Two film critics, three movies, thirty seconds! Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as me and myself review three movies in less time than it takes to chew a stick of Doublemint gum! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about twofold De Niros in “The Alto Knights,” the return of “Snow White” and the dramedy “Bob Trevino Likes It.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Snow White,” a mostly live action adaptation of the 1937 Disney classic, now playing in theatres, a princess attempts to free her kingdom from her stepmother’s tyranny.
CAST: Rachel Zegler, Emilia Faucher, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Andrew Barth Feldman, Tituss Burgess, Martin Klebba, Jason Kravits, George Salazar, Jeremy Swift, Andy Grotelueschen, Ansu Kabia, Patrick Page, George Appleby, Colin Michael Carmichael, Samuel Baxter, Jimmy Johnston, Dujonna Gift-Simms, Hadley Fraser, Lorena Andrea, Idriss Kargbo, Jaih Betote, Freya Mitchell, Zoë Athena, Dean Nolan, Jonathan Bourne, Luisa Guerreiro, Adrian Bower, Felipe Bejarano. Directed by Marc Webb.
REVIEW: For a film that has generated so much controversy and cultural debate in the weeks and months leading up to its release, “Snow White” is rather bland. A mostly live-action remake of the classic 1937 animated film, it’s a mix of new and old.
In the old column you have the basic story of Snow White (Rachel Zegler), an evil stepmother and seven helpers who help protect the title character. There’s also familiar songs like “Whistle While You Work” and “Heigh-Ho,” the latter of which is given a treatment that feels like a template for an amusement park ride, an Evil Queen (Gal Gadot) who is as obsessed with herself as any ten TikTok influencers combined, a poisoned apple and an on-the-lam Snow White (Rachel Zegler) who still finds refuge with the Seven Dwarfs.
The new stuff includes Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), a Robin Hood style rebel character who replaces the traditional prince and new songs by the “Dear Evan Hansen” duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
The biggest story shift comes with the portrayal of the title character. No longer a damsel in distress, in 2025 Snow White is a leader, a go-getter with a Power to the People dream, rather than dreaming of love.
Director Marc Webb manages a balance between the new and old elements, but, despite Zegler’s impressive vocal abilities, some lively choreography and vibrant set design, the result is more Ho Hum than Hi Ho.
The new tunes, like “Waiting on a Wish” and the villain theme “All Is Fair” are tuneful enough but lack personality when placed side-by-side to the classic songs by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. Zegler has the pipes and sells the heck out of her solos with vibrant theatre kid energy, but you won’t leave the theatre whistling anything other than “Whistle While You Work.”
Near the beginning of “Snow White” the forest near the castle is described as “a place where magic still abides.” It’s too bad the same can’t be said about the movie.
SYNOPSIS: In “Saturday Night,” a new show business biography from director Jason Reitman, and now playing in theatres, tensions run high as producer Lorne Michaels and his not ready for prime-time gang of young comedians count down the minutes until the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” on Oct. 11, 1975.
CAST: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and J. K. Simmons. Directed by Jason Reitman.
REVIEW: “Saturday Night” captures the anxiety, the humor and the sheer nerve it took to get the first episode of “SNL” off the ground. Chaos reigns for much of the movie’s run time as producer Lorne Michaels attempts to wrangle an unruly cast, a drug addled host (a terrific Matthew Rhys as George Carlin), indecision and a network executive (Willem Dafoe) who may, or may not, order a Johnny Carson rerun to air instead of Michaels’s disorganized counterculture circus.
Reitman captures the behind-the-scenes action with a restless camera that never seems to stop moving, rat-a-tat-tat Arron Sorkin style fast talking dialogue and meticulous recreations of the iconic “SNL” set and sketches.
Reitman’s biggest storytelling accomplishment, however, may be that he imbues the film with a sense that everything may come crashing down at any second. We know it won’t, of course—“SNL” celebrates 50 seasons this year—but the threat of imminent collapse hangs over frame.
