Hail, Caesar!

Made as a love letter to all things Hollywood. Moments of this are hilarious, but seem to be laser-guided to people who know about or work in the movie industry. It’s essential satire too, and an appropriate companion piece to Trumbo. During the red scare, what did people think was going to happen? This preposterous what-if culminates in Channing Tatum, a closeted song-and-dance man, paddling out to sea to rendezvous with a Russian sub, carrying a headful of American “secrets.” McCarthyism brilliantly pushed to its illogical conclusion by the Coens, winking as fast as they can. Of all the Coens' rotating cast of repertory players -- the ensemble of nutballs -- there’s one standout: the new kid. Alden Ehrenreich nails his dopey cowpoke character, who’s way more sharp and sensible than his first appearances would demonstrate. There’s big laughs in this, at least for Hollywood types. Who knows if the rest of the world will get it?

Deadpool

Hey, hey! It’s an X-MEN comedy! There’s big laughs in this. A lot of fourth wall breaking and winking at the audience. It’s like a "Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoon.  The action scenes aren’t all that original and kind of bereft of suspense and excitement. Typical punching and fighting and smart-alecky bravado is par for the course. But the zingers zing. And Deadpool gets to have a girlfriend, and she’s not so innocent either. So this is worth seeing for the gags, even if Deadpool gets tortured for a little too long, and the action is better on the Daredevil Netflix series. 

Spotlight

The journalists are the heroes, taking their jobs very seriously. They back up their stories with quotes, they verify and corroborate their sources, getting confirmations and second confirmations. You know: journalism. In this day and age, where TMZ style “journalism” rules, where the major news organizations prop-up and egg-on a clown candidate without asking any tough questions so they’ll see how outrageous he’ll become, we as a society could take a few lessons from these guys at the Boston Globe. The movie-making itself isn’t mind-blowingly original. The acting is subtle; not screamy. Scenes flow with suspense, drama, and finesse, but no one fights a bear. I guess you could say Spotlight is the polar opposite of The Revenant: it’s subtle, meaningful, and, most of all, relevant.