Movie Review Little Miss Sociopath

Little Miss Sociopath 

Directed by Miv Evans 

Written by Miv Evans 

Starring Jenny Tran, Brendan Michael Coughlin, Pamela Shaw, Lisa Scott

Release Date March 15th, 2025 

Published February 19th, 2025 

Little Miss Sociopath is a scrappy little indie dark comedy about a meek young woman who discovers her inner sociopath as she copes with the death of her father and suffers under the tyrannical demands of her ailing stepmother. Jenny Tran stars as the title character, better known as Clementine or Clem in the movie. Clem works at a shady pharmacy in the Valley in California and is generally overlooked by the world. A new co-worker however, Adam, played by Brendan Michael Coughlin, takes an immediate notice of her, though Clem is too anxious to act on the attention. 

The sudden death of Clem’s father is the catalyst for the story. Clem lives with her dad and his new wife, Bella (Victoria Goodhart). Bella has been a source of Clem’s anxiety for some time now when we join the story and after Clem;’s father dies, things get even worse when Bella falls ill and becomes dependent on Clem. Bella seems to make it her mission to make Clem’s life a living hell, running off one caretaker after another while demanding that Clem stay home and take care of her.

Click here for my full length review. 

Classic Movie Review Meet the Parents

Meet the Parents 

Directed by Jay Roach 

Written by Jim Herzfeld, John Hamburg

Starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Tier Polo, Blythe Danner

Release Date October 6th, 2000 

Published February 20th, 2025 

2025 marks a quarter century since the release of the blockbuster comedy Meet the Parents, a film that showed audiences an entirely new comedic side to legendary tough guy actor Robert De Niro while solidifying the blockbuster stardom of Ben Stiller as a leading man. 25 years later, both De Niro and Stiller remain high profile and beloved stars with major projects still making waves. In 2025 Stiller has mostly moved behind the scenes where he’s got a hit Apple TV series, Severance. As for Mr. De Niro, he’s also gone to television with the new Netflix series, Zero Day. Thus, now seems a good time to reflect on the movie that changed both of their careers 25 years ago. 

The 2000 comedy  Meet the Parents was directed by Jay Roach and stars Ben Stiller as Gaylord "Greg" Focker, a nurse who is eager to propose to his girlfriend, Pam Byrnes, played by Teri Polo. However, before he can pop the question, he must first navigate the formidable obstacle of gaining the approval of Pam's father, Jack Byrnes (De Niro). Jack, a retired CIA operative, harbors a deep-seated suspicion of anyone outside the family circle, and begins using his CIA training to investigate his daughter’s new boyfriend.

Click here for my full length review 

Classic Movie Review Three Days of the Condor

Three Days of the Condor

Directed by Sydney Pollack

Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr., David Rayfiel

Starring Robert Redford, Cliff Robertson, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow

Release Date September 25th, 1975

Published February 18th, 2025 

Three Days of the Condor was released 50 years ago as I write this and yet it feels as alive, relevant, and prescient as ever. This spy thriller from the brilliant director Sydney Pollack posits a form of espionage based solely on wits and guts rather than bullets and explosions and it’s so much stronger for that. Centering the story around the mind of a savvy genius with a knack for code breaking, Three Days of the Condor uses the best traits of star Robert Redford, his wise eyes and movie star looks, and combines that with a premise that was straight out of a real life American thought experiment to create a spy thriller that remains a trenchant critique of American geo-politics to this day. 

Robert Redford stars in Three Days of the Condor as Joe Turner, a normal enough guy who happens to work for an agency that is a cover for a CIA outpost. Turner is not a spy however, he’s just a genius who is capable of seeing patterns where others cannot. His job is to read books, articles, everything really, and look for potential plots that could affect global politics. His most recent discovery appears to be an ingenious way to destabilize a Middle Eastern government while stealing its valuable resources, specifically oil.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy 

Directed by Mark Water 

Written by Daniel Waters 

Starring Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Joely Richardson, Gabriel Byrne 

Release Date February 7th, 2014 

Budget $30 million dollars 

Box Office $15 million dollars 

Rotten Tomatoes 17% 

Vampire Academy exists simply as a marketing concern. Sure, the film is based on a series of successful young adult novels, but the reality is much crasser in nature. The makers of Vampire Academy have no real interest in the books; they're inherent appeal or doing justice to why the books became successful. No, Vampire Academy exists because somewhere in Hollywood someone saw the books, heard they were set in a school for Vampires, and got the idea for the awful tagline "They 'Suck' at School." Hey-o!

