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      ‘Spirit Untamed’ Review: Horse Girls Unite

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      This spinoff of “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” is a bland, bubbly romp through the Wild West, with a heavy dose of girl power.Nearly two decades after “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” and its eponymous yellow mustang came on the scene, “Spirit Untamed” — a chirpy, digitally reupholstered spinoff — has arrived. While both are from DreamWorks Animation, the reboot has little in common with the 2002 original, which clung to hand-drawn visuals at a time when the pseudo-realistic computer animation of “Shrek,” also from DreamWorks, and Pixar movies like “Monsters, Inc.” began taking over. For better or worse, this new “Spirit” takes a modern approach.Instead of a heavy-handed, power-ballad-filled melodrama about a bronco and his saintly Native American comrade, “Spirit Untamed” is innocuously geared toward young (horse) girls everywhere. It uses the racially diverse characters from the Netflix series “Spirit Riding Free,” which debuted in 2017 and reintroduced the franchise, to deliver a coming-of-age tale with a predictably heavy dose of girl power.At the film’s center is the thrill-seeking Lucky Prescott (Isabela Merced), who is essentially banished from her stuffy East Coast abode and sent to spend the summer with her estranged father (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the frontier town of Miradero. Instantly drawn to a stallion she names Spirit, our American Girl-esque protagonist strives to earn the horse’s trust, simultaneously getting in touch with her Mexican roots and defying her dad, who remains scarred from her mother’s horse-riding-related death.Thankfully, Lucky (who also goes by her real, Spanish name, Fortuna) is not a loner. When brutish wranglers horse-nap members of Spirit’s herd, our heroine is joined by her intrepid gal pals on a perilous obstacle course-like rescue mission through the outback.The kiddies, I’m sure, will be satisfied. The film (directed by Elaine Bogan) is a bubbly, fast-paced romp through the Wild West, which is not to say it’s an improvement on the maudlin original. With its saucer-eyed, bobblehead-like characters, it’s a version barely distinguishable from the majority of animated children’s movies these days — more like Spirit domesticated.Spirit UntamedRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Undine’ Review: Love In and Out of the Water

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      Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, who made an impression in 2019’s “Transit,” are reunited by the director Christian Petzold for this adaptation of a European myth.At an outdoor table of a small cafe situated on the ground floor of an imposing brick building, two lovers are ending their affair. The woman of the pair, not happy with this development, bickers with the man about a voice mail message. When that thread is exhausted, she tells him matter-of-factly, “If you leave me, I’ll have to kill you.”Well, that escalated quickly. The woman, whose name is Undine — played with equal parts passion and calculation by Paula Beer — retains our sympathy even as she makes that unreasonable pronouncement. Because, as it happens, it’s not unreasonable. Undine is not mentally ill or morally reckless. What she’s talking about here is fate. With seemingly minimal means, the writer-director Christian Petzold makes the viewer understand this, mere minutes into the story, adapted from a European myth about a water sprite who can fall in love and become human, but who must suffer greatly if her lover is unfaithful.This modern-day Undine is, on land, a historian who instructs wealthy tourists on Berlin’s aesthetic and political schisms over the centuries. These sessions lead to sometimes tense exchanges: an evocation of “an architecture in keeping with national tradition,” for example, prompts the question, “Hadn’t the Nazis discredited nationalism?”But Petzold doesn’t hammer the potential for political parable or allegory here — which is a little surprising, given the lessons on modern German history he offers up in pictures such as “Phoenix.” Instead, this fractured not-quite-fairy-tale parcels out provocative instances of magical realism on arguably larger themes.After being ditched by her sniveling partner Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), Undine almost immediately retreats into the cafe, where she fixates on a small statue of a helmeted sea diver in a fish tank. The aquarium vibrates and soon explodes, knocking her to the floor with another man, Christoph (Franz Rogowski). They’re both drenched, and she’s a bit cut up by shards from the tank.This peculiar meet-cute is handled straightforwardly (the movie’s clean, economical production design, by Merlin Ortner, grounds the picture in this respect), as are the story’s other fantastic elements — including an ethereal catfish and a diving outing during which Undine mysteriously sheds her wet suit, flippers and oxygen tank.Undine’s new love — the kind, compassionate and knowing Christoph (he and Beer were also paired in Petzold’s prior film, “Transit”) — is himself a diver. Being near him makes Undine feel more at home, so to speak. But Christoph’s work, welding underwater turbines, is risky. Soon Undine is presented with a dilemma that forces her to confront a fate she had hoped her new happiness would help her avoid.Petzold’s cinematic storytelling style is elegant but unfussy, perfectly complemented by Hans Fromm’s cinematography and by the sparely used music, which includes the Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson’s dreamy interpretations of Bach and the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.” “Undine” is ultimately more enigmatic than most of Petzold’s work. It is also, like its title character, eerily beautiful. While it could well serve as a high-end date movie, it’s also something more.UndineNot rated. In German and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Amazon, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘Tove’ Review: The Life of a Sharp Illustrator in Soft Focus

