Category Archives: New In Theaters

Reviews of what’s out now

New In Theaters

The Eyes of Maxine Minx

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MaXXXine

by Hope Madden and George Wolf

Mia Goth and Ti West had both existed successfully separately in moviedom for years, West having become an indie horror filmmaking darling with his third feature, 2009’s The House of the Devil. Goth’s unique beauty and malleable ennui made her a showstopper as early as her 2013 feature debut, Nymphomaniac: Vol. II.

But, appropriately enough, it was with their collaboration that they both became stars.

Their 2022 feature X delivered a magnificent mashup of Boogie Nights and A Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a late Seventies grindhouse ode with style for miles. Easily the best film of West’s career, it was followed quickly with a prequel, the absolute lunatic genius of 2023’s Pearl.

If X articulated just how much skill West brought to a feature, Pearl declared Goth a talent to be reckoned with. She deserved an Oscar nomination. She was breathtaking.

And so, obviously, horror fans have been giddy since the trailer for the third film in the trilogy, Maxxxine, dropped. We circle back to Goth’s X character some years since the incident in Texas. A popular porn star, Maxine Minx is about to make the leap to legit films with a starring turn in a horror sequel.

The popularity of West’s series means a boost in both budget and cast. Elizabeth Debicki, Kevin Bacon, Giancarlo Esposito, Halsey, Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale class up the ensemble this go-round in a film that feels more apiece with late 70s/early 80s urban thrillers a la Eyes Of Laura Mars.

As warnings about California’s “Night Stalker” plead with women to be careful, Maxine asserts her ability to take care of herself, even as it becomes clear that she is being stalked. Maxine’s director (Debicki) warns her to eliminate the distractions in life, and Maxine makes a promise to do just that.

Okay, then, here we go!

But though blood does flow around West’s pastiche of 80s pop and fashion, nothing here pops like the uniquely stylized timestamps that helped make the first two horrors so memorable. Much of the film begins to feel like a series of setups in search of that elusive, satisfying payoff.

There’s no doubt Goth still commands attention, but West’s foray into the 80s seems less edgy, less ambitious, and just less horrific. The comments on fame and excess become broadly generic, and somehow Maxine herself becomes a little less interesting.

On its own, the film fits nicely into the role of a competent urban thriller. But when cast as the final piece of a potentially iconic horror trilogy, MaXXXine ends up limping to the finish.

Rated R for gratuitous use of shoulder pads.

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Despicable Descendent

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Despicable Me 4

by Hope Madden

Despicable Me is a nice franchise—harmless and colorful, filled with engaging personalities. And perhaps what has made it as endearing as it has been for all these years and episodes is that Gru (Steve Carell) is actually, almost effortlessly, a good dad.

He’s had practice. For 14 years he’s been caring for the non-aging sisters Edith, Margo and Agnes, the orphans he took in so long ago to better pull off his greatest (to date) heist! Only to find out that he preferred fatherhood.

It helps—both in practicing paternal instincts and in entertaining movie theaters brimming with highly sugared tots—that he also cares for an army of oblong yellow goofballs.

So, 14 years, many capers, one wife and new son later, Despicable Me 4 finds Gru and his family hiding from his first arch-nemesis, high school bully Maxime (Will Ferrell), who swears vengeance from a class reunion slight with a plan to steal Gru’s infant son.

That is villainy.

Plus, there’s a counterattack operation involving superpowered minions. And there’s a wealthy neighbor family (Stephen Colbert and Chloe Fineman ably voice the upper-crusty parents) whose precocious teen Poppy (Joey King) hatches her own villainous schemes.

With all the crisscrossing, Easter egg bedecked, vibrant plot threads, it’s the one between Gru and Poppy that most satisfies as it reminds us again what a great girl dad Gru makes.

Kristin Wiig is underutilized (again) as Gru’s wife, Lucy and Sofia Vergara deserves more than what her character, Valentina, offers. Some of the secondary plot sequences feel like filler, but some bits of outright filler (a Dance Dance Revolution bit and everything with a vending machine) are highlights.

