Womanizing car salesman Robin Williams is given two days to sell twelve cars in order to keep his job. Williams juggling at least three love interests and many other assorted pressures, this film is really all over the place and the characters are constantly yelling at each other. It goes further off the rails in the over extended second act when manic Tim Robbins holds up the car dealership because of his own wife’s infidelity. The whole thing is flimsily held together by Williams’s performance, one that would be much better suited in a different film, but only barely.

Two months after the inhabitants of an English village experienced a shared loss of consciousness, all females of child bearing age discover they are pregnant. The pregnancies proceed relatively smoothly, but every child born has similar features and share a supernatural bond. There’s a great eerie atmosphere in this classic film. Children are a great antagonist in such a film. Thought to be innocent, their strange blonde hair and creepy glowy eyes tell a different story.   

In rural 1860s England, Florence Pugh finds herself in a loveless marriage to a controlling older man. When he leaves their estate on an extended business trip, she relishes her newfound freedom and begins an affair with a servant. Once she has relinquished the constraints foisted upon her, she stops at nothing to prevent them from returning. Beautifully filmed, the strength of the work totally lies in Pugh’s powerful performance.

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of predominantly Black American fighters during World War II. This ostensibly tells their story. Filled with an incredible cast, there’s nothing by way of character development, no sense of a life for any of them beyond fighting in the war. Hotshot pilot David Oyelowo is given a romance with an Italian woman, but it feels really out of place since none of the other men even mention romantic partners and there is a lot of time spent on this sole storyline. There’s some racial strife, but it’s quickly brushed over. The entire film is gorgeous, shown through an over-saturated color filter. The fighting scenes really look like cut-scenes to a video game with even the dialogue during those scenes sounding like it comes from a fighting simulator. I unfortunately don’t remember much of my viewing of The Tuskegee Airmen but this makes me want to watch it again hoping it offers something more.  

During the Depression, car designer Herbert Marshall is taking a much needed break from work when he meets unemployed Jean Arthur in a park. She automatically assumes he is also out of work and he gamely agrees to pose as a couple to acquire jobs in the household of gangster Leo Carrillo. After a recent Downton Abbey marathon, it was fun watching Marshall learn how to be a good butler from his own servant. Otherwise there’s not much that makes this essential viewing, but Jean Arthur is genuinely appealing here, as in almost all of her roles. 

In an Idaho church meeting room, two couples come together to converse about a shared tragedy. It’s easy to do a search to find out more details on the plot and there are probably only a dozen or so options that fit, but I loved going into this blind. Everyone involved with getting this meeting set up obviously know what it’s about. It’s an intriguing exercise watching their reactions and small conversations as the story unwinds. The film is indeed a master class in acting between the four main participants. Martha Plimpton and Jason Isaacs as a married couple have so many instances of natural nonverbal communication that it’s entirely believable that they are in an actual relationship. Ann Dowd as the other female in the quartet is incredible as always, her face a constant visage of resigned pain. Reed Birney is more restrained in his role, but also perfect as a more removed perspective from the events. They kept me mesmerized throughout.

In a vein similar to Before Sunrise, engaged comedic actor Chris Rock and reporter Rosario Dawson spend the day getting to know each other while she interviews him walking around the streets of New York. The two don’t have a lot of romantic chemistry, but there is quite a natural flow between them as the day progresses. There are also a LOT of celebrity cameos sprinkled throughout that liven up the film. It’s generally entertaining but mostly forgettable. It also has some questionable messaging about women in relationships and includes a tale of a sexual assault committed by one of the main characters that is played for laughs.