2023 MOVIE CATCH-UP

This year, I watched a lot of movies which, for various reasons, failed to get written up in a conventional review format.

As I have been watching and rewatching a lot of movies for awards consideration and end-of-year list making, I thought I would encapsulate the movies I watched this year that did not land on the pages of Should I See It.

We’ll call this the 2023 Movie Catch-Up. Not the greatest name or title, but it suffices.

Movies reviewed below (January through September):

• 80 for Brady

• AIR

• Asteroid City

• BlackBerry

• Bottoms

• Cocaine Bear

• The Creator

• Creed III

• Infinity Pool

• John Wick: Chapter 4

• Kokomo City

• Magic Mike’s Last Dance

• Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One

• Pathaan

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

• The Super Mario Bros. Movie

• Suzume

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
★★★★
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Release Date: July 12, 2023
Paramount Pictures

With the underperforming numbers at the box office, it appears we may not be getting a Dead Reckoning Part Two, and instead the generically titled Mission: Impossible 8, but with the seventh film in the M:I franchise, Tom Cruise goes for broke (do we expect anything different?) in this epic 163-minute thrill ride, which introduces an array of new characters, multiple villains, and the franchise’s trademark death-defying stunts and action sequences.

Dead Reckoning Part One is a lot of fun and director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise are dialed in together from start to finish. Characters and arcs from the past films are brought back to the present, making one wonder if these Dead Reckoning films were designed to conclude the series altogether. 

No matter what the intention is, or was, we have Esai Morales (!) showing up as Gabriel, a nemesis from Ethan Hunt’s past, who has an agenda to eradicate Cruise’s secret agent once and for all. We have Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a thief who is in over her head but may be more savvy to things than we realize. There’s “The Entity,” an AI presence who wants Ethan dead at all costs. Pom Klementieff from Guardians of the Galaxy shines as a ruthless assassin, Oscar-nominee Vanessa Kirby captivates as the mysterious White Widow, and returning appearances from Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames add to the overall enjoyment.

There is so much happening and so many people involved here, you never get bored and McQuarrie and Cruise ratchet up the action sequences at just the perfect time. Stunts, visual effects, mystery and intrigue - it’s all impressive, Cruise again defying his age in doing all his own stunts - and the film seldom lets up. For 163 minutes. Which, admittedly, could be pared down a bit - but perhaps we need to see whatever comes next, be it Dead Reckoning Part Two or M:I 8.

So why did this disappoint at the box office? Perhaps we are feeling franchise fatigue? It is hard to say because even if you are shifting in your seat a bit with the running time, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is truly entertaining and emblematic of why people usually love going to the theater.

KOKOMO CITY
★★★★
Director: D. Smith
Release Date: July 28, 2023
Magnolia Pictures

Kokomo City is a black-and-white, raw, honest, fearless documentary of Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City. At just 73 minutes, director D. Smith, a trans female filmmaker, does what the best documentarians do - they show us a world we would otherwise never have exposure to. Smith documents a slice of American life that some may want to never acknowledge, judge, or even ignore, but is nonetheless worthy of our understanding, compassion, and recognition.

Four women take center stage in the film, and tragically one of them, Koko Da Doll, was murdered between the completion of the film and its release. Frank recreations of encounters are included with direct-to-camera discussions about the daily lives the women lead. The women hold nothing back and their unflinching dialogue and depiction of situations they have found themselves in may heighten anxiety and give pause to some viewers. Smith, a Grammy-nominated producer, performer, and artist, guides us through these stories and assigns no judgment for anything presented. The women have a safe space to share and convey their truth.

Through distinctive editing and music cues, Smith finds levity and humor. We come to realize the longer we watch Kokomo City the complexity of the lives presented to us are more robust and intriguing. Whatever preconceived notions I may have had before watching the film melt away and Smith captures the distinct character and personality of each woman. 

They are survivors. They are business women. And they recognize the risk. They also are open and honest with the hypocrisy of how transgender women, and sex workers in general, are perceived in the media, and the types of clients they attract. 

Kokomo City is a bold film and one I appreciate having in the marketplace. The compassion of understanding costs nothing and hearing stories of all walks of life is what adds to the tapestry of our experiences. The women of Kokomo City are real, they are funny, they are unapologetic and trying to make a life for themselves just like anyone else. 

