The Green Knight - Movie Review

Dir: David Lowery

Starring: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan, Erin Kellyman, and Ralph Ineson

2h 5m

In the early moments of director David Lowery's enthralling and visionary "The Green Knight," the words "filmed adaptation of the chivalric romance by anonymous" introduces the viewer to this Arthurian coming-of-age story. The legend of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is an influential work of English literature, a 14th-century tale about morality, nobility, fate, hope, salvation, vanity, and many more themes that have been studied and debated about by scholars.

The brilliance of David Lowery's vision, perhaps better to call it a hallucination, for "The Green Knight" is that the film isn't interested in finding understanding. It never positions itself for easy answers but instead lavishes in the knots it finds while unraveling the quest from the Round Table into the forest citadel. It has everything that current times have instilled into stories of knights in shining armor, adventure, danger, monsters, witches, spirits, and bloodshed. But "The Green Knight" never feels modernized; instead, there is no effort to update the language or repurpose the legend to fit a comfortable popcorn movie style. "The Green Knight" casts a spell of storytelling, an absorbing and visually beguiling tale.

A gloomy and dank village, seemingly shrouded in a layer of fog, is home to an aged and sickly King Arthur (Sean Harris). Gawain (Dev Patel) is the arrogant nephew of Arthur; his mother (Sarita Choudhury) is a powerful sorceress. Gawain lacks ambition, spending most of his time passed out in a brothel while seeking the attention of Essel (Alicia Vikander). But Gawain wants to be a knight, seated at the Round Table of King Arthur, praised and adored for his heroism.

The Green Knight (voiced by Ralph Ineson) rides into the Round Table chambers; the monster looks made of ancient wood and carries a green ax. He offers a challenge to any knight brave enough to land one single blow against him. Gawain, seeing a chance to prove himself, jumps, sword in hand, at the opportunity. The Green Knight does not fight; instead, he offers himself to the attack. Gawain, startled for a moment, strikes the Green Knight, cutting his head off. Gawain, being cheered by the other knights is proud, until the Green Knight reawakens, picks his head up, and rides off with a laugh, knowing that Gawain must meet him in one year to face the same challenge.

David Lowery is in complete control of the vision for this Arthurian adventure tale, character fable, artistic metaphor. The film is paced methodically. "Slow burn" might be an accurate description for some viewers looking for more swashbuckling and swordplay. However, some will relish the visual gracefulness that engulfs nearly every scene of this film. Lowery interplays literal and metaphorical themes on life and death, nobility and cowardice, humbleness and vanity. The composition of nature, both in the overgrown and dying landscapes, the densely consuming and light scattering fog, all serves as some variation of meaning to the journey of Gawain. The folly of man, the seduction of glory, the demise of the world, and so forth. "The Green Knight" has much to say.

Dev Patel is excellent, a career-best performance. The naïve, almost teenage-like arrogance of Gawain plays nicely as the stakes grow closer to the request Gawain must honor, one that displays the character's spinelessness and selfishness. Patel, with his heroic good looks and likable swagger, plays the deeply flawed Gawain impeccably. Add Alicia Vikander in a subtle yet essential role, Joel Edgerton as a harbinger of mortality, and Barry Keoghan as an extended version of Gawain. The cast makes the visionary quest all the more appealing.

"The Green Knight" is complicated yet utterly beautiful cinema. An allegory comes to life with impressive performances and confident direction from David Lowery.

Monte's Rating

4.50 out of 5.00

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Stillwater – Movie Review

Directed by: Tom McCarthy

Written by: Tom McCarthy, Marcus Hinchey, Thomas Bidegain, and Noe Debre

Starring: Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Lilou Siauvaud, and Abigail Breslin

Runtime: 140 minutes

‘Stillwater’ moves to different, surprising, and refreshing beats

Stillwater, Okla. sits 984 feet above sea level in the north-central portion of the state. Looking at a U.S. map, Kansas might be smack dab in the center of the country, but Americans obviously consider the Sooner State as part of the heartland too.

This 50,000-resident city is known for red dirt music, the Tumbleweed Dance Hall, and cheese fries at Eskimo Joe’s, a popular sports bar. It’s the home to Oklahoma State University and the economic, cultural, and football magic that comes with a major college presence in town. Stillwater is also Bill Baker’s (Matt Damon) hometown. He’s in his 40s or 50s and has toiled on oil rigs for most of his adult life.

Not now.

He’s been laid off and works odd, part-time construction jobs. When we first meet Bill, he’s cleaning up debris after a tornado leveled a neighborhood, where family homes now resemble mounds of toothpicks, splintered plaster, and broken dreams. Driving back from the site, two Spanish-speaking co-workers can’t grasp why anyone would rebuild a new home in the same city, in Tornado Alley’s path, after already losing everything. One man says that Americans don’t like change.

Although Bill hasn’t voiced it, change is a four-letter word, and his routines provide comfort. Over the last five years, however, the aforementioned expletive has been a horrible burden. A French court sent his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) – an overseas student - to a Marseille prison for murdering her roommate, and Bill has flown back and forth countless times over the last 1,800 days. Steadfast, she claims her innocence, but no one expects the system to release her from a tiny jail cell until her sentence is up.

Bill feels powerless, helpless, and toothless about Allison’s legal calamity, but also about his repeated flights across the Atlantic and infrequent employment.

This massive life interruption has disrupted just about everything, and now this nomad and his part-time foreign existence are his new normal. Bill, however, disturbs this imperfect reality when he looks for – and finds - a break in Allison’s case, and this uncomfortable American attempts to be a detective in a distant land.

Director Tom McCarthy (“The Visitor” (2007), “Spotlight” (2015)) strips away any distance between Bill and the audience. His camera closely follows his lead all over Marseille in a layered drama that is part-character study, part-crime thriller, part-culture clash, and part-family drama. Folks – including this critic – who love Best Foreign Language Film Oscar-winner “The Secret in Their Eyes” (2009) should appreciate this movie and its construction as well. Both dramas – murder mysteries that also include pivotal scenes in soccer stadiums – defy convention and play with pace and genre, which help unfold the narrative in unexpected ways.

Although McCarthy presents a portion of the film in French, there’s not enough francais to qualify “Stillwater” for a Foreign Language Film Academy Award, but Matt Damon gives an Oscar-worthy turn as Bill.

As out of place as a snowball sitting on a tropical island, Bill emotionally closes himself off from his environment and anyone within speaking distance. He’s polite but brief to the Best Western Marseille front-desk clerks, a prominent lawyer, and a pre-teen girl Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) and her mother Virginie (Camille Cottin), who Bill meets at the said hotel. For him, uttering French - even for the tiniest of acknowledgments - isn’t even a thought. Bill will give customary addresses like, “Thank you,” and “Yes, Ma’am,” but always in English. Although he has visited France dozens of times, he doesn’t bend to the culture. He wears plaid shirts, jeans, an ever-present baseball hat, and carries a backpack too.

In a 2018 Graham Norton interview, Emily Blunt and her husband John Krasinski discuss their trans-Atlantic relationship, and she expresses that he should blend in more while in England.

Blunt says, “I did encourage him that he’d be welcome more if he’d stop wearing a baseball cap because I just said, ‘You look so American! Nobody wears baseball caps here.’”

Bill falls into a similar trap, and at one point, Virginie shares that same sentiment. He’s unapologetic in his look and demeanor, which is idealistic but not terribly strategic when trying to find local sources for his daughter.

If you’re wondering, yes, there’s an obvious Amanda Knox similarity with Allison’s predicament, and Ms. Knox took to Twitter on July 29 and articulated her concern.

“Does my name belong to me? My face? What about my life? My story? Why does my name refer to events I had no hand in? I return to these questions because others continue to profit off my name, face & story without my consent. Most recently, the film #STILLWATER,” Knox said on Twitter.

In a July 28 interview with John Benson for Cleveland.com, McCarthy said, “I just was fascinated with that story from 14 years ago. I knew if I grabbed that piece of information, there was no getting away from it because it’s so historically specific. But there’s no similarity in our two stories beyond an American student in jail.”

He adds, “I was just really interested or fascinated by the human drama there – what would that be like to have your daughter in jail in a foreign place where you weren’t familiar with it?”

Setting this disagreement aside and settling back with the film, Damon is thoroughly compelling as Bill, who travels on a trying, emotional journey. His character is an introvert, one attempting to come to terms with his changing world and slowly reaches out to accept (his) today: his flaws, mistakes, and current environment in Marseille, a bustling coastal multicultural European city with 3 million residents.

Bill needs a lifeline, and Virginie and Maya extend their hands, as their budding friendship will trigger warm smiles and feelings. Our protagonist could use a break. After a lifetime of broken promises and relationships, his rigid exterior starts to crack to allow the good stuff to pour into his soul. Cottin and Siauvaud are perfectly cast as Bill’s allies, his connections toward reflection and healing.

“Stillwater” offers so much to reflect upon, including images of both locales and their impacts on one man, an old soul who doubles as a new traveler.

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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Joe Bell – Movie Review

Directed by: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Written by: Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Reid Miller, Connie Britton, and Gary Sinise

Runtime: 90 minutes

‘Joe Bell’: The messages ring, but the narrative structure doesn’t

“I’ve decided to walk across America.” – Joe Bell (Mark Wahlberg)

In director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “Joe Bell”, Joe - a working-class family man - drops his responsibilities at home and embarks on a trek from La Grande, Ore. to New York City. Jadin (Reid Miller), his eldest son, joins his dad, and this two-person reverse Lewis & Clark journey feels entirely apropos. Joe delivers an anti-bullying message to anyone who will listen, in response to Jadin receiving repeated torments because of his sexual orientation, both at school and online.

Lest anyone think that the United States is in a post-homophobic world in 2021. Sure, the country has come a long way, but the Obergefell v. Hodges U.S. Supreme Court decision – that legalized same-sex marriage – didn’t arrive until 2015, and this film – based on a true story - is set two years prior.

Green’s 90-minute movie includes a triad of themes: Joe’s relationship with his son, Jadin’s clashes with certain classmates, and the Bells’ journey. These are straightforward ideas – and real-life events – that Green and his team can easily translate into a feature film, but “Joe Bell” takes an altogether different narrative approach.

This movie – based on Diane Ossana and Larry McMurtry’s screenplay – goes arthouse all the way and communicates its views through highlights and bursts of the three aforementioned topics. Additionally, Green endorses a non-linear timeline, and the result is a messy concoction of both family and societal strife. Yes, the film successfully communicates the Bells’ story by provoking raw feelings, but the purposely choppy presentation brings unnecessary chaos and misdirection to a movie that doesn’t need them.

