Nicole Kidman

The Perfect Couple – Happy Wedding Eve

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Perfect Couple – Happy Wedding Eve
  • IMDb: link

The Perfect Couple - Happy Wedding Eve

Presented as a TV-mini-series about a murder investigation, the opening episode is really only murder-adjacent. Instead, the majority of “Happy Wedding Eve” focuses on introducing us to a bunch of insufferable rich assholes and the woman who is marrying into their family (who isn’t even sure she wants to). After an hour with these people I’m less surprised a murder occurred than the fact it was apparently only one. Presented in flashbacks to the day of the rehearsal dinner, we get the framework of a police investigation but since the victim isn’t confirmed until the final minute of the episode as too much time is spent spinning its wheels.

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Being the Ricardos

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Being the Ricardos
  • IMDb: link

Being the Ricardos is aptly named as even though a large portion of the movie takes place on the set of I Love Lucy the film is really about the relationship between real-life husband and wife Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) and Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman). While neither of the actors much resemble who they are playing, and Kidman’s look for the movie more closely resembles bad BOTOX than Lucille Ball at times, there’s an interesting story here which is helped by the witty dialogue and pace of writer/director Aaron Sorkin‘s script.

The best aspect of the film is it showcasing how Lucille Ball fought for everything (and against everyone) to try and make the best show possible, which is the only place her marriage really worked. As if the show and her husband’s womanizing weren’t taxing enough. Ball also faces charges of being a Communist during the height of McCarthyism that threaten both her career and the future of the show.

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Paddington

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Paddington
  • IMDb: link

Paddington movie reviewThrowback Tuesday takes us back to 2014’s Paddington, written and directed by Paul King who succeeded in adapting Michael Bond’s character into one of the most complete, magical, and lovable family films of the 2000s. The term “family film” can often be a derogatory phrase for a movie that cuts corners, goes lowbrow, or oversimplifies in an attempt to hit an all-ages market. Paddington, not unlike classic Disney films, reminds us of what the genre can be.

The story follows a talking bear (a thoroughly believable CGI character voiced by Ben Whishaw) from Darkest Peru to London in hopes of finding a new family. Discovered at Paddington Station, the renamed Paddington is taken in the Brown family while more permanent accommodations are arranged. Despite the concerns of Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville) and the various trouble a bear gets into while trying to make sense of his new surroundings, he quickly wins over the rest of the family (Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris, and Samuel Joslin) providing enough time for the bear to search for the explorer (Tim Downie) who met his family decades ago and seems like the most viable suspect to give Paddinton an home.

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People Suck in Indiana

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Prom
  • IMDb: link

The Prom movie reviewAdapted from the stage musical, The Prom sends a group of Broadway performers (Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells) to Indiana looking for a cause to turn around public opinion about their narcissistic nature. What they find is a teenage high school student (Jo Ellen Pellman) denied the right to take her girlfriend (Ariana DeBose) to the prom.

Directed by Ryan Murphy, The Prom is a bawdy life-affirming story populated by mostly paper-thin characters walking through the plot to set-up the next song and dance number. While Corden has received the most criticism for a stereotypical performance, other than the two girls in love, none of the characters have any more depth than a damp sponge. Pellman turns out to be one of the best casting choices as the beautiful young woman who wants nothing more than to be herself, and DeBose manages to steal a moment with her performance of “Alyssa Greene.”

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Bombshell

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Bombshell
  • IMDb: link

Bombshell movie review Bombshell offers a matter-of-fact, but ultimately not all that illuminating, look at the sexual harassment at FOX News under Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). The film primarily focuses on three woman (Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie), only one of whom we see Ailes abuse his power to manipulate and harass (Robbie, in the film’s best, and most skin-crawling and heartbreaking, scene). Undercutting the film’s moral stance more than a little is the fact that the focus of the lawsuit that kicked-off the media storm that eventually led to Ailes departure was less about Gretchen Carlson (Kidman) being harassed and more about seeking revenge for her dismissal from the network due to creative differences.

While Theron gets far more screentime, Robbie steals the film as the naive Kayla Pospisil just starting out in the business who gets a harsh reality check at how things are done. Kate McKinnon has an intriguing role as her friend/lover whose balance of being a lesbian Democrat working at Fox News is actually far more interesting material than most of what is explored over the course of the film surrounding Ailes and the lawsuit. Lithgow is properly slimy as seedy Ailes who is incapable of admitting he’s done anything wrong.

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