Aurelia Butler

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    ‘Fight or Flight’ Review: Conned Air

    Josh Hartnett plays a rugged mercenary in an airborne action movie that struggles to stay on course.In “Fight or Flight,” Josh Hartnett plays Lucas Reyes, an alcoholic bleached-blonde mercenary who is living in exile in Thailand.Desperate to recapture his old life, Lucas accepts a job from a mysterious company led by his ex-girlfriend, Katherine (Katee Sackhoff). He needs to board a flight heading from Bangkok to San Francisco and, while midair, apprehend an assassin named the Ghost.Like “Bullet Train,” the bad guys in “Fight or Flight” are a bevy of assassins who are keen to collect the bounty on the Ghost’s head. Reyes’s only help comes from Isha (Charithra Chandran), a young, virtuous flight attendant. Because the action takes place mostly inside the plane, the staging can be repetitive. The only surprises are the tools used for bloodshed, such as a chain saw or a climbing ax, which an invigorated Hartnett wields in the film’s climactic acid trip freakout sequence.The director, James Madigan, doesn’t fully commit to the single location: He often cuts back to Katherine’s comedic bickering with her sniveling co-worker (Julian Kostov) and even positions the film’s stakes as the cessation of child labor.Hartnett and Chandran’s laid back chemistry steady the film’s turbulent tonal shifts, adding a punch that the shakily choreographed action lacks. Hartnett and Chandran are so good together, Madigan’s last-second setup for a possible sequel doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.Fight or FlightRated R for strong bloody violence and heavy drink service. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. In theaters. More

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    ‘Caught by the Tides’ Review: Jia Zhangke Sees Constant Flux

    The Chinese director shot two decades of footage to for his new film, which captures his country in tumult and one woman living through it.In “Caught by the Tides,” the Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke tracks a woman, a couple and a country across two tumultuous, transformational decades. As emotionally effective as it is formally brilliant, it draws on a trove of material — both fiction and nonfiction — that Jia began shooting in 2001 while working on another movie. He continued to document a dizzyingly changing China, a heroic project that has finally resulted in “Caught by the Tides,” a tour de force that is at once an affecting portrait of a people in flux and a soulful, generous-hearted autobiographic testament from one of our greatest living filmmakers.Jia has directed more than a dozen feature-length movies since his 1997 drama “Pickpocket,” about a low-level thief, but the impoverished state of foreign-language distribution in the United States means that his work tends to quickly slip in and out of art houses here before heading to living rooms. He’s a rock star on the international festival circuit, however, and a favorite of the Cannes Film Festival, where his movies regularly screen in competition. Jia won the best screenplay award at Cannes for his 2013 masterpiece “A Touch of Sin,” but he tends to be overlooked by juries because while his movies aren’t difficult, they don’t offer obvious pleasures. They’re thoughtful, and they need to be watched thoughtfully in turn.That’s true of “Caught by the Tides,” which follows a character who’s been featured in some of Jia’s earlier features, Qiaoqiao — Zhao Tao, Jia’s wife and longtime star — a willowy stunner with sharply planed cheekbones and a steady, penetrating gaze. That gaze is especially crucial here because while Zhao’s star charisma immediately commands your attention, her character never says a word. Instead, Qiaoqiao texts and she watches, observing the world and the people in it with eyes that, at times, flash with amusement and anger. When she’s with lover, Bin (Li Zhubin), her eyes also pool with tears that he doesn’t deserve.Zhao is a sensitive, subtly expressive screen performer who can convey a world of feeling with a single look. Even so, a heroine who can speak but doesn’t could have been risky for Jia because her silence could drain the character of complexity and, importantly, a sense of female agency. Here, though, everything that needs to be said is said both in bits of conversation that fill in the elliptical story and in the many documentary passages, which makes her a stand-in for Jia. Bin, a small-time hood more interested in money than in Qiaoqiao, does speak, yet his words are invariably less eloquent than her (and Jia’s) quiet.The story, such as it is, opens in the northern city of Datong and emerges gradually without the usual filmmaking preamble and prompts. If Jia has ever read a screenwriting manual, he probably immediately tossed it, laughing. His work fits more readily into art-cinema traditions than those of Hollywood, but is nevertheless insistently nonprogrammatic. “Caught by the Tides” takes place over some 20 years that, contrary to convention, aren’t shaped into neatly defined three (four or five) acts. Instead, time in the movie flows, just as in life. One minute, Qiaoqiao is young and has a bob and bangs; in the next she’s clearly older, and appears more inwardly directed, her now-long hair pulled back in a ponytail.Qiao and Bin’s emotionally fraught romance winds throughout “Caught by the Tides,” but the movie’s heart and its obvious sympathies are more with her than with him. About a half-hour into the movie, she appears one night watching a joyful, raucous crowd flooding the street. It’s 2001, and China has just been named as the host of the 2008 summer Olympics. (“China won!”) The country is on the move, and Qiaoqiao soon will be too. Shortly thereafter, Bin splits to pursue a business venture elsewhere, and she follows. She’ll keep on following him for the remainder of the movie amid national milestones, more crowds, dramatic turns, many songs and a multitude of young and old, unlined and weathered faces.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Some ‘Les Misérables’ Cast Members Plan to Skip Trump Kennedy Center Gala