BOTTOMS
★★★★1/2
Director: Emma Seligman
Release Date: August 25, 2023
MGM

In her follow up to the underrated and brilliant Shiva Baby, writer/director Emma Seligman has delivered Bottoms - a film about two lesbian high school best friends - PJ and Josie (Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri) - who want to have sex with their crushes, cheerleaders Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber). And so, banking on a story that they spent the summer in juvenile detention, they create a secret fight club, under the guise of creating a self-defense class, to try and make their desires a reality.

Yeah, Bottoms is bonkers - but also hilarious…and chaotic…and a complete skewering of masculinity, the tropes found in high school movies, and the tilted stage that girls are placed upon in movies of this kind. Led by Shiva Baby’s Sennott, who also co-wrote the film, and Edebiri (“The Bear”), the film is crazy quick in its dialogue, scene set-up, and presentation. The jokes and cutting dialogue come fast, the visual sight gags are plentiful, and the brash, unforgiving tone will either turn people off right away or hook you for 90 unforgettable minutes.

The main boys in the film are all football players, wearing their uniforms every day at school. They whine. They cry. They get everything they want. Isabel dates the moronic Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), but Josie is undeterred and sees signs theremay be something there with Isabel. PJ is convinced she will be with Brittany. Along the way, the girls convince Mr. G (Marshawn Lynch - yes, the Marshawn Lynch), the high school history teacher, to serve as their class advisor. 

Lynch is awesome here, effortlessly hilarious. As are Sennott, Edebiri, and supporting cast members Ruby Cruz, who plays gullible friend Hazel, and Miles Fowler, who is a buddy of Jeff’s who may be on to the girls’ fabricated story to convince classmates to join their “self-defense club.”

I loved Bottoms. It’s not for everyone I guess, but few films are this unique, as ridiculous as they are smart, as subversive as they are empathetic. 

THE CREATOR
★★★
Director: Gareth Edwards
Release Date: September 29, 2023
20th Century Studios

Gareth Edwards’ ambitious, expansive The Creator feels like something big and epic - the beginning of a new franchise or cinematic property that can be revisited through sequels and spin-off series and all the rest. The world-building alone is impressive, as Edwards, and co-writer Chris Weitz, construct an AI-led world in 2055, in the days after AI is blamed for detonating a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles.

Topical, inasmuch as artificial intelligence is very much a part of our world and essentially in its infancy of what it can and cannot do, Edwards has crafted something of a cautionary tale of how AI likely will impact our world. And his take is a rather bleak one. 

In The Creator, many Asian countries have consolidated as New Asia, embracing the use of AI in all aspects of life. This places them at odds of course with the West - who seek to band together to save mankind. Army sergeant Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) is tasked with leading NOMAD, a defense space station with attack capabilities, as the American military looks for someone or some thing known as Nirmata, believed to be behind the nuclear attack.

There is a lot within The Creator which is best left to be discovered. Edwards and Weitz do have several twists and turns embedded within their science-fiction, action-heavy adventure. At times, the film seems too robust, too dense for its running time. And though it is now becoming a cliché to suggest such things, you wonder how The Creator would play as a limited series. There is a lot of grist for the mill, as they say, within the film and the film languishes at times in detail, then hurtles forward with action sequences.

The Creator is a film you can get lost in. And the secret weapon, no pun intended, comes with a wonderful performance from Madeleine Yuna Voyles, who at just nine years old commands the screen and steals our hearts as Alphie, a simulant robot who is far more powerful than Taylor realizes. Their bond is important to the story, but Voyles, ironically, gives the movie much-needed heart that gets lost along the way with Edwards insistence on getting over other aspects of his story.

Stunning visual effects and sound design, with impressive action sequences and one wonderful performance at its core, The Creator is a good start to a much bigger and better project. Whether we ever get more of this vision, shall wait to be seen.

AIR
★★★★
Director: Ben Affleck
Release Date: April 5, 2023
Amazon Studios

Lost in the movie conversations of 2023 was Ben Affleck’s thoroughly entertaining AIR, a movie which feels like had it been released within the last few weeks of 2023 would be squarely embedded in the awards conversation.

