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      ‘If Not Now, When?’ Review: Weak Bonds Make for a Flimsy Film

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘If Not Now, When?’ Review: Weak Bonds Make for a Flimsy FilmFriends struggle to make sense of romance, purpose and family in this meandering drama.From left, Tamara Bass, Meagan Holder and Mekia Cox in “If Not Now When?,” directed by Ms. Bass and Meagan Good, who also plays  a main character in the film.Credit…Vertical EntertainmentJan. 7, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETIf Not Now, When?Directed by Tamara Bass, Meagan GoodDrama1h 51mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.In the drama “If Not Now, When?” Tyra, Dee, Suzanne and Patrice have been there for one another since they were teenagers.Their first crisis comes when Tyra, secretly pregnant, goes into labor in a high school bathroom. Years later, when Tyra’s daughter is a teenager, the four friends appear successful. But they still struggle to find their purpose and to make sense of romance and parenthood. The movie surrounding them struggles, too.Tyra (Meagan Good) is in denial about her addiction to prescription drugs. Dee (Meagan Holder) is debating reuniting with her son’s father. Suzanne (Mekia Cox) desperately longs to make her husband her ex-husband. And Patrice (Tamara Bass) is fixing everyone else’s problems to avoid intimacy in her own life.[embedded content]Bass and Good directed the film, and they ensure that their co-stars look luminous. Every performer’s skin glows. Their clothes, their hairstyles, their makeup are tasteful and flattering. But beyond the personal styling, the movie is shambolic. The characters work in barren offices; their homes look like bland Airbnb units; their personalities are similarly ill-defined.It doesn’t take long to notice that these are earnest, even humorless, women. They are too busy contemplating their daily turmoil to play or crack a joke. As a result, their chemistry never coheres, and the movie flounders under the weight of lifeless sincerity. Marriages fail, children rebel, recovery commences — but who cares what happens on such a flimsy foundation? The stories never reach resolution because the relationships were indistinct from the beginning.If Not Now, When?Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play 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 Reason I Jump’ Review: Portraits of Autism

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The Reason I Jump’ Review: Portraits of AutismAdapted from Naoki Higashida’s book of the same title, this documentary, from Jerry Rothwell, shares portraits of five nonspeaking autistic people on four continents.A scene from Jerry Rothwell’s documentary “The Reason I Jump.”Credit…Kino LorberJan. 7, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETThe Reason I JumpDirected by Jerry RothwellDocumentary1h 22mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.In the book “The Reason I Jump,” published in 2007, the author Naoki Higashida, who wrote it when he was 13, says he hopes to explain “what’s going on in the minds of people with autism.” Higashida, a nonspeaking autistic person, structures the book as a Q. and A., answering questions like, “How are you writing these sentences?” and “What are your thoughts on autism itself?”The film adaptation, directed by Jerry Rothwell (the documentary about Greenpeace “How to Change the World”), is at once a supplement and an effort to find a cinematic analogue. Employing excerpts from Higashida’s writing as narration, it shares the stories of five nonspeaking autistic people on four continents, while intermittently using the tools of moviemaking to approximate sensory experiences similar to those discussed. The soundtrack emphasizes the creak of trampoline springs and the creeping footsteps of caterpillars.[embedded content]The portraits are moving and informative. In India, Amrit’s astonishing drawings culminate in a gallery show. In Sierra Leone, Jestina faces a stigma against children unable to care for their aging parents. Ben and Emma, from Arlington, Va., forged a decades-spanning friendship that began in preschool, before either started communicating through a letter board.As an aesthetic endeavor, though, “The Reason I Jump” is questionable, regardless of how much sensitivity the filmmakers took in their approach. It is presumptuous to assume a mere movie could simulate, even for an instant, the inner world of an autistic person. And at times — as when mystical choral music plays while Amrit draws — the filmmakers’ removed perspective is all too clear.The Reason I JumpNot rated. In English and Krio, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Blizzard of Souls’ Review: A Soldier’s Tale From the Front

