1/7 gemini man sci/fi $50 mill bo 2654 screens pg-13 dvd ... · despite her expansive resume of...

1/7 GEMINI MAN SCI/FI

$50 MILL BO 2654 SCREENS PG-13 117 MINUTES

DVD/COMB0 DIGITAL COPY WITH THE COMBO

Will Smith (ANCHORMAN 2, all MEN IN BLACK, HANCOCK,

HITCH, ALI, BAD BOYS, INDEPENDENCE DAY)

In centering its action melodrama around the confrontation between its main character and a duplicated version of himself, Ang Lee’s Gemini Man joins some dubious company: the forgotten Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Replicant, the late-pre-governor-era Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Sixth Day, and Richard Lester’s abortive superhero sequel Superman 3. These films relied on split-screen techniques and misleading cuts to split their respective heroes in two—tricks that had, in essence, existed since Georges Méliés. New digital technologies appear to have spurred this old Hollywood hobbyhorse back into

action, as Gemini Man’s preternaturally gifted, recently retired secret agent Henry Brogan (Will Smith) confronts not just a clone, but a younger clone, logically dubbed Junior and also played by Smith, de-aged via facial scanning and semi-automated digital animation.

If the special effects industry has devised some new tricks, however, Gemini Man is hardly evidence that Hollywood screenwriters have. Co-written by Billy Ray, Darren Lemke, and David Benioff, the film never successfully redirects our attention from its naked exhibition of advanced CG and toward some sort of meaningful conflict. The broadly sketched attributes that define Brogan are either totally utilitarian (he has a bee allergy, which comes into play in a manner so haphazard that one suspects that the payoff was added at the last minute) or completely unexplored (such as his insomnia). Sometimes, the script’s sense of characterization also betrays its undercooked thinking about its ostensible main subject. To wit, the film dwells both on how Brogan’s traumatic upbringing shaped his psychology and on how different Junior’s youth has been, but then it has Brogan assemble a precise and specific psychological profile of Junior based on his own mind. Nature or nurture? Whichever one, apparently, is convenient to producing a teary-eyed Will Smith in a given scene.

Given Benioff’s writing credit here, it’s also hard not to draw a connection between the phony female badassery of HBO’s Game of Thrones and how Gemini Man treats Danny Zakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the agent sent to surveil Brogan in his retirement. When Brogan, attempting to relax and do some boating, outs the attractive young woman working at the dock as an undercover D.I.A. agent (definitely not C.I.A., for whatever reason), he observes, ostensibly impressed, her distinguished record: how she never received a single demerit despite her expansive resume of operations throughout the globe. Brogan then spends the remainder of Gemini Man explaining standard spy procedures to her, like going on the lam, as if she were a rookie. (Lee, Benioff, and company also stage an egregious scene that sees Danielle the seasoned spy strip for an awkward pat-down from Junior.)

Junior has been sent to kill Brogan by Clay Verris (Clive Owen, doing his best to

menacingly hit those American diphthongs), Junior’s surrogate father and the head of Gemini, a private military contractor. Brogan, it seems, constitutes a proverbial loose end for both the D.I.A. and Gemini, which cloned him in 1995 and now has his replacement ready to go. The seeming arbitrariness of Verris choosing Junior to assassinate Brogan is hardly accounted for by the film’s explanation, which has something to do with Brogan being Junior’s “darkness” that he must vanquish in order to…become a real man? It’s unclear, particularly as it appears that Verris didn’t want Junior to discover that they were actually the same man.

Perhaps appropriately, Gemini Man suggests a hybrid clone of Bourne, 007, and Terminator flicks. An internecine conflict between shifty agency types divided over what to do about Brogan plays out in dry cellphone exchanges, a pursuit through mostly random places around the globe provides the film with exotic backgrounds for motorcycle chases and extended fisticuffs, and a late-film revelation about Gemini’s ultimate goals raises the specter of a post-human world. Throughout, the action is underwhelming, as Lee uses rapid cuts and tight angles to disguise faulty CG—but to no avail. The problem is less Junior’s digitally altered face—which, while not perfect, can actually emote—and more the rubber bodies that bounce around the frame, rolling out of car accidents and flipping into karate kicks. This will rent as well as THE KITCHEN, ANGEL HAS FALLEN, SPIDER MAN: FAR FROM HOME, DARK PHOENIX, BREAKTHROUGH, SHAZAM and BUMBLEBEE.

