WoF Top 10 Favorites From The Big Screen in 2019

Obviously I didn't see everything released in theaters this year. And, honestly, I was blown away by only a small percentage of what I did see. Here is my list of my personal favorites among what I saw at the movies in 2019 (no streamed projects).

1. Parasite
directed by Bong Joon-Ho

I started hearing buzz about this film early on, but had to wait until it rolled into theaters in my area. I had a dim idea of what the story was about, but man! My mind was blown. I love films that give me something I have never seen before, and Parasite delivered on every level. Beginning as a kind of dark comedy about class differences in South Korea, the film offers sly commentary on Eastern and Western culture, technology, privilege, economic survival and family relationships through truly impeccable acting, gorgeous set designs, and brilliant cinematography. Four members of the impoverished, live-by-their-wits Kim family slowly con and trick their way into service jobs within the household of the wealthy Parks. But their machinations have unforeseen consequences. The story contains an edge of suspense that steadily increases until the third act plot twist that catapults the film into a whole other level of jaw-dropping events. I really enjoyed the work of actor Song Kang-Ho, who plays the Kims' patriarch, Ki-taek; Song was also featured in director Bong's English-language thriller Snowpiercer. Parasite has to be seen to be believed, and then seen again. My favorite of the year.

2. Queen & Slim
directed by Malina Matsoukas
starring Jodie Turner-Smith, Daniel Kaluuya

This film has been controversial for its subject matter and its brutal ending. But I totally loved the journey of these two characters, out on a first date that isn't going well and then forced by circumstance to go on the run together. We know it's foolhardy of them to think they can outrun the law, but we root for them anyway. Along their journey, we see the layers of their personalities peel away as the characters -- who are not named Queen and Slim but whose real names are only revealed at the end -- learn not only to work together but to love together. The film is also a visual feast, a mid-American road trip that highlights the beauty of the landscape, the humanity of its citizens, and the ugliness of our culture. I loved the performances by newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith as a prosecutor weary of seeing justice distorted, and Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya as a warm-hearted, conscious brother shocked to find himself on the wrong side of the law. Bokeem Woodbine also stands out with another bravura performance, and I loved seeing transgender performer Indya Moore in a movie role. One film critic described Queen & Slim as one of the most honest portrayals of black life, and that may be so. Intricate family relationships, levels of education, the politicization of black lives, how acts of terror and defiance against the powers that be can be commodified and raised to legend.

3. The Last Black Man in San Francisco
directed by Joe Talbot, written by and starring Jimmie Fails

This is a beautiful, elegiac, often surrealist story of a young man clinging to his past to stave off his fear of an empty future. The cinematic imagery and pacing of this brokenhearted valentine to San Francisco is nothing short of stunning. As the film opens a young girl skips along in a childhood game, passing men in HazMat suits picking up trash while a roadside preacher delivers a blistering sermon against the city's neglect and decline. The film comments upon a once vibrant black community inexorably being altered by gentrification and greed as seen through the eyes of Jimmie, who clings to a myth that glorifies and elevates the city's distant golden age and his own fractured family history. It's also about the power of friendship and what it means to be a black man. Raised in foster care because his parents struggled with drug addition, Jimmie is crashing with his best friend Mont and Mont's blind grandfather (SF native Danny Glover). Jimmie is obsessed with the gorgeous and crumbling Victorian house he once shared with his parents before things went radically wrong. Though a white couple occupies it, Jimmie can't stay away, continuing to work on its upkeep even as the couple shoo him away and threaten to call the police. When the couple have to vacate, Jimmie and Mont become squatters, with Jimmie reclaiming what he feels is his birthright. But his world is shattered when the truth about the house's history is revealed. This film feels like a fever dream, a tone poem, a comic tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. Fails' performance tugs at the heart.

