The King of Staten Island

In 2013, I saw Pete Davidson on Comedy Central's Gotham Comedy Live and I've been telling people to watch this hilarious guy ever since. Pretty much anytime anyone did back then, they would wonder "what's the big deal." For good reason. He's never fulfilled the promise of his talent although he eventually reached popularity through Saturday Night Live and by dating pop star Ariana Grande.

Well, I'm about to do it again; watch this guy in his new movie.

I'm not sure how the guy who can't play straight to character in any SNL skit inhabited the lovable loser in this film, but he's great. The character deserves no sympathy, but you root for him anyway.

Davidson is Scott, a failure-to-launch-24-year old who dreams of being a tattoo artist. His mom is portrayed by Marisa Tomei. His dad, a former firefighter, died heroically. 

The script, which Davidson co-wrote, mirrors his own childhood loss; his father was also a fireman, killed on 9/11. Like his early comedy, the humor comes from pain which is likely why this whole thing works. It's a dramedy that plunges Scott into facing grief and adulthood, but there sure are a lot of laughs along the way.

All that to say this Judd Apatow-directed film is the funniest movie of 2020. It may be the only comedy of 2020, but it's great in a way the first Adam Sandler films were. I can't say it's worth the $19.99 "premium VOD" price that it is asking (while theaters aren't fully open), but it is ten-buck worthy. Invite friends over I guess.

In a nutshell: Pete Davidson finally delivers. If you think Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, Knocked Up or Trainwreck are funny, this one goes on that shelf.

Award potential: None.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Ten Out of This World Space Films

If the launch of SpaceX has you in the mood to discover some new films, this list could steer you in the right direction. Simply put, there are a lot of stinker space films ranging from Plan Nine From Outer Space (1959) to a slew of recent films that ask puzzling plot questions without answering any — I'm looking at you Solaris, Ad Astra and Interstellar. 

But there is a world of film that will satisfy. I'm going to eliminate the franchise films such as StarWars, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and Alien to recommend these X (ten) stellar films:

The Right Stuff (1983)

Based on Tom Wolfe's book, this film follows the story of the Mercury 7 astronauts. Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid play the space cowboys and give us one of the first uses of the now overused Slo-Mo-Power-Walk in film. (The Magnificent Seven did it first.) It was nominated for Oscars' Best Picture, Cinematography, and Actor (Shepard) and walked away with 4 technical awards. Available on Amazon, iTunes, and all the VOD.

Moon (2009)
Sam Rockwell does his best Cast Away homage as a lonely  astronaut finishing up a three-year gig at the space station —until he discovers something. The film relies on a well-appointed set and Rockwell's talents — not a bad combo at all. Free on Netflix.


October Sky (1999)

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a teenage rocket builder who is inspired to escape his small town (and coal mining destiny) after the Soviet Sputnik flies over the October sky. It's a feel-good, coming of age story with an amazing cast (Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, and Chris Owen). Available on Amazon, iTunes, and all the VOD services.

Apollo 11 (2019)
Last year's most powerful doc (Winner of PGA'S Best Documentary of 2019) is simply breathtaking. Watch never-before-seen footage and audio of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins embark on that 1969 trip to the moon. Currently free on Hulu and available on VOD.

Apollo 13 (1995)
This Ron Howard-directed drama was nominated for nine Oscars and is based on the problematic events of the Apollo 13 lunar mission. Astronauts Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton,) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) find everything going according to plan after leaving Earth's orbit. Does Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) have the right stuff to get them home? Find out for free on Hulu.

Arrival (2016)
A linguist (Amy Adams) works with the military to communicate with the inhabitants of one of twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world. Of all the similarly-themed films (Contact, Interstellar), I think Arrival does the best job of providing a satisfying ending. Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker round out the stellar cast. Nominated for Oscars' Best Picture and 7 other categories. 

Moonraker (1979)
When The Spy Who Loved Me's credits rolled in 1977, it noted Bond would return in For Your Eyes Only. However, that didn't turn out to be the next film. Star Wars happened that summer too and soon everyone went to space. Yogi Bear left Jellystone Park for Yogi's Space Race on TV, Gary Marshall had Mork land in the Cunningham's Happy Days house, and James Bond actually went to deep into space.

This 007 entry landed between The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only, the two best Roger Moore films, and suffered as a punchline for many years. However, in time it ranks more often in the top ten than bottom ten of 007 lists. After all, it gave fans Holly Goodhead, Hugo Drax, Jaws, and another Shirley Bassey song. Free on MGMhd, available on VOD, and totally watchable today.

Gravity (2013)

Winner of seven Oscars, including Best Director and Cinematography (It lost Best Picture to 12 Years a Slave), Alfonso Cuarón’s space odyssey gets more points for visuals than story, but it's still a fun ride to see whether Sandra Bullock and George Clooney will make it back to Earth. Available on all VOD services.



Hidden Figures (2017)

This lighthearted film tells the seriously amazing story of three NASA women behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn. Taraji P, Janelle Monae, and Octavia Spencer light up the screen as the previously unrecognized heroes. It's free on Hulu.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Is this the most critically-celebrated space films of all time? Affirmative Dave. If you've never seen man vs. machine play out in Stanley Kubrick's film from start to finish, now's a good time.

The Ten Buck Review: All worth ten bucks.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Thrills await. Resistance is futile.

This film, the final in the nine-episode Skywalker saga, will divide Star Wars fans.

There's a group that has bought into J.J. Abram's nostalgic recreation of the 70s and 80s magic (The Fierce Awakens, The Rise of Skywalker), and there is a group that wants a more inventive, fresher forward take on the series. This second group loved director Rian Johnsons Rise of Skywalker (2017).

There is no third group that wants anything connected to the grim, digital 1999-2005 series.

