Briefly (15 July 2026)

Movies Barbie (2023) D: Greta Gerwig. S: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, John Cena, Michael Cera. Director and co-writer Gerwig takes a doll Barbie (Robbie) into the real world to find her owner, whose sadness is spreading to Barbieland. Robbie’s disappointed how feminism and equality are going, but Ken (Gosling) is geeked for patriarchy. Always fun, usually smart, beautifully executed, with some outstanding musical numbers. Good to excellent performances abound. It’s a great time. The Commuter (2018) D: Jaume Collet-Serra. S: Liam Neeson, Patrick Wilson, Sam Neill, Florence Pugh, Jonathan Banks. Predictable smorgasbord of cop movie and thriller tropes has “regular” COMMUTER (and ex-cop) Neeson on a train, in a desperate situation, fighting unknown enemies and unable to trust anyone. Lots of familiar faces in the poorly written bit parts. Director Collet-Serra’s tiresome CGI-Hitchcock bit always remains competent. Not enough to get the film successfully home, however.…