MINI MOVIE REVIEWS 2024—PART III

This has been a woefully non-special season of films. While some have been interesting enough, and a few of the performances have been excellent, (as they should all be in show business, especially when one is earning the big bucks,) few have stood out as particularly awards-worthy for me. And the ones that have, such as from Fantasia Barrino and Leo DiCaprio, have not been rewarded enough.

The there have been some years that it was a shame that someone had to lose-out because more than one performance was brilliant, (such as Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy losing to Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, or John Hurt not winning for his ingenious turn in The Elephant Man because DeNiro did Raging Bull in the same year.) But for the SAG Awards this year, I had to vote for just the least unspecial performances, which is a shame. Few of these actors would have even been nominated in other years!

In case you missed my duo of earlier 2024 Mini Movie Reviews, here are the links to them so you can catch up: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/movie-reviewsmini-reviews-mini-movie-reviews-2024-part-i and itsnotaboutme.tv/news/movie-reviewsmini-reviews-mini-movie-reviews-2024-part-ii.

And here are the links to my full reviews of Killers of the Flower Moon (itsnotaboutme.tv/news/movie-review-killers-of-the-flower-moon) and Barbie (itsnotaboutme.tv/news/movie-review-barbie-movie-do-not-take-the-kids-and-stay-away-yourself.)

Now here’s my third, and final, crop of 2024 Mini Movie Reviews, so you have them before this Saturday’s SAG Awards. Some of the films are up for Oscars, some for SAGs, and some were nominated for January’s Golden Globes. That means that they all deserve the ItsNotAboutMe.TV treatment.

Here they are:

The Color Purple—All the other films I’ve seen recently I was just watching; this one I was involved with. I cried my guts out for a solid ten minutes near the end of the movie, while not shedding a tear, nor even having many smiles, with the rest of the crop.

I put off seeing The Color Purple until last because I’ve seen the more-often-than-not horrific story before, both on stage and in the old non-musical film, and was dreading witnessing it again. But because I’m always into fairness, I had to see it before I voted for the SAGs this week.

I’m also a fan of Fantasia Barrino, and that she wasn’t nominated for an Oscar or a SAG is a travesty! Especially when she deserved it soooo much more than some of the actual nominees. And so did Colman Domingo for Best Supporting Actor. I adore Ryan Gosling, but for him to be nominated for playing Ken over Colman’s gut-wrenching performance in this one is making me sick. Truly. (I’ll discuss all of this in-depth right before the Oscars in a few weeks.)

As to this entire film, it turned-out to be my favorite. There’s so much talent involved—who knew that Taraji P. Henson could sing like that??? And even though the happiness of dance really doesn’t go with the sad scenario, I always love to see excellent dancing.

Here’s something to know in advance: I had to go back when I saw certain names in the credits because I did not recognize three famous people in small roles—Ciara, Blackish‘s Deon Cole, and H.E.R.! You will not believe it!

Maestro—While Bradley Cooper definitely gives his all as Leonard Bernstein, especially in a late scene of him conducting an orchestra, (and I give him major credit for also writing, directing, and producing this film, while seeming to just spend his days walking his young daughter around Manhattan, per the gossip sites!,) I’m not sure that he’s entirely successful throughout. So I’m still deciding if I should vote for him or Colman Domingo in Rustin.

The same goes for Carey Mulligan here—I have it down to her or Annette Bening for Nyad. (I love all these one-word titles—so much less to type!!!) At first, I had no idea what accent she was trying to do. And then when the character said she’s from Chile, (which is one of the truths in the film,) I was upset from that moment on because her accent was either from New England or just regular Ol’ England!!! But I looked-up videos of the real Felicia the next day, and there was her true voice, meaning Carey is all correct in this film.

I still can’t figure-out exactly what the focus of the film is. Is it that Bernstein was gay while married? We never saw how he fell in love with his wife, if, indeed, he even did! And they didn’t show us if she knew all along or not. But it’s not enough about his music career, so that can’t be the story, either. I actually had no idea what was going on for a lot of the over two hours.

And Bradley’s accent and voice go in and out, from caricature to more true, so that’s a bit annoying, as well.

Also, why are parts of the film in black-and-white while the rest is color? This is not The Wizard of Oz, (nor a Woody Allen film,) for goodness sake!

So just take it for what it is, and enjoy what you can.

Oh, by the way, as a Jewish person, Cooper’s fake nose didn’t bother me even one little bit. He needed it to look like Bernstein! What is wrong with people to have an issue with it??? Actors have to lose or gain weight, and change their hair, nails, teeth, etc. for roles, so why is a proboscis enhancement considered to be such a big deal here?! I don’t get it.

What he should have done, though, is wear brown contact lenses—his blue eyes are so prominent in Maestro, and, although light, Bernstein’s eyes were brown.

