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Reviews for January 17th, 2025



      Joe (Scott Eastwood) and Laura (Willa Fitzgerald) are two spies who have fallen in love and gone rogue. They live a quiet life together in a remote cabin until Orlin (Mike Colter) shows up in search of a stolen hard drive and disrupts their peace in Alarum. Agent Chester (Sylvester Stallone) arrives to defend them against the nefarious Orlin. Director Michael Polish and screenwriter Alexander Vesha have made an anemic, monotonous and forgettable B-movie that fails to deliver enough thrills and suspense to rise above mediocrity. There are no bad laughs or cringe-inducing moments, but that's the best that can be said about the plot that becomes less and less engaging as it progresses. None of the characters is particularly memorable and the dialogue ranges from on-the-nose to silted. Even the action sequences are lackluster. Unfortunately, the talent Willa Fitzgerald is wasted here in an underwritten role that doesn't allow her to breathe life into her role like she does in the superior Strange Darling. At a running time of 1 hour and 35 minutes, Alarum]opens at Cinema Village and on VOD via Lionsgate.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





 

        Autumn (Lumi Pollack), a teenager, leaves Manhattan and returns to the Amazon to save her beloved jaguar named Hope from poachers in Autumn and the Black Jaguar.  Director Gilles de Maistre and screenwriter Prune de Maistre have made a mildly entertaining, light and harmless children's movie that will probably bore adults. The plot, which requires a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief, alienates older audiences without anything to hold their attention. Even Jungle 2 Jungle manages to entertain adults more. The flashbacks to Autumn's childhood in the Amazon are clunky and the bond between her and Hope isn't established effectively enough. The less said about the contrived and ending, which also involves Autumn's science teacher, the better. Perhaps this film would;ve been slightly better if it were a cartoon. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, Autumn and the Black Jaguar opens at AMC Empire 25 via Blue Fox Entertainment.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





 

        El Heredero is about a U.S. Marine who visits his estranged family to collect his $2,000,000 inheritance after his father dies. However, his two uncles want at least some of the money to pay their debts.  Director Frank Perozo and his three screenwriters, Miguel Alcantara Victor Luciano, and Kendy Yanoreth, have made a light, breezy and pleasant, but vapid, contrived and ultimately forgettable comedy. The jokes occasionally land; most of them are merely amusing or fall flat, though. The performances are lively performances and the pace moves briskly, so at least it's mildly engaging albeit without being laugh-out-loud funny. Please be sure to stay through the credits for outtakes. At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, El Heredero opens at AMC Empire 25 via Spanglish Movies.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2







      Grand Theft Hamlet is a bold, unconventional and experimental documentary about two actors, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, who search for other gamers to cast in a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet during COVID-19 lockdown. The catch? The production will be entirely within the video game Grand Theft Auto Online. Co-directed by Sam Crane and his wife, Pinny Grylls, it's hard to adequately describe the tone which seems all over the place, but there's some darkly comedic moments every now and then. If you're a gamer or familiar with Grand Theft Auto, you'll probably enjoy the film even more. It would also help if you're a Shakespeare fan, but that's not a requirement. What the filmmakers omit are the backstories of Sam and Mark which would've added more emotional depth to the film. While it's great the focus remains on the online Shakespeare production, Grand Theft Hamlet ultimately is only mildly engaging, tedious and limited in scope. At a running time of 1 hour and 29 minutes, Grand Theft Hamlet opens at IFC Center via MUBI.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3







      Left Behind is an eye-opening and heartfelt documentary about five mothers from NYC who came together to create the Literacy Academy Collective and to open South Bronx Literacy Academy, the first school for children with dyslexia and other reading-related disabilities. Director Anna Toomey doesn't just bombard the audience with statistics and talking heads nor does it try to enrage them; instead she puts a human face on the human rights issue by focusing on the struggles of the five mothers each of whom has children with dyslexia. Their persistence and determination to accomplish their goals feels inspirational and empowering, even as they encounter obstacles along the way. Left Behind becomes a dry or academic doc. Toomey ultimately finds just the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally as well as intellectually. At a brief running time of 1 hour and 17 minutes, Left Behind opens at Quad Cinema via Green Hummingbird Entertainment.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1







      Mady (Jonathan Feltre), a locksmith, gets into serious trouble when Claire (Natacha Krief) tricks him into opening the door of someone else whom she steals from and runs away. The owner, Yannick (Romain Duris), a crime boss, returns and holds Mady hostage while demanding that he find the stolen goods from Claire before dawn or he'll kill him in Night Call. Screenplay by writer/director Michiel Blanchart and co-writer Gilles Marchand is a by-the-numbers, witless and shallow crime thriller that's low on palpable thrills. Yannick, the villain, is among the many underwritten characters with little to no backstory which makes him a weak and forgettable villain. He's more like a caricature of a villain. Mady is also a character who's poorly introduced. It seems like every character merely exists to move the plot forward. It's never a good sign when you can feel the wheels of the screenplay turning nor does it help that the plot becomes increasingly preposterous. Sure, there's some violence and gritty cinematography, but those strengths aren't enough to compensate for the unimaginative and pedestrian screenplay. Tarantino and Luc Besson could've turned this premise into a much more wildly entertaining ride rather than one that just goes through the motions while often falling flat. At a time of 1 hour and 37 minutes , Night Call opens in select theaters via Magnet Releasing.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3







