Netflix Movie Review: Marty, Life is Short

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The new Netflix documentary “Marty, Life is Short”, is an oustanding look into the life of Martin Short, who is one of the most talented and funny actors and comedians we have ever seen. Despite his talent Short has seen more than his share of tragedy. Short’s brother Gordon died in a car accident when Martin was only 12 years old. Both of Martin’s parents died before he reached 20 years old. In 2010, Martin lost his wife of 30 years Nancy Dolman to Ovarian Cancer, the same diseased that Gilda Radner died of in 1989. A few months ago, Martin lost his adopted daughter Katherine to suicide.

Through all this tragedy and an extremely difficult career in show business, there were years where Short was making movies regularly, but a large percentage of them, were not financially successful. As Martin says in this documentary, you succeed only about 10% of the time, and have to weather years of no work and bad times when nothing seems to work. There is a scene where Short bought a house with his wife, thinking that the two movies he was about to make would pay for it, only to lose one of the movies. The reaction from his wife, was, “we will just move”.

Martin Short’s appearances on the Johnny Carson show were as memorable as his close friend Steve Martin and Robin Williams (see videos below). Short’s timing and delivery was always flawless as were his impressions of many celebrties, including Katherine Hepburn, Betty Davis and even Magician Doug Henning. Like very few who appeared on the Johnny Carson show, Martin was one of the very few who could turn his appearances into a major event.

In 1985, along with Billy Crystal, Martin Short rescued Saturday Night Live that was close to being cancelled, and created one of the best seasons of this show that included some of Shorts most famous characters.

This documentary also shows the many family events at Martin Short’s house, that even included friends, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Steven Martin and even Steven Speilberg. This documentary is very well directed by well known director Lawrence Kasdan and includes many interviews with Martin Short about this life and career.

Marty, Life is Short is receiving perfect 100% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and I agree with this rating giving this documentary, my highest recommendation.

Movie Review: Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft – The Tour Live in 3D

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For a human being, only 24 years old to have already achieved huge success in music at the level of Billie Eilish is most likely unprecedented. Eilish has already won ten Grammys and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song, the youngest person to ever win this award. She has performed in huge concerts around the world, where her fans are as devoted and rabid as Taylor Swift’s.

During Eilish’s performances for the concert movie “Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft”, her fans know every lyric to all of her songs and sing along with her for every performance, many of them crying. After the concert was over, almost all of her fans, most of them young women, were still crying profusely, as if they had just seen the greatest performance in their lives. Many of Eilish’s songs are somewhat slow and sad, making the emotional impact on her audience greater than most other performers, with the possible exception of Taylor Swift.

Eilish’s achievements at such a young age, even caught the eye of the great director James Cameron, who directed this impressive concert movie, which shows from the beginning the huge logistical effort it takes to assemble the scaffolding, lights, sound, and software within a huge concert venue. Then all of these man-hours of construction and testing have to be taken down, then driven by trucks to be reassembled in another huge stadium. For this tour, this happened an incredible 106 times with 1.5 million attendees grossing 225 million dollars worldwide.

Everything about Elish’s performances is highly unusual, including lying down on stage while singing and looking up at the sky. She wears loose-fitting athletic shirts and pants, a baseball cap, and continuously walks around the huge stage. At times, Eilish takes the risk of stepping into the audience to shake many hands. Eilish, along with her brother Finneas, writes all of her own music, another thing she has in common with Taylor Swift. It is hard to imagine a life like this to be so rich and world famous at such a young age, with so many millions of fans so devoted. Then to have the amazing ability to stand in front of so many thousands of people and remember all of the lyrics to so many songs. Also, like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish has not let her huge success go to her head, and she also seems like a well-adjusted, normal person.

There are several scenes of Cameron and Eilish directing this concert movie, which also include several interviews in which Eilish is asked by Cameron to give her own perspective on her incredibly blessed life.

I put this concert movie on a par with “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert film, released in 2023. I agree with the 90% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and give a high recommendation to this movie.

Movie Review: The Devil Wears Prada 2

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The last time there was a major social media interest fervor for creating a sequel to a production that had been off the air for years is the outstanding TV series “Suits,” which ran for nine years from 2011 to 2019. This resulted in a TV sequel on NBC, “LA Suits,” which was a disaster of 13 episodes that ran for one season in 2025 and was immediately cancelled for low ratings and bad episodes. The problem with racing into a new production based on buzz on social media are that very often the new show is rushed, to take advantage of what could be a temporary anomaly of enthusiasm, mostly to cash in on ratings and box office. Unfortunately, when a new production is rushed because of social media buzz and is based on a previous show that was outstanding, what results is a bad TV show or movie. The bottom line is that you cannot rush quality. Creating a new great idea or writing a great screenplay can take years.

“The Devil Wears Prada”, released in 2006, has maintained its popularity on Cable TV for twenty years. This is one of those movies that, even though you have seen it many times, you still want to watch it again. The quality and great moments in this original film are relatable to everybody who has ever worked for a company and/or with very difficult people. This includes the incredible rudeness of CEO of the magazine “Runway”, Miranda Priestly, (Meryl Streep), and the ongoing nastiness of Andy’s coworker Emily (Emily Blunt).

Miranda’s inconsiderate behavior towards Andy (Anne Hathaway) included not even remembering her name, throwing her coat on Andy’s desk, mean, condescending comments, ignoring, and dismissing at a level at times that are so extreme they are funny. Far too many of us have been subjected to this kind of employment garbage daily, only because someone else has us under their financial thumb. This harsh reality of making a living is one of the most unfortunate parts about being alive and needing money to buy food and shelter.

The sequel, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” is a far better effort than Suits LA. The screenplay was written by Aline Brosh McKenna and Lauren Weisberger, walked the line of giving the audience reminders of some of the best moments of the original, with enough new ideas that make this movie experience not seem exploitive. The bottom line in any new movie production like this, is to make money first. Taking huge risks is far too often not an option because the producers do not want to alienate the fans of the original movie. Therefore, frequent reminders of the original are to be expected.

The other main character returning for this sequel is Stanley Tucci, who is outstanding as Nigel, with Lucy Liu as a famous fashion mogul whom Miranda wants to interview to save Runway because the magazine is going through hard times due to the greatly reduced interest in print media, due to publishing on the internet. I also thought that the twist at the end of this story, about wealthy businessmen screwing over other wealthy people, was too similar to the ending of the original film. Lady Gaga also has a cameo towards the end of this movie along with Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum.

Overall, I thought this sequel was good, but nearly as great as the original, with the acting good throughout. I agree with the 79% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and give this movie a moderate recommendation.