Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 63 Shares109 Views

      in Movies

      Five Holiday Movies to Stream

      by

      A list of quality holiday movies on streaming services other than Netflix.There is hope for holiday-loving cord-cutters who don’t have access to the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime’s bulging libraries and have already binged the new Netflix offerings: Other streaming services have stepped up their game when it comes to tinselly and cheery originals.Here are five new movies that run the gamut from violent to heartwarming. Just try to guess where the new “Home Alone” installment falls in this range.‘The Advent Calendar’Stream it on Shudder.As much as many people like to complain about the holidays, their actual experience remains fairly mild and any mention of nightmares is largely metaphorical. Not so in this new French-Belgian movie, which is streaming on the horror platform Shudder, and where the gore and violence are very real.Eva (Eugénie Derouand) is a former dancer who began using a wheelchair after a car accident. Her best and apparently only friend, Sophie (Honorine Magnier), gives her a beautifully designed German advent calendar for Christmas. It’s a gift that keeps on giving — and not in a good way, because a malevolent force becomes unleashed.The most interesting aspect of the writer-director Patrick Ridremont’s shockfest is that Eva is a complicated, flawed protagonist. Because she is in a wheelchair, she is constantly mistreated and bullied by callous colleagues and friends. But the advent calendar also exploits her bitter regrets and frustrations — it is those colleagues, not her disability, that have made her vulnerable to the temptations and delusions that her new possession feeds on.‘8-Bit Christmas’Stream it on HBO Max.The elevator pitch for this HBO Max film is simple: imagine “A Christmas Story” but in the 1980s, and with a Nintendo Entertainment System instead of the Red Ryder BB gun.To stop her incessant requests for a cellphone, Jake (Neil Patrick Harris) tells his daughter, Annie (Sophia Reid-Gantzert), a long, convoluted story — which he clearly hopes is a teachable moment — about the winter when he was 11 and desperately trying to get his hands on the console every kid coveted.Most of the film stays in the ’80s with young Jake (the very good Winslow Fegley), as he and his friends cook up incredibly elaborate schemes to procure that Nintendo. One of them even includes actually working hard selling wreaths to win a contest with a Nintendo as the grand prize.The best part of the movie, at least for adult viewers, is a wonderful performance by Steve Zahn as the young Jake’s father, simultaneously cranky and warm, and with a welcome soupçon of almost unsettling unpredictability. But while there are plenty of references to the 1980s, including a subplot about the scarcity of a certain Cabbage Patch Kid, the decade’s main influence is in the storytelling, which often recalls the “National Lampoon” movies at their most politically incorrect — think projectile vomiting, something happening to a family dog, a slightly gonzo vibe.‘Home Sweet Home Alone’Stream it on Disney+.Unless you are a dedicated fan, you may not have realized that the 1990 hit “Home Alone” had turned into a franchise. All the films involve a boy who somehow ends up on his own during the holidays and must fend off intruders. In the latest and sixth installment, available on Disney+, it’s the turn of Max (Archie Yates, from “Jojo Rabbit”) to be mistakenly left behind by his family — this time as they leave for vacation in Japan.A key narrative switch is that this film is mostly told from the perspective of the home invaders, the cash-strapped Jeff and Pam McKenzie (Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper), who try to retrieve a precious possession they think was stolen by Max. As funny as Delaney and Kemper are — which is very, and they should get a franchise of their own — watching a couple afraid to lose their house suffer through a booby-trapped gauntlet devised by a rich brat does not exactly feel hilarious right now.As for the original forgotten kid, Kevin McCallister, we learn from his slovenly older brother Buzz (still played by Devin Ratray three decades later) that he now runs a home-security company and still likes pranks. Sounds like an open invitation for Kevin’s eventual return to the franchise’s fold, were Macaulay Culkin ever to decide that he’s game.‘The Housewives of the North Pole’Stream it on Peacock.North Pole, Vermont, is the kind of only-in-movies small New England town whose folksy Main Street has all the ritzy bearings of Rodeo Drive. Which sort of makes sense since its self-proclaimed queen, Trish, is played by Kyle Richards of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”Trish always wins the annual Christmas home-decorating contest, thanks to the help of her best friend, the sweet-tempered artist Diana (Betsy Brandt, of “Breaking Bad”). But when the women’s friendship abruptly flames out, Trish’s streak is compromised while Diana is left feeling betrayed and lonely. Don’t worry, lessons will be learned and bridges will be mended.Accepting a parallel universe where a Vermont burg hosts insane displays of ostentatious wealth and folks brave December in shorts and a T-shirt without freezing to death will greatly improve your chances of enjoying this Peacock original. Indeed, the movie is so nuttily untethered to any semblance of reality that it’s almost enjoyable. How far can it go? After a while, you even start thinking that everybody is in on the joke.But what is that joke, exactly? A satire of a status-obsessed, by-any-means-necessary woman with a lot of time on her hands? “The Housewives of the North Pole” never quite goes there.‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas’Stream it on the Roku Channel.In yet another example of a canceled show finding a new life on a different platform and, in this case, a different format, the Roku Channel’s first original feature picks up where Season 2 of the NBC series “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” left off.The overall premise is that the title character (Jane Levy) hears people’s emotions as songs. And now so does her boyfriend, Max (Skylar Astin). Zoey provides a very brief explanation/recap at the start for newcomers, but they are largely on their own — “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas” is a gift to fans of the show, now watching the heroine try to get through her first holiday season without her late father.Those with a low tolerance for Christmas tunes will be glad to hear that while the movie has its fair share of them, it also incorporates regular songs — Mary Steenburgen’s version of “Call Me Maybe” is a sweet highlight. Other pluses include terrific performances by Alex Newell, back as the gender-nonconforming Mo, and Bernadette Peters as Steenburgen’s friend. Overall, though, the film may feel too insular to those who have not already embraced its whimsical world. More

