Author: Amy Diaz

Last Night in Soho (R)

A present-day young woman with a romantic view of 1960s London suddenly finds herself traveling there nightly in Last Night in Soho, a not-the-best but not-the-worst ghosty story from director Edgar Wright.

Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) loves 1960s London fashion and the 1960s music her grandmother Peggy (Rita Tushingham) listens to. Stories of London are also tied up in Eloise’s mom (Aimee Cassettari), who died by suicide when Eloise was little but whom Eloise still appears to communicate with, such as when Eloise sees her smiling mother just before Peggy brings Eloise the letter saying she’s been accepted into a London fashion school.

Peggy doesn’t know that Eloise is still seeing her mom, but she she worries that the stress of the big city will get to Eloise. Eloise does get a little freaked out when the taxi driver’s chatter gets a little too friendly and she doesn’t quite fit in with her roommate at the school dorm, Jocasta (Synnove Karlsen), who instantly establishes herself as a queen bee.

When Eloise sees an ad for a studio apartment, she decides to move out on her own and is, at first, delighted by the space. In addition to an in-the-thick-of-things location, the apartment gives Eloise a psychic connection to a young woman who lived there decades earlier. When Eloise goes to sleep, she finds herself entering the life of Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), a blonde with ambitions to be a singer. She goes to swanky clubs, wearing beautiful clothes, and she meets Jack (Matt Smith), a handsome man who offers to help her get gigs. Eloise is quickly enamored with this new life, even if it is somebody else’s that she’s sort of virtual-reality-ing her way into. In the waking world, she buys herself a coat like Sandie’s at a vintage shop, starts designing a dress for a class similar to one of Sandie’s cocktail dresses and even gets Sandie’s haircut. Some of Sandie’s flirting abilities even rub off on Eloise, who is slowly making a friend in classmate John (Michael Ajao).

But then Eloise sees some darker scenes from Sandie’s life and starts to wonder if all of these “ghosts” really are in the past or if there are dangers that have carried into the present — and if a mysterious older man (Terence Stamp) who hangs out at the bar where Eloise works is one of those dangers.

Many of the elements of Last Night in Soho are extremely fun — from Eloise’s whole 1960s mod thing (which reminded me of the 1990s swing revival) to everything about the catty Jocasta character. I like the relationship Eloise has with whatever her abilities are — she just sort of accepts that she is seeing ghosts, but she doesn’t entirely know yet how to interpret what she’s seeing. This character could have seemed extremely daffy and fragile but McKenzie makes her seem more just uncertain and sheltered but also aware of her naivete.

The movie also has a delightful-to-see supporting character, which I won’t spoil except to say I was both happy to get to spend time with this person and then sad when I realized it might be the last new role I see that person in.

Other elements of Last Night in Soho feel underbaked. Sandie’s story builds to high drama, but then it resolves sort of too fast. Am I saying I wished the movie had been longer? No? But maybe added to and then edited down again, with some of the choppier bits of the story smoothed out. B-

Rated R for bloody violence, sexual content, language, brief drug material and brief graphic nudity, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Edgar Wright with a screenplay by Edgar Wright & Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Last Night in Soho is an hour and 56 minutes long and distributed by Focus Features.

Army of Thieves (TV-MA)

A group of quirky criminals attempts to crack three of the toughest safes ever created in Army of Thieves, a prequel to Army of the Dead focused on Matthias Schweighöfer’s Dieter.

In this movie, the zombie apocalypse has only just begun in Las Vegas, so while Dieter is worried about zombies and even having nightmares about them, he’s still working his boring job in an idyllic-seeming German town and eating his sad work sandwich under a tiny awning in an alleyway. Then he meets Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel), who has watched his YouTube videos about safe-cracking and believes he just might have the ability to tackle the safes built decades earlier by a man named Hans Wagner. Like the Gotterdammerung, the safe Dieter faces in Army of the Dead, Wagner built three other safes named after parts of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. These safes are supposed to be impossible to crack and if someone tries and fails, the safe is supposed to lock forever.

Gwendoline wants to hit all three safes, which are set to be decommissioned soon. Tens of millions of dollars await all the members of the team if they succeed; those members include hacker Korina (Ruby O. Fee), getaway driver Rolph (Guz Khan) and muscle/crazy guy/Gwendoline’s boyfriend Brad Cage (Stuart Martin). But for Gwendoline and for Dieter, the real prize is in being about to meet the challenge of Wagner’s creations.