Michaels’s high wire act is the film’s engine, but it’s the insights into the cast that provide the key to deciphering what made the original 1975 cast so compelling.
Cory Michael Smith captures “SNL’s” first superstar Chevy Chase’s comic ability, fueled by talent, ego and bluster. Dylan O’Brien’s take on Dan Aykroyd is eerily accurate vocally and physically, and Matt Wood puts John Belushi’s troubled genius routine front and centre. Lamorne Morris plays Garrett Morris, the lone Black performer in the original cast, as a searcher, looking for purpose in a show that appears to be rudderless.
The women in the boy’s club, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, and Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, are given less to do, but each has a moment amid the chaos. Hunt gets Radner’s buoyant, sunshiny personality, Fairn is all eagerness as Newman and Curtain’s one-on-one backstage chat with Morris is a funny, yet poignant, conversation about her place in this cast. Cumulatively, they are at their best in a recreation of a sketch where the women, as construction workers, ogle and objectify Aykroyd.
The large ensemble cast is rounded out by a scene-stealing J.K. Simmons as Hollywood legend Milton Berle and “Succession’s” Nicholas Braun in the dual roles of Andy Kaufman and Muppet master Jim Henson.
The film’s soul comes courtesy of the pairing of Gabriel LaBelle and Rachel Sennott as Michaels and his wife and “SNL” writer, Rosie Shuster. “We may be married,” she says, “but I’m not your wife,” and it is their bond, in whatever form it takes, that grounds Michaels as everything appears to spin out of control.
“Saturday Night” is a love letter to show business. It’s high energy nostalgic fun, told in almost real time, that captures the tenacity of the creative mind and the beginnings of a cultural institution.
In recent years the R-rated comedy has fallen out of favor, pushed out of movie theatres by hunky but fully clothed, spandex-clad superheroes. In her new movie, Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence attempts to bring soft-core comedy and innuendo back to the big screen with “No Hard Feelings,” a throwback to a time before #MeToo when raunchy romps like “American Pie” and “Not Another Teen Movie” bridged the gap between mainstream movies and stag films.
Lawrence plays Montauk, Long Island Uber driver Maddie, a young woman with only a few dollars in her bank account and even fewer options to earn more after her vehicle gets repossessed. “I’m an Uber driver and I don’t have a car,” she says. “I’m going to lose my house.”
With no job and no prospects, she answers a Craigslist ad posted by Laird (Matthew Broderick) and Allison (Laura Benanti), the wealthy, eccentric helicopter parents of withdrawn nineteen-year-old Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). The overbearing couple, who keep track of their kid via GPS on his phone, fear he is too withdrawn and ready to attend Princeton University in the fall. “He doesn’t come out of his room,” says Laird. “He doesn’t talk to girls. He doesn’t drink.”
The deal is simple: If Maddie will date Percy, and bring him out of his shell, they’ll give her an old Buick they haven’t driven in years.
“So, when you say ‘date him,’” Maddie asks, “do you mean ‘date him’ or ‘date him’?”
“Date him,” Laird says, “date him hard.”
“I’ll date his brains out,” she promises.
The plan doesn’t get off to a promising start after Percy, fearing that Maddie’s advances are actually a kidnapping attempt, pepper sprays her. As time passes, however, Maddie and Percy’s friendship goes beyond contractual.
“No Hard Feelings” aims to find a sweet spot between racy comedy and heartfelt friendship story and misses the mark on both counts. The silly premise dampens whatever authentic moments Lawrence teases out of the bland script, and the metaphors—i.e.: the old Buick may be broken down, but there’s nothing wrong with it, or Maddie, that a bit of love and tenderness can’t fix—are so heavy handed, they flatten out whatever sincerity is lurking in the shadows.
Lawrence and Feldman are both better than the material, and what success, and laughs, the film has are owed to their performances. As the movie struggles to create a feel-good vibe in the last reel, Lawrence’s considerable charisma comes in handy, but the predictable and ultimately contrived story feels outdated and overdone.
