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      ‘Sweet Thing’ Review: Little Caregivers, Little Fugitives

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      The filmmaker Alexandre Rockwell cast his wife as a negligent mother and his children as runaways in this shimmering black-and-white drama.In the glittering drama “Sweet Thing,” responsible, reserved Billie (Lana Rockwell) loves to sing. She imagines her namesake, the jazz legend Billie Holiday, as a companion and savior. Caregiving is familiar to Billie, who’s a teenager, because the role of protector is one she plays for her younger brother Nico (Nico Rockwell). The pair’s parents are separated, a state of affairs that has plunged their loving father Adam (Will Patton) into a booze-fueled depression. When Adam’s alcoholism lands him in a rehabilitation facility, Billie and Nico are forced to face the darker demons of their mother’s house, where Eve (Karyn Parsons) lives with her abusive boyfriend.Longing for escape, the children meet Malik (Jabari Watkins), a neighborhood boy with every hot-wiring skill an aspiring runaway could ever need. With Malik by their side, Billie and Nico take off from their mother’s home. For the first time, these little fugitives are responsible only for themselves.What makes this simple story special is the style that the writer and director Alexandre Rockwell brings to the screen. Rockwell cast his wife and two children as Eve, Billie and Nico, and their ease and familiarity lends the film naturalistic warmth. His high contrast black-and-white film photography captures the shimmer of light in Billie’s hair. The shadows of her mother’s home sink into oblivion. The movie’s eclectic soundtrack — with songs from Billie Holiday, Van Morrison and Arvo Pärt — sets a nostalgic mood.Here, there are no cellphones, no video games. Instead Rockwell intentionally reminds his audience of the rich history of American independent cinema, where filmmakers across decades have built dreamscapes out of the textures of everyday interactions.Sweet ThingNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters and in virtual cinemas thorough Film Movement. More

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      ‘The Birthday Cake’ Review: Baked Hoods

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      This mob drama folds family secrets and fading power into a story of operatic vengeance.“With tragedy comes strength,” a priest (Ewan McGregor) tells Gio (Shiloh Fernandez) early in “The Birthday Cake,” so we can anticipate trouble. But it’s not the fairly predictable tonal arc that makes this first feature from Jimmy Giannopoulos click: It’s the deftness with which he weaves multiple threads of unease into a single strand of throttling tension.As we learn in flashback, Gio has so far resisted his family’s efforts to toughen him up. Now, on the 10th anniversary of his father’s death, his mettle will be tested as he crosses his Brooklyn neighborhood to a memorial hosted by Angelo (Val Kilmer), a mob boss and one of Gio’s many uncles (mostly played by familiar screen wiseguys like Paul Sorvino and Vincent Pastore). A drive-by shooting has claimed Angelo’s voice and his family’s primacy, but Gio’s immediate concern is the safety of the chocolate cake he’s carrying, carefully baked by his mother (Lorraine Bracco).Updating the Mafia drama, Giannopoulos (who wrote the screenplay with Fernandez and Diomedes Raul Bermudez) folds family secrets and fading power into a story of operatic vengeance. Warnings and threats — from rival thugs, acquaintances and the F.B.I. — follow Gio from bakery to bodega, turning his journey into a gantlet of anxiety and distrust. Friends hint darkly of looming conflicts, and a terrifying scene at a cousin’s apartment (featuring a menacing William Fichtner) leaves Gio shaken.Unfolding mainly over one long night, “The Birthday Cake,” punchily photographed by Sean Price Williams, is brash, a little hokey and endearingly melodramatic. Giannopoulos might be inexperienced, but he’s canny with mood and unafraid to experiment with the rhythms of violence. I, for one, am keen to see what he does next.The Birthday CakeRated R. No worse than any season of “The Sopranos” that includes the Bada Bing. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘12 Mighty Orphans’ Review: A Team Effort

