A Real Pain
In the pop culture film lineage of the Culkin family, eldest child Macauley is the most familiar to audiences. And why not? His films to date have amassed a staggering $1.3 billion dollars (adjusted) at the box office. Unbeknownst to most, Macauley has seven other brothers and sisters who are all involved in Hollywood to some degree, with his younger brother Kieran fresh off winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain.” He also recently won two Golden Globe awards for Best Actor (aforementioned film included) along with an Emmy. Not too bad for a Culkin not named Macauley. 

The film, of course, stars Culkin as Benji, a semi-sad yet outspoken cousin of the neurotic David, played by writer and director Jesse Eisenberg. Semi-estranged cousins are taking an international flight to Poland, where they hope to honor their grandmother, a renowned Holocaust survivor.

Brought together on such a maudlin sort of tour, the pair slowly endures a struggle of reconciliation and separation. That’s not to say that this film is pure drama amidst the many emotional scenes here; there is levity throughout. And while Eisenberg’s character gets more dialogue, it’s Culkin’s scenes that somehow end up stealing the show.

Idyllic shots of the Polish countryside serve as a nod to the quite competent cinematography here. Dealing with Holocaust-based material is never something that can be mishandled, yet Eisenberg  portrays a quiet dignity in reaching the audience before any humor comes through. Part of this film serves as a road picture with the journey, and both characters come from slightly different worlds yet are united by the cause, their grandmother. “A Real Pain” is a real bright spot in the early films of 2025. ​

I’m Still Here 
Perhaps the most unheralded Academy Award Best Picture nominee is this year’s “I’m Still Here.” Totally under the radar with little press, it could have easily taken the Oscar year as it contains that delicate mixture of heavy drama along with the most infinitesimal bits of humor to create a classic in the making. The subtitled film is based on a play of the same name by Marcelo Paiva, whose father was mysteriously abducted by Brazilian revolutionaries in 1971. While his fate is undetermined, his wife Vera, played by Fernanda Torres, takes up the mantle as leader of her family and makes it her mission to not only survive the violent times in South America but find her missing husband.
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Torres’ performance is a real tour-de-force as she exudes a matriarchal strength that carries not just her family but her soul to places that only one in her delicate situation could ever understand. Director Walter Salles is careful to layer emotion in certain scenes while brightening it in others so as not to overload the sentimentality of the situation. His masterful directing pushes and pulls you as an audience, and it is akin to Alfonso Caron’s 2020 masterpiece, “Roma.” “I’m Still Here” is not just a testament to great filmmaking, it’s a testament to the human spirit as well.            

The Brutalist
In 2002, controversial film director Roman Polanski cast a relatively unknown actor named Adrien Brody in the lead part of his biographical drama, “The Pianist,” a Holocaust drama about Władysław Szpilman. Brody’s performance was magnetic and compelling on such a grand scale that he beat out the likes of Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis at the Academy Awards to capture the Best Actor award, the youngest person ever to do so in history. Now with Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” Brody once again portrays a Holocaust victim, and the result is nothing short of amazing. 

The film, while not autobiographical in nature, tells the story of Laszlo Toth, a Jewish architect who is liberated from the horrific Buchenwald concentration camp sans his missing wife and niece. He makes his way to America in hopes of setting up a new life, yet the assimilation is not so simple. Culture clashes, antisemitism, and general post-war sentiment drive him to a life spiraling out of control.

Alessandro Nivola is the cousin we have hope for, but he cannot overcome the challenges presented by the hostilities directed at Toth. Underrated actor Guy Pearce shows up as an arrogant, wealthy industrialist magnate who envies Toth in many ways.

Corbet’s film has a rather weighty run-time of three hours and 35 minutes, which might have some potential viewers wondering if the plot is that compelling and if their bladders are that watertight. Even with this runtime, Corbet keeps the pacing in this film flowing at such a productive rate that no scene or soliloquy feels burned out or uninteresting. The audience is drawn to the inner strength of Toth and his dedication to creating architectural art in a world that so hated his existence. The breathtaking cinematography is further reason why Corbet’s film is not only masterful and worthy of appearing on so many critic film lists, but also contributes to the film’s 10 Academy Award nominations. More than that, this is a film about the hope of one man who turns so much hate into something more that is everlasting. 

