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      ‘Ahead of the Curve’ Review: The Business of Lesbian Identity

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      A 30-year-old lesbian magazine faces an existential crisis in this documentary.In the curiously commercial documentary “Ahead of the Curve,” the lesbian magazine formerly known as Deneuve receives a second shot at the cultural spotlight.Known now by the publication name Curve, the magazine was founded by a lesbian named Franco Stevens in 1990, in the midst of the culture wars. The magazine grew alongside public acknowledgment of lesbian life, and its covers featured newly out stars like the singer Melissa Etheridge or the comedian Margaret Cho. The documentary begins in the present day, as both the glossy and its founder are facing existential crisis.In vérité footage, Stevens is told by Curve’s new owner that the publication might not last another year. The film’s director, Jen Rainin, who is also married to Stevens, uses archival footage of her wife in the ’90s to reflect on Stevens’s history with the magazine and what Curve meant to its larger lesbian readership. In the movie’s contemporary footage, Stevens embarks on a tour of conference halls and community centers, asking young people what lesbian visibility has meant to their lives.There is a tension in the film between the lesbian experience and lesbianism as a consumer product. Stevens connects with young advocates and business leaders over the hopes, fears and traumas that resonate across generations. From a perspective of a business in the process of rebranding, Stevens’s foray into this world of lesbian and queer-centered spaces has focus-tested value. But it is hindered as a documentary by the spotlight on marketing, which boxes conversations about lesbian identity into sterile conference rooms where participants in name tags and lanyards share heartfelt stories for the purpose of a product. The film’s subjects are overwhelmingly earnest, but the movie suffers for its substitution of enterprise over entertainment.Ahead of the CurveNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Dog Gone Trouble’ Review: New Dog, Same Tricks

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      A pampered dog finds himself on the streets in this routine animated comedy.Home is at the center of “Dog Gone Trouble,” about a lost pooch whose owner has just died. But this Netflix animated family feature is nothing to write home about.It begins with Trouble (voiced by Big Sean) living lavishly in a mansion, a far cry from the street-dog lifestyle. After his rich companion, Mrs. Sarah Vanderwhoozie (the always-delightful Betty White, who is criminally wasted here), passes on, her greedy niece (Marissa Jaret Winokur) and nephew (Joel McHale) swoop in to get their hands on Mrs. Vanderwhoozie’s belongings. The catch? If they want her riches, they must take care of her diva dog, too.The setup of Kevin Johnson’s film has promise: a charming montage of Trouble and Mrs. Vanderwhoozie. The crazy, money-hungry relatives you’ll wish had more screen time. Then, a moving scene with Trouble pawing at extravagant paintings of Mrs. Vanderwhoozie and wondering, tearfully, why she’s gone.Once Trouble ends up in what he calls the “jungle” — for the other dogs, including the soul-crushed loner Rousey (Pamela Adlon), this is the street — “Dog Gone Trouble” settles into overdone mutt-movie territory. We essentially get a story about the true meaning of home, explored with more emotional sophistication in other canine-centric animated films (“Bolt,” from 2008, comes to mind). But another one of its themes — a no-label civilization, briefly touched upon when Rousey snaps at Trouble after he calls her an “outside dog” — is far more engaging and culturally contemporary.Instead, the film keeps it basic, right down to a central girl character named Zoe (Lucy Hale) who shares a common outsider bond with Trouble. She’s a stock-millennial, wannabe-musician bore, and her Memoji look does her — and the other humans, animated similarly — no favors.A bunch of dancing squirrels making highly suggestive nut jokes is about as funny as it gets. Elsewhere, Snoop Dogg voices a Doberman named Snoop, who raps a rundown of the plot when the credits roll. That the movie can be summed up in a silly, simple dog rap indicates there wasn’t much of a story here to begin with.Dog Gone TroubleNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      Colman Domingo’s Crooked Summer

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      Colman Domingo — actor, playwright, dramaturge, producer, professor and the fella who showed up to this year’s Oscars in a hot pink sequined Versace suit — is likely best known for his character of Victor on television’s “Fear the Walking Dead.” He’s also brought a sensitive soulfulness to the array of characters he’s portrayed in some of the past decade’s most prominent Black films: “The Butler,” “Selma,” “42,” “The Birth of a Nation,” “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” More

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      ‘Baggio: The Divine Ponytail’ Review: Dribbling Through a Career

