28 Years Later (2025) ***1/2

 

In “28 Years Later,” the sequel to 2007's “28 Weeks Later” and 2002's "28 Days Later," the fast-spreading rage virus, which turns people into rage-filled “zombies”, has been beaten back from continental Europe and confined to the British Isles. Unfortunately, after attempts to evacuate the Isles led to the virus nearly spreading worldwide in “28 Weeks Later,” the Isles and their inhabitants have been given up for dead. Patrolling ships enforce a strict quarantine, and the Brits are left to their own devices.

12-year-old Spike and his family live in a small community on a tiny, Scottish island. Connected to Scotland by a narrow causeway that is passable only during low tide, their island is one of the few places that can be defended by archers (What little guns and ammo existed in the UK are long gone.). Their community survives and even thrives, but they lack some necessities, including medical care for Spike's mom, Isla (Jodie Comer), who is suffering from a mysterious illness. Spike resolves to get her to a doctor on the mainland, despite the roaming Infected.

The Infected, for their part, have evolved into a few different types. They feed now, so forget about them simply dying off from starvation. Some of them are fat and slow, crawling along the ground, but still dangerous if they catch you unawares. Then there are the regular, fast-running zombies, with their herky-jerky movements. For a few of them, the virus stimulates growth and strength. These “Alphas” are harder to kill, and they lead groups of fast zombies. It's not a friendly world for the remaining un-infected on the mainland, and Spike and Isla have a hard road to travel.

I was prepared to be disappointed, but “28 Years Later” shows that this zombie franchise still has legs. They are, however, running out of usable time increments for sequels. First was “28 Days Later,” then “28 Weeks Later,” and now “28 Years Later.” If they make another installment, “28 Decades Later” would put this in the realm of zombie science fiction! I suggest they go with “28 Seconds Later,” picking up the sequel almost half a minute after the events of this film.

3.5 stars out of 5

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) ****

 

1967's “Valley of the Dolls” is the definition of a hot mess. The story of three young women who go to Hollywood, only to have their dreams fade into a nightmare of sex, drugs, and fame is so campy and melodramatic that it became something of a cult classic. Tasked with making a sequel, exploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer reached out to his friend Roger Ebert for help with a script. That's right. Film critic Roger Ebert took a break from writing about movies to actually write a movie. And what a movie!

Meyer and Ebert wound up creating not an actual sequel to “Valley of the Dolls,” but a satire of the film and of melodramatic Hollywood morality plays in general. The story follows 3 girls, Kelly, Casey, and Pet, who make up the rock group “The Kelly Affair,” managed by Kelly's boyfriend, Harris. The 4 ride around in a van like a bunch of hippies, playing whatever gigs they can get. Kelly convinces the group to trek across the country to L.A., where her Aunt Susan is a powerful fashion designer. Susan welcomes her niece, offering her a piece of the family inheritance and introducing the band to a flamboyant music producer named Z-man. Soon, the girls are caught up in a whirlwind of success, free love, and drugs.

It's fascinating that this film got made. Director Russ Meyer was known for making movies that were basically low-budget soft porn, full of busty women, with very little story. It's unclear why a reputable film studio like Fox hired him, other than maybe financial desperation. Meyer knew how to work on the cheap. As Ebert put it, the film is “like a movie that got made by accident when the lunatics took over the asylum.” The only real interference they got from the studio was the instruction that the film should eke out an R rating, which it failed to do. When the MPAA gave the film an X for sex and violence, Russ Meyer reportedly wanted to put back in some of the sex scenes he had cut, but deadlines didn't allow it.

The result is one outrageous, hot mess of a movie. The cast, mostly unknown, are actually pretty decent, at least for the kind of movie this is. They play the story straight, which makes the ridiculous situations all the more hilarious. The music is shockingly good. That powerful voice on The Kelly Affair's songs does not come from that sweet, little actress (Dolly Read) but from a couple of soul singers, Lynn Carey and Barbara Robison. The 60's band Strawberry Alarm Clock also performs a few songs, including their hit “Incense and Peppermints.” It all comes together for one gonzo, wild-ride of a movie. It's not for everyone, but if you are up for some film history and some craziness, I definitely recommend watching “Valley of the Dolls” and then checking out “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.”

