Movie Review ~ The Unforgivable 

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The Facts:  

Synopsis: Released from prison into a society that won’t forgive her past, a woman seeks redemption by searching for the sister she left behind. 

Stars: Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Richard Thomas, Linda Emond, Aisling Franciosi, Tom Guiry, Rob Morgan, W. Earl Brown 

Director: Nora Fingscheidt 

Rated: R 

Running Length: 112 minutes 

TMMM Score: (7/10) 

Review: Once you find out that Sandra Bullock’s newest film for Netflix is based on Unforgiven, a 2009 three-episode limited series originally shown on British airwaves, it starts to make sense why this feature film feels like it’s missing something that would make it feel complete.  It’s not that Bullock’s presence back on screen, her first since 2018’s massive hit Bird Box, isn’t welcome because it most definitely is, but it’s that The Unforgivable doesn’t seem up to the standard we have for the Oscar winner.  The meatiness that must have been present in the lengthier version explored in the miniseries would have made this feel less of your standard presentation of redemption and given all the actors, not just Bullock, additional layers to uncover. 

Released from prison for good behavior after serving part of her time after being convicted for the shooting death of a small-town cop twenty years earlier, Ruth (Bullock, Gravity) is assigned to a parole officer (Rob Morgan, Don’t Look Up) who isn’t about to go easy on her.  Not that she’s a barrel of laughs, either.  The weight of the years in prison have clearly taken their toll on the parolee and her solid stance, rough edges, and clipped response to questions speak to a woman that didn’t just make it through prison, she survived.  Unsurprisingly, cop killers have a difficult time behind bars and while it’s not discussed you wonder how much abuse Ruth suffered from those in power while she was locked away.  Through flashbacks, we see the circumstances by which the crime occurred and there’s little doubt of her involvement in the officer’s slaying, having acted in the spur of the moment to avoid eviction for her and a much younger sister from her family farm.

Unable on her own to contact her now young adult sister (Aisling Franciosi) who lives with adoptive parents (Richard Thomas and Linda Emond, Gemini Man) that have shielded from her true identity for decades, Ruth engages a lawyer (Vincent D’Onofrio, The Magnificent Seven) that she happens across when she visits her old home…he lives there now with his wife (Viola Davis, Widows) and sons.  Shielding them from her truth but not totally hiding it either, she finds a sympathetic ally in the legal nature of the husband but not the moral core of the wife.  While she is befriended by a co-worker (Jon Bernthal, The Accountant) at the fish factory job her parole office finds for her, she also secures her own employment putting her carpentry skill to use building a shelter for the homeless.  The past hasn’t forgotten about her or the people in her life though, and the sons of the slain cop have kept an eye on the woman they feel has gotten off too easy. 

The multiple storylines and character arcs scream miniseries, and you can imagine how each episode would have dealt with juggling all of these in a much tidier way.  As it is, screenwriters Peter Craig, Hillary Seitz, and Courtenay Miles never successfully bring anything to the forefront and so nothing has the desired impact necessary for us to grab onto.  Not that they haven’t given us one or two characters we wish we had more time with.  Why cast the dynamic Davis in a role that is largely dormant for the run time and further, why would she take this low impact part?  Davis and Bullock work so well together in their short amount of screen time you wish the movie were more about them.  I’d have taken less of the revenge storyline featuring Tom Guiry (Wonder Wheel) and Will Pullen (Goat) as two sons so enraged at the injustice of someone leaving jail early that they’re willing to commit a crime that would send them to jail in return.  These types of plot developments make little sense even to a casual observer, how does it not make sense to two people?  I also liked the relationship formed between Bullock and Bernthal, a highly underrated actor that gets a nice chance to shine with a character that’s not big on words but grand on making efforts to connect.

The time has long since passed when Bullock has had to prove herself a strong dramatic actress, so the range shown her is no big surprise.  The performance is perhaps oversold just a teeny bit but there’s little care for artifice in her acting and she works nicely with director Nora Fingscheidt to not turn every intense passage into an Oscar-clip ready moment.  Overly strong production values and an ever-present Hans Zimmer & David Fleming (Dune) score add to the sophistication of The Unforgivable, so even if it’s lacking in a feeling that it’s the whole package because it’s been trimmed for the overseas remake, there is still a sense of an above average narrative that’s worth a look.

Movie Review ~ Being the Ricardos 

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The Facts:  

Synopsis: Lucille Ball struggles in her personal life with husband Desi Arnaz amid cheating allegations, existing under the watchful eye of the FBI for being a potential communist threat, and much more. 

