Charlie's Angels Demonstrates Promise As Well As Glaring Shortcomings

First drafts can be rough. Speaking from experience on this matter, first drafts can frequently hold a lot of promise but also a lot of rough patches. Ideas may not be as fully-formed as they should be. The structure of your piece can be clumsy. Your singular voice may not shine through as distinctively as it should. No worries, though. After all, who gets it right on the very first try? Certainly not me! Unfortunately, Elizabeth Banks' Charlie's Angels reboot feels like the cinematic equivalent of a first draft. Full of promise and hinting at something interesting but it still needed some more work.

Noelle's Bursts of Originality Highlight Its Heavily Derivative Elements

SPOILERS FOR NOELLE AHEAD

There's a really interesting idea for a Yuletide family movie nestled within Noelle, one of the first original films made for the Disney+ streaming platform (it was once set for a November 2019 theatrical release). But much like a Christmas present tucked away at the very back of the tree, it remains out of grasp of writer/director Marc Lawrence. Well, mostly out of grasp I should say. There is a stretch of the third act where Noelle actually manages to hit upon something special and unique. Unfortunately, too much of it settles for being derivative, a hodgepodge mixture of Elf, The Year Without A Santa Claus and Arthur Christmas. 

Waves Is A Frequently Successful Ambitious Directorial Effort From Trey Edward Shults

Writer/director Trey Edward Shults has previously been responsible for two movies, Krisha and It Comes At Night, that generated much of their tension from restricting their stories about families going through turmoil primarily to singular locations. Through this restrained method, Shults has created some memorable pieces of intense cinema, but for his newest movie, Waves, Shults is looking to expand his creative canvas. Waves is a project that doesn't just span numerous locations, it also takes place over an expansive amount of time (a sharp contrast to the likes of Kirsha that took place over a holiday dinner) and utilizes a number of bold visual techniques such as shifting aspect ratios. Oh, and Shults is also going to comment on a number of real-world social issues.

Atlantics Ain't Afraid of No Ghost...or Committing to Bold Storytelling & Cinematography Choices

In art, the act of falling in love with someone is connected with the notion of being alive. In the traditional language of cinema, being able to connect with another person is to reaffirm that you're indeed a living, breathing person. How ironic, then, that Atlantics would be a romantic-drama that would so heavily feature ghosts. Whether they come in the forms of Casper or entities the Ghostbusters would track down, ghosts are always depicted as the very opposite of love, and by proxy, the very opposite of the traditional cinematic depiction of romance. But writer/director Mati Diop works wonders in bringing together life and death for a one-of-a-kind romantic drama.

"Can I Be Your Legacy?": A Review of Queen & Slim

Though it eventually sprawls out into becoming a movie following two people evading law enforcement across multiple state lines, Queen & Slim starts out under extremely mundane circumstances. Angela (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Ernest (Daniel Kaluuya) are sharing a first-date dinner together at a diner. It's not going ideally, their conversations keep going nowhere, perhaps because their personalities couldn't be more polar opposite. Angela is a defense attorney determined to always stand up for something as small as a miscooked order of eggs while Ernest is a soft-spoken go-with-the-flow Costco cashier. Sparks don't exactly fly between the two of them.

Live-Action Disney Remakes Come To Streaming With Lady and the Tramp

You didn't think 2019 would close out without one more live-action remake of a classic animated Disney movie? The fifth one of these in 2019 arrives in the form of Lady and the Tramp, which also serves as one of the first original films on Disney's new streaming platform Disney+. This newest remake also serves as a throwback title for Disney, one that harkens back to their more traditional family films like Homeward Bound and Beverly Hills Chihuahua rather than the mega-budget live-action remakes that define modern-day Disney family entertainment. That's not inherently a good or bad thing, but it does give one an idea of what kind of original movies we can expect Disney+ to deliver in the coming years.

