The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)

Well, this film wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm not saying it was good but it could have been worse.
Audrey (Mila Kunis) is going through a bad break-up after her ex, Drew (Justin Theroux) abruptly leaves her after a year of dating. Turns out, he works for the CIA and one of the items left in her apartment contains a flash drive with some top secret information on it.
Fortunately, she's not in the fight for her life alone. She has her best friend, Morgan Freeman (Kate McKinnon), with a poor choice of names. It's supposed to be a joke but it falls horribly flat.
There are twists and turns throughout as the two run around Europe (though how they can afford this is beyond me as both have minimum wage jobs) trying not to get killed, unsure of who to trust. Turns out, Drew is actually one of the bad guys as the flash drive doesn't have important information on it, well, it does but not the sort of information that can save lives.
Audrey is finally doing something worthwhile with her life and she dumps Drew this time around, just as he deserved.
However, the most important aspect of the film to me was the strong friendship between Morgan and Audrey and how Morgan had no problem whatsoever with not wanting a serious relationship. McKinnon did a great job of portraying her and Kunis wasn't bad either. Unfortunately, the supporting characters were flat and underdeveloped and the plot was terribly weak with too many plot twists to keep track. Still, not the worst way to spend an evening. Grade: B-

Green Book (2018)

An excellent film with two superb performances.
Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), real name Frank Vallelonga is a hard-working Bronx Italian. He is not that educated but he does value his wife dearly and just wants to put a roof over his family's heads and food in their stomachs, which is a tall order given his appetite.
After he is forced to take a hiatus from his main job (a bouncer at the Copa), he needs to find a new job. In the end, he takes a job driving a world-famous musician, Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) to his concerts around the mid-west and the deep south. Though he states he won't have working for an African American, he probably isn't the biggest fan of them as only a few days before, two plumbers fixed the sink at his apartment and he put the glasses in the trash after they finished their drinks.
The two form an odd couple sort of relationship as they go on their journey. Sure, Tony is in it for the money but eventually he grows to truly respect the deep talent Don has in spades. He has to rescue Doc (Donald Shirley has no less than three doctorates) from a bar in Louisville, Kentucky and truly doesn't like how the southerns treat him and no one sums that up better than Don himself. The southerns want him so they can appear accepting, but once he's off the stage he's no better than the help. In Raleigh, Don's asked to use the outhouse and when he states that he'd rather not, Tony needs to take him back to his crappy hotel to do his business.
Tony also has to bribe the police in Atlanta after Don is caught having some sort of relationship with a white man. So that was the true reason his marriage didn't work out, not just because he was a traveling musician. Ironically, Tony probably has less of a problem with that than Don's class status. But when Tony is pulled over for having an African American in the car after dark, Don remains calm but Tony punches the cop out.
Almost until the end, Don tolerates the abuse dished out at him until his last show in Birmingham when he cannot join Tony and his trio partners in the restaurant even though he's the guest of honor and they got a Steinway in all the way from Atlanta just for him. And Tony finally turns down some money in exchange for the right thing.
And this film has a happy ending, Tony arrives home in time for Christmas, and Don changes his mind and takes Tony up on his invitation to the sheer delight of Tony's loving wife, Dolores (a great Linda Cardellini, in a small role). If Don hadn't joined them, he would have been all alone in his shiny apartment filled with exotic trinkets. The best line of the film is actually from Tony, "This world's full of lonely people waiting to make the first move." Something did happen between Don and his brother which caused that relationship to break and not repair for unknown reasons, perhaps because of Don's true self. However, that didn't stop Tony and Don for remaining friends until their deaths in 2013, I'm mildly surprised Tony survived that long given his eating habits and chain-smoking but he was loyal to his wife and adored his children so his heart was always in the right place.
This film is anchored by its excellent performances, sure Mortensen is probably twenty years older than Tony should be but you don't feel like any of them are acting, they inhabit their characters which is always so refreshing to see. The script is tight, though the ending is somewhat abrupt. The score is seamlessly blended into the film along with scenery and set designs. You feel like you are in 1962, as the atmosphere is realistic and brilliant. This is without a doubt one of the best films of the year. Grade: A-