 No Other Land​
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary, “No Other Land” is one of the strongest films I have ever seen on the subject of unlikely friendships. Directed by Palestinian activist and attorney Basel Adra, a resident of the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank where he grew up, Adra aspired to be a filmmaker as a young child. Today, Israeli occupations have forced the Masafer Yatta residents to suffer eviction and the destruction of their own homes for the sake of the religious-body politic. Adra meets with an Israeli journalist named Yuval Abraham, who challenges the status quo of the Israeli military quite frequently. Tragic and unfortunate as the displacement of Adra’s home community is, I found myself drawn more to the emotional friendship bond that he shared with Yuval. Here, these men of two radically different faiths should hate one another, yet they do not. Together they work to fight for the community and capture one of the rarest forms of West Bank displacement allowed to be seen in film. “No Other Land” is a documentary made with love and shown with great hope.           

Deadpool & Wolverine
What do you get when you take an acerbically foulmouthed hyperactive mercenary with an opinion on everything and team him up with a dazed, 200-year-old man who conjures footlong metal blades out of his knuckles and tosses whatever he wants into a wasteland void?

I’m talking about the summer movie Marvel staple, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the one that grossed $601 million dollars in six days at the worldwide box office and shattered more film records with every passing day. For the uninitiated and the fandom alike, the Marvel character of Deadpool is a ridiculously over-the-top live action hero that utters more four-letter words in a single sentence than most people do in a whole year. His mutant specialty is being able to regenerate from his wounds during gunplay at an astronomical rate while running the raunchiest commentary ever. Are you charmed yet?

The film stars actor Ryan Reynolds in the titular Deadpool role, a main character with a mid-life crisis who finds himself cast into another dimension in which he may finally get to display his true heroics. Joined by the most popular X-Men character ever, Wolverine, played with grit and more muscles than ever by the ageless actor Hugh Jackman, together they search an alternate dimension in order to stop an evil warlord while trying to make it home.

Featured throughout the film are cameos by previous Marvel superheroes that I will not reveal here to keep the element of surprise. I assure you there will be no disappointments, and in fact, at my showing, the appearance of one character brought such a roar from the audience that I missed his next three lines of dialogue. Director Shawn Levy and his half dozen writers (including Reynolds himself) go all out on the violence, gags, and manic energy they bring to the film.

As someone who has seen the other films in the “Deadpool” franchise, if there’s one thing it has despite the penchant for profanity, it is heart. Sure, it does not boast the most savory dialogue and performances, but then again, Reynolds has no problem donning the mask and blood-red outfit on his own personal time as he visits young cancer patients in hospitals, feigning pratfalls and cracking jokes to bring some personal happiness into their lives. “Deadpool & Wolverine” is the raunchy action summer blockbuster hit of the year and has the box office to prove it.

Twisters
Twenty-eight years after the first “Twister” film blew into theaters and left behind a legacy of storm chasers in its wake, picking up some Oscar nominations for all the trouble, this burgeoning franchise sequel hits theaters for an entirely new audience. “Twisters” opens with the quintessential disaster storm that serves as a catalyst for an all-new group of storm chasers to not just hunt down tornadoes but try and “kill” them as they form. Daisy-Edgar Jones is the scientific brain behind the method, while actor heartthrob Glen Powell brings the concept of live streaming tornado chases to the forefront with the swagger and style of a rodeo showman.
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As can be expected, the tornadoes are bigger, “badder,” and more frequently devastating (remind me never to live in Oklahoma), although admittedly the plot runs thin. However, quite a few folks in the audience were nervously wringing their hands at the unfolding tornadoes on the screen. The fear of such storms holds up as much now as it did when the first film landed, and “Twisters” is a worthy sequel of typical summer viewing fare.

Anatomy of a Fall
To me personally, the absolute hardest genre of film to write would be that of the mystery.  More specifically, a possible murder mystery. I’ve always held a great admiration for writers and filmmakers who can essentially create an elaborate crime and pack a cinematic landscape full of red herrings, grim foreshadowing, and suspense galore. One of the better surprises in 2024 has been the French film “Anatomy of a Fall,” which is the best murder mystery film to come along in some time. Not only did the film capture the coveted Palme d’Or of the Cannes Film Festival, it also took home the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Screenplay against a bevy of nominations for its actors and production.

