NEW THIS WEEK JUNE 14, 2024 (IN THEATERS AND ON HOME VIDEO)
NEW THIS WEEK IN THEATERS, HOME VIDEO AND/OR VOD:
BAD BEHAVIOUR--While attending an Oregon "Enlightenment Retreat" seminar, short-tempered ex-teen actor Lucy (Jennifer Connelly) violently assaults annoying fellow retreater Beverly (Dasha Nekrasova) which lands her in the hoosegow. Rushing to Lucy's aide is estranged stuntwoman daughter Dylan (Alice Englert) who promptly gets it on with her mom's attorney (Karan Gill). Although Englert, in her directorial debut, throws a lot of barely connected threads into the stew (including scenes of Dylan at work on a New Zealand film shoot where she's having a furtive affair with the leading man), only a few manage to stick. Aside from Lucy's innate prickliness, it's hard to discern precisely what Dylan's beef is with her mom. And I was never entirely sure whether the retreat's New Age-y
guru (Ben Whishaw) was intended to be taken at face value, or merely a dated Werner Erhard parody. The fact that the movie still manages to exert a pull is credit to some compelling performances. Connelly, Englert and Whishaw are all very good--Nekrasova is so credibly irritating that you'll want to throw a metal chair at her, too--and I found myself engaged without believing a single minute of its overheated dramaturgy. Englert even managed to get her Oscar-winning mother, "The Power of the Dog" auteur Jane Campion, to do a wink-wink cameo. It's not a "good" movie per se (Campion's "Holy Smoke" told a similar story in a more disciplined and coherent fashion), but Englert shows enough promise behind the camera to make me curious to see what she does next. (B MINUS.)
NSIDE OUT 2--A "pretty much what you expected" sequel that picks up two years after the events of the Oscar-winning 2015 Pixar 'toon with Riley (Kensington Tallman) confronted with brand new emotions to contend with (Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, Nostalgia and Ennui voiced by Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Paul Walter Hauser, June Squib and Adele Exarchopoulas respectively). All the old emotions that previously roiled now-tweener Riley are present and accounted for, too--Joy, Envy, Disgust, Fear, et al--along with her well-intentioned if rather feckless parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan reprising their duties from the first film). The CGI animation is once again lovely and it's all very benign, but first-time director Kelsey Mann's film is also yawningly, depressingly predictable. As a minority voice who found the original a tad overrated (earlier Pixar movies like "Up, "Wall-E," "Finding Nemo" or any of the "Toy Story" iterations are all infinitely superior), I thought it was just O.K. Fans of the earlier film will almost surely disagree, though. (C PLUS.) https://youtu.be/LEjhY15eCx0?si=PYISvDKR922jIqhu
THE OLD OAK--When Syrian refugee families move into a depressed former mining village outside of Durham, England in 2016 (the year of the Brexit vote), some of the locals immediately take umbrage. Many have never gotten over the closing of the mines, and their bitterness has only exacerbated with time. The Syrians are an easy target for the unemployed (or barely employed) villagers, most of whom are on the dole. The titular "Old Oak" is the town's sole remaining pub, owned and operated by T.J. (Dave Turner) who's a bit of a sad sack himself. Abandonment by his former wife and estrangement from a grown son may have something to do with T.J,'s perennially dyspeptic mood. But an unlikely friendship the fiftysomething barkeep strikes up with Yara (Ebla Mari), a young Syrian woman (and amateur shutterbug) who moved to England with her mother and younger siblings, marks the first step in helping turn community sentiment around. Re-opening the pub's back room--which has been lying dormant for years--to serve free meals to anyone in need goes a long way to building bridges. But neo-realist master Ken ("Sorry We Bothered You," "The Wind That Shakes the Barley") Loach never sentimentalizes or simplifies this rapprochement: he's too much of a hard-nosed realist for that. Considering the worldwide refugee crisis impacting so many countries today, Loach's film--purportedly the 87-year-old auteur's final work--eloquently addresses the moment we're all living in. As usual with Loach, the performances feel more lived-in than purely emotive, and there's nary a false move in front of or behind the camera. The Kino Lorber/Zeitgeist Blu Ray includes deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer. (A.)
