Daughter's Daughter, Ai (Sylvia Chang) grieves the loss of her daughter, Zuer (Eugenie Liu), who died in an accident along with her girlfriend, Jiayi (Tracy Chou). She must decide what to do with Zuer's frozen embryo that she's now the legal guardian of. Meanwhile, she reunites with her estranged daughter, Emma (Karena Lam). Writer/director Huang Xi has made an anemic, overlong and tedious drama that tries to be a poignant slice-of-life, but often falls flat with little to no inertia. The performances are decent albeit unspectacular, and the plot lacks surprises as well as emotional depth. It barely scratches the surface of the complex issue of grief. There have been far more profound films that tackle that issue more unflinchingly with more epiphanies and aphorisms. Xi trusts the audience's patience too much because she moves the pace very, very slowly and includes too many scenes that go on far too long. Less is more. Why make the same point and then repeat it over and over. On top of that, there's not nearly enough much-needed levity. At 2 hours and 6 minutes, which feels more like 3 hours, Daughter's Daughter opens at IFC Center via Strand Releasing.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
Remaining Native is a powerful, heartfelt and illuminating documentary about Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American boy who lives on a reservation in Nevada and yearns to pursue a career as a professional runner. Meanwhile, he grapples with the fact that Native American boarding schools abused Native American students like his grandfather, Frank Quinn, who ran away from his school. Director Paige Bethmann manages to find just the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them intellectually as well as emotionally. That's a hard balance for a documentary filmmaker to strike. She's fortunate to have a subject, Ku Stevens, who's intelligent, candid, and emotionally mature. He's motivated to follow his dreams, yet remains humble. Kudos to Bethmann for now shying away from delving into the tragedy of what happened to Native American students at the boarding schools. It's concurrently horrifying and heartbreaking. However, she doesn't dwell on those tragedies. Remaining Native is fundamentally about the importance of remembering the past while also learning from it and rising from it to make a better future. As poet Pablo Neruda once wisely wrote, "They can cut all of the flowers, but they can't stop the spring from coming." Whether he realizes it or not, Ku embraces that wisdom and follows his feet to the beat of his heart while tending the emotional wounds from his family's traumatic past. At 1 hour and 25 minutes, Remaining Native opens at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema. It would be an interesting double feature with the documentary Sugarcane.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
The Shepherd and the Bear is a documentary about Yves, an aging shepherd in the Pyrenees who desperately searches for his successor. He's scared of what will happen to his herd because the area has been rewilded with bears that attack and kill them. Meanwhile, Cyril, a teenager, spends his time taking photographs of nature and tracking bears. Director Max Keegan has made a mesmerizing, beautifully shot and eye-opening emotional journey that's also somewhat gripping and breathtaking at times. He opts for a fly-on-the-wall approach without talking-heads which makes for an immersive and cinematic experience. The beginning includes some basic expositional facts about the Pyrenees, but beyond that, this isn't one of those dry, academic documentaries. Most importantly, Keegan captures the majestic beauty and poetry of nature in the Pyrenees which speak louder than words. At 1 hour and 41 minutes, The Shepherd and the Bear opens at Cinema Village via WILLA.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
In Sisu: Road to Revenge, Aatam (Jorma Tommila) battles Igor (Stephen Lang), a Red Army officer who murdered his family during WWII. Writer/director Jalmari Helander has made a wickedly funny white-knuckle action thriller. Like the original from 2023, it's a B-movie, but a fun one that's mindlessly entertaining. Logic and plausibility are thrown out of the window which is fine because, instead, there's plenty of imaginative kills that have to be seen to be believed. They're very bloody and gory, but also stylized similar to a Tarantino film, so that makes them somewhat less disgusting. That said, Sisu: Road to Revenge isn't for audiences with a weak stomach or audiences who are looking for something new or different. Yes, it's more of the same and even more unabashedly bonkers than the original, but it's also a guilty pleasure that doesn't overstay its welcome. At an ideal running time 1 hour and 29 minutes, Sisu: Road to Revenge opens nationwide via Screen Gems.