Endless Summer Syndrome. One day, she receives a call from a woman claiming to be her husband's colleague who overheard him saying that he has been having an inappropriate relationship with one of their children. She immediately suspects that he's sexually abusing Adia and pays close attention to their interactions while desperately trying to find evidence of the abuse. The screenplay writer/director Kaveh Daneshmand and his co-writers, Laurine Bauby and Gem Deger, begins as a psychological thriller that gradually builds suspense as it focuses on Delphine's perspective. The first scene foreshadows a tragic event that's meant to happen, but the details of the event aren't revealed yet. Is Delphine paranoid or are her suspicions justified? Can she trust the caller who refused to disclose her name? She seeks the help of a colleague to trace the mysterious caller's number, but reaches a dead end when it turns out to be a pay phone. The first half of the film maintains the suspense while trusting the audience's intelligence and incorporating just the right amount of exposition. When the perspective suddenly shifts to another character's perspective and spoils a major plot twist. Up until that point, the audience connects with Delphine because they're frustrated when she's frustrated and shocked when she's shocked. The key information gets revealed too early, though, so, a few minutes later, when Delphine discovers it, she's shocked, but the audience isn't because they're a step ahead of her, so the beat doesn't quite land. Kudos to the filmmakers, though, for a refreshingly un-Hollywood third act that's dark without going over-the-top. The cinematography is exquisite and the pace moves slowly, but not too slow. Sophie Colon gives a raw, poignant and nuanced performance while finding the emotional truth of the role. The film's emotional depth comes from her rather than from a screenplay. At a running time of 1 hour and 48 minutes, Endless Summer Syndrome opens at Quad Cinema via Altered Innocence. It would be an interesting double feature with Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a hunter who gained superpowers as a teenager, breaks out of prison and seeks revenge against Rhino (Alessandro Nivola) and other gangsters who are trying to take over the Russian crime world that he dad, Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a Russian gangster, leads in Kraven the Hunter. The screenplay by
Richard Wenk, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway is a convoluted, clunky and tedious mess that becomes increasingly preposterous and silly. The flashbacks are poorly integrated as they show the origins of Kraven's superpowers when he somehow obtained them after a lion bit him and a young girl gave him a magic potion to drink. He reunites with that girl, Calypso (Ariana DeBose), years later when she works as a lawyer. Before you know it, she joins him on his quest to battle Rhino and his sidekick (Christopher Abbott). The action scenes are poorly shot, the CGI effects are subpar and the editing feels choppy at times. Moreover, the dialogue is often stitled with some unintentionally funny lines that almost rival Madame Web, but not quite. Levi Miller plays the teenage version of Kraven while Fred Hechinger plays Kraven's estranged half-brother, Dmitri. Russell Crowe, Allessandro Nivola and Ariana DeBose deserve better material. If you could imagine Spider-Man crossed with John Wick minutes the pizzazz, thrills and fun, it would look something like this. At 2 hours and 7 minutes, Kraven the Hunter, directed by J. C. Chandor, opens nationwide via Columbia Pictures.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
      15-year-old Annie (Madison Wolfe) lives with her mother, Hellen (Ali Larter), father, William (Sean Astin), and older sister, Margaret (Brec Bassinger), in a small Florida town where a mysterious white van stalks her, but her family doesn't take her seriously in The Man in the White Van. The screenplay by writer/director Warren Skeels and co-writer Sharon Y. Cobb squanders its many opportunities to be a gripping psychological thriller by treading water for too long until saving most of the intensity for the last fifteen minutes or so. Until then, the plot, set in the 1970s, barely manages to hold the audience's interest. So the film soon becomes a lethargic experience that takes too long to get to the meat of its story or to generate much-needed suspense. At a running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, The Man in the White Van is undercooked, anemic and dull while too low on scares, intrigue and psychological thrills. It opens in select theaters nationwide via Relativity Media.
