Author: Jeff Mitchell

‘Justice League’ team chemistry tops some muddled special effects, lackluster villain

Jeff Mitchell

“Justice League” – There is no “I” in team. When confronted by a selfish player, a coach may use that sports proverb to help illustrate that looking out for No. 1 may prove fatal to the team’s success.  Now, if the team has one, some or a collection of self-centered basketball, baseball, football, volleyball, soccer, or insert-your-sport-here players, the end result could be a lost game or perhaps, a lost season. In the movies, an individual superhero might not be self-regarding, but he or she may just not be capable…

Tremblay, Roberts and Wilson kindly deliver in ‘Wonder’

Jeff Mitchell

“Wonder” – Be kind. Auggie (Jacob Tremblay) walks with his parents – Isabel (Julia Roberts) and Nate (Owen Wilson) – towards Beecher Prep for his first day of middle school, and he is terrified.  Sure, middle school can be terrifying for just about any kid.  Think back to your years during that preadolescent and adolescent brew of confusion mixed with caste systems of rumors, doubt and Darwinism that distract from the primary tasks at hand: reading, writing and arithmetic. His future schoolwork does not concern him, but the potentially toxic…

Leo and Qualley shine during a dim view of the ‘Novitiate’

Jeff Mitchell

“Novitiate” – Cathleen (Margaret Qualley) is 17 years old and in love.  She is in love with God.  Conversely, her mom, Nora (Julianne Nicholson), never embraced religion and does not quite understand her daughter’s love and faith.  Soon, everything that Nora knows – her own faith in a sense – becomes severely tested.  Cathleen joins a convent, Sisters of Beloved Rose, to become a nun, and Nora believes that she is too young to make this decision. Faith and coming-of-age rise as the two primary themes in writer/director Margaret Betts’s…