Movies

This picture, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” is the third Werner Herzog movie to come out in 2020. Yes, he directed it alongside Clive Oppenheimer, but still. At age 78, Herzog’s productivity almost recalls that of his long-gone colleague and compatriot Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who had more feature films to his name than years lived when he died in 1982 at age 37.Herzog has to be at least reasonably good at self-care to maintain not just his filmmaking pace but his globe-trotting. Like his most recent release, “Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin,” this movie was shot around the world, including the Torres Strait Islands, Castel Gandolfo in Italy, Antarctica, Arizona and Hawaii. But it’s his intellectual curiosity and emotional availability that make his movies sing. This film rests on the fact that Mother Earth is always being called on by other worlds in the forms of comets, meteorites and asteroids — and it’s about as transportive as documentaries get.Oppenheimer is a volcanologist from the University of Cambridge who first appeared in Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World,” a spectacular Antarctica trip, in 2007. He was later in Herzog’s “Into the Inferno,” in 2016, about, well, volcanoes. Cataclysmic fire has a special place in Herzog’s filmography; his remarkable “Lessons of Darkness” (1992) treated the burning oil fields of Kuwait, set ablaze by Saddam Hussein, as an apocalyptic sci-fi scenario.[embedded content]“Fireball” looks at fire coming from the sky. But it begins very much on the ground, in Mérida, Mexico, at a celebration of the Day of the Dead. Men with painted faces perform what Herzog describes as a “fireball ritual,” derived from ancient Mayan culture; it “feels like a re-enactment,” he says. The site where they dance is one where an asteroid changed the topography millions of years ago.Oppenheimer is the onscreen interviewer and explainer for much of the movie. He shows places where meteorites affected both landscape and culture. In the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, for instance, a black stone embedded in the Kaaba, the cube at the center of Islam’s holiest mosque, is the subject of adulation; it is believed that the stone fell from paradise to show Adam and Eve where to build a shrine, according to Muslim tradition. Similarly, in Ensisheim, a commune in the Alsace region of France, a meteorite that landed in 1492 was seen as “an email from God,” Oppenheimer says.The movie introduces us to fascinating people — among them a jazz musician turned geological scientist and his research collaborator, who survived cancer four times and dresses like Wyatt Earp. It also teems with beautiful visuals illustrating mind-boggling mathematical concepts. “It gets so complicated now, we are not going to torture you with details,” Herzog drolly notes at one point.And “Fireball” makes two very credible statements. One: that, hippie rhetoric notwithstanding, you and I really are made of stardust. And two: that a world-changing (as in probably obliterating) dark-world visitor is sooner or later going to come this planet’s way. The equanimity with which Herzog and Oppenheimer’s movie frames that certainty is strangely comforting.Fireball: Visitors From Darker WorldsNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Apple TV+. More

Once the terms “animated movie” and “animated cartoon” were virtually synonymous. But since computer animation and other advances drained the genre of its cartoonlike qualities, that has changed. One refreshing thing about “Wolfwalkers” is that it feels and looks like a cartoon.The characters of this fantasy tale, set in 17th-century Ireland, are stylized in a way that sometimes recalls old-school animation outfits like UPA (of the legendary short “Gerald McBoing Boing”) or the British Halas and Batchelor studio (which made a feature of Orwell’s “Animal Farm”). The flattened backgrounds hark back to Disney’s 1959 “Sleeping Beauty.” There’s a slightly rough, hand-drawn quality to the work throughout, and the colors are bold and vibrant.[embedded content]As much a joy as this movie — directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart and featuring the voice talents of Eve Whittaker, Honor Kneafsey and Sean Bean — is to behold, its scenario is more than a little overbaked and overdrawn.Robyn, the young daughter of a British soldier overseeing a province and the surrounding forest in 17th-century Ireland, stumbles upon a mother and daughter who are “wolfwalkers,” that is, humans who can take lupine form. Trouble ensues, of course, because the townspeople are fearful of wolves, etcetera.This is one of those movies where you know just what’s going to happen after the line, “You must do as you’re told, my girl” is uttered. And what happens after that. And so on.It is kind of funny, if you can roll with it, that the movie eventually endorses the “pagan nonsense” its title characters embody. And that, in a bit of dialogue near the end, offers an almost explicit denunciation of Christianity. Not many animated movies (or movies from Ireland, really) have that particular kind of nerve.WolfwalkersRated PG for themes, action. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