Stars: Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale,  Jake Lacy, Alia Shawkat, Linda Lavin, Clark Gregg, Ronny Cox, John Rubinstein 

Director: Aaron Sorkin 

Rated: R 

Running Length: 125 minutes 

TMMM Score: (8/10) 

Review:  There was a time during one high school summer when I worked a job that ended at such a late hour that there was nothing much on television to watch but episodes of I Love Lucy.  Consequently, over the ensuing years I’ve found it comforting to fall asleep to the comedic stylings of Lucille Ball, be it on her landmark television program or her subsequent shows that didn’t feature her husband Desi Arnaz.  While I’m not an expert of all things Lucy, I know what I know so knew enough to realize that casting Nicole Kidman as the legendary comedienne was a big risk for writer/director Aaron Sorkin.  It was also a decision that sent fans reeling, wondering how the Aussie star could believably take on the New York Ball’s signature look and sound. 

As was the case with the woman she’s portraying, it’s wrong to underestimate Kidman, like, ever.  The Oscar-winner has proven time and time again that while she may not always pull off transformations on the physical side of the aisle, it’s not even necessary when you have the spirit of a person nailed to perfection.  You see, Kidman achieves something amazing in Sorkin’s new film Being the Ricardos: another carefully built performance by the actress from the inside out, reliant less on recreation & more on essence. It’s Lucille Ball, for sure, and precisely the razor sharp, vulnerable, very human star she certainly was.  

A trend recently with biopics, at least those bound by a feature-length run time, is not to take on the enormity of a life story because two hours is just not enough time to cover it all.  It certainly wouldn’t have been able to go into the kind of detail a Hollywood legend like Ball (or even Arnaz) would have deserved…I mean you’d need at least 45 minutes to discuss that disastrous 1974 movie version of the musical Mame alone!  I digress.  What Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7) does is what he does quite well, find a point of time to focus on and then use that as the center with which to spring out the life events that helped get these people to this point.  And it works wonderfully here.

Maybe this is more well known but I had no idea there was a week of time in the early part of the run of I Love Lucy where Ball was under scrutiny by the McCarthy hearings and was accused of “being a Red” …and not just because of her hair.  The fallout from the first accusation and the potential for more over the ensuing week are played out while the cast rehearse a new script set to be taped in front of a live audience at the end of the week.  The stress of it all brings up once smoothed-over fissures in the Ricardos marriage, old rivalries between Lucy and Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda), and further ostracizes the writer’s room (made up of Jake Lacy, Rampage, Alia Shawkat, Green Room, and executive producer Tony Hale, American Ultra) from everyone.

I loved the behind the scenes view of I Love Lucy and the various contributors (all well-cast by Francine Maisler & Kathy Driscoll) to its success from creation onward. Javier Bardem (Skyfall) is strong as Desi, a most unenviable task for a persona often seen as the villain of the Desilu love story. Bardem and Kidman (Aquaman) don’t really look like their real-life counterparts, but it honestly doesn’t matter in the slightest.  If much time had been spent to achieve more of a resemblance, I think audiences would have focused too much on that and not on the acting both Oscar winners are doing.  Of all the actors Sorkin has brought together for his film, J.K. Simmons (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) and Arianda (Richard Jewell) are the closest to impression but are fantastic in the undertaking.  There are times when both are eerily similar to the William Frawley and Vivian Vance. It’s well-known the two didn’t get along in real life and if you didn’t know it before, you’ll know it after this movie.

Yes, you’ll see some famous scenes that have been recreated but they are part of a larger (good) idea Sorkin employs by showing viewers how Lucy would put together comic moments.  It’s always hard to gain access into the workings of a person’s “process” but Sorkin’s method has an appropriately cinematic flair that achieves its goal while also providing a nice jolt of nostalgic recognition.  Releasing in theaters before debuting on Amazon Prime in time for the holidays, Being the Ricardos is the kind of biopic I appreciate, one that doesn’t bite off more than it can chew yet remains satisfying. 

Movie Review ~ Encounter (2021)

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The Facts:  

Synopsis: Two brothers embark on a journey with their father, a decorated marine trying to protect them from an alien threat. 