Poldark: Season Four Recap and Reaction

Again, tons of stuff happened this season and not all of it was for the better.
Ross (Aidan Turner) finally accepts a life in politics, meaning he spends most of his time in London, six hundred miles away from the lovely Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson).
George (Jack Farthing) is still really bad but Oswald (Christian Brassington) is the worst, trying to get his wife, the lovely but meek Morwena (Ellise Chappell) committed to a mental institution.
And then he dies. Sorry, I know I shouldn't sound excited about that but I am. However, Morwena's struggles are far from over. She has her dreadful mother-in-law (Rebecca Front) to deal with, who is convinced that her son is murdered (which he sort of is) and continues his battle to have Morwena committed to an institution. Morwena does suffer from a late-term miscarriage and is strangely okay with that, as she knows that she wouldn't be allowed to love this child and sadly, she's right.
At least her story has a happy ending, mostly because Drake's (Harry Richardson's) a rare saint among men, I mean, he's wretched to his fiance, leaving her at the altar but while they'd be content, they would not be truly happy. I mean, Morwena has deep scars from the constant raping delivered by her jerk-face of a husband but she is getting there as she and Drake have a far deeper connection.
On the other hand, Demelza and Ross aren't in a good place by the end of the season mainly because Demelza is nearly assaulted by the jerk with an inappropriate name of Monk (Max Bennett). He's also in the parliament and preys on the difference in class and background and tries to get Demelza to sleep with him but it doesn't work. Unfortunately, Ross doesn't believe her and things get worse between the two of them and for whatever stupid reason, Ross and Monk Adderly duel and Monk ends up dead, which is just great. Demelza returns home, upset.
The Poldark marriage is not the only one in trouble. The Enys family is also in trouble. Dwight (Luke Norris) and Caroline's (Gabriella Wilde's) baby dies from a heart defect and both are distraught, a familiar position for the Poldarks but they deal with grief in different ways. Caroline needs to the thriving social life of London while Dwight needs his work. But they fortunately seem to be moving in the right direction by the end of the season, thank goodness.
The biggest surprise is that Elizabeth (Heida Reed) dies at the eleventh's hour. She is finally pregnant again, the mere thought of her and George having sex literally makes me want to throw up. However, George still doubts the paternity of Valentine (with good reason) so Elizabeth drinks this gross sounding concoction to induce her labor early, which works but she gets this weird infection and dies. But at least George believes that she just goes into labor early for whatever reason.
The main problem with this season, other than London is just more boring than Cornwall, is the aging of Geoffrey Charles. He's really old now, like sixteen and already boozing and gambling. He should only be around twelve so, yeah, this is an issue. However, I think he will really be able to stand up for himself against George and that is setting up to be an epic battle next season. Also, they need to give Sam (Tom York) a love interest, ASAP.
That all being said, the scenery and acting is excellent, absolutely the best in the business, even though all the men are jerks, except for Dwight and Demelza's brothers. Grade: B+

Instant Family (2018)

The plot is fairly simple plot. A couple, Pete and Ellie Wagner (Mark Wahlberg and Rose Bryne) who has launched their own successful house flipping business decide that they do want children after all, after years of putting the subject on the back burner. So they become certified foster parents to the mixed reviews from Ellie's family so they go through with it anyway.
They end up getting a set of three siblings, Lizzie (Isabella Moner), Juan (Gustavo Quiroz) and little Lita (Julianna Gamiz) to mixed results. Things start off great but turn ugly quickly. Lizzie is resentful and longs for reunification with her birth mother while Juan is accident-prone (though not all are his fault) and careless with his actions while Lita throws temper tantrums like many kids her age.
While Juan and Lita adjust, Lizzie still longs for her mother and jumps at the  chance to go back and live with her while Juan and Lita go reluctantly.
Things come to a head when Pete and Ellie discover that the adult janitor sent a picture of his penis to Lizzie which was such a dumb move on his part. They beat him up and all three are arrested. The kids are placed back with their mother but that also falls through. The bio mom has relapsed and is not ready to take the kids. Turns out that Lizzie filled out all the paperwork for her mom.
Lizzie once again sacrifices herself, urging them to adopt the younger two while she re-enters the system though Pete and Ellie don't give up on her and the film ends happily with the kids getting adopted by the Wagners.
While this film deals with a serious topic, it still deals with the major issues, getting a child addicted on drugs, sexual molestation of a minor and fear of abandonment among others though it still is too polished. For a more gritty, realistic film on the topic, try 2012's Short Term 12.
However, this film is not to be missed. Wahlberg and Bryne have great chemistry and truly do seem like a real couple and the supporting cast is great from Julie Hagerty and Michael O'Keefe as Ellie's parents to Margo Martindale as Pete's overbearing but loving mother to Tig Notaro and Octavia Spencer as the odd couple social workers who guide Pete and Ellie through the process. The other foster parents are also a bunch of interesting characters including one woman, for reasons never explained, she wants to adopt a athletic teenage boy so he can win a scholarship to a Division I college and that's only one of them, the rest are probably more realistic. Keep an eye out for Charlie McDermott and Joan Cusack cameos.
I certainly had some problems with the film. It is never explained why some described Pete as damaged goods but overall, it is great. Pete and Ellie get Ellie's sister, Kim (Allyn Rachel from the short-lived series Selfie) to get off her high horse of only having a blood child and it shows that there is no such thing as a perfect parent but with enough love and attention, mountains can be moved nevertheless. Grade: B+

