The Fall Guy (2024)

I had never heard of the '80s TV series of the same title. Fortunately, this is only a loose adaptation, so it doesn't presuppose much knowledge. The only detail I know would have meant more to me with familiarity was a pair of cameos.

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is a beleaguered stuntman, most notably standing in for obnoxious actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). A particularly bad injury dissuades him from further stunts, until producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) asks him to work on the directorial debut of his ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Gail later confides that the invitation isn't really about the job: She wants him to track down the suspiciously absent Tom before the production fails. Colt always knew that Tom was troubled, but he doesn't anticipate what follows. Hint: The title has a double meaning.

Oppenheimer (2023)

I knew my dad and I would have to see this while it was still in theaters. Not only is it popular, but it loses something on a smaller screen. Not that nuclear explosions, "real" or imagined, make up much of the three hours.

The story covers the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) from his doctoral student days in 1926 to his receipt of the Enrico Fermi Award in '63. His key work on the Manhattan Project and reactions to its aftermath tend to dominate the focus, but there's more to it than that. He hangs out with communists too much for the comfort of authorities, and two party members, eventual wife Kitty Puening (Emily Blunt) and codependent Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), become his love interests.

Animal Crackers (2017)

No, that year is not an error; despite U.S. production, this movie was first released in France three years ago, followed by China two years ago, before finally reaching American eyes via Netflix last week. I had heard about it while it was in production, because auteur Scott Christian Sava put his now-concluded webcomic, The Dreamland Chronicles, on hiatus for that purpose. (You can see TDC characters in the Blue Dream Studios logo sequence.) For the same reason, along with a recommendation from a friend, I took interest in AC, which has had probably the poorest overall reception of anything reviewed on this blog but is still getting a lot of Netflix views.

Owen (John Krasinski), nephew of circus owner Buffalo Bob (James Arnold Taylor), sees little choice but to take a lousy factory job in order to appease a CEO (Wallace Shawn) before marrying his daughter Zoe (Emily Blunt, still John's beloved on and off screen). When tragedy strikes the circus, Owen receives a box of what he first takes to be ordinary animal crackers, but eating one magically turns him into the depicted animal and, thankfully, generates his personal human-form cracker to change back. Now he is urged, not least by Zoe and their young daughter (Lydia Rose Taylor), to drum up business for the circus again by performing various animal acts himself. But his other uncle, Horatio (Ian McKellen), who left Bob on bad terms, will stop at nothing to reclaim that success for himself.

A Quiet Place (2018)

This was one of those times that I felt like I knew enough just from the trailer, with a couple extra details from a review or two. It's certainly simple in concept. I also postponed my viewing in the off chance that I found it too scary for comfort. But one of the few genuinely promising horrors on my queue could not be ignored all month.

The cast is quite small, because few people or animals are left alive by late 2020. For months, a blind but excellently hearing species has been annihilating and, I assume, devouring them. Our focus is on a single family living in a rural area, making trips to an abandoned town as needed. So great is their dread of attracting monsters that they rarely even whisper, opting for sign language and going barefoot everywhere. And lest you think that the plot amounts to a now-typical couple of days in their lives, the mother (Emily Blunt, actual wife of costar and director John Krasinski) is heavily pregnant....

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

I made a point to rewatch the 1964 Mary Poppins first. Good thing I did, because judging from my memory, I must have dozed off during "Stay Awake" and missed all the rest as a kid. Pity: It seems more enjoyable to an immature mind with little idea how actual adults behave. I feel like I got more out of Saving Mr. Banks. Still, there was enough of merit in MP to keep me interested in the sequel.

In 1934, some 24 years after Mary left the Banks estate, her former ward Michael (Ben Whishaw) is a flaky banker and widowed father of three on the verge of losing their old house if he can't find a share certificate. His sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) lives elsewhere in London but pays frequent visits to help. Michael's two oldest kids, tweens Annabel (Pixie Davis) and John (Nathaniel Saleh), have had to grow up a bit in the year since their mother died, and youngest Georgie (Joel Dawson) can be a handful. Before long, the titular event happens, and the ageless mage (Emily Blunt) intends to do the Bankses a good turn once again.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

My second favorite medium is video games. This rarely has the slightest bearing on my choices for my favorite medium; I've never seen all of any movie adapted from a game (Wreck-It Ralph doesn't count). But when I learned the premise of this sci-fi feature, I thought, "Huh, so the hero has a save point and infinite lives. Intriguing." To put it in more cinematic terms, it sounded like Groundhog Day, only substituting action for comedy. Oh, and it's not a 24-hour cycle: Only death serves for a reset.

I had not realized just how much emphasis would be on the sci-fi in other regards. A montage in the beginning establishes a war on Earth against aliens, in which humans have won only one battle so far. A handful of humans know why the invaders are so effective: innate time travel properties, combined with a hive mind. Whenever an elite "Alpha" dies, the "Omega" turns back the clock to a set point, retaining memories that the humans don't -- unless the Alpha's blood covers a human, thereby granting him the sole power of automatic resets, along with occasional telepathic connections with the Omega, for as long as he has the right blood in his body. That's what happens to protagonist Major Bill Cage (Tom Cruise, still quite watchable), but even demonstrating "foreknowledge" doesn't reliably convince others of his ability, apart from Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who used to be like him. Together, they hope to minimize if not prevent a disastrous ambush and, if possible, kill the Omega.