Even though Jadin’s struggle is the film’s emotional heartbeat, the movie takes an in-depth look at Joe’s arc, hence the title. Joe, who would feel perfectly comfortable living like Jeremiah Johnson 24/7, generally accepts that his son is gay, but not entirely. He sometimes says the right things to Jadin, like “I love you”, but Joe doesn’t completely acknowledge his son’s reality. Ossana and McMurtry’s script effectively navigates a delicate balancing act, where they don’t paint Joe’s internal churn in broad black or white strokes. They don’t portray Joe as a cartoon character of straight-up rejection or frustration. On the other hand, he’s not wholeheartedly altruistic in his support either, but his viewpoint changes after the harassment at school reaches a breaking point, and his cross-country quest is born.

We see Mr. Bell push a baby carriage with tent equipment and other essentials, and he makes stops to speak on his anti-bullying stance, but Green limits the big-crowd pomp and circumstance and spends more time – it seems – with Joe sitting in the dirt or leaning against a wooden fence and pondering the past. Joe claims that his motivation is for Jadin, but he seems to endorse his penance. His experiences are muddy and grueling as he travels uphill both ways. Rather than celebrate his efforts with masses of supporters, the movie shares his troubled thoughts through occasional one-on-one conversations. Unfortunately, these random meetups aren’t terribly memorable, save one completely absorbing chat with a sheriff (Gary Sinise) that makes you wish that Sinise would star in everything.

The cinematic stars don’t align on this road trip, and the film doesn’t help itself with frequent flashbacks – of Jadin’s school experiences – that interrupt the pace and flow of Joe’s selfless deeds that also double as hopeful redemption. These disruptions are a double whammy because they don’t offer a comprehensive view of Jadin’s world. Instead, we see isolated scenes of a potential romance, taunts in the boys’ locker room, a game day cheerleading attempt, and a few other glimpses.

Still, Miller and Wahlberg give convincing performances, and they offer a couple of moments that will linger long after the credits roll. Jadin and Joe’s story is a consequential one, and the film’s messages ring, but the narrative structure does not.

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

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Old - Movie Review

Dir: M. Night Shyamalan

Starring: Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abbey Lee, and Eliza Scanlen

1h 48m

It was 1999 when director M. Night Shyamalan directed one of the great horror films, "The Sixth Sense," a film that changed the landscape of genre filmmaking moving into the new millennium. Fast-forward 22 years later, and the director is still composing his brand of a scary movie with old school "Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits" vibes with the newest entry "Old." 

In "Old," a group of vacationers looking for a relaxing day at a beach encounter a strange anomaly that rapidly ages them. Making thirty minutes resemble about a year of life. The Shyamalan story, borrowed from the 2010 graphic novel "Sandcastle" by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters, preys on the fears associated with time and the questions that arise when life disappears in the blink of an eye. 

Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) are on vacation at a remote paradise island with their two kids Trent (Nolan River) and Maddox (Alexa Swinton). The beautiful resort, which greets its guests at the door with a fancy drink and offers lodging in glass-walled rooms, feels too good to be true. Guy and Prisca struggle with their relationship and use this getaway to escape the reality of their situation, one that feels already finalized once they return home. An invitation to visit a remote beach feels like the perfect adventure for Guy, Prisca, and their kids. However, once on the secluded sandy piece of paradise, strange events begin to happen. Trent and Maddox begin to outgrow their swimsuits, the adults develop wrinkles on their faces, and a dead body rapidly decomposes. The group realizes the beach is making them to age rapidly, causing them to desperately search for a way off the coast before their time runs out. 

"Old" is equal parts silly and thought-provoking. Shyamalan, who has always had a knack for turning a "Twilight Zone" episode into something bigger, writes a film that wants to talk about the deeper existential complexities of the aging process but instead remains a surface-level body horror thriller. 

Now, don't get me wrong, there is still fun with the sensations and spectacle introduced every few minutes in "Old." Watching young Trent (played older by Alex Wolff) and Maddox (played older by Thomasin McKenzie) age into teenagers with a new understanding of emotions is amusing. Seeing a cardiothoracic surgeon, played with glee by Rufus Sewell, mumble about forgetting which movie Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson starred in while also performing a gory beach surgery will make you smile and squirm. During the visceral moments, the director's restraint does a great job of allowing the viewer to connect the dots independently, which is often far scarier than seeing the event. At times the camera will circle like a ticking clock or sway back and forth like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. These technical pieces assist in adding tension.

Shyamalan understands how to evoke the big emotions in "Old" but misses the smaller, more interesting pieces that ultimately get left behind or interrupted for the big scare or twist. But in small moments, Shyamalan taps into the fear and trauma of the aging process with clever insights during unexpected scenes. One is when Maddox, who has aged into the caretaker role for her sibling and parents, walks into the ocean waves reciting positive affirmations to help her understand the situation she is tasked. This moment connects to the inevitable role some adults will take with elderly parents and children. Another is when Guy begins to have vision issues, and Prisca starts losing her hearing, the moment plays with subtlety. Both characters refuse to acknowledge the problem; instead, they hide it and modify their physical positions to fit their new health concerns. Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps are excellent in these smaller moments. 

"Old" spends most of its nearly 2-hour runtime indulging in its horror and thriller genre characteristics. While these moments are amusing within the film's premise, Shyamalan never unites these pieces to the ultimate horror of time being taken from someone. The memories, the feelings, the experiences, the whole reason why these people are desperate to escape the beach, are pushed into small scenes that rarely spend enough time to connect the sentiments to the situation. While "Old" sets up an engaging premise with amusing character turns, the final result will fade from memory faster than time passes on this beach. 

Monte's Rating

2.25 out of 5.00

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Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain – Movie Review

Directed by: Morgan Neville

Starring: Anthony Bourdain, Ottavia Bourdain, David Chang, Lydia Tenaglia, Christopher Collins, Tom Vitale, and David Choe

Runtime: 118 minutes

‘Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain’ travels on several personal roads

“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.” – Anthony Bourdain

“In America, the professional kitchen is the last refuge of the misfit. It’s a place for people with bad pasts to find a new family.” – Anthony Bourdain

Anthony, a chef at Les Halles, shared a kinship with this restaurant, but in 2000, he found a bigger family, the world, through a tell-all book. He wrote a New York Times Best Seller, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly”, found a spot on Oprah’s couch, and hosted a 35-episode television show, “Anthony Bourdain’s a Cook’s Tour” (2002 – 2003).

The rest is history. Two other massively successful TV series, eight Primetime Emmy wins, worldwide fame, and look, once you play yourself on “The Simpsons” (1989 – Present), you’ve made it.

For millions and millions of devoted fans, they tuned in to 223 combined episodes of “No Reservations” (2005 – 2012) and “Parts Unknown” (2013 – 2018) to observe Bourdain’s travels around the globe and delicious meals that he relished. Still, most importantly, they wanted to watch him. This charismatic, outspoken New York City native had that intangible It-factor that magnetic stars possess. Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville – who made documentaries about Sidney Poitier, Brian Wilson, Johnny Cash, Keith Richards, and Fred Rogers – serves up one about the aforementioned big-personality, small-screen star in “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”.

In a July 12, 2021 Uproxx.com interview with Vince Mancini, Neville explains a key reason for moving forward with this doc.

“I’ve been making documentaries for almost 30 years, and I’ve made films about how culture connects us. I felt like Tony was like a fellow traveler. He was kind of a documentary filmmaker himself. I felt like I was starting at a place where I had some baseline understanding of the type of guy he was,” Neville says.

Since Bourdain spent countless hours on television and has been quoted in so reams of print and online stories, how do you sum up the man’s viewpoints in a 118-minute film?

In a July 15, 2021 ComingSoon.net interview with Tyler Treese, Neville describes the utterly enormous undertaking to collect all kinds of Bourdain data points to then distill the best, most vital moments for the film.

“I went through every article, book on tape, voiceover session, podcast, and I pulled out all the lines of anything that I thought were interesting things he said. And then I put together a binder of like 500 pages of things he said, and I organized them by subject,” Neville says.

Yes, several friends and colleagues speak about Anthony in “Roadrunner”, but when watching the documentary, it’s remarkable how often Bourdain narrates his film with a seemingly never-ending catalog of clips and voiceovers.

It’s by design.

“In a way, I thought about it like William Holden in ‘Sunset Boulevard’, that he’d be narrating it from beyond the grave. And I think Tony would have liked that, too,” Neville says in the same ComingSoon.net interview.

Compacting staggering sums of video and audio into two hours is one thing, but tonally, how do you make a Bourdain film when he suffered such a tragic end? He hung himself in Kaysersberg, France, on June 8, 2018, at 61.

This critic – who, admittedly, hasn’t watched a Bourdain television program – did not view this movie with a sense of doom. Most fans will view it differently, but the first 70 minutes primarily celebrates his meteoric rise to stardom as the picture arranges scores and scores of Bourdain clips, outtakes, and confessionals. The dizzying montage paints him as an ambitious, compelling free-spirit who finds himself standing in a muddled abyss but staring and stepping into a wave of colossal success.

Bourdain’s long-time producer Lydia Tenaglia says that before his television experience, he never traveled. In his mind, he did, but now, does “the reality match the imagination.”

During those very early TV days, it feels like Tony was the fastest drag racer in three rural Midwest counties, and suddenly, NASCAR plucks him out from Healy, Kan., and throws him in The Daytona 500 on Day 1. Meanwhile, Anthony circles the track and yells to his pit crew, “Do I just push the pedal to the metal?”

He moves at 190 mph (sort of) all over Vietnam and Japan and attempts to stay on his path, or better yet, find one. He does and eventually paves the way for Lydia and her husband/co-producer Christopher Collins.

Bourdain opines, “One minute, I was standing next to a deep fryer, and the next, I was watching the sunset over the Sahara. What am I doing here?”

Neville gives glimpses of Bourdain’s self-destructive inclinations during the movie’s first half, but this portion of “Roadrunner” is generally upbeat. He fills the hour-plus with the Anthony that fans probably know with additional slabs of his foundation via personal reveals from Bourdain and those who knew him best, including his ex-wife, Ottavia Bourdain.