Stars: Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Lucian-River Mirage Chauhan, Aditya Geddada, Rory Cochrane, Janina Gavankar 

Director: Michael Pearce 

Rated: R 

Running Length: 108 minutes 

TMMM Score: (4/10) 

Review: Similar to feeling aghast when a designer on Bravo’s Project Runway sends a model down the catwalk not entirely dressed for success, there’s little I like less than seeing a film with good actors stuck in flimsy material.  You understand the desire to branch out and try for work that’s off the beaten path, different from the norm, but in that same vein it stands to reason the effort should also have point and purpose that make it worth your while.  It’s especially strenuous when the actors involved are so good that they usurp the material and almost make something of it and sadly that’s where we have to put a film like the new movie arriving on Amazon Prime, Encounter.

Starring Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, this is one of those movies harboring a twist that you sit through the whole movie wondering why it’s even being kept under wraps as long as it is.  In the spirit of the nature of this site and also out of respect for the filmmakers, I’m not going to spoil it but if you can’t spot where Encounter is headed almost from the moment Ahmed’s PTSD-suffering ex-marine starts spraying himself with a can of bug repellant to ward off the insects that burrow into your skin and change you into mindless drones…you need to get out more.

There’s an impressive opening to Encounter and for at least those opening moments I was interested to see what director Michael Pearce, who got a big jump to his burgeoning career with the wildly wonderful chiller Beast in 2017, had in store for us.  Watching a mosquito infect a human bloodstream with a creepy crawly organism absolutely made me start feeling itchy all over and so Pearce gets the audience into the appropriate mood but fails to keep us there for much longer, mostly because that’s the extent of the impressive ideas. 

Once that concept is established that’s pretty much all there is to Encounter and so we’re just following Malik Khan (Ahmed, Sound of Metal) as he “saves” his two young sons Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada) from his ex-wife and her new husband who he believes have been infected by the organism. Of course, his ex and the authorities don’t see it so much as saving as child abduction. With the help of Hattie (Octavia Spencer, Thunder Force), Malik’s understanding parole officer and the one person he has reached out to, a determined lawman (Rory Cochrane, Antlers) sets out to find the three Khans before it’s too late.

The performances in Encounter are enough to recommend the movie, I think I can safely say that.  Even though the film stretches on to nearly two hours, I do feel as if the work that’s being done by Ahmed and especially the two young actors playing his boys is well-formed enough to be worthy of keeping your attention.  It’s just the flimsy, also-ran plot that might make you doze off at various points.  If you’ve seen a movie like 2016’s Midnight Special, you might be aware of what you’re in for…just on a less ambitious narrative level. 

  

Movie Review ~ Wolf (2021)

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The Facts:

Synopsis: A man who believes he is a wolf trapped in a human body is sent to a clinic by his family where he is forced to undergo increasingly extreme forms of “curative” therapies at the hands of The Zookeeper.

Stars: George MacKay, Lily-Rose Depp, Paddy Considine, Fionn O’Shea, Eileen Walsh

Director: Nathalie Biancheri

Rated: R

Running Length: 98 minutes

TMMM Score: (2/10)

Review: Learning new language about the world and the experiences people go through is one of the many benefits that come with seeing as many films as I do.  I may not understand it, agree with it, or believe it but exposure to these varying viewpoints is important and vital in becoming well rounded.

All that being said, I’m not entirely sure the universe wanted me to see Wolf and after making it through the thorny flick I think I should have paid more attention to the signs.  So many cosmic roadblocks popped up to stand in my way, not the least of which was a review copy that I was trying to watch through an internet link that kept freezing up, resulting in my having to watch and then re-watch large stretches of writer/director Nathalie Biancheri’s sullen and faux-ny look inside the very real experience of species dysphoria.  More on that later though…

Despite my misgivings and troubles getting going with Wolf, I soldiered on like a good critic, though I truly should have heeded the call to turn around and find a way out of the woods.  The woods is where we start and end, though, so let’s kick things off by saying the first images we see are of a very naked human (George MacKay, 1917) prowling through the fauna in a feral state.  Like much of Wolf, the passage is seemingly random and left unexplained…the audience is obviously supposed to piece together as the film progresses that this is Jacob in the wild and he’s eventually been brought to clinic that specializes in the treatment of others that share his condition.

Species dysphoria is an experience “associated with the feeling that one’s body is of the wrong species”.  So, Jacob believing himself to be a Wolf would be a prime candidate for the program the clinic offers, with graduates leaving having exorcised their thoughts of being an animal.  Jacob arrives and is integrated with other patients that believe themselves to be, among others, a German Shepherd, a parrot, a squirrel, and a duck.  Often, these species will react toward each other like they would in the wild, keeping the clinic staff busy.  At first, Jacob doesn’t know what to make of the situation and holds back…much like a wolf would in new surroundings.

