Category: Film Reviews

Kimi (R)

Zoë Kravitz, Rita Wilson.

Angela (Kravitz) listens professionally — her job for Amygdala is listening to clips recorded from a Siri/Alexa-type device called Kimi and translating, say, a request to order “kitchen towels” into a Kimi-recognized request for paper towels. She is sent streams of audio recorded from Kimi devices and decodes them in her home, where she works, exercises, occasionally sees a neighbor who has become something not quite a boyfriend (Terry, played by Byron Bowers) and does everything else in life. Angela, still healing after an assault and further distressed since the pandemic, is agoraphobic and can’t bring herself to leave her apartment, even to meet Terry for a quick bite at the food truck parked outside their apartments.

In one of the streams Kimi generates, Angela hears something more than just confusing regional slang or a common-word song title. Under a layer of loud music, she hears something that at first she thinks could be a sexual assault but then, as she digs deeper, she believes could be a murder. The more information she gathers, the more Angela realizes that she will have to leave her apartment to find help.

This Steven Soderbergh-directed movie is impressively economical — using everything in exactly the right amounts and pulling in only the characters (and only the amount of the characters and their lives) and story elements it’s going to need. At an hour and 29 minutes, it gives you just the right amount of story as well, turned up to the right speed to give you maximum tension as Angela tries to uncover what has happened and then get that information to the right people before she becomes another victim. Kimi is the sleek, well-crafted answer to the question of how to make a thriller on a budget. B+ Available on HBO Max.

Flee (PG-13)

This animated documentary (nominated in for Oscars in the animated feature, documentary and international film categories) tells the tale of Amin Nawabi — not, according to a story in Variety, the man’s real name, even though I believe it is the real “Amin’s” voice that we hear in the movie and he has a co-writing credit along with the director, Jonas Poher Rasmussen (whose voice is also featured). Amin is the identity created to protect the man who is now happily married — to Kaspar, who I think we also hear (I’m not sure if that’s his real name, though I suspect it is his real voice) — and living in Denmark. Amin was born in Afghanistan in the 1980s and the story of how he and his family tried (occasionally failing) to escape the country when the Soviet occupation ended and the civil war began is the story Amin is telling Jonas, a little at a time, with increasing veracity the more Amin comes to trust Jonas.

Rendered mostly in a spare but beautiful color sketch-style of animation, Amin’s story follows his family as they flee — first to Russia and then attempting to go further west, perhaps to Sweden, where his adult oldest brother already lives. Along the way, the family’s legal situation grows ever more precarious — they only ever have tourist visas in Russia — and the weight of hiding and being at the mercy of unscrupulous traffickers and even more unscrupulous Russian police drags at all of the family members, particularly Amin’s close-in-age older brother Saif.

As Amin ages, he is also coming to a better understanding of himself and his sexuality. His struggles with his fears about how his family might receive this information and struggles with the balance between living the life that might do his family the most good (one largely dedicated to work) and one that makes him feel safe and happy.

Similar to Persepolis, the animation allows you to experience Amin’s story as though you are inside his mind, with images that focus on the emotions of a moment — fear, sorrow, loneliness, excitement. It’s an engrossing way to absorb this story, while occasional archival newsclips help to ground it in a past that feels particularly relevant to this moment in world history. A Available for rent or purchase.

Ice Age: The Adventures of Buck Wild (PG)

Simon Pegg, Justina Machado.

In the grand tradition of TV series adaptations of movies starring none of the original characters and direct-to-video sequels featuring sound-alike (maybe) voices, Ice Age, the previously five-movie animated franchise, gets a sixth movie sidequel thing that is direct to streaming.

