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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘More the Merrier’ On Netflix, A Raunchy Spanish Comedy That Takes Place At A Sex Club

Where to stream:.

  • More the Merrier
  • Decider After Dark

Sexy Netflix Movies: 9 Steamy Netflix Original Movies

'supersex' episode 4 recap: 'life is porn', 'supersex' episode 3 recap: a star is porn, 'supersex' episode 2 recap: tune in, turned on, drop out.

Who doesn’t love a good comedy stocked with multiple storylines?  More the Merrier , now streaming on Netflix, follows several people and couples as they embark on an evening of sexual escapades — sexcapades, if you will — with most activities landing them in a swinger bar called Club Paradiso. This steamy Spanish comedy doesn’t shy away from the sexy stuff, and by the end of the evening, many of these characters discover more about themselves (and their respective partners) than they may have wanted to. 

MORE THE MERRIER : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: There’s a moment that changes your life – a spark, a fire in your belly, that pushes you over the edge in pursuit of pleasure. That’s exactly what Anfitriona (Ana Milán) tries to capture at her swingers’ club, Club Paradiso. She tells her patrons to leave their feelings at the door and come in for pleasure, and on this night, quite the crew of people come through those doors. There’s Raúl (Álvaro Cervantes), unimpressed by the porn he’s watching at home and in search of a glory hole, Belén (Melina Matthews) and Jaime (Raúl Arévalo), a shy couple looking for something to spice things up who happen to bump into Ana (Verónica Echegui) and Miguel, a club regular couple who may have more in common with the aforementioned pair than they know.

There’s also Clara (Anna Castillo), a club employee who brings her hot, uptight cousin Pablo (Miki Esparbé) along for a steamy night, and Alba (María León), who takes her BFF to frantically search Club Paradiso for her missing engagement ring. Not at the club this evening? Older couples Paco (Luis Callejo) and Marta (Maria Morales) and Alberto (Ernesto Alterio) and Claudia (Pilar Castro), a foursome having a dinner party the husbands hope will turn into much, much more. Over the course of the chaotic evening, the respective couples and individuals find themselves coming to some pretty surprising conclusions. There are sexual awakenings between more than a few people, and taboo encounters some might consider better left in the dark. One thing’s for sure, though; More the Merrier  is a shame-free zone, no matter how wild the desire.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?:  More the Merrier  and its multiple storylines might remind viewers a little bit of flicks like  Crazy Stupid Love , Valentine’s Day , and  Love, Actually , as well as various sex comedies.

Performance Worth Watching:  Carlos Cuevas is an utter delight as flirtatious bartender Iván, playing a crucial role in some of the film’s best banter scenes. He doesn’t get as much to do as the rest of the film’s ensemble, but he’s a consistent presence, offering a much-needed deadpan or eye roll when entitled patrons confront him. He also gets his moment to get sexy, too, and boy, does he play it well; Cuevas offers us the platonic ideal of a scene stealer, memorable enough to leave an impression, but not so big that we forget about the film’s more important characters.

Memorable Dialogue: Oh, boy, is there some silly dialogue in  More the Merrier , but this has gotta go to Alberto when he tries to soothe Paco about his sexual insecurities: “Does the size of the dick really matter? All that matters is the size of this thing here, your heart.”

Sex and Skin:   More the Merrier is allll about the sexy stuff; from the very beginning, there’s wild fantasy sex, sex at Club Paradiso, use of glory holes, Strip Truth or Dare, steamy swimming pools, and rooms bathed in various colored lighting for various sexual activities.  More the Merrier  is decidedly not for those looking for a more buttoned-up cinematic experience.

Our Take:  More the Merrier  doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie it is; it alternates between sex comedy and sex-positive dramedy, veering into extremely corny territory when it gets too earnest and into X-rated territory when it leans hard into some of the steamier scenes. The message at the heart of the film about erasing sexual shame and stigmas is a good one, but  More the Merrier  seems to struggle with how to present this. With the help of a narrator? With dramatic confrontations? With dramatically-lit sex scenes? It’s not that the multiple storylines are difficult to follow, but that the entire thing feels like a chaotic mess rather than a cohesive whole.

The ensemble does a stellar job with the often-confused script, putting on their best O-faces for the cameras and delivering laughs and heat where needed. It feels like a true ensemble, too, which is rare, especially because the film kicks off with the misdirection that the club owner may be our leading lady. At the start, everyone in More the Merrier  doesn’t quite seem to know what they’re looking for, but by the end of the evening, they all get what they need (even if those needs are unconventional). There is something to be said for everyone getting a happy ending (both literally and figuratively) here;  More the Merrier  almost plays as a raunchy farce, despite its tonal inconsistency. Moving from an outrageously hot or silly scene to closing narration like “sex and love are the most incredible gifts one can receive” is a perfect example of how bizarre a script  More the Merrier  really is, even with all the things it has going for it. With a few tweaks and trims,  More the Merrier  might very well have been a solid sex comedy. Unfortunately, as is, it doesn’t feel worth the time.

Our Call:  SKIP IT. While the actors certainly bring their best to the script and the sex-positive message is a welcome one, More the Merrier  doesn’t quite know what kind of movie it wants to be and fails to come together in the end.

Will you stream or skip the raunchy Spanish comedy #MoreTheMerrier on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) December 6, 2021

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines, hogging the mic at karaoke, and thirst-tweeting. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski .

Stream  More the Merrier  on Netflix

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movie review the more the merrier

movie review the more the merrier

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More the merrier, common sense media reviewers.

movie review the more the merrier

Raunchy Spanish comedy has lots of sex, language.

More the Merrier Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

At the end, voiceover preaches the virtues of bein

Not much depth to these characters -- just enough

Movie explores casual and consensual sex across va

Strong sexual content throughout. People shown hav

"F--k" often used, as a verb, as an exclamation. A

Booze drinking throughout. Wine and beer drinking.

Parents need to know that More the Merrier is a Spanish sex comedy in which five different stories tell the story of characters in search of the fulfillment of their sexual fantasies. The movie is on the verge of being softcore porn, is mostly set in a nightclub that is a club for swingers, and as such, there…

Positive Messages

At the end, voiceover preaches the virtues of being true to yourself and what you want rather than conforming to what is deemed "normal" by the narrow standards of society.

Positive Role Models

Not much depth to these characters -- just enough character development to explain their motivations for seeking casual sex.

Diverse Representations

Movie explores casual and consensual sex across various interests and sexual orientations.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Strong sexual content throughout. People shown having sex throughout the movie, usually without nudity, but almost always with orgasmic moans of pleasure; the end of the movie shows a montage close-up of all the different characters climaxing. Brief occasional nudity throughout -- female breasts, male buttocks. Man receives oral sex in a "glory hole" inside of a "swingers club." Woman shown receiving oral sex (moaning, no nudity). Characters swap partners. People shown having casual sex in hallways and backrooms of the club. Talk of orgies and threesomes. Most of the movie takes place inside a "swingers bar," where people enter looking to fulfill sexual fantasies of various kinds -- everything from partner swapping, to being tied up, to having anonymous sex, to watching partners having sex with others, etc. Scantily-clad men shown in videos on a dating app.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k" often used, as a verb, as an exclamation. Also: "c-m," "d--k," "d--kless," "t-t," "bitch," "damn," "crappy."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Booze drinking throughout. Wine and beer drinking. A woman and her friend return to the bar after being so drunk the night before, they blacked out and the woman lost her engagement ring. Cigarette smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that More the Merrier is a Spanish sex comedy in which five different stories tell the story of characters in search of the fulfillment of their sexual fantasies. The movie is on the verge of being softcore porn, is mostly set in a nightclub that is a club for swingers, and as such, there's strong sexual content throughout. Characters talk about or explore sex involving different partners, swapping partners, multiple partners. Talk of orgies, threesomes, masturbation. Brief nudity throughout -- female breasts, male buttocks. One story centers on a man receiving oral sex through a "glory hole" inside of the club. While there isn't as much nudity as one might think in a movie centered on sexual gratification, there are plenty of scenes in which characters are shown making orgasmic noises, and the end of the movie is a brief montage close-up of all the different characters having orgasms. Strong language throughout, including "f--k" used as both a verb and an exclamation. Cigarette smoking. Alcohol, beer, and wine drinking. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

MORE THE MERRIER presents five different stories that intersect and center on characters searching for new forms of sexual fulfillment. Two middle-aged best friends try to arrange a partner swap with their wives, only to discover that their wives have strong feelings for each other. A gay man finds a potential long-term boyfriend in the unlikeliest of situations, while striking up a conversation with the man who's performing oral sex on him through a gloryhole. A young woman who used to masturbate in the other room while her fast-living cousin was having sex takes her now-conservative businessman cousin to Club Paradiso, a "swingers club" where she hopes he'll return to his former self. A bored couple goes to Cafe Paradiso looking to swap partners, but the man is shocked to discover that the couple his wife wants to swap with includes his ex-girlfriend. A woman returns to Club Paradiso after blacking out the night before at her engagement party in search of the engagement ring she lost.

Is It Any Good?

This is a raunchy Spanish sex comedy with some messages on finding freedom and happiness through honest sexual fulfillment of one's fantasies. It almost seems inevitable that a movie like More the Merrier would emerge in the aftermath (or near aftermath) of Covid social distancing, isolation, and lockdowns. There are five intersecting stories with all the depth of softcore porn, with diverse characters (in terms of age and sexual orientation, anyway) looking for ways to spice up their stale love lives. And if you're not sure what the point of this movie is while watching it, don't worry, because the movie poster promises a "happy ending" for everyone, and if you're still not sure, each character is shown attaining orgasm in the movie's final montage.