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      This biopic of the Italian soccer player Roberto Baggio is a botched effort.“Baggio: The Divine Ponytail,” a Netflix biopic billed as “freely inspired” by the life of the Italian soccer player Roberto Baggio, concludes with a group of the athlete’s fans greeting and applauding him. In real-life clips during the credits, an announcer calls him “probably the most beloved player in Italian football.” It’s a measure of how muddled the movie is that it never conveys how or why he became beloved.Even the soccer is perfunctory. Instead of lingering on the pitch, the director, Letizia Lamartire, cuts to Baggio’s friends and family watching on TV. Chronologically malapportioned, the film races through key developments, such as Baggio’s recovery from an injury or commitment to Buddhist meditation, and more than once abruptly flashes forward several years.Clichés become a kind of shorthand. At dinner in 1985, Baggio (Andrea Arcangeli) informs his parents and siblings that he’s signed a valuable contract. “Well, you can pay me back for the windows you broke,” scoffs his father (Andrea Pennacchi), who later adds, “Even if you earn more, you’re no better than your brother, who’s busting his ass at the factory.”By half an hour in, when the film reaches the 1994 World Cup, where Baggio plans to fulfill an apparent childhood promise to his dad, the coach likens him to the celebrated player Diego Maradona. Nothing the film has shown from the sulky Baggio, whose hair gives him his nickname, has primed viewers for the comparison.It’s possible that “Baggio: The Divine Ponytail” will resonate with soccer fans. But the protagonist’s reputed greatness has not made it to the screen.Baggio: The Divine PonytailNot rated. In Italian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      Kevin Spacey Cast in Italian Film After Being Sidelined in the U.S.

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      He will play a detective in the movie, directed by Franco Nero, in what is believed to be his first film since sexual assault allegations started surfacing in 2017.Kevin Spacey has been cast in a film in what is believed to be the first time since accusations of sexual assault against the actor started surfacing more than three years ago, prompting several court cases and unraveling his onscreen career. More

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      Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan, Our Most Underappreciated Comic

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      As he turns 80, don’t be fooled by his serious music. From the start, his work has been filled with a cockeyed humor that can range from corny jokes to dark wit.At the end of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the Coen brothers movie set in the Greenwich Village music scene of 1961, the title character, a gifted but struggling folk singer on the verge of giving up, leaves the stage of the fabled Gaslight Café as a newcomer fills his spot. What’s clear after the first note is that it’s Bob Dylan at the start of one of the greatest careers in pop music More

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      Five Science Fiction Movies to Stream

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      These recent tales of dystopia and more will keep you pondering.Questions, questions: at their best, science-fiction films ponder and ask, then are so compelling that you forget you ever wanted an answer. This month’s selection will particularly reward viewers who have no patience for easy resolutions — or distinct genre classifications. More

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      ‘Seance’ Review: Summoning Trouble with Lipstick and Latin

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      In Simon Barrett’s film, something evil descends upon an all-girls boarding school after a clique of students try to contact the dead.When a group of mean girls invite Camille (Suki Waterhouse), the protagonist of “Seance,” to contact a dead classmate, she shrugs.“Why not?” Camille says. “Sounds weird.”That is essentially the thesis of this genre-confused film: Why not? Sounds weird.“Seance,” directed by Simon Barrett, takes place at the fictional Edelvine Academy, an all-girls boarding school where an evil presence emerges after a clique of students tries to summon a ghost. Newcomer Camille arrives just as girls are beginning to disappear.Given Barrett’s career as a horror screenwriter — he penned the twisty “You’re Next” and contributed to the “V/H/S” series — it’s no surprise that “Seance” is at its strongest when leaning fully into the humor of the genre. As the film reaches its lively end, bloodshed and absurdity both peak. Barrett livens things up with practical effects and fight choreography.Unfortunately, the film’s climax is at odds with its buildup, a plodding narrative constructed around flimsy characters with even flimsier motivations. “Seance” meanders for most of its running time, wavering between tones and styles. It’s both self-aware and overly serious. It tries to be a murder mystery, a slasher, a coming-of-age tale and a haunted house flick all at once.When the film does choose a genre, it occasionally sticks the landing, but “Seance” ultimately feels jumbled. Myriad bizarre choices — like costuming the teen characters in form-fitting pajamas and haphazardly inserting music into scenes — don’t help.Like its characters crafting a planchette out of lipstick and a phone case, “Seance” mashes ideas together and hopes for the best. But moments of true innovation can be found among the blunders.SeanceRated R for buckets of blood and un-ladylike language. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on FandangoNow, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More