Tag Archives: Screen Wolf

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Diamond Life

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Crime 101

by George Wolf

I saw the fairly generic title, I saw the February release date, I saw the two hour and twenty minute run time, and I was less than excited about Crime 101.

Let me tell you how quickly it proved me wrong.

Writer/director Bart Layton and a cracking ensemble put a stylish, character-driven sheen on some familiar crime thriller tropes. What results is a tense and twisty ride that taps into a healthy amount of world weary anxiety.

Chris Hemsworth is Mike, a controlled and elusive master thief, dealing in diamonds and jewelry along the California coast. Mark Ruffalo’s Lou is a disgruntled and disheveled L.A. cop out to prove his theory of a lone wolf criminal. And Halle Berry is Sharon, a high-end insurance broker who deals in plenty of bling.

And long before their lives intersect, Layton (adapting Don Winslow’s novella) brings authenticity to the disillusion the three characters share. Each feels they’re grasping at something just out of reach, trying to live with certain ideals that have lost value. Lou’s refusal to put arrest quotas first does not make him popular at work, while Sharon feels her chance at a big promotion may be slipping away with age. And Mike is the classic criminal with a haunted past and moral code. In lesser hands, these all become empty cliches. But three standout performances and a sharp script pay character development dividends from the film’s opening minutes.

The supporting cast (featuring Corey Hawkins, Nick Nolte and a quick cameo from Jennifer Jason Leigh) is exceptional as well. Barry Keoghan is electric as a tightly wound hotshot out to move up to big league heists and Monica Barbaro brings sweet tenderness to Maya, who navigates a possible relationship with Mike through caution and curiosity.

Layton’s camera is patient – obviously, with this run time – but never aimless. Everything fuels our understanding of these characters, the city canvas where they operate, and the tension that builds for the looming showdown. Layton’s narrative misdirections are sly and subtle, aided stylistically by some nifty scene transitions and a vibrant, mysterious score from Blanck Mass.

You may recognize other crime thrillers (especially Michael Mann’s Heat) embedded in the film’s DNA, but Crime 101 feels especially in the moment. Since moving from television to features, Layton has shown a persistent interest in exploring the psyche behind audacious crimes.

And so far, he’s batting a thousand.

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Baa Baa Baller

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GOAT

by George Wolf

I’m a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, so the name Steph Curry brings up one glorious memory, and plenty of forgettable ones.

But yes, fine, he is the game’s G.O.A.T. shooter and he seems like a good guy. And now he brings a bit of his own legend to the big screen as producer and supporting voice talent in GOAT, the story of a little sharpshooter with big dreams.

Will Harris (Caleb McLaughlin from Stranger Things) is an undersized goat in Vineland who is a big fan of Roarball (“Regional Organized Animal Roarball”). It’s just like basketball, if basketball was played by gigantic animals on a shape shifting court.

Will loves ball, his hometown Vineland Thorns and their best player, Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union). But as great as Jett is, the Thorns have never won the Claw (championship) and are mired in another losing streak, much to the delight of arch rival Mane Attraction (Aaron Pierre), a trash-talking horse with an extensive grooming routine.

One day at the local playground, Mane is accepting court challenges from all comers, and Will steps up. He drains a few long range threes, the footage goes viral, and Thorns owner Flo (Jenifer Lewis) decides the little guy might be just what her team needs.

But how can Will prove himself if Jett and Coach Dennis (Patton Oswalt) won’t accept the league first “small” as part of the team and give him some playing time already?

Nick Kroll, David Harbour, Jennifer Hudson, and Nicola Coughlan join Curry as supporting voices, as first time directors Tyree Dillihay and Adam Rosette adapt the book “Funky Dunks” with a team of four writers and a narrative that finds some fun in the familiar.

Parents and grandparents will get one or two solid LOLs, plus some tried and true sports plotting seen in Major League, Semi-Pro, Bad News Bears and even the “dream big” mantra from last year’s Marty Supreme. It’s surface level, easily digestible stuff for the younger set, built with 3-D animation that’s more busy and colorful, less memorable.

GOAT‘s not exactly a championship contender, but it is a scrappy gamer, and should give young sports fans and pop culture first stringers some ninety odd minutes to hold their attention.

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My Big Fat Italian Rebound

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Solo Mio

by George Wolf

Where’s Jane Fonda? Sally Field? Michael Douglas? Morgan Freeman?

Nowhere to be found.

Ditto Lily Tomlin, Bette Midler, Andy Garcia or any of the more veteran stars we’ve seen in the formula that Solo Mio executes with some charming success.

