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      ‘A Love Song’ Review: When Moving Forward Means Looking Back

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      Two former childhood friends rekindle their connection in this sweetly hopeful story of romantic longing.Framed by soaring mountains and a gleaming lake somewhere in Southwestern Colorado, a woman (Dale Dickey), wiry and weathered, catches crayfish and waits in her small camper for a special someone to arrive. The woman is Faye and, like Lito (Wes Studi), the childhood friend she hopes will respond to her invitation, she is long widowed. Maybe he, too, is ready for some company.Slow, sweet and subdued, “A Love Song,” Max Walker-Silverman’s lovely first feature, is about late-life longing and needs that never completely go away. Building solid characters from mere scraps of information (Faye was once a bush pilot, Lito a musician), the two leads embrace a screenplay (by the director) filled with long silences and searching close-ups. Plaintive country songs leak from Faye’s transistor radio as she studies bird species by day and the constellations by night — scenes that tell us this is not someone who is simply existing. She’s living and learning.From time to time, diverting visitors wander into Faye’s campsite — friendly neighbors with a dinner invitation, Indigenous cowhands with an unusual request — their whimsical intrusions adding flavor to an unyieldingly spare story. We soon appreciate, though, that more than one kind of love is being celebrated in that title, including the director’s affection for his home state, its wide-open spaces and wandering souls. In Faye and Lito, Walker-Silverman is honoring a certain kind of Western archetype, resilient and unsinkable and untethered. This hardiness is echoed in the simplicity of Faye’s diet and daily routines, as much as in Alfonso Herrera Salcedo’s patient shots of flowering plants punching through parched earth.Some of those flowers will be picked and proffered, ice cream will be eaten and remembrances shared before this gentle movie rests in the poignancy of a mourning dove’s call. What lingers, though, is a warmth that’s probably due, at least in part, to the director’s decision to surround himself with people he loves. (The cowhands are played by his four closest friends, and his former roommate, Ramzi Bashour, composed the film’s score.) The result is a tender, laconic look at a woman who rarely faces anything in life, including loneliness, without a strategy.“There’s days and there’s nights, and I got a book for each,” she tells Lito, a declaration more heartbreaking than any monologue of lost love.A Love SongRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 21 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Ali & Ava’ Review: Don’t You Want to Sing Along?

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      Even as this romantic drama clings uncomfortably to the surface of an interracial relationship, the movie still delivers pops of color and memorable melodies, our critic writes.In “Ali & Ava” the writer-director Clio Barnard (“The Arbor,” “The Selfish Giant”) leans into the emotional alchemy of an unexpected romance between Ali (Adeel Akhtar), a British-Pakistani D.J. who has recently separated from his wife, and Ava (Claire Rushbrook), an Irish-British teacher and mother of four.The two are brought together by their mutual affection for one of Ava’s students, and this understated indie film clings uncomfortably to the surface of their relationship, yet still delivers something pure, melodic and precise. Focusing on vivid blue and peach pops of color bursting through a Northern England town’s foggy daylight and moonlit nights, Barnard and the cinematographer Ole Bratt Birkeland manage to imbue the film with an undeniable warmth. The handheld-heavy camerawork prioritizes close-up images, especially when depicting the growing bond between Ali and Ava.Yet the onscreen chemistry between them feels forced and flat, and the decidedly tame portrayals of physical intimacy only accentuate this absence. The tension that Ali and Ava’s interracial relationship surfaces within Ava’s family and white neighborhood is barely reckoned with in the film, and the result is an unconvincing racial reconciliation fairy tale in an embattled factory town in Yorkshire.When the film is buoyant, it is through its blending of diegetic music and traditional scoring to create the auditory equivalent of a tracking shot. From Bob Dylan’s 1960s folk tune, “Mama You Been On My Mind,” to its more contemporary pop, techno and bhangra grooves, music plays continuously across multiple scenes at certain choice moments, giving us an immersive link to Ali and Ava’s internal soundtracks. Which makes you wonder: What if “Ali & Ava” had been able to blossom into a full-on musical? I could dance to that.Ali & AvaNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Paradise Highway’ Review: A Test of Loyalty

