Once Upon a River - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Kenadi DelaCerna in ‘Once Upon a River’

Writer-Director: Haroula Rose (based upon the novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell)

Cast: Kenadi DelaCerna, Tatanka Means, John Ashton, & Coburn Goss.

Growing up in central Michigan in 1977 along the fictional Stark River, fifteen-year-old Margo Crane (Kenadi DelaCerna) knows two things. A crack shot, after only a few minutes of screen time, we see in Margo a girl who knows how to live off the land – with or without the help of her doting father (Tatanka Means) or flattering uncle (Coburn Goss). Unfortunately, what she also knows is just how much she misses her mom who walked out on her and her father several years earlier. And sadly, her ache for a female role model seems to be at its strongest now that she's on the cusp of womanhood.

In fact, it's a sentiment that's relayed to us in Margo's opening voiceover, but even without hearing her say those words, we can see this longing both in her body language and her uncertainty as she puts on red lipstick before a party but then self-consciously rubs it off before she leaves the bathroom. A beautiful girl who – as we all did at that age – drinks up the attention given to her by men since she's still testing the waters of her own power and burgeoning sexuality, unfortunately rather than have someone to discuss all of these conflicting feelings with, she is left to navigate this path on her own.

Ushered into a physical relationship by someone she thought she trusted before she could back up, take a breath, and say no, this startling event is followed by something even more devastating. Soon Margo decides to pack her things and go far away from the only town she's ever known, in the hopes of finding the mom who'd wandered away to find herself so many years before.

Based upon the eponymous novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell, “Once Upon a River” – which marks the feature filmmaking debut from producer, actress, and musician Haroula Rose – belongs to that distinctly American subgenre of adolescent odysseys, best epitomized by Mark Twain's “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” A young adult version of a western and one that feels like it would play nicely in a thematic film festival alongside “The Journey of Natty Gann,” “Lean on Pete,” “Leave No Trace,” “The Cold Lands,” and “Winter's Bone,” to its slight detriment, “River” fails to overcome the genre's biggest hurdle.

Largely solitary efforts – often about young Woody Guthrie types taking to the open road (or the river) – in order to avoid making a modern-day silent movie, films in this category routinely sprinkle in quirky new characters for our leads to befriend throughout. “Once Upon a River,” is no exception to the rule. All too frequently, it feels as though you can set your watch to when it's just about time for Margo to swap one place and/or person for another, including the scene-stealing John Ashton as a kindly old man she encounters early on.

Yet even though the movie isn't as wholeheartedly successful or emotionally all-encompassing as, say, “Lean on Pete” and “Leave No Trace” (easily two of the greatest films of this type in recent memory), it's quite compelling nonetheless. Especially unique given the fact that it centers on a headstrong young woman who goes searching for one thing but winds up finding herself, "River" rushes through a few pointed turns of events that don't land quite as well as they should without focusing on the why and how our young protagonist is processing them the way that she does.

Still, what it lacks in structure and nuance, it makes up for in its exceptional technical craftsmanship. Well-acted by talented newcomer DelaCerna, and shot with tenderness and a lived-in sensibility by cinematographer Charlotte Hornsby, which makes the film resemble an old '70s era home movie, “Once Upon a River” is a worthwhile journey all the same.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

The Glorias - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Julianne Moore in ‘The Glorias’

‘The Glorias’ works too hard

Directed by:  Julie Taymor

Written by:  Julie Taymor and Sarah Ruhl, based on the book by Gloria Steinem

Starring:  Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Janelle Monae, Lorraine Toussaint, Bette Midler, Lulu Wilson, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong

“The Glorias” –  “The path up is always a jagged line, not a straight one.” – Gloria Steinem

“Roam if you want to.  Roam around the world.  Roam if you want to, without wings, without wheels.” – The B-52s, “Roam”

Most folks probably know feminist icon Gloria Steinem from “Ms.” (magazine) and her trademark glasses, but this influential trailblazer is a whole lot more than her 49-year-old publication and fancy spectacles.

There’s only one Gloria Steinem.  That’s true, except in writer/director Julie Taymor’s “The Glorias”, a Steinem biopic with four actresses donning her activist cape.  The movie runs from the 1940s to 2017, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, 10, and Lulu Wilson, 14, cover her childhood, and Alicia Vikander and Julianne Moore split duties during her adult years. 

Although the narrative – broadly speaking – does progress in chronological time, Taymor and Sarah Ruhl’s screenplay – inspired and adapted from Steinem’s book “My Life on the Road” - doesn’t follow traditional patterns. 

“The Glorias” takes an arthouse approach to Ms. Steinem’s 86 years of life and recognizes the woman’s accomplishments but utilizes the four actresses as ever-present beings from the past and future. 

Taymor regularly inserts our protagonist’s memories and milestones out of sequential order.  Armstrong, Wilson, Vikander, or Moore may appear on-screen any minute for a flashback, a flashforward, or a conversation between two Glorias, as the older one offers advice to her younger self.

These style choices allow for an organic look into GS’s mindset, challenges, personal growth, and society’s changing attitudes towards women over the decades, especially during the 1960s and 1970s.  On the other hand, the film takes trippy, unnecessary cuts into the spacetime continuum over 2 hours and 27 minutes.  On a couple of occasions, it dives into bizarre territory, including a brief red tornado montage that combines “Natural Born Killers” (1994) and “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).

Really?

Not unlike Dorothy (Judy Garland), Gloria came from humble beginnings, and the first act chronicles her mom’s (Enid Graham) and dad’s (Timothy Hutton) individual and marital struggles.  Graham and Hutton deliver the film’s most engaging performances, as Steinem’s parents pour insight into her foundation.  Ruth’s (Graham) mental illness challenges forged Gloria’s empathy, and Leo’s (Hutton) fly-by-night barker business approach fueled her desire for travel.  Sure, her folks weren’t perfect human beings, but their passed-down gifts of compassion and adventure are Ms. Steinem’s coveted assets.    

For historians, baby boomers, and anyone who knows the Women’s Movement, Steinem’s life might be already well-chronicled, but Taymor’s picture certainly is an informative look for anyone unfamiliar with her work.   Her story has a few surprises, including a trek to a specific faraway land (that will not be revealed in this review) and an insider’s look into a salacious profession.  We also discover that this famous spokeswoman had a fear of public speaking.  Gloria, however, found her calling by speaking out, as the film places our heroine in unpleasant, sexist spaces that will make John and Jane Q. Citizen balk with revulsion or possibly recoil into post-traumatic work-environment stress.

These moments resonate, but as this Toledo native’s activism turns into accomplishments, the movie starts to feel like a checklist.  Granted, Steinem racked up countless achievements, but from a storytelling perspective, I wouldn’t have objected to a 90-minute account on the formation and booming success of “Ms.”.  In fact, the single most resonate image in the entire film is when an overworked, exhausted mom – coping with three screaming kids raising holy hell at the dinner table – reads a passage from the said periodical and slams it – along with her disgust – into her husband’s chest. 

We needed more of that and more of Lorraine Toussaint as civil rights activist Flo Kennedy, who is a complete joy to watch.   

Learning about Gloria’s empathy – including civil rights for women and people of color – is a pleasure as well, but understanding her passion for the road travels a bit less, primarily because Taymor’s countless scenes of a Greyhound bus with one, two, three, or four Glorias aboard. 

The filmmakers certainly got a lot of mileage out of that bus, as Armstrong, Wilson, Vikander, or Moore rode the 40-foot metallic chariot about 50 times, and Gloria connected with herself and her travels.  Does the movie connect with the audience?  It didn’t for me. 

Still, I’m a Steinem fan and even covered her speaking engagement at Arizona State University in 2007.   I think she gave me a quote too.   

Maybe my quote about this movie is: “I look up to Ms. Steinem, but ‘The Glorias’ is a jagged line, not a straight one.”

(2/4 stars)

(“The Glorias” is available for purchase on digital and streaming exclusively on Prime Video beginning on Sept. 30.)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

On the Rocks - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Bill Murray and Rashida Jones in ‘On the Rocks’

Writer-Director: Sofia Coppola

Cast: Rashida Jones, Bill Murray, Marlon Wayans, & Jenny Slate.

Review by Jen Johans

Having just arrived home from the airport, Dean (Marlon Wayans) parks his suitcase in the master suite and crawls across the bed to tenderly kiss his sleeping wife Laura (Rashida Jones) awake. When her eyes flutter open and she says, “hi,” he abruptly stops. Seemingly puzzled, Dean rolls over to his side of the bed and goes right to sleep as if, Laura suddenly fears, her husband thought she was someone else.

An unsettling incident to be sure and one that makes her hyper-aware of other aspects of her relationship with the devoted father of her two young daughters, as she unpacks Dean's suitcase the next day, Laura is shocked to find a woman's toiletry bag among her husband's belongings, complete with body oil inside. Giving in to her fears about men, women, and monogamy, which were hardwired into her brain since birth as the daughter of the charismatic, larger than life, notoriously unfaithful playboy Felix (Bill Murray), Laura consults her father to get a man's perspective on these incidents and Felix immediately lowers the boom.

“I think we should follow him.”

Although she resists this impulse for as long as she can, once this idea has been planted, it begins to take root. And soon, Laura finds herself speeding along the streets of New York City at night in the passenger seat of her father's least inconspicuous vehicle, a cherry red Alfa Romeo convertible that backfires faster than it accelerates.

A breezily sophisticated New York comedy of the kind that we used to see so often in the 1980s, the seventh feature film from writer-director Sofia Coppola finds her embracing decidedly different stylistic terrain than we've seen before in her earlier work. Challenged by legendary screenwriter Buck Henry to write more dialogue than she normally does, “On the Rocks,” is chattier than Coppola's other movies. But in centering on an artistically minded woman struggling to find her way in a society that likes to put labels on us, it's once again a very autobiographical work right down to the fact that like Sofia Coppola, Rashida Jones' Laura is a married writer struggling to tap into her creative voice while also mothering two young girls.

