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      ‘No. 7 Cherry Lane’ Review: A Heady Daydream in 1967 Hong Kong

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      This nostalgic animated film follows a taboo love triangle.As sumptuous as it is odd, “No. 7 Cherry Lane” is an exercise in harnessing nostalgia for innovation. The first animated film from the director Yonfan is a deeply eccentric chronicle of a forbidden affair in 1960s Hong Kong, as the spirit of Mao Zedong’s anti-imperialist, communist revolution arrives in what was still a British colony. Fan Ziming, a beguiling English literature student, becomes embroiled in a knotty love triangle between Mrs. Yu, a divorced Taiwanese exile and former revolutionary who now deals in luxury goods, and her daughter Meiling, a nubile 18-year-old student taking English lessons from Ziming.At times, “No. 7 Cherry Lane” unfolds as a hallucinatory daydream, flowing with starry-eyed voice-over narration: “Look how the golden years flowed away,” reads the opening title card, as the narrator describes the time as an “era of prosperity amidst simplicity.” The Hong Kong of 1967 is rendered in rich detail through pencil on rice paper, with radiant color blooming onscreen, illustrations of bustling streets and movie theaters constituting the film’s universe. There are cerebral, erudite dialogues about Proust, French art films and classic Chinese literature that drive the liaisons at its center. The animation is often slow-moving — figures shuffle stiffly across the screen as they muse about art and philosophy, a choice that may challenge viewers accustomed to more fluid gestures. But the approach contributes to the film’s thematic commitment to nostalgia and adds a quiet elegance and slow-paced intimacy to each scene.
      Fortunately, “No. 7 Cherry Lane” transcends pure wistfulness or intellectual indulgence. The film embraces a lovely surreal sensibility that bleeds through all of its details: puffs of smoke wafting off a theater screen into the characters’ world; a clowder of cats explaining Hong Kong’s floor-numbering practices; effervescent, jarring synth pop soundtracking the peak of a violent protest. These details seem minor, but they infuse an otherwise heady film with heart and levity. The movie’s bizarre and sexually explicit dream sequences, which include the abduction of a Taoist nun and Ziming being pleasured by a cat, further illustrate the film’s enigmatic quality — but they also prevent it from becoming a simple trip down memory lane. Consider this film a master class in world-building, a bewildering but poignant dream — one that will leave you with plenty of burning questions.No. 7 Cherry LaneNot rated. In Mandarin, Cantonese, French and Shanghainese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes. Watch on Criterion Channel. More

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      Robert Sacchi, Who Played Bogart Again and Again, Dies at 89

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      He was a hard-working actor and not merely a doppelgänger. But his claim to fame on film, TV and the stage was that he looked like Bogie.Lon Chaney was immortalized in a 1957 film as the “Man of a Thousand Faces.” Robert Sacchi could capitalize on only one: his conspicuous resemblance to Humphrey Bogart. He played it for all it was worth.That similitude projected him into a circumscribed but lucrative career that included the title role in the 1980 film “The Man With Bogart’s Face” and the part of Bogie himself in touring theatrical companies of Woody Allen’s comedy “Play It Again, Sam.”Mr. Sacchi died on June 23 in a hospital in Sherman Oaks, Calif., his daughter, Trish Sacchi Bertisch said. He was 89.As early as the 1940s, the decade of “The Maltese Falcon,” “Casablanca” and “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” when Mr. Sacchi (pronounced SACK-ee) was attending Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, friends and neighbors noticed that he was a ringer for Bogart.Still, it would take more than two decades for him to receive notice as the irreverent, snarling and brusque actor’s look-alike. That career began in the early 1970s — first on the road in “Play It Again, Sam,” the story of a man who gets romantic advice from an imaginary Bogart, and then as the title character in “The Man With Bogart’s Face,” a comedy about a private eye named Sam Marlow (his first and last names were shared with detectives Bogart had played) who undergoes plastic surgery to look like Bogart.Adapted from Andrew J. Fenady’s 1977 book of the same name, the movie also featured several performers, including Yvonne De Carlo, Mike Mazurki and George Raft (in his final film), who years earlier had co-starred with Bogart himself.Reviewing “The Man With Bogart’s Face” (also known as “Sam Marlow, Private Eye”) in The New York Times, Tom Buckley wrote that Mr. Sacchi, “who has been doing a Bogart look-alike turn on college campuses, shows considerable acting skill in the title role, although his hopes for future employment in films would seem to be limited.”Humphrey Bogart in a publicity photo for the 1945 movie “Conflict.”Warner Bros., via Getty ImagesRobert Sacchi in a 1981 episode of “Fantasy Island.”Walt Disney Television, via Getty ImagesHe managed nonetheless to find employment as Bogart: in a one-man show called “Bogey’s Back,” in television commercials, in a Phil Collins music video and in a voice-over for an episode of the HBO horror anthology series “Tales From the Crypt” in 1995.Robert Patsy Sacchi was born on March 27, 1932, in Rome and immigrated with his parents, Alberto and Marietta (D’Urbano) Sacchi, to New York when he was a baby. His father was a carpenter.After graduating from high school, he earned a degree in business and finance from Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., and a master’s degree from New York University.In addition to his daughter Ms. Bertisch, he is survived by his wife, Angela de Hererra; a son, the producer John Sacchi; six children from an earlier marriage, Robert Sacchi Jr., Barbara Cohen, Felicia Carroll, Maria Tolstonog, Lisa Osborne and Anthony Sacchi; his brother, Mario Sacchi; and three grandchildren.Mr. Sacchi had some success in parts not related to Bogart, including roles in three 1972 films: “The French Sex Murders,” “Pulp” and “Across 110th Street.” He had some non-acting success as well: In the 1980s, he recorded a rap single, “Jungle Queen,” which was a hit in Germany, and he worked on a book with the boxer Willie Pep about slum children who grew up to achieve fame in the ring.Yet he would remain best known for how he looked. His 5-foot-8 frame, brooding eyes, furrowed brow and craggy face cried out for a famous movie line to be rewritten as “Here’s lookin’ at me, kid.”He accepted that it was his face that gained him attention. But as a teenager, at least, he would have chosen a different one.“I mean, I never thought Bogie was too terrific-looking,” Mr. Sacchi once said. “Like most kids at the time, I wanted to look like Gregory Peck.” More

