X
- 2023
- R
- Screen Media Films
- 1 h 39 m
- 2023
- R
- Screen Media Films
- 1 h 39 m
Summary When two women with the same name are murdered days apart, small-town police chief Jordan Sanders (Jon Hamm) finds himself wading through an unlikely collection of cheating husbands, lonely hearts, nosy neighbors and contract killers in an effort to put the pieces of the case, and his life, together.
Directed By: John Slattery
Written By: Paul Bernbaum
- 2023
- R
- Screen Media Films
- 1 h 39 m
- 2023
- R
- Screen Media Films
- 1 h 39 m
Maggie Moore(s)
43
5.6
Where to Watch
Summary When two women with the same name are murdered days apart, small-town police chief Jordan Sanders (Jon Hamm) finds himself wading through an unlikely collection of cheating husbands, lonely hearts, nosy neighbors and contract killers in an effort to put the pieces of the case, and his life, together.
Directed By: John Slattery
Written By: Paul Bernbaum
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
43
20% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
60% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
20% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
43
20% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
60% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
20% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
This is an uneven film with a couple of glaring inconsistencies, but director Slattery has a fine sense of framing and pacing, and the top-notch cast handles the clever dialogue with aplomb.
Maggie Moore(s) sun-baked backdrop — it was shot in and around Albuquerque — imbues the crime drama with a contrarian vibe that might be called Coen-esque though with much less umph than No Country for Old Men. It’s an enjoyable watch to be sure, but not destined to be memorable.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 9 User Ratings
5.6
33% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
44% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
22% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 9 User Ratings
5.6
33% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
44% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
22% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
IN A NUTSHELL:
Maggie Moore(s) takes place in a dusty desert town where nothing ever happens, as a police chief is suddenly faced with the back-to-back murders of two women with the same name.
The director of the film was John Slattery. The story was written by Paul Bernbaum.
THINGS I LIKED:
The cast includes Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, Peter Diseth, Nick Mohammed, Christopher Denham, Tate Ellington, Happy Anderson, Derek Basco, and Oona Roche. They all do an excellent job.
I haven’t seen Tina Fey in anything recently, so it was good to see her again.
As an author of 31 books, I loved the literary element of the story where Jon Hamm’s character learns how to write an effective story during a night class.
The color palette features a lot of blues and yellows, which I thought was interesting and must mean something, right? What do YOU think it means? Coincidence? I’m always fascinated by the color palettes and filters directors choose to use.
It’s entertaining to watch the police chief and his partner go through each clue to find the killer.
All of the characters are deeply damaged and flawed. Many of them are incredible slimeballs. They’re all extremely quirky, which is what makes this movie amusing.
We definitely feel the small-town vibe in the film.
Some of the dialogue is very funny. Other times, it’s even insightful.
THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
This is definitely not a family-friendly movie. Please read my tips for parents below.
While the ending gives you a warm feeling, the majority of the movie takes you into the gutter with language and violence.
TIPS FOR PARENTS:
This movie is NOT recommended for kids.
There are a LOT of crude conversations
Profanity, including F-bombs
Lots of violence with various weapons
Bloody murders
Talk of child pornography
We see a skeleton in a burned car
Unmarried people have intimate relations
We see a man in his tidy whities
We see a topless woman in a strip club
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(Mauro Lanari)
I don't know how correct it is to steal a script from the Coen brothers of the first period, but it's a useless theft if a dark comedy of their kind is not accompanied by a similar inventiveness in every single shot.
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It’s a film with select moments, largely because of the screen chemistry of its leads, but it never coheres into anything consistent. And then the film, which was shot in late 2021, rushes to an ending that feels like the product of messy post-production.
The story’s center isn’t strong enough for the rest of its disparate parts to hold.
[Hamm’s] charm—and a reunion with his 30 Rock co-star Tina Fey—can’t salvage a middling caper that’s critically low on comedic or criminal verve.
Top-heavy with big names (Tina Fey, Jon Hamm) and set in a nondescript small town populated primarily by sad sacks and losers, the movie struggles to get out of second gear.
Hamm can be a stealth comedic force in any project, adding a slight escalation or modulation of the energy level to alter the stakes. He has a unique talent for somehow fusing the comic man and straight man personas into one. Yet Maggie Moore(s) gives him no chance to play either because Slattery cannot decide if his “Mad Men” co-star is the lead of a romantic drama or a heist flick.
Jon Hamm and Tina Fey have a screen history (30 Rock & Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and this time their natural chemistry gets romantic. He plays a sheriff who's out to solve the murders of 2 women with the same name, while she's the nosy neighbor who helps him. THEY are the primary reason to watch this film, which has a convoluted and unexciting script. Ironically, most of the best comic moments come from Nick Mohammed as the mild wise-cracking deputy. This was directed by John Slattery (best known as Hamm's silver fox boss on Mad Men) and he's done a decent job. Sadly, the writing left too many flaws to keep it from being more than a middling caper without much comedic fun or criminal thrills.
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Part of me had a good degree of interest in this film because I was under the impression that it could be a fun black comedy. But boy was I disappointed. It has a decent start but very soon loses all the humor and becomes a mess of nonsensical plot twists and bland characters that don't make any sense and drain all the thrust out of it, giving all the ground to its poor execution and how basic the script becomes as it progresses until it concludes in such a bland and boring way.
I won't say that this would have been an exceptional black comedy but the wastefulness of its poor performance leads to an annoying disappointment.
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bad
[ bad ]
adjective, worse, worst;(Slang) bad·der, bad·dest for 36.
not good in any manner or degree.
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