The new documentary “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” has an extremely rare rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and for that reason, I saw this film.

What almost everybody knows about the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”, is that it is just about the most popular and most performed musical in the world. Just about all the songs from this play are immediately recognizable to everyone, most especially, “I wish I were a rich man”. What this very good documentary shows is the history of this world renowned play that has its roots in Jewish culture, including even the Holocaust. This documentary shows the play’s derivations from a famous story based on the works of Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916) . I thought this documentary was very well done, including the many interviews from some famous people who have performed in this musical, including Linn Manuel Miranda.

I recommend this documentary, but my rating is more in the 80% range, with a solid recommendation.

For “It : Chapter 2” the money was there from the first installment “IT” – released in 2017. When the box office is there from the first IT – the producers can hire well known actors including Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy and Bill Hader, knowing that there is a certain amount of guaranteed money because of the first movie. What is missing here, unfortunately, is a good screenplay.

This sequel starts almost full 30 years after the first one ended, where 7 friends that call themselves “The Losers” reunite because of a pact they made after they killed Pennywise the Clown, played very well by Bill Skarsgård. The pact was, “should Pennywise ever return again, we will come together again to kill him”. The first problem here was the horrible way Pennywise comes back again, in the aftermath of a gay hate crime that was way too violent and unnecessary – especially considering the overall story. This movie has several gay bashing scenes that are bad enough to create some backlash from the gay community. Why have so many scenes like this in a horror movie, what is the point? There are also horrendous scenes of extreme violence and death with small children, also part of the first film – and once again should never have been included in this sequel.

The rest of this film seems to be a series of visual and very violent excuses to show each one of the friends as they retrieve tokens from their past to kill Pennywise with some strange final ritual and the final conclusion is way too similar to the one in the previous movie.

The ratings for IT: Chapter 2 are a below average 66% – and because of the bad story and horrendous unnecessary violence, my rating is only 50% and I do not recommend this film.

There are no better movies than the few that take a true story about a very average person who is living a real life and turns that story into something not only entertaining but relatable, and at times, very funny. Brittany, played extremely well by comic actress Jillian Bell, is living in a garbage apartment in New York City, is broke, fat, depressed, down on her luck and in general her life is a total disaster. How many of us can relate to a reality like this and one of the best lines is “all of us are f’ed up Brittany”.

There are several very funny moments in this movie and one of my favorites was a conversation Brittany has with a salesman at a gym trying to sell her membership for $128 a month. Her response, “you mean I could walk outside and get exercise for free or pay, how much again, to work out here?”

As with all well done transition movies like this one, Brittany’s transformation from an overweight depressed mess into someone who is capable of running a marathon is within itself a great tribute to the true story this film is about. Running a marathon is an extremely challenging thing to do, most especially from someone who is almost obese – and whose entire life is a disaster. Training like this involves hard work for months, and with the help of two close friends Brittany becomes obsessed with this goal of running the NYC Marathon, to the point that nothing else matters in her entire life.

There are so many great things about this movie, starting with the humor; despite Brittany’s depressing life, the great writing and following Brittany through the trials of her money problems, multiple bad jobs and condescending, nasty roommate who seems to derive pleasure from Brittany’s many miseries.  Welcome to real life for so many people in this world.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Brittany Runs a Marathon are an outstanding 91% and in my opinion this is one of the best movies of 2019 and it receives my highest recommendation.  This film should also receive a best picture nomination along with a best actress nomination for Jillian Bell.