Movie Review: Solo Mio

Are you somebody who wants to see a romantic movie this Valentine's Day season, but aren't interested in laying eyes upon all of the bawdy fully clothed hanky panky of Wuthering Heights? Well, do I have some news for you: Kevin James is starring in a PG-rated romantic dramedy called Solo Mio where he goes on his Rome honeymoon alone after being left at the altar by his fiancé (Julie Ann Emery) and ends up finding love again with an Italian cafe owner (Nicole Grimaudo). It's the perfect movie for anyone who has treated NCIS as appointment television since it first started airing back in 1832 or believes they would enjoy a big belly laugh every time James butchers the pronunciation of an Italian word he's trying to read off his phone. Mama Mia! Mangi! Bonjourno! 

As good as James is and continues to be at playing likeable everyman characters, Solo Mio suffocates his natural charm by being completely devoid of personality or stakes. His character Matt Taylor glides through his evolution from sadsack tourist who just suffered the greatest embarrassment/heartbreak of his life to man who stumbles upon love when he needed the power of true human connection the most like he's a checked bag at the airport that needs to be put on the plane before it takes off. A movie that aspires to tell a nice, warm story about finding love where you least expect it being built around a relationship this emotionally sterile is the kind of puzzling failure that gets you to question if the people that made it were more interested in taking an extended vacation to Italy than the movie that they were there to make. Alas, Solo Mio just never lives up to its mission statement of being a heartfelt romantic movie and in the process, adds yet another stain to James' shaky post-The King of Queens resume. 

Grade: C-
 

Margaret Qualley Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Margaret Qualley-whose latest project "How to Make a Killing" releases in theaters tomorrow. 

Margaret Qualley's Filmography Ranked:

14.Stars at Noon (C)

13.Native Son (C)

12.Donnybrook (B-)

11.Honey Don't (B-)

10.Seberg (B-)

9.Happy Gilmore 2 (B-)

8.Blue Moon (B)

7.Drive-Away Dolls (B)

6.Sanctuary (B+)

5.Kinds of Kindness (B+)

4.The Substance (A-)

3.Poor Things (A)

2.Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... (A)

1.The Nice Guys (A)

Top Dog: The Nice Guys (2016)

As of this writing, we're about three months away from the tenth anniversary of The Nice Guys releasing in theaters. I'll never forget the ludicrous amount of fun I had watching this noir buddy comedy for the first time with a few of my friends and remarkably, it's a movie that only becomes funnier with each rewatch. Qualley is very lucky that she's able to say that this is the first movie she had a prominent role in. 

Bottom Feeder: Stars at Noon (2022)

There's a sleazy shagginess to the political thriller plot in Stars at Noon that prevents it from being a total drag. It's not however enough to forgive the complete lack of eroticism in the romantic subplot brought on by the nonexistent chemistry between Qualley and Joe Alwyn, especially when it's supposed to serve as the story's emotional crux.

Most Underrated: Sanctuary (2023)

Unlike in Stars of Noon, Qualley has tremendous chemistry with Christopher Abbott in Sanctuary. The pair are incredible together in this darkly comedic psychological thriller about an unexpectedly eventful night between a rich guy and the dominatrix he has a long-standing business relationship with after he attempts to end their arrangement upon getting promoted to CEO of his family's luxury hotel chain following the death of his father. There's a lot of fun to be had in watching them embark in a heated battle in which the upper hand in the power dynamic of their suddenly drastically different relationship is constantly shifting between the two parties and having the film take place over a single night in a hotel suite adds a feeling of claustrophobia that amplifies the tension of their chaotic verbal sparring match. 

