Coda

Ruby is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). In fact, both her parents and her brother are deaf. So from the earliest age she has been translating for the family in their small town northeast fishing village. But Ruby likes to sing and it turns out is pretty good at it. So when she joins her high school choir, and is invited to private lessons by the director as a way to prepare her to audition for college at Berklee, the Ruby is finally happy and her family is really confused. They need her to help with the family fishing business, but the brother is tired of not being given responsibility and she is tired of too much responsibility. And, as a feel good movie about deaf people, everything works out in the end. For me, the singular most impactful scene is at the high school concert. We have heard throughout the film Ruby practicing with her partner for their duet. We know the song. So at the actual concert, we watch the entire performance from the perspective of the parents, silent. We see can only gain clues about what is being heard from the facial expressions and actions of those around. So cool as a 'bring me into the world' device. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Sweet Girl

Ray Cooper (Jason Momoa) and his daughter Rachel are coping with the recent loss of wife/mom to cancer. Turns out that a drug that could have helped her was too expensive on-brand and the Pharma company made a deal to buy out generic manufacturing. Wife/Mom dies and Ray and Rachel really don't get over it. The rest of the film plays out as a revenge thriller, and while the target is a particular Pharma CEO, the web of culpability gets more tangled the further we go. We get family survivalist vibes as well as conspiracy theory police psychology and straight up revenge action. Definitely one of those films that is fun to watch and think about later.

4 stars (out of 5)

Azorian: The Raising of the K-129

Documentary detailing an ocean salvage project from the 70's. A Russian nuclear sub (K-129) sunk in the Pacific to a depth of nearly 3 miles. The U.S. detected and pinpointed the accident and wreckage pretty quickly, while the Russians had no real idea where it was. This led to a massive secret CIA project to raise the sub and glean intel that would help win the cold war. The documentary chronicles the engineering challenges and methods that were undertaken to enable this salvage. Fascinating cold war history and even more fascinating engineering problem solving. 

4 stars (out of 5)

The Protégé

Maggie Q is the protégé of Samuel L. Jackson. He found and rescued her in Vietnam in the 90's, adopted her and trained her into the family business (assassinations). She is very good at it. The current job they are working on is a "make amends" type of job for Jackson that takes her reluctantly back to Vietnam. There she re-encounters Michael Keaton and the two face off in a love-hate sort of tussle. While largely staying within the action-assassin formula, Q and Keaton have a well-written relationship and they portray a chemistry that is fun to watch. 

The most surprising event of the movie is at the end when the credits started to flash. The screen goes black and the first thing you see is a big 'Michael Keaton' on the screen. Wait, what? Maggie Q is so clearly the protagonist and star, carrying this entire film (she is the title character after all). Why does Keaton get first bill? Normally I don't notice that stuff, and maybe it is just that I was so engaged with Q's performance throughout, but it struck me as unfortunate.

4 stars (out of 5)

A Map of Tiny Perfect Things

Teen rom-com version of Groundhog Day. Mark has been living the same day for quite awhile and enjoys helping different people out every day. Then one day he encounters Margaret, who is also living the same day repeatedly. So they strike up a friendship and go about showing each other the perfect moments they have discovered (stand in a certain place at a certain time and see confluence of events that is perfect). They start to map these (and presumably make the map new every day), a tesseract is involved and a kiss of course as they work out if they want to move on and if so,  how to do it. Cute, charming rom-com.

3 stars (out of 5)

Beckett

John David Washington is an American traveling through Greece with his girlfriend. They change their itinerary to visit the countryside as a way to avoid planned protests in the city. Along the way he gets in a car crash, sees something he "shouldn't", and then is in escape mode. Presumably he is an average guy pushed to the brink. This plays like The Fugitive, and a little bit of a revenge action movie like Taken. We get conspiracy and American projection of power and arrogance. And it feels like an action film going through the motions. 

