Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Shockingly good. If this had been the only sequel to the first flick, even with the tremendous separation in time, the sequence would be perfect. In fact, the passage of time actually works to this film’s advantage; it makes the storyline of no one remembering the past events, of those happenings being completely outside the knowledge of the youngsters who are the backbone of the cast, make much more sense; it gives the whole concept an overall internal consistency. This plot works almost seamlessly with what came before, and presents its story with equal amounts of funny and creepy, all served up with the same panache as the original. And those aforementioned youngsters? They’re terrific, particularly McKenna Grace in the pivotal role. If there is to be a next chapter with them—strongly hinted in the ending here—I’d be on board with it. All in all, this may be the biggest surprise I’ve seen in cinema in a long time: a re-imagined take on a classic that I would not have guessed was advisable, but that now seems absolutely necessary. From not a ghost of a chance to totally alive and well—that’s some paranormally good moviemaking right there. Who you gonna call indeed!

Driving Miss Daisy

There is, perhaps, an object lesson in this film, particularly for the “justice warriors” of today: a greater impact might be had through gentler persuasion, rather than shouting and canceling. It is easy, and superficial, to look at this story--and particularly Morgan Freeman’s performance--and see only caricature and stereotyping. But the road to respect, in all dimensions, starts with accepting people at their face value. That’s the journey that Daisy and Hoke go through here, and thanks largely to the performances of Freeman and Jessica Tandy--both of whom inhabit their characters to perfection--they effectively carry the audience along with them. It may be easy to dismiss this movie; it has often been treated as something of a punchline over the last 30 or so years. But if you give it a chance, you can see why such a deceptively low-key movie was appreciated in the first place.

The House of Mirth

To call the pace of this movie languid would put an undue strain on the concept of languidity. It really has some trouble holding the attention. And there are too many actors in here--Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Dan Ackroyd, Anthony LaPaglia--who are too modern in their usual on-screen personae to seem in the proper context in a period piece like this. (They're not bad, in terms of performances; just out of place.) And finally, the gist of the story--obnoxious rich bitch gets her comeuppance--is hardly designed to spark much empathy in today's audience.