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (2018)

This was a decent enough film. Sometimes, the worst thing in your life can be the best thing. John Callahan (a good but miscast Joaquin Phoenix) is an alcoholic bastard who is paralized in a car accident as both he and his friend, Dexter (Jack Black) are stone-cold drunk at the time.
Though John knows almost instantly that alcohol is a problem, he doesn't actually try to get sober until he has a vision of his biological mother. He had already joined AA, with Donnie (Jonah Hill) as his sober coach and a bunch of quirky characters in his AA group.
After his finally sobers up, he starts drawing, griping the pen with both hands and creates some controversial cartoons which some find completely hilarious and others find politically incorrect. But this source of income threatens to derail his funding that needs to survive as he can't do anything really by himself, not even pouring himself a glass of water. But he keeps doing that, he keeps staying sober and he comes to terms with his life as is and is a better person for it.
Overall, the film isn't bad though once again, Rooney Mara has a role beneath her talents and Phoenix, though excellent in a difficult role is miscast. He is at least ten years too old. Though the film is labeled as a comedy, there is only one funny moment, when Tim (Tony Greenhand), John's helper), walks in on Annu (Mara) and John having sex.
Still, it was far from a wasted evening. But it failed to live up to its promise. Also, pay attention for a quick Heather Matarazzo cameo; she was so good in The Princess Diaries, but has done nothing since, and that is a real tragedy. Grade: B

Damsel (2018)

This will be a short blog because there isn't much to say about this film.
You are led to believe that Robert Pattinson as Samuel is rescuing the love of his life, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska) from her kidnapper, but that turns out not to be the case. She loved Anton (whom Samuel shoots right away so he is just a corpse). And Penelope is not to be reckoned with, able to use a firearm just as good any man. The film is grossly mistitled.
While it wasn't bad, I only found a few parts funny or interesting, like the stagecoach being a metaphor for death at the beginning and men comparing the size of their Adam's apples instead of penis size to prove how much a of man they are.
Sure, the performances are good, including one of the directors as Parson Henry who should receive star billing as he's in scenes with both of the main characters throughout the film. Despite the good performances, there is no point to this film, and that's unfortunate that such good performances are wasted with an interesting concept. Grade: B

The Hate U Give (2018): The Film

This film was superb and a good transference of the book to the big screen.
The film is rather simple and yet so utterly complex, Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) witnesses the police shooting of her childhood friend, Khalil (Algee Smith).
It was during a routine traffic stop, though I will argue that if an officer (Drew Starkey) pulls over someone for failing to use a turn signal, they wouldn't get anything else done (I do wish more would use their signals, it would make driving slightly less stressful) and Khalil doesn't take things seriously. And when he reaches back in for a hairbrush, the white officer shoots him, he dies minutes later without any attempt to save his life. The officer is surprised when a gun isn't discovered on the scene but a hairbrush instead.
When Starr is taken in for questioning, she isn't asked much about the shooting itself but instead is asked about Khalil's life, which was tragically cut short. She does everything right, she testifies, gives a passionate TV interview but it isn't enough. The officer is not charged with a crime. And that's unacceptable. No murder like that is justified. Yes, the officer was just trying to do his job and yes, he probably felt threatened but a young man didn't have to wind up died because of it. The officer couldn't have demanded that Khalil drop whatever it is or tased him instead?
Fortunately for Starr, she does have a good support system with strong parents, still in love after a rough start to their relationship, Maverick (Russell Hornsby) spent three years in prison, but since then he's cleaned up his act and Lisa (Regina Hall), who fights for Starr. Her boyfriend, Chris (KJ Apa) is pretty supportive too, though he hates when she shuts him out of her life. But he didn't break up with her when she wasn't ready to have sex with him and for that, I actually gives him a lot of credit.
But Starr's life isn't always easy, living in the inner city with few options for the youth, many turn to dealing drugs as a source of income and King (Anthony Mackie) rules the roost. This adds another layer to the film but at least this one as a happier ending. King goes down for arson, while he is probably guilty of far more serious crimes.
The largest difference from the book to the film is that in the film, they stay in the city while in the book, they move to the suburbs. I liked the film's ending better.
The film is solid, with an excellent, pitch-perfect cast. Everyone is great, with award-winning performances, especially Stenberg. The set is great, with realistic houses and environments, flawless editing and music. The only problem is how did everyone know that Maverick's store was on fire? I'm glad he knew or else Starr and her older half-brother, Seven (Lamar Johnson) wouldn't have survived and they're the good guys.
Still, this film forces you to think, and hope that change is on the horizon because this cannot keep happening. Khalil was so much more than his death and deserves to be remembered for living, not for his untimely and unnecessary death. Grade: A-