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      ‘Superboys of Malegaon’ Review: Making a Local Hit

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      Inspired by true events, this Hindi-language film is a love letter to scrappy moviemaking, and to friendship.In the Hindi-language film “Superboys of Malegaon,” a wedding videographer named Nasir (Adarsh Gourav) dreams of making movies that will transform his brother’s video parlor in the western Indian city of Malegaon into a movie theater, packed like the one across the street. For this fool’s errand, he enlists his closest friends.A love letter to independent filmmaking, “Superboys,” directed by Reema Kagti and written by Kagti and Varun Grover, has its requisite share of goofball pleasures and familiar insights about scrappy moviemaking in the shadow of a behemoth industry. But this tale — inspired by the 2008 documentary “Supermen of Malegaon” — succeeds most as a touching tribute to friendship.Although Malegaon is more than 200 miles by train from Mumbai, that distance doesn’t curtail the reach of the antipiracy police. Nasir learns this when he starts making films splicing Bollywood action sequences with scenes of Buster Keaton antics. Chastised but not cowed, Nasir and his friends — Shafique (Shashank Arora), Aleem (Pallav Singh), Akram (Anuj Duhan), Irfan (Saqib Ayub) and Farogh (Vineet Singh) — begin shooting their own film, which becomes a local hit. With success, tensions arise between the friends.Throughout “Superboys,” the fans crowding the movie theater are men. The sole woman on Nisar’s all-male set is Trupti (Manjiri Pupala), the female lead. But Katgi and Grover tease a marriage story subplot (featuring Muskkaan Jaferi as Shabeena) that expands the story to include women.Still, it’s the hangdog Shafique, a textile worker, who proves to be the heart of “Superboys.” When he coughs up blood, it heralds an authentic shift in tone. He becomes both a Superman and the movie’s kryptonite to cynicism.Superboys of MalegaonRated PG-13 for smoking and some language. In Hindi, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘The Accidental Getaway Driver’ Review: Hostage to the Past

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      In Sing J. Lee’s big-hearted debut feature about Vietnamese American lives, three escaped prisoners take a cabdriver as their accomplice.The premise might sound like a riff on “Collateral,” but “The Accidental Getaway Driver” is no ticking clock thriller. Sing J. Lee’s quiet, big-hearted debut feature is steeped in the sorrow and yearning of its Vietnamese American characters as they work through the lingering trauma of displacement while living in Southern California.One late night an elderly cabdriver named Long (Hiep Tran Nghia) reluctantly does a final pickup, which puts him at the mercy of three rangy men who keep switching their destination. They all end up at a motel, where the terrified driver learns from the TV news that his fares are fugitives from prison — a moment that sounds too convenient, but comes straight from the 2017 GQ feature that inspired Lee’s film.Tay (Dustin Nguyen), a member of the group, keeps chatting with Long and confiding personal details, which only scares Long more: Will he know too much? But as the nights of laying low go on, the two men bond over their experiences with family separation and a buried sense of self. Tay harbors shame over his crimes, while Long, a divorced veteran, feels shunted aside by his estranged family.Tay’s companions — Aden (Dali Benssalah), their shifty leader, and a young-gun named Eddie (Phi Vu) — threaten to push the film into aggressive action. But despite comic touches, the story stays in the shadows of heart-to-heart talks and ruminations, with contemplative cinematography that sets faces like gems in the darkness and conjures heady visions of Long in Vietnam. Tay and Long might meet under duress, but their commiseration helps free them from their individual pain.The Accidental Getaway DriverRated R for language. In English and Vietnamese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Riff Raff’ Review: These Jokes Don’t Kill

