Arts and Entertainment Archives

Culture Representation: Taking place in Hong Kong in the 2000s, the action film “Stuntman” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: After a 20-year hiatus, a stuntman is persuaded to come out of retirement to work on an old friend’s movie as an action choreographer, and he has to come to terms with the guilt he has from mistakes he made in the past.

Culture Audience: “Stuntman” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action flicks that have realistic human drama.

Terrance Lau in “Stuntman” (Photo courtesy of Edko Films)

“Stuntman” has a predictable narrative, but this action film has meaningful depictions of how a stunt performer work can take a toll on stunt performers’ personal lives. The movie has capable acting that elevate the occasionally trite screenplay. This is a film that doesn’t pretend to be anything that it is not.

Directed by Albert Leung and Herbert Leung, “Stuntman” (which takes place in Hong Kong in the 2000s) was written by Anastasia Tsang and Yip Wai-ping. The movie begins with a scene that takes place sometime in the 1980s, when action director Sam Lee (played by Lam Yiu Sing) miscalculates a stunt that leaves his stuntman friend Kam (played Terry Zou) serously injured. It’s revealed later in the movie that Kam became paralyzed because of this injury and has paraplegia, which requires him to use a wheelchair. Wracked with guilt, Sam lef tthe movie industry shortly after this tragedy.

In the 2000s, middle-aged and divorced Sam (played by Stephen Tung, also known as Tung Wai) is working as a physical therapist. One of his clients is Lee “Long” Sai-long (played by Terrance Lau), who is an aspiring stuntman. Long, who is 29 years old, greatly admires Sam and is a big fan of the movies that Sam directed. Long works at a warehouse, where his job is to move and transport items. Long’s real career goal is to be a stuntman.

Sam is persuaded out of retirement to work on an action movie that is being produced by an old friend/previous filmmaking collaborator named Cho Tin Hang (played by Ton Yin Gor), who is beholden to a major investor named Mr. Mok, who is never seen in the movie. Long quits his job as a warehouse worker to become a stunt coordinator on the movie. Lee Sai Kit (played by Max Cheung), who is Long’s older brother/warehouse co-worker, thinks that Long is making a foolish mistake in wanting to go into the unstable profession of stunt work. The star of the movie is an egotistical actor named Leung Chi Wai (played by Philip Ng), a former stunt coordinator who used to work with Sam years ago. Wai likes to do the opposite of what Sam wants.

Sam has to deal with many problems while making the film, including production budget issues, clashing with Wai, and beng haunted by guilt over what happened to Kam. Sam still keeps in touch with Kam (played by Ng Shui Ting), who seems to have forgiven him, in contrast to Kam’s wife Kuen (played by Stephanie Che), who is still very angry with Sam. One of the most emotional scenes in the movie is when Kuen explodes with rage at Sam when he tries to give money to Kam and Kuen.

In addition, Sam’s estranged daughter Cherry Lee (played by Cecilia Choi), who was about 7 or 8 years old when her parents divorced, is getting married to a nice guy named Martin (played by Lee Kwan Chiu), and has mixed emotions about having Sam at the wedding. Cherry still has a lot of lingering resentment over what Sam being a mostly absentee father because of his work. A flashback scene shows that a breaking point in her parents’ marriage was when Sam chose to work instead of staying with Cherry and her mother Yin (played by Rachel Leung) when Cherry was taken to a hospital for a medical emergency. In the present-day part of the story, Yin is now deceased.

Sam has difficulty changing his workaholic ways. He leaves a wedding rehearsal early to go back to working on the movie. He later tells Cherry that he’s sorry, but she is cold and resentful. Cherry tells Sam how she feels about his habit of choosing to work instead of spending time with her: “I’m used to it. That’s why I never watch your movies.” Cherry doesn’t trust that Sam can be relied on to be at the wedding, so she has asked Martin’s father (played by Chan Wai Tong) to be the one to give her away at the wedding ceremony..

Will Sam redeem himself with Cherry and successfully get the movie completed without anyone getting seriously injured? You haven’t watched enough movies of this type if you don’t know the answer. However, the performances in “Stuntman” make this movie very watchable, even though you know how everything is going to end within 15 minutes after the movie starts.

Edko Films released “Stuntman” in select U.S. cinemas on October 11, 2024. The movie was released in Hong Kong on September 26, 2024.

True Crime Entertainment: What’s New This Week

The following content is generally available worldwide, except where otherwise noted. All TV shows listed are for networks and streaming services based in the United States. All movies listed are those released in U.S. cinemas. This schedule is for content and events premiering this week and does not include content that has already been made available.

