haroldgross

[haroldgross]

My Dead Friend Zoe

[3 stars] This is one of the most interesting and compelling depictions of PTSD I’ve seen realized. Directed and co-written by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, whose own experiences and those of his co-writers suffuse the film, deliver with an authenticity that continually buoys it. But a perfect movie this isn’t. It’s pacing is odd, its sense of time is flawed, and its story swings between overcomplicated…

[haroldgross]

Love Me

[3 stars] This isn’t a bad flick, but sometimes you just wonder how a movie got made. I just can’t imagine the conversation that convinced someone to back and make it. The sensibility, at least for good portion of the top, is sort of a live-action Pixar that feels almost like an adult WALL-E. And the last two thirds, well, I don’t want to spoil, even if much of it is obvious. Kristen Stewart…

[haroldgross]

How to Kill Monsters

[2.5 stars] Comedy/horror is a fun genre when it’s done right. And it’s bloody hard to do right. How to Kill Monsters comes close, especially when handicapped as a micro-budget offering. But director Stewart Sparke doesn’t quite find the rhythm and balance. The pacing is often off by a beat or more and the shifts from funny to truly gruesome don’t work more often than they do. The tone ends up…

[haroldgross]

Accountant 2

[3 stars] If you enjoyed the first flick, you’ll enjoy this continuation of Ben Affleck’s (Hypnotic) character arc that picks up 8 years later. This time the story focuses on the brothers rather than a central person in distress. Jon Bernthal (King Richard) is more than a little over-the-top, but through his pain and banter we get a lot more about Affleck’s past and how they grew up. This is also…

[haroldgross]

Our Times (Nuestros Tiempos)

[3 stars] What sets this small, sci-fi romantic comedy apart from many similar movies is that it threads a very fine needle with its message. It manages to deliver a harsh look at both the past and the present, while never losing sight of the relationship at the center of it all. It isn’t a brilliant movie. The tropes are common and the message, while sadly still needed, is also still an every…

[haroldgross]

Predator: Killer of Killers

[3 stars] After Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey I’d really been looking forward to this continuation of the Predator universe. However, while there are some clever aspects to the production, it doesn’t quite rise to the expectation it had generated. The story is divided across four shorter stories that are threaded together across time into an overall arc. And Trachtenberg did each in a slightly…

[haroldgross]

Leverage: Redemption

[3 stars] The original Leverage was a fun show based on the Mission Impossible (TV version) formulae but with more of an A-Team twist. And while it always had humor, it also was an entertaining show with a solid ensemble. Most of that ensemble returned to reboot the show, absent Timothy Hutton at the helm. Even Aldis Hodge (Parallel)  helped with the reboot, despite a burgeoning career. And Noah…

[haroldgross]

The Wedding Banquet (2024)

[3 stars] A surprisingly sweet and understated remake, directed by Andrew Ahn (Fire Island) and co-written with James Schamus (Indignation), one of the writers of the 1993 original. The collaboration of the two captured the humor and love of the first but updated it and added new twists for the plot. Even though the result is a fairly broad comedy, it manages to keep grounding itself by staying…

[haroldgross]

Dept. Q

[4 stars] This Scottish adaptation from Danish origins (Department Q/Kvinden i buret) is a surprisingly good mystery and character study. And it manages to keep the dark edge of the original without feeling forced or like a copy. Co-created and adapted by Scott Frank (Monsieur Spade) and Chandni Lakhani the result is, in many ways, better than the previous effort as the story has room to really…

[haroldgross]

The Ballad of Wallis Island

[3 stars] Wallis did wonderfully on the festival circuit as an audience favorite, and deservedly so. It hits all the right notes without getting teeth-achingly sweet. And it has enough deeper emotions and nods to life to make it very satisfying as well. For fair context, I will watch anything with Carey Mulligan (Spaceman). She is one of the most natural actors on screen currently working, and…

[haroldgross]

Overcompensating

[3  stars] To misquote Dickens: College; it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Benito Skinner, creator and highly palatable star, recounts the journey of a closeted, gay High School jock who’s terrified of being found out and dealing with that fallout. The title of the show says it all. Imagine if Love, Victor had gone on to college… but he’d never managed to come out of the…

[haroldgross]

Good Night and Good Luck (2025)

[4.5 stars] Last night a bit of history was made, by looking back at history as it turns out. For the first time a Broadway play was broadcast live from NYC around the globe. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but it was powerful 90 minutes that walks through how and when journalism began to change, and the effect it has had. It even manages to send its message without, generally, having to explain…

[haroldgross]

Lost in Starlight (Byeol-e Pil-yohan)

[3 stars] I normally avoid the romance anime. So few have stories that have much depth or real-life sensibilities. They infantilize women and over-simplify relationships. And, yes, I’m way over-generalizing, with this story being a nice example of an exception. It isn’t perfect, but Han Ji-won’s latest is a lush and touching bit of futuristic romance. It has a lot packed into its 90ish minutes,…

[haroldgross]

Fear Street: Prom Queen

[3 stars] The Fear Street series has leapt into the late 80s, but has lost some of its magic. Unlike the first 3, this one feels a bit pale and empty, even though it sets up a longer arc by the end. But it isn’t quite the satire nor the terror that the first movies were. Given the resurrection of a number of franchises from Scream to Final Destination, and I Know What You Did… just this last year…

[haroldgross]

Four Seasons

[3 stars] Based on Alan Alda’s 1981 The Four Seasons, with an equally capable collection of comedians, this takes the premise and blows it up into an initial series of 8 episodes. And, yes, it was already renewed, which was a good thing given the slightly obvious but cliff-hangery ending. What you get is a perfectly delightful and silly bit of older-generational amusement. It’s younger-skewed…

[haroldgross]

2073

[3 stars] Well, if you didn’t want to slit your wrists or take up arms before you watched this psuedo-scifi tale, you’ll want to when it’s done. Co-written with Tony Grisoni (The City & The City), director Asif Kapadia frames recent news clips, from the last 30  or so years, as the memories and musings of a woman in a ruined world reflecting on how it had all collapsed. She wanders an…

[haroldgross]

Doctor Who (series 2 – 2024 re-reboot)

[3 stars] It’s taken me a bit to focus on the answer to my feelings about Ncuti Gatwa’s incarnation of The Doctor. I very much enjoy him as an actor, but though he’s made the character his own, there is something…off. It came into focus for me in the first episode of the the full new season (Robot Revolution). Gatwa’s Doctor is often at sea and doesn’t really know what’s going on. He gets there,…