An intimate travelogue, “Monsoon” follows Kit (Henry Golding), a software animator raised in London, as he returns to Vietnam, where he was born and lived until he was 6 years old. Kit’s eventual goal is to scatter his parents’ ashes. His Vietnamese is no longer good, and he has faint memories of his childhood. Lee (David Tran), his cousin, paints a fuller picture of their time as boys.“Monsoon” was written and directed by Hong Khaou, who came to Vietnam as a baby, when his parents fled the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; they left Vietnam for Britain when he was 8. In writing the film, he drew on impressions from his own long-deferred return.[embedded content]Kit forges a romantic connection with an American, Lewis (Parker Sawyers), who is in Vietnam overseeing production for his clothing company — and happens to be the son of a Vietnam veteran, a contrivance that influences their discussion of the war. In non-romantic matters, he meets Linh (Molly Harris), who leads art tours and shows Kit how to prep flowers for traditional lotus tea, a drink Kit’s parents loved that he has never tried.This is a thoroughly personal film, in ways that don’t always translate. Driven more by mood than plot, the movie spends a great deal of time absorbing the sights and sounds of the former Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and, later, Hanoi. But the ambience doesn’t register with full force, or do the heavy lifting entrusted to it. “Monsoon” finally tips over the line that separates minimalism from a not-fully-developed movie.MonsoonNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. In theaters, virtual cinemas and available to rent or buy on iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms. More

Coming-of-age dramas rarely lack for moody characters, but in the British film “Make Up,” anxiety, doom and suspense seem to blanket the entire environment. It’s a slight film, not even 90 minutes, but the atmosphere is dense.The story follows Ruth (Molly Windsor), a teenager who has come to join her boyfriend, Tom (Joseph Quinn), at his job in a caravan community by the seaside. In the cold, foggy dunes, the wind howls and foxes shriek, but Ruth and Tom seem immune to the gloom, cocooned as they are in each other’s arms. It’s only when Ruth finds strands of long red hair on Tom’s clothes that their bubble starts to burst.[embedded content]Ruth’s suspicion spikes, and the landscape around her begins to appear malevolent, fated to swallow her up. Her one comfort comes in the company of a new co-worker, Jade (Stefanie Martini), a pretty girl with a bad reputation who beckons with the promise of ease and warmth.The writer and director Claire Oakley demonstrates an admirable control of tone for her first feature film, giving her coming-of-age story the feel of a horror film. The sound design plays a huge part in maintaining the ominous overtones, with an ambient score that surges as Ruth’s anxiety mounts. Cool grays and blues blanch the palette, the performances are subdued and the camera watches the characters from afar, at a remove from Ruth’s overheated imagination.The distance that Oakley maintains keeps the danger present. There is always a sense that there is room in the frame for a threat to materialize. It’s an intriguing interpretation of adolescent discovery, one that uses horror to suggest the dread that comes with finding a sense of self.Make UpNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. In theaters and virtual cinemas. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

Sophia Loren is one of those movie greats who doesn’t often find her way into a great movie. News of “The Life Ahead,” her first feature film since 2009’s misbegotten “Nine,” was certainly welcome. But a perusal of its précis and circumstances was apt to provoke a “hope for the best, expect the worst” feeling.The picture is based on the same Romain Gary novel as 1978’s “Madame Rosa” (although its creators insists that it’s not a remake). Simone Signoret nailed the title role of that picture, and when Signoret nailed the role, it stayed nailed. Additionally, “The Life Ahead” is directed by Loren’s son, Edoardo Ponti, whose father was the producer Carlo Ponti.But what do you know? “The Life Ahead” is better than pretty good.[embedded content]Ponti’s not a filmmaker of genius, but he’s a real filmmaker. He updates Gary’s story, whose heroine is a Holocaust survivor turned streetwalker turned children’s caretaker, intelligently and resourcefully. And he gives his mother a role that’s distinctive from the one Signoret played.This conception of Rosa capitalizes on the generosity of spirit that has always been a part of Loren’s screen persona, adding grace notes of long-lived sorrows. Loren, 86, goes at the role with both a seasoned performer’s intelligence and a megastar’s innate charisma.Ponti doesn’t ask his mother to carry the whole movie. “The Life Ahead” frequently centers on Momo, a teenage Senegalese refugee who first meets Loren’s Rosa when he wrests a couple of antique candlesticks from her arms and tries to run off with them. A local doctor bribes Rosa into adding the child to her little brood, mostly the children of sex workers trying to break bad habits.Spectacularly played by Ibrahima Gueye, 14, the kid’s a gusher of sullen anger. He doesn’t get Rosa — he has never even heard of the Holocaust. But he understands what it is to be hated, unwanted. Without even talking things out, he and Rosa discover they’re kindred spirits. They are united in opposition to the status quo, let’s say. And when Rosa sees the end of her own life approaching, she asks Momo for a grave, terrible favor, and he promises to deliver it when the time comes.This picture earns its tear-jerking without becoming treacly. OK, without becoming too treacly. And it has other charming, enlightened components. For instance, it does the heart a lot of good to see The Sophia Loren dance uninhibitedly with the transgender actress Abril Zamora, who plays the mother of one of Rosa’s other charges.The Life AheadRated PG-13 for language and themes. In Italian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

