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    ‘One Night in Miami’ Review: After the Big Fight, a War of Words

    #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 storycritic’s pick‘One Night in Miami’ Review: After the Big Fight, a War of WordsA 1964 meeting of Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown is the subject of Regina King’s riveting directorial debut.A moment in time: A scene from Regina King’s “One Night in Miami.” Kingsley Ben-Adir, left, as Malcolm X, taking a photo of Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.).Credit…Patti Perret/Amazon StudiosJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETOne Night in MiamiNYT Critic’s PickDirected by Regina KingDramaR1h 54mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.On Feb. 25, 1964, at the Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Fla., Cassius Clay — not yet known as Muhammad Ali — defeated Sonny Liston to become the heavyweight champion of the world. That’s hardly a spoiler, and the fight isn’t the main event in “One Night in Miami,” Regina King’s debut feature as a director. The movie is about what happens after the final bell, when Clay and three men who witnessed the fight gather for a low-key after-party that turns into an impromptu seminar on fame, political action and the obligations of Black celebrities in a time of crisis.The host is Malcolm X, played by Kingsley Ben-Adir less as a confident, charismatic orator than as a smart, anxious man facing a crisis of his own. We’re reminded in a few early scenes of the rift opening up between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad, his mentor and the leader of the Nation of Islam. Frustrated by Muhammad’s autocratic dogmatism and appalled at his sexual predations, Malcolm sees Clay (Eli Goree), who is gravitating toward Islam, as “the ace up my sleeve” — a prominent ally who will help him break away from the Nation.[embedded content]Joining the boxer and the minister in a modest suite at the Hampton House motel are the Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and the singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.). Each is at the peak of his career, and also at something of a crossroads. Brown, increasingly fed up with the ways Black athletes are exploited and commodified, has his eye on Hollywood. Cooke’s most recent effort to attract a white audience — a gig at the Copacabana in New York — was met with a chilly reception.Malcolm tries to push Cooke in another direction, arguing that the job of successful Black artists isn’t to court white approval but to use their fame and talent to advance the cause of their own people. The dramatic nerve center of the film, adapted by Kemp Powers from his own play, is the quarrel between Malcolm and Cooke, who have known each other for a long time and whose intimacy is laced with rivalry and resentment. It’s a complex and subtle debate that implicates Clay and Brown, and that reverberates forward in history and the later actions of all four.Cooke, who drives a red sports car, smokes cigarettes and carries a flask in his jacket, stands in obvious temperamental contrast to Malcolm, who is both the straight arrow and the nerd of the group, offering them vanilla ice cream and showing off his new Rolleiflex camera. Among the pleasures of “One Night in Miami” is how it allows us to imagine we’re glimpsing the private selves of highly public figures, exploring aspects of their personalities that their familiar personas were partly constructed to obscure.This is also, I think, an important argument of Powers’s script: History isn’t made by icons, but by human beings. Fame, which provides each of them with opportunities and temptations, comes with a cost. The fine print of racism is always part of the contract. What Cooke, Brown and Clay share is a desire for freedom — a determination to find independence from the businesses and institutions that seek to control them and profit from their talents.Malcolm, who faces different constraints, urges them to connect their own freedom with something larger, an imperative that each of the others, in his own way, acknowledges. Malcolm’s manner can be didactic, but “One Night in Miami” is anything but. Instead of a group biopic or a ready-made costume drama, it’s an intellectual thriller, crackling with the energy of ideas and emotions as they happen. Who wouldn’t want to be in that room? And there we are.What we witness may not be exactly what happened. I don’t know if Malcolm X really traveled with a copy of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” in his luggage so that he could make a point about protest music by dropping the needle on “Blowin’ in the Wind.” There are aspects