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      ‘Drylongso’ Review: Extraordinary

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      Cauleen Smith’s 1998 movie, set in Oakland in the mid-90s, remains a vivid and prescient feature debut.“Drylongso” is a Gullah-language-derived word rooted in the African American coastal communities of Georgia and South Carolina that, over time, has come to mean “ordinary.” Yet the artist Cauleen Smith’s newly restored and rereleased 1998 feature debut, about a young photographer living with her mother and grandmother in Oakland, Calif., is anything but. Or, rather, the ordinary here has value beyond the same ol’. It’s evocative, tender and rooted — all descriptions of Smith’s film, too.By day, Pica (Toby Smith) studies art. By night, she avoids her mother’s smoky card parties by wheat-pasting activist fliers. A television in the room of her neglected grandmother warns of a serial killer targeting young Black men and women. But Pica is already acutely aware of peril: The headstrong student has been taking Polaroids of young Black men and bringing them to her 35mm-focused photography course. She’s documenting these men because, she tells her professor (played by Salim Akil, who wrote the film alongside Smith), they are in danger of becoming extinct.Smith braids politics, friendship and romance throughout “Drylongso.” Pica befriends a young woman, Tobi (April Barnett), after witnessing her being violently kicked to the curb by a male companion. The next time Tobi and Pica cross paths, Tobi has gone incognito in male garb. A potential suitor, Malik (Will Power), rides his bike, hawks homemade T-shirts and asks Pica repeatedly, “When you gonna take my picture, girl?”Loss will intervene. So will art. It’s not a mystery why this quiet wonder was lost in the Black cinema boom of the 1990s. The movie is rough-hewn as an artistic choice but also out of financial necessity; its D.I.Y. aesthetic mirrors the found scrap Pica uses to make meaningful memorials. But with its themes of Black endangerment (for both males and females) and its nuzzling of many genres (horror, romance, buddy flick), “Drylongso” returns to us utterly, subtly, chidingly prescient.DrylongsoRated R for language. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ Review: Hit and Run, Sleight of Hand

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      Wen Shipei’s first feature is a twisty and sophisticated debut whose best trick of misdirection is convincing us we’re watching a different kind of movie.If the movies have taught us anything, it’s that the cover-up is worse than the crime. For instance, if you accidentally hit someone with your van, don’t go back to scene, roll the body into a ditch, then drive away, as the protagonist of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” does. Things will not go the way you hoped.We know this, but if the premise of “Lonesome” feels a little familiar, the director Wen Shipei still manages to keep us guessing. Part exploration of the ravages of guilt, part homage to the stylish Hong Kong gangster flicks of the 1990s, “Lonesome” (written by Wen with Noé Dodson, Wang Yinuo and Zhao Binghao) wears its influences on its sleeve but is a stylish and sophisticated debut feature.An opening image of a bull escaping captivity seems at first to indicate that we have entered a world of easy symbolism. There we meet a prisoner named Xueming (Eddie Peng), who narrates a story of when he, a former air-conditioning repairman, committed a hit-and-run in 1997. As fate appears to have it, his victim was married to a customer (Sylvia Chang), who becomes an unlikely friend. And now we seem also to have entered a world of easy coincidence, or at least classical tragedy.Wen has great talent, however, for misdirection — not only with the plot, though he does that, too (not always as successfully; sometimes clever is just confusing). More important, he has fooled us about what kind of movie we’re watching. It is one in which the characters, even the bull, are subject not to the whims of gods and metaphors but to their own compulsions and machinations. Every action has its consequence, every phenomenon its cause.Are You Lonesome Tonight?Not rated. In Chinese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      ‘Rodeo’ Review: The Good, the Bad and the Kids on Motorbikes

