Home for the Holidays

 Home for the Holidays (1995)

Starring Holly Hunter, Robert Downey, Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Dylan McDermott, Geraldine Chapman, Steve Guttenberg, Cynthia Stevenson, and Claire Danes

Directed by Jodie Foster

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Incredibles 2

Incredibles 2 (2018)

Starring Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Samuel L. Jackson, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, and Brad Bird

Directed by Brad Bird

Written by Brad Bird

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Picking up immediately after the initial film ends, we find the Parr family still trying to find a way to bring superheroes respect.  With the help of a fan (Bob Odenkirk) who runs a telecommunication firm, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) goes on a media push in order to help give superheroes a better image and it seems to be working.  However, Elastigirl's increasing popularity comes with the sacrifice of having to leave her husband (Craig T. Nelson), daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell), son Dash (Huck Milner), and baby Jack-Jack at home.  When Elastigirl gets caught up in some trouble with the villain Screenslaver, her family must come to the rescue.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

The Big Sick

The Big Sick (2017)

Starring Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Bo Burnham, and Aidy Bryant

Directed by Michael Showalter

Written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Stand-up Pakastani comedian Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) meets the white Emily (Zoe Kazan) at one of his shows and the two hit it off right away.  Several months into their relationship -- which had already faced some rocky roads when Emily discovered that Kumail's parents wanted him to date only Pakastani women --  Emily gets very sick and falls into a lengthy coma which tests Kumail's love.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey, and Tao Okamoto

Directed by Zack Snyder

***This film is currently streaming via HBO Now/HBO Go***

Questions I had while watching Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:

• Why does the voice of Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) when in the Batsuit sound like he's speaking through some voice box that amplifies his voice, making it echoey and deeper than normal?  This amplification makes it utterly obvious that all the vocals were completed in post. (I guess technically there is amplification device in his mask, but considering that the lower half of his face isn't covered by the mask, it just makes Affleck's performance laughable...even moreso than his depressing melancholy already was...)
• Why do all of the fight scenes look as if they were created by a video game manufacturer instead of looking like creative visual effects?  Zack Snyder isn't exactly known for realism, but it's utterly ridiculous-looking.
• Why is this movie so long?  And considering how long the title already is, why not add the 's' after the 'v' in the abbreviation of the word 'versus?'
• Why is Zack Snyder allowed to continue to reign his ugly directorial aesthetic over any films anymore?  His dark, dreary, heavy-handed nature creates an utterly depressing feel throughout, carrying nary a modicum of charm, hopefulness, or pleasantness that even the worst Marvel films contain even if just for a moment or two.
• Amy Adams' red hair adds at least some color to the muted grays and blacks that permeate the screen.
• Despite the criticism of Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor, at least he's hamming it up in a amusingly crazy way as opposed to the dreary hamming of Affleck.
• When one of your main characters -- Bruce Wayne, in this case -- gets his motivations because of scary dreams he has, that's just cheap storytelling.  
• In my Man of Steel review from a few years ago, I mentioned that Henry Cavill carried some charm.  That's not present here at all as he's just an angry superhero the whole time.
• I admittedly appreciated that they at least tried to explain away the ludicrousness of Man of Steel's destructive finale in which much of Metropolis was destroyed. 
• And at least the finale of this one was a little less ludicrous.  The post-script of the plot after the final battle was actually oddly resonant and upped my grade below by a spot.
• I should have stopped watching this at the fifty-minute mark when I first contemplated the idea.  
• Why will I inevitably subject myself to Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman after this atrocity?  I should know better...

The RyMickey Rating:  D

(TV) Movie Review - Top of the Lake

Nominated for eight Emmys this year, Top of the Lake (which is currently streaming on Netflix) is a seven episode miniseries produced by the BBC which focuses on the disappearance of a twelve year-old girl (Jacqueline Joe) who, shortly before she vanishes, discovers she is pregnant.  When Australian detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss) who specializes in child rape and kidnapping cases travels back to her home country of New Zealand to investigate the crime, she uncovers small town secrets that affect not only the missing girl, but also Robin herself.

Top of the Lake is perfectly fine, but it plods along at times and, considering its length, I can't help but think not enough happened to warrant the over six hours of story presented.  However, what the length does provide is a well-rounded look at all the key players in the plot and that's certainly a welcome addition that the parameters of a miniseries allow.  Co-writer and co-director Jane Campion (of The Piano fame) crafts a strong female character in Detective Griffin and Elisabeth Moss gives the character the chutzpah needed for her scenes with the incredibly rough-around-edges men in the small towns she visits along with the necessary gentleness that comes along with dealing with victimized children.  I discovered after looking at Moss' imdb-ography that I'm not sure I've seen her in anything other than maybe a random episode of a tv show, but she is certainly capable of single-handedly carrying a heavy film like this which is a credit to her talent.

There are also some great turns from Peter Mullan as the father of the missing girl who becomes a suspect in both her disappearance and rape almost instantly and Thomas M. Wright as Griffin's old boyfriend and the missing girl's half-brother who stirs up quite a few feelings in the detective.  However, countering these nice performances is a subplot involving some new-agey American named GJ who sets up some commune in New Zealand for a wide variety of nutty women striving to better themselves by listening to GJ's babble.  Played by Holly Hunter, GJ's scenes were much too plentiful to simply be forgotten, but don't add a thing to the plot in the grander scheme of things, bogging down every single episode of the miniseries.

While I enjoyed Top of the Lake, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the miniseries is the way things are tied up.  The final episode felt incredibly rushed and the ending was a bit of a letdown in that it provided a solid twist (that I guessed was coming yet still found intriguing), but didn't allow nearly enough time to delve into this conceit, making me a bit perturbed if I'm being honest.  As a viewer, I waited through seven episodes and wanted a bit more of an explanation of things.  All in all, though, Top of the Lake is decent viewing and may be worth checking out if the concept interests you.