Gelatt, Philip

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    ‘Gray Matter’ Review: Unusual Abilities, the Usual Plot Possibilities

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    Things don’t go well when a teenage girl with mental superpowers ends up at a secret facility in this Max movie entirely devoid of suspense or character.Meko Winbush’s “Gray Matter” is the kind of run-of-the-mill sci-fi thriller that usually delights insomniac Tubi watchers at 3 a.m. Unfortunately, the movie is coming out under a harsh glare that does it no favors: Not only is it on the prestige streamer Max, but it premieres that same day as the 10-episode “Project Greenlight: A New Generation,” which documents its production process. This latest iteration of the docuseries created in 2001 has been rebooted under the aegis of Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani and Gina Prince-Bythewood; the show might end up being entertaining, but “Gray Matter” is by-the-numbers, by-committee product.Written by Philip Gelatt (the television series “Love, Death & Robots”), the movie follows the 16-year-old Aurora (Mia Isaac), who is sheltered from the outside world by her protective mother, Ayla (Jessica Frances Dukes, from “Ozark”). Ayla has been training her daughter to better control her “psionic” powers, which include telekinesis and telepathy (teleportation is advance-seminar level). One evening the teenager sneaks out to meet friends she’s made in secret and ends up losing control over her abilities, blowing the women’s careful constructed cover. The obligatory mysterious guy (Garret Dillahunt) whisks Aurora to a facility he describes as a safe haven for psionics — where this is going is predictable and dull.It’s not so much that “Gray Matter” is formula, but that it is clumsily made formula. Except, that is, for Isaac’s performance. The young actress projects a rare serious-mindedness that grounds the movie. Like a mentalist making a chunk of concrete magically levitate, Isaac almost keeps “Gray Matter” watchable.Gray MatterNot Rated. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. Watch on Max. More

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      ‘The Spine of Night’ Review: Cosmic Forces at Work

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      Ultraviolent world-building and bone-crushing dominate this animated fantasy film.While there’s a lot of content out there these days that can be described as “adult animation,” we don’t see much in the tradition pioneered by 1980s stoner semi-classics like the sci-fi anthology “Heavy Metal” or the racy sword-and-sorcery saga “Fire and Ice.”Admittedly, it’s not as if there’s a mainstream outcry for such fare. Nevertheless, the existence of “The Spine of Night,” an unabashedly bloody series of interconnected tales about otherworldly cultures and eras, is kind of heartening. The co-directors, Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, who both wrote the picture as well, are pitching for a venerable dirtbag-nerd sensibility here.The movie signals its commitment to nudity right off the bat, with its depiction of a witchy warrior, Tzod (voiced by Lucy Lawless), racing up a snowy mountainside in the altogether, save for oodles of ceremonial jewelry. Once at the top, she meets the ghostly Guardian (Richard E. Grant), who watches over the “bloom.” It holds an awesome, perhaps cosmic force.They relate to each other stories of the bloom’s power. How it corrupted a medieval scholar turned despot. And of how the quest for knowledge frequently mutates into greed. Some dialogue is amusingly familiar to any Bond fan. “You took me from mother swamp to serve this place?” “No, I took you from mother swamp to die in this place.” Hmm.As philosophical as the movie waxes, it’s mostly a brief history of disembowelment and bone-crushing. Alas, all the world-building filmmakers may contrive doesn’t count for much if they don’t put it across visually. And this heavily rotoscoped vision does not get where it needs to be to achieve genuine trippiness. Not for nothing, the most visually effective sequence is made up of silhouettes.The Spine of NightNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More