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Blizzard of Souls’ Review: A Soldier’s Tale From the FrontThis beautifully shot film from Latvia displays too much good taste when depicting the horrors of World War I.Oto Brantevics, center, in “Blizzard of Souls.”Credit…Peteris Viksna/Film MovementJan. 7, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETBlizzard of SoulsDirected by Dzintars DreibergsDrama, History, War1h 44mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.This World War I story opens on a striking tableau, one that illustrates its title. A traveling shot takes in a battlefield where a coating of snow almost, but not quite, camouflages the corpses of dozens of dead soldiers.That is about as harrowing as this movie, directed by Dzintars Dreibergs from a 1934 novel by Aleksandrs Grins, gets. As so many war pictures do, “Blizzard of Souls” tells the story of a young man, Arturs Vanag (the fresh-faced Oto Brantevics). At the movie’s outset, he’s a sweet teen on a farm. Then one afternoon, some German soldiers happen by and kill his mother and the family dog. So he signs on with the Latvian battalion of the Imperial Russian Army, along with his father and brother.[embedded content]For a time, war is heck. The recruits train in the mud with wooden models of rifles, but during their down time, they frolic in surprisingly clean tunics. One infers the food at camp isn’t bad either. In actual battle, down in the trenches, a mortar explosion temporarily deafens the soldiers, one of whom reacts with a “wow, that was weird” grin. On the offensive, Arturs comes toe-to-toe with a German soldier and, after a moment of hesitation, bayonets him. It’s his duty, after all. Plus, they killed his mom and his dog.“Blizzard” is almost immaculately shot and edited, but its good-taste approach to warfare, along with its treacly music score by Lolita Ritmanis, underscores what seems its main reason for being: a relentless “Go, Latvia!” agenda — which has extended to its marketing here. It is the country’s official entry in the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards.Blizzard of SoulsNot rated. In Latvian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Grizzly II: Revenge’ Review: Bear Atrocity

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Grizzly II: Revenge’ Review: Bear AtrocityCompleted after almost four decades in limbo, this unerringly awful sequel places a killer bear in a park filled with clueless concertgoers.George Clooney and Laura Dern in “Grizzly II: Revenge.”Credit…Gravitas VenturesJan. 7, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETAnyone craving pre-stardom sightings of George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen, the top-billed names in “Grizzly II: Revenge,” will be better served by studying the movie’s poster. Otherwise, don’t miss the first five minutes, after which little remains of our threesome except, well, remains.Directed, with almost touching incompetence, by Andre Szots, this grievous sequel to the mystifyingly popular 1976 dud, “Grizzly,” is comprised mainly of footage filmed in Hungary in the early 1980s and — except for an unfinished bootleg that surfaced occasionally online — never released. Rescued by the resolute producer Suzanne Csikos-Nagy, the movie unfolds in a national park that’s gearing up for a gigantic rock concert. As unwitting fans arrive in droves, a crazed mama bear whose cub was shot by poachers is offing every woods-wandering fool who crosses her path.[embedded content]“You got the devil bear!,” a folksy trapper named Bouchard warns a softhearted official (Deborah Raffin) and a spiffy park ranger (Steve Inwood, whose labradoodle coiffure does most of the emoting). Accessorized with a matching set of axes, Bouchard (John Rhys-Davies, masticating every ludicrous line with Shakespearean gusto) resembles nothing so much as a sylvan Captain Ahab.A steroidal score and endless shots of excruciating musical acts interrupt his search — and ours — for the barely-seen bear, whose point of view dominates the risible attack scenes. Dopey dialogue and less-than-scrupulous continuity augment the ramshackle vibe of a movie that’s too inept to qualify as camp or cult. The ending, moreover, is insultingly undignified: The slayer of Clooney and company might be animatronic, but she deserves a more exalted send-off than this one.Grizzly II: RevengeNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 14 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV 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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      'Welcome to the Dark Ages' Gets Streaming Release After The KLF Give Thumbs Up

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      The Paul Duane-directed movie follows musician duo Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty from their 2017 reunion as they become ‘new age undertakers’ building The People’s Pyramid.

