NEW THIS WEEK March 22, 2024 (IN THEATERS AND ON HOME VIDEO)
DRIVING MADELEINE--A very bad day for dyspeptic, cash-strapped Parisian cab driver Charles (Dany Boon) improves exponentially after picking up nonagenarian Madeleine (Line Renaud). En route to her final destination--a nursing home--Madeleine instructs Charles to take the scenic route. Through the course of a very eventful day, Madeleine gets to revisit some of the geographic talismans of her life. Flashbacks to Madeleine's past (Alice Isaaz plays her as a young woman) buttress the skeletal narrative, providing much needed subtext. As Charles gets to know his passenger, she becomes a kind of surrogate grand-mere. From the affair Madeleine had with an American G.I. during WW II that produced an illegitimate son to her disastrous marriage to an abusive husband (Jeremie Laheurte) that resulted in an attempted murder charge and a subsequent prison sentence, Madeleine's 92 years were indeed chockfull of incident. (Vietnam and the women's liberation movement also figure prominently in her biography.) Director Christian Carion, best known for 2005's "Joyeux Noel" which was an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, elicits such warm, empathetic performances from his two leads that it's a pleasure to spend 90 minutes in their rarefied company. The Cohen Media Group Blu Ray includes an interview with Carion as well as the theatrical trailer. (B PLUS.) https://youtu.be/w_ZLwuO2eg8?si=8r9ESuKbrVeX-swS
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE--This appealing follow-up to 2021's "Afterlife" finds single mom Callie Spengler (the wonderful Carrie Coon) once again uprooting her kids (Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace), this time moving from podunk Oklahoma to Ghostbusting Central New York City. Because their Okie adventures gave them a taste for the paranormal, they team up with OG 'busters Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts in their new hi-tech base of operations where a Macguffin-y artifact threatens to unleash a second Ice Age. Like the best "Ghosbusters" movies--the 1984 original and "Afterlife"--this is an old-fashioned "hang-out" movie, and it's a blast spending time with Coon & Co. (Director Gil Kenan and producer/co-writer Jason Reitman wisely bring back the previous film's Paul Rudd and MVP Logan Kim, too.) If all franchise sequels were this much fun, 2024 Hollywood wouldn't seem like such a barren wasteland. (B PLUS.) https://youtu.be/X7Di42uUaF0?si=JrzRSdpo0Vb8-0Zr
IMMACULATE--"It" girl Sydney ("Anyone But You," "Euphoria") Sweeney reunites with her "Voyeurs" director Michael Mohan for a sort of Giallo "Rosemary's Baby." Sweeney plays Sister Cecilia, a Michigan nun who somehow ends up in a rural Italian convent (My Lady of Sorrows) which is essentially a nursing home for elderly Brides of Christ. Things go from mildly creepy--a too-friendly priest (Alvaro Morte's Father Sal) and a scowling Mother Superior (Dora Romano)--to downright weird when the virginal Cecilia begins experiencing morning sickness. Church elders herald her pregnancy as a new "Immaculate Conception," and Cecilia soon finds herself a veritable prisoner in the nunnery. Andrew Lobel's screenplay is merely serviceable, but Mohan's sure-footed execution and Sweeney's incandescent performance help pick up the slack. The shocking ending is one of the most appalling, yet perversely satisfying I've seen in a horror movie since Ari Aster's "Midsommar." (B.) https://youtu.be/sDhsfV7r_1w?si=kY_07G-sy5ZTkNQA
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL--On Halloween 1977, a late night talkshow audience gets a lot more than they bargained for when "Mr. Wiggles"--a/k/a the Devil--makes an unexpected visit in the form of a teenage girl (Ingrid Torrelli) whose body he's currently taken up residence in. Australian filmmaking brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes' surprisingly witty genre flick is like a found footage horror movie crossed with Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy." Purportedly a "recently rediscovered master tape" of the infamous "Night Owls" broadcast, the Cairnes manage to keep their tongues firmly in cheek. And as a simulacrum of tacky '70s era chatshows, it's downright uncanny. Although "Owls" host Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is described as Johnny Carson 2.0, he actually comes across more like Joe Pyne or Morton Downey Jr. in his confrontational style and choice of outre guests (including an aptly wiggy psychic, a snarky ex-magician turned debunker of the paranormal, a clinical psychologist and her possessed tweener patient). The Cairnes don't skimp on the gore in some sensationally effective third act Grand Guignol setpieces, but the ultimate effect is less "ewww" than "lol." (B PLUS.)
