September's Comedy Movies, From Practical Magic 2 to Forgotten Island
Last month brought a witchy sequel, an animated gem nobody went to see, a Bollywood dance comedy and a sheep. Here's what's worth catching up on.
By the Heckle Desk · · 2 min read
We've already done last month's stand-up specials and last month's sitcoms, so this is the movies: the comedies and near-comedies that came out in September while you were busy pretending you'd go to the theater more this year.
The month had a lesson in it, which is that Hollywood will make money on the thing critics hate and lose money on the thing critics love, and then call a meeting to find out why. Here are four, with a word on each.
- 01
Practical Magic 2 (Warner Bros., in theaters from Sept. 11)
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman came back as the witch sisters, with Susanne Bier directing, and it opened at No. 1 with about $30 million in North America. Critics gave it 39 percent on Rotten Tomatoes; audiences gave it 92. That's the widest gap between a critic and a customer since the last time a critic tried to buy a used car.
- 02
Forgotten Island (DreamWorks/Universal, in theaters from Sept. 25)
An animated comedy-adventure drawn from Filipino mythology, with H.E.R., Liza Soberano and Lea Salonga, and reviews so good it sat at 100 percent for a while. It then opened to about $13 million at home against an $80 million budget. A studio spent four years making something wonderful and the public responded by staying in. Go see it before some executive learns the wrong lesson from it, which is the only lesson executives can learn.
- 03
Best of the Best (Netflix, Sept. 18)
Lena Khan directs and Hasan Minhaj co-wrote this story of two childhood best friends, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia, who join their college's competitive Bollywood dance team. It began life at Amazon in 2021 under another name and moved to Netflix, which is what passes for a hero's journey in the streaming business.
- 04
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom (GKIDS, in theaters from Sept. 18)
Aardman's clay sheep is back on the big screen, opening the same day in the U.S. and the U.K. No dialogue to speak of, all of it funny, made by hand one frame at a time by people who apparently never heard of a deadline. It's the only movie of the month you can take a four-year-old and a grandfather to, and both will stay awake, which is more than you can say for the grandfather at the other three.