Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Chaos: The Manson Murders’ Review: All You Ever Knew is Suspect

      by

      Errol Morris returns to his main obsessions — evil and delusion — in a new Netflix documentary about the famous murders.Two recurring inquiries — scary ones, entwined — characterize Errol Morris’s decades-long directing career, which includes landmark documentaries like “The Thin Blue Line,” “Mr. Death,” “The Fog of War” and “Standard Operating Procedure.” The first question regards the nature of evil: what it is, where it comes from, whether it’s invited into a man’s heart or chooses to takes up residence there. The other is the fine membrane between truth and fiction, which dictates how we become deluded, by others and by self, and how those delusions come to rule the world.In Morris’s more recent work, those themes are brought together most sharply in “American Dharma,” a 2019 chiller in which Morris feeds ample rope to the Trump adviser Steve Bannon to explain his vision of the world and, in so doing, expose a kind of cruelly pompous vapidity. But other contemporary works by Morris — “Separated,” about policies that tear migrant children from their parents; “The Pigeon Tunnel,” about what the spy novelist John le Carré never really revealed about himself — are also held together mostly by these questions. At their heart is some primal fear: that evil, or evil people, can control us without our even realizing it. And for Morris, this is not a religious question so much as an existential and political one.Little surprise that his latest project, the Netflix documentary “Chaos: The Manson Murders,” returns to the same arena. Based, sort of, on the hair-raising book by the journalist Tom O’Neill, the film winnows its central question to one recurring baffler: Why are we, as a culture drenched in true crime narratives, so obsessed with this particular set of murders, which occurred over 55 years ago?Most likely you know the outline of the case: Charles Manson, the failed musician and wild-eyed hippie, ordered his “family” — drug-addled runaways, mostly, who had been living with him at a ranch full of old movie sets — to carry out a series of gruesome murders on the evenings of Aug. 8 and 9, 1969. Among the victims was the actress Sharon Tate, then eight and a half months pregnant with her first child. Her husband, the director Roman Polanski, was out of town at the time.The story includes all kinds of weird spiky bits, well-documented, from accidents and coincidences (who was there that night, who wasn’t) to Manson’s connections to Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and his worship of the Beatles to the bizarre behavior he and his acolytes exhibited during the sensationalized trial. O’Neill, in his book, goes deeper, raising the specter of various conspiracy theories about potential covert government operations that seem, with the space of time and some well-placed Freedom of Information Act requests, to at least have the potential of maybe being linked to the case.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

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’ Review: Watchful Eyes

      by

      The heroine of Rungano Nyoni’s second feature keeps her cool even as she uncovers long-buried family secrets in Zambia.Shula, the watchful heroine of the quietly stirring “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” doesn’t seem cut out for bold gestures. She’s reserved, at times to the point of standoffishness and given to introspective silences. There’s admirable grace to her composure but also an air of practiced caution. The only really obvious thing about Shula is that she has recently returned to her comfortable, suburban family home in Zambia, and that she would clearly prefer to mind her own business. When a mystery reopens old traumas that, in turn, lead to a bruising cultural reckoning, Shula soon finds herself minding everyone else’s business, too.That discovery turns out to be the corpse of her Uncle Fred splayed on the road that Shula (the subtly magnetic newcomer Susan Chardy) is driving on one night. En route home from a party, Shula is wearing large sunglasses and a glittery silver headpiece that suggests a bedazzled ancient military helmet. She looks like a glamorous alien, which she is, in a way. When she steps out to look at the body, you see that she’s dressed in a ballooning black jumpsuit. If you inflated it, she could probably float away. Given what happens — and the mysterious girl who briefly materializes near the corpse — it’s a surprise that she doesn’t try.Rungano Nyoni, who was born in Zambia and grew up in Wales, knows how to make an entrance, and so does Shula. She’s a great character, and while her arresting introduction grabs you from the start, Shula keeps you tethered throughout. Hers is a story of discoveries both minor and monumental, one that’s flecked with troubling visions and an escalating sense of urgency. Shula keeps her cool until she doesn’t, and shortly after finding Fred’s body, she is buffeted by different forces, including her sprawling family, acquaintances and a complex patrimony that threatens to engulf her. (This is Nyoni’s second narrative feature; her first was “I Am Not a Witch,” a 2018 drama about a Zambian orphan accused of witchcraft.)Shula’s discovery of Fred’s corpse leads to a series of encounters, by turns comic and anguished, in a winding story about family secrets, cultural norms and generational trauma. It’s heavy, at times, painful, though not crushingly so. Much like her protagonist, Nyoni maintains an observant, quasi-analytic distance — the camerawork is suitably steady, calm — as the story grows more complicated and long-buried secrets are disinterred as the family arranges things. Even amid the growing emotional tumult, Shula keeps it together, which keeps the viewer at a remove. This gives you breathing and thinking space (you watch, too, and wait), but Shula’s coolness also leaves you unprepared for when she sheds her reserve.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

