Film Review: Christy (dir by David Michod)

Posted on June 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

When Christy was released last year, it received a lot of attention for featuring Sydney Sweeney as a very unglamorous character.

In the role of real-life boxer Christy Martin, Sweeney spends the first hour of the film as a brunette who doesn’t wear makeup, wears baggy clothing, and has an unflattering haircut. Coming straight from the mining communities of West Virginia, Christy is someone who can flatten a guy with one punch. Of course, for all the attention that Sweeney got for downplaying her looks, she’s a blonde again for the film’s second hour and she never looks quite as bad as the filmmakers would have us believe.

If anyone does truly look bad in this film, it’s Ben Foster. Foster plays James V. Martin, the boxing coach who took Christy under his wing, arranged for her to get signed by Don King (played by Chad Coleman), and basically managed her when she was at the peak of her career. James Martin was also Christy’s horrifically abusive husband, a relentless, cocaine-snorting manipulator who built her up just to tear her down and who is currently in prison for attempting to murder Christy in 2010. When Foster first appeared in the film, I had no idea it was him. I didn’t discover that Foster was playing James until I glanced at the film’s Wikipedia page. Balding, overweight, and speaking in a slurred voice that makes most of his sentences sound like thoughts that died while trying to escape from his brain, Foster is unrecognizable as James. Ben Foster has played a lot of sleazy characters. (I still think his best performance was as the charismatic but sociopathic Charlie in 3:10 to Yuma.) James Martin is definitely one of the worst and the normally handsome Foster is made up to look about as bad as I’ve ever seen him look.

The film follows Christy from her time as a college basketball player through her boxing career. We watch as she becomes the female boxing champion and as she loses it all due to a fight for which she wasn’t properly prepared. We watch as she and James dabble in cocaine. Even more importantly, we watch as Christy struggles to come to terms with her own sexuality. In the film, Christy’s marriage to James is more about convincing herself — and her homophobic mother (Merritt Weaver) — that she’s straight than any actual love that may be shared between the two of them. At one point, Christy taunts an out opponent while giving interviews about how, when she’s not in the ring, she’s a traditional wife who loves to cook and clean. Christy is not only fighting the other boxer. She’s also fighting her own sexual identity.

The film is well-acted by Foster, Weaver, and Sweeney. Sweeney especially does a good job of portraying the anger that lies behind every punch that Christy throws. When Christy hits someone, she’s not just hitting her opponent. She’s also hitting the entire world. Unfortunately, the film itself often falls victim to the biopic cliches that one always seems to find in films about boxers, even ones that are based on true stories. This is especially true during the film’s first half. The second half, which focuses on Christy breaking free from James, is considerably more compelling. Much like last year’s The Smashing Machine, Christy is an uneven film that still leaves you respecting its real-life inspiration.

Musical Film Review: Eagles: Hell Freezes Over (dir by Beth McCarthy-Miller)

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Thank God for Joe Walsh, I thought as I watched 1994’s Eagles: Hell Freezes Over.

The Eagles were one of my Dad’s favorite bands, along with Lynard Skynard and the Steve Miller Band. I can still remember being little and sitting in the back of our van and hearing Hotel California playing as we actually drove through California. It’s a nice memory. When I went away to college, I heard the rumor that the band was named after the mascot of the University of North Texas. It’s true that Don Henley attended UNT (or North Texas State University as it was known back then) but none of the other members of the band did. For whatever reason, I doubt that the quintessential California band decided to pay homage to a Texas college when they were selecting their name.

The band was formed in 1971 and they had several hits through the 70s. The members of the band were as famous for their fights as their music and the Eagles broke up in 1980. The members of band spent 14 years pursuing solo careers and Don Henley famously said that “Hell will freeze over” before they ever all played on the same stage again. In 1994, it appears that Hell did just that because the Eagles reunited. They toured. They released a live album. Most importantly, they made some money. MTV produced a special, Eagles: Hell Freezes Over, which featured the band performing in a Burbank film studio.

Earlier today, while sitting out on a deck overlooking Lake Texoma, I watched the special on YouTube. Watching the members of the band perform with each other for the first time in 14 years, I could understand why they broke up. Each member of the band was undeniably talented. They sounded good. But they didn’t have much onstage chemistry. Everyone did their part and they did it professionally and they got through the show without cursing each other out but, at the same time, there was very little warmth to be found on the stage. No one seemed particularly enthused about being on stage with his former and current bandmates. They came across like a group of people who didn’t particularly like each other and who had mostly shown up for the paycheck.

