childhood and confined to her house during the day by a rare disease that makes even the smallest amount of sunlight deadly. (March 23) UPDATE: Reviews were pretty dismal.

READY PLAYER ONE—Director Steven Spielberg is back in action-adventure mode in this adaptation of Ernest Cline’s sci-fi novel. (March 30) UPDATE: So-so.

THE MIRACLE SEASON—William Hurt headlines this inspiring true story of West High School girl's volleyball team. After the tragic death of the school's star player, the remaining team players must band together under the guidance of their tough-love coach in hope of winning the state championship. (April 13)

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR—I love the Marvel superhero movies, but haven’t really enjoyed any of the Avengers movies. The Guardians of the Galaxy will be in this one, so hopefully it’ll be an improvement. Also, I will see anything that has Iron Man and Thor in it. (May 4)

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY—Director Ron Howard helms this upcoming Star Wars movie, which explores the early years of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. (May 25) UPDATE: Lost interest.

DEADPOOL 2—Sequel to 2016’s fourth-wall-breaking superhero movie (Marvel’s first R-rated movie, which I rated a 9) continues the Ryan Reynolds saga. (June 1) UPDATE: Lost interest.

THE INCREDIBLES 2—Fourteen years after Pixar’s The Incredibles, the super family is back on the job, with Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) taking more of a front and center role this time around. (June 15) UPDATE: It was great!

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM—Latest in the dino franchise brings Chris Pratt back to the world of reptilian monsters, and this time original Jurassic Park cast member Jeff Goldblum is back. (June 22) UPDATE: Entertaining!

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP—Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return in this second Ant-Man film. (I gave 2015’s Ant-Man a 9.) Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside The Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from their past. (July 6) UPDATE: It was great!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE FALLOUT—In his iconic role as the ultimate secret agent, Tom Cruise is back in the next installment of global blockbuster film franchise. I gave 2015’s installment (Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation) a 10! This will be Paramount’s third hit of the year. (July 27)

THE PREDATOR—I have never seen any of the Predator movies; this fourth installment in the series is supposed to take place between Predator 2 (1990) and Predators (2010). So it looks like I may finally have to take the Predator plunge. (Aug. 3)

THE MEG—Two friends try to stop the ancestors of big sharks (the giant megalodons) in this adaptation of Steve Alten’s 1997 sci-fi novel. Jason Statham, Ruby Rose and Rainn Wilson star. (Aug. 10)

WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE—Maria Semple’s acclaimed novel becomes a Richard Linklater film, a comedy-drama about a brilliant but slightly unhinged woman who abruptly disappears, leaving her Microsoft-guru husband and devoted eighth-grade daughter determined to find her. With Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Laurence Fishburne. (October 19, pushed back from May)

CREED 2—Stallone is back as Rocky and Michael B. Jordan reprises his role as Apollo Creed’s son in this sequel to the 2015 movie, which I graded an 8. (Nov. 21)

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET—Sequel to one of my favorite Disney films (2012’s Wreck-It Ralph) reunites John C. Reilly with Sarah Silverman. Been waiting a long time for this one. (Nov. 21)

AN EVENING WITH BEVERLY LUFF LINN—Jemaine Clement and Aubrey Plaza star in this comedy. The story follows Lulu Danger, whose unsatisfying marriage takes a fortunate turn for the worse when a mysterious man from her past comes to town to perform a mysterious event called An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn. (TBA)

A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK—The new Woody Allen movie is supposedly a romantic comedy; it stars Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez, Elle Fanning, Jude Law, Rebecca Hall and Liev Schreiber. (TBA...not sure if this will ever be released, based on how the #MeToo movement has swayed anti-Woody sentiments.)

TEEN SPIRIT—Violet (Elle Fanning) is a shy teenager living in the Isle of Wight who dreams of pop stardom as an escape from her small town and shattered family life. With the help of an unlikely mentor, Violet enters an international singing competition that will test her integrity, talent and ambition. (TBA)

CHARMING—This animated musical romantic fantasy comedy film explores the untold stories of Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, who discover that they are all engaged to the same Prince Charming. Featuring the voices of Demi Lovato, Avril Lavigne, Sia, Ashley Tisdale and John Cleese. (TBA)

SUBSEQUENTLY ON MY RADAR....

As I see new and interesting trailers, I will add some titles to the list below.