The film stars actress Sandra Müller as Sandra Voyter, a devoted wife and novelist who lives in the snowy region of Grenoble, France. She lives there with her academic husband Samuel and blind son Daniel in a seemingly normal capacity until tragedy strikes early. Young Daniel somehow locates the body of his deceased father, dead from a fall, atop the snow. Thus begins the great investigation and scrutiny that Sandra must experience at the hands of law enforcement and the courts as the prime suspect in her husband’s untimely death. It’s the conviction of the performance from Müller here that really puts the mystery material here over the top. My first exposure to her immense acting talent came earlier in the year as Rüdolf Hess’s wife Hedwig in the Holocaust film, “Zone of Interest.” It was only a matter of time before someone with the directing and writing talent such as Justine Triet was able to churn out riveting material to be humanized with Müller’s performance into a compelling mystery film. Layered with complexity and depth, “Anatomy of a Fall” doesn’t offer quick answers, but instead plays to the standard of what all mystery films should be. 


Late Night with the Devil
Perhaps no other horror film has had a bigger viral campaign over the course of the last year than “Late Night with the Devil.” From the brotherly writing and directing duo of Cameron and Colin Cairnes, the hype has been unbelievable and true to the form of good horror, it’s quite the visual ride. The film stars actor David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy, a popular ’70s late night talk show host of the show “Night Owls.” While the show suffers from a low ratings period, Jack looks to bounce back with a haughty ratings grab by casting a special edition of his yearly Halloween episode with magicians, psychics, and possessed people. The film is shot in borderline documentary-style cut with that of a normally acted film to surprising effectiveness. Because the entire Halloween episode is meant to document the night that everything went dreadfully wrong on “Night Owls,” it’s presented as material that’s not to be viewed due to its controversial material. Dastmalchian’s increasingly paranoid behavior on his show, as the macabre evening wears on, helps to keep the live television pacing, which adds realism to the entire film.  Original and terrifyingly offbeat at times, “Late Night with the Devil” is that early summer horror film that hits all the right screams. 

American Fiction
I recall actor Jeffrey Wright first bursting into mainstream Hollywood in director John Singleton’s modern-day sequel to the “Shaft” franchise. He played a ruthless Puerto Rican drug lord whose dynamic mood swings made the film quite enjoyable. From there, he ended up in a few of the “James Bond” franchise films, as well as the “Hunger Games,” at times dabbling in larger budget indie films while flirting with television dramas for which he won both an Emmy and Golden Globe. His range and depth as an actor have not gone unnoticed. He’s nominated for an Academy Award that’s long overdue, and he makes director Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” an absolutely amazing film of part satire and all truth.

The film is based on novelist Percival Everett’s “Erasure,” which, for nearly 23 years, went unnoticed by most book critics. Jefferson took serious notes in crafting his screenplay, casting Jeffrey Wright in the lead of author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison. This character is a West Coast author and professor who writes stunning novels, but he just can’t make a steady stream of sales. Monk ultimately adopts the persona of a convict to write a blaxploitation novel as a half-joking last resort to find some success, and it begins to pay off hugely. Executives love it, and Hollywood comes calling, but can the once sought-out success be too much pressure for Monk? The film takes twists and turns to entertain on one level while bringing notice to the supremely under-recognized efforts of African American authors. This gem starts slow, and you think it will go a predictable way, but before long you are overarching into a completely different territory. It’s a cinematic ride worth taking.


20 Days in Mariupol
​“20 Days in Mariupol” is quite possibly the most powerful documentary on the war in the Ukraine that still rages on. This is also one of the most viscerally haunting films that I have ever seen. Directed by Mstyslav Chernov, the film navigates the earliest days of the 2022 Russian invasion of Mariupol, the bustling port city located on the Sea of Azov. Filmed guerrilla style, this documentary has a smattering of Ukrainian, Russian, and English languages scattered throughout, much like the many people the film depicts being scattered about due to the military invasion. Chernov captures a group of journalists chronicling how the citizens of Mariupol react and flee their homes under Russian attack. There is a lot of devastation and somewhat gruesome. This film uses no special effects or star power to keep things moving along. The timing and sheer scope of this Academy Award-nominated documentary has done something no other film has in history: Chronicle through an unfiltered lens the annihilation of an entire port city. Mstyslav Chernov and his team should be recognized as making a film that shuns war and champions human resilience in its rawest form.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Video games have arguably been around for the better part of 50 years, and no matter what personal gaming console someone is using, the default identification of such is always “Nintendo.” And, if trying to blindly identify what exactly is being played then … yep, you guessed it:  Super Mario Bros. is going to be the response. Now, with Universal Pictures finally making an animated Mario movie, a whole new Mario era may begin.