    Several members of the “Les Misérables” cast are said to be planning to boycott a gala performance at the Kennedy Center, which President Trump took over as chairman.President Trump is planning to celebrate his takeover of the Kennedy Center by attending a gala fund-raiser for the center in June featuring a performance of “Les Misérables,” one of his favorite musicals.But the president’s night out at the theater is already drawing protests.Several members of the “Les Misérables” cast are planning to boycott the performance, according to a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity because the discussions were considered confidential. The cast was given the option not to perform as word spread that Mr. Trump planned to attend, the person said. The boycott was reported earlier by CNN.Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump appointed as president of the Kennedy Center, said the center had not heard of any boycott.“Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed,” he said in a statement. “In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience.”He added: “The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoys a performance together.”The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bond Theatrical, the agency overseeing the “Les Misérables” tour, issued a brief statement which did not address the question of performers opting out of the gala but said that the show would be performed “throughout our engagement at the Kennedy Center.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Smokey Robinson’s Victory Lap Upended by Allegations of Sexual Assault

    The Motown legend, 85, was touring to support a new album when he was sued and accused of sexually assaulting four women who had worked as housekeepers for him.At 85, the Motown legend Smokey Robinson was on something of a celebratory tour. With a new album to promote, he shared the stage with Bruce Springsteen last month, performed last week on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and was in the midst of playing a series of live dates in the United States and the United Kingdom.“I feel wonderful,” he told Entertainment Tonight in a recent interview. “I pray every night before we go on that we can be entertaining and uplifting to the people who are there.”But on Tuesday, Mr. Robinson’s victory lap was upended when four women who had worked as housekeepers for him filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault, claiming in the suit that he abused them dozens of times over many years.The suit, filed in Los Angeles, identifies the women only as Jane Does 1 through 4. They each accuse Mr. Robinson of raping them repeatedly while they were employed cleaning his home in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, as well as in his other homes in Ventura County, Calif., and Las Vegas.Multiple attempts to reach Mr. Robinson and his lawyers and representatives were unsuccessful on Wednesday. The Daily Mail said it had reached Mr. Robinson by telephone and reported that he had said, “I am appalled.”Mr. Robinson was Motown royalty, writing and performing some of the most beloved hits in the catalog with the Miracles.Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Liam Payne Left a $32.3 Million Estate and No Will, Reports Say

    Mr. Payne, a former member of the boy band One Direction, died after falling from a third-story hotel balcony in October.Liam Payne, the former One Direction singer who died last year after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, left an estate worth 24.3 million pounds, or $32.3 million, but had not written a will before his death, according to British news outlets.Mr. Payne’s former partner, Cheryl Tweedy, will be an administrator of his wealth and property, the BBC and The Guardian reported on Wednesday. Ms. Tweedy, the mother of his 8-year-old son and a former member of the pop group Girls Aloud, shares oversight of the estate with a music industry lawyer but neither may distribute the wealth, the BBC said.Mr. Payne, 31, died in October, after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony while in Argentina, and a toxicology report found he had cocaine, alcohol and a prescription antidepressant in his system at the time of death. A statement from local prosecutors after the death suggested that it was not a suicide because of the determination that he fell in a state of unconsciousness.After an investigation, Argentine authorities charged three people with negligent homicide. Those charges, against a friend of Mr. Payne’s and two employees at the hotel where he died, were later dropped.A CasaSur Palermo Hotel employee and a local waiter are still accused of supplying narcotics to Mr. Payne in the days leading up to his death. The charge they face carries a sentence of four to 15 years in prison. More

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    Review: English Concert Brings Handel’s ‘Cesare’ to Carnegie

