The overlong runtime could make one think this Charles Dickens adaptation is more inspired by the author’s prolific publishing house word counts (£400+ for just a few more pages of script?) than the bones of his novella A Christmas Carol, but while stuffed like plump holiday poultry, Sean Anders’s Spirited (B-) is largely a lovable lark. This holiday comedy centers on Will Ferrell as a wide-eyed Ghost of Christmas Present who works in a league of modern-day “spirits as a service” opposite Ryan Reynolds as a cynical earthbound purveyor of humbugs and shady public relations campaigns. Both comic actors shine in their tailor-made roles and prove their musical chops since the film possesses a new songbook by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Octavia Spencer is also a solid songstress and contributor to the fantastical proceedings, along with Broadway journeymen such as Patrick Page and Joe Tippett. Many of the musical acts are rousing and fun, especially a throwback to 1800s England. The first act gets bogged down in procedure and unsure meta jokes plus a little Cop Rock deja vu, but once the emphasis lands squarely on how Ferrell and Reynolds flip the script on the classic story and start to rehabilitate each other, a litany of laughs and deserved emotion come center stage. It’s not a perfect addition to the holiday movie oeuvre but often a fun sprinkling of confetti from the Christmas canon. The hearty let’s-put-on-a-show vibe pairs well with the film’s trippy troupe and could very well propel this into the Yuletide movie pantheon.
There’s nothing more delectable than watching bad people get their comeuppance, and many may have guessed that just such social commentary is on The Menu (B) directed by Mark Mylod. Ralph Fiennes plays a despotic chef at the helm of an exclusive restaurant that’s the sole tenant of an island, and its ensemble of guests ranging from Janet McTeer to John Leguizamo have no idea what kind of meal is coming their way. Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are a treat as the central odd couple, she with no interest in high-minded cuisine and he obsessed with every morsel. The story’s chapters are also food courses with life lessons attached, with only one that looks as delicious as described. There are a bunch of flawed characters with too many greedy, grubby hands in the veritable gobstopper jar. The allegory loses steam as the story progresses and doesn’t fully quench the appetite it hypes. The film is entertaining but may not stick to the ribs as much as intended.
All of the spotlights and president’s men can’t make this story surprising again. Maria Schrader’s investigative journalist saga SheSaid (B-) is an imminently watchable but not terribly original drama about a pair of New York Times reporters sleuthing into the misconduct of movie producer Harvey Weinstein, whose character’s face is never visible in the frame. The film is buoyed by two effective central performances, Carey Mulligan as Meghan Twohey and Zoe Kazan as Jodi Kantor. Both women are courageous portrayals of strong working mothers on a quest to improve the lives of others through a cathartic chronicle. Others in the ensemble, except the outstanding Samantha Morton and Jennifer Ehle as compelling corporate sources, don’t make much of an impression. The combination of people playing themselves and cloaking the antagonist as basically an “over the shoulder” stand-in didn’t really work. There aren’t a lot of new bombshells in the screenplay, and the story doesn’t tell us a whole lot about the intrepid reporters; but the crafts are uniformly strong with a clean, glossy sheen to the proceedings. There are shots aplenty of peering through glass, so the viewers can feel like voyeurs to the procedural in minutia. The film is a strong teaching tool for future journalists and builds to the inevitable triumph setting the #MeToo movement into motion. For all the sensational scandal it breaks into the open, the approach is a bit tame.
Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet make fine young cannibals in Luca Guadagnino’s audacious and astonishing ‘80s-set body horror romance Bones and All (B+). This walk on the wild side chronicles a twee twosome who feast on flesh, and there’s generally sufficient allegory to transcend the most gruesome episodes. Opposite the mesmerizing central couple who very comfortably occupy their pulpy roles, Mark Rylance is also absolutely unhinged as a terrifically terrifying man-eating mentor. Guadagnino guides his story gracefully into truly dark territory and finds sufficient humanity in his curious macabre. This offbeat road trip follows in the tradition of Bonnie and Clyde and Natural Born Killers and will not be for all tastes.
