Review: The Social Reckoning

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Reckoning" is an intriguing and unsettling follow-up to David Fincher's 2010 masterpiece "The Social Network," which was also written by Sorkin, that examines how Mark Zuckerberg - and tech giants in general - have an outsized influence on how our country is run and how our democracy has been weakened.

To get this out of the way: No, Sorkin's film is not nearly as good as Fincher's, which was a remarkable and fascinating story about power and privilege, whereas this new film specifically focuses on moments from the past decade involving Facebook's influence on our country's backwards slide toward authoritarianism.

The picture opens with a young white woman who is on the side of the road as she awaits AAA. She has been drinking and the two cops - both persons of color - who pull over to assist her notice this immediately. She is at first dismissive of them, and they are about to let her off the hook, until she becomes strident and begins filming them after they let her know that she's been let off the hook. She quickly resorts to racism and threats, which ultimately get her arrested.

Later, we find out that this woman, once a progressive, had been radicalized online by Facebook's algorithm, which pointed her toward right-wing content and groups. This woman was an acquaintance, at least according to the film, of Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a Facebook true believer-turned whistleblower who helped the Wall Street Journal break stories about things that Facebook was trying to keep quiet.

Haugen is approached by Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), a reporter covering the story for the Journal who knows very little about technology. When we first meet him, he's had difficulty finding the Journal's office because he didn't know how to use the GPS. As he first meets Haugen, she seems skeptical that he'll get far with his story on Facebook due to his, quote, luddite ways.

Horwitz thinks he might have a good story in his hands, but it turns out he has a host of them - how Facebook's algorithm has helped to radicalize people by allowing political ads with lies in them, hate speech, and infiltration by right-wing groups, bots, anti-vaxxers, election deniers, and even human and drug traffickers. He also learns of how Instagram, also owned by Facebook, has helped to increase online bullying and how the organization is fazing out its civic integrity team, of which Frances is a part.

White and Madison have a solid rapport here, and the film humorously - whether intentionally or not - portrays their partnership as an illicit affair. They often meet in hotel rooms and she is dressed up as if she's going on a date because that's what she wants it to look like in case she runs into any fellow employees. Jeremy Strong gives an offbeat portrayal of Zuckerberg, who comes off as controlling and stiff and somewhat of a far cry from Jesse Eisenberg's caustic interpretation.

The picture culminates with the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Sorkin clearly intends to show that Facebook and other social media outlets helped to enable this monumentally horrific moment in our history by allowing hate groups to utilize the platform as a means of organizing. Sprinkled throughout the film are a series of sequences in which Zuckerberg practices how he will address Congress for an upcoming hearing with some of the leaders of his company.

Fincher's 2010 film, not surprisingly, displayed the director's trademark Kubrickian sense of style and craft and was scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch's brooding music. Sorkin's film feels more in line with the previous works made by the writer-director. It is, basically, an old-fashioned message movie that favors characterization and writing (the film's witty repartee is its strong suit, though a discussion about mansplaining falls a little flat). 

All in all, it is a good movie, rather than a great one like Fincher's, although its sense or urgency is a little greater in that the 2010 film examined power, class, privilege, ambition, and betrayal, while Sorkin's picture shows how the company Zuckerberg built some 20-years ago - plus others of its type - play an outsized role in our country (we are told, at one point, that 43 percent of U.S. adults get their news from Facebook), and how its helping to spread propaganda and misinformation has undermined our democracy and allowed us to get to the dangerous place where we find ourselves today. 

"The Social Reckoning" doesn't tell us a whole lot we don't already know - although there are some elements of the film that still came as a surprise - but it is an engrossing David vs. Goliath story that feels especially satisfying right now as tech billionaires attempt to create their own oligarchy power structure at all of our expenses. It's timely and well done.

Review: Verity

Image courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.

For those who didn't get enough campy thrills about a stranger moving in with a mysterious couple with last year's "The Housemaid," Michael Showalter's "Verity" is likely to satiate that appetite. The film is a mostly effective thriller that only starts to fall apart when you stop to think about how significant elements of its plot make absolutely no sense and how its ending is less of an open ended mystery than somewhat of a cop out.

But problems aside, "Verity" is a mostly amusing thriller based on a novel from Colleen Hoover, who is also responsible for the soapy novels-turned-films "It Ends With Us" and "Reminders of Him." The film starts Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh, an author of mystery novels whose work has yet to bring her widespread success. One day, after witnessing a particularly grueling traffic-related accident that leaves her soaked in blood, she meets Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett), the husband of wildly popular thriller novelist Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway).

Lowen is told that Verity is having difficulty finishing a series of popular - and very dark - novels due to an accident and asked if she's interested in a gig that would involve moving in with the Crawfords and helping Verity to finish the series. Notably, all of Verity's novels are told from the perspectives of their villains.

The job turns out to be much more challenging than originally presented as Verity is in a coma, of sorts, that prevents her from moving or saying anything. Most of the time, she barely registers anything or anyone. So, it is up to Lowen to fish through Verity's notes to create the final novels in the series. Jeremy acts as the accommodating host and Lowen is taken by the Crawford's shy young son (Brady Wagner).

Not long after arriving at the Crawford's secluded Vermont home, Lowen discovers what appears to be either a journal or an autobiography written by Verity that tells the story of her marriage to Jeremy and her early career highlights, and includes some disturbing material - for example, the couple's young daughter died by drowning in the lake behind their house.

Things begin to get weirder and darker during Lowen's stay and she and Jeremy become close. Meanwhile, Lowen begins to become obsessed with the idea that Verity isn't as incapacitated as she seems and even starts to believe she sees her lurking around the house.

Subtlety is not the film's strong suit - I mean, the author who is spilling her secrets in a journal is named Verity and Lowen's most recent novel is titled, ahem, "Open Ended." To enjoy the film, one must be willing to engage in large leaps of faith. I won't give away any of the film's twists, but there's a plot line surrounding Verity's possibly faking her malady that makes no sense whatsoever when one considers how much wealth and power that she must have as a bestselling author.

Much like "The Housemaid," I won't go as far as saying that "Verity" is a good movie. It's often amusing and moves along swiftly enough until its plot twists begin dropping late in the film. The cast is good and Hathaway seems to be having a great time vamping it up as the possibly (or not) sinister titular character. It's a somewhat lurid film with some pleasures to be found, if one can navigate past the occasionally gaping plot holes and just enjoy it for the campy thriller that intends to be.

Review: Digger

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Although the studio system cranks out the same retreads, reboots, and existing IP year after year - and, not surprisingly, some of it flops - there's nothing that draws more scorn than an ambitious original film from a director with vision that fails. Of course, I'm talking about "Digger," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's mostly panned new film and likely box office bomb that plays like an anarchic satire in the vein of "Dr. Strangelove."

I'll grant the film's many critics this: The movie does not find Inarritu at the peak of his powers and, for the most part, doesn't work. It's not my least favorite work from the director (that would be his previous picture, "Bardo"), but it's a far cry from the heyday of "Birdman" and "The Revenant."

That being said, I'm glad it exists. This is a wild swing from a talented group of people that, ultimately, doesn't come together in a satisfying way, but it's intermittently engaging, includes what is likely the most interesting performance in some years by Tom Cruise, and looks great (imagine a much more expensive-looking Roy Andersson film).

It's a bit difficult to discuss the film because there's a twist about 40 minutes into it that completely transforms the way we view the material, but suffice it to say that the movie grapples with such topics as climate change, corporate greed and unchecked power, and the role of art in a world that is on the decline. In other words, there's a lot going on here and its overabundance often makes for a more frantic viewing experience, which is not necessarily a good thing.

I can only summarize what has already been seen in the trailers: Digger Rockwell (Cruise) is an oilman with close ties to the president of the United States (John Goodman), both of whom find themselves in a pickle when an Arctic rig causes a natural disaster that turns into a global crisis. Digger, who lives alone with his ailing cat, welcomes the president and his staff (which includes Michael Stuhlbarg as the vice president) to his home to sort things out.

