Buzz Blog

Dumb Money **1/2
Turning the complexities of the stock market into effective cinema ain’t easy; it’s been 40 years, and I’m still not sure I could tell you what happens at the end of Trading Places. But it doesn’t help if you’re so committed to showing you’re “on the side of the common folk” bona fides that you lose a handle on the central narrative. Director Craig Gillespie and screenwriters Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo explore the 2020 – 2021 events when financial analyst/amateur YouTuber Keith Gill (Paul Dano) sparked everyday buyers to a mass investment in Game Stop stock, creating potentially catastrophic financial consequences to hedge funds like the one run by Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) that had shorted the stock. The filmmakers do a reasonably efficient job explaining the dynamics of a “short squeeze,” and tracking the sequence of events that led to a Congressional hearing. But while Dumb Money finds a clear thematic focus in the idea of who has to deal with consequences and who doesn’t—emphasized by the early-pandemic setting, with the wealthy setting up shop in Florida to avoid restrictions—it’s much less effective at finding its human focus. Gill remains an enigmatic character while the story keeps visiting with several amateur traders: a single-mom nurse (America Ferrera); a Game Stop retail employee (Anthony Ramos); a pair of college students (Talia Ryder and Myha’la Herrold). And we don’t get nearly enough time spent on making Plotkin and his buddies the villains they need to be. The result is something that feels like it wants to be an epic takedown of a rigged system, but which tries to pack its epic content into 104 minutes. Available Sept. 22 in theaters. (R)

It Lives Inside ***
See feature review. Available Sept. 22 in theaters. (PG-13)

No One Will Save You ***
There’s a spark of greatness in writer/director Brian Duffield’s sci-fi/horror tale, enough to make the places it falls short slightly more frustrating. Kaitlyn Dever plays Brynn, a young woman living in an isolated house inherited from her recently-deceased mother, only rarely venturing into town due to severe social anxiety. But a different kind of fear awaits her when she becomes the victim of a home invasion that’s also part of an invasion from another world. Duffield takes the familiar form of the grey almond-eyed alien and twists it to brilliant effect, creating several “breeds” of extraterrestrial threats that are a combination of unsettling herky-jerky movements and eerie sound design. There’s also a terrific efficiency to Duffield’s visual storytelling, which hints at the ghosts in Brynn’s past through a narrative that unfolds almost entirely dialogue-free. That same narrative choice, however, almost demands a great actor to convey emotion through the eyes and body language, and Dever … is a good actor, leaving just a little something missing in the emotional subtext. It all builds to a climax that sacrifices catharsis for a darkness that calls the title’s meaning into question, and ends up part of the 25% that feels not-quite-right—which still leaves a pretty impressive 75% that’s terrific. Available Sept. 22 via Hulu. (PG-13)

The Origin of Evil **1/2
In theory, I’m totally on board with the idea of turning Succession into a gothic psychological thriller; I’m just not convinced writer/director Sébastien Marnier has a handle on how to make it work. It opens with a woman (Laure Calamy) contacting wealthy businessman Serge Dumontet (Jacques Weber) and telling him that she’s his illegitimate daughter, Stéphane. The rest of the family—including Serge’s daughter George (Doria Tiller) and wife Louise (Dominique Blanc)—is naturally suspicious, but Stéphane soon ingratiates herself into Serge’s good graces, and might prove useful to him as he tries to avoid the family taking control of his affairs as he recovers from a stroke. Yes, there are some similarities with the premise of the recently-wrapped HBO series, though Stéphane’s willingness to deceive about her circumstances make her a different kind of character right off the bat. Indeed, The Origin of Evil is most fun when it’s leaning into its most exaggerated elements, including Louise’s shopaholic/hoarder tendencies and Serge’s more extreme behavior. But while it’s certainly possible to tell a compelling story without a clearly sympathetic protagonist—see again: Succession—this one feels like it keeps sketching characters too lightly for the motivations for their behavior to make enough sense. And ultimately, the payoff is kind of a letdown in terms of its willingness to dig into the parallels between more street-level criminal behavior, and the way the wealthy might be able to get away with literal murder. Available Sept. 22 in theaters. (NR)

Spy Kids: Armageddon ***
Twenty-plus years since Robert Rodgriguez’s original family-friendly espionage fantasies—with the original protagonists now well into middle age, and Rodriguez’s own son Racer Max old enough to serve as his co-screenwriter—it’s time for a new pair of sibling scions of spies, and a mission with a surprisingly potent moral center. Tony Tango-Torrez (Connor Esterton) and Patty Tango-Torrez (Everly Carganilla) are living what they think is a normal life, until they discover that their parents (Zachary Levi and Gina Rodriguez) are part of a super-secret agency, and that their powerful technology to hack all software has been stolen by gaming entrepreneur Rey Kingston (Billy Magnussen). Like all of the features in the franchise, this one finds Rodriguez leaning into silliness and visual effects with a decidedly lo-fi aesthetic (although that’s the perfect choice for an homage to Jason and the Argonauts’ skeleton army). What’s wonderfully surprising, though, is that the story plays like a lesson for young viewers that might sneak up on them in how much it covers, and how subtly: the importance of playing by the rules; solving problems with compassion rather than violence; treating the use of technology responsibly. Hell, Rodriguez even manages to sneak in a swipe at the carceral state. The guy hasn’t lost his sense of fun over the years, but he’s figured out how to put a little meat on its (skeleton army) bones. Available Sept. 22 via Netflix. (PG)