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AIR--The genesis of Nike's trademark Air Jordan basketball shoe in the mid-'80s is the unlikely, but highly winning premise of director Ben ("Argo," "The Town") Affleck's brash, witty, furiously paced and terrifically entertaining new docudrama. Affleck BFF Matt Damon plays Sonny Vacarro who hatches his dream shoe idea with the help of ace designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher). But getting the preliminary go-ahead proves surprisingly fraught since neither Sonny's prickly boss (Jason Bateman) or Nike CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) don't think it's a very good idea. And securing the cooperation of Jordan's mom Deloris (a perfectly cast Viola Davis) and agent (Chris Messina) isn't going to be much easier. Fans of "Moneyball" and/or "The Social Network" are sure to love this Inside Baseball (or "Inside Basketball Shoe") movie which has the feel-good vibe of a classic sports flick. It'll make a great streaming double-bill with Apple TV+'s "Tetris" after hitting Amazon later this year. (A.)
ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET--Based on Judy Blume's beloved YA novel, this long-gestating film version proves to have been well worth the wait. Adorable newcomer Abby Ryder Fortson plays 11-year-old Margaret who experiences major culture shock when her parents (Benny Safdie and a radiant Rachel McAdams in the beefed-up mom role) leave 1970's New York City for the Jersey suburbs. Margaret must navigate a new school with the help of a new friend and neighbor (Elle Graham), experiences her first crush (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong) and deals with menstruation, her first kiss and even religion. (A secular upbringng makes Margaret an exotic bird in her heavily Christian neighborhood.) Writer-director Kelly Freman Craig (her 2016 debut, "The Edge of Seventeen," was itself a YA classic) makes nary a false step. Her movie is funny, touching and deeply felt even for Blume initiates like me. As Safdie's Jewish mom, Kathy Bates steals her share of scenes without once veering into caricature. Like everything else here, it's perfectly judged and feels just right. (A MINUS.)
BIG GEORGE FOREMAN: THE MIRACULOUS STORY OF THE ONCE AND FUTURE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD--Despite that tongue-twisting title--and somewhat protracted 128-minute run time--this is a better-than-expected biopic about the boxing great. Khris Davis does a nice job as Foreman, and the movie follows him from his difficult Texas childhood, 1968 Olympic glory (he was a gold medalist), World Heavyweight boxing championship, the near-death experience that turned him into a Born-Again Christian and minister, the George Foreman Grill (100 million units sold!) and his return to boxing where he reclaimed the title at the ripe old age of 45. That's a lot of territory to cover, but journeyman director George ("Barbershop," "The Hate U Give") Tillman Jr. handles the sheer weight of biographical exposition with relative ease. Good support from Jasmine Matthews and Forest Whitaker as, respectively, Foreman's wife and trainer/mentor. (B MINUS.)
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES--Chris Pine has his best screen role in years as disgraced knight turned common thief Edgin Darvis in a swashbuckling adventure flick based on the uber-fetishized 49-year-old board game. With the aid of barbarian partner in crime Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), hapless sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and suave nobleman Xenk ("Bridgerton" breakout star Rege-Jean Page), Edgin attempts to retrieve the legendary Tablet of Reawakening in the hopes of restoring his former life/dignity. As a bonus, the Tablet will also resurrect Edgin's dead wife and help him reconcile with his rebellious tween daughter (Chloe Coleman) who's fallen under the sway of Big Bad Farge Fitzwillian (a scene-stealing Hugh Grant). Directed by Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Frances Daley who last teamed for 2018 sleeper hit "Game Night," the film is a mash-up of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Princess Bride," "Star Wars" and probably a dozen other fanboy cultural touchstones. It's also more fun than any recent Marvel movie largely because it never makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously. (B PLUS.)
EVIL DEAD RISE--The fifth entry in the gore-soaked horror franchise Sam Raim launched in 1981 feels more like a standalone movie than a sequel. (The first tip-off is the absence of a Bruce Campbell cameo.) Beth (Lily Sullivan) visits her divorced big sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) in L.A. hoping to mend their relationship. During her stay, an earthquake opens an underground tomb hidden beneath Ellie's apartment building. Before you can say, "Boo!," Ellie morphs into a deadly killing machine, and it's up to Beth to save Ellie's three kids and herself from their Monster Mommy. Director Lee ("The Hole in the Ground") Cronin gets beaucoup claustrophobic mileage out of the dingy apartment setting, and expertly choreographs the bloody carnage. (A kitchen is the setting for the most gruesome sequence.) If your taste leans more towards "PG-13" fright flicks, you're clearly not the audience for this film. But for true horror aficionados, it's a bit like an early Halloween treat. (B.)
FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT COLLECTION--Four of French New Wave auteur Francois Truffaut's '70s movies have been thoughtfully packaged in a stellar new Blu-Ray box set from Kino Lorber's Studio Classics division. It's one of the best bargains of the year as well as a worthwhile addition to any movie lovers' video library. Based on a true story, 1970's "The Wild Child" stars Truffaut as an 18th century French doctor who makes it his mission to civilize a young boy (the remarkable Jean-Pierre Cargol) who's been living in the forest like a feral beast. Likened by critics at the time to a Gallic "Miracle Worker," this subtly devastating film is stripped of egregious sentimentality and all the stronger for it. "Small Change" (1976) is my personal favorite of Truffaut's movies: an enchanting, whimsical and keenly insightful look at ten young children growing up in a bucolic French village. Spielberg--who directed Truffaut in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"--claimed that this was the movie that taught him out to direct child actors. Mission accomplished.
"The Man Who Loved Women" (1977) was remade into a fine Blake Edwards film six years later with Burt Reynolds in the titular role, but Truffaut's original remains the gold standard. The moon-faced Charles Denner is Bertrand Morane, a rather nondescript middle-aged man who, as the title suggests, adores the opposite sex. But Morane is the farthest thing from a stereotypical Don Juan. His amusing (and yes, erotic) interactions with a slew of woman--young, middle-aged and old indelibly played by, among others, Leslie Caron, Nathalie Baye and Brigitte Fossey--are alternately laugh-out-loud funny and wistfully poignant. Truffaut's haunting and rigorously austere Henry James adaptation, "The Green Room," is the most divisive movie in the set. Although it flopped with critics and audiences in 1978 (I even remember some booing at the end of its New York Film Festival screening that year), "Room" has since gained in stature over the ensuing decades. In his final acting role, Truffaut plays dolorous widower Julien who, while building a shrine to his beloved dead wife, meets Cecilia (Baye again in an incandescent performance), a young woman also in mourning. When Cecilia falls for Julien, it seems like there might be a second chance for him at both life and love. But the enduring memory of his late spouse forever dooms him from ever finding any real happiness again. Stunningly lensed by legendary cinematographer Nestor ("Days of Heaven," "Places in the Heart") Almendros, the film lingers in the memory like a waking nightmare you can't shake. (A PLUS.)
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOLUME 3--Rocket the Raccoon (once again voiced by Bradley Cooper) is the main focus of the last, longest (150 minutes) and arguably least of James Gunn's GOTG trilogy. When Rocket is injured in an attack on Knowhere by super villain Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), Peter (the increasingly annoying Chris Pratt) is forced to seek help from Gamora's Ravagers pals to save the smart alecky raccoon's life. More solemn than the previous installments--Gunn seems to think he's making a movie for his new D.C. bosses rather than Marvel Corp.--and egregiously bloated, the ceaseless attempts to tug at our heart strings fall as flat as most of the jokes.The series standout remains Zoe Saldana's Gamora who's been resuscitated after her death in the last chapter. The fact that a reborn Gamora no longer finds man-child Peter terribly appealing (who can blame her?) sends the once and future Star-Lord spiraling into alcoholism. (See, I told you it was dark). By the time the movie crawls to its conclusion, you might be in need of something stiffer than a Diet Coke yourself. (C MINUS.)
GUY RITCHIE'S THE COVENANT--Jake Gyllenhaal plays U.S. Army Master Sergeant John Kinley whose life is saved by Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim) during a Taliban ambush. When he learns that the military's promised safe transport of Ahmed and his family to America has been cancelled, Kinley embarks upon a suicide mission to rescue them. Although this is the first Guy ("The Gentlemen," "RocknRolla") Ritchie movie to incorporate his name in the title, it feels less like a typical Ritchie joint than Michael Bay directing a script that Clint Eastwood passed on. It's not "bad," and Gyllenhaal and Salim are both very good, but Peter Berg ("Lone Survivor") and Eastwood himself ("American Sniper") got there first and did it better. (C PLUS.)
