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      ‘Playlist’ Review: A Broken Record of Trials

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      In this brisk comedy set in Paris, an aspiring cartoonist stumbles through a series of romantic, professional and medical misadventures.Taking cues from shambolic big-city indies like “Frances Ha,” “Playlist,” the debut feature by the French graphic novelist and illustrator Nine Antico, is a brisk comedy about a chaotic woman in her late twenties who can’t seem to catch a break.Oddly enough, it is the second French import of 2022 to capture the love lives of young Parisians using a monochrome palette. Jacques Audiard’s tripartite romance, “Paris, 13th District” was released in April, and it, too, draws from the world of animation — the film was based on stories by the cartoonist Adrian Tomine.“Playlist,” instead, takes a mocking look at France’s comic book industry. Sophie (a charismatic Sara Forestier) is a wannabe cartoonist who lands a secretarial gig at an elite publishing firm run by self-proclaimed jerk Jean-Luc (Grégoire Colin). It’s better than her job as a waitress — no more dealing with the flaky cook, her sometimes-boyfriend — but the opportunity doesn’t exactly put her art on the map.With each new man Sophie encounters, a scribbled text appears with his name. It’s an annoyingly quirky indicator of the connection between her lovelorn fixations and her creative processes.A music lover (the corny-yearning soundtrack is heavy on American folk musician Daniel Johnston), Sophie also deals with an abortion, a bed bug infestation, an intimidating roommate and a hematoma that stops a hookup dead in its tracks.The film’s adrift-and-artsy-girl hangups don’t make for a terribly original premise, but the script by Antico (with the collaboration of Marc Syrigas) is peppered with amusing zingers and absurd, yet relatable situations. (“I take my pasta seriously,” exclaims Jean-Luc when Sophie procures the wrong brand of Parmesan.) There are no particularly moving insights, and it falls short of a proper character study, but “Playlist” does intrigue with its droll individual parts — if not the sum of them.PlaylistNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Dinner in America’ Review: A Punk-Rock Love Story

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      A rage-fueled rock singer on the run from the police meets and falls in love with a gullible young woman eager to escape her circumstances.Rage is at the center of “Dinner in America,” a film by Adam Rehmeier in which the central characters are at odds with the police, bank tellers, their parents, two-timing bosses and bullying jocks. Fleeing from the cops, Simon (Kyle Gallner) is a punk rocker who leads with anger and violence. Patty (Emily Skeggs) is a naïve 20-year-old eager to break out of her mundane existence, using rock music as an escape. They help each other find their way in a community where both are outcasts.The fault lines in their relationships with their families and those around them are most apparent at the family dinners they attend, where they clash with strait-laced siblings and parents — like Patty’s father, who can’t handle the spiciness of cumin. The film is an ode to the punk-rock scene of the 1990s Midwest, a space where Simon and Patty both find relief from the dullness of the world around them.“Dinner in America” delivers on surprise and explosiveness, but much of its offensive language, both racist and homophobic, feels gratuitous in a film that might have otherwise landed as an offbeat love story. There is, perhaps, an argument to be made for representing a time and place truthfully, but because the film does not critically engage with the uglier elements of the society it portrays, these become a distraction. And a viewer might find it difficult to get sucked into the love and music story at its center.Dinner in AmericaNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Film on Expulsion of Kashmir’s Hindus Is Polarizing and Popular in India