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      The dark mayhem spun up by this crime comedy might seem a little familiar.Watching this progressively tedious comedic thriller, one’s mind is apt to wander, and to recall the better films and television series of the past from which it lifts.The story device of the former stone-cold killer (portrayed here by Ed Harris) who trades in the assassin’s lot for that of the family man, which is this picture’s main thread, was done in a superior fashion in “A History of Violence” (2005). The doe-eyed and beautiful European woman who somehow manages to be at least slightly annoying, here incarnated by Emanuela Postacchini, brings to mind Maria de Medeiros in “Pulp Fiction” (1994). And this film’s good-hearted, moderately nerdy and slightly inept teen character, DJ (Miles J. Harvey), seems spun off from Steve Urkel of the TV show “Family Matters.” On top of it all is a pronounced Tarantino influence.Directed by Dito Montiel from a script by John Pollono, “Riff Raff” sees a very motley group of criminals converging on the Maine sanctuary of the retired assassin who Harris plays, Vincent. (Harris also had a prominent role in “A History of Violence,” which amplifies the déjà vu vibes.) Despite the abundance of flashbacks and the complicated histories of the characters, the movie is largely a series of mini-standoffs both emotional and physical.As Vincent’s first wife, Ruth, Jennifer Coolidge is an inexhaustible fount of vulgarity. She ultimately winds up as one of the main perpetrators of tedium. Bill Murray and Pete Davidson play hit men whose persistent slaying of ordinary citizens isn’t nearly as hilarious as Montiel seems to think it is. For all that, Harris and Murray are such reliably engaging screen presences that they provide a few glimmers of entertainment, provided you’re able to set aside the movie’s practically all-encompassing repulsiveness.Riff RaffRated R for violence, language, themes and yes, riff raff. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Cold Wallet’ Review: It’s Payback Time

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      After losing big in a crypto swindle, three people in Massachusetts plot to get their money back.The “Steven Soderbergh presents” credit at the start of “Cold Wallet” raises expectations higher than can be sustained. The movie, directed by Cutter Hodierne, is a no-frills crime film that pits a group of wronged investors who trawl Reddit and YouTube for tips against an amoral crypto mogul who has stolen their savings. The matchup leaves the movie with a deficit of rooting interest.Billy (Raúl Castillo), a divorced dad, has bet big on a currency called Tulip Coin and plans to buy a house. But the exchange goes bust after the supposed demise of its chief executive, and investors like Billy are crushed. Then a hacker, Eva (Melonie Diaz), alerts Billy that the executive, Charles Hegel (Josh Brener), in fact faked his death. And he just happens to be hiding out in a mansion in the Berkshires, which is where both of them reside. It’s as if western Massachusetts were the only spot on the planet with internet.Billy, Eva and Billy’s friend Dom (Tony Cavalero), a pacifist with handy grappling skills, hatch a half-baked plan to break into the mansion and steal back the money from Charles. Naturally, it’s not so easy, and when Charles spends the night as their hostage, he tries to play them against one another. The storytelling economy (small cast, one main location) is welcome, but none of the four characters is the sharpest tool in the shed, and whatever insights Hodierne intends on the cutthroat world of crypto remain elusive.Cold WalletRated R for violence and bad investments. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      ‘Rats!’ Review: Keep Texas Weird