AIR documents the story of how, in 1984, basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) convinces eccentric Nike CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) to take a meeting with the most popular collegiate basketball player in the nation - Michael Jordan. Trailing far behind rivals Converse and Adidas in basketball shoe sales, Sonny sees Jordan as the bellcow to push Nike’s sales through the roof. That his pitch comes with Knight considering shutting down the basketball licensing business altogether, presents a problem. As does Jordan and his family refusing to meet with Nike whatsoever. Sonny is persistent, refuses to take no as an answer, and Knight agrees to throw almost everything he has at trying to get Jordan to come on board.

Affleck plays loose and fast with his movie, pausing just enough to let the comedic beats syncopate and the melodrama germinate. Affleck also benefits from a tremendous ensemble cast, led by himself and Damon, but also a stern, terrific Viola Davis who shines as Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris. Jason Bateman is pretty much Jason Bateman (a good thing, in my opinion) portraying Damon’s boss, and a rejuvenated Chris Tucker joins a cast which also includes Chris Messina, Jay Mohr, Marlon Wayans and a hilarious Matthew Maher, who plays the designer of what would ultimately come to be known as the “Air Jordan.”

The movie is light, breezy, sticks and moves, and entertains. There is also a sincerity to all of this which wins you over, as history tells us that Nike did ultimately strike a deal with Jordan and his groundbreaking negotiations with the athletic company changed the industry forever.

Even knowing the eventual outcome, you root for these melancholy malcontents to find a way. And with Affleck at the helm, AIR floats along pretty effortlessly.

THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE
★★★
Director: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
Co-Director: Pierre Leduc, Fabien Polack
Release Date: April 5, 2023
Universal Pictures

Behind Barbie, no movie grossed more money in North America this year than The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Grossing $575 million here at home and $1.4 billion worldwide, this movie was a theatrical juggernaut.

For several weeks, Jack Black’s absurdly catchy song “Peaches” was all anyone talked about. In full disclosure, my critic friends and colleagues despised the movie for the most part and by the time I came around to it, the focus had shifted and people moved on. 

But did they actually move on from this thing?

Serious question: Has a movie ever been this successful and then completely vanished from the conversation? The movie sold 55 million tickets stateside, according to The-Numbers.com, but, like, where are those people? No one is talking about The Super Mario Bros. Movie anymore. Like no one.

Perhaps we just want to forget it existed? And look, I mean, I kind of get why. The movie is a bit of a mess. The film lacks an original story, even as it infuses elements from the iconic game franchise throughout the movie. 

Basically, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are desperate for plumbing clients after splitting from their former boss Spike (Sebastian Maniscalco). When they finally get a call, things go fine initially, but a menacing dog, sprung leaks, and animated movie chaos lead to them questioning their lot in life. When a New York City leak seems unfixable, naturally the bros (Mario, mostly) feel like they can fix it and save their business.

From there, they are sucked into a otherworldly portal and find that the delightful Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) rules Mushroom Kingdom, which is where Mario, who hates mushrooms of course, finds himself. Luigi ends up in the Dark Lands, ruled by the sinister turtle boss Bowser (Black). Toad, the Kongs, power-ups, super stars, coins - all the favorite elements from the game find their way here, including the iconic theme which composer Brian Tyler rather cleverly weaves in and out of his score.

Spending some time with it again this fall, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is not great, but far from the wretched viewing experience people told me it was upon its release. I didn’t even get that worked up over it when I saw it on Peacock initially this summer. No longer available on that platform and finishing the year on Netflix (I don’t understand where to find things either), maybe there are more important things in the world to make my blood boil than a harmless, silly video game adaptation that people apparently went and saw over and over and over again. 

Full of vibrant colors, constant motion, and a rather simplistic story, while The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a lot to take in, we at least will always have Bowser, smitten with Princess Peach and ready to ask for her hand in marriage so they can rule both their kingdoms together, at his piano, bellowing his love ballad “Peaches” from the depths of his soul. 

So we have that. Oh and also, a future sequel.