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Picture This’ Review: Five Dates Away From Love

      by

      Simone Ashley (“Bridgerton”) stars as Pia, a talented photographer in London navigating business pressures with her wish for independence in this vivid rom-com.Did the casting call for “Picture This” state that those without dimples needn’t apply? Most of the actors in this British rom-com — directed by Prarthana Mohan — have them. Especially the men orbiting Pia (Simone Ashley of “Bridgerton”), a talented photographer in London who is the hard-pressed business owner at the film’s center.There’s Jay (Luke Fetherston), her “gay bestie,” he says by way of an introduction, the co-owner of the 9th Mandala portrait studio; cardigan-wearing Akshay (Nikesh Patel) who works for Pia’s mother (Sindhu Vee) and Pia’s ex, Charlie (Hero Fiennes Tiffin). The former couple meet again when Charlie is included in the wedding party of Pia’s sister, Sonal (Anoushka Chadha).Written by the novelist Nikita Lalwani and based on the Australian movie “Five Blind Dates,” this twisty film finds Pia navigating her wish for independence and her business’ need for a cash infusion. Her mother promises a safety box of jewels for when she gets married, but Pia wasn’t planning on that possibility. The transactional and the traditional are wed when a jolly medium prophesies Pia will meet the love of her life in her next five dates.The title asks us to consider the film’s visuals. The palette here is vivid. Screens split — sometimes vertically, other times horizontally — all in the spirit of playfulness, while the music is a mix of international pop grooves. For all the potentially crushing challenges Pia faces — losing her business, not living out her dream of being a photographer, alienating her beloved younger sister — “Picture This,” keeps it light, never letting the sharp edges of potential failure come into focus.Picture ThisNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. Watch on Prime Video. More

    • 100 Shares139 Views

      in Movies

      ‘There’s Still Tomorrow’ Review: An Updated Italian Heroine

      by

      Set in Rome after World War I, this black-and-white feminist film directed by (and starring) Paola Cortellesi tells a nuanced story about domestic abuse.“There’s Still Tomorrow” is set in Rome after World War I, but it unfolds with timeless verve and romanticism. It’s the directorial debut of the Italian singer and comedian Paola Cortellesi, who also stars. This feminist dramedy tells a story about domestic abuse — echoing still-timely concerns about violence against women and toxic masculinity in Italy — in captivating, unexpected ways.Shot in silky black-and-white and paying homage to the stylized working-class films of Federico Fellini, “There’s Still Tomorrow” follows Delia (Cortellesi), a doting mother of three who is regularly beaten and surveilled by her husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea). The cash she gets from her various odd jobs goes straight into Ivano’s pocket, and should she drop a dish, leave the house without asking, or accept favors from the American soldiers stationed around town, there’s hell to pay.The film never shows the batterings directly. In one scene, it’s choreographed with the drama of a tango, and in most others, we take the perspectives of Delia’s children or the group of gossiping housewives perpetually stationed in the courtyard.Cortellesi, as both director and performer, doesn’t sink into miserabilism. The beautifully built-out sense of place, populated by memorable personalities (Ivano’s bedridden father; Delia’s best friend, who runs a vegetable stand; the mechanic with whom Delia is in love), demonstrates the richness of Delia’s life in an effortless balance of humor and tragedy. Bursts of slick contemporary pop music give an edge to her plight.Crucially, the plot revolves around the future of Delia’s teenage daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano), who dreams of getting married to her wealthy boyfriend and leading a life unlike her mother’s. Delia, whom Cortellesi plays with weathered charm, strives to save Marcella — and ultimately herself. This struggle is carried out with larger-than-life dramatics and touches of fantasy that make the film, for all its grim, real-life parallels, something of an escapist pleasure.There’s Still TomorrowNot rated. In Italian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 100 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Seven Veils’ Review: Private Anguish in Public View

