Buzz Blog

Dream Scenario ***
This certainly isn’t the first time a filmmaker has tried to mimic a Charlie Kaufman-esque vibe in a high-concept premise, but it’s one of the rare cases that seems to grasp the melancholy undergirding so many Kaufman narratives. Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli tells the story of Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), a university biology professor who abruptly finds himself becoming famous—and eventually infamous—when he starts making appearances in people’s dreams around the world. Paul status as an anonymous, non-threatening schlub is underlined not just in his balding dad-bod appearance, but in his lack of professional status and even the fact that he changed his last name to that of his wife (Julianne Nicholson), which is played as such a signifier of emasculation that it might as well have come with a “whipped” sound effect. But as occasionally un-subtle as Borgli can be, he also presents some great comic scenarios, and a deft enough editing hand that some of the jokes hit and vanish almost before you register them (like Paul’s ubiquity becoming such that he could be a Halloween costume). Most significantly, he wrangles Cage’s effective performance and his metaphor for social media-era celebrity—a thing that it seems might be cool, until we realize how quickly it can become outside of our control—into a surprisingly heartbreaking recognition of how the pursuit of adoration from strangers might damage the relationships we already have. Available Nov. 24 in theaters. (R)

Leo ***
I’d never have guessed before this year that Adam Sandler would find his mid-career sweet spot in pubescent coming-of-age stories, but after You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitvah and this charming animated comedy, here we are. Sandler voices a lizard named Leo, long-time resident in a Florida school’s fifth-grade class terrarium with turtle pal Squirtle (Bill Burr), who decides as he reaches 74 years old that he wants to get out and experience the world. Instead, upon being sent home by the substitute teacher (Cecily Strong) on weekend care assignments with class students, he realizes he might have a knack for offering life wisdom. Technically, this is a musical, with original songs by co-writer/co-director/SNL veteran Robert Smigel, providing catchy, funny moral lessons in a way that feels like a less-ominous spin on the Oompa-Loompa interludes from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. And it is satisfying watching these soon-to-be-middle-schoolers acknowledging their anxieties once they have a sympathetic ear, plus the amusement of a drone serving as the eye in the sky for one kid’s helicopter parents. The subplot involving the teacher doesn’t really work in the same way, veering away from the material that has a nice emotional kick, and some of the action beats get a little frantic. Mostly, it’s a tuneful diversion that, like the movie’s reptile protagonist, finds a way to offer gentle instruction that adolescents might actually listen to. Available Nov. 21 via Netflix. (PG)

Napoleon ***
See feature review. Available Nov. 22 in theaters. (R)

Saltburn **1/2
Early in the latest feature from writer/director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), the screenplay drops a reference to style over substance, which feels like a pre-emptive strike aimed at criticism of her bold, superficially engaging but ultimately empty provocations. The story opens in 2002, with Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) arriving at Oxford University as a first-year literature student seeming out-of-place among his wealthy classmates. He strikes up an improbably friendship with scion of wealth Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), and winds up spending the summer holidays at the Catton’s country estate Saltburn. Fennell spins an initially intriguing yarn from Oliver’s attempts to fit in among the Cattons, with Rosamund Pike delivering the most entertaining performance and dropping the best bon mots as Felix’s socialite mother. And the director can keep you watching, between the deliberate sexual outrageousness of some of her scenarios and knack for memorable imagery, like a room cast in a blood-red glow. The problem here, however, is the same one Promising Young Woman had: a “revelatory” payoff that seems intended to be show-stopper, but makes absolutely no sense from a character standpoint. Whatever Fennell might want to say about envy and class conflict gets lost by the time she gets to her ham-fisted final needle-drop, another reminder that the filmmaker seems to know how to get a movie started, but has no sense for how to end one. Available Nov. 22 in theaters. (R)

Wish **
From the opening nod to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to various references throughout the film and a gallery of beloved characters accompanying the closing credits, it’s clear that Wish was constructed as a kind of victory lap for Disney animation on its centennial anniversary. That doesn’t mean this movie had to feel like the result of feeding every previous Disney animated feature into an AI program and tasking it to generate a new one. It’s set in an island kingdom called Rosas, where the wizard king Magnifico (Chris Pine) has created a sort of Utopia where people can live peacefully by having their hearts’ deepest desire removed and preserved in the palace. Enter Asha (Ariana DeBose), a young would-be apprentice to Magnifico who makes her own wish upon a star, and has the star come to her in anthropomorphic form. The narrative’s central notion—it’s better to have a potentially unfulfilled dream than to have no dream at all—becomes clear pretty early on, and goes literally nowhere interesting after that in terms of character development. What’s left is a cobbled-together collection of components like a talking animal pal for Asha (Alan Tudyk), unmemorable supporting characters and musical production numbers built on songs that feel like outtakes from Encanto, or Moana, or really fill in the blank. DeBose delivers terrific performances of those songs, and the visual design takes an interesting approach of softening the CGI animation so that it evokes a hand-drawn aesthetic. But in working so hard to remind you of what Disney animated features have been in the past, it fails to inspire much enthusiasm for what Disney animated features are right now. Available Nov. 22 in theaters. (PG)