Writer/director Celine Song conjures career-best performances out of a trio of popular actors and serves up a sophomore triumph of a “rom dram” in the marvelous Materialists (A). The auteur with an eye and ear for the art of companionship delivers fresh takes on the nature of love and gives audiences many reasons to care while consistently questioning the conventions of coupling. It’s all more complicated than its seemingly routine log-line implies, as it’s ultimately an incredibly profound meditation on life and love. A young New York City matchmaker played by Dakota Johnson finds her business and personal life getting complicated as she finds herself torn between the perfect match, Pedro Pascal as a wealthy private equity exec, and her imperfect ex, Chris Evans as a struggling actor). The story takes its time to hit effective beats and positions its characters with precision to cast its spell. Johnson is wonderfully empathetic in the lead role, funny and vulnerable and so evocative of her famous mom Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. Lushly photographed by Shabier Kirchner who also lensed Song’s Past Lives, the heroine’s unexpectedly lonely travails in Manhattan are brilliantly juxtaposed against the bevy of brides and brides-to-be celebrating blissfully in various backgrounds. Her character is obsessed with brokering relationships leveraging the math of modern dating, and the film questions many of the equations with pluck and logic. Song superbly stages dialogue-heavy sequences with spark and has a delicate way of depicting characters making connections as if they are the only two people in the whole world, which is quite a wonder in the concrete jungle. Pascal and Evans are both incredibly charming, despite the suspension of belief needed by viewers to imagine Evans without confidence. They both provide lots to love. Prepare for a few trick endings and some surprisingly moving subplots. This is a great summer date film for adults. After becoming the prominent purveyor of the modern love triangle, it will be fascinating what she does next.
Director Bradley Cooper’s unlikely remake of A Star is Born (B) throws in all the tropes of a good melodrama: it’s a Rose of a Love Story packaged within a gritty and naturalistic ‘70s film aesthetic. It’s also a vanity project seemingly stripped of vanity, and Cooper and leading Lady Gaga pull the heartstrings in one of the most spectacular love affairs since Rocky Balboa met Adrian Pennino. He’s a rockabilly musician fighting the demons of addiction; and she’s a moonlighting waitress and his singer/songwriter salvation with a pop music career on an upward trajectory. Their romance and music soar, for the most part; and when all elements are working in precision, it’s amazing to behold (their first duet as well as a stunning finale are alternately indelible and incredible). There’s just too much predictable not-very-good filler stretching the experience into an unnecessary “Oscar qualifying” length (movies with long running times have more pedigree, so they say, and this feels way longer than its 127 minutes!). The on-screen lead lovebirds also co-wrote the stirring music with help from the likes of Diane Warren, Mark Ronson, Lukas Nelson and Jason Isbell. There’s a long stretch of story without a new song that seems to lack oxygen because of it. Overall, the film is a marvelous star vehicle for the pop icon, who de-glams and leaves it all on the screen. The pop musician proves a revelation of an actress in every frame. Cooper is a bit too Sling Blade in his role with a distracting drawl that doesn’t fully match his character, and Sam Elliott is inexplicably cast as his brother (you know, the kind of sibling who is about 40 years older). Cooper’s directorial debut is intentionally messy around the edges; and there are times it feels he has captured the magic of love on screen. It’s far from original, but like a play with a soul-stirring revival, it’s worth seeing for these stars’ fetching takes on the roles.
Best known until now as a director of Step Up sequels, a Justin Bieber concert movie and flop flicks about G.I. Joe and Jem and the Holograms, Jon M. Chu seems an unlikely helmer of one of the first nearly all Asian American ensembles since 1993’s Joy Luck Club and one of the most satisfying romantic comedies since 1990’s Pretty Woman or 1992’s Strictly Ballroom, but here’s his film adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians (A-), and it’s bliss. Although not a musical, the film simply sings. Although not entirely a fairy tale, it’s enchanting. Chu’s star is born, a crouching tiger ready to unabashedly entertain, and he draws spectacular chemistry from the luminous Constance Wu and the dashing Henry Golding. She’s a Chinese American professor invited to accompany her humble boyfriend to a wedding in his Singapore homeland where she quickly discovers he’s part of one of the country’s most wealthy families and heir to a fortune. Hilarity and heartbreak are in store abroad. Michelle Yeoh is incredibly fierce portraying the perfectionist matriarch-antagonist as a battle royale unfolds between family duty and the messiness of love. The film is splashy, soapy and sensational; you’ll want to book a trip to the opulent, exotic city it depicts: a place of glistening razzle dazzle dancing and locales, of kaleidoscopic fashion and costumes. The film veers into a few arch moments threatening to tonally derail it, but the committed cast members remain jubilant journeymen. American rapper Awkafina is a hoot as Wu’s sassy sidekick. There are also two popular American songs sung in the film’s native tongue, adding extra glitter and throwback to Chu’s fanciful fantasia. In a year when racial representation on screen has already delivered a stellar superhero film, it’s lovely to have such an enjoyable escapist romcom from the Asian perspective. This is one of the best times I’ve had at the movies this year.
Alas sometimes these super sequel troopers leave you feeling like a number two. Ol Parker’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (C+) has a lot working against it: soundtrack of ABBA B-sides as opposed to the