The other thing that I noticed is that the music itself, when taken as a whole, was kind of boring. I hate to say that because my dad loved this band. And the songs certainly weren’t bad. They were good songs but, when heard one after another, it was hard not to notice that the mellow California sounds got dull after a while. Heard on its own, Desperado is a classic piece of Americana. Unfortunately, if you hear it immediately after listening to New York Minute, In The City, and Get Over It, Desperado loses its edge. Even the opening performance of Hotel California was a bit of a slog. By the time this special was recorded, it was obvious that the members of the band had decided they were fine with nearly leaving the Hotel California.

And that’s why I’m thankful for Joe Walsh, the guitarist and not the self-important jackass former congressman. Because Walsh, almost alone amongst the group, still seemed to be having fun on stage. The performance of Life In The Fast Lane is one of the rare moments when this special really comes to life and it’s almost entirely due to Joe Walsh and his guitar. Life In The Fast Lane was also my Dad’s favorite Eagles song so, on his behalf, I’ll just say, “Thank you, Joe Walsh.”

Lifetime Film Review: The Wrong Baby Daddy (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Lila (Ciarra Carter) has just broken up with her boyfriend and desperately needs a new job to take her mind off of things. Luckily, her friend Robin (Vivica A. Fox) comes to the rescue. Robin not only tells off Lila’s ex but she also gives Lila a job. At work, Lila meets Mark (Matthew Pohlkamp). One one night stand later, Lila is pregnant and moving into Mark’s surprisingly large house. (It’s a David DeCoteau film. All of the houses are surprisingly large.) Mark’s ex-wife, Julia (Jamie Bernadette), shows up and is surprisingly helpful. Meanwhile, it seems like everyone who questions Mark’s motives either disappears or is discovered dead. Is it all a coincidence or should Lila be worried?

Oh, you just have to love the Wrong films. A lot has changed over the past few years and Lifetime’s programming and movies have changed as well. Whether they’ve changed for the better or for the worse depends on how you look at things and what you prioritize. For someone like me, who detests change and wishes that time could be frozen for just a few years or so, it can be difficult to accept that it’s not the 2010s anymore. But the Wrong films have remained consistent for ten years. David DeCoteau directs. Handsome men of a certain age are not to be trusted. Everyone lives in a big house that there’s no way they would be able to afford in real life. The melodrama is embraced. The violence is often bloodless. The main character is usually a woman who really should know better. Vivica A. Fox plays the no-nonsense authority figure who, in most cases, says the film’s title.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Vivica A. Fox to these films. Along with serving as an executive producer, she also serves as the voice of reason. That she is usually as frustrated with the characters as the viewers is a very important thing. Watching these films, it’s easy to wish that you could step into Vivica’s stylish and expensive shoes and say, “Girl, looks like you hired The Wrong Landscaper.” Or, “Girl, looks you paid The Wrong Bill. The lights are going to be off for a while.” The secret is the way that Vivica delivers the line. When Vivica says that someone was “the wrong whatever,” she leaves with you with little doubt that there’s no point in arguing. Vivica knows wrong when she sees it and you don’t.

As for 2026’s The Wrong Baby Daddy, it has one of the best titles but it’s also actually a bit mild when compared to some of the other Wrong films. It goes through the motions without ever going as gloriously over-the-top as some of the other installments in the series. That said, it’s still a fun movie. At this point, the familiarity of the plot is kind of the point. The Wrong films are comfort food for the soul. It doesn’t matter how bad of a day you’ve had or how negatives the news may be. If hearing Vivica A. Fox call someone “the wrong baby daddy” doesn’t bring some light to your life, you have no soul.

Brad’s 4 Shots From 4 Films Celebrates Las Vegas!

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Bradley Crain

My wife and I love going to Las Vegas. As a matter of fact, as I type this, I’m sitting in my hotel room looking out the window at the Sphere and Paris Vegas! We gamble very little, but we enjoy the shows, the lights, the food and the people watching. You never know what you might see on the Strip or on Fremont Street.

We only started going a few years backs, so I’ve been watching movies set here. I enjoy revisiting the places I’ve now been. To celebrate Sin City, I present 4 Shots from 4 Films, live from Las Vegas!

And one bonus shot…

A Scene That I Love: Jackie Robinson Hits A Homerun in 42

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Dazzling Erin

I nearly shared the “there’s no crying in baseball” scene from A League Of Their Own as a reminder to myself not to cry, no matter what the Rangers’s final record is.

But then I decided that I would rather share this scene from 42, in which Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) takes his team to the World Series! Forget about Black Panther and Da 5 Bloods. This was Boseman’s greatest performance.

Film Review: Is This Thing On? (dir by Bradley Cooper)

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I watched 2025’s Is This Thing On?, I found myself making a special plea to the Academy.

