As lightweight, funny and enjoyable as the music genre it details, YACHT ROCK: A DOCKUMENTARY really took me back to all the music I listened to in the late 70's and early 80's. Toto, Steely Dan, James Ingram, The Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, they're all here, often with hilarious, self-effacing stories from the era. Well, Steely Dan isn't here, but even the way he blows off Director Garret Price's approach to appear is perfectly captured and a big laugh. Detailing the emergence of the genre, which fit somewhere between rock and pop, but never too hard of rock, and not Country rock, the film immerses you in footage from the mid to late 70's in California. Steely Dan launches the rocket, with a new blend of jazz and pop that's studied, perfect, but plays to the masses. Who didn't own the album "Aja" back in the day!? Still sited as one of the most perfectly recorded albums of all time, the first hit song "Peg" launches the group into superstardom. (Do you know what the other album that many industry folks consider the finest studio recording of an album?*) I loved seeing all the players in these recording sessions. There's a lot of talent bouncing off those walls. Watching Steve Porcaro, David Paitch and Steve Luthaker rise from an LA high school band to the most respected studio musicians on the planet is a blast. It's even more enjoyable when you know that that high school band became Toto. EVERYONE owned Toto IV, still one of the best albums of the era. "Rosanna", "Lovers in the Night", "Africa" come on!! Watching footage from the day and all their stories of how the throwaway final track on the Album, "Africa" became the bands only number one hit will put a smile on your face. It's also fun to relive the birth of the MTV era and the rise of Madonna, Duran Duran and Michael Jackson, video savvy stars who thrived on the visuals. Studio bands like Toto and Steely Dan, not so much. I remember seeing Steely Dan live and telling my friend halfway through the concert, "they have zero stage presence". Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have recorded some of the finest music of the last century, but they have ZERO interest in entertaining you on a stage. When I shut my eyes that night, the band sounded flawless, just like the albums. But I could have HEARD the music at home! Seeing Toto live a couple times across the decades was always a mixed bag. Never when it came to the music, the instrumentals rocked, all the hits were well delivered, but the lead singers aged, some better than others. It never mattered though, the band was so committed to entertaining you with high energy (the Anti-Steely approach) that it was always a great evening. Price keeps the documentary, oops I mean DOCKumentary moving quickly with great interviews and reflections from the stars, concert footage from back in the day and music videos. I enjoyed some of the never before seen recording studio footage the most. The decades long friendships between McDonald and Cross and McDonald & Loggins is inspiring. With wall-to-wall music of the era, 99% of which I loved in the day and still do, this is like sitting down with friends you've known for forty years and having them share legendary stories, while a greatest hits collection plays comfortably in the background. This one might be on permanent rotation. YACHT ROCK gets an A. *1967's soundtrack recording of Burt Bacharach's score for the OO7 spoof, "Casino Royale" is often referenced as the perfect studio recording.

I just spent nearly two hours in HERE , and can clearly say there's not much there. Robert Zemeckis has made many of my favorite films of the past 40 years. From big box office hits like "Romancing the Stone" and "Back to the Future" to his flops like "The Walk", I am usually in sync with his films. (If you haven't seen "The Walk", I encourage you to do so now, on the biggest screen you have. It's jaw dropping.) This time out, he spends so much time on his visual trickery, that any real emotional impact gets lost in the shuffle. Zemeckis reunites his creative team from "Forrest Gump", including writer Eric Roth, music composer Alan Silvestri and the first pairing of actors Tom Hanks & Robin Wright since that delicious box of chocolates, and buries them in a simple trick that never sparks any true magic. Our camera finds a spot on the ground as the film opens and never moves. Dinosaurs roam, asteroids fall, extinctions arrive and eras pass, Native Americans hunt, a famous politician's bastard son builds a massive estate across the newly paved street and a house is constructed around us, plopping our perspective right into a spot between the living room and the kitchen. We meet all the families that live in this house, or on its grounds. A Native American hunt is on, a romance blossoms. An English couple arrive, bickering from the start over his passion as a pilot in a newfangled invention called an aeroplane. The next occupants are a funny and horny young couple, The Beekmans. He's got an eye for invention and a passion for comfortable chairs. We meet Al (Paul Bettany) returning from WW2 to buy the house with his wife Rose (Kelly Reilly from "Yellowstone"). Their children include Richard (played by Tom Hanks as an adult). Every time the film changes to another era, a window frame of varying sizes appears, the event begins to be seen and it takes over the whole screen. There is no rhyme or reason in the time hopping, beyond, I would assume, Roth trying to manipulate your expectations. Unfortunately, some of his time hops that I'm sure looked clever on paper, thud to Earth on screen like that Asteroid that wipes out the dinos in an early scene. We begin to spend more time with Richard as a 19 year old and meet his girlfriend Margaret (Robin Wright). Zemeckis's effects make them look like they are in their early 20's and for all the online bitching about the effects, I think they're pretty amazing. Look! There is Hanks, on screen, in his pre-Bosom Buddies era, cutting us up! But Hanks isn't really given a lot of funny things to do. Early pregnancies happen, young aspirations and dreams fade away for necessary jobs and the film seems to go out of its way to focus on Covid (oh boy, THAT'S entertainment), the heavy emotional lift of aging parents and the regrets of the elderly. As Silvestri's music rises in key moments, hoping to conjure up an emotional response, it rings hollow. It's the first time that I've seen one or Zemeckis' visions and visuals fail to embellish the story. I thought back to what he did for CGI performance capture with the trailblazing "The Polar Express" in 2004, or the groundbreaking interaction of animated and live actors in 1988's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Both movies were made better because of his maverick approach. This time out, it feels like the framing conceit wears thin as a story device pretty quickly. This same type of "What happens to these characters across decades" story was told much more emotionally in the flawed 1981film "The Four Seasons". A very similar tale including the dinos was brilliantly told by Terrence Malick in 2011's "The Tree of Life". It's beautiful and almost impenetrable, but it overwhelms you. HERE never does. Some of the virtue signaling with the Native American and African American characters is so forced, its insulting to both groups. Nikki Amuka-Bird (Knock at the Cabin) and Nicholas Pinnock (Captain America: The First Avenger) are both superb actors, and wasted here. Writer Eric Roth wrote "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "Munich", but his screenplay here more closely recalls his one of his earliest works, "Airport 1979: The Concorde". Forced, flat humor and long, dull sections. The trials of Forrest and Jenny, OOPS I mean Richard and Margaret, are so everyday and predictable that the film just kind of sits there, windows opening and closing to the point of numbness. When the camera actually does begin to sweep up and away, I was just thrilled because I knew the end titles were about to begin. How did I know? Because Silvestri's music score was swelling to full strength and a hummingbird was flying around the screen, a pale imitation of that main title feather in "Gump". HERE goes NOwHERE and gets a C-. It lands on screen as "Tree of Life" for dummies.

They've saved the most fun for last with VENOM: THE LAST DANCE , although the first two films were so meh that you could interpret that as slight praise. A great cast, plenty of laughs and mostly bloodless attacks combine with a couple strong action sequences for the oddest, final entry in the VENOM saga. Tom Hardy is a blast as Eddie Brock, still playing body-Odd Couple with the ravenous Venom as he hides out in Mexico. After a muddled and stupid opener (with yet more intergalactic lore and legend building, I am SOOOO bored by all of that) finds Eddie stumbling into some seriously bad hombres running a dog fighting hideout. The entire scene is laugh-out-loud funny, violent and fast. it's a great start. When Eddie sees his name all over the news, he's determined to get back to the states to clear his name. Meanwhile, a super duper secret subterranean base below Area 51 houses a massive research lab into the swirling symbiotic creatures like Venom. Juno Temple (The Offer) plays Dr. Teddy Paine, who works alongside military man Strickland (the horribly underused Chiwetel Ejiofor) on one of those projects that has "this is going to explode and destroy the universe"written all over it. There aren't many surprises to be found in the basic plot, but the characters are an eccentric bunch! Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man, Notting Hill) is Martin, a hippie UFO seeker with his entire family bundled in a beat up, bumper sticker covered van in search of aliens. He's hilarious, as are Hardy's one liners when Martin tries to get him to join in for a sing-a-long as they cross the Nevada desert. Peggy Lu is back as Mrs. Chen and this time, she and Eddie/Venom meet up in Vegas for another hilarious scene sandwiched in between two major action set pieces. Lu nails every line and seeing Hardy in a tuxedo strolling into a casino makes you realize that he could have been a great OO7. Stephen Graham (Snatch) is back as Detective Mulligan from the last film, and since he got killed in that one, offers up an intriguing storyline. Screenwriter Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr. Banks) takes on the Director's chair for the first time and does a pretty good job, keeping everything moving forward and making a valiant effort not to get bogged down in endless exposition as so many of these films do. It's a slight film in the Marvel realm and along with the Venom films, are made outside the creative umbrella of the other Avengers films. As such, they've always had an outsider stance, a "Never Say Never Again"-like position to the traditional Bond films. You can toss all the Venom films into the side dish category, sitting at the kids table away from the best of the Marvel cannon like "Captain America:The Winter Soldier" and "Avengers: Infinity War". But this is, for me, the best of Hardy's Venom films. Fast, enjoyable and lightweight, it makes you laugh while throwing a little heart in along the way. You could have cut that first dumb scene on another planet and the end credits sequence set on the same world and the film would have been better for it. I'll give it a B-. And that's a giant, pointy teeth gnashing, tongue flying improvement over the previous two entrees.

