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Reviews for June 27th, 2025



      Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell's Swimsuit Issue is a captivating, illuminating and very well-edited documentary biopic on Jule Campbell, the founding editor of The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Director Jill Campbell, Jule's daughter-in-law, deftly combines candid talking-head interviews with Jule herself, archival footage and photographs, and interviews with the models that she photographed. You'll learn about how Jule began working as the magazine's editor in 1964, what it was like for her to work in a male-dominated industry, how she helped her models to feel safe and protected. She never exploited her models for their bodies or treated them like objects; she even included their names in the magazine which humanized them. Jill captures Jule's witty personality, her courage, wisdom, sense of humor and, most importantly, her introspection, which makes her interviews concurrently engaging, revealing and insightful. At a running time of 1 hour and 47 minutes, Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell's Swimsuit Issue opens at IFC Center via Red Barn Productions LLC.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1





 

      In The G, Ann (Dale Dickey), a grandmother, with the help of her step-granddaughter, Emma (Romane Denis), seeks revenge against Rivera (Bruce Ramsay), her legal guardian who put her and her sick husband, Chip (Greg Ellwand), in an elderly care facility before taking their property and money. Writer/director Karl R. Hearne has made a taut and gritty revenge thriller that's like a cross between I Care a Lot and John Wick. Ann is mad as hell about how Rivera has taken advantage of her and she's not going to take it anymore. When someone asks her about her rage, she replies that her mother told her that people who let out their anger live longer and that her mother lived until she was 102. Ann has the right to be indignant. Hearne doesn't judge her for how she chooses to express her anger and get her own form of justice, but he also doesn't ask the audience to judge her either. Dale Dickey gives a bravura performance in one of the best roles of her career. The film's emotional depth comes more from her rather than from the screenplay. That said, the screenplay could use some much-needed levity to counterbalance the grim and bleak plot. If you like your revenge thrillers served like black coffee with no sugar and no cream, you'll love The G. It might be best to follow it up with a lighter films like Shirley Valentine and The First Wives Club or insightful documentaries Beauty Bites Beast and She's Beautiful When She's Angry. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, The G opens at Cinema Village via Dark Sky Films.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 1







      Rose (Fiona Shaw) travels to a seaside town in Spain with her daughter, Sofia (Emma Mackey), to visit Dr. Gomez (Vincent Perez) in hope of finding a cure for her mysterious illness in Hot Milk. While on the beach, Rose meets and befriends Ingrid (Vicky Krieps) who has a dark past. Writer/director Rebecca Lenkiewicz has made a meandering, dull and undercooked slog with great scenery and nothing else that stands out. Based on the novel by Deborah Levy, the screenplay ultimately fails to breathe life into any of the roles or to generate enough narrative momentum to feel engaging. There's a lot of backstory involving trauma that gets explained through clunky exposition that makes the plot seem needlessly convoluted and even confusing at times with too many themes and subplots going underexplored. Vicky Krieps and Emma Mackey do their best to enliven the film, but their charisma alone isn't enough to stop it from becoming a lethargic bore. The sluggish pacing makes it even more of a chore to sit through. At 1 hours and 33 minutes, which feels more like 3 hours, Hot Milk opens in select theaters nationwide via IFC Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4





 

      Another week, another unnecessary sequel. In Ice Road: Vengeance, Mike (Liam Neeson) uses his special set of skills to fight mercenaries who attack his tour bus when he visits Nepal to spread the ashes of his late brother on Mount Everest. Fan Bingbing plays Dhani, his tour guide. The screenplay by writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh takes too long to get to the meat of the story as it spends time with excessive exposition and cheesy, redundant flashbacks that diminish the narrative momentum. If you're looking for an edge-of-your-seat Liam Neeson action thriller, you'll be disappointed because there's not much suspense. The action scenes are dull and far from exciting while the villains are underwritten. It would've been forgivable for the plot to merely go through the motions if it were at least mindlessly entertaining, but it's not. Liam Neeson phones it in with a performance that fails to invigorate the film. Moreover, there are pacing issues with some scenes moving too slowly, especially during the first act and the final scene that takes too long to get to the end credits. At a running time of 1 hour and 49, Ice Road: Vengeance is a pedestrian, bland and lackluster B-movie. It opens at The Kent Theater in Brooklyn via Vertical.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





 

     ,At a running time of 1 hour and 34, Jonesing: When Love is a Habit, written and directed by Sixx King, opens at AMC Empire via Sixx King Media.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 2







      The Last Class is a heartfelt, thought-provoking and honest documentary biopic on Robert Reich, a professor, political commentator and former Secretary of Labor who taught his last class on "Wealth and Poverty" at UC Berkeley in 2023 before retiring. Director Elliot Kirschner interweaves talking-head interviews along with footage from his final lecture. This isn't a thorough, warts-and-all documentary biopic, but that's fine because at least Kirschner manages to capture Reich's warmth, wit and sense of humor. He comes across as an intelligent, wise, candid and emotionally mature human being who's unafraid to display introspection and vulnerability. He's clearly a critical thinker which makes him a great role model and a wonderful, inspirational professor. You'll wish that he were your professor. Kudos to Kirschner for allowing the audience to get a glimpse of Reich's humanity. On a side note, it's amazing that Reich remained so energetic, alert, passionate, eloquent and articulate during his final lecture despite not getting any sleep the night before. At a running time of only 1 hour and 11 minutes, The Last Class opens at Quad Cinema via Abramorama.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1