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      A truck driver’s brother asks her to deliver a girl to sex traffickers in order to save his life in prison.Growing up in a violent home, Sally (Juliette Binoche) only had one person to rely on: her brother, Dennis (Frank Grillo).Years later, Dennis is in prison, and now depends on Sally, who is a truck driver. When Dennis tells Sally that she must carry illicit cargo or he’ll be harmed, she is determined to come through, even after she finds out that the “package” she’s meant to deliver is a girl named Leila (Hala Finley).“Paradise Highway,” written and directed by Anna Gutto (“A Light Above”), follows Sally and Leila as they run from both the benevolent F.B.I. agents, played by Morgan Freeman and Cameron Monaghan, and the sex traffickers looking to recover Leila. They are kept company only by a shotgun and the radio that connects Sally to a network of other women truck drivers. Their camaraderie and Finley’s performance as the troubled Leila are highlights in a film that otherwise does not quite hit its stride.Perhaps unsurprisingly, Binoche is not believable as a working-class American truck driver, and her lingering French accent seems out of place in that world. In addition, the vague danger to her brother is difficult to accept as enough motivation for her to participate in such a heinous crime.Though it is refreshing to see members of law enforcement focused on recovering and supporting a victim rather than pursuing her abusers, it does not allow for much narrative tension. If only the film had taken a broader view, filling in more details about the lives and motivations of the truck drivers as well as the sex traffickers.Paradise HighwayRated R for language and some violence. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘Hansan: Rising Dragon’ Review: Naval Gazing

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      The dutiful Korean war movie “Hansan: Rising Dragon” recounts a spectacular 16th-century naval victory over Japanese invaders.The dutiful war movie “Hansan: Rising Dragon” recounts the successes of the 16th-century Korean national hero Yi Sun-shin, which were previously chronicled in the 2014 film “The Admiral: Roaring Currents.” Directed by Kim Han-min, both films trumpet Admiral Yi’s savvy and courage in fending off the Japanese invaders attempting to conquer the peninsula. This time, the main event is the Battle of Hansan Island in 1592, a Korean victory that is showcased as a feat of both strategy and technology.Part of the movie tracks Yi’s efforts to lay logistical and diplomatic groundwork for a defense, amid internecine squabbles and Japanese espionage. (A daunting array of captions pop up onscreen to help identify the military figures involved.) Yi (Park Hae-il) is portrayed as a wise, deliberate leader, though his noble bearing can easily feel stolid, and the many military confabs tend to sag.A recurring topic of debate is the deployment of turtle ships — stout armored vessels with cannons on all sides and a dragonhead battering ram. When the movie finally opens up into naval warfare, these monstrous ships are worth the wait, roaring through the water in impressive sequences that toggle between wide shots and zooms into the fracas. Much is also made of Yi’s arcing crane-wing battle formation, but its significance is overshadowed by the sheer spectacle of collisions.The film’s dramas are ornately costumed but often stilted and lacking the verve of the battle staging. Even the glories of war can turn stultifying when you’re shown one too many thousand-yard-stare reaction shots by military leaders.Hansan: Rising DragonNot rated. In Korean, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘DC League of Super-Pets’ Review: #ReleaseTheLassieCut

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      Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart voice canine heroes in a family-friendly animated spinoff of the “Justice League” franchise.The animated family comedy “DC League of Super-Pets” proceeds from what can be described as a “sure, why not” premise: Superman now has a Labrador retriever named Krypto the Super-Dog, voiced by Dwayne Johnson, who fights crime and has special powers. The movie combines the conventions of a comic book blockbuster with the tropes of a talking-animal flick, making it something like “Justice League” meets “Shrek” — big, loud and full of bombastic action but with an irreverent, jocular tone. The director, Jared Stern, was a writer of “The Lego Batman Movie” (2017). Like that film, this one spends a lot of time gently mocking its superhero source material. When Lulu (voiced by Kate McKinnon), an evil guinea pig and the story’s megalomaniac villain, captures Clark Kent (John Krasinski), she ridicules the shoddy disguise of his alter ego: “A mustache, maybe, but not glasses!”The movie seems plainly directed at young children who revere superheroes and adore animals. It is at its most successful when it simply lets its leads, Krypto and a fellow canine named Ace (Kevin Hart), put a spin on basic bowwow stuff — as in an early scene involving a city-spanning game of flying fetch. More bewildering are the film’s constant efforts to appease the adults in the audience. What are kids supposed to make of the references to “The Great British Bake Off” in a running gag? And what could they possibly find amusing about an extended, humdrum nod to “The Warriors” (1979)? This brand of arch, inside-baseball riffing is a scourge on modern family films, present in almost every animated movie with an all-star cast. But it’s especially grating delivered by Johnson and Hart, who, despite the vocal talent they have shown in the past, give two of the least inspired voice performances in recent memory.DC League of Super-PetsRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘A Balance’ Review: Critical Distance

