Elio (2025)

As has become all too common for Pixar, this gets mixed reviews. From what I gathered, the strongest complaints pertained to earlier plans to gay-code the 11-year-old protagonist; people either resented the change or thought it wasn't complete enough. I decided that the best approach was to forget all about the reported rough draft while watching.

We don't know how Elio Solís (Yonas Kibreab) lost his parents, but he doesn't cope well, and caretaker Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) expresses so much frustration that he assumes nobody on Earth wants him. He repeatedly tries to signal for aliens to take him away -- and finally makes contact, via Olga's Air Force equipment, with the Communiverse, akin to a galactic UN. Believing that Elio leads Earth, the ETs beam him up and send a shapeshifting doppelganger back. But under the circumstances, they will not let him stay on as an ambassador unless he can talk envious warlord Grigon (Brad Garrett) into not taking over the Communiverse. Elio's best hope lies in Grigon's friendly young son, Glordon (Remy Edgerly).

Talk to Me (2022)

Normally, I'd save a horror for next month, but Netflix, in its unfathomable wisdom, will stop streaming this one by then. I approached with trepidation, partly because I have trouble liking A24 and partly because Australia can scare me good.

In modern Adelaide, there exists a disembodied hand covered in papier-mâché and written all over (we never get a good look at the messages). If you grasp it near a lit candle and say, "Talk to me," you alone will see a usually random ghost standing before you in an instant, looking as a body might shortly after death (less tastefully than in The Sixth Sense). If you then say, "I let you in," you get possessed until someone pries the hand from you and extinguishes the flame -- as long as they're fast enough. Some ghosts are tenacious. And malevolent, for reasons unknown.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

For ages, I felt like I knew enough about this movie already. I even described an outside character as "a Devil Wears Prada type," by which I meant a harsh female boss. But when the title came up on a Disney+ list, I opted for a more informed opinion. Hey, a sequel's slated for next year.

Recent college grad Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) applies for a New York City job as second assistant to Miranda Priestley (Meryl Streep) before ever learning that the latter runs the Runway fashion magazine. Andy stands out with her relative disregard for fashion -- and that's why Miranda hires her: to try something new after a string of failures. It's a tough job, but Andy sticks with it and becomes more like others in the industry, which drives a wedge between her and her old friends, not least her boyfriend (Adrian Grenier).

Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)

I chose this largely because it was the shortest movie on my Netflix list, at 89 minutes, and I got a late start that evening. But there were other good reasons to watch. For one, I hadn't seen a documentary in nearly half a year. For another, DJID sounded singular.

Seventh Day Adventist documentarian Kirsten Johnson (whom I knew best as the director of cinematography for This Film Is Not Yet Rated) believes that her father, Dick, in the early stages of dementia, is not long for this world. Her way of coping with this is to have him and a bunch of professionals fake his death by several means, stage a funeral, and depict him in heaven.

Ne Zha (2019)

I had heard of this year's sequel only when looking up box office records, and then I saw that the original broke some too. I'm sure the vast majority of ticket sales for each were in their native land. Still, their ratings are strong, so I got curious how well they might appeal to an American animation fan. NZ1 is less popular, but I like to start at the beginning.

In old China, Taoist god Yuanshi Tianzun sees fit to split the Chaos Pearl, a powerful monster, into the Spirit Pearl and the Demon Orb, the latter of which he curses to celestial destruction in three years. He tells apprentice Taiyi Zhenren to infuse Ne Zha, the soon-to-be-born royal son of Li Jing and Lady Yin, with the Spirit Pearl. Jealous co-apprentice Shen Gongbao swipes that pearl for new dragon prince Ao Bing, leaving the Demon Orb for the other baby. Although Ne Zha is widely feared and apparently doomed to early death, his parents insist on raising him with Taiyi's training, albeit in isolation. They hope that shielding their son from the whole truth will make him better and happier, but lies rarely form an effective long-term solution, especially in the face of Shen's unorthodox approach to pursuing godhood....

Limitless (2011)

I didn't really know anything about this picture going in. Nor had I heard of its literary basis, Alan Glynn's The Dark Fields. I just thought it looked different enough from my recent viewings, possibly along the lines of Upgrade. OK, it's set in the present, but still a sci-fi thriller about enhancing oneself.

In New York, broke aspiring writer Eddie (Bradley Cooper) runs into his ex-brother-in-law, dealer Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), who gifts him a tablet of an unregulated drug so new it has no name other than NZT-48. It vastly improves Eddie's mental faculties for a day. He comes for more and discovers that someone has murdered Vernon and ransacked the apartment, evidently in search of the NZT stash. Eddie finds it nonetheless, along with significant cash, and uses them to do phenomenally in the stock market, garnering the attention of finance bigwig Carl (Robert De Niro) and reconnecting with ex-wife Lindy (Abbie Cornish). Of course, he also gains the attention of people who would kill for NZT. What's more, withdrawal means progressively serious symptoms....