RIDGE RUNNERS—When a 12 year old girl goes missing, detective Rachel Willow discovers that human trafficking can happen anywhere, even in her small town. (Jan. 26)

THE BOY DOWNSTAIRS—A young woman (Zosia Mamet) is forced to reflect on her first relationship when she inadvertently moves into her ex boyfriend's apartment building. (Feb. 16)

FOREVER MY GIRL—After being gone for a decade a country star returns home to the love he left behind. This has gotten really mediocre reviews, but it seems like the kind of country romance story I would enjoy. (Already in theaters)

CURVATURE—Time travel sci-fi drama about an engineer who travels back in time to stop herself from committing a murder. (Feb. 23)

FLOWER—A sexually curious teen forms an unorthodox kinship with her mentally unstable stepbrother. (March 16)

THE COMMUTER—A businessman is caught up in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home. (Already in theaters) UPDATE: Laughably ill-conceived.

BREAKING IN—A woman fights to protect her family during a home invasion. (May 11)

IN THE FADE—Katja's life collapses after the death of her husband and son in a bomb attack. After a time of mourning and injustice, Katja seeks revenge in this German thriller. (Already left theaters)

ISMAEL’S GHOSTS—Starring Marion Cotillard. Yes, please! (March 23)

ON CHESIL BEACH—This is Saoirse Ronan’s next big movie, so naturally I am interested. (May 18) UPDATE: Saw it, liked it!

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?—Documentary about Mr. Rogers. (June 8) UPDATE: Saw it, liked it!

THE FEELS—Beautiful Asian actress Constance Wu in a lesbian-centric comedy? Count me in! (June 9)

KEEP THE CHANGE—An unlikely love story about two people who meet in a NYC support group. (Already come and gone)

THE DARKEST MINDS—Teens mysteriously develop powerful new abilities. (Aug. 3)

December 2017

This was the month I took my 19th cruise (Miami to the the Western Caribbean on Carnival’s Splendor) and then spent Christmas with the Steeles. Boy, was I glad to come home. I closed the year by taking care of Cindy’s house and her dog Mochi. BOOKS: I finally finished reading Awakening by S.J. Bolton. I’m looking forward to reading the new Kathryn Croft’s new mystery novel. MUSIC: I continued listening to my Kinks iTunes playlist and some random new songs. TV: I binge-watched the latest seasons of This Is Us, Stranger Things and Black Mirror. 
Here are the movies I saw in December:

CALCULATED RISK (1963)—This was an old movie I found that sounded kind of interesting. A ex-con and his associates plan a bank heist by digging underound from an adjacent building. All goes according to plan...until the group discovers an unexploded WWII bomb while digging! The film is nicely paced, light and suspenseful; not really a lost classic, but reasonably entertaining. (8)

THE DISASTER ARTIST (2017)—Last month, I watched The Room, a 2003 flop written, starring and directed by Tommy Wiseau. The awfulness of this movie has attracted such a cult following that James Franco (with brother Dave) are now starring in a movie about the making of The Room. (This is equivalent to Johnny Depp starring in 1994’s Ed Wood.) It’s decent enough, but nowhere near as entertaining as The Room, which demands to be seen by lovers of cinematic fiascos. (7)

THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017)—By his own admission, Guillermo del Toro says his new monster movie was inspired by his childhood viewing of 1954’s Creature from the Black Lagoon. The creature in his new film bears an uncanny resemblance to the one in the earlier movie, but the “sexy monster” story is much more like Beauty and the Beast—again, by del Toro’s own admission—or even E.T. and King Kong. Based on the positive reviews, I was prepared to love this movie, but it’s so full of preposterous plot flaws that I grew weary of it. (Example: the female protagonist wants to create an aquarium-type habitat for the creature in her apartment, so she shuts them together in her bathroom, turns on the faucets and miraculously fills the entire bathroom full of water in about half an hour. Stupid!! SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the film, she and Mr. Black Lagoon jump into a river near an embankment and...it turns out to be about 40 feet deep there! Those are just a couple of examples. Sally Hawkins, so good in the recent Maudie, is excellent in this film, and the creature looks great, but outside of their performances and some decent special effects, this movie left me a bit cold. (7)

COCO (2017)—I was somewhat ambivalent going into Pixar’s latest, given that it bears a striking resemblance to 2014’s The Book of Life, which is also set against the Mexican celebration Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead). The difference turns out to be that Coco is an infinitely better movie, full of imagination, color, music and bittersweet pathos. A boy, forbidden to play his guitar, travels to the afterlife to find his great-great grandfather, a Mexican star of the screen and a respected musician. Great effects and animation. (9)