When SNL premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, I was in high school. On that night and every Saturday night afterward, my group of close friends would huddle at one of our houses to watch the show religiously. We got maybe 2/3 of the jokes, but 100% of the satiric rebellion. There had been NOTHING like it on television before. One could argue that "Laugh-In" came close in the sixties, but the late night time spot gave SNL a freedom of material that was unheard of at the time. Jason Reitman's excellent new film SATURDAY NIGHT is a fast-paced, "West Wing"-like, propulsive look at the 90 minutes before that first show aired. The actors playing now famous counterparts are excellent. Gabriel LaBelle who played young Sammy in Spielberg's "The Fabelman's" seems to have grown up overnight. He plays SNL founder Lorne Michaels, capturing the balls, madness and talent it took to launch TV in a brand new direction. Cory Michael Smith (First Man) IS Chevy Chase in all his brash, cocky bravado, ready to be the breakout star before the show ever hits the airwaves. The pratfalls, the arrogance and the insecurities just below that towering surface are all there. Dylan O'Brien (The Outfit) almost steals the show as Dan Aykroyd, capturing the rapid patter comic genius that became a landmark of the show's early days. Newcomer Matt Wood IS John Belushi. He oozes sadness and reserve until the cameras come on and the manic actor we all fell in love with instantly comes alive. Lamorne Morris (New Girl) also shines as Garrett Morris, a classically trained playwright and actor who spends most of those pre-show moments wondering why the hell he's even in the cast. Ella Hunt captures the free spirit of Gilda Radner and Emily Fairn plays Laraine Newman, but they're both overshadowed by Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, who always seems to be ahead of her time here as the lone true observer of history in the making. Writer/Director Jason Reitman (Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Up in the AIr) structures a whirlwind of momentum with an almost real-time, suspenseful rush to going live for the premiere episode. I was shocked how quickly this film flies by, a second viewing will be mandatory just to see what I missed in the corners of 30 Rock as the events flew by me. That first episode was a landmark of TV moments in front of and behind the camera, all of which are recreated brilliantly by Reitman. George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) is so coked up in his dressing room his jaw is locked up. Andy Kaufman (Nicholas Braun from "Succession") arrives with a record player and the theme from Mighty Mouse, ready to create a moment that would blast SNL into the 1975 zeitgeist. Milton Berle (JK Simmons) tries to steal Chevy Chase's girlfriend backstage 30 minutes before air time. NBC exec Dick Ebersol, who would famously fire Dennis Miller years later, is hilariously captured by Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza) as a two faced ass kisser who constantly bows to Dave Tebet (William Dafoe). Brilliant playwright Tracy Letts plays writer Herb Sargent, Paul Rust (Inglorious Basterds) is Paul Shaffer and Thomas Dewey is a standout as the ultimate outsider, head writer Michael O'Donaghue. Jon Batiste not only plays opening night musical guest Billy Preston, he also composed the non-stop hum of suspenseful music that lies under the action. I went into the film hoping for an enjoyable recreation of a special time in my life and a pivotal change in television and entertainment. Reitman over delivers in every category and shocked me by creating a conclusion that is emotionally powerful. We all know that the first show actually aired, but by the time all the hilarity, madness and smoke clears and the show actually goes live, Reitman punches you in the gut with the power of the moment. It didn't take me back, it yanked me back there, heart and soul. SATURDAY NIGHT is one of the best films of 2024, a thrilling ensemble piece that never stops on its way to an A+.