The film alludes to Tony’s occasional wrath, but we don’t see it on-camera. That’s missing. Otherwise, his story seems complete, with primarily festive highs rising to a peak, and then the film’s second half follows his descent to the movie’s conclusion. Past addictions, depression, and a couple of specific life events seem to fuel his heartbreaking plunge, and the on-screen discourse is honest, raw, and emotional. Perhaps the film’s most difficult moment is – ironically - when his toddler-aged daughter, Ariane, plays on a swing, or when Bourdain voices self-harm, a spooky foreshadowing. It’s hard to say, but there’s no doubt that Bourdain’s exit from this world left a considerable void for so many. For those who knew him personally or only from TV, closure may never come, but this documentary will offer insight into his emotional travels.

This doc offers takeaways from Anthony’s missteps (including absence doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder) and his ultimate demise. Still, “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” presents just about all sides of him, a self-proclaimed misfit who opened himself up to everyone, and the world hugged him back.

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

Black Widow - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Dir: Cate Shortland

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, Ray Winstone, and O.T. Fagbenle

2 hr 13 min

In the Marvel Universe, we've seen a teenage web-slinger, an ancient god with a mythic hammer, a millionaire with a technologically advanced suit of armor, and a super-soldier whose strength and speed are beyond any other human. Finding a normal human amidst these superhumans is always interesting, especially one that can hold its own without gamma-ray modification, radioactive spider bite powers, or advanced machinery.

Natasha Romanoff, alternatively known as Black Widow, is a talented spy and deadly assassin. She was trained from childhood in a top-secret Russian training program known as the "Red Room," a program that takes young women and turns them into elite assassins known as "Black Widows." She eventually abandoned the group and joined The Avengers. Natasha is one of those humans who stands toe-to-toe with superheroes, often using her cunning intelligence and lethal hand-to-hand combat skills to match the super abilities of her counterparts.

Natasha's story within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a sad one. Often her character was relegated to simplistic supportive roles where she was primarily used as a feminine object. The lone female in a group of men would show up to save one of the other characters with her spy skills, calm the Hulk with a lullaby, or fly the Avengers plane from one adventure to another. This all led to her ultimate sacrifice in 2018's "Avengers: Endgame," a moment for the character that could have been monumental for her complete story but ultimately felt tone-deaf within the story.

"Black Widow," directed by Cate Shortland, provides the back story for Natasha. It explores her childhood within a deep operative spy family living in America, the dark roots of her training program with the Red Room, and minor character pieces that provide context for her role as an Avenger. The introduction is interesting and exciting, but the push to stay within the formula crafted by the Marvel Cinematic Universe eventually overshadows the exciting parts that begin this story.

The film begins with a young Natasha (Ever Anderson) living in a small town. Her mother (Rachel Weisz) sets the table for dinner with her younger sister Yelena (Violet McGraw). Natasha's father (David Harbour) returns from work; he looks distracted upon arrival and then nervous once a mysterious phone call disrupts dinner. The family immediately abandons their home, driving aggressively through their quaint town while streets close around them with the sight of flashing lights. Quickly, they are followed by people shooting guns and narrowly escape. Natasha's family is revealed as a Russian spy operation, immediately after running this mission, the family is separated, and Natasha and her sister are sent away.

In these initial moments, "Black Widow" interestingly establishes its story, showing a group of trained spies trying to detach from the emotions that compose a family. The kids do a great job of interacting with the adults in these early scenes. Their emotion for the family is felt deeply, while the adults have grown to view these interactions, and this family, as a mission.

"Black Widow" transitions into adulthood for Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), now an Avenger and international superstar of sorts, and Yelena (Florence Pugh), now with a mind-controlling group of assassins. Scarlett Johansson has played this role many times. Yet, provided with her own singular story aside from the supporting role provided in other films, Johansson shines throughout this film. Add Florence Pugh, who is excellent in everything she does, and the chemistry between the two assassins is humorous and heartfelt. Pugh wholly owns the role of Yelena; whether mocking her sister's combat moves or taking control of her emotions during a family dinner, she is a great addition.

"Black Widow" works great until it feels the need to push the Marvel formulaic measures into the forefront. Once the dynamic family story ends and the human element for these characters turns into a story about global control using mind-altered assassins under the management of a bad guy named Dreykov (Ray Winstone), who ultimately doesn't work for the story, the film crumbles apart. And when the story falls out of the sky in a blaze of flames, the abandoned potential to make a compelling story for this overlooked Marvel character turns to ashes.

The cast and a few of the early action scenes, which stay in the realm of spy film espionage action, provide "Black Widow" with enough entertainment to keep things interesting. Still, it's hard not to imagine something better for Marvel's Black Widow.

Monte's Rating

2.50 out of 5.00

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Black Widow – Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Directed by: Cate Shortland

Written by: Eric Pearson

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz, David Harbour, and Ray Winstone

Runtime: 133 minutes

‘Black Widow’: This MCU cloak-and-dagger story somewhat satisfies

Budapest.

Hungary’s capital city is also the country’s largest, with 3 million people living in the greater metropolitan area. Budapest is known for old-world architecture and a slew of museums, theatres, and operas. If you’re hungry, a mean goulash or chicken paprikash could satisfy, or an easy, breezy boat ride along the Danube River might soothe the soul.

Well, Marvel fans – including this critic – have wondered about some specific events in the Queen of the Danube - involving Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) for years. Black Widow (Johansson) and Hawkeye (Renner) briefly mentioned Budapest during their New York City battle with the Chitauri in “The Avengers” (2012) and, more recently, just before Natasha died in “Avengers: Endgame” (2019).

As they fly to Vormir, Clint smiles while enjoying the space travel and remarks, “It’s a long way from Budapest.”

Well, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen Natasha (two years), but she’s back in a full-length feature film. No, Marvel Studios isn’t resurrecting the dead nor parading a Black Widow from an alternate universe. For the record, that multiverse stuff is so well-played in the “Loki” (2021) Disney+ series, but in “Black Widow” (2021), our femme fatale travels back to Europe after “Captain America: Civil War” (2016). She catches up with some former colleagues and faces off against an old enemy. Both parties are from another life before she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers.

Director Cate Shortland and screenwriter Eric Pearson also reveal the happenings in Budapest….and Ohio.

Ohio?

Yes, Natasha’s on-screen journey begins somewhere in The Buckeye State, a comforting place with Friday night football games, kids riding bikes sans organized, parental-planned playdates, and warm family dinners that arrive at the kitchen table every night at six.

After recently enduring “F9: The Fast Saga” (2021), I can report that “Black Widow” offers more satisfying emotional beats and heart-pounding thrills in its first 10 minutes than the latest Dominic Toretto flick does during its entire 143-minute runtime. With all the talk about family in “F9”, we feel a closer one here or the presumption of one. Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh and Violet McGraw) are the dearest forms of kin that Natasha knows.

Not only is Shortland filming a post “Civil War” adventure and Budapest reveals, but also an origin narrative, so she and Pearson pack a ton of story into one film.

After a spectacular opening, Ms. Romanoff searches for a dénouement or an escape from the Sokovia Accords, as its enforcer Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) looks to mark her with his brand of justice.

Well, Norway seems a pleasant reprieve, especially during the summertime. Although someone interrupts her moment of peace faster than you can say, “Villains are everywhere.”

An armored Skeletor-looking baddie confronts her and seeks a package of vials with glowing red liquid that packs more wallop than Texas hot sauce in July. This crimson concoction could crash the Black Widow program, a Russian quasi-military array of female assassins, one that Natasha knows all too well.

So, she aims to confront its ringleader, Gen. Dreykov (Ray Winstone), and dismantle his sinister militia. Ms. Romanoff catches up with her sister from another mother Yelena (Pugh), and they recruit Melina and Alexei. Pugh, Weisz, and Harbour are perfectly cast, but Florence gets the most screen time since Yelena and Natasha are close in age, and these two loners are better as a dynamic duo. Natasha paired up with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), and this film has a similar vibe, including Taskmaster, the mysterious masked villain (chasing after the radiant red stuff) who is this story’s Winter Soldier.

Europe is the setting for this cloak-and-dagger flick, where fists, flips, kicks, and kabooms do the talking, and car chases sometimes spill onto subway platforms.

The danger is everywhere, and as our heroes keeping driving forward through gunfire and explosions, the stakes are dramatically raised, figuratively and literally. The film, however, works best in smaller, intimate quarters, especially when Natasha confronts her past that includes Yelena, as these pseudo-sisters sometimes act as frenemies. Pugh and Johansson have strong on-screen chemistry, especially when Yelena challenges her older sibling. She feels that Natasha abandoned her to hang with a superhero tribe. In turn, Natasha pushes back while also extending branches with at least an olive or two.

Both women have mastered brawling and accurately firing bullets, which they sometimes target at each other. The ladies are peers or pretty darn close to it for all intents and purposes and don’t share unequal Electra Woman and Dyna Girl dynamics. The point is that Ms. Romanoff is deceased in MCU present-day (or 2023), and Yelena looks to be the heir apparent in future MCU adventures.

Yelena will have to lose the Russian accent because Natasha shed hers for General American English, which is puzzling, especially when her mom, dad, and little sis are around.

How long does it take to lose an accent anyway?

Well, Natasha lost track of her old clan for years and years, so the movie aims to reform those emotional ties while the formidable foursome faces Dreykov and his Black Widows. The antagonists are offshoots of similar mercenaries that we’ve recently seen on the big screen, including “Red Sparrow” (2018) and “Anna” (2019), except on steroids. Not actual steroids, but Dreykov has amassed more cash and technology than Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk put together, so let your imagination run with that.

Bigger doesn’t always mean better, as the third act – like the aforementioned “F9” - ignores physics laws and also the frailty of flesh and blood against detonations, thousands of bullets, and flying steel shards ever-present in every conceivable direction. Look, Natasha, Yelena, and Melina are not souped-up super-soldiers, but – at times - the film sort of pretends that they are. Either that or they are Harry Houdini disciples in secret.

Alexei actually is a super-soldier - the Red Guardian, a Soviet/Russian version of Captain America - but Shortland doesn’t explore his abilities nearly enough. The same goes for developing Taskmaster’s character and explaining the Black Widow program’s reach, but then again, the film’s 133-minute runtime could’ve used another hour to address all the moving parts. Shortland and her assistant directors and editors had the unenviable tasks of cutting from somewhere.

Still, the film looks tip-top, delivers hold-your-breath thrills, and gives a goodbye salute to Natasha Romanoff after her shocking and affecting demise two years ago. Loki suffered a similar fate in “Endgame”, but he (or a Loki variant) landed on a whole series that was greenlit for a second season. Ah well, at least we get the lowdown on Budapest, albeit without a hearty bowl of goulash. So, the movie somewhat satisfies.

