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      In Need of a Film About Romantic Possibility? Try ‘In the Mood for Love’

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusClassic Holiday MoviesHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyGateway MoviesIn Need of a Film About Romantic Possibility? Try ‘In the Mood for Love’Wong Kar-wai’s influential drama, along with his “Chungking Express,” are part of a new retrospective of the Hong Kong director’s work.Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung as potential soulmates in “In the Mood for Love.”Credit…The Criterion CollectionBy More

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      Taylor Swift Illuminates ‘Folklore’ in a Stripped-Down Studio Concert

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      “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is straightforward and cozy. Taylor Swift and her two main collaborators and producers for her album “Folklore” — Aaron Dessner (from the National) and Jack Antonoff (a linchpin of Bleachers and fun., and a producer for Lorde, Lana Del Rey and others) — play through the album’s 17 songs at Dessner’s Long Pond Studio, a rural haven in Hudson, N.Y. Conversations between the collaborators introduce each song; birds and insects chirp.“Folklore” was released in July, and the documentary, out now on the Disney+ streaming service, was shot in September. Swift, Dessner and Antonoff perform as a trio on guitars, piano and a handful of other instruments, stripping away some of the fussy intricacies of the album’s studio versions in a way that heightens the songs’ sense of pristine contemplation. Often the music is just a rippling piano pattern and a modestly strummed guitar or two, each note precious. “The Long Pond Sessions” is a small-scale, casual-looking production; Swift is credited as the makeup artist. Mostly it’s just three musicians in a room, wearing everyday clothes and headphones, analyzing and performing songs they’re proud of.The big twist is that the September sessions were the first time that Swift, Antonoff and Dessner were together in the same place. During the pandemic, they had each recorded in their own studios, collaborating long-distance. In a nighttime conversation on a deck at the studio, Swift says that playing the songs in real time will “make me realize it’s a real album. Seems like a big mirage.” Musicians deeply miss performing live; with any other album, she would have gone to tour arenas.Swift got her start bringing teen-pop scenarios — breakups, crushes, insecurities — to country music. Then she moved decisively into the pop mainstream, trading banjo for synthesizers. “The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is not the first time she has made clear that she’s the songwriter and not just the singer. The deluxe edition of her 2014 blockbuster “1989,” which was made with the Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin, included her own demos of some songs, demonstrating her authorship. And last year, alongside her album “Lover,” she released an extensive archive of journal and diary entries, including song drafts.“Folklore” backs off slightly from the bold-outline, clear-cut arena-pop songwriting of albums like “1989” and “Red.” In quarantine, Swift chose a more introspective approach — but also, as she points out when talking about “Illicit Affairs,” a choice to be less autobiographical than her past songwriting. For many of the songs, Dessner — one of the main composers behind the National’s somber, reflective rock — sent instrumental tracks to Swift; then Swift came up with words and melodies. In the documentary, Swift says she was nervous about telling her label, “I know there’s not like a big single, and I’m not doing like a big pop thing.”But her songwriting remains self-conscious and meticulous. Swift and her collaborators detail the ways that songs on the album overlap with and echo one another; three of them — “Cardigan,” “August” and “Betty” — tell the same story from different characters’ perspectives. She explains “Mirrorball” to Antonoff as a cascade of interlocking images: “We have mirrorballs in the middle of a dance floor because they reflect light. They are broken a million times and that’s what makes them so shiny. We have people like that in society too — they hang there and every time they break, it entertains us. And when you shine a light on them, it’s this glittering fantastic thing.”Swift has written and sung — particularly on her 2017 album, “Reputation” — about the pressures of celebrity. On “Folklore,” she sings about them more subtly in “Mirrorball,” “Hoax” and “Peace,” coming to terms with her place in the information economy. But she also knows how to feed tabloids. A big reveal from “The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is that the pseudonymous, no-profile songwriting collaborator on two key songs, “Exile” and “Betty,” is her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. She got her headlines.For “Exile” — a cathartic post-breakup ballad that’s a duet with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver — Vernon appears remotely, from his own recording setup in Wisconsin. His face is almost entirely concealed behind a bandanna and a baseball cap, but the emotion in his voice rises to meet hers as the song spills over in recriminations.While “The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is a positioning statement like her recent Netflix documentary, “Miss Americana” — which revealed her longtime struggle to declare herself as a left-leaning thinker amid the conservative assumptions of country music — it’s also, more important, a musical experience. Songwriting — mysterious, telegraphic, crafty and personal as well as potentially lucrative — is Taylor Swift’s mission. “Folklore,” made under singular circumstances and challenging old reflexes, is likely to be just one step in her trajectory. More

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      ‘Stardust’ Review: A Week With David Bowie, Unaccompanied by His Music