One of the best horror sequels in memory, SMILE 2 is a bone crunching, bloody elevation of everything you loved about the original. With the best jump scare since "Insidious" it gave me rare full body chills twice through great direction, killer sound and terrifyingly fun visuals. From the opening moments of Cristobal Tapia de Veer's chilling electronic score, the Dolby Cinema sound mix plunges you into 127 fast paced minutes that are as enjoyable as they are disorienting. The opening scene finds a desperate Joel (a returning Kyle Gallner) six days after the events of the original film, crafting an ingenious way to pass on the smiling demon within him. For those that missed the original, this demon takes hold of you and within seven days, forces you into madness and suicide in front of someone else, who the demon then leaps into. It's a clever concept, built in the spirit of the superb 2014 film "It Follows" and both versions of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", but Writer/Director Parker Finn proved in the original that he's a horror visionary. Given a much larger budget from Paramount this time out, Finn ups his game in every way, delivering countless taut set pieces within his intriguing expansion of the plot. The New York City setting is also a great add. Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a young pop singer about to launch her comeback tour after a major car accident a year earlier. Wrapped up in a drug habit and a toxic relationship with actor Paul (Ray Nicholson) the two were in a car that plunged off a cliff, killing Paul and leaving Skye with major injuries. We meet Skye as she is in final rehearsals and the start of a media blitz to kickoff the national tour. Naomi Scott (Jasmine in Disney's live action Aladdin remake) is excellent as Skye. Unlike M. Night Shyamalan's recent "Trap", in which he tried to provide a family member a platform as a pop star (meh), Scott is the real deal. Giving off Gaga vibes and true concert power as we watch her practice, Skye soon finds herself battling the demon. How that all happens is best discovered on your own, as are the many enjoyable twists and turns that Finn navigates here. Several set pieces really set the film above the norm. Skye's experiences in her massive Manhattan apartment (why is that place always so damn dark?) are loaded with shadows, scares and the terror of mental illness. Scott is believable in every moment and I was pulled into plight. How do you launch a multi-million concert tour when smiling maniacs and bloody specters seem to hide in every shadow? When she does turn all the lights on, she's plunged into a nightmare in which all the choreography from the performance we saw earlier in the film come into play, her entire dance company moving toward her with mad ear-to-ear smiles. Finn's visual creativity is on full display in a sequence that drew huge gasps and laughter from the packed Dolby Cinema house around me. Finn knows how to stack tension, and dancers! Ray Nicholson, Jack's son, brilliantly displays the "Here's Johnny!" Shining-smile that could only be recreated by direct DNA. Rosemarie DeWitt (LaLa Land, Rescue Me) is Skye's stage Mom from hell, who doesn't quite seem to grasp what her daughter's going through. Lukas Gage (Euphoria, The White Lotus) brings unexpected laughs as the worst drug dealer in NYC, a high school friend of Skye's who gets the ball rolling, or is that an 8-ball? Gage is a blast. Kudos to Finn's sound mix teams and cinematographer Charlie Saroff, who ramps up all his tricks from the first film into widescreen madness here. His handheld photography in the opening scene, through a house, out a window and full speed into the street is jaw dropping without being self-important. He had me locked in during the first five minutes! Big props to Naomi Scott and the songwriting team for the pop ear-worms "Grieved You", "New Brain" and "Blood on White Satin", which will likely climb the real pop charts, just as they have for Skye and Interscope Records within the film. THIS is how you create an expansive sequel to a great original film. Finn creates a full tilt, madness packed final act that brilliantly sets up an even more terrifying Part 3. I for one can't wait to see it. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face last night. SMILE 2 gets an exhausted and appreciative A.

