Rocketman: Just the best kind of movie, one that doesn’t fit into any tight story formula I can think about yet never once feels like it’s not making you experience exactly what it wants you to experience. This is the ultimate tribute to a rock star, a gorgeous scary hilarious ride of a movie that skips all the usual biopic tropes and really feels like it has transplanted you into the mind of Elton John. The lead performance by Taron Egerton is special too, from some fine acting to some of the greatest singing I ever did hear. It doesn’t hurt that the music is incredible. *****
Men in Black: International: Tessa Thompson is great and deserved way more than whatever this was. An easy pitch, a simple sell, but an ultimately lazy movie that struggled to capture any magic left in the Men in Black gimmick. Chris Hemsworth is a funny guy but needs a bit more of a hook than “Chris Hemsworth being funny.” **
The Secret Life of Pets 2: I am biased towards this movie for two reasons: I adored the first Secret Life of Pets, and this is the first movie my 1-year-old sat with me and watched (well, half of it at least). Those things aside, it’s fine. Just fine. The fun of this franchise was the actual Secret Life of the Pets, not Pets Solving Crimes or whatever. ***
Tolkien: I saw this movie maybe three weeks ago and don’t remember a thing. I wrote down a rating and I can’t remember why. It was the opposite of Rocketman, a trope-filled biopic that was just drab and boring. The acting and sets and whatnot were all good I think, but this didn’t work for me. **3/4
All is True: I can see an argument for this movie being a bore, and I can’t say I was enthralled while watching it, but it’s also one that three weeks later I can still recall and think about. It’s about Shakespeare in his later years, after the fame, as a mere normal dad of children. I go back-and-forth on Kenneth Branagh showcases but this was legit. ***1/2
