Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      Why Levan Akin Won’t Show His New Movie ‘Crossing’ in Georgia

      by

      The director Levan Akin is worried that his latest film, “Crossing,” will inflame tensions around L.G.B.T. visibility in the post-Soviet nation.When Levan Akin’s movie “And Then We Danced,” a romance between men in a Georgian folk-dance troupe, premiered at Cannes in 2019, it became a festival hit and later an Oscars submission. But when it screened in Georgia later that year, the movie’s combination of traditional Georgian culture and gay love sparked violent protests from conservative groups.Akin’s latest film, “Crossing,” which opens in U.S. theaters Friday, also deals with L.G.B.T. themes, though the filmmaker said recently that he had hoped its reception in Georgia would be smoother. Its plot, about a woman who travels from Georgia to Turkey to search for her estranged trans niece, seemed unlikely be perceived as an attack Georgian culture in the same way, he said.But this spring, when Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, erupted in weeks of protests against a law on foreign influence that critics said would hamper Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union, Akin decided against releasing the movie there in such a polarized climate.“There is such political turmoil,” Akin said, “and we don’t want the film to be used as fodder in the debate. I don’t want that to repeat.”In “Crossing,” Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a retired and unmarried history teacher, travels to Istanbul from the city of Batumi, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, searching for her niece Tekla, who has fled after her family rejected her. Lia is assisted in scouring the city’s narrow streets and packed rooming houses by Evrim (Deniz Dumanli), a trans rights activist and lawyer. They form an unlikely bond — but finding Tekla proves difficult.Lucas Kankava as Achi, and Mzia Arabuli at Lia in “Crossing.”via MUBIWe 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

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Crumb Catcher’ Review: The Smother of Invention

      by

      An obnoxious inventor wreaks havoc on an upstate honeymoon in Chris Skotchdopole’s tepid psychological thriller.Chris Skotchdopole’s feature directorial debut sounds like it might be about a creature who eats babies from under their high chair. If only.Instead, it’s an aspirationally farcical home invasion thriller that never fully thrills, despite a game cast that does its darnedest to liven up an unfocused script — Skotchdopole wrote and edited his film, too — that’s fashioned from genre odds and ends.The film opens as Shane (Rigo Garay) and Leah (Ella Rae Peck) head to upstate New York to spend their honeymoon at a luxe home they’ve borrowed from Leah’s boss at the publishing house where Shane’s debut novel is to be released. As night falls, there’s a knock at the door and they let in John (John Speredakos), an obnoxious cater waiter from their wedding, and his con artist wife, Rose (Lorraine Farris).Together, the two uninvited grifters reveal a half-baked blackmail plot that centers on a sex video and an investment opportunity in John’s prized invention: a high-end table crumber, that tool fancy restaurants use to sweep between courses. A motormouth, John won’t take no for an answer, and his abrasive entrepreneurialism and irritating demeanor — far deadlier than any hatchet — set the film on a mildly violent path that hopscotches between “The Cable Guy,” “Shark Tank” and “Funny Games.”At the last minute, Skotchdopole throws in a bloody brawl and a shootout, but they aren’t enough to salvage a film that doesn’t quite know how to effectively manipulate issues of class and self-doubt so that his scary movie leaves a mark.Crumb CatcherNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 63 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Widow Clicquot’ Review: Champagne Mami

      by

      This muddled film, based on a true story, chronicles the origins of the French champagne house Veuve Clicquot.In the age of fizzy corporate biopics, “Widow Clicquot” — which chronicles the origins of the French champagne house Veuve Clicquot — has a couple of things going for it. Set in the 1800s around the Napoleonic Wars, the film, based on a true story, is boosted by the historical sweep and feminist credentials.Directed by Thomas Napper, it’s got all the trappings of a swoony epic à la the 2005 “Pride & Prejudice” (Joe Wright, that film’s director, is a producer on “Widow Clicquot”). But ambitious as it is in scope, the film is also somewhat charmless and dour, caught between wanting to deliver the passion audiences expect from a period romance and constructing a suspenseful underdog tale. It’s too bad it never finds a winning balance.Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot (Haley Bennett) is 26 when her husband, François (Tom Sturridge), the heir to a champagne business, dies. There are two timelines: One shows Barbe-Nicole, now considered one of the world’s first modern businesswomen, fending off her male skeptics as she takes command of the vineyard. Force majeure (wartime embargoes; spoiled shipments of bubbly) ruins her finances, but Barbe-Nicole perseveres, eventually creating an in-demand vintage and inventing a new process (the riddling table) that speeds up production.The second thread looks back to Barbe-Nicole’s marriage with François and his gradual descent into madness, which was exacerbated by his addiction to opium. The cinematographer Caroline Champetier (“Annette”) captures the lovebirds in warm, luminous colors, providing a sharp contrast with the gloomy interiors of the wartime narrative.Placing François at the emotional center of Barbe-Nicole’s mission, however, feels awkward and disingenuous, and the back-and-forth nature of the film kills the momentum. The brooding score, by Bryce Dessner, tells us that we’re in the realm of big drama, though I wish the film itself generated enough feelings to match.Widow ClicquotRated R. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 75 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Join or Die’ Review: Come Together

