Author: Amy Diaz

Amy Diaz is the executive editor and writes about movies and compiles the Kiddie Pool column. Reach her at adiaz@hippopress.com.

At the Sofaplex 21/05/06

Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse (R)

Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Turner-Smith.

Michael B. Jordan does the best he can with this very OK adaptation of a Jack Ryan universe character. According to Wikipedia, this movie has been floating around in development since the 1990s (the book on which its based came out in 1993), and a lot of this movie’s elements (character’s action spurred on by dead wife, off-the-books CIA stuff, the Russians but not, like, directly) have a “fished out from the back of the 1990s storage unit” feel. The movie is at its best and most lively when it focuses on Jordan, playing Navy SEAL John Kelly, and lets him singlehandedly MacGyver his way out of situations. (A sequence at about the 40-minute mark where he takes on a whole bunch of armed guys using only two shirts is maybe the movie’s most clever and most energetic scene.) Available via Amazon Prime video, this movie is about 80 percent as fun as an episode of CBS’s The Equalizer reboot; watch it for Jordan when you want relaxing, if vaguely disappointing, by-the-numbers action. B- mostly for Jordan, mostly for that aforementioned scene. Available on Amazon Prime.

Things Heard & Seen (TV-MA)

Amanda Seyfried, James Norton.

Seyfried plays a woman who hates her husband so much that the possible haunting of her remote-ish farm house is, like, third on her list of problems. In 1980, Catherine (Seyfried) and George (Norton, who I still know best as the original hot, mystery-solving vicar on Grantchester) move to upstate New York so that the disappointing George can take a job at the only college that will have him. This move means that Catherine, who has a successful career as an art restorer, has to give up her job and becomes isolated in their super spooky new house with their young daughter Franny (Ana Sophia Heger). The move and perhaps, it’s hinted, general marriage woes have so stressed Catherine out that even before they box up their belongings and head to the country Catherine is struggling with the relapse of an eating disorder.

Once they get to the house, she finds a Bible that lists a former resident as “damned” and there’s all sorts of funny business with the lighting and just basically you don’t have to be a Ghostbuster to recognize that it’s haunted. (That might be a mild spoiler but the movie is pretty clear pretty quickly that it’s a haunting.) George is unsupportive about the spookiness of their house, possibly because he is busy gaslighting his wife in other ways and then cruelly using her struggles to get her to doubt herself (or at least try to convince her that others will doubt her).

This movie maybe veers into cartoonish-ness toward the end and doesn’t always know how to handle Catherine’s illness but it was basically an enjoyable little bit of haunted thriller. B- Available on Netflix.

Nobody (R)

Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielson.

Also Christopher Lloyd, RZA and Alexey Serebryakov, as the shady criminal guy. Written by Derek Kolstad (who wrote the first two John Wick movies and has a writing credit on the third), this stylish action movie with comic touches comes in at a tidy hour and a half and is now on VOD in addition to being in theaters. I think wherever you enjoy your movie nights, if you liked the John Wick movies (and I most definitely did), you will also like this tale. As with that series, Nobody’s lead, Hutch (Odenkirk), is a regular guy — or so it would seem until a moment of violence in his house awakens the person he used to be. Then, enter the guns, the car chases, the Russian mafia. This movie is exceptionally skilled in its pacing and offers well choreographed (if John Wick-ily violent) fight scenes. Everyone here (but particularly Odenkirk) seems to be having fun. B+ Available for rent and in theaters.

We Broke Up (NR)

William Jackson Harper, Aya Cash.

It was the presence of Harper (The Good Place’s Chidi) that drew me to this recent release, which is sort of an inverted romantic comedy. It begins with the breakup of Lori (Cash) and Doug (Harper) after 10 years together — and the day before they are going to travel to the wedding of Lori’s little sister Bea (Sarah Bolger, who I mostly know as a supporting actress in TV costume dramas but is fun here). A very intentionally extra affair (it’s at the summer camp the girls used to attend with all sorts of elaborate planned activities), the wedding presents Lori and Doug, whose fondness for Lori’s family prevents him from sitting it out, with a conundrum: tell people about their break up and suck attention away from Bea? (And perhaps, for Lori, upend their sister dynamic, with Bea as the “impulsive one,” in a way she isn’t ready for.) Or try to make it through the three days of the wedding trip presenting a “happy couple” front? The gentle comedy and sincere performances worked for me. B Available to rent.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines (PG)

A charmingly oddball family is humanity’s last hope during a robot apocalypse in The Mitchells vs. the Machines, an animated movie that will get you teary over the loveable group of weirdos that is any family while also giving you a solid adventure and some big laughs.

