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In Gasoline Rainbow, Nichole (Nichole Dukes), Mica (Micah Bunch), Nathaly (Nathaly Garcia), Tony (Tony Abuerto)and Makaia (Makai Garza), a group of friends, have just graduated from high school at a small Oregon town. They embark on a 500-mile road trip to the Pacific coast and end up stranded when someone steals the wheels of their van while they partied the night before. Co-writer/directors Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, a.k.a. the Ross brothers, have woven an engrossing, poetic and poignant slice-of-life. Like the films of Richard Linklater, it's less about the plot and more about the feelings or emotional truth contained within the minimal plot. The Ross brothers throw the audience right into the lives of the group of teenage friends with barely any exposition which means that the audience must put in the effort to pick up on small details that shape the personalities of each of the five characters. With that said, the film welcomes the audience to join Nichole, Mica, Nathaly, Tony and Makaia on the adventure as though as a spectator. There's a sense of voyeurism as you're peering into their private conversations. The dialogue feels organic without any lines that sound stilted. The most powerful line comes toward the end when an adult tells one of the teens that the difference between an adult and a child is that adults aren't supervised.
Throughout the course of the film, the friends interact, and you can feel their bond palpably. Part of what makes Gasoline Rainbow so captivating, though, is the way that the filmmakers play around with the audience's imagination like Linklater does in Boyhood because it's easy to expect something bad to happen at any given moment. The filmmakers subvert those expectations, though, every step of the way. Although the cinematography brims with visual poetry and breathtaking scenery that speaks louder than words, it does occasionally resort to excessive shaky-cam that feel quite nauseating, but that's a minor, forgivable flaw. At a running time of 1 hour and 48 minutes, Gasoline Rainbow opens at IFC Center via MUBI.
Not Another Church Movie is a witless, unfunny and lazy parody of Tyler Perry's movies. The screenplay by writer/director Johnny Mack does earn some points for being consistently zany and silly without taking itself seriously. It's too bad, then, that none of the jokes or visual gags generate much in terms of laughs. The main plot has God (Jamie Foxx) tasking Taylor Pherry (Kevin Daniels), a wealthy businessman, with taking over Hoprah Windfall (Luc Ashley)'s place by empowering women. Taylor happens to be writing a screenplay about his dysfunctional family including the MaDude (Kevin Daniels in drag). Any guess which Tyler Perry character MaDude might be a parody of? Meanwhile, God and Taylor have a nemesis: the Devil (Mickey Rourke). Beyond its lack of laughs, Not Another Church Movie systemic issue is that it sets itself up to fail by being a parody of a parody. Parodies work best when they're spoofing something serious like westerns (Blazing Saddles), airplane disaster movies (Airplane!). action thrillers (Hot Shots!), horror films (Scary Movie), coming-of-age teen movies (Not Another Teen Movie), James Bond movies (Austin Powers) or even kung fu movies (Kung Pow! Enter the Fist). The humor here doesn't go far enough nor do the actors have good comedic timing. At least at just under 90 minutes, it isn't nearly as long as the similarly disappointing parody Book of Clarence which clocked at 2 hours and 9 minutes. Not Another Church Movie opens nationwide via Briarcliff Entertainment. 
In Poolman,
Chris Pine plays Darren, a pool cleaner at an LA motel, who works on a documentary with his friend, Diane (Annette Bening), who's also his therapist, and her husband, Jack (Danny DeVito). When June Del Rey (DeWanda Wise), a femme fatale, asks him to use his detective skills to uncover corruption involving a city councilman (Stephen Tobolowsky), Diane and Jack help him to investigate. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Susan (Jennifer Jason Leigh) leaves him for Wayne (John Ortiz). The screenplay by writer/director Chris Pine and co-writer Ian Gotler fails as a satire, dark comedy and mystery. If you can imagine cross between The Big Lebowski, Under the Silver Lake, The Long Goodbye and Chinatown, it would look something like this, but with an uninspired plot that becomes lethargic within the first thirty minutes and never recovers. Danny DeVito has one mildly funny scene at the beginning. The rest of the film is one lame joke after another including a scene that lasts too long at a city council meeting. Is it supposed to be funny that Darren is writing a letter to his idol, Erin Brokovitch? He comes across as an annoying and unpleasant character. It doesn't help that Chris Pine lacks comedic acting chops. Unfortunately, Poolman isn't zany enough to enjoy it while stoned. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, it's a dull, meandering, painfully unfunny and unimaginative attempt at satire. It opens in select theaters nationwide via Vertical. 
