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      ‘Spiral: From the Book of Saw’ Review: Slicing Up Bad Apples

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      This addition to the “Saw” universe stars Chris Rock as a misanthropic detective pitted against a Jigsaw copycat.In “Spiral,” the latest film in the “Saw” universe, the first expletives land before the two-minute mark. Blood spills right after, when a man has to decide between getting his tongue ripped out or being hit by an underground train. That the film is overall gorier and more foulmouthed than its predecessors, while still managing an R rating, is undoubtedly an accomplishment. Unfortunately, that is the film’s only notable one.“Spiral” is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (“Saw II,” “Saw III” and “Saw IV”) and written by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger (“Jigsaw”). The film follows the lone wolf detective Zeke (Chris Rock), who begrudgingly accepts a new partner (Max Minghella) at the same time a Jigsaw copycat targets the corrupt officers on his force. Zeke is portrayed as a renegade, the rare American male unafraid to whine about political correctness or call his ex-wife misogynistic slurs. He scoffs at protocol, tortures an informant and prattles on about how women can’t be trusted. Yet the film calls Zeke a “good cop” and expects viewers to root for him against the killer.Though “Spiral” is the first “Saw” film to introduce a new style of villain — the motivation, voice and puppet alias are all different from that of original baddie John Kramer — it is no more challenging than the rest. Its most redeemable moment is one of accidental camp, when a forensic specialist standing next to a fleshless corpse states, “He was obviously skinned.”The premise is disingenuous at best and, in a moment where scores of citizens are calling for widespread police reform, fearmongering at worst. Like Jigsaw offering one of his facile riddles, this film is not as clever as it thinks it is.Spiral: From the Book of SawRated R for dismemberment, naughty words and general gnarliness. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

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      ‘The Killing of Two Lovers’ Review: What Lies Beneath

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      Under the veneer of an unusual marriage is an uncontrollable undercurrent to which everyone is susceptible.Robert Machoian’s “The Killing of Two Lovers” opens like a crime thriller: A frantic man looms over his sleeping wife and her lover with a gun. Spooked by a noise, he runs off, and the camera follows him down an empty road in the Utah town where he lives with his ailing father. But a ticking time bomb of violence looms over this drama of a marriage, marked by his abjection and told in unpredictable long takes.The man, David (Clayne Crawford, in a Casey Affleck sort of role), is temporarily living apart from his wife, Nikki (Sepideh Moafi). They take turns looking after their four kids and, within the bounds of their arrangement, she’s also seeing someone else (Chris Coy). But while Nikki looks to be letting their marriage drift away, David is all in.On the edge between rugged and mountain man, David loves caring for their children, though his straight-shooting teenage daughter is a skeptic about the trial separation. Gray winter light washes out the flat ranchlands, and the big skies and pickup trucks (shot by the cinematographer Oscar Ignacio Jimenez in boxy 4:3) suggest faded snapshots from an old family album.You never know when something in the air might tighten and snap, primed by a sound design that evokes creaking timber and phantom door slams. Machoian (who co-directed “God Bless the Child”) suggests that a single day of experience can cover the worries of wrangling youngsters, the ache of troubled romance, and the wildest rage. Accepting David’s murderous urges, the film lands on the enduring mystery of marriage’s bonds.The Killing of Two LoversRated R. Heated words. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow 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

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      ‘The Djinn’ Review: A Boy Whose Wish Comes True

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      This film by David Charbonier and Justin Powell has the trappings of a fairy tale. Don’t be fooled.In the supernatural horror movie “The Djinn,” a dramatic, somewhat corny fairy-talelike voice recites the contents of a mysterious book of spells to the audience. When the 12-year-old Dylan (Ezra Dewey) discovers this book, which lays out instructions for making wishes, he needs no time to settle on one great desire. He craves something he does not have: the ability to speak. That night, when he is left home alone, Dylan gets his wish.The “be careful what you wish for” trope is so common in horror films that it’s hardly a spoiler to say that his wish comes with dire consequences. He conjures the evil djinn, or genie, setting in motion a night of terror. The fable facade is a deceptive precursor for a film that’s definitely not for kids.The directors, David Charbonier and Justin Powell, take a simple, overused premise and put a genuinely fresh and terrifying spin on it by giving the demon corporeal form. The fleshy, bloody violence unexpectedly turns this haunted-house horror into a home invasion horror. Their use of fluid camerawork, pink-hued lighting, and a synthy soundtrack appropriate to the film’s ’80s setting are also impressively stylish.But what begins as an ingenious solution for a minuscule budget and a familiar situation in this genre takes a turn toward the heavy-handed as a ghost from Dylan’s past arrives to prey on his guilt. The film betrays its own less-is-more philosophy and becomes weighed down by exposition — but it’s a tense, thrilling ride nonetheless.The DjinnRated R for graphic violence. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play 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