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      Called propaganda by critics and essential viewing by fans, “The Kashmir Files,” an unexpected blockbuster, has drawn the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.SIKAR, India — A group of boys are playing cricket on a snowy field in Kashmir, a war-scarred, Muslim-majority region contested between India and Pakistan.As the boys play, they’re listening in the background to radio commentary about a professional cricket match between the archrivals India and Pakistan. When one of the boys, a Hindu named Shiva, cheers on the famed Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, he is beaten for doing so, and his abusers force him to chant, “Long live Pakistan, down with Hindustan!”This opening scene sets the tone for “The Kashmir Files,” a film that has become an unexpected blockbuster, drawing millions of moviegoers across India and the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.The film, released in March, is largely set in the late 1980s and the early 1990s when a group of militant Islamists forcibly expelled Kashmiri Pandits, upper-caste Hindus, from the region. It has been seized on by the B.J.P. as a tool to advance its narrative of Hindu persecution in India, at a time of increasing calls for violence against India’s minority Muslims.Bharatiya Janata Party workers are encouraging members and supporters to attend, the cast and crew are doing photo ops with Mr. Modi and some states governed by the party have been offering tax breaks on ticket sales and days off from work to spur attendance.People waiting in line for a showing of “The Kashmir Files“ in Mumbai in March.Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters“Those who have not watched it must watch the movie to learn how atrocities and terror gripped Kashmir during Congress rule,” said Amit Shah, India’s home minister, referring to one of India’s major political parties and a rival of the B.J.P.From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, Kashmir was in the grip of an insurgency led by militants seeking independence or union with neighboring Pakistan. About 65,000 families, mostly Pandits, left the region in the early 1990s, according to a government report.The region remained restive in the decades that followed, and in 2019, the Modi government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its long-held semiautonomous status, splitting it into two federal territories administered by New Delhi and deploying a heavy security presence amid a clampdown on free speech.While the Indian government has insisted that its decision to take away Kashmir’s special status was intended to improve governance there, and to cut down on militancy, the region has experienced unrest and violence, sometimes deadly, since then, with the killings by both militants and security forces.The film’s critics, including opposition politicians and left-leaning intellectuals and historians, have called it “divisive” and “propaganda,” an attempt to sensationalize the killing of Kashmiri Pandits while avoiding the depiction of any violence against Muslims. In 1990, the peak year of the Pandits’ exodus, hundreds of both Hindus and Muslims were killed by militants.Critics also say the film has given the B.J.P. ammunition to widen the wedge between Hindus and Muslims.A.S. Dulat, a former head of India’s intelligence agency and the author of a book on Kashmir, said there was no doubt that Pandits were targeted by Islamist radicals. But he refused to watch the movie, finding its message unhelpful and poorly timed.“This movie is made to unnecessarily polarize the nation, and Kashmir can do without it,” he said.Many on the political right say that dismissing the film is tantamount to shooting the messenger.“This movie is special because before now, the actual cruelty suffered by Kashmiri Pandits had never been told in this unadulterated manner,” said Gaurav Tiwari, a Bharatiya Janata Party member who has arranged free tickets for moviegoers.Bharatiya Janata Party leaders pushed in March in New Delhi for a lifting of taxes on tickets to the movie.Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times, via Getty ImagesMohit Bhan, a Pandit whose ancestral home was burned during the expulsion in 1993, said many in his community saw the film as a long-overdue exploration of the period.“Now that the Pandits have come to believe that justice is hard to come by at the hands of successive governments, they think this movie is it,” said Mr. Bhan, whose party, the People’s Democratic Party, led Jammu and Kashmir in an alliance with Mr. Modi’s B.J.P. before the state was changed into a federal territory.While the response to the film has been deeply divided along political and sectarian lines, its commercial success is beyond dispute: Despite having no song-and-dance numbers — a staple feature of Bollywood movies — “The Kashmir Files” was an instant hit, grossing more than $40 million so far, making it one of the top earners this year. It cost about $2 million to make. Sandeep Yadav, a businessman in his early 30s, was waiting to watch the movie on a recent Sunday at a mall in Sikar, a quiet farm town in the Indian state of Rajasthan.Mr. Yadav said that he had previously learned about what happened to the Pandits on television, and that he rarely went to the movies, relying instead on his cellphone for a daily dose of entertainment.But this movie was a special occasion, he said before the screening at a theater which had completely sold out for “The Kashmir Files” in the first few weeks of its release.“I had heard that Pandits were driven out from their homes in the middle of the night,” he said. “I was curious about the topic and wanted to watch this movie, especially for that.”Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, the director, said he made “The Kashmir Files” after taking close to 700 video testimonies from people who had directly suffered during that period. He declined to say how many of those were Hindus or Muslims.Vivek Agnihotri, director of “The Kashmir Files,” at a news conference in New Delhi, in May.Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times, via Getty ImagesIn an interview, Mr. Agnihotri said his goal with the film was to expose what he called the “genocide” inflicted on Pandits and his contention that leftist-leaning academics, intellectuals and writers were complicit in covering up that history.“All I am saying is acknowledge that genocide happened so that nobody repeats it against Hindus or Muslims or Buddhists or Christians,” he said.In both a 2018 book and in interviews, Mr. Agnihotri has railed against left-wing student activists and intellectuals for supporting the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in India, calling these so-called urban Naxalites “worse than terrorists.” He has also voiced his support for Yogi Adityanath, the firebrand Hindu monk who recently won re-election as the chief minister of India’s most populous state.Some of Bollywood’s elite have praised the film. Ram Gopal Varma, a director and producer, posted on Twitter that it “will inspire a new breed of revolutionary film makers.”But some of the film’s critics have disparaged the movie for having more violence than nuance.In one scene, an aging teacher, played by the acclaimed Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, is forced to leave his home with his daughter-in-law and two grandchildren after his Muslim student-turned-militant shoots his son. His daughter-in-law is forced to eat rice mixed with her husband’s blood and then, in a later scene, she is sawed to death by militants.In Sikar, the moviegoers sat stunned by the movie’s final scene, which critics say essentially ensures that audiences exit enraged.In it, terrorists storm a Pandit refugee camp camouflaged in Indian Army uniforms, then line up refugees and shoot them dead at point-blank range.In the theater, Mr. Yadav moved to the edge of his seat as bodies slumped over onscreen. He winced when the last refugee, the young boy, Shiva, is fatally shot.“This movie makes me so very angry,” he said after the screening. “This is what will stay with me,” he added, “the pain of the Hindu Pandits and the gruesomeness of the Muslim terrorists.”Critics of the blockbuster denounced it in New Delhi after its opening.Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times, via Getty ImagesWhile the movie has been widely seen across India, it hasn’t been screened in the Kashmir Valley, where theaters have been shuttered since the 1990s, so Kashmiris haven’t been able to assess it themselves. Just this month it was added to a streaming service that will enable some Kashmiris to view it.Mohammad Ayub Chapri, a taxi driver in Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, said that while he had not been able to see the film, he had gathered through social media that it cast his community in a negative light.“It makes me sad to know this,” Mr. Chapri said. “We Muslims have shared meals with the Pandits, eating from the same plate. Even Muslims were killed by the radicals, but the movie seems to paint all Muslims here with the same brush.” More