Life’s rich pageant unfurls in Afrofuturistic splendor as gifted director/co-writer Ryan Coogler showcases a mythological superhero swashbuckler that towers over recent installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (A-) accomplishes three simultaneous goals: honoring the legacy of the late Chadwick Boseman and his character as the denizens of the fictional Wakanda grieve the loss of a hero and protector, setting up an absorbing new conflict between nations and sharpening some critical characters on the precipice of critical leadership. Angela Bassett, Letitia Wright and Lupita Nyong’o lend grace and gravitas as the women delivering emotional and intellectual superpowers to hold their kingdom together. The introduction of a new threat in the form of an underwater world called Talokan led by charismatic mer-man Namor, played brilliantly by Tenoch Huerta, advances the plotting and political intrigue. Although a little bloated in run time, Coogler’s sequel properly nourishes its characters and dazzles with wondrous world building. The below-the-line crafts are flawless, with Ruth Carter’s gorgeously ornate costumes again a standout. In many ways the film is an improvement on its predecessor with motivated action and stunts and weighty consequences. It is an epic worthy of the Marvel monicker.
The crushing waves depicted in gallery art and in the seaside Brighton, England milieu imply a story with more ferocity than what we actually get in Michael Grandage’s rather staid romantic drama MyPoliceman (C). A contemporary cast – Linus Roache, Rupert Everett and Gina McKee flash back to a love triangle in the 1950s between their characters played by Harry Styles, David Dawson and Emma Corrin respectively. It’s the classic gay artist meets closeted cop meets straight teacher tale, and this type of soapy story rarely ends with everyone happy, although there are some tiny twists in the final act that make events a tad more intriguing. It’s a handsome production; but in a film so buoyed by the need for compelling performances, none are particularly remarkable. The audience learns little about being a policeman, a museum curator or an educator and even less about what motivates their psychologies. Dawson is ostensibly the standout and feels like a real person in his role, and Styles vanquishes himself with a performance a touch better than his most recent tentpole effort. Some of the film is pretty and picturesque, but its tepid melodrama makes for a largely listless affair.
Now playing in select theatres from Focus Features.
Foisting an often unflattering, unremarkable personal memoir on the masses is a sure fire way to open oneself up to bruising judgment, especially when the memories intended to move or inspire simply feel dramatically inert. Writer/director James Gray’s Armageddon Time (C-) leverages his wistful recollections about being 12 years old in Queens, New York in the 1980s to moralize about the enduring state of affairs in the world. The retro atmosphere is all there, from toting metal lunchboxes, riding on the subway, touring the Guggenheim and playing in Flushing Meadows, but the film rarely gathers steam in any of its locales. Banks Repeta is the central boy learning retconned lessons about white privilege as he watches his Black friend played by Jaylin Webb get in trouble for mutual troublemaking. It feels like the protagonist isn’t really there; he’s just watching himself be an unsure tween, longing for better choices he could have made. Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway are believable but oddly written as the parents; the viewer will be unsure what to make of them exactly, and they have very little to do or say. Even a nice portrayal of the sage family grandfather by Anthony Hopkins feels perfunctory. There are indeed some life lessons lurking beneath the heavy handed plotting, but there are few revelations to draw viewers into this feature as essential viewing.
Now playing in select theatres from Searchlight Pictures.
Whether interpreted as a peculiar fugue on male loneliness, a reflection on the origins of conflict or simply a dark comedic lark about an “unfriending” on a fictional Irish isle in the 1920s, Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin (A-) is a fulfilling comedy-drama well told with excellent acting, keen insight and glorious atmosphere. McDonagh makes a largely talky story fully engaging and cinematic by showcasing the tinges of violence simmering under the surface among his carefully drawn parochial, sometimes spiteful island denizens. Lush cinematography by Ben Davis and a lyrical score by Carter Burwell help punctuate the environment of a pretty but isolated rural village where good-natured Pádraic (Colin Farrell) finds one day his BFF Colm (Brendan Gleeson) has abruptly resolved to stop interacting with him. Farrell’s protagonist, provincial and blissfully unaware he is cramping the style of his grumpy bud, simply can’t get out of his own head about the confounding situation. The battle of wills following this fissure of friendship amasses complicated, unexpected and near-mythic implications, with the eerie, elderly Mrs. McCormack (Sheila Flitton) holding court over the island’s history as if guarding the temple to the Underworld. Farrell, all hound dog expressions and sad sack emotions, and Gleeson, gruff and troubled with few words and a mournful fiddle, are in top form at the center of the existential struggle. Those who enjoyed this duo’s past collaboration with the director, In Bruges, will likely appreciate this story as a counter companion piece. Also delightful as foils to Farrell’s character are Kerry Condon as feisty sister Siobhán and Barry Keoghan as troubled and uncensored local boy Dominic. The film is a rich work full of perfectly drawn humor, expected to be rewarding to cinephiles and possibly a bit of a head scratcher to those who don’t hop immediately on its vibe.