    The English Concert, under the conductor Harry Bicket, returned to Carnegie Hall with one of Handel’s greatest hits.Less than 48 hours after a new production of “Giulio Cesare in Egitto” ended its run in the Hudson Valley, another “Cesare” took up the throne in New York City.The timing was purely coincidental but not that surprising. Handel composed over 70 music dramas, yet only a handful are still performed regularly, and “Cesare” remains his most popular.Each recent “Cesare,” though, had something distinct to offer its audiences. R.B. Schlather’s staging upstate was fashionably modern, with a liberal approach to the music. The concert performance in New York, presented by the English Concert at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, was made for faithful Baroque-ophiles: no risks, no frills, no excess.Almost every season since 2013, the English Concert, led by its artistic director, Harry Bicket, has brought Handel’s operas and oratorios to New York. This ensemble sets a standard for Handel performance in the 21st century, in large part because of Bicket’s musicality and attention to detail. Like a good wine, this music is savored, not gulped. No interlude is rushed, no aria taken for granted.Operas as concerts can be challenging, especially for a work with a four-hour running time, including two intermissions. Handel benefits from eye candy: flashy garb, elaborate scenery, routines with backup dancers — anything to keep hold of our attention. And yet if it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it. Carnegie was packed on Sunday, perhaps with people who just want good music performed well. The English Concert does that consistently.To write “Cesare,” Handel and the librettist Nicola Francesco Haym drew from fictionalized accounts of the end of Julius Caesar’s civil war. After defeating Pompeo, Cesare follows his rival to Egypt. Cesare intends to grant clemency to Pompeo, who is assassinated anyway at the behest of Tolomeo, the king of Egypt. Personal vengeance, romantic conceit and cunning tomfoolery ensue in narratives that weave among eight characters.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Forbidden Games’: A War Orphan’s Sweet, Ultimately Shattering Story

    Hailed on its release as the most troubling French film made in the aftermath of World War II, it returns for a week at Film Forum.René Clément’s “Forbidden Games” (1952) uses a 5-year-old’s wartime ordeal as the basis for a remarkably unsentimental allegory of childhood innocence and adult ignorance. Straightforwardly simple but psychologically complex, the movie is sweet, sardonic, and ultimately shattering.Widely (if not universally) hailed on its release and periodically rediscovered as the most troubling French film made in the aftermath of World War II, it returns for a week at Film Forum in a new 4K restoration.Evoking multiple traumas, “Forbidden Games” unfolds on the eve of France’s surrender to Germany; the opening sequence depicts the panicky exodus of an estimated two million Parisians in June 1940. Crawling through open countryside, the caravan of cars and wagons is ruthlessly bombed by the Nazis. Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) bolts from the family auto to pursue a pet puppy. Her parents follow, the Germans strafe the road. The adults are killed, but not Paulette. Physically unharmed, she wanders off, cradling her dead dog, into fields as verdant as Eden.A beautiful, golden-haired child with a clear direct gaze, Paulette is discovered by an 11-year-old farm boy, Michel (Georges Poujouly), and brought home to his rustic family. They have their own issues, benignly ignoring Paulette. Unable to process what has befallen her parents, she focuses on burying her dog in the company of other small creatures found dead. Eager to join her obsessional play, Michel helps create a secret cemetery, stealing crosses to mark the graves.Denied the possibility of mourning her mother and father, Paulette creates her own ritual. That the child neither recognizes the farm family’s totemic “Good Lord” nor understands the symbolism of the crucifix suggests that she may be Jewish (or had freethinker parents). Be that as it may, her difficulty in comprehending her loss highlights the failure of French Catholic metaphysics. Indeed, Paulette’s naïveté renders the customs she observes all the more strange.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Sonny Rollins

    Walter Theodore Rollins: the “saxophone colossus.” Jazz’s Prometheus, its Siddhartha and its heavyweight champ. Or, as Nate Chinen once put it in a New York Times review of one of Rollins’s marathon-like concerts, “the great unflagging sovereign of the tenor saxophone.”Growing up in 1940s Harlem, Sonny Rollins idolized swing-era heavyweights like Coleman Hawkins and jump-blues saxophonists like Louis Jordan. But when he heard Charlie Parker and the torrid improvisations of Parker’s bebop revolution, which was overtaking Harlem’s clubs, Rollins’s world changed. “He was going against the grain,” Rollins is quoted saying of Parker in “Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins,” Aidan Levy’s authoritative biography. “Highly intricate, involved, complicated, intellectual.”Sonny Rollins at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2012.Jack Vartoogian/Getty ImagesFor Rollins, bebop’s emphasis on physical tenacity and fast-paced intellect became a personal religion. Many of the tunes he wrote have become jazz standards — including some on the list below, like “St. Thomas,” “Oleo” and “Airegin” — but as soon as he composed them, he invariably set about tearing them apart, recasting them, allowing the substance to push against the limits of its own form until it burst, and then to see how that bursting could be multiplied.Sonny Rollins’s sound is as uncapturable as it is memorable, so you’re left with nothing to do except to keep on listening. In the same way that, over his seven-decade career and across more than 60 albums, Rollins wanted nothing more than to simply keep playing. Rollins, who will turn 95 this summer, has not performed publicly since 2012, for health reasons. But he remains indefatigable as a listener. Interviews with him are still liable to veer toward his favorite contemporary saxophonists — some of whom weigh in on the list below.Read on for a ride through Rollins’s catalog, guided by a team of musicians, scholars and critics. Find playlists embedded below, and don’t forget to leave your own favorites in the comments.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More