Things get increasingly hairy as the Arctic situation leads to massive flooding in parts of Europe and Digger and company basically try to act like nothing's wrong. Sandra Huller plays Digger's sister, who operates a company that is meant to help the environment, while Riz Ahmed plays the exasperated scientist who tries to enlighten Digger and the president to the serious nature of the crisis and Jesse Plemons plays a mysterious individual who I won't discuss further.

Once the surprise occurs about 40 minutes into the picture, these early scenes - which involve a lot of men yelling at each other in a room - are interspersed with another plot line that, of course, I won't divulge. But this is where the theme of the role of art in our currently disintegrating world comes into play. The film loops back on this idea after the two plot lines have played out and led to a finale that only a bleak satire would utilize.

Inarritu is a talented director who has often made films filled with chaos - "Birdman" and "Babel," for example - but pulled them off with seeming ease. "Digger," on the other hand, just feels chaotic. It's great to see Cruise getting his first juicy role in a while, but most of the performances in the film feel dialed up to 11. Some of the jokes land, but at times the dialogue feels clunky, as if the filmmakers' portrayal of dumb American politicians and businessmen was a result of a few too many viewings of "Team America: World Police."

The subplot that I can't divulge isn't fully developed enough to make it compelling, so what much of the experience of watching "Digger" involves is people yelling at each other. There are some compelling sequences - Cruise kills it during a 10-minute speech before a European governing body - involving the characters and the picture often looks great, but it's an example of a film where I can admire the audacity more than the end result. 

So, no, "Digger" isn't as much of a misbegotten mess as you may have heard, although I can't wholeheartedly recommend it either. I'm glad that a film like this got funded, but I wish there was more to show for it.

Review: Primetime

Image courtesy of A24.

There have been several movies in recent years that examine the concept of making the news in which unscrupulous members of the media help to create a story so that they can cover it. Much like Dan Gilroy's unsettling "Nightcrawler," Lance Oppenheim's new film, "Primetime," is a story with some stylistic touches that make it feel closer to a horror movie than the media ethics drama it is on the surface.

The film follows the phenomenon of NBC anchor Chris Hansen's popular early-aughts TV program "To Catch a Predator," in which Hansen (portrayed by Robert Pattinson here in a strong performance) helped to set up scenarios in which members of his team portrayed themselves as minors online, drew the attention of sexual predators, and lured them to a house, where Hansen, his crew, and police would confront them.

Hansen is told several times by various people during the course of "Primetime" that he is doing the Lord's work, although the show's methods become increasingly queasy as the story is told through the eyes of Dan Plumb, AKA Decoy Dan (Skyler Gisondo), an aspiring young actor whose boyish looks land him the gig of playing an underage boy who entices pedophiles to the houses where Hansen is lying in wait.

The picture portrays Hansen as an ambitious man who wants to have the same type of respect that some of NBC's other anchors command - watch him wince when one tells him that he can see him reporting live from Afghanistan (mind you, the film is set in 2006) - and, therefore, wants "Predator" to be the program that puts him on the level of the greats. You can see the fire in Pattinson's eyes when an NBC executive tells him that his show is being moved to a primetime slot against juggernaut "Lost."

However, Hansen is also having an extramarital affair, and his crew and producer (Merritt Wever) are possibly looking for the exit signs, that is, until one of Hansen's crew believes that he has a big fish on his line - one online predator appears to be a man who holds some sort of office. This leads Hansen and company to Texas, where they team up with local law enforcement to try to catch the man.

For those unaware of the circumstances of "Predator," the show was eventually cancelled after a massive controversy involving the suicide of a Texas prosecutor during a sting operation and the ensuing lawsuits. 
The depiction in the film of the police work involved makes it seem shoddy and careless, giving "Predator" that making the news feel as its characters help to escalate situations for the sake of ratings.

In the film, Hansen portrays himself as a righteous crusader, but his show clearly banks on people's fascination with the lurid. There's an interesting scene in which a passenger on a plane congratulates him on the show, but then launches into violent fantasies about what he'd like to do to the show's targets. Hansen laughs it off, saying what he does to the predators is probably worse, but it's a rare moment of reflection about the desire that his audience feels for punishing others.

"Primetime" is stylish in an unsettling way, and its images often have the feel of an old VHS tape that has captured something unsavory and disturbing on it. Hansen is always lurking in the background, rehearsing lines written by pedophiles online to read back to them during the moment of reveal during the program, and it's as if he's reading lines for a play he's about to perform. In another scene, he keeps changing the intonation of his voice during a voiceover recording session, annoying his producer, for more dramatic emphasis. 

Pattinson is very good here, but Gisondo's performance is just as noteworthy. His portrayal of a young man who wants to be accepted as an actor and thinks that "Predator" is his meal ticket, only to discover that he sold his soul for a SAG card, is a punch in the gut. This is a movie that is intended to make audiences squirm in more ways than one - and it's effective in doing so.

Review: Resident Evil

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Zach Cregger's "Resident Evil" is a whole lot better than it likely has any right to be. Based on the popular video game, the film is a wild and brief horror movie about a hospital medical courier who finds himself at the center of a nightmare when tasked with delivering a mysterious package in Raccoon City, which has been overrun with monstrous creatures after some sort of outbreak.

There had been a previous series of "Resident Evil" movies that started in 2002 and starred Milla Jovovich. I haven't seen all seven of those films, but the ones I saw were pretty bad. Cregger's film is a gigantic step up in terms of quality.

The director is coming off the success of last year's "Weapons," an ambitious horror saga that was my favorite in the genre in about a decade (since 2015's "It Follows"), so while his latest picture is often a good time, it feels like a much more lightweight effort. Interestingly, as Cregger noted that "Weapons" was inspired to an extent by Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia," it makes sense then that his follow up is something shorter and simpler, considering that Anderson's follow up to his picture was "Punch Drunk Love."

In some reviews of the film, critics have noted that Cregger's film is more successful than any other in recent memory in capturing the vibe and feel of a video game in a movie format. In other words, the movie follows a first-person shooter character (Austin Abrams as Bryan) as he enters dark rooms not knowing what's in there - the film includes a few very effective jump scares, one of which actually made me shout in surprise - and looks for clues or new weapons.

This element of the picture may not resonate with me, as I never played video games much, but the film operates almost simplistically as one tense sequence after the next in which a character wanders into frightening scenarios and then is forced to react to whatever is there. It's effective, albeit slightly redundant as Abrams sees something horrifying and responds with "what the fuck" or something along those lines, over and over again.

In other words, Cregger fans hoping that he would take on something as complex, both thematically and visually, as "Weapons" might be a little disappointed to find him dabbling in franchise filmmaking and delivering something that is relatively straightforward and lacking in complexity.

"Resident Evil" would rank third among the three films by Cregger that I've seen - "Weapons" is the clear favorite, while the unsettling "Barbarian" comes in second - but it's still a good genre effort that displays its director's talents throughout. It's often funny, grotesque, frightening, and stylistically impressive. While I not-so-secretly hope that his next film will be something of greater heft, this will certainly do for now.

Review: The Weight

Image courtesy of Vertical.

Padraic McKinley's "The Weight" feels like a crime drama and adventure that was written by John Steinbeck. It's many things at once - a tale of people struggling in the 1930s during the Great Depression, a prison drama, and a wilderness adventure that feels as if it was inspired somewhat by "The Wages of Fear" and "Sorcerer," but on foot.

The picture succeeds on all fronts and features yet another great performance by Ethan Hawke, who has turned in one underrated and understated portrayal after another in recent years. In this film, he plays Samuel Murphy, who is evicted from his home early in the picture and sets out to find a new place to live with his young daughter, Penny (Avy Berry).