Dear Academy, I wrote in my head,

Please, please, please hurry up and give Bradley Cooper an Oscar so he’ll stop directing these depressing movies. Love, Lisa Marie

Is This Thing On? is technically a dramedy. Will Arnett and Laura Dern star as Alex and Tess Novak, a separated couple who try to learn how to be friends and parents while in the process of splitting up. Both of them find fulfilment in activities that they couldn’t necessarily pursue while being married. Tess once again starts coaching volleyball and dating Peyton Manning. (Technically, Peyton Manning plays a character named Laird but, for all intents and purposes, he’s Peyton Manning.) And Alex becomes a stand-up comedian, performing a routine about his failing marriage.

Casting Will Arnett as a comedian with a dark side isn’t that much of a stretch and Arnett does do a good job in the role, even if he sometimes seems to be doing a bit of a Bradley Cooper imitation himself. (Of course, Cooper himself also appears in the movie, playing Arnett’s best friend.) Arnett is not only plays the lead role but he also co-wrote the script. Both Arnett and Cooper have been open about their past struggles with alcoholism and Is This Thing On?, with its muted color scheme and its nervous camera work, is very much a 12-step film. It’s a movie where people talk and talk and talk about their problems and their past mistakes and their regrets. The scenes of Alex performing stand-up have an AA feeling to them. One could just as easily imagine Alex taking the stage and saying, “Hi, I’m Alex and I’m an alcoholic.” The support that he gets from the audience feels very much like the applause that one would get upon announcing they had gone a week, a month, or a year without taking a drink.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many stand-up comedians have attested to the fact that their sets often double as therapy. I used to be pretty cynical about programs like AA but then I saw how it helped my Dad not only get sober but also stay sober. Cooper and Arnett are smart enough to not focus too much time on Arnett’s stand-up. We see enough to convince us that people would find him to be funny but the movie seems to understand that humor is subjective and, unlike other stand-up films like The Comedian, it doesn’t beg us to laugh at Alex’s act. I appreciated the fact that the laughter in the club scenes sounded like actual laughter, as opposed to sounding like a bunch of extra being ordered to make a joyful noise no matter what.

Is This Thing On? is well-acted and, though he leans a bit too much on the jittery hand-held camera thing, Cooper’s direction gets better as it goes but ultimately, Alex and Tess never really come across as if they are worth all the trouble. They come across as being the self-absorbed friends that everyone secretly hopes won’t be able to make it to the party. Unlike Cooper’s A Star Is Born, the film never quite convinces us that we’re watching real relationship. It’s easy to believe that Tess could get back into coaching volleyball after she splits up with Alex but when Tess announces that she’s been offered a spot coaching the Olympic team, it’s hard not to roll your eyes just a little. Being offered a chance to coach the high school team or maybe the community center team would have worked just as well. Instead, it has to be the Olympics. It’s one of those things, like quitting your job and using your homemade cupcakes to open a bakery, that only happens in Hollywood films.

Musical Film Review: Freebird…. The Movie (dir by Jeff G. Waxman)

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

My Dad was a huge Skynard fan.

When I was little, I didn’t really know that there was any controversy about the lyrics of Sweet Home Alabama or the fact that Lynard Skynard’s stage show usually featured a Confederate flag. I didn’t know what Tuesday’s Gone was about. I didn’t know that Free Bird was considered to be a classic by anyone other than my father. I didn’t even know about the tragic 1977 airplane crash. I just knew that when my Dad was driving he liked the Eagles, he enjoyed the Steve Miller Band, and he loved Lynard Skynard. Even today, whenever I hear Sweet Home Alabama, I imagine my Dad driving his big rig across this beautiful country of ours. The song may have been about Alabama and it may have been an answer song to a very specific song written by a Canadian (of all people) but it was still a song that could be listened to and enjoyed anywhere. It was a song about Alabama but it was also a song that uniquely American.

At least, that’s what I always thought. When I was in college, my friend Jen absolutely hated Sweet Home, Alabama (both the song and, believe it or not, the film) and she would always start going, “No, don’t do it!” whenever she saw that I was about to play it. That just made me play it louder.

By that time, of course, I knew that there was some controversy about both the song and the band. Because Lynard Skynard was proudly and defiantly Southern, there were quite a few people who interpreted Sweet Home, Alabama as being a defense of everything that was going on in Alabama during the early 70s. Of course, that’s not the case of all. The song was defending a group of people against other people who, like Mr. Young, looked down on Alabama while ignoring or excusing the very similar things that were happening in their own backyard. Massachusetts, for instance, was the scene of a good deal of violent racial strife throughout the 70s but Neil Young was never tempted to write Boston Man. While Alabama was finally starting to move away from Jim Crow, people in Boston were rioting about busing. The appeal of Lynard Skynard, at least as far as the original 70s version, was that they were tough, they were loud, and they didn’t apologize for being who they were. They weren’t going to apologize for being from the South and speaking with Southern accents. They were defiant in a way that brought together both hippies and rednecks.

