If you’re exhausted by the relentless march of Marvel movies, it may help to know that you’re not alone, as some of the characters themselves share the sentiment. “Maybe I’m just bored,” a recalcitrant Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) surmises while jumping off a gigantic Kuala Lumpur tower at the opening of Thunderbolts*, the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s going through the motions, both literally and figuratively, completing shady clean-up missions under the thumb of CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Still mourning the loss of her sister and the distancing of her stepfather Alexei (David Harbour), Yelena doesn’t know what she wants but she knows it isn’t this. If the ethos of The Avengers was “success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm,” then Thunderbolts* would be summed up by “if you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Yelena tells Valentina she wants out and is sent on a final mission to an off-the-map facility to destroy evidence of illegal scientific operations being run under de Fontaine’s purview. After she breaks in, Yelena’s confronted by super soldier John Walker (Wyatt Russell), who says he’s been sent there to kill her. Not a moment later, another assassin Antonia (Olga Kurylenko) engages John and then yet another assassin Ava (Hannah John-Kamen) shows up to take out Antonia. The group takes a beat to recognize the presence of a bystander named Bob (Lewis Pullman) and collectively realize they’ve been sent there to kill one another. Narrowly escaping from de Fontaine’s trap, the group of “disposable delinquents” (as Ava dubs them) solicit the help of now-congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to settle the score with their conniving employer.

It’s impressive how the Thunderbolts* incorporates so many well-worn tropes — in addition to being a “one last job” and “ragtag band of misfits” movie, the film’s climax finds city dwellers running from a scary thing in the sky — and still comes out on top. Perhaps it’s partially due to the low bar set by some of Marvel Studios’ more recent output but director Jake Schreier and his team seem to have their eye on behind-the-camera diligence in ways that have eluded recent products of the Marvel machine. The tone here is indeed more serious, delving into the darkness of the past lives that haunt the movie’s characters, but doesn’t get too mired by glumness that it can’t have a few laughs along the way. Most importantly, these are characters who start out as odds and ends left over from previous MCU chapters but over the course of the movie, we care about them individually and collectively.

Sadly, Thunderbolts* is subject to the concrete-mixer color grading that has plagued numerous entries in this franchise but the lighting and cinematography is a cut above what we typically get in green-screen affairs. Light and shadow is an important component thematically but visually, DP Andrew Droz Palermo also uses the contrast to signal an all-encompassing menace that’s challenging and creepy. Even things like blocking and editing feel a bit more back-to-basics in a good way, with scenes arranged engagingly and the repartee between these antiheroes managed deftly. Technically, most of these characters have superpowers but the combat scenes still tend to focus more on hand-to-hand as opposed to being reliant on CG effects. It’s nice to have a superhero movie that doesn’t hinge only on gargantuan action setpieces.

When Black Widow came out in 2021, Pugh’s Yelena had to play second banana to Scarlett Johansson’s titular Avenger but Marvel wisely trusts Pugh as the face of this new crew. She’s been remarkable in film after film and she brings her all to this role, balancing a world-weary malaise with hard-earned optimism and empathy. David Harbour is even more giddy here than he was in Black Widow as the goofy Red Guardian, who’s primarily just excited that Yelena is on a team again for the first time since being a part of her winless soccer squad in childhood. On the villain side of things, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ corrupt politician gets to volley Veepesque snipes like “righteousness without power is just an opinion” at her assistant. After several projects that have signaled a decline in the brand, Thunderbolts* proves that the best way to course-correct is to focus on fundamental filmmaking. You can always count on Marvel to do the right thing, after they’ve exhausted all the other possibilities.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Shadow Force, an action thriller starring Kerry Washington and Omar Sy, following an estranged couple with a bounty on their heads, who must go on the run with their son to avoid their former employer, a unit of shadow ops, that has been sent to kill them.
Also playing in theaters is Clown In A Cornfield, a slasher movie starring Katie Douglas and Aaron Abrams, set in a fading midwestern town in which Frendo The Clown, a symbol of bygone success, reemerges as a terrifying scourge on the town’s teens.
Streaming on Netflix is Nonnas, a food dramedy starring Vince Vaughn and Lorraine Bracco, involving a man who risks everything to honor his recently-deceased mother by opening an Italian restaurant with actual grandmothers as the chefs.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Anchored around a single location like Phone Booth and Red Eye before it, the gripping new thriller Drop chooses a high-rise restaurant in downtown Chicago as its locale du jour. 38 stories above the hustle and bustle, single mother and therapist Violet (Meghann Fahy) grabs a drink at the bar while waiting for her photographer date Henry (Brandon Sklenar) to arrive. It’s Violet’s first night out with a potential suitor in four years, the wounds from the traumatic death of her abusive husband still lingering, while also bearing the responsibility of raising son Toby (Jacob Robinson) by herself. Thankfully, her younger sister Jen (Violett Beane) has stepped up and agreed to babysit Toby for Violet’s special night out and mom can even check in virtually with a video feed from her phone. Henry arrives, apologetic for his absence, and the two get seated but it doesn’t take long for their evening to take a turn for the terrifying.