Vampire Academy supposedly tells the story of two best friends who attend a school where one is trained to protect the Vampire high class, and the other is part of the Vampire high class. Zoey Deutch stars as Rose, a Dhampir, and a protector of the Vampire high class known as the Moroi. Rose's best friend is the future Moroi Queen, Lissa (Lucy Fry). Together the two have formed a psychic bond that allows Rose to read Lissa's thoughts and even see through her eyes as narratively convenient a talent as I've ever heard one.

There is a third class of Vampire called the Strigoi, a race of killers who briefly give the film a dangerous life. Unfortunately, the Strigoi don't really matter unless there is a sequel. Yes, Vampire Academy is so wildly, cluelessly, market-driven that the most interesting narrative complication is one built solely to create the chance of another cluelessly market driven idiot movie.

There isn't a single genuine moment in Vampire Academy. Every empty scene evokes an attempt to appeal to a fictional youth market devoid of the conscience needed to know they are being marketed to without consideration of taste or intelligence. And in case you don't believe me, just check out the brooding Robert Pattinson look-alike, Dominic Sherwood, the filmmaker, cast in the role of one of the girls' love interests and tell me that wasn't a calculated decision.

Vampire Academy isn't a movie; it's a 90 plus minute commercial for itself. Each scene is trailer ready; every line of dialogue intended to explain things you should be able to understand out of sheer scene construction. Maybe the filmmakers are assuming you're not very bright simply because you decided to see this movie. Maybe they're right.

Movie Review The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men 

Directed by George Clooney

Written by George Clooney, Grant Heslov  

Starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett

Released February 7th, 2014

Budget $91 million 

Box Office $156 million 

Rotten Tomatoes 30% 

The Monuments Men first popped on people's radar when George Clooney announced that the film would not remain in Academy Award contention in 2013. According to Clooney and the studio, filming went into overtime and reshoots were needed, causing the studio to abandon the initial December release date and forgo any last-minute Academy screening.

I wanted to believe that this was the case as I was really hoping The Monuments Men would be as good as the early Oscar buzz indicated. Sadly, having now seen The Monuments Men I can report that it is far from an Oscar contender. Don't be mistaken, the film is not bad. Rather, it's just not an Academy Award level movie despite the Academy Award level talents of Mr. Clooney and co-stars Matt Damon, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman and future Oscar winner (wishful thinking) Bill Murray.

The Monuments Men tells the mostly true story of Art Historians, Architects and Scholars, drafted into the fight to save Europe's great historic treasures in the wake of World War 2. At the time their mission began Adolph Hitler had begun stealing art from collectors across the continent for the purpose of hanging them in his new Fuhrer Museum. As the film progresses however, and Hitler's Germany begins to fall, it becomes a race against time to stop Hitler from destroying the treasures he stole.

There is a great movie to be made of this material, but The Monuments Men is not that movie. Now, I understand that the preceding line implies The Monuments Men isn't a very good movie but in fact it's a rather pleasant film with a minor sense of humor and a deep respect for the mission undertaken by the real life 'Monuments Men.' Unfortunately, the film isn't as interesting as the idea of the film. The editing is sloppy, at times muddling the timeline of the film, and the ending is jarringly abrupt. 

The casting of The Monuments Men may be the film's biggest challenge and failure. The dream team casting of Clooney, Damon, Dujardin, Goodman and Murray created expectations that the film simply could not match. There is a strong corollary to an NBA All Star team. Yes, you have the greatest players in the game on the court together, but no REAL game is being played. It’s as if Clooney and writing partner Grant Heslov felt they had finished the movie simply by assembling the perfect cast. 

