Movies with Milan

Movies with Milan

Movies reviews from Milan PaurichFull Bio

 

Movies with Milan 12-2-22

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THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN--When lifelong friend Colm (Brendan Gleeson) announces seemingly out of the blue, "I just don't like you no more," Padraic (Colin Farrell) is so devastated he makes it his mission to change Colm's mind. Enlisting the support of his sister (Kerry Condon) and a local lad (Barry Keoghan), Padraic soon discovers that their entire island community on the west coast of Ireland has a stake in the outcome. Set in 1923, writer/director Martin ("Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) McDonagh's fantastic new movie has the whimsy and inadvertent gravity of a fable passed down through generations. McDonagh's dual career as one of the leading playwrights of his generation is evidenced in his wonderfully idiosyncratic dialogue--profane and poetic at the same time--which his stellar cast delivers in typically bravura fashion. Farrell and Gleeson, who memorably played a pair of hapless hitmen in McDonagh's 2008 filmmaking debut (2008's "In Bruges"), give career performances that are sure to be remembered at awards time. You'll never see the ending coming, but it's guaranteed to knock the wind out of your sails. I was shaken and stirred. (A.) 

BLACK ADAM--Dwayne Johnson plays D.C. Comics B-list (anti)-hero Teth "Black" Adam who's awakened after 5,000 years of hibernation to battle the Intergang rotters who violently overthrew the government of peaceful Middle Eastern kingdom Kahndaq. Hoping to keep a check on Adam's anger management issues--the big guy's first instinct is to kill anyone who annoys him--are Doctor Fate (former 007 Pierce Brosnan having a larf) and the Justice Society (whose best known member is Netflix heartthrob Noah Centineo). Director Jaume Collet-Sera's brightly colored, fast-moving $200-million comic book throwaway will probably suffice for diehard comics fans. Everyone else should probably just stay home and save their money since it'll be on HBO MAX before Christmas Day. (C PLUS.)

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER--How do you make a 161-minute Black Panther movie without the Black Panther/King T'Challa (the late Chadwick Boseman)? Very, very carefully. Ryan Coogler's sequel to his 2018 Marvel blockbuster treads a fine line between Afrocentric boosterism and comic book mayhem, and it's not really a comfortable fit. Accordingly, the Wakanda scenes are infinitely more interesting--and certainly more colorful thanks to some truly spectacular costume and production design--than the fairly rote action setpieces. This sophomore entry in Marvel's billion dollar franchise feels like a placeholder until they finally get around to recasting the lead role. (C.)

BONES AND ALL--Luca Guadagnino reunites with his "Call Me by Your Name" star Timothee Chalamet for something completely different: a young cannibal-lovers on the run artflick. Chalamet's James Dean-ish Lee hooks up with comely teen runaway Maren (Taylor Russell), a fellow eater, and the two travel the backroads of an eerily depopulated American Midwest satisfying their mutual appetites. Guadagnino plays the material--based on Camille DeAngelis' Alex Award-winning 2016 YA novel--as a sort of uber-stylized cross between Terrence Malick's "Badlands" and Kathryn Bigelow's Southwestern vampire noir "Near Dark." But since it's Guadagnino, one of the most unapologetically sensual filmmakers working today, it's also stunningly, even rapturously beautiful at times. The uber-photogenic leads are both terrific, and Oscar winner Mark Rylance steals his share of scenes as Maren's loquacious, flesh-eating mentor. (Rylance's Sully is like a Mark Twain character if Twain had written about teen cannibals instead of tween hooligans like Tom and Huck.) Besides hunger, the principle engine fueling the plot is Maren's search for her missing mom (a haunting Chloe Sevigny) whose flesh-eating gene she inherited. And while this clearly isn't a film for everyone, it definitely has "Future Cult Movie" written all over it. I loved it. (A.)

DEVOTION--Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), the first Black aviator in naval history, is the subject of director J.D. ("Sleight") Dillard's disappointingly conventional social justice drama. And the decision to tell Brown's story through the eyes of a white fellow member of his Flight Squadron 32 ("Top Gun: Maverick" costar Glen Powell's Tom Hudner) feels stunningly retrograde. Brown, who's been described as the aerial Jackie Robinson, deserved a better and less cliched biopic than this. While it's not inept like 2012's Tuskegee Airmen movie "Red Tails"--the flight sequences are truly state of the art--it's nearly as cookie-cutter dull. Nice performances by Majors, Powell and Christina Jackson as Brown's devoted wife, but they're playing 1950's movie stereotypes, not their real-life, flesh-and-blood counterparts (C.)

