 Joining us is our resident film critic, Michael Snyder. These are the movies he's going to be talking about today. Wonder Woman, I, Daniel Blake, Handsome Devil, Band-Aid, and Churchill. Tell me about Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is a pretty big deal. It's a massive success after only a couple days of being open. It is a true blockbuster. And what's remarkable about it is the woman power involved here. This is the first female directed movie to open this large $100 million in the United States for a weekend. And kudos to Patty Jenkins, the director, who in fact has not directed a feature film since the Oscar-nominated movie Monster in 2003. 2003. It's a very long time. Oh, Eileen Warnows. Yes. And this is a completely different essential female character in a movie. And as she's done some TV stuff for sure, but this is her first feature film in that many years. And it is fantastic. It's just beautifully done. And, you know, I was telling somebody the other day, nothing shatters a glass ceiling like a $100 million battering ram. So this is already a big hit. And internationally, it's also a big hit. And cheers to Gal Gadot, who is the Israeli model-turned-actress. As Wonder Woman, her big screen expression of strength and compassion is absolutely inspiring. She is definitely the right woman for the right role. And this character has been around for a very long time. DC Comics has their big three, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. And Wonder Woman was introduced after Batman and Superman in the early 40s by a man named William Moulton Marston. And the character has this origin that's very heavy in Greek mythology. And she lived on this secluded island called Themyscira, or Paradise Island. They also called it No Men on the Island, just these tough and graceful Amazon women, including her mom, the facto mother, Queen Hippolyta, who was played in the movie by Connie Nielsen. And the queen, apparently longing to be a mother, forms a child out of clay, and Zeus breathes life into it, and that's Diana, Wonder Woman. So we get a little bit of that origin in the movie. But what we don't really get are all the lesbian and SNM undertones of the original comic book. I'm not joking, Wonder Woman was always being bound in these comic book stories one way or another. Her catchphrase was suffering Sappho. We all know the reference to Sappho. And, you know, that said, she eventually embraces, I guess, some sort of heterosexual dynamic by starting to hang out with Air Force pilot Steve Trevor, who is her romantic interest, and he is depicted in this World War I period piece that we're now seeing on our screens as the first human man to set foot on Paradise Island. He comes through a rift in the care and the fabric of the universe, the dimension where this island is located, and he's followed by angry German soldiers and sailors. And this brings Wonder Woman into contact with man's world, and she decides to go well war by following Steve Trevor back through the rift into, I guess, you know, 1918, 1919, whenever World War I was at its peak and fighting on the side of the Americans, the British, and I guess the French. And, you know, you get all the little superhero stuff. You get bullets and bracelets. She has bracelets and she can deflect bullets with them. She can sort of fly in a gentle, poetic way. She has a magic lasso of truth. If she wraps it around you, either you're going to boil from the heat of it or you're going to tell the truth. I mean, this is part of DC's current cinematic universe, which has produced these really heavy-handed bummers, man of steel about Superman, Batman versus Superman, which actually introduced Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and she was the best thing about that. Suicide Squad, terrible. And I've enjoyed Wonder Woman more than any of these films. In fact, any DC superhero movie since The Dark Knight, which was the Christopher Nolan Batman movie. I mean, Gadot has this special something that few actresses have other than, say, Audrey Hepburn. She has the ability to truly and sweetly convey compassion. I mean, it's remarkable to see. And it was exhilarating to watch her no matter what she did on the screen. She was in some John... Was it John Hamm movie with Zach Galifianakis, this half-ass action comedy keeping up with the Joneses? She was the best thing about that. And she and Chris Pine deliver throughout Wonder Woman. And as a character, it's funny. You know, she's a warrior, but she espouses a message of peace and she's trying to bring down the war mongers. All the messages are great here and all the personal character moments are lovely. And yeah, you know, there are CGI action sequences like there are in all superhero movies, but they're judiciously used in the service of the story, even the requisite final battle between her and the main