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AMERICAN UNDERDOG--"Shazam!" star Zachary Levi plays two-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl champion Kurt Warner in a faith-based biopic by the Erwin Brothers, directors of 2018 crossover smash, "I Can Only Imagine." As the divorced single mom who became Warner's future wife--and the person who turned him on to J.C.--Anna Paquin is a long way from vampire-loving "True Blood" sexpot Sookie Stackhouse. Dennis Quaid has a few nice scenes as Rams coach Dick Vermeil, but the whole thing is just so squeaky-clean, cookie-cutter bland that it inadvertently does Warner--surely a more complex and layered figure than the Erwin's prosaic script allows--a major disservice. I'm betting the movie's target demographic (Red State Evangelical Christians) wouldn't want it any other way. (D PLUS.)
EMA--Chilean auteur Pablo ("Jackie") Larrain returns to his native country for this aggressively strange film about the lengths to which the titular anti-heroine (Mariana Di Girolamo, a knockout) goes to retrieve the adopted son (Christian Suarez) she and her soon-to-be-ex-husband (Gael Garcia Bernal) returned to the orphanage after experiencing adopter's remorse. The performance scenes with Ema's dance company eat up too much screen time, but the wickedly perverse ending is a whopper and very much worth waiting for. The DVD includes select scene audio commentary by choreographer Jose Vidal; a collector's booklet with David Barker's Filmmaker Magazine interview with Larrain and an essay by critic Carlos Aguilar; and a "Real" music video. (B.)
ENCANTO--Disney's 60th animated feature is the Mouse House's latest culturally specific female empowerment fairy 'toon. ("Raya and the Last Dragon" precedes it by a mere eight months.) With a busy, if not particularly memorable song score by Lin-Manuel Miranda--currently vying for the title of "hardest working man in show business" after "In the Heights," "Vivo" and "Tick, Tock...Boom", all in 2021--the film is a feast for the eyes, but somewhat lacking in terms of story/character development. Adolescent protagonist Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz) is the only member of her Columbian mountain family not to be blessed with a "special" gift--one sister can make flowers bloom through sheer willpower; an uncle ("That '70s Show" alum Wilmer Valderamma) is a shape-shifter; et al. When the Madrigals start losing their collective mojo, Mirabel embarks upon a journey to help restore her clan's magical world. From John Leguizamo's toucan sidekick (yawn) to the boilerplate message about how everyone is "special" in their own way, the whole thing feels recycled and second-hand. Directors Byron Howard and Jarred Bush had more success with their last Disney collaboration, 2016's delightful "Zootopia." (C.)
GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE--Carrie Coon plays the daughter of one of the original ghostbusters who, after inheriting her late dad's Oklahoma farm, moves there with her two kids ("Stranger Things" star Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace). Small town life proves even stranger than poltergeists for this NYC single-parent brood, and director Jason ("Juno," "Up in the Air") Reitman gets a lot of predictable comic mileage out of the story's fish out of water elements. He also handles the f/x elements like the chip off the old block that he is (Reitman's dad, Ivan, directed the original Reagan-era blockbusters). Thanks to its strong cast--the always welcome Paul Rudd pops up as a local science teacher/potential Coon romantic interest--and Easter eggs galore, this is unlikely to offend the purists who (somewhat unfairly) balked at Paul Feig's 2016 all-female reimagining. Whether its box-office appeal will extend beyond '80s nostalgists to create a new generation of Ectomobile fans remains to be seen, however. (B MINUS.)
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMANIA--The fourth entry in Adam Sandler's 'toon franchise bypasses theaters--it was originally scheduled to open last Halloween--and instead lands on Amazon Prime where's it's free to subscribers. (Along the way to Jeff Bezos' streaming site, it also lost Sandler whose voice has been replaced by Brian Hull.) But the slapstick shenanigans remain pretty much the same as Drac and his fellow monsters fall victim to Van Helsing's "Monsterification Ray" that turns them into (eek!) humans. Except for Sandler whose absence is mystifying, most of the original cast (Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Jim Gaffigan, et al) is back, and it's as sporadically amusing/unapologetically dumb as the three previous iterations. (C.)
HOUSE OF GUCCI--Lady Gaga, Adam Driver and Jerod Leto topline Ridley ("Gladiator," "Thelma and Louise") Scott's camp-tastic farrago about the Italian fashion dynasty which, if one is to believe the film, must be directly descended from the Borgias. As the working class usurper who marries into the family and ultimately launches an internecine campaign to take control, Gaga largely fulfills her "A Star is Born" promise. But Leto--seemingly channelling Max Schreck's Nosferatu--is so flamboyantly, spectacularly awful he seems to be an alien visiting from a distant planet. As Gaga's Gucci hubby, Driver underplays in his patented Method fashion while Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons (as Gucci co-heads Aldo and Rodolfo) deliver some of their wiggiest performances to date; for a seasoned hambone like Pacino, that's saying something. While Scott was clearly aiming for a "Godfather" set in the fashion industry, the end result plays more like '80s primetime soaps, But with more style, of course. (C.)
A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN--Denzel Washington directed this mawkish, pokily paced male weepie about letters written by First Sergeant Charles King (Michael B. Jordan) to his soon-to-be-born son during the Iraq War. Much of the running time is devoted to syrupy flashbacks detailing Charles' pre-combat romance with NYT journalist Dana Canedy (Chante Adams), Jordan's mother. The ending admittedly packs an emotional wallop, but the whole thing trudges on for more than two hours, hitting the same dirge-like notes ad infinitum. Although based on a true story, the film has a synthetic quality that defeats even some very good performances (Jordan is dependably strong and Adams impresses as a future star). Except for "Fences," his dynamic 2017 August Wilson adaptation, Washington has never been a particularly accomplished or inspired director. His genius lies in front of, not behind the camera. And this is possibly the two-time Oscar-winning actor's most maladroit helming job to date. (C MINUS.)