SUZUME
★★★★
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Release Date: April 14, 2023
Crunchyroll

Accessible and engaging, Suzume is an overlooked gem from the year in animation, a fantastical adventure involving a 17-year-old girl, a mysterious man who is cursed into the form of  a chair, a cat who turns into a daijin and an exploration of overcoming grief and loss and trusting and establishing connection.

Distributed by Crunchyroll, Suzume does remind one of the Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli look and feel, but it also tells a similar-sounding story of uncovering new worlds, while also understanding a deeper sense of self.

Interestingly, Makoto Shinkai was inspired to make Suzume because of natural disasters that have impacted the Japanese community. This theme threads through the movie as Suzume and Souta, the mysterious man who takes the form of a chair that holds a special connection to Suzume’s youth, are forced to travel together to prevent ongoing attacks from “The Worm,” a massive, reddish entity that creates earthquakes wherever it chooses to attack.

As the science-fiction aspects of the film play out, Suzume learns more about herself, her upbringing, and how to process tragedy from her youth. She comes of age, as Shinkai dutifully explores deeper themes, while also crafting a wondrous world that is as meticulously detailed as it is easy to become lost within.

BLACKBERRY
★★★1/2
Director: Matt Johnson
Release Date: May 12, 2023
IFC Films

Glenn Howerton gives a towering performance in BlackBerry, a biting look at the serendipitous rise and fall of the BlackBerry personal device, a precursor to the iPhone, but a device quickly swallowed by a rapidly changing technological world they ultimately could not compete in.

Howerton plays Jim Balsillie, a bulldog, temperamental CEO who comes on board Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian-based company who developed the prototype smartphone which surges in popularity in the mid 2000s. Balsillie joins RIM as co-CEO, alongside Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel), an introverted visionary who struggles to communicate effectively and has everything essentially mapped out in his mind. They are a dysfunctional pair, who eventually push out Doug Fregin (director Matt Johnson), a co-founder and partner with Lazaridis. 

Johnson’s film moves quickly, and not surprisingly was modified into a Director’s Cut/three-part episodic series in the fall of 2023 on the AMC+ streaming platform. Watching the theatrical release, BlackBerry feels like it could be more, especially heightened by some quick jumps in time in the film’s back half that feel haphazard and rushed.

With that said, the movie overall is a fun sprint, the stakes anchored appropriately, even if BlackBerry doesn’t quite let every element breathe for viewers. Well acted, even despite some of the most cringey wigs you have seen in quite awhile, the takeaway remains a fantastic Howerton. Perhaps best known for his work on the television series “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and NBC sitcom “A.P. Bio,” he makes BlackBerry a compelling watch almost by himself.   

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
★★★★★
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Release Date: June 2, 2023
Sony Pictures

One of 2023’s best films, I kick myself for not writing about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in long form this year. I love it. It’s a whirlwind, thrill ride of a film and one of the most ambitious, adventurous, and exhilarating animated films of recent memory.

Though some exhibitions of the film suffered from a bad sound mix when it opened in theaters in June 2023, this sequel to the groundbreaking, Oscar-winning 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is both a complementary film to the original and a wholly original sequel. There were few things this fun in the movies this year and subsequent viewings have only underscored that reality for me.

Admittedly, there is a lot to take in and Across the Spider-Verse requires you to pay attention. The animation technique stutters and stops, incorporates stunning visual effects, and never sits still. Mirroring the frenzy playing out in the mind of our young Spider-Man protagonist, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), we dive deeper into the Spider-Verse, a multiverse of countless Spider-People (known as “The Spider Society”) and numerous Earths to explore. At times, the film can feel overwhelming. However, directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson trust their audience to trust them on this journey.

And the film is an extraordinary achievement. The blending of cultures, perspectives, and various interpretations of Spider-Man is wonderful to see represented in such a novel and clever way, as is a villain who permeates all aspects of the multiverse. The Spot, who can create portals from his body, is a challenging foe, voiced by Jason Schwartzman. 

Morales, refreshingly, is still learning about his existence and place in the broader worlds in which he may or may not exist. He is still trying to figure all of this out and so are we. And that - that may be what sets this movie apart. Across the Spider-Verse doesn’t give us everything. We explore and learn alongside our main characters and through all the various styles of animation, and mixed media, and surprise voiceover cameos we are riveted, on the edge of our seats, unsure and excited for what may come next.

