It seems like there has been this wave of movies starring Leslie Mann that has coincided within a 5-10 year span with my age and milestones in life. It started with “Knocked Up” which I absolutely loved and watched repeatedly. Then I got pregnant and watched the movie again with an entirely different perspective and appreciation. Then she did “This is 40” and although I’m not 40 yet, I am nearing that milestone and feel I can watch that movie understanding the complexities and realities of a woman nearing 40. Her latest film, “Blockers,” is about being a parent and having some issues when your child grows up and becomes an adult…whether it be high school graduation, prom or losing one’s virginity (or in the case of this movie, all of this happening in one night). “Blockers” is definitely a comedy and a consistently funny one but it also has heart. It addresses the dreaded reality for all parents, as tough as it is to be parents and to raise children, the toughest part of it may be when they leave the nest. The moment when we can breathe a sigh of relief for a job well done and then cry for what is gone.

Grade: B+

I feel like I would give the first 45-minutes of this movie a solid A. It was very funny and I think most women would be able to relate to many of the insecure body moments that it was nice to feel like you were watching a movie where the creators obviously understood the pressures and insecurities of women in our world today. A world where social media and YouTube make it feel like you should be able to have your life together and look perfect every moment of the day with ease. The message of this film was clear from the beginning so the obvious trajectory of the movie made the middle feel a little slower. It seemed as if drama and unnecessary conflicts were put in place just to make the final moments more powerful. It trudged along a bit but then had a satisfactory ending. The overall message of “I Feel Pretty” is such an important and timely one. Most women feel this pressure to be and look beautiful but in the end, beauty and confidence has nothing to do with what one looks like or sounds like. True beauty is about being yourself and being kind to people and not letting others opinions or actions make you feel like less of a person.

Grade: First 45 minutes get a solid A –  Last 45 minutes get a B-/C+ – Message of the movie gets an A+

The story is simple, a Manhattan NYU professor heads to Singapore with her boyfriend to join him for a vacation and a wedding. Upon arrival she finds out that her boyfriend is basically the son of one of the richest families in Singapore…practically Asian royalty. Think about Meghan Markle unknowingly going to visit London with Harry only to discover he’s a Prince. The movie deviates only slightly from the book, but the deviations, for the most part are okay, and probably make for a smoother movie viewing experience. One character is changed drastically from the book, probably for comic relief, but this ends up being an enjoyable change because this character truly makes the film great. She is hysterical! I love that this is the grist American movie with an Asian led cast in 25-years (the last film being “The Joy Luck Club”). If this story were set in LA and filmed with the typical white cast, it probably would be an average to okay movie. The type of rom-com that you’ll watch on a Saturday night when you’re bored at home. However, setting the film in Singapore with an all-Asian cast and adding in the history and visuals of that world suddenly make it not only fun (and beautiful) to watch, but it also is a more interesting and dynamic story suddenly. I had a smile on my face the entire film and am already planning on watching it again.  A fun, dazzling and heartwarming experience all around.

Grade: A

I thoroughly enjoyed “Unsane.” The movie starts with a simple enough premise about a young women (Claire Foy), living on her own in a new city, struggling and feeling a little lost and depressed. She goes into see a therapist and ends up, mistakenly, so it seems, getting checked into an inpatient facility for observation. As a therapist, I kept cringing because I would never want people to watch this and think a person could go in and see a therapist, making super vague statements about depression and not wanting to live a life where she felt this depressed and automatically getting checked-into an inpatient facility. You share Claire Foy’s journey and feel scared and outraged but as the movie continues to unfold, you start to question what is the truth/reality. It is an intriguing premise and such fun to watch this film and not know exactly what is going on and whose reality is the “true” reality.

Jay Pharoah (SNL) is excellent as the trusted friend on the inside. Some people had issues with the fact that this movie was shot entirely on an iPhone. I personally thought it was fine to watch and looked and felt really good considering it was shot on a phone. It almost gave it a vintage, old-school feel, which I liked. Sometimes movies look too clean these days on the big screen, so I appreciated the more real look of the movie.

Grade: B+

I will admit, you give me a movie with Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams together and there is a slim-to-none chance that I’m going to hate it. I will see almost anything with either of these individuals, so put them together and you have one of my theatrical dream-team duos. It’s actually hard to believe that they haven’t done anything before together since they had a natural ease with each other in this film. “Game Night” is a very funny movie. It is strong from the start and doesn’t really ever fizzle out. It was great to Jesse Plemons and Kyle Chandler together again as a huge Friday Night Lights fan. I enjoyed see Plemons in a more comedic role. He was hysterical playing the odd neighbor you never want to invite over. The story got a bit absurd towards the end but overall was an engaging story with a steady stream of humor and jokes.

Grade: B+

There is very little to not like about this movie. It’s a fairly straight-forward story (no pun intended) about a teenage boy who is gay but hasn’t yet come out to his friends or family. He starts communicating with another student at the school who is also gay but who also hasn’t come out yet. The movie is part teenage comedy, party romantic comedy and part mystery as you are trying to figure out who this secret love interest is throughout the film right along with Simon. I found a few aspects towards the end of this movie a bit less plausible and inserted only to create drama for the movie but other than that, a thoroughly enjoyable film.