https://youtu.be/Fwb0c5zqsyM?si=k68-kU3yaHB2zZE_
PURSUED--A splendidly laconic Robert Mitchum had one of his best early roles in this engrossing, exceptionally well-made 1947 Raoul ("High Sierra," "They Drive by Night") Walsh film as an orphan haunted by traumatic childhood memories and hunted by a sadistic one-armed lawyer (Dean Jagger) who has dedicated his life to murdering him. Part western noir, part frontier Freud (a specialty of screenwriter Niven Busch whose even more neurotic "Duel in the Sun" was released the previous year), this revenge melodrama is one of the most unusual and evocative '40s westerns thanks to James Wong Howe's shadowy cinematography, Walsh's understated direction and Mitchum's increasingly tormented performance. His trademark sleepy eyes communicate pathos and vulnerability as everyone around him, including his adoptive family--protective rancher Ma (Judith Anderson), resentful "brother" Adam (John Rodney) and loving "sister" Thorley (Teresa Wright) who loves him as more than a brother--all turn against him for reasons he can't comprehend until finally revisiting his past and putting a story to those foggy memories. The plot has traces of "Wuthering Heights," Greek tragedies and psychological thrillers, and benefits from a stellar cast (including Alan Hale and Harry Carey Jr.), well-rounded characterizations, Busch's intelligent dialogue and flavorful period verisimilitude. KL Studio Classics' unstintingly handsome new Blu Ray includes an introduction by Walsh champion Martin Scorsese and film historian Imogen Sara Smith's remarkably astute audio commentary. (A.) https://youtu.be/TVraQlwwQVc?si=ergvg6sTrsP9OI5b
QUERELLE--The remarkably prolific German New Wave wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder died in June 1982 shortly after finishing "Querelle," and when it opened in theaters the following year reviews were generally dismissive. Even New York Times critic Vincent Canby who did more than anyone to "break" Fassbinder in America found the movie disappointing. Or maybe it was simply because the (largely) heterosexual bloc of American film critics at the time failed to appreciate Fassbinder's swan song for what it was: the most luxuriously stylized evocation of Gay Sensibility ever seen in a major movie. Along with Fellini's "Satyricon," it was (and remains) pretty much the gayest film ever made: a veritable Disneyland of queerness. Luxuriating in Fassbinder's deliberately artificial mise-en-scene is like taking a hit of amyl nitrate on the dance floor at Manhattan's fabled Crisco Disco in the pre-AIDS era. Although adapted from a novel by Jean Genet, the film seems even more beholden to the homoerotic artwork of Tom of Finland. As the titular sailor, Brad ("Midnight Express") Davis practically oozes sexuality, strutting his fine self into Feria, a Brest bar/brothel run by the imperious Madame Lysiane (Nouvelle Vague diva Jeanne Moreau). In short order, Querelle gets involved in an opium deal with Lysiane's husband (Gunther Kaufmann's Nono) that climaxes with the killing of his criminal cohort. Lusted after by everyone he crosses paths with, especially his superior officer, Lieutenant Seblon (Franco Nero), Querelle is a veritable walking and talking phallus. While the film ends tragically, it's also deeply, ironically funny. (Shades of Fassbinder creative muse Douglas Sirk's gloriously overheated 1950's Hollywood melodramas.) Would the New Queer Cinema that emerged a decade later have ever taken root without Fassbinder's posthumous masterpiece? Maybe, maybe not. Both Todd ("Poison") Haynes and Gregg ("The Living End") Araki have cited the film as a key influence on their early work. What can't be disputed is that Fassbinder--who died at age 37 after having directed over 40 films, 24 plays (most of which he wrote) and three television miniseries (including his magnum opus, 1980's "Berlin Alexanderplatz")--remains, along with Jean-Luc Godard, the most compelling, provocative and singular European filmmaking voice to emerge in the post-WW II era. Extras on the new Criterion Collection Blu-Ray include an interview with Museum of the Moving Image editorial director (and Queer Cinema scholar) Michael Koresky; Wolf German's 1982 documentary, "Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Last Works;" and a compelling, appreciative essay by critic Nathan Lee. (A.) https://youtu.be/VO1sG8spdao?si=QGy0ZAzTYWc1ZrkX
REMEMBERING GENE WILDER--Ron Frank's documentary is chockfull of clips from Wilder's films, candid home movies, fond reminiscences from friends and collaborators (Mel Brooks, natch, is the doc's MVP), and generous excerpts from Wilder's audiobook memoir. Even for someone like me who believes that Wilder's screen career peaked with his three Brooks collaborations ("The Producers," "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein"), it's an entertaining and affecting tribute to a singular (and frequently squandered) talent. While Wilder's five pairings with Richard Pryor (including the wildly popular "Silver Streak" and "Stir Crazy") remain overrated and none of his directorial outings ("The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother," "The World's Greatest Lover" and "The Woman in Red") are really very good, I was surprised by how much residual affection I had for the man himself. The most touching sections of the film concern Wilder's fourth marriage to New York League for the Hard of Hearing clinical supervisor Karen Webb who he met while doing research for his role as a deaf man in 1989's "See No Evil, Hear No Evil." (Webb survived Wilder when he died of Alzheimer's in 2016.) The Kino Lorber Blu-Ray includes copious supplemental interviews with several of the movie's talking heads (among them Brooks, Carol Kane, Harry Connick Jr. and TCM's Ben Mankiewicz) as well as the theatrical trailer. (B.)