Where do we belong? Is there a place for all of us? Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse may be able to explore those questions through animation, far easier than with live action storytelling. However, if you strip away the movie’s precise editing, rapid-fire cuts, whirling visuals, and breathtaking action scenes, you find yourself left with a film focused on a young person looking for the same answers we all find ourselves asking ourselves as we grow up and mature.

With so much on screen, Across the Spider-Verse never stops giving. Three viewings in, I still find details I missed and see new layers to the film I am still uncovering. 

Give Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse all its richly deserved flowers. 

And give us the next chapter now.

ASTEROID CITY
★★★1/2
Director: Wes Anderson
Release Date: June 16, 2023
Focus Features

I can understand why Wes Anderson’s latest film, Asteroid City, polarized audiences. There are those who absolutely love it and think it ranks among the auteur’s finest work. And there are those who find it boring, unfunny, and flat out terrible. 

Such is the way with Anderson nowadays it seems. I, for one, enjoyed Asteroid City, even if I felt that the jokes began to lose their impact before the movie came to a close and not every emotional reach connected with me. 

For the opening half, Asteroid City works that Wes Anderson magic. The dry humor is scratchy, the atmosphere is strange, the matter-of-fact manner in which tragedy is revealed is as hilarious as it is jaw-dropping.

One person I know who despises the movie admits that they got lost from the very beginning, when Bryan Cranston walks out on stage and begins narrating the story of how a writer (Edward Norton) has crafted what we are about to see. A play broadcast on television, we learn that Asteroid City is going to be constructed and deconstructed in front of us, essentially a story being written and rewritten as we go. 

Fun, cheaply constructed backdrops create an inauthentic home for the mayhem Anderson is set to unleash. Jason Schwartzman stars as photographer Augie Steenbeck, who brings his teenage son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) to the Junior Stargazer competition. In tow, are his three daughters and the reveal that he is recently widowed - news he breaks to his kids after they reach the event.

A famous actress, Midge (Scarlett Johansson), catches Augie’s fancy and they exchange conversation and provocative moments through the windows of the bungalows they stay in. At the stargazing event, housed in a crater made by a falling meteorite some years before, numerous kids pick up awards, only to have events disrupted by the shocking arrival of a singular alien who descends down from a spaceship and steals the meteorite in plain sight of everyone.

In the film’s second half, the play blends the events in Asteroid City with the creation of the stage production and everything begins to blur together. This is where the film weakens for me personally. For all of the Anderson traits that I love - the quirky, bizarre humor, the rhythmic cadence of dialogue, the fantastic set design and the trademark Anderson cinematography - the film seems too convoluted to execute all it sets out to do. The framing and structure can be confusing and after seeing the film twice now, I am not sure I understand why Anderson chose to tell his story in such a blurry, murky way.

Perhaps, it is a statement on how we view news and events. If nothing feels real, then maybe it is being orchestrated behind-the-scenes for our entertainment. However, if everything is inauthentic and intentionally obtuse, why question anything? Maybe Asteroid City doesn’t intend to tell a story steeped in nihilism or maybe it does.

For me, the robust, all-star cast kept me hooked, as did the potential of what may come next. Anderson has delivered better films, but with Asteroid City he has created something curious and intriguing, a great film that seems to live within a meandering screenplay that, at times, and in key moments, feels overthought and unresolved. 

JANUARY to MARCH

PATHAAN
★★★1/2
Director: Siddharth Anand
Release Date: January 25, 2023
Yash Raj Films

Hot on the heels of the fervor of Oscar-winner RRR, I dropped in on Pathaan, which outgrossed RRR and delivered a serviceable action-adventure tale of a secret agent, tasked with eliminating a rogue secret agent who wants to destroy all of humanity with a deadly virus.

Faster than you can say COVID, Pathaan may trot out the same tropes from countless action movies, but Siddharth Anand’s film just hits different. For every stilted line reading or plot twist you have seen countless times before in other films, Pathaan delivers exciting action sequences and set pieces which keep the film moving along at a rather brisk pace.

Admittedly, this was my first entry into the now four-film YRF Spy Universe, and the significance of the surprise arrival of a legendary Indian actor here was lost on me. With that said, Pathaan may not be a movie you have heard of. However, with over $105 million grossed worldwide, audiences clearly connected with its unique presentation and enthusiastic display. 

