“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu”
(Science-Fiction/Action: 2 hours, 12 minutes)
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver
Director: Jon Favreau
Rated: PG-13 (Violence and action)
Movie Review:
Star Wars: “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is a continuation of the popular Disney+ series. The online series was good, like “Gunsmoke,” set in the “Star Wars” universe. It is entertaining and more realistic than many of the other “Star Wars” in many ways. This movie, however, takes a different turn. It is all action and adventure and lacks the series’ mystique. Additionally, the series’ catchy theme music is missing.
This outing, the titular bounty hunter, Din Djarin (Pascal), also known as Mando, returns with his diminutive sidekick, Grogu. The Mandalorian and Grogu work for the New Republic. They are hunting the last imperial warlords of the Galactic Empire. While seeking information on a particular warlord named Lord Janu (Jonny Coyne), the Mandalorian and Grogu become entangled with the criminal syndicate of the Hutts while searching for Rotta the Hutt (White), Jabba‘s son. Rotta is the key to finding Janu.
The online series gave the Star Wars universe a much-needed injection. It brought a new sense of adventure to the Star Wars universe with a bit of realistic exploration. This movie tries to add to that, but the essence of the online format is missing, although the episodic format is intact.
This adventure is enjoyable as a space adventure, with neat moments that tie it to prior Star Wars versions across multiple media. However, the Mandalorian and his diminutive ward are not epic enough while allowing secondary and tertiary characters to steal the show, such as a food vendor voiced by Martin Scorsese and Gatori, a swamp creature voiced by Stephen McKinley Henderson. Meanwhile, other computer-animated characters, mainly The Hutts, still appear unreal.
The Mandalorian and Grogu, some still call Baby Yoda, captured many people’s attention when they aired on Disney+. Their motion picture debut is less exciting. This duo is better in short increments, better suited to episodes.
Grade: C+ (Still interesting, but not like the series.)
“Backrooms”
(Science-Fiction: 1 hour, 50 minutes)
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve and Finn Bennett
Director: Kane Parsons
Rated: R (Strong language and violent content/bloody images)
Movie Review:
Often, originality and multiple-mixed genres have audiences raving about a movie because it is something unseen before. This is the case with “Backrooms,” which is based on the television series and marks Kane Parsons’ directorial debut. A creation of Parsons, this screenplay starts as an interesting mystery, moves into a conspiracy-theory narrative that becomes something akin to a fantasy-horror movie, and then becomes unconvincing science fiction. It is because of all of this that this movie is an intriguing overall psychological thriller.
Clark (Ejiofor) is the manager/owner of the furniture store Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire. One day, while exploring an area on the basement floor of the store, Clark discovers a wall through which he can walk. He enters the Null Zone, an unknown space, and explores it over a lengthy period. He finds yellowish painted walls that go on forever. He soon recruits employees to explore the seemingly infinite space with him, and later, out of concern, his psychologist, Dr. Mary Kline (Reinsve), ventures to find Clark. The spacious area gives them adventure and danger.
Director and co-writer Kane Parsons, now 21, has been dazzling audiences since 2022 with his YouTube videos. This youthful filmmaker never quite lets viewers know what is going on in this movie, so one must apply some imagination or revisit his online series. This is very good, and it is also bad for those who do not like to think or extrapolate ideas of their own accord and only see movies as entertainment.
The strength of this movie is its originality and fine acting led by a seasoned Chiwetel Ejiofor (“Children of Men, 2006”) and Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value,” 2025). This movie offers something new, but it also presents a hodgepodge of material for the viewer that seems to be the product of one person’s mind. In this case, it seems like the director wanted us to be in the mind of the main character, Clark, a fascinating character worthy of a psychological screenplay alone. Yet, this is unknown, as audiences can form multiple ideas of what is happening in the backrooms.
If so, he achieved his goal. This movie is a hodgepodge of entertaining thoughts of exploration that take viewers on a mental thrill adventure. These moments are puzzling dreamscapes that thrill, making one contemplate Clark’s existence and that of his psychologist. These concepts are memorable as a whole movie, but when they are done, so is the audience.
Grade: B (Liminal spaces provide ample room for storytelling.)
“Passenger”
(Horror: 1 hour, 50 minutes)
Starring: Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell and Melissa Leo
Director: André Øvredal
Rated: R (Strong violent content, some gore, and language)
Movie Review:
“Passenger” is a horror movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat despite its formulaic concepts. The movie follows Tyler Genocchio (Scipio) and Maddie Brecker (Llobell), a couple who see an accident on back roads and pull over to offer assistance. They do know The Passenger (Joseph Lopez), a demonic presence, hitches a ride with travelers who stop along his path. Soon, the malevolent Passenger rides with the recently engaged couple in the camper they call home.
“The Passenger” is clever as a horror that makes one think more about the roads traveled. An evil being stalks people as they travel. One has to give the movie credit for an original concept. However, that originality only goes so far.
The director soon falls into the same traps of many horror movies: characters doing stupid actions. But André Øvredal and his team know how to use stereotypical moments to their advantage, creating frightful moments that should work for audiences.
Grade: C+ (Hitch a ride to see this if you do not care the cliches in the trunk.)
“I Love Boosters”
(Comedy/Crime/Science-Fiction: 1 hour, 53 minutes)
Starring: Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige, Naomi Ackie and Demi Moore
Director: Boots Riley
Rated: R ( )
Movie Review:
This screenplay is an absurd crime comedy turns into weird science. The beginning is far better than the end. This mainly exists because the movie becomes weirder and more far-fetched as it progresses. Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You,” 2018) poses a unique urban screenplay. He just does not sustain a momentum of consistency.
Corvette (Palmer), Mariah (Paige), Sade (Ackie) and some associates are boosters in the San Francisco Bay Area, known as the Velvet Gang. Collectively, they are professional shoplifters of high-end merchandise who resell the items at reasonable prices. They steal clothes from the fashion boutiques of the world’s biggest corporate chains, Metro Designers, a conglomerate run by designer Christie Smith (Moore). They do this with finesse of smooth criminals who propagate an underground economy. When the powerful and wealthy Smith insults the Velvet Gang, they decide to keep robbing her boutiques, which are spread through the area, to prove a point, especially after one of Corvette’s designs is stolen by the clothing magnet Smith.
“I Love Boosters” is not without its creative uniqueness. The costumes, set designs and wigs are engaging features. They are colorful and artful, nice distractions, but the narrative goes wayward.
For a moment, this screenplay becomes similar to 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) with the arrival of Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a Metro Designers’ factory worker from China. The characters become an eclectic bunch and even weirder when an explanation is offered for their actions.
This comedy is all over the place. Its scattered narrative does not necessarily make sense throughout. If one likes strange comedies, this is the screenplay for you. Others may feel they have been boosted. Conversely, look out for interesting secondary characters, including Don Cheadle, Viggo Mortensen and Will Poulter.
Grade: C+ (Some intelligent concepts and neat visuals are upbeat compared to bizarre story elements.)
“The Breadwinner”
(Comedy: 1 hour, 39 minutes)
Starring: Nate Bargatze, Mandy Moore and Colin Jost
Director: Eric Appel
Rated: PG (Mild suggestive references)
Movie Review:
“The Breadwinner” is another movie that portrays men as awful at running a household and doing everyday chores, such as cooking and laundry. The bad part is this movie’s comical moments, for which there are few surprises, have a lesser impact because the best moments are in the trailers. This movie akin to other features and in other modern media does what too many movies do too often — make fathers look like idiots for comedy.
Nate Wilcox (Nate Bargatze in his film debut) is a father raising three daughters for about two weeks while his wife Katie (Moore) is overseas starting up her business. Katie was awarded a deal on television’s “Shark Tank.” But to make the deal work, Katie needs help. Nate agrees. He assures everyone he can take care of three daughters. He has trouble with all the household chores his wife usually handles with ease.
This girl-dad movie may entertain, but it is also stupid. Like many modern movies, Nate is cast as a father who is useless except for making people laugh. These types of stereotypes of dads are becoming far too redundant. Even more, this movie is more telling about both parents. Nate’s lack of household knowledge is front and center, but Katie, in her role as a stay-at-home mother, should be ridiculed as well. The character allows her daughters, the oldest two who are at least 10 to 13 years of age, to sit around the house and not do chores. My parents taught my brother, sister and I how to cut the lawn, clean the house, wash clothes, fix our own breakfast and lunch and other household chores by the time we were 10.
Here, the eldest daughter admits she uses 8 towels, yet her parents do not show her how to do laundry. Nate admits a large part of his day is washing towels. He does not ask his daughters why in a meaningful manner or chastise them or make them wash the towels. Eventually, he teaches them how to do chores. By then, these characters, based on Nate Bargatze’s life and stand-up routines, are irrationally stupid. This is especially true of Will Forte’s Keegan Jones, a contractor who is terrible at his job. He annoys the most.
While the dad in this movie gets most of the blame, the mom deserves equal blame. Audiences may laugh, yet this movie is tragically flawed, socially and comically. Both parents in this movie are inept as the elementary comedy in this screenplay written by Nate Bargatze and Dan Lagana.
Grade: D+ (The stale breadwinner.)
“Pressure”
(Drama/History: 1 hour, 40 minutes)
Starring: Andrew Scott, Chris Messina
Director: Anthony Maras
Rated: PG-13 (War violence, bloody images, strong language, and smoking)
Movie Review:
“Pressure” is an affable war drama that takes major liberties with actual history. It is a tale of how a team of meteorologists, led by Group Captain James Stagg (Scott), must help General Eisenhower’s command staff decide whether the weather will be good enough to launch D-Day, the June 6 invasion of the Normandy coast in France. Director-writer Anthony Maras (“Hotel Mumbai,” 2018) and co-writer David Haig draw on an intense moment from World War II. What is bad is the need to insert a dynamic family love story that is nowhere near as important as winning a war.
Screenplays have long inserted love stories to make characters’ lives more human. This strategy was holistic for its time, but unnecessary to help audiences see an onscreen persona’s humanity. This is the case with Group Captain James Stagg (Scott), the movie’s lead character. “Pressure” portrays Captain Stagg as arriving about 72 hours before D-Day, when in real life he had been working with General Eisenhower’s team for months. Stagg’s wife did not give birth during D-Day, and her hospital was not bombed while she was there giving birth. She reportedly gave birth to The Staggs’ baby in November. Why add these moments to movies when the story itself is intense enough to entertain and inform?
While other inaccuracies exist, these main ones concerning Stagg are most disappointing. They are unnecessary additions when D-Day during terrible weather conditions is enough of an historical event to facilitate the plot without pretentious, sentimental junk. Screenwriters should just stick to the story and avoid passé Hollywood material, such as a protagonist, Captain Stagg, needing a love interest and a rival.
That noted, the real-life event and everything leading up to it is intriguing. The acting is superb. The dramatic tension this movie creates stays until the last scene. Although you know how D-Day ends, Anthony Maras and his team make it gratifying.
Grade: B- (Invasion is good.)
“Tuner”
(Drama/Crime: 1 hour, 47 minutes)
Starring: Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu and Dustin Hoffman
Director: Daniel Roher
Rated: R (Strong language throughout, violence, drug use and brief nudity)
Movie Review:
A good heist movie is the perfect way to describe “Tuner.” Unlike many movies, the love story makes sense and becomes a pivotal part of the plot. Director Daniel Roher and Robert Ramsey write a screenplay that allows observers to know the characters through their actions towards others. This helps audiences empathize with the characters.
Niki White (Woodall), a once-gifted musician, suffers from hyperacusis, a condition where usual sounds are perceived as uncomfortably loud. He and Harry Horowitz (Hoffman) are piano tuners. They go from music halls to wealthy people’s homes to ensure their pianos are properly tuned. After Horowitz is hospitalized, White continues doing the team’s work, trying to help Horowitz and his wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh) pay medical costs. While working at one gentleman’s house, White realizes the workers upstairs are trying to break into a safe. They are committing a crime. White’s unique ability to hear the slightest sound makes safe-cracking easier. Amazingly, he aids the burglars and returns to tuning a piano downstairs. Uri (Lior Raz), the criminals’ leader, realizes White’s talent may be an asset and recruits him for other heists. All these things happen as White finds romance with Ruthie (Liu), a talented, classically trained musician who learns White is a virtuoso.
“Tuner” has a fine cast, although Dustin Hoffman‘s role is too small. His character is fascinating, but he is sidelined much too early. This leaves Leo Woodall, a talented young actor who more than holds his own with Hoffman. Woodall is fascinating here and plays the lead character with quiet demeanor.
Havana Rose Liu plays Ruthie, White’s lover. She is a composer who learns to perfect her music through White. When Ruthie realizes White’s talent, she falls for him. Their relationship is beautiful and adds to the characters in a necessary way. They have such a unique relationship that one wants to see them succeed, despite whatever else is going on in their lives.
“Tuner” makes one care about these characters, and it slowly develops them in a way that is just ripe enough to make this movie thoroughly enjoyable. It features good acting and people in a worthwhile plot. Sure, the ending could be more tangible, but even the conclusion is a pivotal part of this good movie.
Grade: B+ (Tune in to this one)
