AMERICAN FICTION--Jeffrey Wright plays Monk Ellis, an African American college professor who, under the nom de plume of Stagg R. Leigh, pens a novel ("My Pafology") that's shameless "Black trauma porn." When the book becomes an overnight literary sensation, Monk continues the ruse while guiltily collecting his royalty checks. First-time feature director Cord (HBO's "Watchmen") Jefferson's film is one half biting social satire and one part (not as satisfying) family melodrama. (Monk's mom is dying, and his kid brother has recently come out as gay.) Wright's fantastic lead performance is the movie's true raison d'etre, and he single-handedly makes it a must-see even though it runs out of steam in the somewhat clunky third act. Nice support from Leslie Uggams, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz and Erika Alexander, but it's Wright's show every step of the way. (B PLUS.)
https://youtu.be/5_4RlHpqVWM?si=ia48BqTEOEzTiItl
ANYONE BUT YOU--After an extended foray into kid-friendly fare (Jamie Foxx's 2014 "Annie" reboot; the "Peter Rabbit" movies), director Will Gluck returns to his "R"-rated, "Easy A"/"Friends With Benefits" roots for a predictable, if fitfully amusing trifle. In rom-coms, casting and chemistry is everything, and Gluck is blessed with two of the most photogenic and appealing young actors working today. Ben (Glen Powell from "Top Gun: Maverick") and Bea ("White Lotus" breakout Sydney Sweeney) are exes who discover to their mutual horror that they're headed for the same destination (Australia, mate) wedding. To avoid embarrassing questions, they agree to pretend they're still a couple for the event. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or rom-com connoisseur to deduce that their play-acting will turn genuine before the flight home. Powell and Sydney strike bonafide comedic and romantic sparks. They're like a junior league Clooney and Roberts and single-handedly make this formulaic programmer (almost) worth leaving the house for. (C PLUS.) https://youtu.be/UtjH6Sk7Gxs?si=i3TF4ayE06CQote3
AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM--In what might be his final turn as Arthur Curry/Aquaman, Jason Mamoa's brawny insouciance remains the primary reason this D.C. super hero franchise is easier to take than the average Marvel or D.C. outing. The storyline--Black Monta (Yahya Abdul-Manteen II) unleashes something called the Black Trident, forcing Aquaman to reteam with his estranged Atlantis king brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to save the world from extinction--is strictly boilerplate, but returning director James Wan brings a certain snap to the rote proceedings and unlike, say, "The Marvels" or "Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3," it's never actively boring. Drive-by cameos by Nicole Kidman, disgraced Johnny Depp ex Amber Heard and Dolph Lundgren add a modicum of spice to the same old-same old template. (C PLUS.)
ARGYLLE--Matthew ("Kick-Ass") Vaughn directed this lumbering shaggy dog story about a mousy authoress (Bryce Dallas Howard's Elly Conway) whose spy novels suddenly turn very real when she's catapulted into a globe-hopping adventure. Fiction blurs with reality, and Elly is soon working side by side with her fictional protagonist/alter ego, Henry Cavill's Argylle. While Vaughn and screenwriter Jason Fuchs were clearly aiming for a riff on "Romancing the Stone" (or 2022's "Stone" homage "The Lost City"), their movie lacks the crackerjack pacing and screwball rhythms that made those hits click with audiences. Running a derriere-numbing 139 minutes--and saddled with leads who are either grating (Howard) or merely dull (Cavill)--it's left to the game supporting cast (including Sam Rockwell, Catherine O'Hara and Bryan Cranston) to provide the fleeting moments of amusement and/or pleasure. Vaughn was probably hoping this might lead to another tongue in cheek action franchise like his "Kingsman" trilogy. But since that's highly unlikely, he's best advised to return to the sort of idiosyncratic "small" films he cut his teeth on like 2004's "Layer Cake" which helped land Daniel Craig his 007 gig. (C MINUS.) https://youtu.be/7mgu9mNZ8Hk?si=0mNSU-YkitGPX435
THE BEEKEEPER--Decidedly not a film about apiaists, Jason Statham's latest starring vehicle--his fifth in the past year alone--is about an ex CIA operative (Statham's Adam Clay) who enacts scorched earth vengeance on weaselly miscreants behind an elaborate online phishing operation targeting senior citizens. (The title stems from the name of Kay's former covert paramilitary outfit.) Better than any January Jason Statham movie has a right to be, it was directed by masculinist auteur David ("Fury," "End of Watch") Ayer who knows his way around turbo-charged action setpieces. Costarring the always welcome Jeremy Irons and, as the designated Big Bad techie, Josh Hutcherson. (B MINUS.)
BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE--Disappointingly boilerplate musical biopic about the late reggae superstar exists principally as a showcase for Kingsley Ben-Adir who's nearly as good here as he was playing Malcolm X in 2020's "One Night in Miami." Opening in 1976 Kingston, Jamaica where Bob and wife Rita (Lashana Lynch in a mostly thankless role) are nearly killed in an assassination attempt before segueing to his exile in the U.K., director Reinaldo Marcus Green's movie is essentially a highlight reel of Marley's tragically abbreviated life. (He died in 1981 after a freak soccer injury.) Ben-Adir really shines in the electrifying concert scenes, but too much of the film is content to serve up hackneyed "Great Man" biopic cliches. (C.)
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT--A pokily paced, dully earnest sports underdog movie whose real-life bona fides don't make it any less tedious to sit through. University of Washington engineering student Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) joins his school's 8-man rowing crew to help pay for tuition--he's currently living in Seattle's Hoovertown--and winds up competing in the 1936 Summer Olympics. (Yes, the same Olympics Games that were held in Hitler's Nazi Germany.) Director George Clooney, working from a by-the-numbers screenplay by "Revenant" scenarist Mark L. Smith, has made a slick, good-looking film that stubbornly fails to come to life. There's nice work from Turner, Joel Edgerton (coach Al Ulbrickson) and Hadley Robinson (Joe's debutante girlfriend), but to little avail. It's the sort of movie your grandparents might enjoy when they catch it on Amazon Prime in a few months. (C.)https://youtu.be/dfEA-udzjjQ?si=nJteQOx-7OOtkziG
BRING HIM TO ME--Although set in the U.S., this derivative neo-noir was actually shot in Queensland, Australia. (Besides some dodgy "American" accents, the giveaway is a predominantly Aussie cast.) The dependably steely Barry Pepper ("Saving Private Ryan," "The Green Mile") plays the driver for crime boss Veronica (Rachel Griffiths, best known stateside for HBO's late, great "Six Feet Under") tasked with delivering the crew member (Jamie Costa) she blames for their recent bungled heist of rival kingpin Sam Neill's office safe. Director Luke Sparke is clearly riffing on Quentin Tarantino's oeuvre--a warehouse setpiece is an obvious "Reservoir Dogs" homage--but Tom Evans' cliched screenplay and the generally lackluster performances (Pepper is the standout, maybe because he didn't have to fake his Yank accent) prevent it from ever catching fire.
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS--After breaking up with her cop lover (Beanie Feldstein), Philly flibbertigibbet Jamie (Margaret Qualley) convinces strait-laced roommate Marion (Geraldine Viswanathan) to accompany her on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, Florida. Their getaway quickly hits the skids, though, when they get mixed up with the goons who stashed a decapitated head (!) and metal suitcase (?) in their car trunk. Not counting his 2023 music documentary "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind," this is the first film directed/co-written by Ethan ("No Country for Old Men," "Fargo") Coen without brother Joel, and it's a rollicking good time. Qualley and Viswanathan make an improbable, but delightful buddy duo, and the supporting cast is stacked with scene-stealing aces like Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp and "Rustin" Oscar nominee Colman Domingo. Clocking in at a fat-free 84 minutes--including end credits--these "Dolls" offer more entertainment value than any movie released so far this year. (B.)
THE GOLDEN COACH--The legendary Jean ("Rules of the Game," "Grand Illusion")
Renoir's second color film--shot in English at Rome's fabled Cinecitta Studios--was widely dismissed as a folly at the time of its 1954 U.S. release. But after a retrospective screening at the 1979 New York Film Festival (which is where I first saw it), "The Golden Coach" rightfully took its place as one of the French auteur's greatest movies. Screen icon Anna Magnani plays Camila, the grand diva of an 18th century commedia dell'arte theater troupe who's simultaneously courted by three men in colonial Peru. There's a bullfighter (Riccardo Rioli), a soldier (Paul Campbell) and the preening viceroy (Duncan Lamont) who gifts her with the titular coach. Billed as "a fantasy in the Italian style," it inaugurated an unofficial Renoir trilogy ("French Can Can" and "Elena and Her Men" would follow) in which theatrical artifice and all its gilded accoutrements trump humdrum realism ("Life is life, and stage is the stage"). The film's Pirandellian structure--adapted from Prosper Merimee's stage play--works beautifully, and the lush Technicolor and Vivaldi-heavy soundtrack make it a veritable feast for the senses. Bonus features on RARO/Kino Lorber's newly issued Blu-Ray include an audio commentary by critic Adam Nayman and an alternate French language audio track. (A.)
GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL--Forget "Tombstone," this 1957 John Sturges western remains the best of the many O.K. Corral movies after John Ford's seminal 1946 masterpiece, "My Darling Clementine." Starring Burt Lancaster (lawman Wyatt Earp) and Kirk Douglas (retired dentist/tubercular gunfighter Doc Holliday) in the second of seven films they would make together (their first pairing was in the forgettable "I Walk Alone" ten years earlier), "Gunfight" benefits from the kind of unfussy professionalism that distinguished Sturges' 1960's blockbusters, "The Great Escape" and "The Magnificent Seven." The supporting cast, littered with western stalwarts like Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam, John Ireland, Earl Holliman and Kenneth Tobey, is golden, too. Jo Van Cleef plays Douglas' love interest two years after costarring as James Dean's mother in "East of Eden" and ten years before essaying Paul Newman's mom in "Cool Hand Luke." (The pre-"Easy Rider" Dennis Hopper turns up in a lip-smackingly villainous turn as one of the Clanton baddies.) Shot in eye-popping Vista Vision with a thunderous score by four-time Oscar winner Dimitri ("Giant," "High Noon") Tiomkin, it even features a deservedly classic theme song by Frankie Laine of "Blazing Saddles" renown. Trivia note: Sturges would go on to make another O.K. Corral oater a decade later ("Hour of the Gun") with James Garner and Jason Robards as Earp and Holliday, but it's barely remembered today. The KL Studio Classics' unstintingly handsome 4K Blu-Ray
features an audio commentary by author/screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner and "True West" magazine contributor Henry Parke. (A.) https://youtu.be/L5FSo_NVF1o?si=O5atGHMOnUGWuU1G
LAND OF BAD--A typically solid Russel Crowe provides the lone star power for this underwhelming war flick about an outnumbered Special Forces team in the Philippines whose extraction mission goes awry. Trying to stave off an enemy air strike, their only hope is a seasoned Air Force drone pilot (Crowe). Except for the former "Gladiator" star, most of the cast (Liam and Luke Hemsworth, Milo Ventiglia, et al) is sorely lacking in charisma or dynamism. Director William Eubank was more successful at crafting suspense in previous films like "The Signal" and "Underwater." (C MINUS.)
LA SYNDICALISTE--In her finest screen performance since 2016's "Elle," screen legend Isabelle Huppert plays real-life union rep turned whistleblower Maureen Kearney who took on multinational nuclear power company AREVA whose backroom deal with China eliminated thousands of French jobs. After being sexual assaulted and mutilated by an unseen assailant, Kearney must then contend with a misogynistic French legal system that accused her of faking the attack. The third act of director Jean-Paul Salome's bristling procedural segues into a courtroom drama every bit as nail-bitingly suspenseful as the one in Best Picture Oscar nominee "Anatomy of a Fall." And Huppert, reuniting with Salome after 2021's less successful "Mama Weed," brings a scorched earth intensity to her role that's breathtaking to behold. Extras on the Kino Lorber Blu Ray include separate interviews with the real Kearney and Salome. (B PLUS.)
LISA FRANKENSTEIN--After accidentally reanimating a 19th-century corpse (Cole Sprouse), misfit high school senior Lisa (Kathryn Newton) immediately sets to turning him into boyfriend material. But since he's still missing some essential body parts, they'll need to, uh, kill a few people to make him whole again. Working from a derivative screenplay by Oscar-winner Diablo ("Juno," "Young Adult") Cody, first-time feature director Zelda Williams turns this Tim Burton-y premise into an obvious, but relatively painless 1989-set horror-comedy. (Think "The Corpse Bride" meets "Edward Scissorhands.") Newton, so appealing in "Freaky" and "Blockers," is the real deal: I'd love to see her headline a film for grown-ups someday. And newcomer Liza Soberano as Lisa's perky cheerleader step sister steals every scene she's in. The fact that Soberano is the spitting image of a "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"-era Phoebe Cates is probably the '80-iest thing about the movie. (C PLUS.)