REVERSE THE CURSE--After learning that his estranged father (David Duchovny's Marty) has terminal cancer, struggling novelist Ted (Logan Marshall-Green) elects to move back in with him. Thinking that Marty's condition might improve if he believes his beloved Boston Red Sox are in the pennant race, Ted--with the help of some of Marty's pals--concocts an alternate reality where the Sox, not the despised Yankees, are coasting to the World Series. Complicating the equation is Ted's romantic attraction to Mariana (Stephanie Beatriz, best known for "Brooklyn Nine-Nine"), dad's health care provider. Adapting his own 2017 novel, Bucky F*cking Dent," Duchovny also directed this nicely played study of grief, forgiveness and Sox super-fandom. Not all of it works (the 1978 period setting is largely established by Marshall-Green's cringe-worthy facial hair), but Duchovny's passion project ranks as one of the better male weepies in recent memory. (B MINUS.) https://youtu.be/UBosYy-Qz8g?si=Mwklz0HI_VxcoBQB
TREASURE--Based on Lily Brett's novel, Julia von Heinz's film concerns an American father and daughter who travel to Poland in 1991 to visit dad's old family home as well as the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where he and his wife were imprisoned during WW II. Ruth (Lena Dunham, playing an even more neurotic, if less exhibitionistic version of her "Girls" character) seems more emotionally invested in the trip than Edek (Stephen Fry) who prefers not to dwell on the tragedies of his past. But with the help of an extraordinarily accommodating cabbie (Zbiegniew Zamachowski), Ruth and Edek somehow manage to make all the stops on their itinerary, despite bickering like an old married couple every inch of the way. Surprisingly, von Heinz somehow manages to turn her potentially off-putting--or merely depressing--subject matter into a touching, even intermittently amusing road trip/odd couple buddy movie. Dunham and Fry don't make a false move between them, and we totally buy the familial connection. Theirs is a thesping pas de deux and quite lovely to behold. (B PLUS.)
NOW AVAILABLE IN THEATERS, ON HOME VIDEO AND/OR STREAMING CHANNELS:
BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE--Was there really a crying need for a fourth "Bad Boys" movie? Probably not, but at least Sony had the good sense to re-hire Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, co-directors of 2020's "Bad Boys For Life," the 29-year-old franchise's standout iteration. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence (naturally) reprise their roles as Miami cops Mike and Marcus, this time tasked with clearing their late boss (Joe Pantoliano's Captain Howard) of corruption charges. It's all pretty boilerplate, but El Arbi and Fallah once again manage to make the whole thing go down smoothly enough. And unlike most derriere-numbing studio tentpoles these days, the movie clocks in at a relatively breezy 110 minutes. Another wise choice the directors made was bringing back the threequel's scene-stealing bad guy, Jacob Scipio. (B.)