      Rebecca (Lucy Liu), her husband Chris (Christopher Sullivan), and teenage children, Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang), move into a new house where they encounter paranormal activity in Presence. The screenplay by David Koepp is a repetitive, meandering and underwhelming blend of sci-fi, psychological horror and suspense. The plot takes too long to get to the supernatural elements and, once it does, the suspense wanes and the film runs out of ideas, even with the introduction of Ryan (West Mulholland), Tyler's creepy friend. Everything feels telegraphed from the get-go, i.e when a psychic shows up and doesn't even enter the house before mentioning something about vision she had about a window. Of course, something significant will happen involving a window at some point. In an underdeveloped subplot, Chris plans to divorce Rebecca who's often overworked. There are other underdeveloped backstories as well that make the plot seem complex, but instead make it more convoluted, especially during the very rushed ending. Why is Presence so tame in terms of horror and suspense? Insidious and Paranormal Activity are far more intense and terrifying. The camera, positioned in the POV of the ghost, is an interesting visual concept which leads to some stylish visuals, but nothing more than that. If you're looking for a lazy and bland horror film that won't give you nightmares, Presence might be just the film for you. At a thankfull brief running time of 1 hour and 25 minutes , Presence opens at Angelika Film Center via NEON.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





 

       Charlotte (Isabelle Fuhrmann) has a one-night stand with Adam (Mena Massoud) and falls in love with him, but he refuses to see her again and disappears from her life. She re-enters the dating scene before learning that he's sick with terminal cancer, so she decides to give their romantic relationship a shot in Wish You Were Here. The screenplay by writer/director Julia Stiles and Renée Carlino, based on her novel, is a heartfelt and tender romance in the same vein as A Walk to Remember and Love Story. There are no villains except for a silent one: Adam's terminal cancer. To be fair, a few scenes between Charlotte and Adam feel somewhat heavy-handed and maudlin, but those are minor flaws that don't become systemic issues thanks to the nuanced and genuinely moving performances by Isabelle Fuhrmann and Mena Massoud. They have palpable chemistry together, so they're both well-cast. Jennifer Grey and Kelsey Grammer enliven the film as Charlotte's mother and father while providing some much-needed levity. Jimmie Fails, who's in the underrated The Last Black Man in San Francisco, makes the most out of his supporting role as one of Charlotte's dates.

      Overall, Stiles and Carlino do a decent job of providing enough of a window into the heart, mind and soul of Charlotte and Adam to allow the audience to care about them as complex human beings. That window briefly closes, though, during the rushed and sugar-coated third act that doesn't show Charlotte going through the grieving process. If only Wish You Were Here were more unflinching and didn't shy away too much from exploring its darker themes, it would've been much more powerful, profound and emotionally resonating. At a running time of 1 hour and 39 minutes, Wish You Were Here, a solid directorial debut for Julia Stiles, opens in select theaters nationwide via Lionsgate.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2





 

      Blake (Christopher Abbott) moves his wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), and daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth), from San Francisco to the home that he inherited from his late, estranged father, Grady (Sam Jaeger), who has gone missing and presumed dead in Wolf Man. The house happens to be isolated in the middle of a forest in Oregon with no cell phone service. Writer/director Leigh Whannell and co-writer Corbett Tuck add nothing new or surprising to the classic werewolf story. It takes at least twenty minutes of lazy exposition before Wolf Man gets to the meat of the story when Blake transforms into the titular werewolf. Until then, the film offers nothing intense. The intensity begins wanes upon Blake's transformation, but that's also around the time that the film takes a nosedive into inanity and lack of internal logic. Case in point: it makes no sense why Charlotte would think that Blake is merely sick during his transformation. It takes her too long to realize the truth, but by then, the audience is many steps ahead of her. The only strengths that Wolf Man has going for it are the visual effects and some scenes that don't hold back on the unflinching gore. The charismatic leads, Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott, try their best to rise above the shallow screenplay, but they're undermined by the very bland and stilted dialogue. Moreover, is it too much to ask for some comic relief or wit? Every film needs at least a little bit of levity. Unfortunately, Wolf Man ultimately manages to be a gritty, but underwhelming, unscary and inane B-movie masquerading as an A-movie. At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, Wolf Man opens nationwide via Universal Pictures.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3