It’s always a pleasure when a movie comes along and succeeds your expectations.  I wasn’t expecting much of this nondescript comedy-drama, which looked to be about the hazards of aging in America — something about which I am becoming all too familiar and need no reminding.  I should have known it was about something deeper, and that it is darn funny as well.  Billy Crystal has come through once again.

Billy Crystal’s film introduces us to Charlie Burnz (Billy Crystal), an aging comedy writer who seems to have some memory issues.  He meets a young woman, street singer Emma Payge (Tiffany Haddish) and begins a friendship which will lead him to face the dementia which is creeping over him, reconcile with his estranged family and keep on living with zest.

Attention to detail and maintaining believable character bolsters this drama, which could have become treacly and maudlin.  Writer – director Crystal does a great job of not sentimentalizing his material, leavening the more dramatic aspects with welcome and appropriate humor.  The flashbacks to Charlie’s earlier life with wife Carrie (Louisa Krause) are handled beautifully and a couple of them are hilarious.  I wasn’t sure about Emma, who is far too gregarious of a character than I normally like, but she won me over with her sincerity and empathy.  The blending of Crystal’s cocky wisecracking and Haddish’s bold and brash personas works really well, certainly better than I expected, and much to the movie’s benefit.

Only a melodramatic conclusion that seems too “movie-ish” prevents this from being a rousing success.  Here Today is a fine film, a winning project from an actor-turned-director who has done it before (Mr. Saturday Night, Forget Paris, 61*) and has surpassed himself this time.  For a time Billy Crystal was the best comic in show business, making terrific movies, successfully hosting the Academy Awards and generally being a funny guy.  Here Today proves that he is a fine storyteller as well, and I hope he gets another opportunity or two to do it again.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  23 June 2025.