LIMBO--If Hungarian minimalist/miserabilist Bela ("Satantango") Tarr had directed a season of HBO's "True Detective" set in South Australia, it might look an awful lot like writer/director/cinematographer/editor Ivan Sen's desultory procedural. Simon Baker, star of the long-running (2008-'15) CBS series "The Mentalist," plays Travis, a heroin addicted cop investigating the disappearance of an aboriginal teenage girl 20 years ago in a dusty backwater town. Because there's never any explanation why Travis is tasked with re-opening the case in the first place, his somnambulant sleuthing never evinces a pulse. As the brother and sister of the missing (and presumed dead) girl, Rob Collins and Natasha Wanganeen are both very good, as is the cast-against-type Baker. But the title of the film--shot in sepulchral black and white, natch--feels especially apt since watching it is like being trapped in cinematic purgatory. (C.) https://youtu.be/ayK-UmPsiD4?si=xQHMA2bTnkUN0Ycl
LYNCH/OZ--"There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about 'The Wizard of Oz,'" David Lynch admits in Alexandre O. Philippe's essayistic documentary about thematic links between Lynch's ouevre and the fabled 1939 MGM musical. Divided into cryptically worded chapters ("Membranes," "Multitudes," et al) narrated by fellow directors (John Waters, David Lowery, Karyn Kusama, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead and Rodney Ascher) and even "Unspooled" podcaster/critic Amy Nicholson, Philippe's film offers a treasure trove of clips to buttress its provocative thesis. How a former Idaho boy scout like Lynch could grow up to direct movies as flagrantly outre as "Blue Velvet," "Wild at Heart" and "Eraserhead" is less significant than how his trademark "straight-faced surrealism" became so clearly indebted to "The Wizard of Oz." (And not just because of Lynch's apparent fetish for Dorothy's red shoes, liberally quoted in a slew of his films.) Philippe--who previously directed 2017's wildly entertaining "78/52," a shot-by-shot exegesis of the shower scene in Hitchcock's "Psycho"--even expands his Lynchian scope by including other movies influenced by "Oz," including "Back to the Future," "Suspiria," "Pleasantville," "The Big Lebowski," "Pan's Labyrinth" and an obscure 1941 proto-noir ("I Wake Up Screaming") which "borrowed" Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's "Oz" theme song "Over the Rainbow" as its aural liet-motif. Nicholson describes "The Wizard of Oz" as Lynch's "foundational text," and after nearly two hours of "Lynch/Oz," it's hard to dispute the validity of her argument. The new Janus Contemporaries/Criterion Channel Blu-Ray includes a wide-ranging interview with Philippe and the 2023 theatrical trailer. (A MINUS.) https://youtu.be/ktEzqafTCds?si=f7WDkcshHUCTq6nx
SLEEPING DOGS--Retired police detective Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe, dependably solid) is petitioned by the defense attorney of a death row prisoner (Pacharo Mzembe) to look into a decade-old murder investigation he was the lead investigator on. The fact that Roy is currently suffering from Alzheimer's should give you some indication of the implausibility of first-time director Adam Cooper's half-baked neo-noir. As Roy--who's currently undergoing "experimental" drug treatment for his condition--rakes up the past, he encounters a bevy of suspects (Karen Gillan, Thomas Wright and Tommy Flanagan among them) who had a reason to kill Martin Csokas' oily college professor/medical researcher. In a poorly written film stuffed with so many terrible, even amateurish performances (Gillan is particularly awful), Crowe's steely professionalism gives it much-needed ballast. While he can't save the movie, Crowe at least manages to make it borderline watchable in a "so-bad-it's-almost-good" sort of way.
