Buzz Blog

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F **1/2
At one point in this latest adventure of Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy), it appears that he’s about to launch into one of his improvised character riffs to secure a room in a fancy hotel—except that he stops short to explain to the clerk, “I’m too tired.” And it’s awfully hard not to see that as a thesis statement for what feels off here. Axel finds himself back in California when his daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) gets caught up in a case involving crooked cops, leading to a reunion with Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), Taggert (John Ashton) and Serge (Bronson Pinchot), plus a new partner in local cop—and Jane’s ex-boyfriend—Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Director Mark Molloy clearly wants to lean into nostalgia, as the soundtrack features not just variations on the original Harold Faltermeyer theme, but needle-drops like “The Heat Is On,” “Neutron Dance” and “Shakedown” from other series installments. Yet it’s impossible to ignore that this franchise only continues to exist because of the live-wire energy Murphy brought to the 1984 original, and that energy almost never emerges in a narrative that thinks we care about Axel and Jane’s fraught daddy-daughter relationship. As a straight action movie, it’s not half-bad when we’re immersed in the chases and shootouts, but when the movie’s main shot of comedic satisfaction comes from Nasim Pedrad as a high-end real-estate agent, and not from Murphy, it’s clear that the heat is not on. Available July 3 via Netflix. (R)

Despicable Me 4 **
I understand intuitively that what for me is a big problem with Despicable Me 4 might actually be the franchise distilled to its purest essence: It’s the stuff of a bunch of 5-minute short films packed together with only the vaguest sense that they belong in the same movie. Most superficially, it’s about Gru (Steve Carell) finding himself the target of a recently-escaped super-villain (Will Ferrell), necessitating him and the family—wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), the three girls and their new baby—being given new identities in an upscale suburb. An animated version of My Blue Heaven certainly could work, and there’s a little material involving Gru’s discomfort in his new environs. But there are so many subplots thrown in here—little Agnes having a moral crisis over “lying” about having a new name; middle-schooler Margo (Miranda Cosgrove) dealing with a mean-girl classmate; aforementioned mean girl (Joey King) blackmailing Gru into a heist; a bunch of Minions being given super-powers—that there’s no time to develop any of them beyond a scene or two. And that makes it fairly ridiculous that we’re expected to find any kind of emotional connection to whether Gru and Baby Gru Junior can bond. The Minion shenanigans are always good for a few giggles, and it’s clear that they’ve taken over top billing in the same way Scrat did for the Ice Age movies. It would just be nice if they didn’t have to wait to pile up 20 concepts for shorts and pretend that’s the same as an actual feature. Available July 3 in theaters. (PG)

Green Border ***
Coming at a particular narrative in the ongoing European refugee crisis from a variety of angles might be one way to tell a comprehensive story, but it inevitably proves to be a challenge when not all of those angles are equally compelling, or given equal weight. Co-writer/director Agnieszka Holland opens in fall 2021, exploring several characters linked to the Belarus/Poland border becoming a high-traffic spot for migrants: an Afghan refugee (Behi Djanati Ataï) travelling with a Syrian family; a young Polish border guard (Tomasz Wlosok); members of a humanitarian aid organization; and Julia (Maja Ostaszewska), a Polish widow who joins assistance efforts. The early choice to fade from the green of the forest location into stark black and white provides a clue as to the tone Holland is aiming for, and the opening act is both brutal and infuriating at capturing the impossible situation the migrants find themselves in, turned into political pawns by cruel governments. Yet as necessary as it is to show the horrible conditions the migrants face, it becomes almost numbing, and ultimately a less complex story than the ones involving the aid workers, trying to balance following capriciously-followed government rules with doing the most good. And the entire sub-plot involving the border guard’s crisis of conscience feels a bit sketchy, and too much like an attempt at a “not all cops” perspective. Over the course of 2-1/2 hours, Green Border does a better job at conveying the murky morality of trying to care than it does at hammering home what it looks like when nobody cares. Available July 5 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (NR)

Maxxxine **1/2
All three installments of writer/director Ti West and star Mia Goth’s X-iverse—2022’s X and Pearl, and now Maxxxine—are in one way or another about the effects of curdled, self-righteous conservatism. This one, unfortunately, feels like the least thoughtful of the three. It’s set in 1985, several years after the bloody events of X, as survivor Maxine Minx (Goth) tries to make the transition from adult films to mainstream acting with a role in a horror sequel—unless her past manages to catch up with her. West pointedly sets the events during the reign of terror of California’s “Night Stalker” and the era of the “Satanic panic” including media content, which could yield more rich material for the series’ thematic concerns. But Maxxxine never really goes anywhere beyond the most obvious notions of hypocrisy and the punishment being worse than the crime, and West seems to forget for long stretches that this is also supposed to be a satisfying genre film in its own right. He’s still got Goth at his disposal, and while her performance here never quite hits the dizzyingly committed heights of Pearl, it still captures how ambition is its own kind of drug. Her screen presence and West’s occasional flourishes of stylized violence are enough to distract from the parade of familiar co-stars—Giancarlo Esposito! Bobby Canavale! Michelle Monaghan! Kevin Bacon!—but not from the notion that this franchise might be running out of new ways to say the same thing. Available July 5 in theaters. (R)

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot **
It feels like a particular problem in earnest dramas that the editing betrays a lack of trust that the audience will grasp the seriousness of what’s transpiring on screen—and Sound of Hope is one of those movies where nearly every scene feels like it’s 40 percent longer than it really needs to be functionally. The fact-based narrative by co-writer/director Joshua Weigel and co-writer Rebekah Weigel takes place circa 1996 in the small East Texas community of Possum Trot, where resident Donna Martin (Nika King) responds to the grief over her mother’s passing with a sense that she’s called to take in foster children, much to the initial resistance of her minister husband, WC (Demetrius Grosse). The story eventually evolves into the way many members of WC’s congregation are similarly moved to become adoptive parents, and the various challenges they all face with kids from deeply troubled backgrounds, and it’s a wonderful demonstration of Christian charity in action. The pacing, however, just keeps dragging through every plot point and new character introduction, while somehow only dealing superficially with the way a nearby wealthy, white megachurch shrugs at getting on board with helping out. King provides a strong central performance, but by the time Sound of Hope reaches its “showing the real people at the end” coda—which also drags on for several minutes—it’s hard not to feel bludgeoned rather than inspired. Available July 4 in theaters. (PG-13)

Summer Solstice ***
Writer/director Noah Schamus’s low-key character pieces offers a great example of why status dynamics are the heart and soul of authentic-seeming relationships. It follows New York City-based struggling actor Leo (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), a trans man who gets a call from his college BFF Eleanor (Marianne Rendón), who’s passing through town and invites Leo for a long weekend together in upstate New York. Most of what follows deals with how they deal with reconnecting for the first substantial amount of time since Leo’s transition, but while there are certainly elements here specific to the trans experience of renegotiating relationships, it would be a mistake to think of this idea as exclusive to that experience. It’s a perfectly-pitched recognition of how certain friendships are based on who is the “alpha”—and, in this particular case, how Eleanor’s assumptions about how she can interact with Leo are based on the insecure person he used to be. Rendón’s performance is especially wonderful in this respect, finding a sweet spot for portraying an extroverted force of nature navigating the disappointments of her own life, while Menuez does an effective slow burn waiting for his friend to play emotional catch-up. Schamus’s script gets a little on-the-nose connecting a part Leo is reading for with the story we’re watching, but ultimately nails how complicated it can be for two people who have changed to try to hang on to the connection they once had. Available July 5 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (NR)