Movies with Milan

Movies with Milan

Movies reviews from Milan PaurichFull Bio

 

Milan at the Movies 1-13-23

3d rendering of a video reel with video film stretching around a big bucket full of popcorn

Photo: Getty Images

NEW TO THEATERS, STREAMERS, HOME VIDEO AND ON DEMAND SERVICES:

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER--The first of James Cameron's promised "Avatar" sequels (three more are currently in production) has finally arrived, a mere 13 years after the original. To be perfectly honest, I hardly remember the first "Avatar" all that well despite having put it on my 2009 10-best list. (It was #7; I looked it up.) So this $350-million follow-up felt less like a continuation of an ongoing story than a standalone movie with cutting-edge CGI that will surely become the industry standard for decades to come. Paralyzed former Marine Jake (Sam Worthington) remains the series' leading character, now a full-fledged Na'vi himself thanks to having married Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) with whom he's started a family. (They have four kids.) Their antagonists are the "Sky People," led by the dastardly Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang, another holdover from the earlier film) whose mission is to colonize Edenic Pandora with displaced earthlings, thereby upsetting the ecological balance of the universe. To help ward off this imminent threat, Jake and his fellow Na'vis form an alliance with the Metkayina clan who are pretty much identical to the Na'vis except for their Maori-like tribal tattoos. But like most Cameron movies, plot--and dialogue which remains his Achilles Heel--takes a back seat to sheer, knock-your-socks-off spectacle. And on that count, "The Way of Water" truly delivers. The underwater sequences are particularly mind-blowing: so uncannily tactile and immersive they're like a Virtual Reality theme park ride minus the dorky headsets. Cameron's assiduous attention to world-building dwarfs every other fantasy franchise/tentpole you've ever seen, and pretty much rewrites the book on what an "event movie" is supposed to be. It's safe to say that we ain't seen nuthin' yet. (A.)

BABYLON--The "most" movie of 2022 and also the finest, Oscar-winning "La La Land" director Damien Chazelle's breathtaking swing for the fences chronicles Hollywood's wobbly transition from silent to sound movies. Chazelle's mastery of tone (and scale) is positively breathtaking here. What begins as a riotous screwball farce ultimately segues into something approximating Greek tragedy. And all the stuff in between--and there's plenty of "stuff," trust me--is equally enthralling. Margot Robbie plays an aspiring starlet willing to do pretty much anything (yes, anything) to make it in the picture business. And as the John Gilbert-like star worried that his days of being the king of Tinseltown are numbered, Brad Pitt brings such a soulful gravity to the role that he brought tears to my eyes. Equally impressive are Diego Calvo (a Mexican immigrant who rises from studio gofer to studio boss), Jovan Adepo (the "hot jazz" trumpeter seduced and ultimately betrayed by Hollywood), Jean Smart (an imperious, proto Hedda Hopper gossip columnist) and former "Spider-Man" Tobey Maguire who's downright terrifying as a psychopathic gangster. Not since Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood" has there been a movie as thoroughly besotted with the film industry, its storied (and frequently checkered) history and the movers, shakers and hangers-on who keep the machine humming. The tech work is equally stunning, with Justin Hurwitz's haunting score and Linus Sandgren's crystalline cinematography deserving of special mention. It's another Chazelle masterwork, and single-handedly redeems a rather desultory movie year. (A PLUS.)  

THE GANG OF FOUR--Four young women who share a house become embroiled in a mystery involving their former roommate in French New Wave veteran Jacques Rivette's accessible and hugely entertaining 1988 meta-movie. Because the women are all students in the same acting class--their imperious teacher is wittily played by Rivette rep player Bulle Ogier--the film playfully ricochets around favorite Rivettian tropes (theatrical artifice versus real life, the enduring bonds of sisterhood, magical realism, et al). As the BFF roomies, Fejria Deliba, Ines D'Almeida, Bernadette Giraud and especially Laurence Cote (the bisexual Claude) are all wonderful, and Benoit Regent is suitably enigmatic as a man with multiple names/identities who insinuates himself into the girls' lives and is either an undercover cop or a particularly wily con artist. Look closely in the classroom scenes and you'll spot an impossibly young Irene Jacob before she became Krzysztof Kieslowski's muse in "The Double Life of Veronique" and "Red." The Cohen Media Blu-Ray includes a scholarly audio commentary track by New York Film Festival Emeritus Director/Columbia University professor Richard Pena as well as the 2022 re-release trailer. (A.)  

