Whether you’re a wrestling fan or not, you’ll want to dive into the ring for the new comedy drama “Fighting with My Family,” a wonderfully engaging true-life tale about how famed female wrestler Paige got her start in the WWE.
Florence Pugh stars as Saraya, an 18-year-old girl who along with her older brother, Zak (Jack Lowden) and their British working class parents, Ricky (Nick Frost) and Julia (Lena Heady), have been obsessed with professional wrestling their entire lives. Saraya and Zak are so polished in the sport, in fact, that a tape of their wrestling attracts the attention of a coach (Vince Vaughn) with the NXT, which trains potential wrestlers for a shot at the WWE.
But when only Saraya (who changes her name to Paige professionally) is signed by the NXT and jets off to training in Florida while Zak is left behind in the UK, the strained bond with her brother hampers the talented wrestler as she tries to prove herself worthy of the WWE.
Written and directed by Stephen Merchant and produced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – who is magnetic as he plays himself in supporting role – “Fighting with Your Family” has it all, from laughter to heartbreak to lots of wrestling action, and to top it off, an emotionally-charged ending that my very well find you cheering and tearing up at the same time.
Punctuated by footage of the real-life Paige and her family during end credits, “Fighting with My Family” is full of heart and easily one of the best films so far in 2019.
Lammometer: 9 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
After controversies including failed attempts at a Best Popular Film pitch and finding a host, to relegating four categories commercials in a desperate strive by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to bring in the Oscars telecast under three hours, the already-embattled 91st annual Academy Awards celebration is almost here.
Like previous years, all the build up to the big night Sunday should yield few surprises, as critic and industry awards have once again established trends and given prognosticators fairly clear pictures of who and what films will be awarded with Oscars. And like previous years, the picks of the eventual winners by Academy members is sure to stir debate among movie fans and industry personnel, who will either gloat over who wins the top prizes or leave them declaring, “They were robbed!”
VIDEO: Watch Tim’s Oscar picks with Diana Pierce above on her web series “What’s Next? With Diana Pierce.”
AUDIO: Listen to Tim’s Oscar picks and a review of “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” with Paul Douglas and Jordana Green on WCCO-AM.
Here are my picks in the top categories for the 91st annual Academy Awards based on those trends, followed by who I think should win each prize.
Best Supporting Actor
Will win: Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”
Should win: Sam Elliott, “A Star is Born”
The clincher: Ali’s wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes gives the actor as much momentum as he needs to win the top prize.
Best Supporting Actress
Will win: Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Should win: Amy Adams, “Vice”
The clincher: King’s wins at the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes give her the leg up over her competitors, but Emily Blunt won the SAG Award in the category for “A Quiet Place” and wasn’t nominated. Because of that, Adams has a chance to sneak in a win with her sixth overall Oscar nomination.
Best Actor
Will win: Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Shouldwin: Malek
The clincher: Malek won Best Actor at the SAG Awards and Golden Globes (drama), but Christian Bale (“Vice”) took the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actor in both the actor and comedy actor categories. Since he won an Oscar already for “The Fighter,” it’s unlikely the Academy will award him again so soon, unlike Ali.
Best Actress
Will win: Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Should win: Close
The clincher: Awards from SAG, the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice (a tie with Lady Gaga), nothing will stop Close from winning, A) Because she’s a force of nature in the film, and B) This is her seventh nomination with no previous wins. It would be cruel to deny her the statuette this time. Don’t cry for Gaga, though; she’s a shoo-in as one of the writers of “Shallow” from “A Star is Born,” which is a shoo-in for Best Original Song.
AUDIO: Listen to Tim’s Oscar picks and a review of “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show.”
Best Director
Will win: Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”
Should win: Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”
The clincher: Cuaron won the Directors Guild of America Award, perhaps the most accurate indicator of who will go on to win the Best Director Oscar. Since Lee has already been awarded with an honorary Oscar for his body of work, though, voters won’t feel sentimental here, even though “BlacKkKlansman” is a brilliant film.
Best Picture
Will win: “Roma”
Should win: “Green Book” or “A Star is Born” or “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “BlackKklansman” or “Black Panther” or “Vice”
The clincher: None, other than the fact that Cuaron is a cinch for taking home Oscars for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and (possibly) Best Original Screenplay (and the Best Picture Oscar signals the sum total of its winning parts). For some mystifying reason, Hollywood is obsessed with this cinematic equivalent of watching paint dry, making “Roma” one of the most overrated films of the year along with “The Favourite” (both of which, by the way, are nominated for a leading 10 nominations).
“Green Book,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Black Panther,” “Vice” and early favorite “A Star is Born” are far more deserving, because, well, they’re all engaging and compelling (isn’t that what movies are supposed to be about?). “Roma,” on the flip side, feels too self-important. Another thing working against “Roma” is that despite efforts to showcase in theaters is a Netflix production that’s been streaming for weeks, and there could be a voting backlash from film purists.
