[I review the movies "A Complete Unknown," "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, "Babygirl," and "Kinda Pregnant"]
A Complete Unknown (2024)
A biopic about the young Bob Dylan on the road to fame.
It's 1961 and a 19-year-old Bob Dylan, nee Robert Allen Zimmerman (Timothee Chalamet), has moved to New York City from Minnesota to seek fame and fortune. But he has also gone there to meet his idol, folk singer, Woody Guthrie. Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) is in the hospital suffering from Huntington's Disease. While there Bob meets another folk icon, Woody's friend, Pete Seeger (played by Edward Norton). Bob performs a song he just wrote, appropriately called "Song to Woody," and impresses the musicians so much that Pete invites Bob to stay with his family. Pete also introduces Bob to others in the NYC folk scene. Along the way, he meets Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), the two begin a relationship and he moves in with her. (Note: Sylvie is a fictional character based on Bob's real-life girlfriend and muse, Suze Rotolo. Bob requested that director James Mangold change her name for the movie).
While at an open mic night, Bob meets manager Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler) and Bob so impresses Grossman that he takes Bob on as a client on the spot and Bob records his first album, mostly folk covers. Though album sales were disappointing for that first album, Bob's career is on its way, especially when he finally starts performing his own songs, songs that reflect the political and social unrest of the day. He also meets Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro, nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role) and the two embark on an on again, off again relationship, both sexually and artistically.
Despite achieving stardom, Bob is not happy. He does not want to be restricted to the demands of the folk community and begins to experiment with the electric guitar, heresy to folkies, but as he is recording his new album "Highway 61 Revisited," his new direction is clear and at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival he blows caution to the wind (ha-ha) and plays a rocking version of "Maggie's Farm" that blows the lid off of the festival and ends with him being booed off the stage.
The rest is musical history...and I was kind of a witness to that musical history.
I was in 8th grade when I discovered Bob Dylan. My girlfriends and I were crazy about him and felt very grown up that our favorite song was "Baby Let Me Follow You Down." We knew that was his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, with him on the cover of the "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" album. In 1965, my junior year in high school and just a few months after Bob went electric at the Newport Folk Festival and blew the berets off the folkies, my girlfriends and I traveled down from our town in Western Michigan to Chicago by bus to see him play. He came out on stage and said "Hi, I'm Bob Dylan" and proceeded to play an acoustic set. But after the intermission, he came out with his backup band, the Hawks (later to morph into The Band) and played the rest of the concert electric. Naturally, everyone booed him. But not us. We were those sophisticated young ladies who had loved him since 1962 and we smugly knew that "our Bob" needed to move on. By then, though, I was a huge Beatles fan and my love of Bob and folk music in general took a back seat, but I have always been proud that I was an early fan (so early, that when our local radio DJ introduced his music on air he called him Bobby Die-lyn - I guess he had never heard of Dylan Thomas).
But I have to say, in later years, Bob disappointed me.
I believe his eccentricities got the better of him. I attended a concert in Seattle where he played the entire concert with his back to the audience and when he sang "It Ain't Me, Babe," I didn't even recognize it because he had changed up the melody so much. But there is no doubt that he had a huge impact on, not just me, but an entire generation and generations to come. He was a defining character and talent of the 1960's and his music continued to inspire change. So I forgive him his eccentricities. Heavy is the head...
This movie does a wonderful job of showing Dylan's talent and why he had such impact. I had worried that it would be a puff piece considering that Bob is still alive and had read the screenplay beforehand, supposedly going over it line by line with director Mangold and making notes. He even supposedly acted some of it out before signing off on it, but all-in-all, characterizations were believable and Bob wasn't whitewashed.
Timothee Chalamet channeled Dylan magically, showing his good and bad sides and musically he was right on. The full performances of Dylan's songs were highlight of the movie. Chalamet had heard of Dylan (his father had a black and white portrait of Dylan in his apartment), but he didn't know much about him or his music beyond the most famous ones, "Blowin' in the Wind," and "The Times They Are A-Changin." But he had five years to study him as the film was put on hold because of Covid. Both he and Edward Norton also had time to learn to play the guitar and banjo, respectively, amazing feats considering how well they played in the movie.
As for Edward Norton. What can't that guy do? He can play anything and anyone, and here he transforms himself into the kind, go-with-the-flow, peace and love, Pete Seeger. Both he and Chalamet deserved their Oscar nods. The other members of the cast were also first rate, especially Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro.
