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      Billie Holiday Biopic Wins Big at 2021 Movies for Grownups Awards

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      ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’ directed by Lee Daniels and fronted by Andra Day has scored the top prize at the AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups Awards.

      Mar 5, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Lee Daniels’ “The United States Vs. Billie Holiday” has been crowned Best Picture at the AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups Awards.
      The biopic, starring Golden Globe winner Andra Day as the jazz icon, claimed the top honour at the annual event while Sophia Loren was named Best Actress for “The Life Ahead” and Anthony Hopkins took home Best Actor for “The Father”.
      Supporting awards went to Jodie Foster (“The Mauritanian”) and Demian Bichir (“Land”).
      “The Trial of the Chicago 7”, which headed into the ceremony with six nominations, was the only film to emerge with two accolades – Best Director and Best Screenwriter for Aaron Sorkin – while Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods”, which also had six nods, landed just one prize, for Best Buddy Picture, and Regina King’s feature film directorial debut, “One Night in Miami…”, earned the Best Ensemble title.

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      Awards season favourites “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Nomadland” were among the nominees shut out at the Movies for Grownups Awards, which celebrates releases suitable for the 50 and over audience, although “Minari” won Best Intergenerational and “Mank” landed Best Time Capsule.
      For the first time in the ceremony’s history, event officials also celebrated TV and streaming projects, with “This Is Us” claiming Best Series and “The Queen’s Gambit” scoring Best TV Movie/Limited Series.
      Following up on the show’s Golden Globe wins, “Schitt’s Creek” star Catherine O’Hara won Best Actress (TV/Streaming) while Mark Ruffalo landed Best Actor (TV/Streaming) for “I Know This Much Is True”.
      The winners will be feted during a virtual ceremony on 28 March (21) when George Clooney will receive the Career Achievement honour.

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      ‘Lost Course’ Review: When a Village Fights Back

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Pick‘Lost Course’ Review: When a Village Fights BackA 2011 revolt in Wukan, China, is the subject of a sobering, sprawling documentary.A protest in the documentary “Lost Course.”Credit… Icarus FilmMarch 4, 2021, 12:39 p.m. ETLost CourseNYT Critic’s PickDirected by Jill LiDocumentary2h 59mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“Lost Course” uses a local uprising that made international headlines to pose broader questions about the feasibility of democratic and anticorruption reforms in China. This sobering, sprawling documentary — the first feature from Jill Li, who took the time to follow her subjects over several years — splits its three hours into before-and-after categories.Part 1 deals with the revolt that occurred in Wukan, China, in 2011, in response to what residents said was village leaders’ improper sale of communal land. Anger only grows after a prominent member of the movement, called Bo in the subtitles and Xue Jinbo in news accounts, dies in police custody. But this section ends on an optimistic note: Lin Zuluan, a reformer who has recognized the importance of having village representatives elected through a true democratic process, wins the top position on the village committee, with like-minded activists as deputies.[embedded content]But less than a year later, in Part 2, Lin is subject to uproar himself. Although he says it will take at least three to five years to solve the land issue, he and the other committee members stand accused of corruption or cowardice. (“I don’t recognize myself anymore,” Lin admits at one point.) Other key protesters grow disillusioned, and one flees to the United States. At the end, he protests at a location that makes for a mordant punchline.Broadly adhering to a vérité style, Li builds a case that active civic engagement in China inevitably leads to trouble — or else further corruption. Late in the film, a once-admirable figure is asked about a rumor that he was involved with a contractor who offered bribes. “I cannot and should not refute these accusations,” he replies. Rather, it’s up to others to investigate.Lost CourseNot rated. In Mandarin and English, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 59 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘F.T.A.’: When Jane Fonda Rocked the U.S. Army