THE KING'S MAN--If nothing else, Matthew Vaughn's rambunctiously entertaining prequel deserves the "Lazarus" award for bringing a nascent comic book franchise that seemingly died after the rotten 2017 sequel ("The Inner Circle") back to life. Set against the backdrop of WW I, the film is nearly as playfully revisionist as Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." Ralph Fiennes (very good) plays the Duke of Oxford whose teenage son, Conrad (Harris Dickinson from "Lean on Pete"), is itching to sign up for combat duty. Instead, the Duke invites him to join a hush-hush mission involving King George, Czar Nicholas and Kaiser Wilhelm--all impishly played by Tom Hollander--his gentleman's gentleman (Djimon Hounsou) and Conrad's former nanny (Gemma Arterton). Among the nefarious baddies on their hit hit list are Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) and Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner) who's blackmailing President Woodrow Wilson with a sex tape to keep the U.S. from entering the war. While most of it is played for laughs, there's a melancholy undercurrent that wouldn't have been out of place in "1917." And stick around for a closing credits bonus scene that's a real doozy. (B.)
LAUGHING HEIRS--Before "The Earrings of Madame D...," before "Lola Montes" and long before son Marcel directed "The Sorrow and the Pity," Max Ophuls shot this light-hearted 1933 German romantic comedy about a man (the appealing Heinz Ruhmann) who inherits the vineyards of a champagne dynasty with the proviso that he can't drink any alcohol for 30 days. This frothy paean to German wine arrived at a curious time on American shores--just as Hitler was making himself known as a potential global menace. As a result, the movie fell through the cracks and was largely unseen. Ophuls himself would soon be MIA for several years before relocating to America and, post-WW II, France. An audio commentary on the new Kino Classics Blu-Ray by historian Anthony Slide puts the film--and Ophuls' prodigious career--into proper perspective. It's a must-see for fans of subsequent Opuls masterpieces, including "Letter from an Unknown Woman" and "The Reckless Moment," both made during his 1940's Hollywood sojourn. (B PLUS.)
LICORICE PIZZA--Maybe turning 50 mellowed him, but this is the friendliest, most accessible film to date by the great Paul Thomas Anderson, director of such contemporary cinema benchmarks as "There Will be Blood" and "Boogie Nights." Set against the groovy backdrop of 1973 Hollywood, the film tells the too-good-to-be-true-except-it-mostly-was story of teen actor/budding entrepreneur Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in a sensational screen debut) and the "older woman" he crushes on. As Alana Kane, Gary's 25-year-old dream lover, rock star Alana Haim delivers another stand-out thesping debut. Among the colorful cast of characters who cross their paths are hairdresser-to-the-stars Jon Peters (a howlingly funny Bradley Cooper), Sean Penn's boozy "Jack" Holden and a foul-mouthed Lucille Ball doppelgänger (Christine Ebersole). Inspired by the adolescence of future Hollywood producer--and Tom Hanks' Playtone Films partner--Gary Goetzman, it's as funny, sweet-natured and charming as Anderson's previous movies were (mostly) dark and brooding. This is "Art" of the highest caliber, too; it's just a lot sunnier, maybe because Gary Valentine is more pleasant company than Daniel Plainview. (A.)
THE MAN WITH THE ANSWERS--One of the few recent films that I actually wished had been longer (it clocks in at a fat-free 80 minutes), writer/director Stelios Kammitsis' charming road movie stars Vasilis Magouliotis as a former Greek diving champ who decides to visit his estranged mother (Stela Fryogeni) living in Bavaria with her new family. En route, he impulsively picks up a young German hitchhiker (Anton Weil) who's as free-spirited and loquacious as he is repressed and taciturn. Their trip takes them to scenic detours in Cyprus and Italy before finally arriving in Germany. Magouliotis and Weil make an appealing odd couple, and the wonderful Fryogen manages to create a fully lived-in character in her few brief scenes. Included on the Kino-Lorber DVD is Kammitis' short, "Downhill," that serves as a tasty appetizer for his first feature. (B PLUS.)
THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS--18 years after the "Matrix" trilogy ended, Lana Wachowski (sans sister Lilly) returns with the fourth installment of a mothball-encrusted franchise that kicked off during the halcyon days of the Clinton administration. ("Bullet Time" now seems as quaintly nostalgic as "Hammer Time.") Keanu Reeves--better known as John Wick these days--reprises his formerly iconic Neo role, although now "The One" is San Francisco video game designer "Thomas Anderson." A lot of stuff happens here (and I do mean a lot: it runs 148 very long minutes), but the only thing I can report with certainty is that Thomas aka Neo embarks on a kamikaze mission to reunite with former flame/fellow freedom fighter Trinity (a most welcome Carrie-Anne Moss). Some bright new faces show up (Jessica Henwick and Priyanka Chopra Jones in particular) and it looks great, but the whole thing reeks of Wachowski's desperate need to still appear "relevant." (C.)
NIGHTMARE ALLEY-- Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro's best, most fully realized English-language film to date is a loose remake of Edmund Goulding's 1947 film noir classic starring Tyrone Power. In his best performance since "Silver Linings Playbook," Bradley Cooper plays broken-down, Depression-era drifter Stanton Carlisle who finds his true calling as a carny in Willem Dafoe's traveling circus. After being mentored by husband-and-wife psychics Toni Collette and David Strathairn, an increasingly cynical Stanton--accompanied by virtuous girlfriend (Molly) Rooney Mara--takes his act on the road, headlining glitzy night clubs where he bamboozles the well-heeled clientele with his "mind-reading" abilities. It's not until Stanton partners with femme fatale shrink Cate Blanchett, whose knowledge of the inner secrets of her wealthy patients proves indispensable in swindling the high and mighty for increasingly bigger paydays, that his luck finally runs out. Despite running 150 minutes, del Toro keeps his audience in a vise grip throughout: the tension is so palpable at times you'll forget to breathe. Everything about the film fires on all cylinders: the period production/costume design, long-time del Toro collaborator Dan Lausten's lustrous cinematography, Nathan Johnson's insinuating score and a nonpareil cast (including Mary Steenburgen, Ron Perlman and a superbly menacing Richard Jenkins as Stanton's final mark). The Goulding original is terrific and has a deserved cult reputation, but del Toro's brilliant reboot is even better. (A.)