Casting an actress who, as the daughter of Quincy Jones, would certainly understand what it must've been like to grow up with a charming playboy father such as Sofia Coppola's own dad, Francis Ford Coppola, "Rocks" feels very intimate, just like all of her films that immediately invite you into the world as she sees it. A terrific straight woman foil to the attention-grabbing Felix (who is sensationally brought to life by Bill Murray), Jones' Laura keeps her father in check when he flirts with literally every woman who crosses his path before launching into a monologue that leads us right back into the '70s or what Coppola calls the “martini generation.”

Written expressly for her two leads, although she was hesitant to ever cast Murray in another feature film after the smash success of their 2003 contemporary classic “Lost in Translation” (which was later followed by the 2015 Netflix holiday special “A Very Murray Christmas” that co-starred Jones), he's the natural choice to bring Felix to life. Whether he's serenading Laura and his longtime driver with the Johnny Mercer/David Raskin classic “Laura” or belting out John Tenney and Helen Stone's “Mexicali Rose” to anyone lucky enough to be in the largely empty outdoor Mexican bar that he and Laura journey to on their freewheeling adventure to follow Dean, Coppola knows how to weaponize Murray's magnetism like no other.

Taking Laura to 21 on her birthday in one of many scenes shot in and around New York landmarks, Felix lets it slip that they're sitting at the same table that Bogart used when he proposed to Bacall in the 1940s. And, of course, while the film nerd in us is instantly impressed with this factoid, the longer we think about it, the more we realize that Bill Murray is one of those very special people that only comes around a few times in a generation that – much like Bogart – you expect our ancestors will be talking about 80 years down the line as well.

Culling comedy from everyday life, whether that's in the annoyingly self-involved single mother played by Jenny Slate who monologues at Laura daily at school drop-off and pick-up, or the awkwardness you feel when you're watching your significant other at a party hold court with lots of adoring young members of the opposite sex who look at you like you have three heads, the film builds with wry subtlety.

Eventually growing more contemplative as Project Dean calls up long-dormant feelings involving Felix's infidelity to Laura's mother, the film moves from '80s Stillman, Allen, and Ephron territory into something more akin to Ozu, Antonioni, or Rohmer by the end. Unwilling to fully follow through on the natural progression of the father and daughter's journey – which is more about their relationship than Laura's and Dean's – you get the distinct sense that there's another draft of the script lying around somewhere that took a more somber turn than “Rocks” is ready to commit to in the end.

Still, a fine, frothy film that's perfect for autumn when the weather begins to cool, the mood of the piece feels somewhere between a summer comedy and a thoughtful winter family drama. And although it doesn't quite land the same evocative punch that Coppola's last movie “The Beguiled” – which also dealt with gender roles and power plays – did, "Rocks" is much more substantial than I expected it would be going in.

Likewise, just as Coppola's first three efforts “The Virgin Suicides,” “Lost in Translation,” and “Marie Antoinette” form their own thematic trilogy, “On the Rocks” is a film that would play even more intriguingly in a double feature with Coppola's 2010 drama “Somewhere,” which focused on a young girl trying to connect with her bored, famous, narcissistic father at the Chateau Marmont. A pleasant, mature, and relatable comedy that's much more fun than playing amateur relationship detective with your dad, Coppola's latest film feels like the down-to-earth flipside to "Somewhere"'s airy, yet hypnotizing coin. As distinctly, classically Sofia Coppola as it is quintessentially Bill Murray, "On the Rocks" is one to see.

Note: I viewed a screener of this film – which opens in theaters this weekend – safely from my home. While it's ultimately up to the viewer to decide how they wish to see the movie, I urge you to consider your safety while doing so, as “On The Rocks” will soon be available to all from the comfort of your own home on Apple TV+, starting on Friday, October 23.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

A Call to Spy - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Stana Katic in ‘A Call to Spy’

Director: Lydia Dean Pilcher

Writer: Sarah Megan Thomas

Cast: Stana Katic, Sarah Megan Thomas, Radhika Apte, & Linus Roache.

Review by Jen Johans

Tasked with recruiting female agents for Winston Churchill's secret army – the SOE or Special Operations Executive – during World War II, Vera Atkins (Stana Katic) is told to seek out women who'd lived in France, know the language inside and out, and are passionate about stopping Hitler. The last piece of criteria? “Make sure they're pretty,” she's advised.

Overwhelmed in the fight against the Nazis, both on the overt military front and the covert one where at least half of all spies that SOE leader Maurice Buckmaster (Linus Roache) sends out as part of Britain's “new ministry of ungentlemanly warfare” are caught and killed, it seems that attractive and accomplished women are the country's last resort. Deemed far less conspicuous to sexist Nazis who wouldn't think twice about a “French” beauty walking down the cobblestone streets of Paris, Vera Atkins casts her net out wide to locate two ladies who are even more likely to go undetected than your typical Frenchwoman.

An educated, intelligent American with movie star good looks, Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas) had dreams of becoming a diplomat. But after a hunting accident left her with gangrene and a leg amputated below the knee, she finds herself denied for the position just as Vera tracks her down. Finding another fascinating recruit in the fastest wireless operator they have on their side – the pacifist, half-American, half-Indian princess Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte) – Vera tells the two that she would like them to try out for “a club unlike any other.”

Drawing upon actual files regarding the women's work as spies from SOE, OSS, and CIA records, actress, producer, and screenwriter Sarah Megan Thomas (who plays Virginia Hall) does an admirable job of bringing their heroism to life. Fortified by terrific performances across the board, unfortunately, once Noor (played by the film's scene-stealer Apte) lands in France, she isn't given nearly enough of an arc to pay off on just how much “Spy” endeared her to us in the first half of the movie. Worthy of an elegant John Le Carre style miniseries to track the true scope of their work as spies since the film feels rushed and the last act suffers in its attempt to resolve everything at once, “A Call to Spy” is eye-opening all the same. 

A solid – if workmanlike – effort, that perhaps feels more like a made-for-PBS movie than first-time solo filmmaker Lydia Dean Pilcher was hoping it would, “A Call to Spy” cleverly uses the greater Philadelphia area to double for a bulk of the UK and France set period film, as well as Budapest. Shot by Miles Goodall and “Midway” cinematographer Robby Baumgartner and nicely scored by Lillie Rebecca McDonough, it's a handsomely crafted but ultimately average production.

Nonetheless, a rousing ode to resistance in the face of tyranny that plays especially well in this era of rising authoritarianism in the United States, even though the film doesn't make enough of an impression to stay with you very long after you've seen it, what does remain is the film's message. Thus, while Thomas and Pilcher struggle to cram everything they wanted to convey into its 123 minute running time, the movie works as an earnest tribute to these unsung, amazingly heroic, and yes, beautiful Baker Street Irregular female spies, that I for one, am now eager to learn much more about.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

Kajillionaire - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins, and Evan Rachel Wood in “Kajillionaire”

July's 'Kajillionaire' pays out some eccentric riches

Written and directed by:  Miranda July

Starring:  Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, and Gina Rodriguez

“Kajillionaire” – Old Dolio Dyne (Evan Rachel Wood), 26, frequently sports a clashing green and blue tracksuit – a polyester fashion nightmare that was probably last seen in 1982 – and lives a happy life with her two loving, supportive parents. 

Well, scratch that last part. 

Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) don’t exactly hold Old Dolio’s best interests in mind, either for the long term or in the immediate present.  First of all, they named their only child after a homeless man, which would probably trigger any capable family therapist into a blustery tizzy.  From there, Mom and Dad served hearty courses of emotional disinterest to their daughter for 2.6 decades, and their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. 

Their kiddo carries her low self-worth through slumped shoulders and constant blank stares, and Old Dolio must have missed all the Miss Manners’ classes growing up.  Her Laurie Partridge-hairstyle lacks panache, and she speaks like Napoleon Dynamite’s long-lost, lethargic sister.   As one might expect, codependency with her folks is an on-going, dysfunctional issue, but perhaps she might break away and forge her fortune, in writer/director Miranda July’s eccentric comedy-crime picture “Kajillionaire”. 

Like July’s first two films, “Kajillionaire” is also set in everyday Los Angeles neighborhoods and filled with semi-neurotic characters trying to make it through their ordinary days.  Even though it’s never spoken, July seems to imply that her on-screen players are products of today’s warped, plastic environments rather than peculiar rebels battling against accommodating, suburban utopias. 

By 2020, it feels like 10 generations of maladjusted, defective history and straight-up bad luck have piled on the Dynes.  This trio of hucksters are always desperately searching for any dubious financial cracks in the system, primarily to scrape together rent money.   

They are three months behind (including the current rent) and need $1,500 and pronto, but hey, residing in the oddest apartment in Southern California has its monetary advantages.  The nature of their living space will not be revealed here, but the triad has to “run the buckets” as a daily chore, a bizarre and nearly unwinnable task that loses its charm after 10 seconds. 

Robert and Theresa don’t carry much charm either, as they conjure assorted schemes – like stealing mail inside their local post office or attempting to trade a massage gift certificate for cash - on their directionless days in sunny Los Angeles, but Jenkins is a joy to watch as the short-sided patriarch who is chockfull of bad ideas.  Meanwhile, Theresa is Robert’s chief enabler and willing contributor, and she possesses zero motherly instincts.  She’d meet any Old Dolio-resistance with tough love mom-speak like, “Just eat your liverwurst, and don’t ask for dessert, because there isn’t any.”

Theresa purposely falls into the background, and frankly, Winger is entirely unrecognizable, as the film’s makeup and hair departments strip her of any soft, feminine features and add 60 years of hard-living and ever-present, low-level stress. 

The Dynes broadly accept their hectic, makeshift ways, but a newcomer named Melanie Whitacre (Gina Rodriguez) – about Old Dolio’s age – stumbles into their world and shakes the foundation.  At first, she’s a 4 on the Richter scale, but her ultimate influence could rise to a 9.2. 