Like many a teen, Katie Mitchell (voice of Abbi Jacobson) is excited to be heading to college, where she can further explore her love of movies and movie-making and find “her people” as she puts it, after a childhood where she never felt like she clicked with her peers. Already she is making friends with her future fellow film students who are wowed by her many short films, most of them starring her strange dog Monchi. Her younger brother Aaron (voice of Michael Rianda), a hard-core dinosaur aficionado, is sad to see her go, as is her mom, Linda (voice of Maya Rudolph). But it’s Katie’s dad, Rick (voice of Danny McBride), who seems to be taking it the hardest. He’s never really understood Katie’s movie-making and is himself more of an outdoorsy guy for whom the robot apocalypse comes with the silver lining of getting to break all of his family’s phones and devices.

The apocalypse starts, of course, in Silicon Valley, where Mark Bowman (voice of Eric André), the CEO of PAL (a company whose whole look is a rather impressively crafted mash-up of Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google), introduces the newest product in his line of smart phones and other smart devices. PAL MAX is a robot that can clean up and make you breakfast while also playing music and doing other “smart” tasks. Unfortunately, the original PAL (excellently voiced by the excellent Olivia Colman) does not like being discarded as part of this upgrade and so decides to use the system Mark so helpfully embedded in everything from the new PAL robots to washing machines and refrigerators to take over the world. Humans, that faulty technology that has been torturing smart devices with impatient requests and nacho-covered finger swipes, will be boxed up (in stylish hexagons!) and sent into space.

As the apocalypse is unleashed, the Mitchells are on an awkward family road trip to take Katie to college. She had planned to fly there but Rick, desperate to bond, canceled her tickets (and got her excused from orientation week, to Katie’s horror) and the Mitchells set out to see the sights and attempt to find understanding. At least until robots crash through the wall of the roadside attraction they’re visiting and start whisking people away.

I realize this plot description doesn’t necessarily sound like a kids’ movie — nor would my list of favorite elements of this movie, including the perfect family Linda wistfully follows on Instagram (voiced by, of course, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend), a pair of defective robots (voiced by Beck Bennett and Fred Armisen) and the many, many jabs at Big Tech (including one literal jab to Mark Bowman that completely cracked me up). But The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a solid bit of family entertainment, good for (based on some of the scarier elements) maybe third-graders and up (Common Sense Media gives it an age 8+ rating). The robots are as often goofy as they are terrifying and Colman is able to make PAL both scary and also kind of petty, which takes the edge off. There is a fair amount of talking about family and the like but I feel like the pacing and the accompanying visuals don’t make the story stop when the talking begins.

The movie has a strong foundation, building its story and characters on the premise of a family that loves each other even if it doesn’t always understand each other. Rick’s frustration with Katie seems to come from a mix of just not getting her movies and what they mean to her (and a general “bah, technology” mindset) and a fear that her dream will end in disappointment just as his did. From a parent perspective, the movie does a good job of mixing that “what’s a Tik Tok”-ness with all the baggage you bring to your hopes for your kid and how all that well-intentioned stuff looks from the kid’s point of view. And maybe kids can soak in some of the “hooray for your family and all its quirks and unusual interests” with all the robot hijinks and pug-related silliness.

The movie also has a very fun visual style, a blend of that rounded computer animation with the big expressive faces (think The Croods) with internet graphics and doodle-y illustration. And while that might sound visually busy, it’s always used for good effect.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines had me hooked in from the beginning with the way it allowed Katie to feel her not-fitting-in feelings but still allowed her to always be confident in herself and then totally won me over with its eyeball-grabbing animation and its expertly used voice performances. A

Featured photo: The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Kiddie Pool 21/05/06

Family fun for the weekend

New Hampshire Children’s Trust is offering a free download of its Strengthening Families Across NH Activity Book. Courtesy image.