If any film stands a chance of upsetting “Roma” it would be “Green Book,” based on the film’s win at the Producers Guild Awards. Don’t count out on it, though, thanks to disputes about “Green Book’s” historical accuracy (something people gave a pass to with “The Favourite”) and director Peter Farrelly’s bizarre penchant for allegedly flashing his colleagues on his previous films.
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
It’s “Groundhog’s Day” meets the slasher movie genre all over again with “Happy Death Day 2U,” the sequel to the surprise hit “Happy Death Day” in 2017. The premise for the first film was no doubt clever, as murdered college student caught in a time loop has her day reset over and over again until she was finally able to thwart her masked killer.
“Happy Death 2U” once again examines the concept, as the student, Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) finds herself back in the time loop thanks to her friend’s quantum physics science experiment.
As a result, Tree is brought back to the deadly day she was stuck in in the first film, but because she’s landed in a different dimension than she was in the first time around, the circumstances of her “Happy Death Day” are much different – bringing her an entirely new mess to get herself out of.
AUDIO: Listen to Tim reviewing “Happy Death Day 2U” with Tom Barnard on the “The KQ Morning Show” (segment begins 5:30 in).
Essentially, “Happy Death Day 2U” is the same film as the first one, but is told from a different vantage point. Some the twists are clever and some of them are confusing, while some of the situations are funny and others are outright stupid.
One saving grace of “Happy Death Day” is a smart if not poignant look at how people’s paths are shaped by major events in life, both good and bad, eventually spelling out how some things were simply meant to be.
While “Happy Death Day” isn’t nearly as good as the original, it’s entertaining nonetheless and a day worth watching unfold.
Lammometer: 7 out of 10
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
Cue the peppy music: Everything is awesome again in “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part,” the hotly anticipated sequel to the 2014 (building) block-buster. Like the original, the film is driven by a smart script, snappy dialogue and dazzling visual effects, all of which are anchored by a poignant human story that most every viewers will be able to relate to, whether you’re a kid or adult.
Set five years after the events after the original film – which, as it turns out was a LEGO battle going on in the imagination of a young boy named Finn (Jadon Sand) and a disagreement he has in real-life with his Dad (Will Farrell) for playing with the adult’s massive LEGO collection – “The Second Part” finds Finn fighting with another enemy in the family: his younger sister, Bianca (Brooklynn Prince).
AUDIO: Tim reviews “The Lego Movie 2” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show” (segment begins at 4 minute mark).
Finn and Bianca are naturally fighting constantly as brothers and sisters do, and their battlefield is once again the LEGO setting in the family basement, where Bianca’s LEGO Friends and DUPLO collection invades Finn’s space of traditional LEGO bricks. The already aggravated situation comes to a head, though, when Bianca’s characters kidnap Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Unikitty (Allison Brie) and company, and they’ve blasted off to the girl’s imaginative menagerie of characters and settings in space, where the captives strangely find themselves adapting to their new settings with relative ease. Meanwhile, Emmett has formed a new bond with the smart and resourceful Rex Dangervest (Pratt) in an effort to save his friends, but Rex isn’t all who he seems.
The key to the success of “The Second Part” is that screenwriters (and original co-directors) Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, along with director Mike Mitchell completely changes the setting from the first film’s massive LEGO metropolis to first a desolate setting reminiscent of the apocalyptic wasteland of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and before blasting off into outer space. Changing up the setting was essential in avoiding any sort of repetitiveness from the first film, even though the fun personalities of Emmett, Lucy and the hilarious Batman all remain, and are joined by the likes of new characters like Queen Waterva Wa’Nibi (Tiffany Haddish).
There are familiarities, naturally, like pop culture references (Pratt’s own “Jurassic World” films get a nod with dinosaur characters), and like the first film, “The Second Part” is punctuated with timeless real-life lessons — lessons that are just as relatable and sweet as the moment of bonding between father and son that wrapped up the first “LEGO Movie.”
While fans are bound to debate which “LEGO Movie” is better, there’s no question that the computer animation is just as impressive if not better than the original. That’s because like the first film, the characters come to life in static-like motion reminiscent of stop-motion animation, one of the most under-appreciated art forms in the movie business. Maintaining that style is clearly important to Lord, Miller and Mitchell, though, which is likely why they hired “Robot Chicken” alum Trisha Gum as their animation director to keep the film’s raw but impressive animation sensibilities in place. For the third “LEGO Movie” in a row – “The LEGO Batman Movie” was released in-between — the characters and the vistas are visually stunning. In fact, calling “The Second Part” awesome is almost an understatement.
Lammometer: 8 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