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      in Television

      Jurnee Smollett: ‘The Past Few Years Have Been Heartbreaking’

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      The “Lovecraft Country” star has faced setbacks but emerged with new projects, including the Netflix movie “Spiderhead.”Jurnee Smollett learned she had received a best actress Emmy nomination for her starring role on the HBO series “Lovecraft Country” when she was in the hair and makeup trailer for another project, the coming Netflix film “Lou.”“I started screaming,” she recalled. “I was screaming, and crying.”That joy was tempered somewhat when she heard that her first Emmy nomination — one of 18 for the critically acclaimed series — was also the first time two Black leads from the same drama series had been nominated in the same year. “I thought, it can’t be,” she said. “We’re still making firsts, in 2021? It was sobering, I’m not going to lie.”That first season of “Lovecraft Country,” a horror drama which featured monsters of all sorts, from tentacled demons to racist cops, looked to be the start of something big — until it wasn’t. A much-anticipated second season never came to pass. Meanwhile, Smollett’s life, going back to the death of her father in 2015 after years of estrangement, has been beset by sadness and setbacks.“The past few years have been heartbreaking,” she admitted.But Smollett never stopped working, even in the midst of the pandemic. Among her forthcoming projects are “Lou,” a female-led thriller co-starring Allison Janney, and “The Burial,” a courtroom dramedy in which Smollett and Jamie Foxx square off as rival attorneys. She’s also preparing to reprise her role as Black Canary, the chanteuse superhero with pipes of steel she played in the 2020 film “Birds of Prey.”Courtney B. Vance, left, and Jonathan Majors with Jurnee Smollett in “Lovecraft Country.”Eli Joshua Ade/HBOAnd then there’s “Spiderhead,” a sci-fi thriller based on a 2010 short story by George Saunders, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel “Lincoln in the Bardo.” In the film, which premieres June 17, Steve Abnesti, the overseer of an eerily cushy island prison, is conducting drug-fueled psychological experiments on his charges, which include Jeff, a convict serving time for involuntary manslaughter, and Lizzy, a fellow convict who harbors her own dark secret.Chris Hemsworth (the “Thor” franchise) plays the unctuous overseer, while Miles Teller (“Whiplash”) and Smollett play his two primary lab rats. “For a drama like this, a character-driven film where you’re really only talking about three characters, you need to have some heavy hitters,” said the director, Joseph Kosinski, who also directed Teller in the upcoming “Top Gun: Maverick.”“Spiderhead” was shot in Australia in 2020, during the pandemic. Like the controversial Milgram experiment of the early 1960s, in which subjects were ordered by lab coat-wearing “scientists” to administer what they thought were painful electric shocks to other study participants, Jeff and Lizzy are urged to administer drugs with names like Verbaluce (instant verbosity!) and Darkenfloxx (pain beyond imagining!) to each other — you know, for science. (Smooth soundtrack jams from Chuck Mangione and the Doobie Brothers accompany the action.)“Jurnee and Miles make a good on-screen couple for this because they can both play damaged,” Kosinski said.The movie forced Smollett to question what she herself might do under similar circumstances. Would she administer excruciatingly painful drugs to somebody, say, Miles Teller, if someone like Chris Hemsworth asked her to? “I believe, in the comfort of my home, that I would say no,” she said.In a video interview this month, Smollett, 35, looked back on an acting career that has spanned three decades, from sitcoms to feature films, with detours on the stage. “I’ve done this so long,” she said with a laugh. She talked about everything from childhood crushes (“Paul Newman, Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes”) to motherhood (“It’s true what they say, that it’s your heart living outside of your body”), to how she got her name.That name. Her parents, Smollett explained, both had names starting with J, so they decided all six of their children should, too. Smollett’s brother Jojo thinks “Jurnee” might be a play on Sojourner Truth, the 19th-century abolitionist, but Smollett’s mother has a different story.“My mom was in labor for two hours, and I fell asleep in the middle of coming down the birth canal,” Jurnee Smollett said. “And my mom kept saying, ‘This little girl’s a trip.’ I guess I wasn’t ready to come out, and so she said I took her on a journey.”Smollett’s earliest memories have been on sets and stages. At 3, she played Debbie Allen’s daughter — and Diahann Carroll’s granddaughter — on a pilot for an unsold series, “Sunday in Paris.” At 4, she was cast as Denise Frazer, Michelle Tanner’s pal, on the long-running sitcom “Full House.” The young actress resisted the persistent siren call of the Disney Channel.“I was blessed because I wasn’t a child star,” Smollett said. “I was a kid who acted.”Smollett with Miles Teller in “Spiderhead.”NetflixFilm roles soon followed. In 1996, she appeared in the first of them, Francis Ford Coppola’s “Jack,” alongside Robin Williams. “Robin Williams taught me how to improv when I was 8 years old,” she said. At 11, she was starring alongside Samuel L. Jackson in “Eve’s Bayou,” which also featured Carroll — Smollett’s second role with the pioneering actress before she had even hit her teens. “We were old pals by then,” she said.Over the years, she has shared the stage of the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles with Cicely Tyson in a 2014 revival of “The Trip to Bountiful,” and played Angela Bassett’s daughter (the 2001 TV movie “Ruby’s Bucket of Blood”) and Denzel Washington’s pupil (“The Great Debaters”). That 2007 drama “was like taking a master class,” she said.In 2018, Smollett was cast in “Lovecraft Country.” For her role as Leti Lewis, a young Black woman traveling through segregated 1950s America, Smollett drew inspiration from her maternal grandmother, who died before Smollett was born but whom the actress described as “always this mystical figure in our household.”“One of my teachers pointed out to me this idea of blood memory,” she said. “Having that Black and Jewish ancestry, I come from survivors. It’s part of our DNA. My grandmother was a survivor, and her spirit is what I called upon when I approached Leti.”Family has played a major role in Smollett’s life over the past several years. In 2015, her father, whom she had been estranged from for most of her life, died, only two years after reconnecting with Smollett and the rest of her family. “We reunited at my sister’s wedding,” she said. “It was the first time I had seen him in years. It was such a healing moment for my entire family.”Four years later, her brother Jussie Smollett told police he had been the victim of a racist attack and was later charged with filing a false police report; in the end, her brother was sentenced to 150 days in county jail. Smollett declined to talk about the situation, but “it’s no secret how heartbroken my family is,” she said.“I am so close to Jussie,” she added. “I love that man so much. He’s always been there for me, as all my siblings have. If I didn’t have my family, if I didn’t have my mom and my siblings, I don’t know where I’d be.”And then in 2020, as the pandemic set in, Smollett filed for divorce from her husband, the musician Josiah Bell, after nearly 10 years of marriage. The two had a child together, Hunter, now 5. When asked what it’s like being a mom, Smollett clarified, “A single working mom!”She explained: “It’s the biggest blessing and the biggest challenge, simultaneously. But I’m lucky I’m in a situation in which, as a working mom, I’m able to bring him with me wherever I go. I know not all moms have that benefit.”In the coming years, Smollett hopes to be doing more producing. “‘Lou’ was the first film I produced, and I definitely see myself stepping more into that role,” she said. “I hope to usher more unique voices and filmmakers who are creating inclusive stories, centering folks who aren’t normally centered in these types of stories.”Even so, Smollett isn’t giving up acting any time soon. “I’m very excited about the slate of films we have coming down the pipeline,” she said. “They’re dream roles.”Those include the Black Canary movie, which is being written by the “Lovecraft Country” creator Misha Green. “Jurnee shows up on the day, and she has thought about 900 different ways to approach her character,” said Green, who also worked with the actress on the series “Underground.”Yet even as Smollett looks forward, she’s trying to appreciate the present, if even just a bit. “I’m trying to find a balance between enjoying the now, because that’s something I struggle with, and always looking to the future,” she said. “I’m always like, OK, been there, done that. What’s next?” More