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      Yujiro Harumoto’s slow-build morality tale puts an ambitious documentary maker in an uncomfortable position as her life begins to resemble her films.About an hour into Yujiro Harumoto’s knotty and suspenseful morality tale “A Balance,” Yuko (Kumi Takiuchi), a documentary director, argues with an abortion doctor (Ryo Ikeda) that “What’s moral isn’t always what’s best.” It’s a platitude that has already been tested for Yuko, whose life has become suddenly very complicated. But that test is only beginning.“This is all topsy-turvy,” the doctor replies. He doesn’t know the half of it.For the next 90 minutes of this slow-build ethical puzzle, Harumoto relentlessly changes the terms each time Yuko thinks she has determined “what’s best.” By the film’s unsettling denouement, viewers are likely to share her disorientation, in ways that are mostly good (see: challenging, nuanced), even as the plot, with its many conveniences, sometimes strains credulity.When we meet Yuko, she is hustling to complete a documentary about alleged sexual impropriety at a Tokyo school. As her investigation expands, the ethics grow thornier, not least because of corporate pressure and misogyny.Still, she’s a player. Her willingness to stretch certain standards in service of “The Truth” hints at troubles to come. After a parallel event involving her schoolteacher father (Ken Mitsuishi) causes Yuko’s world to cave, she seeks protection in the tools that give her critical distance as a filmmaker — her camera, her insistent questions. It was a nice thought, anyway.Takiuchi’s Yuko, in turns motherly and mercenary, is bewitchingly enigmatic: What drives her? Why does she still live with her father? Mercifully, we receive little back story; it’s enough that she is an ambitious woman, choked by ruthless double standards surrounding sex and autonomy. As the stakes rise, moral clarity turns out to be a luxury not everyone can afford.A BalanceNot rated. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 33 minutes. Watch on Film Movement+. More

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      How to Find the One

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      Listen and follow Modern LoveApple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon Music“That film sequence was like a portal into an alternate universe, where a brown girl could date a white guy and still be at peace with her family.”Brian Rea[What’s the most unusual place you have ever gone on a date? Tell us your story, and you may be featured in a future episode. Visit nytimes.com/datestory for submission details.]When Meher Ahmad first saw the movie “Bend It Like Beckham” as a young girl, she was transfixed. Watching the main character, an Indian woman who looked like her, kiss her white soccer coach, she saw a vision of her own romantic future. While she felt pressure from her family and her culture to be with a Pakistani boy, the movie opened up the lanes of her attraction — from white boys to, eventually, “anything but brown men.”As Meher grew older, though, her thinking started to shift. Today, we share her story about how she found “the one.”Then, our host, Anna Martin, discusses a trend that is all over TikTok: romantic manifestation. She speaks with Laura Pitcher, a contributing writer for The New York Times, about how people are manifesting their ideal partners — and why the spiritual practice is so appealing to Gen Z.[What’s the most unusual place you have ever gone on a date? Tell us your story, and you may be featured in a future episode of the podcast. Visit nytimes.com/datestory for submission details.]Hosted by: Anna MartinProduced by: Julia Botero, Hans Buetow and Elyssa DudleyEdited by: Sara SarasohnExecutive Producer: Wendy DorrEngineered by: Dan PowellTheme Music: Dan PowellEssay by: Meher AhmadRead by: Soneela NankaniFounder, Modern Love: Daniel JonesEditor, Modern Love Projects: Miya LeeSpecial thanks: Mahima Chablani, Renan Borelli, Jeffrey Miranda, Julia Simon, Lisa Tobin, Sam Dolnick, Ryan Wegner and Anna Diamond at Audm.Thoughts? Email us at modernlovepodcast@nytimes.com. More

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      Why Brandon Perea’s ‘Nope’ Audition Made Jordan Peele Cry

