Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

I hadn't seen any big-screen TMNT outing since the abortive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III more than 30 years ago. The latest entry got my attention mainly when the first trailer met with very mixed reactions, presumably because it emphasized the teenage aspect at the expense of coolness. Nonetheless, reviews of the actual movie have been positive overall, and I was willing to take a chance on an alternate version for a new generation.

After rogue scientist Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) accidentally spills mutagenic ooze into a New York sewer, four anthro-reptilian brothers spend their first 15 years enjoying human culture in secret, albeit not as stealthily as adoptive anthro-rat Splinter (Jackie Chan) would like. When they unwittingly cause aspiring high school journalist April O'Neil (Ayo Edebiri) to lose her moped to a thief, they finally use their ninja training for good and gain a human ally. She and they both want to gain popularity by foiling serial robber Superfly (Ice Cube), but that gets complicated when they discover that he and his closest minions are fellow mutants out to create more mutants. Can the turtles hope to take them on? Do they even want to fight their likeliest comrades to protect humans, some of whom, under a shady project leader (Maya Rudolph), have nasty plans for the turtles?

Daughters (2024)

I don't remember reading about this documentary before. Most likely, I added it to my list because it's set in my long-time hometown. And unlike most DC pics, it has nothing to do with the federal government. It's all residential Washington, albeit nowhere I recognize.

The Date With Dad program assembles girls whose fathers are all in the same jail and buses them there. Then they have something of a fancy ball for a few hours. This doc focuses on four dads and four daughters, the latter ranging from age five to the teens. We also get epilogues one and three years later.

I'm Still Here (2024)

Not to be confused with the 2010 Joaquin Phoenix flick of the same title. I've been dragging my heels about watching the latest Academy Best Picture nominees, because few of them look like my type. I finally decided to go ahead with another when it came up on Netflix, not knowing much about it.

In 1970, military-run Brazil faces a lot of unrest. The Paiva family in Rio de Janeiro gets a taste of it when officers thoroughly search motorists for suspects. More importantly, Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) has been supporting expats, which his wife, Eunice (Fernanda Torres), and their five kids don't seem to know -- until plainclothesmen arrest him. Asking about him yields incomplete answers at best and follow-up punishment at worst.

Number 24 (2024)

I picked the first war epic I could find for Veterans Day. Not much has been written about it yet, because it's a Norwegian indie with limited screening, but it gets a warm reception among viewers.

In old age, Gunnar Sønsteby guest-lectures a class about his life from shortly before World War II to the end of it, during part of which he was Agent #24 of Britain's Special Operations Executive. In particular, he coordinated the Oslo Gang, which specialized in sabotaging German occupation projects, usually with explosives, but expanded to assassinations.

Election (1999)

Once I saw this title on the menu, I decided it should be my first viewing after Election Day. The advertising didn't appeal to me, especially the poster showing a tiny man's head in a girl's mouth, but the movie itself has some enduring clout, including reportedly being Barack Obama's favorite political pic.

High school civic teacher Jim (Matthew Broderick) has complicated feelings about busy, ambitious A student Tracy (Reese Witherspoon): He resents her for having had an inappropriate relationship with his now fired and divorced co-worker, Dave (Mark Harelik), but also fears that he will make the same mistake, especially if she becomes the student government president and thus spends more time around him. He persuades injured football star Paul (Chris Klein) to run against her. Paul's sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell), bitter at him for dating her female love interest, Lisa (Frankie Ingrassia), then enters the race to thwart him. Amid this havoc, Jim turns out to be in much more danger of straying toward Dave's ex-wife, Linda (Delaney Driscoll), who is also a friend of Jim's wife, Diane (Molly Hagan).

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000)

I ignore most direct-to-video movies, but this one caught my attention via YouTube ads, and it turns out to be pretty popular. Having watched just a little of the Batman Beyond TV series, I had some idea of what to expect. And this wouldn't be the first time I counted a Batman animation among my Halloween season viewings.

In an unspecified future, when a cane-needing Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) publicly resumes his leadership at Wayne Enterprises, he could swear he helped bury a dead Joker (Mark Hamill) about 40 years ago. Yet the party crasher before him looks and sounds exactly the same -- not even any older. Unable to explain this, Bruce wants to dissuade his successor, Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle), from continuing to be Batman. But somehow the Clown Prince of Crime must know both secret identities, because he heads for Bruce while his minions (including one with a Halloween theme, incidentally) go after an uncostumed Terry....