SCREAM--The latest attempt to resuscitate a long dormant franchise that expired when Bill Clinton was president mostly hits it out of the park thanks to the inspired choice of "Ready or Not" helmers Matt Bettinelli-Orpin and Tyler Gillett to direct. Set 25 years after the original "Ghostface Killer" slayings--it's actually been 26 years since the original "Scream" premiered, but who's counting?--the film reassembles the core players (including Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott, Courtney Cox's Gale Riley and David Arquette's Deputy Dewey) while intjecting some fresh blood (Jack Quaid and Dylan Minnette among others) into the mix. The meta humor doesn't seem nearly as novel or groundbreaking as it did in 1996, but Bettinelli-Orpin and Gillett actually manage to make it way more fun than any third (or is it fourth?) generation "re-quel" has any right to be. (B.)
SHATTERED--The latest straight-to-video Lionsgate release is a preposterous little noir about divorced tech millionaire Chris (Cameron Monaghan) who makes the fatal mistake of falling for the blonde waitress (Lily Frug) he had a one-night stand with. When her con man step-father (an amusingly sleazy Frank Grillo) shows up, things grow progressively nastier and even more implausible. Yet unlike most recent Lionsgate programmers, most of which star a somnambulant Bruce Willis, Luis Prieto's frisky little throwaway somehow managed to hold my attention, right up to the howlingly ludicrous ending. Monaghan and Frug are just okay, but Grillo and co-producer (?) John Malkovich deliver the type of scenery-chewing supporting turns that insure you won't be bored. Or too annoyed that you wasted 90-odd minutes on a disposable piece of flotsam. (C.)
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH--Joel Coen's first film as writer/director sans brother Joel is an ingeniously streamlined, superbly acted adaptation of Shakespeare's "Scottish Play." Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand play the scheming couple whose hubristic ambitions ultimately prove their undoing, and Coen makes Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth's diabolical, increasingly bloody machinations as appalling as they are morbidly funny. There have already been a slew of exemplary screen translations of the Bard's masterpiece (two of them--by Orson Welles and Roman Polanski respectively--are legitimately great), but Coen's "Macbeth" is possibly the most accessible and flat-out entertaining to date. It's also exquisitely lensed, in shimmeringly gorgeous black and white, by the great Bruno Delbonnel. Available on Apple TV+ at no additional charge for subscribers. (A.)
SING 2--Cocksure koala bear Buster ("Dream big dreams!") Moon takes his menagerie of wannabe superstars to Redshore City--think the "Zootopia" version of Las Vegas--to stage a big-budget sci-fi musical bankrolled by big, bad wolf Jimmy Crystal. But Jimmy threatens to pull the plug unless Buster (Matthew McConaughey) somehow manages to lure reclusive lion rocker Clay Calloway (U2's Bono in his first animated screen role) back to the stage. Writer-director Garth Jenning' egregiously overlong and generally "meh" sequel to his 2016 'toon sleeper is strictly for anyone who thinks animals performing karaoke is the quintessence of wit. Despite 40--count' em--songs and the good-sport return of original cast members McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Taron Egerton, Scarlett Johansson and Nick Kroll, this is more enervating than entertaining. (C.)
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME--Face it, Marvel-ites. There hasn't been a truly great "Spider-Man" movie since 2004's "Spider-Man 2," and the latest--and longest at two-and-a-half-hours--Spidey outing is no exception. But surprisingly, and I never thought I'd be saying this, it's actually pretty darn good. The third in director Jon Watts and star Tom Holland's unofficial "home" trilogy (2017's Homecoming" and 2019's "Far from Home" precede it), "No Way Home" picks up where the previous film left off when Spider-Man's identity was revealed Desperate to reclaim his previous anonymity, Spider-Man seeks out fellow Avenger Dr. Steven Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for supernatural assistance. But the reverberations--in which previous Spider-Man arch-enemies like Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), Electra (Jamie Foxx) and the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) are unleashed from the bowels of hell--prove catastrophic. It's always nice to reconnect with series favorites like Zendaya, Marisa Tomei and J.K. Simmons, and there are some surprise cameos sure to tickle Marvel fans. If this is truly the end of the line for Holland's web-slinger, I'm happy to report that his stint in the franchise is going out with a bang. (B PLUS.)
THE 355--When a top-secret military weapon is stolen, CIA agent Mace Brown (Jessica Chastain) rounds up an elite corps of international specialists (Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o and Penelope Cruz) to help her save the day. Director Simon Kinberg seems rightfully proud of his "A"-list distaff cast, and clearly enjoys showcasing them in scenic international locales (Paris, Morocco, Shanghai, et al). The script, unfortunately, is both muddled and cliched: it feels like it's been sitting around since the mid-'60s Bond craze. Fortunately, Chastain's "Angels" are so much fun to watch that you're willing to give it a pass.It's January after all. (C PLUS.)
WEST SIDE STORY--Was there really a crying need for an "evolved" reboot of Robert Wise's Oscar-feted 1961 film based on Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein's landmark Broadway musical? No, not really. The politically correct touches added by adapter Tony Kushner--e.g, making the Jets tomboy mascot transgender and a gay-bashing victim!--feel like cynical concessions to Gen Z progressives. And the decision not to provide subtitles for the Spanish-language dialogue was a stupidly arrogant miscalculation that will probably wind up hurting it at the box-office. But whenever Rachel Zagler and Ansel Elgort's star-crossed lovers Maria and Tony share the frame, it's hard to take your eyes off them. Zagler in particular is a real find: she's like an angel descended from heaven. Janusz Kaminski's dynamic on-location lensing trumps the original (which was largely studio-lensed), even if Ariana Debose and David Alvarez's Anita and Bernardo can't hold a candle to Rita Moreno and George Chakiris' award-winning interpretations. Speaking of Moreno, Kushner has written a new, utterly gratuitous role for the 90-year-old showbiz veteran, and it's a testament to Moreno's still-formidable chops that it's not an embarrassment. In helming the first musical of his 50-year career, Steven Spielberg doesn't seem particularly engaged by the material (maybe he knew he couldn't replace the original in anyone's rose-colored memories). Unfortunately, that means Kushner is the true auteur here which is precisely where the problems lie. Rewriting Sondheim lyrics solely to pacify snowflake sensibilities? Yikes! Dude is so woke he probably hasn't slept since "Angels in America" opened on Broadway back in the early '90s. (B MINUS.)
