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NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

YOU KNOW WHO TO CALL — AGAIN; THE WILLIAMS SISTERS; BONDING TRIP

Ghostbusters: Afterlife opens on Nov. 19. It’s a sequel to the two hit Ghostbusters movies that opened in the ’80s. Afterlife makes many references to the first two Ghostbusters films. It doesn’t reference Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, a 2016 “reboot” film that was a critical and financial failure. Most advance reviews of Afterlife are good, if not great. “Charming” and “funny” are words used in many reviews.

The Afterlife cast includes all the surviving, original main cast actors: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts. Their roles are larger than a cameo, but new characters are the stars

The late Harold Ramis

JUSTIN HOCH PHOTOGRAPHING FOR HUDSON UNION SOCIETY

of this film.

Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the first two films with Dan Aykroyd, died in 2014, at age 69. Ramis also co-starred in both films as Dr. Egon Spengler. I have to say that it is laudable that the screenwriters have paid homage to Ramis by making Spengler (Ramis) almost a major character in Afterlife. In the new film, Spengler appears in several clips from the first two Ghostbuster movies. The Afterlife characters refer to these clips as “historical documents.”

Spengler also lives on in the plot of Afterlife. As the film opens, we learn that Spengler is deceased and that his daughter, Callie, is the single mother of two kids: Trevor, 15, and Phoebe, 12. Financial problems force Callie and her kids to move to rural Oklahoma and live in a decayed farmhouse that Spengler lived in and left to his daughter. Not long after their move, weird things happen near their new home, like unexplained earthquakes.

The earthquakes are followed by supernatural phenomena (ghosts, etc.) in their Oklahoma town. While poking around the farmhouse, the “kids” find Grandpa’s old ghost-busting equipment and learn about his Ghostbuster career. Phoebe and Trevor then enlist Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd, 52), a schoolteacher, and others (like the original Ghostbusters) to help save their town and maybe the world.

Jason Reitman, 43, is the director of Afterlife and the co-writer of the Afterlife screenplay. His directing credits include the hit films Juno and Up in the Air. The other writer is Gil Kenan, 44, a screenwriter/director who was born in the U.K. and raised in Israel. Afterlife was produced by Ivan Reitman, 74, Jason’s father. He directed the first two Ghostbusters movies.

King Richard, which also opens on Nov. 19, is a biopic that follows the early years of the amazing tennis careers of Venus Williams and her younger sister, Selena. The title refers to their father, Richard Williams (Will Smith), “a controlling father” who saw his daughters potential when they were about 5 years old and began coaching them. The Williams family lived then in Compton, a poverty-stricken city in Los Angeles County.

In 1987, Williams called tennis coach Paul Cohen, now about 80, and asked him to coach his girls. Cohen went to Los Angeles, and after seeing them play, agreed to coach them. He was their coach until 1991, when they were 10 and 11. (Cohen was a top college player, a touring pro and coached John McEnroe, among other greats. He also advised the Israeli Davis Cup team.)

Tony Goldwyn plays Cohen. Goldwyn’s paternal grandfather was the famous filmmaker Samuel Goldwyn (Tony’s only Jewish “grand”). Jon Bernthal, 45, plays the sisters’ next coach, Rick Macci. In 1991, Richard Williams moved his whole family to Florida so his daughters could attend Macci’s tennis academy. By 1997, the sisters were top pros. (Advance reviews of this film are quite good).

Also opening on Nov. 19 is C’mon, C’mon. Joaquin Phoenix, 47, stars as a radio journalist who is left to care for his precocious young nephew, and they bond during a cross-country car trip. Advance reviews are good and praise the sensitive way in which the star characters’ emotions are portrayed. The film was directed by and written by Mike Mills. He showed a deft hand in directing and writing the acclaimed films Beginners (2010) and 20th Century Women (2016).

In Beginners, the father of the lead character, Oliver, comes out as gay in his 70s, after his wife dies. Oliver tells his Jewish girlfriend (Melanie Laurent, 38) that his maternal grandmother was Jewish, and his mother identified as Jewish until she wed his non-Jewish father. She agreed to her husband’s request to never mention her Jewish background, and his father agreed not to act on his gay orientation. This is Mills’ parents’ story in “real life,” too. (Christopher Plummer won an Oscar for his performance as Oliver’s father.)

Joaquin Phoenix

HARALD KRICHEL VIA WIKIMEDIA