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      This naturalistic drama from France follows a young woman as she immerses herself in the underground world of urban motorbiking — it’s a seductive thrill-ride that falters as a character study.Julie Ledru plays a young woman immersed in the world of underground urban rodeo in “Rodeo.”Music Box Films“Rodeo” may revolve around a found family of adrenaline junkies and high-velocity heists, but “The Fast and the Furious” it is not. Instead, the debut narrative feature by the director Lola Quivoron has the feel of a docufiction, inspired by the urban rodeos of the French suburbs, a kind of youth subculture prevalent in lower-income communities in which motorbike riders take over streets, race and pull risky stunts.It’s not an uncommon activity in the States, but in France, these rowdy gatherings are especially popular — and furiously loathed. The good and the bad comes through in Quivoron’s naturalistic drama, which follows a disgruntled, semi-homeless young woman, Julia (Julie Ledru), as she immerses herself in the scene and joins a criminal posse led remotely by the incarcerated Domino (Sébastien Schroeder).Filled with rousing rodeo footage and gleeful getaways, the film portrays the anarchic thrill of motorbiking with seductive grit, its smoky blue images, shot by the cinematographer Raphaël Vandenbussche, recalling the atmospheric thrillers of Michael Mann. These visceral moments evoke the sense of empowerment motorbiking creates for otherwise underprivileged — young, primarily Black and brown — people. But the danger is palpable as well.Ledru’s gruff performance gives Julia the devil-may-care swagger of a young Michelle Rodriguez, though an early violent event — a fiery rodeo accident resulting in the death of a crew member — reveals a dormant sensitivity and a longing for camaraderie.“Rodeo” pivots to action-movie territory in the last act when Domino takes Julia — a savvy thief — up on a scheme involving a freight truck loaded with shiny new bikes. But for the most part the scattered script careens around various lackluster intrigues: Julia’s rivalry with one of Domino’s other lackeys, her fraught family life and, most important, the friendship she strikes up with Domino’s wife, Ophélie (Antonia Buresi). The guarded Julia certainly intrigues, but too often the film sinks into the clichés of a rugged character study — no wonder she prefers to accelerate.RodeoNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Wildflower’ Review: The Parents Are All Right

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      A snarky teenager navigates her loving but complicated relationship with two intellectually disabled parents in the coming-of-age comedy “Wildflower.”Bea Johnson (Kiernan Shipka), the protagonist of the plucky coming-of-age film “Wildflower,” is a snarky high school senior whose future holds great promise. However, Bea begins the film with a slight problem, one she is quick to brush off. Bea is in a coma.Bea hardly shows any true concern that she’ll eventually wake up. But this flimsy conceit enables the film to jump back in time, to tell the story of how a teenager became so confident in her ability to take care of herself.In voice-over, Bea explains that both of her parents are intellectually disabled. Bea narrates the film in flashback, beginning when her father, Derek (Dash Mihok), and her mother, Sharon (played by the disabled actress Samantha Hyde), married in a whirlwind romance. This left the family matriarchs, Peg (Jean Smart) and Loretta (Jacki Weaver), to worry over the fates of their respective children. Peg wanted the pair to divorce, and Loretta wanted them to be sterilized. In the end, neither happened, and Bea was born.This initial face-off establishes that despite the film’s light, sardonic tone, the discussions that it includes about its disabled characters are blunt and often cruel. And as a child, Bea engages in her own internal debates. She wants to defend her parents against school bullies, but she’s also ashamed to bring a boy home. She resists her extended family’s offers to take her in, but she also expresses resentment toward her parents over the difficulty of moving out to go to college.Shipka ably handles the responsibility of leading the story, but the director Matt Smukler has a harder time balancing the charming and empathetic ensemble performances with the script’s constantly judgmental tone. “Wildflower” is a nervy sit, a movie that eventually makes its way toward acceptance, but only after putting its disabled characters through the trial of dehumanizing questions.WildflowerRated R for language and references to teenage sexuality. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘The Innocent’ Review: A Heist With a French Accent

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      A light, enjoyable confection of a film that is built upon an amusingly absurd premise.Louis Garrel’s “The Innocent,” which the French cinema star directed, wrote and stars in, is about as frothy and bite-size as heist movies get, one that has more in common with a rom-com than with “Dog Day Afternoon.” That’s not a knock. The film, which opens at IFC this Friday, is a humanistic story wrapped in a fun, punchy exterior, much like the French synth-pop music throughout its soundtrack.Abel (Garrel), a young man who’s grown apathetic since losing his wife in an accident, is close to his mother, Sylvie (Anouk Grinberg). But their relationship is tested when she marries a convict, Michel, (Roschdy Zem) shortly before his release. Abel’s suspicions grow as Michel helps procure a flower shop for the family through mysterious means, leading Abel to spy on the former con with his close friend Clémence (a very charming Noémie Merlant). Predictably, Michel isn’t as reformed as he claims to be, and Abel finds himself pulled into a criminal enterprise that he’s in no way equipped for.Garrel knows how to maintain tension throughout the film without giving the audience a panic attack, and he even manages to imbue it with stylistic flair here and there. (The fact that Abel and Clémence work at an aquarium certainly helps with unusual visuals.) But the entertainment value of “The Innocent” lies not in the actual heist — which amounts to little more than a shipment of caviar at a truck stop — but in its lighthearted comedy, its by-the-numbers romance plot and its relatable family drama grafted onto an absurd premise. It is, as one character orders at a diner, a “Coke Zero with sugar” of a film.The InnocentNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘The Magician’s Elephant’ Review: The Promise of a Pachyderm