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      Based on a true story of Texas high school football in the Great Depression, this film treats viewers like children.Inspired by a true story of parentless teenagers whose tenacity on the gridiron raised spirits in the late 1930s, “12 Mighty Orphans” is a plodding football drama in which the characters talk to one another like folksy social workers. The condescending tone extends to a voice-over from Martin Sheen, who plays an orphanage physician. He brings viewers up to speed on American history (“It’s hard to remember which came first, the Dust Bowl, or the Great Depression”) and the movie’s message. The team’s coach, Sheen’s character narrates, “knew that football would inevitably bring self-respect to these boys.”That coach, new to the Fort Worth, Texas, orphanage, is Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson), who bears the scars of World War I and of having grown up an orphan himself. Here, with the help of a sketch his daughter draws, he will pioneer the spread offense. His players will develop into a swift and strategic team, with Hardy Brown (Jake Austin Walker) becoming the most fearsome among them. Hardy also delivers one of the purplest halftime pep talks in memory.If the film’s version of events can be believed, F.D.R. himself (Larry Pine) intervened to help the team. But any hope that the movie, directed by Ty Roberts, might leave room for nuance is dashed by two cartoonish villains — a scheming rival coach (Lane Garrison, also one of the screenwriters) and an authority figure (Wayne Knight) who embezzles money and hits the students with a paddle. “12 Mighty Orphans” displays a similar lack of restraint when manipulating its audience.12 Mighty OrphansRated PG-13. Football violence and corporal punishment. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Lizzie Borden’s ‘Working Girls’ Is About Capitalism, Not Sex

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      While the 1987 drama takes place in a Manhattan brothel, its true concern is labor. (And it’s is definitely not to be confused with Mike Nichols’s rom-com.)A fictional day in the life of a Manhattan boutique bordello, Lizzie Borden’s “Working Girls” is as witty, gimlet-eyed and discomfiting as when it won a special award at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival.The movie, not to be confused with Mike Nichols’s 1988 rom-com “Working Girl,” has been digitally restored and, in advance of a Blu-ray release, is having a theatrical run at the IFC Center in Manhattan.“Working Girls” opens with Molly (Louise Smith) waking at 7 a.m. in an East Village tenement, making breakfast for her partner’s young daughter and bicycling uptown to her place of employment. Her first order of business is inserting a diaphragm — the matter-of-factness provides the movie’s first jolt.Borden’s previous film, “Born in Flames,” (1983) is a vision of urban insurrection led by a largely Black and lesbian army now considered a classic of revolutionary cinema, militant feminism and Afro-futurism. “Working Girls” is no less political. Sex is almost incidental; the movie’s true concern is labor, much of which consists in massaging the egos of the brothel’s clients.While offering a smorgasbord of mildly kinky tastes, “Working Girls” is far from prurient. When, midway through, Molly makes a drugstore run to replenish the supply closet, the movie suggests a Pop Art composition of brand-name packages: Listerine, Kleenex and Trojans. The New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby noted that, although fiction, “Working Girls” “sounds as authentic as might a documentary about coal miners.”Coal miners with ambition, that is: Molly, who has two degrees from Yale, is an aspiring photographer. Dawn (Amanda Goodwin) is a volatile working-class kid putting herself through college. Gina (Marusia Zach) is saving to open her own business. The women, who have amusingly little difficulty handling their generally well-behaved johns, are in control but only up to point. Midway through, their boss Lucy (Ellen McElduff) sweeps in, and as a gushingly saccharine steel magnolia, she is far more exploitative, not to mention manipulative, than any of the customers.Borden belongs to a group of filmmakers, including Kathryn Bigelow and Jim Jarmusch, who emerged from the downtown post-punk art-music scene of the late 1970s. Back then, “Born in Flames” and “Working Girls” seemed like professionalized versions of the incendiary work produced by scrappy Super-8 filmmakers like Vivienne Dick and the team of Scott B and Beth B. Revisited decades later, “Working Girls” appears closer to Chantal Akerman’s epochal “Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.”The similarity between the films is not so much subject (Akerman’s eponymous protagonist is a housewife prostitute) as attitude. “Working Girl” is notable for its measured structure, analytical camera placement and straightforward cool. Borden only tips her hand once, when she allows Molly — who has been sweet-talked into working a double shift — to ask Lucy if she’s ever heard of “surplus value.”“Working Girls” is an anticapitalist critique that has scarcely dated, save for one bit of hip social realism I neglected to note when I reviewed it in 1987 for a downtown weekly. Asked how she heard about the job, a new recruit reveals that she answered a want ad for “hostesses” in The Village Voice.Working GirlsOpening June 18 at the IFC Center in Manhattan; ifccenter.com. More