Violet asks if she can keep her phone on their table so she can receive updates from Jen, to which Henry agrees, but her phone instead keeps pinging with messages sent anonymously from someone in their midst. The Digi-Drops — a facsimile of Apple’s AirDrop technology, so as to not clash with their “no villain clause” — start as obnoxious memes but quickly become more personal. The sender soon reveals their intent and instructions: Violet must kill Henry before the end of their date or the masked hitman in her house will murder Toby and Jen. The disguised “dropper” seems to have eyes in the sky and ears on the table, informing Violet that they’ll also make good on their threat if she tips anyone off or tries to leave the restaurant. Most of us have been on bad first dates but the one at the center of Drop is about as dire as it gets.

Just last Christmas, Netflix had a holiday hit with the nail-biter Carry-On, which also involved a high-wire act of coercion from a criminal communicating covertly with our protagonist. While the identity of the caller in that cat-and-mouse game is revealed about halfway through, Drop makes us sweat out the source of the messages, and their motives, to the very end. Along with screenwriters Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, director Christopher Landon knows the fun of this tale is in us trying to figure out which of the restaurant patrons is responsible for terrorizing Violet. She’s waiting for Henry at the bar long enough to meet several potential suspects but once the Digi-Drops come flooding in, Violet’s bandwidth for sleuthing is strained between heeding the commands from her phone and keeping her date unaware of her predicament.

While Brandon Sklenar is a bit of a drip as the well-meaning but mostly bland date, Meghann Fahy is outstanding in her first big lead role on-screen after breaking out in The White Lotus two years ago. Given the baggage that Violet brings to the table, this evening out would be difficult enough for her as is but as the plot necessitates, it becomes exponentially more demanding. As a survivor of domestic abuse, she unfortunately understands all too well how to put on a brave face and conceal her anxiety under horrific circumstances. Violet knows her son and sisters’ lives are also in jeopardy if Henry decides to ditch the date, so she somehow has to be good company while also constantly monitoring her phone for updates. Fahy is brilliant in the way she balances these conflicting tasks as an actress and her work alone makes the film stand apart from similarly-plotted thrillers.

Naturally, Drop isn’t immune to the plot contrivances that keep thrill rides like this ticking along and some may argue it commits more than its fair share of narrative faux pas. It’s not a plot that necessarily holds up well under scrutiny and there’s one particular story beat that makes absolutely zero sense in hindsight. But Landon and his team certainly do everything they can to keep us on our toes at all times and do so while getting us fully immersed in this gorgeous setting. The restaurant where the majority of the film takes place is an immaculately-rendered and beautifully-lit set that encourages us to look around with our protagonist to suss out the situation. Ironically, Drop is an ideal date night movie choice for those adventurous enough to take the ride.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is Sinners, a supernatural horror film starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, about twin brothers who return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Also coming to theaters is Sneaks, an animated comedy starring Anthony Mackie and Martin Lawrence, involving a sentient sneaker who unwittingly finds himself lost in New York City and has to rescue his sister with the help of other talking shoes.
Streaming on Shudder is Dead Mail, a period thriller starring Sterling Macer Jr. and John Fleck, in which an ominous help note finds its way to a 1980s post office, connecting a dead letter investigator to a kidnapped keyboard technician.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Adapted from his short film Merit x Zoe, the new dramedy My Dead Friend Zoe is the feature debut of writer/director and Bronze Star Medal recipient Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. His experiences serving overseas in the Army during the Iraq War directly impacted both projects, which center around the invisible wounds that so many veterans return home with. But even though it’s mainly about characters who have been in the military, Hausmann-Stokes weaves in universal themes like perseverance after trauma and the power of human connection into a story that’s deeply affecting whether you’ve served or not. Led by what should be a star-making turn from Sonequa Martin-Green, this is a bitingly funny and ultimately moving tribute to the brave men and women in the armed forces.

Martin-Green plays Merit, a sergeant in the middle of an 8-year tour in Afghanistan who primarily works on-base as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. By her side is the bratty and chatty Zoe (Natalie Morales), a specialist waffling between either reenlisting or going to college after her current stint. After returning home, Merit sits recalcitrant while Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman) leads up group therapy and Zoe, who has since passed away, appears only to Merit as a gabby apparition. The manifested memory of Zoe follows Merit as she’s asked to take care of her grandfather Dale (Ed Harris), who’s struggling with early Alzheimer’s, in his Pacific Northwest cabin. While looking for potential retirement communities for her grandpa, Merit strikes up a tentative relationship with Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a manager of one of the facilities.

