"The Pickup," "Death of a Unicorn," "The Woman in the Yard" and "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me:" My Movie Picks and Pans for August 2025

[I review "The Pickup," the new Eddie Murphy-Pete Davidson buddy movie as well as two horror films and a documentary - "Death of a Unicorn," "The Woman in the Yard" and "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me," a documentary about a rock band you might not know about]

The Pickup (2025)

Two mismatched armored car drivers find themselves in a heist situation.

I have always been a big Eddie Murphy fan ever since he was on SNL. He created some of the funniest characters of all time. But is it me?  Do comedians get less funny as they get older?  I noticed it with Richard Pryor, Chevy Chase and others. It seems as they age like they start to take themselves too seriously and suddenly aren't funny anymore. I think that has happened to Eddie.

Russell Pierce (Murphy), a veteran armored car driver close to retirement, and Travis Stolly (Pete Davidson), a rookie who aspires to be a police officer, team up for the first time on duty. It's Russell's 25th Wedding Anniversary and he needs to get home to take his wife, Natalie (Eva Longoria), out for dinner and surprise her with the ring he had reset for her, so he is not happy that they have a particularly long day of pickups. And he is really unhappy when young criminal mastermind Zoe (Keke Palmer) and her cohorts, Banner (Jack Kesy) and Miguel (Ismael Cruz Cordova), ambush them. 

After an intense car chase with cars blowing up and money containing dye thrown all over the place, Zoe manages to hijack the armored car. Travis recognizes Zoe because...wait for it. Wouldn't you know? Travis and Zoe had "met cute" the day before and had a one-night-stand where he had just coincidentally told her everything about his work including his schedule and the route he was going to take. Assuming that Banner and Miguel are dead after both of their vehicles have violently crashed, Zoe reveals that it's not the money in the truck that she wants, it's the armored truck itself because her plan is to use it for a pickup of $60 million from an Atlantic City casino, and she wants Russell and Travis to help her. Since she has a gun on them, they figure they don't have much choice.

However, Banner and Miguel survive and now they are mad that Zoe has abandoned them so they are on the hunt for Zoe, Russell and Travis. In the meantime, Zoe reveals her real reason for wanting to rob the casino and Russell's wife, Natalie, has tracked them down, because, hey, it's her 25th Wedding Anniversary and she wants to know where the heck Russell is.  Now she is also involved but why she is even in this movie is a mystery. Eva must have needed the work.

More car chases, more shenanigans, more I don't care anymore.

Written by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider and directed by Tim Story, this is the #3 most popular movie on Netflix right now, so I guess Eddie Murphy can still pull an audience but, like I said, sadly he just isn't funny anymore, nor is this movie. Eddie used to have the funniest facial reactions and doesn't even do that here for a cheap laugh. Pete does Pete, that Chad character he created on SNL, but the relationship between Eddie and Pete just didn't work. This is supposed to be a "buddy movie" but these guys have zero buddy chemistry. And I have never been a Keke Palmer fan. She always tries too hard to be perky, but at least here she has toned it down so I didn't mind her as much. And Andrew Dice Clay as the armored truck company boss was unrecognizable. He used to be funny too. 

I think this movie was supposed to be fun, but it wasn't. Even the car crashes weren't fun. They were over-the-top and unrealistic. How many car crashes in slow motion do we have to see?  

Rosy the Reviewer says...predictable and dumb. Cliche after cliche after cliche. I felt used. I liked Eddie better when he was funny.  (Amazon Prime)

Death of a Unicorn (2025)

While on his way to a weekend retreat at his boss's house with his daughter, a man who works for a pharmaceutical company kills a unicorn which leads to mayhem.

I like the occasional horror film, but for some reason this month I have been drawn to them.  Maybe it's because pretend horror takes my mind off the real life horror of world events. And I am not alone. It's actually been documented that in times of economic and political upheaval, more people are drawn to horror films. 

Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his teenage daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), are travelling through the Canadian Rockies on their way for a weekend at the estate of Elliot's boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) and his family- his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni) and son, Shepard (Will Poulter). Elliot is up for a promotion in Odell's pharmaceutical company. Odell is suffering from cancer. 

On the way, Elliot accidentally strikes and injures a unicorn with his car. Okay, I know. Unicorns don't really exist.  Suspend your disbelief.

When Elliot and Ridley inspect the unicorn, Ridley touches its horn and is cosmically transported until Elliot bashes it with a tire iron, splashing them both with blood.  They stash the unicorn in the trunk and head to the Leopolds' estate. Elliott plans to bury the unicorn after everyone is asleep.  Ooo---kay. Not sure that's a good plan. But then something really strange happens. Ridley discovers that her acne is gone and Elliot's vision suddenly improves and so do his allergies. It looks like unicorns have healing powers.