As a life long fanatic about film scores, the beautiful new documentary, MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS hit every perfect note with me. Funny, insightful and informative, it's a crash course in an art that may soon be lost. Starting with his early days as a young jazz band pianist, it's fascinating to watch a young "Johnny" Williams follow in his parents footsteps and how they inform and encourage his path. At 92 years of age, Williams tells his story on camera with a self effacing humor and a constant base of "I was in the right place at the right time" attitude that's humble & sincere. I loved all the insight into his early TV days (that new theme for "Lost in Space" was stuck in my young brain the moment I heard it) and how that morphed into opportunities in film. His meeting with Steven Spielberg to score the young director's first studio film, "The Sugarland Express" in 1974 served up a collaboration that is 50 years strong. I never knew that Williams was on the fence to score Spielberg's debut or "A Bridge Too Far", a job that John Addison eventually took. Thank heavens John chose Steven! Spielberg is a constant presence in the film, bouncing stories back to back with Williams in a way that only true friends can. The film devotes nice chunks of running time to the pivotal scores that made Williams the film music maestro. "Jaws", "ET", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind","Raiders of the Lost Ark" and alongside an appreciative George Lucas, "Star Wars". As a film music nerd, I also loved the references to scores like "The Poseidon Adventure", "The Towering Inferno" and his brilliant, jazz infused music for "Catch Me If You Can". "Empire of the Sun" has always been one of favorite Spielberg/Williams collaborations. He even highlights a music piece called "The Land Rush" from Ron Howard & Tom Cruise's "Far and Away", one of the all-time great pieces of thrilling, building film music that's been a personal favorite since the film's release. Footage from the release of "Jurassic Park" in theaters really takes you back as well. Spielberg shared his own home movies with documentary filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau, revealing plenty of never before seen footage of their discovery and recording sessions. Bouzereau (Faye, Five Came Back) has been creating incredible behind-the-scenes docs about movies since the early days of Laserdiscs, where his Making-Of Docs were the highlights of many collectable discs for movie lovers. Yes, I still have them! Look at 1993. Williams wrote two scores for Spielberg that year. His "Jurassic Park" score that stands alongside the CGI breakthrough dinosaurs as the reason the film became a landmark, and "Schindler's List" for which he created one of the most moving, gut wrenching emotional scores ever written. The range of those two scores side by side, in the same year , is a testament to the composer's genius. As much as I love the electronic driven scores of Hans Zimmer and his modern brethren, there is nothing like the impact of John Williams and his hand written scores & orchestrations for a full orchestra. Think back to sitting in a darkened theater and hearing the massive PUNCH of the opening notes of the "Star Wars" main title, or Williams soaring score tearing into you as Elliott and ET rode that bike across the moon. Remember seeing Indiana Jones running from the temple in the opening of "Raiders" or the Mothership in "Close Encounters" lifting up into the sky as that full orchestra exploded in your ears? Williams again. He still writes his full scores by hand, on sheet music for all his films. He has created most of the memorable character themes of the past five decades, one note at a time with pencil to blank page. Williams shares the story of talking to Spielberg moments after his first viewing of "Schindler's List" and saying, "Steven, I'm not good enough to write the music for this film, it's a masterpiece. You need someone better." To which Spielberg replied, "I know...but they're all dead!" Let's hope the true art of full orchestra, live performance film music doesn't pass with this 92 year old genius. Darken your room, turn up your best sound system and revel in the film music of John Williams. MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS is as good as it gets, wrapping itself around your movie memories and soaring to a perfect A+.

On this 50th Anniversary of the Nov 15th, 1974 release of EARTHQUAKE, let's take a look back at my original review of this star studded special effects bonanza. One of the staples of the 1974 Year of the Disaster Movie, it still sits alongside "The Towering Inferno" and the much lesser "Airport 1975" (yes that was released in late 1974!) as the pillars of one of Hollywood's hottest trends. I remember seeing it opening weekend. How can that possibly be 50 years ago!!!?? Do you remember seeing EARTHQUAKE back in 1974 in 'Sensurround"? It was basically the theater's bass turned up so loud during quake sequences that it shook the building. (The old Bethany Home heater in Phoenix actually got cracks in it from "Earthquake's" run according to Republic stories of the time!) Well nearly 40 years later (WOW-let that fact soak in for a minute!), even with the base turned up, Earthquake is much worse for wear. This is classic 70's disaster, which means lots of stock characters with no arc, a HORRIBLE screenplay, which is unbelievably co-written by Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather (the three minute scene between Charlton Heston and Genevieve Bujold at her house pre-quake I had to watch twice just to fathom how crappy the writing was) and some good, juicy, summer FUN! This is one of those classics from my teen years where I can just throw out all the junk and savor the great parts, which are all the quake sequences, any Richard Roundtree scene, Cory's rescue in the LA canal, great matte paintings of a devastated Los Angeles and the closing Dam failure sequences. Total disaster garbage, and still a fun, guilty pleasure! Let's shake it up with a B.