1/7 JOKER ACTION/THRILLER

$319 MILLL BO 32734 SCREENS R 122 MINUTES

DVD/COMBO DIGITAL COPY WITH THE COMBO

Joaquin Phoenix (WALK THE LINE, HER, GLADIATOR,

BUFFALO SOLDIERS, PARENTHOOD, U TURN)

The air is stinking with gloom and decay, and among the morbidly downcast populace is Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), our Clown Prince of Crime to Be. “For my whole life I didn’t know if I even really existed. But I do…and people are starting to notice,” says Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) to his case worker in the comic book-inspired psychological crime drama, Joker.

Arthur Fleck’s a struggling hire-by-the-day clown who aspires to be a stand-up comedian. His life’s goal is to make people smile and laugh. Arthur does the best he can to take care of his sickly mother (Frances Conroy) and to just get through the day without being bullied or picked on. The socially inept wannabe funnyman lives in Gotham City which is going through tough times. Crime’s on the rise as is the unemployment rate. (Similar to New York in the late 1970s and early ’80s).

Experiencing failure after failure, a nearly constantly bullied Arthur feels abused and beaten. Making matters worse is the fact he doesn’t have anyone to turn to for help. Thus begins his slow descent into madness and murder as he starts to evolve into who he was always meant to be…the criminal who causes chaos and anarchy in Gotham City known as The Joker.

Gritty, violent, and disturbing, Joker is a twisted psychological drama featuring an amazing performance by Joaquin Phoenix. It’s an origin story of perhaps the most popular villain in DC Comics but make no mistake, this is not a “comic-book” movie. It’s a film that shows how an odd loner who has trouble connecting to people is pushed aside and abused by a society that has become cruel and

unforgiving. Phoenix delivers a

powerful performance as Arthur, a sad, awkward soul who’s never been able to catch a break and has experienced only abuse and hard times his whole life. His slow metamorphosis from a struggling, well-meaning, and eager to work entertainer into the killing clown named Joker is intriguing and highly disturbing. His performance is one of the best this year and is sure to nab him an Oscar nomination.

A huge renter like SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME, MEN IN BLACK INTERNATIONAL, CAPTAIN MARVEL, SHAZAM! and JOHN WICK 3.

1/7 THE LIGHTHOUSE DRAMA

$9 MILL BO 1698 SCREENS R 109 MINUTES DVD/BLU

RAY WITH DIGITAL—NO COMBO

Robert Pattinson (THE TWILIGHT SAGAS, REMEMBER ME,

QUEEN OF THE DESERT, MAP TO THE STARS, THE LOST

CITY OF Z)

“The Lighthouse” is a psychological nightmare of a film. This second feature from director Robert Eggers is a hypnotic, macabre, hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers who slowly succumb to the isolation-induced madness of a remote, mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

Salty old seaman Thomas (Willem Dafoe) and his underling Ephraim (Robert Pattinson) report for their month-long duty at a secluded lighthouse.

Thomas barks orders at the younger man, commanding him to complete the most menial of chores like swabbing the floors and dumping the overflowing bathroom buckets. Forced to share cramped quarters in what could be the gloomiest place on Earth, the two men begin to butt heads and their combative relationship escalates. Soon the flagrant belligerence morphs into madness, but are they really losing their minds? Could it be that supernatural forces are rising from the deep, or are the harrowing visions nothing more than an alcohol and solitude-induced nightmare?

The morbid story is based on historical maritime folklore and superstitions about mermaids, gulls, sailors, and sea monsters. It’s a thinking person’s horror film, yet it’s not horror in the traditional sense. There’s a building sense of dread that intensifies with every conflict and provocation, rising from a noxious masculinity that manifests in constant battles of the will (and self pleasure).

The film has a classic aesthetic and sophisticated grittiness, thanks to the brilliant work from cinematographer Jarin Blaschke. The lighting choices are well-suited to the black and white palate, with the darkest of darks and brightest of lights creating an even more haunting atmospheric tone. The film is uncomfortable by design, with tight close-up shots of the actors and a boxy aspect ratio that feels claustrophobic, effectively mirroring the cramped living quarters of the lighthouse. Pattinson and Dafoe are the perfect pair, two actors absolutely unafraid to go for it in the most outrageous way possible. Their primal, feral performances are nothing short of brilliant, and both are so bold and disturbing that the effects will linger with you long after the film is over. No actors are better suited to handle such a dark

psychodrama. The dialogue is poetic yet abrasive, with an old sea shanty cadence in every line.

