The Movie Guy

Independent film lovers know the brains behind “Barbie”- director Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”) and co-writer/husband Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”) and the result is a smart satiric social commentary. Making Mattel’s iconic doll into a family-friendly film is its only weakness- “Barbie’s” bite doesn’t draw blood- and the movie’s musings never rise above amusing.

“No Hard Feelings” works as a sight-gag driven sex comedy where a punch-in-the-throat paves the way for opposites attracting. When it wants to breathe believability into its main characters with ‘getting-to-know-you’ talks, the movie sucks the oxygen right out of the theater.

With Jim Brown’s recent passing and the approaching Memorial Day holiday, what better movie to watch than Robert Aldrich’s entertaining and influential WWII adventure “The Dirty Dozen.”

Fans of Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” will enjoy the like-minded Ben Affleck film “Air”- a behind-the-scenes look at how an unorthodox approach proved to be the key to success and change the sports arena forever.

Thanks to extravagant sets, a Rogues gallery of interesting assassins and its hallmark fast-paced flurry of guns/knives/martial arts action, “John Wick: Chapter 4” may be the most entertaining entry of this formidable film franchise yet.

With the Oscars being presented on Sunday, March 12^th, I like to focus on the films and performances that I found most memorable. In keeping with the tradition of the late Siskel & Ebert’s “If We Picked the Winners,” here are my standouts for 2022 using the nominees in the main Academy Award categories. While others try to second-guess Oscar politics with who ‘should win’ or ‘will win,’ I like to keep it simple. In case you missed any of them, these are the films and performances I’ll remember- simply put, these are the ones:  

M. Night Shyamalan makes one of his best movies with “Knock at the Cabin”- a taut psychological thriller where hostages try to outwit home invaders sent on a mission of mercy…or murder.

As deceptive as Da Vinci’s smirk on the Mona Lisa, “M3gan” is a logistically ludicrous horror movie that works best as a sci-fi thriller that satirizes our dependence on technology and its corresponding corporate greed.

Ending the debate on whether “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie is “Violent Night,” a film that takes the “Die Hard” story and makes it Christmas-themed with Santa saving hostages from a band of gun-toting goons. The result? A ho-ho-hum two hours filled with blood-soaked cartoon violence.

With gore as its metaphor for people plagued with an unwanted affliction, “Bones and All” is unflinching and affecting in throwing its richly-drawn characters into realistically rotten circumstances.