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BECOMING THE RICARDOS--Aaron ("The Trial of the Chicago Seven," "Molly's Game") Sorkin's terrifically entertaining new film chronicles one turbulent week in 1952 when Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) faced a crisis point in their personal and professional lives. Although "I Love, Lucy" was the highest rated show on television (60 million viewers tuned in every week), the HUAC had just branded Ball a Communist, tabloids were running stories about Desi's alleged affairs and Lucy's surprise pregnancy sent CBS and the show's advertisers into a collective tizzy. Kidman and Bardem are both superb, and J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda as William Frawley and Vivian Vance--better known as Fred and Ethel Mertz--are equally impressive. The movie is as much about the Arnaz marriage as it is an origin story about network television in its infancy, and Sorkin succeeds beautifully on both counts. (A.)
BELFAST--Kenneth Branagh's best film in decades is also his most personal: a heartfelt, autobiographical coming-of-age drama about growing up in late 1960's Belfast amidst Northern Ireland's "Troubles." Branagh surrogate Buddy (newcomer Jude Hill in a remarkable screen debut) is broken-hearted when his parents (Jamie Dornan and Catriana Balfer, both wonderful) decide to uproot their family and move to England. (Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds deliver Oscar-worthy performances as 9-year-old Buddy's grandparents.) The b&w lensing is luminous, and the soundtrack (heavy on vintage Van Morrison) is well-nigh unimpeachable. If previous British coming-of-agers like Terrence Davies' "The Long Day Closes," John Boorman's "Hope and Glory" and Stephen Frears' "Liam" cut deeper and packed more of an emotional wallop, Branagh's "one from the heart" is still a joy to be treasured. The very definition of "audience movie," it's not surprising this has been widely considered a front-runner for the 2021 Best Picture Oscar since winning top prize at this year's Toronto Film Festival. (A MINUS.)
CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG--While mom's away on a business trip, precocious Manhattan tween Emily Elizabeth (appealing Darby Camp) befriends the titular crimson puppy who magically grows to gargantuan dimensions over night. Slapsticky shenanigans ensue as an evil geneticist (Tony Hale) attempts to steal Clifford for nefarious purposes. Thanks to our quick-thinking heroine and her brainiac school chum (Isaac Wang), the kids--reluctantly aided by Emily Elizabeth's slacker uncle (Jack Whitehall)--manage to save the day, and even elude a dog-hating apartment super (David Allen Grier). Based on the popular 1960's Scholastic books and subsequent PBS series, this CGI/live-action hybrid is surprisingly tolerable, even for normally kidflick-averse grown ups like myself. Or maybe I was just predisposed to like it since I recently adopted a puppy myself. Available at no additional charge to Paramount+ subscribers. (C PLUS.)
DON'T LOOK UP--Adam ("Vice," "The Big Short") McKay's audacious, howlingly funny doomsday comedy is the "Dr. Strangelove" of the new millennium: brilliantly written/directed, and acted to perfection by an all-star ensemble cast. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a Michigan State professor whose doctoral student (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers a comet falling to earth which, if it lands, will effectively wipe out civilization as we know it. Their attempts to engender government assistance fall on deaf ears (Meryl Streep is a hoot as the Marjorie Taylor Greene-ish POTUS), and things quickly de-escalate from there. McKay manages to sustain the giddy gallows humor for over two hours, and every performance--including Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry (co-hosts of a Regis and Kathy Lee-style "happy news" chatshow), Mark Rylance (a clinically insane cross between Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Bezos), Jonah Hill (Streep's idiot chief of staff son) and Melanie Lynskey (DiCaprio's long-suffering wife)--is a hoot. Not only one of the bravest movies of the year, it's also one of the finest. (A.)
DUNE--As someone who loved David Lynch's generally reviled 1984 Frank Herbert adaptation, I didn't really see a crying need for a reboot. But Denis ("Arrival," "Blade Runner 2049") Villeneuve clearly did. And he wasn't thinking small either. Apparently afflicted with "Peter Jackson Elephantiasis," Villeneuve decided that Herbert's wildly influential sci-fi magnum opus had the makings of a--yawn--"epic trilogy." So like Jackson's torturously protracted "Hobbit" trifecta, he's chosen to italicize every Herbert comma and apostrophe. The result is a visually dazzling, but glacially paced "Chapter One" that beautifully, sometimes thrillingly, dawdles to, well, nowhere in particular. I'm assuming the real ending is being saved for "Chapter Three" since this particular movie doesn't end so much as stop. "It" boy Timothee Chalamet plays Paul Atreides who journeys to the planet Arrakis to find the precious "spice" (think mescaline or some other groovy hallucinogen) that will hopefully save his doomed planet. As Chalamet's parents, Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson (Duke and Lady Atreides) do fine work, and the entire supporting cast is an embarrassment of of high-voltage talent (Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Zendaya) and franchise movie beefcake (Jason Mamoa and Dave Bautista). During the course of its lumbering two-and-a-half-hour run time, I frequently wanted to freeze an image and frame it on my mantelpiece. But I was never emotionally invested or, quite frankly, entertained. (C.)
