NAPOLEON (2023) seemed to have everything–Ridley Scott directing, a solid cast, beautiful cinematography. Unfortunately, the movie also seemed to bite off way more than it could chew, even with a nearly three-hour runtime, and what it did contain it squandered on Napoleon and Josephine’s relationship and a depiction of Napoleon that made him seem even more opaque than before I watched it.

The movie starts with the terrible days of the French Revolution, where we see Napoleon, a young artillery officer, prove his mastery of tactics in multiple campaigns. Over time, he ascends to complete control of the French government, crowning himself emperor and conquering most of Europe until the bitter Russian campaign put him on a path to decline and exile.

What I liked: The cinematography, costumes, and sets were stunning. This is a gorgeous movie. The actors gave it their all.

What I didn’t: The movie bites off more than it can chew by covering Napoleon’s entire career, resulting in everything feeling oversimplified and dumbed down. Napoleon is portrayed as weirdly needy and erratic, missing many of the traits that made the real Napoleon so charismatic and destined for greatness. His relationship with Josephine is a big part of the movie, and Vanessa Kirby is great, but I couldn’t figure out if she loved or hated him or honestly why she was even in the movie, as it added nothing. A lot of effort is given to make Napoleon look cool on the battlefield, having him personally direct every unit by direct order, and then leading cavalry charges, which never happened. The result often feels rushed and silly, especially to those who love history.

If you want to see a really well done portrayal of Napoleon, try to score WATERLOO (1970). Rod Steiger is amazing in the role, uncertain and confident in starts, passionate and charismatic, beloved by his army, wily but prone to outbursts, a man who through sheer force and desire bends reality to his will. In a stark contrast, you get to see the great Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington, haughty and aristocratic but a grudging admirer and student of Napoleon’s tactics. And the battle! The practical effects with thousands of real extras is just incredible. You see the battle come to life, unlike Scott’s NAPOLEON, where the battles all look very small and ignorant of the era’s tactics.

Greg at Little Wars TV, a YouTube wargaming channel, made a video where he attempted to “fix” NAPOLEON. His recommendations were spot on. Instead of covering Napoleon’s entire career, Scott might have done better to start with the retreat through the Russian winter, the political machinations that followed, and then end with the Battle of Nations, which he lost and resulted in him being exiled to Elba. To include a female lead and a love story, he could have focused on the relationship with Marie-Louise, the Archduchess of Austria, who apparently was quite kind and tried to help broker a peace. He also might have included Marshal Ney, Napoleon’s bravest general, loyal but increasingly disillusioned. This would have given the movie the focus it needed.

Overall, I wish I’d liked this one more. Despite all my criticisms, I didn’t hate it. Not at all. There’s some brilliant filmmaking here. It just wasn’t a good script in my view, and as a result, this was not a great watch for me, despite my hopes that I’d love it.

WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY (2022) is a satirical biopic about Weird Al Yankovic, a movie that embodies his off-kilter brand of comedy. Great cast, a lot of heart, and a solid conceit, only to really love it, you have to love Weird Al’s kind of humor.

The movie rolls out as a typical rock star biopic, starting in Weird Al’s childhood, when his parents forbade him from being weird and playing the accordion. He winds up playing anyway, becoming popular in the process, and once he starts changing the lyrics to popular songs to comedic effect, he becomes the greatest rock star who ever lived. Madonna, however, has other plans…

When I saw the off-the-hook trailer featuring Daniel Radcliffe, who’s like the Nicholas Cage of really colorful and weird movies, I was eager to catch this, hoping to see Weird Al depicted by way of Hunter S. Thompson. Instead, it rolls out more like a straight satire of typical biopics (something WALK HARD did so well), based on the conceit that satirizing pop songs was pure genius that propelled Weird Al to the status of the greatest rock star ever.

It’s the kind of thing that works if you love Weird Al and share his silly brand of humor. It isn’t exactly my thing–even back in the day, the comedy for me was all in satirizing the music videos, not really the songs themselves. Still, it’s wonderfully earnest, and the movie comes at you with a lot of heart and general silliness. It’s the kind of film that says, God, lighten up and have a little fun, why don’t you. Nonetheless, for me, it was like a good comedy sketch overstretched into a feature-length movie.

