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      ‘The Walk’ Review: Two Families So Far Apart

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      This sentimental drama about an upstanding cop caught up in the 1974 school desegregation conflict in Boston recycles tired white-savior clichés.Set in South Boston in 1974, in the riotous aftermath of court-ordered school desegregation, Daniel Adams’s “The Walk” shows its hand early on. We first meet Billy (Justin Chatwin), a working-class Irish cop, as he lets a Black shoplifter off the hook and even pays for the man’s stolen baby formula. The perp responds incredulously with a comment that emerges as the film’s thematic refrain: “Damn, I guess there are some good white pigs left.”It’s a dubious choice, centering a film about anti-Black racism on a “noble” Caucasian policeman — no matter that Billy responds to the thief’s comment by gratuitously slamming him against the wall and threatening to arrest him.As the film opens, the Federal District Court has just mandated busing as a means of integrating Boston’s public schools. Much to the chagrin of his prejudiced neighbors, Billy is assigned to escort Black high school students as they are bused to the all-white school attended by his (increasingly, noxiously bigoted) daughter.Among the Black kids is the bright, brave Wendy (Lovie Simone), the daughter of an emergency medical worker (Terrence Howard). The film occasionally switches perspectives from Billy and his family to Wendy and her father, though their arcs all tie up in a melodramatic display of Billy’s heroism that reaffirms tired white-savior clichés.The topic is, of course, timely. (When is racism not?) Yet “The Walk” feels dated. Every exchange among Adams’s schema of archetypes — the radical, quick-tempered Black man and the peace-loving Black woman; the impoverished, racist white people and the do-gooding liberals — lands like a platitudinous lecture about “fighting hate,” with the stilted performances (featuring too-forced Bah-stin accents) adding to the after-school-special vibe.The WalkRated R for racist epithets and violence. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘The Janes’ Review: Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands

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      This HBO documentary spotlights the women activists who banded together to form Jane, a clandestine group providing safe abortions in the years before Roe v. Wade.“The Janes” is a straightforward, talking-heads documentary from HBO that provides a brief history of the Jane Collective, a clandestine abortion group working out of Chicago in the late 1960s and early ’70s.Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that protected a women’s right to an abortion, had not yet been handed down, meaning the procedure was illegal in most states, forcing women with unwanted pregnancies to turn to exploitative abortion providers (like the Mafia) or resort to dangerous methods to self-induce an abortion.This situation — and the can-do spirit of the times, cultivated by the civil rights and women’s liberation movements — sparked the members of Jane into action.The documentary, directed by Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, relies primarily on testimonies from the Jane Collective’s women volunteers, tracing their efforts from the beginning — when the group was merely a referral service — to their final days contending with law enforcement.Ultimately, the Jane Collective provided close to 11,000 abortions by the time Roe v. Wade came into effect, at which point the group ceased its activities. (Though the renewed push for restrictive abortion laws today, and reports of the present Supreme Court’s ruling on a case that could overturn Roe, casts a sense of bleak uncertainty over the film’s otherwise triumphant conclusion.)Cookie-cutter though it is, “The Janes” does have something going for it: its interview subjects, the former Janes, who all speak about their beliefs and shared past with striking clarity. They remind us that their work — their commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of other women — was not really all that radical, but a measured, intelligent response to the inadequacies of a system that refused to fend for its own.The JanesNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. Watch on HBO platforms. More

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      ‘Ninja Badass’ Review: Kill Bad Guys, Save Hot Babes, Look Silly

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      Ryan Harris, an auteur of the gross, includes sight gags like puppies in blenders in this tedious action comedy.“Ninja Badass,” a crude, abrasive action-comedy about an Indiana hillbilly training to become a superpowered martial artist, is the product of one peculiar mind. Ryan Harrison is the writer, director, co-producer, editor and star of “Ninja Badass”; he even created its cheap but plentiful visual effects.Self-financed, and more than a decade in the making, the film is clearly a labor of love, realized in the raucous guerrilla-cinema tradition of Robert Rodriguez’s classic indie shoot-em-up debut “El Mariachi.” But without collaborators to push back against his instincts or question his ideas — the only other credited producer is his mother — Harrison’s vision reigns unchecked, to ends both excessive and self-indulgent. The result is a 103-minute vanity project I found utterly exhausting.Harrison plays Rex, a coarse, ill-mannered layabout with a bleach-blond bouffant hairdo. Attacked during a visit to a pet store by Big Twitty (Darrell Francis), the lunatic leader of the cultlike group Ninja VIP Super Club, Rex resolves to learn the ninja arts and seek violent retribution. Shot in the manic, off-the-cuff style of “Crank,” the action that follows is lurid and over the top, with lots of graphic lacerations relished for their comic shock value. Harrison favors a few gory sight gags, like an arm being ripped out of its socket or a puppy being shoved into a blender, and repeats them frequently, to what would be diminishing results if the jokes were funny to begin with. You get the feeling the film is daring you to wince or take offense, but for the most part, its tasteless provocations are simply tedious.Ninja BadassNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters and on virtual cinemas. More

