'Queen & Slim' is a powerful and tragic love story that feels very now

Queen & Slim does a remarkable job of reinvigorating a well-worn genre -- the lovers on the run from the law film. It's timely (it involves racial profiling and a police shooting), has a moving script from Lena Waithe and beautiful lead performances from Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie-Turner Smith.

It's been a real embarrassment of riches this year when it comes to performances and even directorial debuts. In this film it's a two-fer, veteran music video director Melina Matsoukas doesn't a wonderful job (aided by an irresistible soundtrack) of evoking a very believable world for the two characters whose lives are plunged into chaos when an unremarkable date goes horribly wrong.

The film's violence -- even when anticipated -- is shocking and horrifying and the film's finale will likely leave many audience members both angry and devastated but its also filled with moments of real grace and warm humor. It's a love story for our time.

Daniel Kaluuya demonstrates yet again what a terrifically naturalistic leading man her is. His soulful eyes speak volumes and he just has the audience's empathy almost instantly even when his character says and does things that they may not approve of.

But the biggest find here is the sunning Jodie Turner-Smith. Her arc is the most magical -- her character goes on a real emotional and physical evolution in the film and it is her determined and strong performance will be the element that lives with me the longest.

There are some narrative choices that just barely miss the mark -- the movie is plenty compelling but sometimes reaches further than necessary for moments -- but this is a minor quibble, it's mostly an exciting, emotional and even sexy story that feels all too familiar to a lot for people of color.

Not unlike Knives Out, this is a film unafraid to be overtly political but this film -- being a melodrama -- has a strong emotional core too. Jodie-Smith and Kaluuya are on-screen together for nearly the entire film and if their chemistry wasn't so raw and real the movie wouldn't work.

This is one of those movies where you really feel like these two characters are in love and not just because of it serves the plot for it to happen.

Hopefully, it won't get too lost in the shuffle with all the admittedly great awards fare hitting theaters right now.

I'm thankful for the many breakout stars of 2019

Booksmart

I love your old school A-list movie star as much as anyone else. For instance, I was and am probably way too excited to see Harrison Ford back in action (albeit alongside a poorly rendered CGI dog) in the upcoming Call of the Wild, but I also love seeing new stars organically emerge and thankfully, this year -- a banner year for cinema -- there have been a bunch of great breakout performances worth celebrating.

Here are some of my favorites from this year's crop:

Ana de Armas in Knives Out - Let me start with the most recent one. Ana de Armas already turned heads for her sexy turn in Blade Runner 2049, but in Knives Out she has a lot more to do and she's truly the hero of Rian Johnson's politically charged whodunit. As I've said before her performance could have been a thankless one (and she was reportedly skeptical about it based on its description) but she's funny, sympathetic and very charismatic in the part that should make her a bonafide star.

Winston Duke in Us - This big stud certainly turned a lot of heads with his badass, scene-stealing performance in Black Panther as the warrior M'Baku, but that's what made his lovable, dorky role in Us such a wonderful surprise. Lupita Nyong'o rightfully has earned the lion's share of attention for her remarkable dual character performance in the film, but Duke's comic relief in the role of her affable but also immature husband is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the movie. I think he will only continue to grow into being a versatile leading man.

Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever in Booksmart - Olivia Wilde's feminist and raucously funny coming-of-age comedy may have been the most criminally underseen movie of this past year. These two gave fully realized, emotionally compelling performances in what could have been just another bawdy teen comedy. The fact that they aren't conventional leading ladies is besides the point, they are what the future of what leading ladies can and should look like. I hope they both at least get Golden Globe nominations so this great movie will get rediscovered.

Constance Wu in Hustlers - Hustlers proved her breakout success in Crazy Rich Asians was no fluke. Sure, she and pretty much everyone else on screen gets blown away by Jennifer Lopez's career best performance, but arguably J-Lo's star turn wouldn't work if you didn't by the awe and eventually resentment she inspires in Wu's newbie stripper character. She reminds me a lot of Julia Roberts during her early string of hits, she has that likable it factor which suggests that she can be a durable star for years to come.