While looking through the window of a place that rents out apartments, after not having been able to locate the superintendent, he is mistaken for a thief and gets into an altercation with some men, who turn out to be police. He is arrested and thrown into jail. Penny is taken away and placed in a foster home. 

Some time later, Murphy is residing in a work camp operated by Warden Clancy (Russell Crowe), a task master who allows for little nonsense. Within a year, Penny will end up a ward of the state, leaving Murphy little recourse to getting her back. 

When Murphy jumps in and devises a plan to help the men in the work camp to move a gigantic stone - seemingly an impossible task - he catches the attention of Clancy, who takes a shine to him. Eventually, he tells Murphy that he has a job for him that, if carried out successfully, could allow him to get out of prison earlier, thereby giving him a chance to get Penny back.

The mission involves carrying backpacks full of gold through the Oregon wilderness to a rendezvous point. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had announced that in an effort to halt currency deflation that was dragging out the Depression, he had decided to take the United States off the gold standard, sending federal marshals to remove gold held in vaults by the Federal Reserve Bank.

Murphy and the three other convicts he chooses - plus two heavies sent by the bank and a Native American woman (Julia Jones) who follows them - are tasked with transporting the gold before the government can get its hands on it. The problem is that people living in the region know the bank is holding gold, so there's a possibility that Murphy's men could run across greedy men with guns in the woods who want to get their hands on the gold.

"The Weight" works well as a Depression-era drama about people struggling to survive - something which I'm sure modern audiences can appreciate - but also as a tense thriller about desperate men up against unbelievable odds - there's a particularly nerve-wracking scene involving the transportation of the gold across a wobbly bridge that reminded me of something out of an Indiana Jones movie.

Crowe is effective in his role as the probably untrustworthy Clancy and most of the rest of the cast provides solid supporting work - Jones as the the resourceful Anna, Avi Nash as the Indian-American socialist prisoner Singh, and Austin Amelio as Rankin, the troublemaker of the group. 

But it's Hawke who carries the film in yet another strong performance as Murphy, a quiet man who has more going on under the surface than what his fellow prisoners might notice. Often, his performance relies on facial expressions, rather than dialogue, to carry scenes. It's a great performance in a film that, in another era, would probably have been directed by John Huston, Anthony Mann, or Walter Hill. "The Weight" was one of the biggest hits at this year's Sundance Film Festival and it's easy to see why.

Review: Practical Magic 2

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

A lot of old movies and TV shows are getting recycled to cash in on nostalgia, some of which are welcome while others are, perhaps, unnecessary.

“Practical Magic 2” is a case of the latter. The original 1998 film was a modestly amusing dramedy about two sisters named Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) who lived with their spinster aunts, Jet (Dianne Weist) and Franny (Stockard Channing), all of whom happened to be witches.

The women in the family were victims of a centuries-spanning curse that ensured anyone they fell in love with would die. The picture – and its sequel – are based on novels by Alice Hoffman and could probably play on a triple feature with “The Witches of Eastwick” and “Bell, Book and Candle.”

In this sequel, Sally has long been living in a sort of denial of her witchy powers – especially after her husband (Aidan Quinn, not present here) died – while Gillian remains a free spirit and a heavy influence on Sally’s now-grown daughters, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams).

Kylie has been sneaking around with a young man (Xolo Mariduena) and, as it turns out, has told him that she loves him, which leads to an accident that lands him in a coma. Distraught and angry at her family that she has been left in the dark regarding the family’s curse, she travels to England to break the curse. Why England? That’s apparently where the woman who started the curse was born, although the details are a bit confusing.

Sally and Gillian, who frequently bicker, follow Kylie across the pond to protect her and, in the process, Sally meets a professor (Lee Pace) on whom she develops a crush, but keeps it at bay for obvious reasons.

On the one hand, the film has a cast of great actresses – Kidman, Weist, Bullock, and Channing, so it’s a shame to see them all forced to go through the motions of a mostly middling sequel to a movie that’s now 28 years old.

Kidman gets to shine a little as the wilder sister, but it’s a primarily by-the-numbers sequel. Mostly, the cast revisits the same character beats from the 1998 picture.

The film has its moments – there are a few legitimate laughs to be had – but “Practical Magic 2” joins “Masters of the Universe,” “Scary Movie 6,” and “Mortal Kombat II” are further proof that not all existing IP must continue to be revisited.

Review: Hope

Image courtesy of Neon.

There's a lull for about 20 minutes a little over an hour into Na Hong-jin's absolutely bonkers monster movie "Hope," but everything that comes before and after is otherwise nonstop, relentless motion, giving the film the feel of an unholy mixture between Bong Joon Ho's "The Host" and "Mad Max: Fury Road." Alas, the picture doesn't quite stick the landing with an ending that is likely to elicit a few huhs, but this is a mostly enjoyable and wild sci-fi-horror-action hybrid.

The picture jumps right into it as a group of small town South Koreans notice mutilated cattle along the roadside. They don't think a bear could have been responsible and a few characters briefly ponder whether it was a tiger - which seems unlikely. From this point on, we follow police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jun-min) as he goes in search of an answer.

The picture flits about with various characters - Bum-seok, his badass fellow cop Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon), and Sung-gi (Zo In-sung), Bum-seok's cousin - as they track what turns out to be a large monster as it wreaks havoc in the town. The first hour miraculously involves numerous chases involving the monster, but we don't actually see what it looks like until shortly after the 60-minute mark. The film has a few flaws, one of which is that its creatures look a little on the CGI side.

But the look of the creatures matters little when the film is such an incredibly shot series of set pieces - which include a chase through the town on foot, a wild car ride, several chases through a forest, and then the craziest car ride this side of the "Mad Max" movies toward the film's end. This is one of those rare films in which I didn't mind overlooking some of the plot holes and lack of context and just sat back and enjoyed its incredible action sequences.

Although there comes a point when the nonstop action can wear the viewer down a bit, Hong-jin displays ingenuity in its final high-speed chase in which a monster pursues a car and a person on horseback on a highway. The film's weakest element, unfortunately, is its ending, which on the one hand could possibly provide fodder for a sequel, or instead merely intends to show that what took place in the film is merely a small piece of a larger puzzle. Either way, it's a bit jarring and not exactly successful.

Regardless, this is a film that I have no problem recommending to those who enjoy action movies, horror films, creature features, or Korean movies with an oddball sense of humor. This is a movie that you watch for the sum of its parts - and those parts often play like gangbusters.

Review: Onslaught

Image courtesy of A24.

 Adam Wingard has spent the past five years making Kaiju movies - two entries in the never-ending Godzilla saga - so it's nice to see him returning to the low-budget type of B-movies on which he cut this teeth. It's just a shame that his new film, "Onslaught" comes up a little short.

The picture shares some DNA with "The Guest," a far superior thriller about a super soldier who terrorizes a small town, in its story about men turned into killing machines. It feels like a mixture of "The Terminator," "Halloween," and various other low-budget, violent sci-fi thrillers from the 1980s.

The setup is simple - almost too simple: A weirdo German scientist (Dan Stevens) who appears to be into BDSM with his wife (Rebecca Hall) is developing three super soldiers at a base in the middle of the desert. The place is top secret, so when the three soldiers go berserk and kill everyone at the base, it is in the government's best interest to cover it up.

Rather than try to put down the soldiers, Hall's character tells the government spook assigned to the case, a foppish character named Cyrus (Drew Starkey), who is introduced for no apparent reason at a BDSM-themed strip club (this film goes all in, albeit briefly, on the kink), that it would be interesting to see what happens when the soldiers are released on a civilian population.

That population is a small trailer park community down the road, where a former soldier named Celeste (Adria Arjona), who has a lot of flashbacks and a small daughter (Blake Kennedy) in tow for the weekend after her ex shows up unexpectedly, fights through the night to survive. She is joined by another older veteran (Reginald VelJohnson) and a seemingly useless cop (Eric Wareheim) to fight off the marauders.