3 stars (out of 5)

The Vault

A marine salvage team has finally found some high value treasure from Sir Francis Drake, and it is promptly seized by the Spanish government. It is stored in the main vault of the Bank of Spain, which is famously unbreakable. So the salvage team gets a young engineering prodigy to join the team and help them out. This is a perfect heist film in that we get to see the heist planning and execution and experience the curveballs along with the characters. So fun. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Car Masters: Rust to Riches (serial)

Season 3

The next iteration of the Gotham Garage crew continues their model of restoring cars and then trading up. After several restore and trades in a chain they end up with a big payday. Or at least that is the idea. This season, following on the high profile replica they did for the Peterson Automotive Museum, they were expecting high profile clients. And they got them, but with strings attached. The jobs started to be cash jobs or add-parts-to-this-car jobs, losing out on the creative fun of building Gotham vehicles. So the eight episodes documents that journey of finding out how to be a high profile garage AND maintain your character. The cars this group builds are pretty fun (e.g. a short school bus and a wide body prius) , and the crew are all likable. 

4 stars (out of 5)

The Suicide Squad

Not to be confused with Suicide Squad (sans The) from 5 years ago, but in the same world. A group of violent criminals is offered the option to go on an important mission in exchange for taking time off their sentence. The mission is impossible (they will likely die) and if they choose not to do it, the explosive implanted in their brain will be triggered. With this premise, I can imagine some super gritty, interesting machinations for a group of highly talented sociopaths. But that is not what we get here. Instead, this is cheeky banter, over the top characters, and absurd scenarios. So much so that I was not engaged and actually disinterested for most of it. As much as Margot Robbie and Idris Elba have to offer, they could not save this movie from itself. For insight into my thinking, the best part of the movie was when the giant starfish started walking across the city. The first few steps were each leg in succession stepping down (like a wheel rotating) emphasizing that there was not a "top" to this creature. I thought (because I had spare brain cycles) that it was a clever way to have this creature walk. But then after a few steps, the thing started just walking on two legs, with two functioning as arms and one as a head. So regular.

2 stars (out of 5)

Kajillionaire

A slow, strange drama/comedy that definitely shows Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums vibes. A family of small time grifters (super small time, as in looking for the $20 score) traverse Los Angeles looking to make enough money to pay their next rent. Odd is every aspect you can think, the family encounters a young woman, and brings her in to their circle. The main story is the development of the relationship between this young woman and the daughter of the family (Old Dolio). At times emotionally traumatic and others touching. Nice. 

4 stars (out of 5)

The Informer

An ex-con (Pete Koslow) has made a deal with the FBI to inform on a Polish crime boss in efforts to make a dent in the drug trade. But when things go horribly wrong (NYPD cop gets shot), he is connected in even deeper with the drug dealer and goes back to prison to run the drug trade there. Still working for the Feds, things still going wrong, Koslow has to decide who he can trust and find a way to protect himself and his family. Pretty formulaic, but I enjoy the formula.

3 stars (out of 5)

Ted Lasso (serial)

Season 1

Ted Lasso is a down-home coach of a 2nd tier Midwestern college football team. He is hired to coach AFC Richmond, a premier league football club in England. A caricature of southern optimism as a person, Lasso finds out that his boss hired him to fail (to get back at her ex-husband). Quirky, hilarious. Lasso doesn't care and does what he can, in spite of not knowing anything about soccer. Super fun first season. 

5 stars (out of 5)

The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

Sequel to Hitman's Bodyguard with the same protagonists (Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson) but add in Salma Hayak as the crazy grifter wife. The three need to work together to save Europe from a Greek nationalist/terrorist and of course they have to work outside the law. Action comedy with a modern keystone cops feel. Lots of action, silly dialogue and scenarios. Maybe exactly what you expect of Reynolds and maybe he is starting to be a one trick pony. But at least for now, it is a pretty good trick. 

3 stars (out of 5)