In one scene, Ephraim describes the way Wake smells and it’s so vivid, I felt like I was going to vomit. When’s the last time a film was able to physically effect you with mere words? “The Lighthouse” lands squarely on the ideal side of weird and, although often maddening to watch, it happily never sinks to the most irritating levels of cinematic pretension that often suffocates most art house fare. This will rent as well as RED JOAN, BRIGHTBURN, BREAKTHROUGH, GLORIA BELL, THE WIFE, and THE MUSTANG.

1/14 THE ADDAMS FAMILY FAMILY ANIMATION

$97 MILL BO 3187 SCREENS PG

96 MINUTES DVD/COMBO

DIGITAL COPY WITH THE COMBO BEFORE REDBOX

VOICES OF: Oscar Issac, Charlize Theron, Finn Wolfhard.

“It’s hideous,” says Morticia (voiced by Charlize Theron). “It’s horrible,” agrees Gomez (voiced by Oscar Isaac). “It’s home,” they say in unison, hugging each other while admiring the broken down, abandoned asylum where they’re going

to raise a family in the animated feature film, The Addams Family. The film opens with a brief origin story featuring the wedding of Morticia and Gomez. Their nuptials are cut short because the local townspeople come after them like an angry mob for being…well…spooky and different. While being driven by the bodiless hand named Thing, Mortician and Gomez accidentally hit someone in the road in the dead of night. That person turns out to be Lurch who, once they determine is all right, immediately becomes part of the family as their butler.

Jump ahead 13 years and the Addams family is loving life in their mansion. Well, most of the family loves it. Wednesday, their daughter (voiced by Chloe Grace Moretz), doesn’t. She wants to explore the world beyond the mansion and its grounds.

Meanwhile, their son Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard) is especially talented with explosives and loves blowing things up. However, he needs to put explosives on hold as it’s time to prepare for his coming of age event in which he’ll be performing with a sword, an Addams family tradition that all the Addams relatives are expected to attend.

The Addams family soon has more on their plate to deal with when a shady TV personality Margaux Needler (voiced by Allison Janney) sets her sights on remodeling their eerie mansion or, if that’s not possible, drive them out so she can sell all the houses in the nearby neighborhood. The script’s terrific, giving each main family member their own storyline. It also sneaks in solid messages for children including that it’s good to be different and not to try to be like everyone else just to fit in. Screenwriter Matt Lieberman’s script is full of one-liners, jokes, and slapstick humor.

The animation’s extremely effective, changing up the color pallete to bright and colorful when the Addams visit the nearby town and dark, gloomy and gray when back at the Addams’ mansion. The design of the characters stays true to how they have been presented in early incarnations. Still, with laugh-out-loud humor and great voice work by Isaac and Theron, this animated version of The Addams Family is a “kooky” delight that’ll entertain the entire family – and especially The Addams Family fans. This will easily rent as well as THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE 2, TOY STORY 4, MISSING LINK, DUMBO and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2.

1/14 JEXI COMEDY

$9 MILL BO 892 SCREENS R 94 MINUTES DVD/BLU

RAY DIGITAL COPY WITH THE BLU RAY

Adam Devine (TV—MODERN FAMILY, THE RIGHTEOUS

GEMSTONES, UNCLE GRANDPA—FILM—ISN’T IT

ROMANTIC, WHEN WE FIRST MET)

Taking a one-note idea and attempting to turn it into a feature length film, “Jexi” embraces the crazy girlfriend narrative and blends it into a warning about our dependence on technology. Think of it as a low-brow, crude, and much funnier parody version of “Her,” except with a threadbare script and limited concept.

Nerdy Phil (Adam Devine) can’t live without his phone. He has no friends and spends his free time alone in his apartment. After upgrading to the latest

and greatest new phone, he discovers reliable virtual assistant Siri has been replaced by Jexi (voice of Rose Byrne). Jexi is a built-in A.I. program designed to be a life coach, cheerleader, and helper all in one. She’s software with a mission to make Phil’s life better, but as he starts to put away his electronic device and start living life with new girlfriend Cate (Alexandra Shipp), Jexi morphs into a jealous nightmare who is determined to keep Phil all to herself.

It’s a timely, silly, and funny idea, but you aren’t going to enjoy this movie if you don’t already like Devine. His brand of goofball comedy is an acquired taste, but he’s doing what he does best here. There are some memorable chuckles from the supporting cast, especially Michael Peña as a wacky boss and Wanda Sykes as a deadpan, sass-talking tech shop employee. Byrne also does a terrific job voicing Jexi, with a nasty and snarky tone that perfects her merciless roasts of poor Phil. This will rent as well as STUBER, PEANUT BUTTER FALCON, DEAD DON’T DIE, POMS and THE HUSTLE.