Jeff’s ranking

2.5/4 stars

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Directed by: Questlove

Featuring: Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, B.B. King, The Fifth Dimension, and Stevie Wonder

Runtime: 112 minutes

'Summer of Soul': Celebrate a 20th-century landmark event with this 21st-century cinematic treasure

The Summer of 1969.

What’s the first image that comes to mind? The Apollo 11 Moon landing or Woodstock (or the Woodstock Rock Festival) might be #1 for most Americans.

For the Gen X crowd, Bryan Adams’ 1985 single “Summer of ‘69” could round out the Top 3.

After watching director Questlove’s enormously entertaining and informative documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” – the best film I’ve seen this year and the best doc since “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012), my #1 film of 2012 - move over Bryan Adams. The Harlem Cultural Festival – held from June 29 to Aug. 24, 1969, in Mount Morris Park - joins the famed NASA space mission and that other music party, about 100 miles away on a Bethel, N.Y. farm.

If you haven’t heard of the Harlem Cultural Festival, you are not alone. Although 300,000 people – primarily Black audiences - attended the free New York City celebration of jazz, blues, Motown, gospel, and more, this was 52 years ago. Promoter Tony Lawrence worked with the NYC government, skilled camera crews, and countless other moving parts, but no takers bought or licensed the rights for the video of about two dozen (or more) musical acts that performed over six joyful Sundays during June, July, and Aug.

The documentary states, “After that summer, the footage sat in a basement for 50 years. It has never been seen. Until now.”

Questlove – one of the founding members of The Roots – had to decide which groups, singers, and songs would make the cut into his documentary. He faced a similar puzzle as the “Woodstock” (1970) doc team, which included assistant director/editor Martin Scorsese.

“Summer of Soul” has a 112-minute runtime, and during a Feb. 3, 2021 IndieWire interview, Questlove said that 45 hours of festival film footage existed, so do the math. Wow, and during the same conversation, he explains his process.

“I probably had to do six or seven rounds of just sitting through all that footage, and either directly watching it or studying it, or just having it on in the background, and something catches my attention,” Questlove says.

He adds, “I wanted to take note of what just gave me goosebumps.”

The man’s goosebumps-sense is on-point. He finds and picks an abundance of flat-out dazzling performances from The Fifth Dimension, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, Sly and the Family Stone, and more, including a mesmerizing 19-year-old Stevie Wonder donning a stylish brown suit with a mustard ruffles shirt flaring from underneath his jacket collars.

(On a personal note, my favorite moments are from The Fifth Dimension and Sly and the Family Stone, but I won’t give away the specific songs in this review.)

The film offers seemingly countless pulse-pounding and captivating on-stage recordings, but Questlove lets the video run for entire songs, rather than only offering small, 30-second clips here and there. We are treated to the 3-to-5-minute classic tracks from start to finish. Frequently with any live performance, singers and their bands give us a little extra, which our filmmaker and the fans in attendance proudly embrace.

Dorinda Drake was 19 at the time, and she remembers walking with her three best friends to the park because it was only 10 blocks away.

“It was exciting. We hadn’t had anything like that in Harlem that I can recall,” Drake says.

Musa Jackson was just a kid in 1969.

“I remember being with my family walking around the park, and as far as I could see, it was just Black people. This was the first time I’d ever seen so many of us. It was incredible,” Jackson says.

“Beautiful, beautiful women, beautiful men. It was like seeing royalty, ” he adds.

Royalty saw the fans and Musa too. Gladys Knight & the Pips sang on July 20 (the same day as the aforementioned Apollo landing), and she couldn’t get over the vast numbers to watch her perform.

“When I stepped on stage, I was totally, totally taken aback because I didn’t expect a crowd like that,” Knight gushes.

In between songs and sometimes during them, Questlove finds stars like Knight and Lin-Manuel Miranda to opine about the festival’s magnitude, but he also weaves political and socio-economic issues of the time. The 1960s saw the assassinations of JFK, RFK, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. Heroin addictions reached epidemic levels in American cities, and young men were fighting and dying in Vietnam.

The country was on fire, but the film – through Questlove and his editors like Joshua L. Pearson – shows how music is a release for the men and women on stage and in the audience.

“Summer of Soul” is a beautiful, eye-opening movie that reaches out into culture, spiritual beliefs, politics, race relations, and more, and they are all connected to the music.

It’s a yesterdecade time warp into a wondrous collection of shows – with striking fashion choices and theatric movements - that should’ve been given pop culture references over the last 50 years. Most regrettably, they haven’t, and generations have passed without sharing collective, public discourse. Well, everyone can now celebrate the Harlem Cultural Festival, a 20th-century landmark event, with this 21st-century cinematic treasure.

Jeff’s ranking

4/4 stars

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Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Dir: Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Featuring: Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, B.B. King, The Fifth Dimension, and Stevie Wonder

Runtime: 112 minutes

For music fans, it's been a long time since we've been to a concert, yet we will never forget the feelings associated with enjoying live music with a group of people. It's an exhilarating, emotional, and enlightening experience watching your favorite band perform your favorite song right in front of you. It doesn't need to be a band you are familiar with to understand how universal and interconnected music can be for people.

Director Ahmir Thompson - better known as Questlove, the drummer for the hip-hop collective The Roots – takes us to a concert, a six-week summer music festival in 1969 known as the Harlem Cultural Festival. Bringing together 300,000 people, primarily Black locals from and near Harlem, the concert hosted some of the era's biggest acts. Musicians like Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, Glady's Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, Ray Barretto, and The Staple Singers all participated. In 1969, in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, this gathering was a significant cultural event during a turbulent and violent time for people of color in America.

The film begins with an introduction to a young Stevie Wonder, finding the artist right before the hits, awards, and accolades that will change how the world knows the artist now. He plays the piano and then moves to the drums, captivating the audience and the viewer with a brilliant freestyle. It's a beautiful introduction and one that I had never seen before this film.

How is it possible that this fantastic concert moment from a musical icon has never been seen? Because the concert footage sat in someone's basement for more than 50 years, never arranged for a music festival or fine-tuned for a movie theater release. At the same time that the Harlem Cultural Festival was happening, Woodstock was occurring upstate. When the time came to take all the footage, shot from start to finish by Hal Tulchin, from the Harlem Cultural Festival and turn it into something for the rest of the world to see, potential buyers found no interest in the "Black Woodstock."

Questlove, with editor Joshua L. Pearson, lovingly compose a documentary that is as much a concert movie as it is a journey through a critical time in history for Black America. The music played explores both diversity and unification, while the concert event displays a new movement in culture, politics, and pride. The term "negro” would be replaced and proudly spoken as "Black," gospel, jazz, and blues music would morph into Motown, and the recognized struggle for Black people would become worldwide. The interlacing of civil rights violence footage, speeches from political activists, and interviews with concert attendees, all of them thankful for the film bringing back a forgotten memory, are impeccably arranged.

The musical moments are the icing on the cake. Fun moments like Sly and the Family Stone introducing funk and rock and Ray Barretto making the crowd dance with his bongo-playing. Emotional moments, like the passing of the torch between Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples singing Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite song, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand." The jaw-dropping moment with Nina "The High Priestess of Soul" Simone singing "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black." It's beautiful.

Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is simply one of the best music documentaries ever made.

Monte's Rating

5.00 out of 5.00

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The Forever Purge - Movie Review

Dir: Everardo Gout

Starring: Ana de la Reguera, Josh Lucas, Tenoch Huerta, Leven Rambin, and Will Patton

1 hr 43 min

The absolute horror of director Everardo Gout and franchise writer James DeMonaco's film "The Forever Purge" is that their depictions of a dystopian America feel far too similar to the emotions felt during the past year and a half. The hypothetical element of imagining America in a state of despair, where the government has implemented a day-long, authority-free, crime wave to dispel the aggressions that people hold inside them all year, is the worst-case scenario with "The Purge" films.

It's the purpose for every one of these films, "The Forever Purge" is the fifth in the franchise, to incorporate elements found in the current state of the world. Whether the compromised sense of order, the political discontent, the electoral process, or the case with "The Forever Purge," the racism found in America. Its edgy surface-level analysis of the topics doesn't lend much to the conversation of these issues as a whole. However, they do find effectiveness when combined into a film with a slant towards the horror genre.

Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and her husband Juan (Tenoch Huerta) are new immigrants in a small Texas town where Juan is a ranch hand for the wealthy Tucker family. Juan is a skilled worker; while calming a wide stallion, he impresses the owner of the ranch Caleb (Will Patton), but that fuels the jealousy of Caleb's son, Dylan (Josh Lucas). A masked gang of killers attacks the Tucker family on the morning after The Purge, breaking the government's time restrictions for this event. Adela and Juan join forces with the Tucker family to fight back and make it to the haven of the Mexico border as the country spirals into chaos.

Mask wearing, weapon brandishing, bad guys stalk the streets in The Purge films. The stalker cinema tactics are on full display in all these films; jump scares, graphic scenes of violence, and a general push towards showing the demented nature of people who live without boundaries. "The Forever Purge" taps into these elements initially but soon venture into something more akin to "Red Dawn," as the Purge turns into a full-scale overthrow of the United States.

The narrative tries for some insight and social commentary surrounding racism and the state of the world regarding civil rights and freedoms for immigrants. Still, most of these moments are undercut by big shootouts and bad guys with masks jumping into the frame to introduce the scare tactics. The racism and discrimination presented within the Tucker Family towards Adela and Juan, specifically Josh Lucas' character Dylan, is easily excused when the worst racists enjoying the Purge come knocking on the door.

"The Forever Purge" tries to tap into the feelings current in the world; there are a few moments where the horror is genuine and scary with themes of racism and injustice. Unfortunately, these moments feel pushed to the side for simple thrills and explosions.

Monte's Rating

2.50 out of 5.00

Zola – Movie Review

Directed by: Janicza Bravo

Written by: Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris

Starring: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Colman Domingo, and Nicholas Braun

Runtime: 90 minutes

‘Zola’ runs 90 minutes, which is too long to be stuck in this on-screen weekend

“You want to hear a story about how me and this bitch fell out? It’s kind of long, but it’s full of suspense.” – Zola (Taylour Paige)

This cinematic tale – “Zola”, directed by Janicza Bravo - is based on a real-life 2015 Twitter post by A’Ziah “Zola” Wells, but this wasn’t an ordinary mention about her birthday, an adorable pet video, or a delicious meal photo. This 20-year-old delivered a mindboggling-long social media post that totaled 148 connected Tweets, and it detailed her dubious weekend with a brand-new friend, Stefani.

