The inoffensive
An atmospheric and somewhat quirky look at the later years of Howard Hughes, written, directed and played by Warren Beatty. Ehrenreich and Collins are good, the star-studded secondary cast is on point too. Not the flashiest of films, but it's amusing and not too serious, which makes it a little easier to deal with the rather running time.
Big nopes
Communists! I have to admit that I still haven't fully recovered from 4 years of Trump-dominated political news and online discourse. The prospect of watching some film about the rise of communism in the US a good century ago wasn't very appealing, though I didn't even realize until I started the film. John Reed is a journalist with radical left ideas. When he meets Louise Bryant, an early feminist, the two fall in love and set out to conquer the world. When they end up in Russia, just in time to witness the October Revolution, they become inspired and want to start a similar revolution in the US. Part character drama, part political history, Reds is a film for people who care about its themes and subjects. The presentation is rather bland, performances are decent but unremarkable and the runtime is pretty excessive. I didn't really care for any of it, safe some stand-alone moments, but if you dig US history then this film does highlight some rarely talked about figures and events.Read all