1/14 MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL FAMILY $98 MILL BO 2976 SCREENS PG

119 MINUTES DVD/COMBO

DIGITAL COPY WITH THE COMBO

Angelina Jolie (GONE IN 60 SECONDS, MR. AND MRS. SMITH,

LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER, GIRL INTERRUPTED, THE

BONE COLLECTOR, THE FEVER)

Formerly evil Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) is being pulled in a different direction from goddaughter Aurora (Elle Fanning), as she is set to marry dreamboat Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson). The anger and rivalry between the Kingdom of Ulstead

and the Moors has reached a boiling point, and the impending nuptials aren’t helping things. After spending time with Philip’s parents (Robert Lindsay and Michelle Pfeiffer), Aurora soon realizes she is better suited to a simpler life close to nature than one of formality in the royal castle.

There are talking trees, plants that come to life, giggling fairies, and colorful whosits and whatsits chaotically flying everywhere. About five minutes in, I swear my eyeballs were melting. Luckily the story settles in a bit, but the film continues to be a little odd as it tries to be both dark and lighthearted, with spooky scenes interspersed with cute CGI creatures bouncing around to engage the kids. Disney recently has been (rightfully) applauded for their

modern take on the fairy tale (“Frozen,” “Moana”), so it’s surprising “Mistress of Evil” is filled with so many dated ideas (Aurora is expected to fall in love with a boy, marry, and have babies in order to make her life complete). Sometimes it’s a little too traditional with a handsome, charming prince and preparing for a dream wedding, but the story also has a modern day message of inclusivity and unification as a means to conquer fear, all while overcoming differences. Stronger together, and all that. This will rent as well as ABOMINABLE, TOY STORY 4, THE LION KING, ALADDIN, MISSING LINK and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2.

1/14 ZOMBIELAND2: DOUBLE TAP SCI/FI

$59 MILL BO 2956 SCREENS R 99 MINUTES

DVD/COMBO DIGITAL COPY WITH THE DVD AND THE

COMBO

Woody Harrelson (WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, SOLO: A STAR

WARS STORY, LBJ, VENOM, NOW YOU SEE ME I AND II,

THE HUNGER GAMES, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, SEMI-

PRO)

“Zombieland: Double Tap” succeeds on one thing and one thing alone: the fact that it’s so much damn fun to see these characters again. This unoriginal and uninspired sequel to 2009’s cult zombie classic “Zombieland” may not be flush

with innovation, but it’s an enjoyable reunion that revives the irreverent spirit and fun of the original. It’s been a decade since the country was taken over by the undead, and misfit family Tallahassee (Woody

Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) have been surviving just fine. The gang have made a home in the White House and have amassed quite an armory of zombie-killing weaponry. With Little Rock itching to spread her wings, she sneaks off on her own and hits the road with a pacifist musician

(Avan Jogia), heading for a hippie utopia known as Babylon. A cross-country road trip sets the tone for the adventures that follow.

The movie doesn’t mess with the tried-and-true formula that made the original such a success. It’s strikingly similar, but benefits from an injection of new characters (including Rosario Dawson as tough as nails Nevada and a fun cameo from Luke Wilson as Albuquerque).

This will rent as well as GOOD BOYS, ANGEL HAS FALLEN, GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, HELLBOY, SHAZAM!, AQUAMAN, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT.

1/21 BLACK AND BLUE ACTION



Naomie Harris (MOONLIGHT, COLLATERAL BEAUTY,

RAMPAGE, VENOM, SKYFALL, SOUTH PAW)

Deon Taylor’s Black and Blue is an intensely political, niche thriller that, if it generates much mainstream discourse, will likely spark angry boycotts from those on one side of the aisle and searing hot takes from those on the other. Step a few feet back from its fast-paced saga of a valiant solitary policewoman hunted through the streets of New Orleans as she attempts to return incriminating body-camera footage to her precinct and you’ll see a narrative that construes a cop as a Black Lives Matter hero simply for using her mandated

body camera as she should. This is a major-studio film that may go further than many others, including Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, in implicating police forces as systemic perpetuators of white supremacy, but it’s also one that handles the representation of poverty clumsily at best.

What’s more, Black and Blue’s action-movie tropes redirect its characters’ mistrust of authority into a narrative that tacitly approves of the militarization of the police and society at large. These same tropes, though, are part of what defuses such concerns about whether the film offers a thorough social critique. Despite its real-world trappings, Black and Blue comes off as fantasy, a story with the exaggerated features and simple satisfactions of a dream. Crooked cops will get their comeuppance, prejudices will be upended, and those not yet beyond redemption will be redeemed. Beyond the film’s spurious messaging about finding a middle ground between being black and being “blue,” its extended chase through New Orleans’s 9th Ward might offer simple, effective action-movie catharsis to those who’ve been outraged by this decade’s flood of videos of police offers shooting unarmed black people.