So overall, I’m not sure I can say I loved WEIRD, or even liked it all that much to be dead honest, but I can say it’s fun, there’s a nostalgia trip there if nothing else, and if you have a goofy sense of humor like Weird Al’s, you might dig it a lot.

In DREAM SCENARIO (2023), a mild-mannered man discovers he is appearing in other people’s dreams, with escalating consequences. This Charlie Kaufman-style concept is almost perfectly rendered, particularly with Nicholas Cage in the lead, though it reaches so far conceptually in the third act that the ending may not be satisfying for some. I liked it a lot but wished the film had stayed focused and that I had loved it.

Paul Matthews (Cage) is a college professor going through a midlife crisis. He doesn’t feel special. He wishes he could be noticed. When people in his life and then random strangers start telling him that he is appearing in their dreams, he gains a bizarre celebrity. But when the dreams become nightmares, he learns the price of fame.

Cage is terrific in this movie, playing the socially awkward, innocent dork to a tee. The way it takes the premise seriously is again reminiscent of Charlie Kaufman’s best work. The concept had me from the get-go, loaded with so many possibilities, and they do it justice. It’s a lot of fun, even when we suffer along with the hapless Paul.

The only problem for me was in the third act, the movie starts to pile up ideas to an extent the story loses its focus, and the filmmaker appeared far more interested in the metaphor for fame and following that through instead of staying focused on Paul’s character arc. As a result, Paul’s story, which was heading for one hell of a cathartic positive ending and redemption by his finally discovering his happiness and agency, falls flat, the ending feeling diffused and for me even a little frustrating even if there is a touching moment.

Despite the ending, I thought DREAM SCENARIO was a ton of fun and recommend it. It’s always a beautiful thing to discover a movie that takes chances with a crazy concept, takes that concept seriously, and runs with it.

In the Norwegian miniseries WAR SAILOR (Netflix), merchant sailors at sea when Germany invades Norway are drafted into the Allied war effort, suffering the horrors of the Battle of the Atlantic. Harrowing and relentlessly anti-war, it’s a horrific depiction of this little-known part of history, the merchant sailors who helped save England and win the war.

Originally a movie fleshed out with unused footage into a compact miniseries, WAR SAILOR chronicles WW2 through the eyes of close friends Alfred and Sigbjorn, merchant sailors, and Alfred’s wife and children back in Norway living through the German occupation and Allied bombings.

Watching the trailer, I thought I’d be watching a Hollywood-style production about men caught in war who step up with heroism and save the day. I was happy to be totally wrong. You get the heroism–the quiet, desperate, personal, I-have-no-choice kind–but the story is relentlessly bleak, with even the happy endings being their own brand of sad, almost absent of much-desired catharsis.

The filmmaker interviewed numerous merchant sailors and their families to incorporate as much realism into his tale, and it shows. During the war, 1,100 commercial ships were drafted into the Atlantic supply chain keeping England and the USSR in the war, and around 4,000 died at sea due to plane and submarine attacks. This is their story, and again it’s not a happy one.

The actors are all terrific, the characters human and likable. There are skips in time right into slice-of-life action that are a little jarring, and there are slow moments showing the characters waiting–presenting war’s tedium–but then everything gets torn apart in an action scene that is frankly horrifying. In one scene, the churn of the ship’s engine becomes a soundtrack building tension until the startling moment the SHTF and everything goes sideways.

At the end, you see the quiet desperation of a man who was broken by what happened to him, no longer the man he was, unable to talk about it. There’s a incredible moment when he sees a comrade from the war after many years, and they fall into a teary silence as seeing the other man triggers a flood of memories. So much drama packed in a single minute between two men sitting without dialogue.

Overall, I loved WAR SAILOR and would happily recommend it, though note it becomes steadily more bleak to the point of helpless frustration–which is the series’ point.