      Jan 7, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Art pranksters and musicians The KLF’s reunion movie, “Welcome to the Dark Ages”, has been released just days after the duo allowed tracks to be uploaded to major streaming services for the first time.
      Paul Duane’s new movie follows KLF stars Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty from their 2017 reunion as they become “new age undertakers” building The People’s Pyramid – a monument featuring bricks forged from the ashes of the dead.
      A synopsis for “Welcome to the Dark Ages” reads, “Welcome to the Dark Ages begins in the 23rd century, in a post-apocalyptic wasteland which was once the northern English City of Liverpool. In the district once known as Toxteth, a mysterious pyramid stands among demolished buildings.”
      “Returning to the late 20th century, we revisit the origins of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The JAMs – otherwise known as the KLF – who became the top-selling singles act in the world and then left the music business, burned £1 million of their own money and signed a contract agreeing to a 23-year silence.”
      “23 years later, in Liverpool, this silence ended at 23 seconds past midnight on 23 August, 2017. On this day the KLF were no longer pop stars but had become undertakers, and were planning to build a 23-foot-high pyramid in Toxteth, Liverpool, made from bricks which would each contain 23 grams of a dead person’s ashes, proposed as a new British ritual for the commemoration of the dead.”

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      The film tracks the first year of this project.
      Duane admits the filming process was tough at times because Cauty and Drummond are notoriously camera shy.
      “The band hadn’t agreed to be filmed since the early 90s, but I persevered, and they eventually agreed,” he says. “We started filming. On day two they told me they were no longer interested in taking part in the film. I just kept filming, and they allowed me to film anything I wanted as long as I didn’t ask them anything or try to make them do anything. When I showed the finished film to the JAMs, they asked me to destroy it.”
      “I disagreed with their judgement. Eventually, they came around to agreeing with me that the film should be released after all. So here it is.”
      The film is available to rent or buy here: https://burning-bridges.vhx.tv/products/welcome-to-the-dark-ages.

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      'Bridgerton' Star Rege-Jean Page Rises as Contender for New James Bond

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      Instagram

      The Duke of Hastings depicter first fueled the speculation that he was in the running for the role of the secret agent with his social media post, in which he made a reference to Bond’s martini preference.

      Jan 7, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Rege-Jean Page has entered the ring of competition to be the new James Bond. The British-Zimbabwean actor’s name has been thrown in the list of possible actors to replace Daniel Craig as the 007 agent in future installment(s) of the spy film franchises following the success of his Netflix series “Bridgerton”.
      The Duke of Hastings of the period drama has increased his odds of taking on the role of the super spy, according to British betting firm Ladbrokes. As reported by Variety, Page is now just 5/1 in the betting with Ladbrokes to replace Craig as Bond, having previously been 40/1 before Christmas.
      “Tom Hardy still leads the way as favorite, with James Norton close behind in second place,” Ladbrokes representative Alex Apati tells the site. “But it really is all to play for in the race for 007 and RJP has a great chance if the odds are anything to go by.”
      Noting that this kind of shift in the odds isn’t uncommon in the wake of a successful show, Apati cites a previous example, “It’s the reason Cillian Murphy was once favorite during the peak of ‘Peaky Blinders’.” He goes on explaining, “All of those aforementioned names have seen their odds slashed immediately after a huge hype around the show they most recently starred in, hence why it’s no surprise to see a similar pattern with Rege-Jean Page.”
      He adds, “However, what strengthens RJP’s chances somewhat more is that an announcement feels seemingly imminent [around] Daniel Craig’s replacement, so the timing of ‘Bridgerton’ success may well have worked in his favor.”

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      The actor himself stirred the speculation last month with his social media post. On December 19, Page shared promo clip of his hit drama “Bridgerton” featuring him in character, who is described as “equal parts desirable and scandalous.” He captioned it with, “Regency, royalty. Shaken and stirred,” which was a reference to how Bond likes his martini mixed.

