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Argylle, The Promised Land, Origin, Scrambled, Farewell Mr. Haffmann
Argylle **1/2
Much of Matthew Vaughn’s directing career—particularly Kick-Ass and the three Kingsman features—has been about exercises in laddish outrageousness, where the absurdity of the action set-pieces and copious exposition are considered features rather than bugs. His latest, in collaboration with screenwriter Jason Fuchs, is a convoluted espionage yarn so packed with plot twists and pivots that it kind of distracts from the enjoyable visual nonsense.
The Outrun, DEVO, Ibelin, Daughters, Ghostlight, Presence and more
DEVO *** [Premieres]Veteran documentarian Chris Smith (American Movie, Tiger King) offers a lively 50-years-on portrait of the veteran art band that offers not just a career retrospective, but a sense of how frustrating it can be for an artist to have a message that almost nobody seems to understand. From the initial meeting of founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale as Kent State University students in 1970, Smith spins the tale of angry Vietnam-era activists keen to spread a satirical message about human “de-evolution” in a chaotic time, and whose artistic endeavors to spread that message almost accidentally culminate in the formation of a band.
Exhibiting Forgiveness, Porcelain War, A Different Man, Gaucho Gaucho, Ponyboi
Exhibiting Forgiveness *** [U.S. Dramatic]
There are some challenging things percolating beneath the surface of writer/director Titus Kaphar's movie, which might have made even more of an impact had he not been so determined to underline things that didn’t need underlining. It’s the tale of on-the-rise visual artist Tarrell Rodin (André Holland), whose burgeoning success is unexpectedly accompanied by the reappearance of his long-absent father, La’Ron (John Earl Jelks), in recovery from years of drug addiction and seeking reconciliation for the damage he did as a father.
By Scott Renshaw and Aimee L. Cook
Jan 26, 2024 9:12 am
The Greatest Night in Pop, Union, Girls Will Be Girls, Nocturnes
The Greatest Night in Pop *** [Special Screenings]If you were there at the time—and perhaps a hipper-than-thou teenager—the 1985 all-star famine-relief hit “We Are the World” was an earnestly anthemic, well-intentioned piece of kitsch, which might make the prospect of a feature-length documentary about its creation a less-then-appealing prospect. But Bao Nguyen’s film isn’t so much celebration of the song as it is a fascinating home-movie about herding some of the most famous cats on the planet at the time.
Will & Harper, Between the Temples, As We Speak, Reinas, Desire Lines, Stress Positions
Will & Harper **** [Premieres]
There have been—and will be—many documentaries about humanizing the transgender experience, the process of transitioning, and the way others respond to those things, but it’s hard to imagine any will be simultaneously as heartfelt and as wildly entertaining as this one. Our subjects are actor Will Ferrell and his longtime friend/one-time Saturday Night Live head writer Harper Steele, who decide to take a 16-day New York-to-California road trip in the wake of Steele’s coming out as a trans woman at the age of 61.
By Scott Renshaw and Aimee L. Cook
Jan 24, 2024 7:55 am
Suncoast, Krazy House, In the Summers, And So It Begins, Super/Man, Kidnapping Inc.
Suncoast *** [U.S. Dramatic]
The semi-autobiographical specificity connecting writer/director Laura Chinn’s story to real-world, highly-publicized events certainly gives writer/director a unique perspective, but it’s also the one thing that makes this otherwise lovely film feel a bit overstuffed. Set in early 2005 Clearwater, Florida, it deals with 17-year-old Doris (Nico Parker) and her mother (Laura Linney) as they move Doris’s terminally-ill, unresponsive older brother into hospice care—the same hospice, it turns out, that is housing Terri Schiavo, whose case involving end-of-life choices became a national lightning-rod for right-to-life protesters.
By Scott Renshaw and Aimee L. Cook
Jan 23, 2024 7:05 am
A Real Pain, My Old Ass, Realm of Satan, Good One, Every Little Thing, Igualada
A Real Pain ***1/2 [U.S. Dramatic]
While it’s far from the most interesting thing about the movie, the double-entendre in the title of writer/director Jesse Eisenberg’s second feature captures both the essence of a love-to-hate-him central character, and the story’s understanding that genuine hurt—whether your own, or someone else’s—can be hard to process. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin play David and Benji Kaplan, cousins who decide to take a guided Jewish history tour of Poland, the native country of their recently-deceased, Holocaust-survivor grandmother.
Hit Man, Sasquatch Sunset, Love Machina, Handling the Undead, Eternal You
Hit Man ***1/2 [Spotlight]Richard Linklater has spent more than 30 years being so good at making risk-taking indie cinema that it’s easy to forget how great he can also be at pure pop entertainment. Wildly fictionalized from the story of a real person, it follows Gary Johnson (Glen Powell), a philosophy professor who moonlights as an audio technician for New Orleans Police Department sting operations—until he’s called into undercover duty himself to pose as a contract killer, trying to nab those attempting to "hire" him.
Love Me, Thelma, I Saw the TV Glow, Dìdi, A New Kind of Wilderness
Love Me ***1/2 [U.S. Dramatic]I feel fairly confident that I won’t be the only person short-handing the debut feature from writer/director team Sam & Andy Zuchero as “WALL-E, if instead of WALL-E learning about human love from Hello, Dolly, he learned about it from YouTube”—but it turns out to be a bit more complicated than that. Five hundred years after the apocalyptic end of humanity, an ocean sensor buoy achieves self-awareness, and makes contact with a satellite launched as a final digital repository of the human experience.
Freaky Tales, Girls State, How to Have Sex, Never Look Away
Freaky Tales **1/2 [Premieres]Sometimes it takes a movie like this one to help you realize how miraculous it is that Quentin Tarantino’s “love letters” to the genres he adores don't seem oppressive more often. This quartet of narratives is loosely connected by their setting in Oakland, Calif. circa May 1987, following: punk kids deciding to stand up to bullying skinheads; a pair of aspiring hip-hop artists (Normani and Dominique Thorne) getting a potentially big break; a hired thug (Pedro Pascal) facing a life crossroads; and then-NBA star Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis) turning into a vengeance-seeking ninja.