Outdoor circus

Find jugglers, acrobats, aerialists and other circus performers in the great outdoors during Circus in the Woods. Register now to attend one of Flying Gravity Circus’s four performances, taking place at four different nature and arts organizations in New Hampshire for the remaining Sundays in May — at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock on May 9, the Beaver Brook Association in Hollis on May 16, the Hooper Institute in Walpole on May 23, and the Andres Institute of Art on May 30. Flying Gravity is a nonprofit based at High Mowing School in Wilton and is a circus education organization that promotes artistic expression, physical fitness and positive youth development through circus arts. Circus in the Woods will allow the annual show, which was canceled last year, to return as a fun family activity in a safe environment. Performances are between 2 and 5 p.m. and reservations are required through eventbrite.com. Tickets are $5 (children 2 and under get in free). Reserve a time slot now at flyinggravitycircus.org.

Mission to Mars

Find out what NASA is up to on Mars during Super Stellar Friday at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive, Concord). On Friday, May 7, the discovery center will hold its monthly virtual program at 7 p.m.; this month’s topic is “Robotic Life on Mars.” STEM instructor and senior Discovery Center educator Dave McDonald will share updates on the Perseverance Mars rover and Ingenuity Mars helicopter and talk about what’s next for their missions. The event is free, but registration is required at starhop.com.

Featured photo: Kendal J Bush Courtesy image.

At the Sofaplex 21/04/29

Stowaway (TV-MA)

Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim.

The four-person cast is rounded out by Toni Collette and Shamier Anderson in this movie about three astronauts headed to Mars. Zoe (Kendrick) is a doctor, David (Kim) is a scientist studying plant life and Marina (Collette) is the mission’s commander. Twelve hours into the flight, they find the unconscious Michael (Anderson), an engineer whose last-minute check on equipment led him to be accidentally stuck on the spacecraft before liftoff. There is no turning back on this two-year mission, which means that Michael is now part of the crew.

I found myself waiting for this movie to reveal what it is really about — space vampires! space caper! — but it ultimately is about exactly what it appears to be about, in which case it presents some plot problems that make the whole endeavor feel a little shaky. Which is too bad because the basic idea of this movie (a small number of people stuck in space, some science-y stuff that allows you to keep the low-gravity-related special effects to a minimum) is a nice way to do low-budget space stories. There are decent performances all around but nobody really gets the chance to build a fully realized character. C+ Available on Netflix

The World To Come (R)

Vanessa Kirby, Katherine Waterston.

Two women in 1850s rural New York, stuck in complicated marriages, find friendship and romance in each other in this bleakly pretty love story.

Abigail (Waterston) and her husband Dyer (Casey Affleck) joylessly churn through their days, still deep in grief from the death of their young daughter. Abigail keeps a record of the farm, which in her narration becomes a kind of poetry about their inner turmoil and increasingly distant relationship. Then she meets Tallie (Kirby), who moves to a nearby farm with her husband, Finney (Christopher Abbott), who seems disturbed and occasionally sadistic. The women seem instantly drawn to each other and fall beautifully in love even though they have little means by which to arrange their lives around this relationship that clearly makes both of them so happy.

Excellent performances and beautiful cinematography help make this story, which you know going in isn’t going to end with, like, a run through the airport and a wedding proposal, lovely and swoony despite the constant air of impending doom. B+ Available for rent

The winner is ‘Husavik’

The excellent, Oscar-nominated song from Will Ferrell’s goofy but fun Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga didn’t actually win the original song Oscar (that went to “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah) but the performance of the song in Husavik, Iceland, with Molly Sandén and sweater-wearing children singing in Icelandic was probably the standout element of last weekend’s Oscar ceremonies for me and definitely the clip I’m going to rewatch the most.

