Nobody's Fool (2018)

I think Tyler Perry is underrated. His movies should have appeal with a much broader audience than just the African American community they're marketed to. He proves to be entertaining and accessible. Tiffany Haddish, especially, has universal appeal. Her personality is so electric and she appears to be having so much fun on screen you cannot look away. And I, for one, think Tika Sumpter is fantastic. Now there is a pretty major plot hole towards the end with the surprise twist that not only invalidates the previous hour of film we've just seen but also doesn't make sense. But if they could have patched up this hole somehow, I dare say, the plot is near Shakespearean. Catfishing is our modern equivalent of mistaken identity, the hallmark of a Shakespearean comedy. And by the end, I think it would have been more interesting if "they" didn't end up together but it then wouldn't be a Shakespearean romantic comedy.

The Old Man & The Gun (2018)

This is such an unassumingly charming movie. I love everything about the retro, sort of grainy film-style. Robert Redford, in supposedly his final acting role, is just delightful. He acts so effortlessly, demonstrating decades of experience. You can't help but smile and be charmed like Sissy Spacek. And the movie is wistful, full well acknowledging the nostalgia factor in a brilliant Wes Anderson-esque montage at the end (paying homage to a young Redford, I think). The movie is actually quite funny, too. The dialogue between Redford and Spacek is disarmingly charming.

I do have one big criticism of the film. I really cannot stand Casey Affleck. He basically plays the same character from his previous collaboration with director David Lowery, A Ghost Story. Yes, in that movie he plays a dead sheet ghost. And in this film, he plays just as lively a character unironically. Actually, he plays himself. So is he even really acting? I don't think his story line really adds anything to the movie. We clearly are meant to sympathize with the criminal, so why go to the detective's point of view at all? Tika Sumper is fine but we unfortunately have to get Casey Affleck to get her. I am willing to overlook this glaring black spot because the rest of the movie is so darn pleasing.