The film is short and since it takes a while for the two worlds to collide - the super soldiers and the trailer park - it feels somewhat inconsequential when they finally do and the situation is resolved pretty quickly. Arjona is good enough as Celeste, but she and all of the other characters in the movie are merely sketches. There's an incident from her past that is divulged to her daughter that then resurfaces in the present in a not particularly believable way. This flashback involves what has to be the lowest-stakes fist fight I've ever seen.

The picture combines over-the-top violence and outright weirdness - the German scientist and the Cyrus character - that make the film colorful enough, but feel like whiplash in terms of tone. Some of Wingard's previous genre exercises - especially "The Guest" - were tense and engaging, but this one feels like a paint-by-numbers genre exercise that utilizes the styles, concepts, and vibes of better movies. Wingard is a talented director of genre movies, but this one felt a little flat.

Review: By Any Means

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Elegance Bratton's "By Any Means" makes up for what it lacks as an historical race-related drama with some intense and enjoyable wish fulfillment sequences - something you might expect out of Quentin Tarantino in recent years - that get the job done. It's somewhat of an exploitation picture that just happens to - allegedly - be based on a true story.

The murder of three men who went down to Mississippi to register Black voters during the Freedom Summer of 1961 is, unfortunately, true. So is the killing of Vernon Dahmer (portrayed here by Giancarlo Esposito), an NAACP chapter president in the region, by the Ku Klux Klan for similar reasons in 1966.

"By Any Means" follows the story of a Black FBI agent named Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who is fictional, who puts himself forward to investigate the murders, but is stifled at first by his superiors (David Strathairn and Josh Lucas). He is eventually partnered with Gregory Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg), a man nicknamed the Grim Reaper who serves as a hired killer for the Colombo Crime Family in New York.

The entire story behind "By Any Means" is that Scarpa was an FBI informant whom they used in Mississippi to obtain information by violent means to help solve the cases of the murdered men. The idea is that Scarpa would strong-arm people to get information, whereas a typical FBI agent would probably play by the book and, as a result, get nowhere.

The FBI has denied that it used Scarpa - and it very well might have - so much of the action in this film is all speculation. The possibility that Scarpa worked with a Black FBI agent is nothing more than a rumor, so the film is mostly a piece of fiction.

However, the atmosphere in the Deep South at that time is far from fiction. So, there's some pleasure to be had watching Scarpa bust some Klan heads to get information. Although Strider is much more by-the-book, he becomes increasingly less inclined to do so. He sure is shocked, however, when Scarpa kills a racist police officer and tells Strider that they should leave the body in the middle of the road and just proceed with their business.

Some might see comparisons to "Green Book," an Academy Award-winning movie that also involved a tough Italian-American - in that case, a bouncer - and a Black man traveling through the South during the 1960s. That picture received some blowback because of the white character introducing the Black character to fried chicken and some similar scenes. 

The closest that "By Any Means" comes to this is Scarpa trying to instill in Strider that following the rules when it comes to investigating bad men isn't always all that it's cracked up to be. Plus, Wahlberg's hamming it up - and I don't mean that as a critique as his portrayal of Scarpa is often amusing - adds a certain levity to the proceedings.

The film isn't one of the great movies to explore civil rights during the 1960s in the United States, but it's often an engaging enough crime procedural with an odd couple at its center. And similar to the joys of pulpy movies in which the Allies crack Nazi heads, there are some pleasures to be had seeing Klan members receive the same treatment. 

Review: The Dog Stars

Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios.

Reviews of his latest film, “The Dog Stars,” have noted that director Ridley Scott’s recent output has not been his strongest.

While I’d agree that “Gladiator II” was one of his lesser efforts – sharks in the Colosseum, really? – I found “The Last Duel” to be pretty gripping and thought “Napoleon” was decent as well.

“The Dog Stars” is, admittedly, not one of his strongest films, but it’s a little better than some of the reviews you’ve read likely suggest. The film is yet another story about survivors in a postapocalyptic setting – this time, it’s only nine years in the future after a disease has ravaged the world.

Hig (Jacob Elordi) is a soft-spoken man who flies a small plane with his dog on reconnaissance, looking for resources and keeping an eye out for potential dangers, while Bangley (Josh Brolin) is a tough former military guy who sits with a gun in the guard tower watching over the large property that the two share.

There’s little information as to how these two men paired up, but we learn that Hig’s wife died from the disease. Hig likes to explore and occasionally, much to Bangley’s chagrin, drops off food and other supplies to a Mennonite community located in an isolated spot in the mountains. Bangley, on the other hand, seems fine being disconnected from the world, other than the marauders who occasionally attempt to enter the property and are promptly gunned down.

An attack from a group of marauders one day leads Hig to try his luck elsewhere and he sets out in his plane, which stalls and drops him off near a farm where a surly farmer, Pops (Guy Pearce), and his daughter, Cima (Margaret Qualley), live. At first, Pops doesn’t trust Hig, but Cima quickly takes to him and helps him to restore his plane.

Without giving away too much more about the plot, suffice it to say that these new friends accompany Hig on his travels, while Bangley attempts to fend off a massive number of marauders that are part of a roving gang. The film has action sequences, but often plays more as a somber story about loneliness at the end of the world.

Some of it works pretty well. There’s a nice camaraderie between Hig and Bangley, and the scenes between Elordi, Pearce, and Qualley are some of the picture’s best. It’s a film with some nice touches – for example, when Pops uses a story involving blueberry pancakes to gain the trust of a new group of people.

Then again, there are also some misses – namely, an extended sequence during which Hig, Pops, and Cima find themselves in Grand Junction, Colorado, where a utopian-seeming society has been set up and is led by Allison Janney feels almost cartoonish compared to the rest of the film’s solemn vibe.

All in all, this is not one of Scott’s best films, but it has its moments and throughout I was curious to see where the character’s journeys would take them. It has a solid cast and some beautiful cinematography. Even if it doesn’t all completely come together, it’s better than some reviews of the film might lead you to believe.

Review: Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma

Image courtesy of MUBI.

Jane Schoenbrun is one of the most unique among the crop of new directors to watch. Their surrealist horror dramas often relate to personal experiences - this can be gleaned from watching the films, but also from Schoenbrun's interviews about them - from being a trans filmmaker.

While I can't remember if this applies to "We're All Going to the World's Fair," Schoenbrun's second and still best film to date, "I Saw the TV Glow," had to do with the process of coming out as trans and both the acceptance one seeks from oneself and others during that process.

The director's third picture, "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," covers both topics in its title - but mainly the former. The film's murderous villain's name is Little Death, which clearly references the French phrase "le petite morte," which translates to the same thing and refers to an orgasm.

Much like "I Saw the TV Glow," Schoenbrun's latest takes a roundabout - and intriguing - method of examining something (in this case, sex) from the trans experience. One of its two central characters, Kris (Hannah Einbinder), is a filmmaker who has always kept sex at a remove and has trouble with intimacy. It's not until she imagines herself as someone else - literally placing herself mentally in another body - that she is able to fully experience what she seeks.

In this case, the other body is one of the many victims of the murder sprees at Camp Miasma, a fictional camp where counselors are murdered across a series of films by Little Death, a character who was humiliated for exploring both their masculine and feminine sides and then drowned in the camp's lake.

The picture takes obvious cues from "Sleepaway Camp," which also featured a serial killer with a female-masculine complex and there's a shot in Schoenbrun's movie that clearly mimics the frightful face being made by that killer at the film's end. 

But even more so, the film is an homage to the "Friday the 13th" series in that its central villain was teased and then drowned in a lake. There's an installment in the fictional franchise that is set in Manhattan, and there's even a scene in which a man (Patrick Fischler, of "Mulholland Drive") tells the campers in the first entry in the series that they are all doomed. There's also an installment titled "A New Beginning." 