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      This biopic examines the creator of the Moomins, Tove Jansson, but it skimps on artistic insight in favor of unsatisfying romances.The biopic “Tove” examines the early life of Tove Jansson, the queer artist who created the children’s fantasy series, the Moomins. The Moomins were a visually and narratively original concept, a gentle family of hippopotamus-shaped trolls who lived with their friends in a valley, where all pursued adventure and mischief. The series is by turns satirical, melancholic and fantastic, and the Moomins made Jansson a beloved literary figure. How disappointing then that “Tove” should be stuffy in style and rather incurious about how Jansson either developed or implemented her unique artistic sensibility.The biopic begins in Helsinki during World War, II when Jansson (Alma Poysti) was a young painter, struggling to win grant money and the approval of her sculptor father. Though her paintings receive little acknowledgment, her illustrations are noticed first by the leftist philosopher Atos Wirtanen (Shanti Roney), and then by the bourgeois theater director Vivica Bandler (Krista Kosonen), both of whom become involved in long-term affairs with Jansson. Most of the movie is a tug-of-war between the passion that Jansson feels for the unfaithful Vivica, and the comfort she receives from the reliable Atos.The romantic turmoil unfortunately leaves little screentime for illustration, painting, writing or the other artistic projects that Jansson pursued in her lifetime.The director, Zaida Bergroth, offers glimpses of Jansson at work, but shots of her sketchbooks pass in flashes, offering only a cursory acknowledgment that the drawing was done amid the flim-flam of half-hearted romances. The soft-focus cinematography is beautiful but drippy, and this general tendency toward mushy melodramatics presents an unflattering contrast to the sharp-lined vivacity that Jansson brought to the page.ToveNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Chasing Wonders’ Review: Divining Secrets of a Past Vintage

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      A young man tries to learn why his family left Spain for Australia in this picturesque drama with Edward James Olmos, Paz Vega and Carmen Maura.There’s a lot of beautiful scenery in “Chasing Wonders,” which stands to reason, as the movie was shot in winemaking regions of Europe and Australia. Directed by Paul Meins from a script by Judy Morris, the movie tells the story of a family of vintners who emigrated from Spain to Australia in the early part of this century, and of its youngest member, Savino, who as a teenager returns to Spain in search of answers about his past.“Tells the story” is putting it generously, as it happens. In spite of its tidy running time, “Chasing Wonders” is diffuse and often limp. At a birthday party for a preteen Savino, the boy receives the gift of a telescope, and on the enigmatic instructions of his grandfather (played by Edward James Olmos, who also reads a platitude-packed narration) embarks with a friend to up to higher rocky terrain, the better to survey the night sky. This sets off his protective, stifling father (Antonio de la Torre), and a fractious family struggle ensues. This drawn-out fight is one in which you just know that the long-untouched bottle of wine from the old vineyard in Spain is going to be opened somehow.Other members of the family include Paz Vega and Carmen Maura, both stalwarts of Spanish cinema, and they’re a pleasure to spend time with. (It’s also interesting that Savino as both boy and teenager is played by the same actor, Michael Crisafulli; the scenes in Spain were shot years after the Australian narrative was captured.)The daytime landscapes — sprawling vineyards, blue skies, impressive rock formations — provide unalloyed visual contentment. Some of the night skies appear digitally over-enhanced, although if they’re not, more power to the cinematographer, Denson Baker. The movie’s human element ultimately serves up not much more than triteness.Chasing WondersNot rated. Running time: 1 hour, 26 minutes. In English and in Spanish with subtitles. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘City of Ali’ Review: A Final Round for a Champ

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      This documentary makes for an extremely minor addition to the Muhammad Ali cinematic universe.Muhammad Ali is probably already the most dramatized and documentarized athlete in film history, and “City of Ali” makes for an extremely lightweight addition to the former heavyweight champion’s cinematic universe. This documentary, directed by Graham Shelby, focuses on Ali’s relationship with his hometown, Louisville, Ky., and how the city gave him a grand send-off after his death in 2016.Made with the participation of Ali’s family — some of his children are among the interviewees, as is his wife, Lonnie Ali (who is also shown giving a September 2020 speech about racial and social justice during the closing credits) — “City of Ali” presents an extremely basic overview of his career. It emphasizes Louisville-centered stories (of how the city police officer Joe Martin encouraged Ali, then Cassius Clay, to pursue boxing, for example) and shows residents and friends reminiscing about local sightings.The film movingly pays tribute to Ali’s generosity and lack of airs. Kelly Jones of the Louisville Metro Police recalls the time Ali entertained Jones’s 18-month-old daughter at an airport. The Louisville news media personality John Ramsey is shown delivering a eulogy in which he remembers how Ali raised the spirits of a losing boxer at the 2000 Olympics.But the nuances of Ali’s relationship with Louisville — where Ali faced discrimination as a Black American and controversy for his refusal to be drafted — tend to get lost in the celebration of civic pride. And much of “City of Ali” is simply arcana. The security arrangements for Ali’s funeral procession and the plan to spread rose petals near his resting place aren’t exactly movie-worthy subjects.City of AliNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 21 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas. More

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      ‘Slow Machine’ Review: What Do Paranoid Actresses Dream Of?