Ken Daurio’s been part of the DM writing team since the start, but Episode 4 marks the first collaboration with Mike White, whose previous work includes real highs (School of Rock, Beatriz at Dinner) and real lows (The Emoji Movie). Together the writers find a nice balance of nuttiness for characters—legacy and new—to continue to make this franchise a fun one.

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We Love the 80s!

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Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

by George Wolf

Within the first ten minutes of Netflix’s Axel F, we hear the big hit songs from both Beverly Hills Cop 1 (“The Heat Is On”) and 2 (“Shakedown”). So the promise of 80s nostalgia is made early, and then part 4 in the franchise makes good on that promise for nearly two hours.

Thirty years after the dreadful BHC III, Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) still has the same Detroit Lions jacket, and the same penchant for stirring up trouble.

He also has an estranged daughter named Jane Saunders (Taylor Paige, classing up the joint) who’s a successful defense lawyer in…anyone?…Beverly Hills. And Jane sometimes works with now P.I. Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), who left the Beverly Hills police force after now Chief Taggart (John Ashton) didn’t have his back on a complicated case.

Jane is defending an accused cop killer that Billy thinks might have been framed. Their work doesn’t sit well with Taggart, or with the Rolex-wearing Captain Grant (Kevin Bacon), head of the new narcotics task force. So when some goons try to scare Jane off the case, Billy feels responsible and….anyone?…calls Axel.

First-time feature director Mark Molloy dutifully rolls out a workmanlike series of recognizable franchise faces (Bronson Pinchot, Paul Reiser) and situations (Axel crashes an exclusive club, Axel startles cops by jumping in the back seat of their cruiser). And while it’s nice to see the addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a well meaning cop/ex boyfriend of Jane, little of the script from Will Beall, Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten deviates from the convenient and the predictable.

But is it fun? Yeah, it kinda is.

Murphy seems engaged about the character again (especially during a surprisingly relevant exchange with a parking valet), and the film is perfectly happy to remind you of happier times and take your mind off of Supreme Court decisions.

Come back in the room after feeding the cat: oh, look it’s Serge! Check your phone for minute: there’s a shoot-em-up car crash! You know who the bad guys are, you know fences will be mended, and you know you love the 80s.

Axel F knows you know, and this time, that’s just enough.

You know?

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Baby Teeth

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Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

by Hope Madden

Late bloomers, right? Every family has one. One parent thinks they’re going too easy on their child, the other says they’re being too hard. Is the kid spoiled? Soft? Sensitive?

Ariane Luis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person understands this feeling and empathizes with both perspectives, parent and child. It’s just that, in tender young Sasha’s case, it’s a family of vampires and the trauma of the whole “clown situation” at her 10th birthday might have something to do with her delayed adulthood.

This darkly comedic take – almost sitcomesque – on vampire family matters rings of Vincent Lannoo’s 2010 Belgian mockumentary, Vampires. But here, the cynicism is offset by genuine tenderness. I mean, there’s meanness and bloodshed. But there’s also a lot of sweetness afoot.

Sasha (Sara Montpetit, Falcon Lake) can’t bring herself to kill. Can she drink a Capri Sun style blood bag left in the fridge for her? She can. But cause the actual suffering? Nope. And then she spies Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard) on the roof of a bowling alley, contemplating a jump.

Sasha is intrigued, though she may not be entirely clear as to why. But Paul might be the solution to her problem.

The pathos in Luis-Seize’s film benefits from both a widespread undercurrent of suicidal thought—both as a parent’s nightmare and a child’s misguided salvation—and an understated theme of neurodivergent love.

Montpetit and Bénard share a charming chemistry, their pairing buoyed by the harsher comedic stylings of Sasha’s cousin Denise (Noémie O’Farrell), and her douchebro sidekick (Gabriel-Antoine Roy). Sasha’s parents (Sophie Cadieux and Steve Lapiante) and her saucy aunt (Marie Brassard) help the angsty romance maintain a healthy comedic balance.

