The Farewell (PG) This is one of my favorite films for the entire year. An exquisite study of the American belief in independent spirit versus the Chinese belief in family above all, this film is introduced by the warning: “This…
Mike at the Movies
Category: Mike at the Movies
Mike at the Movies
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (R) It is 1969. Everything is big cars, scantily clad hippies, overpaid starlets, drugs and, eventually, the Tate murders. The Tate murders are not previewed until a shot of the street name “El Cielo,”…
Mike at the Movies
Pavarotti (PG-13) Director Ron Howard was able to somehow capture the sound of this miraculous talent through archive and live recordings. For it is sound that Luciano Pavarotti was known for—his was a voice like no other that, even on…
Mike at the Movies
Yesterday (PG-13) If Lily James didn’t steal your heart in “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” or “Downton Abbey,” Director Danny Boyle gives you plenty of chances to lose it in this movie. As Ellie Appleton, she is the long-…
Mike at the Movies
Late Night (R) Katherine (Emma Thompson), though looking like soccer star Abby Wambach for much of the film, is bossy, cruel and out of it. (She can’t be bothered to learn her writers’ names, so she gives them all a…
Mike at the Movies
Rocketman (R) Taron Edgerton is a magnificent Elton John. He manages to capture the out-of-control rock star who rose, as they say, “from humble beginnings” to become a legend. John’s status might have been less elevated without the partnership of…
Mike at the Movies
Tolkien (PG-13) – I have not seen a single episode of “Game of Thrones.” I have seen an example of Tolkien by accident in one of the Middle Earth films. Obviously, I am not a general fan of fantasy. Yet…
Mike at the Movies
Avengers: Endgame (PG-13) – Hollywood Revue—2019! Everybody but Busby Berkeley is in this wonderfully built film. Much of it is quiet and almost pastoral, but that is to set up the almost unbelievable sequence at the conclusion of the film.…
Mike at the Movies
Shazam! (PG-13) Yeah, I know, it’s a comics superhero movie and they’re supposed to be lame. The writers and producers of this film know that as well, so they play the superhero for somewhat of a dunce. Zachary Levi (Shazam)…
Mike at the Movies
Gloria Bell (R) Julianne Moore is a walking miracle. At 58 she plays a woman in her 50s and looks like a woman in her early 40s. Surrounded by a topnotch supporting cast, she triumphs in the difficult story of…