Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      ‘A Radiant Girl’ Review: Coming of Age in Paris, 1942

      by

      This Holocaust drama could have easily passed for a blissful teen romance; instead, it’s an awkwardly rendered portrait of a young Jewish woman in denial.With its swoony pop music and soft summertime twinkle, “A Radiant Girl” could have passed for a blissful coming-of-age romance. Irene (Rebecca Marder), a bubbly, motor-mouthed 19-year-old, seems convinced she’s in one. But this deceptively warm drama — the directorial debut of the French actress and chanteuse Sandrine Kiberlain — is as much about the darkness that creeps at the edges of Irene’s life as it is about her rose-tinted moments of self-discovery.It’s Paris, 1942, and German officials and the French police are deporting Jews to concentration camps in increasing numbers. Things are changing quickly: Irene’s well-to-do Jewish family is forced to hand over a radio, a telephone and their bicycles. Neighbors and shopkeepers are beginning to act weird, even aggressive.These developments are sprinkled throughout the film like a trail of bread crumbs. Though Irene’s family — her anxious father (André Marcon), a flutist brother (Anthony Bajon), and her freethinking grandmother (Françoise Widhoff) — can feel those changes, Irene barely seems to notice as she prepares for a conservatory audition, breaks hearts, and eyes her family doctor’s cute assistant.Irene is the epitome of a theater kid — a talented one at that, and an expert fainter — but her ability to sustain an illusion seems to extend to her worldview as well. Is she tragically naïve or in denial?Fantasy, performance and the discovery of hard truths intermingle in several coming-of-age films set in Europe during World War II, including Louis Malle’s “Au Revoir les Enfants” and Roberto Benigni’s “Life Is Beautiful.”Clearly Kiberlain had these movies in mind, but the film’s conceptual intentions are betrayed by its mishandled idiosyncratic flourishes. In Marder’s overly affected performance, Irene comes off as a precious idiot rather than a buoyant young woman concealing hidden depths. At points, the contrast between Irene’s joy and the encroaching horrors is jarring and eerie, but “A Radiant Girl” seldom hits these notes — the rest is deflating and awkward.A Radiant GirlNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 113 Shares139 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The First Step’ Review: Van Jones Battles for Bipartisanship

      by

      This well-meaning documentary follows the liberal commentator as he works with both political parties to pass a criminal justice reform bill.On a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2019, Van Jones, a liberal CNN host, asserted that conservatives are the new vanguard of criminal justice reform. Scenes from that controversial appearance bookend “The First Step,” a tactful documentary that chronicles Jones’s efforts during the Trump administration to garner bipartisan support for a bill that would modify prison and sentencing laws. Directed by Brandon Kramer, the film presents Jones as an impassioned figure who kindled animosity on both sides for his readiness to reach across the aisle in pursuit of his goals.In many sequences, Kramer seeks to underscore his subject’s near-messianic zeal for progressive causes. Home video footage shows Jones as a Yale University law student praising books on revolution and flaunting a Malcolm X T-shirt at his graduation ceremony. But the film also makes space for critics of Jones’s methods, including the Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who says that Jones’s cooperation with the then president felt like a betrayal to many Black leftist movements.At once a story of legislative struggle and an admiring profile of a crusader, “The First Step” sometimes gets bogged down in bromides about community and common ground rather than unpacking the specifics of Jones’s approach and how it differs from his detractors’. Indeed, the most probing moments occur outside the political realm, as Jones and his twin sister recall his onetime struggle with speech impediments. The film’s analysis may be limited, but such personal moments lend it a compelling human quality.The First StepNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 75 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Lonesome’ Review: Using Sex, Finding Intimacy

      by

      The Australian filmmaker Craig Boreham’s drama credibly depicts characters who feel most comfortable communicating through sex.The contemporary Australian drama “Lonesome” opens with a buff cowboy hitchhiking along a deserted highway — an image that cheekily recalls well-worn queer archetypes.Casey (Josh Lavery) is seeking rides to Sydney, Australia. He flags some cars the old-fashioned way, with an outstretched thumb. But other favors are secured in a decidedly 21st-century manner: Casey finds a trucker on the gay dating app Grindr, hitching a ride in exchange for a bathroom quickie.Casey arrives in Sydney without friends to greet him, but through Grindr, he is able to meet a new hookup, Tib (Daniel Gabriel). The pair engages in group sex, and Casey stays the night. When Tib offers a couch for Casey to crash on, the two begin a cautious and nonexclusive courtship. Sex comes easily in their dynamic, but, slowly, Casey and Tib open themselves up to greater intimacy, haltingly sharing stories of former lovers and absent families.The writer and director Craig Boreham has made a character study where sex provides the most candid means of communication. Boreham treats the sex and nudity in his film matter-of-factly, and, working with an intimacy coordinator, Leah Pellinkhof, has created scenes that read as authentic.Boreham eschews close-ups and doesn’t allow the camera to linger on body parts, instead favoring wider angles in intimate scenes. This distanced approach from Boreham and the film’s director of photography, Dean Francis, plainly shows which acts Casey and Tib feel comfortable trying, and with what degree of intensity. The film is explicit without being lascivious — the audience watches Casey and Tib pursue pleasure without being visually invited to join them. “Lonesome” demonstrates a mature use of sex in cinema, a treatment that communicates narrative purpose without diminishing sex’s animalistic, physical side.LonesomeNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 75 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      ‘88’ Review: Finding Hate in Numbers