The film opens in the heart of an animated Brooklyn where everyone’s favorite plumbers, Mario (in red) and Luigi (in green), are off to a gig.  Their business flounders early but the brothers heed a call for a city-wide emergency before being separately sucked into enormous pipes that spit them out on the opposite ends of another world. Poor Luigi is deposited in the Dark Lands, which are ruled by the evil Bowser, voiced here by ubiquitous comedian Jack Black. Bowser is bent on marrying the beloved Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom where she rules and where Mario has crash-landed. Mario is warmly voiced by Chris Pratt of “Guardians of the Galaxy” fame and Peach by Anya Taylor-Joy, whose take on Peach is not some wimpy princess, but almost that of a warrior queen. 

And so begins a great journey of epic video game proportions where just about every conventional Mario device will be recognized, even if the viewer only held a Nintendo controller a minute. Along the journey, audiences come across the hearty Toad and international video game celebrity, Donkey Kong himself. There are mushrooms, fireballs, and even the rarely used Tanooki Suit that make many appearances. While this might sound like gibberish to some, one thing I noticed is that children watching were having the time of their lives. My screening had plenty of giggles and mighty cheers from those in attendance, and I bet “The Super Mario Bros.” movie is going to be in most theaters for the duration.


Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
There’s hardly been an American author more in tune with capturing all the joys and pains of adolescence than Judy Blume. Her novels range from sibling mayhem in her “Fudge” quadrilogy up to the sensitive physical appearance taboos in the aptly-named “Blubber.”  
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Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig has created an adolescent masterpiece in one of Blume’s most cherished works and given it a full life in the totally charming and semi-serious “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret.” The film stars Abby Fortson in the titular role as a young adolescent caught between the interfaith whirlwinds of her good-natured mother Barbara (Rachel McAdams) and her clumsy father Herb (Benny Salfide). Scrambling with actual growing pains, young Margaret attempts to find a faith on her own terms by talking to God in hopes of discovering an easier and sometimes less embarrassing way out of puberty. The film is a colorful and at times, a feisty spirited take on the 49-year-old novel that Blume entrusted to Oscar winning producer James L. Brooks to make into a new classic. Rated PG-13, the film might not entertain little ones, but for any parents with tweens in their household, this film will surely speak to them and let them know they’re not alone in growing up. ​

The Whale
In titling a film, you only get one chance at making a great first impression. For a film like “The Whale,” a would-be moviegoer associates the title with the man’s size and assumes it is likely a crazy diet comeback story and declines to see it. “The Whale” just might be the biggest film surprise of 2023, and I assure you that it is not what you think it is. 

The film stars former 90s hunk actor Brendan Fraser as Charlie, a reclusive college English professor who hides his face on camera when teaching courses while serially ordering enormous pizzas. It is no secret that Charlie might have a week at best to live, and he’s determined to reconnect with his estranged adolescent daughter, Ellie, played with fiery angst by “Stranger Things” actress Sadie Sink.

Ellie has no problem letting the humiliations fly at Charlie with unrelenting speed. He abandoned her and her mother years earlier over another lover, only to deal with grief in an unexpected way, which is of course compulsively eating. His only real companion is his personal nurse, Liz, played with a gallows humor by actress Hong Chau. Director Darren Aronofsky has done a masterful job at bringing playwright Samuel Hunter’s work to the big screen, as in true play fashion, this film is set entirely in Charlie’s rainy apartment with only a half dozen characters.  

Fraser hits the perfect dramatic notes as a flawed and failed man who uses what little time he has left to put right what once went so greatly wrong in his life and that of his daughter Ellie. Aronofsky packs the film with plenty of heavy drama, but chooses precisely when to sneak in one or two unexpected humorous scenes to give the audience and Charlie a break from being reminded that one’s life is indeed fatalistic.  The levity brought in makes the characters in this film feel all the more real and by the time the film was nearing the end there wasn’t a dry eye in the auditorium and plenty of people were absolutely riveted upon its sudden ending.  

In 2009, Aronofsky had another flawed character film in “The Wrestler” starring Mickey Rourke as a man who is on borrowed time and strives to right a whole lot of wrongs.  What that film lacked in reconciliation, Aronofsky more than makes up for it here.  “The Whale” is the most honest acting performance that Fraser has ever done, and he currently has the accolades to prove it.