Power is a provocative and timely, but tedious, exhausting and undercooked documentary about the history and causes of police brutality in America. Director Yance Ford blends archival footage showing police brutality with talk-head interviews. There's no doubt that the issue is systemic and has been around for many decades with no signs of improvement. Who can we trust if we can't rely on the police to do their job to "serve and protect." Power hits the audience over the head with evidence upon evidence of police brutality which feels enraging to watch. However, a truly great documentary shouldn't just make the audience angry; it should offer at least some constructive criticism or look at its issue with more scope while providing different perspectives. Ford doesn't do that, though, nor does he humanize the issue by allowing the audience to get to know some of the victims of police brutality, lawmakers or someone associated with the police. There are more than 2 sides to a coin, after all: there's the sides, the ridges, the corners, etc. At a running time of 1 hour and 29 minutes, Power opens at IFC Center via Netflix before streaming on Netflix on May 17th, 2024.
Three Promises is an intimate, heartbreaking and timely documentary about the experiences of Suha Srouji and her family during the Second Intifada while living in the West Bank. Director Yusef Srouji, her son, incorporates Suha's home videos from 2000 to 2001, back when he and his sister, Dima, were young children. Suha remained torn between staying in the West Bank or fleeing. She made three promises to God to leave if things get worse, but she chose to stay while also dealing with the emotional and psychological impact on her children. Three Promises isn't an easy film to watch because it shows how an innocent family suffers and struggles to make difficult decisions during a time of war. What makes it even more tough to watch is Israel's current war on Gaza which also affects innocent lives traumatically on many levels that will take a long time to overcome. Three Promises is essential, though, because it serves as a reminder that there's hope for healing when looking unflinchingly at the past. At a running time of just 1 hour, it opens at DC TV's Firehouse Cinema via Tikun Olam Productions. 
Who is Stan Smith? is a conventional, mildly engaging and somewhat hagiographic documentary biopic about former pro tennis player Stan Smith. Director Danny Lee combines archival footage and clips along with interviews with Stan Smith himself, his wife, Marjory, his manager, Donald Dell, and other tennis legends like Arthur Ashe and John McEnroe. Lee charts how Stan Smith rose to fame as a tennis player, met his wife, helped Mark Mathabane, a South African teen, to escape a poor and abusive life during the apartheid. Too much time is spent on his iconic shoe, Adidas Stan Smith, which has his face on it, which makes the doc seem like an advertisement for the shoe. Who is Stan Smith? is lucky to have access to Stan Smith because he comes across as warm, friendly and compassionate throughout his interviews. It's slickly edited and well-paced, but there's nothing that allows it to elevate beyond mediocrity or to make you forget that you're watching a documentary. Perhaps that's because it covers too much ground without enough emotional depth. A separate documentary could've been easily made about Mark Mathabe's story and how Stan inspired him. At a running time of 1 hour and 35 minutes, Who is Stan Smith opens at Angelika Film Center via Monkey Wrench Films.
Force of Nature: The Dry 2 
Aaron Falk (Eric Bana) investigates the disappearance of Alice (Anna Torv), a woman who went on a hiking retreat with four other women in the woods. Alice happens to be familiar to Aaron as an informant who's blowing the whistle on financial crimes of the company that she works for.
The screenplay by writer/director Robert Connolly and co-writer Jane Harper suffers from a convoluted plot with very clunky exposition. The potential for suspense is there given the premise, but the film never lives up to it. There are too many subplots, characters and backstories which makes you feel as though you're watching at least four different movies at once. Is it a murder mystery? A financial crime thriller? A drama? It's all the above, yet very few of the beats actually land. What ensues is a meandering and dull experience that keeps the audience at a cold distance from all of the underwritten characters thereby leaving no one to root for or care about on an emotional level. The use of flashbacks feels lazy while overcomplicating the plot. If it were merely complex, that would've been fine, but there's a difference between something complex and something complicated. The former comes with emotional depth and intrigue which this film sorely lacks. As the plot progresses, it becomes less and less engaging. Force of Nature: The Dry 2 also doesn't have comic relief or any other form of levity that would've enlivened the film or at least it would've broken the monotony.
