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      ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ Is a Throwback Amid Summer Blockbusters

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      Directed by Greg Berlanti, the film amounts to a Hollywood experiment: Is there still room at the multiplexes for original movies aimed at grown-ups.“Fly Me to the Moon” is the kind of movie that isn’t supposed to succeed in theaters anymore, at least if you listen to franchise-obsessed studio executives.The story is a period piece and completely original: In 1968, a government operative (Woody Harrelson) hires a marketing virtuoso (Scarlett Johansson) to convince the public — and Congress — that a troubled NASA can pull off its scheduled Apollo 11 moon landing. Stylish and devious, she clashes with the rigid launch director (Channing Tatum) and secretly — as a backup, to be used only in an emergency — arranges for a fake landing to be filmed on a soundstage. What’s the harm?Hollywood marketers will tell you that ticket buyers eschew movies that mash together genres. And “Fly Me to the Moon” is part drama, part comedic caper, part romance, part fiction and part true story. Particularly in the summer, studios prefer to serve up mindless popcorn movies aimed at teenagers. “Fly Me to the Moon” is entertainment for thinking adults, the kind that Mike Nichols (“Working Girl”) and James L. Brooks (“Broadcast News”) made in the 1980s.So the question must be asked: How on earth did “Fly Me to the Moon” manage to score a wide release in theaters at the height of blockbuster season? The film rolls into 3,300 theaters in the United States and Canada on Friday.Shouldn’t it be going straight to streaming?In many ways, the film’s unexpected journey to multiplexes reflects the degree to which Hollywood runs on the vagaries of chance. “Fly Me to the Moon” started out as a streaming movie — full stop. Apple TV+ paid an estimated $100 million for the project in March 2022, and the contract called for no theatrical release of any kind.But then Greg Berlanti got involved.It was June 2022, and Mr. Berlanti, the wunderkind television producer, had just turned 50. That milestone prompted a degree of uncomfortable self-reflection, compounded by his mother’s recent death. At the same time, the entertainment business was changing — the streaming-driven “peak TV” era was winding down — and Mr. Berlanti wasn’t entirely sure where to focus his professional attention.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Summer Horror Movies to Send a Chill Down Your Spine

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      At the drive-in, under the stars or in your living room, there are plenty of frights to be had before fall arrives.Horror movies can be great summertime escapes because, unlike soaring temperatures and global political upheaval, their terrors are temporary and, at least for fans of the genre, a ton of fun.Here’s a look at new movies and beloved classics that will (metaphorically) scare your pants off in theaters, at home and under the stars this summer.Fresh HellsWhether it’s date night or a solo Summer Friday afternoon, movie theaters are chockablock with new scares. They include “MaXXXine,” the final entry in a slasher trilogy starring Mia Goth; “A Quiet Place: Day One,” a prequel to the hit franchise about bloodthirsty creatures with really good hearing; and “The Exorcism,” a supernatural drama starring Russell Crowe as an actor who unravels playing the role of an exorcist.For fans of oddball indie horror, there’s “In a Violent Nature,” an extravagantly gory, genre-smashing slasher film; “I Saw the TV Glow,” a darkly atmospheric meditation on youth and isolation; and “The Devil’s Bath,” a folk-horror psychodrama set in the 18th century.Classic FrightsWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Twice Colonized’ Review: Untangling the Personal and Political

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      This documentary follows a renowned Inuit activist over seven years, making sense of the ways in which racism and impoverishment can abrade one’s sense of self.The charismatic Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter is no stranger to cinema. Some viewers will know her from films like “Arctic Defenders” (2013), about Inuit activists’ struggle for self-government, and “Angry Inuk” (2016), which follows an Inuit campaign to allow seal hunting. Peter returns to the screen in “Twice Colonized,” but this time, the focus is not on her fight against colonialist policies. It’s on Peter’s fight with herself — with all the wounds that colonization has inflicted on her life and her soul.Peter grew up in Greenland, a Danish territory, in the 1960s and, as was common with high-performing young students, was shipped off to high school in Denmark. Later in life, she moved to the Canadian Arctic. In “Twice Colonized,” which follows Peter closely across seven years, she contends with her life under Danish and then Canadian colonialism, and the corrosive separations from her language, culture and family that assimilation required. Both she and the director, Lin Alluna, take on a difficult task: untangling the personal and the political, making sense of the ways in which racism and impoverishment can abrade one’s sense of self.Much like its heroine, “Twice Colonized” is a storm of emotion and conviction. Peter is tortured and vulnerable as she mourns her son’s death by suicide and struggles to break up with her abusive partner; she is also joyful and strong as she communes with other Indigenous people on her travels and speaks forcefully about Inuit rights on global platforms.The film seems to writhe alongside her, with shaky camerawork, jagged cuts and a haunting soundtrack full of breathy chants. If it can feel haphazard and narratively unsatisfying at times, it’s also thrilling in the way it matches Peter’s rhythms, refusing to sand down her defiant complexity.Twice ColonizedNot rated. In Danish, English, Greenlandic and Inuktitut, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. Available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      ‘Touch’ Review: An Old-School Tear-Jerker, With a Twist