Also at the end, the movie tries to tie in these five stories of wonton sexcapades with a voiceover editorial that champions consenting adults defining happiness and sexual gratification on their own terms rather than the restrictive dictates of society. As this is essentially a romcom for the polyamorous, it's a bit absurd to include such rhetoric. Regardless, this is obviously not a movie for the kids in the family.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the sexual content in More the Merrier . Where did it seem necessary to the stories and the overall message, and where did it seem gratuitous?

What is the movie trying to say about sex, love, relationships, and happiness? Do you agree or disagree? Why?

How do these five stories intersect, and how are they different from each other?

Movie Details

  • On DVD or streaming : November 30, 2021
  • Cast : Ernesto Alterio , Raul Arévalo , Luis Callejo
  • Director : Paco Caballero
  • Inclusion Information : Latino actors
  • Studio : Netflix
  • Genre : Comedy
  • Run time : 100 minutes
  • MPAA rating : NR
  • Last updated : February 17, 2023

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The More The Merrier Review

More The Merrier, The

26 Mar 1943

104 minutes

More The Merrier, The

A madcap attempt to carry the carefree screwball comedy of the 30s into a more serious wartime setting, making romantic fun of the dullest-sounding of all subjects, the housing shortage in Washington DC during the first months of World War II. Kindly old Charles Coburn does his best to play cupid for tough-talking single girl Arthur and amiable hunk McCrea, though the fact that they’re sharing a tiny flat leads to much friction before the inevitable final clinch. Stevens doesn’t quite have the light touch, but the cast is unbeatable: Coburn scooped a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Arthur rattles off funny dialogue like a machine gun.

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An eccentric older man, who sublets half of a very small apartment in wartime Washington from a young "government girl," plays Cupid after finding out she is single and tries matching her up with a handsome Air Force sergeant by persuading him to move in, too. Charles Coburn won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the matchmaker, and the film was nominated for Best Picture.

A delightful and effervescent comedy marked with terrific performances. It's set in Washington DC during WW II when there was a significant shortage of housing and single males in that city. Arthur is a single woman who lives by herself in a tiny apartment. To do her part in alleviating housing problems, Arthur sublets half of the place to Coburn. The old gentleman is an affable roommate but is distressed to see Arthur without some male companionship of her own age. Coburn decides it's his duty to fix her up with some nice young man, so he sets out to find a suitable prospect. Eventually he meets McCrea, an Air Force mechanic who's in Washington to pick up some orders for a special assignment. Coburn rents McCrea half of his space and of course all sorts of slapstick complications ensue. Though there are plenty of fights over privacy and space in the quickly shrinking apartment, Coburn is able to rise above the mayhem. His matchmaking is successful as Arthur and McCrea fall in love, uniting in marriage at the story's end. In lesser hands, this lighter-than-air farce could easily have gone flat, but under Stevens' skilled direction the three spirited leads pull it off. Using the small confines of the set with precision, Stevens builds up the tension (and thus laughter) between the Coburn-crossed lovers with a marvelous series of perfectly timed scenes. Like the characters in their cramped confines, situations seem to stumble into one another, building to a frenzied pitch. This was Stevens' last film before he entered the service himself, serving as a major in his position with the Army Signal Corps film unit. Arthur and McCrea play off each other in a fine display of comic acting. As the well-meaning Mr. Dingle, Coburn is nothing short of superb, stealing scene after scene with astonishing ease. Uncredited for his contribution to the screenplay was Garson Kanin, who came up with this script specifically to suit Arthur's comedic talents. Stevens was considerably impressed with Arthur, later remarking that she was "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen." THE MORE THE MERRIER often resembles a Frank Capra comedy in its situation and approach. Arthur, of course, had starred in several of Capra's social comedies in the late 1930s and there are a few references to those films here. However THE MORE THE MERRIER is certainly strong enough to stand on its own merits, a fine example of farce at its best. The film garnered Oscar nominations for Best Picture (losing to CASABLANCA), Best Actress (Arthur), Best Supporting Actor (Coburn), Best Director, Best Original Story, and Best Screenplay, with only Coburn coming up a winner. In 1966 the film was remade as WALK DON'T RUN, a rather dismal effort that provided an unsatisfactory conclusion to Cary Grant's wonderful career.

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More the Merrier

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movie review the more the merrier

Ernesto Alterio (Alberto) María Morales (Marta) Luis Callejo (Paco) Anna Castillo (Clara) Pilar Castro (Claudia) Miki Esparbé (Pablo) Carlos Cuevas (Iván) Verónica Echegui (Ana) Jorge Suquet (Miguel) Ricardo Gómez (Víctor) María León (Alba) Aixa Villagrán (Liana) Ana Milán (Anfitriona en club) Raúl Arévalo (Jaime) Álvaro Cervantes (Raúl) Melina Matthews (Belén) Ángela Cervantes (Victoria) Adrià Collado (Sergio)

Paco Caballero

A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery.

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Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, george stevens, jean arthur, joel mccrea, charles coburn, richard gaines, bruce bennett, photos & videos, technical specs.

movie review the more the merrier

Retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle comes to Washington and is greeted by a flurry of no vacancy signs, the result of a severe war-time housing shortage in the capital. Upon discovering that he must wait two days to occupy his hotel suite, Dingle scours the classified ads for room rentals. Arriving at a building to find a line of eager applicants waiting to rent the half-apartment described in the paper, the enterprising Dingle pretends to be the lease holder and dismisses the other candidates. When Connie Milligan, the real lease holder, arrives, she expresses reluctance to rent to a male roommate, but Dingle convinces her to grant him a week trial period. After Connie scurries to work the next morning, Dingle meets Sgt. Joe Carter, who has come to inquire about renting the room while he awaits his military assignment. Dingle offers to rent Joe half of his room, and when Connie returns home from work that evening, Dingle tries to conceal Joe's presence from her. Joe's barking in the shower attracts Connie's attention, however, and upon discovering her new tenant in the hallway, she becomes furious and orders both Dingle and Joe to leave. When they demand that she refund their rent, however, Connie allows them to stay because she has spent the money on a new hat. At breakfast the next morning, Joe finds himself attracted to his new landlady. After Connie reveals that she has been engaged for two years to bureaucrat Charles J. Pendergast, Dingle questions the delay and advises her to "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." Dingle, who has come to Washington as an advisor on the housing shortage, coincidentally meets the prosaic Pendergast the next day at a luncheon meeting and decides that Joe would be a better match for Connie. One day, Dingle discovers Connie's diary and begins to read aloud the pages that flatter Joe. When Connie discovers Dingle reading her diary, she denounces him and orders both Dingle and Joe to move out the next day. The following day, Connie returns home from work, and Joe gives her a farewell note from Dingle, absolving him of all blame in the diary incident, and then presents her with a traveling bag as an apology. Connie, who has become attracted to Joe, accepts the gift and agrees to let him stay until he leaves for his mission in Africa in two days. When Joe invites Connie to dinner that night, she demurs, saying that she must wait until eight o'clock for Pendergast's call. After the hour passes without a call from Pendergast, Joe and Connie prepare to leave when Connie's neighbor, teenager Morton Rodakiewicz, comes to ask her opinion about joining the Boy Scouts. Morton notices that Joe has taken the phone off the hook, and as soon as he returns the receiver to its cradle, Pendergast calls. As Connie leaves to join Pendergast in the lobby, Joe watches them through binoculars and Morton accuses him of being a spy. After driving Morton away by claiming to be a Japanese agent, Joe goes to meet Dingle for dinner. They arrive at the same restaurant where Pendergast and Connie are dining. When Dingle stops at their table with Joe, Pendergast, who is unaware of Connie's housing situation, invites the two to join them. Determined to unite Joe and Connie, Dingle suggests they dance while he and Pendergast discuss the housing shortage in his suite. On the dance floor, Joe is about to kiss Connie when they are interrupted by a group of Connie's man-hungry women friends. After Pendergast calls Connie to ask Joe to take her home, Connie extracts Joe from the clutches of his admirers, and they walk home together. On the steps outside their apartment building, Joe starts to caress Connie. Flustered, she begins to extoll Pendergast's virtues, and they kiss. Saying goodnight, they retire to their separate bedrooms. Through the wall separating their beds, Connie confides her doubts about marrying Pendergast, and Joe admits that he loves her and proposes. As they murmur endearments to each other, Evans and Pike, two FBI agents, burst into the apartment, having been alerted by Morton that Joe is a Japanese spy. The agents take Joe and Connie to headquarters and also summon Dingle, their ex-roommate, there. Dingle arrives with Pendergast in tow, and when Pendergast learns that Joe shares Connie's address, he is scandalized. After Joe is released when his commanding officer vouches for him, he, Dingle, Connie and Pendergast pile into a cab. Unknown to them, the other passenger in the taxi is a reporter. After accusing Pendergast of being interested only in his career, Connie angrily returns his ring. When the reporter leaves the cab at the headquarters of the Washington Post , Pendergast, terrified of a scandal, follows him. Dingle then advises Joe and Connie to marry quickly and file for an annulment to avoid a scandal. With only twenty-six hours remaining before Joe is to leave for Africa, the couple fly to South Carolina to wed. Upon returning home, the sobbing bride and her groom go to their separate bedrooms. As Joe and Connie nervously pace, they realize that Dingle has had the wall between their rooms removed, and they kiss. Dingle, who has been sleeping in the lobby with a group of roomless men, then steals up to their apartment door and changes the nameplate to read Mr. and Mrs. Sgt. Carter.