ETERNALS--"Did it really have to be that long?" Except for the most rabid fanboys/girls, that'll probably be most people's reaction to this nearly three-hour Marvel origin story featuring a corps of below ballot superheroes. The fact that it's not only watchable, but frequently impressive stems from the authorial sensibility/vision of Oscar-winning director Chloe ("Nomadland," "The Rider") Zhao. While (literally) light years away from the semi-improvised neorealist dramas largely populated by non-professional actors she cut her teeth on, there's just enough of "The Zhao Touch" to make fans sit up and take notice. For starters, it's the most visually resplendent Marvel production to date, with a decided emphasis on the natural world (dig those painterly landscapes) and the humanity of its (in this case, mostly otherworldly) cast of characters. The titular Eternals have been around for thousands of years and reunite to battle their ultimate foe (the Deviants) to save earth from global destruction. For better or worse, every woke box is checked here. Among the Eternal phalanx--led by a Latinx woman (Selma Hayek), natch--are an African-American gay (Brian Tyree Henry); an Indian (Kumail Nanjiani) who moonlights as a Bollywood superstar; a deaf African-American female (Lauren Ridloff); Angelina Jolie; and two former "Game of Thrones" hunks (Kit Harrington and Richard Madden). I can't say that its 157 minutes exactly fly by--it could have definitely used a last-minute trim--but "Eternals" is one of the few Marvels to date that actually seems more like a "film" than merely a cynical Hasbro marketing tool. (B.)
THE FRENCH DISPATCH--Like every Wes Anderson movie, his latest marvel has such a hand-made, almost artisanal quality--with near-pointillist mise-en-scene that practically jumps off the screen without the benefit of 3-D--that you spend most of the time just gazing in wonder at its creator's fecund imagination. Set in the fictitious Ennui, France, the film concerns the day-to-day operations of the titular English-language magazine whose editor (an impeccably droll Bill Murray) is mother hen to his eccentric corps of writers, including Frances McDormand, Owen Wilson and Jeffrey Wright. As their various stories (inhabited by the starry likes of Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Timothee Chalamet, Lea Seydoux, Willem Dafoe, Christoph Waltz and Saoirse Ronan!) come to enchanted life, Anderson exerts the push and heart-stopping pull of classic fairy tales. (A.)
HIGH SIERRA--Paul Thomas Anderson, one of our finest working directors, has been MIA since 2017's "Phantom Thread." (Anderson's latest, "Licorice Pizza," finally opens this December.) 80 years ago, while under contract to Warner Brothers, Raoul Walsh directed four movies, all released within the span of 12 months. Among that quartet were the James Cagney screwball romp "The Strawberry Blonde" and "They Died With Their Boots On," a Little Big Horn epic starring Errol Flynn as General Custer. "High Sierra," the best of Walsh's 1941 oeuvre, has just been released by the Criterion Collection in a spiffy 4K digital restoration. Needless to say it looks better--the glistening b&w cinematography literally pops off the screen--than ever. A sort of test run for what would become known as film noir, "Sierra"--cowritten by John Huston and W.R. Burnett and based on Burnett's novel--stars Humphrey Bogart as recently paroled thief "Mad Dog" Roy Earle whose dreams of going straight are foiled when he falls in with some lowlifes planning a major heist in the Sierra Nevada. As Bogart's love interest, Ida Lupino has one of her juiciest screen roles. Their chemistry is both palpable and improbably touching. Walsh, who began his career working as an assistant to D.W. Griffith (he played John Wilkes Booth in Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation"), was an eclectic artisan. His 49-year career ran the gamut, although he found his greatest success in masculinist genres (e.g., 1940's "They Drive by Night" and 1945's "Objective Burma"). Accordingly, that made him less easy to pigeonhole than such contemporaries as Ford and Hawks which might explain why he remains so criminally undervalued. In "The American Cinema," Andrew Sarris wrote: "If there is no place in the cinema for the virtues and limitations of Raoul Walsh, there is even less place for an honestly pluralistic criticism." Well said, sir. The Blu-Ray extras are predictably stellar, as is the Criterion norm. Among the many highlights: "Colorado Territory," Walsh's entertaining 1949 western remake of "High Sierra;" a conversation about Walsh between critics Dave Kehr and Farran Smith Nehme; the 1997 documentary, "Bogart: Here's Looking at You, Kid," which originally aired on England's South Bank Show; Marilyn Ann Moss' 2019 documentary, "The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh;" "Curtains for Roy Earle," a 2003 short about the making of "High Sierra;" an interview with film/media historian Miriam J. Petty extolling the virtues of character actor extraordinaire (and "High Sierra" costar) Willie Best; a 1944 radio adaptation of "High Sierra;" excerpts from a 1976 American Film Institute interview with Burnett; and an essay certifying "High Sierra"'s noir bonafides by "In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City" author Imogen Sara Smith. (A PLUS.)
KING RICHARD--Will Smith is the whole show in director Reinaldo Marcus Green's pleasant, if somewhat pedestrian biopic about Compton security guard Richard Williams, the show-boating dad of tennis phenoms Venus and Serena. As the future superstars, Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton are both immensely appealing, but Zach Baylin's screenplay never seems terribly invested in their personal stories. (It's called "King Richard" for a reason.) Fortunately, Smith is more than capable of shouldering the weight of carrying a two-and-a-half-hour movie, and he's never been better.The former Fresh Prince somehow manages to make Williams a likable blowhard despite all of his surface bluster, and we never doubt his love for his daughters or steely determination to insure they have a better life. Strong support from Aunjanue Ellis as Mrs. Williams, and Jon Bernthal and Tony Goldwyn (tennis coaches who sometimes clash on and off the court with Mr. Williams). It makes sense that Warner Brothers is making this available free of charge to HBO MAX subscribers day-and-date with its theatrical release since it has the appeal--and limitations--of an old-fashioned "HBO Movie." (B MINUS.)