The resolution may be too tidy, but Louis-Seize draws real anxiety from the empathy her leads create. She also injects admirably dark (dare I say biting?) humor throughout, guaranteeing that good hearted sentiment never undoes the brilliant nastiness we witness in those early moments with Rico the Clown.

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Surface Level Scares

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Cold Blows the Wind

by Eva Fraser

Husband and wife hit man with car. They think he is dead. He is not. Chaos ensues. 

Cold Blows the Wind, written and directed by Eric Williford, is a zombie movie with notes of possession that does have an interesting premise, but gets overshadowed by lackluster performances. 

The film starts off rather cryptically, with a woman covered in blood singing a song. This chilling excerpt is immediately broken by the main couple, Dean (Danell Leyva) and Tasha (Victoria Vertuga), whose chemistry is nonexistent and whose acting feels robotic. They open the trunk of their car, where a pointedly undead jogger (Brandon Tyler Jones) cowers. From this moment on, the couple immerses themselves in a dangerous world of murder and what comes next when their efforts fail. 

Everything about the film is visually stunning— the lighting, with its cool and warm tones; the sound, with its exacting and disturbing realism; the special effects; the fight scenes; and the cinematography by Marc Martinez, which diversifies the slasher label with complex shots. The main issue is that the tech does all the work.

Cold Blows the Wind loses the plot in its dedication to shock factor and gore above all else. Once the film moves past the exposition and starts living up to its horror label, the acting improves—or maybe the phenomenal tech distracts from it. That being said, Briar (Jamie Bernadette) and Uncle Stevie (Torrey B. Lawrence) play convincing and thrilling roles that hold the film up in its weakest moments. 

Cold Blows the Wind commits to disturbing viewers, but in the process, discards its originality. If a good thrill and some gore are what you’re looking for, this film may be for you. If you want an enticing film whose plot is strengthened by its lead performances, look elsewhere. 

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Save the Cat

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A Quiet Place: Day One

by Hope Madden

Writer/director Michael Sarnoski has more than inventive scares to live up to as he helms A Quiet Place: Day One. The third installment of John Krasinski’s alien invasion series may boast breathless tension, sudden gore, and the most silent theaters you’re likely to visit. Beyond all those things, Krasinski shows no mercy at all when it comes to ripping your heart out. In that area, he does more damage than aliens.

Well, Sarnoski is ready for it—all of it—so you should bring some tissues.

Lupita Nyong’o leads a stellar cast as Sam, an unhappy woman on a day trip with her cat to NYC. Her plans are upended when giant ear-head monsters begin dropping from the sky, smack into the noisiest city in the nation. Watching as folks figure out how to survive without saying a word offers Episode 3 an excellent way to carve new ground.

Sarnoski’s a fascinating choice to direct this third installment, which was originally meant for Jeff Nichols (who would have been an unusual choice for a SciFi/horror sequel too). Nichols dropped out to make The Bikeriders, but Krasinski (who co-writes and produces) still nabbed a filmmaker not known for genre but for heartfelt, beautifully drawn indies. Sarnoski’s Nic Cage showcase Pig is one of the greatest films of 2021 and boasts perhaps the best performance of the prodigious actor’s career.

Alex Wolff, who held his own against Cage in Pig, is one of a slew of actors who makes a big impression with limited screentime and even less dialog. Djimon Hounsou mines more from his handful of minutes in this film than in the whole running time of A Quiet Place Part II, and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) finds power in panic and shares a wonderful postapocalyptic chemistry with Nyong’o.

Plus there’s a cat, Frodo. Yes, it’s a cheap way to generate tension as you spend the entire film asking, “Wait, where’s the cat? How is the cat?” The script calls for a handful of other easy ploys for anxiety, fear and emotion, but Sarnoski and his cast rise above these. They make you believe them.

Any time you can watch a film with giant extra-terrestrials bearing ear drums where a face should be and you find yourself fully believing anything, you’re watching a pretty good movie. A Quiet Place: Day One is a pretty good movie.