(A’Ziah’s viral, stormy yarn rocked the social media world and even inspired a November 2015 “Rolling Stone” feature by David Kushner. Still, this movie was my first introduction into the misadventure, but hey, I possess the pop culture knowledge of a gnat that was born yesterday.)

As noted in the aforementioned quote, Zola and Stefani (Riley Keough) weren’t pals for terribly long, and with good reason. Have you ever made a friend, especially during your youth, but quickly realized that reality tripped your leap of faith with this individual?

“You aren’t who I thought you were,” might cross your mind with the urgency of a police car siren blaring while you and your car careen off a cliff.

No question, I’ve made some terrible choices with faulty reads on supposed positive first impressions, but - thankfully – our individual Spidey Senses and aptitudes to internalize “Danger, Will Robinson” improve with age.

For Zola – a waitress - warning lights and alarms didn’t immediately go off when Stefani sat in her section and desperately wished to be her instant buddy. Within 24 hours, however, Stefani – a stripper – convinces Zola to travel to Florida for a lucrative weekend of performing at a hot club to make five thousand dollars a night…each! Zola, an exotic dancer herself, did question this abrupt invitation, but hey, Stefani seems okay, and the potential to score 10 grand for a two nights work can shove away a warning bell or two…or three.

So, our protagonist faces a 26-hour road trip to Tampa with Stef, her new BFF’s wimpy, whiny boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun), and a tough guy who haphazardly barks orders (Colman Domingo).

What could go wrong?

Well, screenwriter Jeremy O. Harris and Bravo – who also co-penned the script - lead us down a 90-minute bait-and-switch and into a seedy, misguided trek. Zola becomes an unsuspecting victim, and she’s led by an idiot-triad who then meets even more imbeciles during their brief stay in The Sunshine State. The said party’s collective incompetence is as ever-present as Florida’s humidity. Bravo and Harris also promote peril and emotional claustrophobia because - as an audience – we feel as trapped as Zola due to her lack of immediate options while away from home.

On second thought, we feel stuck. At least, I did. Stuck and frustrated in acidic, shady, inept happenings for an hour and a half, and outside of Zola, no other characters show any redeeming traits.

Zero, zip, and zilch.

Stefani’s unnamed “friend” (Domingo) routinely schemes and bullies. Sure, Stefani claims that he “takes care of (her),” but that’s code for something else entirely. Stefani manipulates Zola from start to finish, and Derrek’s sad-sack routine gets old after two minutes, although he does wish that his girlfriend’s exploits would end before they begin, albeit for jealous reasons rather than an altruistic stance. In fact, Derrek might be the most ineffectual 6’ 7” character in recent movie history.

With a road trip full of trite banter, an aging, smelly hotel, and even a stop in a restroom, where an overhead shot of the women using the toilet shows clear displays of their fluids in the bowls, Bravo makes us uncomfortable and sets a mood.

But, the tones don’t quite add up. The movie feels like it should be a comedy and satirical take on Zola’s unfortunate couple of days. There’s a buffoonery of it all, but then again, I only uttered a couple of laughs, but a Florida dancer’s prayer to bring in customers is pretty darn funny. As a drama, it, perhaps, hopes to be a miserable horror show, as Bravo holds up a mirror to 21st-century American society, and we don’t like what we see.

Her debut feature, “Lemon” (2017), has similar effects, as Brett Gelman plays Isaac, the creepiest weirdo this side of the “Office Space” Stapler Guy, and he accidentally drops his phone in an actively used toilet bowl as his on-screen crescendo. Hey, following that guy’s 83 minutes of misfortune was a painful trip to the movies, but it was all by design. At least in “Zola”, the ladies’ bonding in the loo didn’t end in an iPhone disaster.

“Zola” isn’t a disaster. It’s edgy and uncompromising. Bravo has a visionary perspective in capturing backward thinking, and Paige and Keough give convincing, brave performances. The film’s repeated on-screen undertakings leave a mark, although – like “Lemon” – this is a film that you might not wish to revisit. I don’t.

Think of a bad dream, a slip and fall on the ice, or a wrong turn into an abandoned, rusted-out manufacturing plant. They are all unpleasant bothers, but we wake up, stand up, or turn around. We move on. Sure, “Zola” leaves an impression, but one of inconvenience, and hopefully, it doesn’t last.

The movie doesn’t have a grand message like other troubling features, like “The Florida Project” (2017), an open, visceral drama about the working poor. Yes, Bravo’s film does cause some anxiety, but nowhere near the torturous, suffocating thriller “Uncut Gems” (2019), where heroes are few and far between as well.

No, this is a no-frills movie about a pitiful, painful weekend, and indeed, we’ve all had lousy ones, granted, not as dicey as Zola’s. Then again, she said that this account “is kind of long, but it’s full of suspense.”

The film runs 90 minutes, which is too long to be so stuck.

Jeff’s ranking

1.5/4 stars

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I Carry You with Me – Movie Review

Directed by: Heidi Ewing

Written by: Heidi Ewing and Alan Page

Starring: Armando Espitia and Christian Vazquez

Runtime: 106 minutes

‘I Carry You with Me’ thoughtfully and uniquely conveys a personal immigrant story

“I had that dream again. I have it all the time. It’s so real. I’m in Mexico, my home. I’ve returned.” – Ivan

For Ivan, traveling back to Mexico can only be a far-out wish that will never – foreseeably – come to fruition. It’s present-day, and this 40-something is riding the New York City subway, staring out a window, and thinking about his journey that brought him to The Big Apple.

Director/co-writer Heidi Ewing immerses her beautifully crafted and acted “I Carry You with Me” with hopes and emotional and physical treks, but she constructs a couple of daunting borders too.

Born and raised in Mexico, Ivan illegally crossed into the U.S., so the literal hurdle between the neighboring countries is an obvious and – to this day - persistent one. However, our lead also faced another roadblock during his youth. While growing up in Mexico City and nearby Puebla, he coped with the social stigma of being gay.

Most of this movie’s 106-minute runtime resides in flashbacks. Sometimes, short stanzas emerge from nowhere, but (mostly) we experience long stretches in the 1990s, and specifically 1994.

As a 20-something, Ivan (Armando Espitia) struggles to find a fruitful career and preserve a relationship with his young son Ricky (Paco Luna), who lives with his mom. Right away, Ewing and Espitia effectively capture Ivan’s economic and professional contentions. Ivan’s a trained chef but currently earns a pittance by washing dishes while figuratively standing in a lengthy, invisible queue for a cooking job that will take years to materialize. He’s strapped for cash between child support and rent, but his friend Sandra (Michelle Rodriguez) is impressed with his place, one that he claims is a sardine can.

Sandra remarks that it’s a smelly shoebox, so sure, that’s a compliment.

He’s frustrated and going nowhere in his career, and this visionary believes that the U.S. is his salvation. To complicate his immediate reality, he meets Gerardo (Christian Vazquez), a university teaching assistant, and they quickly form a relationship. However, Ivan attempts to keep their love affair a secret for fear that his ex will no longer allow him to see their son.

From the film’s opening few minutes, we realize that Ivan made it to the U.S.A., but did he reach his goals? Did Gerardo follow him?

Ewing answers these questions, but she occasionally drills further into the past to Ivan’s childhood and features key milestones that formed and hardened into his adult years. These brief histories dampen and even threaten Ivan’s spirits, as his sexuality is ridiculed, stigmatized, and punished. Such parental practices are outside the bounds in 2021, but in the 1980s – generally speaking - fathers simply accepting their sons wearing makeup and dresses seems as unlikely as the same dads embracing aliens landing in their backyards and inviting them inside for coffee.

These scenes are particularly effective, and score production supervisor Matt Nelson and music supervisor Hector Vazquez frequently accompany the images with a lovely, moving new-age score that helps raise emotions during moments of persecution but also during acceptance, grace, and adoration. At times, the film is straight-up pragmatism, but during others, it’s laced with enchantment, a deeply thoughtful spell. “I Carry You with Me” conveys a Terrence Malick vibe where ideas and storytelling are voiced with music and everyday visuals rather than discourse. Granted, Ewing doesn’t transform her script into a three-hour, avant-garde presentation, but this movie bestows Ivan’s recollections, and she captures this vision by using several creative choices in her cinematic arsenal.

Heidi is a documentarian by trade, and this is her first feature, so it’s apropos that real-life events inspired this narrative. Ivan is her friend. Yes, she learned his story and began filming a documentary about him, but her focus changed.

During a Feb. 1, 2021 Film Independent interview with Zachary Quinto, Ewing explains, “I realized pretty soon that I was filming the third act of a movie. This story deserved an epic narrative treatment that only a scripted film can accomplish.”

She included some of the documentary footage in “I Carry You with Me”, so Ivan, the actual person, appears in his feature film, a movie about crossroad choices, tradeoffs, chasing one’s passion, and finding – and attempting to hold on to – love. These are universal themes that many of us actively confront, and in a perfect world, we should all discover our nirvana, wholly and without compromises or impediments. Then again, in 1994, 2021, and every year in between, maybe we’re just fooling ourselves. Perhaps, we’re not.

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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F9 - Movie Review

Dir: Justin Lin

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, and John Cena

2 h 15 m

Souped-up muscle cars, motorcycles, tanks, and even rocket-propelled space mods skid, screech, and swerve over every inch of the screen in director Justin Lin's newest Fast and Furious saga entry, now called F9.

In what has become a superhero movie franchise with indestructible beings who taunt the laws of physics every time action is needed, F9 continues the adventures of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his makeshift family unit. It's escapism cinema at its best, a mindless, messy, overindulgent feat of summer popcorn movie fare. That's the strange beauty of these films; they completely understand what they are doing and have crafted a formula that straddles a line of sincerity and silliness that works to keep the absurdity from becoming overwhelming.

Dom Torreto leads a quiet life, living on the outskirts with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and his son Brian. The family understands that their life together will constantly be threatened; their past has forged their present. Dom's past returns in the form of his forsaken brother Jakob (John Cena), who worked on a pit crew with Dom for their family racing business when they were young but now is a skilled assassin. Jakob has a plot for world destruction and domination. Dom and his crew reassemble to save the world and each other.

Beyond the cars and explosions, the Fast and Furious franchise has always been about family at its chaotic core. F9 handles this feature most appropriately of all the films, displaying the depths that the word "family" encompasses in this world. And Vin Diesel's character is the figurehead that the world revolves around; the compassionate father, the tough older sibling, the loving husband, Dom embraces all of these parts.