The Good Liar Is A Subpar Hitchcock Knock-Off (SPOILERS)

Isn't internet dating a pain? The Good Liar makes the awkwardness of such experiences clear without even getting into the modern-day pitfalls of Catfishing or specific peculiar personalities you could only find on Grindr. But even if internet dating isn't perfect, it did at least bring Betty McLeish (Helen Mirren) and Roy Courtnay (Ian McKellen) together. The two of them bond over a shared sense of humor and them being widows. Sure, McLeish's grandson may not like Roy all that much, but it doesn't matter, the two of them share a connection. Unbeknownst to Betty McLeish, though, Roy is not who he seems. He's a scammer looking to take her for every penny she has and this cutthroat dude is willing to do whatever it takes for hefty sums of cash.

Both Marielle Heller and Tom Hanks Bring Their A-Game For A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Though he's plastered all over the marketing, Tom Hanks' Fred Rogers is not the lead character of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Rogers is certainly a pivotal part of the movie and the visual trappings of his children's television show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, are also reflected throughout the production as well. But those expecting this Marielle Heller directorial effort to be a traditional movie biopic about Fred Rogers or any other kind of film exclusively focusing on this man will be disappointed. Heller and writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster have concocted something much more unique for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood that may not put Fred Rogers center-stage but certainly is influenced by the man and especially his worldview.

Edward Norton's Motherless Brooklyn is an Undercooked Film Noir Homage

You can't help but root for Motherless Brooklyn, that rare modern-day adult-drama movie released by a major American studio. A two-and-a-half-hour long homage to noirs featuring nary an explosion in sight? It's a welcome surprise to see a studio like Warner Bros. financing and releasing this type of title. Unfortunately, noble artistic ambitions can't actually make Motherless Brooklyn a good movie. On the contrary, this is a shockingly disposable feature film with only brief glimmers of actual entertainment or quality to be found. Despite having spent two decades in development, Motherless Brooklyn is still a movie that could have used a whole lot more work.

The King Has Noble Intent But Only Intermittently Successful Execution

It's always difficult to suddenly assume a new job but it's especially trying when your the son of a King of England who doesn't want anything to do with the throne and then you're forced to become the King when your pops dies. Don't you hate it when that happens? Those circumstances have just befallen King Henry V (Timothee Chalamet), whose distaste with the throne is even greater than his thirst for alcohol. He didn't want this gig, but Henry V is trying to create a more peaceful kingdom compared to his far more trigger-happy father who was always going to war with everybody who gave him so much as a bad look. But The King is a dark drama and that means Henry V's ambitions for peace will not go according to plan.

Knives Out Delivers Top-Shelf Entertainment As Delectable As A Donut Hole

As Knives Out begins, the various members of the Thrombey family are being interviewed by police officers about the recent death of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). Such interviews are being treated as just a formality given that Harlan Thrombey died by way of suicide, but listening in on these interviews is a man who believes there is something bigger going on here with this elderly mystery book author's demise. That man is none other than Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), an ultra-Southern individual who suspects murder could be behind the death of Harlan Thrombey. Who could be behind it? Well, there's no shortage of suspects within the Thrombey family, his descendants are quite the eclectic group of people each with their own ax to grind.

Shia LaBeouf's Past Makes For Outstanding Cinema In Honey Boy

Honey Boy is inseparable from actor Shia LaBeouf. Not only did he write and play one of the lead roles in this project, but it's also based upon his life, specifically his childhood as a child actor while living with his abusive father, the figure LaBeouf plays in Honey Boy. Those expecting a glossy clean-cut biopic from LaBeouf and director Alma Har'el's approach to this deeply personal story will be left unsatisfied. Honey Boy is constantly raw in examining Shia's youth and how it impacted him as an adult and will leave viewers (appropriately) uncomfortable in numerous instances. It's not an easy watch in the slightest, but that's incredibly fitting for this story and taking such an uncompromising gaze with this story helps to make Honey Boy as outstanding as it is.

Cynthia Erivo Brings Top-Notch Work To A So-So Biopic In Harriet

As of April 2016, only one* theatrical movie has featured Harriet Tubman and that film was 2012's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Though a solid action/horror tale in its own right, even the filmmakers behind that project would be the first to admit that it's ludicrous that this high-concept exercise in historical fiction is the only cinematic representation for such an important historical figure like Harriet Tubman. For Gods sake, the man who killed John Lennon has gotten his own feature film but not a woman who was an integral part of the Underground Railroad! Such a massive oversight has been combated by the release of Harriet, a new feature film hailing from writer/director Kasi Lemmons.