MOVIE REVIEW: ETERNITY

 

In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with, and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.

Director: David Freyne

Cast: Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, John Early, Olga Merediz, Da'Vine Joy Randolph

Release Date: November 26, 2025

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language.

Runtime: 1h 54m

Review:

Eternity is an old school throwback to golden age romantic comedies with its fizzy, optimistic approach paired with a game cast lead by a luminous Elizabeth Olsen.  Writer/Director David Freyne delivers a fun Twilight Zone set up on the afterlife that's heavy on style albeit light on details on how any of it works.  It’s a fun bit of world building that works well in the film's favor with Freyne giving everything a decidedly 60's aesthetic which adds to the retro feel.  He maintains a steady flow to the action that keeps the film moving at a steady pace throughout with only a few lulls in the action popping up.  The script is filled with sly jokes about death and happiness that are wryly funny but thoughtful at the same time.  The central trio of Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner lean into the material to great effect with each delivering strong work.  Teller carries the early scenes as the newly deceased curmudgeon serving as the audience’s entry point to the story.  He manages to carry the weight of age and experience behind his younger facade he's given once he arrives in the afterlife.  He's a likable everyman who's got a good heart behind his cranky exterior.  Callum Turner plays a solid foil as the perfect romanticized lost love who's been pining and waiting for the love of his life.  They serve as fascinating yin and yang versions of love with one being more grounded and real and the other being far more idealized.  At center of it all is Elizabeth Olsen's Joan who's left with an impossible decision of choosing which one to spend eternity with.  Olsen is simply fantastic throughout as her character navigates a fun run of emotions as she works through her decision.  She's able to give her character an old soul much like Teller with their interactions carrying an air of lived in authenticity.  Its subtle but their moments together do feel like the pair have lived together for nearly 70 years.  On the other end, when Olsen and Turner are together there's more of a tinge of the early embers of passionate love that comes through.  She's excellent across the board as she moves from playful, confused and frustrated with natural ease which lays her talents on full display.  Da'Vine Joy Randolph and John Early round on the cast as afterlife coordinators tasked with helping them choose their eternal destinations.  They are both excellent in supporting turns adding a nice amount of comedy and texture to the story with Randolph stealing every scene she's in.  It all makes for one of the more enjoyable, uplifting rom-coms in recent memory which is sure to make Eternity a cult classic down the road.  

A-

Cindy Prascik's Review of In the Heights

 

My dear reader(s)…if I have any left after my persistent absences: This past weekend I took the opportunity to check out the big-screen adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights.

Some ordinary - and not-so-ordinary - days in the lives of the residents of Washington Heights.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn’t know from the trailers.

For three days I’ve struggled to write something about In the Heights. It’s an upbeat show that is never weighed down by its more somber moments. In its costumes and choreography is a genuine feel for the community it honors. In its humor is the resilience of people accustomed to smiling in the face of life's challenges. In Anthony Ramos and Gregory Diaz, IV, it has revealed a couple potential superstars. In its tunes are the seeds of what would later become the once-in-a-generation show Hamilton. For all these reasons, it is a movie worth seeing, but…I didn’t love it. I wanted to love it. It feels almost mean not to have loved it. But I didn’t love it. I don’t think the show translated all that well from stage to screen. Some content hasn’t aged well, and not in the kitschy 80s way of Cats (the show, NOT the movie) but in a way that just makes it feel…off…in 2021. Where it attempts to connect to current events (the deportation of DREAMers), it feels contrived. Some of the casting misfires badly. (Has Jimmy Smits ever been this bad before?) There were too many exteriors that looked like low-budget green screen. Perhaps I'm being too hard on it. Perhaps I just miss Broadway too much to accept it on a screen anymore.  Perhaps I should have gotten out to see it in a cinema instead of settling for HBO Max on the biggest TV in my orbit. Perhaps all of the above kept me from getting lost in this movie as I needed to get lost in this movie, but...I didn't love it.

In the Heights clocks in at 143 minutes, and is rated PG13 for “some language and suggestive references.”

In the Heights is a positive, uplifting production. Given what the world has suffered in recent months, that should be enough, but somehow it isn’t. Of a possible nine Weasleys, In the Heights gets six and a half.

In the Heights is now playing in cinemas, and streaming on HBO Max.

Fangirl Points: Stephanie Beatriz! Patrick Page! (And, yes, Jimmy Smits, even though I thought he was terrible in this!)

Until next time…

MOVIE REVIEW: IN THE HEIGHTS

In Washington Heights, N.Y., the scent of warm coffee hangs in the air just outside of the 181st St. subway stop, where a kaleidoscope of dreams rallies a vibrant and tight-knit community. At the intersection of it all is a likable and magnetic bodega owner who hopes, imagines and sings about a better life.

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Gregory Diaz IV, Jimmy Smits

Release Date: June 4, 2021

Genre:  Drama, Music, Musical 

Rated PG-13 for some language and suggestive references

Runtime: 2h 23min

Review:

In The Heights is rousing celebration of community heritage and striving for a better life.  Jon M. Chu's film is a vibrant wall to wall musical that's filled with easy to love musical numbers that'll elicit a wide range of emotions throughout its runtime.  The musical numbers written by Lin-Manuel Miranda have an energy to them that feels personal and heartfelt with numbers like 96,000, Paciencia y Fe and Carnaval del Barrio leaving a lasting impact.  Chu's direction takes full advantage of the spectacular choreography during some of the larger ensemble pieces and veers into fantasy in select spots without going full Baz Luhrmann.  The story itself is fairly straightforward but covers a broad array of topics from gentrification, cultural identity and self discovery. This broadness extends to the characters who play more as types than fully realized people.  As such, the characters relationships, especially the main love story, doesn't connect emotionally the way it should.  The impressive part about the film is that it overcomes this shortcoming thanks to it's engaging cast lead by Anthony Ramos who posses a natural performers charisma that shines through the screen.  The supporting cast is made up of an array of Hispanic Broadway actors or singers including Olga Merediz who reprises her role from Miranda's original stage play and shines in spotlight.  The rest of the ensemble are given their chance to shine throughout the film's extensive 2 hour plus run.  Throw in a few moments where you might experience a sensation of déjà vu with the film adaptation of Rent.  That being said, In The Heights feels like more complete adaption of its source material for the big screen. 

A-