I understand both, but put me in the wink-and-nod former category for the Skywalker saga and in the latter, evolving category for future Star Wars films and television. To me, any film since 1981is a thrill-ride event with low expectations for inventive cinema. They are popcorn films that arrive during the holidays when I can coordinate with the friends I used to have Hasbro toy playtime with.

If you think I'm in another galaxy on this, some perspective is needed. The films in the new millennium lost fans faster than Jar Jar Binks could say "ooh moey moey," which is actually something he did say. If Abram's stellar Force Awakens (2015) had not captured the old magic, I doubt as many people would have jumped back on the ship. Abrams did it with familiar story arcs, throwback sequences, clever use of cameos, and a love for the 80s films that you feel in each scene. He does all of this again with The Rise of Skywalker.

Star Wars should be done with the cameos and flashbacks from here on, but I loved it here. This one is for the casual fans. For the old fans that want to enjoy a night out and the young fans that need to understand the magic.

In a nutshell: Thrilling, it is.

Award potential: Nominated for Best Visual Effects, Score, and Sound Editing.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

It Happened One Night (1934)

2020 has become a year where trying new things is more common than doing things the way we used to. Many of those disruptions have been refreshing. In that spirit, I recommend you reserve some movie-night-in time for a 90-year old black-and-white flick that you'll have to rent for a buck or two — or three. For real.

If you've seen it, you'll probably relish this reminder to rewatch. If you haven't, this is the time to see the one movie that Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Jennifer Aniston, Bugs Bunny, and every rom-com and road trip movie of the past two centuries owes something to. I received a copy of It Happened as a gift in my young twenties and it fueled my passion for film discovery.

Although it never makes the cable rotation for a generation of movie-lovers, it was hardly a secret in its day. Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, is one of the first "talkies" and the Oscar Best Picture of its year. It's in a small list of films (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Silence of the Lambs) that won all five major Academy Awards.

The plot is simple. A spoiled heiress meets a newspaper reporter in search of a story and two opposites eventually attract. It also introduced America to hitchhiking as well as a scandalous "show a little leg" scene that required a stunt double in its day. And an undershirt-less Gable reportedly caused T-shirt sales to plummet.

Depression-era civilities, culture, and machismo aside, the script and banter are amazingly fresh and it's one of the breeziest movies you can spend one hour and forty-five minutes with.

In a nutshell: You've never seen the remake because no one can touch this magic. However, it has influenced films in every decade that followed.

Awards: Winner of every Oscar it was nominated for including the top five: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay. 

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Bad Education

This new film, starring Hugh Jackman, premiered at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival along with Jo Jo Rabbit, Hustlers, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Lucky for us watching movies at home it was purchased for $20 million by HBO instead of a traditional film distributor.

Bad Education tells the true story of beloved Long Island school superintendent Frank Thompson (Jackman) and Pam Gluckin (Alison Janey) who stole millions from their district.

Jackman, who has played charismatic criminal/con-men before (notably P.T. Barnum and Jean Valjean), sinks his teeth into his first bad guy role. It's a bit jarring to see him play such a deeply unsympathetic character. He gets an A+ for this as does Janey, who is in I, Tonya mode.

I won't spoil the story except to say it's unbelievable and true. Other than serving as a cautionary tale, I'm not sure what a viewer truly  gets out of watching this story play out except that the performances pull you in. But I am sure that is fun to see a new cinematic film nowadays that's not a ten-episode series.

Simply put: Who doesn't need a quality film to pop up on TV about now?

Award potential: Jackman has a showy performance that could land award contention, but with HBO taking this film to TV, he and Janney will be contending for Emmy nominations, not Oscars.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

This film was in theaters 13 years ago but it's a trip to watch during the social distancing twenties. If you self-quarantined singletons have ever wondered if you're slowing turning crazy when you do things such as talk to the Amazon Alexa with inflection, then this film will make you feel very normal.

Normal that is, compared to the main character. Lonely Lars (Ryan Gosling) is so scared of physical closeness that he orders a doll (Bianca) to be his companion. It's hardly a one-man show; this film is packed with stellar actors.  Lars' older brother (Paul Schneider), sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer), and doctor (Patricia Clarkson) all play along with Lars 

Despite the premise, it's actually a sweet little PG-13 comedy and you can thank Ryan Gosling for that. He's as masterful at playing sensitive, wounded birds (Blue Valentine, Drive, La La Land) as he is with cocksure characters (Crazy Stupid Love, The Big Short).

There are so many ways that this could have gone wrong, but sincerity pulls it through.

In a nutshell: If you've been looking for something different, Lars delivers.

Award potential: None.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Snowpiercer (2013)

All aboard!

Joon-ho is the new master of monster movies. You know, the non-literal kind. Anyone in awe of 2019’s Parasite may be inspired to take a journey through Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon-ho’s catalog of films. Okja? The Host?

I’d suggest Snowpiercer (2013), arguably his only other widely-accessible offering. Korean Joon-ho's only English-language film stars Captain America’s Chris Evans, Dr. Strange’s Tilda Swinton, and Apollo 13's Ed Harris.

Snowpiercer is visionary cinema and social commentary disguised as a prison-break, popcorn thriller. Based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige, the story is set in the future where global warming has left the planet frozen. The only known survivors are on a train together. That’s all I’m going to say about the story.

Joon-ho delivered a 2013 eye-opener that originally shocked my senses the same way when I first saw Brazil, The Matrix, and… Parasite.

In a nutshell: If you think you can handle an armageddon sci-fi movie right now, take a ride on Snowpiercer.

Award potential: Tilda Swinton received a Critics’ Choice nomination for her role, but the film was not recognized by the Academy despite the originality of the cinematography, art direction, and screenplay. This train was ahead of its time.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.