THE POST (2017)—Director Steven Spielberg has spent his career shunting back and forth between commercial blockbusters (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park) and history lessons (Lincoln, Amsted, Munich). With The Post, he finds himself squarely in history-lesson mode. I’m all for a story that defends journalism, as The Post tells the Nixon-era story of how the Washington Post obtained and published the famous Pentagon Papers, which exposed the true nature of the Vietnam War. With a top-drawer cast that includes Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, this thing has “Oscar” written all over it. Except....The Post takes more than half of its 115-minute length to really take off. It’s always nice to see these performers, but The Post is pretty boring much of the time. I’m looking forward to his next “blockbuster.” (7)

MOLLY’S GAME (2017)—True story of high-stakes poker-game impresario Molly Bloom, the former champion skier who, following a spinal injury, learned how to organize poker games where rich actors and businessmen often lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in one sitting. The movie explores how Bloom got involved with the Russian Mafia, was subsequently arrested and went on trial. Writer-director Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) keeps the story chugging  along, and for much of its two-and-a-half-hour length, it’s fairly mesmerizing. Only debits for me: (a) way too much cigarette smoking, and (b) the audience is naturally curious to know what Bloom has been up to since her trial. (8)

November 2017

I spent this month putting together the January 2018 issue of Speedboat magazine and looking forward to my Carnival Cruise on Dec. 10, which I’d started planning nearly a year ago. The weather in L.A. has finally started to cool off a bit. Thanksgiving at the Newmans was the typical grand shindig, with great people, great food and fun times. YouNow turned into a major time suck, but I have met some very cool and talented people there. BOOKS: I am nearing the end of Awakening by Sharon Bolton, a mystery in which snakes take the center stage. MUSIC: I have been drilling Dua Lipa’s fun and danceable self-titled album, as well as working my way through the Kinks discography.
Here are the movies I saw in November.

LADY BIRD (2017)—Greta Gerwig, a favorite actress of mine, goes behind the camera to direct this semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy-drama about Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), who goes to a Catholic high school in Sacramento. The film focuses on her problematic relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf), her boyfriends and her female friends. It compares favorably to 2001’s Ghost World (starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson); I subsequently realized that Ronan was the young star of 2015’s Brooklyn, which I also enjoyed. (9)

LAST FLAG FLYING (2017)—Vietnam vets Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburn take a road trip to attend the funeral of Carell’s son, who has been killed in action in Iraq. This is one of the year’s finest films, a moving and unexpectedly hilarious picture based on Darryl Ponicsan’s novel (which is a sequel to his The Last Detail). Really enjoyed this one! (10)

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MO (2017)—Reviews of this drama starring Frances McDormand as the mother of a slain daughter were so enthusiastic that my expectations were a little too escalated. Woody Harrelson is excellent as the local police chief McDormand tries to shame into finding her daughter’s killer, but the movie has too many subplots, meanders way too much and doesn’t have a satisfying ending. A lot of it is thought-provoking, and all of it is well-acted, but overall it’s really kind of a mess. (7)

THOR: RAGNAROCK (2017)—The latest installment in Marvel’s superhero series is, like the first sequel, not as good as the original. But it’s passably entertaining, has tons of great special effects and Thor’s brother Loki is as unpredictable as ever. Presumably we have finally seen the last of Anthony Hopkins’ character. I wish we could have had less of The Hulk, who is my least favorite character in this superhero franchise. (8)

THE ROOM (2003)—How do you grade the worst movie ever made if it brings you so much joy? Should it get a “1” for being so incompetently made that it insults your intelligence, or get a “10” for making you double over in uncontrollable laughter? I watched the infamous The Room to prepare myself for the upcoming film The Disaster Artist, which is about the making of The Room. My only regret is that I did not see this film with an audience. That would be priceless. I’m giving it an (8) because I was entertained—albeit for all the wrong reasons.

WONDER (2017)—Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson have been home-schooled their young son Auggie, who suffers from a facial deformity. But now they’re sending him to a private (middle) school to continue his education, and he’s mortified because he knows he’ll be an outcast. Sure enough, he experiences bullying, and any number of other indignities. But the movie, which is based on R.J. Palacio’s novel, is a heartwarming and moving experience—one of the year’s best. (10)