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      Joe DeNardo and Paul Felten craft a mysterious New York thriller with mumblecore sensibilities.Simultaneously high stakes and low-key, “Slow Machine,” the enigmatic debut feature of Joe DeNardo and Paul Felten, who also wrote it, follows a Swedish actress named Stephanie (Stephanie Hayes). She becomes romantically involved with Gerard (Scott Shepherd), an intelligence agent for the New York Police Department, and bunks with indie musicians upstate, including Eleanor Friedberger (as herself). Along the way, Stephanie attends an A.A. meeting and grabs drinks with Chloë Sevigny (playing a prickly version of herself) — both events are slightly interrupted by a possible bomb threat.Difficult to describe and confounding to follow, the film is best when you submit to the surreal nature of it; then, you will be open to witnessing one of this year’s most mesmerizing movies unfold. Films of such lo-fi aesthetics rarely feel this major.The mystically inclined French auteur Jacques Rivette explicitly influenced the directors, but there are also paranoid, insomniac traces of Sara Driver’s “Sleepwalk” and Bette Gordon’s “Variety.” The taboo flirtations with authority and danger are reminiscent of Jane Campion’s “In the Cut.” All are New York movies, but DeNardo and Felten’s New York is nearly impossible to place. Vague locations, along with the use of pointillistic 16-millimeter film and actorly monologues, enhance a dreamy, meta quality at play.Much of Gerard and Stephanie’s relationship is contained in a barely furnished apartment. When he takes her to a diner, she asks what borough they’re in (Queens, by the way). In the film’s best scene, Sevigny dives into an oration about a bizarre audition somewhere she cannot place, realizing “the world had dissolved around us — not dissolved, died.” Watching “Slow Machine” has that sort of strange effect: It transports you deep into a world that you’re desperate to grasp.Slow MachineNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 12 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas. More

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      ‘Grace and Grit’ Review: You Transcend Me

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      This mawkish adaptation of the philosopher Ken Wilber’s book wraps tragedy in sugar and New Age sap.If you can make it through the first ten minutes of “Grace and Grit” without groaning, then your tolerance for New Age folderols, saccharin voice-overs and seraphic gazes is higher than mine.Based on the American philosopher Ken Wilber’s 1991 memoir of the same name, this first feature from Sebastian Siegel (who also wrote the script) transforms a real-life tragedy — the death of Wilber’s wife, Treya, from metastatic cancer — into an insufferable movie. Encumbered by the recurring narration of both partners (played by Stuart Townsend and Mena Suvari), the story winds through their five-year journey from first meeting to a deathbed scene so interminable it virtually demands its own trailer.That initial encounter, though, is a doozy, showing the pair so mutually overwhelmed they can’t wait to rush home and start journaling. Most of the action unfolds post-diagnosis, as the two travel from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe to Germany in search of ever-more-grueling fringe therapies. There’s some depression, and a little fighting, all of it wrapped in a smushy blanket of dreams and portents, floaty music and florid dialogue.“I’m just not crazy about his writing,” Treya’s mother (Frances Fisher) opines about her future son-in-law, proving there’s no project Fisher can’t elevate, however briefly. Equally welcome is Mariel Hemingway’s batty turn as an energy therapist who believes that all cancer is caused by a virus and, in common with the movie’s general tone, that Wilber’s amazingness is inarguable.“I have a body, but I am not my body,” the guru himself gently reminds his suffering spouse. I would have whacked him right in the aphorism.Grace and GritRated R for harsh words and hubristic psychobabble. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘Under the Stadium Lights’ Review: Friday Night, Lite

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      Some sports movies build to inspirational speeches; this one treats platitudes as the main event.A clunky high school football movie inspired by the 2009 season of the Abilene Eagles (of Abilene, Texas), “Under the Stadium Lights” appears aimed at audiences who already know the outcome, the rivalries and the highlights. Occasional clips of the original games are presented with so little context they seem designed to jog memories rather than advance the drama.Some sports movies build to inspirational speeches; “Under the Stadium Lights” treats platitudes as the main event. The character of Chad Mitchell (Milo Gibson, a son of Mel), a police officer and the team’s chaplain — and off camera, a producer on the movie and an author of the book it’s based on — invites the players to “talk about the stuff that” they “can’t talk about at home,” a device that ensures a steady stream of outpourings for the director, Todd Randall, to cut to.A few characters get enough screen time to register, like Ronnell Sims (Carter Redwood), the quarterback, and his cousin Herschel Sims (Acoryé White), a running back, who both have parents who aren’t always there. Augustine Barrientes (Germain Arroyo), a linebacker known as Boo, resists joining a gang, while the selfless Chad learns to make time for his family. Despite prominent billing, Laurence Fishburne has only a peripheral role as a barbecue joint proprietor who watches the climactic game from a hospital bed.The hokiest lines go to Coach Warren (Glenn Morshower), who, seizing a metaphor, tells Chad why he thinks that trucks have bigger windshields than rearview mirrors: to keep people focused on the present and not the past. “If we keep our thoughts in the windshield of life,” he says, “we’re going to do just fine.”Under the Stadium LightsRated PG-13. Talk of drug dealing and drug use. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More