Still, the movie’s epicenter rides with Wood.  She carries the nimble physicality of Inspector Jacques Clouseau along with the mental gymnastics of a 20-something attempting to redefine herself against a lifetime of deeply-flawed parenting.  July immerses Old Dolio’s journey in her distinct filmmaker signatures, which fall somewhere between Wes Anderson and Charlie Kaufman.  She’s closer to the “Synecdoche, New York” (2008) director, but her work delivers more laughs and less anarchy.  Hey, that sounds like the right formula, because Old Dolio could use some chuckles and a little normalcy these days.

(3/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Win tickets to Tenet!

If you haven’t seen Tenet in theatres yet, we want to send you there. We're giving away a pair of tickets to see Tenet at your favorite theatre. To enter, just send an email to ScreeningTickets@phxfilm.com by Monday, September 28th at noon. The winner will receive a code from Fandango to use at the participating theatre of their choice.

You can find Harkins showtimes for Tenet by clicking here.

About Tenet

DIRECTOR Christopher Nolan

STARRING John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, Himesh Patel, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh

SYNOPSIS Armed with only one word -Tenet- and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real-time. Not time travel - Inversion.

Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi in “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles”

Director: Laura Gabbert

Cast: Yotam Ottolenghi, Dominique Ansel, Janice Wong, and Dinara Kasko.

Review by Jen Johans

The modern-day equivalent of turning water into wine, a great chef can walk into a kitchen, survey the ingredients, and turn a bunch of disparate nothings into something divine. But when they're forced to use both new ingredients and technology in foreign lands, even veteran chefs get stuck sometimes, as we learn in Laura Gabbert's eggshell light documentary, “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles.”

Watching an all-star lineup of international chefs work together to bring the desserts of Versailles to life for an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, we experience a few moments of culinary peril in the seventy-five-minute trifle as batters keep separating or machines don't play well with American outlets. Still, with these masters in the kitchen, perfection, we're assured, is just one scene or flick of the whisk away.

A laudatory survey of the talented minds and creative techniques brought together by Jerusalem born, London based chef and influential cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi to dazzle American palates, Gabbert's film is missing a true sense of focus. Beginning with Ottolenghi's call to action as he's invited to the Met to head up the launch of their newest exhibit, Ottolenghi casts the net out wide across the many chefs of Instagram to hire innovators from Ukraine to Singapore and beyond with the most specialized of skill sets.

Meeting innovative experts in their field, including “cronut” innovator Dominique Ansel and Dinara Kasko and more, Ottolenghi's crew delights the senses with ornately textured chocolate walls, complex Crayola bright jello molds, 3D architectural cakes, edible sculptures, and other confections sure to make your mouth water. Yet rather than endear us to each wizard one by one (including Ottolenghi), Gabbert serves them all up to us in a rush buffet style, all but ensuring that her film will play best to true foodies with more than just a cursory idea of who one or more of these figures are.

At its most intriguing when it spends time one-on-one with the chefs we're getting to know through their work, including the brilliant Janice Wong who found herself turning away from entrepreneurial endeavors and toward more artistic pursuits after a car crash left her with a completely different personality, I wish Gabbert would've stayed with the human story longer.

The film does layer in some background information about the palace of Versailles, which was the home to the French monarchy from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century and best personified by Marie Antoinette. However, unsure of the documentary's tone, when Gabbert suddenly starts to question the regal era that she and the chefs had been both celebrating and attempting to make modern once again for museum-goers late into "Ottolenghi," it feels like an ill-fitting afterthought.

Although it's perfectly pleasant, and places quite the emphasis on perfection in its richest and most sugary decadent form, there's just not enough holding this film together to make it a must-see. Culling together the freshest of ingredients, no matter how much Gabbert tries to mix it all up into an appealing pastry, in the end there's nothing to keep the batter from separating once more.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

The Dark Divide - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

David Cross as Robert Pyle in “The Dark Divide”

‘The Dark Divide’ is a soulful, pleasant journey

Directed by:  Tom Putnam

Written by:  Tom Putnam, based on the book by Robert M. Pyle

Starring:  David Cross, Debra Messing, and David Koechner

“The Dark Divide” – “I’m actually searching for new species of (butterflies)…and moths.  In fact, three years ago, I discovered six new species, and that is a Xerces Society record.  I’ve authored several books on the subject.  It’s kind of a big deal, just so you know.” – Robert M. Pyle, Ph.D. (David Cross)

Dr. Robert M. Pyle - a lepidopterist and college professor - is a big deal.  It’s the summertime in 1995, and he’s about to embark on a new assignment.  You see, the Guggenheim offered him an $11,000 grant to take a 30-day expedition in search of new butterfly and moth species.  In one way, this golden insect-opportunity nestles perfectly in his comfort zone, but he faces a daunting task.  He’s supposed to explore the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, a massive 2,000 square-mile woodland in Southern Washington, but Dr. Pyle’s camping experience is minimal.  He’s had a few “overnights.”

Personally, the thought of sleeping outdoors for a month straight is causing this critic to curl up in the fetal position.  Well, our protagonist’s outlook is more optimistic!  He feels semi-ready for the challenge, so he thinks.

Writer/director Tom Putnam adapted Dr. Pyle’s book “Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide” to the big screen, and although the film includes several Sasquatch mentions (and possibly a sighting or meeting), the narrative is more about one man’s journey.

Cross – probably best known for “Mr. Show with Bob and David” (1995 – 1998), “Arrested Development” (2003 – 2019), and his standup act – steps into a welcome soft-spoken role as Robert.  Sporting a long – but well-groomed - gray beard that rivals David Letterman’s post-“The Late Show” chin and cheek locks, Cross carries a university-academic look quite well, along with a matching intellectual persona.  So much so that a few butterflies (or stylish moths) sit nearby or rest on his shoulder. 

Dr. Pyle could use a friend.  

Putnam sets most of the film in the great outdoors (and on location in the aforementioned forest), but he intermingles several key flashbacks during the first act that successfully establish acres of empathy for Robert.  We easily root for the good doctor, while his passage through the Northwest timberlands involves much more than cataloging his findings. 

He’s finding himself. 

Even though Cross pulls on some comedic threads - including camping mishaps (one inspired by “The Blair Witch Project” (1999)) and many scenes when he’s only wearing tighty whities and hiking boots - he’s generally playing it straight.  “The Dark Divide” isn’t a riotous comedy. 

It’s a soulful, pleasant journey.

A toe-tapping score - with smiling banjos, violins, and perhaps a piano - accompanies this gentle being, as he attempts to heal while making peace with the beyond-sprawling, unfamiliar terrain.  If you’ve seen Emilio Estevez’s “The Way” (2010), you might find that Robert’s on-screen story is a companion piece.  In the 2010 drama, Estevez’s dad Martin Sheen plays a man suffering from a loss and explores the El camino de Santiago, and the gorgeous landscapes from both movies offer warm companionship for our isolated leads. 

Like Tom (Sheen), Robert is not an outdoorsman, but our “The Dark Divide” hero appears prepared with his giant red backpack and oversized net for meeting new friends.  Straight away, Dr. Pyle would fit nicely into a Wes Anderson flick.  “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012) immediately comes to mind, but please note, the Khaki Scouts would probably mentor him.

Here, Robert is his guide, and hopefully, he’ll make it from Highway 12, over to Mount Adams, and to the Columbia Gorge.  Throughout the 101-minute runtime, Putnam seems to showcase all 2,000 square miles of the forest’s wondrous eye-candy, and the film might inspire you to grab a pack and a compass and head outside.  Perhaps, you’ll also pick up a butterfly net and discover a new species or two. 

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but studying butterflies and moths is a big deal. 

(2.5/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Antebellum - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Janelle Monáe as Eden in “Antebellum”

Dir: Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz

Starring: Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Arabella Landrum

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past”. – William Faulkner

Directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz begin their hybrid horror film “Antebellum” with this quote from William Faulkner’s story “Requiem for a Nun”. The line, specific about the history of the American South, describes how the past still haunts the present. When Barack Obama used a variation of that line during a speech in 2008, it framed William Faulkner’s environment of the South and how the legacy of racial atrocities found in history still linger so prevalent today. 

It doesn’t take much to find horror in the world these days. Amid a global pandemic, the makings of a horror film already, the injustices happening across the world continue to pile on one right after the other. And cinema, consistently one of the best mirrors of present times in the world, has taken to genre film to discuss and dissect the issues. Films like Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” show how genre movies can offer an important lens of insight, understanding the balance between social commentary and exploitation. 

“Antebellum” is a film about slavery and the continuing prejudice and racism towards Black people. The film utilizes a horror narrative frame to enclose and examine these elements. The result is an unbalanced endeavor.

The film begins on a plantation, a long tracking shot pulls the viewer into a moment of utter terror where an enslaved couple is being punished. The camera movements and framing of faces make the moment all the more devasting as the viewer is stuck, forced to watch the devastating viciousness. 

We are introduced to Eden (Janelle Monáe), an enslaved woman who is not allowed to talk and is brutalized in every way possible by a man only known as Him (Eric Lange).  The abuse she endures, rape and torture with a hot iron brand, is appalling. There are more terrible people at this plantation; a woman (Jena Malone) with a Southern accent hides her evil intentions behind an innocent grin and a Confederate captain named Jasper (Jack Huston) who rides his horse while threatening death to anyone who dares try to talk. 

It’s never clear how long Eden has been suffering, though she is well-respected by others and often asked when another escape will be attempted. But something is off about this past world. History, often hinted at by the soldiers on the plantation, seems rewritten to fit a new narrative, while the people enslaved seem to be hiding information about their identities. However, right before the mystery becomes unraveled, a phone rings and the viewer is brought from the past into the present, where Dr. Veronica Henley (also Janelle Monáe) is living a dream life with her husband and child. Veronica is a sociologist, author, and National advocate for the disenfranchised lives of Black Americans. But something is strange about this present world. How are Eden and Veronica connected becomes the mystery that will ultimately be revealed. 