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The More The Merrier

The More the Merrier on DVD

There are two kinds of people - those who don't do what they want to do so they write down in a diary about what they haven't done and those who are too busy to write about it 'cause they're out doing it! - Benjamin Dingle

The working title of this film was Merry-Go-Round . According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, that title was changed to The More the Merrier based on the results of a nationwide survey. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Cleo Manning was to make her screen debut in The More the Merrier , but she does not appear in the picture. This was director George Stevens' last picture for Columbia before he joined the Army as chief of the combat photographic unit. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, the picture won the greatest number of hold-overs for a Columbia picture in the first week of release. Actress Jean Arthur and writer Frank Ross were married at the time that the film was made. Charles Coburn won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the picture. Also nominated were Arthur for Best Actress; Frank Ross and Robert Russell for Best Original Story; Ross, Russell, Richard Flournoy and Lewis R. Foster for Best Screenplay; and Stevens for Best Director. The film was also nominated for Best Picture. Arthur and Coburn had previously starred together in the 1941 RKO production The Devil and Miss Jones . According to modern sources, Garson Kanin also worked on the film's story. In 1966, Russell and Ross's story was remade by Columbia as Walk Don't Run , starring Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar and Jim Hutton and directed by Charles Walters (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1961-70 ; F6.5408).

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The More the Merrier

Review by theriverjordan Patron

The more the merrier 1943 ★★★½.

Watched Jan 17 , 2021

theriverjordan’s review published on Letterboxd:

Director George Stevens seems to be giving his legendary run of classic comedies a sweet sendoff in “The More the Merrier.”

The year of its release, he joined the army Signal Corps in WWII. When he returned, he shifted into creating dramatic films, and never made another full-length movie from the genre of his roots. 

“Merrier” is, then, a dignified au revoir to innocence from a director whose career was rent in two by his combat experience. Fittingly, it carries a tone of parting restraint - broken up only by some roguish mischief from Joel McCrea. 

“Merrier,” about cohabitation that builds to romance during a wartime housing shortage, makes no daring political advances, despite ample opportunities given its subject matter.

While stars Jean Arthur and McCrea both dipped into sharp satire under directors such as Capra and Sturges, Stevens settles with using them for sentimental but subdued patriotism.

It makes “Merrier” a less raucous ride from the two screwball masters, but Stevens seems to be safely tempering them to the times. America in 1943 wasn’t a place for farce, but farewells, and “Merrier” is a closed-lipped kiss goodbye to the golden era of Hollywood comedies. 

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More the Merrier

More the Merrier (2021)

A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery. A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery. A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery.

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  • Trivia The original poster features the sixteen main actors disposed as identity photo cards (all them nude making a sensual pose) in a 4x4 square. From left to right and from up to down these are: - Jorge Suquet , Melina Matthews , Raúl Arévalo and Verónica Echegui . - Carlos Cuevas , Ana Milán , María León and Aixa Villagrán . - Miki Esparbé , Anna Castillo , Álvaro Cervantes and Ricardo Gómez . - María Morales , Luis Callejo , Pilar Castro and Ernesto Alterio .
  • Soundtracks El Bellakeo Performed by Don Dixon By courtesy of Adiccting Records

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  • Runtime 1 hour 51 minutes

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Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier (1943)

(director: George Stevens; screenwriters: Robert Russell/Frank Ross/Richard Flournoy/Lewis R. Foster; cinematographer: Ted Tetzlaff; editor: Otto Meyer; music: Leigh Harline; cast: Jean Arthur (Connie Milligan), Joel McCrea (Joe Carter), Charles Coburn (Benjamin Dingle), Richard Gaines (Charles J. Pendergast), Bruce Bennett (Evans), Frank Sully (Pike), Don Douglas (Harding), Clyde Fillmore (Senator Noonan), Stanley Clements (Morton Rodakiewicz), Ann Savage (Miss Dalton); Runtime: 104; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: George Stevens; Columbia Pictures; 1943) “Charming wartime comedy that only veers towards the end into sentimentality.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

George Stevens (“Penny Serenade”/”The Talk of the Town”/”Shane”) directs with confidence this charming wartime comedy that only veers towards the end into sentimentality. Columbia boss Harry Cohn gave Stevens complete freedom on the pic, as he was anxious to have him stay at Columbia (this was his third and last film he was under contract to do for Columbia). The stars Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn were at the top of their game and worked well together. Coburn won an Oscar for Best Supporting actor, Arthur was nominated for Best Actress. The film was popular with the public and did extremely well at the box office. It was remade in 1966 and retitled Walk, Don’t Run with Cary Grant in the Coburn role, his last film. The remake pales considerably from the original. Its screwball comedy material is based on its being shot during WW2 when there was a serious housing shortage in Washington DC and that single women outnumbered the eligible men eight to one. The story was written by Garson Kanin at the request of Jean Arthur’s husband Frank Ross, a good friend of his fellow writer. Arthur was under suspension at Columbia by Harry Cohn, someone she hated for his ruthlessness, vulgarity and stinginess, for refusing the second-rate scripts he sent her and decided to come up with her own script. Kanin was in the service at the time and short on money, and Arthur promised to pay out of her own pocket if he wrote a pic for her. Cohn liked the script and agreed, but kept Kanin’s name off the credits. Ross was credited as one of the writers along with Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy and Lewis R. Foster.

Connie Milligan (Jean Milligan) is an uptight single woman working at a low-level entry office job for the government housing authority and living in a spacious apartment in Washington, D. C., and decides for patriotic reasons to rent out space in her apartment. Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) is an elderly retired millionaire who comes to Washington for a conference on the housing shortage that he’s asked to participate in for his hometown senator, but is told that since he came two days early his reserved suite at a luxury hotel cannot be honored until that time. The enterprising Dingle then outhustles all the applicants showing up at Connie’s doorstep to answer her ad in the newspaper for a room by pretending to be the lease holder and dismissing them by saying the room has been rented and then gets Connie to rent him a space even though she wanted a woman boarder. After going dizzy following the highly organized Connie’s ridiculously obsessive morning schedule, of when to use the bathroom, take in the milk and eat breakfast, she goes to work and he’s left home alone. When handsome clean-cut Joe Carter (Joel McCrea), an airplane mechanic from Burbank, California, shows up carrying a propeller and asks to rent space in the apartment, Dingle impulsively rents him half his space. At night when Connie finds Joe, she’s furious but relents when Dingle sweet talks her into accepting the innocent arrangement. Though Connie has been engaged the past 22 months to a housing bureaucrat chief named Charles J. Pendergast (Richard Gaines), Dingle acts as a meddlesome matchmaker trying to bring Connie and Joe together any way he could–which becomes the mainstay of the comedy in how he eventually brings them together in marriage before Joe ships out as a sergeant to Africa.

The fun is watching the trio operate together and trying to get along with each other though feeling uncomfortable in their tight quarters. There’s a very funny scene of them sunbathing on the rooftop and the boys reading the Dick Tracy comic strip, and the romantic scenes when Joe walks Connie home from dancing and they neck on the stoop of her house and later their bedtime conversation with only a thin wall separating the two beds onscreen.

Overall the film worked very well as both a farce and as melodrama, as the comical complications over wartime conditions and personal romantic affairs keep the film sparkling despite a few missteps into mush and too much burlesque.

REVIEWED ON 1/11/2007 GRADE: B

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The More the Merrier parents guide

The More the Merrier Parent Guide

Because of a housing shortage in Washington D.C., Miss Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) is forced to play host to Mr. Dingle (Charles Coburn). But her tiny apartment becomes a house divided when the middle-aged businessman (and self-appointed cupid) takes the liberty of sharing her hospitality with the young, handsome and homeless Joe Carter (Joel McCrea).

Why is The More the Merrier rated Not Rated? The MPAA rated The More the Merrier Not Rated

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by donna gustafson.

Retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) travels to Washington D.C. to consult with Senator Noonan (Clyde Fillmore) about the housing shortages caused by an influx of people in the capital during World War II. But he comes face-to-face with the reality of the no vacancies crisis when he arrives two days early for his appointment and is informed there is no room for him at the inn.

Without a place to stay until his reservation date, the capable older gentleman seeks shelter by answering an advertisement for a roommate situation. Eliminating any possible competition, he pushes his way into the apartment of Miss Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur), despite her objections over renting to the opposite gender.

As luck would have it, he runs into just the right sort of eligible bachelor the very next morning. Because Joe Carter (Joel McCrea) is also looking for somewhere to stay, Mr. Dingle sublets the other half of the guest bedroom he is renting from Miss Milligan. Of course he neglects to mention the existence of Connie to Joe, or of Joe to Connie. With a twinkle in his eye, the conniving old busybody seems pretty confident that amidst the sure to ensue hi-jinx and hilarity, romance will bloom. However, a single woman living with two unmarried gents is fertile ground for rumors and scandal too.

While a grasp of these negative implications is essential to understanding the plot, the movie does not depict any sexual content more obvious than a few slightly immodest female costumes, a shot of a man’s bare chest as he gets into the shower, and a passionate kiss. Also, in a reverse portrayal of the social norm, one scene shows a room full of women whistling at a handsome man. Other concerns include the repeated reciting of an expression containing a mild profanity, a lead character who smokes a pipe and the use of a racial slur typical to the time period in which this film was made.

Nominated in 1943 for six Academy Awards, Charles Coburn took home an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, thanks to his charming characterization of the film’s cherubic-like cupid. Although the performances by Arthur and McCrea are sometimes a little melodramatic, when it comes to the slapstick humor, all I can say is— The More the Merrier.

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The more the merrier parents' guide.

Connie Milligan announces she has a fiance who has a good wage and an up and coming career. In Mr. Dingle’s opinion, what is her soon-to-be husband missing? In your opinion, what are the most important qualities to look for in a prospective spouse?

Mr. Dingle often quotes Admiral David Farragut’s classic statement, which roughly translates to—Forget the consequences, and proceed with haste. To learn more about this historical figure, check out this website .

The most recent home video release of The More the Merrier movie is November 1, 2004. Here are some details…

DVD Release Date: 2 November 2004

The More the Merrier is now available on DVD, The black and white film comes in a full screen presentation, with close captioning.