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      ‘The Tomorrow War’ Review: Future Schlock

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      Chris Pratt leaps to 2051 to save our planet from aliens in this hyperventilating sci-fi spectacle.It is never good news when a phalanx of armed, balaclava-wearing dudes falls from the sky in the middle of a World Cup soccer game.“We are you 30 years in the future,” their leader announces to the stunned crowd. “You are our last hope.” Heeding the call is a high school biology teacher named Dan Forester (Chris Pratt). Dan has a doting wife (Betty Gilpin), an adoring young daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and — because action heroes rarely embark on wholesale slaughter without some unhealed psychological hurt — the requisite estranged father (J.K. Simmons).Dan also believes that his life has a special purpose, and so does “The Tomorrow War,” Chris McKay’s time-travel spectacle in which clichés rain as fast and as furiously as bullets. In 2051, an alien civilization is in the process of gobbling up humanity, requiring a worldwide draft of present-day citizens who will “jump” into the future to join the war effort. This process — which resembles the Rapture, except the destination is hell instead of heaven — dumps the terrified conscripts on a post-apocalyptic Miami beach. From there, Dan and a handful of confreres (including an amusing Sam Richardson and Mary Lynn Rajskub) battle a welter of special effects to reach an undersea laboratory where a military scientist (Yvonne Strahovski) is developing an alien-fighting toxin.Sucking ideas from across the sci-fi spectrum — “Alien,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Starship Troopers,” “Jumper,” I could go on — Zach Dean’s screenplay grows more ludicrous by the minute. People are launched into the mayhem without basic training (Richardson’s character can’t even load a gun). And when saving the world requires the assistance of a volcanologist, the sole option is a 12-year-old boy. (Dean does deserve credit, though, for a plot that both hints at global warming and insists scientists will be our salvation.)As for the extraterrestrials, we’re almost an hour in before we see one: Bleached, tentacled and maximally toothy, they’re so exhaustingly aggressive it’s a relief to learn that, like the Creator, they’re only active for six days a week. That’s about as long as this 140-minute assault feels, with its crude dialogue (“We are food, and they are hungry”), overexcited score and characters so formulaic they might as well be cereal-box figurines. “The Tomorrow War” is betting its flash will blind us to its vacuity. And why not? It worked for “Avatar.”The Tomorrow WarRated PG-13 for death, destruction and alien abuse. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes. Watch on Amazon. More

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      ‘The Boss Baby: Family Business’ Review: Pacifier Be With You