Julia Butters in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Florence Pugh in Midsommar- At the time of this writing, I haven't seen Little Women, and reportedly Pugh is a surefire Oscar nominee for that film, but she would have already had my vote for Ari Aster's trippy horror film Midsommar. She delivers a harrowing portrait of grief and an empathetic look at a woman who is trying to keep a relationship alive with a partner who clearly wants to nothing to do with her. She has the kind of expressive face that can really hold the screen.

Julia Butters in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - This precocious 10-year-old more than holds her own opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in one of the most interesting and surprisingly moving vignettes in Quentin Tarantino's loving look back at the end of an era of macho moviemaking. Butters represents the future -- she's a feminist Method actor. But instead of coming across as obnoxious, she stands out as the voice of reason in a movie dominated by insecure men. If Butters is this good now, there's no telling what heights she can still reach.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph in Dolemite Is My Name - This funky and very funny biopic of blaxploitation star Rudy Ray Moore is Eddie Murphy's vehicle through and through, but Randolph does give the most resonant supporting performance in it as his tough girl sidekick. There's a scene towards the end of the film, where she sincerely thanks Murphy's character for providing her with a platform to be in the movies that is one of the most moving moments I've experienced at the movies this year.

Jimmie Falls and Jonathan Majors in The Last Black Man in San Francisco - Perhaps you're noticing a trend here? All of these performers are women or people of color. That's not a coincidence. These are the people who are emerging as the bright future of movies. One last case in point is this duo for the quirky gentrification comedy-drama The Last Black Man in San Francisco. It's a challenging movie in some ways and these non-conventional leading men are striking to watch. They both have an aura of mercurial mystery to them -- and the movie they star in also hard to easily summarize, but again I think that's a hallmark of what Hollywood will become, especially when it comes to the growing competition between the traditional filmgoing experience and the streaming one.

'Knives Out' is hilariously fun knockout from Rian Johnson

As I've said many times before, I've never fully understood the backlash engendered by The Last Jedi. It's not my favorite Star Wars movie -- but it's an unpredictable one, which over a half dozen movies in is great news to me. I began to root for writer-director Rian Johnson after that movie, and Knives Out is sweet revenge for his haters.

Why? Because it is unassailably good. It's an attractive, witty, perfectly cast and genuinely thrilling whodunit that will likely go down as one of the most entertaining Hollywood movies of the year. And Johnson deserves a lot of the credit. He took a genre that couldn't feel more musty -- the star-studded murder mystery -- and made it feel refreshingly new.

If there was ever a film that captures the moment we're in it's Knives Out. It's a master class in white people behaving badly -- it centers on an affluent family feuding over the fortune of their patriarch (played with feisty charm by Christopher Plummer) who has died under dubious circumstances.

The extended family are types -- for instance Don Johnson plays a prototypical upper class Trump voter and Toni Collette is note perfect as a flaky social media influence -- but the types are so well rendered and realistically spot on that it never bothered me. And the actors are so good that they all have a scene stealing moment or two.

The hero of the film is the up-and-coming Ana de Armas, who is probably best known as Ryan Gosling's synthetic dream girl in Blade Runner 2049. She takes what could have been a thankless role -- as Plummer's earnest and honest nurse -- and works wonders with it. With any luck, after this film, she will be a major star.

The movie's other MVP is Daniel Craig, who reemploys the cartoonish southern accent he had in Logan Lucky to great effect as an eccentric celebrity investigator named Benoit Blanc. So many actors who've played 007 have never been able to shake the role, but Craig strikes me as the first since Sean Connery who has a long, varied career ahead of him.

He is so hilarious here -- and still charming and sexy -- but just so delightfully silly, I wanted to see his character go on to solve more mysteries in more films. And if the early box office receipts are any indication maybe there will be.

Anytime there's something truly original like this -- even when its in a well-worn genre -- I feel like it's worth celebrating. Especially at a time when good comedies are so hard to come by I'm happy to report that I guffawed several times at this film (Craig has a running verbal gag about a donut hole that had me in stitches) and left with a big old smile plastered on my face.