October 14 – October 20, 2024

TV/Streaming Services

All times listed are Eastern Time/Pacific Time, unless otherwise noted.

HBO’s two-part documentary “I’m Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders” premieres on Tuesday, October 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and concludes on Wednesday, October 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Monday, October 14

“Signs of a Psychopath”
“His Parents Didn’t Like Me” **Season Finale**
Monday, October 14, 8 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Fatal Attraction”
“A Deadly Dose” (Episode 1448)
Monday, October 14, 9 p.m., TV One

“The Real Murders on Elm Street”
“Halloween Horror” (Episode 106) **Season Finale**
Monday, October 14, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery, Max

“Cabin in the Woods”
“Five Days in Hell” (Episode 105) **Season Finale**
Monday, October 14, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery, Max

“Deadly Case Files”
“Detective Jakai Braithwaite” (Episode 113) **Season Finale**
Monday, October 14, 10 p.m., TV One

Tuesday, October 15

“Anatomy of Lies” (Three-episode limited series)
Tuesday, October 15, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Peacock

“FBI True” (Season 5)
Tuesday, October 15, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Paramount+

“I’m Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders”
Part 1 (Episode 101) **Season Premiere**
Tuesday, October 15, 9 p.m., HBO

“Body Cam”
“Fire and Fury” (Episode 904)
Tuesday, October 15, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Road Rage”
“Unfiltered Fury” (Episode 205)
Tuesday, October 15, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Exposed: Naked Crimes”
“What the Florida” (Episode 205)
Tuesday, October 15, 10:30 p.m., Investigation Discovery

Wednesday, October 16

“I Am a Killer” (Season 5)
Wednesday, October 16, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Netflix

“Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare” (Documentary Film)
Wednesday, October 16, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Netflix

“I’m Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders”
Part 2 (Episode 102) **Season Finale**
Wednesday, October 16, 9 p.m., HBO

“To Catch a Smuggler”
“Meth Inside the Machine” (Episode 808)
Wednesday, October 16, 9 p.m., National Geographic Channel

“Fatal Attraction”
“Ritualistic Obsession” (Episode 1521)
Wednesday, October 16, 9 p.m., TV One

“See No Evil”
“Not in Life, Not in Sleep” (Episode 1310)
Wednesday, October 16, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

“Court Cam”
(Episode 805)
Wednesday, October 16, 9 p.m., A&E

“Court Cam”
(Episode 806)
Wednesday, October 16, 9:30 p.m., A&E

“Celebrity Crime Files”
“Meek Mill” (Episode 108)
Wednesday, October 16, 10 p.m., TV One

“Fugitives Caught on Tape”
(Episode 101) **Series Premiere**
Wednesday, October 16, 10 p.m., A&E

“Fugitives Caught on Tape”
(Episode 102)
Wednesday, October 16, 10:30 p.m., A&E

Thursday, October 17

“Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara” (Three-episode limited series)
Thursday, October 17, 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, Hulu

“Dateline: The Smoking Gun”
“The Unusual Suspect” (Episode 103)
Thursday, October 17, 8 p.m. ET/PT, Oxygen

Friday, October 18

“20/20”
TBA
Friday, October 18, 9 p.m., ABC

“On Patrol: Live”
TBA
Friday, October 18, 9 p.m., Reelz

“Dateline”
(Episode 3304)
Friday, October 18, 9 p.m., NBC

“20/20”
TBA
Friday, October 18, 9 p.m., ABC

Saturday, October 19

“On Patrol: First Shift”
TBA
Saturday, October 19, 8 p.m., Reelz

“On Patrol: Live”
TBA
Saturday, October 19, 9 p.m., Reelz

“Killer Relationship With Faith Jenkins”
“Moonshine and Murder” (Episode 310)
Saturday, October 19, 8 p.m., Oxygen

“The Real Murders of Atlanta”
“The Killer in the Community” (Episode 309)
Saturday, October 19, 9 p.m., Oxygen

“To Catch a Smuggler: Tropical Takedown”
“Murders and Drug Dealers” (Episode 103)
Saturday, October 19, 9 p.m., National Geographic Channel

Sunday, October 20

“Snapped”
“Joyce Pelzer” (Episode 3415)
Sunday, October 20, 6 p.m., Oxygen

“Serial Capital: Los Angeles” (Two-hour TV Special)
Sunday, October 20, 7 p.m., Oxygen

“Interview With a Killer”
“A Double Life” (Episode 101) **Series Premiere**
Sunday, October 20, 8 p.m., Court TV

“Evil Lives Here”
“A Demon on Her Back” (Episode 1609)
Sunday, October 20, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery

Movies in Theaters or on Home Video

No new true crime documentaries releasing in theaters or on home video this week.