EMERGENCY DECLARATION--Even after sitting through Han Jae-rim's overstuffed South Korean aerial disaster movie, I'm still not sure which film was more of an influence: proto 1957 disaster flick "Zero Hour!," or "Airplane!" which was essentially its MAD Magazine parody. Is the disgraced former pilot (Lee Byung-hun from Netflix's "Squid Game") who rallies to save the day more Dana Andrews or Robert Hays? Most importantly, does director Han intend for us to laugh at the pile-up of absurdities and cliches, or bite our nails in breathless suspense? Ultimately it doesn't matter. For anyone choosing to climb aboard, "Emergency Declaration" is simply a lot of high-octane fun. After a disgruntled former employee (Kim So-jin) of a Seoul biotech company unleashes a deadly biohazard on an international flight to Hawaii, it's a race to (a) neutralize the threat; and (b) safely land the plane after the pilot succumbs to the virus. As the police sergeant traveling with his young daughter who's the first to I.D. a bio-terrorist threat, "Parasite" co-lead Song Kang-ho walks away with thesping honors, but nobody watches a movie like this for the performances. At 138 minutes, it's definitely overlong and tonally inconsistent. But Han's pacy direction makes for a reasonably diverting ride, and the slick-looking CGI is up to Hollywood standards. Well Go USA's Blu-Ray includes an informative "making of" featurette and Cannes Film Festival interviews with cast/crew members. As usual, Well Go offers an alternate English language dialogue track which I'd only recommend to connoisseurs of badly dubbed Japanese creature-features. (B.)

 

ENTRES NOUS--Isabelle Huppert and Miou-Miou, who first appeared together in Bertrand Blier's transgressive 1974 masterpiece "Going Places," reunited a decade later for writer-director Diane ("Peppermint Soda") Kurys' deeply felt, exquisitely moving period-memory piece. The memories actually belonged to Kurys' mother (indelibly incarnated by Huppert's Lena), a Belgian Jew who pragmatically accepts a marriage proposal from Michael (Guy Marchand) while being held in a Vichy internment camp during WW II. Lena is used to making the best of bad situations, and while her marriage is mostly loveless it's not entirely unhappy. Michael is a good provider--he opens his own garage in Lyon after the war--and the couple even have a pair of daughters. While attending a pageant at her kids' school, Lena meets another restless mom (Miou-Miou's enigmatic Madeleine), and the two become fast friends. A lot happens plot-wise, but narrative takes a back seat to the privileged moments, novelistic characterizations and growing bond between these two disparate women who become inadvertent, but irrefutable soul mates. Eventually Lena and Madeleine divorce their husbands and open a dress shop together in Paris, but it's the journey of self-discovery Kurys takes them on that matters more than the eventual destination. An Oscar nominee for Best International Feature (it lost to Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander"), "Entre Nous" would prove to be the high point of Kurys' directorial career. After her follow-up English-language movie ("A Man in Love" starring Peter Coyote and Greta Scacchi) bombed, none of her subsequent films would even receive a U.S. release. The only extra on Cohen Film Collection's Blu-Ray is a reflective 38-minute interview with Kurys. (A.)

A KNIFE IN THE HEAD--The great Bruno ("Downfall") Ganz made this relatively obscure 1978 German political drama a year after Wim Wenders' "The American Friend" gave him an international profile--and a year before Ganz played Jonathan Harker opposite Klaus Kinski's vampire king in Werner Herzog's totally groovy "Nosferatu." Ganz's bio-geneticist Berthold Hoffman is shot in the head by police while visiting his estranged wife (Angela Winkler) at the left-wing youth center where she volunteers. Falsely accused of being a "radical" by the cops, the avowedly apolitical Hoffman is forced to undergo an arduous series of operations after which he must re-learn how to walk, talk and even feed himself again. Since he's also suffering from amnesia, Hoffman desperately tries to piece together the events that irrevocably changed his life. Like Volker Schlondorff's better-known 1975 film "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" (which also costarred Winkler), Hauff's movie pivots on an innocent bystander who, after being labeled a menace to society, fights to reclaim both his former life and even core identity. While hardly subtle, director Reinhard Hauff's grim polemic packs an undeniable punch, and Ganz is reliably superb. Kudos to the Cohen Film Collection for giving it a second life on their beautifully restored new Blu-Ray. Included on the disc are interviews with Hauff and executive producer Eberhard Junkersdorf. (B PLUS.)

  

LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER--"MLK/FBI" and "Eyes on the Prize" director Samuel D. Pollard teams up with Gaeta Gandbhir for an intermittently fascinating, albeit a tad unfocused documentary about how Lowndes County, Alabama almost accidentally played a major role in the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Despite an 80% Black population--most of whom were sharecroppers--all of Lowndes' registered voters were white. That would change when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led by Stokley Carmichael came to town. With the help of native citizen John Hulett (who would eventually be elected sheriff for 22 years), the Lowndes County Freedom Organization was founded. (Their black panther insignia was soon borrowed by the Oakland, California-based social activist group that would become the Blank Panthers.) Cross-cutting between present-day talking heads interviews with both Black and white Lowndes citizens as well as a substantial amount of immaculately preserved archival footage, the film touches on numerous social justice issues that remain relevant today, including voter suppression, election fraud and police brutality. While not as seamless or cohesive a work as some of Pollard's previous films, it demands to be seen by all sentient American citizens. (B.)   

LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE--Co-directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon--better known for adult-leaning comedies like "Office Christmas Party" and "Blades of Glory"--go the family movie route with a big-screen adaptation of Bernard Waber's beloved 1960's kid-lit series. Teen idol Shawn Mendes voices the bath-loving croc crooner who moves into the Manhattan attic of the Primm family (Scoot McNairy, Constance Wu and Winslow Fegley) with his eccentric handler, Hector Valenti (Oscar-winner Javier Bardem in a scene-stealing performance). Naturally there's a spoilsport neighbor (Brett Gelman's aptly monikered Mr. Grumps) who wants to have Lyle evicted, but Lyle's charm and innate decency eventually win the day. While it's clearly geared for a (very young) demographic, adults who dug the "Stuart Little" movies and "Clifford the Big Red Dog" won't hate themselves for accompanying their wee bairns for a matinee. (C PLUS.)

THE MENU--The sociopathic chef-owner (Ralph Fiennes) of a chi-chi restaurant located on a private island that charges $1,250 per person unleashes his inner Jigsaw on well-heeled patrons in director Mark Mylod's biliously amusing foodie/horror flick. Mylod, who cut his teeth on HBO's "Succession," definitely knows how to flambé the 1%, and watching the rich, entitled and pompous squirm is both exhilarating and weirdly cathartic. As the only diner brave enough to stand up to Chef's murderous impulses, Anya Taylor-Joy of "Queen's Gambit" fame is fantastic as the movie's de facto audience surrogate. Good support from, among others, Nicholas Hoult (Taylor-Joy's preening yuppie date), Janet McTeer (an imperious restaurant critic), and John Leguizamo (a deluded fading movie star anxious to impress his soon-to-be-ex agent). You'll probably want to eat before seeing the movie, however. (B PLUS.)

PREY FOR THE DEVIL--A young nun with mommy issues is recruited for exorcism duties in this pro-forma horror flick by German director Daniel Stamm whose "The Last Exorcism" from 2010 was a considerably more original take on a genre that's been on life support since the mid-'70s. Sister Ann (a wan Jacqueline Byers) assists a priest (Christian Navarro) in the exorcising of the same demonic spirit who possessed her mother years earlier. Is it a coincidence, or something more sinister? Good veteran actors like Virginia Madsen and Ben Cross are wasted on nothing roles, and the whole thing has a rote, been-there-exorcised-that vibe. Your time would be much better spent rewatching 1973's "The Exorcist" on HBO MAX. (C MINUS.)  

SHE SAID--In 2016, intrepid New York Times reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) turned their sights to somewhat easier prey (uber producer Harvey Weinstein) after realizing they wouldn't be able to continue pursuing the myriad sexual assault allegations against newly elected president Donald Trump. Because seemingly everyone had an axe to grind about Weinstein, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. German director Maria ("I'm Your Man") Schrader's flat-footed docudrama about the NYT's campaign to take down one of the most powerful men in Hollywood is so relentless in its #MeToo virtue-signaling that it has the curious effect of (almost) making you feel sympathy for Weinstein. (I do miss his movies.) Schrader seems to think she's making another "All the President's Men" or "Spotlight," but her film is simply craven, woke Oscar bait destined to be forgotten well before nominating ballots go out in February. (D PLUS.)

SMILE--After a patient (Caitlin Stasey) kills herself during their therapy session, trauma psychologist Rose (Sosie Bacon) begins seeing the same kind of terrifying apparitions that drove her former patient to suicide. First-time feature director Parker Finn's horror flick overdoes the jump scares--and borrows a bit too promiscuously from both the "Grudge" and "Ring" playbooks--but Bacon's supremely grounded, deeply empathetic performance helps maintain viewer interest despite an overly generous 115-minute run time. (C PLUS.)

STRANGE WORLD--One of the ugliest looking 'toons in the history of Walt Disney Animation Studios, this lackluster collaboration between the director (Don Hall) and writer (Qui Nguyen) of last year's infinitely better "Raya and the Last Dragon" should have probably gone straight to Disney+. There's certainly nothing about this Jules Verne-y knockoff--not the drab visuals, hackneyed storyline or charmless characters--that merits a multiplex outing. Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quad play Searcher and Jaeger Clade, father and son explorers whose latest adventure involves the hunt for "Pando," a precious green energy source that's in dangerously short supply. Along for the journey to the center of the earth are Searcher's wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union) and their annoying teenage scion Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White). There's also a three-legged pet dog and blue blob "Splat" vying for screen time and--it's cash-conscious Disney, after all--lucrative merchandising possibilities. The film's labored progressive agenda (the Clades are a loving biracial family, Ethan is gay and there's even a heavy-handed environmental message) is sure to antagonize MAGA households. Quaid and Gyllenhaal previously played dad and son in Roland Emmerich's 2004 disaster flick, "The Day After Tomorrow." This time it's the movie that's the real disaster. (D.)

TICKET TO PARADISE--Julia Roberts and George Clooney play an acrimoniously divorced couple who reluctantly join forces to help squelch daughter Kaitlyn Dever's Bali wedding to a man she barely knows in Ole ("The Exotic Marigold Hotel" movies) Parker's modern spin on the "comedies of remarriage" ("The Awful Truth," "The Philadelphia Story," et al).that were a staple of Golden Age Hollywood. Clooney and Roberts have always had great screen chemistry; they could have been the Millennial Tracy and Hepburn if anyone was still making Tracy and Hepburn movies. And watching them trade affection-laced barbs for two hours feels a bit like nirvana in an increasingly grown-up movie-starved theatrical climate. While nobody will ever confuse this with a classic rom-com, it's still one of the season's most purely pleasurable indulgences. (B PLUS.) 