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER IV--The fourth in Keanu Reeves' Zen-kamikaze franchise that launched in 2014 is the longest (clocking in at 169 minutes) and most extreme (I have no idea how it got an "R" rating). It could also be the finest. Former stuntman-turned-director Chad Stehelski--who helmed all the "Wick" movies--achieves genuine auteur status with this outing. It's almost entirely comprised of jaw-dropping, balletic action setpieces luxuriantly shot in long take, and they're like Sam Peckinpah directing a Sergio Leone yakuza western: a veritable grindhouse orgy of physical destruction. Still persona non grata after killing a High Table crime lord in the last film, Reeves' Wick is once again on the run as he fends off seemingly dozens of assassins contracted to take him down. The Big Bad calling the shots from his Versailles-like estate is the wonderfully creepy Marquis de Grament (played by "It" killer clown Bill Skarasgard), and Stehelski globe-hops with elan and evident relish. The Middle East, Tokyo (the setting for a Japanese garden conflagration that even surpasses the one in "Kill Bill, Volume 1"), Germany (where a futuristic night club becomes a literal killing field) and Paris (for a "you-ain't-seen-nuthin'-yet" finale featuring a vertigo-inducing 222-step stairwell) are all dutifully checked on your cine-passport. Series regulars Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne and Donnie Yen reprise their signature roles, but it's Reeves in his adieu to the Wick-ian universe that you came to see and he's ineffably "Keanu" to the core. A spin-off starring Ana de Armas is already in the can (with a rumored Reeves cameo), so it might not really be "The End" for Mr. Wick. But if this really is his long goodbye, "Chapter 4" insures that we'll never forget him. (A MINUS.)
LOVE AGAIN--Although her fiance has been dead for two years, Mira (Priyanka Chopra-Jones) is still sending him lovey-dovey text messages to his old cell number. Unbeknownst to Mira, that # has since been reassigned to hunky freelance journalist Rob (Sam Heughan). Because this is a rom-com, Rob naturally becomes obsessed with the mystery lady who's been sending him all those mushy missives. Serving as the film's de facto love guru is Quebecois songbird Celine Dion (playing herself) who Sam is currently profiling. If you don't think Mira and Sam will eventually meet--thanks in large measure to Celine's ministrations--and that true love will spark, you're clearly not the audience for this silly movie. Chopra-Jones remains an appealing screen presence despite all the dumb things the script forces her to do. (Hubby Nick Jonas has an amusing cameo.) Dion also contributed a few new songs to the soundtrack, none of which will make you forget "My Heart Will Go On." (C MINUS.)
LOVE ON THE GROUND; SECRET DEFENSE; UP, DOWN, FRAGILE--The near-simultaneous Cohen Film Collection Blu-Ray release of these wonderful, if heretofore difficult-to-see Jacques Rivette movies is a cause for celebration among cinephiles. Yes, each film runs nearly three hours (Rivette's 1971 magnum opus, "Out One," ran nearly 13 hours!), but they're all fantastically entertaining and, yes, accessible, even for Rivette neophytes. Starring Jane Birkin and Geraldine Chaplin at their most winsome, 1983's "Ground" is the most classically Rivettian of the three films. Charlotte (Chaplin) and Emily (Birkin) are actresses hired by a reclusive playwright (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) to star in his latest, quasi-autobiographical work which he plans to stage in his private chateau. Like 1972's "Celine and Julie Go Boating," my all-time favorite Rivette movie, the haunted house-like setting makes it easy to surrender to the, "Is this theatrical artifice, or is it reality?," mind games. Costarring Andre Dussolier as an itinerant magician--and Kalfon's romantic rival--this candy-colored treat is as playful as it is ultimately profound. If you didn't know better, or haven't seen a lot of Rivette films, it's possible to confuse "Up, Down, Fragile" (from 1995) with the celebrated works of Jacques ("The Umbrellas of Cherbourg") Demy. It's as unlikely, and irresistible, a modern-dress musical as Godard's "A Woman is a Woman" must have seemed to audiences in 1962. Nathalie Richard, Marianne Denicourt and Laurence Cote play three nubile young women in Paris whose magically intertwined lives are like something out of a 1930's backstage Hollywood musical--with the requisite production numbers intact. Effortlessly charming and briskly paced, it's a movie for anyone who loved "Amelie" which it almost feels like a precursor to, except this time there are three Amelies instead of one. 1997's "Secret Defense" is the film that seems the biggest departure for Rivette, a Hitchcockian thriller that could have been directed by Claude Chabrol, another founding member of the French New Wave. The major difference is that neither Hitch or Chabrol would have had the hubris to turn a frankly pulpy yarn into a stately 174-minute meditation on secrets, deception and murder. Sandrine Bonnaire, who rose to stardom in Agnes Varda's 1986 masterpiece "Vagabond," is Sylvie, a scientific researcher who is startled when her kid brother Paul (Gregoire Colin) announces that he's uncovered the truth behind their father's purported suicide five years earlier. The man he accuses of dad's murder is Walser (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), their pere's enigmatic former business partner. Launching her own stealth investigation, Sylvie gradually insinuates herself into Walser's life and ultimately bed. And just how is Paul and Sylvie's flighty mother (Francoise Fabian), who's been having a not-so-secret affair with Walser, implicated in all the chicanery? "Defense" is a movie that takes its time, only gradually building a head of suspense. But once it kicks into gear, the tension is palpable. All three discs include scholarly audio commentary tracks by Rivette authority Richard Pena, Emeritus Director of the New York Film Festival and Columbia University professor of film and media studies. (Each title merits an "A" grade.)
THE POPE'S EXORCIST--A waggish Russell Crowe is the best thing about director Julius ("Overlord," "The Samaritan") Avery's been there/exorcised that horror flick. Crowe plays the real-life Father Gabriele Amorth who served as head exorcist of the Diocese of Rome for 30 years (the film itself is wholly fictional, though). When a young boy (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) begins evincing signs of demonic possession while living in a spooky Castilian abbey with his widowed mom and teen sister, Father Amorth is tasked by the Pope (screen legend Franco Nero) with conducting an exorcism. Blaming demonic possession on the Catholic Church's sins during the Spanish Inquisition is a bit of a stretch, but it's the only novel thing about the movie. (C.)
RENFIELD--Nicolas Cage is Dracula and Nicholas Holt the Count's manservant Renfield in Chris ("The LEGO Batman Movie") McKay's quasi-clever, semi-dumb horror comedy. Once Renfield falls for New Orleans traffic cop Awkwafina, he decides it's time to leave his toxic co-dependent relationship with the narcissistic bloodsucker. (Some of the best scenes are set in group therapy sessions run by a dweeby Brandon Scott Jones.) A subplot involving local mobsters--Ben Schwartz plays the idiot son of local crime boss Shohreh Aghdashloo--needed more fleshing out to fully work, but the lead performances are good (and funny) enough to leave you pleasantly buzzed. Best of all, the whole thing wraps up at just under 90 minutes. (B MINUS.)
THE SUPER MARIO BROTHERS MOVIE--"Teen Titans GO! to the Movies" directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic reteam for a DayGlo CGI 'toon adapted from the 38-year-old video game. The ubiquitous Chris Pratt voices Mario who teams up with Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and a toad (Keegan-Michael Key) to stop fire-breathing Koopa Browser (Jack Black, perfectly cast) from achieving (ho-hum) world domination. Oh yeah; Mario also needs to find brother Luigi (Chaerlie Day) who's mysteriously gone missing in the Mushroom Kingdom. Although it's primary appeal is video game cultists and young children, this is still a vast improvement over the clunky live-action 1993 Mario Bros. movie starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. (C PLUS.)
WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?--Although they were each other's first kiss at age 15, Zoe (Lily James) and former next door neighbor Kaz (Shazad Latif) have stayed platonic friends into their singleton adulthoods. When Kaz, a British-Pakistani Muslim doctor, announces to documentary filmmaker Zoe that he's agreed to an arranged marriage to please his old-fashioned parents, she's appalled. But once the initial shock subsides, she decides that his impending nuptials would be a great subject for her new movie (cutesily titled "Love Contractually"). Zoe and her mom (Emma Thompson) even travel to Lahore for Kaz's traditional Muslim wedding. You don't need to have seen any of the producers' previous films (including rom-com staples "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Bridget Jones's Diary") to know that Kaz and Zoe are destined for their very own happily-ever-after. But getting there is still a lot of fun thanks largely to the appealing leads. (B.)