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      The actor’s unexpected take on Angel, the Fry’s worker, so won over the director that he decided during their meeting to rewrite the script.When Brandon Perea was 15, touring the country as a professional dancer and roller skater, he had an epiphany in the parking lot of a Blue Coast Burrito: He would move from Chicago to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.But dreams rarely account for the rough patches. Perea thought he had it made when, at 20, he booked the series-regular role of student Alfonso Sosa, known as French, on the enigmatic Netflix serial “The OA,” but the show was canceled two seasons into its planned five-year arc.“I had so much confidence where I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m probably going to book a bunch of stuff after this,’” Perea said, though new roles proved elusive. “It’s that weird middle ground where ‘The OA’ was a good, life-changing job, but it’s not a piece on your résumé that’s going to beat out the A-list people that want the great stuff. You’re auditioning just in case they say no, and who the hell is going to say no to something great?”Still, Perea kept plugging away at his dream, and his efforts were rewarded when he scored a breakout role in Jordan Peele’s new film “Nope,” which stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings trying to photograph an extraterrestrial entity looming above their California ranch. Their efforts eventually involve the bleach-blond electronics-store employee Angel, whom Perea has a ball playing: Though Angel appears terminally bored when we meet him, he quickly warms to the brother-sister duo, oversharing about his recent breakup and chatting eagerly about “Ancient Aliens” even as their circumstances grow ever more outlandish.Peele was so pleased with Perea’s work that he beefed up the role during the shoot, and now that “Nope” is out (and No. 1 at the box office), the 27-year-old actor is glad he stuck to his convictions.“I call this the miracle job for a reason — this is a God-given miracle for me, because this is far bigger than what I could ever imagine or dream,” Perea told me last week over Zoom. “To be working in Hollywood is a privilege and it’s tough to keep, so you’ve got to be grateful if you can keep it. If I wasn’t grateful, kick me out.”Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.With Daniel Kaluuya, left, and Keke Palmer in “Nope.” Perea met the film’s stars for the first time during filming. Universal PicturesWhat was going on in your life when you were cast in “Nope”?I hadn’t worked on anything truly significant in a long time, and there were a lot of lows before “Nope.” I got close to a big show — I went in the room three or four times and I just thought, “Oh man, this is it, I’m back” — and then I didn’t get that role. Then there was a really good script, and I felt like I murdered that audition. People I showed the audition to were like, “Oh man, you’re going to book this thing,” and I didn’t end up getting it.But there was a switch for me where I was just like, “You know what? I’m proud at the level that I’m performing at, and someone will trust me someday.” That eased the pressure I put on myself. It was the first time that I came to terms with it so I could move on and not sulk over a job.And then you heard about “Nope”?I got an email for an untitled Jordan Peele project, my first big audition in a long time. I was assuming it’d be a one-liner or something because he’s at the point where he can get any actor in the world to be in his films, but then I saw it was one of the leads. I was like, “Oh my God, he’s seeing auditions for a lead role? That’s insane. I’m going to deliver the best that I can, but what can I do that’s going to be different than everyone else?”So what was your take on the character?The initial audition was just three pages of simple dialogue of this dude working at an electronics store: “Hi, I can help you over here. Would you like an account with us?” It was very happy, very up. And I was like, “Hmm, you don’t see that when you go into an electronics store. The employees do not want to be there.” So, I played it that way, sent the tape off into the universe, and two weeks later I got a callback to meet with Jordan on Zoom.How did you feel?I was excited, humbled, nervous. I was like, “Man, I’m just happy to meet the dude. If I get the role, great, but also, I’m happy with where I got.” But then I had people around me that were like, “No, dog. Ask, believe, receive. This is your job and you’re going to get this.” And my roommate at the time introduced me to some Steve Harvey motivational videos and that really helped, because that got my confidence way up.I went in with this energy that was like, “I’m not here to audition, it’s a work session. I’m going to set. I’m not here to beg for the job.” And I acted like I already knew Jordan, because I had watched so many of his interviews to prep — I was like, “Yo, what’s good, J.P.? How we doing?” Just very comfortable and not like, “Hello, Mr. Peele, how are you?”Perea said the dialogue he was handed for his “Nope” audition depicted Angel as a happy, up worker. “I was like, ‘Hmm, you don’t see that when you go into an electronics store. The