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Some of Them Want to Be Abused

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Kinds of Kindness

by George Wolf

Yorgos Lanthimos debuted as a writer/director nearly twenty years ago, with 2005’s Kinetta. Since then, each feature has seemed to push his brand of black comedic satire closer and closer to the mainstream. His last two features, The Favourite and Poor Things, brought him new levels of acceptance and praise.

Well, don’t get used to it. Kinds of Kindness finds Lanthimos at his most abstract, curious and unexpectedly hilarious.

Writing again with Efthimis Filippou, Lanthimos crafts an anthology with a strong stable of actors that includes Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Margaret Qualley and Mamoudou Athie. They rotate through various roles in three chapters, each connected by a strange man known only as “the R.M.F.”

Part one finds a man exiled from his years-long benefactor after deviating from the strict life schedule chosen for him. We then move to the story of a cop who is relieved when his missing wife returns, and then suspicious that the woman is not his wife at all. Finally, a woman abandons her family to join a cult and search for a spiritual guide with the ability to raise the dead.

Lanthimos reunites with cinematographer Robbie Ryan, but don’t expect more fisheye lenses or unnerving POVs. Here, we’re kept off balance by imposing architecture and wide, sparsely populated spaces, all waiting to be firebombed by Lanthimos and his sudden blasts of heavy metal music, insane driving, group sex, and bit part players that don’t seem like actors at all among this splendid ensemble.

A soundtrack full of staccato piano and chorale harmonies adds to the tightly controlled exercise that often speaks to lost control and uneasy compliance. You have no idea where any of this is going, which allows Lanthimos to keep levels of interest and fascination high as the running time balloons to nearly three hours.

This is dense and demanding cinema, complex and sometimes utterly confounding. It can wander self-indulgently, then slap your face with moments of brilliance, hilarity, insight and even horror.

No doubt, Kinds of Kindness is all kids of trippy. But it’s a trip that is unquestionably and unapologetically stamped by Yorgos Lanthimos. No brand of weird can comment on our human condition quite like his or trust us enough to take from it what we need the most.

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Mommy Issues

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A Family Affair

by George Wolf

First off, A Family Affair seems like it might have been a better fit for Netflix’s November slate. Not only does the film have an important Holiday sequence and at least one Christmas tune, a fall release would have put more distance between it and Amazon’s very similar May release The Idea of You.

But here we are again, where the Nancy Meyers rom-com fantasy formula is tweaked by having the mature rich white lady find love with a very famous younger man.

Here, the famous guy is the 34 year-old Chris Cole (Zac Efron), a major action star with an upcoming film in need of a script re-write. Chris’s 24 year-old assistant Zara (Joey King) is tired of just running his errands and would like to move up in the movie biz, but it’s her 50-something mother Brooke (Nicole Kidman) that gets Chris’s attention.

Zara’s not happy about Mom’s “sexcapades” with her demanding boss, but Grandma Leila (Kathy Bates) reminds Zara that Brooke is not just a mother, but a woman, too. And it’s been over ten years since Zara’s Dad passed, so surely she’s “earned” this indulgence, right?

Nothing wrong with a fantasy aimed toward older women, but like any familiar formula, the key lies in executing it well enough to move beyond the generic and develop a distinctive voice. Director Richard LaGravenese (Beautiful Creatures, P.S. I Love You) and first-time screenwriter Carrie Solomon can’t summon many wins beyond the three likable leads.

Not only will the inevitable comparisons to the warmer, more organic The Idea of You come up short, but madcap peeks behind the production of Chris’s latest action film instantly recall one of Tugg Speedman’s (“Tuggernuts!”) sequels in Tropic Thunder.

There are a few amusing jabs at fame and self-absorption, but A Family Affair never feels any fresher than a plate of reheated leftovers.

Which usually taste better at Christmas.

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Already Done Had Herses

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Solo

by Rachel Willis

From the very first scene, Simon (Théodore Pellerin) grabs your attention and doesn’t let go in writer/director Sophie Dupuis’s film, Solo.