      Gemma (Allison Williams)rebuilds M3GAN (Amie Donald) without telling her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), when someone steals M3GAN's tech data and creates Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), a dangerous AI robot, in M3GAN 2.0 Writer/director Gerard Johnstone has made a sequel that's just a silly and outrageously funny as its predecessor, but with dull action scenes and an uninspired plot that doesn't feel as fun or refreshing. The dialogue sounds like it might've been written by AI because it's so stilted. Moreover, there are clunky expositional scenes. Do Hollywood screenwriters not know how to incorporate exposition smoothly? That's a skill that should be a prerequisite for all screenwriters regardless of the budget. Having a character over-explain their hidden motives is a sign of very lazy writing. M3GAN sings and dances yet again, but this time around it feels tacked-on and not nearly surprising.

      The PG-13 rating pretty much neuters the violence so that too many of the kills either happen off-screen or without blood even when Amelia stabs people with a very large sharp object. Moreover, the performance by Allison Williams is noticeably bad, almost like Dakota Johnson's in Madame Web. On a positive note, the production design looks slick and stylish, and the CGI effects are impressive, so clearly a lot of money and work went into the visuals alone. If only as much work were to have gone into the screenplay. This probably wouldn't have overstayed its welcome if it were edited down to around 90 minutes. At a lengthy running time of 2 hours, M3GAN 2.0 opens nationwide via Universal Pictures.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3







      Nobu is a well-edited, but shallow, hagiographic and sugar-coated documentary biopic on Nobu Matsuhisa. If you're expecting to learn about Nobu beyond his work as a chef and restaurateur, you'll be disappointed. Director Matt Tyrnauer focuses too much on how Nobu runs his restaurants and what makes him and his food so iconic. Even other celebrity chefs sing his praise. There's no doubt that he's very talented and skilled, but what about his life outside of work? What about his childhood, family and emotional struggles? Nobu barely scratches its subject's surface and seems like more of an advertisement for his restaurants, Nobu and Matsuhisa. Sure, it will make you hungry, but that's easy given the many shots of the food preparing. By the end, you'll learn too little about Nobu himself. Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, Jiro Dreams of Sushi and, more recently, Marcella, are examples of much more illuminating, unflinching and engrossing documentaries that are also concurrently mouth-watering. At a lengthy running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, Nobu opens at Angelika Film Center via Vertical.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3





 

       Guy (Josh Duhamel), a scientist, goes into hiding at a remote location in the forest after taking with him a new technological device in Of the Grid. He had worked on the device for a corrupt company that intends on using it as a dangerous weapon. Ranish (Greg Kinnear) sends his henchmen to hunt him down.  Director Johnny Martin and screenwriter Jim Agnew have made an uninspired, bland and lackluster action thriller that fails to hook the audience from start to finish. It wastes the talents of its cast while remaining too low on suspense and thrills to even work as a mindlessly entertaining B-movie. Everything from the performances to the cinematography, screenplay, action scenes and editing fail to invigorate the film. At a running time of 1 hour and 44 minutes,  which feels more like 3 hours, Off the Grid opens at Cinema Village and on VOD via Lionsgate.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 4





 

      Ponyboi (River Gallo), an intersex sex worker, works at a laundromat with his best friend, Angel (Victoria Pedretti), and has a secret affair with his pimp, Vinnie (Dylan O'Brien), who also happens to be in a relationship with Angel and the father of her child in Ponyboi. Soon enough, a drug deal goes wrong and Ponyboi's life remains in danger. Oh, and he has trauma from the emotional abusive, estranged father who happens to be dying according to his mother. The screenplay by River Gallo has too many subplots going on at the same time, so it's somewhat overwrought and undercooked, but nonetheless visually stylish, gritty, captivating and heartfelt.  Gallo does an effective job of humanizing Ponyboi by making him flawed and complex as well as both strong and vulnerable. Does the plot really need 4 different sources of conflict: the secret affair between Ponyboi and Vinnie, the estranged relationship between Ponyboi and his father, the drug deal gone wrong, and Ponyboi's innate emotional battles? No. It makes the film convoluted and overstuffed, so it bites off more than it could chew, but at least it's not tonally uneven or lethargic. It's also beautifully shot with great use of lighting that's reminiscent of the films Nicolas Winding Refn like Drive.

      Fortunately, the raw performances, especially by River Gallo, whom he you might remember as one of the subjects of the documentary Every Body, and the always-reliable Dylan O'Brien, one of the best actors of our times, anchor Ponyboi in just enough emotional grit to keep it emotionally engrossing and grounded in authenticity and humanism, a truly special effect.  At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, Ponyboi, directed by  Esteban Arango, opens in select theaters via Tideline Entertainment/GATHR.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 2