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      ‘Film Geek’ Review: A Cinephile’s Guide to New York

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      The director Richard Shepard details his lifelong obsession with movies in this enthusiastic video essay.Richard Shepard, the director of the black comedies “Dom Hemingway” and “The Matador,” is a lifelong cinephile with a voracious appetite for movies.“Film Geek,” a feature-length video essay composed primarily of footage of films that Shepard saw growing up in the 1970s in New York City, delves deep into his obsession. In a voice-over, he recounts his childhood, when he was “addicted to movies, to watching them, to making them.” He is enthusiastic, and the movie aspires to make that enthusiasm infectious.I appreciate Shepard’s affection: I also grew up loving movies, and I found his wistful reminiscences of being awed by “Jaws” and “Star Wars” relatable. But Shepard’s level of self-regard can be stultifying. For minutes at a time, he simply rattles off the titles of various movies that he saw as a child. I appreciate that seeing “Rocky” made a strong impression on him. I did not need to know that he lost his virginity in the apartment building where John G. Avildsen, the director of “Rocky,” once lived.“Film Geek” has been compared to Thom Andersen’s great documentary from 2003, “Los Angeles Plays Itself,” and on the level of montage, they share a superficial resemblance: “Film Geek,” like Andersen’s essay film, is brisk and well edited.But “Los Angeles Plays Itself” is also a thoughtful and incisive work of film criticism, whereas Shepard describes movies in clichés, when he describes movies at all. More often he is talking about himself, a subject of interest to far fewer viewers.Film GeekNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Hong Sang-soo’s Film ‘In Our Day” Meditates on the Spice of Life

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      The Korean director Hong Sang-soo winds together the slenderest strands of two intersecting stories to make a tender film about simple pleasures.In another world there’s a Hong Sang-soo Cinematic Universe, where a rabid fandom celebrates the one or two movies every year featuring a revolving door not of familiar superheroes but of poets, filmmakers and actors, each of them contending with questions of life and love rather than planetary threats. Those elements, of artists in quotidian scenarios, drinking soju and smoking amid everyday conversation, are present in many of the small humanist gems that make up this South Korean auteur’s filmography, and the same goes for his latest, “In Our Day.”The film, as warm and wise as it is simple and languid, follows two separate parties (diptychs are another Hong trademark) across a single afternoon. One involves Sangwon (Kim Min-hee, Hong’s frequent collaborator and offscreen partner), an actress pondering retirement, as she spends the day with her friend and her younger cousin; the other involves Uiju (Ki Joo-bong), an old poet dispensing life lessons in his apartment to two university students, one of whom is filming him for a documentary.The two story lines don’t cross paths, as they often do in Hong’s films; they are united only by the deployment of a culinary hack: mixing hot pepper paste into ramyun. His gochujang-inflected noodles provide a simple pleasure made all the more satisfying in recent days for Uiju, who, on doctor’s orders, is abstaining from drinking and smoking. But he can’t quite resist on either front, reflecting a sentiment from early in the film when Sangwon, offering up treats to a friend’s cat, says, “What’s the point of living, anyway? Eat your fill.”It’s a glimmer of existential wisdom buried in the mundane, if you look at it the right way. Most of the film is made up of these moments. Isn’t life like that, too? To search for or expect more would be to court disappointment. “Don’t look for meaning. That’s cowardice,” Uiju tells a young pupil searching desperately for grand answers. “Just jump in the water. Don’t try knowing it all before jumping, like a coward.”In Our DayNot rated. In Korean, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 23 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘IF’ Review: Invisible Friends, but Real Celebrity Cameos

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      The film is a slim story about a girl named Bea (Cailey Fleming) who helps a crank named Cal (Ryan Reynolds) play matchmaker. Oh, and Bradley Cooper is a glass of ice water.The big “IF” — as in “imaginary friend” — in John Krasinski’s treacly kids dramedy is a grizzly-sized purple goon who goes by the name Blue. The boy who conjured him was colorblind, he explains. Blue (voiced by Steve Carell) is one of dozens of dreamed-up creatures in Brooklyn who long for their now-grown BFFs to remember they exist.At the Memory Lane Retirement Community underneath Coney Island, there’s also a pink alligator (Maya Rudolph), a superhero dog (Sam Rockwell), a worn teddy (Louis Gossett Jr.), a retro cartoon butterfly (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), a robot (Jon Stewart), an astronaut (George Clooney), a glass of ice water (Bradley Cooper), a gummy bear (Amy Schumer), a unicorn (Emily Blunt), a flower (Matt Damon), a cat in an octopus costume (Blake Lively), a ghost (Matthew Rhys), a soap bubble (Awkwafina), some green slime (Keegan-Michael Key), and an invisible blob who the credits claim is none other than Brad Pitt.What’s more impressive: Krasinski’s imagination or the very real friends in his Rolodex?Most of these characters merely stroll through the frame to say hello, or whine to each other in group therapy. Yet these celebrity cameos take up about as much space as the plot, a gentle, slim story about an unflappable 12-year-old girl named Bea (Cailey Fleming) who helps a crank named Cal (Ryan Reynolds) play matchmaker for the lonely IFs.If — and this is a rhetorical if — you’re still traumatized by the last shot of Bing Bong, the forgotten imaginary friend in Pixar’s “Inside Out,” breathe easy. There’s no existential threat (or narrative tension) about what might happen if the goofy gang remains consigned to oblivion. Palling about with kids again just sounds nice.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Coma’ Review: A Labyrinthine Lockdown Movie