Radio/Podcasts

No new true crime podcast series premiering this week.

Events

Events listed here are not considered endorsements by this website. All ticket buyers with questions or concerns about the event should contact the event promoter or ticket seller directly.

All start times listed are local time, unless otherwise noted.

No new true crime events this week.

Review: ‘We Live in Time,’ starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh

October 13, 2024

by Carla Hay

“We Live in Time”

Directed by John Crowley

Culture Representation: Taking place from 2013 to 2023, mostly in London, the dramatc film “We Live in Time” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asian people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A chef and a cereal company marketer meet under unusual circumstances, fall in love, and have ups and downs in their relationship, including an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Culture Audience: “We Live in Time” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of stars Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh and romantic dramas about couples coping with a cancer diagnosis.

Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh in “We Live in Time” (Photo courtesy of A24)

“We Live in Time” tells an engaging, non-chronological story of a couple affected by cancer. The movie tends to gloss over many physical effects of cancer, but the charismatic performances from Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh make this drama worthwhile. People who don’t like non-linear stories might be confused by all the timeline jumping in the film, but the scenes from the couple’s lives together aren’t as diffcult to follow as one might think, since the ovarian cancer diagnosis is revealed early on in the movie.

Directed by John Crowley and written by Nick Payne, “We Live in Time” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. “We Live in Time” has a story that takes place from 2013 to 2023, mostly in London. Even though the couple’s romance takes place during this 10-year period, you can’t really tell it’s this long, because the two lovers never seem to age at all. “We Live in Time” needed more realistic makeup and hairstyling to show the aging process of people who are supposed to age from their 30s to their 40s.

In “We Live in Time,” chef/restaurateur Almut Brühl (played by Pugh) and cereal company marketer Tobias Durand (played by Garfield) are a live-in couple who are seen in the beginning of the movie in an idyllic romantic scene. Almut has made Douglas fir parfait for Tobias and is serving it to him, just as he has woken up in bed. It’s all very lovey-dovey. But flashbacks and flash-forwards from this scene show that the relationship between Almut and Tobias has had its share of conflicts and sadness.

The story unfolds to reveal that in 2013, when Almut and Tobias met, she was 34 years old and had a new restaurant with cuisine that she describes to him as “modern European takes on classic Alpine dishes—basically Anglo-Bavarian.” Tobias, approximately in his late 30s at the time he met Almut, is a marketer for a cereal company called Weetabix. He appears in TV ads for the company, so he is sometimes called Mr. Weetabix as an endearing nickname.

One evening, Tobias is in a London hotel room for a business meeting he’s having on an unnamed day. He has just received paperwork to sign to make his divorce final from a woman named Helen, who is never seen in the movie. Just as he’s about to sign the divorce papers, Tobias finds out that every pen in the room does not have ink. The only other writing utensil in the room is a pencil, which won’t do for this type of document.

Instead of contacting the hotel front desk to ask for a pen (which is what most people would do), Tobias (in a very contrived movie situation) walks outside in his bathrobe to the nearest convenience store. Just as he’s about to walk back to the hotel, he gets accidentally hit by a car on the street. Tobias ends up in a hospital with injuries, including having to wear a neck brace.

In a hospital waiting room area, Tobias strikes up a somewhat flirty, somewhat awkward conversation with a woman seated nearby. This woman is Almut. Their attraction to each other is immediate. And he soon finds out, as Almut tells him, that she was the one who accidentally hit him with her car.

And so begins the romance of Almut (who is fiery and outspoken) and Tobias (who is polite and patient), who have a whirlwind courtship. It’s already shown in the movie’s trailer and other marketing materials that Almut and Tobias becoming doting and loving parents to a daughter. Her name is Ella. In the movie, Ella is only seen as a baby and as a child who’s about 3 or 4 years old (played by Grace Delaney) in 2023.

“We Live in Time” shows the various stages of this romance, from courtship to parenthood. The movie shows whether or not Almut and Tobias get married. On their first date, Almut invites Tobias to her restaurant, where he is served a meal that she prepared herself. Tobias tells her that he’s newly divorced. He already knows that she’s single and available too. And then, they go back to her place and hook up.