of the characters’ lives that are noted in passing but not really explored — notably Cooke’s and Brown’s treatment of women. Malcolm’s wife, Betty Shabazz (Joaquina Kalukango), appears in a few scenes, as does Barbara Cooke (Nicolette Robinson), but they are marginal to a story that is preoccupied with manhood. Still, there is enough authenticity and coherence in the writing and the performances to make the film a credible representation of its moment, and King’s direction makes it more than that.An actress of singular poise and intensity — see “Watchmen,” “If Beale Street Could Talk” and, going back a little further, “Poetic Justice” — she demonstrates those traits behind the camera as well. There are a few boxing and musical scenes, but most of the action in “One Night in Miami” is talk. King’s attention to it as nimble and unpredictable as the dialogue itself, and creates an atmosphere of restlessness and spontaneity, that nervous, exhilarating feeling that this night could go anywhere.Clay, the youngest of the four, is the one who most vividly embodies that sense of possibility. Goree captures the familiar rasp and melody of the voice, and also the champion’s wit and exuberance. There haven’t been many people who could match his giddy, unapologetic delight in being himself, and Clay can look a bit callow next to Cooke and Brown, who have logged more years and paid more dues in the world of celebrity. But Goree shows that Clay, as playful as he could be, was also serious and brave, qualities that would come to the fore a few years later when he risked his career and his freedom to oppose the Vietnam War.The seeds of that action and others, this movie suggests, were planted that night. The shadows of a complicated, tragic future hover over the motel furniture. Within a year of that night, Sam Cooke and Malcolm X would both be killed, one in a Los Angeles motel, the other in a Harlem ballroom. (Only Malcolm’s death is mentioned in the film). The later chapters in Muhammad Ali’s life, and in Brown’s, are part of the crazy, contentious record of our time.And “One Night in Miami,” at first glance, might be taken as a minor anecdote plucked from that larger narrative. It doesn’t make grand statements about race, politics, sports or music. It’s just a bunch of guys talking — bantering, blustering, dropping their defenses and opening their hearts. But the substance of their talk is fascinating, and their arguments echo powerfully in the present. This is one of the most exciting movies I’ve seen in quite some time.One Night in Miami.Rated R. Smoking and Swearing. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. Watch on Amazon.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘Bloody Hell’ Review: An Acrid Thriller Bites Off Too Much

    #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‘Bloody Hell’ Review: An Acrid Thriller Bites Off Too MuchCannibals and comedy are mixed in this deranged ride from the director Alister Grierson.Ben O’Toole in “Bloody Hell.”Credit…The Horror CollectiveJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETBloody HellDirected by Alister GriersonAction, Horror, Mystery, ThrillerR1h 33mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.This noxious thriller makes a hero out of Rex (Ben O’Toole), a military veteran who served time after killing a woman in an attempt to halt an armed robbery. After Rex’s release from prison, he hopes to clear his mind with a trip to Finland — but his vacation is cut short when masked assailants attack him in an airport taxi and blast him with sleeping gas.Rex wakes up hanging from a basement ceiling, with one leg sawed off below the knee.He quickly deduces that he’s in a family home, an assumption that’s confirmed when Rex is briefly visited by Alia (Meg Fraser), the possibly sympathetic daughter of the house who has been forced to serve her cannibal brother.[embedded content]The situation is fit for horror, but the director Alister Grierson doesn’t settle into a tone of pure terror. Instead, he has the bound Rex start up a conversation with an imaginary version of himself — a projection who has the frame of mind to make a plan. The duo attempt to strategize their way out, and the banter between the two Rexes provides a source of deranged comedy.The problem is that Grierson’s gesture at humor only amplifies the repulsiveness of the situation — the gore of Rex’s dripping leg, the cartoon villainy of his captors. The film tries to take a maximalist approach to genres, techniques and tones, but the effect is discordant and scattershot. One minute Grierson is incorporating fantasy sequences and flashbacks, the next the movie takes a detour for romantic comedy. It’s a buffet of only sour dishes, a rank fete of foulness.Bloody HellRated R. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, 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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    ‘Film About a Father Who’ Review: Family Secrets by Omission