Related home video titles:

Jean Arthur, whose silver screen career spanned several decades, can also be seen in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington .

IndieWire

The Best Movies New to Every Major Streaming Platform in March 2024

Posted: March 8, 2024 | Last updated: March 13, 2024

<p>Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms caters to its own niche of film obsessives.</p> <p>From the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel to the new frontiers of streaming offered by the likes of Ovid and Peacock, IndieWire’s monthly guide highlights the best of what’s coming to every major streamer, with an eye toward exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.</p> <p>Here is your guide for March 2024.</p>

Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour - Mexico City, Mexico

Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms caters to its own niche of film obsessives.

From the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel to the new frontiers of streaming offered by the likes of Ovid and Peacock, IndieWire’s monthly guide highlights the best of what’s coming to every major streamer, with an eye toward exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here is your guide for March 2024.

<p>Apple TV+ subscribers think they’re so great because they have BOATS. Ridley Scott’s latest — and funniest — historical epic comes to streaming this month, so everyone who missed “Napoleon” in theaters will finally have a chance to watch Joaquin Phoenix get cucked on an imperial scale and think to themselves: “I bet the long-promised director’s cut of this is going to be so much better.” There’s no doubt that it will be, but for now, this ain’t bad. </p> <p><em>Available to stream March 1.</em></p>

“Napoleon” (dir. Ridley Scott, 2023)

Apple TV+ subscribers think they’re so great because they have BOATS. Ridley Scott’s latest — and funniest — historical epic comes to streaming this month, so everyone who missed “Napoleon” in theaters will finally have a chance to watch Joaquin Phoenix get cucked on an imperial scale and think to themselves: “I bet the long-promised director’s cut of this is going to be so much better.” There’s no doubt that it will be, but for now, this ain’t bad. 

Available to stream March 1.

<p>As usual, Disney+’s monthly slate is mighty light on original content, and — as usual — the streamer is banking on a single movie to make up for it. This March, however, that movie is probably more than enough to get the job done. Everything about “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” suggests that it should be the biggest thing on streaming for the foreseeable future. Exclusivity? Check. A long, appetite-whetting window between its blockbuster theatrical release and its home video debut? Check. A degree of rewatchability that’s typically reserved for kids fare like “Bluey?” Swifties are going to stream this thing on such a constant loop that it’s going to feel like part of the wallpaper. Compared to what it cost to see Taylor in concert last year, that ever-increasing Disney+ subscription fee suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. </p> <p><em>Available to stream March 15.</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “Madu” (3/29)</em></p>

“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) (dir. Sam Wrench, 2023)

As usual, Disney+’s monthly slate is mighty light on original content, and — as usual — the streamer is banking on a single movie to make up for it. This March, however, that movie is probably more than enough to get the job done. Everything about “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” suggests that it should be the biggest thing on streaming for the foreseeable future. Exclusivity? Check. A long, appetite-whetting window between its blockbuster theatrical release and its home video debut? Check. A degree of rewatchability that’s typically reserved for kids fare like “Bluey?” Swifties are going to stream this thing on such a constant loop that it’s going to feel like part of the wallpaper. Compared to what it cost to see Taylor in concert last year, that ever-increasing Disney+ subscription fee suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. 

Available to stream March 15.

Other highlights:

– “Madu” (3/29)

<p>The Razzies have always been a dumb and misguided endeavor (one that blessedly seems less popular than ever these days), but the anti-Oscars have finally served a meaningful purpose for the first time since giving us that clip of Halle Berry showing up to claim her Worst Actress prize for “Catwoman.” That purpose: Providing a useful context for the Criterion Channel to package some of the most unfairly maligned films of the last 40 years into a single retrospective… a retrospective that allows Tom Green’s “Freddy Got Fingered” to take its rightful place on the hallowed streaming platform alongside the work of masters like Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa. Daddy, would you like some sausage? Well, it’s time to eat up (other must-watch standouts from the package include Friedkin’s “Cruising,” Fassbinder’s “Querelle,” and Brest’s “Gigli,” which is both a lot better and so much worse than you may have heard). </p> <p>Never one to let a single retro hog the spotlight, the Channel has also put together a tribute to method acting that spans from the 1927 Lon Chaney vehicle “The Unknown” to “The Master” and Robert Greene’s “Kate Plays Christine,” a Jane Russell series that includes the likes of “Macao” and “The Tall Men,” and an essential spotlight on the early films of Hou Hsiao-hsien (which inspired the great <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/news/obituary/david-bordwell-dead-film-scholar-1234959386/">David Bordwell’s final blog post</a> before his recent death). Also, be sure to put aside three hours for Claire Simon’s remarkable “Our Body,” an observational documentary that sees the entire world and the way women are forced to navigate through it from within the gynecology ward of a Paris hospital.</p> <p><em>All movies available to stream March 1.</em></p>

“Freddy Got Fingered” (dir. Tom Green, 2001)

The Razzies have always been a dumb and misguided endeavor (one that blessedly seems less popular than ever these days), but the anti-Oscars have finally served a meaningful purpose for the first time since giving us that clip of Halle Berry showing up to claim her Worst Actress prize for “Catwoman.” That purpose: Providing a useful context for the Criterion Channel to package some of the most unfairly maligned films of the last 40 years into a single retrospective… a retrospective that allows Tom Green’s “Freddy Got Fingered” to take its rightful place on the hallowed streaming platform alongside the work of masters like Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa. Daddy, would you like some sausage? Well, it’s time to eat up (other must-watch standouts from the package include Friedkin’s “Cruising,” Fassbinder’s “Querelle,” and Brest’s “Gigli,” which is both a lot better and so much worse than you may have heard). 

Never one to let a single retro hog the spotlight, the Channel has also put together a tribute to method acting that spans from the 1927 Lon Chaney vehicle “The Unknown” to “The Master” and Robert Greene’s “Kate Plays Christine,” a Jane Russell series that includes the likes of “Macao” and “The Tall Men,” and an essential spotlight on the early films of Hou Hsiao-hsien (which inspired the great David Bordwell’s final blog post before his recent death). Also, be sure to put aside three hours for Claire Simon’s remarkable “Our Body,” an observational documentary that sees the entire world and the way women are forced to navigate through it from within the gynecology ward of a Paris hospital.

All movies available to stream March 1.

<p>It’s a big month for Hulu subscribers, as two of the year’s strongest Best Picture nominees are coming to the service in addition to one of the greatest movies from the director of this year’s inevitable Best Picture winner, Christopher Nolan (I can see the future, and it’s pretty much just Ludwig Göransson’s score blaring through the Dolby Theater on a constant loop as several reserved European men and Robert Downey Jr. walk up to the stage). “Poor Things” would be enough to backstop a fantastic new release slate on its own, but “Anatomy of a Fall” is perhaps the most exciting Hulu exclusive this month.</p> <p>When was the last time a French legal drama was able to break through to a mainstream audience, get nominated for just about every American movie award, and inspire more fancams than a CW show during the glory days of Tumblr? (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please take a moment to google Swann Arlaud). Now that America is starting to get over its aversion to subtitles, this — largely English-language — is poised to become an even bigger sensation.</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 22.</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “Dunkirk” (3/1)<br> – “Goodfellas” (3/1)<br> – “Poor Things” (3/7)<br> </em></p>

“Anatomy of a Fall” (dir. Justine Triet, 2023)

It’s a big month for Hulu subscribers, as two of the year’s strongest Best Picture nominees are coming to the service in addition to one of the greatest movies from the director of this year’s inevitable Best Picture winner, Christopher Nolan (I can see the future, and it’s pretty much just Ludwig Göransson’s score blaring through the Dolby Theater on a constant loop as several reserved European men and Robert Downey Jr. walk up to the stage). “Poor Things” would be enough to backstop a fantastic new release slate on its own, but “Anatomy of a Fall” is perhaps the most exciting Hulu exclusive this month.

When was the last time a French legal drama was able to break through to a mainstream audience, get nominated for just about every American movie award, and inspire more fancams than a CW show during the glory days of Tumblr? (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please take a moment to google Swann Arlaud). Now that America is starting to get over its aversion to subtitles, this — largely English-language — is poised to become an even bigger sensation.

Available to stream March 22.

– “Dunkirk” (3/1) – “Goodfellas” (3/1) – “Poor Things” (3/7)

<p>Well there’s chocolate, and there’s choc-o-late, and Paul King’s mega-successful follow-up to “Paddington 2” certainly proved to be the latter, despite months of understandable pre-release negativity around the idea of a musical origin story starring Timothée Chalamet as cinema’s most demented candyman. Hot on the heels of its blockbuster theatrical run, “Wonka” is making its way to streaming, where it stands a decent chance of cementing its status as the first new holiday classic since “Elf” (one look at Hugh Grant’s oompa-loompa is enough to know that there’s no trace of God in this film, but yes, “Wonka” <em>is</em> a Christmas movie, and no, I will not be taking any questions on the matter at this time).</p> <p>For those less enamored by the idea of watching Paul Atreides milk a computer-generated giraffe, Max is also premiering the wickedly clever “Dream Scenario” along with other A24 hits like “Good Time” (RIP Buddy Duress) and “The Green Knight.”</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 8.</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “Good Time” (3/1)<br> – “The Green Knight” (3/1)<br> – “Dream Scenario” (3/15)</em></p>

“Wonka” (dir. Paul King, 2023)

Well there’s chocolate, and there’s choc-o-late, and Paul King’s mega-successful follow-up to “Paddington 2” certainly proved to be the latter, despite months of understandable pre-release negativity around the idea of a musical origin story starring Timothée Chalamet as cinema’s most demented candyman. Hot on the heels of its blockbuster theatrical run, “Wonka” is making its way to streaming, where it stands a decent chance of cementing its status as the first new holiday classic since “Elf” (one look at Hugh Grant’s oompa-loompa is enough to know that there’s no trace of God in this film, but yes, “Wonka” is a Christmas movie, and no, I will not be taking any questions on the matter at this time).