4. The Farewell
directed by Lulu Wang, starring Awkwafina

I was moved by this story of a Chinese-American woman with an uncertain future who joins her family on a trip back to China that is ostensibly about attending a wedding, but is really undertaken as a final visit with her ailing grandmother. Per tradition, everyone in the family knows that Grandma has cancer except Grandma herself. Star Awkwafina, who has shown herself to be an adeptly comic scene stealer in Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians, turns in a quiet, thoughtful performance that pulls the viewer into her deep sadness at losing her beloved grandmother, as well as her confusion over her identity and her future, Equally sad and funny, The Farewell examines also how immigrants are forced to straddle to very different cultures.

5. Rocketman
directed by Dexter Fletcher, starring Taron Edgerton
Though the Freddie Mercury paint-by-numbers biopic Bohemian Rhapsody seemed to get the lion's share of accolades earlier this year, I was more captivated by the imaginative structure of this biographical jukebox musical fantasy about Elton John (I confess, he was one of my favorite artists growing up). The film follows the benchmarks of his story, from chubby wannabe to piano wiz to his momentous partnership with composer Bernie Taupin, through his exploding fame, struggle with drug addiction and recovery, using his distinct discography as a springboard to flights of fantasy, as when the power of his performance causes Elton and the audience at Hollywood's Troubadour to levitate, and full-on musical theater-style production numbers, as with "Saturday Night's All Right." The songs were as often used to convey character and mood as they were to recreate pivotal concert performances. Taron Edgerton does his own singing, and he is truly amazing. The movie is as imaginative, whimsical, and dramatic as John himself, and I loved every minute.

6. Bolden
directed by Dan Pritzker, starring Gary Carr

A portrait of tortured genius during a tortured time in American racial history, the early 1900s, Bolden attempts to tell the story of legendary New Orleans trumpeter Buddy Bolden, who was credited as the father of American jazz. Unfortunately, there are few records of Bolden's existence and fewer recordings of his musical genius. Thus, as a film cobbled together from legend, a few recordings, and faint memories, the film is often dreamlike and foreboding, alternately joyous when Bolden's music is played, and hopeless as when Bolden is exploited and victimized by business partners, white racists, and hubris, and falls into alcoholism and ultimately mental illness. The film begins with a middle-aged Bolden confined to a sanitarium; when he catches the sound of the radio playing his music, he goes into a reverie in which he relives memories of his beginnings on the trumpet through his years astonishing audiences with his syncopated improvisations, then through his decline. As played by the marvelously expressive Gary Carr (a Brit who so deliciously played pimp C.C. in HBO's The Deuce), Buddy Bolden doesn't actually speak until 20 minutes into the film, but through the film's expressive imagery -- including a dreamlike sequence where we see how he learned complex rhythms as a child in the garment factory where his mother works -- give us a window in which to glimpse his spirit.

7. Harriet
directed by Kasi Lemmons, starring Cynthia Erivo

Cynthia Erivo is a riveting screen presence, no matter how you slice it. Here, she makes us understand the pure spinal steel of religious conviction and survival instinct that made real-life she-ro Harriet Tubman an indomitable leader and abolitionist crusader. A movie needed to be made about this singular personality, a woman born into slavery who defied all fugitive slave laws of the land, not to mention braving the elements and risking her life to find freedom not only for herself but dozens of other enslaved people. Still, the film feels slick and contemporized in a movie-of-the-week way. This is not to take away from the achievement of bringing this to the screen, and I enjoyed the performances of Janelle Monae, veteran actors Clarke Peters and Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Hamilton alum Leslie Odum Jr. in supporting roles. I was expecting a bit more from the story, but as a cinema primer for those who were not familiar or had forgotten the legend of Tubman, this is just fine.

8. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood
directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie

Not among my favorite Tarantino works, but still a fascinating meditation on a more innocent era of Hollywood, and how the prospect of war, television, politics, and violence wrought havoc on those ideals. DiCaprio gives a layered performance, showing the insecurities of a complicated persona caught at a crossroads in his career, while Brad Pitt plays it laconic as his longtime friend and factotum. I found the Sharon Tate storyline confusing, as Tarantino reimagines history, but this film leaves a lot to chew on and has plenty of great acting moments.

