High school teacher and unpublished writer Robin Williams is cursed with a vulgar and ungrateful teenaged son, Daryl Sabara. When Daryl dies during an unfortunate accident, Williams alters the death scene so that it looks like a suicide, a misunderstanding that he ends up taking advantage of in unexpected ways. An earlier and better take on the concept of Dear Evan Hansen, it effectively depicts the lionizing of the tragically deceased, especially for someone who was an asshole to everyone while living. Williams is great at portraying the beaten down personality of a father who, along with other misfortunes of life, has been burdened with such a child and the changes that being relieved of that burden brings to him. I have to appreciate a film that is so obviously filmed in Seattle, but does so without relying on flashes of the Space Needle or mountains and water.

Teenager Miya Cech is forced by her widowed father to either attend a summer college class or get shipped away to a behavioral modification camp. An unexpected meeting with magician Rhea Perlman waylays her first day of class, but leads her to unexpected discoveries. It’s obviously a bit low budget of a film, but it’s refreshing to watch the intergenerational relationship between Cech and Perlman unfold. The ending felt a bit forced and underdeveloped, but I love the message of hope for struggling people that they can find a place and community where they feel they belong.

Washington D.C. detective and forensic psychologist Morgan Freeman travels to North Carolina to help track a serial kidnapper-murderer who has abducted his niece. He soon teams up with escaped victim Ashley Judd in an investigation that spans both coasts. Freeman carries off investigator roles quite well. His partnership with Judd mostly works as well. Unfortunately the writing is a stinker. The killer is obvious even with ridiculous attempts at obfuscation and the whole setup is quite ludicrous. 

After the sudden death of her beloved beagle, lonely forty-something Molly Shannon embarks on a time of self discovery as an animal rights activist. A quirky bit of independent filmmaking, the character’s arc is a strange one, but Shannon sells it well. All of the supporting characters are low key crazy from her over-protective sister-in-law Laura Dern to her knife obsessed neighbor John C. Reilly with co-worker Regina King being a true over-the-top standout.  

Charismatic professor and errant gambler James Caan owes his bookie tens of thousands of dollars. The film follows him as he scrambles to get the cash, amidst the disapproval of his girlfriend Lauren Hutton and his family, all while still searching for the thrill of the next big win. Caan works well in the role, but the writing really ups the stakes. I kept waiting for the moment of no return disaster for Caan, but that’s not how gambling works. There are both incredible highs and terrible lows and you don’t know which it’ll be until the card flips or the dice settle, which keeps the gambler craving that unknowable result.

The United States Coast Guard finally gets its chance to shine in this film about superstar rescue swimmer Kevin Costner who is temporarily given an instructorship at the Aviation Survival Technician training school after his entire crew dies during a rescue. The training sequences where Costner butts heads with champion swimmer Ashton Kutcher are really good. Kutcher surprisingly holds his own against the veteran Costner. But then the film just refuses to end and each new potential ending just muddies whatever message the film was trying to sell. The film could have probably excised either of the love interests and a handful of other characters and it would have been stronger for it.

In 1982, somewhat incompetent engineer Dudley Moore is working on a targeting system to use for the United States Army tanks. Fast forward two years, Army lieutenant Eddie Murphy participates in a demonstration of the technology in Kuwait. A weird amalgam of a movie, it initially did not include Murphy at all. After the original tested poorly, his role was added even though he doesn’t interact with any of the other main cast members. There are probably many ways that that mixing could have worked and been a really funny movie. Though there are hints of its possible humor, this is not one of those ways which is a shame because it squandered a chance to bring together two great comedic actors at high points in their careers. Regardless, there is the small interesting bit of seeing the United States involvement in the Middle East much earlier than the first Gulf War.    

Demoted to a desk job for a friendly fire accident, Army lieutenant Denzel Washington is called in to investigate the worthiness of chopper commander Meg Ryan for the Medal of Honor. Inconsistencies in the stories of those who witnessed her allegedly heroic behavior makes him pause in signing off on the award despite pressures from his superiors to quickly wrap up the investigation. What follows is an intriguing blend of figuring out who to believe when stories conflict mixed with the gender politics of the United States military. With an inconsistently bad accent, it’s not Ryan’s best role, though she conveys a decent blend of strength and vulnerability. Denzel as always can carry a movie, but I was most impressed with Matt Damon as one of Ryan’s crew members. It’s one of the best acting jobs I’ve seen from him.