For those less enamored by the idea of watching Paul Atreides milk a computer-generated giraffe, Max is also premiering the wickedly clever “Dream Scenario” along with other A24 hits like “Good Time” (RIP Buddy Duress) and “The Green Knight.”

Available to stream March 8.

– “Good Time” (3/1) – “The Green Knight” (3/1) – “Dream Scenario” (3/15)

<p>IndieWire Managing Editor Christian Blauvelt was the first person on staff to see Felipe Gálvez’s “The Settlers” before it premiered at Cannes last year, and <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-settlers-review-chilean-western-1234865010/">he couldn’t stop raving</a> to the rest of the team about how the Un Certain Regard premiere would be one of the best movies at a festival that also went on to produce the likes of “May December” and “The Zone of Interest.”</p> <p>When MUBI released the Chilean Western last fall, Christian leapt at the chance to review this story about a wealthy landowner who recruits a Scotsman to exterminate the Indigenous Selk’nam people on his land in Tierra del Fuego. </p> <p>Calling it “one of the most chilling art-Westerns to come along in some time,” <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-settlers-review-chilean-western-1234865010/">Christian wrote that</a> “‘The Settlers’ may remind some viewers of a Budd Boetticher film when they’re watching it: following three men on horseback on a cross-country journey, it dramatizes questions of identity and belonging, and how these things can be written in violence. Most Boetticher-like, in a tight 98 minutes ‘The Settlers’ says more than a lot of films double its length. It’s also a deeply felt work of activism with a message that needs to be heard in Chile. Just as nothing about the Pinochet coup in 1973 or the resulting dictatorship is taught in Chilean schools today, so is nothing about the genocide of the Selk’nam, a culture that is considered extinct, with only one living person today able to speak their language. This is a film that shows that, as easy as it is to forget about the past, it’s easier still when it was never taught in the first place.”</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 29.</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights: </em></p> <p><em>– “Goodbye, First Love” (3/1)<br> – “Ishtar” (3/1)<br> – “Mami Wata” (3/22)</em></p>

“The Settlers” (dir. Felipe Gálvez, 2023)

IndieWire Managing Editor Christian Blauvelt was the first person on staff to see Felipe Gálvez’s “The Settlers” before it premiered at Cannes last year, and he couldn’t stop raving to the rest of the team about how the Un Certain Regard premiere would be one of the best movies at a festival that also went on to produce the likes of “May December” and “The Zone of Interest.”

When MUBI released the Chilean Western last fall, Christian leapt at the chance to review this story about a wealthy landowner who recruits a Scotsman to exterminate the Indigenous Selk’nam people on his land in Tierra del Fuego. 

Calling it “one of the most chilling art-Westerns to come along in some time,” Christian wrote that “‘The Settlers’ may remind some viewers of a Budd Boetticher film when they’re watching it: following three men on horseback on a cross-country journey, it dramatizes questions of identity and belonging, and how these things can be written in violence. Most Boetticher-like, in a tight 98 minutes ‘The Settlers’ says more than a lot of films double its length. It’s also a deeply felt work of activism with a message that needs to be heard in Chile. Just as nothing about the Pinochet coup in 1973 or the resulting dictatorship is taught in Chilean schools today, so is nothing about the genocide of the Selk’nam, a culture that is considered extinct, with only one living person today able to speak their language. This is a film that shows that, as easy as it is to forget about the past, it’s easier still when it was never taught in the first place.”

Available to stream March 29.

Other highlights: 

– “Goodbye, First Love” (3/1) – “Ishtar” (3/1) – “Mami Wata” (3/22)

<p>As amusing as it is that Netflix is streaming “Bodies Bodies Bodies” the day before the release of the platform’s mega-budget new sci-fi show “3 Body Problem,” and as oddly compelling as it is to <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/spaceman-review-adam-sandler-netflix-1234955918/">watch a sad Czech astronaut played by Adam Sandler</a> open his heart to a fourth-dimensional alien spider who sounds a lot like Paul Dano, none of the original — or at least temporarily exclusive — movies on Netflix’s March release slate are as exciting as the millennial classics that will be streaming alongside them.</p> <p>Carl Franklin’s “Devil in a Blue Dress” just missed the cut for <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/best-90s-movies/">IndieWire’s list of the 100 Best Movies of the ’90s</a>, while “Beverly Hills Ninja,” well… that one wasn’t really in contention, but even Chris Farley’s least iconic films only seem to get funnier with every passing year.</p> <p>And if we ever get around to celebrating the aughts, I can guarantee that Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Love & Basketball” will be a major topic of conversation, as that long under-appreciated sports romance has finally been canonized as the modern classic that it is. If you haven’t picked up the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray, Netflix would be happy to remind you why you should.</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 1.</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “Beverly Hills Ninja” (3/1)<br> – “Devil in a Blue Dress” (3/1)<br> – “Spaceman” (3/1)<br> </em></p>

“Love & Basketball” (dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2000)

As amusing as it is that Netflix is streaming “Bodies Bodies Bodies” the day before the release of the platform’s mega-budget new sci-fi show “3 Body Problem,” and as oddly compelling as it is to watch a sad Czech astronaut played by Adam Sandler open his heart to a fourth-dimensional alien spider who sounds a lot like Paul Dano, none of the original — or at least temporarily exclusive — movies on Netflix’s March release slate are as exciting as the millennial classics that will be streaming alongside them.

Carl Franklin’s “Devil in a Blue Dress” just missed the cut for IndieWire’s list of the 100 Best Movies of the ’90s , while “Beverly Hills Ninja,” well… that one wasn’t really in contention, but even Chris Farley’s least iconic films only seem to get funnier with every passing year.

And if we ever get around to celebrating the aughts, I can guarantee that Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Love & Basketball” will be a major topic of conversation, as that long under-appreciated sports romance has finally been canonized as the modern classic that it is. If you haven’t picked up the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray, Netflix would be happy to remind you why you should.

– “Beverly Hills Ninja” (3/1) – “Devil in a Blue Dress” (3/1) – “Spaceman” (3/1)

<p>“If you unearthed a glittery demon with one hairy arm who awakened your deepest desires from the third eye between her legs, what lengths would you travel to find her again?” So begins former IndieWire writer <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/after-blue-review-lesbian-scifi-1234669878/">Jude Dry’s review</a> of Bertrand Mandico’s seductive and ethereal “After Blue,” which only becomes more intriguing from there. </p> <p>Jude continues: “Set on a fantasy planet where only women can survive the harsh climate, the adventure follows a mother and daughter on a grueling journey to find and kill the evil ‘Kate Bush,’ rumored to be death herself. One part ‘Annihilation,’ one part ‘The Love Witch,’ and cast under the veneer of a sadistic ‘The NeverEnding Story, the film creates a lush — sometimes grotesque — alternate universe ruled by unique rules, creatures, and longings. Love it or hate it, you’ve never seen anything quite like ‘After Blue.’”</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 21</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege” (3/7)<br> – “Violet” (3/8)</em></p>

“After Blue” (dir. Bertrand Mandico, 2021)

“If you unearthed a glittery demon with one hairy arm who awakened your deepest desires from the third eye between her legs, what lengths would you travel to find her again?” So begins former IndieWire writer Jude Dry’s review of Bertrand Mandico’s seductive and ethereal “After Blue,” which only becomes more intriguing from there. 

Jude continues: “Set on a fantasy planet where only women can survive the harsh climate, the adventure follows a mother and daughter on a grueling journey to find and kill the evil ‘Kate Bush,’ rumored to be death herself. One part ‘Annihilation,’ one part ‘The Love Witch,’ and cast under the veneer of a sadistic ‘The NeverEnding Story, the film creates a lush — sometimes grotesque — alternate universe ruled by unique rules, creatures, and longings. Love it or hate it, you’ve never seen anything quite like ‘After Blue.’”

Available to stream March 21

– “Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege” (3/7) – “Violet” (3/8)

<p>I may not be the world’s biggest Denis Villeneuve fan (I’m told that <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/dune-part-two-movie-review-1234955419/">my negative review of “Dune: Part Two”</a> didn’t sit well with the kind of people who plan their holy wars around Rotten Tomatoes scores), but I’m happy to join the love parade whenever he directs something with enough humanity to offset his signature bombast. Ironically, it took a movie about aliens for Villeneuve to really wrap his arms around what makes people tick.</p> <p>A very good Ted Chiang adaptation that stops just short of greatness thanks to a bunch of third act mishegoss (endless love for Michael Stuhlbarg, but the story gets snagged on his character like a plastic bag on a tree branch), “Arrival” epitomizes Villeneuve’s enduring fascination with cycles of violence and the cold recognition of fate. In this case, that cycle is on a cosmic scale, but — with major assists from Amy Adams and Max Richter — it registers on crushingly intimate terms as well.</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 1.</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “The Last Temptation of Christ” (3/1)<br> – “Tár” (3/27)<br> – “Jackie Brown” (3/31)</em></p>

“Arrival” (dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2016)

I may not be the world’s biggest Denis Villeneuve fan (I’m told that my negative review of “Dune: Part Two” didn’t sit well with the kind of people who plan their holy wars around Rotten Tomatoes scores), but I’m happy to join the love parade whenever he directs something with enough humanity to offset his signature bombast. Ironically, it took a movie about aliens for Villeneuve to really wrap his arms around what makes people tick.