4 stars out of 5

Inherent Vice (2014) ***

 

There are Paul Thomas Anderson movies that I have seen and loved ("Boogie Nights" “Magnolia”), ones I thought were just okay ("There Will Be Blood" "Licorice Pizza"), ones that due to their length and gravity I have been too intimidated to watch yet (“The Master”), and then there is “Inherent Vice,” which I had never heard of and had no idea was a Paul Thomas Anderson movie until after the fact. This is one that just slipped right by me back in 2014, and I was lucky enough that it just caught my eye on Netflix.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Doc Sportello, a private eye, layabout, and pothead, back in 1970 when all of those were still considered bad things to be. When an old girlfriend shows up with a case for him, it's the classic noir set-up, complete with femme fatale. Like many flawed-but-noble detectives before him, Doc explores the underbelly of southern California, stirring up a hornets nest of criminals, cops (Josh Brolin), and wacky characters (Martin Short, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro).

There are a couple of things you should know about “Inherent Vice” going in. It's long, at 2h 28m, and it feels long. There is just So. Much. Plot. It's really complicated, and by the end I wasn't sure whether all the pieces had fit together or not. The film is based on the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name, and his books are known for being long and complicated. In that sense, Paul Thomas Anderson was the perfect filmmaker to adapt it, as this sort of thing is his bag. Despite all that, the movie is an enjoyable watch. It's a good, black-comedic take on the noir detective genre. The cast is solid, and Phoenix plays Doc with a sense of humor and a heart. “Inherent Vice” deserves to be in the company of other comedic noir films like “The Big Lebowski” and 1973's “The Long Goodbye” even if it isn't as perfectly, tightly wound as those films.

3 stars out of 5

Materialists (2025) ****

 

Writer/director Celine Song's second film is no sophomore slump. Her first film, 2023's “Past Lives” was a beautiful story about a woman whose past comes back to remind her what she lost when her family emigrated from Korea. It's a well-crafted film, and Song gets wonderful performances from her cast. Her follow-up, “Materialists,” shows that that was no fluke.

The film starts with the thesis that marriage is a business contract, nothing more. We evaluate potential mates based on their score on attractiveness, wealth, upbringing, education, and so forth. A good match is someone for whom the “math” matches up well with our own.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is an expert at doing “the math.” She works as a matchmaker for an elite Manhattan dating service. From that vantage, she gets to see, up close, what people really think about when dating. People tell her things they would never tell their therapist, their clergy, or their best friend. All the women unashamedly have a height requirement, and the men are no more embarrassed at demanding women 20 years their junior. A 48-year-old guy explains that 21-year-olds seem a little immature, so he wants a 27-year-old. “Not in their 30s, and 29 is probably pushing it.” One woman requests that they start their search with white men only, and then, if they aren't having any luck, they can widen the search to include other races. On some level, you have to admire Lucy's clients' honesty, even if they don't have the good grace to be embarrassed at their entitled, shallow dating demands.

Seeing on a daily basis the naked, transactional truth about people's desires has killed any sense of romance in Lucy. For her own dating desires, her only must-have is that a man be rich, and her nice-to-have is that he be “really, disgustingly rich.” At the wedding of a client, a triumph for Lucy, she meets the handsome, rich Harry (Pedro Pascal) and also runs into an old flame, John (Chris Evans). As things progress with both of them, Lucy discovers that she has a heart after all, and that she will have to choose between it and her head.

We don't get many films that peer, with such perceptive empathy, at the human condition. It would be easy to sit in judgment of Lucy's clients and their check-boxes, but, you know, the heart wants what it wants. When these people tick off the things they think they must have in a mate, they are being more truly honest with Lucy than they probably are with anyone else. Maybe it's good that they are getting those thoughts out, instead of hiding them, maybe even from themselves. The mistake Lucy and her clients make, though, is thinking that these checklists represent the true core of their desires. Lucy thinks that romance can be boiled down to a completely rational choice, based on “math,” but she learns that the heart keeps secrets even from itself.

4 stars out of 5