The new movie “Moving on” is a well-told story about retribution – one of the many reasons why we all go to the movies. Everybody wants things to work out the right way, when the good guy wins, that so very often never happens in real life.
The story of Moving on starts with a funeral of a friend of Claire, played by Jane Fonda. Within a few minutes of this story, Claire tells her friend’s husband Howard, played by Malcolm McDowell, that now that her friend is gone, she is going to kill him. The reason for Claire’s extreme hatred is not skillfully revealed until very close to the end of this film. I did like the way this story was told in an unusual way, and not sequentially like so many other stories we have all seen before.
Claire’s friend is Evelyn, played by Lily Tomlin and the rest of this story is mostly about their different ideas about how best to do away with Howard, turning from a handgun, to poison, to of all things a flare gun. I thought the ending for this story was very well done with a nice trick surprise.
There are some side stories that both worked and did not work, but the acting was very good as well as the ongoing chemistry between close friends Jane Fonda and Lilly Tomlin.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are a too-low 66%, with my rating around 75 and a solid recommendation.
The big shame about the second Shazam installment, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” is that the first movie, “Shazam”, released 3 years ago, was actually good, and received high ratings of 91%. Unfortunately, the producers for this sequel went down the typical special effects chute and created another bad action and effects movie that will probably end this franchise for good. Considering the amount of money that could have been made creating a great movie – this one is a giant blunder from all involved. Did they find it so hard to spend a solid year and write a great story and screenplay? What is this story all about, I have no idea.
The special effects are spectacular but thrown together with no connectivity, logic, or continuity. Nobody seeing this mess will know what is really going on from one insane special effects scene to the next. There are hugely growing trees, Lucy Liu riding on top of a flying dragon, giant trolls and other creatures, unicorns, explosions, people running for their lives, and for some unknown reason – Helen Miren? What is she doing in this bad action movie? How much was she paid to take this big a hit on her acting career? When will the people in charge learn that just because of “name recognition” from a previous movie, does not mean that corners can be cut, starting with a major multi-million dollar film having no good screenplay and no story?
The same actors reprise their roles from the previous movie, with most of them having much smaller roles, including Zachary Levi, Adam Brody, Djimon Hounsou, Meagan Good, Grace Caroline Currey. Lucy Lui and Helen Miren for some reason read this script and decided to join the cast.
The ratings for this bad sequel is a correctly low 54% and I agree with this number and rate this movie, which probably has ended a promising franchise, as a big pass.
One of the 10 Oscar-nominated movies for 2022 was the movie “Living”. The star of this film, Bill Nighy was rightfully nominated for best actor. The good news about Living is that it is an actual, normal, rather old-style movie. It has a screenplay, a plot, a story, a beginning, middle, and end, and an actual important message about life. Considering some of the insane movies that came out in 2022, it was good to see a normal film be both nominated and appreciated for its quality.
The story of Living is about the necessity of human beings to get up in the morning, go to work (no matter how much they hate their jobs), and then make a living. Living anywhere costs money, buying food, having a car, health costs, and education. It is staggering how much so many things that are considered basic necessities of life, actually cost. It should not be this way, but it is – it’s called Living. The main message of this very good movie is all about the realities of time, the day-by-day repeating grind, and what all of us have to do in this life to survive.
The main character of this story Mr. Williams, played by Bill Nighy, is a dedicated civil servant who works in a very crowded, paper-filled, and depressing office in London, in the 1950s. One of the best things about this movie is the extremely stark depiction of real-life of working in a crowded office, sitting down all day surrounded by huge stacks of papers. In the 1950s, long before the invention of desktop computers and laptops the clutter and piles of paper are overwhelming.
From some flashbacks, Mr. Williams lost his wife some time ago, but life goes on, he still must make a living. There is no escape from his job, just because his wife died. There are references throughout this story about how time seems to fly by, because of necessity that includes the repeated ritual of sitting in the same office all day, making money so you can survive.
Halfway through this story, Williams receives a terminal Cancer diagnosis and realizes that because his time on Earth is so short, sitting in an office, waiting to die is no longer an option. Mr. Williams takes time off work and tries to understand the meaning of the remaining days of his life, including getting a playground built in a lot adjacent to the office building where he works.
A secondary story involves a light romantic relationship that Williams has with a much younger employee in his office, but due to the major age difference, nothing comes from this relationship other than a friendship. For me, the main message in this story is that once you know you have a very limited number of days to live, the mundane repeated rituals of making money – become meaningless very quickly.
I thought the acting throughout this film is outstanding, starting with Bill Nighy, whose very calm and subtle portrayal gave him a very deserved best actor nomination.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this film is a very high 96% and I agree with this number and highly recommend this movie.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 