LOUDMOUTH--Josh Alexander's somewhat scattershot documentary about the evolution of the Reverend Al Sharpton from his early years as a polarizing social justice advocate to the venerated establishment figure he is today might have benefited from a more linear timeline. Jumping back and forth in Sharpton's eventful biography--from George Floyd to Tawana Brawley, mentors James Brown and Jesse Jackson to his MSNBC chatshow--does neither the movie or Sharpton any favors. But as an example of how it's still possible for public figures in American life to have second acts, Alexander's film is mandatory viewing. No extras on Kino Lorber's newly released DVD. (B MINUS.)

A MAN CALLED OTTO--Based upon the Oscar-nominated 2015 Swedish film, "A Man Called Ove," director Marc ("Finding Neverland," "World War Z") Forster's pitch-perfect English-language remake gives Tom Hanks his best leading role in years. As Otto Anderson, a curmudgeonly Pittsburgh widower whose determined abrasiveness gradually melts after reluctantly making friends with his new neighbor (the wonderful Mariana Trevino), Hanks will crack you up then break your heart. This is the very definition of an old-fashioned "feel-good movie," and if Sony can't turn it into a word-of-mouth hit there really is no hope for the future of theatrical releases that aren't IP-driven or franchise and tentpole movies. (A.)

M3GAN--Robotics engineer Gemma (Allison Williams from "Get Out" and HBO's "Girls") unwisely allows A.I.-generated robot doll M3Gan (Amie Donald) to become the constant companion--surrogate parent, nanny, BFF and tutor all rolled into one--of her orphaned niece (Violet McGraw). Anyone who's seen "Child's Play," "Ex Machina," or the "Annabelle" and "Boy" movies could tell you that's probably not going to work out very well. New Zealand director Gerard Johnstone, best known for the cultish 2014 haunted domicile flick, "Housebound, brings a puckish sense of dark humor to the generic set-up, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. (C PLUS.)

PLANE--Gerard Butler plays an airline pilot whose emergency landing on a war-torn Philippine island forces him to team up with an accused murderer (Mike Coulter from Marvel's "Luke Cage") being transported by the F.B.I. to rescue passengers from the rebel army. Director Jean-Francois Richet--best known for Vincent Cassel's "Mesrine" movies--does a decent job of building and sustaining tension despite the absurdity of the central premise. Butler is a little less overbearing than usual, and this actually ranks among his better recent movies. Whether it merits a multiplex outing is another matter, though. (C PLUS.) 

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH--After Puss (Antonio Banderas) uses up the eighth of his nine lives, he begins an existentialist quest to locate the fabled "Wishing Star" and (hopefully) restore his lost lives. Along for the ride are his jilted ex-fiancee Kitty Soft Paws (Salma Hayek) and irrepressible canine help-mate Perro (Harvey Guillen). Complicating their Candide-like journey are a number of combative fairy tale characters also seeking the magical star, including a kung-fu fighting Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and her Three Bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone and Samson Kayo); Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney); and the fearsome Big Bad Wolf (Wagner Moura). Surprisingly, this belated sequel to 2011's forgettable "Puss in Boots" is one of the year's very best animated movies. It's gorgeously animated, genuinely witty and as much fun for grown-ups as it is for the tiniest of tots. (B PLUS.) 

WARNING SHOT--Although tube-trained director Buzz ("Brian's Song") Kulik's workmanlike helming gives this 1967 Paramount movie the blandly anonymous look and canned feel of a 60's TV cop show, a terrific supporting cast makes it eminently watchable. Former "Fugitive" David Janssen brings his patented Novocaine-jawed delivery to the role of L.A.P.D. sergeant Tom Valens whose shooting of an (apparently) unarmed suspect gets him suspended from the force. Rather than cooling his heels, Valens embarks upon his own stealth investigation, uncovering a viper's nest of well-heeled suspects in the process. While Janssen remains an acquired taste--I've never really warmed tohim--he's surrounded by so much top-notch thesping talent (including Lillian Gish, George Sanders, Ed Begley, Walter Pidgeon, Eleanor Parker and Keenan Wynn) that I was happy to climb aboard. (It helps that novelist Whit Masterson's source material is so gripping.) The Kino Lorber Studio Classics' DVD includes an insightful audio commentary track shared by historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell. (B.)

