Tag: Drama

REVIEW: ‘Tuesday’ is a turbulent, pretentious disappointment

Didn’t have death appearing as a bird that talks like Caesar from “Planet of the Apes” on the bingo card.

Voiced by Arinze Kene, Death comes in the form of a size-shifting parrot in “Tuesday,” and visits people across Earth in their final moments before they pass away. As the movie gets underway, the bird’s latest task is visiting the terminally ill teenage girl Tuesday (Lola Petticrew).

Tuesday speaks with Death though and the two form a sort of understanding, leading to an arrangement where the girl will be allowed to stay alive until her mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gets home to say goodbye. From there, the film presents a journey all about mortality for the characters.

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REVIEW: Back out of watching ‘Back to Black’

Amy Winehouse should be remembered for her musical talents and ability to create songs people love. Unfortunately, this biopic decided to focus nearly entirely on her controversies and struggles.

The film picks up with Winehouse, portrayed by Marisa Abela, just before she records her first studio album, “Frank.” The audience learns about her family life, her love of music and how her demo tape has opened a doorway to success.

Following the release of “Frank,” Winehouse begins building her music career and at the same time, starts a relationship with her future husband Blake (Jack O’Connell). From there, the film dramatizes her struggles with alcoholism and addiction, as well as how she pushed forward to make her second and final album, “Back to Black.”

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REVIEW: Long live the ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’

It’s hard to imagine the current run of “Planet of the Apes” continuing on without Caesar, but director Wes Ball’s latest film in the series is a fitting follow-up to the 2010s trilogy.

“Kingdom” takes place several generations after Caesar’s death. Humans are now primitive and scarce, while the apes have built up small villages, one of them being home to the protagonist, Noa (Owen Teague). Led by Noa’s father, the clan built a peaceful society around training falcons.

The peace of Noa’s village is shattered, though, when it’s raided by another ape kingdom set on conquest. Injured in the battle, Noa awakens to find his village destroyed and residents taken hostage. From there, Noa sets out on a quest to rescue those imprisoned and gets an unlikely ally along the way.

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REVIEW: Steaminess of ‘Challengers’ is a smokescreen for its shallowness

Luca Guadagnino’s last film about cannibalistic monsters featured a more wholesome relationship than this sports drama. Imagine that.

The director’s latest film, “Challengers,” features a trio of central characters, all of whom are tennis players. There’s the pro Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), his wife and coach Tashi (Zendaya), as well as Patrick (Josh O’Connor), who’s trying to revive his career in the sport.

The film is set in the present day, with Art struggling in recent tournaments and Tashi wanting him to compete in a smaller event where he can gain some confidence. There he’s put in competition against Patrick, a former friend and rival. The film then goes through a series of flashbacks showing how the three got to where they are in life and their intertwined relationships.

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REVIEW: ‘Civil War’ entertains but doesn’t quite captivate

If a fascist regime ever rises up in the U.S., rest assured Texas and California will put aside their differences and the 2005 Rose Bowl to take it down.

That at least is the interpretation of writer and director Alex Garland in his new film “Civil War.” The film picks up in the near future with California and Texas, known as the Western Forces, marching toward Washington to topple the dictatorial third-term president portrayed by Nick Offerman.

The film centers on Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), an experienced photojournalist who’s been to several areas of conflict, and is now reporting on her country’s own inner turmoil. She’s joined by a Reuters reporter, a veteran journalist for the New York Times and a rookie photographer on the way from New York to D.C. to document the war’s ending.

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REVIEW: ‘In the Land of Saints and Sinners’ is a solid Neeson entry

Another movie has arrived in theaters with a poster showing Liam Neeson holding a gun. There’s been quite a few of these over the years, but few quite as somber.

“Land of Saints and Sinners” is set in Ireland during the Troubles, but most of the movie takes place away from the conflict. Instead, the location is a coastal village where humble, friendly bookseller Finbar Murphy (Neeson) resides. What he hides from the town, though, is that he’s also an experienced hitman.

However, it’s part of his life he’s ready to be done with. That is until the conflict arrives in the village when a group of IRA members go there to lay low after a bombing. While there, one of them commits a crime against one of the residents, and, as he’s grown to love the village, Finbar decides to take action.

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REVIEW: Though generic, ‘Arthur the King’ has heart to win one over

I’m a simple man. I see a movie about a dog, and I usually leave the auditorium happy. It holds true once again.

While the film is named after a good boy named Arthur, though, it actually centers on an adventure racer named Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg). Michael has had several races in his career and despite many top 10 finishes, he’s never come in first. His last attempt in fact was so bad that he left the sport.

Still feeling he has something in the tank a few years later, though, he decides to give adventure racing one last shot in the Dominican Republic with a four-man team. As they go on their race, they meet a stray dog tagging along their journey, and they all come to love the canine.

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REVIEW: ‘One Life’ earns credit for dramatizing extraordinary effort

The World War II era was a period with many stories of bravely doing what’s right, on and off the battlefield. This film centers on one of the latter stories.

Anthony Hopkins portrays British man Nicholas Winton, who’s cleaning out paperwork in his home office and finds several old documents that he’s kept over the years. The documents are from his time with a British committee tasked with evacuating refugees from Czechoslovakia.

The film then goes back to a younger Winton in the late 1930s where he is portrayed by Johnny Flynn. The movie shows the effort by Winton and others in the committee who worked night and day to get political refugees and Jewish children out of the area as the German invasion grew closer.

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REVIEW: Love story saps sharpness from ‘Society of Magical Negroes’

I feel like the organization in this movie was the JV version of The Brotherhood from “Undercover Brother.”

Justice Smith stars in this film as Aren, an artist who focuses on sculpture creations, mostly out of yarn. Unfortunately, Aren’s career hasn’t taken off, and his latest attempt at showing his work at a gallery ends in failure.

However, after the event, Aren meets a man named Roger (David Alan Grier), a member of the American Society of Magical Negroes who wants the struggling artist to join. The organization assigns African Americans to assist white people and make them more comfortable around people of color. Aren joins, but his first assignment gets complicated because of a love interest.

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REVIEW: ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ is a lackluster biopic

Bob Marley was a cultural icon with a great influence on music, and he deserves a much better biopic.

“One Love” is set during the mid-to-late 70s during a time of upheaval in Jamaica as the 1976 election approaches. With tensions high in the nation, musician Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) plans a concert to promote peace in the country. However, before he can do so, an assassination attempt is made on his life.

The film then follows Marley as he and his band relocate to England to record new albums, including the hit record “Exodus.” As he continues to create music, Marley is also eager to get his message out and desires to return to Jamaica for another concert attempt.

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