After arriving at the Leopolds' estate, they all discover that the unicorn wasn't dead. They shoot it but when Odell learns that the unicorn has healing powers, he brings in a bunch of scientists who grate pieces of the unicorn's horn off.  Odell ingests it and suddenly Odell's cancer is gone. Still with me?

Gee, Odell runs a pharmaceutical company.  I wonder what his plans are for the unicorn. Yes, he plans to exploit it.  In the meantime, Ridley remembers seeing the famous Unicorn Tapestries and gets the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Ya think? Well, she's right. Turns out, there is more than one unicorn, and they don't like that their friend is being taken off to be experimented on. All hell breaks loose.

Written and directed by Alex Scharfman, this is one of those "what if" stories.  What if unicorns are real and have curative powers and also get violent when Big Pharma tries to exploit them? 

All of the characters in this are larger than life which is sometimes fun but here could be interpreted as over-acting. There is lots of guts and gore (there is a fun homage to "Alien"), but is this film really a horror film?  It wants to be, but since it's so over-the-top, it's not really scary. It's more of a cartoon. Yes, it is funny at times, makes fun of rich people and it's a statement about the greed of Big Pharma, but I'm not sure the presentation really makes that hit home. Though the film has some originality and may have meant well, it has a one note premise: unicorns gone wild, and it went on way too long with a very strange ending. When the police arrived, I couldn't help but wonder, how do you tell the police, "Unicorns did it?"

I like Paul Rudd. He does "dufus" really well. Jenna Ortega is everywhere these days and Poulter has made a name for himself playing bullies (he does it again here) but redeemed himself in his recent stint on "The Bear." Leoni and Grant are veteran actors but despite all of this star power, it wasn't enough to save this movie. I liked the idea of unicorns running wild in a horror film and there were some fun moments, but not enough for me to recommend this movie. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...much as I sometimes like to watch horror films to take my mind off real life horror, sadly, this movie just reminded me that I don't like silly, over-the-top horror. But if that's your jam, you might like it. (HBO Max)

The Woman in the Yard (2025)

What would you do if a mysterious woman clad in black appeared sitting in your yard and she wouldn't leave?  Call the police?

Well, that's not what Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) did. She should have.  Ramona is a widowed mother living on an isolated farm.  She was in a car accident that killed her husband. She is grieving, hobbling around on crutches, and not doing well, distancing herself from her two children, Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and Annie (Estella Kahiha).  

Suddenly, a woman all in black appears sitting in their front yard and says  "Today's the day."  There are repeated attempts to get the woman to leave by both Ramona and Taylor but the woman remains, and in fact, appears to be moving closer and closer to the house. Then the cell service and power goes out and Charlie, the dog, goes missing.

Turns out there is more to the car accident than Ramona has revealed.

Not sure if it's Deadwyler, the screenplay by Sam Stefanak, or Jaume Collet-Serra's direction, but Ramona was not a sympathetic character. Yes, she is a grieving widow but she is actually a pain in the butt to her kids and to the audience watching this film.  She is useless.  As she hobbles from her bedroom down the stairs, I couldn't help but say to myself, "Why doesn't she sleep downstairs?" And why is the crashed car sitting on the property? I rolled my eyes more than once, and finally said out loud to the TV, "What the Hell?"  If Deadwyler had generated a bit more warmth or smarts, I might have cared, but I didn't. It doesn't take much to figure out what the woman in the yard represents but even figuring that out, I still didn't care.

I was hopeful going into this film.  I usually like Blumhouse horror films, but I can't say this film was actually a horror film.  It was more of a psychological look at grief and guilt with a few gotcha moments, but even so, not that well done.  And I am not a fan of an ambiguous ending that makes me go "Huh?"

Rosy the Reviewer says...when it comes to horror, I have been a big fan of Blumhouse productions but they have their ups and downs and this one was definitely a down. Not recommended. (Peacock)

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2012)

A rock documentary about the rock band, Big Star, that received critical acclaim but commercial failure though today it is a success as a cult band phenomenon.

Remember The Box Tops and the song "The Letter?"  Alex Chilton was the lead singer for The Box Tops and was only 16 when he recorded that song.  He had huge success at a young age and later formed the band Big Star with Chris Bell.  This documentary tells the story of what happened to Chilton and Bell as they starred in the most famous band you have never heard of. 

Founded in 1971 in Memphis, the band found a home at Ardent Studios, noted for its connection to Stax Records (Sam and Dave, Led Zeppelin and Isaac Hayes recorded there). Their albums were critically acclaimed but a series of events caused distribution issues, and despite their getting credit for influencing other bands like R.E.M. and Cheap Trick, they never really had success until much later, when they had a cult following in the 90's. Their song "In the Street" was the theme for "That '70s Show," though it was performed by Cheap Trick.  

