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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

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      In ‘Bring Her Back,’ Sally Hawkins Takes Horror to Heart

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      In a rare interview, the actress discusses tackling a difficult, sensitive and often dastardly role in the latest offering from Danny and Michael Philippou.The actress Sally Hawkins has a to-die-for pedigree. She’s been nominated twice for Academy Awards, once as a creature’s lady love in Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” and again for Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine,” in which she played a depressed working-class woman opposite Cate Blanchett. Her British stage credits include plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov and García Lorca, and on Broadway, Shaw.“Bring Her Back,” Hawkins’s latest film (in theaters) is also a plum project. It’s from the prestige art-house distributor A24, and it’s the second feature by Danny and Michael Philippou, the twin Australian YouTubers-turned-directors who became Hollywood famous after their possession drama “Talk to Me” became one of A24’s biggest hits in 2023.But “Bring Her Back” is also a malign and at times shockingly gruesome horror movie; critics have noted its “restlessly mounting anguish” and have called it the “feel-bad movie of the year.” It remains to be seen if genre-averse fans who know Hawkins from her acclaimed work, including appearances in two “Paddington” films, will turn out for a movie that has a scene between a young boy and a giant kitchen knife that even gorehounds may have a hard time stomaching.To hear Hawkins explain it, she said yes to the film precisely because of its weight — or rather, lack of it.“There’s no fat on it. It’s muscular,” she said last month during a phone call from London. “The writing just hits hard, and you know it comes from a place of real understanding.”Hawkins with Jonah Wren Phillips in “Bring Her Back.”Ingvar Kenne/A24We 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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      ‘Happiness’: Living in a State of Irony

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      Todd Solondz’s 1998 movie, revived for a run at the IFC Center in a new 4K restoration, has scarcely lost its capacity to discomfit.Playfully named “Happiness,” Todd Solondz’s painful, deadpan burlesque of bourgeois mores encompasses murder, mutilation, rape, pedophilia, suicide, obscene phone calls and free-floating masochism, among syndromes yet to be named. “Happiness” scared off its initial distributor but struck a chord at Cannes. Released unrated, it was hailed as the dark comedy du jour, a runner-up in three categories (film, screenplay and actor) in the 1998 New York Film Critics Circle’s annual awards.The movie may not be as shocking as it was 27 years ago but, revived for a run at the IFC Center in a new 4K restoration, it has scarcely lost its capacity to discomfit.A family drama centered on three adult sisters, “Happiness” mocks mid-period Woody Allen as it transposes Chekhov to suburban New Jersey. The eldest, Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), is a smug housewife with two kids and a psychoanalyst husband named Bill (Dylan Baker), who is depressed and harboring a desire for small boys. Bill’s patient (Philip Seymour Hoffman) drones through his sessions and makes obscene phone calls to the middle sister, Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle).Thoroughly unpleasant Helen is a narcissistic writer, author of a best-selling novel titled “A Pornographic Childhood.” By contrast, the youngest, most sympathetic sibling, Joy (Jane Adams), is a hapless failure — a would-be singer-songwriter introduced in the film’s opening sequence, making a bad date worse.Their parents, Mona (Louise Lasser) and Lenny (Ben Gazzara), are unhappy in Florida, where the local real estate agent is played by a glitzy Marla Maples, then married to the real estate developer Donald Trump. Her character tells Mona that getting a divorce was the best decision of her life. (Solondz is a master caster.)Everyone is alone. They are largely oblivious to each other’s misery, yet the strongest, funniest scenes are one-on-ones. Often shot in close-up, these suggest acting exercises or skit comedy gone off the rails. The bit in which Bill explains what used to be called “the facts of life” to his 11-year-old son is as excruciating as it is absurd.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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      Misery Loves Company? Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair Hits a Nerve.

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      Movies that are major downers, it turns out, are a big film festival draw. “Sometimes the world is such that you just need to wallow a little bit.”The festival Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair started three years ago as a primal scream from a little Los Angeles nonprofit organization.What has happened since says a lot about the mood in at least one corner of American culture.The American Cinematheque, a nonprofit that brings classic art films to Los Angeles theaters, was struggling to sell tickets in 2022. Older cinephiles were still spooked by the Covid pandemic; younger ones were glued to Netflix.At the same time, some Cinematheque staff members were depressed about the direction the world seemed to be heading. It was the year Russia invaded Ukraine, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a gunman killed 19 children at a Texas elementary school and Big Tech rolled out artificial intelligence bots.Out of that somber stew came a programming idea called Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair. Over seven days, the Cinematheque screened 30 feel-bad movies. It called the selections “the greatest films from around the world that explore the darkest sides of humanity.” For the inaugural festival, one centerpiece film was Béla Tarr’s “Satantango” (1994), a seven-hour-and-19-minute contemplation of decay and misery.Gabriel Byrne in Joel Coen’s 1990 film “Miller’s Crossing.”20th Century Fox, via The American Cinematheque“‘Everyone was saying, ‘You should do comedies,’” Grant Moninger, the Cinematheque’s artistic director, said. “But we thought, ‘What if you did the exact opposite?’ We’re not in this to dangle keys at a baby.” (Now might be a good moment to mention that Moninger grew up with a mother, he said, who “only rented movies on VHS in two genres: the Holocaust and slavery.”)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