Rustin—The star of this one, Colman Domingo, is actually the first actor I’ve seen for whom I can vote. He actually deserved a nod for his creepy turn in The Color Purple, as well.

And the film itself is really good. It’s a historic story that really needed to be told. [Note: As a matter of fact, I suggested to one of the Executive Producers, David Permut, several years ago, that he should do a film about this historical important man! I don’t know if he brought my idea to the Obamas, or if they brought it to him, (which would mean that Barak’s brilliant mind on this topic matched my lesser one,) so I’m a tad perplexed about that situation, but I’m still glad that it got made, either way.]

But what was Chris Rock, (of whom I’m a big fan,) doing in there??? He’s just way too recognizable and way too…Chris Rock! Every time he appeared on-screen, it took me out of the story. They definitely didn’t need him, and should have cast an unknown in that role.
And, although she is impressive in some of her work, her opera background, and having received her Masters from Yale, how did Da’Vine Joy Randolph get such big credit at the end, for just singing a couple of lines as Mahalia Jackson??? Crazy.

There were a few other head-scratchers in this one, as well, but these two were the biggest.

American Fiction—This is my second favorite movie of the season. It’s amusingly profound and very real. And Mr. X appreciated that there was no violence in it.

However, while the actors give excellent performances, I really didn’t see any that are awards-worthy. The entire cast is nominated for the SAGs as an ensemble. (Since it’s Screen Actors Guild awards, all the awards are for actors only—duh. Hence, no Best Picture, only best cast.) They are all good, so it’s a possibility. (But I have a feeling my idiotic fellow union members will hop on the inane Barbie band wagon and award this group award to them, while the fair among us will go with The Color Purple or Oppenheimer.) But for Sterling K. Brown to be nominated for Outstanding Male for this is just nonsense! He’s really good, as always, but not better than, say, Colman Domingo in The Color Purple.

But the overall message in American Fiction is a good one. I’m just not in love with aspects of the ending.

Past Lives—This is a charming film, in half English and half Korean. However, being an incredible romantic, it was painful to me. I can’t tell you why, to not ruin the story for you.

But it is an interesting tale of love that takes place over twenty-four years and in four countries. And pay attention to the opening few minutes. They turn-out to be brilliant.

Oh, I’ll just tell you a bit about them because that scene pertains to me in a tiny way. It features a couple of unseen strangers wondering who the three people they’re seeing in a bar are to each other. It made me laugh for two reasons. Firstly, my mother often did the same thing. And secondly, and more personally amusing, is that when I was doing my show, and I’d go to dinner afterwards with several assorted pals and audience members, we’d occasionally get stares because we were such a disparate group. Rarely did anyone ask how we knew each other, because that is really rude, but when a brave someone did inquire about the connections, I’d chuckle to myself as I’d politely explain. I still smile when I think of those instances.

Air—Though not nominated for the SAGs or Oscars, I wanted to see Air because it had some nods for the recent Golden Globes, which, knowing the subject matter, I could not imagine. After the first ten minutes, Mr. X said he was done with it, but I insisted we plug on, in case it got better, which it did. At the end, he actually declared, “This is a good film.” I agree.

In case you don’t know, it’s the story of how Nike got NBA rookie Michael Jordan to agree to do his shoe with them. A tale like that is not intrinsically interesting, however this one sort-of is. But a small part of the scenario depressed me a bit, on a personal level, because back when I was doing my TV show, Converse had asked if they could send me sneakers.  (I had a deal with Reebok back then, but I was really allowed to wear anything I wanted. ) But because I’m the laziest person on Earth, I never followed-up with them.  Being so lazy has made me miss out on a lot of things like that, which this movie sadly reminded me of.

On a happier personal note, I have to laud Julius Tennon, who plays Michael’s dad, James. I’ve met Julius a few times, (because his wife, Viola Davis, and I were both Theatre majors at the same college, and share our “daughter-hood” status bestowed on us by our beloved Acting professor, Dr. Bill Hutchinson,) but had never seen him act before. I didn’t even know he’s an actor! And I must say he’s perfect in that small role. He seems as sweet in the film as he is in person. So that was a highlight for me.

To remind you–the Screen Actors Guild Awards will be on this Saturday night, and then the Oscars will be two weeks after that, so this is my final group of Mini Movie Reviews before the end of the 2024 awards season. But, because I’m soooo upset about many of the nominations, I plan to share my final rant on the topic right before the March 10th Oscars.

Lastly, I’ll try my best to live-tweet the SAGs on Saturday, so if you don’t already follow me on Twitter/X, this would be a good time. I’m at @MajorCelebrity on that platform. And remember—the SAGs are not on a cable channel this year; the show is now on Netflix, which I often inexplicably resent.