9. The Good Liar
directed by Bill Condon
starring Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren

The Brits have a way of using the English language with whip-cracking accuracy and archness, something that only a handful of American actors can do with the same fluency. In Ian McKellen you have one of the masters of British acting, and Helen Mirren is no slouch. Far from being a geezer flick (like the dreadful Poms with Diane Keaton), The Good Liar is a twisted tale of an aging English con man deciding to do one last job, swindling a rich widow out of her holdings. But since that widow is Helen Mirren, we know that things will not go according to plan. Adapted from a book that I haven't read, the plot featured this elaborate WWII-era back story from Nazi occupied Austria involving teen rape, espionage, swapped identities, and thwarted love that seemed both way too complicated and way too convenient. Mirren gets her revenge, but her machinations leave you wondering how she kept focus after so many decades and got so much information at just the right time. And of course, any sort of battle scene between seniors is bound to give the audience visions of broken hips, lost dentures, and heart attack. Still, it's a sly film and worth it to see McKellen slip, slide, and give great line readings.

10. Us
written and directed by Jordan Peele
Starring Lupita N'yongo, Winston Duke

Jordan Peele's unique sensibilities -- infusing the horror genre with social commentary, existential paranoia, and racial fears -- has struck a chord with the viewing public. But, while I'm not a fan of psychological thrillers or horror, I nevertheless appreciate the achievement represented by this film, which reveals more of its unique brilliance upon repeated viewings. US is more of a psychological thriller that a straight horror film, especially once you get over the visual shocks of hollow-eyed, mechanical doppelgangers threatening to kill their mirror images. And yes, there is an element of the slasher film, in which the body count multiplies as victims fall prey to stabbings, bludgeonings, deliberate car attacks, immolation, and more. US provides constant dread, anxiety, tension, and small shocks as the killers keep popping up and doing their worst. When the elaborate explanation for all these goings-on is finally revealed, I really had to suspend all belief in a rational reality. So is it scary? It depends on your perspective. The best films are able to have you, the viewer, identify so closely with the protagonist, that you feel personally menaced by any physical threat to them. And we definitely root for plucky Lupita to get to the bottom of this and survive. A rollercoaster thrill ride.

Honorable Mentions for the actors:
"Gloria Bell" by Julianne Moore; "Judy" by Renee Zellweger; "Uncut Gems" by Adam Sandler; and "Hustlers" by Jennifer Lopez; and "Miss Bala" for Gina Rodriguez.

Great Documentary: "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am"

Thanks for supporting Words On Flicks and I will see you in 2020. - Janine

Thoughts On Tarantino's "'Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood"

Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood (2019)
written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

I consider myself a fan of Quentin Tarantino, so I was really anticipating this one. I have to say, though, that I haven't always liked his output. This new one is touted as the director's ninth screen outing as writer/director. So let's see:
1. Reservoir Dogs. Saw it on video years after release. Enjoyed it.
2. Pulp Fiction. Saw it opening night at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Loved it.
3. Jackie Brown. This may be my favorite.
4. Kill Bill, Vol. 1 & 2. Loved it.
5. Death Proof. Have yet to see it all the way through, so no opinion.
6. Inglorious Basterds. Seen it. Was left cold.
7. Django Unchained. Liked it until the last quarter. Not anxious to see it again.
8. The Hateful Eight. Can take it or leave it. A slog that delivers its payoffs at a glacial pace.
And now
9. Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood.
While critics and folks whose film opinions I value have raves for it, I've been having trouble processing it.