The hook of My Dead Friend Zoe is right there in the title, a comedic conceit where Zoe can poke and prod at Merit all she wants because no one else can see her. It’s not like we’ve never seen this concept before but in the context of this movie, it helps visualize the inner monologue and mental health struggles that veterans can face after coming home. Though we don’t exactly know the circumstances of Zoe’s death until late in the film, it’s implied that Merit feels guilty and potentially responsible for her passing. Zoe typically has an impish and impudent disposition as a ghostly hanger-on but when Merit attempts to open up with others about her trauma, Zoe’s demeanor is much more dour and hostile, as if her existence is under attack. It’s an apt way to convey how some feel that opening up about their experiences will be too burdensome and choose to bury their feelings instead.

Lest one get the impression that My Dead Friend Zoe is too heavy a meal, Hausmann-Stokes and his co-writer A.J. Bermudez pepper in plenty of deadpan snipes in the interactions between Merit and Zoe. As we see during flashbacks of their time together in Iraq, these two young women may not have been immediate friends stateside but as battle buddies, their friendship is full of warmth and humor. The version of Zoe in Merit’s head seems consistent with who she was in life; when the pair visit a cemetery and Merit tries to scold Zoe for making fun of names on headstones, she shoots back with, “I can joke about the dead; these are my people!” There are also pithy exchanges as Merit begins to open up to others as well; “The Army doesn’t own PTSD,” she tells Alex on a date, wryly following up with, “We are the best at it though.”

As a first-time director, Hausmann-Stokes occasionally gets bogged down in the tropes and contrivances that can hinder both comedies and dramas but most importantly, he does a fine job navigating the movie’s tricky tonal balance. Similarly, Martin-Green does a superb job portraying a character who is obviously holding onto so much but can still find the comedy in her situation and day-to-day interactions. She’s a terrific screen presence with Morales and especially Harris, an acting heavyweight who seems to relish his time on-screen with Martin-Green. A sly slant on a serious subject, My Dead Friend Zoe is a great example of a first-time feature filmmaker translating their unique life experiences to the big screen.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Mickey 17, a sci-fi comedy starring Robert Pattinson and Naomi Ackie, about a financially strapped young man who signs up to become a disposable clone worker and is sent on a dangerous journey to colonize an ice planet.
Also playing in theaters is The Rule Of Jenny Pen, a psychological horror movie starring John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush, following a former judge who is confined to a secluded rest home after a debilitating stroke and is subsequently tormented by one of the residents there.
Premiering on Netflix is Plankton: The Movie, an animated musical comedy starring Mr. Lawrence and Jill Talley, putting the spotlight on the SpongeBob SquarePants supervillain as his plans for world domination are put to a halt when his computer wife decides to take charge.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Arriving just in time for Valentine’s Day, the romcom slasher Heart Eyes succeeds most by staying true to its unique combination of subgenres. It’s genuinely romantic, consistently funny and certainly has the gory coups de grâce one would expect from a straight-ahead serial killer horror movie. There are plenty of horror comedies, there are even several slashers set on Cupid’s favorite holiday, but this film is clever enough to carve out its own niche. Co-written by Christopher Landon, who’s shaken up the horror comedy genre with Freaky and the Happy Death Day series, this outing does poke fun at romantic comedy tropes but mainly wears its heart on its sleeve. All of director Josh Ruben’s features thus far, including Scare Me and Werewolves Within, have been horror comedies and good ones at that.

Opening with a botched proposal at a winery that turns into a gruesome double murder, Heart Eyes introduces us to its titular baddie, a masked murderer the news media has dubbed the Heart Eyes Killer. Every February 14th, the HEK terrorizes couples in a different metropolitan area and this year, Seattle is on their list. There, advertising designer Ally (Olivia Holt) produces a jewelry campaign that hits a sour note with her boss Crystal (Michaela Watkins), prompting the latter to hire freelancer Jay (Mason Gooding) to play clean up. Forced to work together on the most romantic night of the year, Ally and Jay meet for dinner to exchange ideas but their personalities clash immediately. HEK spots them leaving the restaurant and mistakes them for significant others celebrating, sending Ally and Jay’s night in a deadly new direction.

Like its central characters, Heart Eyes wrestles with the notion of what old-fashioned romance can look like in a tech-saturated world where a new date is just a touchscreen swipe away. Originally wanting a career in nursing but settling for advertising, Ally has always put her career first and often snuffs out flickers of romance before they can kindle. Jay, on the other hand, is more of a softie, falling in love fast and hard before really getting to know them first as a person. Their backgrounds put them in prime position to butt heads on their first “date”, Jay trying and failing to open Ally up with questions about her life in Seattle. Of course we’re seen this trope before — two opposite personalities getting off on the wrong foot but eventually warming to one another — but the actors sell it all the same.

As we know, romance movies live or die on the strength of the chemistry between the leads and Heart Eyes certainly has an excellent duo at the heart of its story. Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding both have experience in the slasher genre, the former in 2023’s Totally Killer and the latter in the past couple Scream entries. In between bouts of peril with the Heart Eyes Killer, Ally and Jay find themselves gradually falling for one another while running for their lives. Hiding in a van watching His Girl Friday at a drive-in theater, the two tenderly unpack how their respective upbringings informed their views on relationships and romance. We don’t just want these two to survive the night; we want them to thrive as an unlikely couple who got off on a rocky start.

