Tag Archives: movies

New In Theaters

Eight Million and One

Leave a comment

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

by George Wolf

If you remember that seventies disco chestnut “Native New Yorker,” you’ll get an extra kick out of the first few minutes of The Last Pickpocket in New York, a delightful mash note to the Big Apple and a wonderfully engaging vehicle for John Turturro.

Turturro’s Harry cues up the vinyl and dances for his wife, Rosie (Karina Arroyave), who is bedridden and catatonic. He cares for her sweetly, showing a tender side that seems at odds with his chosen profession as a pickpocket.

Harry is quite good at his job, taking cash from wallets and fencing watches and other valuables at his buddy Ben’s (Steve Buscemi) corner pawnshop. Even a kindred spirit detective (Giancarlo Esposito) does Harry a solid now and then. But after snatching a duffle bag from the car of a young dumbass named Dylan (Will Price), Harry’s analog ways catch up to him.

Dumbass Dylan is part of a local crime family, and there was something very valuable in the bag that Harry threw away moments after pocketing a fat wad of cash he found inside. Easily tracking Harry down from city surveillance cameras, Dylan and his crew let Harry know that his wife’s wellbeing depends on the return of what he tossed aside.

Harry is still a bit haunted by some other things he’s left behind in life, and Turturro clearly relishes the chance to dig into the character. Yes, we’ve seen an aging man grapple with regret and possible redemption countless times now, but Turturro finds an identity, and a humanity in Harry that gets under our skin and captivates in every frame. He make us root for Harry despite some things we learn on his quest through the boroughs, and writer/director Noah Segan (Blood Relatives, Scare Package) adds a layer of caper for extra fun.

Segan’s first non-horror feature casts his native NYC as Turturro’s leading lady, and the city’s pulse is evident throughout every subway ride, diner visit and needle drop. Even minor characters are shaped through organic, lived in dialog, and by Act Three, Segan’s skill at reframing the familiar is on full display, along with a chemistry-filled cameo from a recent Oscar winner.

And speaking of…expect to hear Turturro’s name plenty this award season. He deserves it. Even if Harry’s story is number eight million and one in the naked city, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York makes it worth sharing.

New In Theaters

Rocky Ground

Leave a comment

Fjord

by George Wolf

Fjord is a film that feels out of step with the world that exists today, and that’s one of the many reasons it is so quietly riveting.

What is this nuance, this juggling of social complexities that acknowledges opposing forces and the unyielding march of time? Where is the moral absolutism that demands lines drawn with a knee jerk commitment to whataboutism and tribal boundaries?

And the title suggests, writer/director Cristian Mungiu is interested in navigating the small spaces between rocky, mountainous terrain that threatens to overwhelm anything up against it. Inspired by the 2015 case of one Romanian couple in his native Norway, Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) reportedly spent years researching other child welfare cases in Europe to craft his Palme d’Or winning dissection of a tragic culture clash.

Sebastian Stan and Renate Reisve star as Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghius, a Romanian couple who move to Norway with their five children. They are deeply religious and strict with their parenting, and soon find themselves pitted against a local judicial system at odds with their beliefs.

After a teacher notices bruises on one of the Gheorghius children, an investigation is launched that leads to putting them in foster care, and possible criminal charges for Mihai and Lisbet. Their culture, their religion, their entire worldview falls under scrutiny of a small group of new neighbors.

Mungiu’s camera gracefully asserts the titular metaphors with gorgeous framing of the imposing Norwegian landscapes, then allows Oscar nominees Stan and Reinsve to move throughout a stellar ensemble with astounding intimacy. Though dialog-heavy, the film’s frequent points and counters are thoughtful and organic, with some smaller moments made impactful via pointed production and set design choices.

This is thoughtful, assured and deeply felt storytelling. Most importantly, there are no easy answers here and no tidy bows, and the film is better for it. Fjord gives you plenty of stones in the road to one family’s reunion – religious values, secular social orders, the right to live, love and end life as you wish. How you stack them is up to you.

New In Theaters

Main Character Syndrome

Leave a comment

Terrestrial

by George Wolf

You notice Steve Pink as the director, and then you glimpse both Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry in the opening minutes, and you’re thinking Terrestrial may be another raunchy comedy with a sci-fi catalyst on the order of Hot Tub Time Machine.