That being said, there are already writers with their hot takes (not dissimilar to what happened with The Last Jedi after it opened to rave reviews) rushing to take it down as overrated and not as clever and slick as it wants to be. This is why -- I think -- when it comes to movies we can't have nice things.

Knives Out won't check every box for every person. It has some truly silly elements and it's social satire is cutting but not profound on the level of say, Get Out. But it's a rollicking good time at the movies, and that's what I think people need right now, whether they know it or not.

'A Beautiful Day...' legit made me want to be a better person

I was skeptical going into the awards bait drama A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, there had already been one stellar documentary about the late children's entertainer-educator Fred Rogers and Tom Hanks is such a unmistakable megastar I doubted that he could adequately disappear into the role.

Boy was I wrong. Hanks is transcendent in a supporting role that just might win him a third Oscar. What he conveys, brilliantly, is the mighty effort Rogers made at all times to be as kind and sensitive as possible to every person he meets. It is not a facade but it is a lot of work. The benefit? Is a life touched by grace, one where you don't hurt others or yourself as much as possible.

The movie surrounding him almost can't live up to the stature of Hanks and it doesn't quite. Matthew Rhys is fine and shows glimmers of a sense of humor he rarely got to deploy in The Americans -- but I couldn't help thinking that a bigger star in his role (Robert Downey, Jr. would have been perfect in the part) would have made me a little bit more engaged in his domestic drama.

That being said, a subplot involving his estranged father (played with great emotional gravitas by the always underrated Chris Cooper) did have me bawling throughout.

I do wish the film maintained a more consistent tone. Sometimes it goes for the surreal -- with mixed results -- but when it forces us to sit in a reality and the awkward semi-nuttiness of Rogers' world, like in a scene where the iconic man tries to engage Rhys with puppets or another sublime moment where he asks for a minute to contemplate all the love that makes our lives possible -- it's phenomenal.

In the latter moment in particular, the authority of Hanks' performance comes through. He's not doing an impression here-- he doesn't look much like Mister Rogers and his cadence is still very much his own -- but he does fuse his spirit with the legend. I came in wondering if he could pull it off and I left thinking no one else can play this role. There is a startling moment -- which some people might call cornball -- when Hank's warm blue eyes lock on you in the audience, the film is shooting for the fences here and asking us to embrace childlike wonder the way he does.

None of this should work on someone given to misery like me, but I was deeply moved by it. Like so many biopics it doesn't really revolutionize the form but it wisely presents Rogers at the remove he would have preferred. There's no interest in explaining how he became the man he is but more in how does he live the way he does.

Whatever its flaws, and the movie has a few, it made me want to be a better person. It made me think about death, true, but in turn it made me think about the way I live my life -- and there's not many movies you can say that about, and I'll be grateful to the movie for that.

There's no big stakes here -- the movie centers around the completion of an Esquire profile -- and I'm a little incredulous about how accurate the film's timeline is -- but this is still a lovely, gentle movie that has several moments of genuine beauty in it.

Like it's last shot(s) which resonated with me long after the credits roll. As far as Oscar movies go, I am more of an Irishman guy -- that film's rumination on a life lived poorly his closer to home for me -- but I can appreciate this film on the other end of spectrum, one that elevates the goodness in people at a time when we need it the most.

'Ford v Ferrari' is a fine, if a bit formulaic racing melodrama

Ford v. Ferrari is a very good if not quite great inspirational sports movie. It's the kind of totally inoffensive, mainstream entertainment that any parent and/or boomer could love. It lovingly evokes the mid-1960s and a sort of sun-kissed cool that is a pleasure to watch.

But while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did the same thing but with a shadow of existential dread, the stakes are much lower in Ford v. Ferrari. The bad guys aren't psycho killers, they're just kind of jerks.

What the movie does do especially well though is take advantage of the personas of its two stars. I've always thought Matt Damon is at his best when he's playing a bit of a loser -- look at the roles where he really shines (The Departed, Talented Mr. Ripley) -- it's usually when he's a bit of a poser, which maybe speaks to some of his off-screen baggage.