We use music to make us whole. Bloody, brilliant, relentless and unexpected, JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX (madness of two in French) is a powerhouse of originality that's better than the first film. But based on the semi-full IMAX audience I saw it with last night, I will likely be an outlier with that opinion. If you come into the film expecting a standard comic book or DC film, you weren't paying attention to Writer/Director Todd Phillips' 2019 mega-hit "Joker". That film was depressing, dark and moody. Phillips hasn't just doubled down on the sequel, he's created an abyss-deep dive into mental illness, villain worship and criminal celebrity and then wrapped it in the trappings of an MGM musical on the most downtrodden of Gotham's back streets. The film opens with a vintage looking Warner Bros cartoon featuring The Joker trying to escape from some decidedly violent Keystone Cops. Didn't see that coming. Phillips is just getting started. Joaquin Phoenix is back as Arthur Fleck, still sitting in Arkham Prison two years after the events of the original film. His trial for five murders approaches. He seems to have carved out an existence in the harshest call block, rewarded with cigarettes by lead guard Jackie Sullivan (the always excellent Brendan Gleeson) if he tells him a joke of the day. Phoenix is a brilliant actor and shows no sophomore slump in the role that won him a Best Actor Oscar the first time out. His transformation into the skeleton-like Fleck, bones and menace popping out of every inch of his skin, is jarring. As Sullivan walks by Fleck's cell everyday, the guard is singing or whistling an old tune. Arthur begins to softly sing a line or two. Fleck meets Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) one day in a music therapy class taking place on the opposite side of the prison, the one where they're not keeping the homicidal maniacs. They silently click. Arthur begins to find his voice and the film slides in and out of Fleck/The Joker's fantasies, in which he and Lee sing duets. They start out small, intimate. But as the film goes on, the musical sequences in Fleck's head get more grandiose and fleshed out. Voices grow stronger, duets expand. After 'A Star is Born" and "House of Gucci", we know Gaga has the acting skills to match her incredible pipes. She's excellent here as Lee, who finds a kindred soul in Fleck. Simultaneously, Arthur's trial approaches. His lawyer Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) works to show that Arthur and The Joker are two very different people living in Arthur's head. The film ponders that possibility in many different ways and kept me fascinated. The entire second half of the film depicts the trial and it's packed with dramatic moments and at least a dozen courtroom comments or expressions from The Joker that made me laugh out loud. He's disturbed, twisted and living in his own fragile reality. I loved the scene between Fleck and his former good friend/fellow clown Gary Puddles (Leigh Gill) on the witness stand. I challenge you to think of a dialogue scene as well written as that sequence in recent memory. It's funny, painfully sad, suspenseful and dramatic, whipping between all of those emotions with dark speed. The conclusion of the trial and the end of the film are a powerful black hole. Will it be too much for most viewers? Based on the lot I saw it with, yes. A dozen got up and walked out when it was apparent the film was ending. They didn't wait for the credits. The buzz today is "It's boring!" "It's a musical!" "It's so bad!". Not in my eyes. I am tired of sitting through another same old, same-old "The Marvels" or endless Disney Star Wars spin offs. Phillips, Phoenix and Gaga had the balls to create something wholly original with this sequel. Is it loaded with action? No. Does it require the ability to have an attention span longer than a Tik Tok video? Thankfully, YES. It's an acting powerhouse. The cinematography by Lawrence Sher (Joker, Black Adam) captures the light and the darkness and the music score by Hildur Guonadottir (Joker, A Death in Venice) blasts through you in IMAX, adding to the tension. By the second half, the musical numbers are full throated and BIG. Phoenix showed his singing skills as Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line" and goes toe to toe with Gaga fearlessly. In these scenes, it feels like an old Sinatra & Martin rat-pack musical, with a dash of Astaire & Rogers. All the songs were sung live for filming, no easy task. My favorite song, "Gonna Build a Mountain" sees Gaga in full sixties nightclub Vegas glitz and Phoenix dancing his ass off in the classic red Joker suit. As the song builds to a crescendo, Joker and Lee exude sheer joy. It's such an island of positive emotion in the film that you experience Arthur's fantasy in the peak of his happiness, then are immediately dropped back into his filthy, horrific reality. It's a steep and damaging fall. Phoenix's rendition of "The Joker is Me" in the courtroom blew me away as well. I would love to see Phoenix nominated again for an Oscar as Fleck. He's incredible. And is there ANYTHING that Gaga can't do? Her career choices are landing her one of the most diverse resumes in recent film history. For me, JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX tops the first film by the sheer jet black will of its creative team to carve something VERY different out of familiar clay. I loved it and can't wait to see it again. But I might be the only one. A+