The raunch got left behind, but there’s a decent, darkly comic mystery here that’s rooted in science fiction, fandom, a pack of lies and some good ol’ writer’s block.

Allen (Jermaine Fowler) is a struggling science fiction writer who could be on the verge of something big. He fanboys the sci-fi novels of “The Neptune Files” series, and idolizes their author, SJ Purcell (Brendan Hunt from Ted Lasso). Allen’s devotion carries over to the cheesy Neptune Files TV show, and those fictionalized clips (starring Robinson and Corddry) are cheeky and charming.

The mystery begins when Allen’s college buds (James Morosini, Pauline Chalamet, Edy Modica) visit him at his new L.A. mansion. They’re happy for their old friend’s success, but start to wonder about Allen’s odd behavior and the big paydays that hit before his first book is even finished.

What’s really going on here?

To find out, Pink and screenwriters Connor Diedrich and Samuel Johnson take us back to three months earlier, and the film is instantly elevated by a captivating, self-aware thriller vibe. Fowler’s (Sorry to Bother You, Faces of Death, The Blackening) ability to transmit Allen’s refusal to let his slowly growing panic derail the bigger plan is a frantic delight, and it keeps your interest grounded when events get bloody and more than a little spacey.

Pink effectively juggles the story – and the story within the story – for a solid setup, but Act Three can’t quite deliver on the promise. Pink scripted both Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity some years back, and this friend reunion could have used more of the cynical bite he brought to those interactions. Terrestrial seems satisfied to ramp up the body count, and crawl across the finish line out of breath.

Nightmares Film Festival

Going Down?

Leave a comment

Dead Drop

Screening at 6pm on Saturday, Oct. 17 at Nightmares Film Festival.

by George Wolf

You like your thrillers with a good dose of blood splatter? Maybe even some deadly puzzle-solving and jabs of dark humor? Well, stand next to me for Dead Drop, a wickedly fun ride on a lethal freight elevator.

One hectic morning inside a large office building, the main elevator seems to be on the fritz. So eight strangers decide the large freight elevator down the hall will speed their busy day along, and they get in.

They push the buttons, the doors close, but the ride is a short one. The elevator stalls, and they are all trapped.

Writer/director Ned Crowley quickly sets an effective sense of people and place, getting us comfortable with the different personalities that will have to work together for a path to safety. The snappy dialog begins to reveal important connections between the “Teacher,” “Bike Messenger,” “Troll,” “Lawyer,” “Actress,” “Suit,” “Priest” and “Bro,” and that maybe this fateful meeting is not as happenstance as it seems.

There are engineering clues to decipher as well, and Crowley (Killing Faith) adopts a wonderfully mischievous tone for his frisky mashup of Cube, Saw, and even a dash of Da Vinci Code. The bloodshed can be sudden, and shocking, with Crowley making sure it all pops in the frame for maximum WTF? appeal.

The ensemble cast is locked in to the vibe that’s driven home by a couple well-played needle drops. And by the time the other narrative shoe drops as well, you’ll most likely be smiling at how skillfully Dead Drop pushes your buttons.

Nightmares Film Festival

Pieces of Me

Leave a comment

What I Remember

Screens at noon on Saturday, October 17 at Nightmares Film Festival.

by George Wolf

Equal parts mystery, found footage thriller and exploration of queer identity, writer director Alex Hera’s impressive first feature What I Remember casts a truly hypnotic spell .

Ryan (Cabe Thompson) and Sam (Alexandra Boulas) have a fateful meeting one afternoon in the woods around their small town of Brookhaven. Ryan is constantly recording a video diary, and we see his POV as he stumbles upon Sam and her friend Drew (Taylor Morris) having a heated argument.

After breaking free of Drew, Ryan and Sam walk the trails together, sparking a tender and empathetic friendship that builds to something deeper, one that anchors Hera’s tale of shifting timelines, awakening identities and persistence of memory.

Ryan and Sam hatched a plan to leave town together, but Ryan’s disappearance left Sam grasping for answers. As Hera employs a data-moshing technique to blur the edges of time, place and vlog footage, another mystery from the past comes to light. The whereabouts of Hayden, a long-missing local gay man, have never been uncovered, sparking unmistakable questions about local threats to those in the queer community.