Kevin James stars as Matt Taylor, an elementary school art teacher who is left at the altar by fiancée Heather (Julie Ann Emery) during a lavish excursion wedding in Italy (Heather must be making the big bucks.) The tours, packages and perks are all paid for, so Matt falls in with a travel group that quickly takes the lonesome loser under its wing.

Julian and Meghan (Kim Coates/Alyson Hannigan), Neil and Donna (Jonathan Roumie/Julee Cerda), a supportive concierge and various Italian children keep tabs on Matt during his picturesque cobblestone road to rebound.

The lovely Gia (Nicole Grimaudo) owns the local cafe, and it isn’t long before she becomes Matt’s “plus one” on the tour group outings, and his mood gradually perks up.

But can he really forget Heather so quickly? And what about that handsome Vincenzo (Gaincarlo Bartolomei), Gia’s former flame who keeps popping by the cafe?

James has this sad likable sack act down cold, Grimaudo is sweetly understated and the Coates/Hannigan pairing pays comedic dividends. Directors Charles and Daniel Kinnane take the script from their brothers John and Patrick (with help from James himself) and start checking off boxes that have become so familiar to their elders over the last several years.

Constant travel, no worries about jobs or money, and the chance at late-stage romance. It’s right out of the AARP fantasy film playbook, but this time we get the younger James (a spry 60!) who is cavorting through various hijinks at gorgeous locales, rubbing elbows with surprise celebrities and finding the spark to try love again.

And then just as your eyes are ready to roll, the film pulls out a cheeky twist that stops just short of being Nicolas Sparks-worthy. Instead of shameless, the late turn lands as more heartfelt and actually logical, helping Solo Mio leave you with satisfying aftertaste as the credits start to roll.

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Off the Gridlock

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Shelter

by George Wolf

Just how many off-the-books groups of elite assassins are there? And does Jason Statham have expired membership cards from all of them?

Apparently, quite a few. And yes.

In Shelter, the secret group is called Black Kite, and Michael Mason (Statham) has been exiled and on the run since he broke a golden rule ten years ago. While hiding out at a lighthouse in the Scottish Isles, Mason’s rescue of a drowning girl named Jesse (Hamnet‘s talented Bodhi Rae Breathnach) gets them both spotted by MI-6’s new high tech surveillance system.

So now Michael’s been made, Jesse’s an orphan and they’re both on the top secret hit list.

This time out, Naomi Ackie gets to be the director barking orders in front of video feeds, while Bill Nighy is the oily spymaster who crossed Statham years ago. Much like the chess pieces Mason likes to play with, director Ric Roman Waugh is just moving new pieces around the same formulaic playground.

Screenwriter Ward Parry adds on the trusty child-in-danger trope, along with no shortage of cliched dialog.

“You really think we can outrun what we are?”

“Maybe I’m becoming like you…”

“You don’t want this life.”

It’s more plug-and-play action on the way to a requisite showdown, but Statham and Breathnach share decent chemistry, Waugh (the Greenland films, Angel Has Fallen) orchestrates some effective hand-to-hand combat sequences, and he’s able to build the film with a bit more nuance than Statham’s usual fare.

It ain’t Hamnet, but at least our righteous killing machine isn’t lathering up with a tube of shark repellant.

New In Theaters

Survivor: Boss Level

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Send Help

by George Wolf

As much as Send Help feels like the Sam Raimi film that it is, the writing credits seem a bit unfinished. With a premise taken more from Triangle of Sadness than Castaway, and two pivotal plot points lifted from films I won’t mention for fear of spoilers, you’d expect at least an inspired by or story elements citation of the previous works.

No? Alrighty then. Raimi works from a script by the team of Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (Baywatch, 2009’s Friday the 13th, Freddy vs. Jason), providing the requisite dark humor, blood splatter and body fluids for a fun, root-for-the-underdog romp.

Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is that underdog. Linda puts in long, committed hours in the strategy and planning department of a big firm. She’d been promised a major promotion from the founder (nice Bruce Campbell portrait on the wall!), but now he’s passed on and the d-bag son Bradley (Dylan O’Brien) has taken over.

And Bradley’s gonna give Linda’s promotion to his frat buddy instead.

Linda sticks up for herself, so Bradley gives her the chance to prove her worth at a big merger meeting in Bangkok. But when their plane crashes, Linda and Bradley end up as the only ones left alive on a deserted island. And right away, Linda’s skills are very valuable indeed.

Turns out, she’s a survivalist junkie who has auditioned for Survivor. Linda knows her way around the dangers of an uninhabited locale, while Bradley doesn’t know much beyond silver spoon-fed privilege. So Linda will not take kindly to being ordered around like the under-appreciated underling she was back in the office.