Gone are your Ray Romano and Queen Latifah and parade of big name vocal talent (except for Pegg, who voices Buck, the crazy weasel, as he apparently did in previous movies, so Wikipedia explains, which I consulted because this Ice Age saga is basically an All My Children-like web of characters, relationships and story points). Instead, Manny (voice of Sean Kenin) the mammoth, Sid (voice of Jake Green) the sloth and Diego (voice of Skyler Stone) the saber-tooth tiger are voiced by people doing a facsimile of Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary, respectively. Latifah’s Ellie (now voiced by Dominique Jennings), a female mammoth who showed up in the second movie and is now Manny’s wife, and her adopted possum brothers Eddie (Aaron Harris) and Crash (Vincent Tong) are also voiced by new actors. And several characters — Sid’s grandma voiced by Wanda Sykes, Manny and Ellie’s daughter Peaches, and a Jennifer Lopez-voiced love interest for Diego — have been lopped off entirely. Which, whatever; in my review of the last movie “way too many characters” was one of my criticisms.

The main characters are sort of shunted to the side here, with the story focusing on Eddie and Crash, who are chafing under the constant sisterly bossing by Ellie and want to strike out on their own. They end up wandering back to the Lost World, the dinosaur-filled valley beneath the Earth’s surface where the characters spent some time in a previous movie, and meet up once again with Buck Wild (Pegg), the off-kilter one-eyed adventurer who enforces a “land for all animals” peace. The boys decide to hang with Buck and help him on his current adventure: stopping a big-brained dino named Orson (voice of Utkarsh Ambudkar) from upsetting the dino-mammal coexistence in the Lost World.

I don’t fault this movie for not getting back its big money players or for moving the action — set in some vague part of the franchise timeline — to some side characters. I do fault it for not being weird enough about the whole thing. Let Buck, who has a pumpkin he calls his daughter, be weirder; let Crash and Eddie be zanier. At its best, Ice Age was never great, but it had some nice Looney Tunes elements in Scrat, the saber-tooth squirrel always thisclose to getting his acorn, and in the dopey wise-guy nature of Sid. Here, everything feels muffled, like the volume has been turned down on all the wacky and goofy — even Buck feels flatter. This movie, which doesn’t even hit the 90-minute mark and is clearly being delivered as Disney+ filler, doesn’t need a super strong emotional arc but it does need to be constantly appealing to its young audience. It didn’t feel like it consistently had that big energy. One of my younger elementary schoolers proclaimed it “boring” by about 10 minutes in, though later he did decide it was “kinda cool.”

Similar to what I said in my recent review of the fourth Hotel Transylvania installment, I think this movie’s principal selling point is that it is available in your home right now for no extra cost. This movie is probably even more younger-kid-audience-friendly than that one as it has fewer adult-type problems. It is, for a day when your kids just need new content and you just need them to settle down for a bit, fine but doesn’t offer anything more. C Available on Disney+.

Oscar movie season!

Welcome to the new class of Oscar nominees! The nominations for the 94th annual Academy Awards were announced on Feb. 8 and this year there are 10 contenders for best picture (the Oscar winners will be announced on March 27). If you’re still looking to catch up on the films of 2021, the list of nominees is an excellent place to start. Here are the best picture nominees and where to find them:

• Belfast (PG-13) Kenneth Branagh wrote and directed this semi-autobiographical tale of a boyhood amid the unrest of Northern Ireland in the 1960s. It is available for rent at home and it is still in theaters, including Red River Theatres in Concord, where it returns starting Friday, Feb. 11.

• CODA (PG-13) This excellent story about a teen who discovers her singing talent and her changing relationship with her parents might be my favorite of this group. It is available on Apple TV+.

• Don’t Look Up (R) Adam McKay directed and wrote the screenplay for this satire, which you can find on Netflix, that stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.

• Drive My Car (NR) This Japanese film also nabbed a Best International Film nomination as well as nominations in other categories and is the one movie of this group I haven’t seen yet. It is currently in theaters in the Boston area.

• Dune (PG-13) Not surprisingly, this beautiful-to-look-at adaptation also nabbed several nominations for the look and sound of the film. It is currently available for rent or purchase and will return to HBO Max on March 10.

• King Richard (PG-13) Will Smith also got a Best Actor in a Lead Role nod for this movie about Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams. The movie is available for purchase.

• Licorice Pizza (R) For me, the San Fernando Valley of the 1970s was this real star of this Paul Thomas Anderson story about a precocious 15-year-old and the twentysomething girl he falls for. The movie is currently in theaters.