Written by Drew DeNicola and directed by DeNicola and Olivia Mori, the film uses archival materials and all kinds of talking heads to track the history of Chilton, Bell and Big Star, but the talking heads are people you will probably not recognize nor are they routinely identified, and that's the problem with this movie. It is never clear who is talking and what their connection to Big Star was. 

The story of Big Star is an intriguing one but the film goes on too long with too many people talking and conjecturing with little actual footage of the band performing and the film doesn't really manage to make a point about why Big Star didn't make it big. There are hints at drug and alcohol use that contributed to Chilton and Bell never really finding their niches, but there is never enough information to understand what really happened and why they didn't become big stars during their lifetimes.  Both died young - Bell is in the "27 Club" and Chilton died at 59.

Big Star was clearly a band ahead of it's time with an interesting story, and I am glad it is getting some props. However, even though I am a big fan of music documentaries, this film just did not come together for me.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you are/were a fan of Big Star or are a rock documentary nerd, you might enjoy this, but otherwise, not recommended. (HBO Max).

See You Next Time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to like it and share it on Facebook, X, or other sites; email it to your friends and/or follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer where I share short reviews about TV shows I am watching, books I am reading and all sorts of other fun stuff that doesn't appear here!

And next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll over to the right of the synopsis to where it says "Critics Reviews" - Click on that and if I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list (NOTE:  IMDB keeps moving stuff around so if you don't find "Critics Reviews" where I am sending you, look around.  It's worth it)!

"Happy Gilmore 2," "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan" and "Zarna Garg: One in a Billion:" My Movie Picks and Pans for July 2025

[I review "Happy Gilmore 2," the documentary "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan" and Zarna Garg's comedy stand-up "One in a Billion"]

Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)

First there was "Happy Gilmore."  Now here he is again 29 years later.

Okay, since you know I hate sequels (except "The Godfather Part II), you may be wondering, "Rosy, why are you reviewing a sequel to "Happy Gilmore?"  Well, my peeps, I didn't see the first one, so in a way this isn't really a sequel for me.  I don't have anything to compare it with.  I am seeing it with new eyes.  And since "Happy Gilmore 2" is currently the #1 watched movie on Netflix right now and Adam Sandler has been on every talk show on the planet hyping this movie, I thought I had better do my due diligence and take a look.

So if you saw the first one, you know that Happy started out playing hockey but despite his powerful slapshot, his temper and poor skating ability limited his career.  But then he discovered golf where his slapshot came in handy and he went on to win his first Tour Championship in 1996. 

Now 29 years later, we learn that Happy went on to have a successful golf career winning five more championships.  He also had five children with wife Virginia (Julie Bowen), but sadly, tragedy has struck Happy.  Virginia is no longer with us, he has lost everything including his grandma's house (again), and he has become an alcoholic using a plethora of objects as flasks so he can stay "hydrated (my favorite is his drinking out of a cucumber)!" 

So Happy has quit golf and is now not so happy.

His kids Gordie (Maxwell Friedman), Wayne (Ethan Cutkosky), Bobby (Philip Schneider) and Terry (Conor Sherry) have moved out and are working to help support Happy and their sister Vienna (Sunny Sandler, Adam's real life daughter), who wants to go to ballet school in Paris.  The $75k per year cost is daunting to Happy, but then he is approached by Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie), the CEO of Maxi Energy Drink and whose bad breath is a recurring motif in the film. Manatee is starting a new golf league called Maxi Golf, a league that make golf more fun and exciting - kind of what Banana Baseball is to baseball.  Manatee wants Happy to be the league's star.  Happy declines but wanting to find the money to pay for Vienna to go to ballet school and with encouragement from his friend, John Daly (playing himself), he starts to clean himself up by joining a support group, "Alkies for Life," coincidentally run by his old arch nemesis, Hal (Ben Stiller). Happy works on his golf skills, gets his mojo back, and eventually joins the next Tour Championship where Maxi Golf is rising fast. Manatee challenges the Tour Championship golfers to a tournament - the top five Maxi Golf golfers vs. the top five old timers - and the film culminates in a no-holds barred golf-off.

There are ups and downs to Happy's return to golf including his struggles with alcohol and Maxi Golf turns out to be a bit dodgy. Will Happy be happy again?

Lots of golf action and cameos from real golf champs. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka (and his wife!) and Bryson DeChambeau make up Happy's team against Maxi Golf and Fred Couples, Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and others also make appearances. There is even a spoof on Scottie Scheffler's real life arrest before last year's PGA Championship.

