Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.
(Above cartoon dutifully paid for.)
As has happened so often in this still-young year last week was filled with a good many time-consuming events (especially in tedious preparation for meeting with my income tax pro, dealing with Nina’s laptop malware, and watching some of the Winter Olympics [those athletes are amazing]), so while I’m still on a mission to see whatever I can of the various Oscar nominees before the awards are announced on March 15, 2026 (go here and scroll down to view all of the contenders) I'm left with little opportunity to report back to you so here’s what I can share about my responses to a couple of them, while struggling to get this posted (no Spoilers from me, but some are in the links).
SHORT TAKES
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
This one’s piled up a lot of positive response already since being released to domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters on December 19, 2025 (still in 465 of them with grosses so far of $94.6 million [globally $149.9 million]; you can also stream it with $19.99 rentals at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV), featuring 9 Oscar noms (including Best Picture, Director, Actor in a Leading Role, Original Screenplay), although for me it runs too long, gets a bit lost with a subplot about a lost dog, and probably wouldn’t be my first choice in any of its Oscar categories—although it's strongest in my opinion for Lead Actor (yet, even there I lean toward Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another [Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025])—despite a clear disagreement from the CCAL with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 94%, Metacritic average score at 89% (quite high for them). It’s somewhat based on Marty Reisman, a noted American table tennis champ (and hustler; more about him here [15:34 video; ads interrupt at 1:05, 4:35, 7:55, 10:40, 13:20]) with this version of such a mercurial character starring Timothée Chalamet (winning the 2026 Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy [an odd choice for this film in this category as there are few laughs in it, but One Battle … took their award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy over Marty …, another one without much fun, but still my choice at this point for Oscar’s Best Picture]) as Marty Mauser in 1952 NYC where working for his Uncle Murray (Larry “Ratso” Sloman) as a shoe salesman is far from his goal of becoming table tennis World Champion.
Marty lets nothing stop him in his quest for triumphs at tournaments in London and Tokyo, getting into an affair with aging actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Palthrow) along the way (he’s got another one going with married childhood pal Rachel Mizler [Odessa A’zion]), eventually getting some financial support from her clueless husband, writing pen magnate Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary), although Marty’s decisions about his dreams leave him constantly owing reimbursement for the various antics he’s used to further his ambitions. You deserve more extensive plot details so go here to find them. I’ll leave you with praise for Chalamet’s work and my usual Musical Metaphor, taken this time directly from the soundtrack, Tears for Fears’ "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (1985 album Songs from the Big Chair) because for Marty and his main competitors (along with Rockwell) “All for freedom and for pleasure / Nothing ever lasts forever / Everybody wants to rule the world”; decades later for so many politicians/tech bros the attitude remains the same, but Marty does wise up finally.
Here’s the trailer:
My attention to this movie was based on Kate Hudson’s Oscar nomination as Best Actress in a Leading Role, but in retrospect I think she has little chance at winning given the competition she faces with my interest toward Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (Mary Bronstein, 2025), along with all the good things I’ve heard (but haven’t verified with a viewing yet … but soon) about Jessie Buckley in Hamnet (Chloé Zhao, 2025). Honestly, Hudson has her moments in this story, especially in the later scenes, but I now see her as the least likely winner in this category, just as I can easily understand why this movie got no other nominations because, had I not known it’s based on a documentary also called Song Sung Blue (Greg Kohs, 2008; which you can get a summary of here [6:49 video] or watch the whole thing at this site) about the people depicted in the Brewer version, with the doc (which I haven’t had time to watch, if course) winning Jury and Audience awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, I would have found this to be too overly-sentimental to be interested in except for the enjoyment of Neil Diamond songs (loved his long-ago actual concert).
Basically, the situation here is long ago at the 1987 Wisconsin State Fair Don Ho imitator—who unsuccessfully demands to just perform as himself—Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) meets up with equally-dissatisfied Patsy Kline impersonator Claire Stengl (Hudson), leading to a partnership including an ongoing Neil Diamond tribute and marriage. Their act proves quite popular within the Midwest until various tragedies take their toll (many more plot details are available at this site). For me, Hudson’s generally overshadowed by Jackman for most of the movie, their singing’s commendable in that they both do it live, and, in general, I’m not terribly taken with what’s presented here (although both lead characters’ determination to overcome their major problems is quite commendable, with the CCAL response a bit stronger than mine as RT positives are 78%, MC average is 61%; if you’re interested turn to streaming where you’ll find $9.00 rentals at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, along with [unconfirmed by me] a freebee at Peacock [$10.99 monthly to subscribe]). My Musical Metaphor will be the title song sung by Diamond (from his 1972 Moods album) with its lyrics appropriate for this movie: "Funny thing / But you can sing it with a cry in your voice / And before you know it gets to feeling good / You simply got no choice.” Many seem to like Song … more than me, but for now "I'm [Not Quite] a Believer", as I don’t feel the Song … movie got down to the depths that I perceive the … Blue doc addressed about this couple's mega-miseries.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us! Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please
use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 32,041. (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.) Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):
No comments:
Post a Comment