A very good Ted Chiang adaptation that stops just short of greatness thanks to a bunch of third act mishegoss (endless love for Michael Stuhlbarg, but the story gets snagged on his character like a plastic bag on a tree branch), “Arrival” epitomizes Villeneuve’s enduring fascination with cycles of violence and the cold recognition of fate. In this case, that cycle is on a cosmic scale, but — with major assists from Amy Adams and Max Richter — it registers on crushingly intimate terms as well.

– “The Last Temptation of Christ” (3/1) – “Tár” (3/27) – “Jackie Brown” (3/31)

<p>Arriving a few years ahead of the Early Aughts Spoof Boom (you all remember that, right?), the unfettered meta genius of “Not Another Teen Movie” has been largely subsumed into the wretched likes of “Epic Movie,” “Disaster Movie,” and the rest of the witless parodies that followed in its wake. In truth, it should be a felony to mention those ghastly imitations in the same breath as Joel Gallen’s masterpiece, and I will gladly spend the rest of my life in jail if that’s what it takes to make this point.</p> <p>A self-reflexive send-up of “She’s All That,” “Bring it On,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” and every other high school comedy since “The Breakfast Club,” “Not Another Teen Movie” so thoroughly skewered its subject that Hollywood had to rethink the entire genre (for better or worse).</p> <p>Get past the gross-out gags and a handful of offensive punchlines, and you’ll be treated to the densest and most detailed satire of its kind since the likes of “The Naked Gun,” in addition to (what’s still) the funniest performance of Chris Evans’ career. But fair warning for the faint of heart: Watching “Not Another Teen Movie” means having to look at Janey Briggs for the better part of 90 minutes, and she can be a lot to stomach. As the great Jake Wyler once described the most abominable reject in his senior class: “She’s got paint on her overalls. What is that?!?” It’s disgusting, is what that is. But that’s the magic of this movie. By the time it’s over, you somehow believe that a swamp thing like her could actually become prom queen.</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 1.</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “Inside Llewyn Davis” (3/1)<br> – “Sleeping with Other People” (3/11)<br> – “Carol” (3/19)</em></p>

“Not Another Teen Movie” (dir. Joel Gallen, 2001)

Arriving a few years ahead of the Early Aughts Spoof Boom (you all remember that, right?), the unfettered meta genius of “Not Another Teen Movie” has been largely subsumed into the wretched likes of “Epic Movie,” “Disaster Movie,” and the rest of the witless parodies that followed in its wake. In truth, it should be a felony to mention those ghastly imitations in the same breath as Joel Gallen’s masterpiece, and I will gladly spend the rest of my life in jail if that’s what it takes to make this point.

A self-reflexive send-up of “She’s All That,” “Bring it On,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” and every other high school comedy since “The Breakfast Club,” “Not Another Teen Movie” so thoroughly skewered its subject that Hollywood had to rethink the entire genre (for better or worse).

Get past the gross-out gags and a handful of offensive punchlines, and you’ll be treated to the densest and most detailed satire of its kind since the likes of “The Naked Gun,” in addition to (what’s still) the funniest performance of Chris Evans’ career. But fair warning for the faint of heart: Watching “Not Another Teen Movie” means having to look at Janey Briggs for the better part of 90 minutes, and she can be a lot to stomach. As the great Jake Wyler once described the most abominable reject in his senior class: “She’s got paint on her overalls. What is that?!?” It’s disgusting, is what that is. But that’s the magic of this movie. By the time it’s over, you somehow believe that a swamp thing like her could actually become prom queen.

– “Inside Llewyn Davis” (3/1) – “Sleeping with Other People” (3/11) – “Carol” (3/19)

<p>Doug Liman’s “Road House” remake is obviously Prime Video’s biggest get this month (see this SXSW-opening, throat-ripping crowd-pleaser as it was meant to be seen: While watching Mormon tradwife cooking TikToks on the “For You” tab of your Twitter page), and yet Kinji Fukasaku’s ultra-provocative “Battle Royale” demands special attention, as this proto-“Hunger Games” satire about a class of Japanese high school students stranded on a remote island and forced to fight to the death had been so hard to see in the United States until it started bouncing between the various streamers.</p> <p>America can stomach the idea of school kids shooting each other in real life, but add Beat Takashi and some exploding neck collars into the mix, well… that’s just obscene. The real shame is that Fukasaku’s twisted shootout has only become more relevant to our country in this age of zero-sum politics, and against the backdrop of the resulting culture war that’s twisted young bodies into a battlefield unto themselves.</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 31</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “Desperately Seeking Susan” (3/1)<br> – “The LEGO Batman Movie” (3/19)<br> – “Road House” (3/21)</em></p>

“Battle Royale” (dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 2000)

Doug Liman’s “Road House” remake is obviously Prime Video’s biggest get this month (see this SXSW-opening, throat-ripping crowd-pleaser as it was meant to be seen: While watching Mormon tradwife cooking TikToks on the “For You” tab of your Twitter page), and yet Kinji Fukasaku’s ultra-provocative “Battle Royale” demands special attention, as this proto-“Hunger Games” satire about a class of Japanese high school students stranded on a remote island and forced to fight to the death had been so hard to see in the United States until it started bouncing between the various streamers.

America can stomach the idea of school kids shooting each other in real life, but add Beat Takashi and some exploding neck collars into the mix, well… that’s just obscene. The real shame is that Fukasaku’s twisted shootout has only become more relevant to our country in this age of zero-sum politics, and against the backdrop of the resulting culture war that’s twisted young bodies into a battlefield unto themselves.

Available to stream March 31

– “Desperately Seeking Susan” (3/1) – “The LEGO Batman Movie” (3/19) – “Road House” (3/21)

<p>Ahead of the <em>three </em>Renny Harlin(!?)-directed prequels that will be released this year, Shudder is inviting subscribers to remember why the original continues to endure in our minds. Bryan Bertino’s directorial debut is small as can be, but its simplicity is also its greatest virtue. The premise is so unnerving because — unlike a zombie apocalypse or a Texas chainsaw massacre — it could happen to anyone, anywhere. And in “The Strangers” it does. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman play a very ordinary couple whose very ordinary relationship drama is interrupted by a knock at the door; three masked villains, empowered by nothing but some knives and their sadistic desires, have dropped by to ruin their night. The wicked games they play are carried out with vivid rage and raw brutality, but this is the rare horror movie that only gets scarier with its final reveal. Why did these maniacs target this particular couple, and what neighborhood will they be in tomorrow? The answers to those questions continue to keep us awake at night.</p> <p><em>Available to stream March 1.</em></p> <p><em>Other highlights:</em></p> <p><em>– “Alice, Sweet Alice” (3/1)</em><br> <em>– “Grabbers” (3/1)</em><br> <em>– “Southern Comfort” (3/18)</em></p>

“The Strangers” (dir. Bryan Bertino, 2008)

Ahead of the three  Renny Harlin(!?)-directed prequels that will be released this year, Shudder is inviting subscribers to remember why the original continues to endure in our minds. Bryan Bertino’s directorial debut is small as can be, but its simplicity is also its greatest virtue. The premise is so unnerving because — unlike a zombie apocalypse or a Texas chainsaw massacre — it could happen to anyone, anywhere. And in “The Strangers” it does. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman play a very ordinary couple whose very ordinary relationship drama is interrupted by a knock at the door; three masked villains, empowered by nothing but some knives and their sadistic desires, have dropped by to ruin their night. The wicked games they play are carried out with vivid rage and raw brutality, but this is the rare horror movie that only gets scarier with its final reveal. Why did these maniacs target this particular couple, and what neighborhood will they be in tomorrow? The answers to those questions continue to keep us awake at night.

– “Alice, Sweet Alice” (3/1) – “Grabbers” (3/1) – “Southern Comfort” (3/18)

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Civil War stuns in the least likely ways imaginable

Alex Garland lets politics play in the background of an action drama that lives in the moment

A blonde woman in a “Press” bulletproof vest stands in the White House in Civil War

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In an era of divisive, high-stakes U.S. politics, it isn’t surprising to see so many people online responding to the entire concept of Alex Garland’s Civil War as if it’s inherently toxic. Set on and around the front lines of a near-future America broken into separatist factions, Garland’s latest (after the fairly baffling fable-esque Men ) looks like a timely but opportunistic provocation, a movie that can’t help but feel either exploitative or far too close to home in a country whose name, the United States, sounds more ironic and laughable with every passing year.

And yet that doesn’t seem to be Garland’s goal with Civil War at all. The movie is about as apolitical as a story set during a modern American civil war can be. It’s a character piece with a lot more to say about the state of modern journalism and the people behind it than about the state of the nation.

It’s almost perverse how little Civil War reveals about the sides of the central conflict, or the causes or crises that led to war. (Viewers who show up expecting an action movie that confirms their own political biases and demonizes their opponents are going to leave especially confused about what they just watched.) This isn’t a story about the causes or strategies of American civil war: It’s a personal story about the hows and whys of war journalism — and how the field changes for someone covering a war in their homeland instead of on foreign turf.

movie review the more the merrier

Lee Miller (Kirsten Dunst) is a veteran war photographer, a celebrated, awarded, and deeply jaded woman who’s made a career out of pretending to be bulletproof in arenas where the bullets are flying — or at least being bulletproof long enough to capture memorable, telling images of what bullets do to other people’s bodies and psyches. Her latest assignment: She and her longtime work partner Joel (Wagner Moura) have been promised an interview with the president (Nick Offerman), who is now in his third term in office and coming off more than a year of public silence.