Most Overrated: Blue Moon (2025)

A couple of years from now, it will probably be ridiculous to refer to Blue Moon as overrated. But now as it's fresh off of receiving a couple of Oscar noms, I'm willing to make that declaration. As strong as Ethan Hawke's work here in this Richard Linklater-helmed biopic about a bitter, drunk Lorenz Hart trying to accept in real time that the best days of his songwriting career are behind him after leaving the opening night performance of his former creative partner Richard Rodgers' (Andrew Scott) megahit musical Oklahoma! early to go hang out at the Manhattan bar that all of the Broadway talent flocks to after performances, listening to Hart cycle between ripping Oklahoma!, boasting about projects he may or may not be working on, telling stories about his glory days to any pour soul that is willing to listen to him and begging Rodgers to collaborate with him once again without ever coming up for air becomes pretty monotonous after a while.   

Movie Review: Crime 101

Sitting in a theater and watching heist thriller Crime 101 felt like taking a time machine back to the 80's or 90's. American Animals writer/director Bart Layton's second narrative feature is an ensemble-driven movie that is just as interested in exploring the characters that are involved with the different angles of the heist as the robberies themselves

The plot's primary focus is on how the lives of meticulous jewel thief Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth), veteran detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) and insurance broker Sharon Combs (Halle Berry) begin to intersect following the robbery of $3 million worth of diamonds from an LA jeweler's (Payman Maadi) delivery. Fate has tethered these folks together as they've each reached a critical impasse in their lives. Mike is looking to get out of the thieving business after experiencing a close call on the aforementioned job that almost got him killed, Lou's obsession with catching Mike-who is pretty much impossible to catch as he's never left DNA or carried out any violence at the crime scene- has caused his wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to leave him and made him the laughing stock of his department and Sharon is growingly increasingly discontent with her job as her boss (Paul Adelstein) continues to delay giving her the promotion to partner he's long promised her. A potential solution to all of their problems presents itself when a wealthy client of Sharon's company (Tate Donovan) reveals a plan to give out diamonds as party favors at his wedding. Sweetening the pot is the fact that he's arranged to pay the courier $11 million in cash for the diamonds in order to avoid taxes. Mike reluctantly agrees to do the job, and Sharon requests a $3 million cut for providing him with the info. An already complicated job that requires getting in and out of a crowded luxury hotel in Beverly Hills becomes even more difficult when Mike discovers that his former fence (Nick Nolte) has recruited his hot-headed new protege (Barry Keoghan) to intercept the stones and cash as revenge for Mike severing ties with him after refusing to commit to a brazen jewelry store heist in Santa Barbara. Will Mike and Sharon be able to live long enough to walk away into the sunset? Can Lou finally catch the ghost that has alluded him? Does Keoghan play a character that actually proves to be pretty chill for once? Don't fret everybody, all of the answers to these questions and more are answered before the credits begin to roll! 

There was something nice about a heist movie trusting its audience to have some patience before it delves into the flashier parts of its story. Layton's solid script provides a complete picture as to why these people are doing what they're doing and Hemsworth, Ruffalo and especially Berry give strong, emotionally honest performances that provide the film with a surprising amount of grounded humanity. When the action bits are deployed (roughly about once every half hour during its well-paced 140-minute runtime), Layton matches the command over the material he showed off with his pen by staging some tense, slickly shot vehicle chases/robberies that gradually up the narrative stakes. Eventually, Crime 101 reverts back to the classic heist movie trope of deploying some silly, cute twists to explain away how the big final score was able to be pulled off against all odds, but that's really the only big misstep Layton makes here-which is pretty impressive for a filmmaker working on his first big budget studio feature.

Is Crime 101 going to end up finishing near the top of my 2026 year-end list? Probably not. However, it's a very compelling throwback heist thriller filled with strong performances, visuals and action that never feels derivative of the other movies that have covered similar territory in the city of Los Angeles before it. During this pretty slow part of the calendar, it's well worth making the trek out to theaters to see if you're into the genre or just want to see the type of movie that doesn't end up on the big screen all that much these days.    