Acting and celebrity cameos also abound - Ben Stiller, Julie Bowen, Kevin Nealon, Christopher McDonald, and Dennis Dugan reprise their roles and everyone from Travis Kelce to Bad Bunny to Ken Jennings to SNL alums seem to be in this along with others - too many to mention. Even Adam Sandler's real life family members make appearances. It starts out being fun to try to spot who's who but as more and more celebrities crowd the film, it becomes exhausting and actually distracts from the story.

Written by Tim Herlihy and Sandler and directed by Kyle Newacheck, the first half of the film is actually quite sweet. However, in the second half of the film, the "shark jumped," if you know what I mean, and it just got too silly and went on too long.  And though there are clips from the first film to try to remind you of what happened and who some of the characters relate to Happy, some character relationships are unexplained this time around (not sure why Hal (Stiller) was Happy's arch nemesis or why Shooter McGavin (McDonald) was in a mental hospital - or frankly why he was in the movie - or why John Daly was living in Happy's garage), but you can mostly enjoy this film without having seen the original.  

Sandler is not the best actor in the world, but there is something endearing about him. He is so earnest and sincere in what he does that it shines through and makes you root for his character.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you enjoyed the first film, are an Adam Sandler fan or enjoy your golf with lots of hijinks, you might enjoy this, but if you don't like slapstick comedy and very broad humor (bare butts and bad breath and fart jokes abound) then, you might not.  But all in all, the film has some fun moments and a good message. It is all about rooting for the underdog, second chances and redemption.  It's upbeat and don't we need that right now? (Netflix)

Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan (2025)

What you didn't know about Ed Sullivan.

Okay, so you aren't sure you even know who Ed Sullivan was. "The Ed Sullivan Show" was the longest-running variety show in U.S. broadcast history.  On Sunday night, it featured singers, dancers, acrobats, puppets, you name it.  "America's Got Talent" is the closest thing we have to that today, but back in the 1950's and sixties, when there were few TV channels, most Americans - 35-50 million of them - all sat down at the same time to watch Ed Sullivan and then talk about it the next day.

Sullivan was the first to have Elvis on TV (though they only filmed him from the chest up - he wasn't called Elvis the Pelvis for nothing) as well as the Beatles.  I, of course, was a huge Beatles fan and the night they were on, my girlfriend, Linda, and I sat on the floor in front of the TV screaming along with the girls in the TV audience. My parents shook their heads.

Though there are some biographical elements in this documentary directed by the late Sacha Jenkins, this film is less about Sullivan's personal life and more about the impact "The Ed Sullivan Show" had on television history and civil rights, which I did not know about and you might not have known about either.

What I didn't know was that Sullivan broke the "color barrier" by featuring black artists on the show at a time when racial discrimination was still rampant.  Though the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled segregated schools unconstitutional in 1954 and the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, racism never really went away and few black artists ever appeared on TV.  Southern politicians wanted segregated TV shows. They did not want to see black performers on the same stage as white performers. But Sullivan had full control of who performed on his show and he went against sponsors and critics to showcase black talent. "The Ed Sullivan Show" was one of the first mainstream shows to do that.

Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder at 13, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, James Brown, The Jackson 5, The Temptations and The Supremes all performed on the show and snippets of their performances are included in the documentary along with Belafonte, Smokey Robinson, Otis Williams and others weighing in on the influence this show had on American life.

Though Sullivan died in 1974, his voice is recreated as narrator and features his comments on racial issues over the years from his letters, articles and columns.

So why did Sullivan care so much?

Growing up in Port Chester, New York, in an Irish-American family, Sullivan played baseball and played against teams with black players.  He believed in integration from an early age, possibly because the Irish had also been through discrimination when they settled in America.  He recalls how some of his team mates did not want to play against black players, but he was taught "to respect the rights of the underdog."

"I always resented [those players that didn't want to play against black players] very deeply because the Irish had been through that...My parents knew these things were wrong, and they were not just broad-minded, but sensible."

So how did Sullivan, who started out as a newspaper sports writer end up hosting a TV show?

He was later assigned a newspaper Broadway column which led to his being the master of ceremonies for the Harvest Moon Ball, a famous New York amateur dance contest.  At the time, TV was new and someone was needed to host a Sunday night variety show - "The Toast of the Town" - which he did and that eventually became "The Ed Sullivan Show." 

Through a series of opportune events, Sullivan, an unlikely TV personality, became the host of the longest running variety show in TV history, one that gave opportunities to black performers who until then were not seen on TV. And that was not received well. There were protests about black performers appearing on the same show as white performers and Sullivan was told not to shake hands with the black performers or touch them. Sponsors were targeted. Hard to believe all of that was happening just 75 years ago. But Sullivan went against the protests and not only shook hands with black performers, he embraced them.