F9 focuses on the familial components with returning familiar faces like Michelle Rodriguez, who returns as the always supportive love interest, Letty. Tyrese Gibson and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges provide comedic banter and amusing commentary on how the crew is invincible, not one scratch after all these dangerous scenarios. F9 plays for fan service, so there are more surprises for dedicated admirers of these films.

Most of the actors have played these roles for a few years already, so it's no shocker that the chemistry between the cast is achieved from the beginning moments. However, notably, Vin Diesel's Dom is given more character attention with this film than in the past. Dom's story is sorted out with flashbacks featuring a younger version of the character and introducing Dom's brother Jakob. F9 does a decent job of connecting the dots for the film's narrative arc while also providing connective tissue for the entire franchise.

The narrative components have grown better regarding character composition, but the action and adventure pieces have grown duller. With so many films, each trying to outdo the previous, it's inevitable that the action setpieces would lose some of their awe-inducing moments of spectacle. Whether jumping cars off cliffs, using super-powered magnets to induce destruction, or going to space, which plays more for laughs than thrills, the gimmicks here are simply fine, not fantastic.

It's hard to wonder when these films will end; I guess that depends on the demand from the committed viewers who come out for these movies. While F9 may not win any awards for its brand of storytelling, it does represent an element of why movie theaters mean so much; it's a vessel to escape from reality.

Monte's Rating

2.50 out of 5.00

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Fathom – Movie Review

Directed by: Drew Xanthopoulos

Starring: Dr. Michelle Fournet and Dr. Ellen Garland

Runtime: 83 minutes

‘Fathom’ communicates clearly, but it doesn’t cinematically speak

Other than breathing, communication might be the most natural act in the world. By definition, it’s “the imparting or exchanging of news; the successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings; and social contact.”

Sounds simple enough, but according to Google, “6,500 languages are spoken in the world today.” If you’ve ever been to a foreign country where you don’t speak the native tongue, simple tasks like ordering off the menu, finding a restroom, or translating a subway map’s intricacies can be as bewildering as dumping 1,000 puzzle pieces on the kitchen table and finding a coherent image.

Where are all the sides, and we have four corners, right?

Dr. Michelle Fournet at Cornell University and Dr. Ellen Garland at the University of St Andrews are staring at an infinitely perplexing brainteaser. They wish to comprehend and decipher whale communication, and more specifically, talk to humpback whales, hope they respond, and also determine their language’s complexity and reach.

“I’m trying to start a conversation,” Dr. Fournet says.

Director Drew Xanthopoulos hopes to start a conversation with a movie audience as he films Fournet’s and Garland’s aqua-journeys in Frederick Sound, Alaska to speak to humpbacks and French Polynesia to listen to the majestic creatures, respectively.

The good doctors do not coordinate together, nor do they meet in person during the movie. Xanthopoulos films and presents the dueling stories as separate, distinct endeavors as we track their seemingly impossible tasks.

It’s a fascinating topic, but “Fathom” doesn’t translate very well on-screen.

Indeed, Xanthopoulos captures several beautiful shots of the intimate Alaska inlet(s), and after watching this documentary, you might book a flight to the 49th state and camp on the exact spot as Dr. Fournet’s site. Dr. Garland’s travels are less visually wondrous, as she and her boat captain trek all over the open ocean where everywhere looks the same, albeit under bright sunny skies and on crystal blue water. If you enjoy boating in wide-open spaces, Garland’s trip will capture agreeable sentiment.

Of course, this is no vacation, as the two dedicated, accomplished researchers are here to work and race against the clock. They both repeatedly drop their audio equipment in the oceans, as Dr. Fournet speaks to her 50-foot friends through whale calls that she created in the lab, and Dr. Garland intently listens for “song” through her headphones.

The women and their teams face no easy tasks, and especially when the whales didn’t get the memo.

The doc’s first 20 or 30 minutes draw us into the science of whale dialogue, and the scientists map out the verbal patterns, ones that resemble alien syntax in Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” (2016). Since the mysterious, majestic beings have existed for millions of years, they are OUR earthly aliens. The film discusses several types of their calls, including droplet, swop, and growl, but the coveted one is the humpbacks’ whup, and it becomes Michelle and Ellen’s focus.

The doc centers around their research, and in fictionalized features, science breakthroughs occur through the magic of screenwriters’ written pages and directors’ watchful eyes and ears. In reality, incredible findings don’t reveal themselves each day, and not in “Fathom”. The women cope with starts, stops, and stalls, and sometimes literally, as Dr. Fournet’s boat engine breaks down and keeps them stranded on land for days, while they only have a month to make meaningful “playbacks” or contacts with the whales. Meanwhile, Dr. Garland’s microphone has a limited range – a mile, perhaps – in the wide-open sea. She’s not trying to find a needle in a haystack but a pin on a 40-acre farm. Sure, her pin is about 66,000 pounds, but the ocean is a massive space.

For much of the last film’s hour, we witness our featured leads pulling and dropping ropes in the water, writing findings in spiral notebooks, and typing away on laptop keys, because that’s the nature of this titanic linguistic endeavor. These repeated moments are necessary for the job, but the rote actions don’t necessarily inspire.

Yes, Xanthopoulos offers several glimpses of whales peaking (and peeking) to the surface, but these snippets don’t feel like nearly enough. The movie could keep this critic riveted for three hours with whale B-roll and facts about humpbacks and other species. How many remain on the planet? What are their personalities like? How do mothers interact with their offspring? How does pollution affect them? How large do they get? I retrieved the whale-size figures in this review through the Internet, not while experiencing the movie.

“Fathom” isn’t that documentary, as its narrow focus doesn’t take broader views for everyday folks. We learn a little about the doctors’ personal lives, which is refreshing, but Dr. Fournet’s moment feels tacked on during the last 20 minutes to fill runtime, which is a slight 83 minutes.

Certainly, the doctors and their assistants perform valuable and captivating work, and “Fathom” communicates clearly, but it doesn’t cinematically speak.

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

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The Sparks Brothers - Movie Review

Dir: Edgar Wright

Starring: Ron Mael and Russell Mael

2h 15m

It was at my local record store that I first discovered the band Sparks. A funky combination of synth-centric keyboards, a pulsing drum beat, and the lyric "pulling rabbits out of a hat" sung with passion played on the house speakers. When I asked the clerk who was playing, they pointed towards an album cover featuring a slicked-haired, pencil mustached man holding a puppet in his hand. The music was kinetic, with a moodiness that felt suited for any variety of 1980s movie soundtrack.

On the album cover (1984's Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat) were Ron and Russell Mael, two brothers from America who formed the band Sparks in 1967. Spanning more than 50 years, through idiosyncratic rock, pop, electro, and avant-garde motifs and characterizations, the Sparks have garnered hefty cult status. They have influenced more than their fair share of artists, bands, and, in the case of the new documentary The Spark Brothers, filmmakers.

Edgar Wright, the skillful director behind Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver, among others, understands how to choreograph music to influence and engage storytelling. So Wright feels like the perfect artist to tell the tale of the Sparks Brothers. This documentary is packed with information, running 2 hours and 15 minutes. First, Wright details the brother's career with an album by album analysis, displaying the Sparks as clever musicians who have an unorthodox charm and humor and operate to the beat of their own drum. It's an energetic documentary that seldom feels as long as its running time.

The documentary features a variety of interviews from artists singing the praises of the band. Musicians like Beck, Weird Al, and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers show up, but also unexpected influenced artists like author Neil Gaiman, actor Mike Myers, and comedian Patton Oswalt make appearances to show their gratitude. Throughout the decades, the progression of their music composed a sound that always felt a few steps ahead of their counterparts. In addition, their character as rock stars, with Russell Mael crafting the atypical stoic rock star gaze and Ron Mael contrasting with his Chaplin/Hitler-inspired mustache and smirking look, displays that Sparks forged their creative path.

Wright emphasizes the musician's engagement with their music primarily, not necessarily why the two brothers compose their character in such unique ways. It's almost always about the music. Sparks' story isn't imbued with the typical sex and drugs that almost always define the rock & roll lifestyle, so the documentary doesn't have the traditional rise to success and eventual fall to defeat storyline. Instead, it maintains a strong emphasis on the celebration of music.

Edgar Wright is the perfect collaborator to tell the story about Sparks. With his first documentary, the director interjects the film with the same energy the band brings in their music. The verve and mood are achieved through the edit, the unique and different quality is the structure of storytelling, and the love for the music is heartfeltly found in every interview and clip; a perfect match for director and band indeed.

Monte's Rating

4.00 out of 5.00

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Luca – Movie Review

Directed by: Enrico Casarosa

Written by: Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones (Story By: Enrico Casarosa and Simon Stephenson)

Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan, Marco Barricelli, and Sacha Baron Cohen

Runtime: 84 minutes

Celebrate age 13 with ‘Luca’, a pleasant Pixar journey

What’s the most challenging age during childhood? How about age zero? Sure, you load no responsibility, and your mom, dad, grandmother, a daycare worker, or some other parental unit feed and change you throughout your first year on Planet Earth. Then again, your folks completely control your daily itinerary. Walking is a problem, and so is speaking in clear, concise sentences.

Age zero is no picnic, but when looking back, 13 years young probably is – “Survey says” - the #1 answer on “Family Feud”, seven days a week and twice on Sunday. Diving into the reasons 13 is rough seems like a waste of time. Geez, anyone 14 and over already realizes that the first step into teen status is the worst.

In Pixar Studios’ “Luca”, our hero (Jacob Tremblay) is the said age, but he doesn’t “live on the second floor,” and he’s not “upstairs from you.”

Quite the opposite, Luca lives - during the late 1950s/early 1960s - in a bay adjacent to the Italian Riviera, located on the country’s northwest coast. Although, he and his family don’t reside on the lofty buttes overlooking the Ligurian Sea. Their home is underwater at the bottom of it because the Paguro family are sea monsters. Sea monsters?

Hey, this is an animated feature. Pixar can do anything.

Although pitting sea creatures as your main leads certainly is a bold idea, this Pixar story is not a broad, eclectic concept, like “Soul” (2020), “Inside Out” (2015), and “WALL-E” (2008) are. Instead, “Luca” – the tale of a tiny teenage leviathan meeting a new buddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) and learning life lessons in a brand new world – is purposely contained and intimate. Ordinary boyhood conversations fill the first act, so maybe 15 minutes in, one realizes that massive philosophical puzzles – like the afterlife or the human race polluting the globe – aren’t in the cards over this 84-minute runtime. Instead, director Enrico Casarosa’s movie is a road….err, a water and road picture, where a pair of neon green and purple fish-like fellas – Luca Paguro and Alberto Scorfano (Grazer) – explore the land.

