Sugar and a chaperone: movies

Not as much to review as I’d expected due to the distractions of dealing with Plush Dudley’s caging.

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HENRY SUGAR (2023) is a Netflix Roald Dahl short in which the eponymous millionaire (Benedict Cumberpatch) learns how to psychically read cards, uses the skill to win big, then realizes that with great power comes great responsibility. With Ralph Fiennes as Roald Dahl, this was cute. “That would have been the appropriate ending if this had been a work of fiction.”

I rewatched my brother’s DVD of THE DROWSY CHAPERONE and once again enjoyed a lonely-middle aged narrator (my brother’s role) putting on the LP of a favorite 1920s musical wherein a Broadway star’s wedding is complicated by a scheming manager, mobsters (“They’re not scary unless you find dancers scary — which I do.”) and the groom roller-skating around the garden blindfolded. A satire of frothy 1920s musicals but also a salute to loving stuff even though we know it’s not A-list. And the metacommentary aspect works much better than Asteroid City did. “Monkey, monkey, monkey/You broke my heart in two/But I’ll always save that pedestal/for you!”

#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holders.