Thomas Bezucha

B+ (Very good).

A Minnesotan housewife is hunted by a fascist sheriff. Easily the best season since the first. I did have some problems with it, such as an entire episode spent gathering literal armies to fight a battle that happens off screen. But it's gripping, and just the right amount of bizarre.

(Feb. 2024)

A thoroughly enjoyable film set over three days before Christmas. Diane Keaton is the mother of five adult offspring - they all meet, with their various partners and one precocious daughter at the parental home. Family dynamics are at play as one of the sons has a new and rather tactless girlfriend whom one of his sisters has previously met, and dislikes intensely. There's a lot of humour, and a very poignant thread too.

Some significant issues are lightly touched upon, and it was good to show more see the family using sign language naturally (one of the brothers is deaf). There's a cleverly choreographed kitchen disaster that verges on slapstick but was so well done that although I cringed the first time I saw it, I found it quite amusing the second time.

Rated 12 which seems right to me. Highly recommended for adults or older teens looking for a character-based light Christmas romantic comedy.

Longer review here; https://suesdvdreviews.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-family-stone.html show less

Three young women vacationing in Paris find themselves whisked away to Monte Carlo after one of the girls is mistaken for a British heiress.
Rated PG for brief mild language

Reviews

New York Times

Big Eden may be less a dream of finding perfect romance than a simpler, but somehow more touching, fantasy of simply being accepted. Dave Kehr

Synopsis

All Movie Guide

Arye Gross plays an up-and-coming artist who foregoes the convenience of big-city life for the charms of Montana in this drama, writer-director Thomas Bezucha's debut feature. On the eve of his first show at the Whitney Museum, Henry (Gross) hears news that his grandfather back home has had a stroke. Upon show more returning to his idyllic birthplace, however, Henry realizes that the old man isn't the only thing he has to tend to: There's the semi-closeted issue of his sexuality, which he longs to reveal to his clan -- as well as to his old high-school crush, Dean (Tim DeKay). Amidst all the angst, Henry fails to notice the advances of the sensitive Pike (Eric Schweig), an espresso-brewing outdoorsman who owns the town's general store and cooks meals for the stroke-addled grandpa Sam (George Coe). Michael Hastings show less