• Nightmare Alley (R) This movie from director Guillermo del Toro was another one that wowed me more for its aesthetics. It is currently playing in theaters in the Boston area and available via HBO Max.

• The Power of the Dog (R) This Jane Campion-directed movie nabbed a slew of nominations, including nods in three acting categories and for Campion in the director category (making her the only woman nominated in that category this year). Find it on Netflix.

• West Side Story (PG-13) Steven Spielberg’s very good adaptation of the musical got Ariana DeBose a much deserved nomination in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category for Anita, among its many nominations. It is currently in theaters.

C’mon C’mon (R)

Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann.

Phoenix plays Johnny, a man suddenly thrown into the deep end of parenting, in the sweet and lovely C’mon C’mon, a film written and directed by Mike Mills (of 20th Century Women and Beginners fame).

Johnny finds himself suddenly charged with looking after 9-year-old nephew Jesse (an excellently natural Woody Norman, capturing kid oddballness without turning into a writer’s caricature of a child) when Jesse’s mom, Johnny’s sister Viv (Hoffmann), has to go from L.A. to Oakland to take care of Jesse’s dad, Paul (Scoot McNairy), who is suffering from mental illness.

Johnny and Viv haven’t been in each other’s lives much lately — they clashed over the care of their recently deceased mother, over Johnny’s unasked-for opinions about Viv’s relationship with Paul, over basic sibling stuff. But Viv is desperate and Johnny is willing to show up so she leaves Johnny to deal with Jesse — his Saturday morning blasting of opera, his odd tendency to pretend to be an orphan, his extreme (but, like, totally familiar to any parent) reaction to having sugar, his kid tendencies to not stay put. But also, his sudden pointed but thought-provoking questions, his delightful imagination, his charming goofiness, his curiosity at new things (like radio producer Johnny’s sound equipment and kid-interviewing project). So, you know, all the frustrating, wonderful, heartwarming-and-breaking stuff about kids.

The longer Viv has to help Paul, the more Johnny brings Jesse into his life — first to New York City and later to New Orleans, making sure he does basic things like brush teeth and do homework (ha, remotely — you don’t see much of that or this would go from a heartwarming look at parenting to a total nightmare horror story so fast).

Phoenix gives possibly his most relatable, most open and human performance as Johnny, a man who knows how out of his depth he is but doesn’t stop trying for Jesse and is aware that this terrifying and difficult scenario is his sister’s, like, Tuesday. Hoffman also gives a great performance as a woman trying to mom from afar while taking care of her co-parent (and ex, I think), largely to save her son’s dad — and to protect her son from the most difficult aspects of his father’s illness.

This doesn’t sound like the most uplifting subject matter, but it is presented with such grace and care, with such a real-world collision-of-fear-and-awesomeness look at parenting, that C’mon C’mon is just a delight. A Available for rent and in theaters.

Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania(PG)

Voices of Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez.

Also voices of Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key and Fran Drescher. Adam Sandler, who voiced main character Dracula for the first three of these movies, has passed the microphone on to voice doppelganger Brian Hull.

The movie gives you the gist even if you’ve never seen any of these Hotel Transylvania movies before (or, if, like me, you’ve definitely seen some of them but can’t remember much of anything about them): Drac and his vampire daughter Mavis (voice of Gomez), her human husband Johnny (Andy Samberg) and their son Dennis (voice of Asher Blinkoff) run a monster-serving hotel in a creepy Transylvanian castle that does such a brisk business Drac employs many a zombie and ghoul. Newly married to human Ericka Van Helsing (voice of Kathryn Hahn), great-granddaughter of The Van Helsing (voice of Gaffigan), Drac has been planning to officially turn the hotel over to Mavis and Johnny. But Johnny is such a stone cold goofus that Drac backs out at the last minute, telling Johnny that it’s because the property can only be passed to another monster. Johnny, desperate to truly be part of the family, uses Van Helsing’s monster-ray to turn himself into a monster. When Drac attempts to turn Johnny back into a human, he accidentally turns Frankenstein, the mummy and Wayne the werewolf human, creating all sorts of people who need to be returned to their former form — including Drac himself, who finds himself becoming human and losing the power to turn into a bat mid-fall.

