In The Front Room, Norman (Andrew Burnap) and his pregnant wife, Belinda (Brandy), must move his racist, manipulative and controlling stepmother, Solange (Kathryn Hunter), into their home to receive his inheritance from her after the death of his after. The screenplay by co-writers/directors Max and Sam Eggers is a tonally uneven, undercooked and uninspired misfire. It's ok if a movie lacks logic because, as Hitchcock once stated, there's something more important than logic: imagination. Unfortunately, The Front Room doesn't have enough of that essential element nor does it offer any surprises because everything is telegraphed early on. From the moment that the audience meets Solange, it's obvious that she can't be trusted. She's a classic narcissist in the sense that she hoovers her victims through money and materialistic possessions, like when she insists on buying new furniture. Norman and Belinda have been struggling to pay off their mortgage. Any guess whether or not Solange will end up paying for it herself? She and Norman have an unhealthy relationship much like Norman Bates and his mother in Psycho or Gordon and his mother in Where's Poppa?. The filmmakers don't trust the audience's intelligence because they spoon-feed everything with little to no subtlety or room for interpretation. The music score and the screenplay are both heavy-handed while the darkly comedic moments are more disgusting than funny. Where's the fun in grossing out the audience? The third act is a pretty huge mess with a twist that makes the film seem like it's suddenly headed toward sci-fi territory like in Rosemary's Baby. It also makes no sense why Belinda would want to stay with a man who's still in contact with his very toxic mother. Does she not see that as a major red flag? Why doesn't she consider to divorce him? She's written as a very weak character who remains at an emotionally cold distance from the audience. That said, Kathryn Hunter's over-the-top, physical performance is the film's major strength. Brandi gives a mediocre performance while Andrew Burhap is somewhat bland here. Fortunately, The Front Room doesn't clock past the 2 hour mark, so it doesn't overstay its welcome like too many films do these days. For a movie that does a better job of thrilling, provoking and grossing out the audience, see The Substance which opens on September 20th. At a running time of 1 hour and 35 minutes, The Front Room opens at nationwide via A24 Films.

 

      Three estranged sisters, Katie (Carrie Coon), Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) and Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), reunite in the NYC apartment of their father who will die imminently in His Three Daughters. The screenplay by writer/director Azazel Jacobs is a warm, wise and genuinely poignant portrait of a dysfunctional family. Although not based on a play, it feels like it could be because it mostly takes place in one setting with three characters just talking and sometimes bickering. Jacobs knows how to write dialogue that sounds natural like in Momma's Man; French Exit is a minor misstep, so that makes His Three Daughters a vast improvement. He wisely avoids melodrama and keeps the narrative lean and focused on the evolving dynamics between the siblings without relying on flashbacks or over-explaining. Each sister has her own unique personality and flaws which makes them all the more human and relatable. Some are more likable than others, like Katie who seems to be the most emotionally mature while Rachel seems emotionally immature. Either way, they each feel like complex, fully-fleshed human beings. Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olson and Natasha Lyonne give terrific performances and have plenty of moments where they get a chance to shine and to find the emotional truths of their roles. It's also worth mentioning the use of lighting and the leisurely pace. Kudos to Jacobs for trusting the audience's emotions, intelligence, imagination and patience. At a running time of 1 hour and 41 minutes, His Three Daughters opens at Angelika Film Center via Netflix.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

      At a running time of 2 hour and 6 minutes, the audacious, unflinching and thought-provoking drama Hoard, written and directed by Luna Carmoon, opens at AMC Empire 25 via Sunrise Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2




 

      Holding Back the Tide is a poetic, breezy and unconventional, but meandering and undercooked documentary about the history of oysters in New York and its parallels with the queer community. Director Emily Packer takes a big risk by connecting two seemingly unrelated topics within a single documentary. Oysters, as it turns out, are gender fluid organisms which, this documentary argues, essentially makes them a queer icon. Unfortunately, the risk that Packer takes doesn't quite pay off because Holding Back the Tide ends up biting off more than it could chew. The occasionally mesmerizing cinematography is the film's major strength because it adds visual poetry while making the film feel more cinematic. Packer avoids bombarding the audience with talking head interviews, so it doesn't feel dry or too academic. There's a mildly amusing segment where Ben “Moody” Harney, an oyster farmer who owns The Real Mother Shuckers, gives samples of oysters to strangers who try oysters for the first time with a wide variety of reactions. A brief visit to PE & DD Seafood at Union Square Greenmarket shows how their oysters get sold out quickly. Holding Back the Tide ultimately comes up short when it comes to providing the audience with insights into its dual topics which are only related on a very superficial and oversimplified level. At a running time of 1 hour and 17 minutes, Holding Back the Tide opens at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema via Grasshopper Film.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

