I had a pretty ideal weekend, which included a mini-movie-marathon comprised of seeing three pictures at the theater.

Don’t you just love this time of year? There’s so much to see!

From potential blockbusters designed to rake up during the holiday season to prestige pictures and indy films hoping for an Oscar nod to the occasional doc or quirky picture that fills in a gap or was delayed for some other reason, there’s a lot going on at the local independent cinema or multiplex.

Here are three short takes on the films I saw Saturday and Sunday; my movie-going partner and I reached an easy consensus about the three with Green Book easily the strongest of the films ahead of The Front Runner and Creed II.

It’s not that Green Book is a perfect film.

There are some pacing problems early on, and some situations merit a bit more exploration than they receive in the movie.

Still, this is quite a stretch for director Peter Farrelly, half of the directing duo known as the Farrelly Brothers, the team that brought viewers such raunchy hit comedies as Dumb and Dumber (1994–I only watched about ten minutes of it), There’s Something About Mary (1998–I laughed in an unrestrained way at parts of this one despite myself), Shallow Hal (2001–I have some ambivalence about this move but recollect several interesting conversations with my son about it when he was much younger), and more.

Seeing this new film makes me quite curious about where Peter Farrelly might go from this point forward with his work.

I can make an unqualified recommendation of Green Book in two ways.

The performances are terrific. I have no idea how closely the film hews to the true story of this unlikely friendship, but Mahershala Ali (Oscar winner for Moonlight) is perfect as the classically trained pianist Don Shirley who hires an Italian tough-guy named Tony Vallelonga, played by the always compelling Viggo Mortensen, to drive him on a concert tour that includes a leg in the Deep South during the early 1960s.

All of the supporting players are strong, too, especially Linda Cardellini as Tony’s wife Delores. She’s been on my radar since the TV cult favorite Freaks and Geeks nearly 20 years ago.

The other thing I want to highlight about Green Book is the importance of stories like this one that showcase “true stories” in which people overcome racism through interacting with people from different cultures, learning how stereotypes are misguided, and forming a bond with another human being in the process. In this way, Green Book is formulaic like Hidden Figures (2016) or Remember the Titans (2000) and many others in between or before.

There’s a place for all types of films that tell stories about overcoming difference (certainly that is the point of last year’s Best Picture winner The Shape of Water, 2017), but it is hard to overstate the value of delivering that message in a mainstream package designed to appeal to a broad audience.

As for the other two pictures, I have less to say.

I think The Front Runner has an identity crisis. I was surprised, too, by the fuzzy conceptualization because of the identity of the director (is it a character study–what would have been a better choice–or an opportunity to present the behind-the-scenes of a campaign done in such a captivating way in the 1993 observational documentary The War Room?).

Jason Reitman is usually an incisive and insightful filmmaker, and he doesn’t look for the fat pitch, either (sports metaphor employed strategically to set up the third picture discussed below).

From Thank You For Smoking (2005) to Up in the Air (2009) to Young Adult (2011) — to name my three favorites — Reitman typically takes me on an unexpected journey that engages and at times entertains but also surprises, makes me think,  and sometimes stretches my comfort zone.

The Front Runner does none of those things to any significant degree.

I had to see Creed II because, well, everybody is seeing it, and I love to watch Michael B. Jordan on the screen.

I found this latest installment in the Rocky franchise moderately entertaining if completely predictable..

Clearly…it’s no Friday Night Lights…but seeing sports on the screen and Michael B. Jordan in the thick of it made me want to binge my way through one of my favorite series all over again.

Oh, to have more time to indulge these impulses…and to be able to experience my favorite films and television series the way I did the first time…

Maybe I should teach one of my Critical Media Studies seminars on Friday Night Lights and watch a class full of students experience it for the first time. Now, there’s a thought worth contemplating further…