      by

      In this new political thriller, a campaign finance manager uncovers a corrupt scheme.The political thriller “88,” written and directed (and produced and edited) by Eromose, feeds the audience a lot of information about today’s campaign finance laws and the ways they enable corruption. The film reaches its first boiling point 40 minutes in, and has further surprises in store.Femi Jackson (Brandon Victor Dixon), the beleaguered financial manager of a super PAC backing the presidential candidate Harold Roundtree (Orlando Jones), uncovers a scheme linked to the movie’s title and that number’s connection to Nazis, both old school and new.“It doesn’t matter where the money comes from if no one ever looks,” one snakelike character connected to the PAC tries to reassure another. But Femi is looking, and he makes increasingly disturbing discoveries along the way.The tenor of this fervent picture comes through at Femi’s breakfast table early in the movie. Complaining that their young son Ola (Jeremiah King) wants a Wakanda-themed birthday party, Femi’s wife, Maria (Naturi Naughton), begins a trenchant denunciation of “Black Panther,” saying Wakanda is a fantasy for the benefit of the white corporate entities that finance it. Trying to de-escalate the debate, Femi wryly observes of the first “Panther” movie, “It made a billion dollars.” Maria shoots back, “For who?”Eromose is a sharp thinker with a lot on his mind — and the inability to resist the urge to cram it all into a single movie. Sobriety, the inequities of banking practices, the “talk” Black parents have with their children about the police and, of course, capitalism — all these topics and more come under examination here. Combined with the increasingly “Parallax View”-like plot machinations, the result is dramatically wonky — and eccentrically thought-provoking.88Not rated. Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Unlocked’ Review: A Surveillance Thriller Best Left Offline

      by

      A woman experiences paranoia, loss and bodily danger after a serial killer hacks her phone.In the sleepy cyberthriller “Unlocked,” Na-mi (Chun Woo-hee) forgets her phone on the bus after a night of revelry. It’s discovered by Jun-yeong (Yim Si-wan), who returns it to her — and who turns out to be a methodical serial killer. He’s bent on using the personal device to isolate Na-mi: first by kidnapping her doting father, then by destroying her promising marketing job, and finally by breaking the bond she shares with her best friend.It’s not a particularly difficult task: He runs a phone repair shop, where he has hacked the device to observe texts and notifications, overhear calls and even access the camera. When Na-mi uses the phone’s selfie mode, it acts, in a sense, as a point-of-view shot. The director Kim Tae-joon and the cinematographer Yong-seong Kim smartly subvert the empathy such a composition provokes by leaning into the dread of unknowingly being watched.The film, unfortunately, struggles to build on that aesthetic choice. Na-mi’s sole personality trait is her tendency to trust too much — a characterization that could work for a short-lived victim but that evaporates in a protagonist. Jun-yeong’s father (Kim Hee-won), a detective ridden with guilt over his seven-year estrangement from his son, is weakly drawn, too. The detective desperately wants to catch Jun-yeong before he kills again, but a last-second twist undermines the arc’s pathos.“Unlocked” moves at a glacial pace. Jun-yeong is too apathetic, too quiet to keep a viewer enthralled for the entire film. In a cinematic landscape where the anxiety of surveillance has been sufficiently explored — with movies like “The Conversation,” “Enemy of the State” and “Kimi” — this simplistically dreary offering doesn’t crack a new code.UnlockedNot rated. In Korean, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

    • 63 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Sharper’ Review: The Big Con

      by

      The film stars Sebastian Stan and Julianne Moore in a baroque but lackluster story of con artists circling a Manhattan billionaire’s fortune.Perhaps phishing emails have taken the romance out of con artistry, but “Sharper” feels downright quaint in its Russian-doll plotting of elaborate scams. That’s no crime in itself, but the movie also confirms that stories about con artists might require more panache, or at least a sense of danger.The movie opens with a rom-com coziness, as Sandra (Briana Middleton) meets Tom (Justice Smith) in his tastefully appointed Greenwich Village bookshop. Their goo-goo-eyed dating ends badly, with the extraction of a large sum of cash. Each chapter of the film then pulls back the curtain on one of the characters. We learn that Sandra previously crossed paths with Max (Sebastian Stan), a smooth operator who is close to the Fifth Avenue habitué Madeline (Julianne Moore).Madeline in turn is dating a billionaire (John Lithgow), who’s about as safe in this setup as a chicken in a shark tank. The false fronts of the plotting are the film’s only reliable kick, and so they’re best left unexposed here, but the general modus operandi hinges on triggering protective impulses and panic responses.Yet this tony-looking film, directed by Benjamin Caron (“The Crown”), feels less poker-faced than prim about its characters and their behavior. The story misses the clinical bravado of David Mamet’s heists, the psychosexual menace of “The Grifters,” or — despite opening with a dictionary definition — the crooked community described in the David Maurer classic “The Big Con.”The film’s biggest trick might be casting Moore, Stan and the positively glowing Middleton and still never quite catching fire.SharperRated R for language throughout and some sexual references. Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes. Watch on Apple TV+. More