It’s a dream opportunity for a war correspondent — a chance to make history, and maybe more importantly, to make sense of the man whose choices seem to have been key in pushing the country over the line and into war. But securing the interview will require traveling more than 800 miles to Washington DC, through active war zones, and past hostile barricades erected by state militias or other heavily armed local forces. And tagging along on this potentially lethal road trip is Jessie ( Priscilla star Cailee Spaeny), a green but ambitious 23-year-old photographer who Lee obviously thinks is likely to get herself killed along the way — or get the whole traveling party killed.

movie review the more the merrier

The tension between Lee and Jessie — potential mentor and her potential replacement, the past and future of their chosen career, allies but competitors chasing the same things within a small profession known equally for its rivalries and its interpublication commiseration — forms the center of Civil War , far more than the tension between any particular political perspectives does. For all that the movie is coming in a time when pundits keep warning about the potential for an actual new American civil war, Garland’s Civil War barely tips its hand about the specifics of the conflicts.

There’s plenty there for viewers who want to read between the lines, about which states are in revolt (California, Texas, and Florida all get passing mentions as separatist states) and about the soldiers — mostly Southern and many rural — who get significant screen time. But Lee’s angry exhaustion and Jessie’s fear and excitement over learning more about the profession from someone she respects are the real heart of the story.

All of which makes Civil War a movie more about why war correspondents are drawn to the profession than about any particular perspective on present American politics. And it’s a terrific, immersive meditation on war journalism. Lee and her colleagues are presented as half thrill-seeker adrenaline monkeys, half dutiful documentarians determined to bring back a record of events that other people aren’t recording. They’re doing important work, the movie suggests, but they have to be more than a little reckless both to choose the profession and to return to the battlefield over and over.

Lee never gives any big speeches about the difference between covering war in Afghanistan and in Charlottesville, but it’s clear she’s fraying under the pressure of watching her own country in such a rattled and ragged state, with hardened soldiers on both sides demonizing other Americans the way Americans have demonized entire foreign nations. Jessie, for her part, seems impervious to the weight of that reality, but still far less inured to cruelty and to combat. The two women push powerfully at each other, with a clear, beautifully drawn, yet unspoken sense that when Lee looks at Jessie, she sees her own younger, dumber, softer self, and when Jessie looks at Lee, she sees her own future as a famous, capable, confident journalist.

All of this character work is built into a series of intense, immersive action sequences, as Lee’s group repeatedly risks death, trying to negotiate their way across battle lines or embed themselves with soldiers during pitched combat. The finale sequence, a run-and-gun combat through city streets and tight building interiors, is a gripping thrill ride that Garland directs with the immediacy of a war documentary.

movie review the more the merrier

The entire film is paced and planned with that dynamic involved. It’s a particularly gorgeous drama, shot with a loving warmth that reflects its point of view, through the eyes of two photographers used to conceiving of everything around them in terms of vivid, compelling images. A late-film sequence shot as the group drives through a forest fire is especially beautiful, but the movie in general seems designed to impress viewers on a visual level. By mid-film, it becomes clear that Lee shoots with a digital camera, while Jessie shoots on old-school film, and that for both of them, that choice is important and symbolic.

In the same way, Garland’s shot choices and the movie’s vivid color keep reminding the audience that this is a movie about not just documenting moments, but capturing them well enough to mesmerize an audience. In some ways, Civil War comes across as a bit nostalgic for an earlier era of journalism and photography. The collapse of the internet seems to have reset the news to a point where print journalism dominates over TV or social media, and no one seems to be getting their news online. It’s the most prominent retro aspect of a story that’s otherwise reflecting a potential future.

What the movie isn’t about is taking sides in any particular present political conflict. That may surprise and disappoint the people drawn to Civil War because they think they know what it’s about. But it’s also a relief. It’s hard for message movies about present politics to not turn into clumsy polemics. It’s hard for any document of history to accurately document it as it’s happening. That’s the job of journalists like Jessie and Lee — people willing to risk their lives to bring back reports from places most people wouldn’t dare go.

And while it does feel opportunistic to frame their story specifically within a new American civil war — whether a given viewer sees that narrative choice as timely and edgy or cynical attention-grabbing — the setting still feels far less important than the vivid, emotional, richly complicated drama around two people, a veteran and a newbie, each pursuing the same dangerous job in their own unique way. Civil War seems like the kind of movie people will mostly talk about for all the wrong reasons, and without seeing it first. It isn’t what those people will think it is. It’s something better, more timely, and more thrilling — a thoroughly engaging war drama that’s more about people than about politics.

Civil War opens in theaters on April 12.

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Critic’s Pick

‘The Tuba Thieves’ Review: The Real Meaning of Listening

In this film, the artist Alison O’Daniel uses the theft of tubas from Southern California high schools as a central hub in a wheel with many spokes.

On the left, the back of someone's head as they watch a concert which is out of focus.

By Alissa Wilkinson

To hear a tuba is to feel it. The vibrations pulse through your body, and its giant bell is even designed to make the air shudder a bit. A tuba is also much harder for a thief to pilfer than, say, a piccolo, or even a trumpet. Yet from 2011 to 2013, tubas started disappearing from high schools in Southern California, for no obvious reason and with no explanation.

The news of the tuba thefts formed a jumping-off point for the artist Alison O’Daniel, who used it as the central hub in a wheel with many spokes. The resulting film, “The Tuba Thieves,” is kind of a documentary — or at least, it has documentary elements. But there are re-creations and a dramatized story with fictionalized characters woven throughout as well, all exploring the role sound plays in our world, both for those who take it for granted and those to whom access is denied. O'Daniel, a visual artist who identifies as Deaf/Hard of Hearing, has a keen interest in sound as an integral element of human life, and “The Tuba Thieves” expands that query in many directions.

The result, admittedly, is not particularly easy to follow. “The Tuba Thieves” is not very interested in explaining itself; its connective tissue is an idea, an exploration, and it’s designed to be more absorbed than understood. But for the patient audience, it’s richly illuminating. The film is open captioned, so no matter how you see it, you’ll see descriptive text onscreen. Sometimes that text interprets sign language — in fact, the title credits are signed by a character, Nyke (Nyeisha Prince), and much of the film’s dialogue is in ASL. Sometimes the text describes sounds. And sometimes it’s a little cheeky; “[ANIMALS GROWL],” one caption reads, and then is immediately replaced by “[MACHINES GROWL],” with images to match them both.

Nyke, who is Deaf, is one of the film’s main recurring figures. Scenes with her father (Warren Snipe) and her partner, whom the film only calls Nature Boy (Russell Harvard), unpack her fears about becoming a parent — what if something happens to the baby, and she can’t hear it? — and the joy she takes in music. Another of the film’s characters is Geovanny (Geovanny Marroquin), a drum major at Centennial High School, from which tubas have been stolen; the theft affects the marching band’s performance as well as Geovanny’s life. Both Nyke and Geovanny are based on the actors’ lives, but you can clearly sense the truth coming through: that sound hearing is one thing, but listening is another.

Los Angeles and its sounds are pivotal to “The Tuba Thieves.” All kinds of noises, welcome or not, make it into the movie: the crackling of fires, the roar of traffic and, above all, the repeated sound of overhead airplanes, a constant background pollution for residents near the airport. In contrast, there’s silence, represented by a re-creation of the 1952 Woodstock, N.Y., premiere of John Cage’s infamous “4’33,” in which a pianist simply sits in front of the piano silently turning pages for four minutes and 33 seconds, opening and closing the keyboard lid to signal the beginning and ending of the piece’s three movements. Apparently irritated by the spectacle, a man leaves and stomps out into the woods, only to be captured by the sounds of nature around him.

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Other elements exploring the meaning of hearing are woven throughout “The Tuba Thieves” (which, incidentally, never really explores the tuba thievery, nor does it aim to). The 1979 final punk show at San Francisco's Deaf Club shows up, as does a surprise free 1984 show that Prince played at Gallaudet University, the nation’s only liberal arts university devoted to deaf people. They’re all driving toward a similar point: Listening means more than just hearing, and in fact doesn’t requiring hearing at all. But the sounds, the vibrations, the racket and clamor and buzz of everyday life are as important in their presence as in their absence. O’Daniel’s scrutiny of them is somehow rigorous and abstract, serious and playful, and provocative in a way that makes us take in the world differently.

The Tuba Thieves Not Rated. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters.

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

Review: A hitman’s memory fades in ‘Knox Goes Away,’ a thriller that’s too placid from the start

A man sneaks into a cabin.

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Michael Keaton doesn’t have to prove anything as a movie star, accomplished actor and laugh-getter. His ready-made Batman glare at last weekend’s Oscars was meme-worthy, easily upstaging a meager bit by co-presenters Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. In front of a camera, Keaton has always been easy to follow into whatever high-concept or realistic milieu needs his steady, authentic charisma.

Something about playing weary hit men, however, attracts him as a director. A decade and a half after Keaton made his debut behind the camera with “The Merry Gentleman,” in which he also starred as a contract killer given a crack at redemption through friendship with an unsuspecting woman, he’s chosen to direct himself again in a similarly subdued story depicting a man of violence shown a pathway out. In the low-key — and regrettably low-energy — character study “Knox Goes Away,” veteran hired gun John Knox (Keaton) faces down the specter of a fatal neurological disease. In the interim, he’ll tend to some unfinished emotional business.

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A deteriorating loss of memory is, of course, no asset when one is trained in precision, ruthlessness and traceless escape. So when Knox screws up what should have been a cut-and-dried assignment, leaving three bodies instead of one, he decides to settle his affairs before dementia closes in on him the way he has on countless others. His victims, we hear, are the “deserving” type: traffickers, pushers, that ilk. The movies do love their upstanding hit men — so much easier to like than the mercenary kind. Our antihero isn’t just an ex-Marine, but a former academic who still reads philosophy and classic literature. Learned and lethal, whaddaya know.

Complicating Knox’s exit from a solitary, dangerous calling, however, is a late-night visit from his estranged son Miles (James Marsden), bloodied and desperate, himself having just killed someone in a fit of righteous vengeance. Knox must now add saving Miles from the law to his list of departure errands, requiring an elaborate plan made more difficult by his rapidly worsening condition and a dogged detective (Suzy Nakamura) following the clues from that botched hit straight to his door.

