Buzz Blog

Black Bag ***1/2
After a couple of underwhelming collaborations in Kimi and Presence, director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp hit paydirt with a satisfying espionage caper that doubles as an effective portrait of relationship trust and fidelity. Michael Fassbender plays George Woodhouse, a British intelligence agent tasked with finding the mole who may have sold off a dangerous government technology—but when he’s handed the list of five prime suspects, it includes his wife and fellow government spook, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke and Pierce Brosnan fill out the cast in what plays out mostly as a whodunnit, elevated by terrific technical credits including Soderbergh’s own cinematography—a candlelit dinner party feels like spotlights shining on all the potentially duplicitous characters—and David Holmes’ insinuating score. But while the plot chugs along briskly towards the resolution of the mystery, there’s also great subtext in the idea of people whose lives are devoted to subterfuge figuring out how to have relationships that aren’t riddled with suspicion. Fassbender does great stuff with a character who initially seems like virtuous machine, yet ultimately becomes part of a morality play suggesting that the best way to survive emotionally in a world full of lies is to have one person you know would kill for you. Available March 14 in theaters. (R)

Control Freak **1/2
The jokey cliché about contemporary horror movies that all of them are Actually About Trauma, but it would have been a lot simpler if this one had just stayed in that lane rather than allowing its central metaphor to wander all over the place. Kelly Marie Tran stars as Valerie Nguyen, a self-help guru about to elevate to the next level of success—at the same time that she finds herself scratching compulsively at the back of her head, seeing visions of ants everywhere and possibly discovering that she’s possessed by a demon. What follows should definitely be trigger-warning fodder for anyone timid about body horror and/or creepy-crawly things, as writer/director Shal Ngo provides a creepy foundation for Tran’s increasingly unhinged performance in a narrative with tone built much more on unsettling atmosphere than jump-scares. The problem is that Ngo introduces way too many threads as possible sources for the entity plaguing her. Is this about confronting suicidal ideation? Yep. Dealing with the legacy of familial mental illness and substance abuse. Uh-huh. Criticizing simplistic self-help language? Why not? Generational trauma from those who’ve experienced war? Sure, throw some of that in there too. Scary cinema can do great things with making literal monsters out of the voices in our heads, but it’s going to be frustrating if too many different monsters keep talking over one another. Available March 13 via Hulu. (R)

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie **1/2
Warner Bros. has already infamously shelved the Coyote vs. Acme feature, and now has passed off this Daffy Duck/Porky Pig vehicle to a secondary distributor, which kind of indicates how invested the studio is in keeping the Looney Tunes legacy alive. Yet there are still at least some charms in this apocalyptic comedy, with adopted brothers/BFFs Daffy and Porky (both voiced by Eric Bauza) discovering a plot by an alien (Peter MacNicol) to enslave Earth through tainted bubble gum. Director Peter Browngardt and the writing team go kinda retro in their characterization of Daffy in “Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo!” mode, which helps contribute to an animation approach filled with stretched faces and exaggerated bodies in motion (and is a nice counterpart to the farmer character who often moves like clip-art). As satisfying as it is, though, to see the result of actual hand-drawn animation—and respectful nods to Looney Tunes history, including naming the local diner after the legendary Bob Clampett—the story simply isn’t very funny often enough, too concerned with developing character arcs like Porky’s crush on Petunia (Candi Milo) at the expense of good old-fashioned jokes, and not the kind that feel the need to include farts and butt cracks. I suppose it’s encouraging that they still want to make movies with Looney Tunes characters, but it would help if they felt more like Looney Tunes movies. Available March 14 in theaters. (PG)

The Electric State *1/2
You kinda have to admire the sheer balls on the Russo brothers to believe they are exactly the right artists to preach to us about the need for rejecting the easy lure of technology at the expense of genuine human contact. That’s what they attempt to this deliver in their adaptation of a 2018 graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag, following an orphaned teen named Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) in an alternate-history 1990s aftermath of a war between humanity and robots, as she attempts to find the brother she’d believed to be dead. Along the way, she hooks up with an ex-soldier black-marketeer (Chris Pratt) and several of the now-exiled robots, with the supporting cast dotted with familiar faces (and voices) like Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Anthony Mackie and Holly Hunter. But the busy road-trip narrative that emerges ends up feeling like the result of a challenge to steal from as many Steven Spielberg features as possible, offering up large chunks of Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Ready Player One, E.T. and more. Worse still, it presents a muddled morality tale about the dangers of abandoning the real world and living virtually, in a movie that can’t establish any real connections between its human and CGI characters, or between the human characters, for that matter. “Separating yourself from the world doesn’t work” doesn’t really land as a persuasive thesis in a feature built in computers, and meant to be watched on a streaming service in your living room. Available March 14 via Netflix. (PG-13)

Novocaine ***
It’s not entirely necessary to add a germ of effective subtext to a story that works largely as a hyper-violent action-comedy, but I have to admit that I kind of appreciate the effort. It’s the tale of Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid), assistant manager at a San Diego bank and a man with a rare genetic condition that makes him unable to feel pain. It’s a trait that makes his life dangerous, but comes in handy when a robbery at his bank ends with the co-worker he adores (Amber Midthunder) being taken hostage, and Nathan sets out to rescue her. The direction by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen leans into all the punishment Nathan’s body is able to endure—warning to the squeamish—while Quaid’s performance does a terrific job of matching an inherent timidity to Nathan’s increasingly heroic actions. But Lars Jacobson’s script also provides great details setting up Nathan’s life of protecting himself from the kind of harm for which pain is a warning, while simultaneously remaining too isolated to develop connections. It’s definitely a satisfying ride, albeit one where the central heist plan makes almost no sense if you think about it for even a minute after the movie ends. And it’s also a fine reminder that living a life that risks pain is part of what makes human. Available March 14 in theaters. (R)