Buzz Blog

Audrey’s Children ***
A lot of little things can add up to a potentially formulaic biopic feeling just a notch above its kin, and this profile of pioneering pediatric oncologist and Ronald McDonald House co-founder Dr. Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer) takes the edge of almost all of the possible clichés. It opens in 1969, with Dr. Evans joining the staff of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and beginning the research into combination chemotherapy that would revolutionize treatment of childhood cancer. Director Ami Canaan Mann and screenwriter Julia Fisher Farbman aren’t shy about focusing on the science involved; they refuse to dumb down their terminology, and the discoveries Dr. Evans and her colleagues make are treated as the process of hard work, rather than simplistic “a-ha” moments. They also underplay (without ignoring) the obstacles that Dr. Evans faces simply as a professional woman in this era, with the conflicts she encounters—including with her boss, future Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop (Clancy Brown)—treated as matter-of-fact rather than an opportunity for us to cluck our tongues in superiority-from-a-historical-distance. Mostly, there’s Dormer’s performance, which walks an edge between determination and over-zealousness that doesn’t over-emphasize Dr. Evans’ own traumatic history in why she can’t bear to see a child in pain. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, just a demonstrated ability to tell an affecting story with thoughtfulness and restraint. Available March 28 in theaters. (PG)

Death of a Unicorn **1/2
See feature review. Available March 28 in theaters. (R)

The Penguin Lessons **1/2
See feature review. Available March 28 in theaters. (PG-13)

The Woman in the Yard **1/2
There’s often great horror material in the idea of giving monstrous shape to disturbing abstract concept, and screenwriter Sam Stefanak uses that notion to extremely promising effect—until a misguided ending that torpedoes the entire enterprise. Danielle Deadwyler plays Ramona Harris, a recently-widowed mother of two children (Peyton Jackson and Estella Kahiha) who’s still recovering both physically and psychologically from the car accident that took her husband’s life. Then a mysterious figure appears on the property of the remote farmhouse the family was renovating: a black-clad, veiled woman with the ominous message, “Today is the day.” Director Jaume Collet-Serra makes the most of the isolated setting through the first two acts, building simmering tension with a minimum of jump scares and an eerie absence of underscore. And Deadwyler is characteristically terrific as the darker corners of Ramona’s personality begin to assert themselves while the crisis builds. It’s all clicking along with a terrific notion of what the woman in black is meant to represent—right up until literally the last shot in the movie, which clearly is intended as a “gotcha” pivot, but feels both cheap and pointlessly nihilistic. Genre films absolutely can deal with the crueler aspects of life; that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice in every circumstance for them to be cruel themselves. Available March 28 in theaters. (PG-13)

A Working Man **
Director David Ayer has been on his hyper-violent, hyper-macho bullshit for the better part of two decades now, generally taking things so far over the top that they’re more absurd than disturbing—and, well, here he goes again. Here he re-teams with his The Beekeeper leading man Jason Statham, who plays Levon Cade, an ex-military badass (naturally) who’s now just trying to lead a normal life (of course) until he’s forced to take action when bad guys pick on the people he cares about (what else). The person in question here is the 19-year-old daughter (Arianna Rivas) who gets abducted by human traffickers, and the screenplay—co-written by Sylvester Stallone—goes out of its way to make her capable in her own right to avoid accusations of “fridging” (look it up if you’re unfamiliar). Mostly, though, this is just a vehicle for Statham to rasp his way through threatening the thugs who stand in his way before he brutally dispatches them. And hoo boy are there a lot of them to dispatch; the antagonists come at Levon in waves of Russian gangsters, biker hoodlums, crooked cops and various mercenaries, all inept enough to be no match for one righteous man and his weaponry. There’s just no excuse for something so basic in its appeal to be this overstuffed, this deadly serious, this dull. Available March 28 in theaters. (R)