Lest one think that Heart Eyes collapses under the weight of excessive mushiness, the movie delivers both in terms of killer wit and creative kills at the hands of the HEK. The late 90s country hit “Amazed” is utilized in an early scene that pokes fun both at the awfulness of Lonestar’s song and at how men sometimes opt for bottom shelf originality when it comes to romantic gestures. Ally’s best friend Monica, played by Gigi Zumbado, gets off quite a few zingers, as when she tells Ally “you look like a ‘before’ photo” before her meet-up with Jay. Elsewhere, two detectives, played by horror veterans Devon Sawa and Jordana Brewster, end up on the receiving end of an unexpected Fast & Furious homage. Slashers aren’t typically thought of as date night movies but Heart Eyes is a solid pick for couples looking for something to watch after a candlelit dinner this weekend.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming only to theaters is Captain America: Brave New World, a Marvel movie starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, in which the titular superhero finds himself at the center of an international incident involving the newly-elected President Of The United States.
Also playing in theaters is Paddington In Peru, a family comedy starring Hugh Bonneville and Emily Mortimer, which finds Paddington returning to Peru to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy and a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey.
Premiering on Peacock is Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, a romcom starring Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant, about a widow and single mom whose dating life is thrown through a loop when she’s pursued by a younger man but also has feelings for her son’s science teacher.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

The new Steven Soderbergh film Presence is a ghost story, albeit an unconventional one. It can’t be neatly described as a horror movie or even a thriller, genre-wise fitting in most closely to a supernatural family drama. The events of the film are shown entirely from the perspective of what we come to find is a displaced spirit that seems to reside within a house built in the early 20th century. As is the case for the past dozen or so projects that Soderbergh has directed, he also serves as editor and, especially important this time around, as cinematographer as well. Regardless of what one thinks of Soderbergh — candidly, he’s one of my favorite living filmmakers — it’s difficult to deny he’s one of the hardest-working storytellers in Hollywood.

Though Presence isn’t a scary movie, it does start out like traditional horror fare. We see a real estate agent, played by Julia Fox, arrive at a newly listed house just ahead of a family interested in snatching it off the market. Soon, Rebecca (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) arrive with their two teenage children Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang) and before long, they’re all moved in. As we spend more time with the family, we see fractures in the relationship between Rebecca and Chris, while Chloe has become more reclusive after the unexpected death of her best friend. Eager to become popular at their new school district, Tyler invites swim teammate Ryan (West Mulholland) over to sneak drinks from mom’s liquor cabinet and he soon takes interest in Chloe.

Presence is the second collaboration between Soderbergh and blockbuster screenwriter David Koepp, their first being the excellent covid-era thriller Kimi and their next being Black Bag, set to release this March. Since the visual storytelling is limited to the vantage point of the titular “presence”, Koepp’s script is crucial in filling us in on what’s going on with this family and how this poltergeist fits into it. Though the dialogue can seem a bit too forced or on-the-nose at times, it nevertheless gives us what we need to attach ourselves to these characters. There are also several exchanges whose resonance doesn’t fully land until after the film’s ending; “there is an excellent man inside of you, Tyler; I would love to see him soon,” Chris chides his son after the latter mistreats his sister.

Another Soderbergh staple is working with smaller casts that are mixed with both recognizable faces and actors with more limited resumes. The latter, in this case, applies to Eddy Maday and West Mulholland, who give performances that initially read as “slack-jawed jock” but are given layers as the story progresses. The standout of the better-known actors is Chris Sullivan, playing a father at his wit’s end trying to remedy his daughter’s sadness and his son’s arrogance. I wish that Lucy Liu’s character had a bit more development — there are implications that whatever her character does for work isn’t on the up-and-up but never explicitly told what it is — but she gets a scene of walloping emotion towards the end.

Compared to other releases from the distributor Neon over the next few months, Presence is much more subtle and subdued. During the pre-roll for the movie, trailers played for upcoming titles The Monkey and Hell Of A Summer, both bombastic splatterfests that fit in better with the brand of iconoclastic product Neon tends to put out. In an effort to market Soderbergh’s latest, they’ve mimicked competitor A24’s style with off-kilter violin stabs and pull quotes that pitch it as a terrifying horror film and even “one of the scariest movies you’ll see this year”. Anyone who goes into Presence with that expectation will be disappointed but if you’re up for a quietly haunting tale about regret and redemption, then you’ll want to be present for this one.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Companion, a horror film starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid, that follows a weekend getaway among friends at a remote cabin, which unravels into chaos after one of the guests has a startling revelation about themselves.
Also playing in theaters is Dog Man, an animated superhero comedy starring Pete Davidson and Lil Rel Howery, following a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner who are injured together on the job but a life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together.
Streaming on Amazon Prime is You’re Cordially Invited, a romcom starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, about two weddings that are double-booked at the same venue, causing the father of one bride and the sister of the other bride to try and preserve the wedding weekend.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Filed neatly between Cruel Intentions 2 and Dumb And Dumber To in the “Unexpected Sequels” drawer, Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera comes seven years after the Gerard Butler-fronted action thriller Den Of Thieves. It seems time has mellowed the now-franchise a bit, as the first entry was a much more brash and bawdy bank robbery saga, while Pantera generally plays things a bit cooler and more collected. A change of setting could be mainly responsible for the shift, the predecessor a gritty cops and robbers tale out of Los Angeles and the successor a Rififi riff centered in France’s World Diamond District. Crucially, returning players Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. get much more screen time together and mine terrific chemistry with each other. I didn’t know I needed a Den Of Thieves sequel but after seeing Pantera, I’d certainly welcome another.