Because the McGuffin-ray is broken in the process, Drac and Johnny set off on a quest to find a crystal that will repair it and set things right. What they don’t know when they head off is that, while Drac can eventually adjust to being human with some sunscreen and a shower, Johnny is in danger of having his monsterness constantly mutate until he becomes a giant, mindless, brightly colored destructo-saur.

If you have Amazon Prime, you have access to this movie for free — which is probably its principal selling point. This movie doesn’t feature nearly enough monster hijinks and physical comedy and is way too talky and focused on the plot of Drac handing off his hotel. (I’m sure there’s a joke in here about this being Succession for kids but with literal monsters instead of psychological monsters, but this movie doesn’t really warrant that much cleverness.) I don’t think my younger kids care about father-in-law/son-in-law relationships and they probably would have liked more with the swarm of werewolf puppies and the comedy based on the Blob. But this movie isn’t, like, actively offensive or particularly violent and I think my older kid would watch this if it were the only thing available or if it was the alternative to some kind of chore, so, C? Available via Amazon Prime.

Munich: The Edge of War (PG-13)

George MacKay, Jannis Niewöhner.

Jeremy Irons also stars in this adaptation of a Robert Harris novel which is surprisingly suspenseful despite the fact that it is about two guys running around in 1938 not preventing World War II. I mean, spoiler alert? Not really, and that’s kind of an interesting creative challenge when you set up your characters to complete a mission the larger outcome of which is already known to have failed.

Here, we get our spy thriller tension in part from the fact that British translator Hugh Legat (MacKay) is rather spectacularly not a spy. He seems like sort of an aide to prime minister Neville Chamberlain (Irons), who is sent on a delegation going to peace talks in Munich in part because years earlier he went to college with German Paul von Hartman (Niewöhner). A similar mid-level government type, Paul worms his way into the German delegation by serving as a translator for Hitler (Ulrich Matthes). Paul is part of a small group of German government types who think that, if Hitler illegally invades Czechoslovakia, they’ll be able to get the support of the German military and oust Hitler from power. Instead of invading, Hitler agrees to first meet with the British and French and his ally Italy to discuss a means of avoiding war — or, as it plays out here, a means by which the other countries can let him take chunks of Czechoslovakia without them having to intervene.

But Paul has different plans. He wants to use the conference as a cover for passing documents to Hugh, his old Oxford buddy, that prove that Czechoslovakia is just the beginning and that Hitler is planning a war of conquest throughout Europe. He gets a guy to get a guy to get Hugh included in the British delegation so that they can work together to get the documents to the right people and prevent the countries from appeasing Hitler. But while Paul, a former ardent Hitler-supporter who has become disillusioned with the Nazis, is used to sneaking around, Hugh, just a guy who regularly gets yelled at by both his boss and his neglected wife (Jessica Brown Findlay), is not great at skulduggery. For example, he “hides” important papers in a desk drawer in his hotel (why not staple them to the door, Hugh) and is so bad at following Paul without being seen that they might as well be holding hands and singing.

I wish the movie had played that aspect — Paul as the weary citizen of a police state, Hugh as a neophyte — up a bit more, because it did help ramp up the tension. Weighing in at over two hours, I think the movie could have lost some of the side stories and focused on a streamline tale of two men trying to desperately do some real world-saving behind the scenes of some hot-air diplomacy. We take a lot of detours into Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries), a mutual college friend who had formerly been together with Paul; Hugh’s shaky marriage and stalled career, and Paul’s relationship with his assistant, Helen (Sandra Huller). Shaved down by about half an hour and more singularly focused on the diplomacy-spy angle, Munich: The Edge of War could have been a more energetic noir-ish suspense film. As it is, it is occasionally pokey but watchable history drama fare. C+ Available on Netflix.

Swan Song (R)

Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris.

Also Glenn Close and Awkwafina.