    • 63 Shares169 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Pacifiction’ Review: Trouble in Paradise

      by

      Albert Serra’s languorous new film is a dreamy meditation on post-colonial geopolitics.At sunset and at daybreak, the light in Tahiti glows orange and pink, as fragrant and moist as freshly cut fruit. “Pacifiction,” the sixth feature by the Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra, luxuriates in the Polynesian twilight, as if the camera’s lens could absorb humidity and make it visible.The movie unfolds over more than two and a half hours at a languorous pace, through episodes that sometimes seem linked by the serendipitous logic of a dream. At the beginning and the end, a small power boat plies the harbor, carrying French marines under the command of a sad-eyed admiral (Marc Susini). Their presence, in the bars and on the beaches, becomes part of the local atmosphere as well as the catalyst for a plot that connects local politics with geopolitical intrigue.It’s rumored that France is about to resume nuclear testing around the islands, something that was done frequently from the 1960s to the mid-90s. In the movie’s fictional present day, tensions are rising between Polynesian authorities and the French government, which administers the region as an overseas territory. Mysterious foreigners haunt the tourist hotels. At least one is believed to work for the C.I.A.At the center of it all is the French high commissioner, a government functionary in tinted glasses and an ice cream suit referred to only by his last name, which is De Roller. Played by Benoît Magimel with shambling delicacy, De Roller is like the French cousin of a character you might find in a Graham Greene novel or a tale by Joseph Conrad. He is a world-weary, somewhat dissolute avatar of colonial power — “a representative of the state” in his own assessment, which sounds both humble and boastful — going to seed in a tropical paradise. He is a diplomat, a fixer, a bon vivant and, thanks to Magimel’s louche charisma, a lost soul whose wandering and dithering carry a hint of pathos.Though De Roller is in constant motion — by foot, jet ski and prop plane as well as his cream-colored Mercedes — he is a curiously becalmed, passive figure. He listens, lectures, eats and drinks, enjoying the company even of people whom he regards as threats or annoyances. He hangs out backstage with nightclub dancers, lunches with Indigenous leaders and visiting cultural dignitaries and develops a special, possibly romantic relationship with Shannah (Pahoa Mahagafanau), a transgender hospitality worker.“Pacifiction,” which was filmed in Polynesia in 2021 under the shadow of Covid, is more interested in texture than plot. There is a thriller lurking around the edges of the movie, or perhaps in its subconscious, as if the conspiracies and acts of violence that are sometimes alluded to in De Roller’s conversations were buried in the subtext, just out of view. It suggests John le Carré by way of David Lynch — a feverish and haunting but also wry and meditative rumination on power, secrecy and the color of clouds over water at sunset.PacifictionNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 113 Shares109 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Devil’s Peak’ Review: The Curse of a Family Name

      by

      In this thin drama, Billy Bob Thornton plays a menacing drug kingpin whose son begins to question their way of life.A montage early in “Devil’s Peak” — bags of meth trading hands, the patched-up houses of its users — gives a rundown of the milieu we’re about to enter and introduces Charlie (Billy Bob Thornton), the Appalachian drug kingpin at its center. The grainy, faux-home movie footage is about as close as we’ll get to truly feeling present in the gritty crime world that the film attempts to evoke. “In Jackson County, North Carolina, my family name meant something,” Jacob (Hopper Penn), Charlie’s son, explains.Different iterations of this opening line come up again, over and over, each time emphasizing the McNeely name and the outlaw blood that flows through any cursed person who bears it. Yet the rest of the film, directed by Ben Young and adapted from a novel by David Joy, struggles to meaningfully flesh out what the McNeely life is actually like.The movie doesn’t have enough of a narrative engine to compensate for its lack of world building. After Jacob becomes involved with Maggie (Katelyn Nacon), the stepdaughter of a greasy politician who eventually targets Charlie’s dealings, he begins to question his obligation to his father’s way of life. Yet their relationship (and many others) is too thinly developed to provide emotional stakes.Instead, the film mostly relies on Thornton’s overdone malice — his character, in his punked-up, Southern Walter White look, often borders on the cartoonish. On the other hand, Penn, the son of Robin Wright, a co-star and producer of the movie, is left to offer up little more than the sad stare of a conflicted son. Wright is the film’s easy standout: Her story as the addicted mother is one whose details we never really know but can intuit through somber, silent moments in her darkened home.Devil’s PeakNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. In theaters. More