Someone to Hold Me Too Close

Netflix

My 18-month old boy was up from a nap and walking around making a bunch of noise as my wife and I watched the final few scenes of Marriage Story in our living room. Netflix had allowed us to experience this movie in pieces, a fact with which parents have to contend. And I felt so very moved because of all of that. There's just no other way to put it: Noah Baumbach's latest film is an honest, painful, lovely and loving experience. It is aptly titled. "It's what is is," to quote another recent Netflix conversation-starter and awards-contender. It is a common story, the story of most of us.

Speaks Reviews: Midnight Special

 

Midnight Special is the kind of movie that forced me into battle myself in some way. To clarify:  it's one I readily admit (after only one watch) that I admire more than I love, if that makes sense.

I went in on the promise of a Spielberg-esque sci-fi chase film. It pulls, quite obviously, from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even quite well at times. But what I ended up with was a film that doesn't reach the emotional high of its predecessor. It's missing the connections that Spielberg so perfectly offers in the end. Midnight Special offers an answer to the biggest question (and not much else), but it's an ending that didn't fully work for me, and the things I really wanted more of were left by the wayside. In a way, that's all good and well. This is a Jeff Nichols film. I know that. This in spite of the fact that (I know...I know!) I have never seen any of his previous work.

On Home Video: Noah Baumbach's While We're Young

A Review by Kevin Powers

★★★

I wish Noah Baumbach was as consistent a storyteller as he is a writer. It makes his movies hit and miss. But really? Who am I kidding? I have never not liked a Noah Baumbach movie. He is just that good. But they don't always work as compelling stories.