THE LAST DUEL--Set in 14th century France, Ridley Scott's #MeToo spin on Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon"/competing narrative template stars Matt Damon as a battle-scarred knight whose wife (Jodie Comer from "Killing Eve" and "Free Guy") accuses a nobleman (Adam Driver) of rape. Ben Affleck plays the king's playboy cousin who's caught in the middle because he's a friend of both men. Dripping with painstakingly realized period verisimilitude and truly epic battle scenes, the movie wears its two-and-a-half-hour length with such ease you wouldn't want it to be any shorter. The three different versions of the assault are equally compelling (and convincing), so it's hard to know who's telling the truth. Which is precisely Scott and the film's point. Cowritten by Damon, Affleck and Nicole Holofcener who brings a much-needed female perspective to the material, it's the kind of unapologetically adult, big budget studio movie that Hollywood stopped making years ago. Or around the time Scott directed his first film, 1978's "The Duellists," set in Napoleonic France. (A MINUS.)
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO--Edgar Wright follows up his sensational 2021 rock doc "The Sparks Brothers" with a groovy ghost story mostly set in mid-1960's London. As an aspiring fashion designer who crawls through a rabbit hole and winds up in Swinging England, Thomasin McKenzie makes a wonderfully empathetic heroine. And playing the glamorous, wannabe singer who becomes McKenzie's doppelgänger on the other side of the looking glass, "Queen's Gambit" breakout Anya Taylor-Joy delivers a (big screen) star-making performance. Sort of a Brit-accented--and slightly more explicable--riff on David Lynch's nonpareil "Mulholland Drive," the movie features juicy supporting turns by '60s icons like Terrence Stamp, Rita Tushingham and the late Diana Rigg, and a wonderfully venal bad guy in the form of former Dr. Who Matt Smith. It doesn't all come together, but a swell golden oldies soundtrack (cue Petula Clark's "Downtown"!) makes Wright's sugarplum fantasy well-nigh irresistible. (A MINUS.)
THE LOST DAUGHTER--Maggie Gyllenhaal's feature directing debut (favorably) reminded me of Lucretia Martel's 2001 masterpiece "La Cienaga" if it had been written by Joyce Carol Oates. Actually based on a 2006 novel by Elena Ferrante (whose "My Brilliant Friend" was memorably serialized by HBO-Europe), the film stars Oscar-winner Olivia Colman as Leda, a middle-aged Boston college professor who takes her summer break at a scenic Greek fishing village. After making the acquaintance of a frazzled new American mom (Dakota Johnson) vacationing with her husband and baby daughter, Leda begins flashing back to the past, particularly her two daughters and their fractious relationship when she--not very well--tried juggling an academic career with being a wife and mother. (Jessie Buckley plays the younger Leda.) It's all very "European Arthouse Cinema," but Gyllenhaal's tactile sense of place and wizardry with her terrific actresses makes this an unforgettable, albeit frequently harrowing experience. (A MINUS.)
MULHOLLAND DRIVE--One of the key American films--and one of the key texts period: its cultural influence has been prodigious--of New Millennium Cinema, David Lynch's spectacularly unhinged, yet supremely disciplined immersion into the rabbit hole of his own fecund imagination cuts deeper than any Lynch movie except perhaps 1986's "Blue Velvet." In a star-making performance that should have won her an Oscar (shockingly, she wasn't even nominated; Lynch, fortunately, was) Naomi Watts plays dewey ingenue Betty Elms, newly arrived in Hollywood with dreams of becoming a star. Betty's fateful meeting of mysterious brunette Rita (Laura Harring) who suffers from amnesia after a near-fatal car accident on (!) Mulholland Drive sends the two women hurtling into the underbelly of L.A.'s Dream Factory in an attempt to solve the mystery of Rita's identity. Hint: "Silencio"--the sepulchral nightclub where the action (mostly) climaxes--is not just a place, it's a state of mind The sumptuously restored new Criterion Collection release includes both a 4K UHD DVD presented in Dolby Vision HDR, as well as a Blu-Ray copy. Among the extras are 2015 interviews with Lynch, Watts, Harring, Justin Theroux (who plays Tinseltown golden boy Adam Kesher), casting director Johanna Ray and longtime Lynch collaborators composer Angelo Badalamenti and production designer Jack Fisk; making-of footage; a tantalizing deleted scene; and Lynch's deep-dive 2005 interview with "Lynch on Lynch" author Chris Rodley. (A PLUS.)
NO TIME TO DIE--Finally released after 18 months in Covid jail, Daniel Craig's farewell outing as 007 winds up being something of a letdown, especially after the last two fantastic Sam Mendes-directed Bonds ("Skyfall" and "Spectre"). Picking up five years after the last movie--it's really been 6 1/2, but who's counting?--James has retired from M16 and is living a quiet retirement in Jamaica. (His "007" insignia has already been passed on to a new agent.) Summoned back into the field to rescue a scientist kidnapped by megalomaniacal terrorist Lyutsider Safin (Rami Malek, overacting like crazy), Bond is forced to seek the help of former nemesis Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) who's ensconced, Hannibal Lecter-like, in a British loony bin. Director Cary Jaji Fukunaga (HBO's "True Detective") hits the globe-hopping action in a professional, if somewhat perfunctory manner, but the only parts of his (egregiously overlong) 163-minute film that have any emotional resonance are the scenes between James and "Spectre" inamorata, Madeleine (Lea Seydoux). I actually wanted more of their love story and less of the rote CGI action setpieces: hardly what I was expecting from a new 007 movie. (B MINUS.)
ONLY THE ANIMALS--Director Dominik Moll made a splash in 2001 with his Hitchcockian black comedy, "With a Friend Like Harry," but has largely been absent on domestic screens ever since. This crafty 2021 thriller--which briefly played a few big-city arthouses last fall--marks a comeback of sorts. Set in an isolated French village, the film revolves around the disappearance of a middle-aged woman (Valerie Bruni Tedeschi) who may have fallen victim to foul play. Among the suspects are a pair of sad sack farmers (one of whose faithless wife has been having a clandestine affair with the other), a lesbian waitress who develops a "Fatal Attraction"-like obsession with the missing lady and a young internet scammer thousands of miles away in Central Africa. Although Moll's film has been described as a Gallic riff on "Fargo," it has a wickedly funny twist ending that would make the Coen Brothers green with envy. (A MINUS.)