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyRewind‘F.T.A.’: When Jane Fonda Rocked the U.S. ArmyA newly exhumed documentary delves into the actress’s anti-Vietnam vaudeville tour of American military bases in 1972.Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda in the 1972 documentary “F.T.A.,” which stood for something ruder than Free the Army.Credit…Kino LorberMarch 4, 2021, 11:52 a.m. ET“F.T.A.,” an agitprop rockumentary that ran for a week in July 1972, reappears as an exhumed relic, recording the joyfully scurrilous anti-Vietnam War vaudeville led by Jane Fonda that toured the towns outside American military bases in Hawaii, the Philippines and Japan.The movie, directed by Francine Parker, who produced it along with Fonda and Donald Sutherland, opened the same day that Fonda’s trip to North Vietnam made news. The film, greeted with outrage and consigned to oblivion, has been restored by IndieCollect, and is enjoying a belated second (virtual) run.The F.T.A. show was conceived as an alternative to Bob Hope’s gung-ho, blithely sexist U.S.O. tours; its initials stood for something ruder than “Free the Army.” The skits, evocative of the guerrilla street theater, ridiculed generals, mocked male chauvinism and celebrated insubordination. The show was hardly subtle, but, as documented in the movie, opinions expressed by various servicemen were no less blunt.In interviews, Black marines characterized Vietnam as “a racist and genocidal war of aggression” and even white soldiers criticized the “imperialistic American government.” Half a century after it appeared, “F.T.A.” is a reminder of how deeply unpopular the Vietnam War was and how important disillusioned GIs were to the antiwar movement. “I was ‘silent majority’ until tonight,” one tells the camera after a performance.Fonda may be the designated spokeswoman, but the show was largely devoid of star-ism. A shaggy-looking Sutherland, who had recently appeared with her in “Klute,” gets at least as much screen time. Two relative unknowns, the singer Rita Martinson and the poet (and proto-rapper) Pamela Donegan, have memorable solos performing their own material.The hardest working individual was the Greenwich Village folk singer and civil rights activist Len Chandler, who assumed the Pete Seeger role of prompting the audience to sing along with compositions like “My Ass is Mine” and “I Will Not Bow Down to Genocide.” A younger folkie, Holly Near, was also on hand, hamming along with Fonda in a parody of “Carolina Morning” that began, “Nothing could be finer than to be in Indochina …”Context is crucial. Vivian Gornick, who covered the tour for the Village Voice, reported that “the F.T.A. was surrounded, wherever it went, by agents of the C.I.D., the O.S.I., the C.I.A., the local police.” After military authorities became frightened, “‘riot conditions’ were declared.” Indeed, “F.T.A.” documents antiwar demonstrations staged by civilians in Okinawa and at Subic Bay in the Philippines. The latter was singled out in the New York Times critic Roger Greenspun’s review as the movie’s high point.Greenspun thought “F.T.A.” failed to capture the spirit of the stage shows. Perhaps, but however chaotic and self-righteous, the movie is a genuine, powerful and even stirring expression of the antipathy engendered by a war that — as the author Thomas Powers recently wrote — “refused to be won, or lost, or understood” and scarred the psyches of those who lived through it.F.T.A.Opens in virtual cinemas through Kino Marquee starting March 5.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Review: Fool Me Once

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Review: Fool Me OnceA new Disney princess from Southeast Asia battles factionalism and her own trust issues.A scene from “Raya and the Last Dragon.”Credit…DisneyMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETRaya and the Last DragonDirected by Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Paul Briggs, John RipaAnimation, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, FantasyPG1h 54mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Disney’s newest princess, Raya, has some serious trust issues.Not long after she follows her dad’s lead when he extends an olive branch to the fellow leaders of the other kingdoms that once comprised Kumandra — an ancient utopia of cross-cultural unity — she’s betrayed by a new friend, Namaari (Gemma Chan).Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) had giddily offered to give her pal — a fellow warrior princess with whom she’d bonded over swords and curry — a peek at the dragon gem that’s causing all the grown-ups to act out. Unfortunately for Raya, Namaari’s chumminess is part of a ruse to get that precious rock: in this factionalized, dog-eat-dog world, even the kids are con artists.Turns out the stone is the only thing standing between humanity and the Druun, a “mindless plague” that turns people into terra-cotta statues. This shapeless, electric-purple evil is unleashed when the gem shatters, throwing the planet into the Dark Ages.Six years later, Raya is a young woman and a solo adventurer zooming around a desert wasteland on her trusty pill-bug-armadillo. Her moment of past weakness haunts her — figuratively and literally, with a pugilistic Namaari always on her tail.Faith in the goodness of other people — even those from distant lands and of different persuasions — is the governing theme of “Raya and the Last Dragon,” which the directors Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, and the screenwriters Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim, set in a fantasyland version of Southeast Asia complete with floating markets, water taxis and lots of shrimp congee.In typical Disney-princess fashion, our brooding heroine acquires a joke-slinging sidekick in nonhuman form: Sisu (Awkwafina), the titular last dragon, who (like Mushu in “Mulan” before her) isn’t a menacing behemoth so much as a klutzy, shape-shifting My Little Pony-like creature.Raya and company traverse multiple lands to collect the scattered pieces of the stone, giving the creators an excuse to indulge in expansive world-building, while snappy editing and rousingly choreographed action scenes animate these settings with comic strip panache. The animators don’t stray far from the overall style of recent Disney fare like “Frozen” or “Moana,” though the film’s meticulously detailed environments — rainforest shrines teeming with visible moisture, snowy mountain fortresses shrouded in fog — are particularly impressive.The Disney treatment, like the Druun itself, seems to neutralize whatever it touches, no matter how hard it works to preserve the distinctive elements of the non-Western cultures it has brought under its label, especially recently. Is Disney paying tribute to these cultures? Or are these cultures instruments of corporate strategy? Places as different as Mexico (“Coco”), the Polynesian Islands (“Moana”) and now Southeast Asia are flattened along the Disney continuum, with each feeling like one in a collection.In any case, the gender politics of the recent live-action “Mulan,” which some found to be retrograde, puts “Raya” in perspective: There’s no doubting our heroine’s abilities, nor is there mention of her being exceptional. “Disney princess” may eventually just become another word for “superhero,” but at least she won’t need saving.And here, the most meaningful and transformative relationships are between women, er, feminine beings. Raya and Namari must learn to trust each other despite the history of betrayal — and between them there’s maybe, just maybe even the faintest hints of sexual tension. Then there’s Sisu, whose unwavering faith in humanity will leave its mark on both ladies. The unity rhetoric feels awfully trite, but it also teaches forgiveness: a worthy lesson for the kids.Raya and the Last DragonRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. In theaters and on Disney+. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Keep an Eye Out’ Review: A Crime Procedural That Goes Off the Rails