Make-up artist by day and drag queen performer by night, Simon’s world is filled with glamorous costumes and stunning performances. When Olivier (Félix Maritaud) arrives on the scene as a new performer, he and Simon have an instant connection.

Rounding out Simon’s life is his sister Maude (Alice Moreault), a designer who supplies Simon’s with his stunning stage wear.

Our first hint of trouble comes with the news that Simon’s mother is returning to Quebec after a 15-year absence. Having left the family to pursue her career, this is a cause for friction between the siblings. Simon professes to understand why his mother left, but as we watch him try to reconnect, it’s clear that her desertion has left a deep, devastating impression.

Pellerin is masterful at displaying a range of emotions, easily eliciting elation or despair in the audience. From his performances on stage (of which we’re lucky to get several), to his newly developing relationship, to the friction with his mother and sister, each moment feels as natural as if you were experiencing these things for yourself.

The supporting actors are equal to Pellerin, bringing a welcome depth not only to the film but to each character. As we dive deeper into Simon and Olivier’s relationship, we start to get subtle (then not so subtle) hints that things aren’t as sunny as they first appeared. Several montage moments of both drag performances and the drug-fueled parties serve to deepen the sense of the tempestuous relationship.

The montages start to feel like one too many, but the drag performances are fun to watch. So even while they don’t always further the story, it’s hard to mind their inclusion. However, it’s also hard not to want more moments of dialogue between characters. One less montage may have allowed for this, furthering any number of meaningful character interactions.

On the whole, Dupuis’s writing is masterful. Paired with Pellerin’s stunning performance, we’re given a film that encompasses joy, devastation, and hope. Solo is a beautiful, passionate film.

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Zeros and Ones

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Daddio

by George Wolf

I’m no math whiz, but I imagine there’s some theorem to explain how much acting talent needs to increase as a film’s cast of characters decreases.

Daddio is a classic two-hander, which means there’s plenty of heavy lifting for both Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson. And they prove to have strong backs, indeed, more than enough to cover the film’s occasionally heavy hands.

Johnson plays an unnamed woman coming back home to New York, and looking for a ride from JFK to midtown Manhattan. She piles in Clark’s (Sean Penn) Yellow cab, and isn’t long before he’s pleasantly surprised.

“It’s nice that you’re not on your phone.”

She’s distracted, but is drawn into a conversation by Clark’s description of how currency has evolved in his years behind the wheel. Clark reads his fare pretty well, and they agree that her job dealing with the zeros and ones in computer coding is just another way of balancing “true” and “false.”

But the woman eventually starts exchanging very provocative texts with a mystery someone, and she becomes more guarded when Clark starts probing her relationship status and offering his views on what men and women really want.

One thing women rarely want is to hear the word “panties.” Clark really should have known that.

In her feature debut, writer/director Christy Hall crafts an extended dialogue that ebbs and flows in compelling, organic and sometimes touching ways. Yes, the traffic jam that stops the cab dead seems pretty convenient, but Hall also keeps things visually interesting by varying our views of the texting thread and weaving the verbal banter through window reflections, focus pulls and front seat/back seat partitions.

But all of that would crumble if we don’t care about these two people, and these two actors make sure we do.

Penn’s Carl is just this side of a smug a-hole in the early going, but eventually lessens his own defenses enough to drop the street-wise sage persona and share parts of himself. Penn also seems willing to bring shades of his offscreen image into the cab, giving Carl an added layer of mischief.

“Girlie” has even more of a journey, and Johnson responds with perhaps her finest performance to date. She spars with Clark over philosophies on life and love, while revealing her reactions to incoming texts mainly through facial expressions alone. Johnson juggles both with nuance and emotional pull, taking an hour and forty-minute ride up to the next level of dramatic talents.

You may not applaud where each character stands at the end of the cab ride, but that’s not exactly the point here. Daddio (not gonna lie, still a little curious about that title) is about taking the time for human connection, and about how much understanding can come from truly listening to each other.

That’s not exactly a novel concept in our plugged-in world, but Daddio proves adding the right messengers can still deliver a resonate message.

Just do the math.