Perhaps unintentionally, Black and Blue’s setting and action reminds us that, with the advent of body cameras, the sci-fi dystopias depicted in various films from the 1980s and ‘90s have come true. Resembling the A plot of Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, the film’s main action is jump-started by the mafia-style execution of a young black man by police, an explosive event that’s captured on video by a woman wearing a camera. And in Black and Blue, that woman, rookie cop Alicia West (Naomie Harris), is also the one tasked with delivering the footage to the authorities. The shooting, committed by narcotics detective Terry Malone (Frank Grillo) and his circle of drug-dealing police officers, takes place in a scummy, abandoned factory, and when the assembled perpetrators notice the wide-eyed rookie filming them, they repeatedly shoot her. West unexpectedly survives, and so the film also brings to mind Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop, another sci-fi classic that hinges on a piece of incriminating video footage.

Mostly shielded by her body armor but grazed by a bullet on her side, West somehow slips away from the murderous cops. Black and Blue tends to solve such narrative impasses via the magic of montage: We see West stumbling away down a passageway but don’t see exactly how she escapes. Now pursued by the extensive cabal of officers, she makes it to a convenience store where a childhood friend, Mouse (Tyrese Gibson), reluctantly helps her patch herself up. Mouse and the tight-knit community of the nearby Kingston Manor apartment complex, the film makes clear, don’t like cops; an earlier scene has Mouse and his sister, Missy (Nafessa Williams), refuse to acknowledge that they know West, who’s recently returned from two tours in Afghanistan after growing up in

their neighborhood. As seen from the perspective of West and her partner, Kevin (Reid Scott), this impoverished area is full of shifty-eyed gangsters, and Black and Blue veers into problematic terrain early on when it lays ominous bass notes under close-ups of black men slinking around in and out of the cops’ view.

What follows is a fun, if muddled, climax that upends some of the expectations set by the bulk of the film. While Black and Blue is much more comfortable dispatching the gangsters who are trying to kill West than the cops shown to be their moral equivalents, the intense showdown at Kingston Manor proves that the film’s typical action-movie ethos of violent retribution can also extend to figures of authority. And while it settles in a place that offers a less probing critique of the status quo than its makers might be intending, its over-the-top climax provides a brief, cathartic release from the real-world issues its story raises.

A fun movie that will rent as well as JOHN WICK 3, THE KITCHEN, SHAFT, ESCAPE ROOM, and CREED II.

1/21 PAIN AND GLORY DRAMA


DVD/ BLU RAY NO DIGITAL COPIES

Antonio Banderas (BULLET HEAD, GUN SHY, THE LEGEND

OF ZORRO, SPY KIDS, PLAY IT TO THE BONE, MIAMI

RHAPSODY, BEYOND THE EDGE)

Antonio Banderas does perhaps his best work to date in Pain and Glory, for which he deservedly won Best Actor at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

He slips surprisingly well into Pedro Almodovar's loafers -- easier than sneakers to put on with chronic pain -- to play his onscreen surrogate, Salvador Mallo. Like Almodovar, Salvador is a prolific, successful aging filmmaker. Due to his chronic pain, headaches, and various other ailments, Salvador has stepped

away from the camera for the sake of his health. He learns that a Madrid cinematheque has restored one of his earlier films (the fictional Sabor), and wants

him to to present it and give a Q&A. Salvador has mixed feelings about the movie, and has been estranged from its main actor, Alberto (Asier Etxeandia), for 32 years because he disapproved of the performance. A chance encounter with a mutual friend/actress, however, puts the director back in contact with his former leading man. This is the first of Pain and Glory's several serendipitous meetings and coincidences.

Salvador goes to Alberto's place unannounced, finding the aging bad boy looking like a Spanish Johnny Depp and about to engage in some midday heroin-smoking. Unexpectedly, Salvador asks to partake. Alberto is either too respectful or too immoral to lecture the filmmaker or try to stop him, and before long they're both “chasing the dragon,” and they rekindle their friendship along the way. Salvador has also found a dangerously effective cure for his chronic pain.