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ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA--Like Taika Waititi's Thor movies, the "Ant Man" flicks have always been among the easier-to-take Marvel Corp. products, mostly due to their waggish sense of humor and inspired casting. The third of director Peyton Reed's lightly likable A-M entries reunites the old gang--forever-boyish Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Douglas and, in the film's best performance, Michelle Pfeiffer--and wisely brings along some new blood, namely Jonathan ("Devotion") Majors as Big Bad Kang the Conqueror and the great Bill Murray as his puckish henchman, Lord Krylar. The plot is typical Marvel gobbledygook (something to do with the "Quantum Realm" multiverse which resembles a CGI amusement park designed by '60s maestro of psychedelia Peter Max), but Reed maintains a relatively breezy pace throughout. It's nobody's idea of "Cinema," certainly not Martin Scorsese's, but it's not half-bad either. (B MINUS.)
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.)
CHAMPIONS--Apparently feeling left out after brother Peter went solo and directed the Oscar-winning "Green Book," Bobby Farrelly helms his first standalone film. (Spoiler alert: it probably won't be winning any awards.) Woody Harrelson plays a minor league basketball coach who, after running afoul of the law, is forced to do community service by mentoring a hoops squad of intellectually disabled young adults. While Farrelly's heart is clearly in the right place, this mix of "Dumb and Dumber" comedy and egregious sentimentality simply doesn't work. Harrelson is dependably strong and there's good support from Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin and Kaitlin Olson, but the movie itself feels strangely retrograde and, worse yet, pandering. Running an indulgent two hours-plus, it merely repeats the same jokes--and tries milking the same tears--ad nauseam. Maybe Peter and Bobby should reteam in the hopes of striking gold with another "There's Something About Mary" rather than individually striking out with ho-hum movies like this and Peter's recent "The Greatest Beer Run Ever." (C MINUS.)
COCAINE BEAR--A 500-pound bear ingests a fortune in cocaine during a drug deal gone bad and goes on a nose candy-fueled rampage in Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest. What could have been another "Snakes on a Plane"--all sizzle, no steak--is instead a surprisingly enjoyable and occasionally laugh-out-loud-funny action/horror flick. Director Elizabeth Banks really lucked out by recruiting a first-rate cast (Alden Ehrenreich, Margo Martindale, the late Ray Liotta and a reunion of "The Americans'" stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell). They help sell a high-concept premise--allegedly "inspired" by a true story--that could have been merely ludicrous instead. (B.)
CREED III--Ryan Coogler's 2015 "Creed" was an even better movie than the original, Oscar-winning "Rocky," but 2018's "Creed 11" (not helmed by Coogler who moved on to Marvel's "Black Panther" franchise) was nearly as forgettable as most of the "Rocky" sequels. For this third go-round, Creed himself (Michael B. Jordan) not only reprises his role as Apollo Creed's son, Donnie, but directs as well. While not remotely in the same league as Coogler's film, it's still a major improvement over its middling predecessor. In the latest outing, newly retired boxing champ Donnie's childhood friend Damien (Jonathan Majors) shows up after having served an 18-year prison sentence. Now living high on the hog--he's a Ralph Lauren model, owns a Rolls and manages a stable of up and coming boxers in his L.A. gym--Donnie throws Damien a bone by hiring him as a sparring partner for his pugilist proteges. But since the ex con still has a score to settle with his old pal, he challenges Donnie to a championship (grudge) match. Jordan does good work both in front of and behind the camera, and graciously cedes the movie to Majors who's nearly as memorable an antagonist as Mr. T.'s Clubber Lang in "Rocky 111." (B PLUS.)
80 FOR BRADY--For the AARP crowd who found "Book Club" too egghead-y (books, ewwww!), this gridiron-themed distaff buddy comedy stars Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno as four lifelong pals who win tickets to the 2017 Super Bowl in Houston, the better to cheer on their fave rave, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. (Brady plays himself and co-produced the film.) Hokey and too silly by half, the movie still works on the goodwill of its old pro cast. They could have cut the Guy Fieri cameo though (the supremely unctuous "Mayor of Flavortown" turns up to judge a hot wings contest). At least it's better than some of Diane Keaton's woebegone recent comedies. (C PLUS.)