Arguably old fashioned, occasionally corny but surprisingly powerful, REAGAN is a loving tribute to the life of the 40th President of the United States. Whatever side of the aisle you're on (and my review is about the film, not a political statement) there is no denying the historical importance of Reagan's two terms in office. His impact on the Soviet Union changed the world forever. The film is structured as a series of flashbacks, as an aging, former KGB agent Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight) relates his history with Reagan. As he tells Reagan's history, the film flashes back and forth, introducing us to "Dutch" in his early days of Hollywood as a likeable B-movie actor and his marriage to Jane Wyman (Mena Suvari from "American Beauty"). Dennis Quaid is instantly likeable as Reagan, which is no surprise as he's always been one of our most relatable American actors. From his early days in 80's films like "Innerspace" and "The Right Stuff", Quaid has played the funny, charming cowboy. He's a perfect fit as Reagan and impresses with the right dose of Ronnie's well known accent, endless "Well....."s to start a sentence and gentle head rocks when he's about to land a punchline. As Communism and Hollywood intertwine in the 50's, Reagan shows the first signs of his patriotic voice, emerging as a leader against the socialist movement. Quaid is a lot of fun in these scenes, you can see his confidence building as he discovers more comfort behind a podium than on a Hollywood set. As his career fades into lesser and lesser films and one embarrassing Vegas appearance, his political star rises. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, the film has room to explore the behind the scenes workings of his pursuit of the California Governor's office and then the Presidency. For me, the film gets better and better as it goes. I was in my 20's in the 80's and remember all the events depicted very well, but I was very surprised as I was reminded about key events in that decade. Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) is a standout as Tip O'Neill, Democratic Speaker of the House, reminding me of a time when both sides of the aisle could meet in the middle and that while we may politically disagree doesn't mean we have to hate each other. (a lost art.....) Two key scenes between Lauria and Quaid are a solid base for the second half of the film. The two meet on Reagan's first day in office and Reagan tells Tip that the "political day ends at 6. After that, we're just two Irishmen sharing a beer". We need more of that today. O'Neill's visit to Reagan in the hospital right after the assassination attempt that put a bullet in Reagan's chest is a powerhouse. These are two men with very different views during the workday, but bound in their commitment to the country. Superb. Robert Davi (License to Kill) is unrecognizable as a chain smoking Brezhnev. Olek Krupa (Miller's Crossing) is a dead ringer for Gorbachev and he and Quaid are terrific together, recreating some events that changed the world. Reagan's debate against Walter Mondale is hilariously presented and a great deal of history is recounted, much of it in effective montages that move us through time. The emotional core of the film is the love story between Reagan and Nancy, played by Penelope Ann Miller. The biggest shock of the film for me was Miller. She is one of my least favorite actresses and has been a disaster in every film I've ever seen her in. "Carlito's Way" with Al Pacino, oof. "The Relic" ouch. "Chaplin" with Robert Downey Jr., ugh. Somehow, Nancy is the perfect role for her and she shares terrific chemistry with Quaid. The final 45 minutes of the film details Reagan and the fall of the Soviet Union under his pressure and diplomacy. The film really hits it's stride here, pulling you through history with humor, suspense and plenty of emotional power. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" has never punched me in the gut like it does here. As we watched Reagan fade into Alzheimer's and all that entails, we were hammered with the emotions of the disease's impact of all those surrounding the President. Having just lost one parent to Alzheimer's last month and another in her 5th year of dealing with the impact of it, the finale hit me hard. As the final credits role, we see news footage of Reagan's funeral in DC and California and Nancy's heart wrenching final goodbye. Emotionally powerful, the film leaves you moved in a way that I've only felt a few times, memorably with Blitz Bazawule's powerhouse "The Color Purple" finale last year. Is the film perfect? Of course not. It's a love letter to Dutch and has a large blind spot to his notable failures, but I'd argue that his triumphs in office far outweighed those shortcomings. Director Sean McNamara doesn't really bring any special style to the film, often shooting it like a TV movie. The aging makeup is particularly awkward trying to de-age Quaid and Voight for the early flashbacks. We know that this can be done flawlessly (witness Harrison Ford as Indy in "Dial of Destiny") but I suspect a low budget was the deciding factor on going this direction. The film is probably 20 minutes too long as well, but as the final 45 minutes wrapped itself around me and inspired. Minor quibbles be damned, this is a a powerful film. When Reagan was running against Jimmy Carter in his bid for reelection, he went off script and spoke from the heart, saying these words that are still often heard during election cycles, five decades later. "Ask yourself. Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier to buy things from a store than it was four years ago? Is there more, or less unemployment in the country? Is America as respected throughout the world?" REAGAN earns a very solid B.

