I saw that the other day and, yes, Jennifer Coolidge and Pete Davidson played very different from their usual personas.
I might try to check it out. I actually like Pete Davidson and his usual schtick, but I’ve never been able to understand Jennifer Coolidge’s appeal. She’s not sexy, she’s not even that attractive - she’s like a caricature, she’s more loud and blousy than funny, I’ve seen nothing original from her … ever.
I think it’s available on Hulu. And Jennifer Coolidge does not play her usual character.
Well she does play a horny discarded gangster moll with no filter which is kinda on brand for Coolidge. But they have given her some (often very funny) lines that she can put some meaningful subtext behind. Both she and Davidson play unlikable people but they are not unlikable characters.
I was thinking of the voice and persona she displays in some roles (the terrible sitcom Two Broke Girls and The White Lotus, among other roles). She’s fairly different in this role.
This character is more confident than her other roles despite playing a character that is essentially powerless in the company of the alpha males she lusts after.
Brick (2025) on Netflix
A Hamburg apartment building is suddenly enclosed by a mysterious brick wall. (And the interior entries to each unit are also blocked. Don’t think too hard about that.) Residents have to hammer their way through walls and floors to join forces with their neighbors and try to find a way out. It was worth a couple hours but I doubt I’ll even remember watching it a month from now. Also, watch in German with subtitles. The dubbing is horrible.
CODA 2021 (Child of Deaf Adults) Marlee Matlin, Emilia Jones
I enjoyed it. The only hearing member of a deaf family faces unique challenges. They’ve grown overly dependent on her to act as an interpreter.
She wants to leave home and attend Berklee College of Music.
It’s listed as a comedy. But I got emotional in some scenes.
Recommended 
In the new documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, Matlin talks about the fact that it meant that she was no long the only deaf person to win an acting Oscar.
Our mid-20s son is catching up on movies, and we watched Ida tonight (2015 winner of Best Foreign Film). I’d forgotten the plot but remembered the effect; it’s still really moving, amazing that it’s only 1 hour 22 minutes.
You may or may not be interested in Cold War, the director’s next film, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2019 (it lost to Roma). Warning: It’s a pretty definitive depiction of amour fou, so it is definitely not Ida-esque
Yes, a very different film, but my wife and I liked that one as well (though not quite so much as Ida).
Saw Superman yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Had Gunn’s presence all over, which IMO, is a good thing. It left some unanswered questions from the opening scroll and had an amusing ending, leaving a lot of possibilities for the DCU. On the other hand, the post-credits scene was a waste of time, unless I just totally missed something.
I think they, at least a little bit, are mocking the habit of Marvel movies teasing things in their post-credits. Instead, I’ve heard they just have a couple jokes or whatever since…why not?
A New Leaf 1971 with Walter Matthau. About a rich man who spends all his money, so he sets out to find and marry a rich woman in order to kill her and get her money.
Very enjoyable and it didn’t end the way I expected it to end. It was also fun seeing a lot of recognizable faces back when they were much younger. It’s available on Internet Archive and I’d encourage people to go watch it.
Saw Jurassic World: Rebirth last night. Wouldn’t have done so on my own but my mother wanted to take the grandkids and figured it would be up a couple of 14 year old boy’s alleys. It was fine. Honestly, I expected worse from breathless article titles and Youtube preview cards but it was the usual stuff: You had dinosaurs, people chased by dinosaurs and, if you were a bad guy or a redshirt, you were eaten by dinosaurs. Lots of dumb moments and head scratchers but it was really just an adequate movie with dinosaurs. I wouldn’t recommend anyone spend their time and money on it but, if you got roped into it, you won’t come away harmed.
My main criticism was in the animation of a few dinosaurs. They had titanosaurs with super long tails (which I assume they had?) but the animation on them looked fake and the obligatory “lab created super dinosaur” looked pretty goofy and some of its movements were at half the frame rate as everyone else. It was like some Harryhausen style animation but without the charm and skill of actual physical models. The rest of the dinosaurs were animated fine though so I’m not sure what was up with that. As noted, the plot was dumb and the characters did dumb things but ya gotta get the dinosaurs right.
Now You See Me (2013)
The wife and I watched this over the weekend and we enjoyed it for the most part. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco are all magicians who are recruited to do a magic show but somehow through their act in Vegas, a bunch of money disappears from a French bank. FBI agent Mark Ruffalo, French Interpol agent Mélanie Laurent investigate, Morgan Freeman is a former magician who makes a living debunking magic acts, and Michael Caine, and insurance magnate, are involved as well.
While the plot is fun, some of the proceedings seemed way too obvious and contrived. Nonetheless, there were some surprises as well. It’s a fun enough movie to enjoy on your streaming service.
Two things I hate about that movie.
- this conceit that these four magicians are so revered and loved that they command huge arenas full of rabid fans, like each one of them is Taylor Swift, except they pull rabbits out of hats. Houdini was never that popular. I refuse to live in a world where magicians are are that respected and loved. I’m not a big fan of stage magic, by the way.
B) Jesse Eisenberg. Hate that guy.
If this is the movie I’m thinking of, isn’t there a scene where one of the magicians escapes from a locked jail cell because of his stage magic skills? Like, he’s in the cell one second, and the next he’s standing outside of it.
I… don’t think it works like that.
He’s great in Zombieland. Most other stuff, meh.