THE FISHER KING--Although it was Robin Williams' Pagliacci-like turn as Parry, a medieval history professor turned homeless man, that earned the former Mork his first Oscar nomination, Terry Gilliam's fantastical 1991 urban fairy tale is actually stolen by Jeff Bridges' more subtle costarring performance. Bridges, who was doing some of the best work of his career at the time ("The Fabulous Baker Boys" and "Texasville" preceded it), is fantastic playing Jack Lucas, an alcoholic Manhatan shock jock indirectly responsible for inspiring a mass shooting. (Pretty topical, huh?) Gilliam's first real studio film--and the first he made in his native America--blends pointed social satire and mythical allusions to ultimately heart-warming effect. It's like a Frank Capra movie written by Bret Ellis Easton in his "American Psycho" fabulist mode. Good support from Mercedes Ruehl (who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her bravura portrayal of Jack's video store owner girlfriend), Amanda Plummer (the waif-like object of Parry's affection who he likens to "God's symbol of divine grace") and a scene-stealing Michael Jeter as a down on his luck gay cabaret singer who does a wicked Ethel Merman imitation. The new Criterion Collection box set includes a 4K UHD disc presented in Dolby Vision HDR and a Blu-Ray which contains the film as well as supplementary bonus features. Because this is Criterion, the extras are suitably impressive. There's Gilliam's audio commentary track; interviews with Gilliam, producer Lynda Obst, screenwriter Richard LaGravenese, Bridges, Plummer and Ruehl; a 2006 Williams interview; 1991 footage of Bridges training as a disc jockey with acting coach Stephen W. Bridgewater; costume tests; deleted scenes with audio commentary from Gilliam; interviews with Keith Greco and Vincent Jefferds who designed the movie's hallucinatory "Red Knight;" and an essay by esteemed New York Magazine critic Bilge Ebiri. (A.)
JESUS REVOLUTION--The latest film by "American Underdog"/"I Can Only Imagine" auteur Jon Erwin tells the true-life story of how a pastor (Kelsey Grammer's Chuck Smith) invited groovy flower children into his California congregation in the late '60s, inadvertently kickstarting the "Jesus Revolution" in which disenfranchised young people, many of them hippies or hippie-adjacent, turned onto Christ after kicking dope. Grammar is fine, but the movie's real protagonist is Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney from Netflix's Kissing Booth" franchise) who picks up Smith's torch and eventually becomes a mega-church pastor. It's nicely acted (I especially liked Anna Grace Barlow as the future Mrs. Laurie), and Erwin--who co-directs this time with Brent McCorkle--has seemingly cornered the market on helming Christian-themed movies that even non-believers can enjoy. The film's major flaw is not acknowledging how Evangelism devolved over the decades, ultimately being co-opted by right-wing Republican politicians. (B MINUS.)
KNOCK AT THE CABIN--While on vacation in the Pennsylvania woods, a gay couple (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldrige) and their adopted daughter (Kristen Cui) are visited by Dave Bautista and his mysterious associates and tasked with a "Sophie's Choice" style conundrum. Do they save their family, or all of humanity? Based on Paul Tremblay's award-winning 2018 novel, M. Night Shyamalan's latest crafty, twisty, metaphysically-inclined thriller is all set-up, but that set-up--and the first half of the movie before it begins treading water--is a doozy. (B.)