      by

      This documentary about the work of Robert Putnam, who wrote “Bowling Together,” argues that Americans can save democracy by becoming joiners.In the wake of the 2016 election, a new type of film briefly emerged: the liberal “how did we get here” documentary. It doled out insights, and visited with “ordinary” folks across the country to take the temperature of the political divide.“Join or Die,” directed by the siblings Rebecca Davis and Pete Davis, recalls those postelection films. Narrated by Pete and essentially framed as a plea to save the United States, it centers on the work of Robert Putnam, an academic who has dedicated his life to arguing that American civic engagement is in decline. Putnam articulated his thesis in “Bowling Alone,” first published as an article, and then in 2000 as a book.Putnam is Pete’s former professor, and the directors dedicate most of their running time to laying out the author’s queries, methods and findings while supporting them visually with montages and engaging collagelike animation. Throughout, the film unabashedly adopts Putnam’s doctrine: Become a joiner or democracy is doomed.Some of the film’s points feel simplistic, and questions linger. (I expect they would be answered by reading “Bowling Alone” rather than watching a movie about it.) The film also breaks up its Putnam biography by spending time with a handful of Americans who benefit from local communities — but these mini-profiles are too brief to resonate. Better to hew close to Putnam, whom the film regards with a deferential but congenial attitude.Join or DieNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 50 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Oddity’ Review: Twisted Sister

      by

      A haunted house, a blind psychic and a suspicious death fuel this flawed yet fun supernatural thriller.Coolly executed and seductively simple, “Oddity,” the second feature from Damian McCarthy (after the unsettling, underseen “Caveat” in 2021), is a fun, back-to-basics supernatural thriller that cares more about making us jump than making us cringe.To that end, most of the violence remains offscreen, leaving us to ponder its bloody aftermath. Set largely inside a rambling, barely habitable house in the Irish countryside, the movie opens with a terrifying encounter between Dani (Carolyn Bracken) and a crazed visitor (Tadhg Murphy) who claims to have seen someone enter her home. Disturbed by the man’s agitation and milky glass eye, and unable to reach her husband, Ted (Gwilym Lee), a doctor working the night shift at a nearby psychiatric hospital, Dani hesitates. Fatally.One year later, Ted and his new girlfriend (Caroline Menton) are dismayed by the arrival of Dani’s blind twin sister, Darcy (also played by Bracken), a psychic who owns a curio shop in the city. Darcy plans to unearth the truth about her sister’s death, and she has brought a companion: a hideous, life-size wooden figure with a gaping mouth and a head full of holes. This might be viewed by some as a metaphor for the plot; but for “Oddity,” economical to a fault, entertainment trumps enlightenment.Joining a thriving cohort of Irish filmmakers working in horror or on its fringes, McCarthy has a cheeky sense of humor and a clear love for genre traditions. Colm Hogan’s photography is clean and calm, his God’s-eye shots rich with icy foreboding, while Aza Hand’s sound design is lush and at times almost bestial. These ensure an atmosphere that’s rarely less than creepy and occasionally jolting, helping us forgive the underwritten characters and vague jiggery-pokery. How can you chastise a movie that so clearly wants to leave you smiling?OddityRated R for a mashed head and chewed tootsies. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 63 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Crossing’ Review: Stories to Tell