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      in Movies

      Cannes 2022: ‘Elvis’ Iss Remixed by Baz Luhrmann

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      The super-splashy biopic presents the story of the King as told by a (fake) colonel, a narratively curious choice.CANNES, France — Close to the start of “Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann’s hyperventilated, fitfully entertaining and thoroughly deranged highlight reel of the life and times of Elvis Presley, I wondered what I was watching. I kept wondering as Luhrmann split the screen, chopped it to bits, slowed the motion, splashed the color and turned Elvis not just into a king, but also a savior, a martyr and a transformational American civil-rights figure who — through his innocence, decency, music and gyrating hips — helped heal a nation.In conventional terms, “Elvis,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, can be classed as a biographical portrait, a cradle-to-grave (more or less) story of a little boy from Tupelo, Miss., who became a pop-culture sensation and sad cautionary tale — played as an adult by the appealing, hard-working Austin Butler — despite the evil man, a.k.a. Col. Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), who groomed him. But Luhrmann — whose films include “Moulin Rouge” and “The Great Gatsby” and, um, “Australia” — doesn’t do simple or ordinary. A visual maximalist, he likes to go big and then bigger, and he likes to go super-splashy. Most filmmakers just want to get the shot; the great ones strive for perfection. Luhrmann wants to bedazzle it.The movie’s narrative axis and, strangely, its most vividly realized character is Colonel Parker, whom Hanks embodies with an enormous, obviously false belly, flamboyant jowls, a nose that juts like the prow of a ship and a baffling accent. I would have loved to have listened in on Luhrmann and Hank’s conversations about their ideas for the character; if nothing else, it might have explained what in the world they were after here. I honestly haven’t a clue, although the image of Sydney Greenstreet looming menacingly in “The Maltese Falcon” repeatedly came to mind, with a dash of “Hogan’s Heroes.”Written by Luhrmann and several others, the movie traces Elvis’s trajectory through Parker, a curious choice given that the colonel is the villain of the piece. They meet when Elvis is a young unknown and still under the protective wing of his mother and father. As soon as the colonel sees Elvis perform — or rather, witnesses the euphoric reactions of the shrieking female audiences — he realizes that this kid is a gold mine. The colonel swoops in, seduces Elvis and puts him under his exploitative sway. The rest is history, one that Luhrmann tracks from obscurity to Graceland and finally Las Vegas.Even non-Elvis-ologists should recognize the outlines of this story, as it shifts from the beautiful boy to the sensational talent and the fallen idol. That said, those who don’t know much about the ugliness of Elvis’s life may be surprised by some of the ideas Luhrmann advances, particularly when it comes to the civil rights movement. A white musician who performed and helped popularize Black music for white America, Elvis was unquestionably a critically important crossover figure. What’s discomforting is the outsized role that Luhrmann gives Elvis in America’s excruciating racial history.In the gospel of Elvis that Luhrmann preaches here, the titular performer isn’t only an admirer or interpreter (much less exploiter) of Black music. He is instead a prophetic figure of change who — because of the time he spends in the Black church, Black juke joints and Black music clubs — will be able to bridge the divide between the races or at least make white people shake, rattle and roll. As a child, Elvis feels the spirit in the pulpit and beyond; later, he becomes an instrument for change by copying Black ecstasy and pumping his slim hips at white audiences, sending them into sexualized frenzy.As Elvis ascends and the colonel schemes, Luhrmann keeps the many parts whirring, pushing the story into overdrive. The 1950s give way to the ’60s and ’70s amid songs, pricey toys, assassinations, personal tragedies and the usual rest, though I don’t remember hearing the words Vietnam War. Family members enter and exit, tears are spilled, pills popped. There are significant gaps (no Ann-Margret or Richard M. Nixon), and, outside a nice scene in which the Las Vegas Elvis arranges a large ensemble of musicians, there’s also little about how Elvis actually made music. He listens to Black music and, almost by osmosis and sheer niceness, becomes the King of Rock ’n’ RollWhile Butler pouts, smolders and sweats, he has been tasked with what seems an impossible role. Elvis’s ravishing beauty, which remained intact even as his body turned to bloat, is one hurdle, and so too was his charisma and talent. Butler’s performance gains in power as Elvis ages, particularly when he hits Las Vegas. One insurmountable problem, though, is that Luhrmann never allows a single scene or song to play out without somehow fussing with it — cutting into it, tarting it up, turning the camera this way and that, pushing in and out — a frustrating, at times maddening habit that means he’s forever drawing attention to him him him and away from Butler, even when his willing young star is doing his very hardest to burn down the house. More