Belafonte, who appeared on the show 10 times, says that Sullivan "pushed the envelope as far as the envelope could be pushed," especially when CBS threatened to stop him from performing the first time in 1953 because of his left-wing politics and Sullivan went to bat for him with the network.

Sullivan and his voice and mannerisms have been made fun of by comedians over the years because yes, he was not your typical TV host. He was not classically handsome, often called "The Great Stone Face" and was very stiff on camera, but he made his mark on TV with a show that ran for 23 years. TV Guide ranked it 15th in the top "50 Greatest TV shows of All Time." But more importantly, Sullivan made a huge contribution to racial equality.

Sullivan died three days after the show ended.  He died on a Sunday night.

Rosy the Reviewer says...The Ed Sullivan Show was "appointment TV" of the highest order.  I was there every Sunday night with my family and knowing what Sullivan did to promote black artists makes me very glad I was. And you can be there too, for a little while, when you watch this highly recommended documentary (Netflix).

Zarna Garg: One in a Billion (2023)

Comedian Zarna Garg's first comedy special.

Born in India, Garg grew up in Mumbai.  Her mother died when she was 14 and her father tried to force her into an arranged marriage.  Zarna ran away and eventually she emigrated to the U.S. to live with her sister in Ohio. She eventually earned a law degree, married and was a stay-at-home mom for 16 years until her children encouraged her to try stand-up comedy.  I guess she was a funny mom.  She performed at an open mic in New York City in 2018 and in 2021 won Kevin Hart's comedy competition (Lyft Comics) on Peacock and in 2022 she was highlighted as "one of the gutsiest women comedians in America" on "Gutsy" on Apple TV hosted by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

I first saw her interviewed on "The View" this year when she was making the rounds promoting her memoir, "This American Woman: One in a Billion," so named because she credits American women for giving her the strength to fend off the expectations of her culture and go her own way, especially starting a comedy career in her 40's. She thinks our expression of "one in a million" is not much of a compliment. It's "cute." India has a population of over a billion, so where she is now from where she started, she is "one in a billion." Now that's a compliment.  I thought her story was so compelling that I wanted to read her book which I did and which in turn led me to want to see her comedy routine. 

Which I did.

Written by Garg and directed by Brian Volk-Weiss, this is her first stand-up comedy special and she is very funny and endearing.

Her family-friendly routine takes the audience through her journey, makes fun of the cultural differences between Indian parents and American parents and family expectations (no art majors in Indian families), complains about her mother-in-law (she stalks her TikTok account), explains why Indian kids are smarter and win all of the spelling bees (their parents don't tell them to follow their dreams like American parents do, but to be practical), and more. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...a fresh addition to the comedy world (Amazon Prime.  You can also catch her latest special "Zarna Garg: Practical People Win" now streaming on Hulu and find her book at your local library)

See You Next Time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to like it and share it on Facebook, X, or other sites; email it to your friends and/or follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer where I share short reviews about TV shows I am watching, books I am reading and all sorts of other fun stuff that doesn't appear here!

And next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll over to the right of the synopsis to where it says "Critics Reviews" - Click on that and if I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list (NOTE:  IMDB keeps moving stuff around so if you don't find "Critics Reviews" where I am sending you, look around.  It's worth it)!

Two Fascinating Women, Two Fascinating Documentaries!

[I review "My Mom Jayne," Mariska Hargitay's film about her mother, Jayne Mansfield and "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything")

 

My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay (2025)

The life and legacy of movie icon, Jayne Mansfield, from the perspective of a daughter who lost her mom when she was only three.

If you watch TV and are a fan of "Law and Order" and its spin offs, then you know who Mariska Hargitay is.  But you may not know who Jayne Mansfield was or that she was Mariska Hargitay's mother.

Jayne Mansfield was an American actress, a Playboy Playmate, and "sex symbol" of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was probably better known for her numerous publicity stunts than her film career, but she had several box-office successes and won a Golden Globe. She gained popularity after starring on Broadway in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" and in the 1957 film adaptation.  She went on to star in "The Girl Can't Help It (1956)," "The Wayward Bus (1957)," and "Promises Promises (1963)," in which Mansfield was the first major American actress to perform a nude scene in a post-silent era film. She was blonde and buxom (her measurements were 40-21-35) and personified the "dumb blonde" character. It was thought that she was the Fox Studio's B-movie version of Marilyn Monroe, which led to the nickname the "Working Man's Monroe." 

But Mansfield was much more than her measurements. She claimed to have an IQ of 163 and few knew that she was a classically trained violinist and pianist and could speak four other languages besides English. So her other nickname was Hollywood's "smartest dumb blonde." Though she played up the ditsy blonde persona as a means to an end, she later complained that no one cared about her brain, just her measurements. 