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      ‘Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm’ Review: Rockers Ripping It Up

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      A documentary explores the Welsh farm-turned-studio, Rockfield, where Black Sabbath, the Stone Roses and others made music.Rockers endeavoring to “get their heads together in the country” has been one of the great clichés of popular music since the late-1960s. As “Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm,” an agreeable new documentary directed by Hannah Berryman, amply testifies, “the country” was just as likely a place for rockers to lose their heads.As recounted by the brothers Kingsley Ward and Charles Ward, their parents’ large pig and dairy farm in Wales was a dodgy inheritance. “No money in farming,” one of them shrugs. Avid rock fans since the mid-50s, they made music together on reel-to-reel tape and drove north to try to sell it; their first stop was a record pressing plant. (They got a “label” address off the back of an LP.)Various farm buildings had attractive acoustic qualities, so the Wards started cleaning them up and sealing them off, building a residential studio. Black Sabbath rehearsed there; the space-rockers Hawkwind recorded there. After leaving Led Zeppelin, the singer Robert Plant found at Rockfield a place to experiment, an environment where he was “free to fail.”The tales become more picaresque as New Wave and Britpop bands begin checking in and behaving like New Wave and Britpop bands. Simple Minds sing backup vocals for an intermittently sober Iggy Pop, and so on. The studio’s biggest upturn comes when the Stone Roses stay for over a year. And then there’s Oasis. Its former lead singer, Liam Gallagher, recalls the fights with his bandleader brother, Noel (of course he does), and rushing to the village pub.This stuff is best appreciated by rock mavens. Many of the other bands telling their stories (including the Boo Radleys and the Charlatans) didn’t have much of an impact in the States, so Anglophilia helps, too.Rockfield: The Studio on the FarmNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas. More

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      ‘La Piscine’ Review: Pretty, Rich People Behaving Poorly

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      Alain Delon, Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin are among the reasons this restoration of a French thriller is worth watching.“La Piscine,” made in 1969, is best known in the United States for its remake, Luca Guadagnino’s frisky, borderline frivolous 2016 “A Bigger Splash.” The release of a pristine restoration of the original, directed by Jacques Deray and starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet and Jane Birkin, should bolster this striking movie’s reputation.Schneider and Delon play Marianne and Jean-Paul, a French couple vacationing in a roomy St. Tropez villa whose swimming pool — the “Piscine” of the title — is one of its eminent attractions. They sunbathe, splash and chase one another around the pool as if they were a brand-new couple. As it happens, they’ve been together for two years. The casual nudity and intimations of S-and-M in their relationship suggest an erotic thriller in the early days of its liberation from censorship norms.But as a thriller, it’s a very slow burn. Into the couple’s idyll drops Harry (Ronet), an old friend of Jean-Paul’s and an erstwhile lover of Marianne’s. A wealthy purveyor of pop music, he pulls up to the villa in a snarling Maserati with a surprise in tow: his teenage daughter Penelope, incarnated by the willowy, whispery Birkin.Almost 10 years after his landmark roles as Tom Ripley in “Purple Noon” and Rocco in “Rocco and His Brothers,” both in 1961, Delon still retained every iota of his ultra-sultriness. In dramatic roles, the actor, his sexy sleekness notwithstanding, tends toward a solemnity, and that suits him well here. Jean-Paul, a failed writer who’s now an ad executive, is a sullen puzzle with a hint of menace.Schneider and Birkin do well as independent-minded women who are nevertheless played as pawns by the males. But Ronet almost walks away with the picture. Harry’s big grin is offset by a barely visible raised eyebrow of derision, and his passive-aggressive manipulation of Jean-Paul is chilling.Pretty people behaving poorly in beautiful settings is something we don’t see as much of in cinema as we used to. This is a master class in the subgenre, and one of unusual depth. (Deray worked on the script with the prolific Jean-Claude Carrière, who recently died). In the movie’s last third, Jean-Paul shows a shocking sadism. Once Jean-Paul and Marianne are exiled from their metaphorical Eden, they remain fully clothed for the rest of the picture, and the movie’s color palette becomes more autumnal. Nifty nuances such as these make “La Piscine” a film experience both pleasurable and discomfiting.La PiscineNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes. At Film Forum in New York. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

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      ‘The Perfect Candidate’ Review: Paving the Way