INFINITY POOL
★1/2
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Release Date: January 27, 2023
NEON

I understand movie critics often champion avant garde, experimental, and challenging films to their readers and moviegoers in the hopes that someone finds their next favorite movie in a place they normally would not have thought to look.

With that said, Infinity Pool, a bleak, tedious, unrelenting slog of a movie, is supposed to be a movie I tell you is daring, audacious, shocking, and (opens the critic quote book) unlike anything you have ever seen. In full disclosure, I have hated few films more than this one in recent years and with an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, I should probably turn in my critics card now.

Alexander Skårsgard stars as James, a novelist who travels with his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) to an exclusive resort, only to cross paths with the diabolical and downright sinister Gabi (Mia Goth) and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert). Of course, we know they are bad news before our characters do, which is amplified with the first explicit sex scene when Gabi corners James and things transpire. 

By the time they leave the resort - we have devolved into a hedonistic, vulgar, graphic series of scenes that make critic friends swoon and talk about ambition, but left me thinking of words like desperate, pointless, and silly. By the time the realities of what James and Em have encountered is introduced, you are either all in on this insanity or long checked out. For me, I could care less about any of this, with Infinity Pool becoming one of the biggest disconnects from me and many of my peers in a long, long time. Yawn.

80 FOR BRADY
★★1/2
Director: Kyle Marvin
Release Date: February 3, 2023
Paramount Pictures

While this didn’t exactly work for me, 80 for Brady means well. There is an energy and pulse to it that is hard to ignore and Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field simply deserve a better screenplay.

Together, the four screen icons play best friends who decide to travel to Atlanta to see the New England Patriots play the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. Screenwriters Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern give each character a decent enough backstory to add depth to their characters. However, by about 20 minutes into this, I pretty much figured out how this would go and was largely proven right.

Tom Brady’s inevitable cameo is…something…and Tomlin, Fonda, Moreno, and Field sell the heck out of this thing. In the end, this whimsical story of four best friends pursuing a passion of theirs, while waxing philosophical about their advanced age, plays really well to kill some time on a streaming service while in pajamas, with some tea, and under a comfy blanket. Beyond that, 80 for Brady is rather forgettable - unless you are the Atlanta Falcons and lost the biggest lead in Super Bowl history. Perhaps, that is a different movie though. 

MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE
★★★
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Release Date: February 10, 2023
Warner Bros.

A decent enough conclusion to the Magic Mike franchise, Magic Mike’s Last Dance is a talky romance where former dancer, former furniture salesman and now bartender, Mike Lane (Channing Tatum), falls for wealthy Max (Salma Hayek Pinault), newly divorced and paying Mike for a private dance.

Sparks fly, romance ensues, and Mike and Max are soon off to London, where she is tasked with producing a stage show at a theater she possesses from the divorce settlement. The entire production is falling apart. Naturally, aware of Mike’s talents as a dancer and choreographer, she revamps the entire show and infuses tons of dance and modernized touches while having Mike in charge of the show.

As eye-rolling as all of this is, Tatum and Hayek Pinault have great chemistry and the film breezes along easy. Some great moments bring all three films together, and Tatum’s Zoom call with his former dancing bros from the previous films feels authentic and fun.

Soderbergh could have made Last Dance brandish a major statement or say something beyond the page. Instead, he doubles down on giving audiences a crowd-pleaser with a little bit of bite. For me, Tatum is having fun again. Hayek Pinault is in her element. There’s a few laughs and plenty of charm and far worse choices to make with Max… as in the streaming platform… where I finally caught up to Magic Mike’s Last Dance.

COCAINE BEAR
★★1/2
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Release Date: February 24, 2023
Universal Pictures

Fun for awhile, until it long overstays its welcome, Cocaine Bear is a goofy, gory romp, which wrings about every little drop of blood it can from its carnivorous bear’s wild drug-fueled murder spree.

Loosely based on actual events, Elizabeth Banks’ comedy/horror film begins with a thief falling to his death from a helicopter and bricks and bricks of coke tumbling down all around him. If seeing a bear mutilate a victim, then chasing after a butterfly is your kind of humor - you get the idea of what’s largely in store for you.