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      Lin-Manuel Miranda responde a las críticas sobre el elenco de ‘In the Heights’

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      La película generó malestar por presentar actores latinos de piel clara en los papeles principales, a pesar de la prevalencia de latinos de piel oscura en el barrio donde se rodó.Lin-Manuel Miranda reconoció las críticas de que la adaptación cinematográfica de su musical In the Heights no había representado adecuadamente a la población afrolatina de piel oscura de Washington Heights, el barrio del Alto Manhattan en el que está ambientado, y también se ha disculpado por quedarse corto al “intentar pintar un mosaico de esta comunidad”.La película, adaptación del musical de Broadway, ganador de un Tony por mejor guion, sobre el propietario de una bodega que sueña con volver a República Dominicana, se estrenó en los cines y en HBO Max la semana pasada, obteniendo críticas positivas y elogios por todo lo alto.Sin embargo, la película también suscitó críticas en internet por la decisión de los cineastas de seleccionar actores latinos de piel clara para los papeles principales, a pesar de la prevalencia de latinos de piel oscura en el barrio donde se rodó la película.Miranda, que formó parte del equipo creativo de la película, dijo en su declaración que estaba prestando atención a las opiniones en línea, incluidas las muestras de pesar y frustración por el colorismo y por “sentirse aún invisibles” en la película.“Empecé a escribir In the Heights porque no me sentía visto”, escribió Miranda en un comunicado publicado en Twitter el lunes por la noche. “Y durante los últimos 20 años todo lo que quería era que nosotros —TODOS nosotros— nos sintiéramos vistos”.“He oído que sin suficiente representación de afrolatinos de piel oscura”, continuó, “la obra se siente explotadora de la comunidad que tanto queríamos representar con orgullo y alegría”.“En los comentarios puedo escuchar el pesar y la frustración por el colorismo, por sentirse aún invisibles”, dijo en el comunicado.La película, un proyecto que tardó una década y que tuvo un presupuesto de 55 millones de dólares, fue protagonizada por Anthony Ramos como el dueño de la bodega, Melissa Barrera como una aspirante a diseñadora de moda y Leslie Grace como Nina, una estudiante de Stanford en dificultades.En una entrevista reciente, la guionista de la película, Quiara Alegría Hudes, habló de la decisión de hacer de Nina un personaje afrolatino en la versión cinematográfica. “Quería hacer conscientemente que Nina fuera afrolatina en esta versión de In the Heights. Desde que estrenamos el espectáculo en Broadway, se ha producido esta conversación nacional en torno a las microagresiones y cosas realmente interesantes que siento que serían aplicables a la situación de Nina”.Corey Hawkins, que interpreta al interés amoroso de Nina y empleado del servicio de taxis de su padre, es negro, pero no latino (algunos también criticaron a los realizadores por eliminar un punto de la trama, que había existido en el musical, en el que el personaje de Hawkins dice que el padre de Nina no cree que sea lo suficientemente bueno para ella). More

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      ‘Revolution Rent’ Review: Taking the Show South