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With its condemned-man storyline (à la “D.O.A.”), weekly afternoon hook-ups with a flinty Polish escort (“Cold War” star Joanna Kulig) and the occasional bleat of a mournful trumpet on the soundtrack, “Knox Goes Away” should be noirishly enjoyable hokum. But instead, screenwriter Gregory Poirier’s tribute to an earlier era’s taciturn machismo is more muddled and ludicrous than fleet and clever.

The material also seems to have locked up Keaton’s creative juices instead of loosening them. While he does convey how a certain kind of cagey loner might greet the inevitable, Keaton employs a straight-arrow storytelling approach as a filmmaker, one that never gets beyond the tempo and tone of a mildly moody TV procedural. Perfunctorily photographed by cinematographer Marshall Adams, “Knox Goes Away” may take place in the noir capital that is L.A., but it could just as easily be Anywheresville.

Even harder to reconcile is how little is done with an enviable cast, one in which Marcia Gay Harden as Knox’s ex-wife and Al Pacino as a retired thief and reliable pal named Xavier are, bizarrely, the most muted colors. Pacino in particular looks confused as to why he doesn’t get to simply unsettle us with his usual jolts of energy. Even the unpredictable tension he brought to reading from an envelope at the Oscars was more compelling than anything in “Knox Goes Away.”

'Knox Goes Away'

Rating: R, for violence and language Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes Playing: In wide release Friday, March 15

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IMAGES

  1. The More the Merrier

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  2. ‘More the Merrier’ review: Netflix's raunchy comedy that's turning up

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  3. The More the Merrier (1943)

    movie review the more the merrier

  4. The More the Merrier Pictures

    movie review the more the merrier

  5. The More the Merrier (1943)

    movie review the more the merrier

  6. ‎The More the Merrier (1943) directed by George Stevens • Reviews, film

    movie review the more the merrier

COMMENTS

  1. The More the Merrier

    Due to a housing shortage in Washington, D.C., during World War II, Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) agrees to rent part of her apartment to wealthy retiree Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) and ...

  2. 'More the Merrier' Netflix Review: Stream It Or Skip It?

    More the Merrier and its multiple storylines might remind viewers a little bit of flicks like Crazy Stupid Love, Valentine's Day, and Love, Actually, as well as various sex comedies. Performance ...

  3. The More the Merrier

    The More the Merrier is a 1943 American romantic comedy film directed by George Stevens and starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn.The film's script—from Two's a Crowd, an original screenplay by Garson Kanin (uncredited)—was written by Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy, and Lewis R. Foster. Set in Washington, D.C., the film presents a comic look at the housing ...

  4. The More the Merrier

    The More the Merrier (1943) is a delightful romantic comedy of the homefront at wartime, exploring the problems of housing-bed-man shortages. Full Review | Jan 1, 2000. Load More

  5. The More the Merrier (1943)

    THE MORE THE MERRIER is one of many comedies exploiting the theme of crowded Washington during the WWII period--and one of the best. Personally, I thought it worked best until the point where CHARLES COBURN (in his Oscar-winning supporting role) was booted from JEAN ARTHUR's apartment over reading her diary.

  6. More the Merrier Movie Review

    Our review: This is a raunchy Spanish sex comedy with some messages on finding freedom and happiness through honest sexual fulfillment of one's fantasies. It almost seems inevitable that a movie like More the Merrier would emerge in the aftermath (or near aftermath) of Covid social distancing, isolation, and lockdowns.

  7. The More the Merrier (1943)

    The More the Merrier: Directed by George Stevens. With Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, Richard Gaines. During the World War II housing shortage in Washington, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two.

  8. More the Merrier

    Five interspersed stories provide a fun romp through a night of sex and possibilities in which nothing goes as planned but everyone gets what they need. Genre: Comedy, Lgbtq+. Original Language ...

  9. The More The Merrier Review

    Reviews The More The Merrier Review During the WW2 housing shortage in Washington, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two.

  10. The More the Merrier

    However THE MORE THE MERRIER is certainly strong enough to stand on its own merits, a fine example of farce at its best. The film garnered Oscar nominations for Best Picture (losing to CASABLANCA ...

  11. The More the Merrier (1943)

    At any rate, the film's loving, amused look at American city life in 1943, a place of lack but also a place where ultimately, everybody wants to pull for everybody else to succeed, is a lovely thing, happily unhurried. There is a loose rule in writing narrative fiction, honored as much in the breach as the observation, that characters should ...

  12. More the Merrier (2021)

    Ernesto Alterio (Alberto)María Morales (Marta)Luis Callejo (Paco)Anna Castillo (Clara)Pilar Castro (Claudia)Miki Esparbé (Pablo)Carlos Cuevas (Iván)Verónica Echegui (Ana)Jorge Suquet (Miguel ...

  13. The More the Merrier (1943)

    More The Merrier, The (1943) -- (Movie Clip) No Strings AttachedConnie (Jean Arthur), who is engaged to a guy named Pendergast, is beginning to regret having thrown roommate Joe Carter (Joel McCrea) out of her wartime Washington D.C. apartment, especially as he offers a parting gift, in George Stevens' The More The Merrier, 1943.

  14. The More the Merrier' review by theriverjordan • Letterboxd

    It makes "Merrier" a less raucous ride from the two screwball masters, but Stevens seems to be safely tempering them to the times. America in 1943 wasn't a place for farce, but farewells, and "Merrier" is a closed-lipped kiss goodbye to the golden era of Hollywood comedies. theriverjordan is using Letterboxd to share film reviews and ...

  15. More the Merrier (2021)

    More the Merrier: Directed by Paco Caballero. With Ernesto Alterio, María Morales, Luis Callejo, Anna Castillo. A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery.

  16. MORE THE MERRIER, THE

    The film was popular with the public and did extremely well at the box office. It was remade in 1966 and retitled Walk, Don't Run with Cary Grant in the Coburn role, his last film. The remake pales considerably from the original. Its screwball comedy material is based on its being shot during WW2 when there was a serious housing shortage in ...

  17. ' More the Merrier,' Sparkling Comedy, Opens at Music Hall -- 'Lady of

    And so does "The More the Merrier."For this is a harum-scarum fable about a Washington "government girl" who rents half of her four-room apartment to a daffy old gentleman, who in turn rents half ...

  18. Watch More the Merrier

    More the Merrier. 2021 | Maturity Rating:TV-MA | 1h 51m | Comedy. Five interspersed stories provide a fun romp through a night of sex and possibilities in which nothing goes as planned but everyone gets what they need. Starring:Ernesto Alterio, Raúl Arévalo, Luis Callejo. Watch all you want.

  19. The More the Merrier Movie Review for Parents

    The most recent home video release of The More the Merrier movie is November 1, 2004. Here are some details… DVD Release Date: 2 November 2004. The More the Merrier is now available on DVD, The black and white film comes in a full screen presentation, with close captioning.

  20. Watch More the Merrier

    More the Merrier. 2021 | Maturity rating: 16+ | 1h 51m | Comedy. Five interspersed stories provide a fun romp through a night of sex and possibilities in which nothing goes as planned but everyone gets what they need. Starring: Ernesto Alterio,Raúl Arévalo,Luis Callejo.

  21. Watch More the Merrier

    More the Merrier. 2021 | Maturity Rating: TV-MA | 1h 51m | Comedy. Five interspersed stories provide a fun romp through a night of sex and possibilities in which nothing goes as planned but everyone gets what they need. Starring: Ernesto Alterio, Raúl Arévalo, Luis Callejo.

  22. The More The Merrier

    A wartime housing shortage has a lovely government employee, a stranded industrialist, and a handsome young inventor sharing a Washington, D.C. apartment.

  23. The Best Movies New to Every Major Streaming Platform in March 2024

    Apple TV+ subscribers think they're so great because they have BOATS. Ridley Scott's latest — and funniest — historical epic comes to streaming this month, so everyone who missed ...

  24. More the Merrier

    More the Merrier Reviews. [Stands] out for the spectacularity of its choral cast. [Full review in Spanish] This is a raunchy Spanish sex comedy with some messages on finding freedom and happiness ...

  25. Civil War stuns by ditching politics for powerful action movie thrills

    Tasha Robinson leads Polygon's movie coverage. She's covered film, TV, books, and more for 20 years, including at The A.V. Club, The Dissolve, and The Verge. In an era of divisive, high-stakes ...

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    Kobi Libii, the writer and director of the movie "The American Society of Magical Negroes," has made a satire that may feel primed to be provocative. He responded to some of the discourse ...

  27. 'The Notebook' Review: A Musical Tear-Jerker or Just All Wet?

    Love is powerful. Dementia is sad. The result can be heartbreaking. Or maybe, seen with a cold eye, meretricious. The movie, a super-slick Hollywood affair, did everything it could to keep the eye ...

  28. 'The Tuba Thieves' Review: The Real Meaning of Listening

    The result, admittedly, is not particularly easy to follow. "The Tuba Thieves" is not very interested in explaining itself; its connective tissue is an idea, an exploration, and it's ...

  29. THE BOY AND THE HERON Returns to Theaters, MANDALORIAN Season ...

    The more fantasy adventures, the merrier. Greta Gerwig Set to Direct CHRONICLES OF NARNIA Movies for Netflix The Mandalorian Season 4 Update Indicates Season Unlikely to Happen Soon

  30. 'Knox Goes Away' review: Dementia thriller that's too placid

    Nov. 22, 2023. With its condemned-man storyline (à la "D.O.A."), weekly afternoon hook-ups with a flinty Polish escort ("Cold War" star Joanna Kulig) and the occasional bleat of a ...