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      This gross-out action-comedy, which sees an emo teenager sucked into a deranged conspiracy plot, lays hard on the absurdism.“Rats!”, a gross-out action-comedy in the vein of “Pineapple Express” and “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” throws us back into the suburban-youth aesthetics of the mid-aughts: its Hot Topic threads, pop-punk music and chintzy stoner décor. Set in a fictional version of Fresno, Tex., called Pfresno, circa 2007, this underdog caper also satirizes the state’s conservative culture — its thing for gun rights and law enforcement.In the beginning of the film, Raphael (Luke Wilcox), a listless 19-year-old, is caught graffiti tagging a phone booth. Officer Williams (Danielle Evon Ploeger), a comically noxious policewoman, tackles the teen to the ground, leading to his arrest and his forced embroilment in a sting operation against his cousin Mateo (Darius R. Autry).Mateo is a genial weed-dealer whose roomies include a pet pig and a meth-smoking squatter — though he’s obviously not the homicidal plutonium dealer Williams suspects him to be.The directors Maxwell Nalevansky and Carl Fry build out this madcap conspiracy story with potty humor (courtesy of the very unladylike Officer Williams), bloody practical effects and surreal flourishes, which play out against intentionally unglamorous backdrops (strip malls and shabby backyards).Bizarre digressions (like the screening of a rap music video about the joys of selling crack; or the perverse relationship between a foxy, cocaine-addicted reporter and her cameraman) will leave you slack jawed, whether you vibe with the film’s particularly obscene style of deadpan absurdism or not.If anything, the onslaught of weirdness is hypnotizing. As a visibly small-scale and local undertaking, the film feels genuinely connected to a vision of working-class Texas and its various characters. “I don’t know any of these people, this is just my circumstance,” says Raphael in one scene, which feels like a meta commentary on the experience of living in a country of such vast contradictions.Rats!Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Gene Hackman: 5 Memorable Performances to Stream

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      He played a complicated hero in “The French Connection” and an arch-villain in “Superman.” Here are some of Hackman’s career highlights.Although Gene Hackman, who died at age 95, was one of Hollywood’s most enduring and recognizable stars, it was nearly impossible to put the actor in a box. In a five-decade career, he portrayed cops, villains and men of the cloth, in thrillers, comedies and superhero blockbusters.His accolades included two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes, including, in 2003, the Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contributions to entertainment.Here are some of his most notable performances.‘The French Connection’Hackman’s breakout role was as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, a cop investigating a heroin deal in William Friedkin’s “The French Connection.” Hackman won the best actor Academy Award for this performance, and critics immediately recognized his star quality. Stephen Farber, reviewing the movie for The Times, said that Hackman had brought “a new kind of police hero” to the screen. His character was “brutal, racist, foulmouthed, petty, compulsive, lecherous,” Farber wrote, “but even at his most appalling, he is recognizably human.”Stream, rent or buy it on Prime, YouTube, Apple TV or Fandango.‘The Poseidon Adventure’Hackman followed up “The French Connection” with three movies in 1972, including “The Poseidon Adventure,” directed by Ronald Neame, about an ill-fated ocean liner’s final voyage. Hackman played a minister who leads the other frantic passengers to safety.Stream, rent or buy it on Apple TV, Prime, Fandango or YouTube.“Superman”In the 1970s, Hackman became known as one of Hollywood’s hardest-working actors, completing movies at a frenetic pace, as shown by his appearances in the “Superman” franchise. While filming his role as arch-villain Lex Luthor for the first installment, Hackman simultaneously shot his scenes for that movie’s sequel, “Superman II.”Stream, rent or buy it on Max, YouTube, Fandango, Apple TV or Prime.‘Unforgiven’Hackman won his second Oscar — a best supporting actor award in 1993 — for “Unforgiven,” in which he played a sadistic small-town sheriff who comes up against a string of bounty hunters, including one played by Clint Eastwood. In The Times review of the film, Vincent Canby said that Hackman “delights” in the role, and he noted a shift for the performer: “No more Mr. Good Guy.”Stream, rent or buy it on Prime, Fandango, Apple TV or YouTube.‘The Royal Tenenbaums’James Hamilton/Touchstone Pictures, via The Kobal CollectionHackman also won acclaim playing in comedies. In 2001, he starred in Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums” as a disbarred lawyer who tries to reconcile with his eccentric children. A.O. Scott, reviewing the movie for The Times, said that Hackman had “the amazing ability to register belligerence, tenderness, confusion and guile within the space of a few lines of dialogue. You never know where he’s going, but it always turns out to be exactly the right place.”Stream, rent or buy it on Apple TV, Prime, Fandango or YouTube. More

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      Oscars 2025 Predictions: Who Will Win Best Picture, Actor and Actress?

