Judy (2021)

If your impression of Judy Garland is that she was a kooky pill-popping drunk and terrible mum who abandoned her kids to chase money, then you are not wrong but this biopic contextualises that image, revealing the terrible effect upon Judy of her showbiz mum as well as the Weinsteinian influence upon her of numerous entertainment industry men, and really, how could anyone stay sober and on the rails standing each night in front of the theatre audiences of London, depicted in this movie as a schizophrenic group that laugh, laud and worship Judy one night, pepper her with tomatoes and boos the next before mawkishly serenading her the one after that!

★★★☆☆

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Case 39 (2009)

A bit like The Bad Seed crossed with The Omen only incredibly stupid, Case 39 stars Renee Zellweger as a child welfare worker who comes very quickly to the conclusion that the child murderers and abusers she encounters over the course of her job have good reason for wanting to stuff their devil's spawn into their gas ovens, and so she starts wanting to do the same.

★☆☆☆☆

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Jerry Maguire (1996)

As far as I can tell, the point of this entertaining but slightly mystifying feelgood comedy-drama is that there are corporate dangers in being authentic but enormous personal gains, as demonstrated by Tom Cruise's title character who through being too honest commits career suicide but falls in love with Renee Zellweger's Dorothy Boyd and becomes a successful agent to Cuba Gooding Junior's memorable football star Rod Tidwell.

★★★★☆

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New In Town (2009)

There are a lot of these corporate-city-slicker-ends-up-in-a-small-town comedies (Did You Hear About the Morgans?, Doc Hollywood, TV's Northern Exposure, City Slickers, etc), and lots of better ones than this harmless, not especially good one that gets by on mindless caricature and the not-very-convincing chemistry between leads Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr, but it is a perfect time-waster for, say, a long-haul flight or a hangover.

★★☆☆☆

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