Bradley eventually becomes contrite, but can he be trusted? Linda appears ever helpful, but can she be trusted? Their castaway days become an increasingly bloody game of cat, mouse and wild boar, with some wonderfully competitive chemistry between McAdams and O’Brien.

She makes Linda’s transition to alpha female a crowd-pleasing hoot, and he crafts Bradley with a perfectly obnoxious mix of misguided mansplainer and smug elitist.

Yes, it’s over the top, just like you expect a Sam Raimi deserted island playground to be. What an unspoiled canvas for some blood spray, projectile vomiting, and a little survival of the deadliest. Game on!

Send Help delivers the R-rated fun, and it’s instantly relatable to the countless souls who’ve secretly dreamed of doing bodily harm to an insufferable boss. But it’s a comeuppance fantasy that still remains easily forgettable…unless you’ve seen the couple films it repeatedly recalls.

Then we’ll have something to talk about.

The Screening Room

Screening Room: Mercy, Return to Silent Hill, The Testament of Ann Lee & More

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On this week’s Screening Room podcast, Hope & George review Mercy, Return to Silent Hill, The Testament of Ann Lee, H Is for Hawk, Magellan, and Mother of Flies.

Outtakes

2026 Oscar Nominations: Praise & Complaints

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Well, if you’re a horror fan, 2025 was your year, at least according to the Academy. All told, the genre racked up 27 Oscar nominations. Ryan Coogler’s period vampire epic Sinners led the pack with a record breaking 16 nominations. The previous high-water mark was 14 nominations.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein nabbed nine noms, while Zach Cregger’s Weapons got one—Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Amy Madigan—and Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister garnering a nomination for Best Makeup and Hair.

Films outside horror did quite well, too. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another received 13 nominations, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value nabbed five. Joseph Kosinski’s F1 received three Oscar nominations and Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice received none. What?!

Wicked for Good got shut out, even in the makeup, costume, hair design and production design categories, which is a bit of a surprise. Otherwise, the Academy recognized what we all expected them to recognize, but, per usual, we have a handful of complaints.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Oh, glorious day, they recognized Delroy Lindo! This is a stacked category—Del Toro stole every scene he was in, and Sean Penn has not been such a hoot in any film in decades. Expected to see Paul Mescal, whose turn in Hamnet was so beautiful. Others who were great in smaller roles were Adam Sandler in the utterly forgotten Jay Kelly, and Miles Caton from Sinners. Not sure where we’d put them, though.

·         Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another

·         Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein

·         Delroy Lindo, Sinners

·         Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

·         Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Another stacked category with so much to be happy about. No real nits to pick here.

·         Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value

·         Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value

·         Amy Madigan, Weapons

·         Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners

·         Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

Best Actor in a Lead Role

This shook out the way we’d expected, although we would have loved to see Jesse Plemmons remembered for Bugonia. We’d have given Ethan Hawke’s slot to him or to Joel Edgerton for Train Dreams, although right now Hawke looks like he may be the upset winner, so what do we know?

·         Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme

·         Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another

·         Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon

·         Michael B. Jordan, Sinners

·         Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent

Best Actress in a Lead Role

We are thrilled to see Hudson get attention for her delightful performance in Song Sung Blue, although the money’s on Buckley. Chase Infiniti would have been welcome for her fearless performance in One Battle After Another, as would Amada Seyfried for The Testament of Ann Lee, but again, not sure who we’d lose to make room.

·         Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

·         Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

·         Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue

·         Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value

·         Emma Stone, Bugonia

Best Director

Would have loved to see Park Chan-wook on this list for just another masterpiece, No Other Choice, perhaps in Safdie’s place, but it’s a good group.

·         Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

·         Ryan Coogler, Sinners

·         Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme

·         Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value

·         Chloé Zhao, Hamnet

Best Casting

It’s the first year for the award, and the Academy only came up with four films. Given the sheer volume of acting nominations One Battle After Another received, seems funny they didn’t make this list.

·         Hamnet

·         Marty Supreme

·         The Secret Agent

·         Sinners

Best International Feature

Where on earth is No Other Choice? These films are great—intense, heartbreaking, fascinating—but only Sentimental Value and It Was Just an Accident deserve the spot over Park Chan-wook’s film.

·         The Secret Agent, Brazil

·         It Was Just an Accident, France

·         Sentimental Value, Norway

·         Sirãt, Spain

·         The Voice of Hind Rajab, Tunisia

Best Score

What a great group! So thrilled for all five films, although we would have given Train Dreams the nod over Bugonia.