VIOLENT NIGHT--If Bruce Willis' "Die Hard" character John McClane had been Santa Claus instead of an NYPD cop, he would've been David ("Stranger Things") Harbour's Kris Kringle in director Tommy ("Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters") Winkola's wink-wink, nudge-nudge Yuletide actioner. While delivering presents at the Greenwich, Connecticut mansion of a wealthy industrialist--what? they couldn't afford to buy their own presents?--Santa encounters a posse of burglars hoping to steal $300-million. It evolves into a slightly more grown-up version of "Home Alone" with Mr. Claus booby-trapping the house to take down the bad guys. It's all very silly and absurdly hyper-violent (the title alone serves as a warning), but passably entertaining as long as you don't take any of it seriously. (C PLUS.)

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AMSTERDAM--"Silver Linings Playbook"/"American Hustle" auteur David O. Russell's first film since 2015's "Joy" is an all-star, wildly ambitious, multi-tiered murder mystery with real-life historical bona fides. (An opening title card informs us that "A lot of this really happened.") It's also a helluva lot of fun. Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington play two American soldiers and a volunteer nurse who meet during WW I--yes, Amsterdam the city plays a major role in the plot--and become lifelong pals. The main bulk of the action takes place in 1933 New York City, however, where the reunited trio become amateur sleuths who, with the help of Robert DeNiro's retired general, help solve a murder AND uncover a fascist conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government. Any movie that finds room for juicy supporting turns by (among others) Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Taylor Swift and Mike Myers is clearly playing in the big leagues, and Russell's movie is an embarrassment of riches. Yes, the frenetic, frequently confounding narrative with its groaning board of characters you sometimes need a scorecard to keep track of would have probably been more ideally suited to the leisurely rhythms of a limited HBO or Netflix series. But I haven't seen a more raucously entertaining, beautifully acted, stunningly lensed (courtesy of Emmanuel Lubezki, Terrence Malick's DP of choice) or downright exhilarating studio film this year. That said, I'm not sure what multiplex audiences accustomed to the cheap sugar highs of franchise gruel will make of it. With luck, it should develop a cult following that will only grow exponentially over the years/decades. I can definitely picture it becoming a TCM programming staple in 2066. (A.)  

ARMAGEDDON TIME--It feels like the end of the world to sixth grader Paul Graff (impressive newcomer Banks Repta) when he's taken out of his Queens public school and enrolled in the elite Forest Hills Academy. Not only is he leaving behind his only friend, African-American Johnny (Jaylin Webb), but he feels like a social pariah at Donald Trump's alma mater whose students are all considerably more well-off and, pointedly, a lot less Jewish. Distracted by financial hardships, Paul's well-meaning parents--schoolteacher Esther (Anne Hathaway) and plumber Irving (Jeremy Strong from HBO's "Succession")--are seemingly oblivious to their son's roiling angst. As a result, he turns to his maternal grandfather, Aaron (Anthony Hopkins), for emotional succor. As a Holocaust survivor, Aaron knows a thing or two about anti-Semitism. Director James ("Ad Astra," "The Lost City of Z") Gray's semi-autobiographical chronicle of his own Queens boyhood in the early 1980's is one of the year's loveliest, most heartfelt and deeply touching films. The conspicuous lack of sentimentality that has been a hallmark of Gray's work serves him well here. This isn't one of those maudlin, rose-colored memory pieces: it's as iron-willed and devoid of self-pity as Paul and his granddad, and all the stronger for that. Which means that when you eventually shed a tear (and you will), they're both well-earned and profoundly cathartic. (A.)

BARBARIAN--When she checks into the Detroit Airbnb she rented online, Tess (Georgina Campbell) is annoyed to discover that the owner double-booked and there's already a man ("It" killer clown Bill Skarsgard) staying there. Her decision to stay the night--it's late, and she's in Detroit after all--turns out to be, er, unwise. Zach Cregger's full-throttle, balls-to-the-wall horror flick is one of the most audacious, fully-realized and, yes, flat-out terrifying chiller in many a moon. And considering the fact that Cregger's sole previous directorial credit was co-helming the dreadful 2009 frat-boy comedy "Miss March," it also seems a bit like a miracle. Fans will be rehashing (and re-watching) this film for decades to come. It might even turn out to be a game-changer for the entire horror genre. (A MINUS.) 

