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The directing duo team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris played a nice game of doubles in helming the true-based story "Battle of the Sexes" into cinematic screens. The film is based on the infamous tennis match in the early 70's between sweetheart female lib tennis great Billie Jean King and the male chauvinistic retired Hall-of-Famer Bobby Riggs. But the movie is much more than that, it also stages themes of gender equal rights, estranged marriages, sports management, and scores as a LOVE letter to the early 70's. Emma Stone serves up another ace performance, here as King. Steve Carell was a bit outlandish, but still returned serve with a sound performance. The film also had an advantage of very good supporting performances from Elisabeth Shue as Riggs' wife, Sarah Silverman as King's manager, and Andrea Riseborough as King's lesbian lover. "Battle of the Sexes" matches up quite right, and was not "rigged". Give it a try! **** Good

Hey, I am always up for some daring & strange movies; but never did I expect the mother f**king rapid-fire lunacy of Darren Aronofsky's "Mother!". It's like if Darren took all the drugs he showcased in his classic "Requiem for a Dream" while writing and directing "Mother!"' OK, maybe it's not that crazy; wait, it is that crazy. Love it or hate it, the main tagline for this movie's ads are correct; there is no other movie like it, which it does not necessarily mean it's a good thing. This is the no-name defense I mean movie. There are no character names in the movie. "Mother!" stars Jennifer Lawrence as Mother. She is married to Him, as in Javier Bardem's character. Him and Mother live in a countryside solitary two story house. Him is a poet; Mother is a housewife; still with me? Him is like twenty years older than Mother; that sounds strange. Him and Mother start getting visits from zany strangers; primarily in particular a dying man named Man; but of course; and his rude wife named (you guessed it) Woman. Man and Woman are played by Ed Harris and Michele Pfeiffer. Then all of a sudden, "Mother!" goes into rapid fire "cray cray" mode with more strangers visiting Mother and Him. Listen, I do credit Aronofsky in his daring direction, but this was waaaay too much. It just gets bombarded and overflown with ludicrous scenes. Jennifer Lawrence, whose character gets quite a beating, was strong as Mother. And Michele Pfeiffer is always quite the Woman, and she acted the part also quite right as Woman. Bardem and Harris were modest, but I think they were outshined by their female counterparts. I do recommend quite a motherload of alcoholic beverages before experiencing "Mother!"; to say the least. *** Average

The latest Judd Apatow produced comedic offering is sick! OK, maybe not that sick great, but it is pretty good. I am referring to "The Big Sick" which stars Kumail Nanjiani (spell check, was that right?) as Kumail, a Muslim standup comic who moonlights as a Uber Driver. Kumail meets the perky Emily, wonderfully played by Zoe Kazan; and a romance blossoms. The problem is that Kumail's family (most notably his mother) pressures him to marry a Muslim woman; consequently Kumail breaks up with Emily cause of the Muslim fix thang. O yea, there is another problem; Emily gets a serious viral organ infection and ends up in a coma. Kumail feels guilty and becomes a visitor fixture in the hospital where Emily is comatosed. Enter Emily's parents, Terry & Beth; perfectly played by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter. And yes, awkward happens for Kumail! The incredible thing is that this really did occur to the real Kumail Nanjiani. Director Michael Showalter put on a good show in helming "The Big Sick" with various subtle comedic and tender moments. Nanjiani does play the part right; well, I guess he had to, it happened to him. But I think the scene stealers of the movie are Romano and Hunter. The scene where Terry is complaining about medical google searches all leading to a cancer diagnosis was a riot. I hope you were not too sickened with my review of "The Big Sick", so it's time to get your cinematic health up & rising by checking this flick out. **** Good