Buzz Blog

After Death *1/2
I’m not remotely interested in litigating the plausibility of scientific evidence demonstrating the existence of an afterlife—and, despite initial assurances to the contrary, neither is this ostensible documentary. Directors Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke do interview plenty of clinicians in a variety of fields, addressing studies that have been conducted surrounding patients’ recollections of near-death experiences, brain-wave activity before and after clinical death, and the like. Most of it, however, is devoted to the stories themselves—multiple anecdotal accounts, including that of Don Piper, whose story was already turned into a 2015 feature—which are presented by the filmmakers in a combination of dramatized re-enactments and visual effects which face the daunting task of representing the indescribable awe of eternity, yet generally look like the shifting psychedelic color fields projected at a late-1960s rock concert. These accounts dominate the movie’s final third, which, along with the mid-credits “special message,” make it clear that there’s a specifically Christian agenda to After Death. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, except that the attempt to suggest that the goal here is real academic rigor feels like a bait-and-switch. Years ago, there was a scientific study suggesting sick people who were prayed for experienced better outcomes than those who were not; it was much more widely disseminated by Christians than similar studies suggesting exactly the opposite. Available Oct. 27 in theaters. (PG-13)

Anatomy of a Fall ***1/2
See feature review. Available Oct. 27 in theaters. (R)

Five Nights at Freddy’s **1/2
My knowledge of the Five Nights at Freddy’s video game series consists of exactly as much information as can be contained in its Wikipedia entry, yet I still feel safe concluding that the filmmakers tasked with turning it into a movie narrative looked at every other scary movie of the past decade and figured, “I guess we can make it Actually About Trauma.” Josh Hutcherson plays Mike, a guy haunted by the long-ago abduction of his younger brother and forced by the threatened loss of custody of his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) to take a night-watchman job at a derelict Chuck E. Cheese-esque pizza-and-games establishment. And there he discovers that the animatronic entertainers might have a life of their own. Director Emma Tammi (2018’s The Wind) puts together a few effectively creepy set pieces whenever it’s time to focus on the carnage of which the robot critters are capable, most notably a sentient cupcake with an insatiable appetite. Unfortunately, such moments don’t come nearly often enough, as the screenplay (co-written by game creator Scott Cawthon) leans heavily into Mike needing to purge himself of his demons, which would have felt tedious even if Hutcherson weren’t a somewhat emotionally-limited actor. What’s left is a movie with a fun concept, a few decent scares and a whole lot of foot-tapping while waiting for the creators to understand that some dude’s therapy session is much less interesting than a homicidal robot cupcake. Available Oct. 27 in theaters. (PG-13)

Inspector Sun **
Conceptually, it feels like a remnant from 1998, when we had two CGI animated features about a world of anthropomorphic bugs; technologically, it also feels like a remnant from 1998. The setting is actually 1934, as bumbling spider Inspector Sun (voiced by Ronnie Chieng) winds up on a plane to San Francisco, where he gets caught up in a murder mystery involving other creepy-crawly critters. As a character, Sun evokes Inspector Clouseau in his ineptitude-slash-certainty in his own genius, and that’s not a terrible starting point for a kid-friendly adventure. It’s just such a weird combination of elements that don’t really work together: dopey humor that rarely inspires actual laughs; Janey (Emily Kleimo), an adorable superfan/protégé of Inspector Sun who lacks any discernible character; an overly-convoluted plot mixed with a lack of focus on the “rules” of its insect world and its interactions with the human world. Plus, it just looks cheap and primitive, with effects that would have felt low-tech even before the turn of the 21st century. The narrative certainly keeps moving along at an energetic pace, with plenty of chases, perilous encounters and even a reference to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. There’s just so much evidence now of how much better this kind of movie can be written, and executed visually. Available Oct. 27 in theaters. (PG)

The Mission ***1/2
At times, Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’s documentary seems deeply respectful and sympathetic towards its subject; at other times, it views him as emblematic of a profoundly problematic colonialist mindset. And it’s evidence of great filmmaking skill that they seem to find a perfect, complex balance between those two sides. In 2018, American Christian missionary John Chau took on a solitary, long-gestating plan to bring the word of God to the isolated hunter-gatherer tribe known as the Sentinelese on an island in the Bay of Bengal—and never returned. The filmmakers interview plenty of Chau’s friends, and make use of material from his journals and statements from his father—re-created through animation—to paint a vivid portrait of Chau’s unwavering commitment to “The Great Commission” that Christians should bring the Gospel to all the peoples of the world. But there’s also an unspoken “…whether they like it or not” component to that charge, and the perspectives of scholars and other former missionaries allow for an exploration of how “primitive” people have been exoticized throughout history, and all manner of interference in their way of life justified. The editing rhythms deftly pivot back and forth between the material emphasizing Chau’s own voice and his beliefs, and stuff that challenges the cultural assumptions behind those beliefs, in a way that forces us to wrestle with where the tragedy in this story really lies—or even if, as many of Chau’s fellow believers would have it, that it wasn’t a tragedy at all. Available Oct. 27 in theaters. (PG-13)

Pain Hustlers ***
It feels like you can’t throw a rock lately without hitting a movie or miniseries about the opioid crisis, so what’s the reason for another one? Well, it helps to offer a human story that registers beyond the finger-wagging. Director David Yates and screenwriter Wells Tower loosely adapt Evan Hughes’ book about the real-life Insys Therapeutics scandal, shifting the focus to a fictionalized protagonist: Liza Drake (Emily Blunt), a homeless single mom who connects with sales rep Pete Brenner (Chris Evans) and a chance to get rich hawking fentanyl-based pain medication. What follows is in part a rise-and-fall narrative in the vein of The Wolf of Wall Street, with a kind-of-pointless faux documentary framing structure showing the excesses and corruption of the 2000s pharma industry. The reason it works as well as it does comes down to Blunt’s performance and the construction of Liza as a character, desperate for a chance to succeed and address the medical needs of her own daughter. While far from an apologia for those who contributed to addiction and death from misuse of medication, it connects the dots in a system that’s so broken, it only seems to offer a leg up to those prepared to ignore their sense of morality. The energetic storytelling—and a solid supporting cast including Catherine O’Hara and Andy Garcia—contributes to an entertaining chronicle of institutional brokenness. Available Oct. 27 via Netflix. (R)