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      Adapted from Kate DiCamillo’s beloved children’s book, this animated adventure sands down the somberness of its source material while turning up the silliness.“Anything is possible,” the saucer-eyed characters insist in “The Magician’s Elephant,” a new animated adventure directed by Wendy Rogers. The movie adapts Kate DiCamillo’s 2009 book by the same name, which celebrates the power of serendipity: When a magician accidentally conjures a pachyderm in the war-ruined European city of Baltese, he sets off a chain of unexpected events that gives renewed hope to an orphan boy searching for his long-lost sister.The beauty of DiCamillo’s text is that it is equal parts somber and silly, its undercurrent of grief balanced by fantastical absurdities. In jazzing up the tale for the screen, Rogers sands down the somberness — Baltese is all fuzzy blues and pinks, with nary a trace of postwar grit — while turning up the silliness for gimmicky thrills.In this version, the orphan, Peter (Noah Jupe), has to perform a series of ludicrous tasks to win the elephant — who is crucial to his search — from a ditzy king (Aasif Mandvi). The characters’ motivations are so thinly defined (the king simply wants to be “entertained”) and the challenges so anticlimactic (in one set piece, Peter defeats a fearsome warrior by waving a book in his face) that the refrain “anything is possible” starts to feel as if it’s an excuse for sloppy plotting.The voice performances are lively and evocative — Benedict Wong as the magician and Brian Tyree Henry as a palace guard are standouts — but the film is stuffed with too many characters for even TikTok-fed young viewers to keep straight. And for a tale about the power of belief, the narrator, a fortune teller (Natasia Demetriou), breaks the fourth wall a few too many times, offering commentary like a parent lecturing in the middle of a bedtime story.The Magician’s ElephantRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      ‘Full River Red’ Review: A Song Dynasty Blockbuster

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      The latest film from Zhang Yimou weaves slapstick fun into an investigation of a 12th-century political murder.Nearly everyone in China is familiar with “Full River Red,” a wistful, jingoistic poem by the 12th-century general Yue Fei. Zhang Yimou’s new film of the same name is an origin story of sorts for the poem, spinning a web of political intrigue and comedy that takes place during the Song dynasty and unfolds early one morning, entirely in the pre-dawn hours.Qin Hui (Lei Jiayin), a prime minister preoccupied with his reputation, brings an army with him to a diplomatic meeting with enemy forces. But before the meeting, a delegate carrying a mysterious letter turns up dead, leading to an investigation, full of twists and turns, helmed by a commander (Jackson Yee) and his bumbling nephew (Shen Teng).The film, which has skyrocketed to popularity in China — currently the country’s sixth highest-grossing box office entry of all time — is somewhat surprising as the most bankable of Zhang’s career. Despite a prolific filmography of grandiose art house fare that has often wrestled with the vast span of Chinese history, the filmmaker has suffused a dynastic war fable with elements of a slapstick whodunit. Yet the light charm, mostly offered by Shen as the oafish sidekick, serves as a saving grace amid the shadowy political games.At times, particularly in its overwrought closing act, the film feels as if it’s going to collapse under the weight of its relentless, convoluted twists. But the lighthearted tone poking through keeps it afloat, and suspends the viewer in mostly carefree entertainment for its two-and-a-half-hour running time.Full River RedNot rated. In Mandarin, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 39 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Review: ‘Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game’

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      The mesmerizing silver ball, banned for decades in New York for its perils, pings from bumper to bumper in a film that tilts toward the underwhelming.Steven Spielberg’s 2021 “West Side Story” had a lot going for it, including a cast of bright newcomers to the screen. Particularly outstanding was the wiry Mike Faist, who crackled in the role of aggrieved gang member Riff.Now Faist has the lead role, sort of, in a new comedy based on the real-life story of Roger Sharpe, who helped overturn New York’s ban on pinball in the mid-1970s.As a vehicle for Faist’s talents, “Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game,” written and directed by Austin and Meredith Bragg, here credited as the Bragg Brothers, is underwhelming. For one thing, there are two Roger Sharpes. The older one is embodied by the reliable character actor Dennis Boutsikaris (“Better Call Saul”), who narrates under the pretense of giving an on-camera interview. Sharpe interacts with his younger self, who moves to New York in the ’70s seeking a career, only to learn that his favorite pastime is illegal there.Sharpe also falls in love, gets a job, etc., activities that are interrupted by offscreen directives that he get back to pinball. The fourth wall isn’t broken; it doesn’t even exist. The movie strives for a knowing, amiable tone. It achieves a cutesy, slight one instead.And the film’s meta mode sometimes works against it. A snippet of a famous song plays early on, then cuts off, because, we’re told, it’s too expensive to include, a revelation that highlights the many ways in which the Braggs can’t transcend their budget.While Faist must hide his light under the bushel of an ostentatious 1970s mustache, he, like Boutsikaris and the love interest Crystal Reed, musters up noteworthy charm. But not much else.Pinball: The Man Who Saved the GameNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More