Enola Holmes

— It’s a solid story centered around Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister, as quick-witted and willful as either of them, trying to find her mother and herself while evading adversaries out to do everything from killing her to, perhaps worse, breaking her spirit and turning her into a "proper" lady. Along the way she meets the young Viscount Tewskbury who is being chased by some of the same people looking for her. Once their paths have crossed, the story shifts toward solving a mystery and changing the world. It’s enjoyable to watch, in no small part due to a fine job by Millie Bobby Brown (of “Stranger Things”) in the lead role. I also need to mention Henry Cavill, someone I’ve mostly disparaged for his two-dimensional acting in the past, but who does a decent job as Sherlock. There are a couple of missteps, one of which is an occasional comment directed to the audience, as though Enola feels compelled to drag the audience closer. It can be irritating when the fourth wall is broken and there doesn’t seem to have been a need for anyone to feel they are more a part of the action. It also uses an increasingly popular convention where narrators feel obligated to tell viewers the key concepts to take away from the story. Such moralizing shouldn’t be necessary if the tale is told well, unless we’ve come to a point where a decline in humanities courses in schools coupled with the convenience of social media helping everyone know what to think, leaves us unable to understand a message unless we're hit over the head with it. Luckily, these two elements didn’t keep me from enjoying the film as entertainment—it’s a nice way to spend a couple of a hours. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 123 minutes. Directed by Harry Bradbeer. Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter, and Louis Partridge.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/enola-holmes-movie-review-2020

The Social Dilemma

— A timely documentary on the impact of social media on society, carefully taking viewers down the rabbit hole from happier times when we interacted with people of various viewpoints and major corporations peddled physical products. Fast forward to today, when there’s a new business plan where profitable companies like Google and Facetime are selling their customers’ minds and actions instead of a physical product, carefully shaping what each of us sees to keep us involved with our screens and feeding us messages that subtlety shift our views. Along the way, we stop listening to people who think differently than we do, and we start believing a personal truth instead of a truth shared by society. The film argues that it’s essential we take back truth if we’re ever to mend society, and that we insist tech companies’ business plans be adjusted for the survival of society. The film is interesting in that it tackles the discussion in two ways. People who held prominent positions in various tech companies and believed in what they were doing speak out in a series of interviews, now questioning the direction in which companies have moved and seeing an ethical and social dilemma. Interspersed with these interviews is a storyline about a family affected by social media “addiction,” bringing the problem to a more personal level. The family drama is a little hokey but possibly effective. The interviews are fascinating. The problem seems to be that the film wants to increase our awareness, but the solutions are still in the haze. I’d recommend it, particularly for people who seem themselves as living on the right side in a polarized world. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 94 minutes. Directed by Jeff Orlowski. With Tristan Harris, Skyler Gisondo, Kara Hayward, Joe Toscano, Justin Rosenstein, Tim Kendall, and Vincent Kartheiser.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-social-dilemma-movie-review-2020

The Devil All the Time

— . [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 138 minutes. Directed by Antonio Campos. Starring Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgard, Haley Bennett, and Riley Keough.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-devil-all-the-time-movie-review-2020

The Old Guard

— This sounds like it may just be another weak attempt to grab an audience of groupies of graphic novels and immortals. Ends up, it’s better than that. Maybe not Anne Rice good, but a cut above those relying on sex and special effects instead of character development and storyline. The beauty of “The Old Guard” is that it does have a motley, not really likeable, group of immortals, whose leader is suffering a kind of job burnout and thinking the human race may no longer be salvageable. The budget is obviously lower than if Disney had contracted with Jon Favreau, Ryan Coogler, or the Russo Brothers, but that may work to “The Old Guard’s” advantage, allowing for more complex characters and time for tenderness. In one scene, there’s a declaration of love that is unlike anything you’d expect and puts importance in self-discovery and tenderness in addition to safeguarding the world. In the Marvel universe, superheroes seem to have one defining moment they keep churning over and over. In this film, the cast members have more complex characters and we get a better sense not just of their defining moment, but what led up to it and how they’ve handled things since. The film suffers about two thirds of the way into it when you begin to sense they’re leaving their options open for sequels, a series, and/or contract negotiations with Charlize Theron. I suspect those who want to compare film versions to graphic novel versions could take issue with some adjustments but, let’s face it, when the medium changes, it isn’t fair to expect the story not to change too. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 125 minutes. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Starring Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-old-guard-movie-review-2020

Love, Guaranteed

— This is a comfortable “romcom” that soothes the soul and makes you feel alright even if you're watching it alone while eating Cheetos on the sofa. It features two likeable characters and, in the best Hallmark tradition, two minutes into it you know there’s a spark that can only lead to a kiss after a series of denials, complications, misunderstandings, clever quips, and oddball situations, but that’s okay. No surprises and a few laughs make this film do just what it set out to do. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 90 minutes. Directed by Marek Steven Johnson. Starring Damon Wayans Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook.]
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheenascott/2020/09/05/love-guaranteed-review-rachel-leigh-cook-in-a-new-rom-com-on-netflix/#193dd0d46ece

Away

— I intended to watch the first episode of “Away,” Netflix’s series about a manned mission to Mars, to get a feel for it. Before I knew it, I’d watched three episodes and three more the next time I sat down. It’s a good story, less concerned with awe-inspiring imagery of space than with the very human stories of the crew and their lives. That’s not to say the effects aren’t nicely executed, just that there’s less focus on the vastness of universe than, say, in Cuarón's “Gravity.” It’s always a joy to see Hilary Swank in action and she’s wonderful, but all the characters are nicely acted. I also appreciate each episode at least coming to some kind of resolution so every hour there’s an opportunity to get on with your life if you need to. That said, this is a very human look at things and, although I still have a few episodes to watch, I’m enjoying it. It may be a little too “movie of the week” in that many of the crises seem familiar, and Swank, for all her talent, has a character not quite sharply enough written, but these are faults for a critic to fret about—I’m enjoying it as a viewer! [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. One Season, 10 Episodes, 47-51 min./episode. Created by Andrew Hinderaker. Starring Hilary Swank, Vivian Wu, Mark Ivanir, Ato Essandoh, Ray Panthaki, Josh Charles, and Talitha Eliana Bateman.]
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/away-netflix-hilary-swank-review-1051740/