The casting of The Monuments Men creates an expectation of greatness that the film simply cannot match. Casting Goodman and Murray implies good humor with an edge of poignancy. Casting Clooney and Damon in a big ensemble evokes the 'Ocean's' movies and a sense of funny camaraderie. Unfortunately, The Monuments Men is never played for laughs even as the cast could get those laughs and still pay respect to the danger of a World War 2 story.

Instead of the movie we think we should get, a poignant comedy about the literal defense of art and culture, we get a dutiful drama that tells a worthy story of heroism without much flavor or insight. The film is respectful to a fault and avoids the humor these actors could create in an effort to remain respectful of the war and the mission. This leaves a rather bloodless, occasionally sloppy, effort that is difficult to dismiss as bad but certainly not worthy of a full critical recommendation.

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Movie Review Bob Marley One Love

Bob Marley One Love (2024) 

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green

Screenplay by Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Raylin, Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton

Release Date February 14th, 2024 

Published 

You can tell that Bob Marley One Love has four different credited screenwriters. The film has the chaotic feel of too many cooks in the kitchen. That's not to say that this is a bad movie, as music industry biopics go, this is among the better ones. Rather, it's just an observation of the style and tone of the movie which seems to shift gears oddly. You can sense a herky jerky quality of visions for the story changing and merging, and ideas not entirely cohering. The chaos comes however, in a haze of marijuana smoke and good vibes that prove to a saving grace. 

Bob Marley One Love stars Kingsley Ben-Adir as musician, radical, and revolutionary, Bob Marley. A star beloved around the world, Marley once wielded so much power that warring factions of Jamaica's would be leaders, vied for his attention, alternately threatening and offering to protect Marley from harm. All the while, Marley asks for none of this responsibility, accepting the kind offers from both sides while naively hoping that he can bring the two sides together by the sheer force of good vibes. Bob Marley One Love portrays the star as a man overwhelmed by wielding far more power than he deserves and a desperate ache for peace for himself and the people who have raised him to such a position of power in his home country. 

Capturing the contradictions of Bob Marley is actor Kingsley Ben-Adir who has a knack for playing historic figures who died before their time. Just a few years ago, Ben-Adir gave a stirring performance as Malcolm X in the movie One Night in Miami, a stagy but compelling based on a true story drama about Malcolm trying to recruit Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke, to rally together and use their collective star power in the fight for Civil Rights. In that film, Ben-Adir's casual charisma took a bit of the edge off of Malcolm X, making him feel real and human versus the outsized radical reputation assigned to him by a society seeking to blunt his influence. 

Find my  full length review linked here. 

Movie Review Waiting for Dali

Waiting for Dali (2024) 

Directed by David Pujol

Written by David Pujol, Miguel Garcia Navarette

Starring Jose Garcia, Ivan Massague, Clara Ponsot

Release Date June 18th, 2024

Published June 18th, 2024

The story of Waiting for Dali begins in Barcelona, Spain, in 1974 with a revolution in progress. Workers at a local restaurant have joined a revolution against the Spanish government and are now facing persecution.  Albert0 (Pol Lopez) and his brother, the second top chef at their restaurant, Fernando (Ivan Massague), have no choice but to turn to a mutual friend and fellow revolutionary, Francois (Nicholas Cazale) for help. 

Francois's plan has the trio travel to the small Spanish village of Cadaques where Alberto and Fernando will have to swallow their pride and take work in a kitchen that is not under their leadership. It's an especially big step down for Fernando who was making a name for himself as a French cuisine expert in Barcelona. Now, he's a prep cook at a seaside restaurant called El Surreal. The owner, Jules (Jose Garcia), built the restaurant solely on the hope that one day he might get the famed artist, Salvador Dali to eat there.

Cadaques in 1974 was centered entirely around Salvador Dali who chose the town as his home. Dali's blessing was a make-or-break proposition for any business in town. Thus, when Jules opened his seaside restaurant, he hung his hopes on getting Dali to eat there. Each day, Jules ventures into the main part of town in hope of getting the famed artist to take his menu or try some free food. And each time, he's unable to get anywhere near Dali. Much to his dismay. 

Find my full-length review linked here.