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      ‘The Last Twins’ Review: A Rare Holocaust Story

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      Erno Spiegel was spared because he was a twin. He went on to help others at Auschwitz, as detailed in this documentary by Perri Peltz and Matthew O’Neill.The documentary “The Last Twins” tells the harrowing true story of Erno Spiegel, a Jewish man who was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, but was spared for one reason: He was a twin. Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician, considered twins to be the ideal subjects because they allowed him to conduct what he believed were controlled genetic studies. He made Spiegel preside over a group of around 60 twin boys — many of whose lives Spiegel would save.Directed by Perri Peltz and Matthew O’Neill, “The Last Twins” is a conventional documentary made up of talking heads, archival materials and somber narration by Liev Schreiber. The speakers are mostly Holocaust survivors — some of the very boys whom Spiegel protected by forging documents or keeping crucial information secret. After the camps were liberated, Spiegel ended up leading his group of twins on a brutal winter trek through Poland and back home to Hungary.Hearing these survivors, now well into their 90s, talk about their experiences is devastating and poignant. But a cynical part of me wonders to what extent a documentary like “The Last Twins” simply scratches the same itch, allowing viewers to indulge a kind of morbid (if sympathetic) curiosity in the Holocaust. Should every unique survival story be packaged into the same kind of storytelling blueprint?One answer might be that real heroes — in the Holocaust and other histories of genocide — are often the stuff of fiction. Here, heroism is presented less as a feat of preternatural bravery than a series of choices made by someone who simply refused to give up his humanity.The Last TwinsNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘I Don’t Understand You’ Review: Murder and Mayhem in Italy

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      The film follows dads-to-be Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells) as they make a series of disastrously wrong turns during their anniversary trip.Dolly Parton has often joked that gay people deserve the right to legally marry and “suffer just like us heterosexuals.” That cheeky spirit of equal-opportunity relationship struggles underpins the film “I Don’t Understand You.”Written and directed by real-life husbands David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano, the film follows dads-to-be Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells) as they make a series of disastrously wrong turns during an anniversary trip to rural Italy that could threaten their chances of adopting a child. Intercultural misunderstandings lead to chaos and eventual bloodshed. If only they’d done their homework before boarding the plane.Like the unhinged 2023 gay comedy “Down Low,” this movie uses accidental murder as a darkly comic device. Lines like “What’s my hair doing?” and “I don’t want to break her stemware” — uttered after serious transgressions — land with snappy comedic timing. But this plays like a bloated “Saturday Night Live” sketch, the increasingly implausible plot getting out of step with a sincere story about queer parenthood. In trying to be both subversive and sincere, “I Don’t Understand You” ends up not quite pulling off either.One recurring idea is that Dom and Cole may fear homophobia more than they actually encounter it — self-preservation is their sharpest weapon. Even if they don’t realize it, their suffering isn’t because they’re gay. The couple is suffering because, unlike in queer films of decades past, they actually have the freedom to screw things up.I Don’t Understand YouRated R for murderous farce and meltdown-level expletives. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Dangerous Animals’ Review: Here, Sharky Sharky!

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      The Australian director Sean Byrne combines the serial killer and shark movie subgenres into a trashy good time.The horror movie owes sharks an apology. Despite what countless scenes of ominous blue fins cutting through the water have led us to believe, humans are much more of a threat to sharks than they are to us. The “Hostel” director Eli Roth even made a nonfiction movie making this argument, but no documentary can compete with a suspenseful cinematic blood bath.Enter Sean Byrne, an Australian director with a taste for the unhinged, whose viscerally violent debut, “The Loved Ones,” conflated the prom-night revenge of “Carrie” with the family dinner of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” His new effort, “Dangerous Animals,” is another 1970s horror mash-up, this time combining the serial killer and shark movie subgenres into a trashy good time. Byrne is at his most articulate with visual language, flipping the script on a famous Spielberg shot of dangling legs underwater. Early on, he takes us out with tourists to the sea and shows us that underwater perspective, but this time we’re looking at sharks, not humans, who, this movie suggests, are the real predators.It’s hardly the only nod to “Jaws.” Even the maniac at its center, the roguish tour guide Captain Tucker, played with charismatic gusto by Jai Courtney, looks a little like Richard Dreyfuss from that movie if he were on a steady diet of steroids. After a traumatic event in childhood, Tucker has taken to abducting tourists, locking them up on his boat and theatrically feeding them to sharks, all while filming these set pieces, beefing up an impressive collection of VHS snuff films. At one point, this maniac/indie director tells us he likes horror movies, but he didn’t need to.It’s an outlandish premise that inevitably leads to some dopey, implausible places. Byrne’s previous movies got down in the grimy muck. This one is glossier. Everyone speaks in quips and movie quotes. And no one has an ounce of flab. This is a horror movie about horror movies made by people who seem to have spent more time observing horror movies than the real world. Making this work requires wit, the right tone and a ruthless sense of pace. Byrne manages all three with a sure hand.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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      ‘Ballerina’ Review: Ana de Armas Twirls Into ‘John Wick’ Franchise

