Award-winning film critic and writer Bill Newcott has been covering Hollywood for more than 40 years. He is the creator of AARP’s Movies For Grownups franchise and the movie critic for The Saturday Evening Post.
Join our movie review video podcast, Movies for the Rest of Us with Bill Newcott. This week, Bill takes us to the Toronto Film Festival, where he reviews Victoria and Abdul starring Judi Dench, Battle of the Sexes, Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!, George Clooney’s Suburbicon, and one of Bill’s all-time favorite films, The Shape of Water.
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Comments
‘Victoria and Abdul’ was a film my brain said “YES” to, when I first saw/heard of it at a bus stop recently. It was almost instantaneous, just like when it says “NO” which is most of the time. Be it yes or no, the trailers just confirm (usually strongly) the film is as good, or even worse than I imagined.
‘The Battle of the Sexes’ looks interesting, and I remember it fairly well from when I was 16. It was a nice distraction starting the 11th grade amidst Watergate and the crumbling of Nixon and Agnew. The looks of Steve Carell and Emma Stone were so different and authentic to King and Riggs I didn’t realize who the actors were at first on the carousel. This film also seems worthy of my brain and time.
Sorry Bill, but no way on ‘Mother’. I pointed out in Bob Sassone’s column recently that although I like Michelle Pfeiffer, she’s not enough to make me sit through this mother of a film. Her choices in films in recent years haven’t been good, with the exception of this year’s ‘Wizard of Lies’.
‘The Shape of Water’ turns me off—not completely, but enough. ‘Suburbicon’ brings some of my expensive Danbury Mint diecast cars to life; like the ’57 Olds Matt Damon is driving. I can’t say yes or no to it. The one explosion scene I do see in it better be justified and brief. The dark side of the ’50s ultimately (more than the cars) may get me to see it; at least on Netflix.