BLOW OUT--When Brian DePalma's "Blow Out" opened in 1981, critics--even critics who normally turned up their nose at DePalma's Hitchcockian riffing--took notice. Unfortunately, audiences mostly stayed away. Released at the end of a summer in which Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" ruled the box office, this downbeat, cynical paranoid thriller seemed curiously out of step with audience taste. Reuniting with his "Carrie" director, John Travolta gave one of his finest screen performances as Philadelphia-based sound-effects ace Jack who accidentally records a political assassination while scouting ambient nighttime sounds for a new movie. Assisting him in his sleuthing is not-so-happy hooker Sally (Nancy Allen in her second call girl in a row role for then-husband DePalma after the previous year's "Dressed to Kill:" discuss), and their increasingly daring exploits put both in mortal danger. In one of his early screen roles, John Lithgow plays the wonderfully creepy villain. (Lithgow also played the heavy in DePalma's "Obsession" five years earlier.) DePalma wasn't shy at acknowledging both Antonioni's "Blow Up" and Coppola's "The Conversation" as major influences, and together they form a sort of unofficial trilogy. While Antonioni copped a detached--dare I say "alienated"?--attitude towards his "Big Reveal" and Coppola's film ended with Gene Hackman's Harry Caul descending into madness, "Blow Out" concludes in an almost nihilistic fashion as Jack ostensibly surrenders to The Man. The system is fixed; he's in over his head; why bother? See what I meant about "cynical" and "downbeat"? No wonder audiences stayed away in droves. But like many DePalma films that either flopped or did only so-so business in their initial release (e.g., 1974's "Phantom of the Paradise" and 1989's "Casualties of War"), "Blow Out" has had an enviable second life, now widely regarded as a masterpiece and one of the key American films of its decade. The Criterion Collection's new 2-disc set has a treasure trove of extras, including both a 4K UHD disc presented in Dolby Vision HDR and a gorgeous Blu-Ray transfer; interviews with DePalma (conducted by "Marriage Story" director/ DePalma fanboy Noah Baumbach), Allen and cameraman Garrett Brown who discusses his use of a Steadicam in the movie; on-set photographs by Louis Goldman; DePalma's groovy, notoriously difficult to see 1967 feature debut, "Murder a la Mod;" Michael Sragow's essay "American Scream;" and Pauline Kael's wildly effusive original New Yorker review. (A PLUS.)

BROS--The first big studio gay rom-com since 2018's "Love, Simon," Nicholas ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall," the "Neighbors" movies) Stoller's fitfully amusing new film stars Billy ("Difficult People") Eichner as Bobby, a deeply cynical, romantically challenged podcaster who's also the director of an LGBTQ+ cultural museum. Billy's luck seems to change when he meets guppie Ken Doll Aaron (Luke Macfarland). But being the incurable pessimist he is, Billy does pretty much everything he can to sabotage their burgeoning relationship. Alternately frothy and raunchy, this is pretty much what you'd expect from producer Judd Apatow who has a knack for casting established comic performers like Amy Schumer ("Tranwreck") and Peter Davidson ("The King of Staten Island") in quasi autobiographical roles. While Eichner isn't in Schumer or even Davidson's league thesping-wise--he pretty much hits the same note whatever emotion Billy is expressing--he's a great quipster, and the movie is good, shallow fun. (B MINUS.)  

BULLET TRAIN--Brad Pitt plays conflicted assassin "Ladybug" whose most recent assignment finds him on a Tokyo to Kyoto super bullet train where he's forced to square off against rival assassins (including Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry's "twin" hitmen brothers). That's pretty much it for the plot of David ("Atomic Blonde," "Deadpool 2") Leitch's breathlessly paced, brazenly ridiculous action flick. To complain that it's all "too much" is missing the point--if there even is one. This kind of borderline-nihilistic, "we're all just having a larf" action movie has become as commonplace in 21st century Hollywood as, well, Marvel super hero flicks. You're either with them or against them, and in this case (mostly due to Pitt and a superb supporting cast which includes Zazie Beetz, Michael Shannon and Sandra Bullock as Pitt's handler) I'm all aboard. You probably won't remember it by the time you hit the parking lot, but it's goofy fun while it lasts. (B.) 

DADDY LONGLEGS--Like Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee, brother directing team Josh and Benny Safdie clearly learned a thing or two from the loosely structured, semi-improvised films of American indie godfather John Cassavetes. In their 2009 sophomore outing, the Safdies hadn't yet begun experimenting with genre forms--that would have to wait until 2017's "Good Time" and 2019's "Uncut Gems"--which might explain why "Daddy Longlegs" feels a bit like a spin-off of Cassavetes' 1974 masterpiece, "A Woman Under the Influence." Instead of a mentally unstable housewife wreaking havoc on her suburban household, the Safdie's protagonist is a barely employed, divorced father of two young boys. Lenny ("Frownland" director Ronald Bronstein) is such a terminal screw-up that he even manages to botch the two weeks a year he's allotted to spend with his kids (real-life siblings Sage and Frey Ranaldo). So manic and undisciplined that you can have an anxiety attack just watching him navigate the mean streets of Manhattan, Lenny is nobody's idea of a "dad." Throughout the course of the film, you'll repeatedly want to reach inside the screen and forcibly remove the boys from Lenny's custody for fear they'll wind up either psychically scarred or even physically harmed. It's a real stress test of a movie. But thanks to the Safdie's incipient raw talent, and the so-real-it-hurts performances, it's also unforgettable. Bonus features on the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray include new interviews with the Ranaldo boys and their parents, Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer (who plays Lenny's ex-wife in the film); a 2017 documentary about the Safdie brothers; priceless footage of the Ranaldo boys' initial meeting with Bronstein; a making-of featurette; 2008's "There's Nothing You Can Do" a Safdie short with members of the "Longlegs" cast and crew; deleted scenes; a 2008 episode of interview series "Talk Show" with cast and crew members; a 2009 interview with the Safdies; and an essay by former Cahiers du Cinema editor Stephane Delorme who programmed the Cannes Film Festival's Directors Fortnight the year "Daddy Longlegs" had its world premiere. (A.)  