When Jacob is befriended by a girl who works at the clinic and is also a patient that thinks she’s a wildcat (Lily-Rose Depp, Silent Night), they form a bond that goes beyond the personal and into the primal. Watching others in their program fail and succeed, Jacob and Wildcat realize they’ll never conform to the clinic’s methods and hatch a plan to break out from under the tyranny of the head of the department, known as The Zookeeper (Paddy Considine, Macbeth).  However, with Jacob’s will being tested by those in authority, do they both have the strength to flee and live life on their own, as they really are?

It’s clear there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface of the screenplay Biancheri has written but it’s sorely lacking from clarity onscreen.  Instead, we have weird sequences of “therapy” that come off more like tortuous abuse scenes between doctor and patient.  You can’t ever tell if Biancheri is playing some scenes for comedic effect to show how ridiculous those in power are to those that are different or if the goal is to expose prejudice in the medical profession toward people who have this condition.  I don’t doubt this exists and that the treatment is specialized, but what’s on display here comes off like a badly told joke.

It’s a shame that MacKay has taken so much time with the physicality the role demands because it’s sort of wasted in the entirety of Biancheri’s awkward and artsy-fartsy film.  Once we started getting patients dressing up like their, forgive the co-opted term, “spirit” animal, the movie began to tank for me because it’s too silly watching someone whine and pant like a dog.  MacKay’s physical transformation in Wolf is incredible but it can’t carry the picture, even if his acting is the highlight of the piece.  Rose-Depp is less successful in a role that is less interesting all around – even when she’s perched and hissing at others it comes off as the overly dramatic girl at a party wanting to get attention.  That’s what many of the patients in Wolf come off as, actually.  Desperate for attention instead of dependent on treatment.

Movie Review ~ Silent Night

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Nell, Simon, and their boy Art are ready to welcome friends and family for what promises to be a perfect Christmas gathering. Perfect except for one thing: everyone is going to die.

Stars: Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Roman Griffin Davis, Annabelle Wallis, Lily-Rose Depp, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Davida McKenzie, Rufus Jones, Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù, Lucy Punch, Holly Aird, Trudie Styler, Dora Davis, Gilby Griffin Davis, Hardy Griffin Davis

Director: Camille Griffin

Rated: NR

Running Length: 92 minutes

TMMM Score: (6.5/10)

Review:  Every now and then I find that I run into a bit of a crisis as a reviewer.  Here’s the situation I face.  There’s a movie I’ve seen which I know is worth a look, yet I have trouble with an outright recommendation because there’s something about it which could turn the viewer against it and, by proxy, me.  I don’t want you to end up hating me and “ghosting” my webpage in the future.  Obviously, if this was my full-time job and I was getting paid for my thoughts I would have less trouble just churning these musings out without worry but I sort of, y’know, care about you and your trust in me so I’m going to be always upfront. 

In the spirt of that message (and the season) I need to tell you the new Christmas-set UK film Silent Night is one of the most unrepentantly bleak movies you’ll encounter this year or any year in recent memory.  Dealing with a family that gathers at a secluded country estate for a yuletide celebration on the eve of a population-ending event, one they all know is coming, there’s an invisible ticking clock hanging over the ninety-minute film which makes it feel both too short and never ending at the same time.  Timed for release on the second Christmas the world is spending in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s a well-made but unsettling drama offering none of the easy-outs you may be expecting. 

For Christmas this year, everyone attending Nell and Simon’s gathering has been asked to bring one important item…their own suicide pills.  Due to an environmental catastrophe which has sent a cloud of toxic gas throughout the land, all humans will perish, and it’s set to hit British soil on Christmas.  This is known. There is no escape.  The most humane way to deal with it, and not suffer the horrific effects of dying by the gas, is to take the pills issued by the government with your loved one and die quickly rather than painfully.  First though, there’s a feast to be had and the guests are arriving.

In addition to Nell (Keira Knightley, A Dangerous Method), Simon (Matthew Goode, Stoker), their eldest son Art (Roman Griffin Davis, Jojo Rabbit) and their twin boys, the revelers include steely Sandra (Annabelle Wallis, Malignant) who is bringing her less than well-liked daughter, fun-loving lesbian Bella (Lucy Punch, Into the Woods) and her more button-downed wife (Alex Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Cruella), and reflective James (Sopé Dìrísù, His House) and his newly pregnant wife Sophie (Lily Rose-Depp, Wolf).  Not everyone is so sure about taking the pill, Sophie is about to bring new life into the world and maybe wants to wait to see if the gas is survivable, Art doesn’t want to have his parents decide his fate for him.  Various points throughout the night provoke stark questions about death, human rights, and who has the ultimate choice about existence.