She had five children, a pink mansion, a heart-shaped swimming pool, a grand piano decorated with cherubs, a turbulent love life, and sadly died in a car accident in 1967 at the age of 34. 

Hargitay, who wrote and directed this documentary (her directorial debut) was Mansfield's fifth and last child when Mansfield was married to Mickey Hargitay, a body-builder and past Mr. Universe.  She was only three when her mother died.  She doesn't remember her mother so this documentary is Hargitay's way to not only find her mother but to get some answers and also come to grips with a long held family secret.

Hargitay had longed to not be in the shadow of her mother, the blonde bombshell, but now wants to understand her.  She also wants to reveal the family secret that she kept to honor her mother and father but..."Reclaiming my own story...sometimes keeping a secret doesn't honor anyone."

Hargitay has woven in archival footage of Mansfield's career as well as home movies and interviews with her own siblings: Jayne Marie, Miklós, Zoltán, and Tony. They talk about their childhoods, and in a very touching scene, they all meet in a storage unit that no one had been in since 1969, and they go through the many artifacts and belongings of their mother. And there is an even more touching scene involving that piano.

This is not your run-of-the-mill, "just the facts, ma'am," kind of biopic documentary.  It's not just the story of a famous blonde bombshell. It's the story of her equally famous daughter getting to know a mother she never really had.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a touching family story that will remind you that no matter how famous someone is, they are not immune to the disappointments, sadness and tragedies that touch the rest of us. If you like documentaries, this one is highly recommended. (HBO and Max)

Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything (2025)

The life and career of pioneering broadcast journalist, Barbara Walters.

We see women news anchors on TV all of the time now, but that was not the case when Barbara Walters was making a career for herself in broadcast journalism. She joined the staff of the Today show in the early1960s as a writer and segment producer of women's-interest stories, and in 1974, she became co-host of the program, the first woman to hold such a position on an American news program.  And in 1976 she was the first American female co-anchor of a network evening news program, alongside Harry Reasoner on the ABC Evening News. And let's just say that Harry wasn't happy. More on that later. And as we all know now, Barbara went on to be a correspondent, producer and co-host on the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 (1979 to 2004) and created, produced, and co-hosted the ABC daytime talk show The View, where she also appeared from 1997 until 2014. She was also known for her annual specials where she interviewed the current "Fascinating People." 

As and interviewer, Walters was known for asking questions of famous people that other interviewers were afraid to ask, but the kinds of questions viewers wanted the answers to. I mean, she asked the Kardashians why they were famous since they didn't sing or dance or seem to have any talent.  She asked Putin if he ever ordered someone killed.  She asked Martha Stewart why everyone seemed to hate her and Boris Yeltsin if he drank too much.  She was disarming and fearless.  She did her homework, put her subjects at ease and then went in for the zinger! She was also known for making her subjects cry. Just ask Oprah.

Growing up in New York, Barbara's father, Lou Walters, owned The Latin Quarter, a popular New York City nightclub, so Barbara was used to hanging out with celebrities and later said, "I learned that celebrities were human beings so I was never in awe," which probably accounts for how she was able to ask those burning questions. When her father's nightclub closed and he lost everything, it fell to Barbara to support the family, which many say accounts for her burning ambition.

It is amazing to me that no woman was a TV news anchor until 1974 but I guess that's why we had the Women's Movement.  When I was in eighth grade, I also wanted to be a journalist.  I had to write a report on my desired career and I had to interview someone in that field.  So I interviewed a woman at our local newspaper, and though she was a journalist, she was only assigned articles of interest to women.  Even at 13, I could tell her assignments rankled her, that she wanted to be reporting on real news, not local weddings and what hat to wear on Easter.  

But such was the world that Barbara Walters found herself in as she began her career. 

This documentary directed by Jackie Jesko, explores Walters' career, the ambition that drove her and the sexism and challenges she faced as she made her way in broadcast journalism. When Frank McGee joined "The Today Show" as host in 1971, he refused to do joint interviews with Barbara unless she was silent until he had asked the first three questions.  Likewise, news anchor Harry Reasoner was not only not happy to have a co-anchor on the ABC Nightly News, he was particularly unhappy that it was a woman. He barely acknowledged her, and since the staff was made up entirely of men, none of them even talked to her.  She described that time as the "most painful period in my life." Peter Jennings bullied her too. Those men clearly did not want a woman in their midst.

But our Barbara had spunk and overcame the obstacles. She figured out a way around the sexism in the newsroom by doing interviews on her own, and ironically, that's what she became famous for.  She turned the TV interview into an art form and went on to interview every sitting U.S. president and first lady from the Nixons to the Obamas, Fidel Castro, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin and Saddam Hussein as well as celebrities and pop culture figures like the Menendez brothers. Her interview with Monica Lewinsky after the Clinton scandal was the highest rated news interview of all time with 70 million people watching.