Here he is a past-his-prime race car driving legend who is now in the business of making and selling sports cars. He's teamed up with Christian Bale, giving his least affected performance maybe ever, as a taciturn but undeniably talented driver and mechanic.

Bale is built up as a difficult guy and you half expect there to be some reveal that he's a drug addict or a pervert, but instead we learn that he is just a bit rude and bad with money. Bale, speaking in his natural British accent, is a delight as the driver Ken Miles and its refreshing to see him play a family man instead of a grumpy loner.

They're backed up by some of the most electrifying racing scenes I've ever seen -- I don't quite know how much of what I was looking at was real or digitally enhanced, and I mean that as a compliment. It's hard to create real suspense in these sorts of rousing (if a bit formulaic) sports melodramas, but the recreation of the infamous Le Mans 24-hour race is exciting enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The film also has a few sneaky moving moments around its edges too. The domestic drama stuff involving Bale's wife doesn't really work -- but the relationship with his young son does -- and Damon has a devastating final scene that showed me new shades of what he's capable of as an actor.

I only wish the movie had something more to it than its straightforward premise -- the unlikely pitting of the Ford motor company against the Ferrari company in a racing competition. It doesn't help that the character of Ford (played very well by Tracy Letts) has an offhand moment of bigotry that is never reconciled, or that the Ferrari folks are never anything more than caricatures.

And yet, it's hard to quibble too much with well-crafted Hollywood movies like this. It's a classic crowdpleaser that will appeal to people like me who don't particularly care about cars or know much about them. If you're looking for a safe and fun picture to watch with your family over the holidays, you can't go wrong with this one. It's apolitical and frequently awesome.

'The Laundromat' is a fascinating failure from Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh is very adept at breezy, attractive capers. From Out of Sight and the Ocean's movies to his comeback film Logan Lucky, he can make process oriented movies move. This is part of why the oddly paced and preachy financial dramedy The Laundromat is such a disappointment.

Many elements are there that would make for a great film but instead of being the ambitious and righteous movie it should be, it abruptly ends with a moment so shockingly earnest that is pretty embarrassing.

It's a fascinating failure though, since the movie has many terrific elements and a subject matter worth stewing over -- the Panana Papers -- which nearly a decade ago exposed the widespread manipulation off international offshore accounts to the benefit of the 1% and the detriment of all the rest of us.

The movie wants to leave you outraged -- at the grifting and injustice -- but Soderbergh's aloof approach feels like an awkward fit for this material. He introduces semi-tantalizing plot lines and stories (Jeffrey Wright turns up as a West Indian front man, and then is promptly dropped from the narrative, for example) only to abandon them for new ones. I know the goal is to portray the interconnected web of what essentially amounts to a pyramid scheme, but the movie is too short (1 hr 36 minutes) and too slight for us to muster much emotion for many of the people on screen.

Meryl Streep gets the showiest, most developed character of the bunch and she has a few affecting moments -- I mean she's Meryl Streep after all -- but she also disappears for much of the film ceding arguably too much screen time to the movie's narrators -- two corrupt, dandy financiers played by Antonio Banderas and Gary Oldman (doing an exaggerated and not very great German accent).

I literally forgot that Sharon Stone pops up for a single scene as a heartless real estate agent until I wrote this sentence -- what a waste!

When the film starts to breakdown how shell companies work -- the movie can and does come to life (it was also shot by Soderbergh and it has a great sunkissed look about it), but it really needed to be more of a Robert Altman mosaic than an even more dumbed down The Big Short. Had Soderbergh gave his various time to breathe and intersect the movie might have had more power and justified the note it ends on but he opts for self-satisfied smugness instead.

The most illustrative example of this is the stunt casting of Streep in a second role (SPOILER ALERT) as a Panamanian woman who is moved of the ladder at a shell corporation in cover up malfeasance. She plays the role in a thick accent, under even thicker makeup. It's a testament to Streep's talent that I didn't immediately realize it was her under there (kind of like Tilda Swinton's unnecessary performance as an old man in the recent remake Suspiria.) but once I did I was confounded that a film in 2019 would do anything this tone deaf and deem it appropriate.