Ah, but how does this terrifying twosome avoid freaking out the locals of picturesque Portorosso? It’s a fair question because catching a glimpse of these two skinny, 1.5-meter tall Pete’s Dragon-types in the village plaza on a random Wednesday certainly will instigate second looks…and a few shrieks, full-blown panic, and fishermen reaching for their spears.

Well, you have to see the movie to discover Luca and Alberto’s secret.

In a June 17, 2021 interview with Comicbook.com, Casarosa makes it no secret that his life inspired this movie.

“We always had the setting. I grew up in Italy, so that was a really fun flavor to bring to this, a specific flavor, and the fantastical sea monster secret was always a big part of it with (the) idea of kids (in mind). We like the idea that there’s that kind of age where you feel a little bit out of place (and) not fitting in. (So) having this secret other identity felt like an interesting metaphor for outsiders,” Casarosa says.

There you go, age 13.

So, Luca and Alberto’s journey into the “land monsters’” living space offers an opportunity for individual growth, but the audience needs to accept the boys’ choices, primarily id-based ones.

In other words, they chase the shiny object of the moment because it’s the greatest! Meanwhile, caution, responsibility, safety, and curfews are non-existent. Curfews. Who enjoyed following those?

Luca and Alberto’s expedition has some similarities to Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern’s trek in “Stand by Me” (1986), which is by design. Casarosa mentions that Rob Reiner’s film was an influence in a February 25, 2021 interview with Yahoo Entertainment. However, his characters’ goal isn’t disconcerting. In fact, their ambition is not the least bit gruesome, but it will not be revealed in this review.

Our heroes debate the states of their marine and soil ecospheres and future grab-the-tiger-by-the-tail plans with all the maturity and know-how of eighth-graders, so Casarosa and screenwriters Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones needed an inventive approach to engage the audience.

They find one. First off, both kiddos are likable, but Alberto is the seasoned expert, so he thinks, and Luca gladly follows and revels in his friend’s insight. For instance, Alberto points to the moon and claims, “I touched it once. I don’t know. It felt like a fish.”

He’s also a master originator, as he casually proclaims, “I invented walking.”

Of course, Luca buys anything Alberto’s selling, hook, line, and sinker.

Alberto pushes banter boundaries and dangerous, physical ones, so the animation team and cinematographers David Juan Bianchi and Kim White must have had a blast creating these setups. Have you ever built a makeshift ramp and pop bicycle jumps? Risky ones? Growing up, most kids that I knew did.

On a personal note, when I was in seventh grade, an eighth-grade acquaintance regularly grabbed a plastic toboggan and sledded down this one particularly steep, icy road while cars regularly whipped by in both directions. Naturally, I joined in because, sure, that made sense with my 12-years-young state of mind. Looking back, it’s a minor miracle that I survived that winter.

Again, Casarosa’s childhood helps shape “Luca”.

“I had a kernel of the idea (of Luca and Alberto through) my experiences with my best friend. Me, having been an introvert, and a little shy, and a little timid, he helped me. That was an important friendship in finding my identity and growing up,” Casarosa says in the June 17, 2021 Comicbook.com interview.

Well, Paguro and Scorfano could use a guide or lifeline in Portorosso, and they find one with bright-eyed Giulia Marcovaldo (Emma Berman), a girl with big plans and an enormous spirit. Giulia – who dresses like Where’s Waldo’s younger sister – is passionate about school, learning, her family, and also the Portorosso Cup, an annual triathlon of sorts that features three Italian Riviera wonders, and one is a warm surprise. Luca and Alberto team up with Giulia, but it doesn’t matter the specific adventure that this triad tackles because “Luca” is about gaining wisdom through the magic and effort of becoming an active contributor in the world. That also includes reaching across the aisle and accepting others’ differences.

In 2021, that’s a good lesson! With some whiz-bang animation, Giulia’s burly father with a Mr. Incredible-like build, his mustache-sporting cat, clever inserts of the Italian language into everyday discussions and background signage, amusing underwater world-building, and celebrating small discoveries like tasting ice cream for the first time, “Luca” is a pleasant trip.

Enjoy “Luca” and celebrate age 13! It’s okay. We’ve all been there.

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It – Movie Review

Directed by: Mariem Perez Riera

Starring: Rita Moreno, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Eva Longoria, George Chakiris, Gloria Estefan, Norman Lear, and Morgan Freeman

Runtime: 90 minutes

‘Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It’ celebrates and speaks frankly

Rita Moreno loves to dance.

Dance, sing, and act!

At 89 years young, this entertainment legend became a household name on April 9, 1962, when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her treasured role as Anita in “West Side Story” (1961). This 5’ 2” thespian – with probably the shortest speech in Academy Awards’ history – has fashioned a lasting impact on the four traditional pillars of entertainment: movies, television, theatre, and music.

However, her career didn’t begin with Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s Oscar-winning musical, but as a six-year-old girl living in New York City with her mom.

Rita – born in Puerto Rico - began dancing at that tender, youthful age, and in director Mariem Perez Riera’s “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It”, she grooves some serious moves during her 87th birthday celebration at her Berkeley, Calif. home.

Although, this documentary is not all smiles and partying. Indeed, life is not, and neither is Rita’s, as this film offers frank - sometimes joyous, sometimes woeful - tales of an extraordinary human being who is still in front of cameras and microphones to this day. According to IMDb, Ms. Moreno has 160 credits from 1950 (“So Young So Bad”) to 2021 (Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake), so do the math. That’s 70-plus years, folks!

Riera finds plenty of familiar friends to tell Rita’s story. Lin-Manuel Miranda, George Chakiris, Hector Elizondo, Norman Lear (who was in his late 90s during his interview), Whoopi Goldberg, and many more – including her daughter Fernanda Luisa Gordon - rightfully gush over Rita’s influence.

“She made me feel like women could do anything because she did. She was a Latina, like me,” Gloria Estefan says.

Eva Longoria shares that she enjoyed Rita’s work from the PBS kids show “The Electric Company” (1971 - 2009) and appreciated that Ms. Moreno looked like her too. (As a side note, since I’m also a child of the 70s, I grew up rejoicing over that same program, and my brothers and I frequently yelled just like Rita’s character Millie, “Hey, You Guys!!!!”)

Moreno also sits down for extensive, in-depth recollections, and along with the aforementioned stars, the film mixes – as we would hope and expect – plenty of B-roll from Rita’s career. While many clips tender good feelings about her work, not all of them do. Not by a long shot. Rita and others recall the struggles that she faced, the power disparity between Hollywood bigwigs and a newcomer, during her early acting days. Producers and directors frequently cast her as Native American or Island women, and her characters were often portrayed as “illiterate or immoral.”

Sure, she worked in films during her 20s. Who wouldn’t love those opportunities? Still, the industry marginalized Rita and her on-screen roles. Rita, in turn, developed and mastered a “universal accent” that she applied to any character from any background, race, or country of origin. Visually, the most disturbing moments are the countless clips of Moreno with muddy “brownface” makeup caked on her face. Yes, this includes her turn as Anita in “West Side Story” (1961), and if you haven’t seen the film in a while, the makeup on several actors – including Chakiris - are terrible distractions.

The documentary purposely and surprisingly opens Rita’s dark emotional places. She was on the receiving end of verbal slights, visceral disrespect, and much worse. In Rita’s own words – including a specific four-letter one - she recalls these moments with sorrow and disgust.

Those following her work for decades are likely aware of these episodes, but perhaps not. After absorbing this 90-minute documentary, Rita’s new fans will learn about the woman’s personal life – including her long relationship with an actor who is well-known for a memorable Oscar acceptance speech too – and her extensive screen, stage, and singing vocations.

Did you know that she starred in the HBO series “Oz” (1997 – 2003)? I didn’t, but that scratches the surface on her accomplishments and jaw-dropping collection of awards.

Yes, Rita Moreno won the EGOT! If you’re not familiar with the term, this film explains it, but I did some research. Ms. Moreno actually won the PEGOT!

The “P” is for the Peabody Award that she won in 2019, and actress Diane Guerrero explains on the BESE YouTube Channel that “only three people have ever accomplished this. Rita Moreno is one of them.”

Wow, right?

For her keen supporters – who already know-it-all - “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It” – a standard documentary, structure-wise - is a more-than-worthy celluloid account, because Rita herself speaks to her troubles, insecurities, triumphs, and successes in delicate, close quarters.

She doesn’t seem concerned about pleasing the masses, and her honest talk is unquestionably appreciated. After the film ends, you’ll be grateful that she immigrated to America as a five-year-old. Sure, Rita didn’t have any say in that particular matter, but that decision helped define her because she grew into a person “who decided to go for it” throughout her almost 90 years on Planet Earth, and in 2021, she still enjoys finding that open spot on the dance floor.

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard – Movie Review

Directed by: Patrick Hughes

Written by: Tom O’Connor, Brandon Murphy, and Phillip Murphy

Starring: Salma Hayek, Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, Antonio Banderas, and Morgan Freeman

Runtime: 99 minutes

Hayek, Jackson, and Reynolds can’t save ‘The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’

Salma Hayek, Ryan Reynolds, and Samuel L. Jackson are three of the biggest movie stars working today, and hey, all three are big-screen comic book characters, to boot. Don’t forget that Jackson played a Jedi too.

So, after assessing their remarkable acting resumes, let’s all recite this together: “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”

Well, in 2017, this superhero triad starred in the sophomoric action-comedy “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”, and when a film rakes in 176 million dollars worldwide on a budget of “only” 30 big ones, knocks for sequel requests become as loud and as appealing as Jules Winnfield’s Ezekiel 25:17 recitation.

So, here we are, and if you missed the first picture, Michael Bryce (Reynolds) is a bodyguard, Darius Kincaid (Jackson) is a hitman, and Sonia Kincaid (Hayek) is his wife. Bryce and Kincaid were on opposite sides of the protector-assassinator coin but became allies and saved the day.

In director Patrick Hughes' follow-up flick, Bryce struggles – but makes a concerted effort - with therapy, and actually, his therapist (Rebecca Front) finds it difficult to cope with Michael as her patient. Before you can say, “Our time is up today,” she convinces him to forget his guns and the bloodshed. In other words, find a different career, but first, take a vacation in Italy.

