Category Archives: Drama

Movie Review: The Penguin Lessons

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The new movie “The Penguin Lessons” is another recent movie that is about what happened in Argentina during the years 1976-1983, known as the “Dirty War”, where as many as 30,000 citizens were arrested and then disappeared (in some cases by dropping them from a plane into the Atlantic Ocean). The Argentinian government targeted any person even loosely connected to any movement that might be considered in opposition to the government.

In the case of The Penguin Lessons, the story of a Penguin rescued from an oil spill by a high school English teacher Tom Michell, played by Steve Coogan happened during the time of the Dirty War. At first, Tom tries to get rid of the Pengiun by returning him to the ocean, but soon both Tom and the Pengiun realize that they have become friends. Over time Tom brings the Pengiun into this English class, so the boys he is teaching will pay more attention, with a side effect of the nonstop cruel bullying of one overweight boy eliminated just by the presence of the Pengiun.

The other story within this very good film is about a young woman, who works as a maid for the school is taken away from her family leading Tom Michell to risk his life trying to save her from her government kidnappers.

This story has several moments of humor and some emotional highs and lows and overall this is a heartwarming story about the value of animals and their effect on humans, very well told.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for The Penguin Lessons are a solid 84% with a very high audience rating of 94% that I agree with and highly recommend this film.

Movie Review: The Friend

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The new movie “The Friend” has a very simple logline. An older man, Walter, played by Bill Murray, decides to commit suicide and leave his Great Dane, named Apollo, with a friend Iris, played by Naomi Watts. What follows in this story is the grief that Iris experiences after losing a close friend, the many difficulties in trying to take care of a giant dog, and her landlord’s constant reminders that dogs are not allowed in her rent-controlled apartment.

This movie is filmed entirely in New York City, following Iris continuing with her professional and personal life despite the many challenges she suddenly faces after her friend dies, coping with both grief and anger. There are more flashback scenes with Bill Murray towards the end of this film, that show the depth fo this friendship between Ira and Walter.

Most of the good moments of this story are about the personality and likability of the dog when he demonstrates a high level of intelligence including several moments of sadness in his eyes, after Watler dies early in the film. From ChatGPT: “Great Danes are considered a giant breed, and unfortunately, larger dogs tend to have shorter lifespans compared to smaller breeds. Some of the most common health issues that can affect their longevity include: Bone Cancer, Heart Disease, Hip Dysplasia and Gastric Torsion.“

I thought the ending was well done, with Iris struggling to find a solution to the landlord forcing her to get rid of the dog that she has grown to love.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for The Friend is a very high 86% with my rating around 80% with an overall running time that could have been shorter, due to the very simple story.

Movie Review: A Working Man

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The new movie “A Working Man” has many similarities to the great Liam Neeson movie “Taken” from 2008. The entire screenplay plays like Taken with one man taking on significant gangs of criminals, in this case, three different gangs, corrupt police, a young woman kidnapped into a human trafficking ring, and a dramatic ending with Levon Cade, played by Jason Statham finding the young woman named Carla, played by Noemi Gonzalez also very similar to the ending of Taken.

The attempts to make this movie different than Taken, with Levon Cade an employee of a family of a construction company to find their kidnapped daughter are not enough to erase constant reminders of Taken throughout this two-hour movie. A Working Man was written by Sylvester Stallone, David Ayer, and Chuck Dixon making it more unusual that with three writers nobody could think of enough new ideas to turn what could have been a much better new story idea, into an obvious clone of Taken.

The acting in this film is good, with David Harbour and Michael Peña and the action scenes are what anyone would expect with a Jason Statham movie. The ending has a major flaw with about 20 bikers running into a bar trying to kill Cade, and later they are nowhere to be found, with Cade fighting the lead biker at the end. As with all movies like this one, when there are multiple people shooting guns and machine guns against one other person, there is no way one person would survive with that many bullets. But this is a movie, not real life.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 53% are accurate and I do not recommend this movie, that did not try to be more original.