Tag: Drama

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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REVIEW: ‘Miller’s Girl’ is a trashy thriller that goes off the rails

Lester from the “Fargo” series meets Wednesday Addams. Hijinx ensue.

To go a bit more in depth, “Miller’s Girl” is a film set in a small Tennessee community that follows a literature teacher. Jonathan Miller (Martin Freeman), who’s also an author, though he hasn’t written in a few years, is just getting started on a new semester.

One of the first students he meets is Cairo (Jenna Ortega), a high schooler who lives alone as her wealthy parents are abroad. Cairo shows promise and it leads Miller to assign her a special writing project to help her with college admissions. The two end up growing closer, but the situation begins to take a dark turn.

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REVIEW: ‘The Color Purple’ powered by cast, weakened by script

“The Color Purple” makes sense as a title, because the hardships the main character goes through will have someone feeling blue and seeing red.

Based on the stage musical, which itself was an adaptation of a 1982 novel, “Color Purple” is a film centered around the character Celie Harris-Johnson (Fantasia Barrino). As a teenager, Celine is raped by her father and gives birth to two children, who are taken from her and given to the church for adoption.

The cruelty doesn’t stop there, as he then arranges Celie to be married to an abusive farmer named Albert (Colman Domingo). During this time, she’s also separated from her sister, Nettie (Halle Bailey). Celie goes through many hardships, but finds some kindness and encouragement from other women, including Sofia (Danielle Brooks) and a singer named Shug (Taraji P. Henson).

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REVIEW: Despite strong filmmaking, ‘Ferrari’ is largely unfocused

Sometimes even the most meticulously-made movies fall short.

That’s the case with director Michael Mann’s new biographical film centered on Italian car-maker Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver). The movie is set in 1957, with Ferrari gearing up for the annual Mile Miglia, or Thousand Miles. The Italian race event is another opportunity to show off his brand.

While this is happening, Ferrari’s company is  is in a difficult situation financially. To turn things around, a suggestion is made to merge  with another company, but it’s complicated because Ferrari’s estranged wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) owns half the shares. Their relationship has been strained since their son’s death and is even more so lately as Ferrari is having an affair.

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