    #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 storyCritic’s Pick‘Film About a Father Who’ Review: Family Secrets by OmissionIn her new documentary, Lynne Sachs assesses her relationship with her father, Ira Sachs Sr., who fathered children with multiple women.Ira Sachs Sr., as seen in Lynne Sachs’s documentary “Film About a Father Who.”Credit…Cinema GuildJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETLynne Sachs shot the footage that became “Film About a Father Who” from 1984 to 2019, and her ideas about what form the movie might take — along with her impressions of her father — must have changed during that time. (Even movies themselves evolved. “Film About a Father Who” mixes 8- and 16-millimeter film, home videotapes and, from the near present, digital material.)This brisk, prismatic and richly psychodramatic family portrait finds Sachs assessing her relationship with her father, Ira Sachs Sr., described at one point as the “Hugh Hefner of Park City,” the Utah skiing enclave where the Sundance Film Festival is held. The filmmaker Ira Sachs Jr., Lynne’s brother, says their father can’t “be self-consciously sad or self-consciously joyful” — he always seems simply content. In his contemporary incarnation, their dad, with a bushy white mustache and shoulder-length hair, resembles an older version of The Dude from “The Big Lebowski.”[embedded content]He comes across as genuinely warm — but also as having a huge blind spot. Sachs Sr. fathered children with multiple women, taking what the movie implies has been a casual approach to paternity. In 2016, Lynne and the others learned that they had two half-siblings in addition to the ones they already knew about.It’s suggested that the elder Ira’s mother couldn’t take the “constant flow” of new relatives. The children’s economic circumstances also varied. A younger member of the Sachs brood says it’s difficult to be around siblings who grew up better-off than she did.But Lynne, intriguingly, doesn’t render an uncomplicated verdict on her father. He’s a blank, filled in differently in each circumstance. As the title (inspired by Yvonne Rainer’s “Film About a Woman Who”) indicates, he defies being reduced to one word.Film About a Father WhoNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 14 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘My Little Sister’ Review: Sibling Dependency

    #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 storyCritic’s Pick‘My Little Sister’ Review: Sibling DependencyA cancer diagnosis only strengthens the bond between adult twins in this perceptive Swiss drama.Nina Hoss in “My Little Sister.”Credit…Film MovementJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETMy Little SisterNYT Critic’s PickDirected by Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique ReymondDrama1h 39mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“My Little Sister,” a tender domestic drama from the Swiss writers and directors Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond, faces terminal illness with a refreshing emotional candor.Lisa (Nina Hoss), a gifted Berlin playwright, stopped writing on the day that her beloved twin brother, Sven (Lars Eidinger), a celebrated theater actor, received his leukemia diagnosis. Since then, she’s been living in artistic limbo in Switzerland, where her husband (Jens Albinus) teaches at a prestigious boarding school. But the demands of Sven’s illness, and Lisa’s inability to accept his decline, only tug her closer to her brother and further from her fracturing marriage.[embedded content]Distinguished by a modestly discreet directing style that allows the actors to shine, “My Little Sister” offers neither false uplift nor dreary realism. The photography is bright and lustrous, the tone vital and purposeful. Eidinger plays Sven entirely without self-pity, a man furiously seizing public-restroom sex as if willing his depleted body to perform. And Hoss makes Lisa a ball of anxious industry, her denial and distress keeping her in constant motion. Both siblings, more than anything, want Sven back onstage; they have always been each other’s muse.Absolving the film of any shred of sentimentality, the indispensable Marthe Keller, as the twins’ testy mother, delivers her sometimes shockingly unfiltered remarks with a pique that softens their cruelty. Small in scale and big in heart, “My Little Sister” believes unwaveringly in the palliative power of art: When medicine can’t heal you, sometimes words can fill the breach.My Little SisterNot rated. In German and French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. Watch on Film Movement.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘Some Kind of Heaven’ Review: Hardly an Idle Retirement