Grade: A-

This movie quietly snuck into the theatres during the ruckus of Oscar season and I missed it. If you go into “Annihilation” thinking you are about to see a movie like last year’s “Arrival,” guess again. You are actually going to see something more akin to “Alien.” “Annihilation” is shot going back and forth in time, dropping us in the middle, and going back to the beginning to see how we got to the current point in time. Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac are great (as always). A lot is unknown while watching this and some questions get answered, a lot do not. The journey is beautiful, scary, tragic and a lot unnerving. Is it an alien movie? Is it about the balance of mother nature? Is it about the end of our world? 

Grade: 75% of the movie (the first 75%) gets an A, the last 25% gets a C+

As a fan of the book, I was disappointed with Ready Player One. Although it was an exciting movie and visually very slick, it took almost all of the “heart” of the book out of it and inserted it with action. Instead of building up the story, it dropped you in right away to the hunt and the action. Every place it could have slowed things down or focused more on the story, instead of the action, it chose to have another chase scene. I enjoyed seeing Mark Rylance as the eccentric Halliday. The cast was excellent with a special shout-out to Lena Waithe (from “Master of None”). If I hadn’t read the book or were more into the sci-fi aspects of this story, I’m sure the rating for this movie would have been higher, but this just ended up being a disappointment for me.

Grade: C-

The opening scene of “Baby Driver” shows Baby (Ansel Elgort) driving three tough and heavily tattooed individuals holding weapons to a bank. Baby drops the three people off and pushes play on his ipod and the song “Bellbottoms” begins to play (don’t know it? Neither did I but it’s awesome!). Baby jams in the car enthusiastically, clearly knowing the song intimately. He glances over at the individuals robbing the bank and then turns back to his song. Very shortly, the individuals come out and Baby with a casual grace just starts speeding away.

It isn’t long before the bank robbers are in a massive car chase through the city streets of Atlanta trying to evade the cops (and what appears to be the entire police force based on the number of cop cars). It becomes clear why Baby is behind the wheel. He deftly maneuvers around corners, pulls U-turns with ease, drives the wrong-way down a freeway entrance ramp and then, like that’s how you are supposed to enter the freeway, turns around to be going the correct direction. He makes getaway driving look like a car ballet. Throughout the entire chase the song “Bellbottoms” continues to play in the background getting Baby and the audience equally pumped up. The scene is exciting and slick and just downright fun to watch.

Ansel Elgort is just the right person for this role. He was wonderful in “The Fault in Our Stars” and easily steps into the role of Baby, who is a bit of a loner and a dreamer. Baby is an avid lover of music and sounds in general. He keeps a recorder with him at all times just to capture bits of conversation that he then creates into catchy mixes. We learn early in the movie that Baby was in a car accident when he was young. His parents were killed and Baby ended up with tinnitus, which is a constant ringing in the ears. He continuously listens to music because of the ringing as a way to stay focused and concentrate.

Many of the criminals in “Baby Driver” seem to have a problem with Baby. They find him odd because he doesn’t talk much. They think it’s weird he is always listening to his music and is never seen without sunglasses on his face. One can ponder why he is always wearing the shades. Maybe it’s his signature look. Maybe it’s to make identification harder. I personally think it’s because he’s surrounded by hardened criminals and when he takes off the glasses, he looks, quite literally, like a sweet, innocent baby boy.  It’s fun to see a character who has self-assurance and confidence in who he is without any type of bravado and how intimidating that can be for many people (both in the film and in reality I believe).

The cast also include Lilly James playing the love interest and fellow music enthusiast, Kevin Spacey playing the boss, Jon Bernthal (best known from the early seasons of The Walking Dead), Jon Hamm, and Jamie Foxx. When the criminal characters are all in a room together they peacock around trying to prove who is the toughest with constant commentary about the vast many people they’ve killed. One man has a tattoo of “HAT” prominently on his neck. He explains that it used to say “HATE” but he had difficulty getting a job. When asked how the job prospects were after the switch, he said with a shrug, “who doesn’t like hats?” 

“Baby Driver” is a simple movie. The car chases never get too long. I’m not sure there was any CGI. There isn’t a 45-minute, drawn-out action sequence at the end. I also enjoyed that the movie didn’t make emotional decisions for the viewers or fill-in every detail of plot. It allowed the viewer to draw his or her own opinions and theories of the varied characters. It was clear each individual was more than who they said they were to their compatriots. Was Jon Hamm a hardened criminal or a businessman with a coke habit trying to play a criminal? In the end you are allowed to ponder, was Baby a “bad” guy trying to get straight or a “good” guy caught up in a life of crime. 

Something must be said about Baby Driver’s soundtrack. In a word, it is amazing. It’s filled with songs I had never heard before but loved instantly as well as classics. It isn’t so much about any one song specifically but how the music in the movie is like another character. It isn’t a musical but the soundtrack is an integral part of the movie. The music and the songs are a part of every scene. Baby responds and interacts to the songs, the other actors listen to and respond to the music. I wasn’t even out of the parking lot before I had downloaded the soundtrack!

The movie drags ever-so-slightly towards the middle to end and I found myself unnecessarily confused with the details of a heist. That being said, I loved “Baby Driver”. I’m tired of the superhero movies that inundate our theatres throughout the summer months. “Baby Driver” was a breath of fresh air. Simple. Exciting. Fun. A great cast and a killer soundtrack. Does it get any better than that?

Critic Rating: A-

Entertainment Rating: A+