Café au Lait (1994)

★★½
Capsule Review

Lola (Julie Mauduech) is pregnant, and the question of who the father is dominates the story early. There are two possibilities, but the answer to the question is resolved before we expect it. Rather than keep us in suspense, director Mathieu Kassovitz (who also wrote and stars) uses the question to examine how the two potential fathers feel drawn to Lola and how the men might feel about each other. His story creates an interesting dynamic that sees Felix (Kassovitz) and Jamal (Hubert Koundé) at first as competitors and eventually as partners to ensure Lola's comfort during the later stages of her pregnancy. Their collaboration is tenuous at best, resulting in outburst and reconciliation and back again. The actors are good enough to perform what the script asks of them, but there isn't much narrative thrust to make for an engrossing story. The actors and costar Vincent Cassel as Felix's friend would reunite in La Haine, which is nothing like Café au Lait and much more accomplished.

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Roofman (2025)

★★★
Capsule Review

The true story of "Roofman" is the kind that would lend itself to a good movie if handled right, and Derek Cianfrance's Roofman is up to the task. It's a funny, lighthearted and fictionalized version of the actual events, which featured an escaped convict who hides out in a Toys R Us store (the Circuit City next door in real life) and befriends and eventually dates a local woman. Channing Tatum is Jeffrey Manchester, an Army veteran who went on a crime spree by robbing McDonald's restaurants but notably not abusing the employees in the process. After a prison escape, he hides out in the famed toy store and meets Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst) and begins a courtship that he balances with his outlaw status. They have great onscreen chemistry. The details of how Manchester carves out his hiding place and passes the time while hidden are presented here in plentiful and meticulous fashion.

© 2025 Silver Screen Reviews

Christy (2025)

★★★★
I looked up Christy Martin's fight record after I finished watching the biopic Christy and was amazed by her win-loss totals. I then watched her 1996 match against Irish boxer Deirdre Gogarty, which took place on the undercard for the Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno main event. It was an astonishing display of athleticism and a technical masterpiece. Writers Mirrah Foulkes and David Michôd and director Michôd bring Christy Martin's turbulent life to the big screen to chronicle her beginnings in amateur boxing competitions to the professional stage in Las Vegas and beyond. It was a life of triumph and shocking lows that almost came to a tragic end. It's a remarkable story on its own, but to see Sydney Sweeney embody the role so effectively as Christy is to see an actress take a big leap forward to challenge herself and convey all the pain and tragedy of that story into a gripping narrative.

Career Opportunities (1991)

★★
At some point at the end of the '80s, possibly beginning with Uncle Buck, John Hughes began a devastating slide into mediocrity. Maybe by then he had spread himself too thin. He was a prolific screenwriter during that decade, often directing the stories that came straight from his heart while allowing others to direct scripts that were less personal. Even though in the '90s he wrote some good movies like Home Alone and Curly Sue, he nonetheless embarked on a mysterious foray into kiddie fare, and the results included Dennis the Menace and Flubber.

Cyborg (1989)

★★½
Mathematics teaches us that two negatives make a positive, but such a concept doesn’t apply to film very often. In the case of Cyborg, those two negatives are Cannon Pictures and Albert Pyun. The former was a 1980s production company with a wildly varied output, ranging from near greatness (Runaway Train) to laughable action (Invasion U.S.A.). The latter is an action movie director who had some success with theatrical releases, but was mostly confined to direct-to-video nonsense. With track records like these, it’s a wonder that Cyborg turns out to be pretty decent.

Coming to America (1988)

★★★★
Coming to America represents peak Eddie Murphy during his rise in the 1980s. A string of failures followed, resulting in critical and box office disappointments that would finally be reversed with 1995's The Nutty Professor, although Murphy reached peak form again with 1999's outstanding Bowfinger. Before all that, we got to witness a comic dynamo full of energy, whose rapid delivery of hilarious vulgarities was unmatched. His gut-busting concert films Delirious and Raw are some of the greatest stand-up performances ever. Working again with director John Landis after the role-reversing comedy Trading Places, Murphy gives us one of his most memorable roles. It's a fish-out-of-water story with some of the expected culture shock that goes with the territory, but it works because it's so well executed. The humor is great. The chemistry between the would-be couple is great. The dialogue is fun. There are subtleties everywhere that enrich the viewing experience. The leads are terrific, but the supporting cast is every bit up to the task. This is truly one of the '80s best comedies. It's a complete experience—a neat and tidy story wrapped in Murphy's boundless optimism and handed to us on a silver platter.

The Chaser (2009)

★★★★
The Chaser starts out as a routine thriller featuring a former cop, now a pimp, who uses his skills to track down a serial killer. It morphs into something more emotional, more raw, and takes twists that are devastating in their impact. The end is an outburst of pure anger, featuring a man driven to rage, gradually realizing the threat in front of him and the extent to which that threat has manifested itself. When it is over, the cop is exhausted, as are we. The story takes a toll on everyone.

Chungking Express (1994)

★★★½
Chungking Express is uniquely Hong Kong. It is a movie that captures the essence of the city during its late colonial period. As I write this, the city is in the news constantly for its seemingly never-ending demonstrations, a reaction to the Communist Chinese’s steady encroachment on the territory. I understand the pushback against the Chinese. Freedom is far more desirable than living under a brutal collectivist tyranny. I don’t know where this is all going, but luckily, we have this little gem from Wong Kar-Wai to remind us of a time when the city wasn’t tearing itself apart. Chungking Express pulsates with life. It’s crowded, sometimes hectic. A city of millions crammed into a small area will have its problems, but there’s also an identity that will inevitably emerge from the chaos. We see that here, with the bustling Chungking Mansion shops and the nightlife of Lan Kwai Fong. We also see how loneliness can still prevail in this urban jungle. Wong Kar-Wai examines the lonely lives of two Hong Kong cops and does so with an eye towards the surroundings. This is probably the only movie that I’ve seen that made me want to visit the locations. They are as much a part of the story as the dialogue.