Boulas is terrific in a performance that only improves as the emotions of the narrative deepen. Hera mines those feelings with great care, leaving What I Remember as a collective of sketches that build to a mysterious meditation on finding the people and places that allow you to find yourself.

Outtakes

Middle School Fantasy

Leave a comment

Matchbox: The Movie

by George Wolf

So, a toy movie? Like Barbie?

Well, that’s a stretch. And remember, Jaws is a shark movie, but so is Sharktopus.

Apple TV’s Matchbox isn’t sharkspoitation bad. In fact, if you just hang with its overlong runtime, the film finds an unabashed cornball groove that will bring both smiles and eye-rolls.

The title only refers to the fact that a group of middle school friends were Matchbox enthusiasts back in the day. Now, decades later, one of those friends is a secret agent while the rest stayed in small-town Ohio.

But after completing a dangerous spy mission for his boss (Danai Gurira), Sean (John Cena) goes back home to pay last respects to an old mentor. After sharing beers with the old Matchbox gang, they’re all drugged and pulled into a globe-trotting chase for a stolen bomb.

Good thing that Aimee (Jessica Biel), Ted (Arturo Castro), Crosby (Sam Richardson) and Charmaine (Teyonah Parris) all have skills that come in mighty handy in a save-the-world scenario. Director Sam Hargrave (the Extraction films) puts his action skills to work for a minor league True Lies that keeps a kid-friendly feel despite all the violence and explosions.

Why this is over two hours I don’t know, but everyone in this likable cast seems to be having a good bit of fun. Cue it up with a few cold ones after the kids go to bed, and Matchbox: The Movie should give you a bit of fun, too.

Expect some groans, as well, but that’s what the beer’s for.

New In Theaters

Weak Thrills

Leave a comment

Animals

by George Wolf

Director/co-writer/star Ben Affleck continues his Netflix partnership with a serviceable thriller that is curious in its timid approach to being thrilling.

Affleck stars as a Los Angeles mayoral candidate who is mulling a big decision to get the funds for one last campaign push. Then his young son is kidnapped, throwing his candidacy and his sputtering relationship with his wife (Kerry Washington) into chaos.

With Steven Yeun as the campaign manager and Gillian Anderson popping in as a high-end fixer, the cast alone is enough to keep you watching. But after borrowing a twist from a similar classic, the film settles into a comfort zone that is just too comfortable.

The editing is choppy, and the narrative feels like it’s been re-shaped by too many producers and focus groups, leading to an unsatisfying final act more in line with a morality play.

There are moments of substance here, but just like too many campaign promises, Animals is a pretty smile without much behind it.

New In Theaters

Amused to Death

Leave a comment

Digger

by George Wolf

Don’t listen to me about Digger.

Don’t listen to anyone about Digger. I’d say the odds are 50/50 that you’ll love it or hate it. But if you appreciate a positive ratio of sheer ideas per moviegoing minute, you’ll be hard pressed to beat the latest opus from Oscar-winning Mexican auteur Alejandro G. Iñárritu.

Speaking of awards, get used to seeing Tom Cruise in the upcoming nomination lists, and he most definitely earns the acclaim. Call it tour de force, over the top or whatever, but he absolutely commands the screen and this satirical epic as Digger Rockwell, a my-way-or-the-highway oil tycoon whose company has caused an environmental disaster that threatens life as we know it.

Can Digger dig us all out? And can director/co-writer Iñárritu climb out of the narrative hole he digs in the early going?

For my money, yes.

His impressive resume (including The Revenant, Birdman, Bardo, and Babel) is stacked with impeccable craftmansmanship, ambitious framing, boundary pushing visuals and increasing self-indulgence. You’ll find it all in Digger, and per usual, subtlety is not in the toolbox.

If you thought Don’t Look Up was too direct, buckle up. This message, and this coal black humor, is obvious and repetitive, layered through extreme POVs and garish sets that underscore Digger’s promise of damage control through performative storytelling. And just when the bombast threatens to bring the entire film down, Iñárritu makes a shocking pivot that is sure to make Digger one of the most divisive films in recent memory.

I’m not spoiling it, and shame on anyone that does.

Even with Cruise dominating the film, the incredibly stacked supporting cast carves out a steady stream of interesting and often larger-than-life characters. From John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller to Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons and even a Burn Gorman sighting, there is excellence evident on nearly every corner of the screen.