To Leslie
One of the more unique aspects of Oscar season is seeing little-known films and actors/actresses being nominated. Andrea Riseborough is an English actress with a dozen or so noir films to her name (my personal favorite is “Mandy”), and she’s finally broken through to U.S. audiences with “To Leslie,” a hard luck film. Riseborough stars as the titular Leslie, an alcoholic Texas mom who suddenly wins the lottery and then proceeds to squander it away.  Director Michael Morris paints a rather bleak tale, letting Riseborough sink as low as one human can go, only to have her rise like a phoenix through some very unforgiving ashes. “To Leslie” isn’t a comeback story, but Riseborough has taken dramatic care in showing you that redemption can come in any form. ​

The Menu
Writer Jonathan Swift once laid out a definition of satire as a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own. This remarkably astute definition holds up well some 300 years later. If Swift exchanged the word glass for plate, his quote could almost stand for the tagline in director Mark Mylod’s newest film, “The Menu.” An awkward blend of the “Ten Little Indians” theme mixed with black comedy and tossed with abject horror, Mylod has created the ultimate film-tasting menu for an audience - no reservations required.

An ensemble cast rules this picture and contains the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, Paul Adelstein and Janet McTeer as uber-wealthy elitists who converge on a tiny private island that holds the incredibly exclusive restaurant known as Hawthorne. The impeccable Ralph Fiennes plays the delish part of creepy celebrity head chef Julian Slowik, whose bevy of sous chefs and maitre’d’s surround him with military-like precision as he announces the tasting course before each service.

Foodie culture has always been wildly popular, and the film spares no expense in creating some of the most visually stunning dishes peppered with rarified ingredients and coupled with pronunciations that would challenge even Gordon Ramsay. As the courses progress, little revelations about Chef Julian and his sous chefs are revealed with sometimes-deadly proportions. The buildup alongside the courses served give each audience member a slight taste of what is to come, and the film lets you know that, like a true plate tasting, an entire meal must be served before a critique is made.

Colin Stetson penned the film’s score, which combines both a playful elegance and dramatic upswing as to accompany each course, no matter how fantastic or disturbing it may be plated. Golden Globe nominations and various critic societies have lauded the performances by Taylor-Joy and Fiennes who are constantly at odds in the film. Do fast food and fine dining mix? Only in a quirky, over-the-top film like “The Menu” can that be answered.


White Noise
Actor Adam Driver lately has been trending into Christian Bale territory with his willingness to take on acting roles where there is a physical transformation to a point that you almost do not recognize him. In the totally absurdist comedy “White Noise,” you find Driver going to the absolute comedic maximum. And it works. The film is based on a novel of the same name by author Don Delillo, who was something of a cult writer of just about anything.

For the this film, we are caught up in all the neon and absurdities that existed in 1984 as Driver takes the role of Jack, a professor in a field that’s yet to be truly founded. His wife, Babette, played here with perfect comedic wit by actress Greta Gerwig, helps to keep her own wily household in line with the all the children they share between them. The kids follow mostly in Jack’s footsteps of wild interests and absurdities, all the while searching for normality in their town.
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It takes a man-made natural disaster to upheave Jack and his tribe and take them on a preposterous series of events before any third act ever begins. The film plays two ways; on the surface it’s comedy fun and just below that is pure nominalism. After viewing this film, it sounds like a class that Jack would certainly teach.

The Fabelmans
Expression through the arts is perhaps the most cathartic way of dealing with whatever slings and arrows life may hurl. If one cannot fully utilize therapy to bring about calm, one is likely to pick up a pen, or paintbrush and expel his or her feelings upon paper or canvas. Steven Spielberg chose to pick up a movie camera, and, boy, are we ever glad that he did. His list of films seems almost endless: “Jaws,” “Schindler’s List,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T” “Jurassic Park,” “Munich,” “Lincoln,” etc. These films have conflicts, bold characters, and cinematic endings of magnificent proportions. While making such classics, was Spielberg troubled? 

His latest directorial film is “The Fabelmans,” and it’s his own autobiography. The film stars Paul Dano and Michelle Williams as Burt and Mitzi Fabelman, parents of a slightly dysfunctional Jewish family from New Jersey. They take their oldest child, Sammy (obviously a young Spielberg), to his first film, DeMille’s “Greatest Show On Earth,” which leaves such an impression that the boy is forever crashing his toy train set while filming with his 8mm camera.  