Meanwhile, Salvador has been spending a lot of time revisiting his past, specifically, his childhood, beginning when his family moved into a subterranean cavelike dwelling in a small village. The contrast between this womblike space and his fancy Madrid apartment (adorned with modern art coveted by the Guggenheim) is quite stark. Salvador is far from his younger self in both status and time, now four years into mourning the death of his mother and facing the reality of his own advancing age.

Through his memories, coincidental meetings and drug exploration, Salvador starts shakily finding his way back to the idea of working. But first, he must reconcile his past regrets and learn how to balance his life in a way that nurtures both his physical body and his creative spirit. As such, the movie feels transitional. It's about losing your way and finding it again, a notion as clichéd as it is timelessly resonant.

Pain and Glory is more restrained than Almodovar's signature works. There is emotion, but few fireworks. The dynamics between characters are muted, and it avoids much of the sentimentalism that often accompanies narratives dealing with pain, aging, or death. Early on, Salvador tells Alberto, while advising him on an upcoming stage performance, that it is more powerful to be holding back tears than to cry. Pain and Glory appears to share in this philosophy.

This will rent as well as THE KITCHEN, UNPLANNED, AFTER, THE KID, THE MUSTANG, and THE MULE.

1/28 HARRIET DRAMA

$38 MILL BO 2674 SCREENS PG-13 125 MINUTES

DVD/COMBO DIGITAL COPY WITH THE COMBO BEFORE

REDBOX

Cynthis Erivo (BROAD CITY, BAD TIMES AT EL ROYALE)

In virtually every depiction of legendary abolitionist and activist Harriet Tubman, we see her as a little old lady, usually sitting in a chair, and not like the powerful force of nature she was in life. We're so accustomed to this interpretation of her that, when it was proposed that she be put on the $20 bill, it wasn't Tubman in her prime but well past it. Kasi Lemmons' biopic Harriet

occupies a special place for presenting a version of Tubman that we haven't seen, one that is stylish and fierce and a little like a superhero. It's just unfortunate the rest of the film fails to live up to the same unconventional standard, only to be rescued somewhat by the performance of Tony-winning actress Cynthia Erivo. Essentially an origin story, Harriet begins in the 1840s when the future abolitionist was Araminta “Minty” Ross, just another slave on a Maryland plantation run by Gideon (Joe Alwyn), who refuses to set her free as previously promised. When faced with separation from her family and husband, Minty decides to flee up north to Philadelphia, a dangerous 100-mile journey that has become legend. Avoiding the bounty hunters and slave trackers, many of which were other blacks looking to make a profit, Minty uses her wits and a handy gift of foresight to reach her destination. There, she meets with William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.), becomes a leader in his Underground Railroad, takes up the name Harriet Tubman, and the rest is history. Well, not so fast. That's the beginning of the stuff we all can find in a history book. Harriet explores the loneliness that comes with the incredible burden she placed on herself. Upon arriving in Philadelphia, Tubman finds herself in a place she never could've imagined, one where whites and blacks live and work together to build a better society. Through her friendship with business owner Maria (Janelle Monae), Tubman comes to find her true purpose. It's also when loneliness kicks in, as well as a desire for her loved ones to share in this new world. Deciding to make the treacherous journey back to gather her husband, she comes to a powerful realization about the passage of time. This opens her eyes to the need to rescue others, and in a stirring sequence we see Tubman do just that, earning the title "Moses" that would stay with her for the rest of her

life. So much of Harriet plays out in by-the-book fashion that its one major embellishment throws the whole film into discord. Tubman suffered from seizures as the result of a childhood head injury caused by one of her masters. Since then, she said visions from God would be visited upon her during those times when she would seemingly fall unconscious. To Lemmons, these are interpreted on screen as a sort of "Spidey Sense", getting her out of one precarious situation after another. While it's an interesting flourish to say the least, it also denies Tubman some of the credit for her monumental achievements by attributing them to acts of God.

Choosing to take a softer approach to potentially bleak material, Lemmons largely stays away from the brutality of the era. Instead, the violence inflicted by the white slavemasters is hinted at, or seen in scars and tears. Leaving much of it to the imagination sets Harriet apart from 12 Years a Slave or similar films which are so awash in torture you can barely stand to watch. This is an imminently more watchable movie as a result, with Lemmons striking a balance between historical crowd-pleaser and sober

docudrama. Terence Blanchard's spirited score and John Toll's lush cinematography further enhance Tubman as

a mythical figure, a feminist and civil rights icon who seemed like she could move mountains. It's Erivo who is the crucial piece that holds everything together. She provides the dignified performance Harriet Tubman deserves, expressing deep wells of emotion in only a few words. Interestingly, Harriet hits a stride in the final chapter, during a rousing Civil War sequence where she leads a group of black soldiers onto the battlefield. As Lemmons focuses on this tiny woman, gun in hand, overpowering in her crusade to bring justice to an unjust world, the shackles of so many familiar tropes are finally broken. Harriet could've done more by giving this larger-than-life figure a movie that breaks the mold.