I wish I would have watched THE CAMPAIGN on election night 2012 instead of the results, I would have had a lot more laughs! Will Ferrell stars as long time, unchallenged congressman Cam Brady, a woman chasing, horrible voice mail leaving, nasty wreck of a man very comfortably set in his office. A big money corporation looking to relocate their Chinese manufacturing to his district need a patsy to unseat him. Their best choice is Marty Huggins, played hilariously by Zach Galifianakis. Marty defines socially awkward, is the most effeminate straight man on the planet and runs the local tourist office, but warms up pretty quickly to the business of being a candidate. Director Jay Roach (the Austin Powers films) unleashes his two stars in a solid and pretty funny game of comedy one-upmanship. There are NO boundaries of good taste here and some of the best moments are the foulest, including Ferrill's mistaken sex call to a conservative family, Marty's family's dinner table true confessions before they undergo media scrutiny and all of the debates in which they face each other. The supporting cast is hilarious, especially Jason Sudeikis as Cam's campaign manager, Dylan McDermott as manly Tim Wattley and Sarah Baker as Marty's wife Mitzi, a woman with a love for Drew Carey. We all laughed out loud quite a bit, through all the baby, pug, cow and candidate abuse. Not for the family, but definitely good for some laughs! The Campaign wins a solid B.

For thirteen days in October of 1962, the world teetered closer to the edge of nuclear war than at anytime in history. Those days are created with class and suspense in THIRTEEN DAYS. A dream cast of character actors play all the real life folks involved, with Bruce Greenwood leading the way as JFK. Greenwood doesn't do an impression of JFK, but he inhabits his look, mannerisms and charisma facing off against Soviet counterparts and his own Pentagon. After discovering nuclear weapons capable of striking nearly everywhere in the USA (you seem to be the only safe city Seattle!) tensions escalate between the two military superpowers. The film focuses on three people, JFK, attorney general Bobby Kennedy (a very good Steven Culp) and Special Assistant to the President Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner). Costner is actually the weak link in the film, sporting a ridiculous Boston accent that somehow manages to out-crap his legendarily disastrous "Robin Hood" accent. Costner rises above that handicap at moments, especially in the impactful scenes of stolen moments with his family during the crisis. Historically accurate, fading in and out of black and white and using plenty of real Walter Cronkite clips of him reporting on the events as they happen, the film does a terrific job of immersing you into the fall of 1962. Dylan Baker (Happiness) is great as Robert McNamara, Bill Smitrovich (24) is war-hawk General Taylor and Michael Fairman (Mulholland Drive) is a real standout as Adlai Stevenson. Much of the dialogue is taken directly from tapes within the Oval Office that JFK recorded of key meetings. The dance between political positioning, strength and politics is fascinating to watch. With an $80 million budget, this was a box office failure at the time of its release, but has grown in stature and appreciation since. This was the first film that George and Laura Bush screened at the White House in Feb of 2001, with members of the Kennedy family in attendance. It's been a favorite of mine since its release. Like "All The President's Men" or "The Post", its a historical film that moves like a thriller. Seeing how close we came to nuclear war nearly 60 years ago, we're left wondering how the same situation would be handled today. Scary thought. THIRTEEN DAYS gets an A.

A great film from 1972 that is scary in its relevance to politics today, THE CANDIDATE is funny and insightful. Robert Redford stars as Bill McKay, a young idealistic lawyer with no political aspirations. When heavy hitting political operative Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle) needs an outsider to "shake up the status quo" (sound familiar??) he gives McKay a challenge. He has no chance of winning against the popular long time incumbent, Senator Crocker Jarmon, so McKay can say whatever he wants to and set his own priorities. When McKay's charm and straight forward, no BS delivery begins wowing voters, Mckay finds the ground shifting under his feet. Melvyn Douglas (Being There, Hud) plays Bill's father and long-time politician John J. Mckay. Watching the elder McKay's interaction with his son throughout the campaign is fascinating. Don Porter, a veteran TV actor from every hit show of the 70's is perfectly cast as the lifetime political veteran, Jarmon. Allen Garfield (Nashville, The Cotton Club) also excels as campaign ad man Klein, who can tweak any message to any cause. Director Michael Ritchie (Fletch, Smile, Downhill Racer) is on point weaving plenty of humor and intrigue into the politics and screenwriter Jeremy Larner only wrote one other film, winning an Academy Award for this intelligent script. Redford is excellent, never less than 100% believable as he battles against the invasion of politics into his core ideals. Smart, funny and damn entertaining THE CANDIDATE is a winner and lands an A.