Grade: B+

Movie Review: Wuthering Heights (2026)

 

Even during a time where people regularly decry about how homogenized and safe movies have become, some filmmakers have still been able to turn into polarizing figures. Among these lucky few directors whose work inspires passionate takes/arguments galore is Emerald Fennell. The mere mention of the British writer/director behind Promising Young Woman and Saltburn in certain corners of the internet effectively serves as an alarm that activates a sleeper cell of cinephiles so full of venom and disgust towards her work that they make the Snydercut cult that have spent the past few years trying to get James Gunn removed from his post at DC Studios look like pleasant, reasonable people. For her third film, Fennell decided to further expand the already sizable target on her back by moving away from original stories and trying her hand at an adaptation. Much to the disgust of English lit majors and the Fennell haters that felt Saltburn did an awful job tackling its themes of class everywhere, the work she elected to adapt was Emily Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is widely considered to be one of the most seminal pieces of literature ever written and the complicated romance between the wealthy Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff-a poor boy her father took in off the streets and raised alongside his children- at the center of the story has led to it being adapted on screen dozens of times around the globe since 1920. While I can't comment on how well Fennell's Wuthering Heights adapts Bronte's novel or how it stacks up against any of the previous screen adaptations, I can say with zero hesitation that I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Wuthering Heights is built around a romance that had been simmering under the surface for quite some time that eventually morphs into something ugly due to the shame, pain and jealousy that stemmed from not allowing that love to blossom when it still had the opportunity to grow into something beautiful. The primary contributing factors to this sullying of something pure are Catherine (Margot Robbie) believing that she would be degenerating her family name by marrying a peasant and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) being so hurt by this revelation that he transforms into a cold, vengeful prick. When Heathcliff reemerges with some money several years after Catherine has married a wealthy businessman Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), they finally act upon the feelings they had previously pushed down for so long, and shit gets real messy for both of them real fast. 

Despite the comically misleading marketing referring to it as "the greatest love story ever told", Fennell's film leads with feelings of lust, obsession and jealousy. There's a version of this story where Catherine and Heathcliff build the love they've always dreamed of, but the ones occupying the screen here are too bitter, wounded and selfish to build a relationship that is anything other than purely primal. The animalistic nature of its toxic, doomed romance is perfectly complemented by the stunning Gothic-inspired darkness consuming beauty aesthetic that drives the film. Pairing lavish sets/costumes with the fog-filled landscapes of the British coastline and downtempo music handled by the dynamic duo of Charli xcx and composer Anthony Willis allows the film to cast a hypnotic spell that often looks like a dream but feels like a nightmare. Pulling off a long-unrealized romance that materializes in a much more hideous way than it could or should have requires an incredibly delicate dance from the creatives and thanks to Fennell's rich, visceral atmosphere and the chemistry between Robbie and Elordi that tows the line between sizzling and just plain wrong, Wuthering Heights is able to pull it off. 

I get why people wouldn't be able to get down with a movie that draws its emotion from the gut, heart and eyes over the mind, but I honestly feel like Fennell is able to really explore the evolution of Catherine and Heathcliffe's relationship by committing to conveying the specific impulse-and-pleasure-driven emotions they were experiencing during their ill-fated affair. It wouldn't have felt right to have bigger, headier emotions get in the way of a courtship that is so clearly defined as two rotten souls hoping that the special connection they once had during the days where their hearts were purer will magically return (Spoiler alert: It doesn't!). Now, this approach shortchanges certain characters-particularly Catherine's confidant/servant Nelly (Hong Chau) and makes fully buying the delivery of the inevitable tragic conclusion a difficult ask given all the shitty things these characters do ahead of it, but that was a price I was ultimately willing to pay given how convincing and engrossing every other aspect of the film is. Fennell has a conviction in executing her vision that is special and as long as that remains intact, her movies will keep striking a chord with me. 

