Buzz Blog

Am I OK? **1/2
“Nice” is such a wimpy descriptor, but I’m struggling to come up with something that feels more apt for this amiable comedy drama from co-directors Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allyne and writer Lauren Pomerantz. It’s the tale of two 30-something best friends in Los Angeles—Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno)—whose relationship faces the complication of Jane’s upcoming work transfer to London, just as Lucy is struggling with the realization that she might be gay. Pomerantz’s screenplay leans into the shorthand relationship between the two besties, and finds some delicate moments in the less-often-told later-in-life coming-out story, as Lucy contemplates risking a relationship with a co-worker (Kiersey Clemons, radiating flirty energy). The challenge is that most of the dramatic weight falls on Lucy’s side of the story, with Jane feeling more like a supporting player than an equal part of the narrative since “how do I feel about moving to London” can’t possibly feel as potent as “how do I feel about taking on a radically different identity.” Still, there’s an easy chemistry between Johnson and Mizuno, and Johnson nails a kind of risk-averse quarter-life uncertainty that in her case could all go back to an inability to understand her true self. It’s funny, sincere, a little clunky—but mostly, it’s nice. Available June 6 via Max. (R)

Bad Boys: Ride or Die **
After 25 years and in its fourth installment, a franchise has a choice to make: Stick to the basics, or try something new. And in this case, breaking from formula results in something that just feels weird. Miami detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are back, attempting to clear the name of their late captain (Joe Pantoliano) when a shadowy figure (Eric Dane) plants evidence of corruption, ultimately turning Lowrey and Burnett into fugitives as well. The set-up also involves Lowrey’s wedding and Burnett’s near-death experience after a heart attack, with the script flipping the dynamic so that the usually slick Lowrey is now anxious, and the usually anxious Burnett is now imbued with a sense of invulnerability. That makes the chemistry between the two actors—generally the best thing about these movies—feel consistently off, while the now-overstuffed cast of supporting characters pulls focus away from them. Meanwhile, the directing team of Adil el Arbi and Bilall Fallah move from the passable Michael Bay impression they pulled off in 2020’s Bad Boys for Life to a more frantic style of action direction, including a thoroughly unnecessary “POV of a gun-cam.” The narrative certainly keeps moving, and Lawrence can wrestle a few laughs from the material whenever he’s asked to do more than say “oh shiiiiit.” This too-busy story simply misses the point of why anyone would come to a fourth Bad Boys movie—and whatcha gonna do when it feels untrue? Available June 7 in theaters. (R)

Hit Man ***1/2
Richard Linklater has spent more than 30 years being so good at making risk-taking indie cinema that it’s easy to forget how great he can also be at pure pop entertainment. Wildly fictionalized from the story of a real person, it follows Gary Johnson (Glen Powell), a philosophy professor who moonlights as an audio technician for New Orleans Police Department sting operations—until he’s called into undercover duty himself to pose as a contract killer, trying to nab those attempting to "hire" him. The job gives the mild-mannered Gary an opportunity to dig into alternate facets of his personality, and Powell has an absolute blast playing the different variations on an assassin-for-hire he concocts for his would-be clients (including one that feels like he's doing Tilda Swinton). Things go a bit sideways when he gets personally involved in the case of a woman (Adria Arjona) trying to get rid of her emotionally abusive boyfriend, and the two leads have such a great chemistry that it’s easy to forget how improbable it seems that Gary so effortlessly leaves behind his Clark Kent persona (complete with glasses) to become a badass Superman. And that’s really the bottom line for how effective Linklater and Powell (who co-wrote the screenplay) are at making this an effervescent blast to watch, no matter how convoluted the completely manufactured portions of the plot get. Sometimes, you just want to watch a filmmaking team commit completely to a crazy premise—and like Linklater did with Jack Black in School of Rock, find the perfect delivery system for a star’s charisma. Available June 7 via Netflix. (R)

Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara **1/2
As was true in his 2019 Mafia biopic The Traitor, co-writer/director Marco Bellocchio has crafted a historically thorough tale in this film based on the real-life cast of Edgardo Mortara (Enea Sala), a 6-year-old boy taken from his Jewish parents, Salomone and Marianna (Fausto Russo Alesi and Barbara Ronchi), in 1850s Bologna when the Catholic Church concludes that Edgardo has been baptized, and therefore must be raised by Christians. The first half of the film focuses on both Edgardo’s new life among other forcibly-converted children, and on the efforts by Salomone to raise awareness of this injustice, and there’s plenty of dramatic tension in both of those narratives, and the pointed juxtapositions created by the editing. But Bellocchio also wants to address the role of this case in threatening the Papal States overseen by Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon), as well as the eventual trial of Bologna’s Grand Inquisitor, Father Feletti (Fabrizio Gifuni), then ultimately the internal conflicts faced by the adult Edgardo (Leonardo Maltese). The result is a story that’s comprehensive but indecisive, failing to capitalize on the emotional hook of Edgardo’s stranger-in-a-strange-land childhood or the anguish of his parents—despite Fabio Massimo Capogrosso’s aggressively operatic score—in favor of being able to tick off all the boxes. You’ll likely come away knowing all the particulars of this event, without necessarily feeling them. Available June 7 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (NR)

Songs of Earth ***1/2
Individually, both of these things sound like the stuff of a nice, earnest documentary: plenty of beautiful photography of natural landscapes, and reflections by a filmmaker’s parents on their lives. Yet somehow, director Margareth Olin pulls them together for a surprisingly affecting reflection on the passage of time and the relationship between humans and their environment. Olin spends a year with her parents, Jørgen and Manghild Mykløen, in her hometown of Oldedalen, Norway, observing the changing of the seasons and following Jørgen—still an avid hiker at the age of 84—through the mountains and fjords surrounding the family land. Along the way, we hear them describe a generations-long family history in that place—represented physically by a century-old spruce tree planted by Jørgen’s grandfather—and many of those stories describe hardship and tragedy. Instead of coming off as depressing, however, those narratives capture the reality of natural world as sometimes harsh, which works in perfect counterpoint to Olin’s images of calving glaciers, roaring waterfalls and majestic hillsides. This is also clearly a tale of mortality—Olin occasionally zooms in on the weathered topography of Jørgen’s skin—as the filmmaker contemplates the inevitable passing of her parents, who clearly adore one another. But by linking this story to the cycle of the seasons, Olin creates something about living within a grand scope of time, and appreciating our place within it. Available June 7 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (NR)

The Watchers *1/2
Being a nepo baby is, of course, a mixed blessing: You get your access, but the trade-off is inevitable comparison. And particularly when writer/director and M. Night Shyamalan progeny Ishana Night Shyamalan is attempting supernatural horror—specifically, an adaptation of A.M. Shine’s 2021 novel—you’re just asking for it. Dakota Fanning plays Mina, an American in Ireland who finds herself lost in a mysterious forest, then trapped in a room with three other people (Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré and Oliver Finnegan) threatened by unseen creatures who seem to be studying them. It’s one nice gag that the single VHS tape the four prisoners keep re-watching is a reality show that seems to be what they’re trapped in, but this is nowhere near creative enough to wrangle a mix of No Exit and The Real World. Instead, it’s yet another horror movie that’s—let’s say it all together now—Actually About Trauma, as Mina’s troubled past occasionally makes an appearance, but can’t break create a characterization interesting enough to overcome a narrative structure that feels like 50 pounds of exposition crammed into a 20-pound bag. There’s simply no compelling visual style or gripping set piece to carry us through to the payoff for all the mythology. As inconsistent a filmmaker as M. Night Shyamalan can be, you’d rarely call his work dull. Available June 7 in theaters. (PG-13)