The film took my expectations of what a Tarantino film is -- fast, witty, hip, and violent -- and didn't so much defy them but twist, thwart, and sidestep them. While still managing to be witty, hip, and violent. It's simply that the story is rendered at a different pace; the tale of how middling actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double turned friend and factotum Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) spend their days and nights in 1969 L.A. and ultimately cross paths with real-life starlet Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) unspools in an episodic fashion, though -- unlike in Pulp Fiction -- Tarantino doesn't scramble the timelines.

See, our awareness of the timeline is pivotal in this picture. The previews for the film don't shy away from showing that these affable bros and their ethereally gorgeous neighbor are impacted by followers of infamous "Helter Skelter" psycho Charles Manson. Anyone who knows history is familiar with the gruesome Tate-LaBianca murders that horrified the country and cast a pall over the freewheeling Hollywood lifestyle that Tarantino so lovingly recreates here. Because of that, I spent my entire watch time at attention, waiting for the inevitable to happen, and of course, it does -- or does it? The conclusion left me emotionally exhausted and mentally confused. Also confusing to me was the intermittent use of a narrator. Was it an omniscient narrator? Or was the narration from a character in the story, because it sounded a lot like Kurt Russell (who plays a role) to me.

Once Upon A Time does offer numerous notable episodes, classic dialogues, monologues, moments of tension and chuckles along the way, as Dalton scrambles to keep himself from sliding into alcoholism and keep his acting career on a forward trajectory, while Booth is satisfied to run Dalton's errands and get his kicks stunt driving around L.A's sun dappled neighborhoods with the radio blasting the latest groovy pop rock hits (in classic QT style, the soundtrack is filled with gems from the Mama & the Papas, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Rolling Stones, Jose Feliciano, Deep Purple, Neil Diamond, and many others).

It's an era of spaghetti westerns and swinging 60s pseudo private eye stories, of flower power and political assassinations. Though it's a tale about the Hollywood lifestyle, and the film studio system that birthed it, the story is as much a tribute to the then-seminal medium of television as it is to movies. The film is crammed with details and homages, to goofy TV variety shows, the kind of Wolfman Jack radio DJs, inane radio jingles, the stern TV westerns and crime procedurals, the TV producer screen signatures, the Hollywood landmarks and institutions from Musso & Frank;s, the Brown Derby, Schwab's, El Coyote, the Cinerama Dome, the Pantages Theatre, the Capitol Building. Viewers who don't know the city may not get all of the references, including how far it is from Hollywood & Vine out to the abandoned film studio in Chatsworth where Manson's followers have taken up residence. It's fun to see how many real-life characters (Bruce Lee, Steve McQueen, Michelle Phillips, Mama Cass, Roman Polanski) and cameo appearances (Kurt Russell, Clu Gallagher, Dakota Fanning, Al Pacino, Luke Perry. Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Rumer Willis, Lena Dunham) are crammed into the flick.

As we watch their days unspool, we learn that Dalton is volatile, emotional, insecure, and often clueless; Booth is laconic, laidback, philosophical, and capable of explosive violence. They make a perfect odd couple, and it's a treat to see two men easily enjoy each other's company and not fret about their employer/employee status. Meanwhile, Tarantino gives a lighter touch to Tate, who after all was a real-life figure whose existence was cut short, so she does little but prance around the city looking beatific, as though she is a symbol of angelic purity in THE City of Angels. (<--- edited)

DiCaprio and Pitt have earned raves for their performances in this flick. DiCaprio is universally acknowledged as one of the greatest actors of his generation with an impressive number of roles under his belt, except I personally don't find him all that accessible as an actor. It's that little something that makes the audience identify with the actor as they take on the role; it's a quality that Denzel Washington and particularly Tom Hanks have in droves. It's a quality of magical engagement -- or charm, if you will. For all DiCaprio's skill, he leaves me cold.

Pitt, who has impressed me over the years as he's grown from a pretty face to an actor with some depth (Kalifornia, Moneyball, Snatch, Thelma & Louise, Fight Club) is far more engaging in my book. But truth be told, Pitt has done too many roles where he is called on to be the pretty, mysterious/sad brooder (Benjamin Button, Babel, Interview with A Vampire, A River Runs Through It, Meet Joe Black, the Ocean flicks).