Beyond the picturesque scenery, there's nothing in Force of Nature: The Dry 2 that stands out. The performances are decent, although, to be fair, Eric Bana gave a better performance in the previous film, The Dry. There are too many flashbacks which distract from the narrative flow while some of the transitions between past and present scenes feel choppy. Interestingly, Challengers is plagued by the same issue. It takes a smart and sensitive screenplay to turn a non-linear story into a compelling, gripping thriller, so it's a shame that the film doesn't come even close to achieving those feats. At a running time of 1 hour and 52 minutes, Force of Nature: The Dry 2 is convoluted, meandering and lethargic.  The Image of You  Anna (Sasha Pieterse) begins a romance with Nick, (Parker Young), after meeting him on a dating app. They fall in love and, soon enough, she agrees to marry him. Her identical twin sister, Zoe (also Sasha Pieterse), remains suspicious of him, so she seduces him to find out what he might be hiding.
Based on the novel by Adel Parks, the screenplay by writer/director Jeff Fisher and co-writer Chris Sivertson is an overwrought, preposterous and clunky mess. When Anna first meets Nick, it turns out that he had lied to her on the dating app by claiming to be called Gus. The fact that she lied to him by claiming that she's a few years younger than her real age doesn't make it right. They've both started the date on the wrong foot, yet somehow they end up hitting it off and, before you know it, they're engaged. Her mother, Alexia (Mira Sorvino), seems to be the only one who has some logic and reason because she mentions the fact that there's not enough time for them to plan their wedding given how soon they'll be getting married. The filmmakers don't trust the audience's intelligence or emotions. Why rush through Anne and Nick's dates in a montage sequence? It makes their romance less believable, so the beat doesn't land as strongly when he proposes to her. The Image of You takes a small nosedive after Zoe successfully seduces Nick and then a much steeper nosedive when a major twist gets revealed. That twist, which won't be spoiled here, makes very little sense in hindsight, although it's explained over and over through flashbacks that hit the audience over the head. The third act does get pretty dark, but it also throws logic and plausibility out of the window. If only it didn't throw suspense and thrills out of the window, too.
The Image of You has nothing exceptional about its production design, performances or anything else that would rise above the stilted and shallow screenplay. They all deserve better material. The editing often feels choppy and the pace moves too quickly, especially during the first and last 30 minutes. If the film were campy, funny and witty like A Simple Favor or suspenseful and intriguing like Some Other Woman, it would've been a lot more fun to watch instead of as cringe-inducing and dumb as the recent misfire Strictly Confidential.  Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes  Noa (Owen Teague), a young ape, embarks on a journey to avenge the death of his father and the members of his clan who were kidnapped. He befriends Raka (Peter Macon), an orangutan, and Mae (Freya Allen), a human, who join his quest that leads them to a tyrannical ape leader, Proximus (Kevin Durand).
Buried somewhere inside the screenplay by Josh Friedman, there's a compelling underdog story and revenge thriller. Unfortunately, Friedman takes too long to find it. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes spends the lengthy first act trying to set up the story and Noa's conflict while introducing the other characters except for Proximus. Mae, as it turns out, happens to know where Noa can find his kidnapped clan, so she's essentially a plot device. The film lacks narrative momentum, thrills and suspense as Noa, Raka and Mae go on their journey. It finally picks some momentum once they reach Proximus's kingdom, but by then it's too little, too late. A new character is suddenly introduced during the final hour in a way that's clunky, lazy and contrived. Moreover, the dialogue ranges from dull to stilted with barely any comic relief.T here's not nearly enough "world building," the exposition feels weak, and, worst of all, the villain is one-note and forgettable. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does offer plenty of stunning CGI and breathtaking scenery that add some spectacle and eye candy, but not much else. The performances are fine without anyone giving a weak performance nor does anyone get the chance to rise above the shallow screenplay, either. At least the film doesn't drown the audience in action scenes most of which are left until the tail end. There are pacing issues, though, because the first act is a medium burn while the second act slows down to what feels like a crawl before the pace picks up again. Director Wes Ball and screenwriter Josh Friedman don't quite grasp the concept that "less is more" by allowing the running time to unnecessarily clock past the 2 hour mark. At 2 hours and 25 minutes, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is visually dazzling, but lackluster, overlong and too low on thrills and excitement.  