THE WHALE--Brendan Fraser plays Charlie, a morbidly obese man slowly eating himself to death in Darren ("Requiem for a Dream," "Black Swan") Aronofsky's stripped-down adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter's acclaimed off-Broadway play. Ensconced in his dingy apartment where he teaches an expository writing seminar via Zoom, Charlie is determined to reconcile with his estranged 17-year-old daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink of "Stranger Things" renown) before scarfing down his last pizza. The only other characters to pass through Charlie's gateway to hell are private nurse Liz (Hong Chau) and a persistent New Life Church missionary (Ty Simpkins) who keeps ringing his doorbell. In a chamber piece like this, performances are all and Aronofsky's cast delivers in spades. Fraser--outfitted in prosthetics so convincing you truly believe he weighs 600 pounds--turns in the best work of his thirty-year career, and Sink, Chau, Simpkins and Samantha Morton (who burns a hole through the screen in her one scene as Charlie's embittered ex) are all first-rate. Despite the claustrophobia of its single setting, Aronofsky never allows the film to become oppressive or stagey. Dynamic cinematography and editing by Aronofsky regulars Matthew Libatique and Andrew Weisblum help make this feel like a real movie and not just canned theater. (A MINUS.) 

WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY--If you can overlook the fact that British actress Naomi Ackie looks absolutely nothing like the late recording superstar, director Kasi ("Harriet," "Eve's Bayou") Lemmons' cradle-to-the-grave Houston biopic is serviceable enough, albeit a tad overextended at two-and-a-half-hours. While Lemmons and screenwriter Anthony ("Bohemian Rhapsody") McCarten don't entirely whitewash Whitney's life--her cocaine addiction and lesbianism (courtesy of Nafessa Williams' Robyn Crawford) are both documented--it's not exactly sensationalistic either. My biggest complaint is that, despite the overly generous run time, it completely skips over Whitney and husband Bobby Brown's early-Aughts TV reality show. (They could have spent the entire movie dishing that particular trainwreck.) Nice supporting turns from Stanley Tucci (as music industry titan Clive Davis) Ashton Sanders (Brown) and Clarke Peters and Tamara Tunie (Whitney's parents) as well. (B MINUS.)

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.)

NEW TO THEATERS, STREAMERS, HOME VIDEO AND ON DEMAND SERVICES:

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. Along with Damien Chazelle's "Babylon," it's the most raucously entertaining, beautifully acted, stunningly lensed (courtesy of Emmanuel Lubezki, Terrence Malick's DP of choice) and downright exhilarating studio film of 2022. (A.)  

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 be able to predict the ending, 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.)

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.)

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 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.)

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.)

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.)   

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.)  

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.) 

SPOILER ALERT--When Smurf-loving TV journalist Michael (Jim Parsons) meets fledgling photographer and professional cynic Kit (Ben Aldridge) in a Manhattan gay bar, neither expects it will lead to a 13-year relationship. But their opposites-attract coupledom proved to be the real deal, a true-life love story chronicled in Michael ("The Big Sick," "The Eyes of Tammy Faye") Showalter's affecting screen adaptation of Michael Ausiello's best-selling 2017 memoir. The fact that Kit eventually dies of cancer--that's where the "spoiler alert" comes in--gives the film a gay "Love Story" vibe, but it's the humor and palpable affection between the characters that you'll remember. Parsons and Aldridge are terrific, but the film is stolen by Sally Field (who starred in Showalter's "My Name is Doris") and Bill Irwin as Kit's not-that-square Ohio parents. (B.) 

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 thecenter 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.)

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 among the few genuine movie events of the year: 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.)    

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.) 

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND--Unlike most music documentaries that unimaginatively mix-and-match talking heads interviews with archival performance footage, Todd ("I'm Not There," "Velvet Goldmine") Haynes' film about the experimental and wildly influential New York rock band is itself a kind of cinematic performance art. Taking its stylistic cues from the underground movies of the 1960's--the Velvet Underground began their career as a sort of house band for Andy Warhol's Factory--Haynes' doc has as much sensory overload as a V/A live show. (Haynes uses split screen more effectively than any director since vintage Brian DePalma.) One of the most amusing revelations is that it was Warhol who insisted Nordic chanteuse Nico become a member of the Underground; he likened her presence to "a blonde iceberg in the middle of the stage." The film is as much a retrospective, and deeply nostalgic, look at '60s NYC, as it is a memorial to Lou Reed, et al. The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray includes an audio commentary with Haynes and editors Adam Kurnitz and Alfonso Goncalves; outtakes of interviews with onscreen contributors Jonathan Richman, Mary Woronov and Jonas Mekas; Haynes in a 2021 conversation with surviving V/A bandmates John Cale and Maureen Tucker; complete versions of three of the avant garde films excerpted in the movie (two by Mekas); and rock critic Greil Marcus' steely-eyed essay, originally published in the New York Review of Books. (A.)

---Milan Paurich


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content