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Minions: The Rise of Gru, The Forgiven, Mr. Malcolm's List, Official Competition and more
The Forgiven ***1/2
It doesn’t take a huge artistic choice to throw a viewer just a bit off-center, just something like the way John Michael McDonagh opens his movie with the closing credits, and the cast listed in reverse order; it feels like we’re being forced to read a cinematic language we don’t quite understand. And that’s absolutely fitting for McDonagh’s adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s 2012 novel, dealing with the aftermath of an accident in which a Western couple—British physician David (Ralph Fiennes) and his American wife Jo (Jessica Chastain)—driving to a party at a remote Moroccan estate, hit and kill a local teenager.
The Black Phone, Elvis, Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe and more
Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe ***
It’s been 25 years since Mike Judge’s sniggering animated adolescents last graced a screen—and God bless ’em, they’re just as stupid, immature, horny and funny as they’ve ever been. Judge returns as co-writer and voice to both of our dimwitted anti-heroes, in a story that begins in 1998 with B & B sentenced to attend space camp after a destructive episode at their high-school science fair, continues with a trip on board the space shuttle, and turns into a time travel yarn as the lads wind up in 2022 and potentially responsible for the fate of the multiverse and the re-election hopes of the governor of Texas (Andrea Savage).
Lightyear, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Spiderhead, Brian and Charles, and more
Bitterbrush ***
It’s certainly not necessary for a non-fiction film to have some sort of thesis statement to be successful; it does feel as though Emilie Mahdavian’s feature might have packed more of a punch if its observational strengths had built to something. Mahdavian spends a season with two itinerant cowhands—Hollyn Patterson and Colie Moline—as they bring in a cattle herd from the mountains of Idaho.
Jurassic World Dominion, Hustle, Benediction, A Chiara
A Chiara ***
Plenty of coming-of-age stories involve a first awareness of your parents’ flawed humanity; writer/director Jonas Carpignano cranks up the stakes on that notion without tumbling over into exploitation or melodrama. Chiara Guerrasio (Swamy Rotolo) is the 15-year-old middle sister in a family in Calabria, Italy, seemingly happy and “average.” Then on the night of her sister’s 18th birthday, the family car is bombed, and Chiara’s father, Claudio (Claudio Rotolo), disappears, leading Chiara on a search for answers.
Crimes of the Future, Fire Island, Hit the Road, Hollywood Stargirl and more
Crimes of the Future **1/2
It’s been a good 20 years since David Cronenberg has directed anything this quintessentially old-school Cronenbergian, full of bizarre world-building and unsettling body horror. That’s bound to please his oldest fans, while reminding me that I like Cronenberg better when he adds a little more humanity to his outrageousness.
