This is one of the few movies I have seen in many years that is all about one of the most difficult times in anyone’s life; “You’re about to leave high school, you have to choose a college and decide what to do and you are only 18 years old”. Very often we all accept the way things are, even if the way things are is insane, like having to make a life decision so early in life. Some of us are able to figure out what we want to do when we are 18 years old, but what about the rest of us, who have no clue? The new movie, “Lady Bird” takes an unusual take on this adolescent dilemma and starts with the fact that the lead character wants to change her name from Christine to Lady Bird, but screenwriter never tells the audience why she wants to change her name to Lady Bird.

The reviews of Lady Bird are extremely high, reaching a very rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.4 on IMDB and I mostly agree with these high marks. The start of this story is a conversation in the car with Lady Bird played by Saoirse Ronan and her mother played by Laurie Metlcalf that could be called a summary of the whole movie based on one conversation. At the end of this argument Lady Bird actually jumps out of the car, because of her anger of what her mother is saying is so extreme. Given the fact that Lady Bird is so confused about what to do with her life and her very identity, her mother’s constant criticism and at times cruel berating is hard to hear at times during this film. Lady Bird goes through a few friendships and two boyfriends during the time she is desperately trying to get into an East Coast college, mainly so she can escape her boring Sacramento California life and her mother. Unfortunately, as her guidance counselor in her Catholic Girls high school laughingly reminds her, her grades are not good enough to get into most colleges. There are some very good laughs in this film along with the realities of an 18 year old not nearly ready to take the next step in her life. I thought all of this was very well done.

The screenwriter and director for this film is 34 year old Greta Gerwig, and due to the acclaim this movie has received so far she just might get a few Academy Award nominations.

I Lady Bird is a very good movie and I do recommend it.

Its been very rare in my experience that a movie hits on every single aspect of what a great screenplay and film is all about. The new movie “Wonder” does all of this and challenges the harsh realities of peer pressure, bullying, empathy, compassion, abandonment, betrayal and friendship all in one story. This great movie also hits the marks with excellent acting and remarkably has significant sub stories about the peripheral people around the main character who has a facial deformity; at a level that I cannot remember ever seeing. The sub stories around the main character I found to be profound enough to create completely new movies around them.

The main character of Auggie is played by Jason Tremblay who at only 11 years old has proven himself to be a great actor, previously in the highly acclaimed movie “Room”. This movie is not a true story, but is very loosely based on another child who was born with a very rare DNA combination that causes facial deformity. From the beginning you cannot help to have empathy for this child, not only for what he has already gone through at age 10 but what he will be facing for the rest of this life. People stare, people are cruel, most especially young children in school and for that reason, up to the 5th grade Auggie was home schooled by his mother played by Julia Roberts and his father, played by Owen Wilson.

I was most impressed with the real life depictions of bullying that Auggie faces from his first days at school. There seemed no limit to the rude staring and cruel remarks this young boy had to face from so many of his classmates. A great deal of this kind of cruelty is because of peer pressure and this even happens with the only friend Auggie is able to make that creates a significant moment in this movie. For me, equally as important as Auggie’s plight is the difficult life his older sister, played very well by Izabela Vidovic has to face as her mother seems to completely ignore her, because she is so obsessed with protecting her son. The message here is that with a problem this challenging in the life of a young child, this would also greatly affect the lives of everyone around him.

It takes a special person to step out of themselves despite peer pressure and other fears and befriend a 10 year old boy in school with a facial deformity and this act of courage did happen twice during this story. There are several acts of extreme cruelty, most especially with one young boy who passed several horrible notes in class to Auggie. There are also moments of great transition as people, as they sometimes do, recognize their own evil and realize they have to change to be able to live with themselves.

This movie has all the ingredients of a film that should be nominated for an Academy Award, but perhaps because of the subject matter it might not get a nomination, but in my opinion, it definitely should.

I highly recommend Wonder that is one of the best movies of 2017.

Its very rare in movie history that an very average or below average movie like Daddy’s home makes enough money to give producers confidence to make a sequel. “Daddy’s Home 2” is one of those rare times. On par with the previous version, this new film takes some chances by casting Mel Gibson who 10 years ago, seemed to have no reasonable path back from the career abyss he was in. But since directing the great war movie “Hacksaw Ridge” last year he seems to have done the impossible and is once again accepted as a bankable actor.

As far this movie, it misses the mark of a comedy because in the theater I was in, there were almost no laughs at all. Most of the physical comedy and sight gags all involved Will Farrell, or John Lithgow getting hit with something or falling off of a house or just generally falling down. This can be funny maybe once or twice in a film, but this one does this too many times and its just not that funny.

The premise of this movie is about the same as the first, but this time to two main characters played by Mark Wahlberg and Will Farrell are close friends having gotten over all of their differences from the first film. Farrell is married to Wahlberg’s x-wife and Wahlberg is now remarried with and has a daughter with his new wife. There are many kids involved in this story and for too long of a time, unless you just saw the first version, its not obvious who’s kid belongs to which parent.

Will Farrell is a natural comedic talent and for that matter, so is John Lithgow and there is virtually nothing he has to do to be funny, unlike Wahlberg who is not funny but despite this there is not enough funny moments to recommend this below average comedy.