“Antebellum” is aiming for something insightful amidst some pretty unsettling imagery involving slavery and set within a cotton plantation somewhere in the South. The connections between social and historical commentary are often blurred by strong and cruel cinematic qualities. Instead of finding a balance between the two characteristics, the film often wanders in and out of these elements. When the mystery finally gets revealed the revelation feels shallow instead of profound, the wrong emotion considering the use of violence displayed at the beginning of the film.

At the core of “Antebellum” is a wonderful performance from Janelle Monáe, enveloped within photography that is equally beautiful and brutal, sometimes confusingly at the same time. Still, Ms. Monáe is so emotionally raw at times, while also composing a strong and confident female character in both the past and present realms within the story. It’s her portrayal of Eden/Veronica that keeps the mystery interesting.

While the film searches for meaning, at times connecting elements of how the world perceives and analyzes people simply by the color of their skin and not by the content of their character, it also struggles to focus its concepts within a muddled, unbalanced script. While the film does work as a true-to-life horror film, bringing the atrocities of the past into full detail on screen, the balance of tone and imagery is consistently at odds with one another. This keeps “Antebellum” stuck in a place where the past it examines and explores never connects a meaning for the future it hopes to change.

Monte’s Rating
2.25 out of 5.00

H is for Happiness - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Daisy Axon and Wesley Patten in “H Is for Happiness” directed by John Sheedy.

Director: John Sheedy

Writer: Lisa Hoppe (based upon “My Life as an Alphabet” by Barry Jonsberg)

Cast: Daisy Axon, Wesley Patten, Emma Booth, Richard Roxburgh, Miriam Margolyes & Joel Jackson.

Review by Jen Johans

Based upon Barry Jonsberg's award-winning young adult novel “My Life as an Alphabet,” “H is for Happiness” is quirky with a capital Q. With high key lighting and vibrant primary and secondary colors, which are wonderfully captured by cinematographer Bonnie Elliott (as well as Rick Rifici who shot the water photography), the film is as gorgeously rendered as the illustrations in the Little Golden Books series of titles that we read as children at bedtime.

Yet, in blending together Eleanor H. Porter's “Pollyanna” and Roald Dahl's “Matilda,” (both of which were famously brought to the screen by directors David Swift and Danny DeVito respectively), “H is for Happiness” plays best as an exercise in style over substance.

Following the exploits of a tirelessly optimistic, terribly bright twelve-year-old girl named Candice Phee (played with gusto by newcomer Daisy Axon), this Australian import finds Candice taking it upon herself to try to put her broken family back together again. Essentially ignored by her overwhelmed parents (played by Emma Booth and Richard Roxburgh), Candice tries to cure her mom's depression following the death of her younger sister years earlier and also mend her father's rift with her Rich Uncle Brian (Joel Jackson).

Daisy Axon and Wesley Patten in “H Is for Happiness”

Initially, she attempts to do this alone but soon Candice finds help in the form of her new classmate Douglas Benson from Another Dimension (Wesley Patten). Becoming fast friends with the peculiar boy who, as Candice's name for him implies, believes he is from another dimension and dreams of falling out of a tree to land back in his correct universe, our precociously bright leads strive to set everything right throughout “H”'s ninety-eight-minute running time.

Inspired after she tries to stop her classmates from ridiculing her disabled teacher (Miriam Margolyes) – whose constantly bobbling eye feels like it came right out of an unpublished Roald Dahl manuscript – Candice goes right to work. From preparing an elaborate Nashville themed evening for her country music loving mom to taking a page from “The Parent Trap” in trying to get her father and Rich Uncle Brian back together again, “H” means well but its endlessly cloying tone ensures that every emotional moment feels like its being shouted at you rather than genuinely earned.

Freely admitting that his feature filmmaking debut was influenced by the work of John Hughes, Wes Anderson, and Pedro Almodovar, although director John Sheedy's approach to “H” sounds thrilling in theory, a large part of the film's problem is that numerous scenes feel like they belong in one of those auteur's movies as opposed to a new confection made up of all three. Moving uneasily from a Hughes-like scene of burgeoning love between the two preteens to the sardonic Andersonesque fear of her friend jumping out of a tree to an odd gag with an inflatable beach ball boob rig that Almodovar would gravitate to in a heartbeat, this self-consciously quirky, inconsistent movie is all over the place.

Set on the stunningly beautiful Australian coastal town of Albany and adapted from the novel by Lisa Hoppe, Sheedy's well-intentioned film is as lovely to look at as a storybook but plays like there was an error at the printer's and three disparate tales were bound together instead of one.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

The Devil All the Time - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Tom Holland in “The Devil All the Time”

‘The Devil All the Time’ is a well-crafted, exceedingly grim slow burn

Directed by:  Antonio Campos

Written by:  Antonio and Paulo Campos, based on the novel by Donald Ray Pollock

Starring:  Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Jason Clarke, Riley Keough, Sebastian Stan, Bill Skarsgard, and Mia Wasikowska

“The Devil All the Time” – At the 46-minute mark of director Antonio Campos’ film adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s debut 2011 novel, Arvin Russell (Tom Holland) sheepishly smiles when his aunt brings out a cake with a lit candle on his birthday.  As an audience, let’s also celebrate the occasion, because this moment is one of the very few on-screen smiles offered in “The Devil All the Time”, a rough-and-tumble, exceedingly grim step into noir.  It’s a picture that might leave you depressed and reduced to near-zero hope for humanity.  The story’s timeframe runs during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.  That was a long time ago, and the United States has enjoyed 50-plus years of social progress and change to point to with pride.  Look at where we stand as a country in 2020, and—   Well, never mind.  Let’s move on.

Yes, let’s move on to the American Midwest, and - more specifically – to West Virginia and Ohio.  While in the Buckeye State, the movie’s events play out in Knockemstiff, and the town’s name seems appropriate.  During yesterdecade, everyday men settle conflicts with their fists rather than extended discourse and debate.  In other circles, an existing personal strife isn’t the only affair that could trigger violence.  In Campos’ film, hitchhiking is hazardous, and organized crime and community leaders cross blurred lines or practice full – although not exactly willful - cooperation.  As the homeland copes with duress - including economic hardships - overseas wars serve as the narrative’s bookends. 

For Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgard), his troubles begin on the Solomon Islands during WWII.  He witnesses a solitary, horrific act that haunts him for years.  Finding a therapist on Google wasn’t a thing back then, and neither was opening up to family and friends.  No one defined post-traumatic stress disorder, so for some men returning home from war, shell shock or battle fatigue were their diagnoses. 

Perhaps, church is a refuge towards normalcy, but after attending Roy Laferty’s (Harry Melling) unsettling guest sermon, turning to one’s faith might not offer a comforting remedy.  Religion serves as the central theme in “The Devil All the Time”.  After digesting this 138-minute unsettling - and occasionally explosive - downer, it feels like an anti-religious tale, but Skarsgard offers a different explanation. 

“The book isn’t a comment on religion, as much as it’s a comment on what people do with religions,” he said. 

Skarsgard is right, and he changed this critic’s perspective.  The movie follows this mantra as well, and Rev. Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson) delivers a prime example.  Pattinson is a bit off-the-charts and downright mesmerizing as an off-kilter preacher who holds his own demented best interests in mind rather than his flocks’ needs.  Geez, the good reverend isn’t the only one, because several others with varying degrees of power – throughout the picture - carry directionless moral compasses too. 

In a Sept. 14 interview, Campos said that he wanted Pattinson to “swing for the fences” as Teagardin, and he added, “That was the mandate across the board.  Everyone pushed themselves.”

The all-star cast took Campos’ words to heart, as Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, and Sebastian Stan deliver standout performances.  From time to time, this ensemble picture feels like a depraved Robert Altman flick, as the characters in power run roughshod over those without megaphones. 

The followers need voices, and Arvin hopefully finds his.  Holland is particularly good here, as a young man swallowing his pain and desperately searching for an outlet to release it.  Well, a specific gesture on his aforementioned birthday could prove to be his needed push. 

(3/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Antonio Campos interview - "The Devil All the Time" by Jeff Mitchell

Antonio Campos on the set of “The Devil All the Time”.

Director Antonio Campos (“Christine” (2016)) recruits an all-star cast – including Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Sebastian Stan, Mia Wasikowska, Riley Keough, Bill Skarsgard, and Jason Clarke – for his intricate noir picture “The Devil All the Time”.  This story – set in Ohio and West Virginia during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s – is adapted from Donald Ray Pollock’s debut 2011 novel with the same name.  Well, the Phoenix Film Festival joined other respected names for a terrific group interview with Antonio, and we discussed the film’s religious elements, Pattinson’s performance, Pollock’s narration, and much more! 

“The Devil All the Time” arrives on Netflix on Sept. 16.

Q:  When watching “The Devil All the Time”, I initially thought that it was an anti-religious movie, but then I read a quote from Bill Skarsgard, who plays Willard Russell, a critical patriarch in the film.  He said, “The book isn’t a comment on religion, as much as it’s a comment on what people do with religions.”   I appreciated his opinion, and he changed my perspective.  What are your thoughts?

AC:  I think that’s beautifully articulated by Bill, who is such a wise, wonderful soul.  The movie is about extreme believers in religion and their faith and the dangers of that.  All these characters are screaming to the heavens looking for answers, and they get (silence) in return.  In that void, they fill it with an answer themselves, and if the person is traumatized or delusional, they can fill it with a dangerous answer.  The film explores the dangers of extreme religion and how (those) in power can take advantage of people’s faith.  That’s what we are exploring, and the film isn’t anti-religion.  It is more (of) a comment on the dangers of religion in the wrong hands.

Q:  You have a history of exploring dark themes in your work.  What drives those choices?

AC:  I think it’s the challenge of making dark characters - these complicated characters - and trying to understand what drives them and motivates some of their bad choices.  Exploring the darkness in books, art, and movies…that’s a safe place to explore those themes. 

Robert Pattinson as Preston Teagardin in “The Devil All the Time”.

Q:  Robert Pattinson took his performance up a notch.  Can you talk about his choices?