The film's plot centers around Kris' attempt to reboot the franchise and, in the process, visiting the snowy lake where the films were shot and where the original final girl from the series, Billy Presley (a delightfully vampy Gillian Anderson), is now living a secluded life. During the course of the visit, Kris is able to examine her problems with sex and how the film series plays a role in this.

Along the way, the picture involves some nutty needle drops - Donna Lewis, Sade, and the usage of a Counting Crows song that is unlikely to be forgotten. Long clips of the fictional film are interspersed with the main action, so that in many ways the film within the film becomes a bit more interesting than what's going on outside of it. And considering that this is a horror movie, of sorts, there is a lot of bloodshed in that film within the film.

The picture ultimately takes a surreal turn in its final third that approaches the material in a much more meta method. Although I could appreciate why Schoenbrun chose to do so - considering what it represents - and how it speaks to the overall narrative, I found these scenes to be a bit too literal, while also being surreal if that makes sense, to be effective. 

That being said, this is, much like their previous films, a truly original work from a distinctive cinematic voice. "I Saw the TV Glow" remains, for me, Schoenbrun's finest hour so far, but "Camp Miasma" is a mostly effective and often quite entertaining film that combines genre with some very personal elements. It's probably unlike anything else you'll see this summer.

Review: The End Of Oak Street

Image courtesy of Warner Bros. 

David Robert Mitchell's "The End of Oak Street" is a lean and mean sci-fi thriller in the mold of a "Jaws"-era Steven Spielberg film that is likely to be one of the summer's genuine surprises for unsuspecting audiences. The film is Mitchell's first in eight years after "Under the Silver Lake" was mostly met with derision (somewhat unfairly), whereas his sophomore film, the great "It Follows," was a critical darling.

His newest film shares some similarities with "It Follows" - both films are set in the suburbs, a place that people have created to make themselves feel safe, but in Mitchell's films have been infiltrated by evil or violence. Both pictures also use the nerve-wracking tactic of showing something dangerous lurking and slowly approaching as unwitting characters go about their business.

Aside from those similarities, the film feels like a fast paced, but shorter and more gruesome, version of "Jurassic Park" in the suburbs. But Mitchell has managed to make the drama involving the picture's central family as compelling as the tense and fast-paced set pieces.

In the film, Greg (Ewan McGregor) and Denise (Anne Hathaway, who's having quite a summer) are lying to each other. He is taking part-time jobs - such as delivering pizza - to cover for the fact that he has lost his job. She is secretly sneaking away to the basement to write a novel about a woman who is thinking about bailing on her family. Their teenage son (Christian Convery) and daughter (Maisy Stella) are aware that something is wrong.

One night, the family's suburb witnesses a strange light and some rumblings. The next day, the power and water are out. To their horror, the family notices that dinosaurs of varying sizes and appetites are roaming the streets, picking off the neighbors.

I'm not going to delve too deeply into how this phenomenon occurred, but the concept of wormholes and Carl Sagan's work is later cited and explained well enough - that is, if the science behind this whole enterprise really matters much to your viewing experience. It probably shouldn't.

Much of the rest of the film is a tense game of cat-and-mouse as the family - and several other characters in their orbit - attempt to survive and find their way to the wormhole, in the hopes that they can jump back into the present. Between chases through backyards involving T-Rexes and a gigantic snake-like creature slithering into a house during one of the film's best set pieces, "The End of Oak Street" mostly plays like an exciting - albeit expensive looking - B movie.

On the whole, it's pretty fun - and there are a few genuine shocks during its brisk running time. It also has an ending that might be viewed as happy, but perhaps not so much when you stop to think about it. The cast is solid across the board, with Hathaway as the MVP, once again starring in a movie this summer in which her home invaded by unwanted guests.

"It Follows" remains one of my favorite horror movies of the 21st century, and it proved Mitchell to be a master of tone and mood. Much like that film, "The End of Oak Street" depicts the suburbs as a place of  superficial safety and deeply-buried angst. While Mitchell's 2015 horror movie is a bit deeper thematically, "The End of Oak Street" provides enough to chew on to compliment its thrill-ride moments. 

It's been a good summer for big budget, blockbuster filmmaking - including the latest from Spielberg and Christopher Nolan and, now, Mitchell. For a movie that's theoretically a bit bleak, "The End of Oak Street" is pretty enjoyable.

Review: Sheep In A Box

Image courtesy of Neon.

Hirokazu Koreeda is one of Japan's greatest filmmakers and has been considered the heir apparent to the great Yasujiro Ozu. Both filmmakers are known for their measured paces and quiet observances of the human condition.

Koreeda's latest, "Sheep in the Box," finds the filmmaker venturing a little further from his typical subject matter, despite it still being a family drama, by confronting the topic of AI and telling a story that could best be described as science fiction.

In the picture, Kensuke (Daigo Yamamoto) and his wife, Otone (Haruka Ayase), live a quiet but seemingly normal life, considering that their young son, Kakeru, died two years before in an incident that only becomes more mysterious as it is further discussed.

Otone learns about a company that provides artificially intelligent (AI) family members to those who have lost love ones - and despite Kensuke's reluctance, the couple agrees to welcome a new Kakeru, who looks like their son but is obviously a robot, into their home.

No, the film doesn't turn into a horror movie, but instead focuses on how the couple tries to reconcile that their son is lost forever and that the being who looks like him - and seemingly has recovered some of the boy's memories - isn't actually him.

There are some interesting scenes to be mined from this story and, for about two-thirds of the film's running time, it remains intriguing. Koreeda makes an odd storytelling choice in its final third that involves Kakeru being mentored by a teenager who might also be AI and who leads a group of robots who have been abandoned. The film portrays this crew as a lost boys (of the Peter Pan variety, not vampires) type of group and ends on a utopian note that I can't help but view as a misstep.

Koreeda has made some great films - notably, his Palm d'Or-winning "Shoplifters" as well as "After Life," "Maborosi," and "Broker" - and his latest film adopts the gentle style and character-driven storytelling techniques with which one has become accustomed, but it doesn't completely come together. 

"Sheep in the Box" is far from a bad movie - in fact, it's a pretty decent one before the misstep late in the film - so it ends up just being a minor movie from a typically reliable director. 

Review: One Night Only

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

"One Night Only" mostly induces groans (though not the type for which the film is hoping), but I suppose it deserves some sort of credit for being the only - checks notes - raunchy rom com that is set in a Christofascist regime.

Playing sort of like a more humorous (albeit only occasionally) version of "The Purge," replete with meet-cutes and jokes involving people running around barely clothed in Manhattan, "One Night Only" doesn't exactly start with the greatest premise. 

In the film, Congress has recently voted for The Mandate, which declares that non-married people can only have sex one night per year and, therefore, this one particular night turns into a sexual free-for-all in which people are roaming the streets desperately trying to hook up with strangers.

At the center of this story is Allie (Monica Barbaro), whose job singing jingles to the tune of popular songs about such things as psoriasis is one of the picture's few jokes that land. Allie had a seemingly successful hookup the previous year, but was ghosted by the guy.

The film's other lead character is Owen (Callum Turner), a sincere pizza shop owner whose girlfriend (Maya Hawke), tells him on the big night that she plans on sleeping with someone else, leaving him bummed out and scrambling for companionship.

Most of the film involves these two characters continually bumping into one another - the first time literally - and becoming friends throughout the day, all the while evading the obvious solution: that they should be together. Instead, they ignore the obvious and seek sexual healing elsewhere - he with an older British woman whom he awkwardly brings to his mother's house for a hookup and she with a musician who gets increasingly creepier.

But while the film, for most of its running time, is a mostly harmless rom com with a premise that seems relevant to the moment, but then doesn't do anything interesting with it, the movie ultimately takes a very peculiar route toward its end in which its protagonists decide to simply embrace the fascist rules imposed on them - but for the sake of romance, or something like that. 