Had Soderbergh cast an actual middle aged Panamanian woman, perhaps a newcomer with a presence, the role could have been just as, if not more, effective -- but instead we get the fairly racist conceit of Streep dressing up as a Latina woman.. for fun?

It's a bizarre and distracting stunt, and it detracts from the movie which is already doing too much stating of the obvious. We know that rich people are often greedy -- we don't always know how they maintain their dominance that isn't always crystal clear.

When the movie interrogates that world it can work and it should have worked better, but for now, this film may be remembered as a rare total misfire for a director whose usually defined by the luscious precision of his style.

'Doctor Sleep' is a decent homage to Kubrick's 'Shining'

As an obsessed fan of Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining I was both predisposed to want to see its nominal sequel -- Doctor Sleep -- and be underwhelmed by it. The new film is an admirable effort, while no classic, and it does an solid job of replicating the insidious scares of the 1980 landmark.

It probably deserves to be a bigger hit, but may be too old fashioned a story for today's horror audiences. It's certainly overlong and drags a bit in the middle -- but if you are a fan of this material and the universe it create, as I am -- it's still pretty hard to resist.

And it's got a lot going for it -- nearly note perfect replications of The Shining's score and set (although the SPOILER ALERT new actors essentially impersonating Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall are distracting), some very strong production design and effects, as well as a slinky, scene-stealing turn from Rebecca Ferguson as the chief villain.

After making a splash in the last couple Mission:Impossible movies, as the first female character to hold their own with Tom Cruise, Ferguson should be a major star after this -- but its tepid performance at the box office may postpone her big moment for a while.

Ewan McGregor is just fine in a bit of a thankless role -- since his Dan Torrance is supposed to be the haunted opposite of his malevolent father. He's least convincing when he has to show signs of darkness himself, but for the most part he's a sympathetic hero.

There is an undeniable tension throughout the movie between the supernatural driven Stephen King narrative and the more psychological aspects of this story that Kubrick was clearly intrigued by.

At times, both aspects of the film work well. There is something deep this movie is trying to say about the inability to ever fully suppress our past and stop being followed by our demons. You can lock them away but eventually you are forced to reckon with them. But that more character driven plot is frequently interrupted by the admittedly creepy-cool bad guys, a cadre of powerful mystics who get their strength from feeding off the essence of their kills. Ultimately the movie is a bit overstuffed and may benefit more from repeat viewings (not unlike Kubrick's film).

But nothing in the movie feels as essential and indelible as Kubrick's and while the movie's approximation of the earlier film's shots and location is fantastic it only serves to remind audiences of how wonderful the world Kubrick created is and was.

And yet, I loved revisiting the world and seeing it come alive again on-screen. Even if Doctor Sleep's legacy is that its a big budget footnote to the 1980 original, it still feels like a worthy one, better than it could have been under the circumstances.

It's very light on gore, largely devoid of cheap jump scares and with some real character development. I wouldn't quite call it 'elevated horror' -- it's certainly not as innovative or unnerving as say Hereditary, Midsommar or Us -- but it has an earnestness about it that is refreshing. And it feels like enough a departure from its source material that it doesn't feel labored, like the It movies (especially the second one) can be.

I haven't read the book (or much Stephen King material at all) so I can't speak to how well this movie evokes it -- but I had a fun enough time with it, and if you're a spooky movie fan, you should too.

'The Mandalorian' really raises the bar for 'Rise of Skywalker'

In recent years there's been an ongoing debate in what I'll call the Star Wars community about whether the franchise has become narratively bankrupt in the face of fanboy resistance and Disney meddling. The bad press began with the backlash to The Last Jedi and continued (unfairly in my opinion) with the release of Solo. Disney seems to have internalized the criticism, bringing back fan favorite J.J. Abrams to direct the next (and allegedly last) episode in the Skywalker saga, and relegated many of its previously planned spin-offs to the small screen.