Burt is a pre-Silicon Valley computer genius in the 1950s, and the family moves across the country, with stops in Phoenix and Northern California. Their moves from predominately Jewish neighborhoods to more ethnically absent neighborhoods weigh heavy on the entire family, especially for young Sammy, whose camera tends to capture the truth no matter how painful it really is.   

Virtually every scene in the film is a wink and nod to Spielberg classics, and these references will be evident to rabid Spielberg fans. “The Fabelmans” is a personal love letter from Spielberg to the world, and for those who are interested in what makes a filmmaker tick, you won’t find a better picture to see than this. 


The Banshees of Inisherin
Academy Award winning director Martin McDonagh delivers one of the more awkward (yet seriously funny) “dramedies” in “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Set in the 1920s, the film stars Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell as former best friends Colm and Padraic, who live on one of the tiniest islands in all of Ireland. McDonagh delivers a cinematographer’s dream in that almost every outdoor shot is made from pure Emerald Isle perfection, yet not all is rosy there on Inisherin. The tavern fiddler Colm has a midlife crisis and suddenly cannot stand to be in the mundane presence of Padraic. 
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The midlife severance crisis between older men is a film topic that is rarely seen, and Martin, who also wrote this screenplay, has done a bang-up job in bringing out the blackest of comedy tropes to get such an underutilized plot some attention. The film is confidently Irish in its purpose, but comes across to American audiences as both unique and refreshing. Outdoing himself again, Martin and the film’s actors should reap some nominations come award season time. ​

8-Bit Christmas
In the fifth or sixth year of my life, our kindly guidance counselor, Mrs. Whitaker, came to my first grade class on chilly December day to engage us in talks about the Christmas holiday. She asked us individually what we wanted for Christmas, and I excitedly told her what I thought was the best answer in class … a Nintendo. She laughed and told me I had expensive tastes “for requesting such a pricey computer game.” I dismissed her comment as not being up to snuff on the latest Nintendo marketing campaigns. Had she not seen the dizzying levels of 8-bit graphics? Did she miss the enormous Nintendo display at the Hixson K-Mart, that always had a snaky line of juvenile Nintendo fans waiting endlessly for that chance to play a round of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out?

I did indeed get my Nintendo that very Christmas (which I still have today), and 35 years later, fresh off a Black Friday weekend of trying to score an Xbox X gaming console, I can tell you that the thrill of gaming and the chase for it never gets old. During “8-Bit Christmas,” I relived everything from 1988 with gusto.
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The film stars actor Neil Patrick Harris as the grown up version of young Jake Doyle. One snowy day he breaks out the old Nintendo to regale his smartphone-addicted daughter (“Dad, it looks like a gray Tupperware box”) about what the console is and the powerful story behind it. The viewer is instantly transported to 1988 in suburban Chicago to see younger Jake, played by Winslow Fegley, engage his parents in Nintendo talk, only to be shot down at every turn. It’s all there in whimsical, nostalgia-filled scenes: the schoolyard Nintendo debates; Power Gloves; shopping mall sellouts; the overbearing neighborhood rich kid who already had the Nintendo; even the dreaded “video games cause violent behavior” talk. Jake’s adventures take him to incredible lengths all over the Chicago area in search of his greatest prize before he and his friends concoct a 15-point plan of epic proportions to procure the most coveted Christmas gift of all time. Perfect for pre-teens, this film will allow parents around during this era to fondly reminisce with their own kids, making this a funny family film to watch together. I really shouldn’t give this film three stars – truly, I shouldn’t. But for anyone who managed to get that Nintendo and still keeps up with gaming today (just like I still do), this film is for you.


King Richard
Actor Will Smith is no stranger to sports biographies, but in “King Richard,” he takes a much quieter road and it pays off well. Smith stars as Richard Williams, father to superstar tennis players Serena and Venus Williams. The film spans the early years of the Williams sisters to their upbringing in Compton, where their father began to foster their love of tennis on bombed-out tennis courts - at all hours and in both rain and shine. Armed with an 80- page document, he bombards tennis coaches and media personalities with facts about his kids, showing commitment that knows no bounds. His zest for their success is tactfully balanced out by his wife Brandy, played with a solid resolve by actress Aunjanue Ellis. Director Reinaldo Green helps steer a powerful cast to put this film as one of the better sports biographies in recent memory. A feel good ride, “King Richard” is an uplifting film that shows dreams sometimes really do come true. ​