Director Camille Griffin (mother of Roman who plays Art) makes a wonderful debut that’s as challenging to watch as it is interesting to debate. It’s meant to be a conversation starter and boy is it ever.  It’s certainly a well-made movie, just horribly sad and without much reprieve throughout.  I can’t lie and say it has the rosiest of endings but can offer a shred of light and say that in ending the way it does, there are lessons to be learned that we can all benefit from in some way.  Is Silent Night one to consider swapping out one of your Christmas favorites for?  Not a chance.  However, maybe you can wait until March or April to try this out one…unless you enjoy the sadness the holidays can bring.

Movie Review ~ Single All the Way

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Desperate to avoid his family’s judgment about his perpetual single status, Peter convinces his best friend Nick to join him for the holidays and pretend that they’re now in a relationship. But when Peter’s mother sets him up on a blind date with her handsome trainer James, the plan goes awry.

Stars: Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, Luke Macfarlane, Jennifer Coolidge, Kathy Najimy, Jennifer Robertson, Barry Bostwick

Director: Michael Mayer

Rated: NR

Running Length: 99 minutes

TMMM Score: (7/10)

Review: During the throes of the coronavirus, I became somewhat of a Hallmark Christmas movie afficionado, so I know from sappy holiday entertainment.  There’s a specific formula to these films and it never changes.  This makes them predictable and safe, easy viewing to decorate your house and tree to but rarely the kind of project you truly stop what you’re doing and pay rapt attention.  This is no dig to the actors (though some of them do have a particular Canadian, um, charm) but instead is a tribute to their consistent uniformity which gives us a happy ending when a least one woman in a red dress kisses one man…but only at the very end, and after someone has drank hot cocoa and sung “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” 

One thing that hasn’t been explored much until recently are stories from different viewpoints, representing the true world and multi-whatever families that exist.  Hanukkah movies now show up, movies specifically for black audiences are available, and there are also offerings for gay and lesbian fans as well.  Last year Hulu released the delightful comedy The Happiest Season and several networks had their own films featuring gay couples or storylines.  This year, Netflix gets into the game with its high-profile comedy Single All the Way, a bit of light Christmas fun that may not be fresh as fallen snow but is as warm and inviting as your favorite grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve. 

Working as a specialist in social media (they have those now? Oh yes, yes, they do) Peter (Michael Urie) is based in Los Angeles getting ready to head back to his New Hampshire hometown for the holidays. This year, he’s finally able to get the meddling family members constantly trying to change his single status off his back thanks to a good-looking doctor boyfriend…who turns out to be a dud.  Sweettalking long term roommate Nick (Philemon Chambers) into saying they finally made it official as partners, they can’t even get the lie out before Peter’s mom (Kathy Najimy, Hocus Pocus) announces that she’s performed a Christmas miracle and set Peter up with the town’s newest eligible gay bachelor…the hot new trainer/ski instructor at the local gym.

With Peter testing the waters with hunky James (Luke Macfarlane), Nick realizes the feelings he has for his roommate are actually more like love and if he doesn’t move fast he may lose everything.  When Peter contemplates moving back to New Hampshire, his two young cousins rally the rest of the family to meddle against him being with James and instead recognizing that he really needs to be with Nick.  As the Christmas pageant organized by Peter’s outlandish Aunt Sandy (Jennifer Coolidge, Promising Young Woman, stealing every millisecond she’s on screen) draws near, can the two men realize that friends can be more and love is a risk worth taking?

Theatrical director Michael Mayer has helmed several low-key film projects over the years, most in the dramatic field but it’s no shocker that he works wonders with this spritely comedy that is a real gift for holiday watchers of all persuasions.  Even if Urie has made a career out of playing the same character over and over again, he’s perfected it by now and it works well for Single All the Way because Peter is not brittle nor is he too soft.  There’s a median line he walks and while he’s aggravating in his indecision at times, you do see it is coming from the right place of knowing he should be on a different path.  Philemon James is a standout, a solid co-star for Urie and even if he’s the obvious choice from the get-go, his unassuming nature makes his blossoming into a confident suitor all the more believable. 