If I had my druthers, I would have cast 50something Pitt as challenged actor Rick Dalton and made 40something DiCaprio play the iron-fist-in-a-velvet-glove Cliff Booth -- imagine the creative possibilities of that! Brad, world-weary, weepy and insecure, and Leo, caged fury with a smile.

As one of my movie compadres and I repeated to each other as we hashed it over, it's not that I don't like the film, exactly. I just may have to do a re-set on my expectations and watch again.

Words On Flicks 2018: Top Ten Picks of the Year

Here are my top 2018 movie picks, in no particular order:

1.Black Panther: Everything that could be said about this movie has been said. It’s got so much in terms of originality, an infusion of African cultures showing up in the tribes united in Wakanda, strong female characters, a great hero’s journey, a thoughtful commentary on today’s politics, a fascinating villain in Killmonger, and so much more. It's on most viewers' top ten lists as well.

2.Amazing Grace: To see a young Aretha Franklin at the height of her powers perform live in a Baptist church is to undergo your own spiritual conversion. It’s just revelatory.

3.The Wife: I just saw this, and Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce are amazing as a long-married couple whose close association and unequal working partnership is cracked in the glare of the husband’s winning the Nobel in Literature.

4.Blindspotting: An eye-level take on a young black man’s struggle to overcome a prison bid, racism, and apathy in Oakland. Kudos to lead Daveed Diggs.

5.The Hate U Give: This is both a story of what it is to straddle cultures for young black people today, and a textbook in how to rise up and speak out against institutional racism.

6.Widows: Viola Davis gives a great performance as a complicated woman who must test her mental and physical mettle when her criminal husband’s apparent death leaves her vulnerable to a local gang.

7.A Star Is Born: The twin siren songs of celebrity and love intertwine in Bradley Cooper’s take on this classic story. Lady Gaga is refreshing and Cooper stretches out in their roles as we see a true love connection blossom then weaken in the spotlight of fame.

8.Bad Times At the El Royale: Two names: Jeff Bridges and Cynthia Erivo. They are amazing performers, and together they are the soul of this movie.

9.BlackkKlansman – This is a straightforward movie about a brave brother who not only integrated a police force, but stared down racism of a more insidious and organized nature in cracking the KKK. One of Spike Lee’s most mature and fully developed films.

10.The Favourite: Women take the lead in this amusing but sobering contemporary take on an internecine power struggle to be English Queen Anne's bestie. Deception, sex, poison, ass-kissing, it's all there, as are incredible performances from the leads.

ALSO:
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again: This movie was FUN and I just enjoyed every minute of it. It wasn’t as good as the first Mamma Mia film, but it had its moments, including a cameo by Cher.

Crazy Rich Asians: Great premise, breakthrough casting, and everyone loves a good Cinderella story.

Green Book: Despite the controversy, Viggo Mortenson and Mahershala Ali are two of the best actors in film today and they do the most with the script they were given, which tries to stress that We’re All Brothers Under the Skin, Kumbaya, feel-good vibe.

Isle of Dogs: A clever premise, though it had a somewhat complicated plot and most of the human characters spoke Japanese. The animation was so well done, and the characterizations of the dogs -- by Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Scarlett Johanssen and others – was so fun. The film runs into problems by having a young white American girl become the character who saves the day, against the wisdom of a whole slew of Japanese adults. But the overall execution of this Wes Anderson-directed film is just amazing.

The Girl In The Spider's Web: Claire Foy nails the character in the latest adaptation in the book series, which finds super hacker Lisbeth Salander at the center of a botched hacking gig. Nice to see LaKeith Stanfield in a serious role here as well.

What can I say? I’m forgiving and eclectic in my tastes.

SORRY I MISSED IN 2018:
If Beale Street Could Talk
Vice
On The Basis of Sex
Ben Is Back
White Boy Rick
Vox Lux
Colette

Here's to a great 2019!