 

Grade: B+

Movie Review: The Moment

In the summer of 2024, British pop artist Charli xcx unleashed a pop culture phenomenon into the world with her sixth studio album Brat. This unexpected success story pushed Charli from the comfortable place she had carved out for herself on the outskirts of the mainstream pop ecosystem into the harsh glow of the " main pop girl" spotlight. Amidst all of the Brat mania, her label (Atlantic Records) proposed she make a concert documentary during her first-ever global arena headlining run. She rejected their offer and instead elected to team up with music video director/frequent collaborator Aidan Zamiri and music journalist Bertie Brandes to make a mockumentary called The Moment that allowed her to spoof all of the bullshit that was attached to the success of Brat. This decision proved to be quite the savvy move as it allows Charli to give Brat the kind of flashy, unexpected send-off it deserves. 

Brat is one of those records that made such a significant culture impact that the label was naturally going to want to milk that cash cow for as long as they possibly could. This represented a huge departure from the way Charli has worked in the past as her status as this sort of queen of niche pop granted her an exemption from the label's most egregious efforts to meddle in the creative process. In the film, she highlights not only how aggressive the label is with forcing their shameless cash-grabbing ideas (an Amazon-backed concert film directed by a big name with a corporate-friendly milquetoast vision-who is played with an incredible amount of controlling, passive aggressive detail by a scene-stealing Alexander Skarsgard, a Brat-branded credit card, a "family-friendly" overhaul of her stage props, logos and outfits) onto an artist once their music starts to become more popular but how the pressure to sustain this newfound success has convinced Charli to toss aside the artistic integrity she previously had held so dear. 

As silly and snarky as the events of The Moment are, there's some real insight on the plethora of stupid ways the commerce side of the music industry gets in the way of the artistry buried underneath the deadpan humor that could only be delivered by someone who has spent their share of time in the belly of the beast. Charli has been around for long to enough to know how this whole circus works (it's easy to forget that she made her first big mainstream splash back in 2012 with her guest spot on Icona Pop's "I Love It') and it's great to see how eager she is to make fun of the industry machine she's stuck in as well as herself. Seeing an artist of her profile have such a strong grasp of the inner workings of the industry they're involved in and be able to clearly articulate how the practice of artificially extending an album cycle to appease fans/make more money is completely antithetical to the beauty of creating art is incredibly refreshing in an era where the shameless profit-chasing nature of capitalism is slowly laying waste to the very fabric of our world. 

By making a whole film where she effectively sells out to finally get away from Brat, Charli proves that she's remained true to her creative ideals despite the significant raise in profile she's experienced over the past 18 months. Walking away from Brat on her own terms just feels true to who she is an artist and it's especially satisfying that she was able to channel the vulnerability that is such a big part of the record into a comedy movie that is based on something that she was still living through while making.  While whatever proves to be the next step for Charli's career beyond a whole lot of acting roles (she currently has five movies awaiting release and is set to start shooting a new movie with Japanese genre auteur Takashi Miike imminently) and the Wuthering Heights soundtrack remains a mystery, I'm awfully excited to see how she will keep finding fresh ways to go against the grain. 

Grade: B
 

Margot Robbie Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Margot Robbie-whose latest project "Wuthering Heights" releases in theaters tomorrow. 

Margot Robbie's Filmography Ranked:

16.The Legend of Tarzan (D)

15.About Time (D)

14.Asteroid City (C-)

13.A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (C-)

12.Amsterdam (B-)

11.Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (B-)

10.Suicide Squad (B-)

9.Bombshell (B)

8.Focus (B)

7.The Wolf of Wall Street (B+)

6.Babylon (B+)

5.Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (B+)

4.The Suicide Squad (A)

3.I, Tonya (A)

2.Barbie (A)

1.Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... (A)

Top Dog: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... (2019)

I'm pretty confident that Quentin Tarantino will never direct another movie thanks to his absurd insistence on only making 10 movies (he's technically already put out 10, but he moved the goalposts since he views Kill Bill as one movie). If that proves to be the case, at least he went out with a bang with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... There's an easygoing hangout buddy movie vibe driving this sprawling 60's-set LA story here that is just infectious and the incredible collection of performances he gets from this loaded cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Robbie, Margaret Qualley and then 19-year-old Mikey Madison being the top standouts) is impressive even by Tarantino's lofty standards. I'm very curious to see what David Fincher does with the pseudo-sequel The Adventures of Cliff Booth, which appears to be releasing sometime this year after Netflix surprise dropped the first teaser during the Super Bowl.