1996’s Freebird…. The Movie was one of the last films that my Dad watched before he died. The film is a mix of archival concert footage and interviews with the members of Lynard Skynard, all of whom are rather worshipful of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. Van Zant emerges as such a charismatic performer and frontman that it’s easy to see why the members of the band and the audience would follow him just about anywhere. Of course, the main appeal of the film is the music. Sweet Home Alabama is performed with a blast of pure energetic Southern rock that stands in contrast to some of the band’s more mellow songs. Freebird is performed beautifully and Billy Powell’s piano solo remains amazing. As always, it probably helps to already be a fan of the band when watching a film like this. All I can say is that, on July 31st, 2024, my Dad smiled as he watched it and I cried as I watched it with him.

Lifetime Film Review: I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco (dir by Heather Hawthorne-Doyle)

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco is an example of one of the latest trends in Lifetime filmmaking. The real Mary Jo Buttafuoco tells us her story in between scenes of it being reenacted by actors.

That’s not necessarily a bad idea. Lifetime did something similar with Elizabeth Smart and it led to one of the most powerful films to ever appear on the network. However, the Elizabeth Smart film benefitted from the fact that Smart is an articulate, intelligent, and insightful speaker in her own right. She is someone who went through the worst and managed to come out of it not only stronger but also with the passion and articulateness of an genuine activist.

Mary Jo is not quite as compelling. It brings me no joy to say that because Mary Jo really was put through Hell and, far too often, she has been treated as an afterthought in her own story. For those who may have forgotten or who haven’t had seen any of the previous films made about what happened to her, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was the wife of Long Island mechanic Joey Buttafuoco. She stood by Joey while he struggled with drug addiction and she supported him when he opened his own garage. Joey rewarded her loyalty by having an affair with a teenager named Amy Fisher. Fisher, who apparently believed that Mary Jo was the only thing standing in the way of her being with Joey forever, went to the Buttafuoco home and shot Mary Jo in the face.

The story was a media circus, with Amy Fisher being dubbed “the Long Island Lolita” and three made-for-TV movies being made, all in the same year, about the shooting. Joey initially denied that he had ever touched Amy and Mary Jo, who miraculously survived, originally stood by Joey. Unfortunately, in all the attention that was given to Amy and Joey (and really, the word “goombah” might as well appear with a picture of Joey in the dictionary), the fact that Mary Jo nearly died was often overlooked. Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco became odd celebrities as a result of the crime. Mary Jo was ridiculed for both not realizing that Joey was cheating on her and continuing to stand by her man for years after she was shot by his mistress.

There’s a great movie to be made about Mary Jo Buttafuoco. (Considering that one of three previous films was told from Joey’s point of view, it only seems appropriate that there should have been a movie from Mary Jo’s.) Unfortunately, having Mary Jo tell her own story doesn’t work as well as one might hope. When you really want Mary Jo to go off on Joey, she instead goes off on being raised Catholic. If only she hadn’t been raised in a Catholic family, she seems to be saying, she never would have married and stuck with Joey Buttafuoco. Instead of really examining her marriage to Joey Buttafuoco, she instead blames her mother and her religion. It feels like too convenient an excuse.

The film is a bit more compelling in the flashbacks, with Chloe Lanier giving a strong performance as Mary Jo and Madelyn Grace playing Amy Fisher as not being a Lolita but instead as being a neurotic and rather stupid brat. In the end, what matters is that Mary Jo did eventually free herself from Joey and we should all be happy for that.

Brad’s 4 Shots From 4 Films – Happy 100th Birthday, Andy Griffith!

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Bradley Crain

Today would have been Andy Griffith’s 100th birthday! I love The Andy Griffith Show so much. It’s one of those shows that just makes me feel good on the inside, as the warmth of its homespun nostalgia still echoes to this very day. At least it does in my house. I’ve seen every episode of the series at least 3 or 4 times in my life, and I’ll often bring various scenes or sayings up in my daily conversations.

As is the case for all people, Andy Griffith was a much more complicated man than his Sheriff Andy Taylor from the classic series. And his many other roles were also more diverse upon a further inspection. What we can be sure about is that Andy Griffith is an icon of American television, and I celebrate him today with 4 Shots from 4 Films!

*As “Lonesome Rhodes” in A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)*

*As Sheriff Andy Taylor on the “Mr. McBeevee” episode of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW which premiered on October 1st, 1962*

*As the evil John Wallace in MURDER IN COWETA COUNTY (1983)*

*As Ben Matlock in the MATLOCK series which ran from 1986-1995*

A Scene That I Love: The Merciful Dinosaur and the Meteor From The Tree Of Life

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Dazzling Erin

The scene from The Tree of Life is a reminder that empathy is not just a human trait and that no one and nothing will be here forever. This is one of my favorite scenes from this film. I don’t claim to understand everything about The Tree of Life but I’m still moved every time that I watch it.