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      This motion picture, in which an unusually coiffed performer, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, sings some Jacques Brel songs, purports to be a story about David Bowie.It’s called “Stardust,” and the director, Gabriel Range, who wrote the movie with Christopher Bell, opted to press on, even after he was denied permission to use Bowie’s songs. They might not have helped much, however.The movie expands on an interesting anecdote from Bowie’s career: his first trip to the United States in the early ’70s, a radio and print publicity jaunt with a publicist, whose family briefly entertained Bowie as a houseguest.[embedded content]Here, the publicist, Ron Oberman, played by Marc Maron, is the only Yankee believer in Bowie’s otherworldly talent. He drops, clumsily, several aperçus which, in this movie’s world, prove key to Bowie’s future superstar personae. (Inspirational dialogue: “A rock star or somebody impersonating a rock star, what’s the difference?”)Bowie is portrayed by Johnny Flynn, a real-life musician who appears capable. But he resembles Bowie — in James Thurber’s phrase — about as much as the MGM lion resembles Calvin Coolidge.The most bearable scenes of this road-trip-plus-flashbacks resemble “The End of the Tour” refracted through an episode of the podcast “WTF With Marc Maron.” The portrayal of Bowie is trying to the viewer. His character is either a stumbling, fumbling, fawn-eyed space cadet or an articulate, erudite conversationalist, depending on Range’s whim.In a scene depicting a marital spat, his wife, Angie Bowie, (Jena Malone) yells, “We were supposed to be king and queen!” (anticipating “Heroes,” a song that was years away). You can’t make this stuff up.StardustNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

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      ‘Superintelligence’ Review: Melissa McCarthy Has to Save the World

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      In this new Melissa McCarthy comedy, directed by her husband and frequent collaborator Ben Falcone (who has a supporting role), she plays Carol, described by another character as “the most average person on earth.” This pronouncement catches the ear of a roving artificial intelligence — one that travels from smartphone to TV to rice cooker at will — which decides on Carol, a former Silicon Valley star turned do-gooder, as its test subject.Taking on the voice of Carol’s favorite celeb, James Corden (who stars as his own voice), the “superintelligence,” a.k.a. the A.I., gives Carol a big bank account, a self-driving car and a snazzy apartment. In return, she must teach it about humanity. If it doesn’t like what it learns, it will end the human race.[embedded content]“Jexi” meets “The Day the Earth Stood Still” it is, then. Carol’s task is to revive her failed romance with George, a good-natured academic played good-naturedly by Bobby Cannavale. The countdown to extinction hooks up with what film scholars call the “comedy of remarriage.” (That is, the happy relitigation of a stalled alliance.) And the movie saunters between these two modes with minimal rhyme or reason. The couple is placed, to visual advantage, in many attractive Seattle locations — the city has never looked more sparkly than it does here.This is a movie of bits, enacted by varied comic luminaries. McCarthy’s “who me?” winsomeness, running neck and neck with her quick-witted cheekiness, is familiar. A new dynamic is added by the inspired Brian Tyree Henry, who, as Carol’s best friend and digital guru, hilariously crushes on the movie’s American president (Jean Smart).“This is nice — they’re nice people,” Falcone’s character, an F.B.I. agent tailing Carol, says while observing Carol and George at play. That is about the best recommendation one can give “Superintelligence.”SuperintelligenceRated PG for impending apocalypse and language. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Watch on HBO Max. More

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      ‘Mosul’ Review: In Iraq, This Time It’s Personal

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      “Mosul” dramatizes a 2017 story in The New Yorker that chronicled a self-directed Iraqi SWAT team’s efforts to fight the Islamic State. Counting both Condé Nast and the “Avengers: Endgame” directors Anthony and Joe Russo among its producers, this Netflix movie balances admirable ambition (it’s an American film, but the characters speak Arabic) with the cruder goosing strategies and red-meat dialogue of a revenge picture.The film, the directing debut of the screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan (Peter Berg’s “The Kingdom”), begins mid-shootout. Kawa (Adam Bessa), a newly minted Iraqi police officer, is nearby when his uncle is killed by Islamic State fighters. The Nineveh SWAT team, headed by Major Jassem (Suhail Dabbach), shows up and kills them, then, after a tense interrogation, extends Kawa an offer to join. The team only takes men who have been wounded by the Islamic State or lost family to them, and Kawa now qualifies.[embedded content]“Mosul” follows the group as it navigates violence-torn Mosul on a mysterious mission. (It involves more than simply driving the Islamic State out of the city, though no one is quick to tell Kawa the specifics.) Along the way, the men enjoy a brief respite watching a Kuwaiti soap opera; find safety for one of two young boys whose parents were killed; and engage in an uneasy barter with a Shiite militia force, trading cigarettes for bullets.Instant death lurks around every corner, and the movie doesn’t shy from killing off major characters. But it does play like an odd match of form and content: a story of single-minded humanitarianism framed as a relentless action spectacular.MosulNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      ‘Kill It and Leave This Town’ Review: Grotesque, Bleak and Endless