DON'T WORRY, DARLING--The eagerly awaited reunion between the director (Olivia Wilde) and screenwriter (Katie Silberman) of 2019's "Booksmart" turns out to be something of a flatliner. As anyone who's seen the trailer--which was positively ubiquitous in theaters this summer--could tell you, it's basically "Stepford Wives 2.0." Or "Stepford Wives 2.0" if a Jordan Peele wannabe was calling the creative shots. The great Florence ("Midsommer," "Little Women") Pugh plays Alice, wife of yuppie hotshot Jack (former teen idol Harry Styles who's unaccountably bland and evinces zero chemistry with Pugh). The couple has recently moved into a retro SoCal subdivision that looks like something out of a 1950's fever dream where "Leave it to Beaver" wives stay home to cook and clean while their hubbies work 9 to 5 on a hush-hush project overseen by the vaguely sinister Frank (Chris Pine oozing Rat Pack sleaze). It's Alice who belatedly susses out that something's not quite right in "Victory Town." Of course, it takes the suicide of fellow housewife/BFF Margaret (KiKi Layne), one half of the only African-American couple in their cosseted enclave, to finally wake her up. Wilde's movie is all build-up, and once the pieces finally fall into place it's hard not to stifle a "saw-it-coming" yawn. Pugh and Pine are both very good, and the art direction wittily replicates the synthetic, seductive feel of '50s Americana. I just wish the film itself was worthy of their labors. (C.)

THE GOOD HOUSE--Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline reunite onscreen for the first time since Ang Lee's 1997 masterpiece "The Ice Storm" in husband-and-wife directing team Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky's decorous, but mostly effective adaptation of Ann Leary's best-selling novel. As Massachusetts realtor extraordinaire Hildy Good, Weaver--who's in nearly every scene--has her juiciest role in years. She even manages to pull off the somewhat precious device of having Hildy routinely break the fourth wall, speaking directly to the camera/audience as she narrates the story. A high-functioning alcoholic with a preference for Merlot, Hildy somehow manages to juggle her two needy adult children, the ex she's still paying alimony to, a dwindling economy and her rejuvenated affair with high school beau Frank (Kline). It's only a matter of time before everything comes crashing down. An intervention by family and friends spurred by her increasingly frequent black-out spells portends darker days ahead, yet Weaver keeps you rooting for (and liking) Hildy despite, or maybe because of, her palpable humanity. And how nice is it to see a sexagenarian romance take center stage in an American movie? (B.)

HALLOWEEN ENDS--Wanna bet? The conclusion of director David Gordon Green's rebooted "Halloween" trilogy climaxes with the long-teased final-final showdown between Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode and masked madman Michael Myers. If you really believe this is the end of a billion dollar slasher movie franchise, you probably think the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny vacation together every summer in Cabo. (C PLUS.)

LOST HIGHWAY--By 1997, most people seemed to have grown impatient with David Lynch. Hence the chilly reception this movie received from both critics and audiences at the time of its release. Maybe it was the lack of closure to Lynch's "Twin Peaks" TV series. Or perhaps the generally perceived "self-indulgence" of his most recent big-screen films ("Wild at Heart" and "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me") cooled them on the visionary "Eraserhead"/"Blue Velvet" auteur. But as someone who loved "Lost Highway" at first sight--I saw it on opening day at an Orlando, Florida multiplex where half the audience walked out before the movie ended--living to see the Criterion Collection release this legendary film maudit feels an awful lot like poetic justice. In a 180-degree switch from his role the previous summer as the alien-busting president in Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day," Bill Pullman plays Fred Madison, an L.A. jazz musician who's accused of murdering his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette). The fact that Fred somehow morphs into Pete (Balthazar Getty), a considerably younger auto mechanic, while cooling his heels in a jail cell is the least of the movie's bewildering dualisms. How about Renee somehow being transformed into "Alice," the mistress of an abusive hoodlum (a properly terrifying Robert Loggia)? And I haven't even mentioned the "far out, man" supporting cast which includes everyone from Richard Pryor in one of his last screen roles, Gary Busey, musician Henry Rollins, Lynch repertory player Jack Nance and Robert Blake (gulp) as "The Mystery Man" whose hauntingly cryptic words to Fred at a party ("We met at your house; as a matter of fact, I'm there right now") may--or may not--hold the secret to the myriad, shape-shifting mysteries that are afoot. As much film noir as science fiction/horror, "Highway" marked the second and final collaboration between Lynch and author Barry Gifford (who penned the book "Wild at Heart" was based on), and it's a doozy. Extras on the newly released Blu-Ray include Toby Keeler's indispensable feature-length 1997 documentary, "Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch," featuring Lynch, Gifford and frequent creative associates Angelo Badalamenti and Mary Sweeney; archival interviews with Lynch, Pullman, Arquette and Loggia; a suitably otherworldly reading by Lynch and critic Kristine McKenna of excerpts from their 2018 book, "Room to Dream;" and selections from an interview with Lynch taken from Chris Rodley's scholarly tome, "Lynch on Lynch." (A.)  