    • 88 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      ‘National Champions’ Review: A College Football Revolution

      by

      Athletes go on strike seeking health insurance in this drama as a coach tries to forge his legacy.In New Orleans, two college teams, the Cougars and the Wolves, are days from facing off in a major game — a game that will make or break the legacy of one coach. That would be James Lazor of the Wolves. One of the TV sportscasters hyping the game announces, “Monday night is about etching his name in the history books.”His star quarterback, LeMarcus James, has other plans. Along with his best friend, a lesser player named Emmett Sunday, James is going on strike. Referring to his fellow college athletes, James says in one televised statement, “Over 12,000 of us participate in a multibillion-dollar business that doesn’t even give us health insurance.”Written by Adam Mervis and directed by Ric Roman Waugh, “National Champions” is a drama whose timeliness has only been slightly compromised by the N.C.A.A.’s recent interim policy allowing athletes to earn revenue via endorsement deals. To go by this fictional movie’s argumentation, that real-life shift only slightly changes the overall picture for college athletes.Coach Lazor is played by J.K. Simmons, but his character here is no “Whiplash”-style martinet. He’s ostensibly compassionate, and says he sees LeMarcus as a son. But, unsurprisingly, the coach’s patriarchal stance is later shown to be part of the problem.The movie wants to make its points on class and race hotly. LeMarcus, appealingly played by Stephan James, is Black, and then again so is Katherine Poe (a simultaneously imposing and enigmatic Uzo Aduba), the ruthless lawyer the N.C.A.A. has put on a mission to destroy and discredit the quarterback. The vicious machinations echo an adage popularized by Jenny Holzer: “Abuse of power comes as no surprise.” But the movie dilutes its impact with lackluster direction of samey scenes — people in hotel rooms speechifying — and a distracting nighttime soap subplot.National ChampionsRated R for language. Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Agnes’ Review: A Crisis of Faith, and Filmmaking

      by

      In this plodding horror-drama from Mickey Reece, a possessed nun drives one of her sisters to leave their convent.The art house fascination with nuns is hardly new: Jacques Rivette’s vibrant drama “The Nun” made waves in the 1960s; Jeff Baena’s “The Little Hours” lampooned medieval Catholicism in 2017. Theaters have again opened their arms to nunsploitation this month with “Benedetta,” Paul Verhoeven’s latest shocker, and now “Agnes,” from the wildly prolific director Mickey Reece — it’s his 18th feature film to come out in the last 10 years.Unfortunately for Reece, quantity is no indicator of quality; this choppy film has little to say, particularly about cloistered women, despite being named after a possessed sister and dedicating a plotline to an ex-nun.Though “Agnes” opens during a Mass in the convent before introducing its titular character (Hayley McFarland) — a satanic sister who reveals her wickedness by cursing and levitating teacups — it quickly centers the religious men tasked with exorcising Agnes. Men like the jaded Father Donaghue (Ben Hall), who is soon to be relocated to some faraway country after being accused of child molestation. He warns Benjamin (Jake Horowitz), a priest-in-training just shy of taking his vows, against the lifestyle.The second act focuses on Agnes’s friend, Mary (Molly C. Quinn), after she leaves the convent. As she navigates normal life, she connects with Agnes’s former lover, a comedian named Paul Satchimo (Sean Gunn).If that all sounds confusing and pointless, that’s because it mostly is. There is a clear through line of faithlessness in the script by Reece and John Selvidge, but it is otherwise so aimless and underdeveloped as to turn this 93-minute film into a plodding slog. (If you’re expecting to learn anything substantial about Agnes herself, for instance, you won’t.) Couple that with erratic editing and endless horror clichés and you have a boring movie that, like its titular character, causes some bloodshed but for the most part does absolutely nothing at all.AgnesNot 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