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      An Icelandic widower revisits London, the site of his first romance, in this film from Baltasar Kormakur.“Touch,” a globe-trotting romance from Iceland, is an epic, old-fashioned weepie in the vein of “Atonement” and “The Notebook” — it’s mushy and ridiculous, then, suddenly, you’re in the throes of an ugly cry.Based on the novel by Olafur Johann Olafsson, the film straddles two timelines — 2020, at the very outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Swinging Sixties London — and plays out, at first, like a mystery. Kristofer (Egill Olafsson), an ex-restaurateur and widower, is diagnosed with dementia and spurred into action before the disease might incapacitate him: He books a flight from Reykjavik to London, unfazed by the imminent lockdown. He’s the only guest at his London hotel, his flights are near-empty, and his anxious daughter keeps calling, urging him to get back home.As Kristofer revisits his old stamping grounds — he was a student in London — the source of his longing becomes clear. In the earlier timeline, a young Kristofer (Palmi Kormakur), a devoted leftist, abandons his studies and takes a dishwashing job at a Japanese restaurant. The rest of the staff is Japanese, but the restaurant owner, Takahashi-san (Masahiro Motoki), takes a liking to this Icelandic gentle giant, whose passion for Japanese culture is convincing. (Plus, there’s a humorous parallel between Iceland and Japan — the love of fish!) The trope of the white guy with an Asian fetish certainly comes to mind, but Kormakur’s soft-spoken charisma wards off this pigeonholing, creating space for the Japanese characters to become three-dimensional as they tease Kristofer out of his shell.Then there’s the girl: Miko (Koki), Takahashi-san’s daughter, with whom Kristofer is smitten. The film tracks the twists and turns of their friendship, which unfold tragically when Miko’s origins — she’s a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing — come to light.Directed by Baltasar Kormakur, the father of Palmi, a veteran filmmaker with big-budget Hollywood credits (“Beast,” “Adrift,” “2 Guns”), “Touch” rekindles a treacly genre that I didn’t realize I missed. Its tender performances and gut-punch reveals are classic tear-jerker ingredients. Add to this a natural, inordinately sensitive approach to intercultural love — mercifully, without a sense of righteousness or obligation.TouchRated R for sex, references to abortion and images of atomic bomb casualties. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. In theaters. More

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      ‘Sorry/Not Sorry’ Review: Does Louis C.K. Get the Last Laugh?

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      Cara Mones and Caroline Suh’s earnest and frustrating documentary, produced by The New York Times, has a bitter punchline.In the fall of 2017, The New York Times published sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K., one month apart. Both men were powerhouse producers whose misdeeds were an open secret within the entertainment world, and both articles have been given their own film: Maria Schrader’s “She Said,” a chronicle of shoe-leather journalism, and now Cara Mones and Caroline Suh’s “Sorry/Not Sorry” (produced by The New York Times), an earnest and frustrating documentary whose murky irreconcilabilities are tethered to the fact that Louis C.K. was convicted only in the court of public opinion.While the interview subjects agree on Louis C.K.’s guilt (he released a statement in 2017 admitting to sexual misconduct), the dramatic conflict arises in his penalty. After his status as a revered truth teller was revoked and his show “Louie” was pulled from streaming, Louis C.K has since rebranded as a renegade (and won a Grammy). Depending on the talking head, his moderate marginalization is either excessive punishment or an unearned pardon.The film pokes at this ethical morass from a few angles, most confidently when speaking with the comedians who risked their own careers breaking the industry’s silence (or obliviousness, as some performers here claim).These talented women — Jen Kirkman, Abby Schachner and Megan Koester — tell their stories with charm and humor over a mischievous, overkill score that would be better suited to an outright comedy about a dowager poisoning her rival’s plum tart. The three are far more insightful, hilarious and honest about sexual politics than the Louis C.K. of today, who continues to dole out defensive shtick to his die-hards. But the film’s bitter punchline is that he’s the one still selling out Madison Square Garden.Sorry/Not SorryNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ Review: This NASA Rom-Com Stays Earthbound