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      in Music

      Cannes 2022: ‘Elvis’ Is Remixed by Baz Luhrmann

      by

      The super-splashy biopic presents the story of the King as told by a (fake) colonel, a narratively curious choice.CANNES, France — Close to the start of “Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann’s hyperventilated, fitfully entertaining and thoroughly deranged highlight reel of the life and times of Elvis Presley, I wondered what I was watching. I kept wondering as Luhrmann split the screen, chopped it to bits, slowed the motion, splashed the color and turned Elvis not just into a king, but also a savior, a martyr and a transformational American civil-rights figure who — through his innocence, decency, music and gyrating hips — helped heal a nation.In conventional terms, “Elvis,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, can be classed as a biographical portrait, a cradle-to-grave (more or less) story of a little boy from Tupelo, Miss., who became a pop-culture sensation and sad cautionary tale — played as an adult by the appealing, hard-working Austin Butler — despite the evil man, a.k.a. Col. Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), who groomed him. But Luhrmann — whose films include “Moulin Rouge” and “The Great Gatsby” and, um, “Australia” — doesn’t do simple or ordinary. A visual maximalist, he likes to go big and then bigger, and he likes to go super-splashy. Most filmmakers just want to get the shot; the great ones strive for perfection. Luhrmann wants to bedazzle it.The movie’s narrative axis and, strangely, its most vividly realized character is Colonel Parker, whom Hanks embodies with an enormous, obviously false belly, flamboyant jowls, a nose that juts like the prow of a ship and a baffling accent. I would have loved to have listened in on Luhrmann and Hank’s conversations about their ideas for the character; if nothing else, it might have explained what in the world they were after here. I honestly haven’t a clue, although the image of Sydney Greenstreet looming menacingly in “The Maltese Falcon” repeatedly came to mind, with a dash of “Hogan’s Heroes.”Written by Luhrmann and several others, the movie traces Elvis’s trajectory through Parker, a curious choice given that the colonel is the villain of the piece. They meet when Elvis is a young unknown and still under the protective wing of his mother and father. As soon as the colonel sees Elvis perform — or rather, witnesses the euphoric reactions of the shrieking female audiences — he realizes that this kid is a gold mine. The colonel swoops in, seduces Elvis and puts him under his exploitative sway. The rest is history, one that Luhrmann tracks from obscurity to Graceland and finally Las Vegas.Even non-Elvis-ologists should recognize the outlines of this story, as it shifts from the beautiful boy to the sensational talent and the fallen idol. That said, those who don’t know much about the ugliness of Elvis’s life may be surprised by some of the ideas Luhrmann advances, particularly when it comes to the civil rights movement. A white musician who performed and helped popularize Black music for white America, Elvis was unquestionably a critically important crossover figure. What’s discomforting is the outsized role that Luhrmann gives Elvis in America’s excruciating racial history.In the gospel of Elvis that Luhrmann preaches here, the titular performer isn’t only an admirer or interpreter (much less exploiter) of Black music. He is instead a prophetic figure of change who — because of the time he spends in the Black church, Black juke joints and Black music clubs — will be able to bridge the divide between the races or at least make white people shake, rattle and roll. As a child, Elvis feels the spirit in the pulpit and beyond; later, he becomes an instrument for change by copying Black ecstasy and pumping his slim hips at white audiences, sending them into sexualized frenzy.As Elvis ascends and the colonel schemes, Luhrmann keeps the many parts whirring, pushing the story into overdrive. The 1950s give way to the ’60s and ’70s amid songs, pricey toys, assassinations, personal tragedies and the usual rest, though I don’t remember hearing the words Vietnam War. Family members enter and exit, tears are spilled, pills popped. There are significant gaps (no Ann-Margret or Richard M. Nixon), and, outside a nice scene in which the Las Vegas Elvis arranges a large ensemble of musicians, there’s also little about how Elvis actually made music. He listens to Black music and, almost by osmosis and sheer niceness, becomes the King of Rock ’n’ RollWhile Butler pouts, smolders and sweats, he has been tasked with what seems an impossible role. Elvis’s ravishing beauty, which remained intact even as his body turned to bloat, is one hurdle, and so too was his charisma and talent. Butler’s performance gains in power as Elvis ages, particularly when he hits Las Vegas. One insurmountable problem, though, is that Luhrmann never allows a single scene or song to play out without somehow fussing with it — cutting into it, tarting it up, turning the camera this way and that, pushing in and out — a frustrating, at times maddening habit that means he’s forever drawing attention to him him him and away from Butler, even when his willing young star is doing his very hardest to burn down the house. More