There’s a film history of deadly horrors in hospitals, where scalpels to the neck and syringes to the temple are among the go-to medical murder weapons, but a real-life sick bay slayer committed crimes with a much more understated approach. An engrossing drama with hints of a suspense thriller, Tobias Lindholm’s The Good Nurse (B) is wonderfully acted by Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne as two professional caregivers embroiled in a crime scene. Chastain plays an overworked single mom who is working the ward round the clock and counting down to her one-year mark of employment to qualify for health insurance to beat a secret pesky heart palpitation issue, a convenient plot point for a character primed for stressful sequences. She’s marvelous and relatable in the protagonist role. Redmayne is wonderful too as an often endearing character who clearly harbors issues under the surface. His simmering cauldron of an acting approach is a deft balance and consistently absorbing to watch. Nnamdi Asomugha and Kim Dickens are additional standouts in the ensemble as a police investigator and risk manager, respectively, demonstrating the frustrating boxes of the corporate medicine machine when patient care goes wrong. The film’s formula feels familiar, but Lindholm elevates the proceedings with creepy true-life conventions and by orchestrating high pedigree acting. His film is highly watchable as his primary characters get in your bloodstream.
The leviathan feats of surviving Marine boot camp or trying to change the mind of a stubbornly homophobic mother both get an “inspired by true events” treatment in Elegance Bratton’s 2005-set The Inspection (B-). Jeremy Pope plays a gay man who has been battling life on the urban streets since teenage estrangement from his mom (a memorable Gabrielle Union against type), so signing up for a punishing 13 weeks in Parris Island basic training is a desperate attempt to finally be a hero. Pope is the revelation here, bringing tremendous empathy to the central performance, who is a misfit times three in his strange new environment. Bratton’s film, while gorgeously shot and often deeply felt since it was based on some of his own story, tends to feel a bit like Full Metal Jacket meets Moonlight, with many story elements done much better before. Raúl Castillo is intriguing as one of the good guys; there are others who feel a bit like stock characters. Ultimately it’s absorbing in some unexpected ways even though much of the terrain has been trod before.
The title of Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness (C) refers to the fleshy polygon between one’s brows where expressed emotions unfurl on the faces of the “have nots” or stoic unwrinkled beauty is showcased among the Botoxed. Despite intriguing milieus for his human animals to act out their heightened histrionics, Östlund keeps a satirical distance from his mostly unpleasant ensemble. Much of the action takes place aboard a luxury yacht, with the most recognizable actor Woody Harrelson amusing in a glorified cameo as the lackadaisical captain. Harris Dickinson and the late Charlbi Dean play insufferable models on an influencer trip; they and most of the characters have very little to add to society aside from wealth or beauty. Dolly de Leon is wonderfully droll and dry as an emerging character who may be onto their ruse. The comedy is broad but regretfully redundant. The director knows his targets are obvious, and he literally drops grenades and gross-outs with gleeful anarchy to his wishy washy tale almost destined to polarize. The message in his bonkers bottle is pretty clear early, and it feels like the injections of his thesis treatment come in too many doses.
Premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, Streams and plays in limited theatres November 4 on Apple TV+.
Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry are the marvelous acting partners you didn’t know you needed headlining Lila Neugebauer’s debut film, the psychological drama Causeway (B). Lawrence is raw, effective and enchanting as a wounded veteran who reluctantly returns to her hometown of New Orleans where she befriends a similarly broken mechanic played with compelling and sometimes comic, nervy charm by Henry. As the soldier rehabilitates from her trauma and learns to feel again, her new bond of friendship helps reshape her worldview. Like other character study duets – Once and Leaving Las Vegas come to mind – there’s poignancy in the quiet observational moments and superb connection between actors giving their all to lived-in performances. The director creates renewal below sea level in her frequent water allusions, and viewers will feel like they are swimming in talent. The narrative could have used a bit more momentum at times, but fans of intimate stories and indelible characters will find this one quite rewarding.