For Interpol agent Delacroix (Jonathan Cohen), his grand challenge is finding and catching Gwendoline. He quickly realizes that her plan is to go after all the safes and he is determined to catch her in the act — even though, as his fellow agents point out, there’s this whole zombie apocalypse thing, which might arguably be a bigger deal.

Maybe having absolutely no expectations for this thing after the “good ideas but long and sort of scattered” Army of the Dead helped because I kind of enjoyed this. Not loved it, not “wheeeee!” the whole time, just had some fun, some of the time. As this movie itself points out, the machinations of a heist in a heist movie, with its sleight of hand and misdirection and wigs, is always fun and we get a couple of examples of those in this movie. I also enjoyed the group dynamic. Everybody on this team is some kind of oddball and portrayed as such but with a light touch. Dieter is an excellent “talented dork” character, having gained his criminally useful safe-cracking skills from a love of puzzles and a childhood spent as an outsider.

The performances here also bring a good energy to this endeavor, which is peppy despite an over two-hour runtime. Emmanuel is the movie’s big star; I know her mostly from supporting roles on Game of Thrones and in the Fast and Furious movies but here she shows her ability to really carry off the blend of action, humor and general bad-assery that is needed for an action movie lead. Surely there’s some spy thing, some Marvel movie that can capitalize on this.

Army of Thieves feels like a perfect “let’s just watch something fun” movie that doesn’t require too much attention or brain power and delivers a reasonably good time. B-

Rated TV-MA. Directed by Matthias Schweighöfer with a screenplay by Shay Hatten, Army of Thieves is two hours and nine minutes long and is available on Netflix.

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (R)

A young woman makes a documentary about her search for her biological mother in Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, a universe expansion sidequel/reboot thing.

It also took me a minute to remember that the intentional documentary as setup for a horror film was the premise of 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, not 2007’s original Paranormal Activity, which was largely home video camera footage. Here, Margot (Emily Bader) and her friend Chris (Roland Buck III) are making a documentary about an Amish family that she believes is related to her. Margot was adopted and all she initially knows about her birth mother comes from some hospital security footage showing her leaving baby Margot in a doorway. Now, 25-ish Margot has found Samuel (Henry Ayres-Brown), a 20-something Amish man that 23andMe says is related to her. Samuel, living apart from his family during his rumspringa, agrees to meet up with Margot and travel with Margot and Chris to the Baylor family farm, where Margot can learn more about her mother. The film team is joined by Dale (Dan Lippert), a big doofy sound guy, and a van loaded with equipment.

At first the family, represented by Jacob (Tom Nowicki), who we eventually learn is Margot’s biological grandfather, doesn’t want these outsiders hanging around. But he decides to let them stay and Margot and Chris try to uncover more about Margot’s mother from the fairly tight-lipped community. But along with the usual cultural differences between these filmmaker kids and the Amish farmers, Margot and Chris start to notice oddities — a middle-of-the-night meeting of torch-carrying farmers, odd noises from the supposedly uninhabited attic — that hint at something spookier.

At one point late in the film, Dale and Chris debate whether the Baylor family really is Amish at all, or just using it as a cover. But to what end, Chris asks. And that was kind of my feeling about the whole movie: to what end does the movie make any of the choices it does — from elements as large as the use of the documentary to set the plot in motion to smaller details, like specific creaks and “there was something else in the room” that don’t make much sense once you find out the nature of the Scary Thing.

Especially earlier on, the Paranormal Activity movies did a good job of letting its characters use video technology to freak themselves out; I remember watching (in the second one maybe?) footage of a pool cleaner for a while. Scary pool cleaner footage. Next of Kin feels like it has a lot more “things” happening, not just one small element of spookiness per scene, but the result is that the movie often gets in its own way and doesn’t offer a clear idea of why it’s showing us what it’s showing us. C

Rated R for violence and bloody images and language throughout, according to the MPA on filmratings.com (actually, the rating seems largely swear-word based, with some goriness shoved in at the end). Directed by William Eubank with a screenplay by Christopher Landon, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin is an hour and 38 minutes long and is distributed by Paramount Pictures on Paramount+.

FILM

Venues

Bank of NH Stage
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Shows

• A Nightmare on Elm Street (R, 1984) part of the Film Frenzy $5 Classics series at O’neil Cinemas with multiple daily screenings through Thursday, Nov. 4.