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      It’s more of the same in this sequel to the 2017 comedy featuring the voice of Alec Baldwin.Grab your briefcases: The boss baby has returned in “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” directed by Tom McGrath, another infant adventure that hits the same notes as the original, and has little to show for it.The former boss baby, Ted (Alec Baldwin), is now a rich businessman in a big-boy suit. His brother, Tim (James Marsden), has his own family, though he worries about his daughter Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt), an A-type who opts for handshakes over hugs. Tim gets recruited for a mission by his younger daughter, Tina (Amy Sedaris), another boss baby. With the help of some new magical baby formula, Ted and Tim transform back into their younger selves and go undercover in a school for gifted children that has an evil secret.At some point Tim asks Tabitha if she wants to hear the story about how he and baby Ted saved the world again, but she passes. “It was a good story, wasn’t it?” Tim tries, but she says, “Well, it didn’t really make a lot of sense.” “The jokes were good, right?” Tim asks. Tabitha makes a noncommittal noise.At least the film is self-aware? Aside from that, the imaginative but nonsensical narrative threads leave a minefield of plot holes in their wake. There are some good laughs throughout, though none feel particularly novel. And the continued attempts to make corporate culture into something cute and funny by adding a pacifier seems out of touch with how harshly we criticize toxic workplaces now.A baby in a suit? Always cute. Recycled gags? Not so much — this “Boss Baby” just didn’t get the memo.The Boss Baby: Family BusinessRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters and on Peacock. More

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      ‘Long Story Short’ Review: Fast Forward to the End

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      After his wedding night, a workaholic gets cursed with previewing how his life will turn out, one year at a time.The British TV comedy “Spaced” had a recurring bit where Simon Pegg would half-apologetically remind his chatty friend to hurry up her story: “Skip to the end?” The same urge came to mind while watching the Australian romantic comedy “Long Story Short,” which is like a recurring bit at feature length.It’s a what-if story: Teddy (Rafe Spall), a workaholic, gets cursed with previewing how his life will turn out, one year at a time. The fast-forwarding starts after his wedding night. He wakes up to find his wife, Leanne (Zahra Newman), pregnant and their house fully furnished. Baffled, he asks surprised questions and gets surprised responses. Soon he’s leaping to another year, and another, and another. The baby becomes a toddler; Leanne’s frustrations with Teddy worsen; separation, an old flame, and a robust bearded period for Teddy follow.Spall summons a kind of early Ryan Reynolds haplessness, talking a mile a minute while catching up. But a sheepish pall steadily creeps over the whole endeavor (written and directed by Josh Lawson, who’s also in the movie), and it doesn’t help that the wanly drawn Leanne could use her own movie to snap out of her own character’s malaise independently.The dangers of going through life on autopilot are clear early on, though the movie gives Teddy’s buddy Sam (Ronny Chieng) cancer to drive the lesson home. It’s a bit of a torturous premise for Teddy — one long I-told-you-so — and even though Lawson shows mercy by the end, I began to wish the bliss of total day-to-day oblivion for the guy.Long Story ShortRated R. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘The One and Only Dick Gregory’ Review: A Peek at a Comic Legend

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      The documentary examines the many lives of the stand-up and activist who inspired a generation of performers.In a remarkable article from October 1960, Ebony magazine asked why there were no Black stars in comedy, blaming racist double standards held by audiences and television bookers as well as a new sensitivity (the term “politically correct” had not been coined) that wouldn’t tolerate performers trafficking in stereotypes from the minstrel era. Three months later, Dick Gregory, mentioned briefly as a “newcomer,” made the question irrelevant in one night.When the manager at the Playboy Club in Chicago discovered the crowd was made up of white Southern businessmen in town for a convention, he suggested that Gregory postpone. The comedian refused, went onstage and killed. He did so well, his contract there was extended, and led to national press and an appearance on “The Tonight Show.” Gregory became a crossover star, a pioneering comedic social critic who inspired a generation of stand-ups.“The One and Only Dick Gregory,” an aptly titled new documentary, does justice to this fabled performance, setting the scene and the stakes. But what stands out most about this revolutionary moment in comedy is what a small role it plays in the overall portrait here. Gregory, who died in 2017, lived so many lives that he presents a challenge for anyone trying to document them. The director Andre Gaines tries to capture as many as possible, to a fault. By covering so much ground, it doesn’t have room to dig too deep. But along with some very funny footage of a master of his craft, it offers a convincing argument that while Gregory became famous for his comedy, what made him such a riveting cultural figure is what he did after he left it behind.Gaines recruits a talent-rich cast of comics (Wanda Sykes, Dave Chappelle) to describe the performer. Chris Rock is particularly insightful and blunt, comparing Gregory’s relaxed, patient, cigarette-wielding delivery with that of Chappelle. Gregory was ahead of his time in his material on police brutality and racism, but just as he became a star, his activism heated up. A demonstration for voting rights in Mississippi was a turning point, and the movie covers his work and relationships with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the N.A.A.C.P. leader Medgar Evers. By the 1980s, Gregory had stopped playing clubs and became an early health and wellness guru while still waging a broad array of political fights, going on fasts and long runs to earn attention for causes like fighting hunger and obesity.There’s clearly a price to pay for living as active a life as Dick Gregory did. He was rarely home to see his family (his kids are astute talking heads), and toward the end of his life, legal troubles led to financial collapse and the loss of his home. The last half-hour is jarringly downbeat if slightly underexamined, with Gregory returning to clubs and appearing in a Rob Schneider movie, “The Hot Chick,” that allows him to get much-needed health care coverage.The legend of Dick Gregory gives way to a peek of him as a more complex man, albeit one much funnier than most everyone else. On the reboot of his talk show, Arsenio Hall asked him what drove him. Gregory retorted: “My bills.”The One and Only Dick GregoryNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. Watch on Showtime platforms. More