DOGFIGHT--Nancy Savoca made three wonderful movies with producer/co-writer husband Richard Guay between 1989-'93 then essentially disappeared. In the process, the American cinema lost one of its most singular and distinctive voices. The fact that Savoca is largely unknown today, despite this being an era which purportedly champions female directors, makes her relative obscurity both depressing and infuriating. Fortunately, Criterion is doing their part to help auto-correct that grievous injustice by releasing "Dogfight," Savoca's greatest film, on Blu Ray for the first time. (In a happy coincidence, Kino Lorber just released Savoca's two other masterworks, "True Love" and "Household Saints," on home video as well.) Savoca's only major studio production, "Dogfight" was badly marketed and barely released by Warner Brothers in the fall of 1991. I remember driving three hours round trip to see it when a single Pittsburgh theater finally opened it months after the New York premiere. Part of a sub-genre I like to refer to as the "Doomed Love Love Story"--other exemplars include Elia Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass," Alan J. Pakula's "The Sterile Cuckoo" and John Sayles' "Baby, It's You"--"Dogfight" tells the heart-wrenching story of an impactful San Francisco night shared by an 18-year-old marine (River Phoenix's Eddie Birdlace) ready to be shipped off to Vietnam and waitress/folk singer aspirant Rose (Lili Taylor) in November 1963. After impulsively inviting Rose to be his plus-one at a party (the titular "dogfight") in which the grunt with the ugliest date wins a cash prize, Eddie tries to make amends by taking her on a real date. During the course of their enchanted evening, the two find themselves connecting in ways neither could have ever anticipated. Phoenix, who was on the cusp of officially becoming "The Actor of His Generation" before his untimely death two years later, gives a performance of such aching, lacerating vulnerability that he literally takes your breath away. (Amazingly, Gus Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho," with an equally remarkable Phoenix performance, opened the same month.) And the mercurial Taylor, in an exquisitely modulated turn, matches her co-star's brilliance every step of the way. Extras include Savoca/Guay's audio commentary recycled from a no-frills 2003 DVD release; "American Psycho"/"I Shot Andy Warhol" director Mary Harron's 32-minute interview with Savoca and Guay; a 2024 featurette in which Guay interviews the film's cinematographer, production designer, script superviser and editors; and an insightful essay, "Love and War," by critic Christina Newland. (A PLUS.)
THE FALL GUY--After a work-related injury that nearly cost him his life, stunt man Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) reluctantly goes back to work as the stunt double for Tom Cruise-y superstar Tom Ryder's new action blockbuster, "Metal Storm." The fact that "Storm" is also the directing debut of the ex (Emily Blunt's Jody Moreno) Colt still pines for also factors into his decision to accept the gig. But when Tom (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) mysteriously disappears in the middle of the shoot (some shady mobsters are involved), Jody tasks Colt with helping locate her MIA lead actor. A glossy, big-screen spin-off of the long-running 1980's Lee Major tube series, director/former stunt man David ("Bullet Train," "Deadpool 2") Leitch's film has pacing problems, especially in the first half, and is maybe a half hour too long. But Gosling and Blunt evince beaucoup chemistry and their rom-com screwball banter helps you get over some rough patches. As Jody's conniving producer, Hannah ("Ted Lasso") Waddingham steals every scene she's in. (B.)
FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA--The first "Mad Max" movie without a Max, Australian visionary George Miller's follow-up to 2015's Oscar-winning "Fury Road" is an origin story for Imperator Furiosa, the one-armed rig driver introduced in that film and memorably incarnated by Charlize Theon. Spanning 15 formative years in the eventful life of Furiosa--played alternately by Ayla Browne and "Queen's Gambit" breakout Anya Taylor-Joy--and divided into five chapters, it's more interested in (occasionally labored) world-building than mind-blowing action setpieces. Evolving from a gender-bending orphan into a hellion of Max-ian proportions, Furiosa ultmately finds her loyalty split between dueling post-apocalyptic underworld leaders Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). At two-and-a-half hours, it's the longest entry in the 45-year-old franchise, as well as the first to incorporate more VFX than practical effects. Not surprisingly, it feels more like a Marvel movie at times than any of Miller's previous (and better) MM actioners. (B.)
THE GARFIELD MOVIE--This cookie-cutter CGI 'toon based on Jim Davis' long-running comic strip seems to exist solely to give the already overexposed Chris Pratt another potential movie franchise. After reuniting with his wastrel alley cat dad Vic (Samuel L. Jackson), lasagna-loving Garfield (Pratt) and beagle BFF Odie (Harvey Gillen) are suckered into joining Vic in the heist of 1,000 gallons of milk from a dairy farm. Naturally things end badly--but not as humorously as intended--for all involved. While Garfield survived two middling live-action/animation hybrids in the early aughts (Bill Murray provided sardonic vocal duties for the titular kitty), the latest incarnation just might close the chapter on any future big-screen outings. With Nicholas Hoult as Jon, Garfield's long-suffering human, and Snoop Dogg as "Snoop Cat" (that casting marks the quintessence of wit here), it's a movie only the youngest, least sophisticated viewers will embrace. (C MINUS.)