employees do not want to be there.’” Victor Llorente for The New York TimesYou were bringing colleague energy rather than fan energy.Yeah, exactly, and after it was over, I was so proud that I cried. I was alone on my couch, just like, “Man, I don’t even care if I get the job, he’ll book me one day.” And two days later, my reps reach out and they’re like, “Hey, are you free for an improv session this afternoon with Jordan?” I go in the Zoom call and Jordan’s like, “The thing is, the character you brought to the table is far different than what I wrote for. So, I need to see you do it some more ways, because I’d have to rewrite my entire script to cast you in this thing.”I’m like, “Damn, I’m probably out of the job.” And he was like, “You know what? That’s what I’m going to do. Yeah, I’m going to rewrite my script.” I was like, “What?” He was like, “Yeah, man. You got the job.” Boom, instant tears. I started going on a whole spiel: “Man, with Hollywood stuff, you get beat down — it’s a roller coaster full of ups and downs. Thank you for trusting me. You go through a million nos to get one yes, and I’d go through a billion to get this one.” And Jordan started crying as well. I remember him removing his glasses just like, “You got me, man, you got me.”That’s the tricky thing about being a working actor, I’d expect: You can continue to deliver knockout auditions, but you never know if you’re exactly what they’re looking for.It took a while, but I’m so glad I didn’t get the other jobs that I thought I needed and wanted so much. “Nope” came along at the perfect time because now I’m here and I’m prepared. There’s a lot of pieces missing that I really had to learn in life, not just as an actor or as an artist.What would have happened if you booked something like this right on the heels of “The OA”?I just wouldn’t have handled success the best, I think. At that time, I probably would have let it steer me away more from the art form just to get some money grabs or a big following. There was a popular TV show I thought I was close to booking, but I think my intentions were in the wrong place, where I was like, “Oh man, I can get a lot of viewers and young people to be on my side.” I wasn’t looking at it like, “I love this character, I really want to deliver in this series.” So I’m glad there was a no on that front, because it’s a very viral show and — —Was it “Euphoria”?Ooh, you guessed it. You’re good. But everything happens for a reason, and I had to learn that.So Jordan cast you. Then what?It was just an emotional roller coaster right after that — like, “Phew, now I have to go do the job and deliver.” And there was so much mystery. There was no synopsis, I had no clue what the hell I was about to do. On the day I got the movie, Jordan sent me a movie list of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Jaws,” “Alien,” “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “No Country for Old Men.” I was like, “OK, this is a random-ass list of movies. What’s he conjuring up? How does all this stuff connect?” And then a little while later, I get a text message from him being like, “Merry Christmas,” and he sent me a link to the script.”I remember reading it, being like, “Oh my gosh, no one’s going to expect this from Jordan.” And I did not know who the cast was, either, but he just started texting me random hints — he sent me “D.K.,” and I was like, “D.K., Daniel Kaluuya?” We’d even had a little conversation about Kaluuya because I took a nugget from watching his YouTube interviews, where a director gave him a note to never play the funny, always play the truth.Perea said he learned he got the job directly from Peele during a meeting. His reaction? “Boom, instant tears.” Victor Llorente for The New York TimesAfter watching so many videos of Daniel Kaluuya, what happens when you’re actually acting opposite him?The first time that we all met in person was the first time that we met on-screen. I was a stranger to him and Keke, and they already had their bond, so I was like, “Let me play this to my advantage. I’m just going to play Angel throughout, then I’ll say what’s up after.” And that’s what we did. The beats are awkward, and I’m challenging Daniel because he’s giving me eyes. I remember hearing him say to Keke, “My eyes see everything.” So I wasn’t breaking eye contact with him — it was hard nose vs. hard nose. I was like, “I’m here with you.”You posted a video of your emotional reaction to seeing the “Nope” billboard for the first time. What does it mean for you to be on those billboards and posters?My intention when I was younger was just, “I want to be on a billboard.” I wasn’t looking at it from a more complex, deeper meaning. But if you really look at the billboard for “Nope” and dissect it, it’s like, “Wow, I’m on a billboard, but I’m a Filipino Puerto Rican kid sharing this poster with Asian representation, Black representation and a Black director in a big spectacle film.” Man, I’m glad it took this long, because now I appreciate this privilege. Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Jordan Peele — I’m working with some of the best to be doing it right now. I am the new kid on the block, so the fact that I get to share a poster with all those people? I’m very grateful that they trusted me. More