As teased at the end of Den Of Thieves, Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera finds wheelman-turned-criminal mastermind Donnie Wilson (Jackson Jr.) overseas on the hunt for world-class jewelry. His latest hold-up at an Antwerp airport puts him back on the radar of “Big Nick” O’Brien (Butler), still out to find the culprits of the Federal Reserve robbery from the previous film. A trip across the pond confirms Nick’s suspicion that Donnie has indeed moved his operation to Europe but when the two meet, Nick claims he’s left the LA Sheriff’s Department behind and wants in on Donnie’s latest score. After some initial reluctance, Donnie invites Nick to join his band of “Panthers” to knock off the vault of the World Diamond Center in a heavily guarded sector of Nice, France.

An area that Den Of Thieves largely falters that the superior sequel streamlines is in the character development between the beats of planning the central heist. Donnie was very much a side character in the first movie, while Nick’s character moments were couched in cop clichés, exemplified by a lengthy scene where he drunkenly confronts his soon-to-be ex-wife about recently-served divorce papers. Pantera finds more success in having these two characters initially parlay with hesitancy but gradually find partnership in their shared experiences on opposite sides of the law. Does it really seem likely that Nick would team up with Donnie after the events of Den Of Thieves? Put frankly: not really. But Butler and Jackson Jr. make their time together electric enough that it doesn’t matter much.

Writer/director Christian Gudegast also lets us in more this time when it comes to the details of how the thieves are going to go about their mission. While dazzling, the extended robbery sequence in Den Of Thieves gets quite convoluted and it can be easy to lose track of what exactly is going according to plan and what isn’t. Pantera‘s major setpiece occurs around the hour-and-a-half mark and by that point, we’ve been treated to numerous insert shots and voiceovers relaying how the Panther crew is intending for things to go down. The break-in is either very quiet or completely silent but thanks to the groundwork established by Gudegast and terrific editing from Roberth Nordh, the heist is both easy to follow and unbearably tense at the same time.

Although it doesn’t always feel its length, Pantera almost scrapes up against the two-and-a-half hour runtime marker and could certainly have some fat trimmed to make the rest of the movie as exciting as the climactic burglary. Den Of Thieves had a similar issue at 140 minutes but the extraneous scenes there — most obviously one where Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s character shakes down his daughter’s prom date — seem much easier to pick out. Pantera certainly isn’t without the occasional macho posturing carried over from the original but on the whole, it’s a more mature and thoughtfully-constructed crime caper that ends with another cliffhanger. The Den might not have felt as cozy on the first go ’round but with Pantera, Christian Gudegast has welcomed in action aficionados the world over with open arms.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Opening in theaters is Wolf Man, a horror film starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, following a family at a remote farmhouse who is attacked by an unseen animal and as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.
Also playing only in theaters is One Of Them Days, a buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA, about a young woman and her roommate who race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact when the former’s boyfriend takes their rent money.
Streaming on Netflix is Back In Action, an action comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx, revolving around a duo of former CIA spies who are pulled back into the world of espionage after their secret identities are exposed.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Making a biopic about a legendary figure like Bob Dylan is always going to be tricky because everyone knows something about him and some people know everything about him — at least it seems that way. James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown doesn’t put forth minutiae about the singer/songwriter that will be new to hardcore fans, nor does it hit every bullet point of Dylan’s Wikipedia page. But it’s an immersive and intricately-rendered look at the most important transitory period early in his 60+ year music career. Those who don’t already get his appeal or personally enjoy his music should at least gain a sense of appreciation for his impact on rock history and why he matters to so many people. But along with his co-writer Jay Cocks, Mangold sets out first to make an engaging story about a young stranger who came out of nowhere and was everywhere in just a few short years.

Our story starts in 1961, with Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) hitchhiking with his guitar from Minnesota to New York City, where he hopes to meet his ailing idol Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) in a nearby hospital. While paying him a visit, he finds Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) already beside and at their request, he plays them a song that enraptures them both. Seeger introduces Dylan at clubs and coffeehouses throughout Greenwich Village, catching the attention of fellow folk singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and her manager Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler). After the release of his debut album in ’62 and its follow-up a year later, Dylan quickly becomes one of rock’s most vaunted troubadours, troubling to his girlfriend Sylvie (Elle Fanning), who didn’t expect such a meteoric rush to fame.