And by the way, choose that screen wisely. Iñárritu shot this in VistaVision, so unless you want the pillarbox view, avoid the standard widescreens.

But if you appreciate the movie theater experience, do not avoid Digger. And don’t leave halfway through, even if you’re tempted. You’ve got to see this through — including a few minutes into the credits — before you can really start mulling over what you’ve seen.

Hell, a year from now I may wish I’d given this five stars, or two. But right now, I’m glad it’s given me this much to think about.

New In Theaters

Now Pulp Free!

Leave a comment

Verity

by George Wolf

The most interesting thing about Verity is what a stupefying mess it turns out to be. Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson aren’t just stars, but producers as well. And though Michael Showalter might seem a surprising choice to direct an erotic thriller, his resume includes some big wins (The Big Sick, Wet Hot American Summer).

Where did it all go wrong? Pretty much everywhere.

Based on Colleen Hoover’s best seller, the film follows struggling novelist Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson) as she is hired to finish a book series by world renowned writer Verity Crawford (Hathaway). Crawford is incapacitated after a car accident, so her husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett) invites Lowen to stay in their Vermont mansion, pour over Verity’s notes and deliver three much-anticipated books.

But Lowen finds more than notes. She finds a flash drive holding a secret manuscript that appears to be an autobiography where Verity makes some earth-shattering confessions.

Cue the thunder claps and lightning strikes, and hold any trace of a winking nod to how ridiculous this all is. Hoover’s story (adapted by Nick Antosca) seems heavily borrowed from a couple more well-plotted novels, and Showalter’s humorless tone never leans into the pulpy aspects that might have made this a fun, guilty popcorn pleasure.

Sexy moments aren’t sexy. Jump scares aren’t scary. Witty banter isn’t witty, and the three very talented stars just seem confused. That’s a bad combo, one that allows for plenty of time for us to wonder about those breakdowns in internal logic.

But honestly, there isn’t much concern with any one thinking too much. An over-reliance on voiceover narration drains the shock value from big reveals, and ends up negating those seeds of doubt the film seems to think it is planting.

This type of Neo-noir blurring of truth and fiction has resulted in some twisty fun in the theaters over the last several years. But what might have been a self-aware ride on the order of A Simple Favor or The Woman in the Window barely rises to the level of Hathaway’s own curious dud Serenity.

Too much talent, not enough pulp. Sad to say, that’s Verity.

New In Theaters

Discontent

Leave a comment

The Last First: Winter K2

by George Wolf

“Whoever climbs K2 in the winter will claim the last great prize in mountaineering.”

In 2021, that mission became a deadly competition. Businesses were reeling from COVID restrictions, social media likes became a new form of currency, and an unexpected crowd gathered to earn that last first: summiting the world’s second-highest peak amid the worst conditions imaginable.

K2 — aka “The Savage Mountain” — had proved too much for all previous winter attempts. But veteran climber John Snorri Sigurjónsson and local Pakistani hero Ali Sadparas thought they could be the first, only to be met with an unexpected crowd thinking the same thing.

There was filmmaker Elia Saikaly, Nepalese legend Nims Purja and his team, extreme athlete Colin O’Brady, Italian climber Tamara Lunger and a commercial group of climbers from Seven Summit Treks. The party atmosphere at base camp deteriorated into a brutal fight for survival, and director Amir Bar-Lev deconstructs the bad decisions with reverence and determination.

The visuals are often breath taking and the quest gets jaw-droppingly tense, which is not uncommon for this type of extreme documentary that we’ve seen over the last several years. What sets Bar-Lev’s approach apart is how he balances the multiple factors lurking behind the tragic deaths of five climbers.

When the over-commercialization of summitting meets an industry struggling to survive the pandemic, social media dopamine addiction and foolish hubris, common sense caution struggles for attention. The contrasts between tourist climbers and seasoned vets, layered into the already tense caste system of the region, creates an added atmosphere of suspicion and finger-pointing once the situation turns dire.

If the time of pioneers is truly gone, The Last First: Winter K2 bids them a stark, unforgettable farewell. At times thrilling, tragic, and exasperating, it is ultimately a sad reminder of how high human folly can climb.