Bryce shelves G&B (guns and bloodshed) from his mind and discovers R&R at an Italian resort, when out of the blue, Sonia appears - among the big umbrellas and pina coladas - and whisks him away. You see, a group of baddies kidnap Darius, and Sonia recruits Michael by dragging him from paradise to help rescue her husband.

That’s fine. It isn’t, but that’s just the beginning of the story, as a Greek kingpin named Aristotle Papadopolous (Antonio Banderas) seeks revenge on the European Union for suggesting a sanction on his home country. He’s out for blood and taking down the continent’s power grid, Internet grid, or something by using a giant diamond-fitted contraption.

Isn’t Greece part of Europe? Just asking.

Perhaps, Aristotle explained the Greece workaround, and I missed it, but then again, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

Hey, get it done, or to quote Toby Keith, he’s using “a little less talk and a lot more action.”

Meanwhile, Interpol agent Bobby O’Neill (Frank Grillo) needs to take action, pronto, so he recruits the Kincaids and Bryce to stop Mr. Papadopolous’ nefarious plans, because sure, why not? MI6 or no other Interpol agents are available or capable, but the Kincaids – who always act like they just guzzled triple espressos and a gallon of Jolt Cola – have short tempers and long trigger fingers, and Darius “is unkillable”, so there’s that.

Darius and Sonia seem to fire more bullets than John Wick after losing his dog and cause more accidents than The Blues Brothers (if they were) driving on cough syrup. The gunplay and car chase quotients run through the roof, but sadly, more is less. Way less, and despite danger raising its ugly, fearsome head during 80 percent of the on-screen happenings, “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” doesn’t carry one moment of audience anxiety or trepidation, including a helicopter hunting down our said heroes along a winding freeway in a scene that felt as figuratively straight and flat as the I-10 between Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Morgan Freeman’s small role does have a twist, but then again, none of it matters. At its core, “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” is simply a device to pit the hard-hitting Kincaids against Bryce and his desperate, futile attempt towards pacifism for comedic effect.

Admittedly, I chuckled a couple of times, but the natural chemistry between the three leads doesn’t make up for a paper-thin plot, the nonsensical turns, and constant kinetic beats with zero heart. But, hey, at least the cast and crew secured a trip to Europe, and they seemed to have a lot more fun than I had.

Take Hayek (who delivers the picture’s most entertaining performance), Jackson, and Reynolds out of this film and replace them with three unknown actors, and “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” is my worst movie of the year...so far. Still, not even these superheroes - plus Freeman and Banderas - can save it.

Jeff’s ranking

1.5/4 stars

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In the Heights – Movie Review

Directed by: Jon M. Chu

Written by: Quiara Alegria Hudes (based on Hudes’ book; Lin-Manuel Miranda and Hudes’ play)

Starring: Anthony Ramos, Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins, Olga Merediz, Gregory Diaz IV, Jimmy Smits, and Lin-Manuel Miranda

Runtime: 143 minutes

‘In the Heights’ is a satisfying musical that sometimes soars to spectacular highs

“Tell me something I don’t know.” – “No Me Diga”

For those who love Broadway musicals (and are deeply familiar with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work), there’s probably not a whole lot of new information that I can write about in his and Quiara Alegria Hudes’ film adaptation of their Tony award-winning hit “In the Heights” – which won four statues in 2008 - that you don’t already know.

Admittedly, the word of this stage triumph or its transformation to a theatrical release was first-time news to this film critic. I never heard of the play.

Well, after experiencing this tale - of Washington Heights residents wishing to reach their dreams - in a theatre, let me say, “Extra. Extra. Read all about it. ‘In the Heights’ is a visual-spectacular with dazzling, head-spinning arrangements. At times, the celluloid escapades will leave you breathless and with sheer wonderment. We’re witnessing the impossible!”

But, that’s not the whole story.

The movie also runs a bit too long at 143 minutes, and the second half offers more discourse and less music, as the leads debate their struggles against the system rather than a clearly defined antagonist.

A pair of our lead protagonists, however, are awfully charismatic. Usnavi de la Vega (Anthony Ramos) and Vanessa Morales (Melissa Barrera) are friendly acquaintances in their neighborhood.

Usnavi runs a convenience store (or a bodega) where locals – including Vanessa - quickly stop by for a soda, pastry, or coffee, and they’re off on their merry way. His little cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV) helps out too, and Diaz is marvelous in the role as Usnavi’s backup with his helping hands and timely pearls of wisdom. Sonny may be a teenager, but he’s not tripping over his own feet – literally or in the game of life - as he’s a solid Robin to his cousin’s Batman.

Usnavi has aspirations for more than his modest Batcave on a New York City street corner, and now, he can purchase his late father’s Dominican Republic business, leave the U.S., and return to the Caribbean nation and its blue skies and sandy beaches. Meanwhile, Vanessa – who we first see sporting a New York Yankees baseball jersey – embraces The Big Apple and hopes to open a salon, a place that she can call hers, but financing such an operation is beyond unachievable. But, hey, you know how real estate prices have skyrocketed, so Vanessa might as well file the paperwork to buy the Yankees franchise instead.

The film offers a dueling tale about Nina (Leslie Grace) and Benny (Corey Hawkins). Nina’s a local wunderkind who “got out of The Heights” and studies at Stanford University. She’s back for the summer, but this scholar assumes that it’s for good, which would crush her dad (Jimmy Smits). Meanwhile, Benny works for Kevin (Smits) and is thrilled that Nina’s back, but the uncertainty of her future throws ambiguity into his daily routines.

Abuela Claudia’s (Olga Merediz) routine is that she’s an ever-present and loving godmother for the aforementioned characters.

Hudes’ screenplay plays in hard work and daydream themes, as existing circumstances – including the lack of cultural support in Northern California or a nonexistent co-signer for a leasing space in NYC - present socioeconomic roadblocks toward success. She paints a this-is-how-it-is picture for her characters which drives empathy and presents a sense of helplessness for the audience, at least to me.

Usnavi and Vanessa search for their golden paths. At the same time, Nina attempts to rediscover hers, and while these toiling plotlines are the film’s foundation, Miranda’s music and director Jon M. Chu’s gifts for visual storytelling (see also “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018)) lift our spirits. Astonishing numbers like the opening seven-minute “In the Heights”, “No Me Diga”, and “96,000” would instantly punch this film’s ticket to a Best Picture - Musical or Comedy 2022 Golden Globes nomination…if next year’s ceremony wasn’t cancelled. Ugh…but, I digress.

Leading up to the jaw-dropping “96,000” performance, in which all New York City residents seemingly become synchronized swimming Olympians and deliver gold medal routines in a public pool, “In the Heights” is an off-the-charts home run. It’s the film’s crescendo, and it makes the “La La Land” (2016) pool scene look like a collection of middle-aged IT professionals competing in their first-ever game of Duck, Duck, Goose around a plastic kiddie pool.

(Note, I’m a middle-aged IT professional, so I believe that I come from a place of authority here.)

After that, the film slows down. Although the skillfully-hectic “The Club” and emotional “Paciencia y Fe” are massive highlights, the big musical numbers are less frequent, and yearnings for romantic connections repeatedly become stalled. Additionally, Usnavi tells his life’s story in retrospect to a small group of kids, and this cinematic device frequently interrupts the movie’s momentum.

The film may have worked even better with a “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (1964) approach, where Genevieve (Catherine Deneuve), Guy (Nino Castelnuovo), and others sing throughout that movie, but we do get that style in “Heights” with “Benny’s Dispatch”.

“Wait here with me. It’s getting hot outside. Turn up the AC. Stay with me,” Benny sings to Nina.

Yes, “In the Heights” is at its best when romance or the potential of it fills the big screen, and Ramos, Barrera, Grace, and Hawkins figuratively and sometimes literally dance towards relationships. The impressive leads make it easy to root for their characters’ personal and professional hopes, and I wish we had two solo films to flush out their stories even more, especially Usnavi’s and Vanessa’s. Maybe Chu, Hudes, and Miranda – who pops into the frame as a most welcome guest – can “tell me something I don’t know” in a sequel.

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It - Movie Review

Dir: Michael Chaves

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ruairi O'Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, Julian Hilliard, and John Noble

1 h 52 m

It takes less than 5 minutes for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the third franchise installment and eighth Conjuring Universe film, to jump full force into a vicious demonic possession scene involving a contorting young boy and a few obvious nods to The Exorcist. Fighting the forces of evil again, looking more withered and worn from their many encounters with malevolent spirits, are Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga). The loving staples of The Conjuring films find themselves in new territory with their latest case.

During the exorcism of young David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard), Ed and Lorraine struggle with the ferocity of the evil spirit and lose control of the situation. Ed is hurt, Lorraine is affected by a vision, and Arne Johnson (Ruairi O'Conner), the boyfriend of David's older sister Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook), demands that the entity "take me instead." The demon abides, and the tormenting subsides; the Glatzel family believes that the exorcism worked. But slowly, Arne begins to experience strange occurrences, leading to an encounter that results in the brutal murder of his landlord. Arne, and The Warrens, take the case to the courts claiming that the incident was perpetrated under the circumstance of demonic possession.

The story for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is pulled from The Warren's case files and, as all the films proclaim, is "based on a true story." However, where this film differs from the first two arrives with the composition of frights and the story's tone. The previous emphasis on the haunted house atmosphere and the case-specific scenarios that assisted in adding another level of fear surrounding the proceedings are not the focus of this film.

Instead, director Michael Chaves composes a procedural, an investigation into the circumstances that brought about the real-life court case for Arne Johnson and a fictional story surrounding The Warren's ghost-hunting drama. Chaves doesn't explore the components of the court case, mainly because the actual plea of "not guilty because of demonic possession" was immediately thrown out by the presiding judge. However, the intrigue of a courtroom drama with The Warrens involved and the prevailing media hype in the early 1980s would be an exciting place to take the Conjuring Universe.

The fictional pieces crafted for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which offer a few jump scares but are the weakest offerings of the franchise, take Ed and Lorraine into numerous locations while following the clues of a curse connected to Arne. During these moments, which feel farthest from the grounded nature of the previous films, the story finds mixed results with character dynamics and scare tactics. A relationship with a local police detective, who is working on a cold case, feels unnecessary and somewhat forced for humor. A trip to the local morgue builds some great tension and finds an avenue to connect the story from one act to the next. Everything moves along, primarily because of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson's chemistry and commitment as Lorraine and Ed, but it's a bumpier journey than expected.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It may not reach the heights of its predecessors in regards to style, scares, and storytelling, but that doesn't mean fans of this frightening franchise won't enjoy the efforts on display.

Monte's Rating

2.50 out of 5.00

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