The morning after their first sexual encounter, Tobias sees photos of Almut and her ex-lover Adrienne Duvall (played by Marama Corlett) and is immediately accepting that Almut is not heterosexual. Almut doesn’t state what her sexuality is but she tells Tobias that Adrienne was a former co-worker. Almut doesn’t go into details about why her romance with Adrienne ended. Tobias opens up about his divorce and says he and his ex-wife Helen split up because she got a job in Sweden, and he wanted to stay in London, but there were problems in the marriage before she moved to Sweden.

After Tobias and Almut have a few more dates, the subject comes up about how Tobias and Almut feel about becoming parents. Almut says that she and Adrienne thought about starting a family together, but Almut has decided she doesn’t want to have kids. Tobias is taken aback because he says he probably wants to become a father at some point in his life.

Almut gets very defensive because she thinks Tobias is rushing this conversation so soon in their relationship. Tobas tells her that he might be falling love with her but he doesn’t want the relationship to end in heartbreak because they can’t agree on wanting to have kids. This conversation leads to Tobias and Almut having their first big argument.

Of course, it’s already revealed that Almut changed her mind about becoming a parent. Viewers find out if Almut got pregnant before or after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Almut is seen in various stages of her pregnancy, including an extended childbirth scene that is both amusing and touching.

“We Live in Time” is quite uneven in revealing other aspects of Almut and Tobias. The movie tells much more about Almut’s career and younger life than Tobias’ career and younger life. Almut, her protégée Jade Khadime (played by Lee Braithwaite) and their colleage Simon Maxon (played by Adam James) enter a prestigious international chef competition named Bouse D’or, which is a big subplot in the movie. By contrast, Tobias is briefly seen working a few times in the movie. It would be easy to forget that he has a job because he’s barely seen at his job in “We Live in Time.”

Almut’s family life also gets more details in the movie than Tobias’ family life. At one point in the movie, Almut and Tobias have dinner with their respective families at the home of Almut’s widowed mother Sylvia (played by Niamh Cusack). Tobias’ architect father Reginald Durand (played by Douglas Hodge) is a widower. Nothing else is revealed about Tobias’ family or his childhood.

Almut and Tobias seem to have great relationships with their families, but Almut has lingering emotional pain over her father’s death. (His cause of death is not mentioned.) Almut gets upset at this family dinner when her family shows videos of Almut being a champion ice skater when she was a teenager. Almut later tells Tobias that her father was the one who encouraged her to become an ice skater, but she quit the sport after he died. Almut says this is why it’s hard for her to look at videos of herself ice skating.

“We Live in Time” has a reality disconnect in the scenes where Almut has Stage 3 ovarian cancer. Almut is supposed to be close to her family, so it’s strange and unrealistic that her family members are nowhere to be seen when she is undergoing cancer treatment. Tobias is her only family support in these scenes. And in the scene where she is in childbirth labor and on her way to a hospital with Tobias, their family members aren’t called to let them know she’s about to give birth.

But the biggest disconnect is how Almut doesn’t show any physical decline when she has Stage 3 overian cancer and when she’s undergoing chemotherapy in the cancer scenes. Sure, there’s a scene where Almut shaves her head into a buzzcut to prepare for chemotherapy. But, quite frankly, during the worst of her cancer, Almut still looks like a healthy movie star.

“We Live in Time” should have had more realism about how the human body can be ravaged by cancer and chemotherapy. All that viewers will see in “We Live in Time” about actual physical effects of cancer is Almut vomiting on a few occasions. (Almut talking about surgery options doesn’t count.) The movie doesn’t make having cancer look glamorous, but it downplays or ignores a lot of the physical deterioriation caused by cancer and the worst side effects cancer treatment.

Despite these flaws, “We Live in Time” benefits from having the talented performances of Pugh and Garfield, who shine as a couple that viewers will want to see succeed. “We Live in Time” has some sex scenes that are filmed with a romantic tone and are meant for mature audiences. And because this is a love story where someone has cancer, expect to see some tearjerking moments. Although “We Live in Time” flubs a lot of the cancer medical aspects of the story, the movie gets the relationship aspects right, and that’s what will stay with this movie’s viewers the most.

A24 released “We Live in Time” in select U.S. cinemas on October 11, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on October 18, 2024.

Review: ‘Piece by Piece’ (2024), starring the voice of Pharrell Williams

October 12, 2024

by Carla Hay

Pharrell Williams in “Piece by Piece” (Image courtesy of Focus Features)

“Piece by Piece” (2024)

Directed by Pharrell Williams

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Piece by Piece” features Grammy-winning artist Pharrell Williams and other people who know him telling his life story, in Lego anination form.