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      The best picture race has been full of twists and turns. The best actress race is closely contested. Our expert predicts which films and artists will get trophies on Sunday.Best PictureMark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in “Anora.”Neon✓ “Anora”“The Brutalist”“A Complete Unknown”“Conclave”“Dune: Part Two”“Emilia Pérez”“I’m Still Here”“Nickel Boys”“The Substance”“Wicked”After a few years where the best picture winner was practically ordained from the start of the season, at least this race has given us some twists and turns.First, there was the saga of “Emilia Pérez,” which led the field with a near-record 13 nominations but collapsed in controversy after the unearthing of disparaging tweets by its star, Karla Sofía Gascón. Then “Anora,” a front-runner that was utterly shut out at January’s Golden Globes, scored top prizes from the producers, directors and writers guilds.Those wins usually presage a best picture victory, especially because the producers guild uses a preferential ballot similar to the Academy’s. But in the late going, another contender began to surge as “Conclave” took the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (where “Anora” was once again shut out) as well as best film honors at the BAFTAs, the British equivalent to the Oscars.One thing gives me pause, though: If “Conclave” had the sort of across-the-board Academy support that a best picture winner can usually count on, it shouldn’t have missed out on slam-dunk Oscar nominations for directing and cinematography. “Anora” earned all the nominations it needed to, and its guild spread is hard to argue with, so that’s the film I project will win.Best DirectorJacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”✓ Sean Baker, “Anora”Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”James Mangold, “A Complete Unknown”Baker picked up the DGA trophy but has strong competition from Corbet, who won best director at the BAFTAs. Still, I suspect the Academy will embrace “Anora” in both of the top categories. It helps that Baker has turned every acceptance speech he’s made this season into an upbeat rallying cry for theatrical independent filmmaking.Best ActorAdrien Brody in “The Brutalist.”Lol Crawley/A24✓ Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”Brody has been collecting prizes all season, though his reign was halted last weekend when Chalamet scored a last-minute SAG win. But Chalamet faces headwinds from an Academy that remains stubbornly resistant to recognizing young men: No one under 30 has ever won the best actor Oscar except for Brody himself, who notched his win for “The Pianist” at age 29. Come Sunday, he’ll add a second Oscar to the mantel.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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      Conan O’Brien on his Oscars Hosting Gig

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      Conan O’Brien is not a cynic — at least not when it comes to the Oscars, which he is hosting for the first time on Sunday. The Emmy-winning comedian, podcaster, traveler and movie buff is genuinely excited — “I get to do this!” he enthused — but also thoroughly worried.“It’s the thing I wake up and think about at night: What’s the best way to tackle this? How? In a way that makes me creatively happy?” he said.Since he accepted the job late last year, O’Brien, 61, has had an emotionally taxing few months. In December, his parents, who were in their 90s, died three days apart, in his childhood home in Massachusetts. Not long after the double funeral, just as he was settling back in Los Angeles to work on the Oscars, the fires started there, and his home was evacuated. When his wife called to ask what to save, his only thought was of a 1980 letter from the author and essayist E.B. White. O’Brien had written to him, as a teenage fan, “and he wrote me back a really sweet letter,” O’Brien said. “So I said, just grab that. And if the rest goes, it goes.”He is still living in a hotel, where he has hung the letter on a wall, he said in a video interview from his office on Monday. The conversation was discursive — pensive and funny. Though he hosted the Emmys twice (most recently in 2006), he has never attended the Oscars. “This was the only way I could get invited,” he joked.His preparation has included bringing in 10 of his own writers to work with Oscar-night stalwarts, running jokes by the crew, and dropping in at clubs in Los Angeles to try out material. “I started seriously writing comedy around the time I was 18,” he said, “and it’s what I think about all the time.” Yet even for him, there is no formula. “It’s frustrating, but it’s not math. You can’t prove it. The only way to find out is to try it on people.”“This was the only way I could get invited,” O’Brien joked about his hosting duties.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