The climax of A Complete Unknown centers on Bob Dylan “going electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, a seminal decision that alienated acoustic purists but allowed him to venture onto new sonic pathways. Mangold doesn’t try to explain away why Dylan chose to bring a backing band to a folk-oriented fest but instead, he paints a portrait of an iconoclast who values his musicianship above all else. Understandably, the spotlight is brightest on Chalamet here and while it’s not a transcendent performance, he certainly does a believable job conveying both Dylan’s raspy timbre and musical chops. I don’t think he peels back new layers of understanding behind the artist’s genius but I don’t know that the movie needs him to either. “You can be beautiful or you can be ugly, but you can’t be plain,” Dylan says of performers at one point and Chalamet’s work doesn’t fit into the “plain” category.

Like Dylan at Newport, Chalamet also has a talented ensemble backing him up in this musical endeavor. Edward Norton has tended towards self-centered and arrogant characters more recently in his career, so it was a treat watching him melt into a character here who is much more soft-spoken and tender in his disposition. Elle Fanning has something of a thankless role as “the girlfriend” or “the muse” but she brings a grace and poise to the performance that make her moments stick out. The biggest find here, though, is Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, whose angelic voice and delicate fingerpicking on stage didn’t always translate to submissiveness off-stage. As someone mired in both a professional and personal relationship with Dylan, she has no problem standing her ground when Bob’s ego gets the best of him. Barbaro is both magnetic and authentic as Baez the musician and Baez the person.

As he did with his thrilling sports biopic Ford v Ferrari back in 2019, Mangold brings out all of the period elements of the 1960s without drawing too much attention to them. I expected A Complete Unknown to mirror Inside Llewyn Davis — still a much better film, even though it’s a fictionalization — but the look of the two movies is completely different. Where Bruno Delbonnel’s camerawork in Davis was meant to execute the warmth of cozy coffee houses like The Gaslight Cafe, DP Phedon Papamichael’s camera frames the events with more tactility and grit by comparison. There have been numerous documentaries about Bob Dylan and given the era it focuses on, it’s fitting that A Complete Unknown is most visually analogous to Scorsese’s No Direction Home. Mangold wants us to feel like we were in the room when Dylan broke out and if you’re in the mood to travel back in time like Mangold had Indiana Jones do in his Dial Of Destiny last year, then you’ll want to get acquainted with A Complete Unknown.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Opening in theaters is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, an action-adventure sequel starring Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey, following Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails as they reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before.
Also playing only in theaters is Mufasa: The Lion King, a live action-styled prequel starring Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr., focusing on the future king of the Pride Lands when he’s a cub who befriends an heir to a royal bloodline named Taka.
Streaming on Netflix is The Six Triple Eight, a war drama starring Kerry Washington and Ebony Obsidian, centering on the contributions of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-Black and all-female battalion, in World War II.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

It was never going to be an easy task following up a cultural phenomenon like Moana, which still remains Walt Disney Animation’s finest offering of the past ten years. Originally conceived as a long-form streaming series for Disney+, Moana 2 doesn’t quite have the narrative poignancy or thematic sophistication of its predecessor. Where that film felt like it was actually trying to speak to a teenage audience, this sequel brings things more in the kid-friendly range with easy laughs and an easier-to-follow plot. The fact remains that this lush and vibrant setting is nothing short of enchanting and any excuse to revisit the world of Moana is worthwhile, no matter how it compares to the original. Perhaps I’ll change my tune once Moana 5 is released but until that time, I intend to stay on the boat of this franchise.

Following her transition to chiefess of the Motunui people, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) also acts as their lead wayfinder, voyaging to other nearby islands in search of inhabitants. In her exploration, she learns of the sunken island Motufetu, which once served as a connecting point for the nearby isles but was pushed to the bottom of the ocean by the storm god Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea’i). Emboldened by visions from her ancestors, Moana recruits a team to raise Motufetu from its watery depths and restore the channels to the separated sea. Accompanied once again by haughty demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and joined by Moni (Hualālai Chung), Loto (Rose Matafeo) and Kele (David Fane), the crew ventures across the treacherous ocean to break Nalo’s curse.

If Moana was a journey of self-discovery and independence, then Moana 2 is about the next step into maturity, wherein our heroine takes on the responsibility of looking after others. She now has a much younger sister Simea (voiced by Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda), who acts like Moana walks on water and misses her dearly when she leaves for her expeditions. Her tribe looks to her for guidance on issues big and small as they crop up on Motunui and she even has a fan club of adoring “MOANA-BEs” who idolize the young trailblazer. During the story’s main quest, Moana doesn’t always have the right answers but like any good leader, she considers the capabilities and commitments of her people when making decisions about what to do next. The storms are always easier to ride out when you have the right people by your side.