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      Ana de Armas twirls into the franchise as a ballerina-assassin with vengeance on her mind in this by-the-numbers cash grab.With a title as cumbersome as its germinating mythology, “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” is a stone-cold, self-infatuated effort to couple another boxcar to the franchise money train. I regret to report that Keanu Reeves’s titular assassin does not appear in a tutu.He does pop in, though, ever so briefly, lest we lose interest before the promised fifth installment. Set during the events of “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum” (2019), “Ballerina” is besotted with Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a lithe and lovely orphan who saw her father murdered and is obsessed with revenge. Inducted into the Ruska Roma, a cultlike clan whose ballet school fronts a contract-killer training facility, Eve practices pirouettes and punches with equal enthusiasm. Her toes are bloody, but her resolve is undimmed.A luxe orgy of mass murder, “Ballerina” dances from one bloody melee to another, its back-of-a-matchbook plot (by Shay Hatton) driven solely by arterial motives. As Eve defies the ballet school’s director (Anjelica Huston, more formidable than a roomful of Baryshnikovs) to pursue the well-protected head of a rival clan, the movie tends the franchise flame with a Wick-world checklist of familiar tropes. Like the impossibly creative, perfectly executed, utterly ridiculous fight sequences, which include Eve’s father single-handedly overcoming a literal boatload of would-be assassins, or Eve laying waste to the lethal residents of an entire Austrian village. Outlandish weaponry is a given, and “Ballerina” delights in deploying everything from expensive cookware to ice skates. There’s even a hulking, Dolph Lundgren type wielding a flamethrower.From time to time, the feverish slaughter pauses respectfully to allow English and Irish acting legends to inject brief moments of gravitas. Ian McShane’s menacingly dapper Winston is around to offer foster-fatherly advice and drop murky hints about Eve’s true parentage, and Gabriel Byrne appears as the mysterious head of the rival family and the bearer of further familial secrets. It’s all a bit much for Eve, who seems more relieved than scared when Wick himself shows up with a contract to stop her one-woman rampage. I suspect the audience will be equally thankful.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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      They Led the 2000s Indie-Rock Boom. Now They’re Vying for Oscars.

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      As Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross continue to spotlight film music, members of Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Interpol and Animal Collective have been joining the field.When Daniel Blumberg ascended the stage at the Oscars this year to accept his best original score trophy for “The Brutalist,” the bald, mild-mannered Englishman in the all-black suit read nervously from notes. “I’ve been an artist for 20 years now, since I was a teenager,” he said, perhaps jogging some music fans’ memories: This was the once curly-mopped singer and guitarist from the 2010s indie-rock band Yuck.His Academy Award put him in good company. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails have won the category twice, while Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is a two-time nominee. And bubbling up beside Blumberg are a crop of artists from New York’s early 2000s indie boom, when idiosyncratic and ambitious bands made their careers on blog love, critically acclaimed albums, relentless touring schedules and the occasional lucrative sync deal.Two decades later, entering their midlife years, an increasing number of their members are turning to film scoring as a new creative outlet — one they can pursue from home studios — rather than rely on the millennial nostalgia industry.A scene from “Sister Midnight.” Paul Banks, the frontman of the band Interpol, recorded its propulsive score.MagnoliaDavid Longstreth, the central figure of Dirty Projectors, created the imaginative and sprawling score for the fantasy journey “The Legend of Ochi,” which A24 released in theaters this year. Paul Banks, Interpol’s frontman, recorded propulsive music for Magnolia Pictures’ deadpan satire “Sister Midnight,” which opened in New York in May and will soon expand nationally. Various permutations of Animal Collective have provided haunting sounds for small-budget projects, including the stripped-down sci-fi tale “Obex,” which Oscilloscope Laboratories will distribute later this year.“The creative conversations I find really interesting,” said Christopher Bear of Grizzly Bear, who is now a prolific film and TV composer. “You’re not necessarily talking about music references. Often it’s more interesting if you’re not, because then it’s about story and picture and just more aesthetic questions. I find myself doing creative things that I probably wouldn’t if I was just left to my own devices in my studio.”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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      Sacha Jenkins, Filmmaker Who Mined the Black Experience, Dies at 53