    #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 storyCritic’s Pick‘Some Kind of Heaven’ Review: Hardly an Idle RetirementThis documentary co-produced by The New York Times visits a retirement community the size of a small city.Barbara Lochiatto, a resident of The Villages, in the documentary “Some Kind of Heaven.”Credit…Magnolia PicturesJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETSome Kind of HeavenNYT Critic’s PickDirected by Lance OppenheimDocumentary1h 21mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“Some Kind of Heaven,” a documentary co-produced by The New York Times, pierces the bubble of The Villages, a Florida retirement community northwest of Orlando that has grown to the size of a small city. The architecture and even the local lore foster an illusion of history.Rather than present a cross-section of this 30-square-mile golf-opolis, the director, Lance Oppenheim, making his first feature, focuses on three sets of characters.Reggie and Anne, married for nearly five decades, have hit a rough patch. While Reggie embraces tai chi and says he likes using drugs that get him “to a spiritual place,” Anne laments that his “sense of reality has become even more out-there.” On their anniversary, he informs her that he has died and been reincarnated.[embedded content]For Barbara, newly widowed, life in The Villages is difficult without a partner. Dennis technically doesn’t live there at all. He sleeps in a van and hopes to meet a “nice-looking lady with some money.” (A guard who explains that The Villages isn’t functionally a gated compound cheerily greets drivers at an entrance without checking names.)Oppenheim finds no shortage of visual and situational comedy, whether it’s in a slow zoom on Dennis making a poolside move or courtroom video of Reggie ineptly defending himself before a judge. (There’s little mention of politics; “Some Kind of Heaven” had its premiere a year ago, before much of the coverage of The Villages’ significance in the 2020 presidential campaign.)But Oppenheim resists easy misanthropy, showing unexpected empathy for people who have cocooned themselves from the outside world, only to confront its headaches anyway.Some Kind of HeavenNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 21 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow 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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    ‘The Marksman’ Review: In Need of a Mission

    #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‘The Marksman’ Review: In Need of a MissionLiam Neeson plays the reluctant protector of an undocumented Mexican boy in this dusty drama.Liam Neeson in “The Marksman.”Credit…Open Road Films/Briarcliff EntertainmentJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETThe MarksmanDirected by Robert LorenzAction, ThrillerPG-131h 48mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The plot of “The Marksman,” a melancholy road movie starring Liam Neeson, could fit on a bullet casing, but a list of its clichés would require substantially more space.As would a tally of its improbabilities. Neeson plays Jim Hanson, a widowed Arizona rancher whose cattle are being eaten by coyotes and whose property is being devoured by the bank. All the usual good-guy signifiers are present: the U.S. Marines tattoo on his forearm, the Silver Star in his drawer, the American flag flapping on his porch. Gazing wistfully at the hill where his dead wife’s ashes have been scattered, Jim is a lonely warrior in need of nothing so much as a mission.[embedded content]Along it comes in the diminutive form of Miguel (Jacob Perez), 11, and his dying mother (Teresa Ruiz), undocumented immigrants fleeing Mexico with money stolen from a drug cartel. One reluctant promise and several rounds of gunfire later, Jim and his rickety pickup truck are transporting Miguel to his Chicago relatives, a posse of deadeyed cartel goons on their tail. Luckily, Jim’s repeated use of a credit card — despite a bag full of cash under his dash — is making their pursuit much easier.Slow and simple and minimally violent, “The Marksman,” directed by Robert Lorenz, cares more about bonding than brutality. Predictable to a fault, the movie coasts pleasurably on Neeson’s seasoned, sad-sweet charisma — an asset that’s been tragically imprisoned in mopey-loner roles and generic action thrillers. That melted-caramel brogue should be flirting with Diane Lane or Debra Winger, not teaching children how to use guns.The MarksmanRated PG-13 for the shooting of several bad men and one very good dog. Running time: 1 hour 47 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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    ‘Hunted’ Review: Catch Me if You Can

