Malcolm1980's 2024 Review Thread

[malcolm1980]

5/5

The Idea of You (Michael Showalter) *** - A forty year old single mom takes her daughter to Coachella and there she meets the 24 year old lead singer of a boy band. They begin a love affair. This romantic-comedy could be described as a reverse Notting Hill in a way but it's a bit more than that and has a lot of things going for it. Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine both give very good performances and they have great on-screen romantic chemistry. It really carries the film and makes it entertaining. The film, however, is a tad overlong and there is a plot point somewhere along the way which I didn't completely buy into. But overall, this is a watchable, charming film. You could do a lot worse.

Brainstorm (William Conrad) *** - After a man saves his boss's wife from an attempted suicide, he falls for her then his sanity begins to break. Is he going insane? Is his boss gaslighting him? Well, the answer to that is, of course a spoiler which I wouldn't want to give away. But the film goes into all sorts of directions with it. The final pay off, I'm afraid to say, is not completely satisfactory, at least in my opinion and I'll leave it at that (to say anything further is of course spoiling it). Jeffrey Hunter in the lead role is terrific. He keeps this film together and makes it well worth watching. Also terrific are Anne Francis and Viveca Lindfors in supporting roles. So overall, the film well-acted but a bit disappointing.