Culture Clash: Williams, a self-described music nerd, spent years struggling to break into the music industry, eventually found hitmaking success as one-half of the production duo the Neptunes and as a solo artst, and overcame a professional slump in the late 2000s for a major comeback in the early 2010s.

Culture Audience: “Piece by Piece” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Pharrell Williams and documentaries about people who create mainstream pop music hits.

Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani in “Piece by Piece” (Image courtesy of Focus Features)

Pharrell Williams’ life story presented as a Lego animation documentary could have been a cynical and superficial cash grab. “Piece by Piece” is actually insightful, soulful and a delight to watch. It’s an entertaining kaleidoscope of sights and sounds where each interview subject’s personality shines through, despite being shown as a Lego toy.

Directed by Morgan Neville (who is also the documentary’s interviewer), “Piece by Piece” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary’s visuals are great, and the music is very engaging, but they wouldn’t be as effective if the interviews weren’t candid. For example, he admits he’s always been afraid of having success as a solo artist. Williams says he reluctantly recorded his 2003 solo song “Frontin'” after he sent it to Prince, who didn’t respond.

Williams (who was born in 1973) was raised in his birth city of Virginia Beach, Virginia. He says he was a shy and insecure child, who never felt like he fit in anywhere except when he was listening to music or watching TV. He was also a big fan of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” science series. “I don’t know where it’s from,” Williams says, “but I always knew I was different.” He comments on being a loner as a child: “I was detached. I was in dreamland.”

Williams says that television became a magical place where he could escape to and let his imagination run wild. Although he didn’t mind being a loner, he was sensitive about what people thought of him. Williams comments that if people thought of him, “He’s an oddball,” then “that crushed my spirit.”

Williams declares that he knew from an early age that he wanted to make music and be in the music industry, but he often felt frustrated by the lack of opportunities in Virginia Beach, compared to bigger cities such as New York City, Los Angeles or Atlanta. He describes himself as a teenager as someone who spent many hours alone in his room, feeling transported to different worlds by the music he was listening to at the time. Growing up in a beach city, Williams says he’s had a lifelong fascination with the ocean and is particularly fixated on the fictional ocean kingdom of Atlantis.

When he was a teenager, his passion for music led him to meet and befriend another self-described “music nerd” named Chad Hugo, who is also interviewed in “Piece by Piece.” Williams and Hugo had a special chemistry working together as a music producer duo called the Neptunes. They also performed as a rock duo called N.E.R.D.

Hugo’s interview for the documentary was apparently done before his legal battle with Williams. In March 2024, Hugo sued Williams over their agreement that they would co-own the Neptunes’ name. In the lawsuit, Hugo accuses Williams of trying get to sole ownership of the name without Hugo’s consent. The lawsuit is not mentioned in the documentary. In a “Piece by Piece” interview, Williams descrbes Hugo as a “saint.”

Even though Virginia Beach is not a major hub in the music industry, some of Williams’ musical peers from Virginia Beach went on to have international success as hitmakers, including hip-hop star Missy Elliott and music producer/artis Timbaland, whose real name is Timothy Mosley. They are both interviewed for “Piece by Piece.”

The hits written and produced by Williams as part of the Neptunes or as a solo artist make up the soundtracks of many people’s lives. His first breakout hit was Wreckx-N-Effect’s 1992 single “Rump Shaker,” co-written by Teddy Riley, who got to know Williams after Riley set up a recording studio in Virginia Beach. Williams remembers this recording studio being a big deal because it was rare for a major star such as Riley to choose Virginia Beach as the headquarters for the star’s music production facilities.

Williams is also a writer and/or producer for Nelly’s “Hot in Herre,” Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass,” Justin Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body,” Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” Kelis’ “Milkshake,” Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” No Doubt’s “Hella Good,” and Jay-Z’s “Give It to Me.” As a solo artist, Williams is best known for his Oscar-nominated song “Happy” (from 2013’s “Despicable Me 2”) and Daft Punk’s Grammy-winning 2013 smash hit “Get Lucky.”

Among the people interviewed in the documentary are artists who made hits with Williams, such as Jay-Z, Riley, Stefani, Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, Elliott, N.O.R.E. and Busta Rhymes. Behind-the-scenes music indsutry people who are interviewed include former Vibe magazine editor Mimi Valdés, who know works as a film producer with Williams; songwriter Tammy Lucas; and music manager Rob Walker, who introduced N.O.R.E. to the Neptunes. Williams and Valdés (who are two of the producers of “Piece by Piece”) were Oscar-nominated for Best Picture for being among the producers for 2016’s “Hidden Figures.”

