Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Knives Out

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“Knives Out” is an old-fashioned who dunnit and I mean that in the best possible way.  “Knives Out” is packed full of talented performances, from seasoned troupers like Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Christopher Plummer and Michael Shannon.  Who dunnits always include a murder, suspects and an old spooky mansion.  This movie has it all and then some!  The house is full of esoteric antiques, secret rooms and doors, dark corners and creaky stairs.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, is a suspect.  The action centers on the apparent “suicide” of patriarch millionaire Harlan Thrombey, played by Chrisopher Plummer.  He is found in his study with a slit throat – which the police are considering a suicide.  In walks private detective Benoit Blanc (deliciously played by Daniel Criag. He’s not just James Bond anymore!) who believes the death may have been a murder most foul.  He interviews the motley collection of relatives who ALL have a motive, and one seemingly saintly care giver (played perfectly by Ana de Armas) who appears to be the only person in the house Harlan could stand.  This movie is going to remind you of Clue, Murder She Wrote, KFC, Foghorn Leghorn, and Agatha Christie, but with modern touches thrown in.  I couldn’t really spoil the plot if I tried because there are several reveals and all is not as it seems to be (of course).  This movie is a lot of fun to watch and I imagine the actors had fun playing their parts to the hilt.  I am giving this movie a golden apple because, well I throughly enjoyed it, and on this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for movies that entertain and surprise me.  What more do we need on Thanksgiving? turkey, stuffing, gravy……….

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

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This movie definitely was not what I expected.  I thought it was going to be a biopic about Fred Rogers.  Instead, it is the story of journalist Tom Junod (LLoyd Vogel in the movie) and how just meeting Fred Rogers changed his outlook on life, and in the end made him a better person.  That approach might have even made this a more interesting movie.  Lloyd Vogel, who is played by Matthew Rhys, is a jaded journalist whose reputation is so tarnished by his angry approach, that he is having a hard time getting interviews.  Esquire magazine is doing a spread about American heroes and asks Vogel to write an article about TV’s Fred Rogers.  They figure it would be hard to mess this assignment up.  And Rogers is the only person who agrees to let Vogel  interview him anyway.   Vogel is sure he will uncover the dirt on this way too nice appearing guy, but he doesn’t.  There apparently isn’t any dirt, he’s the real thing!  The Fred Rogers you see on the screen is the Fred Rogers you get in real life too.  Vogel and Rogers forge an unlikely friendship in which Fred shares some of his problems in life; like his boys’ troubled teenage years trying to cope with a famous father or the fact that he was teased when he was a kid for being chubby.  Rogers helps Vogel deal with his absent, philandering father (played by Chris Cooper) and his mother’s death many years ago, which still haunts him.  This is such a sweet movie, I don’t see how anyone could leave feeling sad.  Because Mr. Rogers was such a nice man, there are all kinds of rumors about him, he hated kids, swore like a sailor, or was a Navy Seal.  Not so! This movie does an excellent job of showing you what made this man tick and how he was able to touch the individuals he met and how they touched him.  Also, Mrs. Rogers gives this movie two thumbs up and apppears in a brief cameo in a Chinese restaurant.  If you don’t want to miss her, look for pictures on the internet so you know what to expect.

The Good Liar

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Wow, what an acting triumph for two of my favorite actors – Ian McKellan and Helen Mirren.  I am going to sound a little vague because I don’t want to spoil anything.  Roy (Ian McKellan) is a career con man who swindles businessmen with dodgy investments and romances lonely widows out of their pensions.  He decides to bilk a wealthy widow, Betty (Helen Mirren), out of her money by seemingly meeting her randomly on a senior dating site.  They hit it off and slowly develop close feelings for each other.  She lets him stay in her home, and they even take a trip to Germany together.  Betty’s grandson begins to suspect that his mother’s beau isn’t all he seems to be, but she won’t hear anything negative about him.  Roy has an actual partner in crime, who is played by Jim Carter (Mr. Carson on Downton Abbey) who, as you can imagine, is playing a character as far removed from the honorable butler as can be.  There are a lot of twists and turns in this story, but I won’t go into them.  That would be telling!  But there are some fine performances all around.  What else could you expect?  Between the three of them, they have a combined age of 225.  That is a lot of experience and it really shows!  I am not sure this would be appeal to people under forty, but only because the main characters are in their 70s and 80s.  That is too bad, because they will  be missing quite a treat!

Dr. Sleep

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“Dr. Sleep” is a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s classic “The Shining;” both of which are based on novels by Stephen King.  The tricycle riding boy from the first movie, Dan Torrance, is now a 40-something alcoholic ( played by Ewan McGregor) who wanders from place to place until finally settling down in a small New Hampshire town.  Here he joins AA, becomes sober, and gets his first steady job in years working in a hospice facility.  He gets the nickname ‘Dr. Sleep’ because of his uncanny ability (along with his cat partner) to sense when someone is going to die, and be there to offer comfort.  Now that he is not drinking, his extraordinary abilities, which he calls “shining,” emerge.  He finds he is able to communicate with a young girl  named Abra (played by the excellent Kyleigh Curran) who has even more of the shine than he does.  Together, they uncover an evil cult of semi-immortals who stay alive by killing “shiners” and ‘drinking’ their dying breath.  They mainly prey on kids and they kill one in a rather brutal way.  Dan and his friend from AA, Billy along with Abra, confront the cult, and their defense forces Rose, the cult leader, to pursue them for revenge. The characters end up back at the original hotel for a haunting showdown.  I liked this movie.  Since I had not read the book, I didn’t know what to expect.  The cultists, called the True Knot, were chilling -especially Rose the Hat as played by a pretty creepy Rebecca Ferguson.  It was not too bloody, but it was suspenseful.  I did think the beginning was slow, so that might be the best time to run to the bathroom.  Apparently Stephen King was not a fan of “The Shining” movie, but gave this one his seal of approval.  If it is good enough for Stephen King, it is good enough for me.

Motherless Brooklyn

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“Motherless Brooklyn” is a film noir detective story set in the New York of the 1950s.  This is the first movie that Ed Norton has written, directed, and starred in, and it is an excellent trifecta debut.  Ed Norton stars as Lionel, nicknamed Brooklyn, who is part of a team of private investigators headed by Frank Minna (Bruce Willis), who rescued all four of the men from a parentless foster childhood after the war.  Lionel, who has Tourette’s syndrome and an incredible memory, is devoted to Frank.  Frank brings Lionel and another of the group to a mysterious meeting.  He won’t explain any details of what he is doing there, they are just along to provide back-up.  When the undisclosed plan falls apart, Frank is murdered by some unknown shady characters.  Lionel takes the case to find his friend’s killer and figure out what is going on. As he probes deeper and deeper, he slowly uncovers a complex and widespread criminal conspiracy. As you could probably guess, he discovers corruption, dark secrets, and maybe even love as he traverses between Brooklyn and Harlem.  Norton gives an outstanding performance as Lionel.  Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker is more powerful; but Norton’s subtle and nuanced characterization is equally as compelling.  The story held my interest for the entire 2 1/2 hours, helped by some excellent supporting performances by Alex Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bruce Willis, Bobby Cannavale and Michael K. Williams.  Norton has re-created the 1950’s New York City atmosphere wonderfully. This old-fashioned detective type movie is not made very often any more and it is a shame.  I definitely recommend this outstanding movie based on the book by Jonathan Lethem.