In the cleanly designed, tech-filled future, Cameron (Ali) is terminally ill but hasn’t yet told his family, including wife Poppy (Harris). This gives him a rare opportunity: He can tell them about his condition and live out his final days with them or he can essentially download his memories and personality into a healthy but otherwise identical clone who will slip into his life. Either way, Cameron won’t be there to see his young son and the baby Poppy is currently pregnant with grow up, but a Cameron can be there for them.

Dr. Jo Scott (Close) is the doctor performing this strange, secret procedure at what feels like a beautiful, modernist spa out in the woods where Cameron also meets Kate (Awkwafina), a woman who is essentially waiting for her end while her replacement has been living her life. His wife is just getting over a prolonged period of grief over the death of her brother and has previously stated that she would be happy to have such a real version of her mother back, especially if she didn’t know it wasn’t her “real” mother. These are Cameron’s arguments for going through with the swap. But he is also bothered by the deceit and the loss of his life before his death by basically giving it away to someone else.

Most of this movie is Ali’s performance and, as you’d expect, he gives a solid one, one that allows for enough suspension of disbelief about the sci-fi aspects so that you can swim around in the bigger picture life questions with his characters. This isn’t some twisty thriller; the movie is more concerned with the internal journey Cameron takes and as that kind of contemplative tale it is engrossing. A Available on Apple TV+.

The Tragedy of Macbeth (R)

Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand.

Joel Coen directs and adapts this Shakespeare play starring Brendan Gleeson, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling and Stephen Root. Washington and McDormand are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, slowly going mad with guilt and paranoia after the murders they commit to become king and queen of Scotland. (Spoiler alert, I guess, if you “read” Macbeth in high school without actually reading it.)

The look of this eerie black and white adaption is probably its most striking feature. It is set in a kind of minimalist world that suggests a vaguely late medieval/early Renaissance Scotland, but in a very modernist clean-lines furniture sort of way. Fog regularly rolls through stark landscapes or brutalist castle ramparts to underscore the evil, corruption and uncertainty of the moment. And if all that sounds a bit much, Washington and McDormand keep the whole thing down on earth with performances that make all that 400-year-old dialogue feel natural. Even if “Shakespeare adaptation” has the ring of homeworkiness about it to it you, this briskly paced, engrossing presentation will, I think, overcome whatever reluctance you might have (yes, this is Shakespeare, but it is also a Coen movie) and is worth a watch. A Available on Apple TV+.

Spencer (R)

Kristin Stewart, Jack Farthing.

Directed by Pablo Larrain, who also directed 2016’s Jackie, which, as I think other critics have noted, feels like very much a part of the same cinematic universe. In both instances, the focus — the sole, almost claustrophobically narrow focus — is the turmoil of a woman wrestling with celebrity and the strains of a seemingly “fairy tale” marriage. In this case, Diana Spencer (Stewart), still the wife of the Prince of Wales, is white-knuckling it through a multi-day family Christmas with Queen Elizabeth (Stella Gonet) and the royal family, including Charles (Farthing), the husband she has clearly become estranged from. She is happy to see her sons (Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry) but otherwise literally sick to her stomach over the visit, frequently throwing up from the pressure. She chafes against the rules, the pre-planned wardrobe picked out and labeled for each meal and event, the many discussions about how open her bedroom curtains are or aren’t. At times, she finds comfort in Maggie (Sally Hawkins), a sympathetic staff member who helps dress her, and in chef Darren (Sean Harris). And, as she works out her feelings about being trapped in this lousy marriage with this stifling family, she occasionally talks to distant ancestor Anne Boylen (Amy Manson), who understands the hurt of your husband giving you the same necklace as he gave his mistress.

As with Jackie, Spencer is more about feeling, the emotions of Diana, the mood of the moment or the tone of different relationships she has, than it is about linear storytelling. Though the action stays in those few Christmas days, she wanders back to her childhood, back through different iconic Diana dresses, into her family’s former house. In some ways this is a movie about the performance of a performance, Stewart doing Diana doing the “Princess Diana TM” shtick with the head tilt and the soft-spokenness but maybe also trying to figure out who she would be if she didn’t do that character anymore. And it’s an interesting watch. I can understand why Stewart has been drawing much awards acclaim. Her Diana is mannered — something I also thought about Natalie Portman’s Jackie Kennedy — but she’s captivating and you feel her getting to the emotion of the character. B Available for rent or purchase.