Williams is particularly open about his love life and will only discuss his courtship and marriage to model/fashion designe Helen Lasichanh, whom he married in 2013. They have four kids: a son named Rocket (born in 2008) and triplets (born in 2017), whose names have been kept private. Lasichanh does a rare interview for the documentary. She describes Williams as the pursuer in their courtship, but she says it took him years before he said he was ready to commit to marriage. Williams is briefly seen in the documentary interacting with his kids as a doting father, who calls his son “sir.”

Also interviewed are Pharrell’s parents Pharoah Williams and Carolyn Williams, who says that they taught Pharrell the values of hard work. Carolyn also said on the partnership between Pharrell and Hugo: “To see them together, it was like they read each other’s minds.” Another family member interviewed is Bishop Ezekiel Williams (Pharrell’s uncle), who says that Pharrell’s paternal grandmother had a dream that Pharrell was lifted up and was given a special gift by God.

When someone has family members telling these stories, it should come as no surprise that someone might get a huge ego for it. Pharrell admits that his ego became enormous with all of his success, but he was humbled in the late 2000s, when he had a string of flops with audiences and critics. His comeback include career highs with “Happy” and “Get Lucky.”

Although Pharrell is also known for his business forays in the fashion industry, that part of his life isn’t really in the documentary. Don’t expect to hear stories about his fashion brands Bllionaire Boys Club and ICECREAM, or becoming creative director for Louis Vuitton’s men’s fashion, a position he was appointed to in 2023. His movie projects are also not gviven a spotlight in this documentary. “Piece by Piece” is a music-focused docmentary that gives some interesting stories about how Pharrell makes music, his life’s highs and lows and what other people have to say about him. Music is Pharrell’s first love. And “Piece by Piece” is a unique and charismatic way to share that love with an audience.

Focus Features released “Piece by Piece” in U.S. cinemas on October 11, 2024.

Review: ‘Suburban Fury,’ starring Sara Jane Moore

October 10, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Suburban Fury”

Directed by Robinson Devor

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Suburban Fury” has only one person interviewed: Sara Jane Moore, a deliberately mysterious person who has had many different identities.

Culture Clash: Before spending more than 30 years in prison for trying to shoot U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975, Moore says she was an informant for the FBI.

Culture Audience: “Suburban Fury” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching “where are they now” documentaries about notorious people who have faded from the public eye.

“Suburban Fury” is a mixed bag of a documentary about Sara Jane Moore, who famously tried to assassinate Gerald Ford in 1975. Moore is the only person interviewed for this retro-inspired movie, which she seems to be using as a way to play mind games. Viewers will hear some interesting stories from her, which might or might not have credibility since there’s no one in the documentary who can verify her elaborate tales of being a FBI informant going undercover as a left-wing radical.

A caption mentions in the beginning of “Suburban Fury” that Moore agreed to be in the documentary by insisting that she would be the only person interviewed for the movie. “Suburban Fury” could have have used more independent research to help verify some of Moore’s unverified claims. However, “Suburban Fury” succeeds at being a “where are they now” curiosity spectacle that re-creates and shows some archival material from Moore’s past. Moore (who was born in 193O) is purposely vague about her personal life but discusses at length her alleged involvement with the FBI as a confidential informant during the 1970s.

Directed by Robinson Devor, “Suburban Fury” had its world premiere at the 2024 New York Film Festival. The movie was filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Moore has been a longtime resident and where she committed her notorious act of trying to kill a U.S. president. On September 22, 1975, she used a .38 caliber gun to fire a single shot at then-U.S. President Ford while she standing in a crowd across the street from him when he was outside the St. Francis Hotel during a public visit to San Francisco. Moore was quickly arrested. She pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to life in prison but was paroled in 2007.

Moore insisted then, as she does in this documentary, that she is perfectly sane. However, her unfocused ramblings don’t sound completely believable. Moore admits that she has spent much of her life being a pretender: When she was young, she was an aspiring actress. Later, she says she was very skilled at leading a life of many identities at once: She was a suburban housewife who also hung out and partied with people who were members of extreme left-wing factions of the Black Liberation movement.

Many of the interviews of Moore are conducted while she’s in the back seat of a 1970s station wagon parked on a San Francisco hill, while an unidentified man in a suit stands near the car, as if he’s on the lookout for someone, or waiting to see if Moore will try to leave. In the documentary’s end credits, a caption says that “Suburban Fury” was made with the cooperation of the U.S. Secret Service, but there is no further elaboration.