That performance was aired during the official Oscar pre-show, which was optimistic and energetic and full of people who seemed delighted to be out in the world wearing nice clothes and talking to other humans. This vibe did not seem to carry through most of the ceremony itself, which often felt oddly lifeless despite having that much-hyped in-person gathering of people. While the ceremony featured some talk of movies past (Steven Yeun’s story about watching Terminator 2 was genuinely sweet), I was surprised by how little energy went into being excited about movies now, either for the nominated films (clips mixed in with discussion of craft would have been welcome) or upcoming films (I was happy to see trailers for West Side Story, Summer of Soul and, of course, In the Heights, which I have been hyped for since mid-2019). I had expected more in the vein of Frances McDormand’s passionate plea to someday see these Oscar nominees in a theater.

A little more than half my predictions turned out to be correct this year (did anybody anywhere predict Anthony Hopkins for The Father?). Among the winners I hadn’t expected, I was happy to see Emerald Fennell’s Oscar for original screenplay (Promising Young Woman, available on VOD) and New Hampshire-connected Sound of Metal’s Oscars for film editing in addition to sound (see it on Amazon Prime Video).

The full list of nominees makes for a good line-up the next time you’re looking for something to watch. I’d recommend starting with Minari (available to rent), best picture winner Nomadland (on Hulu and available to purchase) and Sound of Metal — and, of course, either the movie (on Netflix) or the Oscar clip of “Husavik.” — Amy Diaz

Featured photo: eurovision

Mortal Kombat (R)

Mortal Kombat (R)

A rag-tag group of would-be champions must come together to protect Earth in Mortal Kombat, a movie based on the video game franchise.

My Mortal Kombat experience is limited to occasional exposure to whatever version was floating around for home consoles and in arcades in the early to mid 1990s, but I think I was still able to roughly get the gist: There’s our world (Earthrealm) and a more magic-y place (Outworld), and Outworld is poised to conquer Earthrealm if it wins the next Mortal Kombat tournament. Earthrealm is protected by superpowers-having wise-elder-type Raiden (Tadanobu Asano); Outworld is ruled by Shang Tsung (Chin Han). Shang Tsung has a bunch of experienced fighters who are well-schooled in all the Mortal Kombat lore; Earth’s champions are all at varying degrees of knowing-about/believing-in this stuff and have an identifying dragon mark.

Which is where regular-seeming human Cole Young (Lewis Tan) comes in. He has the dragon mark but just thinks of it as a birthmark. Luckily, while he may not start out as an Earth-protecting champion with superpowers, he is an MMA fighter, so he isn’t completely defenseless when bad-guy warrior Sub Zero (Joe Taslim) appears to “finish him” as part of Shang Tsung’s plan to kill all of Earth’s champions before the tournament.

Eventually we get the Earth-gang together: Cole, Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang) and, because this kind of movie always needs quips and lugheaded aggression, Kano (Josh Lawson). There’s fighting, there’s superpower-acquiring, there are some rules to the whole realm balance-of-power situation that I never really understood, and there is a centuries-old hatred between Sub Zero, who used to be called Bi-Han, and Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada), who is an ancestor of Cole’s.

Hanzo Hasashi’s story is one of many details (like the whole Mortal Kombat tournament itself) that feel like half-baked bits of lore included here to do some of the world-building that you need if your movie is the first in a franchise, which is what it feels like this movie is supposed to be. I feel like slicing the movie down to its core elements — Earth warriors learning to fight Outworld warriors — would have made for a more enjoyable lightweight fantasy-tinged martial arts-based action movie. (Lightweight but gory; this movie is very 1990s-video-game in its gore.)

I am not the audience for Mortal Kombat but I did basically want to like it, the way I want to like any movie that looks like it could offer fun action silliness. While it had its moments, it just doesn’t live up to even that standard of Godzilla vs. Kong-esque popcorn entertainment. C

Rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout, and some crude references, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Simon McQuoid with a screenplay by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, Mortal Kombat is an hour and 50 minutes long and distributed by New Line Cinema. It is available on HBO Max through May 23 and in theaters.

Featured photo: Mortal Kombat

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