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Keep an Eye Out’ Review: A Crime Procedural That Goes Off the RailsQuentin Dupieux takes a simple police report and twists it into a meta black comedy.Marc Fraize in “Keep an Eye Out.”Credit…Quentin Dupieux/DekanalogMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETKeep an Eye OutDirected by Quentin DupieuxComedyNot Rated1h 13mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.A man finds a dead body outside his apartment and reports it to the police. What should be, in any other circumstance, probably a lot of boring paperwork, turns into a twisty, farcical procedural once it breaks the facade of banality. The first clue that the story will go completely off the rails is that it was directed by Quentin Dupieux, the French electronic musician (Mr. Oizo) turned absurdist filmmaker (“Rubber,” “Deerskin”). The second clue? Well, maybe the fact that the movie begins with an event — the arrest of a nearly nude orchestra conductor — that has nothing to do with the rest of the story.“Keep an Eye Out” mostly takes place inside an outdated-looking police station with a yellowed atmosphere, overhead lighting and beige furniture. There, the man, whose name is Fugain (Grégoire Ludig), is relaying the discovery of the corpse to the self-serious but incompetent Chief Inspector Buron (Benoît Poelvoorde) — a huge mistake, as his narrative draws the finger-pointing his way, making him the prime murder suspect.[embedded content]
      While staying true to Dupieux’s brand of illogic, this film is also his most linguistically semantic. The two men Ping-Pong their thoughts about idioms (like how you can’t get a breath of “fresh air” in a city). Even the film’s title is wordplay, as it relates to Buron’s one-eyed colleague (Marc Fraize) keeping said peeper on Fugain before a fatal freak accident takes it out altogether.Fugain, now erroneously tied to two dead bodies, sweats to keep the evidence hidden while his flashbacks and the present meld more and more abstractly together until the entire concept of reality is questioned. Dupieux pulls off this bizarre procedural in a lean running time while hitting the notes of darkness and drollery just right.Keep an Eye OutNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 13 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.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Truth or Consequences’ Review: Ghost Town at the End of the World

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Truth or Consequences’ Review: Ghost Town at the End of the WorldHannah Jayanti’s “speculative documentary” about the New Mexico town is both haunted and haunting.A scene from “Truth or Consequences,” directed by Hannah Jayanti.Credit…Sentient.Art.FilmMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETTruth or ConsequencesDirected by Hannah JayantiDocumentary1h 42mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.You don’t need to be told that the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, has an evocative name. And indeed, it’s been used as a title before, albeit for an entirely inconsequential film. This disquieting movie, called a “speculative documentary” by its director, Hannah Jayanti, has more weight.Jayanti’s camera takes in the plain, sun-drenched streets, mountains in the background; the place looks like a ghost town. Prowling through a labyrinth of broken, castaway electronics and other such junk, Jayanti places a virtual-reality filter over the imagery that adds an eerier quality to already unusual sights. Eventually she shows the viewer a sort of retro-futuristic structure called Spaceport America.[embedded content]Here’s where the “speculative” part comes in. While the spaceport site is a real locale, this movie situates it in a time when it’s been acknowledged that Earth is dying, and people are leaving it. Now the spaceport is moving the population out — the population that can afford to depart.For those who can’t, well, Jayanti threads the real-life stories of this town’s inhabitants through the impressionistic narrative. Yvonne, an older woman, tells stories of a childhood and early adulthood full of abuse. A male resident named George discusses his collection of rocks, many of which look like marbles. And Katie, a younger woman, discusses an estrangement from her family. They all allude to how they came to Truth or Consequences, and why they are staying.These tales of real life are sometime terribly sad. And the tales are given further resonance by the strangeness of the place, and by a reflective electric-guitar score by Bill Frisell. The realization that Jayanti is using these things to buttress a fiction — albeit a fiction that could perhaps become true in the blink of an eye — is disquieting in a way the filmmaker might not have intended.Truth or ConsequencesNot Rated. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Boogie’ Review: There’s No Laughing in Basketball