NOW AVAILABLE IN THEATERS, ON HOME VIDEO AND/OR STREAMING CHANNELS:
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES--Poised inelegantly between "American Fiction"-style racial/social satire and conventional rom-com, Kobi Libii's directorial debut is a missed opportunity that fritters away the leading man potential of Justice ("Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves") Smith. After being recruited by the titular top-secret society, Smith's struggling artist Aren is tasked with helping fragile white people feel better about themselves. Ensconced at a tech start-up, Aren befriends nerdy Jason (Drew Tarver from MAX's "The Other Two") and plays Cyrano to his new workmate's interoffice crush (Ani-Li Bogan's Lizzie). But since Aren and Lizzie themselves have genuine romantic chemistry, what's a "magical Negro" to do? Although the ostensible goal of the American Society is to help save Black lives, Libii fatally shortchanges the built-in irony of his potentially amusing high concept premise. Smith, Tarver and Bogan are all appealing performers, but the movie feels like an overextended--and laugh-deficient--SNL skit. (C.)
THE APU TRILOGY--Viewed individually Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road)" (1955), "Aparajito (The Unvanquished)" (1957), and "Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)" (1959) are all indisputably great films. But viewed cumulatively as one nearly six-hour epic, "The Apu Trilogy" is among the greatest motion picture events of all time, a human document of timeless simplicity and exquisite beauty. In "Panchali," all the wonder and cruelty of nature and life itself are brought out in Ray's neorealist-inflected depiction of young Apu's childhood in a rural Bengali village. Full of memorable images (cinematographer Subrata Mira shot all three movies in luminous black and white) and sharply drawn characters, it was soon followed by "Aparajito" and "Sansar" which follow the adolescent Apu to Benares and ultimately adulthood in Calcutta where his wife and mother die, forcing Apu to raise his toddler son alone. Ray's trilogy marked a cultural breakthrough for Indian cinema (the three films won top prizes at festivals in Cannes, Venice and London), opening up a world of auteurist cinema far removed from Bollywood camp. They also helped establish Ray as the artistic equal to world-class international filmmakers like Roberto Rossellini, Yasujiro Ozu and Robert Bresson. The sumptuously produced new Criterion Collection box set includes both digitally restored 4K UHD and Blu Ray copies of each film; 1958 audio recordings of Ray reciting his essay, "A Long Time on the Little Road," and in conversation with historian Gideon Bachmann; interviews with Ray actors Soumitra Chatterjee, Shampa Srivastava and Sharmile Tagore, camera assistant Soumendu Roy, and journalist Ujjal Chaskraborty; a video essay, "Making 'The Apu Trilogy:' Satyajit Ray's Epic Debut," by Ray biographer Andrew Robinson; "'The Apu Trilogy:' A Closer Look" featurette with director/producer Mamoun Hassan; excerpts from the 2003 documentary, "The Song of the Little Road," featuring composer Ravi Shankar; James Beveridge's 1967 documentary short featuring Ray, actors/crew members, and critic Chidanada Das Gupta; a clip of Ray receiving his honorary Oscar in 1992; supplements on the painstaking restorations with director Kogonada; essays by critics Terrence Rafferty and Girish Shambu; and a selection of Ray's storyboards for "Pather Panchali." (A PLUS.)
ARTHUR THE KING--"Inspired" by a true story, Mark Wahlberg's stolid performance helps anchor director Simon Cellan Jones' feel-good movie about an over the hill Colorado jock competing in the Dominican Republic's Adventure Racing World Championship. (Think MTV's "The Challenge" minus T.J. Lavin.) Michael Light (Wahlberg) and his box-checking team--Simu Liu, Nathalie Emmanuel and Ali Suliman--brave the 435-mile trajectory with the morale-boosting support of a stray mutt mascot they dub "Arthur the King." If you've seen one underdog sports movie (or any pooch-centric kidflick), nothing that transpires over the course of the film's rather sluggishly paced 107 minutes will remotely surprise you. It's not "terrible," just ploddingly predictable and, accordingly, just a wee bit dull. (C.)