The Last Stop in Yuma County  A knife salesman (Jim Cummings) stops at a countryside gas station on his way to visit his daughter for her birthday, but the owner, Vernon (Faizon Love), informs him that fuel has run out and that the fuel truck is running late. He agrees to wait at a diner nearby where he chats with a friendly waitress, Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue). Beau (Richard Brake) and Travis (Nicholas Logan), two bank robbers on the run from the law, suddenly show up to the diner and take everyone hostage. Writer/director Francis Galluppi deftly blends suspense, action, thrills and dark comedy. The plot remains lean with just the right amount of exposition and mystery. For example, Galluppi shows the overturned fuel truck during the opening credits, so the audience is already one step ahead of the other characters who don't know that yet. However, there are still surprises which won't be spoiled here as the plot gets increasingly dark and twisted. There's more to the knife salesman than meets the eye and he does make some decisions that cross moral boundaries, but the film doesn't ask you to judge him. There are no unnecessary subplots or flashbacks. You don't even get to see Beau and Travis rob the bank. Fortunately, the dialogue feels organic and even includes a little wit without trying hard to be quotable. Galluppi knows how to build tension effectively, but, more importantly, he knows how to maintain it because The Last Stop in Yuma County doesn't have a dull moment nor does it run out of steam. The entire ensemble cast is terrific with no one giving a weak or hammy performance. Even the actors in smaller roles are superb like the underrated Gene Jones from No Country for Old Men who plays one of the diner customers. There's some violence which is quite gory and intense, but it's not over-the-top. This isn't a Tarantino film after all. It's more along the lines of a Coen brothers film or Martin McDonagh film. The pace moves at just the right speed and cinematography along with the landscape, which becomes a character in itself, creates an psychologically intense atmosphere. A seemingly simple shot of the quiet road in one particular scene becomes so much more than that as the audience constantly wonders if a car will pass by. At an ideal running time of 1 hour and 30 minutes, The Last Stop in Yuma County is a smart, gripping and wildly entertaining crime thriller.
 The Lost Boys  Joe (Khalil Gharbia), an Arab teenager at a youth correctional facility, falls in love with a new inmate, William (Julien de Saint Jean), and tries to keep their relationship a secret. Meanwhile, he expects to be released from the correctional facility soon. The screenplay by writer/director Zeno Graton and co-writer Clara Bourreau works well as a romance, but less as a coming-of-age film. When the audience first meets Joe, he's getting into trouble for trying to escape the detention center. He soon meets William and they instantly hit it off while showing their physical affection toward each other discreetly. The Lost Boys does a decent job of showing how rebellious and emotionally immature Joe and William are. Joe is supposed to be learning how to be more accountable, but he doesn't seem to be learning that based on his repeatedly delinquent behavior. Is he introspective? He also lacks that essential skill. However, he does show faint signs of wisdom when he tells the story from his childhood about a fish frozen in a lake that he assumed was hibernating instead of dead. How well does he understand that he's the fish in that analogy? How well does he understand what the concept of being frozen means? Neither Joe nor William display much of a character arc, and there's not enough backstory about either of them to allow the audience to understand how they ended up so rebellious without understanding the concept of boundaries. Joe says at one point that he thinks that freedom is a paradox because it comes with rules. He's like a little child who lacks the building blocks of life, so his struggles with his love life and sexuality are the least of his problems. If only The Lost Boys where to have shown more of his growth and inner life, it would've been more profound as a coming-of-age film. Khalil Gharbia and Julien de Saint Jean's movin and raw performance help to keep The Lost Boys afloat. Any poignancy comes from their performances, not from the screenplay. Fortunately, they have chemistry together and a few tender scenes together, too. The third act does feel somewhat contrived and heavy-handed with an intense scene that escalates the tension unnecessarily while briefly shifting the genre into thriller territory. Also, the poetic analogy of the dead fish trapped in the icy lake gets repeated twice: once at the beginning of the film and again at the end. Once would've been enough, though. That said, the music is lively and well-chosen while complimenting the themes effectively without being intrusive. At a running time of 1 hour and 23 minutes, The Lost Boys is well-acted and moving, but somewhat contrived and undercooked.  