Klara And The Sun

Klara And The Sun introduces audiences to Klara (Jenna Ortega), an Artificial Friend who wants nothing more than to find the perfect home. When Klara meets Josie (Mia Tharia), each immediately senses a kindred spirit in the other. Josie has a fraught relationship with her mother (Amy Adams) and they’ve suffered great loss, but Klara’s innocent wonder and unwavering loyalty begin to heal the family and bring light to Josie’s complicated world.

This was a very quirky and enjoyable watch.  I was very surprised.  The way that the AF sees the world was so entertaining and really hooks you in to the story and the social commentary and most importantly dealing with health and loss.  This was a great throwback to the kinds of movies that made Taika Watiti so good.   It was nice to see him back in this wheelhouse.

I would actually recommend people checking this movie out.   Never thought I would be saying that about this movie but I enjoyed it a lot.

Street Fighter

Set in 1993, Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li face a deadly conspiracy during the World Warrior Tournament, forcing them to confront their pasts. You can find the full synopsis text in the referenced source.

I didn't really expect high quality here with this movie.  The expectations for corny and silly were through the roof.  They somehow managed to surpass that and it was even cornier and sillier than I thought it would be.   I could see this movie being good in the guilty pleasure kind of way but it was a really bad movie.   LOL

I would not really recommend anyone checking this out unless over the top and corny movies are your thing.   Then you should love it!

Whalefall

Following the death of his father, Jay Gardiner goes diving off the central coast of California in search of his remains, but is swallowed alive by a massive sperm whale. Trapped inside its belly with only one hour of oxygen left, Jay must rely on the painful memories and hard-earned survival lessons his father imparted to find a way out of the living prison before time runs out.

This movie is pretty much the definition of if you saw the trailer you saw the movie.   And it's based on a true story so you also know the end result.  That being said - they did a good enough job of going back and forth between him being stuck in the whale and flashbacks to lessons from his dad.   And this guy was more than capable of keeping you interested in his journey in very close quarters enough to make it watchable.

I would sort of recommend people checking this out.  It's not a must watch by any means but you could definitely find worse things than this too.

The Social Reckoning

Inspired by true events and the whistleblower who started the social media reckoning we're seeing play out today, this Aaron Sorkin original screenplay is a companion piece to the hit film The Social Network and a true David and Goliath story. Frances Haugen (Madison), a young Facebook engineer, enlists the help of Jeff Horwitz (White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network's most guarded secrets.

This movie was just as well done and acted across the board as The Social Network was.   It definitely triggers a lot of emotions and had me super annoyed reliving a lot of things over the last 5-6 years.   Like it was done so well that it took me back to those exact dates in history that were so contorted then and have been so much ore so since.   The social commentary of this movie was off the charts accurate as far as I'm concerned.

I would definitely recommend people checking this out.   It was a very well done movie in every way.

Other Mommy

Based on Josh Malerman’s bestselling horror novel Incidents Around the House, Other Mommy follows an eight-year-old girl named Bela who lives in a home strained by her parents' troubled marriage. Her life is further upended when a malevolent, shape-shifting entity she calls "Other Mommy" emerges from her closet. Taking on the exact physical appearance of Bela's mother, Ursula (both played by Jessica Chastain), the sinister presence becomes increasingly aggressive, demanding to "go inside her heart" and threatening the survival of the entire family.

This is one of those movies where the trailer was so good that it made the expectations for the movie too high.   This movie definitely delivered on jump scares and crazy visuals for the creepy scenes but like that was it.  There was very little substance behind it and the connecting story honestly seemed laughable as the movie went on.  And it made the lapses between the creepy scenes worse and worse as the movie went on.  It also didn't help how disjointed the movie kind of was because it literally started and you felt like you were in the middle of the movie already.   Very weird choice.

I wouldn't recommend anyone rushing to see this because like I said it ends up being kind of eh.   But if you just want to see the creepy parts they are very well done at least.

Digger

Digger stars Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell, an audacious and obscenely wealthy Texan oil tycoon who wields immense control over the United States government. When his aggressive, reckless deep-sea drilling operations in Greenland inadvertently trigger a catastrophic explosion and cause a massive ice shelf to collapse, humanity is put on a collision course with a global eco-disaster. Defiant and obsessed with his public legacy, Rockwell embarks on a frantic, larger-than-life mission to spin the crisis to his financial advantage and prove to the world that he is their ultimate savior before the damage destroys everything.

This movie ended up being even weirder than the trailer made it out to be.   There was a huge twist about 30 minutes in that I had no idea about and it honestly made the movie even weirder than it already was.   This movie really had a Wes Anderson why does everyone think this is so great artsy vibe to it.   And it honestly feels like a pretty blatant attempt for Tom Cruise to get award season recognition.   The social commentary parts and parallels were pretty accurate at times and it was the only thing that made me watch the full movie.

I would not really recommend anyone bothering with this.  It's really out there at times and ends up being pretty forgettable regardless of Tom Cruise's aura.

Verity

Adapted from the best-selling novel, the film follows struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) as she is hired by Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett) to ghostwrite the remaining books for his incapacitated wife, renowned author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway).  Relocating to the Crawford estate, Lowen discovers a hidden, unpublished autobiographical manuscript filled with disturbing family secrets and dark confessions. As she grows closer to Jeremy, Lowen faces a web of psychological terror, questioning whether Verity is truly incapacitated or staging a chilling deception.

This was a really good watch.   Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson were both great and each kept you very hooked and invested throughout all the twists and turns of the movie.   Even when you think it was pretty formula while still being a decent watch the third small act made it even better thinking wise.

I would definitely recommend people checking this out.   It was a fun suspenseful movie with great hooks.