• French Dispatch (R, 2021) on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. and Friday, Nov. 5, through Sunday, Nov. 7, at 1:30, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres.

• Spencer (R, 2021) on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 6:30 p.m. and Friday, Nov. 5, through Sunday, Nov. 7, at 1, 4 and 7 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord.

• The Bolshoi Ballet — Spartacus, a broadcast presentation captured live, Sunday, Nov. 7, at 12:55 p.m. at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets $15.

• The Big Parade (1925), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Thursday, Nov. 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets start at $10.

• Hot Water (1924) starring Harold Lloyd, a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free; $10 donation suggested.

• Warren Miller’s Winter Starts Nowat The Music Hall in Portsmouth, Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 19, at 6 and 9 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 20, at 4 & 7 p.m. Tickets start at $28.

• National Theatre Live No Man’s Land,a broadcast of a play from London’s National Theatre, screening at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord on Sunday, Nov. 21, at 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15 ($12 for students).

Singin’ in the Rain

See Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Cyd Charisse and Rita Moreno in 1952’s musical film Singin’ in the Rain on Wednesday, Nov. 10, at 10 a.m. at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org, 668-5588), a Senior Movie Mornings screening. Tickets cost $10.

Featured photo: Last Night in Soho. Courtesy photo.

Dune (PG-13)

An interplanetary empire is set on the road to war in Dune, which a title card rather optimistically calls “part one.”

And just to set the scene for my Dune experience: I’ve neither read any of the books nor watched any of the previous Dune movies or TV series. So I am coming in fresh to this universe.

As the movie opens, an unseen emperor of the known universe orders a family/political entity known as House Atreides to take control of a planet called Arrakis, a desert planet that is the only known source of a substance called spice. Spice facilitates interstellar travel, er, somehow and has psychotropic qualities. It is super valuable, which is why House Harkonnen, the previous rulers of Arrakis, are pretty peeved at having Arrakis taken out of their control. But the House Harkonnen head, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard in a fat suit that seems to also allow him to float), thinks that this is just the emperor’s way of taking both Atreides and Harkonnen down a few pegs, since he knows this move will lead to war between the two houses.

Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) knows all this, but he has plans for Arrakis, plans that involve working with the Fremen, the oppressed local people of Arrakis. When he shows up at the planet with his family — including concubine Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and son and heir Paul (Timothée Chalamet) — he is ready for danger but hoping for peace. Jessica, a member of some kind of magic-y lady religious order, has abilities including getting people to do what she says when she sort of Jedi-forces them using a power called the Voice. She has been training Paul to use similar abilities and has plans for him beyond just having him take over for his father one day.

Paul, in the tradition of all raw Luke Skywalker/Hamlet types, isn’t quite sure what he wants, but he has some inkling of what might be in his future due to dreams he has, many featuring Chani (Zendaya), whose glowy blue eyes identify her as one of the Fremen.

To some extent everything I’ve said here is just setup. The movie follows the Atreideses as they move onto Arrakis and what happens next. We meet Atreides warrior-types Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) and Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin). We also meet Fremen-associated people like Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and Dr. Liet-Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). There are a lot of characters here with a lot of stories and “serves as the this for that group.” There is also a fair amount of explaining this universe and of getting all the pieces in place. This feels like “Season 1” of a Game of Thrones-type show, getting us all set up for a multi-season story arc.

And what a beautiful-looking and -sounding series that would be. Dune looks absolutely gorgeous. Every scene is visually perfect — lighting, set design, costuming, colors, camera angles. The dust-filled wind, the helicopters that look like insects. The movie is generally in muted tones but there are accents of bright color — many from story-significant elements, like the personal shields people wear that turn blue when impacted or the bright eyes of the Fremen. Nearly every shot of this movie is visually arresting (which, because this movie is on HBO Max through Nov. 21 as well as in theaters, you actually can press pause and gaze to your heart’s content).

The movie also sounds great. The score (by Hans Zimmer) is majestic — underlining bigness, vastness and importance when needed. It is haunting and when mixed with the human voices that are often whispery or at a throat-singing deepness or sometimes both the whole effect is kind of awe-inspiring.

So A+ work on all that.