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      in Movies

      ‘Last Night,’ ‘Take This Waltz’ and More Streaming Gems

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      A handful of pointed indie dramas are among the highlights of this month’s off-the-radar streaming picks, as well as a funny werewolf movie and a Robin Williams comedy.‘Last Night’ (2010)Stream it on HBO Max.With the “Avatar” sequels finally, finally, finally heading our way, it’s worth remembering that innocent time when it looked like Sam Worthington was going to be a movie star. There’s a compelling case to be found in Massy Tadjedin’s four-hander, which is something of a mini-“Eyes Wide Shut” — a thoughtful marital drama that candidly explores the frustrations and temptations of long-term adult relationships. Worthington nicely underplays what amounts to the Tom Cruise role, but the eye-opener here is Keira Knightley, whose scorching turn as his frustrated wife reminds us that she’s just as compelling in contemporary roles as period pieces.‘Take This Waltz’ (2012)Stream it on Hulu.Sarah Polley, the writer and director of “Take This Waltz,” narrates a scene from the film.Magnolia PicturesSarah Polley spent the 1990s turning in lively and exciting performances in indies like “The Sweet Hereafter” and “Guinevere,” and she’d easily be one of our most compelling contemporary actors had she continued down that road. Instead, she went behind the camera, crafting a series of keenly observed and emotionally overwhelming efforts. This was her sophomore effort, a domestic drama that mines similar thematic territory as “Last Night”; Michelle Williams (at her delicate but forceful best) stars as a young wife and mother who feels the irresistible tingle of a new attraction, and must decide how to grapple with it. Polley carefully eschews predictable conflicts or easy outcomes, and tells a story packed with the hard truths of real life and real love.‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’ (2018)Stream it on Netflix.Netflix viewers love Shirley Jackson, as the well-received adaptation of her “The Haunting of Hill House” showed, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the streamer added this 2018 adaptation of Jackson’s 1962 novel to their library. Taissa Farmiga and Alexandra Daddario star as the Blackwood sisters, the youngest members of the family everyone in the nearby villages whispers about. All their skeletons tumble out of the closet when smooth-talking cousin Charles (Sebastian Stan) rolls into town with his eyes on the family fortune. Stan is marvelous, secreting oily charm and barely-concealed danger in every scene, while Farmiga and Daddario use their wildly divergent styles to underscore the explicit contrasts and psychological tension between the characters.‘The Angriest Man in Brooklyn’ (2014)Stream it on Hulu.This heartfelt comedy-drama feels like a movie you should have heard more about — the most recent directorial effort by Phil Alden Robinson (“Sneakers,” “Field of Dreams”), featuring one of the Robin Williams’s final performances, and a stellar supporting cast that includes Mila Kunis, Melissa Leo and a “Game of Thrones”-era Peter Dinklage. Williams is the title character, an eternal curmudgeon who discovers he has mere minutes to live, and must set right all the relationships he’s burned down in recent years. Robinson has some trouble settling on a consistent, successful tone, and the occasional vignette doesn’t land. But Williams is wonderful, conveying the character’s furious rage and endless regret with equal aplomb, and the circumstances of his own passing mere months after its release lends extra pathos to his journey.‘Killer Joe’ (2012)Stream it on Amazon.Matthew McConaughey’s unexpected comeback from a no-man’s-land of forgettable rom-coms and dumbed-down star vehicles was just getting underway when he took on the title role of this brutal, twisted, brilliant adaptation of the play by the Pulitzer and Tony winner Tracy Letts. As a ruthless murderer-for-hire plunged into the disarray of a vile, trashy family, McConaughey miraculously twists his movie-star charisma and golden-boy looks into something cold, hard and frightening. The director William Friedkin (“The French Connection,” “The Exorcist”) squeezes the trailer-home setting like a vice, creating creeping dread and pitch-black humor from the bleakest of setups.‘Hello, My Name is Doris’ (2016)Stream it on Netflix.We really, really like Sally Field, but she somehow hasn’t cultivated the late-career visibility of some of her ’70s acting icon peers — she’s working, but seldom in the kind of showcase roles that remind us of what makes her so special. This charming indie comedy-drama attempts to rectify that, casting Field in the juicy role of Doris, an office worker whose unexpected (and unapologetically lustful) crush on a handsome young colleague (“New Girl” himbo Max Greenfield) puts a new spring in her step. Field is empathetic but never panders for sympathy; you’re pulling for her happiness, no matter what circuitous route she may take to it.‘The Wolf of Snow Hollow’ (2020)Stream it on Amazon.In his 2018 breakthrough film “Thunder Road,” the writer-director-actor Jim Cummings created a specific and memorable comic type: an emotionally vulnerable, psychologically wobbly small-town cop whose tenuous grasp on his work and life becomes a sly commentary on toxic masculinity. This follow-up follows the formula — it’s basically “Thunder Road” with werewolves — and that’s fine; the character is so rich and well-defined that it becomes something like W.C. Fields’s huckster or Mae West’s vamp, a carefully-configured persona that eventually generates laughs merely by landing in incongruent situations. And, bonus, “Snow Hollow” features the great Robert Forster in one of his final roles, exhibiting the offhand charm and flinty warmth that made him such a special character actor.‘Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley’ (2013)Stream it on HBO Max.A scene from Goldberg’s film.Getty Images, courtesy HBOGoldberg has always been open about her debt to Mabley, one of the first Black women to make a name, and a living, as what we now think of as a stand-up comic. In tribute, Goldberg helms this documentary account of Mabley’s long, strange journey from the so-called Chitlin Circuit to the televisions of Middle America, with contributing commentary from a who’s who of American comedians. Their analysis and admiration is welcome, but the real draw here is the wealth of archival clips, a sharp reminder of Mabley’s inimitable delivery, screwball timing and quietly subversive style. More