      by

      Atom Egoyan’s latest film, starring Amanda Seyfried as a director of an opera, could only have come from him, in ways both good and bad.Only the Canadian writer-director Atom Egoyan (“Exotica,” “The Sweet Hereafter”) could have made the movie “Seven Veils.” His signature obsessions — the ripple effects of trauma, the use of video as evidence, private anguish played out in public view — pervade every frame.The film centers on a theater director, Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried), who is remounting a production of Strauss’s opera “Salomé” that she had worked on as a student with a mentor, Charles, who is never seen. The new assignment comes from Charles’s widow, Beatrice (Lanette Ware), who manages the opera company and surely knows that Jeanine and Charles were having an affair back then. What’s more, during the old production, Charles had exploited Jeanine’s experience of childhood abuse, vampirically drawing out her memories of being terrorized by her father and integrating those details into “Salomé.”The restaging requires Jeanine to faithfully replicate a troubling production while contradictorily making it her own, to expel her demons — all without disclosing her personal stake to the cast. She also has to manage present-day problems, notably a baritone (Michael Kupfer-Radecky) who is a liability around women. There’s more than a hint of self-reflexivity to “Seven Veils,” which incorporates Egoyan’s own remounting of “Salomé” for the Canadian Opera Company from 2023. That production’s singers play fictionalized versions of themselves.In short, “Seven Veils” offers plenty to think about. But fans who mourn that Egoyan’s dramatic instincts have slipped in recent years won’t quite be getting a return to form. Seyfried in particular seems out of place, and although the apparent miscasting might be intentional (Jeanine, giving an interview to a podcaster, pointedly explains that she is older than she looks), certain plot points and motifs, such as home movies featuring a blindfold and tangerines, approach self-parody.Seven VeilsNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Rule of Jenny Pen’ Review: More Than the Usual Nursing Home Horrors

      by

      A bully with a baby doll makes life distressing for all.The philosopher Immanuel Kant once said, “out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” Arguably, then, old age warps us even further. This certainly seems to be the case at the Royal Pine Mews Care Home, the fictional New Zealand setting for much of “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” a new film from the director James Ashcroft.Ashcroft, who adapted the film with Eli Kent from a short story by Owen Marshall, begins the tale with Geoffrey Rush as Stefan Mortenson, an imperious judge. He excoriates a young woman connected with a criminal case: “You’re not a victim here.” These words will come back to haunt him.During his final ruling, he suffers a stroke, which lands him in Royal Pine Mews. While he’s partially paralyzed, he’s still mentally sharp enough to be able to correct a fellow patient who misquotes Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias.” But he’s not quite prepared to handle another patient, Dave Crealy (played by a purposefully twitchy John Lithgow), who intimidates Stefan and other patients with the help of a puppet he’s made out of a baby doll (from which, among other things, he’s removed the eyes, to make it even more creepy) that he calls Jenny Pen.Ashcroft’s prior feature, “Coming Home in the Dark” (2021), was a relentlessly discomforting and ultimately harrowing tale of a family vacation gone wrong. With this film he expands his palette, serving up a double dose of horror: Crealy’s torture of Stefan, and Stefan’s seemingly inexorable mental deterioration. The director remains near-merciless in his approach, never shying away from showing his vulnerable characters (and the tormentor played with twisted relish by Lithgow is, ultimately, as unprotected as any of the others) in states of utter abjection.The Rule of Jenny PenRated R for themes, language, intense horror. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 88 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Rule Breakers’ Review: Afghanistan’s First Robotics Team