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      Shaped by early hip-hop culture, his documentaries put race in the foreground, whether the topic was hip-hop fashion, the Capitol riots or Louis Armstrong.Sacha Jenkins, a fiery journalist and documentary filmmaker who strove to tell the story of Black American culture from within, whether in incisive prose explorations of rap and graffiti art or in screen meditations on Louis Armstrong, the Wu-Tang Clan or Rick James, died on May 23 at his home in the Inwood section of Manhattan. He was 53.The death was confirmed by his wife, the journalist and filmmaker Raquel Cepeda-Jenkins, who said the cause was complications of multiple system atrophy, a neurodegenerative disorder.Whatever the medium — zines, documentaries, satirical television shows — Mr. Jenkins was unflinching on the topic of race as he sought to reflect the depths and nuances of the Black experience as only Black Americans understood it.He was “an embodiment of ‘for us, by us,’” the journalist Stereo Williams wrote in a recent appreciation on Okayplayer, a music and culture site. “He was one of hip-hop’s greatest journalistic voices because he didn’t just write about the art: He lived it.”And he lived it from early on. Mr. Jenkins, raised primarily in the Astoria section of Queens, was a graffiti artist as a youth, and sought to bring an insider’s perspective to the culture surrounding it with his zine Graphic Scenes X-Plicit Language, which he started at 16. He later co-founded Beat-Down newspaper, which covered hip-hop; and the feisty and irreverent magazine Ego Trip, which billed itself as “the arrogant voice of musical truth.”Nas on the cover of the first issue of Ego Trip magazine, which billed itself as “the arrogant voice of musical truth.”Ego TripWe 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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      Haley Joel Osment Ordered to Attend A.A. After Ski Resort Arrest

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      The actor was charged in April with public intoxication and possession of cocaine and was recorded using the word “Nazi” and an antisemitic slur during his arrest. He later apologized.A judge has ordered the actor Haley Joel Osment to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and therapy sessions for the next six months as part of a deal to dispose of charges of public intoxication and cocaine possession after he insulted the police.Mr. Osment, who rose to fame as the child actor of “Sixth Sense” in 1999, was arrested in April at a ski resort in Mono County, Calif. Police footage of the arrest showed Mr. Osment refusing to answer questions from officers. He also asserted that he was being tortured and kidnapped by a “Nazi” and used an antisemitic slur while addressing an officer. Later he apologized for his words and said he had experienced a blackout.At a court appearance on Monday, a judge granted Mr. Osment’s request for a one-year diversion from prosecution, saying he would dismiss the charges if over the next six months the actor obeys all laws, attends three A.A. meetings a week and meets with his therapist twice a week.Diversion is an alternative procedure in criminal cases in many states that allows certain defendants to avoid prosecution and a criminal record by agreeing to complete a rehabilitation program and a period of probation.David Anderson, the Mono County district attorney, said in a statement that his office disagreed with the judge’s decision. “Based on Mr. Osment’s prior D.U.I. conviction, as well as his slurs toward the arresting officer, my office did not believe diversion was appropriate,” Mr. Anderson said.A representative for Mr. Osment did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. He is scheduled to reappear in court in January, when the court will review his compliance with the orders. If he does not complete the diversion program, criminal proceedings will be restarted.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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      The Women Who Try to Keep Pace With Ethan Hunt

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      Over eight installments, the “Mission: Impossible” franchise has never quite found the perfect match for Tom Cruise’s world-saving spy.Ethan Hunt, the charismatic hero of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise played by Tom Cruise, cares about one thing above all else: His team.The story of Ethan’s life as told in eight movies has been marked by his intense loyalty to the people by his side. The most enduring have been Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), the computer whiz who has been his buddy in all installments, and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), another technical genius who guides him through sticky situations. But Ethan’s love life has been an evolving saga that has gone through some hiccups, as the filmmakers try to figure out how to pair off a man whose work life involves scaling buildings, jumping out of planes and saving the world every few years. Over the years, the “Mission: Impossible” films have tested out different roles for the ladies in Ethan’s life, to varying degrees of success.Emmanuelle Béart as Claire Phelps in “Mission: Impossible” (1996)Emmanuelle Béart’s femme fatale character was the first “Mission” lead opposite Cruise.Paramount PicturesIn the series’ first entry, directed by Brian De Palma, Ethan has a sexually charged relationship with Claire (Emmanuelle Béart). She is the wife of Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), Ethan’s Impossible Mission Force team leader, who is presumed dead. Only, Jim isn’t dead, he’s actually the one framing Ethan in order to steal a top-secret list of undercover agents and make a financial killing. And Claire, it turns out, was in on the ruse. She dies at the hand of her husband, a bittersweet ending for a pretty classic femme fatale.Thandiwe Newton as Nyah Nordoff-Hall in “Mission: Impossible II” (2000)Thandiwe Newton and Dougray Scott in “Mission: Impossible II.” Paramount PicturesThe second installment of the franchise is known as the rockiest — and not just because it features Ethan rock climbing. That extends to his love interest, Nyah, played by Thandiwe Newton. Unlike other “M:I” ladies, Nyah follows the model of a Bond girl. She’s a thief who Ethan must enlist to help him track down a deadly virus known as Chimera, stolen by her ex-boyfriend (Dougray Scott). From the moment she’s onscreen, her body is sexualized, and very soon after she meets Ethan, they end up in bed together. But the whole plot feels forced, as if the filmmakers were trying to convince us that Ethan is a different character, more suave than he actually is.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