The Tender Bar (R)

Ben Affleck, Christopher Lloyd.

JR (Daniel Ranieri as a kid, Tye Sheridan as a college student, Ron Livingston as an adult in voiceover) knows his mom (Lily Rabe) isn’t happy when they have to return to live with her parents (Lloyd, Sondra James) on Long Island, but he is delighted. The crowded house is frequently full of cousins and an aunt who, like JR’s mom, leaves and comes back when life doesn’t work out. And his Uncle Charlie (Affleck) is around — taking care of the family and tending bar at his place, The Dickens. Uncle Charlie gives impressionable JR lessons in “man sciences” (things like always have a little stash of money you hold back in your wallet and don’t spend at the bar, open doors for women, take care of your mother) and a community in the bar regulars. He also introduces JR to books — the canon of Dickins, later Orwell, and the like — and helps reinforce JR’s mother’s obsession with his going to an Ivy League college. But while she wants JR to become a lawyer — though not, as everyone jokes, to sue his father (Max Martini), a radio DJ who left them, for child support — JR’s love of Uncle Charlie’s books has him convinced he is going to be a writer.

Directed by George Clooney, The Tender Bar is a very straightforward kind of memoir telling a very straightforward kind of story about a boy growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. It feels a little too simple sometimes for the kind of golden (and awards-seeking) sheen it puts on everything. In this year of Belfast and Licorice Pizza, this take on the coming-of-age story feels a little mustier, a little like something that would feel at home in the theaters of the mid-1990s. The performances are fine — this kind of character feels like the optimistic variation of the one Affleck has played several times before. But while he doesn’t bring much new to the role, it and the movie overall are mildly, benignly interesting. B- Available on Amazon Prime.

Sing 2 (PG)

Voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon.

Also lending their voices to this animated tale are Scarlett Johansson, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton, Nick Kroll, Garth Jennings, Jennifer Saunders, Chelsea Peretti, Nick Offerman, Eric André, Pharrell Williams, Letitia Wright, Halsey, Bono and Bobby Cannavale doing the villain, a hotel-owning, gold-gilded office-having bully who pronounces “huge” as “U-ge” and maybe the one thing we, as Americans, could all agree on is that we can cool it with that kind of character for a while, huh?

The troop of performance-loving animals returns, still working for showman Buster Moon (McConaughey) in his theater, performing in a song-filled Alice in Wonderland show. When an attempt to take the show to the big city fails, Buster decides to bring the show to the talent-seeking hotel owner Mr. Crystal (Cannavale) anyway. Without intending to, the troop sells him on Gunter’s (Kroll) idea of a space-set jukebox musical, featuring the music of reclusive megastar Clay Calloway (Bono). Crystal wants something even better — Clay himself.

We get a mixed truffles chocolate box full of storylines — some characters working to convince Clay to come back to performing, some characters working out the difficult elements of their roles in the show, some characters dealing with the petulant fragile-egoed only-cares-about-his-image Crystal and his spoiled daughter.

There are a lot of characters and one of them is angry a lot — was an early complaint from one of my kids, who walked away from the movie about 20 minutes in. They seemed bored at points, but enjoyed the music and some of the sillier moments of physical comedy. And they did all wander back to the TV by the end, which features the music and production of the show-within-a-show. I mention these junior reviews in part because to watch this movie you are either going through the process of herding everybody into a movie theater or spending $24.99 for 48-hour VOD rental. Either way, for younger kids, the payout might not be worth the return in terms of kid engagement and enjoyment. My 6-year-olds might be right on the line of kids who have the patience for all of this movie’s scenes of talking and who are old enough for the threats of physical violence from the my-way-at-all-costs Crystal. Because the movie has so many storylines, we don’t get to spend as much time with any one character. As with the first Sing, the music is ultimately the movie’s most compelling star. C+ In theaters and available for rent.