While the mama bear and her cubs each imbibe in the nose candy, then destroy people en masse, Cocaine Bear seems to find humor in the ensemble of crazy characters who get caught up in all this silliness. Eventually, single mom Sari (Keri Russell) steps to the forefront of the story when her daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) gets lost in the woods, skipping school with best friend Henry (Christian Convery). 

After about 30-40 minutes of this, the jokes, the gore, the novelty of the premise of a “Cocaine Bear” wears thin and the movie lumbers around rehashing and repeating similar set-ups and results.

Notable for Ray Liotta’s final on-screen movie appearance, and you cannot believe what the last scene of his movie career turns out to be, Cocaine Bear is forgettable and slight - a better premise than final product.

CREED III
★★★★
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Release Date: March 3, 2023
MGM

Stepping behind the camera, Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut shows the talented actor equipping himself nicely in telling the third Creed story. Here, an old childhood friend, Damian (Jonathan Majors), resurfaces after Adonis Creed has announced his retirement. Eager to spend time with wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and their daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent), Adonis gets roped into Damian’s circle as, after spending 18 years in prison, he is eager to be trained by his former best friend.

Jordan, working with a screenplay by Zach Baylin and Keenan Coogler, brother of writer/director Ryan Coogler, digs into the domesticity that Adonis and Bianca want for themselves. There’s some nice touches of how their lives as a championship boxer and celebrated musician make it harder for them to assume an unassuming life, while also intimating that Amara’s life may never be “normal” because of who her parents happen to be.

Those little touches make Creed III better than one might expect. Majors, whose career rightfully derailed after physical abuse allegations against a former girlfriend were found to be true, is admittedly really strong here. After singlehandedly saving Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with his entry into the Marvel Cinemtic Universe, Majors’ landed back-to-back performances that were set to launch him into megastardom. Now, he is likely going to be a forgotten memory.

That blight aside, Creed III remains a rousing, forceful, and at times moving film which makes the entire Creed series a winner. Terrific fight sequences, stakes which feel important and real, and a winning cast makes Michael B. Jordan’s debut as director an overlooked gem from 2023. 

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4
★★★★
Director: Chad Stahelski
Release Date: March 24, 2023
Liongate

Though far too long at 169 minutes, John Wick: Chapter 4 is a movie with full commitment to the world it has built, the characters it has created, and the incredible stunt and action sequences the franchise has come to be known for.

Keanu Reeves somehow seems to say less with each subsequent John Wick film, and here he grunts out the bare minimum when it comes to spoken dialogue. However, his presence is commanding. In this globe-trotting adventure epic, Chapter 4 finds John Wick in Morocco, Berlin, the United States, Japan, and who knows where else. Director Chad Stahelski has become an expert in building tension and this fourth chapter in the series has never looked better from the incredible camera work by cinematographer Dan Laustsen and stunning production design from Kevin Kavanaugh.

The action sequences are breathtaking, including the now iconic overhead “God’s View” action sequence where Wick travels room to room, destroying would-be assailants, and leaving blood spurts and burning bodies in his wake. The fight sequence in the Osaka Continental hotel is an all-timer and Reeves feels ageless executing these sequences, which grow increasingly bold, daring, and ambitious from movie to movie and scene to scene.

If a movie only delivers stunts, or some cool action sequences, and little else, then you have a solitary viewing experience. Chapter 4 brandishes an intriguing story with multiple villains, or villain-adjacent characters, who are desperately trying to hold on to what they have. Within the John Wick movies, there always seems to be something the villains are afraid of or running away from. We don’t always know what’s coming next, which four films in makes these such a fun series to dive into.

You need to have patience. You need to have a stomach for some of the blood and violence. Those sensitive to guns may indeed have a point if one wishes to argue that John Wick movies are celebratory of gun violence, even tone-deaf to the outside world in how guns are presented and depicted on screen. 

Stahelski has a mastery of this story, franchise, and its characters. And should this be the final entry in the series, John Wick: Chapter 4 is a tremendous way to conclude a groundbreaking, thrilling, and compelling series of films which may very well influence action movies for years and years to come.