The most anticipated of these projects has been Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian, a mysterious, original new story thread that takes place after the events of Return of the Jedi that doesn't appear to have any direct connection to any previously established characters.

The hero of the show is a kind of Clint Eastwood style Man with No Name. He's Boba Fett with a bit of a heart, but still a bonafide anti-hero. He has one of the coolest, most swaggering character introductions in all of Star Wars, and if the debut episode of the show is to be believed there is much more exciting content to come.

Considering all the hype, The Mandalorian is fantastic. It's fast paced, charming and intriguing. Without spoiling it, I'll say the ending of the premiere is a real gasp-worthy cliffhanger and I love that I have no idea where this thing is going. We're just along for the ride. In that way the show conjures up the indelible spirit of the beloved original trilogy, which was all about discovery -- either about the characters' natures or the balance of the universe.

The prequels and even the far superior new canon installments are burdened considerably by what proceeded them. They have to serve certain narrative functions and fulfill audience expectations. The Mandalorian doesn't have to do anything but entertain us and broaden out the Star Wars universe -- and it does so very effectively (at least in its first episode).

Favreau and company nail the grimy aesthetic and make a welcome return to the use of practical effects and puppetry to achieve a more lived in, tactile feel. The show isn't quite as inscrutably dark as Solo could be on occasion, but it also doesn't feel like a disembodied piece of animation like the prequels do.

While watching it -- and it really moves -- I kept thinking, boy, I hope The Rise of Skywalker is as good as this is. I can't think of a movie in the entire history of the series that seems to have more riding on it, especially since whether you like it or not The Last Jedi is canon and left a lot of ambiguity about where the story could or should go next.

Early reports suggest that Abrams is less interested in fan service and more interested in taking the story in a more inventive direction. I'm very on board with that. I just hope stylistically its all on par with what The Mandalorian is serving up because if it isn't it may taint this new trilogy's legacy for decades to come, whether that's fair or not.

What is certain is that there clearly is a lot of mileage to get out of this universe and its quirky array of planets and 'people.' The jury is still out on Disney+ as a whole, but this show unabashedly rocks.

'The Irishman': Scorsese's mission statement is a masterpiece

You will likely hear a lot about the length of the new Oscar-baity Martin Scorsese movie The Irishman (a.k.a. I Heard You Paint Houses) Modern audiences, especially those used to half watching movies at home may be overwhelmed by it.

But if you appreciate Scorsese, the gangster genre and the talents of legends like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, you won't only be pleased you might have a profound experience.

This is a movie about death. It's about Martin Scorsese reckoning with the legacy he's left behind of violent entertainment like GoodFellas. Yes, it's long -- but I never found it boring and it delivers so much content to feast on I wouldn't have dreamed of complaining.

Us may be my favorite movie to watch this year, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood may be Tarantino's best (therefore a classic in its own right) and Parasite might be the best film from a craftsmanship perspective, but for me, The Irishman is the best film I've seen this year.

Not unlike Clint Eastwood's work in Unforgiven, Scorsese is intentionally deconstructing the genre he, perhaps more than any other director, helped shape. It's violent deaths are less glamorous and more horrifying. We see the fallout of the killings in a way we never did in previous Scorsese epics.

There's a great running gag throughout the film where Scorsese lets you know how several different characters will eventually die in ironically blunt titles that appear on-screen. You get a sense that all these people, including the irascible Jimmy Hoffa (played with great vigor by Pacino), may not have deserved to die they way they do, even the worst of them.

That regret is etched on De Niro's face throughout -- whether it's a remarkably youthful looking De Niro (thanks to fantastic digital effects) or an aging, pathos-inspiring De Niro who peppers the film with deadpan funny narration throughout. This is a stunning reminder that De Niro once was and could still be our greatest living actor. He delivers a tour de force here as a man who is terrible at expressing himself except for when perpetrating violence on others.