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.)
DUNE: PART 2--Picking up where 2021's world-building "Dune" left off, returning director Denis Villeneuve amps up the groaning board of exposition and groovy mysticism to an "11." Having fled to the desert after the slaughter of the House of Atreides by Jabba the Hut prototype Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), Paul (Timothee Chalamet) and his pregnant mother (Rebecca Ferguson) are given safe harbor with the Fremen tribe. Still rebelling against his mantle as "The Chosen One," Paul makes a love connection with Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya) and learns to ride the planet's giant sandworms. (The worm's "spice" is much sought after by the ruling class because it gives them paranormal powers, the better to subjugate plebeians.) Among the new characters introduced are a crotchety Emperor (Christopher Walken), his ambassadorial daughter (Florence Pugh, very good) and sociopathtic Harkonnen heir-apparent Feyda Rautha (a virtually unrecognizable Austin Butler). The starry cast--including such heavy-hitters as Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Lea Seydoux--remains an embarrassment of thesping riches, and Aussie cinematographer Greig ("The Batman," "Rogue One") bathes the whole thing in such a glossy, iridescent sheen that the film's state of the art CGI looks relatively seamless. While my favorite "Dune" still remains David Lynch's under-loved 1984 Frank Herbert adaptation, Villeneueve deserves major props for having crafted the most fully realized fantasy tentpoles since Peter Jackson discovered Middle Earth with his "LOTR" trilogy 20+ years ago. (A MINUS.)
ERIC ROHMER'S TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS--After concluding his "Six Moral Tales" and "Comedies and Proverbs" cycles, French New Wave master Eric Rohmer inaugurated "Tales of Four Seasons," another series of morality parables centered on words, thoughts and emotions rather than plot and action. All four films have been lovingly restored and released in an exquisite new Criterion Collection box set, marking it as 2024's first truly indispensable addition to any true cineaste's home video collection. Besides being one of the most intelligent and original thinkers in the history of cinema, Rohmer was also an extraordinarily sophisticated and accomplished filmmaker. Using uncomplicated, economical, but fluid camera techniques, he succeeded in capturing not only the evocative imagery of his locales, but also the inner lives of his characters and the psychological atmosphere that grows from their encounters. Technically, he was a minimalist who maximized the effect of the modest means he allowed himself in the process of making his films. Long-time New York Times critic Vincent Canby--who, along with the Village Voice's Andrew Sarris helped turn Rohmer into a household name among arthouse habitues in the '70s and '80s--famously described his ouevre as the "movie equivalent of prose that dispenses with adjectives and adverbs," and the quartet of masterpieces that comprise "Four Seasons" once again demonstrate his genius at creating narrative from the slightest of substances.
"A Tale of Springtime" (1992) pivots on the friendship between music student Natacha (Florence Darel) and philosophy professor Jeanne (Anne Teyssedre) that runs afoul when Natacha decides to play matchmaker for Jeanne and her dad (Hugues Quester).
1994's "A Tale of Winter" stars the enchanting Charlotte Very as Felice, the single mom of a five-year-old daughter who juggles two men (librarian Loic and hair salon mini-mogul Maxence) while still carrying a torch for the long-lost lover (Frederic van den Driessche's Charles) she thinks, hopes and prays will miraculously resurface one day. Along with 1988's "Boyfriends and Girlfriends," it ranks among Rohmer's most sublimely romantic films.
Although made in 1996, the quasi-autobiographical "A Tale of Summer" didn't open in the U.S. until 2014 (!?), four years after Rohmer's death at 89. Future star Melvil ("A Christmas Tale") Poupaud had a memorable early role as feckless student/aspiring musician Gaspard who, while on vacation at a Breton resort town, is pursued by three women (played by Amanda Langlet, Gwenaelle Simon and Aurelia Nolin), none of whom he's willing to commit to. The verbal chess game that ensues among the quartet is both richly amusing and achingly poignant.