      A number of fans supported him as the next Bond, with one tweeting, “Watching Bridgerton and thinking that @regejean would make a brilliant new James Bond.” Another weighed in, “If @regejean is the new James Bond… I’ll actually watch a James Bond.”
      When someone pointed out that Page may be a little young for the part, another fan insisted, “He’s 31, Craig was 38 on first Bond but I still think he’s perfect for the role. Great age for reboot.”
      Prior to starring on “Bridgerton”, Page has already been known for his role as Chicken George on 2016’s miniseries “Roots”. He also starred as a regular cast member on ABC’s legal drama “For the People” from 2018 to 2019.

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      Patty Jenkins Lashes Out at Headlines Suggesting War With Warner Bros. Over 'Wonder Woman'

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      WENN/Adriana M. Barraza

      Insisting she was extremely supported by the studio executives, the ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ director clarifies her ‘beard’ statement by stressing that it was about other projects at other studios.

      Jan 7, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Filmmaker Patty Jenkins has taken aim at New York Post editors for exaggerating comments she made about initial creative conflicts with Warner Bros. bosses over her vision for “Wonder Woman”.
      The director recently appeared on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast and recalled how studio chiefs were hesitant at the start of their collaboration to take her story ideas for 2017’s “Wonder Woman” into consideration – until she put her foot down.
      “They wanted to hire me like a beard,” she said. “They wanted me to walk around on set as a woman, but it was their story and their vision.”

      “They didn’t even want to read my script. There was such mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view… When I first joined ‘Wonder Woman’, it was like, ‘Uh, yeah, OK, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off… I’m a ‘Wonder Woman’ fan, that’s not what we’re looking for!’ ”

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      Her remarks quickly hit headlines, but Jenkins didn’t appreciate the Post’s take on her conversation with Maron, which resulted in an article titled, “Patty Jenkins exposes ‘war’ with Warner Bros. over Wonder Woman”.
      Taking Post reporters to task on Twitter on Tuesday (January 05), the filmmaker wrote, “Versions of this article seems to be everywhere and not true (sic). There was no ‘war’ with warner bros. over ww (‘Wonder Woman’).”
      “I’m talking about 10 years of discussions with 10 different execs through them. And whole beard thing was about other projects at other studios.”
      Jenkins then insisted she has a great working relationship with Warner Bros. executives, who recently signed the director and her leading lady, Gal Gadot, for a third film in the superhero franchise, following the recent launch of “Wonder Woman 1984”.

      Patty Jenkins reacted to headlines about her war with Warner Bros. over ‘Wonder Woman’.
      “I felt extremely supported in my vision on both films by @wbpictures, (producer) @ZackSnyder all the producers and everyone on board our eventual team,” she tweeted. “Just was a long road to make it. Let’s chill the dramatic headlines like ‘war’.”

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      John Rhys-Davies Hints at His Return to New 'Indiana Jones' Movie

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      Paramount Pictures

      The actor who played Sallah in the first and third ‘Indiana Jones’ movies is keen to reprise his role in the upcoming fifth installment to be directed by James Mangold.

      Jan 7, 2021
      AceShowbiz – John Rhys-Davies has hinted at an appearance in the forthcoming “Indiana Jones” sequel.
      The 76-year-old actor played the role of Sallah in both “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and, speaking to ComingSoon.net, the star suggested he could reprise the role in the upcoming fifth movie.
      Explaining he believes that the movie’s production won’t begin in May (21) as suggested due the coronavirus crisis, John said, “I understand the film is going to be made, allegedly in May.”
      “I have the slightest skepticism that the world will be able to shoot a movie like that in May. I suppose it is possible that I will be asked to be in it. If nominated I will serve!”

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      “But I think we ought to wait a little bit longer and, you know, let our masters actually make announcements and then you can either share my joy or my disappointment. Is that suitably diplomatic?”
      “Indiana Jones 5” is slated for release in 2022 and will see James Mangold take over as director from Steven Spielberg, who remains involved on the project as a producer.
      Harrison Ford will once again play the iconic adventurer, with the screen legend previously insisting, “We’re determined to get it right before we get it made… We’re not going to make another Indiana Jones unless we’re in a position to kill it. We want it to be the best.”
      The plot is still kept under tight wraps, but the upcoming movie is expected to “conclude” Indiana Jones’ journey.

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