MADAME WEBB--The wonderful Dakota Johnson and current "It Girl" Sydney ("Anyone But You") Sweeney are the main draws of another B-list Marvel origin story. Johnson plays NYC paramedic Cassandra who becomes endowed with a super power that enables her to see into the future--and possibly change it. Since this is 2024, Madame Webb's girl-power posse is predictably box-checked with blonde Julia (Sweeney), African-American Mattie (Celeste O'Connor) and Latina Anya (former "Dora the Explorer" Isabela Merced). The excellent French-Algerin actor Tahar ("The Mauritanian," "Napoleon") Rahim is resident Big Bad Ezekiel Sims, and Adam Scott, Kerry Bishe, Zosia Mamet and Emma Roberts round out the supporting cast. In her feature debut, tube director S.J. Clarkson makes the generic comic book nonsense slightly more bearable than usual thanks to a relatively pacy 116-minute run time and some very good actors. While it's unlikely to launch another Marvel franchise--box office tracking hasn't been great--anyone hankering for a big screen super hero fix could do a lot worse. (C PLUS.) https://youtu.be/s_76M4c4LTo?si=jwJ96fO7W8LYWXpY
MEAN GIRLS--Angourie ("The Nice Guys," "Honor Society") Rice is the best reason to see this serviceable adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musicalization of Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams' 2004 sleeper. Stepping into the old Lohan role of Cady, the new girl at a clique-ruled high school who ingratiates herself with "The Plastics" (led by Renee Rapp's truly terrifying queen bee Regina) before taking them down with the help of a posse of misfits (Auli'i Cravalho and Jacquel Spivey), Rice is immensely winning. Tina Fey--who wrote the original movie, the stage version and this iteration--reprises her role as a teacher, and Jon Hamm, Jenna Fischer and Busy Phillips (all very good) play typically clueless grown-ups. None of the songs or production numbers are especially memorable, but tweeners are sure to eat it up. (B MINUS.) https://youtu.be/UpWhCU7C46I?si=leYDzcNLLxsmP8uK
ORDINARY ANGELS--Good time gal Kentucky hairdresser Sharon Stevens (two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank) comes to the aid of financially strapped widower Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchsen) whose 5-year-old daughter (Emily Mitchell) needs a liver transplant. In his directorial debut, "Jesus Revolution" and "American Underdog" screenwriter Jon Gunn somehow manages to make this improbable-sounding (yet true-life story) not only compelling, but deeply moving. As a recovering alcoholic who turns her dissolute life around by learning to help others, Swank is a veritable force of nature, and an excellent Ritchsen matches her every step of the way. It's also a testament to the wonders that can be achieved through internet crowdsourcing. (B.) https://youtu.be/R1vn8kPgCYA?si=5CMsOfjP7Kow55lX
WONKA--Paul King, director of the delightful "Paddington" kidflicks, was the perfect choice to helm this fantastical origin story of iconic chocolatier Willy Wonka. A sumptuously-appointed sugarplum fantasy that's a glorious throwback to 1960's family musicals like "Mary Poppins" and "Dr. Dolittle," it stars the perfectly-cast Timothee Chalamet as a twentysomething Willy still attempting to forge his candy empire in Dickensian England. While housed in the prison-like boarding house of Miss Hannigan-ish landlady Mrs. Scrubitt (Oscar-winner Olivia Colman having a larf), Willy teams up with orphan Noodle (an appealing Calah Lane) to combat Big Bad Slugworth (Paterson Joseph) and the nefarious Chocolate Cartel who will do anything to foil the new kid on the candy block. The fact that the Police Chief (an amusing Keegan-Michael Key) is on the Cartel's payroll only makes Willy's task more Sisyphean. But spurred on by Noodle's nudging and the divine intervention of a persnickety Oompa Loompa (Hugh Grant in a scene-stealing performance), Willy and his heavenly confections ultimately reign supreme. Nathan Cowley's spectacular production design, Park Chan Wook mainstay Chung Chung-hoon's dreamy cinematography and six Leslie Bricusse-worthy songs by Neil Hannon are merely icing on King's supercalifragilistic cake. (A.)