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      Bertrand Bonello’s latest horror film, dedicated to his teenage daughter, pushes the boundaries of the conventional pandemic movie.“Coma,” a pandemic-themed horror movie by the director Bertrand Bonello, takes its title from one of its two cloistered characters living in France during the coronavirus lockdown. Patricia Coma (Julia Faure) is a social media influencer whose channel is made up of surreal how-to videos, philosophical monologues and weather reports (though it doesn’t matter, “you can’t go out, anyway,” she explains).Watching Patricia is an unnamed teenage girl (Louise Labèque), moody and introspective as she spends her days in confinement glued to the screen.Don’t be misled by the more conventional pandemic scenes, like the teenager’s video chats with friends — “Coma” pushes the boundaries of the so-called lockdown movie with its thrilling, chaotic form.At first, it seemingly tracks the teenager’s online interactions: Patricia’s uncanny missives and a smutty sitcom played out by stop-motion dolls. We also see the teenager’s recurring nightmare, in which she’s trapped in a purgatorial forest, as well as surveillance footage in which she appears to be out in the streets.With Bonello’s fluid editing, the gradual spillover between scenes and intrusions by reality itself — then-President Trump’s tweets play a role — seems to flatten time. That’s certainly become a cliché in films like “Locked Down” or Bo Burnham’s “Inside,” but Bonello’s experimental approach brings a new level of desperation to this compressed version of reality.As a relatively short, minimalistic production, “Coma” plays like an amuse-bouche to Bonello’s recent epic “The Beast,” about the tragedy of characters who lack free will. Patricia is a kind of evangelist for this worldview. She sells an electronic memory game, like Simon, that the teenager plays to kill time, but, as if by some kind of dark magic, cannot seem to lose.The film begins and ends with a subtitled message written by Bonello to his daughter, to whom he dedicated the film. It acknowledges the unique despair of her generation — of children accustomed to climate change and school shootings; their best years spent online, trapped at home during a global pandemic.This message is also what makes “Coma” surpass the trappings of a lockdown movie: It may be anchored to that period, but it speaks to an existential crisis that defines many right now.ComaNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters. More

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      How ‘Back to Black’ Recreated Amy Winehouse’s Look

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      In the biopic “Back to Black,” Marisa Abela wears some of the singer’s actual clothes, but the hair and makeup team chose to tone the signature beehive down.Few looks are as distinctive as Amy Winehouse’s was. The singer’s sweeping eyeliner, tottering heels and disheveled beehive are still instantly recognizable, 13 years after her death.In the new biopic “Back to Black,” Marisa Abela plays the star from the beginning of her music career until her final days. She wears mini skirts with girlish ruffles and small kitten heels to begin with, before adopting her distinctive pinup aesthetic as she dives deeper into the music industry and her self-destructive habits.Peta Dunstall, left, the makeup and hair designer for “Back to Black,” working on Abela’s hair on set. Dean Rogers/Focus FeaturesThe film takes its title from Winehouse’s second album, and “when we get to ‘Back to Black’ Amy, it’s more sexy,” the film’s costume designer, PC Williams, said. “There was a big change in the way she presented.”To recreate this, the production team studied many real-life images of Winehouse. But there were also some intentional changes: They were making “a piece of cinema as opposed to creating a documentary,” Williams said. Here is a closer look at the process.Towering HairAbela as Amy Winehouse in “Back to Black.”Dean Rogers/Focus FeaturesThe real Amy Winehouse performing at the Riverside Studios in London 2008.Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images for NARASWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      George Miller and Anya Taylor-Joy on ‘Furiosa’

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      For George Miller, Anya Taylor-Joy and their crew, a series of natural disasters made for an arduous production.In the hardscrabble, postapocalyptic world of “Mad Max,” nothing is more precious than water and gasoline. But to actually make “Mad Max” movies requires an even rarer commodity: faith.Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, who fought during the difficult and chaotic making of the 2015 “Mad Max: Fury Road,” later said they wished they had placed more faith in the vision of George Miller, the director. The people who greenlit “Fury Road” didn’t fully understand it, either: Warner Bros. executives flew to Namibia, the site of the filming, and demanded that Miller cease production before the movie was complete, then crafted an alternative edit in an effort to undermine Miller’s final cut.Against all odds, Miller was able to release a one-of-a-kind, Oscar-winning masterwork. Now, he has returned with “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” a prequel to “Fury Road,” which premiered Wednesday night at the Cannes Film Festival and will be released in theaters next Wednesday.Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron in “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), a hit despite the chaotic production.Jasin Boland/Warner Bros.Did Miller feel the wind at his back while making “Furiosa,” since the reception to “Fury Road” vindicated his vision?“It definitely made it easier,” he said. “It didn’t make it effortless.”That last point may be understating things just a bit: A bevy of natural disasters, including floods and the coronavirus, pushed the production’s budget to $233 million, making it the most expensive movie ever shot in Australia. At every point in its making, Miller was faced with challenges as outsized as the fantasy world he labored to create.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Back to Black’ Review: Another Amy Winehouse Biopic? No, No, No.

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      The facts get softened and shuffled for an Amy Winehouse biopic that leaves her perspective at the edges.The director of “Back to Black,” Sam Taylor-Johnson, has said repeatedly in interviews that the movie is meant to center Amy Winehouse’s story in her own perspective. That may or may not be meant as implicit criticism of “Amy,” Asif Kapadia’s Oscar-winning 2015 documentary about the singer, which wove together archival interviews — many damning — with family and friends as well as with Winehouse herself to make the case that everyone was at fault for her untimely demise. Either way, Taylor-Johnson’s remarks suggest that Winehouse, who in 2011 died at the age of 27 of alcohol poisoning, has been co-opted in the years since her death. “Back to Black,” then, is an effort to tell the story the way she would have.But, oof. If that was the aim, I’m comfortable saying it failed completely. “Back to Black” has some bright spots. One is Marisa Abela’s performance as Winehouse, which is deeply and lovingly committed, if at times a little distracting. A few sequences work, too, particularly her marathon pub meet-cute with Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell), the man whose exceptionally toxic relationship with Winehouse inspired the album for which the movie is named. (Unfortunately there are very few scenes in which we see Winehouse’s songs coming together — usually the best part of a musician biopic.)“Back to Black” starts with Winehouse expressing that she simply wants people to listen to her music and forget their troubles for a while, and to know who she really was. Then it follows her through her early gigs in Camden pubs, her friendships and her fights with boyfriends. When she meets Fielder-Civil, everything changes — and not for the best. Always a heavy drinker, she gradually becomes addicted to all kinds of substances, in part because he is an addict. When he goes back to his girlfriend, she writes angry songs that become “Back to Black.” When he returns, things get worse.Yet the facts of the real Winehouse’s life and struggles are impossible to ignore, and some of the movie’s choices, from a screenplay by Matt Greenhalgh, seem aimed at rewriting her history without her consent. Fielder-Civil, for instance, has said he instigated Winehouse’s first encounter with heroin, but in “Back to Black” she starts shooting up on her own. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Babes’ Review: Adulting, With Babies

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      Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau star in Pamela Adlon’s pregnancy comedy, but it never quite lands.Among life’s biggest disappointments is a movie you wanted to love and didn’t. Alas: That’s what happened with “Babes.” The elements that promised joy were all there, starting with two very funny comic talents in Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau. There’s a screenplay by Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz, who was a producer on “Broad City,” the kooky, beloved show in which Glazer co-starred. And perhaps most of all, it’s directed by Pamela Adlon, whose chops for this kind of material — a buddy comedy about pregnancy, parenthood and grown-up life — were perfectly honed by her show “Better Things,” which I staunchly believe is among the best TV ever made.But sometimes a pile of good ingredients doesn’t make something delicious, and I guess that’s what happened here. The marketing for “Babes” suggests something akin to “Bridesmaids,” the runaway 2011 hit that reminded Hollywood that raunchy comedies starring women can be hilarious and profitable. “Bridesmaids” owes some of its punch to its rapid-fire rhythm, the pileup of relentless jokes both verbal and physical.“Babes” has plenty of raunch, but it’s otherwise very different. The setup is fairly modest: Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Buteau) have been best friends since they were kids, and they’re still each other’s person, even though Dawn and her husband, Marty (Hasan Minhaj), moved to the Upper West Side and have a kid just barely out of diapers. Meanwhile, over in Astoria, Eden is free-spirited and single. Dawn and Marty’s second baby is born on Thanksgiving Day, and on the way home from the hospital Eden meets Claude (Stephan James) on the subway. Instant sparks fly, and their connection is undeniable, but Claude goes AWOL after their night together.And then, about a month later, Eden realizes she’s pregnant. When Dawn promises to be there for her, she decides to have the baby. But in friendship, as in all kinds of love, the course never does run smooth.“Babes” is, obviously, about pregnancy, which gives plenty of opportunity for body humor involving fluids and openings and other matters. But it’s just as much about friendship, and about the struggle to maintain connections when life circumstances change. It’s also about how frustrating young parenthood can be, even if you have the ability to pay for help and don’t worry about the roof over your head. In sum, you can almost hear the movie saying, adult life is a land of contrasts, and you’d better just hang on for the bumpy ride.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More