Dolemite is My Name: One-part show business tribute, one-part Eddie Murphy comeback, and a whole lot of other parts of incredible actors acting the shit out of every piece of film they are on. There is a lot going on here and through it all the movie is just fun. There should be more fun movies. ****1/2
The Laundromat: Steven Soderbergh doing The Big Short didn’t quite work for me, brother, more due to the format of storytelling than anything. I idea of telling the story of the Panama Papers through the eyes of normal regular people sure is nice, but the three different stories angle just ended up kind of losing me. Still though, Meryl Streep rules and the finish is tremendous. ***1/4
Lady and the Tramp: A movie that just won’t be able to shake the feel of it being this direct-to-DVD plastic thing made by Disney to sell their new streaming service, but I won’t deny it’s still a sweet little movie that’s Fun For the Whole Family. The dogs are probably the best live action Disney animal thing lately too. ***
Noelle: I’m unashamed to admit that Disney being like “hey we have a Christmas movie with Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader we’ve just been holding onto and we’re gonna release it now” got me on that Disney+ Day One – just the sheer flex of that was too much for me to deny. The end result though just feels low effort, even if Anna Kendrick doing her own version of Elf has its’ charms. Another inoffensive movie, but maybe it’s inoffensive because the stakes were so low. **3/4
The Lion King: I won’t tell you anything else anybody hasn’t already – the sheer artistry of this world, of the movie-making that created this, is breathtaking. But the animals don’t translate and the joy isn’t there. Like, it’s somewhere in there. But it’s just not present. Good effort on the voice cast, but the cartoon remains tops. ***