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      ‘The Bob’s Burgers Movie’ Is Coming. Here Are 10 Great Episodes.

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      Need a primer or refresher before the movie debuts? These are the essential “Bob’s Burgers” episodes to watch.The Fox animated sitcom “Bob’s Burgers” concluded its 12th season on Sunday, but fans, fear not: “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” debuts on Friday.Created by Loren Bouchard, “Bob’s Burgers” centers on the Belcher family, led by Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) and his wife, Linda (John Roberts), who with help from their three children run a struggling restaurant in an unnamed city. Much like “The Simpsons,” “Bob’s” offers a wry twist on the live-action family sitcom, and it has expanded over the years to form a rich world of colorful guest characters that feels specific, lived-in and real.With more than 200 episodes, picking favorites isn’t easy. Fans will tell you that the writers excel at holiday-themed episodes, and the occasional A-list guest star can produce comedy gold. But the key to understanding the success of “Bob’s Burgers” is in the Belchers themselves: They push one another’s buttons in ways that only families can, but they are also one another’s most reliable support system.Through all of the chaos of recent years, there’s been something comforting about knowing that the Belcher clan is keeping its head above water. Here are 10 must-watch episodes for getting to know them before the movie’s premiere. (All 12 seasons are on Hulu.)A bank robber named Mickey (voiced by Bill Hader), left, and Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) in “Bob Day Afternoon,” from Season 2. Fox, via Hulu‘Bob Day Afternoon’ (Season 2, Episode 2)The first season of “Bob’s Burgers” felt like a writing staff trying to find its sense of humor. This is the show’s first great episode, a chapter that finds Bob embroiled in a bank robbery undertaken by a hapless criminal named Mickey (Bill Hader). The Belchers will try to turn anything into publicity, which is what happens when Bob realizes that the hostage-taking criminal wants burgers from his restaurant. It’s also an early example of how often “Bob’s” storytelling hinges on miscommunications that lead to a Belcher’s being thrust into the role of an ordinary hero in an extraordinary situation.‘An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal’ (Season 3, Episode 5)There are several strong holiday-themed episodes that could make the list, but this Thanksgiving episode tops them all. It’s a formative chapter for the playfully manipulative Calvin Fischoeder (Kevin Kline), the Belchers’ landlord, who offers the family free rent for five months if they pretend to be his family for the holiday. Class issues often elevate the best episodes of “Bob’s”; this one demonstrates both how much the Belchers could use the free rent and their unwillingness to sacrifice family unity to get it. It also features “The Thanksgiving Song,” one of the greatest songs from a show known for its clever music. It was even covered by the rock band The National.‘Broadcast Wagstaff School News’ (Season 3, Episode 12)By this point, the writers knew what made the Belchers funny, producing several fantastic chapters in the first half of the third season. This one rises above many strong contenders from this period by highlighting the Belcher children and the array of personalities at their school, Wagstaff, which is under the threat of a serial defecator known as the “Mad Pooper.” It also really allows the awkward eldest child, Tina (Dan Mintz), a chance to shine when her superiors at the school news station try to bury the story, forcing her to skirt journalistic ethics to break it. It’s a perfect example of how the writing on this show can use juvenile premises to craft smart comedy.In “O.T.: The Outside Toilet,” Gene (Eugene Mirman) finds a toilet in the forest voiced by Jon Hamm. Fox, via Hulu‘O.T.: The Outside Toilet’ (Season 3, Episode 15)Again, the writers on “Bob’s Burgers” find a way to elevate toilet humor, this time with a literal commode. The best episodes of this show often blend the odd with the heartfelt, such as in this tale, in which the creative middle child, Gene (Eugene Mirman), finds a talking toilet (Jon Hamm) in the woods and makes it his best friend. At the same time, Bob and Linda end up at a restaurant at which Bob keeps being sent free drinks just because he looks sharp enough in his suit to deserve them. A truly strange episode, it’s a great showcase for Gene’s sense of humor, tying together the impossible tale of a boy and his new best friend with a memorable night on the town for his parents.