      Wanda (Edie Falco) has a lot on her plate in I'll Be Right There. She has an elderly mother, Grace (Jeanne Berlin), who's worried about dying, and an ex-husband, Henry (Bradly Whitford), who has failed to pay for the upcoming wedding of their daughter Sarah (Kayli Carter), who's pregnant. Mark (Charlie Tahan), her son, gets fired by his therapist and might need to go to rehab. She's unhappy in her relationship with her girlfriend, Sophie (Sepideh Moafi), and rejects Marshall (Michael Rapaport) when he expresses a romantic interest in her. She befriends her former classmate, Albert (Michael Beach), and they hit off. Oh, and her mother suffers from a gambling addiction. With a less sensitive screenplay, I'll Be Right There could've turned into an overstuffed and unfocused mess. Thanks to screenwriter Jim Beggarly, it avoids those pitfalls because he sees and treats Wanda as a human being who's going through a journey of self-discovery. She's compassionate, empathic, kind and strong, but also vulnerable, stressed and frustrated while taking care of everyone but herself. Beggarly knows how to balance the drama with just the right amount of comic relief, wit and nuance.

      There's a lot going on inside of Wanda. Even though I'll Be Right There deals with heavy topics, it's handled lightheartedly in a way that doesn't feel too sugar-coated. It's sentimental without being maudlin or emotionally devastating. Moreover, Wanda's relationships with her family, lovers, ex-husband and friends, feels true-to-life. Edie Falco shines in a warm and genuinely heartfelt performance. She manages to find the emotional truth of her role and to fully open the window into Wanda's heart, mind and soul which is a testament to her skills as an actress and her emotional generosity. At a running time of 1 hour and 37 minutes, I'll Be Right There, directed by Brendan Walsh, is a tender, honest and empowering journey well worth taking. It would be an interesting double feature with last year's French movie Full Time and with Shirley Valentine. It opens at Quad Cinema via Brainstorm Media.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

      Look Into My Eyes is a fascinating and illuminating documentary about psychics who perform readings with their clients in New York City. Director Lana Wilson focuses on seven psychics and eavesdrops on their sessions with clients. One client struggles to overcome grief from her beloved dog that died and wants the psychic to communicate with it in the afterlife. Another client, an ER nurse, wants her psychic to contact a young patient who died at her hospital. One of the psychics, a young man, admits that he sometimes has self-doubt about his psychic abilities and that they don't always work. Interestingly, they all meet together in a psychic support group to discuss their feelings and frustrations. You might be surprised that psychics actually go to a psychic training school, so they don't simply have a special gift and share it with others; they learn how to hone their craft. Unsurprisingly, they each have a background in theater. Director Lana Wilso has wisely chosen not to judge the psychics nor to debate the validity of psychics, but rather to humanize them and to let the audience come to their own conclusions based on their own beliefs. Look Into Your Eyes is also exquisitely shot and moves at a leisurely pace which helps to gradually hook and immerse the audience, so by the time the end credits roll, they've caught a glimpse of what psychics experience and what it's like to be a psychic. At a running time of 1 hour and 48 minutes, >Look Into My Eyes opens at Film Forum via A24.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

      At a running time of 1 hour and 37 minutes, the powerful, visually inventive and profoundly moving documentary The Mother of All Lies, directed by Asmae El Moudir, opens at Alamo Drafthouse in Manhattan via Outsider Pictures.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

