I will be the first to admit that I generally don’t love movie musicals and films like Cyrano (affiliate link) ​are the reason why.

Cyrano (affiliate link) is a musical drama based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Peter Dinklage stars at the title character who is in love with the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett). When the pair meet early in the film, Roxanne professes that she has fallen in love at first sight and asks Cyrano to arrange a meeting with the man in question, the new soldier Christian played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. Cyrano is heartbroken at Roxanne’s confession, but agrees to set the meeting.
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Christian is similarly smitten with Roxanne, but fears he cannot adequately profess his love. Cyrano works with Christian to write love letters (professing his own love) that Christian can pass off as his own writing.

For a movie musical, the music itself was not very memorable. The one exception was the heart wrenching “Wherever I Fall,” sung by the soldiers on the eve of battle as they write home to their loved ones.

In the end, despite the visual appeal of the movie, I can’t come to love it. As with most movie musicals, I think I would have loved this had I seen it as a live performance on stage where the limitations of space require more ingenuity and creativity to tell the story than on film where you can shoot in numerous locations and sound stages.

7 out of 10

While I don’t quite agree with this being up for Best Picture at the Oscars earlier this year, I do understand the appeal for certain audiences.

Set at the beginning of The Troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1969, the film follows a young boy named Buddy (Jude Hill) as he navigates those troubled times with his parents (Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan) and grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds).

​This is the first part where the film lost me a bit in that I didn’t connect with the story. It’s obviously a very personal story for Branagh who is from Belfast and would have been around Buddy’s age at the time of the events depicted.

I can understand why many people lauded this as one of the best films of 2021, but still just couldn’t make that connection on a personal level to it. I appreciate the artistry and care put into making the film, but stop short of calling it a true masterpiece.

7 out of 10

It's not often I come across a film that makes me step back and consider a new way to experience the world around me. "Feeling Through" does just that and does so in many unexpected ways in its short 19-minute run time.

This is the story of a homeless teen named Tareek (Steven Prescod) trying to find a place to crash for the night. After leaving some friends, he notices a deaf and blind man named Artie (Robert Tarango) on a street corner holding a sign asking for help crossing the street. Tareek hesitantly helps the man get to the bus stop before deciding to wait for the bus with him and make sure the bus driver knows to alert him when they reach the correct stop.

​In some ways, this film is a classic combination of two misunderstood individuals that have little in common on the surface, but discover interesting bonds as they get to know one another. There is also a level of uncertainty throughout the film, and I could not help but question how difficult it is to trust someone that you can neither see nor hear, but can only sense by their touch. I know it would drive me crazy, but someone like Artie doesn't know any different. It is a true testament to the strength of humans that we can adapt to live in any way we need to.

What many would term a severe disability is not that, but truly an ability to experience the world in a way that few people ever can. Tarango, the actor who plays Artie, is also DeafBlind and makes history as the first such actor to play a leading role in a film. That alone is reason enough to see this film, but it does not disappoint and I highly encourage anyone to check out this film and imagine how your unique situation affects how you feel your way through the world.

9 out of 10​​​​

"Feeling Through"  is available to stream on the official film website, www.feelingthrough.com.

The most important part of this film is the conversation, but the concerto serves as a jumping off point for the conversation to take place at all.

The conversation between co-director Erik Bowers and his grandfather Horace Bowers Sr. comes in the run up to Erik being the featured composer at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. When he sits down with his grandfather, he uncovers a family history that goes back to the Jim Crow south, winds through the mid-20th century when Horace negotiated life as a black business owner, and eventually led to Erik's achievement and recognition as a black composer today.

The film is important and hopefully spurs many young people today to have deep conversations with their own grandparents and parents about what things were like when they were young. We take a lot for granted about where the world is today, often forgetting that things were much different just a generation or two ago. By having these conversations, we can hopefully learn from the lessons of the past, and apply them to continue improving our society moving forward.

While the film is only 13 minutes long, I would be happy to have a much longer conversation like this in a feature length film.

9 out of 10​​​​

"A Concerto is a Conversation" is available on YouTube.

There are times when you should just stop reading a review and go watch the film. This is one of those times.

No seriously, you probably already have a Netflix account, so go watch this film now before reading another word.










Once you've watched the film, please click here to read my review.

As the second nominated film from Pixar's "SparkShorts" program, "Burrow" is a cute and family friendly film, but it stops short of being groundbreaking.

If you've seen these films on Disney+, you know they are cute and slightly different than the typical Pixar animated shorts we've seen over the years. Like last year's nominee "Kitbull," "Burrow" is a more traditional 2D animated film instead of the 3D animation Pixar has become known for.

The film focuses on a young rabbit who has dreams of building her dream burrow, complete with a picture to help her as she digs. She begins to construct her home, but ends up running into all sort of other creatures who have already set up residence in the ground.

She tries to avoid these other creatures and soon ends up digging too deep, impacting the water table underground and threatening the entire burrow neighborhood. She must act quickly to try and avoid catastrophe for all the creatures she encountered in her dig.

While the story is cute, the resolution is a bit predictable. "Burrow" is not the strongest SparkShort to come out of Pixar in the past year and I was a bit disappointed that neither "Loop" nor "Out" received a nomination.

6 out of 10​​​​

"Burrow" is available to stream on Disney+.

Part documentary, part rumination on a subset of our world that have been left behind, Nomadland is an absolute gem of a film that must be seen to be understood.

On the face of it, it's difficult to see how a nearly two hour film about a woman who lives in her van can be engaging and interesting, but director Chloé Zhao delivers in this meditative film. The story is simple as it follows Fern (Frances McDormand) as she travels from place to place, after losing her husband and her job. She is new to the nomadic lifestyle, but is learning quickly as she interacts with fellow nomads across the country. She eventually meets Dave (David Strathairn) at one stop and the pair strike up a friendship that brings their paths across one another several times throughout the film.

