Movie Review Captain America Brave New World

Captain America Brave New World 

Directed by Julius Onah 

Written by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalon Musson, Julius Onah, Peter Glanz 

Starring Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Carl Lumbly 

Release Date February 14th, 2025

Published February 14th, 2025 

Captain America Brave New World continues the slow death march of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The decline in quality and storytelling from when we were introduced to Tony Stark in 2008 to today is shocking. It reveals the faddish nature of the Superhero movie. It is simply a concept that has run its course. Today, we dutifully attend the next superhero movie in vain hope that things will improve but all the while knowing that things will never be the same. Our collective dedication to superhero movies feels as hollow as the movies themselves have come to feel in the latest phase of the MCU. 

Captain America Brave New World picks up in the wake of the TV show Falcon and the Winter Soldier wherein Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) finally came to accept the mantle of Captain America. Of course, this is merely implied in the movie, having not seen the TV series, I simply accepted that since Sam has the shield and people call him Cap, that he must have become the official Captain America in that show. One of the grave flaws of Captain America Brave New World is acting like a blockbuster movie while playing like a serialized TV show.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy

Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy 

Directed by Michael Morris

Written by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazar, Abi Morgan

Starring Renee Zellweger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Hugh Grant, Leo Woodall 

Release Date February 13th, 2025

Published February 15th, 2025 

Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy is shockingly good. Admittedly, I had extremely low expectations for this late period sequel about Bridget as a single mom, several years into grieving the loss of her beloved husband, Mark Darcy. What a wonderful surprise then to find that the film felt remarkably authentic, warm hearted, and highly reminiscent of the charming first chapter of this film series. Renee Zellweger has such a remarkable handle on this character today that even two decades later, instead of feeling like a perfunctory attempt to further capitalize a well known property, Zellweger's performance in Mad About the Boy is one I can’t help but fall in love with. 

Five years ago as this story begins, Mark Darcy died while on a humanitarian trip in Africa. He leaves behind Bridget and their two lovely children, Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic). As a trio, they are doing okay. Bridget may rarely get out of her PJ’s but she is a wonderful, supportive, and loving mom. But, it has been five years, perhaps it is time for Bridget to get back into the world. Perhaps she needs to go back to work? Perhaps it’s time for her to start dating again.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review You, Me & Her

You, Me, and Her 

Directed by Dan Levy Degerman

Written by Selina Ringel 

Starring Selina Ringel, Graham Sibley, Sydney Park 

Release Date February 14th, 2025 

Published February 16th, 2025 

You, Me and Her stars Selina Ringel and Ritesh Rajan as a married couple, Mags and Ash. Mags is the breadwinner, working a high powered job for her demanding father. Ash meanwhile is a stay at home dad and budding marijuana entrepreneur. The couple is struggling with Mags having to carry most of the load while Ash plays video games and shirks what few responsibilities he has. He’s a good dad but for Mags, he’s often like having another kid to raise as he is often hiding from his long term, unsuccessful attempts to get his business off the ground.

After a series of scenes demonstrate the various ways that Mags and Ash aren’t communicating and the ways their marriage is suffering, Ash hatches a plan. Ash has booked them a vacation at a Mexican resort where Mags’ parents had taken her as a child. It’s a costly trip and Mags is quite curious how Ash is able to afford it, but she really needs to get away for a bit, so she tries her best to go with the flow. Once in Mexico, their problems communicating follow them with Ash distracted by trying to find weed to buy and Mags growing further frustrated by his inattention to her.

Click here for my full length review. 

Classic Movie Review Heavyweights

Heavyweights 

Directed by Steven Brill 

Written by Judd Apatow, Steven Brill

Starring Ben Stiller, Paul Feig, Tom McGowan

Release Date February 17th, 1995 

Published February 17th, 2025 

Heavyweights is an oft-forgotten entry in the canon of live action Disney features. The film was made possible by the surprise success of The Mighty Ducks and used members of the cast of that film, already under contract to Disney, as a way to further capitalize on that success. The film centers on a camp for overweight kids who will have to overcome a needless obstacle on the way to a simpleminded conclusion that involves learning to ‘be yourself’ or some other such nonsense platitude. 

Despite seeing names like Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow, and Paul Feig involved in Heavyweights, I was skeptical of the film. The 90s weren’t exactly known for being sensitive and jokes about overweight children were not off limits by any stretch. Thus, I set the bar pretty low at just hoping the young actors in Heavyweights would not be repeatedly humiliated, shamed, or otherwise bullied for comic effect. What a surprise then to find a film that was genuinely sensitive, cared deeply for these young characters and their struggle, and was not simply a series of humiliations intended as comedy.

Click here for my full length review. 

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.