      by

      Based on a true story, this wholesome movie centers on four girls who make it to a worldwide competition in Washington, despite the odds.The underdog sports drama receives a wholesome twist in “Rule Breakers,” a movie based on the experiences of Afghanistan’s first competitive robotics team. This is a story of heartening firsts: Roya Mahboob, who spearheaded the initiative for schoolgirls, is the first woman to own a tech company in Afghanistan. The director Bill Guttentag and his cast get the can-do spirit at its core, as well as the societal constrictions that make such perseverance especially impressive, but it’s also a story that could have been told with more concision and subtlety.In the movie, Roya (Nikohl Boosheri) assembles the Afghan Dreamers, a group of schoolgirls from Herat Province: Esin (Amber Afzali), Taara (Nina Hosseinzadeh), Haadiya (Sara Malal Rowe) and Arezo (Mariam Saraj). With Roya’s brother Ali (Noorin Gulamgaus) as the coach, the team weathers a series of setbacks and breakthroughs. Getting to their first match, in Washington, involves considerable bureaucratic red tape that leaves them a ridiculously short window of time to build their robot. Their challenging journey becomes international news.Back home, the girls’ fame draws the wrath of the Taliban. Undaunted by threats and slurs, they press on, their return to the competition circuit captured in music-fueled montages that feel like raves for science geeks, with a high-spirited turn from Phoebe Waller-Bridge as an emcee and event judge.But beyond the celebratory energy is something more urgent: the teenagers’ commitment to cooperation and connectedness in a world too often defined by war and, in Afghanistan’s case, a long history of occupation. In the movie’s most searing moment, the Afghan Dreamers explain the land mine detector they’ve built, an antidote to the horror of living in a place filled with unexploded ordnance. A girl on the Vietnamese team listens. “My country too,” she says.Rule BreakersRated PG. Running time: 2 hours. In theaters. More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Queen of the Ring’ Review: Fighting for Respect

      by

      A waitress becomes a wrestler in this sports drama, based on the true story of the champion Mildred Burke.In “The Queen of the Ring,” an overlong sports drama based on a true story, Mildred Burke (Emily Bett Rickards) is a waitress in the 1930s aspiring to something more. She overcomes the odds to become a champion wrestler in an era when American women were largely confined to cooking and cleaning. It’s a middling entry into the biographical sports movie genre, and the director, Ash Avildsen, cannot resist pummeling his audience with a simplistic girl-power message.Rather randomly, Mildred stumbles upon a wrestling match in Kansas City and proclaims the sport her destiny. The story continues chronologically, tracking Mildred and her manager turned husband Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas) as they graduate from circus sideshows to professional matches to national renown.The screenplay, featuring dialogue exchanged in varying degrees of Southern drawls, is stuffed with spunky speeches about wrestling being a boys club. These moments amplify drama, but the script’s greater feat is a quiet attention to how women flocked to wrestling for its performative possibilities. It posits that “lady wrestlers,” as they called themselves, saw the ring as a stage, and the sport as an escape from dull domesticity.In its plot-heavy second half, “The Queen of the Ring” loses coherence when it speeds through a storyline about rival women’s leagues and sidelines characters it had only recently introduced. The muddle causes any sincere emotion to turn into schlock. One senses that Avildsen was desperate to pack an emotional punch, but he could have pulled a few instead.Queen of the RingRated PG-13 for violence, in and out of the ring. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. In theaters. More