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Unforgivable’ Review: Mirthless in Seattle

      by

      Sandra Bullock plays a woman on parole in this Netflix film adaptation of a British mini-series.To forgive is divine. To forget is good enough in Nora Fingscheidt’s “The Unforgivable,” a tortured drama that tracks a half-dozen Seattleites grappling with — or oblivious to — decades-long traumas caused by the killing of a cop during a fraught eviction. After being convicted of that crime, Ruth (Sandra Bullock), did 20 years in prison. Now paroled, she telegraphs her angst with sunken eyes and chapped lips; the film’s sickly yellow lighting does the same, as does Ruth’s night-shift factory gig decapitating salmon. But the dead officer’s sons (Will Pullen and Tom Guiry) don’t think that Ruth has repented enough — a judgment shared by the adoptive parents (Richard Thomas and Linda Emond) who raised Ruth’s orphaned baby sister, Katherine, to forget her older sibling. The adult Katherine (Aisling Franciosi) is haunted by memories of a mysterious brunette. (Katherine crashes her car the moment Ruth is released from prison, giving the film a mystical spritz that evaporates immediately.)This is a glum show of flashbacks scored by strings that keen as though Ruth’s conscience is rubbing a wet finger on a glass of water. The screenplay, adapted by Peter Craig, Hillary Seitz and Courtenay Miles from a British mini-series, gifts Bullock a few big screaming scenes but mostly has her slouching around silently while it dithers over whether or not to root for Ruth to rebuild her life. (Symbolically, she has a second job in construction.)On Team Ruth is Jon Bernthal as a chatterbox who woos the secretive felon. Against her is Viola Davis as a mother raising two boys in Ruth’s former home who argues that, as miserable as Ruth is, if it were her Black sons in the system, “they would be dead.” In a role scarcely more than a cameo, Davis cuts through the film’s fog.The UnforgivableRated R for faces damaged by fists, feet and bullets. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Last and First Men’ Review: Pondering Posterity

      by

      Tilda Swinton narrates the bleak future of humanity in the only feature directed by the Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson.“Last and First Men” is the only feature directed by the Icelandic film composer Johann Johannsson (“Sicario”), who died suddenly in 2018. According to the producer Thor Sigurjonsson in notes provided for journalists, his death occurred late in the filmmaking process, just before “we were about to start on the final music.”Yet even describing “Last and First Men” as a movie, while accurate, is misleading; it often feels closer to a literary exercise or fine-art photography. (A live, multimedia version was shown in 2017.) It combines a complex, “Dune”-like mythology with the sonorous, hypnotic line readings of the British essay films of Patrick Keiller (“Robinson in Ruins”).Based on the 1930 science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon, the film mainly consists of 16-millimeter black-and-white images of abandoned monuments, identified in the credits as being in the Balkans. No humans appear. While the camera surveys the asymmetries of the monolithic sculptures, often pondering the sky through negative space in the stonework, Tilda Swinton delivers a voice-over that begins with an epic poem-style invocation (“listen patiently”) and is framed as a dispatch from two billion years from now, when our descendants, bracing for extinction, share a telepathic hive mind and have appearances that would look grotesque to us.The landscape, with the occasional sight of a bird or a cloud streak from an airplane, pierces the illusion that we’re observing the colonized Neptune that Swinton speaks of. Color — in the green of an oscilloscope or in the fiery hues of the sun — intermittently punctures the monochrome. And Johannsson’s stark, uncompromising passion project is always striking to the eye even in moments when the narrative lulls.Last and First MenNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 10 minutes. In theaters and on Metrograph’s virtual cinema. More