Like Moana, Moana 2‘s adventure storyline is supplemented by new original songs, although Lin-Manuel Miranda did not return as lead songwriter this time around. While this sequel doesn’t quite have instant classics like “How Far I’ll Go” and “You’re Welcome”, new tunes like “Beyond” and “We’re Back”, penned by Opetaia Foaʻi, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, are welcome additions to this series’ songbook. Auliʻi Cravalho’s singing was, of course, lovely in the original but her voice seems even more powerful and assured this time around. Once the crew gets sailing, “What Could Be Better Than This?” finds the four main performers trading humorous lines, with Rose Matafeo as a standout among them. The rousing ensemble number “We Know The Way” is also reprised here and Maui gets another cheeky uptempo anthem with “Can I Get A Chee Hoo?”

Also returning from the first movie are the sentient coconut pirates from the Kakamora tribe, who get even more screen time than the first adventure and remain a cute concoction within this magical universe. Their antics certainly play a role in the narrative but also seem to play double-duty as a way to keep kids entertained. The Kakamora have aboard a gelatinous, bug-eyed creature whose noises seem pitched to emulate the “goat scream” fad from several years ago. Moana 2 has several moments like that, where it feels like it’s dumbing itself down just to hit the marks with everyone and I wish it didn’t. But the animation and craft in this sequel is just as impressive as it was the first time around and the color palette is always a wonder to behold. Just because the waves aren’t quite as high in this sequel doesn’t mean it’s not worth the trip back out to the dazzling blue.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is Y2K, a disaster comedy starring Jaeden Martell and Rachel Zegler, set at a high school party on New Year’s Eve 1999 which imagines if the millennium bug actually caused all technology to come to life and turn against humanity.
Also coming to theaters is Werewolves, a horror thriller starring Frank Grillo and Katrina Law, following two scientists who try to stop a mutation that turns people into werewolves after being touched by a supermoon event the year before.
Streaming on Netflix is Mary, a biblical epic starring Noa Cohen and Anthony Hopkins, telling the story after the birth of Jesus wherein Mary is forced to flee when Herod’s insatiable thirst for power ignites a murderous pursuit for the newborn.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Following up last year’s When You Finish Saving The World, Jesse Eisenberg makes another compelling case for himself as a writer and director with his sophomore effort A Real Pain. This time, not only is he in front of the camera as well but also giving one of the best performances of his career in the lead role. Since scoring an Oscar nomination playing Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Eisenberg has alternated between big studio pictures and much smaller indies. These back-to-back dramedies suggest that he’s most comfortable with projects over which he has more creative input. It’s not hard to imagine a career trajectory for Eisenberg similar to Woody Allen, writing and directing a collection of stories investigating the human condition while popping up in lead or supporting roles.

As A Real Pain opens, Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) sits patiently at a terminal in JFK awaiting his cousin David (Eisenberg) hours before their flight. The pair are destined for Warsaw, where their recently-deceased grandmother spent her remaining days and allocated funds in her will for Benji and David to make the trip to connect with their Jewish heritage. Once in Poland, they meet up with tour guide James (Will Sharpe) and the rest of the group, the overwhelmingly friendly Benji making fast connections with the other tourists while the more neurotic David holds back. As the Heritage Tour makes stops at locations marred by the atrocities of the Holocaust, the Kaplans reflect on their family’s place in its history while also bickering about their comparatively insignificant interpersonal drama.

While Eisenberg and Culkin are aided by a talented supporting cast that also includes Jennifer Grey and Liza Sadovy, A Real Pain is primarily a two-hander between the Kaplan boys. Even though they were born 3 weeks apart, they’re cousins and not brothers, even though they certainly argue like it. While Benji has bummed around upstate New York his whole adult life, David took the more “mature” route after college, heading into the city to sell digital ad space and support his wife Priya and their son Abe. Benji is closer to the rest of their mutual family, so he takes the death of their grandma harder than David does but nevertheless, they find themselves together on this journey tied by shared history but typified by their pronounced differences.

Eisenberg’s eloquent manner in distinguishing these two characters, both in his writing and direction, is what ironically makes A Real Pain a joy to behold. It’s a film of little moments that speak volumes about how these two guys see themselves and the world in which they somehow coexist. David is horrified when Benji wants to do something that is outside David’s admittedly small comfort zone, even if that means talking with someone in the tour group during a visit to a concentration camp. Introverts in the audience will cringe at the carefree attempts that Benji makes at making connections with people and David similarly resents his lack of self-consciousness in doing so. David’s bitterness with Benji’s seeming lack of insecurity doesn’t limit itself to their waking hours; the two share a hotel room and when David looks over at Benji sleeping as peacefully as a baby, the look on David’s face says “why can’t I have that?”