LARS VON TRIER'S EUROPE TRILOGY--Kraftwerk's hypnotic techno dirge "Europe Endless" played in my head while dipping into the Criterion Collection's new box set of former enfant terrible Lars Von Trier's "Europe Trilogy." I've been a Von Trier enthusiast since first seeing "Zentropa" back in 1992 (it was originally called "Europa" before the U.S. distributer requested a title change so it wouldn't be confused with Agnieszka Holland's "Europa, Europa" released the previous year), but I'd never had the chance to check out his first two movies. 1984's "The Element of Crime" is a baroque procedural in which a retired detective (perpetually gloomy Michael Elphnick) is enlisted to help investigate a serial killer targeting young girls. Shot in sepia with the occasional pop of bold primary colors (e.g., a red Coke can), the film is actually more interesting visually than it is narratively. Von Trier himself plays dual roles in 1987's meta-before-its-time "Epidemic." Besides essaying a variation of "Lars Von Trier," a director whose most recent script vanished in a computer mishap, he also plays an epidemiologist tackling a contemporary variant of the Bubonic Plague. Needless to say it feels even more scarily relevant in today's Covid environment than it probably did at the time. Unfortunately, the movie itself is borderline jejune: one of those overweening in-jokes that must have seemed cleverer in the development stage than it does onscreen. "Zentropa," however, remains as brilliant as ever. Set in post-WW II Germany, it stars Jean-Marc Barr as an American working as a Pullman conductor who falls for the heiress (Fassbinder rep player Barbara Sukowa) whose family owned the trains used to transport Jews to concentration camps during the war. With its bravura mix of b&w and color, double-exposures and dizzying optical effects, it's a hypnotic experience that deservedly won Von Trier the 1991 Best Director prize at Cannes. Max von Sydow provides suitably otherworldly narration, Joakin Holbek's score playfully riffs on Bernard Herrmann's legendary "Vertigo" score and "Alphaville" tough guy Eddie Constantine pops up in a supporting role. Not surprisingly, the bountiful extras are Criterion-formidable. All titles include commentary tracks w/ Von Trier and sundry guests, and each disc contains separate making-of documentaries. There's also a 2005 interview with Von Trier about the trilogy; two short Von Trier student films ("Nocturne" and "Images of Liberation"); Von Trier's 1991 Danish television interview; and an essay by critic Howard Hampton which neatly contextualizes the movies within Von Trier's subsequent oeuvre. ("The Element of Crime," B; "Epidemic," C; "Zentropa," A.; cumulative grade, "A MINUS.")
MAGIC MIKE'S LAST DANCE--The third "Magic Mike" movie reunites star Channing Tatum with the original director, Steven Soderbergh, and it's a winner. After his nascent carpentry business goes bust, a newly humbled Mike (Tatum) is reduced to working as a bartender in Florida where he meets Maxandra Mendoza, (Selma Hayek), the soon-to-be-ex trophy wife of a billionaire media mogul. After some private dirty dancing, Max whisks Mike off to London where, under her tutelage, he stages a comeback of sorts by directing a Vegas-y, West End version of his strip-o-rama. Yes, the script could have probably used an additional pass (or two: it's fairly boilerplate), but Tatum and Hayek make a sizzling September-December couple and Soderbergh, at this stage of his remarkable career, is seemingly incapable of making a wrong move. This is the "Erin Brockovich" auteur's first theatrical release since 2018's "Unsane," but Soderbergh directed five--count 'em--streaming movies (four for HBO MAX; one for Netflix) in that time, all of them unequivocally first-rate. If this really is Mike's last hurrah, he and the franchise are going out with a bang. (B PLUS.)
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.)
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.)
MOVING ON--While attending the funeral of a college pal, Claire (Jane Fonda) vows to kill the widower (Malcolm McDowell's weaselly Howard) for drunkenly raping her 46 years earlier. Roped into the revenge plot is Evelyn (Lily Tomlin), another school friend with her own axe to grind. (She was the dead woman's former lover.) Frequent costars Fonda and Tomlin (Netflix's "Grace and Frankie," "80 for Brady," et al) remain a winning comic duo, even when the movie veers into darker-than-expected gallows humor and greeting card sentimentality. It's not as good or seamless a film as Tomlin and writer/director Paul ("About a Boy") Weitz's previous collaboration, 2015's letter-perfect "Grandma," but there are still enough grace moments (many involving Richard Roundtree as Claire's ex husband) and laughs to make it worth your while. (B.)
OPERATION FORTUNE: RUE DE GUERRE--Mercenary-for-hire Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) is contracted by an MI6 operative (Cary Elwes) to foil Cockney billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmond's plan to sell a deadly new weapon technology (nicknamed "The Handle") to Ukranian terrorists. (Hugh Grant is amusingly cast against type as the ruthless "merchant of death.") Assisting Fortune are tech expert Sarah (Aubrey Plaza), jack of all trades J.J. (Bugzy Malone) and Hollywood action star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) who Fortune recruits because he's Simmond's favorite actor. Guy ("The Gentlemen," "Snatch") Ritchie's latest globe-hopping actioner plays like a farm team version of one of Tom Cruise's "M:I" movies. But a game cast--Plaza and Grant are the thesping standouts--make it a reasonably diverting time-killer. Originally slated for release in early 2022, the film's U.S. bow was delayed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. All things considered, they should have probably just sold it to a streaming service since it's unlikely to make much of a dent in the domestic theatrical marketplace. (B MINUS.)