AC:  We always wanted Teagardin (Pattinson) to have this otherworldly quality.  He’s designed to come into the movie and shake it up.  Because Teagardin is so far outside the realm of the movie - so far outside West Virginia and Ohio - (Pattinson) had so much freedom to just run with that character and go.  I (told Robert), “Just go as far as you want.  Swing for the fences, and if we have to rein (you) in, we will.”  I love performances like that.  That was the mandate across the board.  Everyone pushed themselves.  Sebastian Stan, as Bodecker, is just amazing.  He’s doing stuff that is really swinging for the fences, and he transforms his body (too).  So, I tried to (give) everybody a sense of freedom and to have fun with their characters.

Q:  You worked with your brother Paulo on this script, and did this change your writing process?

AC:  Writing with (Paulo) was a great experience.  He is my older brother, so there’s already a dynamic there before we got started.  In a lot of ways, my brother was the guy who introduced me to so many books, movies, and music when I was a kid.   So much of the reason why I love these genres is because my brother turned them on to me.  We both had this inherent connection over (and a love for) the material, worked really closely and way, way into the night, sometimes until 5 or 6 in the morning.   (When you work with someone that closely, you’ll) have some of the biggest fights, and you’ll also get closer in a way that you’ll never get without that experience.  (There are) pros and cons, but ultimately (it brought us) even closer. 

Q:  My favorite part of the film was having Pollock play the narrator.  How did you incorporate him into the film?

AC:  From the moment that (we) started implementing narration, there was no other person in my mind than Don Ray Pollock.  I knew his voice was perfect, and it’s a voice born and raised in Knockemstiff, Ohio.  What actor can replicate the feel of that specific place? 

That sound of Southern Ohio is very specific, and the sound of Knockemstiff is very specific.  Don has that.  He knew the world.  He knew the characters.  He created the world and the characters, so there was nobody else.  I hadn’t heard (of) an author (narrating) his adaptation, so it just felt fresh and exciting.  I loved the challenge of working with someone who is not an actor, because you get the kind of performance that doesn’t feel like a performance, but just someone talking to you.  When Don agreed to do it, he recorded all the scripted narration.  We used it as we assembled the movie (and) as we shot it.  As my wife and I (edited) the (film), we would get an idea for a piece of voiceover here or there, and I would email Don right away.  (He) would shoot it back pretty much immediately and give different reads on it.  It was a really great collaborative process.  His voice was so important to the book, and I was happy that we figured out a way of (literally) incorporating it in the movie. 

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

The Broken Hearts Gallery - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Geraldine Viswanathan and Dacre Montgomery in “The Broken Hearts Gallery”.

‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’:  You may or may not buy this thin, breezy rom-com

Written and directed by:  Natalie Krinsky

Starring:  Geraldine Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery, Phillipa Soo, Molly Gordon, and Bernadette Peters

“The Broken Hearts Gallery” – “Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, everything that’s wonderful is what I feel when we’re together.  Brighter than a lucky penny, when you’re near, the rain just disappears, dear, and I feel so fine just to know that you are mine.”  - Lesley Gore, “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows”

Spend five minutes with Lucy Gulliver (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Lesley Gore’s 1963 bubblegum tune might immediately pop into your head.  This 20-something is a lively, witty lass who feels lucky in life!  She lives with her two supportive best friends Amanda (Molly Gordon) and Nadine (Phillipa Soo) in a gorgeous Brooklyn apartment and loves her job as an art gallery assistant.  Lucy has it all, except a sustained, loving relationship.  Hey, it didn’t work out with Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), and although Lucy still sees him in passing, all she has left from their short-term spell of bliss is his tie.  You see, Ms. Gulliver saves mementos from her ex-boyfriends, and some of her keepsakes are a retainer, an espresso machine, a sock, and some toenail clippings. 

Toenail clippings? 

Thankfully, writer/director Natalie Krinsky doesn’t point her camera at the said item, and “The Broken Hearts Gallery” has no icky ulterior motives.  Even though the picture copes with letting go of past heartbreaks, this rom-com has lots of feel-good intentions. 

Krinsky creates a world of wondrous possibilities, open spaces, and big dreams in an urban paradise filled with Ubers, coffee shops, and start-ups on every street (or virtual) corner.  Sure, this utopia does exist in real life.  Then again, thousands and thousands of young professionals – inspired by the NBC hit “Friends” - flocked to The Big Apple in the 1990s and 2000s, but then they realized that Rachel and Monica’s spacious place rents for $25,000 a month.

Harsh reality. 

Krinsky’s flick has a couple of on-screen realities.  First, it should connect with its target audience.  Not only are the movie’s lovely settings and tones nestled with enjoyable movie-goodness, but Lucy is infinitely likable.  Credit Viswanathan.  For those who haven’t seen the “Miracle Workers” TBS series (and include me in this group), this movie is her star turn.  She’s a charismatic comedic actress who has Amy Schumer’s quick wit and humility combined with Ellie Kemper’s positive vibes.  Lucy may badly flub a public speech, but she owns an engaging, girl-next-door, can-do bravado. 

Every new introduction – on the ever-busy NYC streets - is an opportunity for friendship.  Hence, her unexpected second meeting with her pseudo-Uber driver sparks an enthusiastic wave as she declares, “Oh, hey, I know that guy too.  Adolfo-Nick!  What’s up, dude?

It turns out that Adolfo-Nick is just named Nick (Dacre Montgomery), and this financially struggling, wannabe hotel owner becomes Lucy’s new friend, and she invites herself into his lodging project as an art gallery business partner.  Since Max currently sits – somewhat distantly - in her rearview mirror, romance might bloom between Nick and Lucy. 

What do you think? 

Well, “The Broken Hearts Gallery” follows familiar formulas, but that’s okay. 

Unfortunately, the other reality is that the picture feels so light and airy that the heavier messages about letting go carry little weight.  On the one hand, Krinsky includes plenty of vibrant eye and ear candy like Lucy and Nick moving a mustard-colored couch across the city and the pair singing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” at Amanda’s birthday party, but nothing ever feels at stake.  Just about every adult on Planet Earth has attempted to mend their own broken heart, so the film’s universal message certainly is relatable, but the breezy tones mute any intended emotional impact.  This film’s dramatic moment of truth also lands flat.  A few subplot cul-de-sacs, Montgomery’s distant performance, and the surprisingly-long 105-minute runtime don’t help connect broader audiences either.  (For the record, when you don’t care if the featured couple gets together, that’s a problem.)

Still, Soo (“Hamilton” (2020)) sings poorly on purpose for about five seconds, and Bernadette Peters has some welcome screen time in a limited supporting role, so maybe that’s worth the price of admission for you.  Well, if you want to see “The Broken Hearts Gallery”, go because Viswanathan truly has the whole sunshine-lollipops-and-rainbows thing down.   

(2/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Werner Herzog Double Feature by Jeff Mitchell

Acclaimed director Werner Herzog was born on Sept. 5, 1942 in Munich, Germany, near the epicenter of WWII’s most extreme warfare, and the conflict christened him.  During a 2009 interview, he explains that his mother moved their family from Munich to a small, isolated Bavarian village for safety reasons - when he was about 10 days old – “because a bomb had hit right next to our place.”

Seventy-eight years later, one could accurately describe Mr. Herzog as fearless.  Perhaps his bold, adventurousness spirit points back to that aforementioned incident, when a fiery explosion nearly killed him before he reached his second week of life.  In honor of the man who faced an active volcano (“Into the Inferno” (2016)), explored ancient caves (“Cave of Forgotten Dreams” (2010)), pulled a steamboat over a Peruvian mountain (“Fitzcarraldo” (1982)), and much more, let’s celebrate his birthday with a Werner Herzog double feature.

Herzog makes documentaries and feature films with seemingly-equal frequency, and although we could look back at countless choices, here are a pair - one from each genre – that are perfect companions.  “Little Dieter Needs to Fly” (1997) and “Rescue Dawn” (2006) are about Dieter Dengler, an American (and German-born) Vietnam War Purple Heart recipient and POW.   When approaching these movies, I recommend watching the feature “Rescue Dawn” first, and then absorb the documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly”.  The viewing order isn’t critical, but knowing Dengler’s story is.

“Rescue Dawn” (2006) – U.S. Navy Flight Lt. Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is aboard the U.S.S. Ranger in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. The young lieutenant hasn’t seen any fighting yet, but his commanding officer (Marshall Bell) gives him and his fellow pilots the order to fly into Laos and attack supply lines.  In a horrible turn of events, anti-aircraft fire guns down Dengler’s plane…on his very first mission.  Somehow, he miraculously survives the crash and runs for his life in the brutal heat to avoid capture.  Alas, the local aggressors catch him, like a dozen cats chasing a slower mouse, one without a clue about nature’s traps in this jungle maze. 

The majority of Herzog’s 120-minute picture features Dengler caged in a Viet Cong compound constructed of bamboo, but the guards keep our protagonist and five other prisoners (two Americans and three Thais) in a small fenced-pen during their excruciatingly long days and nights.  Like other Vietnam prison pictures – such as “The Deer Hunter” (1978) and “Missing in Action 2: The Beginning” (1985) – mental torture, physical exhaustion, and inhumane rituals are unwanted items on the prisoner-of-war-menu for these fatigued, malnourished hostages. 

Steve Zahn and Christian Bale in ‘Rescue Dawn’ (2006)

Dieter mostly converses with Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), and they are especially convincing as poor souls tossed off a train of sanity and into a wilderness of madness.  Perhaps off-camera, Duane and Gene regularly howl at the moon but only after politely asking for permission.  Yes, for Dengler, escape is imperative to avoid a similar fate.

Released in 2006, “Rescue Dawn” lands in between Bale’s Batman performances in “Batman Begins” (2005) and “The Dark Night” (2008).  Here, he also plays a charismatic leader, but a non-violent, optimistic one.  The guards haven’t eroded Dieter’s hopeful outlook, and his beaten-down cohorts might become believers too. 

