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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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      ‘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

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      ‘Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman’ Review: Artisanal Admiration

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman’ Review: Artisanal AdmirationThis documentary offers a dry, rote introduction to a designer who became a key figure in the Arts and Crafts movement.The designer Gustav Stickley, center, is the subject of the documentary “Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman.”Credit…First Run FeaturesMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETThe documentary “Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman” offers an introduction to a designer (1858-1942) who became a crucial figure in the American Arts and Crafts movement. But the movie itself, directed by Herb Stratford, is so dull and unimaginative in its presentation — talking heads, an overused score that might as well have been downloaded from a free database — that it makes for an unfortunate match of subject matter and form.This hourlong film is pitched at a level of detail that is admirable in theory but ill-suited to dabblers — or to the medium. The Stickley biographer David Cathers, one of many people charged with delivering dry exegesis (he also shares a writing credit on the film), speaks in a calm, unvaried tone as he discusses how “Stickley moved his family from Walnut Avenue in Syracuse to Columbus Avenue in Syracuse” or recounts Stickley’s eccentric late-career quest to develop a perfect furniture finish “that manufacturers could apply efficiently and at low cost.” He might as well be reading from his book.[embedded content]
      It is marginally livelier to hear from the Stickley relative Richard Wiles, who relates being told that a dresser whose drawers he used to smash shut ended up in a museum. The documentary does its baseline job of showcasing what made Stickley an innovator. You leave with a desire to visit The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, his New Jersey estate, as well as the Craftsman Building in New York. And by the end, a viewer could probably identify Stickley furniture with at least 50-50 accuracy.Gustav Stickley: American CraftsmanNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 7 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘The Walrus and the Whistleblower’ Review: The Fight to Free a Friend

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The Walrus and the Whistleblower’ Review: The Fight to Free a FriendAn animal trainer turned activist strives to end sea mammal captivity in this documentary that could use a sharper frame on its subject.Phil Demers, one of the subjects of “The Walrus and the Whistleblower.”Credit…Tom CometMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETThe Walrus and the WhistleblowerDirected by Nathalie BibeauDocumentaryNot Rated1h 28mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.In Marineland, the sprawling aquatic park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, lives a walrus named Smooshi. Concerns for the sea mammal’s well-being form the core of the documentary “The Walrus and the Whistleblower,” which follows the former trainer Phil Demers’s fight to free Smooshi from her captivity.Demers believes that, while he was working at Marineland, Smooshi imprinted on him, or deemed him her guardian. The director Nathalie Bibeau pairs Demers’s account with home video footage of the pair playing during off-hours at the park. At the time, a local news story about their bond spread nationally, even appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” But in 2012, after witnessing the animals suffer chemical burns, Demers quit his job and vowed to expose the park’s abuse.[embedded content]As Bibeau examines the movement born out of Demers’s allegations, she hews closely to her subject. The film tracks a hefty lawsuit Marineland files against Demers, and a bill he supports that would ban the captivity of whales and dolphins in Canada. The legal and legislative battles supply narrative through-lines, but their progression — or rather, their stagnation — proves dull padding for the story.More intriguing is Demers’s yearning for the walrus he is barred from seeing, a fixation that scans as alternately authentic and performed. Frustratingly, the documentary declines to probe Demers’s evolving relationship to his activism and newfound fame — particularly once he assumes a grandiose Twitter persona and scores repeat appearances on Joe Rogan’s podcast.“I’m Smoochi’s mom,” Demers declares at one point. “What’s more natural than reuniting a baby with its mother?” With sharper framing, this line might suggest irony, given the unusual nature of this cross-species relationship. Offered at face value, all that registers is bombast.The Walrus and the WhistleblowerNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. Watch on Discovery+.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Stray’ Review: Nothing but a Hound Dog

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s pick‘Stray’ Review: Nothing but a Hound DogElizabeth Lo’s thoughtful documentary uses the stray dogs of Istanbul to comment on the human condition.One of the wandering subjects of Elizabeth Lo’s documentary, “Stray.”Credit…Magnolia PicturesMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETZeytin has a strong head, hazel eyes and a quizzical expression. Long-legged and confident, she trots beside busy highways, unbothered by crowds or the director Elizabeth Lo’s trailing camera. Why should she be? She’s a star.As simple as its title and as complex as the city it briefly illuminates, “Stray,” Lo’s sharp-eyed documentary about the street dogs of Istanbul, unspools without narration or anything like a plot. Instead, the restless rhythms of the mutts’ uncertain existence lend a poetic randomness to a movie that’s more contemplative than cute. On-screen quotations from Greek philosophy punctuate its brief 72 minutes, and snatches of overheard conversations swirl and fade as Zeytin and her canine pals — part of this world, yet aloof from it — pass by.[embedded content]Once exterminated en masse and now protected by law from euthanization, the strays interact with a citizenry whose tolerance for their fighting and garbage-raiding is sometimes surprising. The residents’ treatment of human outcasts, though, is rather less welcoming, as we see when tagging along with a pitiful group of Syrian refugees, glue-sniffing youngsters who find with the dogs a comfort they’re otherwise denied.Organically and entirely without judgment, “Stray,” filmed from 2017-19, builds a subtle, cross-species commentary that’s more than a little melancholy. While never directly political, Lo’s camera is there when the animals encounter a women’s march for equality and, later, when the refugees connect with boatmen who share their own migrant past. The filmmaker’s eyes may rarely leave the dogs, but what she’s really looking at is us.StrayNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 12 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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      ‘My Salinger Year’ Review: Ghost Writers