MALCOLM X--A great American movie by one of America's finest living filmmakers, Spike Lee's 1992 cradle-to-the-grave biopic of the titular civil rights leader finally receives the Criterion Collection treatment--and was well worth the wait. Anchored by Denzel Washington's towering performance as the divisive Muslim figurehead who was assassinated in 1965, it's one of the few movies in modern screen history to feel truly "epic." At three hours and 21 minutes, it has the breadth, depth and scope/vision of the type of 1960's roadshow movies that, ironically, would have never deemed Malcolm an "appropriate," or even deserving subject for biographical treatment. Born to a minister father, Malcolm Little eventually rebelled from his strict religious upbringing and served jail time for burglary. It was in prison that the future Malcolm X was introduced to the Nation of Islam, becoming one of its most devout and dedicated followers. A later pilgrimage to Mecca helped Malcolm change his "whites are the devils" mantra, ultimately preaching that all races needed to coexist and work together. Superb supporting turns from Angela Bassett (Malcolm's wife, Betty), Al Freeman Jr. (Elijah Muhammad) and Delroy Lindo (West Indian Archie). The late film critic Roger Ebert once called Lee's films exercises in empathy. Besides "Do the Right Thing," I can't think of another Lee joint more worthy of that description than this masterpiece. The Criterion Blu-Ray has a cornucopia of extras, including a 2005 audio commentary with Lee, cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, editor Barry Alexander Brown and costume designer Ruth E. Carter; contemporaneous chats with Lee, Brown, Lindo and composer Terrence Blanchard; a making of featurette with, among others, Lee, Washington, Dickerson, Brown, Blanchard, Carter, Ossie Davis, Martin Scorsese and Ilyasah Shabazz (Malcolm X's daughter); co-screenwriter Arnold Perl's feature-length 1972 documentary, "Malcolm X;" deleted scenes introduced by Lee; an essay by journalist/ screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper; Lee and Washington excerpts from the 1992 book, "By Any Means Necessary: The Trials of Tribulations of the Making of 'Malcolm X;'" and Davis' stirring 1965 funeral eulogy for Malcolm X. (A PLUS.)  

PEARL--The prequel teased in the closing credits of spring's "X" has finally arrived, and it's an even richer experience than the movie that preceded it. Set in 1918--versus the 1979 of "X"--Ti West's companion piece wittily contextualizes the character of Maxine, the bloodthirsty old lady who wreaked havoc on the amateur porn gang from the earlier film. Played by the same preternaturally gifted Mia Goth who was the ambitious starlet and "Last Girl Standing" in "X," Maxine is a young bride who's going progressively batty sequestered on her parents' Texas farm while her husband is off fighting in WW I. Maxine sets all of her showbiz dreams on a dance audition which she hopes will draw the attention of Hollywood talent scouts. But when that doesn't happen, she begins to act out in the most appalling (and gruesome) fashion possible. Shot in voluptuous widescreen color by director of photography Eliot Rockett, the movie feels a bit like the 1950's horror flick Douglas ("Imitation of Life," "Written on the Wind") Sirk never directed. It's like nothing you've ever seen before, and that's a very good thing. Like "X," cult immortality awaits the latest one-of-a-kind A24 corker. (A MINUS.) 

SEE HOW THEY RUN--A delectably old-fashioned murder mystery set against the glittery backdrop of London's West End in 1953. Sam Rockwell plays Scotland Yard Inspector Stoppard tasked with finding out who murdered Hollywood director Leo Kopernick (Adrien Brody, narrating the movie from beyond the grave) at a party commemorating the 100th performance of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap." (Kopernick had recently been hired to helm the movie version.) Assisting Stoppard is eager beaver Police Constable Stalker (a delightful Saoirse Ronan), and the range of suspects are so vast Christie herself would have had an aneurism keeping tracking of them. Could it be the persnickety screenwriter (David Oyelow) whose script Kopernick dissed? Or maybe the "Mousetrap" star (Harris Dickinson) who thought Kopernick had romantic designs on his wife? Perhaps it's the play's suspicious producer (Ruth Wilson of Showtime's "The Affair")? Director Tom George shoots much of the film in split screen, and instead of being distracting it actually enhances both the suspense and (considerable) humor. Except for some virtue-signaling multicultural casting that dampens the otherwise spot-on period verisimilitude, fans of "Knives Out," "A Fish Called Wanda" and 1950's Ealing Studios comedies should find this a rollicking good time. (A MINUS.)

TAR--In a career-best performance, Cate Blanchett plays Lydia Tar, the morally and ethically compromised conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic who's on the verge of her very own #MeToo moment. It couldn't happen at a more inopportune time. Lydia is preparing to record Mahler's notoriously difficult Symphony #5, and her marriage to Sharon (Nina Hoss) is already on thin ice. (The couple are parents of an adopted Syrian daughter who's having difficulties of her own at school.) Writer/director Todd Field's first film since 2006's "Little Children" is the movie event of the year (so far anyway): a galvanizing character study as well as an enthralling, deep-dish immersion into its protagonist's rarefied world. I can't recommend it highly enough. (A.)    