Sadly Walters' personal life wasn't so successful. She was married four times and had problems with her adopted daughter, Jackie. Walters was also insecure about her looks and once said to Katie Couric, "We are so alike.  Neither of us is that attractive."

The documentary includes archival footage from many of Walters' interviews and Oprah, Katie Couric, Bette Midler, Connie Chung and others weigh in on the impact Walters had on them. When Walters retired from "The View" in 2014, all of the female journalists she had inspired paid tribute to her on her last show. As they all came on stage, one by one, it was very moving and poignant. Walters died in 2022 at the age of 93.

"Maybe I made a difference."

She sure did.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Barbara Walters herself was one of those "Fascinating People." A wonderful documentary about a trailblazing and fascinating woman (Hulu).

See You Next Time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to like it and share it on Facebook, X, or other sites; email it to your friends and/or follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer where I share short reviews about TV shows I am watching, books I am reading and all sorts of other fun stuff that doesn't appear here!

And next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll over to the right of the synopsis to where it says "Critics Reviews" - Click on that and if I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list (NOTE:  IMDB keeps moving stuff around so if you don't find "Critics Reviews" where I am sending you, look around.  It's worth it)!

Tyler Perry's "Straw," "The Accountant 2" and "Untold: The Fall of Favre:" My Movie Picks and Pans for June 2025

[I review Tyler Perry's latest movie "Straw" as well as "The Accountant 2" and the Netflix documentary about Brett Favre - "Untold: The Fall of Favre"]

Straw (2025)

Janiya Wiltkinson (Taraji P. Henson) is having a very, very bad day.

When we first meet Janiya we see her in bed with her daughter, Aria (Gabrielle E. Jackson).  The alarm goes off and she gets her daughter up and ready for school. Janiya is a hard-working single mother with a sick daughter in a difficult living condition having trouble making ends meet, and as the day progresses, all kinds of horrible things happen to her and people are cruel and indifferent to her situation. 

This is one of those movies where bad things start happening and then things get worse and worse.

Let's just say that in the course of the first 20 minutes of this movie Janiya loses her daughter to Child Protective Services; she has a very mean boss who fires her; she is in a road rage incident with an FBI agent who is abusive and threatening; her car is impounded, and to make matters worse, it's raining! She arrives home only to find that she has been evicted from her apartment and all of her belongings are spread out on the street.  And did I say, it's raining? There's more. Janiya goes back to her boss to collect her check, there is an armed robbery attempt and Janiya makes a bad decision to go to the bank to cash her check CARRYING THE GUN from the robbery, thus unintentionally finding herself in a bank robbery mess and a standoff at the bank.  It's all just too much. 

And that's how I felt about this movie, at least for the first half, anyway.  I mean, how much bad stuff can someone go through? If you are depressed when you start watching this movie, you will be really depressed while watching it, and probably after as well. And by the way, what I have revealed are not really spoilers because all of this happens in less than 40 minutes and there is still another hour of movie to go!

But then the movie turns into a sort of female version of "Dog Day Afternoon."  Janiya is in the bank with the gun and Nicole (Sherri Shepherd), the sympathetic bank manager, tries to help her.  She says  to her "I see you. I hear you. I care." Likewise, she is on the phone with Detective Raymond (Teyana Taylor), another sympathetic female, who is trying to get her to surrender. Much of what is going on in the bank is being streamed live by one of the hostages so all of a sudden a crowd of sympathetic supporters forms outside the bank.  What will Janiya do?  Is this going to get even worse?  And then out of nowhere - I did not see it coming - a huge twist that shows what was really happening with Janiya and that there are good people out there, people who do care about others.  

So if you can hang on through all of the sturm und drang that is Janiya's life, there is a payoff that resonates in today's world.

Written and directed by Tyler Perry, this is the #1 movie on Netflix right now and all I can think is that times are so tough for people that they want to feel that at least there lives aren't as bad as Janiya's. But I see what Perry was trying to do here. It's a story about why good people might do bad things, what can happen when someone is poor and unseen, and finds herself on her last straw. At one point, Janiya says "People don't know how expensive it is to be poor."  And he shines a light on the black mental health crisis. 

This is a tour de force for Henson who should get an Oscar nod, though often when Oscar time rolls around, movies from the middle of the year are forgotten.  But she definitely needs to be honored for this performance.  But no surprise there.  Henson has always delivered. The surprise, however, is comedian/talk show host Sherri Shepherd who gets to show her dramatic acting chops and she also delivers as does Taylor.  Girl power!