I do question if it’s by the magic of Christmas we’re supposed to believe that Jennifer Robertson (another MVP actor, this time from Schitt’s Creek, relying on playing the same character again) is Najimy’s daughter but then again casting in these holiday movies is always a little fuzzy.  Mayer at least gets the second suitor perfect in Macfarlane, the openly gay actor makes for a dreamy option for Urie’s character and at times you may find yourself shouting at the screen when Urie bows out of future dates with him.  The rest of the cast is filled in nicely by an array of agreeable performances that let the stars shine – everyone just wisely stays out of the way of Coolidge because when she’s onscreen no one else is the focus. As it should be.

Is Single All the Way a film that’s going to be added to a yearly roster of Christmas titles?  Probably not, but then again none of these Hallmark-y films ever are for me, personally.  It’s still a wonderful, harmless option for those that tire of the same old gazebo ending and want to see more representation of the world as we all know it to be.  Also…I didn’t spot any fake foam snow and that’s always a plus!

Movie Review ~ Mixtape (2021)

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The Facts:

Synopsis: When a young girl accidentally destroys the mixtape that belonged to her mother, she sets out to track down each of the obscure songs on the cassette.

Stars: Gemma Brooke Allen, Julie Bowen, Nick Thune, Audrey Hsieh, Olga Petsa, Jackson Rathbone, Diego Mercado, Anthony Timpano, Kiefer O’Reilly, Lucas Yao

Director: Valerie Weiss

Rated: NR

Running Length: 93 minutes

TMMM Score: (7/10)

Review: Well darn, here we are in the second week of December and it’s at this point that a lot of smaller movies are going to slip through your fingers.  There’s a silver lining to it, though, because usually this means you’ll find these movies after the first of the year, call them a hidden gem, and forget that I told you about them months earlier.  Don’t worry, I won’t be mad at you…too much.  Here’s one such film that I’ll tell you about now, but you may not make time for right away.  I think you should give it a try now because it’s better and far more adult and meaningful than it’s wacky marketing make it out to be. Whatever the case, be sure to scribble down Mixtape so you don’t forget entirely.

Based on an original story by Stacey Menear and directed by Valerie Weiss, the film is set during a time I know quite well…the final days of the 20th century when we all felt as if the world was either going to end or some horrible disaster would occur.  While all the adults were freaking out, most of the youth were going about their daily business, like Beverly Moody (Gemma Brooke Allen) who just wants to survive the perils of Middle School.

Living with her mail carrier grandmother (Julie Bowen, Life of the Party) ever since her parents were killed in a car crash when she was barely a toddler, Beverly never knew anything about her parents and her grandmother isn’t that willing to talk about them, especially her daughter with whom it appears she had a fraught relationship with and unresolved issues.  Exploring a basement full of junk, Beverly finds an old cassette tape of music and promptly ruins it, but not the paper insert listing all the songs.  At a local vintage music store run by Anti (Nick Thune, The Right One) and with the help of several new friends she picks up along the way, Beverly begins to gather the songs passed between her parents and gains some insight into who they were at the same time. 

At its barest bones, Mixtape is an adolescent dramedy focusing on a girls need to find out more about her parents and having to work around a grandmother that still hasn’t come to terms with the loss.  Digging deeper, there’s a true maturity to the screenplay from Menear and the performances Weiss gets out of her young actors that elevates Mixtape to a higher level than what it initially appears to be.  There is a lot of loss to be dealt with here, not just between two generations of mother and daughter but of communication between grandmother and granddaughter.  The two only have each other to lean on and they get along wonderfully…but this one huge elephant in the room only grows bigger and has begun to take up more space than they have to offer. 

I’ve searched for a better word but perky is the best way I can describe Allen in the lead…it just comes to mind when I think of her animated performance and the way she can switch from the humorous to the hurt.  She plays well off of her older co-stars and just as nicely with the other young actresses playing her unexpected partners in crime who also do some growing up through helping Beverly.  Thune is also notable, mostly for not making his older guy hanging out with younger girls (not by choice, they kind of force their way into his store) come off so non-creepy.

Honestly, I went into Mixtape thinking it would be a lot like Moxie, the Amy Poehler-directed girl power picture from earlier in 2021 but I wound up liking this one far more than that.  It’s got a sweeter heart and a deeper story to tell.  When you do make your way back to Mixtape and press play, remember who told you about it first and, like most of the “sad” mixtapes were signed, think of me always!