Slightly Less Jolly, But Still A Holiday: "Mary Poppins Returns"

Mary Poppins Returns
Directed by Rob Marshall
starring Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Meryl Streep with cameos by Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury and a walk-on by Karen Dotrice, the original Jane

Recommended? Yes! Fine family fare.

I wish I were a child again, if only to have experienced Mary Poppins Returns with the same sense of awe, wonder, and delight with which I experienced the original Disney Mary Poppins.

I'm afraid that I still adore that 1964 picture, with a tart Julie Andrews as the magical yet no-nonsense nanny in turn-of-the-century England. It had whimsy and pathos, the fantastical mix of animation and live action, an episodic structure, lessons about both capitalism and charity, a touch of history in Mrs. Banks' involvement in the suffragette movement, and the dazzling spectacle of incredible dance numbers. Plus those unforgettable Sherman Brothers tunes that drilled the nonsensical phrases chim-chim-cheree and supercalifragilistic and um-diddle-liddle-liddle-um-diddle-li deep into my brain.

Yes, I wish I hadn't been so profoundly affected by that so I might properly appreciate the sequel, Mary Poppins Returns.

Don't get me wrong -- the new Poppins is delightful. Played with the same stern-but-amused air by Emily Blunt, this Poppins returns some 30 years after the original to marshall the three young children of a grown-up Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw), who is looked after by his loving sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) and an overwhelmed housekeeper Ellen (Julie Walters) after the loss of his wife. The family's foundation is rocked when Michael fails to pay the mortgage and their house on Cherry Tree Lane is about to be foreclosed on by the bank unless Jane and Michael can find the valuable bank share certificates their late father left to them.

The typical Mary Poppins shenanigans begin immediately, as she marches the three kids -- John, Annabel, and Georgie -- into the bathroom for a bath that turns into an eye-dazzling deep sea adventure complete with dolphins, pirates, and giant bubbles. As the children soon discover that their home is in danger, they consider selling a Royal Doulton china bowl their late mother told them was priceless, and a squabble over it leads to yet another adventure, with Poppins and her young lamplighter friend Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda) whisking the children into the animated world inside the bowl, leading to a major English music hall song and dance by Mary and Jack, followed by a hair-raising ride by the older children, chasing after some animated bandits who attempt to kidnap Georgie and steal the family's possessions. Back in the real world, Mary takes the children and the damaged bowl to visit her cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep), who supposedly can fix anything. Except that Topsy's world has literally turned upside down, and there is a big song and dance number in which Topsy realizes that everything turning around only represents a refreshing new perspective on things.

As the story continues, Mary orchestrates a visit to the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank where Michael works, to coincidentally have the children discover that the bank's new president (Colin Firth) is scheming underhandedly to repossess the Banks' home. All's well that ends well, as Mary joins Jack and his lamplighter friends for a little song and dance to lift the children's spirits, and there is an eleventh-hour miracle that saves the family's home in the end.

The animation is top-notch, the costumes colorful and interesting, and the songs -- churned out by Broadway and movie score veteran Marc Shaiman with lyrics by Scott Whitman -- are sprightly and serviceable. The filmmakers have worked very hard to repeat most of the beats of the original film: Admiral Boom next door still sets off his cannon every hour, disturbing every household; with the vote for women already won, now Jane Banks is deeply entrenched in the British labour movement, going to demonstrations and carrying signs; in the tradition of American Dick Van Dyke's role as a chimney sweep, American Lin-Manuel Miranda steps in to play a lamplighter, replete with awful Cockney accent; and once again, the Banks children experience amazing, otherworldly events that Mary later staunchly denies, including a visit to another magical relative. It's all very cute and very entertaining.

It's just that it's all been done before and done better.