Meanwhile, our navy man’s appearance deteriorates, as if Batman slowly – like hands moving on an analog clock – morphs into Trevor Reznik from “The Machinist” (2004), so there’s no denying Bale’s dedication to the role.  Werner devotes most of his shoot in a beautiful Southeast Asian locale, and their camp sits below a towering, mystical butte that one might find in a “Lord of the Tropical Rings” flick.  Reportedly, the cast and crew didn’t have trailers during the filming.  This trip was no vacation, and based on Dengler’s real-life experience, this all seems uncomfortably fitting.

(3.5/4 stars)

“Little Dieter Needs to Fly” (1997) – One of the most anticipated aspects of Werner Herzog’s documentaries – at least to this critic - is that the man narrates them.  His one-of-a-kind cadence, German accent, and word choices with welcomed consonant-staccato blend into an industrial, otherworldly verbal chaperone throughout his docs. 

“Little Dieter Needs to Fly” is no exception. 

After the film’s first minute, we see Dieter Dengler driving along an empty, winding road in foggy Northern California.

Werner recites, “Men are often haunted by things that happened to them in life, especially in war or other periods of great intensity.  Sometimes you see these men walking the streets or driving in a car.  Their lives seem to be normal, but they are not.”

Dieter Dengler in ‘Little Dieter Needs to Fly’ (1997)

Talk to anyone on the front lines of life – coping with marital strife, substance or alcohol abuse, mental illness, financial insecurity, or something else within this family of troubling circumstances - and the struggle to maintain normalcy can be painfully genuine.  Dieter – an outgoing and gracious 59-year-old – seems to have lived nearly six decades of relative benign routine, but we soon learn about his six-month nightmare in a Viet Cong prison camp and the post-traumatic stress afterward.

While this documentary features Herzog’s commentary, it’s a co-narration because Dengler recounts his story throughout the gripping 72-minute runtime.  In effect, these two German men capture forever in film this courageous pilot’s life narrative. 

Born in 1938, Dieter saw Deutschland reduced to rubble, and our director adds, “Germany had been transformed into a dreamscape of the surreal.”

On the other hand, this very same conflict led to Dieter’s dream.  As a small boy, he saw an Allies pilot fly by with his plane’s cockpit open.  This young German junge suddenly struck a chord with destiny. 

“I had one burning desire, and that was to fly,” Dengler says.

As an adult, he left for the U.S. to become a pilot, but not one of war.  He solely wished to operate aircrafts, but his travels eventually led to the events in 1966.  The doc mostly focuses on – sometimes with hefty emotional force – Dieter’s capture and subsequent torture in painstaking detail.  Even further, this 50-something duo also travels across the Pacific to reinforce this terribly disturbing and equally heartbreaking episode of personal collateral damage. 

At one point, Dieter comments, “This feels a little too close to home.”

Yes, Dengler bequeaths his time to make another – albeit much smaller – sacrifice for this movie, but he does so with his friend, his German brother, and they lend their voices together.

(3/4 stars)

 Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley in ‘I'm Thinking of Ending Things’

Dir: Charlie Kaufman

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, David Thewlis, and Toni Collette

The backdrop of director Charlie Kaufman’s new film, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”, is an oncoming storm, one that signals its foreboding nature with dark gray skies only to transition into a beautiful disaster of howling wind with pure white snow concealing every object in its path. It’s cold, lonely, and scary.  Mr. Kaufman continuously tackles the human condition with profound insights into the delicate nature of relationships, connecting emotions that are both overtly fantastical yet overwhelmingly authentic.

Based on the novel by Iain Reid, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” follows the budding relationship between Lucy (Jessie Buckley) and Jake (Jesse Plemons). They are on a road trip to meet Jake’s parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis), who live in a country farmhouse. In the car, Lucy and Jake discuss, debate, and dissect philosophy, art, history, and even their own understanding of how their relationship came to fruition. Lucy, who narrates throughout as if we are sitting in her brain while she wanders from thought to thought, displays a keen intuition of numerous subject areas even though her thoughts are often obscured by random distractions. She examines Jake and his quirks while musing “I’m thinking of ending things” when it comes to their ongoing relationship. She will explain to Jake that she doesn’t care for poetry and then recite a beautiful verse she claims to have written herself. She consistently contradicts herself.

Kaufman has never studied relationships, especially romantic ones, through an ordinary lens. He has a way of making the analysis of humans and their connection to romance and love so brutally simplistic while at the same time making it feel so uniquely intricate. It’s almost otherworldly, as if we have been sent to an alternate universe where everything we know and understand, that is predictable and reliable, is somehow jeopardized by an off-kilter object, word, or characteristic.

You can see Mr. Kaufman’s particularly unorthodox methods for constructing the cynical and fanciful flights of naïve and unbridled passion for life, love, and self in the emotionally complicated stop-motion-animated story “Anomolisa” and the reality-challenging nature of a theater directors’ self-indulgent quest for control in “Synecdoche, New York”. The emotional elements explored in these films are further searched in “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”: the struggle for control in a relationship, specifically from an insecure man who challenges and becomes moody in the face of uncontrol; the obsessive nature of romance, challenged by a woman who is unsure about the man she has chosen and whether the feelings she is experiencing are real or part of another construct she hasn’t figured out yet; and the thin line that exists between the identity of reality and fiction, displayed by Jake’s parents who age older and younger every time they leave the room.

Kaufman spends his time with Lucy and Jake, allowing the viewer to find connections with their personalities and emotions before adding strange events into the mix, like the family dog who endlessly shakes or a picture on the wall that is all too familiar to Lucy. Still, dinner with the parents is just half the story. There is an adjoining story woven through Lucy and Jake’s experiences, a story of a lonely janitor at a high school who wanders the halls cleaning and encountering young people throughout the school. The character arrives into the story during interesting spells of conversation at the contentious family dinner. It’s never completely identified but the janitor’s role seems connected to Jake and his family. The couple eventually leave the house and venture back into the wilderness of white snow in an effort to get home before things get worst.

Kaufman layers the film with references, including callouts to David Foster Wallace, Mussolini, Tolstoy, and John Cassavetes. The dialog is dense, deliberate, and distracting; Kaufman roams Lucy’s spiraling thoughts, switching from conversations with Jake to internal monologues with herself. Lucy is a character composed of doubts about everything around her. Are her insights trustworthy? Is she faking something to pretend to be something else? There is no simple answer, and that’s part of the intriguing nature of the film, making everything feel uneasy, lonely, and desperate.

Some have called this film Charlie Kaufman’s horror film. While it does not meet the standards that typically define the genre, this film still finds a realm to explore that has all the feelings associated with the genre of horror, but in an unconventional way. The unease of the unknown, the creepiness of coincidences too familiar, the fear of discovering hidden intentions within others and, specifically within this film, yourself. It’s all there, shaped and molded in a way that is distinctly Charlie Kaufman. 

“I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is confusing yet fascinating. At times I figured it out, other times I was completely lost. The subtle, superb performances from Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons completely consume the viewer to indulge the 2-hour-plus story. All the feelings produced throughout the film challenge one another: it’s interesting and infuriating, sometimes at the same time. But altogether it is simply pure cinema, another highlight in the career of Charlie Kaufman.

Monte’s Rating
4.25 out of 5.00

Love, Guaranteed - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Rachael Leigh Cook and Damon Wayans Jr. in ‘Love, Guaranteed’

Director: Mark Steven Johnson

Writers: Hilary Galanoy & Elizabeth Hackett

Cast: Rachael Leigh Cook, Damon Wayans Jr., & Heather Graham

Review by Jen Johans

Like a recipe for sugar cookies that you follow and enjoy, despite finding it in every single cookbook you come across, the ingredients for contemporary romantic comedies have become so easily identifiable that even those who don't follow the genre very closely can break down each element as if separating the liquids from the powders.

Of course, this isn't always a bad thing. Much like cookies, there's nothing like a delectable dessert-like rom-com to bring a smile to your face. Yet sometimes what we're left with feels less like an overall confection than it does just a handful of ingredients that taste great individually but don't work all that well together. And when it comes to Netflix's latest comedy about love, this is precisely what happened.

Looking to stack the deck with an adorably daffy rom-com premise – partially conceived by its affable leading lady Rachael Leigh Cook – and a script penned by genre veterans Hilary Galanoy and Elizabeth Hackett, the film revolves around a man (played by Damon Wayans Jr.) who sues his online dating service because it hasn't made good on its promise to deliver “Love, Guaranteed.”

Having failed to make a romantic connection in nearly a thousand dates, which would've left most men physically and emotionally exhausted as well as incredibly broke, Wayans Jr.'s inexplicably independently wealthy physical therapist Nick hires Cook's idealistic civil litigator to take on the dating service run by Heather Graham's clueless lifestyle guru.

Even without the witty repartee of a sparkling legal comedy like “Adam's Rib,” fueled by Wayans Jr. and Cook's genuinely charming chemistry, these elements alone could've easily led to a fun, if predictably formulaic, Hallmark Channel level rom-com. But in "Love, Guaranteed," Galanoy, Hackett, and, as evidenced by the production notes, Cook and director Mark Steven Johnson, kept filling the pot with new ideas.

And while one – based on a true incident in Cook's life where she became so disturbed by the miscarriage of justice in “The Fugitive” as a young girl that she had to stop watching – is introduced in the film to hilarious effect (but then never develops into anything more), another idea from Johnson wears on viewers' nerves right away.

Similar to the way that on TV's “Stumptown,” actress Cobie Smulders' character Dex drives an old car with a broken tape deck that plays the same cassette over and over again, in “Love, Guaranteed,” Cook's Susan drives an old orange rust bucket that spontaneously plays Tiffany's “I Think We're Alone Now” repeatedly at will. As a woman roughly Cook's age in real life who also remembers Tiffany in the '80s, this sounds comically winning in theory but by the time we watch Cook have an over-the-top romantic breakdown in the car to Tiffany's song, we have long been ready to hit the mute button whenever we hear its opening notes.