      by

      In Levan Akin’s fascinating drama, two strangers connect in Istanbul.“Crossing,” by Levan Akin, is a marvelous travelogue about two Georgian strangers who team up for a trip to Turkey where neither speaks the language nor knows how to get around.Lia (Mzia Arabuli) is a retired history teacher; Achi (Lucas Kankava) a young fast-talker who barely seems to have gone to school at all, although he’s picked up a bit of English on YouTube. Achi has made the trek to find his mother, while Lia is looking for her estranged niece, a trans woman. In a city of 15 million, the odds are against them.“Istanbul is a place where people come to disappear,” Lia sighs. (Arabuli, with her hawkish cheekbones and disappointed mouth, has one of the best screen faces of the summer.) The unlikely companions instead encounter a balladeering street urchin (Bunyamin Deger) with an extraordinary voice, and a 30-something trans social worker (Deniz Demanli) who impressively scales the calf-crippling hills in a pair of heavy heels. Sounds cutesy, but Akin keeps his mood piece feeling natural and breezy, allowing only a few camera flourishes on his own quest for tiny moments of connection, including a nod of recognition between Lia and one of the city’s famous street cats, two wanderers wiling away an afternoon.The setting is half the story, although the cinematographer Lisabi Fridell avoids anything you’d see on a postcard. One image worth pinning to the fridge is a tilt up a teetering apartment exterior where almost all the windows have a head poking out.In this town, in this movie, you feel absolutely certain each face has its own fascinating story to tell.CrossingNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 63 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Hollywoodgate’ Review: Inside the Taliban

      by

      In a frustrating documentary, the journalist Ibrahim Nash’at shows the Taliban after American troops left Afghanistan.There is no question that the director Ibrahim Nash’at faced tremendous danger in shooting “Hollywoodgate,” but the risks required to make this documentary also highlight its limitations.Nash’at, an Egyptian journalist based in Berlin, traveled to Afghanistan in 2021 shortly after American troops had left. He negotiated a tenuous arrangement with Mawlawi Mansour, the new commander of the country’s air force, to film him and a lieutenant named M.J. Mukhtar.In a voice-over at the outset, Nash’at explains the terms. He has been forbidden to film anyone who is not Taliban, he says, and he is under constant surveillance. In return for access, he adds, “I must show the world the image of the Taliban that they want me to see.” But he hopes simply to show what he saw.Nash’at, who handled his own camera and sound, is, to his credit, transparent about some gaps. When going to inspect a group of aircraft, Mansour doesn’t want the filmmaker to show them. (Nash’at nevertheless zooms in toward a few planes across the tarmac.) During a nighttime operation in which Mukhtar apparently hopes to root out people hostile to the Taliban, Nash’at is instructed, “The cameraman stays here.”What remains are Mansour and Mukhtar presenting themselves with varying degrees of self-consciousness (it is amusing when Mansour, after trying out a treadmill at a former American gym, asks that one be sent to his home so he can lose belly fat), and the Taliban’s public pageantry. Nash’at notes at the end that he was kept from filming the daily suffering of regular Afghans. The frustration of “Hollywoodgate” is that it could only ever feel incomplete.HollywoodgateNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      Keanu Reeves Wrote a Book. A Really Weird One.

      by

      Keanu Reeves doesn’t know exactly where the idea came from, but one day — sometime around the release of “John Wick: Chapter 2,” starring Keanu Reeves, and before he started shooting “The Matrix Resurrections,” also starring Keanu Reeves — he imagined a man who couldn’t die.“It became a series of what ifs,” he said. “What if they were 80,000 years old? Where did this character come from? What if they came from a tribe that was being attacked by other tribes and wanted to ask the gods for a weapon, and what if a god replied, and what if that birthed a half-human, half-god child?”From there, Reeves added, “It went from this simple premise and gained in complexity and continued to grow.”For a while, the character only existed in Reeves’s head. Then he wondered, What if this immortal warrior became the basis for a comic book? An action movie? An animated series?“And then, there’s another what-if,” he said. “What if it became a novel?”Reeves’s ancient warrior has since become the anchor of a growing multimedia franchise. The comic he imagined and co-wrote, BRZRKR (pronounced “berserker”), grew into a 12-issue series that has sold more than two million copies. A live-action film, starring and produced by Reeves, and an animated spinoff are in development at Netflix. More