IF--Venturing beyond his hugely successful "Quiet Place" sci-fi-ers--a third entry is due this summer--director John Krasinski gives family fare a try with this only fitfully charming fantasy flick. After developing a superpower that allows her to see imaginary friends abandoned by their human pals after growing up, Tweener Bea (Cailey Fleming, best known as Judith from AMC's "The Walking Dead') makes it her mission to reunite everyone. While the movie's piece de resistance is the A-list cast tasked with providing the friends' voices (including Steve Carell, Matt Damon, Bradley Cooper, Emily Blunt, Sam Rockwell, Amy Schumer and George Clooney), all that star wattage ultimately overwhelms the movie's precious conceit. I was reminded of the sort of all-ages-friendly films churned out by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Productions back in the '80s. Unfortunately, it's closer to the deservedly forgotten "Harry and the Hendersons" and "Batteries Not Included" than classics like "Gremlins" or "Back to the Future." (C.)
IN A VIOLENT NATURE--Chris Nash's Canadian indie certainly lives up to its foreboding title: the frequent onscreen killings achieve a near-"Terrifier" level of graphic carnage. Yet the skill level evinced here separates it from Damien Leone's rather slapdash horror franchise. Think of it as the 1980's arthouse slasher flick that time forgot. When a group of (predictably annoying, barely differentiated) twentysomething campers abscond with a necklace found in an abandoned forest fire tower, they unwittingly revive the corpse of "White Pine Massacre" slayer Johnny (Ry Barrett). And because Johnny still has an axe to grind (literally), he naturally begins offing them one at a time. Nash's choice to depict the grisly action entirely from the killer's POV is both ingenious and deeply unsettling: it actually makes the audience feel complicit in Johnny's slaughter-fest. As "Final Girl" Kris, Andrea Pavlovic impresses, as does Lauren Taylor as the loquacious Good Samaritan who comes to her rescue. The rest of the performances are functional at best, but this is still the best horror film since John Hyams' "Sick" from early 2023. (B PLUS.)
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES--The fourth entry in the rebooted franchise that launched with 2011's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" ("Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and "War of the Planet Apes" followed in 2014 and '17) picks up 300 years after the last movie. With apes now the dominant species--and humans regressing to near-primitive levels--the "Kingdom" is ruled by Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) who repurposes ancient human weapons to enslave his fellow simians. Deeply alarmed by this perversion of the original Caesar's teachings, sensitive chimp Noa (Owen Teague) teams up with human Mae (Freya Allan) to take down Proximus' tyrannic regime. Directed by Wes Bell who cut his teeth on the "Maze Runner" trilogy, it's the first of the new breed of "Apes" films where you almost take for granted Weta FX's ground-breaking motion-capture CGI. Like 2022's "Avatar: The Way of Water," it's an indisputably dazzling technical achievement that ultimately feels a tad undernourished dramatically. (B.)
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1---After their car breaks down, Gregory (Gabriel Basso) and Maya ("Riverdale" alumnus Madelaine Petsch) take shelter in a remote cabin. Before the photogenic young lovebirds even have time to settle in for the night, three masked psychos break in to launch an all-out terror assault. The first installment in a proposed trilogy inspired by the queasily effective 2008 and 2018 "Strangers" home invasion flicks ("Chapter 2," also starring Petsch, is already in the can), Renny ("The Long Kiss Goodnight," "Die Hard 2") Harlin's creepy suspenser marks an auspicious start to a brand new horror franchise. (B MINUS.)
THREE REVOLUTIONARY FILMS BY OUSMANE SEMBENE--Unlike most Third World films of the 1960-70's which were unrelievedly grim and barely disguised Marxist tracts (e.g.,"The Hour of the Furnaces" by Argentinean directors Octavio Gettino and Fernando Solanas), the works of Senegal's Ousmane Sembene were often warm, funny and satirical. Although Senegal--a former French colony which won its independence in 1960--has a population of just four million, it produced the most important movies of Black Africa, notably those of Sembene, the continent's best-known filmmaker.
Three of Sembene's finest, most controversial and politically incendiary films ("Emitai," 1971; "Xala," 1975; and "Ceddo," 1977) have just been released in a Criterion Collection box set. For fans and initiates alike, it's a cause for celebration in helping boost the profile of World Cinema. Sembene, the unofficial "Godfather of African Cinema," has finally received his due.
