Screen Test

  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...

             Jesse Buckley and Paul Mescal in “Hamnet.”  Photo by Agata Grzybowska - © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC., via IMDb.com  After winning Oscars for Frances McDormand and herself by portraying contemporary America as “Nomadland,” director Chloé Zhao goes back 400 years to Elizabethan England to create her next masterpiece. It's called “Hamnet.” It's excruciating and profound. You probably won't get through it dry eyed. It breaks your heart … then makes it soar. Revolving around Jesse Buckley's force-of-nature performance, almost every name in the credits – beginning with executive producer Steven Spielberg – is an award nomination in the making.  Co-written by Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell from O'Farrell's historical novel, “Hamnet” is a love story. Many love stories, actually. The first is the fable of a Latin tutor named Will (Paul Mescal), who aspires to be a writer. He forgets all about the two boys he is teaching when he sees th...

  Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst in “Roofman.”  Davi Russo/Davi Russo - © 2025 PARAMOUNT PICTURES photo via IMDb.com. Someone – I'm pretty sure it was author and political gadfly Marianne Williamson – once said we love our liars. Their stories are so much more entertaining than the ones told by those boring old truth tellers. If our current political morass doesn't convince you she's right, check out “Roofman.” Inspired by a believe-it-or-not true story, Channing Tatum plays Jeffrey Manchester, a military vet dubbed Roofman in the media during a spree robbing between 40 and 60 McDonalds across the country, plus a Burger King or two, by drilling in through their roofs. He would lock the employees in the freezer, but in at least one case gave his jacket to one who was cold. That's the kind of guy he was. This is all basically backstory for director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn, who prefer to focus on what happens after Manchester is caught, imprisoned, e...

Sandra Oh, Lupita Nyong'o, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Peter Dinklage  in a star-studded “Twelfth Night.”   PBS photo screenshots Ken Burns and company's “The American Revolution,” isn't the only historical treasure on PBS these days. Great Performances' “Twelfth Night” is another one. Saheem Ali filmed the rollicking comedy – its stellar cast led by Lupita Nyong'o and her brother, Junior Nyong'o, along with Sandra Oh, Peter Dinklage and Jesse Colin Ferguson – in a free Public Theater performance in Central Park's Delacorte Theater last summer. When Shakespeare wrote “Twelfth Night” in 1600, he added “What You Will” to the title. Probably just a coincidence that Will was his first name, too. Those words in big red letters provide the backdrop on the outdoor stage, which also makes ingenious use of trap doors. If the Bard were writing the play today, a better subtitle might be “Chain of Fools.” Rarely has such a collection of nutcases been assembled on one stage – ...

  In cowhide cowboy shirt, tie from Brooklyn. Watching Ethan Hawke's riveting portrayal of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in the movie “Blue Moon” triggered long-forgotten memories of another love story on the Great White Way. The more details I remembered, the more unbelievable the story got.  But it was all true. “Blue Moon” takes place on March 31, 1943, the night “Oklahoma!” opened on Broadway. Not quite three years later, I was born in nearby Brooklyn to a father who had been a scientist on the Manhattan Project in World War II, and a mother who was a modern dancer and left-leaning political protester. Broadway and the real Oklahoma were worlds apart, but they would intertwine in my life in a love song as good as any Rodgers and Hammerstein ever wrote. Like the iconic songwriting duo, my parents were New York kids, first generation Americans born to Jewish immigrants fleeing Russia and Eastern Europe. New York was the only world they had ever known, but four years after my...