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      Haifaa Al-Mansour crafts a story that’s part family drama and part parable of female activism, set in Saudi Arabia.Women in Saudi Arabia were granted the right to drive in 2018. In “The Perfect Candidate,” a film made in 2019 that is only now being released here, Maryam (Mila Al Zahrani), a physician in a small town, is seen driving purposefully to destinations that include an airport. At that airport, she is refused permission to board a plane because her travel permit has expired. Said permit needs the approval of a guardian for renewal.That’s correct. Maryam — who is an expert diagnostician and deft surgeon, an excellent driver and a fully grown adult — can’t get on an airplane without her father’s permission.As it happens, Maryam still lives with that father, as do her sisters: Selma (Dae Al Hilali), a wedding videographer, and Sara (Nora Al Awad), a teenager who seems like more of a traditionalist than her older siblings.The father, Abdulaziz (Khalid Abdulraheem), an oud player and recent widower, is a relatively liberal patriarch, which stands to reason: His wife, the girls’ mother, was also a musician, something frowned upon in substantial segments of their culture.Maryam’s decision to run for a position in municipal government is a pragmatic move: She wants to have a proper road built to her clinic. The current dirt road is often inaccessible because of flooding. Her candidacy fosters scandal as Maryam learns the ins and outs of social media campaigning and public speaking.Story developments that would seem pat in a Western-made film are treated as miraculous here. But “The Perfect Candidate,” co-written and directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour (“Wadjda,” “Nappily Ever After”), is as much a family drama as it is a parable of feminist activism — and is all the better for it. The movie’s lived-in acting and unhurried pace make it a better-than-palatable viewing experience.The Perfect CandidateNot rated. In Arabic, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

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      ‘High Ground’ Review: Two Worlds Collide in the Outback

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      Directed by Stephen Johnson, this western set in Australia doesn’t follow the expected narrative.This outback western, set in Australia’s Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, begins in 1919, depicting a brutal massacre of a group of Indigenous people known as Yolngu. Above the killing fray is a rifleman named Travis (Simon Baker), a member of the party of white people encroaching on the land. The group below has gone against the mission — Travis was supposed to be the only member of the party authorized to shoot — so he descends from his defensive position and tries to save the Yolngu. One surviving Indigenous witness is a young boy named Gutjuk (Jacob Junior Nayinggul).Directed by Stephen Johnson from a script by Chris Anastassiades, “High Ground” is not the narrative of Black suffering and a white savior that its opening might suggest. Rather, it’s a story of two characters from different worlds coming to terms with their circumstances.Several years after the massacre, Travis is enlisted by the military to track down an Indigenous warrior, Baywara, who’s organizing attacks against whites at train stations and other locales. As it happens, the boy he rescued years before is Baywara’s nephew. Originally named Gutjuk, he has been adopted by Christian missionaries and assigned a new name. He’s played beautifully by Nayinggul, whose sensitive, alert and tensed-up performance is a substantial reason to give this movie the benefit of the doubt.Travis enlists the teenager as a tracker in his hunt, and promises he’ll do whatever he can to bring Baywara in alive. And he teaches Gutjuk to shoot, from the “high ground” of the film’s title.Civilization, one of Travis’s military commanders tells him, consists of “bad men doing bad things, clearing the way for those who follow.” Travis has his own reckoning with those bad things. And his charge, Gutjuk, has his own reckoning with identity, discarding his Westernized name almost as soon as he starts riding with Travis. While not as powerful as the 1978 Australian picture “The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith,” this movie makes a solid case as both a statement and an action picture.High GroundNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘There Is No Evil’ Review: Condemned, One Way or Another

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      “There Is No Evil,” which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival last year, is one of the most kinetic films ever made in secret.Because “There Is No Evil” has landed in international headlines — the director, Mohammad Rasoulof, made the movie covertly and without the approval of Iranian authorities, and a ban on his leaving the country prevented him from accepting the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival in person last year — revealing what it’s about seems fair. But the film is constructed to surprise you.The first of four episodes follows a father (Ehsan Mirhosseini) going about daily tasks. He picks up his wife and daughter. They run errands and go out for pizza. He checks his mother’s blood pressure. Then he awakes at 3 a.m. and heads to work. For some reason, he hesitates when a traffic light turns green. He is an executioner, and at his job, a green light tells him to release the gallows floor.All four episodes involve people pressed into carrying out official executions in Iran. While the stories do not carry over, the themes do. In the third segment, Javad (Mohammad Valizadegan), a soldier, has committed a killing to secure a three-day leave, making a decision that Pouya (Kaveh Ahangar), also a soldier, faces in the second episode. The fourth chapter examines how the choice to act or not reverberates for years.If some twists initially seem facile, the stories deepen with reflection on the characters’ motivations at each moment. This is one of the most kinetic films ever made surreptitiously; the long takes, particularly one in which Pouya retrieves a condemned man, then crumples, are breathtaking. And to make a movie that ponders the moral rot of an unjust system while under the gun of that unjust system is courageous and artistically potent.There Is No EvilNot rated. In Persian and German, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 31 minutes. In theaters and on virtual cinemas. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More