My question about this movie is does all this loveliness weigh it down? Is that why this movie feels so slow and inert? Every one of these beautiful scenes has a kind of “walking through hip-deep water” pacing, as though the speed isn’t quite on slow-mo but is, like, halfway there. (I mean, there is slow-mo, lots of slow-mo, but even the regular- mo feels pretty languorous.) Even though the movie has battle scenes and plenty of action, it never feels like it’s truly energized. There is a half-asleep, still-need-my-coffee feel to everything.

Which puts the performances somewhere in between the down-to-the-smallest-detail impressiveness of the look and sound of this movie and the baffling, frequently boring pacing (another good thing about seeing this movie on streaming: you can go back and see what you missed if you fall asleep halfway through; I didn’t but awakeness did not come without struggle). Isaac, Ferguson and Chalamet are fine, even compelling and engrossing in moments. But they don’t quite escape the sleepiness around them, nor does Brolin, who feels more regular-speed but doesn’t get enough screen time to make a difference. Momoa also brings a kind of liveliness to things but again isn’t around nearly enough.

The strange result of all of this is a movie where everything about Dune — even the prospect of a sequel and the continuing story and the internet rabbithole I disappeared to reading the Wikipedia for the Dune books — is more interesting than the act of sitting through the movie itself. It is definitely worth a watch and it is definitely boring. I ended the movie not really caring about any particular character or storyline but absolutely fascinated by the movie as an art object. What kind of recommendation is that, you ask? Beats me — a shaky B?

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some disturbing images and suggestive material, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Denis Villeneuve with a screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth (based on, according to Wikipedia, the first half of the book by Frank Herbert), Dune is two hours and 35 minutes long and distributed by Warner Bros. In theaters and on HBO Max until Nov. 21.

Ron’s Gone Wrong (PG)

A benignly evil tech company heightens children’s sense of loneliness and their ability to bully each other via sleek new devices in Ron’s Gone Wrong, a pretty depressing read on the real world that is sort of cuted up with animation and a funny robot.

Barney (voice of Jack Dylan Grazer) feels very much like the odd kid out at his middle school: his family home is tended Old Worldily by his Bulgarian grandma Donka (voice of Olivia Coleman), his widowed dad Graham (voice of Ed Helms) is desperately busy trying to sell novelty items via Zoom, Barney’s various science-y interests (including rocks) have him branded as a bit of a nerd and, most deadly of all, he does not own a B*Bot, the hot new tech that all the other kids at school have. The B*Bot is part robot, part iPhone, part parental nightmare — all in kind of an EVE from Wall-E package. The B*Bots upload all available digital information about the child user and then “know” everything about them and can help them meet other kids who have the same interests. In addition the B*Bot follows the child everywhere, can dance with the kid, take the kid on immersive virtual reality adventures and take constant photos and videos to post to the kid’s various social media pages and instantly ask for likes and follows from surrounding kids.

Because I am an Old, this all seems like a dystopic hellscape that we are probably six months away from here in the real world. But to Barney, the B*Bot, promising to be your “best friend out of the box,” is the sole object of his birthday desires. With B*Bot, he hopes, he will have a robot friend and maybe finally be able to make some connections with human friends too.

Unfortunately for Barney, Graham is both clueless and light on cash, so at first he doesn’t get Barney the desired bot. But after seeing him pranked by some bullies, Graham runs down to the B*Bot store, offering money and Donka’s goat in trade for a new B*Bot. The store turns him away, but in the loading area he meets a delivery driver who has a damaged B*Bot he’s willing to sell off the books.

When Barney meets the B*Bot he eventually calls Ron (voice of Zach Galifianakis), he’s initially delighted. But then he realizes Ron is off — he doesn’t have all of the B*Bot operating system, can’t seem to access the network and has only uploaded the “A” section of his system’s encyclopedia, which is why he starts off calling Barney Absalom. On the way to the B*Bot store to return Ron, Barney discovers that no operating system also means no safety controls and that Ron is quite effective at fending off bullies. Once corporate — in the form of a hoodie-wearing CEO guy named Marc (voice of Justice Smith) and a Tim-Cook-ish-looking older guy named Andrew (voice of Rob Delaney) — finds out about the rogue bot, they seek to capture him, but Barney, who teaches Ron how to do his friend duties, feels like he’s finally found someone to connect with.

