Always Good Movies

Direction: Jason Reitman
Country: USA

A fetching nostalgic triviality is the first thought that came to my mind after watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The director Jason Reitman (Juno, 2007; Whiplash, 2014), who shares writing credits with Gil Kenan, gives the best course to what his father - Ivan Reitman - began in 1984 with the first installment of the saga. In the same way, the central character, a 12-year-old scientist called Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), follows the footsteps of her deceased grandfather, the legendary ghostbuster Egon Spengler. She continues his legacy with the help of her brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and local classmates Podcast (Logan Kim) and Lucky (Celeste O'Connor).

With the background changing from New York to Oklahoma, the new ghostbusters - fully supported by Phoebe’s mom, Callie (Carrie Coon), and a technology-enthusiastic teacher, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) - chase down an insatiable Muncher, red-eyed demons, and the ancient eldritch Gozer the Gozerian (Olivia Wilde).

The nostalgia of the 1980s is revived with an old-school narrative and a genuinely adventurous predisposition. Moreover, it’s the electrifying and occasionally touching encounter between the four kids and the three veteran ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson) that gives the story a good stir. Harold Ramis, who played Spengler in the first two installments, passed away in 2014; Reitman pays him a beautiful tribute here.

The supernatural representations incorporate crazy-busy special effects but Reitman counterbalances that setback with cutesy scenes congested with inventive detail. Although basic, the whole can be pretty entertaining as a result of a certain magical candor and a few funny lines.

Directed by Jason Reitman
Country: USA

In Jason Reitman’s slow-burning “Tully”, Charlize Theron plays Marlo, an exhausted mother of three who goes through a middle-age crisis related to her most recent conception. Moreover, her quirky son Jonah needs a one-to-one aid but the school doesn’t pay for that service and the complaints about him seem to increase every day. Depressed and overwhelmed, her life changes for the better when her brother Craig (Mark Duplass) gets her an efficient if weird night nanny. Her name is Tully (Mackenzie Davis), an extravagant creature that soon forges an atypical bond with her employer, which can be either reparative or destructive.

All of a sudden, Marlo is calmer, less stressed and confident. She even hangs out with Tully in her old neighborhood in Bushwick, Brooklyn; and weirder than that, she deviates her from the regular tasks to sexually stimulate her husband Drew (Ron Livingston), who has a fetish for women in 1950s diner waitress uniforms.

The night they go out starts with an amusing drive at the sound of Cindy Lauper, but becomes severely toxic when they arrive at an underground club and the drunk Marlo jumps in sync with clangorous heavy-metal rhythms and then endures pain due to engorged breasts. However, that pain was infinitesimal when compared to the afflicting news that Tully is quitting.

This time, Reitman’s first-call writer Diablo Cody, who successfully penned “Juno” and “Young Adult”, couldn't guarantee him a favorable outcome. Playing with the tricks of the mind, “Tully” feels more contrived than astute, having the skilled group of actors working hard to avoid further damage.