Rosy the Reviewer says...the first half of this movie is a tough, depressing watch but if you hang in, there is a message of hope. But you will still be depressed. (Netflix)

The Accountant 2 (2025)

It's been almost 10 years since we first met Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) in the first "Accountant" film.  Now he is back, this time helping to solve the murder of an ex-FinCEN director (that's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to you and me).

Former FinCEN director Raymond King (J.K. Simmons) who is now a P.I. meets with assassin Anais (Daniella Pineda) and asks her to help him find a missing Salvadorean family.  He shows her a picture.  She is not interested but warns King he is in danger.  Later he is found murdered with the words "Find the Accountant" written on his arm.  King's protegee and current deputy director of FinCEN, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), takes on the case.

Medina, despite being mistrustful of Wolff's known illegal methods and activities (refer to first film) asks for his help in finding the family in the photo.

Then there is Cobb (Grant Harvey) and Burke (Robert Morgan).  Turns out Cobb killed King and is tasked to also kill Anais by his boss Burke. Wolff teams up with his estranged brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal), who just happens to be a hitman, to help him.  Meanwhile, Justine (Allison Robertson), who is non-speaking and autistic and a friend of Christian's from childhood (Christian is also on the spectrum) is now Christian's business partner assisted by a group of autistic children where they hack and use technologies to help Christian.  

Still with me?

Many undeveloped plot lines and characters come and go with a few twists and turns as we discover who Anais really is but by the time that happens you won't care.

Directed by Gavin O'Connor, the film starts with an unbelievable opening and has many "huh?" moments and if you don't remember the first "Accountant" film and why Christian acts the way he does, you will probably be totally lost most of the time.  I certainly was.

Most of the time, I had no idea what was going on. There is a bingo game, speed dating, hit men, a murder, some almost laughable violence, and then as the movie progresses there is sex trafficking and more weird stuff as we discover who Anais really is but by then I didn't care. Any desire to shed light on immigration issues and sex trafficking is lost in this jumbled mess of a movie.

Written by Bill Dubuque, this is more of a buddy movie than a gripping action thriller with Affleck and Bernthal playing opposite types and riffing off of each other. They have good chemistry but in general Ben, despite being the star and focus of this film, didn't seem to have much to do, though I enjoyed watching him line dance. But faint praise.

Rosy the Reviewer says...all in all, a slow moving far-fetched mish-mash.  Rumor has it, there is yet another one in development.  Nooooo!!! (Amazon Prime)

Untold: The Fall of Favre (2025) 

A documentary about football star, Brett Favre - the good Brett Favre and the not so good!

I guess when you are a famous football quarterback - called a "football god" - you get to do what you want unchecked.  And according to this documentary, it seems that Brett Favre was a really good football player but sometimes a really bad guy.

The film begins with Favre’s football career at the University of Southern Mississippi and goes on to highlight his football career with the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings in the NFL. Interviews with friends and peers highlight his successes. He was known as a football player of singular abilities and a winning public personality and was treated like a "football god."  And you know what happens when someone feels like a god.

Bill Michaels, a radio sports talk host based in Wisconsin, said that after Favre's father, Irv, died of a heart attack in 2003, Favre had no guardrails. "Once Irv passed, (Brett) was the only one in charge of (Brett), and I think that's where maybe things go a little off the rails."

But then we meet Jen Stergen and the documentary, directed by Rebecca Gitlitz, is as much about her as it is Favre.   

Sterger's story begins when she was a student at Florida State University, where a brief appearance during an NCAA football broadcast led to her being an internet sensation and eventually becoming the "Gameday Host" for the New York Jets in 2008, the same year Favre was traded there by the Packers. According to this documentary, she attracted Favre's attention, and he stalked her with texts, phone messages and photos of his private parts. She rejected all attempts to connect with him but according to her, the whole incident ruined her life.

And then Favre was allegedly involved in a scandal in Mississippi that saw millions of dollars in welfare money siphoned off for other uses, including a volleyball gym at Favre's alma mater, where his daughter was on the volleyball team, and to a drug company that was reportedly working to develop a concussion treatment drug. Favre suffered multiple concussions in his career and has long been concerned about the issue. No successful drug resulted from the investments.

Favre claimed he didn't know that money was being diverted from welfare and note that he does not appear in this documentary.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Favre fans might not learn anything new here about Favre's football career and probably won't like their hero being criticized but it's a compelling documentary that exposes some of the issues inherent in hero worship and privilege. (Netflix)

See You Next Time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to like it and share it on Facebook, X, or other sites; email it to your friends and/or follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer where I share short reviews about TV shows I am watching, books I am reading and all sorts of other fun stuff that doesn't appear here!

And next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll over to the right of the synopsis to where it says "Critics Reviews" - Click on that and if I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list (NOTE:  IMDB keeps moving stuff around so if you don't find "Critics Reviews" where I am sending you, look around.  It's worth it)!