Screen Test

Laura Dern, Will Arnett and Calvin Knegten in “Is This Thing On?” Jason McDonald/Searchlight Pictures photo via IMDb.com Laura Dern won an Oscar for playing the divorce attorney in “Marriage Story.” Now, in “Is This Thing On?” she's the one getting the divorce. Hmmm, did she miss something … ? Her character Tess Novak, a former volleyball champion, takes the breakup in stride. Between her young sons, the dogs, her homey home and a possible new career coaching, there's not much room for depression. Her husband Alex (Will Arnett) handles it a little differently. He accidentally wanders into a comedy club one open-mic night, and before you can say, “Is this thing on?” he's doing stand-up comedy about the divorce and the sorry state of his life in general. Unlikely as it may sound, this is all based on true events. At least that's what it says in the end titles, right after the director's credit for Bradley Cooper. Cooper also costars as the goofball husband of Andra Da...

                           Leonardo DiCaprio in “One Battle After Another.”  Warner Bros. Pictures photo via IMDb.com …  Tough job but someone's gotta … , was the mantra during my decades of getting paid to review movies when the end of the year rolled around and it was time to make my Best List. I'm doing it pro bono now, but old habits die hard. Still, on the eve of a milestone birthday – the big 8-0 – there have been some lessons learned, and some changes made along the way. “Best” for openers. It's only taken this many decades to realize there's no such thing. True, prizes are given in creative endeavors of all sorts, but it's an imprecise calculation at best. It's occurring to me that none of us even see the same movie … and whatever we're watching isn't what the filmmakers pictured in their minds when they envisioned and created the thing. Sure, we follow the story they're telling, we escape into the w...

                     Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning in “Sentimental Value.”  Neon photos via IMDb.com. Why do genius film artists like Norway's Jochim Trier make movies like “Sentimental Value”?  Why fill a movie screen with the pain some fathers and daughters have expressing their love?  That question crossed my mind as I watched the fragile drama unfold. But by the time it reached its precarious victory in the last scene, I had my answer. Winner of this year's Grand Prize at Cannes, nominated for numerous Golden Globes, expect to see “Sentimental Value” up for a lot of Oscars, too, including Best Picture in Foreign Language  a nd  English. Stellan Skarsgard delivers a masterful if maddening performance as Gustav Borg, who divorces his wife when his daughters are still young girls, but returns to the beloved family home for his ex-wife's funeral. His reappearance rekindles unresolved resentments for the...

                       Timothy Chalamet on the move in “Marty Supreme.”   Photo courtesy of A24 via IMDb.com. Last year he played Bob Dylan. Now he's playing champion-level ping-pong. Is there any challenge Timothée Chalamet can't master? Then again, playing the role of Marty Mauser – otherwise known as “Marty Supreme” – is an act of supreme self-confidence. Such   chutzpah  as they might say in the Lower East Side Jewish neighborhood where the fast-talking 23-year-old lives in his mother's apartment.  Loosely based on the life of Marty Reisman, a table-tennis champ and brash hustler in the early 1950s, director/co-writer Josh Safdie creates pitch-perfect period settings around Chalamet's performance that sucks all the air out of whatever room he's in.  The faces of the large cast add to the air of authenticity. With thick New Yawk accents coming out of their mouths, rarely have actors looked less like ...

  Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson in “The Smashing Machine.”  A24 photo via IMDb.com Pairing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson with Emily Blunt in 2021's “Jungle Cruise” was a stroke of casting genius.  Their comic bickering as they rode the rapids rekindled the chemistry of Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn on their own leaky boat called “The African Queen.” Dwayne and Emily elevated the comedy up a notch or two from just being one more Disneyland ride spinoff. Together again, the pair navigate far more treacherous waters in “The Smashing Machine,” a biopic about '90s mixed martial arts and UFC champ Mark Kerr. The stars both got well-earned Golden Globe nominations for their efforts, but there aren't many laughs this time around. Kerr's sport was a hybrid of wrestling, boxing, kicking and basically pulverizing one's opponent. The rule books of the various extreme-fighting sanctioning bodies, some in Japan, were always works in progress. Biting was ruled out relatively ...

      Laura Dern, George Clooney and Adam Sandler in “Jay Kelly.”  Peter Mountain/Netflix photo via IMDb.com Jay Kelly the movie star lives in a bubble. “Jay Kelly” the movie lives in a bubble, too. It's the bubble of Malibu mansions and private jets to Paris; of entourages of enablers; of hundred-million-dollar lawsuits; of magazine covers as mirrors for your face; of millions of strangers all around the world who think they love you. Jay Kelly looks a lot like George Clooney. Wondering whether the icon is playing a role or playing himself is the most fun part of this star-studded sentimental dramedy written and directed by Noah Baumbach. The Netflix production was gorgeously filmed from Hollywood to Italy. Clooney just picked up a Golden Globe nomination for this glossy Hollywood version of an identity crisis … or as close as a superstar can get to one. Adam Sandler got a Globe nomination, too, for playing Jay's long-suffering manager Ron Sukenick. But it's Laura D...