The Movie Guy

 “Our Friend” is a movie that surprises. Within the trappings of its terminal illness storyline, it earns its emotions by focusing on a friendship without boundaries. Subtle and straightforward, “Our Friend’s” a refreshing reminder of what holds true value in life. 

As the two tempestuous leads in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman give Oscar-worthy performances.

As a fun mash-up of “Scream” and “Groundhog Day,” writer/director Christopher Landon found success with 2017’s “Happy Death Day” by having a cynical character reliving her creatively-crafted murders until she identified her killer. With “Freaky,” Landon’s “Freaky Friday the 13^th”mash-up, he doesn’t do as well: bland characters swap bodies and their race to reverse the curse is as familiar and uninspired as they are.

“Let Him Go” is a character-driven drama that caters to a very specific niche market. If you have a fondness for melodramas that carry a sense of dread until it explodes in surprising and unexpected ways, then “Let Him Go” won’t disappoint.

Well-crafted yet clichéd, “Come Play” is a horror movie that begs you to play a scene-by-scene game: can you name each film it’s copying? While it’s a credit to director Jacob Chase that he doesn’t bore you employing inherent haunts, “Come Play” still comes across as a monster movie Mad Libs.

Comedy doesn’t work without timing, and Sacha Baron Cohen picked the perfect time to reprise his role as fictional Kazakh TV journalist Borat. “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” (i.e. “Borat 2”) has Borat return for bigger laughs instigating unsuspecting Americans thanks to an equally adept comedic co-star in Maria Bakalova and a better foil for his folly- the Trump Presidency.

New to Blu-Ray and DVD this month is “First Cow,” an offbeat look at a friendship forged in the Oregon territory of the 1800’s. It’s a frontier fable as unpredictable as its wilderness environment and told with an entertainingly easy charm.

Ah, psycho killers. What actor doesn’t want to play one? Russell Crowe gets his chance in “Unhinged,” an unthrilling thriller as routine and implausibly imagined as an unwanted pregnancy.

Available on Apple TV+ is “Greyhound,” the new WWII actioner written, produced and starring Tom Hanks. At 91 minutes, the movie lives up to its titled namesake- it’s a fast, sleek snapshot of a heroic two-day mission.

When I was growing up, my father rarely took us to the movies. If he went, it was at my mother’s insistence and, once inside the theater, he would fall asleep. And snore. Loudly.