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      It’s difficult to describe the Polish artist Mariusz Wilczynski’s debut film, “Kill It and Leave This Town,” because the animated feature — plotless, gloomy and surreal — is more a direct translation of feelings and sensations than a traditional work of storytelling.There is truly nothing traditional about “Kill It,” in which the filmmaker reflects on his grief, mortality and isolation in his working-class industrial town. The grim film feels excavated from the subconscious: The coarse illustration style, with its frazzled, stray lines, emphasizes the bleakness of the images.[embedded content]The first third of the film is especially brutal. A child needlessly berated by his mother; flies plucked off flypaper; a dying woman in a hospital bed saying, “I’m all alone here, lonely as an owl,” as her son, an analog of the filmmaker, brusquely brushes her off: Wilczynski makes a feast of the obscene, but it is, by nature, hard to digest.The film does have the capacity for beauty — scenes of snowfall and rainfall and light streaming from buildings reveal an elegance that he works hard to negate. He’d rather we stare at a nurse carefully maneuvering a frayed thread through a needle to stitch not cloth, but the belly and genitals of an old woman’s corpse, while severed heads roll down the streets and humans defecate on the sidewalks.Tadeusz Nalepa’s surprisingly energetic rock-heavy score, however, is a satisfying companion to the film’s swift shifts in scale and perspective. After a while, Wilczynski seems to tire of his violent approach, and though the film maintains its dark dreaminess, his images soften, but a sense of listlessness persists that rejects resolution.Because “Kill It” is more than anything an emotional experience, it feels long and taxing. Wilczynski might consider “Kill It” a success — but I don’t want to encounter it again.Kill It and Leave This TownNot rated. In Polish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas. More

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      ‘Uncle Frank’ Review: Coming of Age, Coming to Terms

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      In “Uncle Frank,” the writer-director Alan Ball (“True Blood”) combines several overworked genres — the coming-of-age picture, the road-trip odyssey, the angst-filled family-reunion movie — and mostly steers clear of the obvious pitfalls.The film begins in 1969 in South Carolina with the 14-year-old Betty — or rather, Beth (Sophia Lillis), as she takes to calling herself when her cool but mysterious uncle, Frank (Paul Bettany), encourages her to use her preferred nickname. Frank is a professor at N.Y.U., where Beth starts college a few years later. But when she shows up uninvited to a party at Frank’s apartment, she meets Wally (Peter Macdissi), who isn’t, as he first says, Frank’s roommate, but rather Frank’s romantic partner of a decade. Except for one sibling, Frank’s family doesn’t know he’s gay.[embedded content]So when the death of Frank’s father (Stephen Root) sends Frank and Beth south again, they can speak with a new freedom. And as they navigate the contrived travel logistics that Ball has devised (Wally, whom Frank has insisted stay behind, improbably catches up with them in another car, just in time for Frank’s car to break down), flashbacks to Frank’s youth somewhat awkwardly commence, illustrating why he tiptoes around his relatives.Ball has said that “Uncle Frank” was inspired by elements of his family history, and some of the characterization (Frank isn’t perfect but struggles with alcoholism, for instance) feels suitably layered. At other times (anything involving the tyrannical father), “Uncle Frank” tends toward overkill. But Bettany and Macdissi have a wonderful rapport.Uncle FrankRated R. Hidden hurt. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Amazon. More

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      ‘The Croods: A New Age’ Review: More Civilized

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      No one would call it a huge leap on the evolutionary ladder, but the animated sequel “The Croods: A New Age” is slightly funnier than its serviceable 2013 predecessor. That movie followed a family of cave persons — whose patriarch was the lunkheaded but big-hearted Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage) — as they left the safety of the rocky alcove they called home and, thanks to the creativity of an outsider, Guy (Ryan Reynolds), embraced more innovative ways of thinking.“The Croods: A New Age,” directed by Joel Crawford, accelerates the Crood family’s clash with modernity. The clan stumbles into a verdant utopia that’s a cross between Shangri-La and Gilligan’s Island. This paradise is maintained by a family called the Bettermans, headed by Hope (Leslie Mann) and Phil (Peter Dinklage), who wear new-age garb and snobbishly show off their advanced ideas, like private rooms, windows and fruit baskets.[embedded content]They also have plans to set up Guy, who has been going steady with Eep (Emma Stone), the Croods’ eldest, with their daughter, Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran), in a subplot that the writers — perhaps because the world’s still-tiny population left them without enough characters to pair off — leave at least partly unresolved.While Dawn and Eep become besties, the dueling dads negotiate the common ground between Grug’s vestigial Cro-Magnonism and Phil’s proto-metrosexuality. Paradoxically, the movie’s energy ebbs as the proceedings turn more antic. The culture clash comedy becomes secondary once “A New Age” introduces a tribe of pugnacious, subtitled monkeys who appear to have a fairly advanced society of their own.The Croods: A New AgeRated PG. Hybrid animals — such as wolf spiders — that might frighten children. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More