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Fight or Flight, Juliet & Romeo, Summer of 69, Clown in a Cornfield, Secret Mall Apartment and more
Clown in a Cornfield **
High-concept premise and social commentary certainly have the ability to work together, but it feels like those two things are pasted awkwardly together in co-writer/director Eli Craig’s adaptation of Adam Cesare’s 2020 YA horror novel. It’s set in a rural Missouri town where 17-year-old Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her widowed dad (Aaron Abrams) relocate after a family tragedy, only to discover that the place has a history with serial killings involving someone dressed as the clown mascot of the corn syrup company that was the town’s main industry.
Thunderbolts*, Another Simple Favor, The Surfer, Bonjour Tristesse, Rosario
Another Simple Favor ***
The plot here is somehow even more lurid and preposterous than the original based on Darcey Bell’s novel, but if that’s the price we have to pay to get more delightful interplay between Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, then so be it. Those who saw 2018’s A Simple Favor might recall that it ended with suburban housewife Emily (Lively) in jail after mommy-blogger Stephanie (Kendrick) unmasked Emily as a homicidal con artist; several years later, Stephanie has written a true-crime novel based on that experience, Emily is freshly out of prison pending appeal for [waves hands] reasons, and everyone ends up in Capri for Emily’s wedding to an Italian crime lord (Michele Morrone).
Sinners, The Wedding Banquet, Sneaks, The Ugly Stepsister, One to One: John & Yoko
One to One: John & Yoko ***
I completely understand the idea that, after 50-plus years, we really don’t need another documentary about any of the Beatles—and if this one works, it’s because director Kevin Macdonald kind of understands that, too. Because this is less a documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono than it is about the world that shaped them at a particular moment in their lives: approximately 18 months between 1971 and 1973 when they were living in New York’s Greenwich Village, absorbing American culture and politics from television, including a documentary about conditions at a home for developmentally-disabled children that inspired the “One to One” benefit concert in August 1972.
Veteran standup talks about getting started, dealing with hecklers, and learning a valuable lesson in SLC
Standup comedian Steve Hofstetter has made a 20-year-plus career out of material that’s both personal and unapologetically progressive, occasionally taking on icons like Larry the Cable Guy in the process. Ahead of appearances at Wiseguys Gateway April 29-30, Hofstetter talked to City Weekly about his comedy origins, dealing with hecklers and how a Utah appearance helped clarify his on-stage sensibility.
The Amateur, Drop, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Warfare, King of Kings, Sacramento
The Amateur **
It’s a deeply individual thing to conclude that a movie’s plot machinations are utter nonsense, but by the end, I simply couldn’t help throwing my hands in the air at the sheer “no gotdam way” of it all. This adaptation of a Robert Littell novel starts with a pretty great spin for an espionage concept: When CIA computer expert Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) learns that his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) was murdered in a terrorist incident overseas, the veteran desk jockey decides to train with a badass field agent (Laurence Fishburne) to see if he can nerd his way to vengeance.
A Minecraft Movie, The Friend, Hell of a Summer, Bob Trevino Likes It, Freaky Tales
Bob Trevino Likes It ***1/2
Full disclosure: At this moment, I’m particularly susceptible to stories about human beings just being decent to one another, and writer/director Tracie Laymon has crafted a lovely tale about someone trying to believe that she’s worth being treated decently. Based on events from the filmmaker’s own life, it follows 25-year-old live-in caregiver Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira) as she wrestles with legacy of being abandoned by her drug-addict mother and left with her self-absorbed father, Robert (French Stewart).
A Working Man, The Woman in the Yard, The Penguin Lessons, Death of a Unicorn, Audrey's Children
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.
Snow White, The Alto Knights, Locked, The Assessment, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl and more
The Alto Knights **
All actors want a challenge, so maybe it sounded interesting in theory to Robert DeNiro to attempt a variation on GoodFellas where he played both his character and Joe Pesci’s character. He’s back working with writer Nicholas Pileggi in a biographical drama about 1950s New York gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese (both played by DeNiro), childhood friends who come into conflict after Genovese returns from exile overseas after the war and expects to get control of his criminal empire back from Costello.
