Courtesy photo
MOVIE REVIEW
Bellbottom (2021)
Is there anything Akshay Kumar can’t do? Over the course of “Bellbottom” he does a lot of manful striding, filmed from a low angle, so we can best appreciate his magnificence. He rides a motorbike with sunglasses but without a helmet. He has a training montage in the woods involving a lot of chin-ups and exercises with tires. He is invited to sing at a wedding reception, which then involves a montage of him and Vaani Kapoor (badly underused as his clever and perky wife Radhika) having a much better time on a train in Scotland than usual. And as a spy/analyst specializing in airplane hijacks – which were an unfortunately regular occurrence in India in the mid-’80s – he is able to boss around senior politicians of several different countries, up to and including Indira Gandhi (Lara Dutta) herself. And while this adoration is a little silly, it’s not remotely ridiculous. Somehow in the context of the plot, Mr. Kumar's star wattage is justified.
Continue reading “A View to a Thrill” »
Wiesner Distribution
MOVIE REVIEW
El cuartito (2021)
Set in a San Juan, Puerto Rico, airport (presumably, Luis Muñoz Marín International) during the Trump presidency, “El cuartito” revolves around travelers flagged by customs officers for “additional processing.” Among them: Toti (Mario de la Rosa), a washed-up Spaniard rocker scheduled to perform a Thanksgiving concert without a work visa; Lina (Claribel Medina), a melodramatic former actress lugging an entire medicine cabinet worth of pills en route to meet her sister on a cruise ship; Mariel (Isel Rodriguez), traveling with an expired U.S. passport after falling for an Argentinian and leaving the U.S. in her teens; Jesús (Ianis Guerrero), attempting to reunite with his family after their botched border-crossing attempt; and Santo (Fausto Mata), a delusional preacher with a forged missionary visa.
Continue reading “Dread on Arrival” »
Adam Jandrup/Sony Pictures Classics
MOVIE REVIEW
The Lost Leonardo (2021)
The documentary “The Lost Leonardo” tracks a Salvator Mundi painting billed as “After Leonardo” by a New Orleans auction house and bought in 2005 for a song ($10,000, so relatively speaking). The purchasers were a group of art dealers that included Alexander Parish, a professional “sleeper hunter” in the business of finding works of art that are more valuable than auctioneers perceive, and Robert Simon. In 2017, Christie’s auctioned the painting, now dubbed “the male Mona Lisa,” for a record $450.3 million.
Continue reading “The Da Vinci Code” »
Anna Kooris/A24
MOVIE REVIEW
Zola (2021)
The timing of its release might end up working very well for “Zola.” The frenetic depiction of a weekend from hell, full of sex, guns and godawful decisions in the Floridian heat, it certainly gives us a sensory rush that the pandemic has deprived us of (for better or for worse). It has two equally matched but differently heroic performances from Taylour Paige and Riley Keough; and despite its wild origins and even wilder subject matter, it follows a fairly standard narrative arc: a young woman gets in over her head and suddenly discovers what she’s truly capable of. But director Janicza Bravo makes a silly decision towards the end that dilutes the impact of her heroine’s sudden struggle for survival in favor of cheap laughs.
Continue reading “A Long Road to Hoe” »
Tribeca Film Festival
MOVIE REVIEW
The God Committee (2021)
Based on a Mark St. Germain play, “The God Committee” centers on a panel at the fictional St. Augustine Hospital in New York City that periodically makes the call on who receives an organ transplant from a waiting list of candidates. Each member of the panel is a caricature placed there to deliberate toward a “12 Angry Men”-type verdict: a star surgeon with a conflict of interest (Kelsey Grammer), an idealistic young doctor (Julia Stiles), a bureaucratic administrator (Janeane Garofalo), a no-nonsense old-timer (Patricia R. Floyd), a grief-stricken psychiatrist (Peter Kim) and a utilitarian disbarred lawyer/hospital board member/priest (Colman Domingo).
Continue reading “Change of Heart” »
Maria Rusche
MOVIE REVIEW
Dating & New York (2021)
Romantic comedies are such an endangered species who cares if “Dating & New York” lives up to its generic title. The fact an adorable movie concerned only with the happiness of pretty young people has been made these days is automatically worthy of high praise.
Continue reading “Benefits With Friends” »
Logan Floyd
MOVIE REVIEW
Poser (2021)
“Poser” should have been about how a young woman finds her voice through the words of others, but sadly it doesn’t quite come together. Lennon (Sylvie Mix) is in that liminal time where she’s an adult but doesn’t feel like one. While she’s old enough to drink, she still lives like a student in an efficiency apartment in Columbus, Ohio. She is desperate to be part of the city’s artistic community while not quite yet comfortable sharing her own art, so she starts a podcast in order to explore the scene and carve herself a place in it. Since the scene is small and young, the participants pay each other courteous attention, and welcome Lennon’s interest.
Continue reading “Almost Infamous” »
Adrian M. Pruett
MOVIE REVIEW
Venus as a Boy (2021)
Ty Hodges wrote, directed and starred in this as a present to himself; and right up until the final shot that choice makes beautiful sense. The point of the movie is how black artists tend to be pigeonholed due to their race, and are not allowed to explore themes or interests beyond “the black experience.” Well, of course they are allowed. There’s just no money in it.
Continue reading “When Worlds Collide” »
Tribeca Film Festival
MOVIE REVIEW
Roaring 20's (2021)
Richard Linklater is the first person director Elisabeth Vogler thanks in the credits, and quite right too – “Slacker’s” influence on “Roaring 20’s” is inescapable. In a single, unbroken shot which Ms. Vogler filmed herself, we are given a slice of hipster Parisian life on midsummer’s night 2020. The exact evening matters because traditionally the city celebrates the longest day of the year with street music on every corner; and the lively street life the actors must navigate was clearly shot in real time. The action begins outside the Pyramid of the Louvre and ends in Buttes-Charmont, a hillside park on Paris’s western side with spectacular views of the city.
Continue reading “Street Scene” »
Amazon Studios
MOVIE REVIEW
Mary J. Blige’s My Life (2021)
The first two credits that appear in the “Mary J. Blige’s My Life” documentary belong to the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul herself and producer Sean “Diddy” Combs, one of the masterminds behind the seminal album referenced in the title. Those are a bit concerning given how Prime Video’s other recent music documentary “Pink: All I Know So Far” has turned out. Thankfully, Ms. Blige isn’t interested in a glowing profile of herself. During the film, she revisits an old TV interview during which she appeared evasive and seemed to be lashing out. This movie affords an opportunity to set the record straight and finally answer those invasive and uncomfortable questions with her guard down and the wisdom and introspection that only come with age and experience.
Continue reading “Searching for the Real Love” »