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    ‘A Little White Lie’ Review: The Not-So-Great Pretender

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    Michael Shannon plays a handyman who impersonates a famous writer in this grievously unfunny comedy.Giving Michael Shannon the lead in a comedy is as counterintuitive as casting Jack Black as an action hero. Yet Shannon’s halting, withdrawn presence in Michael Maren’s “A Little White Lie,” an otherwise atrocious literary farce, burns an unpredictable black hole in the movie’s froth of clichéd exchanges and corny musical cues. Eventually, every other character will be sucked in.Shannon plays Shriver, a monosyllabic handyman who’s mistakenly invited to be the guest of honor at a college literary festival and decides to roll with it. The event’s organizer, an English professor named Simone (Kate Hudson, reliably charming), believes him to be a quite different Shriver, a famously reclusive author who hasn’t been seen in two decades. Simone needs his clout to save her fest from cancellation; what Shriver needs is anyone’s guess.What he gets are romantic feelings for Simone, though these are difficult to discern beneath a befuddled expression that endures through a missing-poet subplot, inexplicable visions and an attack by a randy gynecologist (Wendie Malick, I’m so sorry). A smirking Don Johnson lounges on the periphery as Simone’s horse-riding, Byron-quoting colleague, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, playing a Shriver superfan, adds a bright energy to her brief appearances.Hobbled by a lack of visual oomph or verbal sparkle, “A Little White Lie” pokes feebly at impostor syndrome and writerly insecurity. Adapting Chris Belden’s 2013 novel, “Shriver,” Maren settles for a muddled mystery and a limp love connection. Shannon and Hudson never look half as happy together as Don Johnson looks on the back of that horse.A Little White LieRated R for purple prose. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      ‘Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon’ Review: Escape From New Orleans

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      This hyper-stylized quasi-superhero movie by Ana Lily Amirpour follows a mental hospital patient with supernatural abilities; it looks a lot more fun than it actually is.“Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon,” the third feature by the writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour (“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”), is a quasi-superhero movie that feels in step with something like “The Suicide Squad” or “Birds of Prey.”It, too, lays hard on the confetti-colored visuals and slick violence. And its lead, Mona Lisa (Jong-seo Jun), a mental hospital patient with telekinetic abilities, is only a hero insofar as we’re rooting for her to come out on top.Having broken out of the asylum, her mangled straitjacket mistaken for a fashion statement, Mona Lisa meets the clever stripper-single mother Bonnie (Kate Hudson), whom she saves from an unceremonious beat down. Blank-eyed and completely out of touch with the ways of the world, Mona Lisa is a mostly-silent, Edward Scissorhands-like character who might be mistaken for an innocent were she not also a literal puppet master able to control people’s bodies with her mind.Bonnie takes advantage of her new pal, directing the directionless Mona Lisa to force strangers into making sizable A.T.M. withdrawals. Naturally, there’s also a determined cop (Craig Robinson) on their tail, with the stakes of the manhunt heightened by an unconvincingly adorable friendship between Mona Lisa and Bonnie’s son, Charlie (Evan Whitten).The setting, a violet-drenched New Orleans, takes on the sweaty haze of a 3 a.m.-nightclub, but for all its glowing hyper-stylization and giddy needle drops, “Mona Lisa” only ever manages to tread shallow waters. Its comedy lands flat and its moments of emotional catharsis (when, for instance, Mona Lisa scares off Charlie’s egg-tossing bullies, or Charlie clashes with his neglectful mother over her exploitation of Mona Lisa) feel perfunctory. The movie, more often than not, has the look and feel of an edgy music video, which wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if it weren’t also oddly boring.Mona Lisa and the Blood MoonRated R for bloody self-inflicted violence and street assault. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘Music’ Review: A Woefully Misguided View of Disability

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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‘Music’ Review: A Woefully Misguided View of DisabilityThe pop star Sia’s feature directorial debut, about an autistic teenager, at times seems indistinguishable from mockery.Maddie Ziegler, left, and Kate Hudson in “Music,” directed by Sia.Credit…Merrick Morton/Vertical EntertainmentFeb. 11, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETMusicDirected by SiaDrama, MusicalPG-131h 47mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The cringeworthy drama “Music” introduces its central character in a song and dance sequence so gasp-inducingly crass, the scene almost demands that the movie be shown in theaters. At least then, audiences would be able to exercise the right to walk out.The film is directed by the pop singer and songwriter Sia, and it stars her frequent collaborator, Maddie Ziegler, as an autistic teenager named Music. The film begins with Ziegler performing an interpretive dance set to a new song by Sia about bodies failing and spirits being set free.[embedded content]Ziegler’s dancing is as expressive as ever, but she has been directed to pantomime an exaggerated apery of disability. She gapes, her eyes wide and unfocused, as the choreography leads her through a cruel approximation of twitches and whoops. Neither Ziegler nor Sia are autistic, and their collaboration on this film reduces disability to mannerisms that look indistinguishable from mockery.The film spins away from this shocking opening to introduce its characters in a more realistic world. There, Music lives in New York with her loving grandmother, Millie (Mary Kay Place). When Millie suddenly dies, she leaves the teenager in the care of Music’s half sister, Zu (Kate Hudson, nominated for a Golden Globe in the role).Zu is ill-equipped for the responsibility of watching Music, but the attention of a handsome neighbor, Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr.), provides her with enough incentive to stick around. As Zu and Ebo begin to imagine what a family with Music could look like, they sing Sia songs composed specifically for the film in their fantasies.This is a bizarre movie, one that parades confused ideas about care, fantasy and disability with a pride that reads as vanity. It is audacious, in the sense that making it certainly took some audacity.MusicRated PG-13 for language, drug references and brief violence. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. Rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More