My biggest problem with this movie (and this may be a mild spoiler) is that in the end, the omnipresent tech company spreading unhappiness throughout the land of tweens and teens isn’t the problem, it’s that their device isn’t, like, authentic enough or some techy meta-verse garbage. And if that sounds all “get your Instagram off my lawn” that’s a completely fair criticism of my social media mindset but also the suggestion that just some algorithm tweaks would make social media full of joy feels pretty cynical (which is particularly odd as Andrew’s cynicism about the purpose of B*Bots ultimately being selling kids stuff is one of the movie’s examples of his villainy). I understand the realities of the world, but that doesn’t mean I have to pay money to have my kids watch a movie with the message that what they really need is better social media and a more unpredictable robot.

I suppose if you put all of that aside, sure this movie is cute. Ron is a fun character, who, because his mission is friendship-based, the movie uses to explain the essence of friendship. Being friends isn’t just about people listening to you (or heart-click liking your posts) but is a relationship two people are in together, choosing to be friends and be there for each other. When compared to the more transactional nature of how the movie presents social media friendships (you make content and the other person follows you and they’re your “friend” and then you both move on to making new “friend” connections), the examination of friendship as an organic thing that needs continuous tending is interesting. And it’s presented in a tween/young teen-understandable way. And there are robot-y hijinxs and funny goat bits and kid social politics, played for gentle laughs. I don’t know that this movie would hold the attention of a younger audience but maybe for kids around 8 and up, who are starting to think about the nature of friendships and have some knowledge of the social media world and can deal with some scenes of conversation, Ron’s Gone Wrong is fun enough to keep them engaged. Me, I’ll be over here on my lawn, telling the B*Bots to shoo. C+

Rated PG for some rude material, thematic elements and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Sarah Smith and Jean-Philippe Vine and co-directed by Octavio E. Rodriguez with a screenplay by Peter Baynham and Sarah Smith, Ron’s Gone Wrong is an hour and 46 minutes long and distributed by Twentieth Century Studios in theaters (with at least a 45-day theatrical exclusivity window, according to BoxOfficePro).

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry, amctheatres.com

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Park Theatre
19 Main St., Jaffrey
theparktheatre.org

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Howl’s Moving Castle (PG, 2004) at Cinemark Rockingham Park, AMC Methuen and Regal Fox Run on Thursday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m.

• Beetlejuice (PG, 1988) part of the Film Frenzy $5 Classics series at O’neil Cinemas in Epping with daily screenings through Thursday, Oct. 28.

• The Phantom of the Opera (1925), a silent film starring Lon Chaney, with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Wednesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m at Park Theatre. Admission $12.

• The Thing (1982) screening on Thursday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. at Red River Theatres.

• Nosferatu (1922), a silent film, Thursday, Oct. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex, featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission costs $10.

• The Shining (R, 1980) on Friday, Oct. 29, at 2 & 6:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord.

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (R, 1987) on Friday, Oct. 29, at 2:30, 5 and 7:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres.

• The Blackbird (1921), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Friday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free; $10 donation suggested.

• The Innocents (1961) at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Friday, Oct 29, and Saturday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m.

• The Invisible Man (1933) and The Wolf Man(1941) on Saturday, Oct. 30, at 1 p.m. at AMC Londonderry, Cinemark Rockingham Park and Regal Fox Run.

• The Witches (PG, 1990) on Saturday, Oct. 30, at 1, 4 & 7 p.m at Red River Theatres.

• Outside the Law (1920) and The Unholy Three (1925), silent films directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney, with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2 p.m. Admission is free; $10 donation suggested.

• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 30, at 2 p.m.

• Psycho (R, 1960) on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2, 5 & 8 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord.

• The Exorcist (R, 1973) on Sunday, Oct. 31, at 2 & 5:15 p.m. at Red River Theatres.

• Where East Is East (1929) a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, at Wilton Town Hall Theatre Sunday, Oct. 31, at 2 p.m. Admission is free; $10 donation suggested.

• Night of the Living Dead(1968) on Sunday, Oct. 31, at 1:30 & 4:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord.

Lon Chaney Weekend

Wilton Town Hall Theatre (40 Main St. in Wilton; wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456) will present a series of silent films starring Lon Chaney and featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis this weekend. On Friday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. catch The Blackbird (1921). On Saturday, Oct. 30, the lineup features Outside the Law (1920) and The Unholy Three (1925), starting at 2 p.m. On Sunday, Oct. 31, see Where East Is East (1929) at 2 p.m. Admission to all films is free; a $10 donation is suggested.

Featured photo: Dune. Courtesy photo.