‘Christmas in the Car’ (Season 4, Episode 8)A list like this wouldn’t be complete without a Christmas episode, and this is just barely the best, a quirky blend of classic family sitcom holiday conventions with the structure of a thriller. Bob and his family need a new tree on Christmas Eve, forcing them to drive to the only occupied lot, an hour away. When they leave, they’re almost hit by a semi made up to look like a candy cane, and the truck hunts them down. Linda still finds a way to get a local delicacy called a “Dutch baby” on the way home, while the kids try to catch Santa Claus but end up netting only Bob’s best customer, the very funny Teddy (Larry Murphy).‘Word Hard or Die Trying, Girl’ (Season 5, Episode 1)Consistently creative at this point in its run, “Bob’s Burgers” opened its fifth season in 2014 with one of its most inspired pop culture mash-ups. Gene has been planning a musical version of “Die Hard” to premiere at Wagstaff when his ex-girlfriend Courtney (David Wain) upstages him with her musical version of “Working Girl,” the “sassy sister film to ‘Die Hard.’” As Gene fights back with his own “protest production,” the writers unleash some of the best original music in the show’s history, capping it off with a Carly Simon cameo. The most memorable episodes of “Bob’s Burgers” often have a “let’s put on a show” creative spirit, and this best captures that passion.Hawk, left, and Chick are the lead characters of Bob and Louise’s favorite samurai movies. Fox‘Hawk & Chick’ (Season 5, Episode 20)The fifth season of “Bob’s Burgers” ended with a one-two punch of brilliance, starting with a tale that blended the creative passion of the Belchers with a moving examination of the love between Bob and his precocious youngest daughter, Louise (Kristen Schaal). They are startled to find a once-famous Japanese actor named Kojima at their farmer’s market because he and his daughter, Yuki, were the stars of Bob and Louise’s favorite classic samurai franchise, “Hawk & Chick.” When they discover that Koji and Yuki are estranged, they mount a special screening to reunite them, but missing subtitles force the Belchers to dub the film live. Hysterically funny, the episode also taps an emotional vein when Louise reveals how worried she is that she, too, could one day drift away from her father.‘The Oeder Games’ (Season 5, Episode 21)The writers of “Bob’s Burgers” often subtly allow the Belchers’ shaky economic status to influence their plotting, but it takes center stage in this brilliant season finale. When all of Mr. Fischoeder’s tenants arrive at his estate for a strike over a rent increase, the landlord turns the tables on them, offering a water balloon fight wherein the winner will have his or her rent cut in half. Despite Bob’s protests, everyone grabs a balloon, and Fischoeder’s plan to turn allies against one another seems to work. However, the battle royale doesn’t unfold the way he expects, ending one of the show’s best seasons with an examination of both the Belcher family’s unity and their impact on friends and neighbors.‘The Hauntening’ (Season 6, Episode 3)Halloween episodes of “Bob’s Burgers” are like playgrounds for the dark comedic sensibilities of the writing staff. In this episode, they play with some vicious imagery while ultimately emphasizing the connectedness of the Belcher clan. Bob and Linda plan to scare their children at a haunted house, especially Louise, who claims she is never actually frightened. As their scheme gets more and more intense, Louise eventually gives in to her fear, allowing her facade of the fearless child to fall away. It plays cleverly on what fans know and love about these characters, filtering it through the conventions of a traditional holiday sitcom episode and adding a “Bob’s” twist.A scene from the 100th episode of Bob’s Burgers, “Glued: Where’s My Bob?” in which Bob (not shown) becomes glued to a toilet.Fox‘Glued: Where’s My Bob?’ (Season 6, Episode 19)The 100th episode of “Bob’s Burgers” blends perfectly the show’s goofy sense of humor, its big heart and its recurring theme that teamwork can save the day. The celebrity chef Skip Marooch (Kumail Nanjiani) calls Bob with the news that he has landed his favorite burger man a profile in Coasters magazine, but the interview is derailed when a prank war among the Belcher children leads to Bob’s being literally glued to the toilet. As a crowd gathers outside to mock the local restaurateur, nearly everyone in the Belchers’ circle of friends shows up to try to save the day, leading to a surprisingly touching finale to another great season. More