THE POWER OF THE DOG--New Zealand visionary Jane Campion's strongest film since 1993's Oscar-nominated "The Piano" is so remarkable in so many unexpected ways that it quietly--very, very quietly--takes your breath away. Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons play brothers Phil and George Burbank who share the running of their family's Montana ranch circa 1925. When George marries widowed restauranteur Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and moves her and Rose's teenage son (Kodi Smith-McPhee) into the home he shares with Phil, his passive-aggressive sibling begins waging psychological warfare on his brother's emotionally fragile new bride. Based on the 1967 cult novel by Thomas Savage, Campion's masterwork has a primordial, near Biblical dimension that reminded me of both Terrence Malick (especially "Days of Heaven") and Elia Kazan ("East of Eden" and even "A Streetcar Named Desire" in the Phil/Rose psychosexual dynamics). Stunningly lensed by Ari ("True History of the Kelly Gang," "Zola") Wegner and memorably scored by Jonny ("There Will Be Blood") Greenwood, it ranks among the year's most singular and unforgettable artistic achievements. Let the Oscar chatter begin. (A.)
RATCATCHER--When I first saw Lynn Ramsay's "Ratcatcher" at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival, Ramsay impressed as a distaff Shane Meadows. The fact that I saw Meadows' "A Room for Romeo Brass" the same week helped their movies bleed together. Both were thickly-accented working class slices of life (1973 Glasgow for Ramsay; Britain's Midlands district for Meadows) with juvenile protagonists and social realist tropes that recalled the films of Ken Loach (particularly "Kes"), albeit with uniquely poetic bents. It wasn't until seeing Ramsay's follow-up, 2002's brilliant "Morvern Callar," that I recognized her as a sui generis world-class talent. Subsequent Ramsay films like "We Need to Talk About Kevin" and "You Were Never Really Here" only solidified my fandom. Thanks to the Criterion Collection, I finally had the chance to revisit Ramsay's feature debut, and it was positively revelatory. (Bollocks to Meadows who essentially disappeared after a few early-'00 movies.) I now consider "Ratcatcher" a worthy successor to coming-of-age masterworks like Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" and Terrence Davies' "The Long Day Closes." The extras are a tad on the skimpy side--for Criterion anyway--but still choice. Included are three Ramsay shorts ("Small Deaths," "Kill the Day" and 1998 Cannes Jury Prize winner "Gasman"); Ramsay interviews from 2002 and 2021; an audio interview with "Ratcatcher" cinematographer Alwin H. Kuchler; and essays by Film Quarterly editor Girish Shambu and "Moonlight" director (and nonpareil Ramsay cheerleader) Barry Jenkins. (A.)
THE RED SHOES--It was screen legend Ellen Burstyn who first turned me on to Michael Powell's 1948 masterpiece. In an early '70s Esquire Magazine article, Burstyn picked "The Red Shoes" as the film she'd choose to run continuously if she ever owned/operated a movie theater. Of course, in the pre-DVD/TCM era, wanting to see an old movie and actually seeing it, particularly if you lived in a town without repertory theaters, were two different things. It would be several years before my first encounter with Michael Powell's classic, and when I did Burstyn's testimonial lingered in the recesses of my mind. "Yes," I remember thinking, "this is precisely the sort of sugarplum fantasy that should run forever in every extant movie theater." As a ballerina-in-training torn between love and art, Moira Shearer is perfection in her screen debut. And Jack Cardiff's cinematography is justly legendary. Next to his work the previous year in Powell's "Black Narcissus," it's probably a career-best. Even if you've never seen--or, like me, never much cared for--ballet, Powell's hallucinatory fever dream could very well turn you into a balletomane for life. In their newly issued Blu-Ray, the Criterion Collection has outdone themselves with a groaning board of scrumptious extras. There's a demonstration by Powell fanatic Martin Scorsese on the film's painstaking digital restoration; a 1994 audio commentary conducted by Ian Christie featuring interviews with Shearer, male lead Marius Goring, Cardiff, composer Brian Easdale and Scorsese; the 2000 making-of documentary, "A Profile of 'The Red Shoes'" that includes interviews with the production crew; a 2009 interview with Powell's widow, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, conducted at the Cannes Film Festival; audio recordings of Jeremy Irons reading passages from Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger's novelization of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale that inspired the movie; publicity stills, behind-the-scenes photos and a gallery of memorabilia from Scorsese's private collection; the 1948 animated film ("'The Red Shoes' Sketches") in which Hein Heckroth's painted storyboards for the production come to magical life; an essay by critic David Ehrenstein; and notes on the painstaking restoration process by preservationist Robert Gitt. (A PLUS.)
RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY--When Claire (Kayla Scodelario) returns to the titular dying midwestern town in search of her missing brother, she discovers an Umbrella Corporation conspiracy involving contaminated water that's turning its citizens into zombies. Both reboot and prequel to the six Paul W.S. Anderson/Milla Jovovich "Resident Evil" flicks, this iteration is mostly set in 1998 and explains how the plague came to be. (Think the first season of "Fear the Walking Dead.") Director Johannes Roberts, who helmed 2018's estimable "Strangers Prey by Night," keeps the storyline relatively coherent, but the film badly sags by mid-point and is at least 20 minutes too long. Also curious is the fact that the CGI actually seems less impressive--cheesy even--than they did in the first "Resident Evil' movie from 2002. (C MINUS.)
RON'S GONE WRONG--Locksmith Animation and director Sarah Smith brought us 2011's lovely "Arthur Christmas," yet this overly formulaic family comedy is only fitfully engaging. Middle school misfit Barney (Jack Dylan Grazer, most recently heard as a voiceover artist in Pixar's "Luca") bonds with a runaway robot (Ron, voiced by Zach Galifianakis) who quickly becomes his BFF. But since the irrepressible Ron is a few microchips short of a fully-functioning A.I. (he literally fell off a truck), the pair get into a series of fairly predictable, somewhat belabored misadventures. The social media and Apple jokes are a little too lazy-pat, and not even the participation of Oscar winner Olivia Colman and Ed Helms (as, respectively, Barney's grandma and dad) can elevate this to top-tier 'toon status. Considering some of the superior animated movies that went directly to streaming services in the Covid era (including Pixar's "Soul" and Sony's "The Mitchells Vs. the Machines"), it's somewhat mystifying that Disney/Fox would consider this worthy of a theatrical release. Harried parents looking for a new video babysitter are advised to wait a few weeks when it becomes available as a VOD. (C.)