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Boogie’ Review: There’s No Laughing in BasketballHoop dreams intertwine with Chinese-American identity in this coming-of-age drama from Eddie Huang.Taylor Takahashi, left, and Bashar “Pop Smoke” Jackson in “Boogie.”Credit…David Giesbrecht/Focus FeaturesMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETBoogieDirected by Eddie HuangDramaR1h 29mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Basketball is no laughing matter in the coming-of-age drama “Boogie.” Boogie Chin (Taylor Takahashi) is a basketball prodigy playing on his New York City high school’s mediocre team. His dream is to play in the N.B.A., but uncertainty over his college prospects makes Boogie’s future a constant subject of negotiation at home. Boogie’s mother wants security, and his father wants to keep dreaming. Boogie wants to prove himself to anyone who thinks he’s not worth the investment.[embedded content]As the family prepares for Boogie’s showdown with a local basketball star, Monk (Bashar “Pop Smoke” Jackson, in his first and last film role), Boogie considers his future and what it means to be a Chinese-American man.“Boogie” makes for a confident feature debut from the writer and director Eddie Huang, who is best known for creating the sitcom “Fresh Off The Boat.” But “Boogie” bears little resemblance to that earlier broad comedy. Boogie takes himself and his basketball ambitions seriously. And, taking cues from its protagonist, the movie doesn’t play around with cinematic craft or technique either.The images in this film don’t haunt or linger in the imagination, but Huang makes an effort to keep them fresh. The film is full of rich colors, soft lighting and visually balanced frames. The characters flex in color-blocked jerseys and glittering chains, and the basketball games are well-choreographed.The movie’s seriousness does have its drawbacks. There is a sense of posturing toughness to Boogie as a character that the movie also displays. And while it gives Boogie space to be introspective about his identity, it is less considered when it comes to its Black characters. It’s a competent movie, but it doesn’t quite make it to the big leagues.BoogieRated R for language and sexual references. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run’ Review: Still Square

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run’ Review: Still SquareThis new franchise installment, “Sponge on the Run,” wants to be clever in nodding toward genre conventions. But its execution is poor.SpongeBob (voiced by Tom Kenny) in “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.”Credit…Paramount AnimationMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETThe SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the RunDirected by Tim HillAnimation, Adventure, Comedy, FamilyPG1h 31mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.I’m no stranger to Bikini Bottom. I may not have a pineapple home there, but I know the residents and local spots. Though after my unfortunate recent visit, for “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run,” I’m packing up my swim trunks and heading elsewhere.In “Sponge on the Run,” directed by Tim Hill, our favorite undersea fry cook must journey with his best friend, Patrick, to rescue SpongeBob’s pet snail, Gary, who has been snail-napped by King Poseidon. They’re headed to the Lost City of Atlantic City, a “scary, vice-ridden cesspool of moral depravity” (sorry, Jersey, you didn’t hear it from me).[embedded content]“Sponge on the Run” wants to be clever in nodding toward genre conventions: Patrick suggests they’re on a buddy adventure while SpongeBob thinks he’s on a singular hero’s journey. It’s both — and both executed poorly. With the internet’s boyfriend, Keanu Reeves, using his celebrity clout to no avail as SpongeBob and Patrick’s spiritual guide, the duo pass through a Western saloon-style underworld inhabited by cowboy-pirate-zombies dancing to Snoop Dogg. If that last sentence confounded you, let me just say that’s only one of the inane and illogical narrative turns in this stubbornly unfunny film. But that Snoop song? A jam. With Weezer covers and a reggaeton-style remix of the show’s theme, the movie at least knows how to drop a beat.The rest is studded with references to the first (and vastly superior) SpongeBob film, from 2004, and chokes up its third act with an endless, overly sentimental lovefest. All this rendered in C.G.I. animation so nauseatingly garish and artificial it’s like inserting LED lights directly into your eyeballs. “Sponge on the Run” may take us back under the sea, but this sponge is all dried up.The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the RunRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters and on Paramount+. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More