Moore gets very feisty and irritable with Devor, who can be heard but not seen asking her some questions. She yells at him if she doesn’t like the questions. She also gets very uptight and evasive about certain topics. For example, she defiantly says she won’t talk about her current family life because she wants to protect her family’s privacy.

The documentary has no information about what Moore did with her life after she was paroled from prison. The majority of what she talks about in the documentary is what she did in the 1970s, when she was supposedly an undercover informant for the FBI. She contradicts herself by saying she has no regrets about the presidential assassination attempt and but also saying in another interview that it was a mistake. There’s also some not-very-interesting commentary from her about what her life was like in prison.

“Suburban Fury” often uses boxy film aspect ratios of a 1970s-styled home movie, to give the look of a movie that could have been filmed in the era when Super 8 film cameras were consider hi-tech. “Suburban Fury” has the expected archival footage of the assassination attempt. Moore describes what happened immediately after she was apprehended by law enforcement. She says that male police officers began beating her out of anger at her attempted assassination. She says at one point during this assault, her trousers were pulled down, and one of the officers exclaimed in surprise that she was a woman.

The way Moore tells it, in the years before she went to prison, she was recruited by the FBI to infiltrate Black Liberation groups because the word on the street was that these groups would trust her. She says her main FBI contact was someone whom she calls Bertram “Bert” Worthington, which she says is not his real name. She tells elaborate stories about clandestine meetings with Worthington, whom she describes as a Yale University graduate who wore raggedy tweed suits and always treated her like a respectable lady.

These stories are the basis for the documentary’s narration of what Worthington might say about Moore now. “Surburban Fury” director Devor is the voice of Worthington in this narration. In “Suburban Fury,” Moore claims that Worthington knew about her plans to shoot Gerald Ford and advised her to escape with her son in her car and become a fugitive if she succeeded with her plan.

Moore will only discuss her doomed marriages to two of her ex-husbands, including the unnamed doctor whom she was married to when she was arrested for the assassination attempt. She says she was miserable in the marriage because he refused to let her have a job. “Surburban Fury” includes declassified FBI files that show by the time 45-year-old Moore was involved in this assassination attempt, she had already been married and divorced five times.

She also mentions how her previous husband—whom she does not name but she will only describe as someone who worked in the movie industry—wanted her to have an abortion when she had a surprise pregnancy. She refused to terminate the pregnancy. Moore speaks fondly of her son, whom she raised for a period of time with her doctor husband as her son’s stepfather. But the documentary also shows the FBI files that list she gave birth to about four children whom she abandoned. Moore is not fully confronted in the documentary about all the secrets and lies that she seems have accumulated in her life.

Moore will only admit that she came from an affluent background in West Virginia. The documentary has photos of Moore at various stages in her life when she had several surnames, to show without saying that she has long been a chameleon with different identities. Was she a bored housewife who somehow got caught up in espionage and political conspiracies? Or was she a calculating manipulator who knew exactly what she was doing?

“Suburban Fury” goes off on a tangent to discuss the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patricia “Patty” Hearst, who was a 19-year-old student at the Unversity of California at Berkeley at the time of her abduction. Hearst joined her kidnappers in the left-wing Symbionese Liberation Army (which claimed to have an ideology of “rob from the rich to give to the poor”) on a crime spree that included bank robberies. Moore expresses disdain for SLA and Hearst, by saying that Hearst was kind of stupid and that SLA should have kidnapped Hearst’s wealthy father (Randolph Apperson Hearst) instead of going after one of his children.

What does SLA have to do with Moore? SLA was associated with Wilbert “Popeye” Jackson, who was involved with prison reform as a founder of United Prisoner Union while he was incarcerated at San Quentin Prison. Moore says she was one of many lovers that Jackson had at the time, like a harem. According to Moore, Jackson was sympathetic to the SLA but he also wanted to help Patty Hearst because he hoped that her father would reward Jackson by helping give a good education to Jackson’s son.

Moore also had an indirect connection to the Hearst family because she was a volunteer bookeeper for People in Need, a charity established by the Hearst family in response to SLA’s demands that in order for SLA to free Patty Hearst from SLA’s captivity, the Hearst family needed to do more for low-income people. There are some archival photos of Moore working for People in Need. Moore says she was very good at her People in Need job, However, since “Suburban Fury” viewers are only getting her selective version of events, it’s hard to know how truthful she is in certain parts of her story.