    #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‘Hunted’ Review: Catch Me if You CanRiffing on “Little Red Riding Hood,” this sadistic chase movie sends a young woman and two attackers into the deep, dark woods.Lucie Debay in “Hunted.”Credit…ShudderJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETHuntedDirected by Vincent ParonnaudAction, Thriller1h 27mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Adding a fairy-tale cast to a generic horror setup is of no benefit to “Hunted,” Vincent Paronnaud’s unpleasant merger of slasher movie and survival thriller.Claiming kinship with the fable of Little Red Riding Hood, the story introduces Eve (Lucie Debay), who will serve as both victim and heroine. Recently arrived in an unfamiliar town to manage a construction project, Eve — rather obviously sporting a crimson, hooded jacket — ducks her demanding boss and heads to a bar. When a skeevy, stubbled stranger (Arieh Worthalter) guides her from dance floor to waiting car, her reckless acquiescence to his wolfish charm is baffling. Until we factor in her bellyful of mojitos.[embedded content]The situation rapidly deteriorates as Eve’s nameless acquaintance and his submissive accomplice (Ciaran O’Brien) dump her in the trunk and head into the forest, where she promptly escapes. A foul video recording of a previous abduction energizes abuser number one, while a dose of Viagra promises to restore the other’s flagging resolve. Mounting injuries and oddball encounters accompany their lengthy and increasingly absurd pursuit; yet as Eve’s behavior grows more feral — and Debay’s physical exertions more breathtaking — “Hunted” fails to shake off its greasy grindhouse stink.Swerving from surrealism to sadism, “Hunted” sees no upside to establishing characters before weaponizing them. By recognizing the bestial in both sexes, the movie may recall Neil Jordan’s 1985 film, “The Company of Wolves” (based on Angela Carter’s sublime short story of the same name). Unisex violence, however, isn’t necessarily more satisfying: Sometimes, it’s just more sickening.HuntedNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. Watch on Shudder.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘American Skin’ Review: Out for Justice

    #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‘American Skin’ Review: Out for JusticeIn Nate Parker’s film, a father takes matters into his own hands to hold a police officer to account for shooting down his son.Nate Parker, right, with Milauna Jackson in “American Skin.”Credit…Vertical EntertainmentJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETAmerican SkinDirected by Nate ParkerDramaR1h 29mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Nate Parker’s “American Skin” opens with a traffic stop, captured on body cams. The driver, Lincoln (played by Parker), watches helplessly as his teenage son, Kijani (Tony Espinosa), is shot down by a police officer. The incident plants the seed for what becomes a kind of vigilante courtroom drama.A year after the shooting, a student filmmaker, Jordin (Shane Paul McGhie), undertakes a documentary about Lincoln and his loss. He interviews Lincoln and chronicles the aftermath when Kijani’s killer goes free. Then Lincoln, a soft-spoken Marine veteran, takes Jordin and his small crew on a car ride that unexpectedly turns into a mission to kidnap a police captain.[embedded content]Lincoln goes on to take an entire police station hostage at gunpoint, with help from friends, all filmed by Jordin’s team. He launches an ad hoc trial of the freed cop, Randall (Beau Knapp), appointing jurors from the jail’s orange-suited prisoners and others who happen to be present. The stage is set for the airing of grievances, prejudices and outrage. (The improvised court setting may feel fraught for another reason: Parker’s 2016 debut feature as director, “The Birth of a Nation,” foundered after new controversy surrounding rape charges he faced and was acquitted of in 2001.)The screenplay’s ample chances for grandstanding don’t serve any actor well for long. The button-pushing dialogue during the trial sounds like agree-or-disagree statements from a poll of racial attitudes. Instead of lending immediacy, the padded-out documentary conceit only spotlights the stiltedness, and Parker falls short of building credible drama out of urgent issues.American SkinRated R. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More