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      This HBO documentary follows Andy Señor Jr. as he directs a production of “Rent” in Cuba.In the ballad “La Vie Boheme,” a colorful cadre of artists raise a toast to “emotion, devotion, to causing a commotion.” After all, Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking musical “Rent” embodies revolution. In the earnest though narratively clumsy HBO documentary “Revolution Rent,” a director unpacks the relevance of this joyously defiant show when it’s translated to a different language, culture and political landscape.“Revolution Rent,” directed by Andy Señor Jr. and Victor Patrick Alvarez, depicts Señor’s rocky road to developing Cuba’s first Broadway musical produced by an American company in decades. The film begins with Señor’s background with “Rent” as a performer and his decision, regardless of his family’s protests, to direct a Cuban adaptation. In addition to confronting technical issues, translation adjustments and disagreements among the cast members, Señor is also forced to consider his own heritage and history. Despite the intriguing premise of the film, its cursory and lopsided narrative approach dilutes its salient themes and messages.The film feels scattered, with the first quarter too heavily reliant on abruptly intercut footage of the original Broadway cast performances, and the rest too shallowly dipping into details of the production’s story before skipping along to the next thing.And so Señor’s personal narrative shifts in and out of focus — his relationship to the musical and to his Cuban heritage are detailed just enough to leave us wanting more history, more background, more reflection and more depth. Similarly, the brief glimpses into the lives of its cast members, some queer and many impoverished, are compelling, but inconsistent and over too soon.For a documentary about a substantial staging of a beloved musical, “Revolution Rent” also skimps on the scenes of the final product itself. The production’s Roger singing an impassioned Spanish translation of “One Song Glory”; Señor pushing a cast member into an emotional reckoning with the meaning of the word freedom; the conversations about performing a queer musical in a country that hasn’t had a great track record for its treatment of L.G.B.T.Q. people: These are the kinds of moments that most resonate but are overshadowed by the film’s sporadic approach.The show “Rent” gave us an onstage revolution, while “Revolution Rent” often gives us an underwhelming translation.Revolution RentNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. Watch on HBO. More

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      ‘The Space Between’ Review: Kelsey Grammer Rocks

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      The actor plays a burnout musician in this drama from Rachel Winter.Fans of “Frasier” may have found the singing voice of its star, Kelsey Grammer — who crooned a paean to “tossed salads and scrambled eggs” over the sitcom’s end titles — a balm, a comfort and a further source of humor. One is curious as to how they’ll take “The Space Between,” a comedy/drama in which Grammer plays a burnout ’70s rocker and sings nearly an LP’s worth of tunes written by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo.No, I am not making this up. The movie, directed by Rachel Winter from a script by Will Aldis, is set in 1996 and narrated by a glib wannabe, Charlie (Jackson White), who works in the mailroom of a record company and haunts L.A.’s Viper Room, lying to bands about his ability to sign them. Aldis’s script nearly knocks itself unconscious trying to establish period bona fides; the names Spacehog, Hole, Guns ‘n’ Roses and River Phoenix are dropped rapid-fire.Back in the mailroom, Charlie overhears the company head, Donny (William Fichtner) complain about Micky Adams, a Dylanesque (but weren’t they all?) singer-songwriter from decades past, still living off the label. Charlie volunteers to hurry to Montecito and persuade Adams to sever his contract.Hence, Grammer, with frightful hair and attitude, is soon dosing Charlie with psychedelics and dispensing teachable moments as his disapproving daughter Julie pops in and out of the picture.This is one of those movies that never quite sinks to the risible depths you kind of wish it would. Grammar’s singing, stentorian in a Harry Chapin mode, is unusual, for sure. But once past the awkwardness Grammar shows some sharp instincts in his characterization. And Paris Jackson, as a would-be protégé of Charlie’s who gets a brushoff, gives a knowing and authentic period-L.A.-rocker turn, especially impressive given she was born well after the movie takes place.The Space BetweenRated R for language, nudity, themes, ’90s L.A. rock scene material. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Rent or buy on FandangoNow, Amazon, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      They Fought to Make ‘In the Heights’ Both Dreamlike and Authentic

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      The creative team of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Jon M. Chu explain what it took to create a euphoric spectacle that stayed true to its cultural roots.Lin-Manuel Miranda still believes it was a miracle that “In the Heights,” the musical homage to Latino culture through the lens of the Washington Heights neighborhood, made it to Broadway. Back in 2008, before striving for inclusion became the entertainment industry standard, he and the playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes were unknowns peddling a joyful narrative about unseen people.Their exuberant show inspired by their families and neighbors finally reaches the big screen (and HBO Max) this week after stumbling through multiple studios. Warner Bros. and the director Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”) were ultimately entrusted with the project.In retrospect, Miranda said, it was naïve to think that getting the show from the stage to the multiplex would be easy. It took more than a decade.“Some of the hurdles were about Hollywood’s unwillingness to take chances on new talent and invest in that,” Miranda said. “When you watch this movie that Jon has so beautifully directed, you see a screen full of movie stars, but some of them you may not have heard of before. They were movie stars without the roles they needed to become movie stars.” More