      Another week, another movie with a premise that sounds batshit crazy. In The Paragon, Dutch (Benedict Wall), a tennis coach, gets severely injured in a hit-and-run accident which negatively impacts his sex life and leads his wife, Emily (Jessica Grace Smith), to leave him. He meets a psychic, Lyra (Florence Noble), who asks her to teach him how to develop psychic powers to find the driver responsible for the hit and run and to seek revenge against him or her. She agrees as long as he helps her to find a unique, powerful gem called a Paragon which her brother, Haxan (Johnny Brugh, plans to use for nefarious purposes. The screenplay by writer/director Michael Duignan is a mildly engaging, tonally uneven amalgam of sci-fi, thriller and dark comedy. As a sci-fi movie, it's lazy and unimaginative when it comes to world-building, especially regarding the cartoonish subplot involving Lyra's malevolent brother. That subplot feels unnecessary because there's already enough tension in the main plot involving Dutch's thirst for revenge against the driver who nearly killed him. What will he do if and when he finally encounters the driver? As a thriller, it's not very suspenseful or exciting, and as a dark comedy, it's not very funny either. Is it supposed to be funny to watch Dutch eat different colored food every day because Lyra says he has to? Why does he even trust her? The Paragon has one thought-provoking surprise later in the second act where it tries to add some depth, but it's tacked-on and contrived. Lyra is an underdeveloped character who becomes annoying like nails on a chalkboard. Moreover, the ending feels rushed while leaving too many plot holes. Perhaps if it were zanier, bolder, funnier, leaner and campy, it could've turned into a guilty pleasure. For a much more biting, funny and batshit crazy sci-fi movie, see The Substance. At a running time of 1 hour and 23 minutes, it opens at Alamo Drafthouse in Manhattan and on VOD via Doppelgänger Releasing.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

      In Red Rooms, Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy), a young woman, obsesses over the trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a man accused of being a serial killer who kidnaps, sexually abuses and tortures his underage victims. She takes the investigation into her own hands by going into the dark web to find a key piece of missing evidence that could prove his guilt or exonerate him. Writer/director Pascal Plante has made one of the most spellbinding, taut and provocative crime thrillers since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He begins with both the prosecutor and the defense stating their sides of the case. The prosecutor claims that there's enough evidence that incriminates Ludovic while the defense urges the jury to keep an open mind for reasonable doubt. Suddenly, the plot focuses on Kelly-Anne and her determination to find important evidence, a tape of the death of one of the serial killer's victims. She uses her computer skills to try to find the missing tape and figure out what happened to it with her detective skills.  It's great to watch a movie with an intelligent, brave female protagonist who's a critical thinker. Kelly-Anne also comes across as somewhat unhinged and unpredictable. She's cut from the same cloth as Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Red Rooms doesn't judge her, though, nor does it ask the audience to judge her. The deeper she goes into the dark web, the more she puts her life in jeopardy. Kudos to writer/director Pascal Plante for trusting the audience's imagination and intelligence without dumbing the film down by spoon-feeding the audience. He grasps that true horror can be found inside the audience's mind. There's no blood or gore to be found throughout the film, surprisingly, so Plante wisely chooses not to rely on shocking and disturbing the audience to entertain them like most movies about serial killers tend to do----yes, I'm looking at you, Seven and Zodiac. At a running time of 1 hour and 58 minutes, Red Rooms opens at IFC Center via Utopia.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

      In The Thicket, Jack (Levon Hawke) hires Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage), a bounty hunter, to hunt down a ruthless bandit, Cut Throat Bill (Juliette Lewis), who kidnapped his younger sister, Lula (Esmé Creed-Miles). The screenplay by Chris Kelley, based on Joe R. Lansdale's novel, deftly blends suspense and thrills with just the right amount of action. Compared to the recent dull Western, Horizon: An American Saga, The Thicket is far superior on many levels including a plot that wastes no time in getting to the meat of the story and, most importantly, maintaining suspense without running out of steam. Kelley also avoids clunky exposition when he introduces the characters, each of whom is interesting in their own way, especially the villain, Cut Throat Bill. It's refreshing to watch a movie with a compelling villain with an interesting personality and backstory and who's not just an over-the-top caricature. The cinematography, costume design and landscape are also impressive while contributing to the gritty atmosphere and adding some scope. Juliette Lewis and Peter Dinklage both give strong performances as do Esmé Creed-Miles and Levon Hawke as well. At a running time of 1 hour and 48 minutes, The Thicket, directed by Elliott Lester, is a thoroughly exhilarating, rousing and thrilling Western with a fine ensemble cast. It opens at Angelika Film Center via Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3