Bottom Feeder: The Legend of Tarzan (2015)

As I was leaving a showing of The Moment last night (review coming tomorrow), I started to think about whether or not Alexander Skarsgard has ever turned in a bad performance. About 90 seconds later, I remembered The Legend of Tarzan and this exercise came to a swift end. In fairness to Skarsgard, it wasn't really his fault that he stunk as Tarzan. The material was so boring and ridiculous that neither he nor his co-stars (Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Honsou, Jim Broadbent) really stood a chance. Anyways, this is easily among the worst studio movies of the 2010's in my eyes and I'd never even consider watching it again unless I was dealing with a weapons-grade case of insomnia.  

Most Underrated: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)

While I'm not quite as high on Birds of Prey now as I was when it came out six years ago this month, I still think it's a great movie that is probably the single most underrated superhero movie of this decade. It does a terrific job of creating a vibe that mimics the colorful, chaotic personality of Harley Quinn, the fight choreography is super creative, and Robbie's delightfully hyperactive, freewheeling performance is her most inspired take on Quinn thus far.

Most Overrated: About Time (2013)

One of the movie takes I've gotten the most shit for over the years is calling About Time a borderline predatory love story given how it uses its time travel conceit to set up its main romance. I still wholeheartedly stand by this take. Beyond the main character being a pathetic, manipulative shitbag, Richard Curtis' signature schmaltzy romantic dramedy writing is on full display here and it's just as insufferable as it was in Love Actually. The only reason that I don't think About Time is quite as shit as Love Actually is Rachel McAdams-who remains charming as hell despite the colossal failures of everything around her radiant presence. 

Movie Review: The Strangers: Chapter 3

Upon reaching its conclusion this past weekend, I can now declare that the Renny Harlin-helmed trilogy reboot reminds me of this incredible scene from Step Brothers. For the first two films, I was onboard with the vision. Chapter 1 is a spirited enough remake of the 2008 original while Chapter 2 is a fun extended chase sequence that does a pretty decent job of maintaining suspense by throwing pretty much non-step peril at its wounded heroine Maya (Madelaine Petsch-who proves her worth as a scream queen with her strong commitment to heavy breathing, crying and screaming) as she tries to escape the trio of serial killers that are hellbent on finishing what they started in the first film. When Harlin's endgame for this story finally comes into focus in Chapter 3, the whole idea of a trilogy centered around expanding the universe of The Strangers was suddenly rendered completely pointless.

If I didn't know that principal photography for the whole trilogy was done simultaneously, I would've assumed that Chapter 3 was improvised under extreme duress. Nobody involved with this production seems to have any fuckin idea how they're going to land the plane they've been flying around in for over 3 hours at this point, which leads to a true masterclass in confused filmmaking.

 Additional lore dumps for the serial killers formerly known as "The Strangers" are clumsily deployed at various points of the movie in order to provide a window into why they do what they do and how their relationships with one another formed. Petsch gets hung out to dry as the story concocts, abandons and then eventually returns to a revenge arc that is so thinly sketched that the final confrontation carries the emotional catharsis of a yawn. The ending is so abrupt and absurd that I'm still in disbelief that this was the note they decided to end an entire series of movies on. If this was their best attempt at wrapping up this story, I don't even want to think about what their worst would look like.

While Harlin is well past the days where he was delivering solid popcorn movies (Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Die Hard 2) every couple of years, the first two films were directed competently enough where I started to question why he had been relegated to the minor leagues of Hollywood since the mid-2000's. The Strangers: Chapter 3 (along with his horrendous 2024 Aaron Eckhart-led action movie The Bricklayer) no longer has me wondering how that happened and it's pretty safe to say that he won't be getting called up to the big leagues again anytime soon after churning out a trilogy of films that ultimately proved to have an approval rating that's in line with gas station sushi.

Grade: D