TILL--The shocking murder of 14-year-old African-American Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) in 1955 Mississippi is the subject of director Chinonye ("Clemency") Chukwu's compelling slice of modern American racial history. As Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett's grieving mother who inadvertently became a civil rights activist, the extraordinary Danielle Deadwyler brings such palpable, throbbing humanity to her real-life protagonist that she'll shatter your heart into a million pieces--and possibly win an Oscar nomination for her bravura performance. Mamie's decision to leave her son's casket open for his funeral ("I want them to see") went a long way towards alerting white Easterners to the mortal perils facing Black citizens in the Jim Crow South. The fact that Chukwu's mournful, harrowing period film still feels so relevant in the #BlackLivesMatter era is inordinately depressing. (B PLUS.) 

TOP GUN: MAVERICK--Tom Cruise's Navy test pilot extraordinaire Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is back to train a cadre of recent Top Gun graduates for another hush-hush overseas mission in this 37-years-later sequel to Cruise and director Tony Scott's iconic Reagan-era blockbuster. The only question is: what took them so long? The directorial baton has been passed to Joseph ("Oblivion," "Tron Legacy") Kosinski, and I knew I was in good hands when Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" is reprised for the opening credits sequence. The principal conflict this time around is between Pete and Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller), son of Maverick's late flying partner, Goose (memorably played by Anthony Edwards before donning surgical gear for "E.R."). What's most gratifying about this belated follow-up is that it actually seems to understand what made the original work and doesn't mess with their Old Coke formula. Accordingly, Rooster has a rivalry with fellow pilot Hangman (Glen Powell) that echoes Maverick's earlier friction with Iceman (Val Kilmer who turns up in a touching cameo); Maverick once again takes time to romance an independent-minded lady (Jennifer Connelly as saloon proprietress Penny); and an oceanside touch football game wittily nods to the original's volleyball sequence and is nearly as blatantly, comically homoerotic. Playing the Navy brass who predictably disapprove of Maverick's methods but can't quit him are the always welcome Ed Harris and Jon Hamm. The soundtrack isn't as layered with the ear worms ("Take My Breath Away," "Playing With the Boys," etc.) that made the first movie's soundtrack a chart-topper, but Lady Gaga's new ballad is pretty swell and deserves to be remembered at Oscar time. The state of the art flying sequences actually surpass the ones from its predecessor (it's 2022 CGI after all), and they're unlike anything you're likely to experience outside of an actual cockpit. If "Top Gun: Maverick" isn't a summertime box-office bonanza, there's really no hope for multiplexes in our post-Covid era. (A MINUS.)   

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING--Delia Owens' best-selling 2018 novel finally hits multiplex screens, bearing the imprimatur of Reese Witherspoon as producer. (A pre-"Legally Blonde" Witherspoon would have killed it as the film's backwoods heroine.) Borrowing the bifurcated structure of the book, Olivia Newman's movie jumps between 1952 and 1969 to tell the story of itinerant North Carolina "Marsh Girl" Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones, very good) from impoverished childhood to her future infamy as a murder suspect. The two significant men in Kya's life (nasty rich kid Chase and salt of the earth Tate played, respectively, by Harris Dickinson and Taylor John Smith) make less of an impression than they probably should have, but Newman--and I'm assuming Witherspoon--clearly intended their film to be a female empowerment sudser, and men are more of a distraction than a necessity in this world. Like its literary source, the movie feels a bit like a shotgun marriage between John Grisham (the courtroom stuff) and Nicholas Sparks (the lovey-dovey stuff). But Edgar-Jones and a solid supporting cast, including the estimable David Strathairn and Garret Dillahunt, make it more substantive and enjoyable than expected. (B MINUS.)

THE WOMAN KING--Oscar winner Viola Davis is fierceness personified as General Nanisca, the early 19th century leader of an all-female cadre of elite warriors in director Gina Prince-Blythewood's nobly-intentioned, but somewhat prosaic and slackly paced historical drama. Set in the African kingdom of Dahomay, the film pits Nanisca and her Amazonian freedom fighters against both Portuguese colonizers (personified by Hero Fiennes Tiffin's Snidely Whiplash-like slave trader, Santo) and the Oyo general (Jimmy Odukoya) she has a personal beef with. (It's a long--very long--story.) Despite using spears and blades versus their enemy's guns, there's little doubt that Nanisca & Co. will ultimately prevail. And it's that predictability, as well as a bloated 135-minute run time, that makes the film more of a slog than the rip-snorter it should have been. Nice turns by newcomer Thuso Mbedu as Nanisca's newest recruit and, although it's a glorified cameo at best, "Star Wars" alum John Boyega as Dahomay's progressive-minded, albeit polygamous (!) King Ghezo. Prince-Blythewood proved her action mettle with Netflix's kick-ass "The Old Guard," and her new movie works best during the frequent (but regrettably "PG-13") battle sequences which favorably recall Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" and "Apocalypto." A weird distraction is the decision to have the Dahomay characters speak English with thick African accents while everyone else's dialogue--German, Portuguese, et al--is subtitled. (C PLUS.)

---Milan Paurich


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