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      ‘1982’ Review: When War Canceled School

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      This film from the director Oualid Mouaness is inspired by his memories of being a child during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon that year.“1982,” the first feature from Oualid Mouaness, is inspired by the director’s memories of having his classroom life suddenly interrupted by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon that year. The film takes place at a school in East Beirut over a single day that begins quietly enough, although the first sound we hear is of rumbling planes. A fifth-grader, Wissam (Mohamad Dalli), slips an anonymous love note into the locker of Joanna (Gia Madi), a girl he likes from West Beirut, the mainly Muslim half of the city.As the fighting grows closer, culminating in an evacuation while Israeli and Syrian planes clash overhead, the characters show differing levels of awareness. Wissam’s best friend, Majid (Ghassan Maalouf), knows enough to warn a teacher that windows should stay open to reduce the risk of shattered glass — but is also enthused when told that school the next day will be canceled. For the children, the drama over the letter’s provenance is important. The adults, particularly two teachers (Nadine Labaki and Rodrigue Sleiman) whose romance has been strained by political arguments, engage in their own forms of denial. They’re skeptical that violence will reach East Beirut or that it’s time for students to stop their exams and leave.Working with a shrewdly limited setting, Mouaness skillfully gives the film a near-real-time feel, conveying a sense that the war is approaching through small-scale details like radio broadcasts, Wissam’s observation that pigeons have flown unusually close to the school and the volume and frequency of aerial noise. The filmmaker also mostly dodges the potential preciousness that comes with telling a story from a child’s perspective, even if a handful of animated sequences are a bit too cute.1982Not rated. In Arabic and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Tahara’ Review: Hierarchy at a Hebrew-School Funeral

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      Rachel Sennott and Madeline Grey DeFreece star in a canny portrait of teenage insensitivity and sexuality amid a tragedy.The Hebrew-school comedy “Tahara” mimics the zinging pleasure of overhearing teenagers chatter as they walk home from school: It’s gossipy, delicious and a tad cruel. The film eavesdrops on a group of teenage students during a critical day in their lives, when a classmate’s funeral has prompted them to wrestle with social status and school personas. Their dialogue crackles with vocal fry and viciousness as they reckon, maybe for the first time, with the consequences of school hierarchies.The story follows two longtime friends, Carrie (Madeline Grey DeFreece) and Hannah (Rachel Sennott), for a day of mourning alongside their classmates, crushes and nemeses at a Rochester, N.Y., synagogue. One of their peers, Samantha, has committed suicide, and the synagogue is hosting a talk-back session for students to share their feelings about her death. Carrie is an honest type, and she’s perplexed by the melodramatic performances of grief shown by her classmates. Hannah, on the other hand, is more interested in flirting than in grieving. Her pursuit of attention adds a discordant note to an already chaotic requiem. It’s a diminished chord that Carrie wants to resolve — particularly because she harbors feelings for Hannah, who kisses her in the synagogue bathroom under the guise of practicing for a boy.“Tahara” — a feature debut for both its director, Olivia Peace, and its writer, Jess Zeidman — smartly zeros in on the divide between students and the adults who try to facilitate conversations about grief. For the grown-ups, Samantha’s death is a matter of gravity that calls for solemn mourning. But some students respond with ambivalence, treating the suicide as an opportunity to add tallies to the ledger of who is attractive and who is disliked. Peace, the director, adds to the claustrophobia of this high-school panopticon by presenting the movie in a square format: It is shot with the kind of boxy frame common in old Hollywood movies, which here evokes an Instagram post. This is a canny, compact portrait of teenage insensitivity, all the more riveting for its biting dialogue and funny performances.TaharaNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 18 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘The Lost Girls’ Review: Wendy’s Telling of Peter Pan

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      In her second feature film, the director Livia De Paolis awkwardly tries to comment on the gender dynamics in J.M Barrie’s classic.Peter Pan might persist as a symbol of whimsy, but never growing up also has a dark side. In her latest film, “The Lost Girls,” based on the novel of the same name by Laurie Fox, the Italian writer and director Livia De Paolis depicts generations of women haunted by Never Never Land. At least, she tries to.The main character is Wendy Darling Braverman, the granddaughter of the original Wendy (played by Vanessa Redgrave). Toward the beginning of the film, Young Wendy has one heady night with Peter Pan at age 13. (Emily Carey plays teen Wendy in flashback.) Though she promises Peter she won’t grow up, she does, eventually marrying and having a daughter of her own. Adult Wendy, played by De Paolis herself, is left struggling to accept her life, including her non-magical husband and her resentful daughter.Such a synopsis makes this film sound deceptively cogent. Adult Wendy, who is supposed to be an American, has a conspicuous Italian accent. What’s more, these characters do not converse like regular human beings. At one point, Wendy’s daughter, Berry, punctuates a dour fight with the line, “Sayonara, Mama.”Instead of laying groundwork for the role of Peter Pan as an arguably antagonistic figure, this film is oddly horny for the magical boy (played by Louis Partridge). The first act climaxes as Young Wendy falls head over heels for Peter. Sure, he thinks of her as a mother figure and also had dalliances with her mother and grandmother, but he’s also a real catch.“The Lost Girls” ostensibly has something to say about the female experience in J.M. Barrie’s classic, but it saves what little meaning it offers for the very end. Those poor viewers willing to take on this Freudian tale and its dialogue rivaling “The Room” must brave a ludicrous slog for crumbs.The Lost GirlsNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Amazon, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘Small Town Wisconsin’ Review: A Father-Son Trip Goes Awry