You might be asking, where's the conflict in this film? It was a question I consistently asked before watching it, but was surprised to see it materialize on the screen in unlikely places. There is the obvious pull of the relationship with Dave when he decides to settle down with his son and grandson, but there are other smaller things as well. Fern has to learn how to dispose of her own waste on the road. She has to deal with a flat tire and more serious mechanical issues with her van which she turns to her own family for help. While some of these elements are certainly manufactured for the film, they felt real and natural things for someone living this lifestyle to face.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cinematography and scenic nature of this film. The majority takes place in the Western United States, out on open roads and vast deserts with mountains in the distance. Only when Fern has to ask her family for help do you get any sense that anything larger than a one stop-light town exists in this world. It's extremely refreshing and the entire film has a casual pace that lets the viewer relax and be at one with their own thoughts.

If I didn't know who McDormand and Strathairn were and you put this film in front of me, positioned as a documentary about nomads, I would completely believe you. There is nothing forced in the film and that's what feels so great about it. The two leads are surrounded by actual nomads used to shoot the film and these lend an air of credibility to it.

The film is well deserving of the many accolades it has already received and I expect it to bring home several more at the Oscars in April.

9 out of 10​​​​

Nomadland is available to stream on Hulu.

It's hard to come to a movie with a title like Judas and the Black Messiah without any preconceptions, but the more openly you can approach this movie the better.

The film follows the events of the late 1960s when a young petty criminal named Bill O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) seeks to avoid prison time for stealing a car by working with the FBI to infiltrate the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, led by Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). O'Neal must gain Hampton's trust, while simultaneously navigating the world of a very white criminal justice organization that he doesn't fully trust.

You might think coming into this film that it's going to glorify the Black Panther Party, but it does not. Neither does it paint them in a fully negative light. There are moments where the people involved in the party are violent and vengeful, but there are also tender moments, showing their humanity. Throughout the film, I found my own allegiances changing from scene to scene, keeping my on my toes as I tried to figure out exactly who was on who's side on screen.

Kaluuya was long rumored to be an Oscar contender for his role in this film, and won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor back in February 2021. I was not surprised to see Stanfield receive a nomination for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar alongside Kaluuya and honestly think his portrayal of the O'Neal's Judas character was better than Kaluuya's.

Overall, this is a powerful film with strong performances throughout the cast. I highly recommend this film as we wait to see how many Oscars it can bring home at the end of April.

8 out of 10​​​​

Just like the title suggests, this film is a great show piece, and while it attempts at finding a deeper meaning and message about acceptance and being oneself, the film ultimately falls a bit flat in telling the story of P. T. Barnum (P. T. Barnum) and his rise to circus fame.

Don't get me wrong, there are sequences in this film that look fantastic and the way things transition from one phase to the next is seamless. It's clear that the filmmakers took great pains to show the way Barnum's showmanship intersected with his personal life and vice versa. All of the typical circus sideshow oddities are there from the "bearded lady" to the "dog man" and everything in between. It was even a bit surprising that in the 21st century, these characters were treated as callously as they were at the beginning of the film, set up as being true oddities even though we have a much better understanding of the conditions that make people unique today.

The film shows a young Barnum working as a tailor's apprentice before meeting the girl of his dreams, the rich Charity Hallett (Michelle Williams). They marry and have two children before Barnum loses everything and opens his museum of wax figures in New York to dismal sales before eventually bringing in the "freak" performers. His willingness to employee these individuals is ridiculed by critics, but enjoyed by (most of) the public which eventually leads to bigger and bigger successes.

But despite all the spectacle, the film is terribly predictable. There are attempts at being profound and inspiring, but they are covered over with the music throughout, which often takes over scenes that feel like they should have a little more space to be quiet and breathe. The frenetic pace of the various performances and dance numbers make the 105 minute run-time feel stuffed full and forced.

That said, there are a few scenes where some brilliant acting shines through, specifically one very touching scene between Zendaya's trapeze artist Anne Wheeler and Zac Efron's Phillip Carlyle. Unfortunately, this only further exposes the problem plaguing the rest of the film by showing there can be quiet moments of reflection. Jackman's performance, while nothing extraordinary, is entertaining and fills the screen, proving who the true showman in this piece is.

6 out of 10​​​​

The Greatest Showman is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and on demand as well as streaming on Disney+.

Oliver Stone delivers an inside peek into what it may have felt like to experience Vietnam first hand as an infantryman.

I have never been in the military, and I most certainly have never been in a war zone like the one portrayed in Platoon, but I can imagine this is pretty much what it would feel like. It's clear that Stone knows what he's talking about, having been in Vietnam himself and he wanted to make sure that reflected on the screen.

The cast of the film is what really makes it shine. Between the young and initially naive Chris (Charlie Sheen), the hardened warrior Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), and the idealistic Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), you get the full spectrum of people involved in the war. We see young men getting their first taste of the atrocities that exist in war, often on both sides of a conflict.

I couldn't help comparing this film to Apocalypse Now, and through that comparison is the only way I can find fault with this film. That is not to say this is a bad film. Quite the contrary. The film is fantastic and allows you to take the journey with Chris throughout the film as he goes from grunt, fresh of the plane in Vietnam, to a man who is willing to take on his superiors when he perceives they are doing wrong, but also aggressively interrogates a perceived enemy after one battle.

This is a war film that has stood the test of time. It is told with an eye toward realism and intensity that gives is a feeling of truth.

9 out of 10​​​​