This will rent as well as THE KITCHEN, UNPLANNED, BEST OF ENEMIES, AFTER, and GLORIA BELL.

1/28 MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN DRAMA



Edward Norton (THE BOURNE LEGACY, THE INCREDIBLE

HULK, THE ILLUSIONIST, FIGHT CLUB, ROUNDERS)

Fans of Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn will be immediately struck by writer-director Edward Norton’s decision to change the novel’s time setting from 1999 to 1957 for his long-gestating film adaptation. Given how effectively the novel transplanted a classic hardboiled noir setup to contemporary New York, Norton’s popping of the novel’s anachronistic bubble is curious for how it makes literal what Lethem made so playfully postmodern. By setting his film in the ‘50s, when the noir style was at its most influential, Norton only makes it easier to spot

those moments where the dialogue is trying much too hard to capture the snap, wit, and loquacious cynicism of the genre’s best films. Norton retains the central gimmick of Lethem’s book: a gumshoe protagonist with Tourette’s syndrome. Lionel Essrog (Norton) works as a private investigator for Frank Minna (Bruce Willis), who accepts his mentee’s issues and very much appreciates his photographic memory. On the page, Lionel’s condition makes thematic sense, as his clear, observational, intuitive internal monologue, a staple of detective fiction, contrasts sharply with his uncontrollable outbursts, which shatter the image of the laconic private-eye hero who sees much but tells little. It’s problematic no matter how you slice it, but one can at least see the logic. When Frank is killed in a clandestine meeting with unknown clients, a heartbroken Lionel resolves to find his friend’s killer. Lionel, introduced in on-the-nose fashion as he tugs on a thread from a soon-to-be-unraveled sweater, digs so deep into the mystery that he begins to uncover a vast, Chinatown-esque conspiracy involving New York’s corrupt city planner, Moses Randolph (Alec Baldwin). A tyrannical bureaucrat with a Randian complex, Moses has concocted an elaborate trail of red tape to force poor, predominantly black residents out of the city to turn affordable housing into ritzy, modern blocks for the wealthy. It’s here that the film’s altered time setting is most fascinating: By tackling gentrification in the ‘50s, Norton makes the argument that it isn’t a byproduct of late capitalism, but rather a core component in the history of city planning, a project that spans decades of careful molding of demographics and social hierarchies. But the racial angle of

Lethem’s novel, more bracing for being set in the present, is mostly just period-appropriate window dressing in the film, not any more upsetting than any of the other openly racist policies of the era. What the material gains in a long-term view of social engineering it loses in specificity. There are moments where Motherless Brooklyn succeeds as a loving homage to noir. The scenes where Lionel acts more like a determined, unflappable gumshoe—nicking a reporter’s press badge to pose as a journalist, piecing together disparate clues with reflex-fast deducing skills—hit all the right genre beats. And his relationship with Laura (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a housing fairness activist who responds to Lionel’s kind soul, spark with chemistry that’s less sexual than affectionate This will rent as nicely as THE KITCHEN, LONG SHOT, THE MULE, GREEN BOOK and BAD TIMES AT EL MONTE.

1/28 PLAYING WITH FIRE COMEDY

$27 MILL BO 2173 SCREENS PG 96 MINUTES


John Cena (FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY, BUMBLEBEE,

BLOCKERS, DADDY’S HOME 2, THE WALL, SISTERS)

The movie begins with a wildfire raging through a Northern California forest. People are stranded in their cars, roads are clogged, chaos and fear are swirling around with the smoke. The soundtrack for this emergency situation? Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk,” the perky and ubiquitous party anthem from a few years back. Maybe the filmmakers were taking the “Call the police and the fireman” section of the song’s lyrics literally. Whatever the reason, it’s a bizarre choice, but only the first in a series of many.