It’s the time of year when movie award consideration kicks into high gear and I wouldn’t be surprised if A Real Pain earns quite a bit of it, especially for its main two performances. Though David isn’t a character polar opposite of ones Eisenberg has played in the past, he digs deeper into what drives this character and why the relationship with his cousin is so hard. But Culkin especially seems likely to earn an abundance of praise for his portrayal of a young man so stripped of inhibitions that he can drive people crazy with his openness while being none the wiser. If David is our main character, then it’s easy to read the film’s title and surmise that it’s referring to Benji but in the film’s subtext about the vast scale in degrees of personal suffering, Eisenberg reminds us that conflict is all about context.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Wicked, a fantasy musical starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, adapting the first half of the Broadway smash hit which tells the events leading up to The Wizard Of Oz through the eyes of Glinda The Good Witch and The Wicked Witch Of The West.
Also playing in theaters is Gladiator II, a historical epic starring Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, following up the 2000 Best Picture winner as the son of Maximus is forced to enter the Colosseum and must look to his past to find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people.
Streaming on Netflix is The Piano Lesson, starring Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington, which follows the lives of a family during the Great Depression as they deal with themes of family legacy in deciding what to do with an heirloom: the family piano.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Anna Kendrick steps behind the camera for the first time to take on misogyny and murder with Woman Of The Hour, a chilling true crime tale debuting on Netflix starting this Friday. In September 1978, photographer Rodney Alcala was the winning Bachelor on an episode of The Dating Game. What producers and viewers of the show didn’t know at the time was that he was in the middle of a killing spree that already claimed the lives of several young women throughout southern California. Weaving back and forth through time, Kendrick uses the taping of the now infamous game show entry as an anchor point to underscore just how deceiving appearances can be. Backed by a sharp script and even more incisive editing, her directorial debut is a bracingly fresh take on the serial killer genre.

Kendrick also stars as Cheryl Bradshaw, a struggling actress who schleps fruitlessly to auditions, where casting directors barely even look up from their notes to acknowledge her when running scenes. Desperate for work, she reluctantly takes a spot on the hit game show The Dating Game, in the hopes that her appearance will spark more TV roles for her in the future. After throwing the three male contestants unscripted questions, to the chagrin of host Ed Burke (Tony Hale), Cheryl chooses the charming and intelligent “Bachelor #3” Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto). Anxious for the all-expense paid trip to Carmel, Rodney asks Cheryl for a drink right after the show but during their date, she can’t ignore the nagging feeling that something isn’t right with the newly-minted game show winner.

In addition to the unsettling encounter Cheryl has with the murderer, whose victim count was estimated to be 130 by the time he died in 2021, Woman Of The Hour depicts a handful of the atrocities Alcala committed. While these scenes are terrifying and can be difficult to watch, they certainly don’t indulge in brutality against these women and are intended to convey just how casual the transition from flirtation to violence can be at the hands of a monster. Daniel Zovatto is appropriately unnerving as the calculatedly charismatic creep, connoting confidence and conscientiousness atop his psychopathic impulses. In each of the sequences that show Alcala on the hunt for vulnerable women, Zovatto reveals aspects of his character that make him even more deplorable but no less fascinating.

Concluding right at the 90-minute mark, Woman Of The Hour does come across as somewhat underdeveloped despite its weighty subject material. Kendrick devotes a portion of the narrative to an audience member, played by Nicolette Robinson, who recognizes Alcala during the taping of the episode after a previous encounter that left her shaken. I imagine her inclusion in the film is Kendrick taking artistic liberties, as there isn’t any evidence someone who had a brush with Alcala was in the audience for the show. But in comparison to Cheryl’s perspective of events and Rodney’s murderous interjections in the narrative, the scenes of Robinson’s character desperately trying to warn a top producer of The Dating Game about Alcala don’t resonate with the same level of intensity.

What Kendrick makes clear is how the sexism of the era, the residue of which is still on display today, allowed murderers like Alcala to carry out horrendous crimes undetected. Using The Dating Game, a long-running game show that positioned women as prizes to be won, as a backdrop drives home the point that a literal serial killer can be championed if they say the right thing. During commercial breaks, Cheryl chats with a tenured makeup artist who quickly touches her up and imparts bits of wisdom for the nervous contestant. In the years she’s been on the show, she says the real question under all the different questions that are asked is “which one of you will hurt me?” Of course, the line takes on a more literal meaning in context but even outside this story, it points to how unsafe women have been made to feel by men throughout the years. It’s a premise that Kendrick unpacks brilliantly as both the lead actress and director of Woman Of The Hour, an impactful evocation of quiet dread.

Score – 3.5/5

More new movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Smile 2, a horror sequel starring Naomi Scott and Rosemarie DeWitt, following a pop singer begins to experience a series of increasingly disturbing and daunting events as she is about to go on a new world tour.
Also playing in theaters is We Live In Time, a romantic drama starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, telling the story of an up-and-coming chef and a recent divorcée who find their lives forever changed when a chance encounter brings them together.
Streaming on Shudder is MadS, a one-take horror movie starring Lewkowski Yovel and Lucille Guillaume, involving a teenager whose night takes a surreal turn when he picks up an injured woman after driving back from seeing his drug dealer.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup