Are We Good? (2025)

A portrait on Marc Maron, a neurotic, embittered comedian who deals with the loss of his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton, during the pandemic. Maron has always had a dark, sardonic disposition when he bares his soul on stage, but here he struggles to make light out of his grief. He comes off disagreeable and cantankerous most of the time, which makes him hard to stomach, yet is completely understandable given the circumstances, and honestly makes him feel more relatable than other personalities who have nothing original to say.

3 litter boxes out of 5

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)

Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) takes on the Boss in this unconventional biopic that takes place during the conception of his 1982 album, Nebraska. Bruce is a difficult perfectionist who does things his own way, in all its imperfections, while coming to terms with his past, but the tortured artist angle gets tiring. J.A.W. does a good enough job, but it's the material that is lacking. There are so many great stories they could have told here, but instead decided to do one that feels trite and uninspired, which skips over the most interesting parts.

2½ demo tapes out of 5

The Bad Guys 2 (2025)

After turning over a new leaf and retiring from their old ways, the former Bad Guys struggle to reintegrate with society and are inevitably lured back into the fold by the Bad Girls. It's more of the same, which unfortunately means it's not for me. While the first film was very much inspired by the Ocean's Eleven-style heist genre, this one channels more of a Mission: Impossible spy feeling. I honestly don't understand why these movies are so popular because they feel visually bland and painfully uninspired, and I was bored out of my gourd.

And yes, there will be a third one.

1½ MacGuffinites out of 5

The Bad Guys (2022)

The Big Bad Wolf (of Riding Hood fame) teams up with a snake, a tarantula, a piranha and a shark in order to commit larceny and other crimes. They're the Bad Guys; villains of every story, viewed as monsters by society and taking advantage of their lot in life. As you might guess, since this is a kids' movie, it deals with issues of prejudice and stereotypes, and these guys are far from irredeemable. It's basically a low-stakes heist movie for kids, and if there's one less thing I need in my life, it's yet another heist movie. The voice cast has tremendous chemistry, but this is purely fodder for the little ones. As far as animation goes, I found it basic and generic. This is pretty low-hanging fruit.

2 full Clooneys out of 5

Genie (2023)

A bland, cookie-cutter remake of Bernard and the Genie. It's cute, I suppose, but very formulaic and lacking in genuine warmth (it didn't pass the litmus test of inspiring those "Christmas feelings" in me). Alan Cumming (who portrayed Bernard in the original) plays the role of the evil boss here (originally played by Rowan Atkinson). This time, the genie is Melissa McCarthy, who basically plays herself as a fish out of water. Whereas the charm of the original felt simple and effortless, this update feels forced and compelled to shove the Christmas spirit down your throat, and the whole thing ends up backfiring. 

If nothing else, I'm grateful that this movie introduced me to the original.

2 triangles of red bread out of 5