    • 63 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Encounter’ Review: The Scenic Route

      by

      A volatile veteran attempts to rescue his sons from a perceived alien threat in this confused cross between sci-fi thriller and family drama.At the beginning of “Encounter,” the sophomore feature from the British director Michael Pearce, something bright and blazing crash-lands in the night and a swarm of microorganisms appears to colonize an earthly host. This body-snatching setup could not be more familiar. It could also be a feint.Using the tropes of the alien-invasion thriller to tell another, more complicated story, Pearce and his co-writer, Joe Barton, make exactly half of a good movie. For a while, it’s enough to watch Malik (an electric Riz Ahmed), a stressed-out former Marine, interact with his two young sons (Aditya Geddada and Lucian-River Chauhan) as they drive full-tilt from Oregon to Nevada. Believing he is saving the boys from an extraterrestrial threat, Malik has kidnapped them from the home of his ex-wife and her new partner. His destination is a bunker where, he explains to the children, scientists are secretly working to repel the microbial invaders.To the boys, this is initially a welcome adventure; but as Malik’s behavior becomes more volatile and unnerving — and we learn more of his history — his sons grow anxious and the movie grows too fond of its ambiguities. Malik’s trauma is clear, his invisible wounds as evident as the parasites he sees crawling in the eye of a California state trooper. Yet, after setting up a potentially powerful study of damage and delusion, Pearce (whose 2018 feature debut, “Beast,” signaled an unusual talent) remains torn between science fiction and psychological fact. And despite Benjamin Kracun’s sometimes haunting visuals — a decaying mining community in the Nevada desert; a drone shot of government vehicles gathering with insectoid purpose — the movie finally has nowhere to run but out of steam.EncounterRated R for men with guns and creepy-crawlies with agendas. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters and on Amazon Prime Video. More

    • 113 Shares159 Views

      in Movies

      The Oscars Are Broken. Here’s How to Fix Them.

