Shameless Self Expression

Fact-based epic drama set in late 1300s France, with Matt Damon playing experienced knight and vassal Sir Jean de Carrouges, whose friendship with libertine vassal Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), slowly starts to fray. It doesn’t help that Sir Jean feels that Jacques is favoured by their liege, the egotistical Pierre d’Alençon (Ben Affleck), but things completely fall apart when Sir Jean’s lovely wife Marguerite (Jodie Comer) accuses Jacques of raping her. Jacques denies it of course, and since Jacques is backed by Pierre d’Alençon, Sir Jean has to take things as high as the King of France. Eventually the matter is to be decided by a legally (and supposedly God-ly) sanctioned duel between the two men…deciding the truthfulness of a woman’s testimony.   This 2021 historically-based Medieval “Rashomon” from director Ridley Scott ( “Alien” , “Black Rain” , “Gladiator” ) is a near-miss. For the record Mr. Scott, I’m not a Millennial, and I don’t believe the box-office failure of you...

Vain, histrionic and aging theatre star Margo Channing (Bette Davis, in a case of art perhaps imitating life) is somewhat humbled by adoring fan Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), who has seen every show. However, Margo begins to regret taking Eve under her wing when the sweet, innocent (and much younger- a crucial point) woman starts to get a little too involved in her life and the lives of those closest to her. Celeste Holm is Margo’s loyal friend Karen, who treats Eve with kindness. Gary Merrill and Hugh Marlowe play Margo’s director fiancé and Karen’s playwright husband respectively, whilst sitting on the sidelines are insinuating, manipulative critic Addison De Witt, played by George Sanders in his signature role, and giving a bemused, cynical narration. Thelma Ritter is plain-speaking Birdie, Margo’s wise-acre confidante and costumer who has Eve pegged as trouble from the get-go. Marilyn Monroe has a bit part as an up-and-coming bimbo whom De Witt is attempting to mould.   195...

Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams are a husband-and-wife team of super-competitive board game players who host a ‘game night’ at their house regularly with friends. The usual players are husband-and-wife Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury, as well as single Billy Magnussen who brings a different hot-but-dumb date with him (not that Magnussen is Einstein himself). On this particular occasion he has brought someone a bit smarter in Irish-born Sharon Horgan, who spends much of the film entirely unimpressed with the himbo. A surprise turn-up comes in the form of Bateman’s more financially successful but jerk-y brother Kyle Chandler, who quickly proceeds to usurp the evening by organising a different kind of ‘game night’. It’s basically a form of ‘murder-mystery’ party game, involving someone getting kidnapped and the teams having to follow the clues to rescue them. On cue, some goons come along to whisk Chandler away, and the game is on. Only, when Bateman gets shot in the foot, he and McAdam...

Set in Louisiana in the early 80s, the film depicts molestation in the local Catholic church, as devout Catholic parents Keith Carradine and Blythe Danner find that their son (Michael Faustino, excellent under difficult circumstances) has been molested by a priest (David Strathairn). And it appears he’s not the only victim, though the church’s reaction to the allegations is pathetic at best. So the couple investigate legal avenues instead, eventually hiring swaggering Southern lawyer Claude Fautier (Jack Warden), who prepares the boy for what will likely be a gruelling experience on the stand. Bob Gunton plays the buck-passing local monsignor, Dylan Baker (several years before “Happiness” ) is a priest colleague of Strathairn’s who has mixed emotions and a dodgy past of his own, Robert Joy is perfect casting as the soulless head of the firm representing the Catholic church, and Mitchell Ryan plays the first lawyer the parents hire, with somewhat moderate returns at best.   I do...

Schizophrenic teenager Madison Iseman comes home from a psychiatric facility to her loving and supporting (but exhausted) parents Katherine Heigl and Harry Connick Jr. The problem is that Iseman’s schizophrenic episodes may have also come home as she starts to have hostile feelings and criminal suspicion towards her teacher (Eugenie Bondurant). Or does the teacher really have a missing kid imprisoned in her house? Israel Broussard (Who is visibly 27 years-old to Ms. Iseman’s young-looking 24) plays a nice kid at school who Iseman really likes.   What starts out as clichéd but fairly grounded, horribly goes off the rails quite quickly in this 2021 dud from writer-director Castille Landon (Any relation to director Christopher Landon? He made the “Happy Death Day” films co-starring Broussard). Exploring mental illness in a genre work is always a bit of a tightrope, and Landon trips and falls multiple times in this schizophrenia version of “Disturbia” (or “Rear Window” for us ol...