villain. Mostly the film is this engaging origin story and you get the period social commentary. What's a woman doing in the man's business, basically? And there's these adorably humorous moments, romance, a lot of heart. And there are a few unobtrusive links to the other DC movies because she's going to show up again in the modern Justice League movie with Superman, Batman, Aquaman, The Flash, and the rest. That said, I really love this thing. Also, good supporting work in the movie from Robin Wright as her Amazon aunt, Danny Houston as a villainous German soldier and officer, David Tewis as a British, you know, a peaceful British government guy who's trying to broker peace with the Germans and support work from a really cool bunch of characters, character actors like Said Tomali from France, Ewan Bremner from England, and Elena Anaya, who's the Spanish actress who was in a couple of really cool films, at least one Amadovar film. She plays this kind of psychotic, villainous, poison-loving German scientist and look, dude, you may not like movies like this, but I give this the big thumbs up from me. I thought it was really worthwhile and a good lesson for young girls who want to go to an action movie and get inspired. Really? Is it violent? There are moments of violence, but there's no blood. Maybe that sends a bad message. You know, when you stab people, they should bleed, right? I, Daniel Blake. Well, I, Daniel Blake is a better movie than Wonder Woman, and that's saying a lot. It was the winner of the Palm Door at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and I think deservedly so. A decent widowed middle-aged working-class guy in the British industrial town of Newcastle, I guess what they make Newcastle Brown, gets jacked around by the government assistance people when he's laid low by heart problems. He's had a heart attack. He's in his late 50s, and he wants to get his modest life back on track. I mean, it's no surprise that the great populist lefty filmmaker, Ken Loach, is the guy behind this film. He's taking on the horrors and crushingly soulless nightmare of modern bureaucracy. This guy, by the way, Ken Loach, 80 years old, and still getting it done big time. This is not quite Kafka's. Daniel Blake tumbles down the rabbit hole of UK online forums and phone calls and case workers, and that's kind of familiar to anyone who has tried to deal with the U.S. unemployment compensation and the DMV and the IRS. So by chance, Blake meets a young unmarried mother of two kids at the assistant's office, and she's been hit by this hard luck, like poverty and circumstance, and Dan Blake is this kind-hearted, dedicated guy, and he tries to help her and the kids who lack money for food and the heat in their apartment, and they need emotional support. So despite all his troubles, he's there, and the show plays out, you know, in somewhat unexpected ways and heartbreaking ways and inspiring ways. A guy named Dave Johns, he's a comic actor who's unfamiliar to me, is absolutely great as Dan, and Haley Squires, who's a young actress who's only known to me from the British TV miniseries called The Midwife, and also another one called The Southcliff. She is wonderful as the unwed mother. This is heartbreaking stuff. It's genuine, and it's a little scary, and more than just a cautionary tale. I mean, it's a real 21st century tragedy playing out all around us, and it looks like things are going to get worse here in the real world, David. I mean, the desperation, quiet and otherwise, is palpable and devastating in I, Daniel Blake. A great and important film by a great and important director. The guy just turned 80, and he's making films as potent and moving and true as ever. In the wake of some really good ones like The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which was, I think, 2006, which was about the Irish War of Independence, and The Angels Share, like a mix of comedy, road movie, bloody pick and ensemble heist movie, about going to a distillery tour in Scotland and trying to get your hands on a precious blend of whiskey. That was one of his most recent films. He does a lot of different things, and he does them all well. And, you know, God bless if there is a God. Ken Loach. Nicely done. Handsome Devil Handsome Devil is a much more minor film. It's a coming-of-gauge story. It's a contemporary story about a boy named Connor and a boy named Ned. And Connor is a star athlete, and the new kid at the private school where Ned attends, who is constantly being bullied. He's a bit of an outsider, and they are thrust together as roommates. And it's an odd couple to be sure. Connor is going to be a part of the rugby team at the school, and the school reveres the rugby team and the rugby coach, who has given all this leeway with the students. But in fact, Connor has a secret, and the secret is that he likes boys. And all