And props to Oscar-nominated director Mangold, the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Mangold and Jay Cocks (based on the book "Dylan Goes Electric" by Elijah Wald), the music that was so expertly woven into the story and the film's production values which all worked together to capture that special time in the 1960's. Watching the film, I was transported back to high school and those changin' times. The film very much deserved it's Best Picture Oscar nomination.
Rosy the Reviewer says...But is it the best picture of the year? No, but it's an enjoyable film experience and that's enough. (in theatres and for purchase on various streaming platforms)
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)
In this fourth addition to the franchise, Bridget is now a widow and single mother but manages to navigate her new reality and even attract a much younger lover.
Did we really need another Bridget Jones movie? You know how much this female curmudgeon hates sequels and keeping a film franchise going well past it's expiration date. This is the fourth installment so you would think that I am going to rant about all of that...but I'm not. I actually enjoyed it.
Renee Zellweger with her cute little British accent manages to bring Bridget to life once again, this time as a middle-aged, widowed single mother with two school-aged children, Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic). Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth, who makes a brief appearance as a ghost and in flashback) was killed four years earlier while on a humanitarian mission in the Sudan. She now faces the challenges of parenthood, work and dating on her own. Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) is still in the mix (it wouldn't be Bridget Jones without Hugh), but now he is just an old friend and even babysits the kids so a romance between those two is off the table. However, as soon as Bridget throws her hat in the dating ring, she is pursued by Roxster (Leo Woodall), a much younger man while also forming a connection with her son's science teacher, Scott Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
So many ups and downs in her relationship with Roxster and she is still grieving for Mark but will she end with up with Scott?
Directed by Michael Morris with a screenplay by Helen Fielding, Abi Morgan and Dan Mazer, this one isn't quite up there with the first two, but there is still some of that Bridget Jones charm we loved. There is something about Zellweger's face that just pulls at the heartstrings. And that's what the Bridget Jones movies are so good at - those small moments when Bridget is bumbling and embarrassing herself in a cute way. This time around I also enjoyed the family side stories of Daniel reconnecting with his son and Billy and Mabel not wanting to forget their Dad. Mark would sing "I Would Do Anything" to put Billy to sleep at night so when Billy sang that song at the school talent show, I lost it.
The ending of the movie seemed to put a happy end to the Bridget Jones story, but who knows? There might be a fifth one. I wouldn't mind.
Rosy the Reviewer says...so I'm not such a grouch after all, right? I liked a sequel. I think I will always like Bridget Jones no matter what she does. (Peacock)
Babygirl (2024)
Romy Mathis (Kidman) is the CEO of an automation company in New York City. She is a high-powered women who is dissatisfied with her sex life with her husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas), a theater director. But then she meets Samuel (Harris Dickinson), who turns out to be an intern at her company and wouldn't you know, he chooses her to be his mentor through the company's mentorship program. And it's not long before the two embark on a sexual affair. Romy expresses her fear that she is taking advantage of him because of the power difference but Samuel has moxie. He says he is actually the one with the power because he could ruin her career with "one phone call."
Let the dominance/submission stuff begin. So lots of humiliating sex. In fact, the first hour and 15 minutes is nothing but Romy getting sexually satisfied. I kept waiting for something to happen besides sex. It didn't.
Romy takes more and more risks as other staff members get wind of what is happening and Romy eventually confesses to Jacob that she is having an affair but not who or what. She implies it was a one-night thing but strangely in confessing, there is now the possibility of their rekindling their sex life, if Jacob can figure out how to please Romy. Is this thing going to have a happy ending?
But you know what? After awhile, I just didn't care.
Written and directed by Halina Reijn, the film's title only gets mentioned once when Samuel calls Romy "babygirl" in the heat of the moment. I guess it's a metaphor for powerful people who like to be dominated but again I just didn't care. The ick factor had kicked in.
Nicole is always a believable actress but I am starting to think she wants to take over the "older woman/younger man" genre. This is her fourth movie with that plotline (others - "A Family Affair," "The Paperboy," and "To Die For.")
Rosy the Reviewer says...cringey. (for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple+)
Kinda Pregnant (2025)
When Lainy's plans to get married and settle down fall apart and her best friend gets pregnant, she fakes her own pregnancy.
The usual crazy and very crude Amy Schumer stuff ensues.
Directed by Tyler Spindel and written by Schumer and Julie Paiva, this is one of those one-note plot device movies. Will and when will the lie come to light and what will happen? Some of the gags work, most don't. I have always mostly enjoyed Schumer's humor - something about that baby face saying those shocking things - but for some, her humor might fall flat.
Rosy the Reviewer says... if you are a big Amy fan, you might enjoy this. If not, you probably won't.(Netflix)
See You Next Time!