Rohmer reunited with his "Claire's Knee" star Beatrice Romand for "A Tale of Autumn" (1999) which could have been a blueprint for one of Nora Ephron's Hollywood rom-coms about middle-aged women searching for love. Romand is widowed vineyard owner Magali who's being set up with the ex flame (a retired philosophy professor played by Didier Sandre) of her son's girlfriend (Alexia Portal). Simultaneously, Magali's BFF Isabelle (Marie Riviere) tries snaring eligible bachelor Gerald (Alain Libolt) under a pseudonym. A series of reversals and coincidences bubble up deliciously. But since this is Rohmer, even the frothiest exchanges come with an undercurrent of rueful melancholy.
Extras on Criterion's 2K Blu-Ray set include excerpts of radio interviews with the famously reclusive Rohmer conducted by critics Michel Ciment and Serge Daney; interviews conducted at Rohmer's house with long-time collaborators: cinematographer Diane Baratier, producer Francoise Etchegaray, sound engineer Pascal Ribier and editor Mary Stephen; Etchegaray and Jean-Andrew Fieschi's 2005 documentary about the making of "A Tale of Summer;" two rarely seen Rohmer shorts (1956's "The Kreutzer Sonata" and 1968's "A Farmer in Montfaucon"); and an essay about "Tales of Four Seasons" by critic Imogen Sara Smith. (A PLUS.)
IMAGINARY--After moving back into her childhood home, Jessica (DeWanda Wise) becomes understandably concerned when youngest stepdaughter Alice (Pyper Braun) develops an unhealthy kinship with teddy bear Chauncey. Still P.O.-ed that Jessica abandoned him as a kid, Chauncey has a score to settle, and nobody in the house is safe once he begins his reign of terror. The latest PG-13 Blumhouse horror flick is competently directed by journeyman director Jeff ("Truth or Dare," "The Curse of Bridge Hollow") Wadlow, and an appealing cast--including the great Betty Buckley, still beloved for her role as Sissy Spacek's gym teacher in Brian DePalma's "Carrie")--delivers the jump scares with near metronomic precision. Think of it as "MEGAN 2.0," but with fewer laughs and more cliches. (C PLUS.)
KUNG FU PANDA 4--The K-F Panda 'toons have been around since 2008 and their popularity has never abated thanks to the three cable/streaming spinoffs that ran on Nickleodeon, Amazon Prime and Netflix. The fact that none of the Panda movies were really "great" hardly matters. They've become the equivalent of comfort food for at least two generations of animation fans. Once again reprising his titular vocal duties, Jack Black's cuddly chop-socky enthusiast Po is tasked with training a new Dragon Warrior to help battle shapeshifting sorceress "The Chameleon" (Viola Davis). Assisting Po is fox bandit Zhen (Awkwafina), and the two get into their share of slapsticky adventures before (no surprise) saving the day. Returning to the fold are Dustin Hoffman, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane and James Hong, and it wouldn't be a K-F Panda iteration without them. Considering the recent dearth of family friendly multiplex fare, this is sure to top the box office charts for at least two weeks before "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" arrives on March 22nd. (B.)
LOVE LIES BLEEDING--In director Rose ("Saint Maud") Glass' sexy, flinty neo-noir thriller, Kristen Stewart plays Lou, a gym manager in a dead end New Mexico town who falls head over heels for competitive bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O'Brian from "The Mandalorian"'). Eventually the tempestuous duo gets snookered into a blackmail and murder scheme courtesy of Lou's reprobate dad (Ed Harris) which, naturally, ends badly for all involved. The best lesbian noir since 1996's "Bound," Glass' movie has style to burn and some of the best acting we're likely to see all year (Stewart's achingly vulnerable tour de force could be her career-best performance). I'm not sure what mainstream audiences will make of it--the unfiltered mash-up of girl-on-girl action and extreme violence is definitely not for all tastes. But like the Wachowski's afore-mentioned industry calling card, it's destined for cult status in both Queer and Leterboxd circles. (A.)
---Milan Paurich