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      A major-league farewell journey turns into an adventure for this dad who is losing shared custody.Taking advantage of a shared custody arrangement that is soon to be justifiably voided, a divorced father, Wayne (David Sullivan), entertains his young son, Tyler (Cooper J. Friedman), in an unorthodox way. Wayne takes Tyler to the house in which Wayne grew up (they enter the property through a hole in a chain-link fence; nearby hangs a sign reading “Bank Owned”) and imitates the harangues his own abusive, alcoholic father delivered at the ancestral dinner table.“Small Town Wisconsin,” directed by a Milwaukee native, Niels Mueller, from a script by Jason Naczek, is the story of a man who, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, knows something’s happening but doesn’t know what it is. Tyler’s mom and her new partner are moving West from the working-class suburb in Wisconsin where they live. Wayne is angered and befuddled by this but can’t make a case for himself. This also angers and befuddles him. Of course, he too is an alcoholic.He contrives a blowout weekend for him and his boy: a trip to Milwaukee and a major-league baseball game. Wayne’s ex insists on a chaperone — which is where Wayne’s best bud, Chuck (Bill Heck), comes in.Chuck is wary. “I’ve been a part of your failed missions before,” he tells Wayne. The trip goes wrong in a number of ways (one involving Wayne’s lack of credit cards). This forces the guys to take refuge with Wayne’s estranged sister (Kristen Johnston). Who, as you might figure, has some life lessons to impart.Mueller’s direction is patient and sensitive, the cast is accomplished and committed, and the picture’s comedic aspects sometimes earn a chuckle. But “Small Town Wisconsin” is not sufficiently distinctive to rise above the standard-issue cinematic contemplation of the arguably poignant state of the white male American screw-up.Small Town WisconsinNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      Harvey Weinstein Facing Indecent Assault Charges in Britain

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      British prosecutors said they authorized criminal charges against Mr. Weinstein for an incident in 1996.The British authorities have authorized criminal charges against Harvey Weinstein on two counts of indecent assault against a woman in 1996 in London, the country’s Crown Prosecution Service announced in a news release Wednesday.Mr. Weinstein, 70, has been convicted of felony sex crimes in New York and is awaiting trial in Los Angeles, where he has been charged with several counts of forcible rape, among other charges.“Charges have been authorized against Harvey Weinstein, 70, following a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation,” Rosemary Ainslie, the head of the prosecution service’s special crime division, said in a statement.The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that it had gathered evidence in the case, and that Mr. Weinstein was being accused of two counts of indecent assault in London in August, 1996, against a woman who is now in her 50s. Earlier this month a New York appeals court upheld Mr. Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on felony sex crimes, increasing the likelihood that he would serve a significant portion of his 23-year sentence. A lawyer for Mr. Weinstein said at the time that his legal team would ask the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, to review the decision.Mr. Weinstein must be formally charged at a police station in England or Wales, said David Lindsell, a spokesman for the prosecution service. He declined to comment on the possibility of extradition.A lawyer for Mr. Weinstein, Barry Kamins, declined to comment.A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Greg Risling, said that Mr. Weinstein would have to stand trial in California before any potential extradition to Britain to face the charges there.Mr. Weinstein was a powerful Hollywood film producer until his downfall in 2017, when The New York Times reported allegations that he had sexually abused women over the course of nearly three decades. In the aftermath, dozens of women came forward to accuse Mr. Weinstein of sexual misconduct or assault; he maintained that he had only engaged in consensual sexual activity.The accusations spurred an international reckoning around sexual assault and harassment, with women in many fields coming forward with public allegations against high-profile men in what became known as the #MeToo movement. In 2018, Mr. Weinstein was arrested in New York City on sex crime charges. He stood trial in 2020, and a jury found him guilty of two felonies — a criminal sexual act in the first degree and third-degree rape — and acquitted him on two charges of predatory sexual assault.In Los Angeles, Mr. Weinstein was indicted on charges that he sexually assaulted several women in separate incidents between 2004 and 2013. He was transferred to California to face the charges and pleaded not guilty. This is the second time in recent weeks that prosecutors in Britain announced that they had authorized criminal charges against a prominent figure from the American entertainment industry accused of sexual misconduct. Last month, the Crown Prosecution Service said it had authorized charges against the actor Kevin Spacey on four counts of sexual assault against three men. Mr. Spacey said that he would voluntarily travel to Britain to face the charges. More