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In Adam the First, 14-year-old Adam (Oakes Fegley) lives in a trailer in the woods where James (David Duchovny) and his girlfriend, Mary (Kim Jackson Davis), have been raising him. When James explains to him that he's not his real father and then gives him a note with the addresses of three people with his biological father's name, Jacob Watterson, he embarks on a journey alone to find him. The screenplay by writer/director Irving Franco doesn't spend much time with exposition or exploring the relationship between Adam, James and Mary. Until James tells him that he's not his biological father, the audience assumes that he is. What happens after that point won't be revealed here, but that's the beginning of Adam's journey to find his real father. He has three addresses with his father's name. All he has to do is to reach those locations and hope to succeed in his mission. He technically has a 33 1/3% chance that each Jacob Watterson could be his father. Despite a refreshingly slow-burning pace and exquisite cinematography with visual style that evokes the works of David Lean, the film isn't as suspenseful or engrossing as it could've been with a more profound and unflinching screenplay. There's not enough of a window into Adam's inner life nor much of a character arc for him which is a shame because he's been through a lot as a young child and a lot is at stake for him. On a positive note, Franco avoids turning the film into sappy melodrama or going off the rails by genre-bending like too many films do nowadays. It's nice to see a straightforward drama that doesn't try too hard to please the audience. Adam the First is mildly engaging, but, ultimately, less than the sum of its parts. It hits VOD on Tuesday, May 14th via Electric Entertainment. 
The Blue Angels is an exhilarating, heartfelt and thrilling documentary about the Blue Angels, a US Navy fighter jet demo team stationed in Pensacola, Florida. Director Paul Crowder follows the Blue Angels for an entire year, specifically, 2022. He combines aerial footage along with talk-head interviews with the team members and their leader, Brian Kesselring. You'll learn about the different maneuvers that they perform, some of which are very difficult, like the
Diamond 360 which has the six fighter jets 18 inches apart in midair. There's some footage of pilots with their family, but, for the most part, this documentary focuses more on their work than their life outside of work. The interviews aren't profound per see, yet they're candid and even moving at times. As one of the pilots admits, the days feel long and the weeks feel short. How do they not get exhausted? The Blue Angels adds some suspense when Brian Kesserling interviews candidates to decide who will replace him as the team leader in 2023. Interestingly, the training process itself, i.e. the G-force training, doesn't arrive until closer to the end. Some of the pilots even pass out during that intense part of the training. The film truly soars during the aerial footage that is shot from inside the cockpit which makes it more immersive, especially on the big screen in glorious IMAX. Watching those scenes on the small screen will diminish their spectacle. At a running time of 1 hour and 34 minutes, The Blue Angels opens in IMAX theaters via Amazon MGM Studios before streaming on Amazon Prime on May 23rd, 2024. 
Taking Venice is a fascinating, but heavy-handed and exhausting documentary about the plot to rig the 1964 Venice Biennale to make Robert Rauschenberg, an American artist, the winner. Director Amei Wallach shoots the film as though it were a Hollywood suspense thriller which is a large part of its systemic issue. Alice Denney, a friend of the Kennedys and an art curator, Alan Solomon, a curator, and Leo Castelli, a gallerist, are the key players who served an integral role in the rigging. Wallach uses mostly archival footage to tell the story, although she presents it non-linearly which makes it feel a bit convoluted at times. The consistently fast pace escalates the intensity at times, but also redundantly magnifies which makes it feel as though the filmmaker were trying too hard to grip the audience without trusting their patience or their interest in the story enough. There's already enough tension within the story, so anything beyond that is excessive and unnecessary. Moreover, the music score feels intrusive and overbearing which signifies that Wallach doesn't trust the audience's emotions either. Additional insights about Rauschenberg as an artist and his background would've been helpful, too, or at least a more illuminating profile of any of the other subjects in the film. So, while Taking Venice does feel cinematic in scope, its style often gets in the way of its substance. At 1 hour and 38 minutes, it opens at IFC Center via Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber. Babes   Back to Black   IF  Bea (Cailey Fleming), a young girl, temporarily lives with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) while her dad (John Krasinki) remains in the hospital for a heart operation. She's suddenly able to see IFs (imaginary friends) like Blue (voice of Steve Carell). Cal (Ryan Reynolds), the caretaker of retired IFs, embarks on a journey with her to reunite the IFs with their friends who abandoned them in their adulthood. The screenplay by writer/director John Krasinski suffers from weaker exposition that leaves too much unexplained including how and why Bea is finally able to see the IFs all of a sudden. Very few of the jokes land while most of them are just unfunny like that Blue is actually purple, not blue. There's probably something that could've been done with his backstory, but the film neglects to even give him or the other IFs one. You do get to meet their friends in their adulthood very briefly, though, like the guy whose family owns a bakery. What was his relationship like with Blue when he was a child? What exactly is Cal's role as a caretaker at the retirement center? Lazy "world-building" is another part of the screenplay's weaknesses. More time should've been spent at the retirement center. The film has some brief moments of genuine tenderness. For instance, in yet another subplot, Bea's grandmother had always wanted to be a ballerina, so Bea discovers that she had an IF as a child, and she reunites them in a beautiful, understated scene. The rest of the film isn't even remotely understated. The dialogue is often stilted, on-the-nose and cheesy with some preachiness that feels tacked-on. Krasinki knows where to take ideas from, but not where to take those ideas to. The ending does not earn its uplift, unfortunately. The overactive music score stand out the most while trying hard to guide the audience's emotions and to tell them how to feel. One of the music scores is borrowed from a much more smart, poignant and funny movie about someone's relationship with their imaginary friend, Harvey. The performances are decent, but nothing exceptional. Even the voice actors, of which there are many at the retirement center, aren't very memorable. Fiona Shaw, though, is the film's MVP. The cinematography is fine, but the CGI is often impressive and seamless while, other times, it's very poor like in the scene where Bea walks down 6th Avenue with Blue and Cal. Also, there are pacing issues with too many scenes that drag, especially during the first hour. At a running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, IF is a tonally uneven, meandering and often anemic misfire.  The Strangers: Chapter 1  Three masked people terrorize Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) and Maya (Madelaine Petsch), a young couple who spend the night at an isolated cabin in a small town.