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.)
SCREAM VI--When Wes Craven's "Scream" opened in December 1996, it felt like a breath of fresh air in the moribund slasher movie genre. Craven's canny mix of laughs and scares seemed downright revelatory at the time. Unfortunately, the film's sleeper success meant that a follow-up was mandatory, and the following year's "Scream 2"--not to mention the even drearier 2000 and 2011 sequels--just felt like lazy cash grabs. Which is why last year's "Scream" reboot by "Ready or Not" wiz kids Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gilllet seemed like such a pleasant surprise. Who knew there was any creative juice left from Craven's quarter century old template? In a case of history repeating itself, this rushed sequel to 2022's "Scream" has more in common with the disappointing previous "Scream" iterations than it does with the game changing film(s) that preceded it. The one innovation is moving the action to New York City where the Ghostface killer (or the latest incarnation of the Ghostface killer since their identity has changed from film to film) stalks survivors of the previous movie. Jenna (Netflix's "Wednesday") Ortega, breakout star of the '22 "Scream," is the sole redeeming feature of the movie. But bringing back Courtney Cox (again?) and the 2011 "Scream" queen Hayden Panettiere for another go-round just seems desperate. (C.)
SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS--The inevitable follow-up to 2019's D.C.-derived "Shazam" is essentially a busier (more plot) and more cluttered (thanks to a slew of guest stars including Helen Mirren as the principal Big Bad and "West Side Story" ingenue Rachel Zegler) version of the larkish original. Director David F. Sanberg, reuniting with his "Shazam" co-leads Zachary Levi and Asher Angel, once again delivers a slick tech package with a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor. The major problem this time is that everyone seems to be taking it more seriously. Which somewhat dampens the fun and makes it feel more like, well, just about every other comic book super hero movie. (C PLUS.)
65--While on a two-year exploratory mission, astronaut Mills (Adam Driver) is forced to crash land on earth...65 million years ago! Accompanied by the ship's only other survivor, a young girl named Koa (Arianna Greenblatt), Mills must ward off dinosaur attacks while hunting for the escape shuttle that can fly them home before an asteroid decimates the planet. Co-directed by "A Quiet Place" screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woody, this slapdash crossbreeding of "Planet of the Apes" and "Jurassic Park" is so brazenly wackadoodle that it can't help be mildly amusing for a mercifully brief 93 minute run time. But not even strong performances by Driver and Greenblatt can compensate for frankly middling CGI and a script that desperately needed an additional polish or two. (C.)
THREE COLORS BY KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI--Individually great and cumulatively one of the benchmarks of contemporary European cinema, the Criterion Collection's Blu Ray box set of late Polish visionary Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Thee Color Trilogy" is the first must-own home video release of 2023. "Blue" (starring Juliette Bioche) is the darkest, most haunting of the three; the ebullient "White" (with Julie Delpy) is the closest to a flat-out comedy; and "Red," featuring an incandescent lead performance by Kieslowski muse Irene ("The Double Life of Veronique") Jacob, ranks among the greatest French language films of the post-New Wave era. Each movie is accorded its own disc and contains a plethora of mouth-watering extras. There are three "cinema lessons" with Kieslowski; interviews with cowriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz, composer Zbigniew Preisner and actors Jacob, Delpy and Zbigniew Zamachowski; selected scene commentary with Binoche; video essays by critics Dennis Lim, Annette Insdorf and Tony Rayns; a 1995 documentary about Kieslowski; three Kieslowski short films ("The Tram," "Seven Women of Different Ages" and "Talking Heads") from 1966, 1978 and 1980 respectively; interview featurettes on Kieslowski's life and career with Binoche, Insdorf, Jacob, critic Geoff Andrew, director Agnieszka ("Europa, "Europa") Holland, cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, producer Martin Karmitz and editor Jacques Witta; behind the scenes featurettes on "White" and "Red; a short documentary on the Cannes Film Festival premiere of "Red;" essays by critics Nick James, Stuart Klawans, Georgina Evans and Colin MacCabe; excerpts from "Kirslowski on Kieslowski;" and interviews with cinematographers Idziak, Edward Klosinski and Piotr Sobocinski. (A 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