      by

      The ratings flop that was the last ceremony provided useful lessons in what not to do. But there are steps the academy can take for an actually enjoyable evening.His client was having a great night. He should have been thrilled. But on the last Sunday night in April, as this year’s dire Oscar ceremony continued to deflate, a top Hollywood representative texted me about the “beyond terrible” show and fretted, “The entire country has tuned out.”Later, as the ceremony entered an even worse final act that included a flop-sweat comedy bit and a bungled best-actor reveal, I got another text from him: “This could kill the Oscars. It’s that bad.”Reviews of the show proved nearly as scathing, and the ratings released the next day were grim: The Oscars had plunged more than 50 percent from the previous year, drawing just under 10 million people, the lowest number on record since those figures had been tabulated.I’ve thought about that ratings drop (and those doom-laden texts) quite a bit in the months since, as a new awards season has begun. There is a lot of excitement in Hollywood right now, as premieres and award shows can be held in person again and the movies vying for awards feel much bigger. But behind people’s unmasked smiles, I detect some anxiety, as though there’s a question that everybody is still too nervous to pose: What if all of this is leading up to an Oscars that nobody will watch?I think it helps that the show has returned to a guaranteed 10 best-picture nominees, which should ensure that a broader cross-section of movies gets nominated, just as the academy’s laudable drives to diversify its membership ought to result in a slate of nominees that feels less out of touch. But all of those efforts could seem fruitless if the show’s audience shrinks so starkly once again. After the last ceremony tanked the Oscars’ reputation and ratings, here are four things the academy should do to fix things before next year’s show.Hire a host.The last three Oscar ceremonies have gone without an M.C., which continues to feel like a missed opportunity. The right host can help drive viewers to the show and provide memorable, viral moments: Part of the reason the Golden Globes used to gain on the Oscars is that they could promote buzzy hosts like Ricky Gervais and the ace duo of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.Hosting the Academy Awards used to be one of Hollywood’s most prestigious gigs, but the show often fumbled that privilege over the last decade: There was the James Franco-Anne Hathaway debacle (which might have worked with sharper writing and a more engaged partner for Hathaway), smarmy turns from Seth MacFarlane and Neil Patrick Harris, and two back-to-back stints from a disinterested Jimmy Kimmel. Ever since 2018, when Kevin Hart stepped down from the show after refusing to apologize for anti-gay jokes, the ceremony has decided to dispense with a host altogether.But if the Oscars are so eager to cram blockbuster content into a show that often celebrates small indie movies, why not invite some hosts from that tentpole realm? I’d rather watch Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt host the Oscars than star in something like “Jungle Cruise,” and it’s fun to imagine what a quick-witted Marvel duo like Paul Rudd and Simu Liu could do, too. I fear the Oscars might never restore the host position now that the show runs shorter without one. But on that note …Understand that shorter doesn’t mean better.In their never-ending quest to trim the Oscars to a manageable length, ABC and the academy would do well to remember one thing: It’s not about how much time the show takes, it’s about how well the show uses that time. Why not lean into the Oscars’ mammoth reputation and fill every nook and cranny with something exciting? It still boggles my mind that there isn’t a slate of movie trailers on par with the Super Bowl: Imagine how many people would tune in if the commercial breaks promised a first look at the “Black Panther” sequel, just for starters.When the show is pared down too ruthlessly, it leaves less room for the real human moments that we tune in for. Those moments don’t have to come solely from the acceptance speeches, either: I often think fondly of the 2009 show, hosted by Hugh Jackman, which made room for five former winners to present each of the acting categories. It was a lovely way to pay homage to Oscar history, and all the nominees were memorably moved by the tribute. That ceremony ran about 11 minutes longer than the one that aired this past April, but I’ll take those 11 minutes over nearly anything the shorter show had to offer.Restore the clips and performances.One of the reasons this year’s Oscar show felt so deadly dull is that nearly all the movie clips were excised from the broadcast. For casual viewers who tune into the Oscars without seeing most of the nominees, those clips create a rooting interest: Based on the glimpses of performances and craft, you can make your own armchair guess of who’ll win. And when I watched the show as a child, the movie clips offered a sneak preview of worlds, lives and people previously unknown to me. They’re essential.This year’s ceremony also punted the best-song performances to the preshow, which deprived the main event of several high-energy moments. (Can you imagine if that scorching “Shallow” duet from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper had been booted to the preshow two years ago?) With original songs in the mix this year from Beyoncé and Billie Eilish, the Oscars would be foolish not to milk those performances for everything they’re worth. And if all those clips and performances make the show run too long, just cut the shorts already!Make peace with the Oscars’ new reality.With all that said, there’s only so much the Oscars can do to halt their linear-ratings slide. People simply consume media differently these days, and many households and younger audiences have cut the cord entirely, consuming all of their TV shows on streaming services.But the essential pull of the Oscars still remains. It’s the only awards show that generates this much chatter, and the narratives that unspool because of the show — from boundary-shattering victories like the best-picture winner “Parasite” to a cultural movement like #OscarsSoWhite — continue to ripple outward through our culture. I saw it last year, when the “Minari” star Steven Yeun became the first Asian American nominated for best actor, and when the “Nomadland” director Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win best director: Even though their films were hardly blockbusters, their achievements went incredibly viral on social media.That sort of engagement proves that there’s still a massive audience out there, albeit one that tunes in ever more frequently via Twitter, YouTube and TikTok. If the academy wants to lure all of those eyeballs to the actual broadcast, then it should make a more compelling play for their attention. Despite recent missteps, people haven’t lost interest in the idea of the Oscars. It’s the show itself that’s in need of a tuneup. More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Fatal Distraction’ Review: Parents Go Through the Unthinkable

      by

      In the documentary by Susan Morgan Cooper, a father is on trial after his baby dies in the back seat of a hot car.On the morning of June 18, 2014, Justin Ross Harris and his wife, Leanna, were the adoring parents of a 22-month-old son, Cooper. By the end of the day, their child was dead. Harris forgot to drop off his son at day care, and instead drove to work, leaving Cooper in the back seat, where the child died in the Georgia heat.This year, 23 children have died in hot cars, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The documentary “Fatal Distraction” uses the tragic example of the Harris family to demonstrate this phenomenon. By following Harris’s murder trial in 2016, it shows the worst case scenario of what can happen when a child is left unattended.The director Susan Morgan Cooper (“To the Moon and Back”; “An Unlikely Weapon”) takes the title of her film from a 2009 article written by Gene Weingarten, who appears in the documentary, along with a number of experts who have studied the issue of hot car deaths. In talking head interviews that unfortunately establish the film’s rote, even indifferent visual style, specialists offer dispassionate explanations for how parents can forget their children.More powerful sequences involve statements from experts of a different kind — the agonized parents of children who died in the back seat. Cooper’s mother, Leanna, is interviewed for the movie, and her recollections of her son’s death and her ex-husband’s trial are among the movie’s most damning testimonies against the common practice of criminalizing caregivers who leave their children behind.If the film is at times unimaginative as a work of art, it succeeds as a humane resource for understanding an unthinkable scenario.Fatal DistractionNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More