From not understanding that people lie on their online profiles to being thoroughly unfamiliar with most dating behavior in the 21st century, as warm and wonderful as Cook is, Susan feels almost less real than Nick's physical therapist who's able to blow tens of thousand dollars on bad dates and also somehow works for free by donating his time. Still, a much better character than her stereotypical co-workers (a flirtatious gay guy and a generic gal pal), besides her scenes with Wayans Jr., Cook's best moments are the ones that her character shares with her pregnant sister who lives in the condo next door.

Less successful than last year's similarly gimmicky but much sweeter Netflix rom-com “Falling Inn Love” penned by Galanoy and Hackett, this film doesn't work nearly as well as a majority of the made-for-TV rom-coms crafted with assembly-line efficiency on The Hallmark Channel, including those that have starred “Love” producer and actress Cook.

Counting at least three toilet references in the first act alone, which, although never explicitly gross just don't really go with the otherwise warm, sophisticated world those behind-the-scenes are trying to create, “Love, Guaranteed,” is never quite certain just what kind of romantic comedy it truly wants to be.

Established early on, one recurring gag in the movie is that Nick – who has weirdly kept diligent notes on every single date that went wrong – has named each bad match he's endured as though they're rejected episodes of TV's “Friends.” And while Susan might be “the one I didn't see coming,” according to Nick, unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the film.

Following the recipe we know by heart to a “T” before trying to spice things up by sprinkling in numerous other ingredients that just don't blend well together, if this movie were a date, I'd probably dub it, “the one I wish I would've fallen more in like with (but really should've been rewritten).”

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

I'm Thinking of Ending Things - Movie Review by Jen Johans

David Thewlis, Toni Collette, Jesse Plemons, and Jessie Buckley in ‘I'm Thinking of Ending Things’

Writer-director: Charlie Kaufman (based on the novel by Iain Reid)

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette, & David Thewlis

Review by Jen Johans

Writer-director Charlie Kaufman's “I'm Thinking of Ending Things,” begins with the words “I'm thinking of ending things.” Spoken in voice-over by the unnamed female protagonist (Jessie Buckley) at the center of the surrealist helmer's third feature film, in the lines that follow, we quickly deduce that she's pondering taking not her own life but herself out of her sparks-free relationship with the otherwise nice, unassuming Jake (Jesse Plemons), whom she's dated for seven weeks. Resigned to taking a road trip with the man nonetheless, the two embark on an unusual journey home to meet his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis) at the farmhouse where he was raised.

The couple is as polite as they are awkward with one another. Misreading each other's signals and on different wavelengths about not only their relationship but everything else as well, they have parallel arguments that only occasionally intersect.

Colliding most notably when he cajoles her into sharing one of her poems, Buckley's soulful recitation of the complex, deeply affecting “Bone Dog” by Eva H.D. (which is presented as though she wrote it) is one of the high points of the movie. Touching on certain themes and elements that recur throughout the film, the seductive sequence engages us completely.

Yet even before Jake responds by saying that he identified with the piece and felt like she was writing it about him, the antennae of any literature majors and film buffs watching is already up, listening and digesting Buckley's words as a bit of self-conscious signposting or foreshadowing about their journey ahead. Knowing this, of course, the erudite Kaufman treats the poem like a tease and one that's as much about their quest to go home to meet his parents as it is just the first of many pieces of art, music, film, literature, culture, and criticism references to eventually follow.

“I'm Thinking of Ending Things” returns once again to the same questions of whether or not we are what we do and/or consume that have plagued Kaufman from the beginning of his career. Evidenced in his brilliant existential screenplays for “Being John Malkovich” when its characters were most themselves in the body of another or the charge that Kate Winslet's manic pixie dream girl in his script for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” relied on hair dye to compose her personality, all of these ideas get filtered into “Ending Things” to positive and negative effect.

Inserting a faux romantic film (fictionally directed by Robert Zemeckis) in the second act of the movie before its plot and characters spill over into the personalities of our young couple, Kaufman goes a bit further later on. Using a more subtle approach in the film's intentionally maddening second half, the pair debate and momentarily seem to embody the leads from “A Woman Under the Influence,” as well as Pauline Kael's review of the Cassavetes classic in a blistering sequence.

A poet in the car who becomes a painter in the house but also a college student studying quantum physics and a waitress, just as the biographical elements of Buckley's “young woman” change in Kaufman's film so does everything else, including the ages of both of our protagonists as well as his enigmatic, affable, yet slightly creepy parents. Then again, I should probably put the word parents in quotations because while we're initially led to believe that Collette and Thewlis are playing the parents of Jake, an argument could also be made that they're not.

Jessie Buckley, Abby Quinn, and Hadley Robinson in ‘I'm Thinking of Ending Things’

In fact, that's the main thrust of this movie overall. We're never quite sure if we're seeing things the way they are or if these are daydreams or shifts backward or forward in time. The latter, we find, is explicitly referenced in the dialogue at one point and taps right back into the issue of quantum physics.

(Over six hundred words in and I'm probably no closer to describing or making sense of the film that has still stayed with me since I screened it, but moving on...)

Playing like a magical realism version of “Our Town” as directed by Federico Fellini, “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” is a stream-of-consciousness movie that grows more unwieldy as it continues. Weaving in ballet in just one of a handful of sequences inspired by “Oklahoma,” Charlie Kaufman's film, which was adapted from the acclaimed novel by Iain Reid, is unquestionably enhanced by having seen not only Kaufman's “Synecdoche New York” (which I really didn't like) and “Anomalisa” (which I really did) but the films he wrote for other directors as well.

In my eyes, he's at his best when he lets others – including Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry – interpret his mad artistic visions in such a way that, as dizzying and dense as they are, they become far more universal in scope. Without this vital human filter of another creative mind behind the camera, there's something about Kaufman's work as a director that keeps most mainstream audiences at not just an arm but the state of Oklahoma's length away.

It's telling that of the three films I've seen that he's made, it's “Anomalisa,” which he shared directorial duties with Duke Johnson, that I liked the best. Perhaps needing that valuable cinematic translator or just someone who can take a look at his work and pare some of it down to only what is absolutely essential, the more he packs into the otherwise mostly excellent “I'm Thinking of Ending Things,” the messier it becomes. Still, as a treatise on relationships, aging, identity, and mortality, Kaufman's latest is far more relatable, in my eyes, than “Synecdoche New York,” which I actually watched again to prepare for this review and was disappointed to see that I still dislike.

In addition to his many existential obsessions, which manifest in the strangest of ways throughout his work, however, one constant in every single one of Kaufman's films as both a screenwriter and director is that they're brought to life by an extraordinary cast. “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” (which arrives on Netflix on September 4) is no exception to this rule and features dynamic turns by all of its leads, most notably Buckley and Plemons.

A movie you'll undoubtedly want to discuss with others if, that is, you manage to make it all the way through since it was even a challenge for me (and I was hugely on board with it for at least the first 90 minutes), “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” should have ended things a little sooner than its 134-minute running time.

There's an old adage that because we all approach things differently and with our own experiences, attitudes, and backgrounds, that no two of us ever truly “sees” the same film. This movie proves that philosophy true better than any academy essay ever could. At the same time, it also seems to use it as a challenge to not only ensure that we all see something different in the same metatextual heavy text but also reminds us that what we think of something at one time might not be the same belief we have just five minutes later. In the end, it's all a matter of physics, after all.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

Words on Bathroom Walls - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Charlie Plummer and Taylor Russell in ‘Words on Bathroom Walls’

‘Words on Bathroom Walls’ draws up a compelling and empathetic story

Directed by:  Thor Freudenthal

Written by:  Nick Naveda, based on Julia Walton’s novel

Starring:  Charlie Plummer, Taylor Russell, Molly Parker, Walton Goggins, AnnaSophia Robb, and Andy Garcia

“Words on Bathroom Walls” – Adam (Charlie Plummer) is halfway through his high school senior year, so graduation is close. 

Whoo-hoo! 

He should have the world at his feet, but a one-two-punch – emerging from a massive, unpredictable jungle, otherwise known as life - delivers a couple of near-crippling blows. 

First, his dad – with little warning or on-screen fanfare - leaves Adam and his mom Beth (Molly Parker).  Since Adam is taking the news better than his mother, he finds the space to prepare meals for their suddenly smaller family, as his “contribution to their underdog story.”  

It turns out that he has a knack for cooking, and this young home-chef holds aspirations for culinary school someday soon, but the second setback has other plans.  After his dad left, an insidious, unwanted guest arrives.  Adam develops schizophrenia, a mysterious disorder that causes him to hear voices and see hallucinations.  A teen’s years are already challenging to navigate, but add declarations and images that no one else can perceive, and his internal compass is compromised.  Adam now copes with a cerebral five-alarm inferno that no firefighter can extinguish.  There’s no cure, and he’s just a 17-year-old kid.

Young adult films sometimes address devastating afflictions, including depression, alcoholism, and cancer, but other than perhaps “Girl, Interrupted” (1999), more severe forms of mental illness – like schizophrenia - seem like new territory, at least to this critic. 

“Words on Bathroom Walls” director Thor Freudenthal and screenwriter Nick Naveda are blazing a trail here.  Sure, the movie – based on Julia Watson’s novel - repeats some familiar patterns, but the narrative has educational value and taps into raw emotions, at least for anyone who holds on to any degrees of self-doubt.

Plummer (“Lean on Pete” (2017)) brings (more than) credible energy to Adam.  He’s instantly believable as a vulnerable, semi-insecure young man who doesn’t need another stumbling block while pursuing personal glory and preserving a partial foundation for his supportive, caring mama.  Freudenthal devotes effective manifestations/special effects to communicate Adam’s condition, including a shadowy presence that acts like The Smoke Monster from “Lost” (2004 – 2010).  Three guides also tag along and give advice, all with distinct personas:  a baseball bat-wielding enforcer (Lobo Sebastian), a loner (Devon Bostick) who notices every pretty girl within eyeshot, and a bohemian (AnnaSophia Robb). 