this is going to blow up in everybody's space eventually. You can't help but think so. So it works. Handsome Devil works, because the actors are terrific. They commit. The writer-director John Butler knows the material, knows the milieu, and does some fresh things with it. And again, the performances are really get-on. Fiona O'Shea as Ned, and Nicholas Galaxine as Connor are just pitch-perfect. And Andrew Scott, who most people know from the Sherlock TV show as Moriarty, is in this as a really well-liked and enthusiastic teacher of English and writing. And he himself is involved in the eventual problems that break out between Ned, Connor, and the rest of the people at the school. You know, if this is your cup of tea, I think it'll probably be good on streaming. You don't necessarily have to see it in the movie theater. It does have a sweetness to it. And you know, you kind of root for these kids. And I never felt that it was Mawkish, which says a lot about a movie like Handsome Devil. Let's talk about Band-Aid. Band-Aid is an American indie, which is basically directed by, written by, and co-starring Zoe Lister-Jones, a pretty talented young woman who is paired with Adam Polly, who's been in a number of TV series, usually playing kind of a doofus. And they are a couple that are embroiled in constant bickering. Their relationship is kind of falling apart. And the one way they think they can maybe come together and get past the angst and sadness where their marriage has been going is to start a band, because they both love music. So they recruit one of their neighbors as a drummer. The neighbor, by the way, played by Fred Armisen, and they begin performing. And they write songs that express the problems that they're having. Things don't easily go away in terms of their relationship difficulties. And they start wrapping everybody in their world into what they're dealing with. That's kind of ugly. Hannah Simone from New Girl, lovely, lovely actresses in this, in a supporting role. And also, there's a little bit of supporting work from Suzy Essman. Oh, she's going to be on the show. She's going to be on the show in two weeks. She's so not the character she plays on Curb Your Enthusiasm in Band-Aid. She's much sweeter and nicer. And, you know, this is a very impressive debut by Zoe Lister-Jones. It's well-modulated. It's never dull. It's always funny and charming and sweet. And there's a real patina of realness about this. You know, showing, you know, 20-somethings or 30-somethings involved in the rock and roll world, a husband and wife who are trying to get by, it's a nice touch. And I thought that Band-Aid worked on a lot of different levels. Is it a great film? No. But you actually buy Tally and Lister-Jones as the couple. You know, it's surprisingly good. Let's put it that way. I didn't expect a lot. It was surprisingly good. And finally, Churchill. Well, Churchill was the most disappointing of all these films that we're talking about today. And talk about Pedigree, the great Brian Cox is portraying British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. And if you're under the impression that it's a movie biography, no, it's not really. It's kind of a docu-drama about only a few days in Churchill's life with a few flashes forward and back. So it's a, shall we call this a ticking clock thriller? These are the 24 hours before D-Day, primarily. And Churchill basically doesn't believe it's going to work and wants to postpone D-Day. And as I understand it, those are historically accurate circumstances. And it's a scattershot docu-drama. And it has the pleasures of its two leads, Cox as Winston and Miranda Richardson as his wife Clementine Churchill. It has that and it has a muddled script which revolves around Churchill's, apparently waning instincts and faltering leadership potential, possibly undermining the ally's D-Day landing in Normandy. This is a story we don't necessarily know about. So I was kind of fascinated to see it, only it was not anywhere near as exciting and as engaging as it should have been, despite the skill of the actors. By the way, John Slattery from Mad Men plays Dwight D. Eisenhower in this film. Wow. Not bad, pretty nice, pretty cool. And, you know, let's be honest about this. Cox, like I said, sets a high bar. Everything I've ever seen him in, he's been great. And he's wonderful in this. It's just the script and the idea of just focusing on these few days undermines what could have been a more powerful film. He told a colleague of mine that he was inspired in his characterization by family guys on the font Teribes, Stewie Griffin. I'm kidding, I'm not kidding, really. As Churchill? Yes. That can't, I love that, but sure, why not? I actually said he told my friend Tim a fellow reviewer. Michael Snyder is the resident film critic here. Great job. We'll talk to you next week, sir. All right, buddy.