He is not a particularly vicious person -- the one temper tantrum he has is almost justified (it's directed a shopkeeper who has shoved his daughter). He's just a foot soldier, someone willing to do dirty work at the behest of others like Hoffa and a smooth mob boss played beautifully by an understated Joe Pesci.

He is a brutally effective killer but what happens to a man who makes that his life's work. Are the people he killed luckier than he is because he's the one who has to live with the collateral damage.

For me, someone who is preoccupied with aging and who fears their inevitable death, watching The Irishman was a sad and moving experience for me. There's a feeling that we'll never see these actors shine so bright again, never see Scorsese this engaged and personal.

These are actors and filmmaker who are infamous for their youthful energy. All these men are well into their 70s and yet have maintained a sort of intimidating macho cool. So to see them play these more vulnerable notes is astonishing. Had these actors (and Harvey Keitel, who has a smaller role here) been played by less iconic stars, this film might not have the same cache, but because it does, the movie earns its running time and then some. It's a movie to revisit to analyze and revel in.

And yet again I must declare this the best year for film in recent memory. It's telling that The Irishman (and other awards contenders like Marriage Story) will probably be viewed on streaming services far more than on actual screens. Movies like this may never have a home in actual cinemas ever again.

So the film works that way to -- as an elegy for grounded, character-driven drama (albeit a bit too male dominated for a lot of peoples' tastes -- the underwritten women is the movie's single biggest flaw). By in large audiences seem to have lost patience with anything that isn't at least linked to an existing property. And while Joker was able to have its cake and eat it too in that regard -- there's just a much bigger market for movies dead aimed at fanboys rather than discerning adults.

It's easy to get all 'get off my lawn' defensive about The Irishman -- it's a labor of love for people who love these kinds of movies. Consider me smitten.

Linda Hamilton is the best thing about 'Terminator: Dark Fate'

Terminator: Dark Fate isn't a great movie, but it is a fun one, which is all we can ask for at this point with this franchise. After two action classics written and directed by James Cameron the series has faltered. Terminator 3 was entertaining enough, if ridiculously silly. Terminator: Salvation was largely forgettable and the most recent installment Terminator: Genisys was just bad and confusing.

Director Tim Miller has decided to disregard these sequels and pick up where Terminator 2 left off, albeit 18 years later. He more or less approximates the propulsive pace of the original films and he wisely resurrects the undeniably coolest character in the franchise -- Sarah Connor -- played to perfection again by the wonderful Linda Hamilton.

In fact, Hamilton is so charismatic here that she pretty much steals the movie right from under its nominal leads -- which includes Mackenzie Davis as an enhanced humanoid in the nominal Reese role. Davis is compelling in the action scenes, where she faces down essentially a Latino version of Robert Patrick (an effective Gabriel Luna), but she doesn't really register as a character.

I'd much rather have watched a movie about Hamilton hunting terminators, her flinty badass-ness goes a long way especially when the action gets bogged down in CGI histrionics.

And the movie does a wonderful job of plausibly working Arnold Schwarzenegger back into the action. In his 70s now, he's not remotely believable as a physical force but he hasn't lost a step comedically and without spoiling it, the movie actually finds some new shades for his rugged old cyborg to play.

There's a sentimental even sappy tone to this movie at times, which is surprising coming from the director of the Deadpool movies. It seems like everyone involved is aware that this probably has to be Schwarzenegger's last go round in his most iconic role.

And while Dark Fate won't be making any critical top ten lists -- it's a fitting end to this franchise if it ends up being the last one. I always felt like there could be more to this universe, but now I'm not so sure. All attempts to set plot points in the future post apocalyptic world have failed and the series has never come up with characters more interesting that Sarah Connor and the T-1000.

It's a little disappointing that Miller and Cameron (who's making a heralded return to the series as a producer) couldn't find something more original or even timely to say with this new film. With each sequel we're meant to believe there have been more and more terminators sent to kill from the future, at the end of the day has it been dozens?

The thing to savor here is that this movie is centered on women characters (it even passes the Bechdel test) and it re-introduces Linda Hamilton back into the mainstream where she belongs.