Set during World War II, "Emitai" depicts the clash between native Senegalese and French troops over forcible conscription, heavy taxation and dwindling rice supplies. Although it won prizes in the former Soviet Union (Sembene studied filmmaking in Moscow and briefly worked at Gorki film studios in the early 1960's), the movie provoked considerable resentment in France where it was deemed "politically objectionable."
Spoken in French and Wolof, Senegal's native language, "Xala" (roughly translated as "the curse of impotence") uses the story of an aging businessman (Thierno Leye's El Hadji) unable to consummate his third polygamous marriage for an expose of the nation's ruling class whose members have eagerly embraced the culture of their white colonial predecessors/oppressors. Although it's easy to laugh at El Hadji's absurd Europeanization (always speaking French, drinking Evian water and driving a Mercedes), we ultimately grow to sympathize with his ultimate downfall at the hands of others who are even more corrupt.
The East-West clash of cultures also figure prominently in "Ceddo" which depicts a Senegalese village sometime between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a heady microcosm of African political and social history. Set against the backdrop of an outsider community with animist beliefs, the narrative kicks into gear after the king dictates that everyone must convert to Islam. As retaliation, the king's daughter (Tabara Ndiaye) is kidnapped, triggering a series of cataclysmic, history-altering events.
The Criterion set includes 4K digital restorations of all three titles; a dialogue between African Film Festival founder/executive director Mahen Bonetti and writer Amy Sall; Paulin Soumanou Vierya's 1981 documentary, "The Making of 'Ceddo;'" and a thoughtful essay by New York-based writer and film programmer Yasmina Price. (A.)
TO DIE FOR--Released at the apotheosis of the American obsession with tabloid culture--and a year after O.J. Simpson became the most famous man in the world thanks to his Bronco freeway chase and Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" topped the box office charts--Gus Van Sant's gleefully amoral 1995 black comedy immediately catapulted Nicole Kidman to the top ranks of working actors. As Suzanne Stone, a TV weather girl with oversized ambitions and zero conscience, Kidman is alternately laugh-out-loud funny and utterly terrifying. Married to a nice guy (Matt Dillon's Larry) whose presence in her life has become increasingly extraneous, Suzanne somehow manages to seduce a trio of teenage stoners into killing him. Naturally her perfectly calibrated machinations ultimately self-destruct--what do you expect from high school potheads?--and Van Sant takes inordinate delight in watching his anti-heroine stew in her own malice. Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck and Alison Folland play the luckless kids Suzanne ropes into her scheme and match Kidman every step of the way. (Trivia note: Phoenix and Affleck would both go on to win Best Actor Oscars for "Joker" and "Manchester by the Sea" respectively.) Co-written by Buck ("The Graduate") Henry and Joyce Manard whose novel the film was based on, "To Die For" spun the real-life Pamela Smart case in which a New Hampshire teacher coerced four students into murdering her husband into one of the defining American movies of the decade. The newly released Criterion Collection 4-K Blu-Ray lacks the usual plethora of Criterion extras (there's an audio commentary with Van Sant, cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards and editor Curtis Clayton, a handful of deleted scenes and an essay by Berlin-based critic Jessica Kiang), but the film itself is the real star. It'll make a great future double bill with Todd Haynes' "May/December." (A.)
THE WATCHERS--Stranded in the middle of an Irish forest after her rental car breaks down, visiting American artist Mina (Dakota Fanning) finds shelter with a visibly spooked group led by the enigmatic Madeline (Olwen Fouere). Sequestered in a concrete bunker ("The Coop"), Mina, Madeline, Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) are observed each night by fearsome creatures who treat them like human pets. Although based on A.M. Shine's best-selling novel, it also has a lot in common with the recent dystopian nail-biter, "Arcadian." Like the characters in that April sleeper, daytime hours for humans are relatively tranquil. But when the sun comes down, they're easy prey for otherworldly monsters. Can Mina help her new friends escape? Or are they trapped to remain in their limbo-land forever? The first film by Ishana Shyamalan (yes, she's "The Sixth Sense" director M. Night's daughter), this is a reasonably diverting debut effort with some decent performances and nice atmospherics. But like some of Shyamalan pere's recent outings, Ishana doesn't quite nail the ending. (C PLUS.)
---Milan Paurich