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      ‘Let Us In’ Review: The Eyes Have It

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      Disappearing teens and mysterious strangers fuel this generic blend of urban legend and science fiction.“Let Us In,” a kids-fighting-evil movie in the vein of “The Goonies” (1985) and Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” is creepy-cute and cheerfully corny. Directed by Craig Moss and inspired by an urban legend, the story (by Moss and JW Callero) plunks us down in a fictitious small town where teenagers have been mysteriously vanishing.The first pair we meet clearly didn’t get the memo that necking in the woods after dark is asking for trouble. And when a group of foul-smelling, dark-eyed adolescents menacingly materializes — the leader asking, “Will you let us in?” — the resulting attack is soon followed by others. While parents and law enforcement remain oblivious or skeptical, 12-year-old Emily (Makenzie Moss) and her friend, Christopher (O’Neill Monahan), begin sleuthing.Reaching back fondly to the 1980s and 90s, Moss seeds his movie with familiar faces (Tobin Bell is, of course, the town weirdo), generic setups (though one eerie scene makes the most of an after-hours coffee shop) and silly science fiction. Yet the film’s derivativeness — residents literally fight darkness with light — is countered by strong acting from the two leads and a director who just might be having the time of his life.That apparent delight seeps into almost every frame, giving the film a guileless warmth that drew my good will. (Though Moss already had that when he cast Judy Geeson — a stalwart of notable dramas and lurid thrillers since the 1960s — as Emily’s grandmother.) The villains of “Let Us In” don’t do much besides lurk and pounce, but, for their director, that seems to be enough.Let Us InNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes. Rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘Till Death’ Review: My Relationship is Dragging Me Down

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      Megan Fox leads this straightforward, but gleefully chaotic thriller about a woman handcuffed to the corpse of her husband.In “Till Death,” Megan Fox plays Emma, a glamorous woman who got hitched at an age when she simply didn’t know any better. That’s partly why she’s been having an affair, though she breaks it off in an attempt to make things right.Tough luck with that creepy hubbie of hers, Mark (Eoin Macken), an unnervingly intense figure whose romantic gestures contain an air of menace; like when he blindfolds Emma and drives her to their off-the-grid vacation home for a night of sexual bliss. The next morning, however, Emma wakes up to find herself handcuffed to Mark. And in the first of the film’s many gleefully chaotic rug-pulls, he shoots himself dead.Sure, Emma could crush Mark’s hand and wriggle it out of the cuff, but these kinds of over-the-top horror-thrillers are best served with a heavy helping of suspended disbelief.With a blood-splattered visage, Emma is forced to lug around her husband’s corpse as she tries to escape, which becomes all the more urgent when a hulking assassin — the same one that assaulted her years earlier — comes on the scene. Naturally, this oaf is no match for the tough-girl cool of Fox, who emerges from each bloody tussle and snowy brawl with her makeup perfectly intact: such is her legend.In his feature directing debut, S.K. Dale orchestrates a tense cat-and-mouse game that, refreshingly, doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are no profound psychological struggles, high-concept theatrics; no groundbreaking subversions of formula. Instead, this straightforward romp focuses its attention on its cunning and no-nonsense scream queen. And what Fox lacks in dramatic prowess, she makes up for in pure, wicked magnetism.Till DeathRated R. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More