There have been a few films that have adequately captured the present moment we're living in, whether it's Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar-winning "One Battle After Another" or some of the horror movies of the past few years. "One Night Only," however, isn't one of them. It tries to mine laughs out of an unsettling situation before ultimately saying to just give in to it. 

If there's anything that makes the film watchable, it is its two leads, both of whom are likable. But the script demands ludicrous things from them and, ultimately, their presence isn't enough to recommend this oddly conceived film.

Review: I Want Your Sex

Image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

It's been 12 years since indie provocateur Gregg Araki made a feature film, so if nothing else his latest, "I Want Your Sex," is a cause for celebration. The film is a comedy with a slight element of mystery involved - its wraparound story involves its lead character being grilled by two detectives - in which a young man just out of college named Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) gets into a sub-dom relationship with his boss (Olivia Wilde), a controversial artist who sees sex as the thing that most informs her art. 

Elliot's life is less than lively when we first meet him. He lives with his best friend, Apple (Chase Sui Wonders), and is looking for his first job after having graduated school. His girlfriend, Minerva (Charli XCX) is disinterested, both in bed and in general, and he doesn't have much money to live on.

So, he's naturally enthused to land a gig as the assistant to Erika Tracy (Wilde), a provocative artist whose gallery is filled with her works, most of which have to do with sex. One assignment involves Elliot and co-worker Zap (Mason Gooding), who brags about the orgies in which he's involved seemingly weekly, sticking numerous pieces of chewed bubble gum on a large picture of a vulva that Erika has drawn to give it a certain look and texture. At times, Erika sits and listens while she's working to a soundtrack of her moaning from her at-home masturbatory activities. You get the picture.

No sooner than Elliot takes the job than he is asked by Erika to be her sub. This involves everything from him having to crawl around in her office to being spanked and, in one case, meeting up with a friend of Erika's from out of town and being her "date" for the evening - one which goes spectacularly wrong.

The film opens with a female body floating in the water in a scene that is reminiscent of the opening of "Sunset Boulevard" and the film drops other cinematic references - one cue card says "9 1/2 Weeks Later" - along the way. As usual for an Araki film, there is near constant music playing on the soundtrack, though there's very little of what we might typically expect to hear (no Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, or Ride).

Araki was one of the most outrageous filmmakers of the 1990s indie scene, most notably for his bleak and nihilistic Teen Apocalypse trilogy that included "Totally Fucked Up," "The Doom Generation," and "Nowhere." But it wasn't until 2005 when he reached his creative peak with the devastating and ethereal "Mysterious Skin," one of several movies from that decade that haunted me for years.

"I Want Your Sex" is his most potent film since "Mysterious Skin." It's not as powerful or thoughtful as that picture and comes off as more of a lark. The film somewhat explores issues of power in the workplace and the fact that Erika has economic dominance over Elliot, while at the same Araki tries to keep things light, rather than peeking into some of the darker corners that his previous films did.

Araki has discussed in interviews that he believes Generation Z is sexless and, in the film, this is explored through Elliot and his milieu, though Zap is far from a prude and Elliot gradually learns to become comfortable with his sexuality. This would probably make Erika an avatar for Araki, although she is also clearly viewed as being in the wrong for the manner in which she exploits Elliot and how she uses her persona as a transgressive artist to shield herself from criticism. 

A heavier movie might have followed this thread a little further down the road, but Araki is working in a mode here that has more in common with his other comedies such as "Splendor," "Kaboom!" and "Smiley Face." His latest is not his best movie, but it's his best in a while and I'm glad to see him making another film at long last.

Review: Her Private Hell

Image courtesy of Neon.

It happens sometimes that talented filmmakers become too enamored with their style or obsessed with their fetishes and find themselves adrift. There are numerous directors who could be cited, some of whom eventually bounce back and others who never do.

This seems to be the conundrum for Nicolas Winding Refn, the Danish provocateur who was once the toast of the Cannes Film Festival but has in recent years been cranking out neon-lit fever dreams that are long on atmosphere but short in other departments.

I have championed some of Refn's films, most notably "Drive," the 2011 film that won him Best Director at Cannes and ended up in my top 10 of that decade. Prior to that stellar neo-noir, I was a fan of Refn's "Pusher" trilogy and "Bronson," and thought that his "Bleeder" and "Fear X" were underrated.

But he followed "Drive" up with "Only God Forgives," a grim and surreal gangster saga set in Japan that felt like a letdown, and "The Neon Demon," which was a slight improvement but once again favored style over substance. Unfortunately, his latest, "Her Private Hell," is his furthest delve into the trance-like zone in which his most recent films have been set. 

The film has some stunning imagery and a stellar score from the great Pino Donaggio, but these are both in the service of a story that is borderline nonsensical and performances that seem as if they are tuned in from another wavelength. 

There's the typical Refn stuff here - a complex mother figure, slow stylized violence, eyes being gouged, women who look like models, a hero clad in leather, and inspiration from David Lynch, Samurai, and Giallo films. But very little gels in a way that makes it a watchable film.

There's little point in trying to explain its plot, but I'll give it a shot: Elle (Sophie Hatcher) has a complex relationship with her father (Dougray Scott) and stepmother (Havana Rose Liu). At the film's beginning, she meets a young actress (Kristine Froseth) who says she is excited that the two of them will star in a movie together, though we never get a glimpse of that.

Meanwhile, a mysterious man known as Private K (Charles Melton) roams the foggy, neon-lit city where the film is set, brutally attacking Yazuka figures and searching for a demonic presence known as the Leatherman, who literally tears young women apart. Private K believes that the Leatherman stole his daughter from him some years before.

All of this material is presented as if it's the coolest thing you'll ever see. Characters speak lines as if they are disinterested whether they will register with the audience. Mostly, they come off as posturing. The Leatherman is described in a manner that is meant to strike fear in the heart, but the entire plot line involving this figure is ludicrous. How any plot strand in the film connects with another is beyond me.

Many of my favorite films could be described as strange or oblique, but it's all about how you present your material. Refn here appears to be nurturing his obsessions and stylistic trademarks, but seemingly without much concern as to whether it comes together and forms a movie that might engage an audience. 

He's a talented filmmaker - "Drive" remains one of my favorite films from the past decade, and his earlier work still holds up - but this is now the third film in a row in which he relies solely on style and mood to do the heavy lifting, but it ultimately provides very few rewards for sticking it out.

Review: The Odyssey

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" is an expensive looking art film that plays as an epic adventure - but also occasionally a horror movie - and is one of the most unique blockbusters of recent memory. It's the type of film that hardly gets made anymore in the sense that a major movie studio gave a renowned director the creative license to take a monumental work and transform it into his own personal vision.

Interestingly, the picture takes a fair amount of liberties, all of which not only do not detract from the picture, but instead add unique elements. For example, the Trojan Horse is mentioned briefly in Homer's epic poem, but it plays a major role in Nolan's film. Also, the character of Sinon (Elliot Page) plays a pivotal role in the movie, but is referenced in Virgil's "Aeneid," and not in the works of Homer.

Much has been made - and by all the worst people - about the casting in the film; for example, the casting of Page, a trans actor, as a fierce male warrior, Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Zendaya as Athena, or Himesh Patel as Eurylochus. There are even a few Greeks with New York accents.

But these particular casting choices were made, most likely, because Nolan liked these particular actors, but also because while "The Odyssey" is set in ancient Greece, the director is saying that it belongs to all of us. One of its central themes is that, in the Greece of that time, all people should be welcomed in one's land and treated with dignity and respect because it is possible that they might be a god traveling in disguise. Those who oppose this universal law for power or money are considered villainous. 

The film unfolds non-sequentially, occasionally being told by Odysseus (Matt Damon), the great warrior who has led Agamemnon's (Benny Safdie) army to victory against Troy and then spent 20 years trying to get home, and sometimes from the perspective of Telemachus (Tom Holland), his son. The latter attempts to keep at bay the many suitors who are circling his mother, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), as she awaits her husband's return. The most sinister of these suitors is Antinous (Robert Pattinson), who once cheated the lottery system that would have forced him to accompany Odysseus on his voyage and instead got Sinon to take his place.