Director Andy Fickman, whose previous high-concept comedies include “You Again,” “Parental Guidance” and his piece de resistance, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” has slapped together a series of wacky antics with little concern for continuity, logic or pacing. I kept asking myself questions like: “How did that dog get there?” “Where did Judy Greer get that sweater?” “How did they paint that ‘My Little Pony’ mural so quickly?” and “What happened to Keegan-Michael Key? He was standing there a second ago.” Just to give you an idea of how the movie aims to appeal to the widest possible audience with its broad brand of humor, it features an even ratio of poop jokes to John Cena shirtless scenes. I counted. Cena stars as a by-the-book firefighter named Jake Carson, who leads his team of smokejumpers into harm’s way when flames threaten the rugged wildlands of Northern California. (A side note: It was also a strange experience seeing this movie when much of the state was burning in reality.) The fastidious Mark (Key), the sensitive Rodrigo (John Leguizamo) and the mute, burly Axe (Tyler Mane) are his co-workers. (Mane, Cena’s fellow former wrestler, plays a character with that name because he … carries an axe.) When a fire breaks out at a cabin and the team swoops in to put out the flames, Jake finds a trio of siblings trapped inside: responsible teenager Brynn (Brianna Hildebrand), impish little brother Will (Christian Convery) and the tiny, wide-eyed moppet Zoe (Finley Rose Slater). Anyway, the whole point is to get the kids back to the fire depot, a pristine and orderly workplace where they can wreak havoc in a variety of ways. And because Jake can’t get a hold of their parents, he’s stuck taking care of them for far longer than he’d hoped. You see, Jake has no time in his life or room in his heart for other people—not even the scientist (Greer) doing research nearby who has a crush on him. He is all about the work. Nonetheless, madcap hijinks ensue involving paint thinner, soap suds and, yes, poop. There’s one bit involving

projectile diarrhea and a protective firefighting suit that defies the laws of physics; I’m still trying to figure out how it makes sense logistically. Then there’s the scene in which Jake has to relieve himself outdoors, with the youngest sibling – a little girl who’s maybe 4 years old – standing directly in front of him and holding his head in place to ensure that he maintains eye contact with her the whole time. It is as uncomfortable as it sounds. From there, it’s a dizzying, 180-degree turn into feel-good territory, with Mark rhapsodizing about the important, brave work smokejumpers do and Jake finally letting his guard down and becoming a warm, doting father figure to these kids when they need it the most. This will easily rent as well as SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME, STUBER, FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY, INSTANT FAMILY, BOOKSMART, THE HUSTLE, and HOLMES AND WATSON.

1/28 TERMINATOR: DARK FATE ACTION



Linda Hamilton (TV—SHOOT AT ME NICELY, DEFIANCE,

CHUCK, WEEDS—FILM—BROKEN, IN YOUR DREAMS,

SMILE, THE TERMINATOR)

“Terminator: Dark Fate” isn’t destined to become an instant classic, but it is highly entertaining. This formulaic yet far from disappointing sequel delivers what fans want, continuing the tradition made famous by the series: cutting edge sci-fi effects, first class action, and badass heroines. It’s been almost 25 years since Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) changed the bleak future by preventing Judgment Day. Things are going well for the human

race, until a deadly new Terminator (Gabriel Luna) travels through time to hunt a kill his target, Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). If she has any hope of surviving, Dani must join forces with Sarah and time traveling, augmented super-soldier Grace (Mackenzie Davis). They’re outgunned and outfought at every turn, until the trio of women are led to a quiet cabin in Texas — and a literal blast from the past.

The story finds a (mostly ridiculous) method to give the fans what they want: a reunion between Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The best surprise is spoiled in the trailer, so by the time Arnold shows up, it has lost its gravitas. The scenes that reintroduce his T-800 (now a family man that calls himself Carl) to the story are silly and the explanation doesn’t quite work (if SkyNet doesn’t exist, then how does he know when the new Terminators are being sent to Earth?). As with most blockbuster entertainment, it’s best not to ask too many questions.

The plot doesn’t change much from the expected “Terminator” story line and may be predictable, but the film is packed with quality sci-fi action, fun, and spectacle. The action scenes are well-placed and well-paced, which keeps things exciting. The film has no problems putting its characters in perilous situations and creating a feeling of real danger, especially in the spectacular finale at the Hoover Dam.

It’s great to see the series continue its legacy of strong women in lead roles, and Reyes is a fine jumpstart for the new generation. The story keeps a strong feminist angle which, unlike other movies, does not feel forced or disingenuous. Dani is a realistic character and wonderful building block for future sequels. “Terminator: Dark Fate” is a solid entry in the Terminator legacy, providing a thrill-a-minute ride for fans of the franchise. This will rent as well as HOBBS AND SHAW, GOOD BOYS, JOHN WICK 3, MEN IN BLACK INTERNATIONAL, CAPTAIN MARVEL and SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME.

1/7 gemini man sci/fi $50 mill bo 2654 screens pg-13 dvd ... · despite her expansive resume of...

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