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS--Marvel Corp.'s first Asian-centric superhero movie is nearly as affirmative and potentially game-changing as "Black Panther" (Marvel's first Afro-centric superhero flick). Charismatic newcomer Simon Liu plays Shawn (or Shang-Chi), the prodigal son of thousand-year-old Wenwu (longtime Wong Kar-Wai muse Tony Leung in a smashing Hollywood debut), whose humdrum existence as a San Francisco parking valet gets violently upended when he's tasked with saving the world. (Something involving the titular rings which look an awful lot like George Lucas' lightsabers.) A dandy supporting cast--Awkwafina; Michelle Yeoh; Meng'er Zhang; Florian Munteanu--adds spice to an already tasty package. Director Destin Daniel Cretton, none of whose previous credits (including Brie Larson's career-launching "Short Term 12" and Michael P. Jordan starrer "Just Mercy") hinted at a flair for blockbuster productions with elaborate action setpieces, handles his tentpole duties in expeditious fashion. (B PLUS.)
SPENCER--Kristen Stewart gives an extraordinarily layered, deeply empathetic performance as Princess Diana in Pablo ("Jackie") Larrain's microscopic, fly-on-the-wall portrait of the late "People's Princes." Because screenwriter Steven Knight wrote and directed Tom Hardy's 2013 "Locke," he definitely knows his way around compressed-time narratives, concentrating on a three-day Christmas weekend in the early '90s when Di began formulating her plans to leave the aloof, two-timing Charles (Jack Farthing). Described by the filmmakers as "a fable from a true tragedy," it's not a biopic in a conventional sense. But regardless of how "factual" the events depicted truly are, it feels emotionally true thanks in large part to the mercurial, mesmerizing Stewart. The film would be unimaginable without her. Thanks to Stewart it's a minor masterpiece. (A.)
THE TENDER BAR--George Clooney directed this deeply affecting, gently nostalgic film version of J.R. Mochringer's acclaimed best-selling memoir. Daniel Ranieri and Tye Sheridan share the lead role of JR at childhood and young adult versions of his life in 1970's Long Island. Both are terrific. Even better is Ben Affleck as JR's barkeep uncle who serves as the central father figure in JR's life. There are memorable supporting turns by Lily Rabe (his struggling single mom), Christopher Lloyd (JR's tough-love grandpa) and Max Martini (the absent father who left such an aching void in his life). It's the kind of "feel-good" movie nobody is making anymore, and we're darn lucky to have it. This is also Clooney's best outing as a helmer since 2005's Oscar-nominated "Good Night and Good Luck." (A.)
THROW DOWN--This 2004 genre-bender finds director Johnnie To--heir apparent to John Woo as the king of Hong Kong action cinema--in a surprisingly mellow, even sweet mode. Whether "Throw Down" truly merited the Criterion Collection treatment is up for discussion. (Personally, I would have given the CC imprimatur to To's fantastic "Breaking News," also from 2004). Yet this could be To's most appealing film, and it certainly ranks among his most entertaining and emotionally accessible. The fable-like story involves a fledgling young martial arts fighter (Aaron Kwok), the former judo champion--and currently alcoholic karaoke bar owner--he hopes to challenge (Louis Koo) and a wannabe singer (Cherrie Ying) with dreams of pop stardom. This unlikely trio of misfits somehow manage to forge a makeshift family unit--of sorts--in To's gorgeously lensed, neon-saturated Hong Kong. Dedicated to Akira Kurosawa whose "Sanshiro Sugata" is frequently referenced throughout the pacy 94 minute run time, the movie will probably strike To fanboys who only know him from hard-edged urban crime flicks like the "Election" actioners as a lightweight curio. But it's an indisputably delightful curio just the same. Extras include a 2004 To interview; new interviews with co-screenwriter Yau Nai-hoi, composer Peter Kam and Asian cinema aficionados David Bordwell and Caroline Guo; a 2004 making-of doc with To, Kwok, Koo and Ying; and a To think piece by Tacoma film critic Sean Gilman. (A MINUS.)
TRY HARDER!--The 2019-'20 academic year at San Francisco's Lowell High serves as the backdrop for Debbie Lum's jaundiced, but deeply empathetic documentary about the daunting "college admissions process." Because nearly 70% of Lowell High's student body is comprised of Asian-Americans, the school has developed a reputation as "Tiger Mom Central." It's also why these high-achieving nerds have been labeled "AP Machines" by snarky college recruiters. Although Stanford is the university of choice for most graduates, only a few will actually make it. Lum focuses on a core group of students, all of whom are engaging--and pretty darn impressive--company. It's a worthy companion piece to previous "smart kid" docs "Spellbound" (2002) and "Science Fair" (2018), although a better title might have been, "These Kids Are Very Much Alright." (A MINUS.)
VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE--A sequel to the 2018 Marvel franchise-starter that's faster, looser and easier to take than the middling original. Apparently someone--director Andy Serkis perhaps?--decided to take a page from Ryan Reynolds' "Deadpool" movies and make it a larkish comedy. At least that's how Tom Hardy plays his titular role this time. Adding spice to the mix is Woody Harrelson as Big Bad arch villain Carnage, and the whole thing is so breezily paced and unapologetically ridiculous that it's impossible to be offended by the wall-to-wall "R"-caliber violence that somehow managed to squeak by with a "PG-13" rating. The only real downside is the return of perennially mopey Michelle Williams who makes a fleeting (thank heavens!) appearance as Venom's dour ex. (C PLUS.)
---Milan Paurich