We Live in Time The other movie I saw at the Violet Crown in Austin was We Live in Time. This was a solid movie that’s all but guaranteed to ensure nobody leaves the movie with dry eyes. The main cast of Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh are unsurprisingly top notch, and their chemistry is great.  I knew absolutely nothing about this movie going in, but the only warning I will give here is that the movie is described in some places as a romantic comedy and I DEFINITELY think that is misleading. There are some smiles and happy moments but they’re more organic and less about setup and punchlines you’d find in a typical rom-com. If anything, I suppose you could call this a romantic drama, but the subject matter is much more serious than the tag of rom-com would suggest.  It doesn’t do anything new or really unique, but it’s a solid enough movie that definitely will pull at your heartstrings.  Juror #2 Clint Eastwood, who directed Juror #2 is 94 years old, but man, does he still have the sauce. I really liked Juror #2 and I was hooked as soon as I knew the premise. Nicholas Hoult plays Justin Kemp, who, while serving as a juror in a high profile murder trial, realizes that he might actually be the one who committed the crime.  Now this isn’t some weird amnesia tale or something either, but I will let the details come through for you when you watch this movie. Aside from the solid direction, the cast here was great, but especially Nicholas Hoult in the lead role. I’ve seen Hoult in a ton of movies from the X-Men movies to last year’s Renfield with Nic Cage as Dracula, but this was the first time I’ve really thought Hoult was great instead of just serviceable in a role.  This is a complicated role to play that draws a lot of feelings from the audience, and he balances all of them perfectly here. Supporting him in this movie are JK Simmons as a fellow juror, Toni Collette as Faith Killebrew, who is running for District Attorney, and Chris Messina as Collette’s sparring partner and defense attorney.  I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this movie, but I want to highlight just how much I loved the ending of this one. No spoilers here, of course, but this movie is a difficult one to stick the landing on given the complex moral nature of its story, but when the credits hit, I let out an audible gasp because I couldn’t believe how well they ended this movie.  The only issue I have with this movie has nothing to actually do with the movie itself but the awful release it received thanks to the (lack of) brain trust over at Warner Brothers. This could very well be the last movie Clint Eastwood ever makes, it’s incredibly good, and they opted to give it an anemic theatrical run and stick it on Max instead. Clint deserves so much better and I really hope these creatives stop working with Warner Brothers until some massive changes take place because this is shameful.  Heretic I absolutely love Hugh Grant and I love to see him having so much fun in roles lately and Heretic is no exception. The setup is simple, two Mormon missionaries go to talk to Mr. Reed (Grant) and their conversation about God becomes much more than they bargained for.  I suppose that technically, yes, this is a horror film, but it really isn’t preoccupied with tricking you with lazy jump scares or anything like that. The movie is much more tense, and it’s the simplicity of everything that allows this tension to permeate throughout the movie. Our two missionaries played by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are incredibly solid, but it’s definitely Grant that gets to shine the most here. If you’ve seen some of his more recent performances, this one will feel similar to you, but he brings such a fun aspect to a character that is menacing because of his words and lack of action. He doesn’t play some brooding man interested in acting out violently; he’s an intellectual, and that feels fresh when so many horror movies are more in the former camp.  The only thing that really held this back for me was that the journey ultimately exceeded the destination and I felt that the questions the movie raised were more interesting than the answers the characters ultimately provided. With that said though, I saw this on the same day as Juror #2, and, like that movie, I really dug the very end of this one and the questions it leaves you with. Make sure to reach out after you watch this one, so we can discuss that ending! Small Things Like These Coming off of his Oscar win for best actor, Cillian Murphy followed up the giant critical and box office success of Oppenheimer with the much smaller Small Things Like These. Taking place in Ireland in 1985, Murphy plays a coal merchant named Bill Furlong. He’s a father of five who is well regarded as a fair and hard-working boss in his small community of New Ross. Furlong makes a startling discovery at the convent and struggles with what to do while coming to terms with his own past.  This movie deals with a different topic than you might expect with such a description, but it’s one that is no less heartbreaking. Unfortunately, though, it’s this grimness that makes it hard for me to really capture my feelings about this movie. It’s incredibly bleak and grim, not just in the content, but with the technical aspects as well. It’s slow, dark, grimy, gray, and depressing. This makes for some incredibly impactful moments surely, but it also makes it hard for me to be enthusiastic about recommending it. Similar to The Zone of Interest from last year, which was incredibly effective as a