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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‘My Salinger Year’ Review: Ghost WritersMargaret Qualley stars in this colorless adaptation of Joanna Rakoff’s memoir of her experiences as a young writer in New York City.Margaret Qualley in “My Salinger Year.”Credit…Philippe Bosse/IFC FilmsMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETMy Salinger YearDirected by Philippe FalardeauDramaR1h 41mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.As “My Salinger Year” proves, making a successful movie about introspection is more than a little challenging. Muted almost to the point of effacement, this limp adaptation of Joanna Rakoff’s 2014 memoir, written and directed by Philip Falardeau, only affirms that what might work on the page doesn’t always pop on the screen.Indeed, the story of Joanna (Margaret Qualley), a bookish former grad student finding her feet in New York City in the 1990s, is so drearily uneventful that you begin to wonder why it was ever deemed filmable. A sprouting poet, Joanna takes a job as assistant to a rigidly old-fashioned literary agent (Sigourney Weaver) whose client list favors authors as creaky as the typewriters and Dictaphones that power her office.[embedded content]Assigned to deal with the effusive fan mail of the agency’s most famous client, the reclusive J.D. Salinger, Joanna, vexed by the dusty form letter she’s been instructed to use, is moved to flout the rules and personalize her responses. Imagining the fans speaking directly to her, she spends most days inside her head, narrating her thoughts while the plot trudges forward. In the evenings, she returns to a low-rent apartment in ungentrified Brooklyn where her narcissistic boyfriend (Douglas Booth) works on his novel and disparages her job.Unable to draw a connection between Joanna’s aimless personal life and her epistolary fancies, “My Salinger Year” never convinces us that she can write, or even that she particularly cares to. Wide-eyed and ingenuous, the character is a blank slate.“I wanted to be extraordinary,” she tells us at the beginning of a movie that persuades us of nothing except her extraordinary immaturity.My Salinger YearRated R for sexual references as bland as the movie around them. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, Vudu 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.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Adam’ Review: Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

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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‘Adam’ Review: Beginning of a Beautiful FriendshipA widow welcomes a pregnant stranger into her home in this sentimental story mostly told unsentimentally.Lubna Azabal and Nisrin Erradi in “Adam.”Credit…Strand ReleasingMarch 4, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETAdamDirected by Maryam TouzaniDramaNot Rated1h 38mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.In Maryam Touzani’s “Adam,” certain stylistic choices — a muted palette, the absence of a melodramatic score, hand-held camerawork — help temper sentimentality with verisimilitude. The movie tells a story of kindness given and returned. It opens with Samia (Nisrin Erradi) seeking a job as a hairdresser, and then as a maid, or really as anything. As a pregnant woman alone in Casablanca, she needs work and a place to stay — and encounters mainly indifference and judgment.But after Abla (Lubna Azabal), a widow who initially refuses her, watches Samia sleep on the street outside, she takes her in on a temporary basis. Abla emphasizes that she doesn’t want problems from gossipy neighbors. But Abla’s young daughter, Warda (Douae Belkhaouda), likes Samia a lot, and Samia begins making a pastry that becomes a hit at Abla’s bakery.[embedded content]Rather than repay Abla with quiet gratitude, Samia forces her to listen a cassette tape of the singer Warda, for whom Abla’s daughter is named. Abla hasn’t listened to the music since her husband died. Samia also pushes Abla to give a would-be suitor (Aziz Hattab) a chance.This symmetry — how each needs the other to fulfill a need — flirts with being overly tidy. But Touzani has said that “Adam” was inspired by a real stranger her parents welcomed into their home, and there’s a fine sense of ambiguity — of what-ifs — in the closing moments. The ending hedges against the screenplay’s dramaturgical shorthand.AdamNot rated. In Arabic, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In virtual cinemas and available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Michael B. Jordan Goes on Vendetta in First 'Without Remorse' Trailer

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      [embedded content]

      The ‘Black Panther’ star plays a highly-effective soldier who takes matter into his own hands after his pregnant wife was killed in an attack by Russian soldiers.

      Mar 4, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Michael B. Jordan goes full action movie hero in the first official trailer of “Without Remorse”. Set in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe, the original movie from Amazon Studios follows the “Creed” star’s John Kelly (a.k.a. John Clark), a highly-effective soldier who goes on a vendetta after his wife was killed in an attack that also targeted him.
      While he survived the assassination attempt, Jordan’s character couldn’t help holding grudge. “They took everything from me,” he says in the trailer. “I’m gonna make it right.” Set by the rage, John seeks to avenge the death of his loved one only to find himself inside a larger conspiracy.
      According to the official synopsis, “Without Remorse” tells the origin story of “John Kelly (a.k.a. John Clark), a U.S. Navy SEAL, who uncovers an international conspiracy while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife by Russian soldiers. When Kelly joins forces with fellow SEAL Karen Greer and shadowy CIA agent Robert Ritter, the mission unwittingly exposes a covert plot that threatens to engulf the U.S. and Russia in an all-out war.”

        See also…

      The explosive action thriller film is directed by Stefano Sollima (“Sicario: Day of the Soldado”) with the script written by Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples. It is based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Tom Clancy and a spin-off of the “Jack Ryan” film series.
      Brett Gelman, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell, Jacob Scipio, Jack Kesy, Todd Lasance, Luke Mitchell and Cam Gigandet join the cast of the movie, which is set to launch globally on April 30 on Amazon Prime Video. Akiva Goldsman, Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Jordan serve as producers.
      John Kelly is Clancy’s second most famous creation, after Jack Ryan. The character previously has been played by Willem Dafoe in 1994’s “Clear and Present Danger” and Liev Schreiber in 2002’s “The Sum of All Fears”.

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