1. The Banks children don't need a nanny, as is pointed out in the film. They seem to manage themselves just fine, even if the youngest, Georgie, is portrayed as a bit rambunctious. And despite having lost their mother, they don't seem especially raw about it. (A small quibble, since Mary makes plain that she really returned to the household to save the children's father, Michael.)

2. Mary Poppins sweeps in and takes over, even though it is clear that Michael Banks cannot pay her any wages. In the first Mary Poppins movie, she is extremely insistent on what she should be paid and when, so this seems out of character.

3. The mix of animation and live action is no longer an anomaly to moviegoers, thanks to digital technology and CGI, so the scenes in the world of the Royal Doulton china bowl don't have the impact that they should. And though the penguins return, they basically make a cameo.

4. Meryl Streep's Topsy character is not as fully fleshed out as it should be. She has a terrible Russian or gypsy accent of some kind, which the Banks kids actually comment on, and it is never explained why her world turns upside down. At least Uncle Albert's ability to rise from the floor was explained as a disease caused by laughter, the antidote for which was to think sad thoughts.

5. I like Lin-Manuel Miranda, he's an incredibly talented person, but I don't think of him as a dancer (I also have not seen Hamilton on stage, so maybe I just don't know). Though he appears in the production number where the lamplighters do their dance, he doesn't have a solo or a spotlighted part in it. The dance was fine, but lacked the snap crackle pop of "Step In Time" from the original. Overall, the Jack character is kind of lackluster, maybe because he isn't romancing Mary. He is barely romancing Jane, though the film seems to think they are a perfect match.

6. Which brings me to another observation: This film is lacking tap-dancing. Like, real old-fashioned hoofing. Jack and Mary do some footwork in their number at the Royal Doulton Hall, but there's no tapping or clogging. In his cameo toward the end of the film, 92-year-old Dick Van Dyke does a couple of steps, which only reminds me of what the flick is missing.

7. The music is pleasant and the songs are fun, but not one of them is catchy. I didn't come out of the theater singing any of them. Part of the problem may be that most of the tunes are stuffed to the gills with lyrics. The setpiece of the Royal Doulton Music Hall scene is a tune called "A Cover Is Not A Book," but the verses fly by so fast and so furiously that it's difficult to grab onto anything. Lin-Manuel has a part in the tune in which he's basically rapping -- which is reminiscent in some ways to Bert's fast-talking paean to all the girls he's known in "It's A Jolly Holiday With Mary" -- but it is hard to decipher what he is saying amid all the music and all the visual spectacle. It's unfortunate that the music, for all its effort to be clever, lacks the hooks a simpler approach could have provided.

8. The bad guy in this movie -- primarily Colin Firth's bank president at Fidelity Fiduciary Bank -- is mean for no reason. Just because ... money, I guess. But the Banks home is hardly a mansion. As the action takes place in the 1930s during "The Great Slump" -- the British version of the Great Depression -- I guess companies were doing anything to gain and keep a buck. Since every movie needs a villain, as it was in the original, it should be the bank.

9. The film wraps up with a scene in the park where the family buys balloons that float them up into the atmosphere, kind of a riff on the "Let's All Fly A Kite" ending of the original. Except in this one, everyone winds up flying around in the clouds. I thought this was confusing, because Mary Poppins wasn't there, she didn't make it happen, and it was happening to everyone in the park who bought a balloon (except evil old Colin Firth). This fantasy -- which included a song by the balloon vendor played by the ever-delightful Angela Lansbury -- was sooooo not needed and kind of broke the rules about magic happening only when Mary was directly involved.

10. As soon as we saw Jane and Michael's old kite being stuck in the trash, didn't we know that the answer to all the family's problems was right there on its patched surface?

Anyway, despite my quibbles, the movie is still good old-fashioned family fun. Your young ones will adore it and sing in grateful chorus, well done, Mary Poppins Returns! The rest of us will just have to take a spoonful of sugar to make this flick go down without wishing for Julie Andrews.

*All photos are screenshots, courtesy ABC/Disney Studios.