Property  After surviving a hostage situation that put her life at risk, Tereza (Malu Galli) reluctantly agrees to travel with her husband, Roberto (Tavinho Teixeira), to seek refuge at their farmhouse in the Brazilian countryside. Little do they know that their farm workers have staged a rebellion and plan to take them hostage. The screenplay by writer/director Daniel Bandeira hooks the audience immediately with an intense scene that shows Tereza being held hostage before the criminal holding hostage is shot dead. There's no doubt that the incident has affected her psychologically and emotionally. Her husband hopes to find some peace and quiet by moving into their house on a farm. He fortifies their car before they embark on their trip to the countryside. Their peace and quiet doesn't last very long, though, after Roberto notices on the surveillance camera that their farm workers have broken into their home. The workers are clearly angry with them and fed-up with the way that they've been treated. Have they tried non-violent ways of getting better treatment and pay? Obviously, if they kill Tereza and Roberto, they won't have a job to return to at all. So, the fact that they resort to violence implies that they have no other choice and that they've been pushed to their limits. What elevated Property is its moral ambiguity. Yes, the workers are morally wrong for terrorizing Tereza and Roberto, but, conversely, Tereza and Roberto are morally wrong for exploiting their workers. Tereza tries to reason with one of them, but to no avail. She hopes that hiding out in the fortified car will protect her from the uprising farm workers. However, she turns out to be wrong in ways that won't be spoiled here. Writer/director Daniel Bandeira deserves to be commended for veering into surprisingly grim territory while taking risks without trying hard to please the audience. The ending is chilling, shocking and refreshingly un-Hollywood. Malu Galli and Tavinho Teixeira both give emotionally convincing performances while bringing plenty of humanity to their roles. The actors and actresses who portray the farm workers are fine, but the screenplay doesn't flesh out any of those characters enough to give them a chance to shine. It'd be interesting to see more of the film from the perspectives of the workers. Although Property does get violent and gritty, it doesn't rely on blood and guts to entertain the audience. The shocks that do arrive are more on a psychological level. So, in a way, it delivers psychological horror at times. Kudos to writer/director Daniel Bandeira for a very stylish and imaginative opening credits sequence. At a running time of 1 hour and 41 minutes, Property is a captivating, gritty and riveting psychological thriller.  Stay With Us  After living in New York for three years, Gad (Gad Elmaleh) returns to Paris to visit his mother, Régine (Régine Elmaleh), father, David (David Elmaleh) and sister, Judith (Judith Elmaleh). His parents aren't pleased when they learn that he's planning to convert to Catholicism.
The semi-autobiographical screenplay by writer/director Gad Elmaleh and co-writer Benjamin Charbit is an engrossing and lighthearted spiritual journey. At the beginning of the film, Gad stops by his parents' Parisien apartment and they convince him to stay there instead of going to a hotel. His mother discovers a statuette of the Virgin Mary in his suitcase and first denies that it belongs to him, but then acts surprised when it's his and that he plans to be baptised very soon. She takes it as an affront to her skills as a mother. His father isn't happy either. Even his friend, Roschdy (Roschdy Zem), and sister, Judith, try to talk him out of it. He's stuck in a quagmire because he doesn't want to hurt his family, but he also wants to remain true to himself. So, he decides to go on with the baptism while lying to his parents that he decided not to convert. Stay With Us is a tender psychological character study of a man who's going through an epiphany. It goes beyond that, though, because his mother also goes through her own emotional journey with her own epiphanies. There's a powerful scene when Gad's father visits a rabbi (Pierre-Henry Salfati) to seek advice, and the words of wisdom that he gives him are surprising, funny and wise. It's a scene that doesn't play out exactly as you would expect it to which is what makes it so refreshing. You gradually learn more about Gad's childhood without flashbacks. There's a key event when he was a young boy and wept when he saw a statue of the Virgin Mary. When his father looks back at that event, his reaction shows that he doesn't quite understand what his son is actually going through. Kudos to writer/director Gad Elmaleh and co-writer Benjamin Charbit for seeing and treating Gad and his family as complex, flawed human beings. There are no villains or one-dimensional caricatures. The film also has a tone that's often light and breezy, but it knows how and when to be poignant and profound without being maudlin, melodramatic or preachy.
Gad Elmaleh stars as himself and casts his real-life parents as his mother and father, and his real-life sister as his sister. Those are bold decisions, but they've paid off because their performances are moving while adding warmth and authenticity. Blink and you'll miss a message written on the window of a train that Gad rides that says something insightful about dreaming, although you'll have to know French because it's not translated in the subtitles. The film moves at a medium pace, not too slow or too fast, while the ending leaves the audience satisfied without overexplaining or trying too hard to be uplifting. At 1 hour and 30 minutes, Stay With Us is heartfelt, witty and provocative. It would be an interesting double feature with Ida.  |