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      Greg Berlanti’s movie, starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum as only mildly mismatched lovers, is set against the backdrop of the Apollo 11 landing.Speaking of the American moon landing of 1969, which he watched on television, Vladimir Nabokov rhapsodized in an interview, that, “treading the soil of the moon gives one, I imagine (or rather my projected self imagines) the most remarkable romantic thrill ever experienced in the history of discovery.”In “Fly Me To The Moon,” an occasionally engaging comedy set against the backdrop of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the romance is entirely earthbound.The director is Greg Berlanti, a veteran of swoony prime-time dramas like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Riverdale,” whose big-screen pictures include the ghastly 2010 rom-com “Life as We Know It” and the surprisingly (and effectively) earnest teenage coming-out comedy-drama “Love, Simon.” The script is by Rose Gilroy (she’s the daughter of the “Velvet Buzzsaw” auteur Dan Gilroy and the actress Rene Russo) from a story by Bill Kirstein and Keenan Flynn.But the movie lives and dies with its lead actors, Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. As lovers who are only mildly mismatched, they never seem to falter, no matter what potentially stupefying paces the movie puts them through.Johansson is Kelly Jones, or rather, “Kelly Jones,” a perky, persistent, charmingly dissembling advertising executive whose pitches are often as phony as her name. Her ignoble hidden past is one reason she accepts a pitch from a shady White House operative, Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson, slipping into comedic disreputability like he’s putting on a comfortable smoking jacket), who knows all about her and offers to make that past disappear if she successfully markets the Apollo 11 mission.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Dandelion’ Review: The Notes in Between

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      KiKi Layne stars as a struggling musician who meets a rakish Scottish singer (Thomas Doherty) while on the road.Nicole Riegel’s “Dandelion” is a lyrical film in a couple of senses. It’s about a pivotal stretch of time for a Midwestern musician named Dandelion (KiKi Layne), whose experiences will probably inform the lyrics she will write and sing. And it’s filmed in an artful way that tunes into her sensations and feelings — not just at moments of outright drama, but also the many notes in between.The movie begins in Cincinnati, where Dandelion has a standing gig at a cavernous hotel bar, playing background music for the gabby patrons. Then she goes home and works more, as the caretaker of her ailing mother, Jean (Melanie Nicholls-King).After they have an especially nasty argument, Dandelion drives off, all the way to an open-mic contest in South Dakota. There she meets a rakish Scottish singer, Casey (Thomas Doherty), who brings her into his circle of jamming friends and also flirts madly. (The song credits include Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National.)You may think you’ve heard this song before — two musicians tumble into love and duets — but maybe not quite like Riegel arranges it. Their time together — nature walks, motorcycle rides, cuddling — really does feel like time they spend together, rather than some perfectly staged romantic vision. Moments between them can be warm, silent, awkward or serene. Riegel and the cinematographer, Lauren Guiteras, use the camera like a vessel for Dandelion’s sense memories.The cleareyed movie also nails how one can initially overlook a lover’s deception. In the end, “Dandelion” feels like one artist’s emotional prequel, leaving us wishing for even more.DandelionRated R for sexuality, nudity and sharp language. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘The Convert’ Review: The British Are Coming

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      Guy Pearce plays a minister who arrives in New Zealand and finds his allegiances change in this antipodean western set in the 19th century.Near the start of “The Convert,” a minister named Thomas Munro (Guy Pearce) delivers a benediction aboard a ship. Some men, he says, would flinch if they knew just how vast the Earth is. “The Convert,” naturally, charts the course of Munro’s own education in the wide world. It is 1830, and he is on the Tasman Sea bound for New Zealand. The leaders of an emerging British town have paid for him to be brought there to run a church. But once he arrives and encounters the local Maori — and sees the murderous indifference with which the British treat them — his allegiances change.In a welcome twist, “The Convert,” directed by Lee Tamahori, does not patronizingly tell the story of a violent colonizer who begins to sympathize with an uncomplicated, passive Indigenous population. Much of the drama concerns conflict among the Maori themselves. That their dialogue is sometimes subtitled and sometimes not is indicative of the movie’s — and maybe the screenwriters’ — tentative perspective.Not long after first going ashore, Munro finds himself bargaining with Akatarewa (Lawrence Makoare), a violent chief, to save the life of a young woman, Rangimai (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne). Along with Charlotte (Jacqueline McKenzie), a white widow who previously lived among the Maori, Rangimai becomes one of Munro’s conduits to Maori customs, and eventually a key to his efforts to secure Indigenous unity against British encroachment.There is more plot — the framing of a grocer for a coldblooded killing; a perfunctory romance; a bloody climactic battle — but the real star of this Kiwi western is the setting. The lush forests and stark, black sand beaches, shot in locations near those used in “The Piano,” help make “The Convert” more than a message movie.The ConvertNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More