David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Julia Butters’

Freakier Friday

Director: Nisha Ganatra

Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julia Butters, Mark Harmon, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto, Chad Michael Murray

Running Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10  

Disney so needed a hit after the drama of Snow White early in 2025. Thankfully, Late Night and The High Note director Nisha Ganatra works her magic on the Freaky Friday sequel aptly entitled Freakier Friday.

Twenty two years after the first personality swapping comedy hit cinemas back in 2003, the original cast is back including Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls, The Parent Trap, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen) as record producer Anna Colman opposite her screen mother Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything, Everywhere All At Once) playing Tess Colman along with Anna’s petulant daughter Harper Coleman played by Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Sophia Hammons as Harper soon to be step sister Lily Reyes.

When successful music producer Anna meets charming restaurant Guru Eric Reyes played by Filipino star Manny Jacinta, there is a wedding planned with one big problem. Both Anna’s daughter Harper and Eric’s stuck up British daughter Lily cannot stand each other to the point of becoming Frenemies.

After a bizarre visit to a dodgy palm reader, mother and daughter and step sister and granddaughter all swop personalities offering up some hilarious results along with Curtis playing a teenage version of herself and Julia Butters expertly playing a much older version of her character.

Lindsay Lohan takes on her daughter’s personality and behaves like a 17 year old while Harper tries to take charge of her mother’s career.

Intergenerational conflict reaches new heights as the evil versions of Harper and Lily decide to break up the impending marriage of Anna and Eric even roping in Anna’s hot ex-boyfriend Jake played once again by Chad Michael Murray (House of Wax) who was also in the original film.

Despite the garish antics, Freakier Friday doubles the plot twists and ensures that the bizarre yet funny storyline stays fresh in a 21^st century Los Angeles drenched in the Instagram age. Fortunately Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan manage to rekindle their original onscreen chemistry.

While the male characters have very little to do in a predominantly female centred film, Freakier Friday does hit all the right notes providing a fresh and vibrant comedy about intergenerational female relationships which are both clingy, complex and competitive. Fortunately director Nisha Ganatra has the knack of keeping this film light and breezy ensuring that even the serious moments are touched with a light poignancy which doesn’t drag down the dazzling tone of the film.

Good to see Lindsay Lohan back in action and Freakier Friday is a fun filled frothy comedy which definitely is better than the original film. Freakier Friday gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is lush and lightweight. Recommended viewing for some comic relief.

The Fabelmans

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch, Gabriel LaBelle, Julia Butters, Mateo Zoryan, Julia Butters, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley

Running Time: 2 hours 31 minutes

Film Rating: 9 out of 10

Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) makes his most personal film by far, with the critically acclaimed film The Fabelmans which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), a sure indicator of multi Oscar nominations.

The Fabelmans is a fictional account of Spielberg’s childhood and his idyllic love of cinema and focuses on a boy Sammy Fabelman brilliantly played respectively by Mateo Zoryan as a young boy and Gabriel LaBelle as the teenager and wisecracking Jewish kid who turns his hobby of filmmaking into a career choice.

With an excellent script by Tony Kushner (Munich, Lincoln), The Fabelmans focuses on a Jewish family in America in the 1950’s and 1960’s starting in New Jersey and moving across the country first to Arizona and then finally to California. Sammy’s parents Burt and Mitzi Fabelman are played by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, 12 Years a Slave, There will be Blood) and four time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, Manchester by the Sea).

Michelle Williams finally deserves an Oscar for her complex portrayal of Mitzi Fabelman a slightly off kilter but talented mother who will do anything for Sammy and his three sisters but is willing to risk everything for true love.

Williams’s performance is mesmerizing in The Fabelmans and she creates the emotional centre for this film, particularly in the superbly acted scenes between Mitzi and her son Sammy as he negotiates adolescence and discovers a secret about his mother which will rip his family apart.

In between all the family drama, there is Sammy’s persistent love of cinema and his dedicated desire to film everything and in the end does capture every moment even the scenes that are not meant to be filmed. Even at high school besides being terrorized for being the only Jewish boy at a predominantly Christian school in Northern California he even films the Ditch Day at the Beach and makes one of his archenemies and school jock Logan Hall played by rising star Sam Rechner uncomfortable when he sees himself on screen.

Audiences should watch out for a superb cameo by veteran actor Judd Hirsch as Uncle Boris who influences young Sammy into following his dreams of becoming a film maker.

With superb cinematography by Spielberg regular and Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) and excellent ensemble acting, The Fabelmans is a love letter to traditional cinema, to the art of film making while effortlessly exploring serious issues including anti-Semitism, infidelity and mental health.

The Fabelmans is a top class film: elegant, nostalgic and perfectly acted. Highly recommended viewing, this excellent film gets a film rating of 9 out of 10 and signifies Spielberg’s undisputed persistence of vision as a top calibre film director.