The film is full of stunning cinematography, incredibly staged battles, and unnerving scenes that often veer into horror territory - a frightening battle in a cave against The Cyclops, the nerve-wracking choice between Scylla and Charybdis, and Samantha Morton as a scene-stealing Circe, a witch who lures Odysseus' men in with food and then does some pretty nasty things to them.

Nolan is a filmmaker who is used to working on big canvases and his two most recent films - the remarkable "Oppenheimer" and this one - are his most successful epics. There are few filmmakers who can pull off a film of this size and scope, but Nolan does so here.

The picture is also filled with strong performances, some small but memorable (Morton, Page, Leguizamo, and Charlize Theron as the nymph Calypso) and others larger-than-life (Pattinson's sneering villain and Hathaway's distraught wife-in-waiting). But it's Damon who holds it all together in one of the best performances of his career. 

One of the film's more intriguing touches is that its hero isn't always that heroic - he stands by as his men loot and plunder small villages and, during one the most powerful scenes late in the picture, he describes to Penelope the horrors he saw during the Troy invasion, which included women and children being slaughtered by his men. Odysseus also occasionally makes decisions that lead to the death of his own men on the voyage home. 

This summer, so far, has produced two very strong movies from old masters - Steven Spielberg's "Disclosure Day" and this one. Typically, large-scale blockbuster movies don't rank that highly on my list of the year's best, and that's often because despite their abundance of spectacle, they are short on imagination. That cannot be said of Nolan's film (or Spielberg's) as they are absolutely bursting with it. This is one of the year's best.

Review: The Invite

Image courtesy of Annapurna Productions.

Imagine a much raunchier and funnier version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and you'll mostly capture the vibe of "The Invite," which is Olivia Wilde's best outing as a director to date. The film is mostly a chamber piece, set in a San Francisco apartment over the course of an evening, in which a bickering couple portrayed by Seth Rogen and Wilde entertain their neighbors from upstairs, played by Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton, who are known for engaging in loud sex.

From the start, it's easy to tell that the evening will not go smoothly. Rogen's Joe has just gotten home from teaching at the small music conservatory where he goes through the motions of his job - he's a former musician who never made it and is seemingly bitter about his lot in life - and learns that Angela (Wilde) has planned a dinner with the neighbors since their daughter is spending the night away from home.

Joe is adamant about cancelling the dinner, and threatens to bring up the fact that the neighbors' epic bouts of sex make it hard for them to sleep. When the guests arrive, Joe and Angela are surprised at how normal they seem - Hawk (Norton) is a retired firefighter who now spends his time obsessing over his interests (he's an admirer of rugs and other home decor touches), while Pina (Cruz) is a psychologist whose work often includes sex-related issues (we learn at one point in the film that Joe and Angela's sex life has taken a turn for the worse over time).

It's not too long into the evening when Joe and Angela learn that Hawk and Pina's loud nocturnal activities are a little wilder than they imagined: The upstairs couple often hosts orgies. This piques the interest of their hosts, who ply them for details, seemingly living vicariously through their neighbors. Soon afterward, the plot takes an even nuttier turn that I won't divulge, but suffice it to say that the evening gets increasingly wilder as the pasts and interests of all the gathered come to the forefront.

The film's second half is much stronger than its first, which suffers a little from over-direction - the fights between Joe and Angela are dialed up to 11 in the film's early scenes and border on being cartoonish. 

But the film becomes increasingly funnier - Rogen's reactions throughout the picture to all that is going on around him are priceless, while Norton provides some great supporting comedic support -  and more emotionally resonant as the evening proceeds. Late in the film, Norton gives a great monologue about how he chose the name "Hawk" for himself, and the film's final scene suggests a possible reconciliation that is moving.

This is Wilde's third effort behind the camera. Her debut, "Booksmart," was a widely praised coming of age comedy that I liked well enough, but didn't think was as amazing as some others did. Her much-maligned sophomore effort, "Don't Worry Darling," was a visually stylish mess in which individual moments were greater than the sum of its parts. 

"The Invite" may be smaller in scale due to its sole location and smaller cast, but it's more assured, often very funny, and a showcase for its cast. It's a movie that observes its characters well and occasionally cracks a joke at their expense, but never judges them. And amid its almost nonstop barrage of laughs (once it really gets going), it occasionally surprises when its characters reveal something honest and true. 

Review: Young Washington

Image courtesy of Angel Studios.

A film about a founding father certainly beats spending a Fourth of July weekend listening to the current president rant and rave, calling his political opponents "communists," or attending the Great American State Fair, which has fewer participants than the Bounce House at your small town's weekend carnival.

"Young Washington" has been produced by Angel Studios, a company that primarily releases religious-themed movies - some not so bad ("American Underdog"), some not so great ("Jesus Revolution"), and some entirely dubious ("Sound of Freedom," which is on a list of movies alongside "Melania" that I refuse to watch).

This movie, which chronicles the early years of George Washington (William Franklyn-Miller), is probably the studio's most watchable film that I've experienced - which is not quite the same as saying it completely works. The picture is well shot - although I've read that it utilized AI in about 100 shots, which is indefensible - and it is has a solid cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis, and Mary-Louise Parker.

The film is, if nothing else, an interesting enough history lesson about what Washington was up to prior to becoming a leader in the American Revolution and the nation's first president. The picture primarily follows his days as a surveyor in the Ohio territory and his resulting conflicts with the French. It depicts both his ambition and his foibles, which at one point lead him to a devastating defeat by the French as he attempts to gain favor with the British. 

Franklyn-Miller does a decent job of capturing the young man's confidence without making him seem arrogant or cocky. His scenes with Kingsley, who portrays Robert Dinwiddie, are the film's best, while the sequences with Sally Fairfax (Mia Rodgers), whom he moons over, are not as effective.

For a film by a studio that mostly traffics in religious pictures, "Young Washington" has some surprisingly tense and well-made battle scenes, though the one in which Washington rides side saddle to avoid being shot would, perhaps, have been better left to a Roland Emmerich picture. The film also mostly sidesteps religious themes, that is, until the end when a Native American chief suggests that his men's inability to shoot Washington during a battle must be because he was some sort of Chosen One.

All in all, "Young Washington" isn't too bad - but I'd also argue that there's a better film to be made about the nation's first president. The film's dialogue is a little on the nose and often a bit on the melodramatic side, giving it the feel of a Hallmark or made-for-TV movie. But as I said before, it certainly beats tuning in to the current "celebration" of our nation's 250th anniversary. 

Review: Couture

Courtesy of Closer Media.

Alice Winocour's "Couture" observes a moment in the lives of three women who are all, in one form or fashion, taking part in Paris Fashion Week. Each has their own challenges, although some are more serious than others.

As we meet Angelina Jolie's Maxine, she is preparing to shoot a short film that will kick off Paris Fashion Week. A bigwig at Chanel is apparently a fan of Maxine's indie vampire movie - and she's on the precipice of getting her big break and directing something of a larger scale - and has invited her to shoot the fashion-related short.

But during her trip, she gets a call from her doctor back home, who tells her that a health screening in which she took part led to some concerns, and tells her she should get further testing done while in Paris. He recommends a friend, Hensen (Vincent Lindon), who breaks the news that she has an aggressive form of breast cancer. He recommends that she undergo an operation in Paris, promising that unlike other doctors he intends to try to salvage as much of her breast as possible, rather than do a full mastectomy. 

Elsewhere, a young model from Sudan named Ada (Anyier Anei) has just arrived in Paris and, we are told, will star in Maxine's film and be the lead model on the runway during the accompanying Paris Fashion Week event. She is a novice and soaks up all of the advice she is given from the models in the flat where she's crashing - they hail from China, France, and a variety of other places, although it's a Ukrainian model with whom Ada bonds, despite their rocky start.