This triad does not tender malice.  Still, their company is not exactly helping Adam’s teenager experience, especially when reaching out to classmates.  Credit Plummer for engendering empathy for his character, and Freudenthal truly pulls the right levers to draw this protagonist’s headspace into our universe.

Adam’s journey involves not only his personal growth, but also a chance at romance.  Enter Maya (Taylor Russell), the valedictorian who offers tutoring assistance and a connection that could lead to more.  Her predictable arc doesn’t require Cliff Notes, but Russell (“Waves” (2019)) conveys plenty of depth, especially Maya’s internal churn that she suppresses most of the time.

The narrative delves further into a rarely-explored relationship topic that taps into exposed feelings for the teens and the audience.  Admittedly, a critical, sentimental moment in the third act stretches some boundaries that seem implausible, but there’s nothing wrong with knowingly shelving some disbelief.  Add a welcome pair of supporting roles from Andy Garcia and Walton Goggins, and “Words on Bathroom Walls” is a satisfying picture.  Goggins usually plays sinister villains, so the fact that his character doesn’t try to murder someone is an appreciated treat, and all the performances plus the challenging material are cinematic gifts. 

(3/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Bill and Ted Face the Music - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’

Dir: Dean Parisot

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Kristen Schaal, Erinn Hayes, Jayma Mays, and William Sadler

“Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.”

If these parting words from two teenage best friends don’t ring truthful in our present state of world events, I don’t know what will. The memorable pairing of the time jumping Bill and Ted, call them “Wyld Stallyns”, have solidified the duo in the pop culture hall of fame with the cult classic films “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and the sequel “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey”. In 1989, somewhat unknown actors Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves would play Bill and Ted and air guitar their way on a journey across time, meeting some famous historical figures along the way.

It’s been 30 year! What more could two goofy 80s kids have to say that will strike relevance in 2020? Surprisingly, much more than you might expect from a silly genre film. “Bill and Ted Face the Music” dabbles in time travel confusion, sidetracking trips to literally hell, and some sloppy narrative dynamics, but it doesn’t seem to matter much because this film is made with such passion, with so much commitment from the actors, and with enough themes of friendship, finding unity, loving music, and being excellent to one another. It’s impossible not to smile, laugh, and just enjoy the escape for 90 minutes.

Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) gave the high school history presentation of a lifetime and played the concert to define all concerts. Now, after a few failed albums and the breakup of their once epic band, Bill and Ted are still searching for the song that will bring the universe together while also living the family life with their wives (Jayma Mays and Erinn Hayes) and daughters Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billy (Brigette Lundy-Paine).

But things aren’t good within the universe and the song that Bill and Ted promised Rufus (George Carlin, who has a nice visual tribute) they would make still hasn’t come to fruition. Now the universe is falling apart and it is up to Bill and Ted to journey into the future, while their daughters’ journey into the past, to find the song and musicians to save the future.

It’s been a long time since Bill and Ted have influenced the movie screens. The days of rock n’ roll air guitar solos and flannel shirts tied around waists are memories, almost forgotten for some younger people. While it may seem difficult to bring pop culture characters back from the past, “Bill and Ted Face the Music” pulls off the return in sweet, silly fashion. Sure, the narrative is overly convoluted, rambling in parts, and has some dialog lines that don’t quite work as well as they might have looked on paper. Still, the heart of this film is so pure and passionate, it’s impossible not to smile at the ridiculousness happening on screen.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are completely committed to roles; they embrace their old characters with ease from the first second of screen time. The surprise comes from new cast members Samara Weaving, playing Ted’s daughter Thea, and Brigette Lundy-Paine, playing Bill’s daughter Billy. The two ladies together have great chemistry and embody the mannerisms and speech patterns of their fathers. Also, William Sadler returning as Death brings all the nostalgia back with a funny portrayal of a jaded ex-bandmember just when it feels like the film is stumbling.

“Bill and Ted Face the Music” leads to a place that seems somewhat impossible to ever meet expectations, yet somehow it lands with heart, humor, and a bit of heroics. Its satisfying message of friendship, finding purpose, and that even something as simple as a song could unite the universe. In this cinematic vessel from the past, with two familiar friends to some 80s and 90s kids, it’s a journey worth the wait.

Monte’s Rating
3.25 out of 5.00

The Personal History of David Copperfield - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Dev Patel in ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’

Iannucci spins a classic with ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’

Directed by:  Armando Iannucci

Written by:  Armando Iannucci and Simon Blackwell, based on the novel by Charles Dickens

Starring:  Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi, Rosalind Eleazar, Benedict Wong, and Daisy May Cooper

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” – “I hadn’t read ‘David Copperfield’ for a long time.  I reread it about 8 or 9 years ago, and I was struck by how modern it was.  The themes in it are very, very 21st century.  It’s all about status anxiety.”  - Armando Iannucci, January 2020

I’ve read a fair share of classic literature, but sadly, I never picked up “David Copperfield”, Charles Dickens’ novel about an Englishman’s 19th-century chronicle told in the first person.  During my 20th century secondary education, either my high school passed over this particular book in favor of “A Tale of Two Cities”, or I succumbed to a two-week illness that also blockaded my memory of it.  No matter the reason, I carried some apprehension - due to a lack of perspective - walking into Armando Iannucci’s take on this renowned story. 

Then again, since the acclaimed director/writer of “In the Loop” (2009), “The Death of Stalin” (2017), and the television series “Veep” (2012 – 2019) helmed this project, most moviegoers – including this critic – should anticipate hearty helpings of humor with occasional brushes of absurdity over a 119-minute runtime.

Iannucci and his flat out brilliant cast – led by Dev Patel in the title role - does not disappoint, as “The Personal History of David Copperfield” is one of the most enjoyable comedies of the year.  Tonally, Whit Stillman’s “Love & Friendship” (2016), based on Jane Austen’s novella, is a close comparison.  In that movie, Kate Beckinsale governs the screen – in a whip-smart, hilarious performance - as Lady Susan Vernon, who seems to operate three chess moves ahead of nearly everyone who stumbles into her view.

“Love & Friendship” (2016) does become complicated at times, as humor and nuance weave through the lightning-fast discourse that lobs grenades and throws daggers over (perceived) pleasantries.  In other words, pay attention, and who knew that the woman portraying a vampire in the “Underworld” series could wildly rule over a comical, sarcastic period piece.  Well, Beckinsale did attend Oxford, so there’s that.

Iannucci’s “Copperfield” project is zany and kinetic, and it plays like a wholesome family film, free of expletives and adult subject matter.  It is rated-PG, a departure from “Loop” and “Stalin”, both rated-R.  Here, many of the colorful characters exaggerate their status and intent.  This way, the audience – including grade school-aged kids - can immediately discern the on-screen players’ roles during Copperfield’s (Patel) winding journey through financial and family hardships, stretches of grace and joy, and attempts at upward mobility that do not follow straight trajectories.

Patel is wholly engaging as Copperfield, a man seemingly tossed – through fate, helping hands, and blind luck - into haphazard turns at several crossroads.  He treks on figurative roller skates between London and several townships located northeast and southeast (like Yarmouth and Dover, respectively) of England’s most bustling metropolis.  

As the film opens, David announces that he will share his life’s tale by declaring, “Whether I turn out to be the hero of my own story, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these moments must show.” 

Naturally, the most logical beginning is his birth – “on a Friday at 12 o’clock at night” - and he describes his observations (as a baby), which include the recognition of his family’s thoughtful servant Peggotty (Daisy May Cooper) and her rough fingers that regularly reach into his bassinet. 

Geez, Copperfield has some memory! 

If only Peggotty’s scratchy touch was David’s worst adversity.  Soon, a force outside his mother’s sphere of influence deports him to London, and the School of Hard Knocks teaches David harsh lessons, ones before unions organized and governments enacted child labor laws.   

The screenplay’s themes of wealth versus poverty and the powerful versus the powerless regularly display their external struggles, but the formers (nearly) always squash the dreams of the latters.  The immovable and ever-present caste system is extremely tricky to outwit or outrun.  While David repeatedly attempts to break free from these invisible chains, they yank him three steps back just after he took two forward. 

Wait, how is this funny?  

Thankfully, Iannucci and company serve these troubling concepts with whimsy, mostly extending from David’s allies.  His aunt Betsey (Tilda Swinton) and the semi-lucid Mr. Dick (Hugh Laurie) are a madcap pair.  Betsey is “fierce, like a birthing badger” and a bit heavy-handed with the random donkeys who trample her meadow.  Still, this tightly-wound, OCD-leaning aunt cherishes her relationship with David and Mr. Dick, a likable fellow, even though he thinly comprehends the meaning behind any consequential conversation.  Think Coach (Nicholas Colasanto) from “Cheers” but with more polish.

If David rolls through life on eight small wheels, Betsey and Mr. Dick draw up the half-pipes, baked and vert ramps, and wax the ground beneath his feet with altruistic intentions.  D.C. meets other supporters like Peggotty’s brother Daniel (Paul Whitehouse), a patriarch – Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi) - caught in a debtor’s prison, a close friend Agnes (Rosalind Eleazar), and her father Mr. Wickfield (Benedict Wong), and a few others who help him square against the murkier forces within his orbit. 

All the while, he attempts to reach his perceived nirvana - which is to live like a gentleman - but he hides his previous experiences while becoming tangled in current ones.  David’s name seems to change as often as Irwin ‘Fletch’ Fletcher (Chevy Chase) in “Fletch” (1985), but rest assured no one calls him, “John Coctostan.”   

Despite David’s moniker changes and insecurities, his traveled roads on roller-boots connect the aforementioned John and Jane Q. Citizens, but will he reach his hopeful goals? 

Well, you have to watch the movie, a most playful delight with all the period film trimmings, including beautiful costumes, sets, and locales. 

High school teachers should take notice and screen this movie as a grand audio/visual accompaniment to the novel.  I mean, I think so. 

I haven’t read the book. 

(3.5/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.