Number of times I checked my watch: 4
      Two teenagers, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) meet at a reform school called Nickel Academy where they endured some kind of abuse in Nickel Boys. Set in the 1960s and based on the novel by Colson Whitehead, the screenplay by writer/director RaMell Ross and co-writer Joslyn Barnes is elliptical and gently moving, but takes too long to get to the meat of the story. Once it arrives there, it leaves too much open to interpretation without being unflinching enough. While the filmmakers deserve praise for trusting the audience's imagination, there are key pieces of information, like what precisely happens in a certain room at the reform school, that remain vague. Also, the film's excessive visual style gets in the way of its substance because of the almost constant use of POV shots and hypnotic time-lapse shots reminiscent of music videos. Did the filmmakers not believe that the narrative can hook the audience? Why hit the audience over the audience in so much visual poetry? It feels suffocating and heavy-handed. Also, the POV shots mean that you don't get the chance to see Elwood or Turner's facial expressions. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has a supporting role as Elwood's grandmother who shows up at the reform school because she's concerned about Elwood and wants to see him. She delivers a long monologue, like she does in The Subject and in the superior Exhibiting Forgiveness. It's also just as powerful and well-acted as the monologue that Viola Davis gives in Doubt, another film that deals with abuse without showing it. At a running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, Nickel Boys opens in select theaters via Amazon MGM Studios.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
      In September 5 Geoffrey (John Magaro), Marvin (Ben Chaplin) and Roon (Peter Sarsgaard) play his direct superior Marvin Bader and the big boss Roon Arledge leads an American sports broadcasting crew as they capture the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The screenplay by writer/director Tim Fehlbaum and his co-writers, Moritz Binder and Alex David, wastes no time by keeping the plot lean and focused on the experiences of the TV crew at the Olympics while the crisis unfolds, so you're with them throughout their ordeal from start to finish. Exposition remains at a bare minimum and there's little to no padding. September 5 opts for a procedural format to tell its story like the films of Alan J. Pakula, but it avoids becoming dull or monotonous. The performances by the entire ensemble cast are all superb, even those in supporting roles like Leonie Benesch who's just as terrific in last year's gripping thriller The Teachers' Lounge. It's one of the most powerful, taut and spellbinding thrillers since Argo. Kudos to the filmmakers for understanding the concept of "less is more" by keeping the running time below 2 hours. That alone is quite a major feat. At 1 hour and 35 minutes, September 5 opens in select theaters before expanding on January 10th, 2024 via Paramount Pictures.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
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Written and directed by Tel Ganesan, Trap City opens in select theaters nationwide.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
      Douglas (Nicholas Brendon), a screenwriter, spends time with his wife, Veronica (Jackie Moore), in a cabin while working on a screenplay in Tomorrow is Almost Here. Another married couple, Pia (Shoshana Wilder) and Dan (Phillip Andre Botello), who used to work with and be friends with Douglas. Soon enough, Douglas begins to suspect that his wife is having an affair with Dan. Writer/director Joston Ramon Theney has woven a provocative and refreshingly un-Hollywood portrait of a dysfunctional marriage. Douglas has insecurities as a husband and as a writer. Both of those insecurities rise to the surface at the cabin with his wife, Dan and Pia, who randomly speaks to Douglas in French. There's a meta scene where Pia makes observations about Douglas' screenplay and its ending which, in a way, also comments on this film itself. At any point, the film could've taken a much darker and twisted turn, especially given the setting, but it often subverts the audience's expectations as reality begins to blur and Douglas gradually becomes increasingly paranoid. How many films are out there where a character suddenly speaks French for no reason? There are some elements of psychological thriller, but, for the most part Yesterday is Almost There remains grounded without offering easy answers or spoon-feeding the audience. Kudos to Theney for trusting their intelligence along with their imagination and keeping them engaged while avoiding melodrama, schmaltz or going over-the-top. At a running time of 1 hour and 32 minutes, Yesterday is Almost Here opens in select theaters. It would be an interesting double feature with The Shining or, 2 others films opening this month that also explore marriage and infidelity, Endless Summer Syndrome and Babygirl.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1