In September 2019 at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Greta Thunberg made headlines by condemning world leaders for abandoning today’s children to the ravages of climate change. “How dare you?” she asked, her voice shaking with anger. Truth-to-power moments like this alternate with quiet ones in “I Am Greta,” a documentary about Thunberg’s meteoric rise that suggests a new kind of hero.Its director, Nathan Grossman, catches Thunberg early, in August 2018, when the teen (at age 15) begins a solo “school strike” in front of the Swedish parliament. Her blunt warnings about the environment catch on, and go global. “I Am Greta” joins her on the ensuing daisy chain of press gaggles, youth marches, United Nations speeches and meet-and-greets with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emmanuel Macron and the Pope.[embedded content]It’s a bit of a blur, but Thunberg strikingly upends the stereotype of the young innocent as poster girl. She’s not there to give hope to adults. She’s there to give them hell, and she knows about the albedo effect, among other nuances of climate science. Like the survivors of the Parkland High School shooting, Thunberg resists being a walking symbol or letting people off the hook.Grossman shot “I Am Greta” nearly single-handedly over two years, staying close to Thunberg’s point of view and folding in her experience with Asperger’s syndrome, which she partly credits for her singular focus. She may stop for a dance break or a breather; Dad tags along on her travels and nags her to eat. But Thunberg campaigns like our lives depend on it.I Am GretaNot rated. In English and Swedish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Hulu. More

Hoping to deliver a Yuletide story for our dark, divided times, the directors and brothers Ian Nelms & Eshom Nelms came up with “Fatman,” a soot-black comedy with a heaping side of social commentary.Somewhere in the Alaskan backwoods, we meet Chris Cringle (Mel Gibson), not a bad Santa so much as a depressed one. A grizzled grouch who’s wearied by the commercialization of Christmas and a faithless public, Chris faces a failing business and a disappearing government subsidy. With a workshop full of elves to feed, Chris and his staunchly supportive wife (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) reluctantly accept a military contract to make the kind of item too dangerous for any child’s Christmas list.[embedded content]Pitting old-school rural values against rich-folk amorality, “Fatman” gives Santa a miniature nemesis in the 12-year-old Billy (Chance Hurstfield), a nascent sociopath fermenting in suburban luxury and parental neglect. Enraged by Santa’s gift of coal on Christmas morning, Billy dispatches his on-call assassin (the always welcome Walton Goggins) to exact murderous revenge.Waffling between anger and pathos, dry humor and dead-eyed violence, “Fatman” feels tonally befuddled. As fans of HBO’s “Vice Principals” will attest, Goggins can dance on this sort of knife edge with ease, but the script (by the directors) isn’t sharp enough to support his or Gibson’s efforts — or even smoothly incorporate its theme of reverberating childhood trauma.A more substantive and enjoyable critique is found among the elves, a multiethnic crew known only by numbers and fed solely on carbs and sugar. Awed by their efficiency and voluntary sleep deprivation, a military captain can only gaze approvingly on what seems less like Santa’s workshop than his very own sweatshop.FatmanRated R for guns, drugs and an unhealthy supply of cookies. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More