·         Bugonia

·         Frankenstein

·         Hamnet

·         One Battle After Another

·         Sinners

Best Original Song

Loved seeing Train Dreams and Sinners in there.

·         “Dear Me,” Diane Warren: Relentless

·         “Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters

·         “I Lied to You,” Sinners

·         “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” Viva Verdi

·         “Train Dreams,” Train Dreams

Best Adapted Screenplay

Not to beat a dead paper executive, but where is No Other Choice? We love you, Bugonia, but we’d have given your slot away.

·         Bugonia

·         Frankenstein

·         Hamnet

·         One Battle After Another

·         Train Dreams

Best Original Screenplay

Maybe it would have been too much to ask for Weapons over Blue Moon?

·         Blue Moon

·         It Was Just an Accident

·         Marty Supreme

·         Sentimental Value

·         Sinners

Best Documentary Feature

In another year of searing, heartbreaking, brilliant documentaries, great to see Come See Me in the Good Light get noticed.

·         The Alabama Solution

·         Come See Me in the Good Light

·         Cutting Through Rocks

·         Mr. Nobody Against Putin

·         The Perfect Neighbor

Best Animated Feature

Solid choices in a relatively weak year in animation.

  • Arco
  • Elio
  • KPop Demon Hunters
  • Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
  • Zootopia 2

 Best Cinematography

What an absolute gift we got in cinematography this year. Look at these gorgeous films!

  • Frankenstein
  • Marty Supreme
  • One Battle After Another
  • Sinners
  • Train Dreams

Best Costume Design

Here’s one where Wicked: For Good is a surprise omission.

  • Avatar: Fire and Ash
  • Frankenstein
  • Hamnet
  • Marty Supreme
  • Sinners

Best Film Editing

The Perfect Neighbor was a marvel of editing, and The Testament of Ann Lee was like a dream, but these choices are tough to argue.

  • F1
  • Marty Supreme
  • One Battle After Another
  • Sentimental Value
  • Sinners

Best Production Design

Wicked: For Good could be included here, too, but what to toss out?

  • Frankenstein
  • Hamnet
  • Marty Supreme
  • One Battle After Another
  • Sinners

Best Picture

F1? It was thrilling fun, but….

·         Bugonia

·         F1

·         Frankenstein

·         Hamnet

·         Marty Supreme

·         One Battle After Another

·         The Secret Agent

·         Sentimental Value

·         Sinners

·         Train Dreams

The 98th Academy Awards will be held Sunday, March 15th.

New In Theaters

The Healing Skies

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H Is for Hawk

by George Wolf

“I don’t have a hobby, I have a hawk.”

“Mabel” became much, much more than a hobby for Helen Macdonald, and H Is for Hawk adapts their award-winning memoir with nearly equal amounts of the magical and the mundane.

Claire Foy is understated and touching as Helen, who was teaching English at a university in Cambridge when their beloved father Alisdair (Brendan Gleeson, characteristically splendid) suddenly collapsed and died in 2007.

Leaning on memories of exploring nature and birding with their father, and their years of experience in falconry, Helen channelled feelings of grief into the adoption and training of a Eurasian goshawk.

Just the fact that the emotional vessel here is a notoriously stubborn bird of prey instead of a dog, a horse, or a wayward teen is enough to stir your interest. Director and co-writer Philippa Lowthorpe rewards it early. Foy and Gleeson shine in some bittersweet flashbacks, and Helen’s cautious bonding with Mabel is in turns emotional and educational.

As Mabel hones her hunting instincts, the wildlife framing from cinematographers Charlotte Bruus Christiansen and Mark Payne-Gill can be beautifully majestic. Eventually, though, the lack of firmer hands from Lowthorpe and editor Nico Leunen begins to take a toll.

The pace of the film becomes laborious and plodding, enough to even overshadow the introspective and touching work from Foy. There is never a doubt we believe the healing journey Helen and Mabel are sharing, but the excessive documentary-ready wildlife footage eventually increases our detachment while it bloats the run time.

Despite the similarities with 1969’s Kes, Lowthorpe isn’t trying for a Ken Loach-style social critique. At the heart of this film is an intensely personal story of “an honest encounter with death.” It is a unique and well-crafted film, but the honesty of H Is for Hawk is just spread too thin for a truly memorable flight.

The Screening Room

Screening Room: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, The Rip, No Other Choice & More!

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On this week’s Screening Room podcast, Hope & George review 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, The Rip, No Other Choice, Dead Man’s Wire, The Choral, Night Patrol, Maldoror, Resurrection and Obex! PLUS! News & Notes from Daniel Baldwin, ada The Schlocketeer!