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter is a heartfelt and illuminating biographical documentary about Susan Powter, a fitness guru and nutrition specialist who gained fame in the 1990s before falling out of fame. in Las Vegas. Director Zeberiah Newman follows Susan as she candidly discusses her past, her regrets, her emotional pain and her current struggles to make ends meet while working as an Uber Eats driver. She could've been a millionaire if she hadn't signed away her name when she signed her first contract without consulting with a lawyer. If anything, this documentary should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who wants to be rich and famous: be careful what you sign. Cheech and Chong learned that lesson, too, the hard way, but they bounced back. Why can't Susan Powter bounce back too? She deserves to just like anyone else who has made mistakes and been through hardships. Newman is lucky to have her as his documentary subject because she displays introspection, a very important tool in life. It's heartwarming and uplifting to watch Jamie Lee Curtis meet with her and display empathy and compassion toward her while, in turn, Powter gradually shows empathy for herself while trying her best to conquer her adversities. She's resilient and leaves the audience with hope that she'll find the true happiness, success and recognition that she deserves. Hopefully, she'll find nourishment, enlightenment and healing with his poem from Pablo Neruda: "They can cut all of the flowers, but they can't stop the spring from coming." At 1 hour and 27 minutes Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter opens at Cinema Village via Obscured Pictures.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo, directed by Bao Nguyen, is a provocative and well-edited investigative documentary about who actually took the iconic photograph during the Vietnam War photograph called "The Napalm Girl". There's some evidence that Nick Út, a stringer for the Associated Press, most likely did not take the photograph and that Nguyen Thanh Nghe, a freelance photographer, took it instead. To this very day, Út maintains that he did take it, though. Phan Thi Kim Phuc doesn't recall who took it. How persuasive is this documentary? As persuasive as it could be, but not enough to come to any concrete conclusions beyond a reasonable doubt. What's certain, though, is that there is a possibility that Nick Út didn't take the photo and it's worth investigating who's telling the truth and who's lying, but the truth might never be known. At 1 hour and 43 minutes, The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo opens at IFC Center via Netflix.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
After Elphaba (Cynthia Eviro) has become the Wicked Witch of the West, it's up to her to find peace and reunite with Glinda (Ariana Grande) to save Oz in Wicked: For Good. Director Jon. M. Chu and his screenwriters, Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, have made a clunky, choppily edited and emotionally hollow misfire that's even worse than Wicked: Part One. The production design, costume design and makeup design are among the few highlights along with Cynthia Erivo's moving performance that adds a modicum of ephemeral tenderness. Everyone else is mediocre at best, especially Ariana Grande gives a bland performance yet again. The story isn't very engaging, the musical numbers are forgettable without making the audience feel exhilarated, and the comic relief falls flat more often than not. The same can be said about the moments between Elphaba and Glinda that are supposed to provide poignancy, but end up underwhelming instead. Cearly, a lot of the budget and attention went to the production values which are impressive. It's too bad, then, that the same attention wasn't apparently given to the screenplay that sorely lacks wit and awkwardly transitions from dramatic scenes to the music numbers. Wicked: For Good has plenty of eye candy, but not nearly enough to nourish your heart, mind and soul. At 2 hours and 17 minutes, Wicked: For Good opens nationwide via Universal Pictures.
Number of times I checked my watch: 4
Zodiac Killer Project is a documentary about director Charlie Shackleton's failed attempt to make a documentary about the notorious Zodiac Killer. Through voice-over narration, Shackleton talks about the film he would've made if he didn't lose the rights to the story. What follows is a dry, shallow, meandering and underwhelming experience that doesn't offer anything insightful about true crime documentaries nor does it manage to be engaging, witty or provocative enough. Moreover, the film often drags and ultimately overstays its welcome. Man of La Mancha and Jodorowsky's Dune are examples of much better documentaries about failed film projects. At 1 hour and 32 minutes, which feels more like 2 hours, Zodiac Killer Project opens at IFC Center via Music Box Films.
Number of times I checked my watch: 4