Co-writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland keep the plot lean, mean and focused. The prologue foreshadows the tragic events that will eventually happen to Ryan and Maya, so there are no surprises here once their car breaks down and they meet the creepy townspeople. Ryan leaves Maya alone at the cabin while going to get food. Any guess what will happen to Maya while he's away? Who are the people terrorizing them? What's their motive? Who is Tamara? The film keeps those questions unanswered, purposefully, because this is only the first chapter of a trilogy. At times, though, the audience gets to see the home invaders before Ryan and Maya do, so they're a step ahead of them in terms of what they know. There are only a handful of scary scenes, though, one involving a shower that pays homage to the classic shower scene in Psycho. Beyond that, the rest of the film suffers from repetitiveness with very little imagination. The third act is where most of the intense action and violence can be found, but the lazy and anticlimactic ending leaves a bad aftertaste. In terms of production values, The Strangers: Chapter 1 is slick with set design and lighting design that adds to the eerie atmosphere. The masks themselves don't look very scary, though, and the film could've relied more heavily on the audience's imagination to generate scares because true horror is almost always inside the mind. The violence and gore is quite unflinching and shocking with one particular scene that pushes the envelope in a way that won't be spoiled here. It's a scene that will probably have to be cut if the film were to be released in Israel because it's reminiscent of the kind of violence that Hamas used against Israelis during the Oct. 7th massacre. If you're squeamish, this isn't the film for you. At a running time of just 1 hour and 31 minutes, The Strangers: Chapter 1 is visually stylish, intense and intermittently scary, but repetitive while lacking palpable suspense.
 You Can't Run Forever  Miranda (Isabelle Anaya), a young woman suffering from anxiety caused by trauma, runs through the woods while Wade (J.K. Simmons), a serial killer, chases her. Jenny (Fernanda Urrejola), her pregnant mother, remains at home and could give birth at any minute.
The screenplay by writer/director Michelle Schumacher and her co-writer, Carolyn Carpenter, takes a simple premise that sounds like it could be a gripping action thriller and turns it into a clunky, asinine and increasingly preposterous mess. The film withholds a key piece of information about Wade's past, so until it gets revealed very late, the audience wonders why he's killing so many people and what's fueling his rage. You Can't Run Forever doesn't work as a character study nor as a thriller even though it tries to be both simultaneously. Very little makes sense at the beginning and even when the pieces of the puzzle come together eventually, it's quite contrived and convoluted. Exposition is poorly integrated, and the dialogue often sounds stilted while lacking wit. At times, it seems to be aiming for campiness, but even then it doesn't stick the landing. You can feel the wheels of the screenplay turning every step of the way which is the sign of a very weak screenplay. Peter Five Eight is a better example of a crime thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously and isn't afraid to go bonkers with tongue-in-cheek humor. There are also too many perspectives here with underwritten characters who are merely pawns of the dull screenplay. An important character related to Miranda dies early on, but the film neglects to show how it affects his family emotionally. The third act takes a very steep nosedive with an over-the-top scene that doesn't feel even remotely plausible. Unfortunately, even the talented and charismatic J.K. Simmons can't rise above the shallow and cringe-inducing screenplay. His performance is all over the place here--at times he acts silly, at times he acts menacing. Wade doesn't even hold a candle to Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men nor does the film even come close to reaching that level of suspense. The editing feels choppy, the action scenes are poorly choreographed, and there's nothing stylish about the cinematography that compensates for the lack of substance. At a running time of 1 hour and 42 minutes, which feels more like 2 hours, You Can't Run Forever is clunky, contrived and increasingly preposterous.
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