Ada, once a pharmacy student in her home country, has lied to her father about why she's in Paris. Only her younger brother, who frequently tries to contact her via Facetime, knows the real purpose of her visit. Ada is open to the adventure she is undertaking, although she's not sure whether it's the right choice for her.

The film's third character is a makeup artist named Angele (Ella Rumpf) who longs to be a writer and is struggling with a book that she's trying to complete. The models appear to respect her and it's easy to see why - unlike others depicted here from the fashion world, she is supportive to those who sit in the chair as she applies makeup and she's full of good advice. However, the editor with whom she is working believes that her manuscript won't draw much interest outside of the fashion world.

"Couture" bounces back and forth between these three stories, all three of which are engrossing, although Angele's story is the one that receives the least amount of development. Jolie gives a soulful performance as Maxine, a woman whose time has come career-wise, but who is faced with the terrifying prospect of her failing health and can't think of a way to break the news to her daughter. Anei is also convincing as Ada, who is not yet confident about her abilities as a model and seems in a state of dazed wonder at the luminous city in which she finds herself.

If there are any problems with "Couture," it's that some of the storylines just slightly stretch credibility. For example, would Maxine's health situation be so dire that she would need to see a doctor and undergo an operation during the short period of time she's in Paris? Would Ada, a novice, really be the first model to come out on the runway during a Paris Fashion Week event? And a brief sexual encounter between Maxine and Anton (Louis Garrel), a colleague on the short film, seems to exist for no real reason.

But otherwise, this is an intriguing, well acted, and often moving film about the challenges of three women who are all involved, at least momentarily, in the same industry but who are very different in terms of background, history, and the stage of life at which they find themselves. There have been many films set inside the world of fashion, but "Couture" has a vibe that is different from most of the ones I can recall.

Review: Toy Story 5

Image courtesy of Pixar.

There have been several endings to the "Toy Story" movies where the series could logically end - but here we are with a fifth entry that is overall good, but a lesser entry of the bunch, albeit among the most topical. There are, I'm sure, other films of recent memory that have done a decent job of observing the older generation looking with apprehension at the younger generation - but I can't immediately think of any that capture it as aptly as this one.

Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) appear once again, but it's Jessie (Joan Cusack) who takes center stage in this latest entry. In the film, Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) is now 8 years old and having a difficult time making friends. She still plays with Jessie and her other toys, but seemingly feels left out when most of the other children spend much of their time on gadgets.

This doesn't go unnoticed by Jessie, Buzz, Woody, and the other toys. The film's humans are depicted as almost always being haloed by a glow coming from their devices, creating a sense of unease for the toys and, frankly, for anyone else who believes that the modern world is currently becoming digital to the point that almost everything else might soon be obsolete.

When Bonnie's parents purchase a device known as Lilypad (Greta Lee) for her, it instantly puts her in touch with a group chat of young girls her age. However, they smirk at her continuing to play with her toys, which in turn leads Bonnie to shove them aside for her new gadget. Jessie believes that she can help Bonnie by smuggling herself along during a sleepover at one of the new friend's houses, but this only makes things worse.

Lilypad proves to be a capable nemesis for Jessie and the gang, causing all sorts of problems for them at the mere push of a button. Later in the film, Jessie meets a group of outdated devices (led by Conan O'Brien's Smarty Pants) that teaches her that both she and her friends and some of these devices each have their purpose in Bonnie's life.

The "Toy Story" movies have been Pixar's longest running - and likely - most successful series. It's an interesting move to make Jessie the central character in this film - giving Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang supporting roles - and to focus on children's increased use of devices and decrease in other forms of play or activity. 

It creates a sense of unease when I see adults constantly plugged into devices, but even more chilling when I think of how entire generations are being raised on them. This picture utilizes this concept adroitly. 

While the "Toy Story" films have been high on quality during their 31-year run, this entry feels more in line with some of the other Pixar sequels - definitely still good, but not on par with the best of the animation studio's efforts. Earlier this year, on the other hand, I thought that "Hoppers" was the best Pixar movie I'd seen since 2020's underrated "Soul."

While some will no doubt argue that the film's central concept - that something is lost when most humans, including children, have their heads buried in screens all day - is old and fusty, I appreciated that the film ends on a note of encouraging children to engage in active play and use their imaginations. This would be a good film for parents to encourage their children to see.

Review: Disclosure Day

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

One of director Steven Spielberg's most common stylistic flourishes is a shot of someone looking up at something - whether it's a dinosaur in "Jurassic Park," a flying saucer in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," or a movie screen in "The Fabelmans" - in a state of wonder and awe. These days, most people spend their time looking down - at their cellular devices, mostly, in a zombified state - but Spielberg is in his latest film calling on us to change all that and once again become curious about our world and universe.

His latest film, "Disclosure Day," is about many things, some of which are relevant to our current lived experience: a lack of faith in the government (which certainly applies at the moment), the feeling that we are not being trusted by higher powers to obtain knowledge for ourselves and, therefore, being taught to fear the unknown, and a pervasive disconnectedness that is being driven by technology. It is also not circumstantial that the film's sinister government figures are keeping aliens in detention centers.

The film is about the empowerment, joy, and enlightening experience of being brought together with people of different walks of life for a communal experience. In the case of this film, it's the knowledge that we are not alone in the universe, though from Spielberg's perspective it could be simpler - experiencing the wonders of a movie with an audience.

The picture jumps right into the action, almost as if you've missed the first episode of a TV show. Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor) formerly worked for a top secret government agency known as Wardex, helping to keep information about extraterrestrial visits to Earth over the decades a secret. But after discovering some footage depicting torture and various other cover-ups, he goes on the lam as a whistleblower, working with a group of dissidents led by Hugo (Colman Domingo) to plan for the titular day when all will be revealed. 

The opening scene is at what appears to be a UFC fight - which is, thankfully, not being held on the White House lawn - where he is to trade a backpack full of sensitive material for his girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), who is being held hostage by Wardex's sinister leader, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). 

Meanwhile, in Kansas City, a peppy weather woman, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), finds herself exhibiting unusual powers - speaking in languages she doesn't know, being able to read people's minds, and most alarmingly, eliciting a series of clicks and croaks during a broadcast. Her boyfriend (Wyatt Russell) appears to be at the end of his rope.

These various threads come together in imaginative ways - although if one couldn't be blamed for thinking that there's almost too much information being juggled during the film's first two-thirds - in the film's finale. 

The picture takes an interesting route for a summer blockbuster: The film's first two hours are an almost nonstop chase among the various parties, leading to some superb set pieces - a tense sequence involving a car and two trains that only Spielberg could pull off with such panache and another that takes a more humorous approach and involves the film's heroes eluding Wardex via a piece of alien technology that enables invisibility.

However, the film's final 30 minutes end on a note that is awe-inspiring - not because of another finely-executed set piece, but rather due to Spielberg's ability to bring together all of its narrative strands and themes - the need for connection in a disconnected world, the idea of empathy as strength and lies and fear-mongering as weakness, and the power of a unifying event - in a satisfying way.

Spielberg has long been a master of populist blockbuster filmmaking - "Jaws," the Indiana Jones movies, "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial" - but those larger-scale movies have been interspersed with great films of a more personal or historical nature - "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," and "The Fabelmans." 

With "Disclosure Day," he has utilized the tools of the former (aliens, impressive set pieces and chase scenes) to address concepts that one might have expected to be found in his films of a more - for lack of a better phrase - serious nature. The result is his best blockbuster film since "Minority Report."

As I'd mentioned earlier, many great directors have trademark shots that appear in many of their films, from Spike Lee's floating double dolly shot to the sinister Kubrick Glare. Considering the filmography of this particular director, Spielberg's shot of people looking up in awe and wonder is a fitting one. By the end of "Disclosure Day," I was one of them.