The many twists and detours that Moore takes in her storytelling get a little tiresome to watch when it becomes all too obvious that she wants to portray herself as a folk heroine who led a very unusual life. She portrays herself as a “victim” of “oppressive” government manipulations that involved death threats from government officials, even though she also describes herself in other parts of her stories as an independent woman who broke the law of her own free will. Without anyone else interviewed in the documentary, the narrative of “Suburban Fury” is obviously very one-sided.

Moore describes the day of her assassination attempt as, “I think I was in a fugue. A fugue state is a pattern.” She says she felt it was pre-destined that she would carry out the plan and remembers that there were no unexpected delays or hitches in the plan. “The plan had been written to be successful. I also thought I’d be killed,” she adds.

One of the many examples of Moore’s questionable credibility is that at one point in the interview, she claims she had no intention of killing Ford. In a separate interview, she says that at the time, she believed that political murders (including assassinating a U.S. president) were necessary for radical groups to get attention, and she had no qualms about killing a U.S. president if necessary. At some point during the documentary, viewers will wonder if Moore has told so many lies, she doesn’t know what the truth is anymore.

“Suburban Fury” doesn’t pass judgment on Moore but doesn’t go far enough in questioning her. She seems to get very irritated when she thinks she doesn’t have control of a situation. The main reason to watch this movie is out of curiosity to see what someone who has lived this type of duplicitous life has to say about herself when she’s in her 90s.

Moore seems to have a quick-thinking mind and looks healthier and younger than most people in her age group. One of the most telling things about her is in the documentary’s end credits. Moore, sitting silently in the back seat of a car at night, looks around nervously, as if she’s expecting the car to be ambushed at any moment. It’s a striking image that indicates that Moore might no longer be incarcerated in prison, but she a remains a prisoner of her own paranoia.

Review: ‘Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit,’ starring Việt Hương, Diệu Đưc, Trung Dân, Dạ Chúc, Duy Anh and Mỹ Duyên

October 8, 2024

by Carla Hay

Dạ Chúc in “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” (Photo courtesy of Lotte Entertainment)

“Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” (2024)

Directed by Nguyen Huu Hoang

Vietnamese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Vietnam, near the Mekong River, the horror film “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” features an all-Vietnamese cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A vengeful ghost called Ma Da possesses, kidnaps and kills people, and a single mother fights to get her daughter away from this evil spirit.

Culture Audience: “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching idiotic and boring horror movies.

Việt Hương in “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” (Photo courtesy of Lotte Entertainment)

Hokey, unfocused and very derivative, “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” is a limp horror movie that struggles to keep its ideas afloat. This story (about a mother battling a vengeful ghost) has terrible acting, sloppy editing, and tacky visual effects. It’s a complete time waster of a film that has a twist ending that makes this already bad movie even worse.

Directed by Nguyen Huu Hoang, “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” does not have a credited screenwriter, which is usually an indication that whoever wrote the movie is too embarrased to be publicly associated with it. “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” takes place in an unnamed village near the Mekong River, which is supposed to be haunted by an evil ghost named Ma Da. Children are warned not to go near the river.

The story is that Ma Da (played by Mỹ Duyên) was a teenage girl who committed suicide by jumping into the river and drowning. She re-emerges from the river to target souls whom she thinks are spiritually compatible with hers. Ma Da then possesses the person she targets (the targeted person’s eyes turn black during this possession), she kidnaps them, and usually kills them in the river.

One of the residents of this village is Bâ Lê (played by Việt Hương), who makes a living by fishing for corpses in the river and selling their bodies for organ donations. She should not be surprised that her creepy and disgusting job will attract an evil spirit. But Lê shows throughout this movie that she’s less-than-smart and makes all the predictable nonsensical decisions that people do in horror movies.

Lê is a single mother to a daughter named Bé Nhung (played by Dạ Chúc), who’s about 5 or 6 years old. Lê and Nhung live with Lê’s mother Bâ Vu (played by Diệu Đưc), who is retired. Lê tends to be a high-strung workaholic. Her mother Lâi is much more laid-back and nurturing.

One day, Nhung finds a girl doll that’s about 6 inches tall on the ground of a swampy marsh area. The doll has stringy, long black hair, a watermelon-colored blouse and a white skirt. As soon as Nhung finds and keeps the doll, you know that bad things are going to happen. A flashback show that Ma Da was holding the doll when she committed suicide by drowning.

Nhung starts having nightmares. She also has visions of a shadowy female ghost figure who keeps following her when she’s awake. (We all know who this ghost is.) Lê has a hard time believing Nhung because every time Nhung cries and says she’s seen the ghost, Lê doesn’t see anything.

Other villagers who end up getting involved are a shaman/medical examiner named Ông Dân (played by Trung Dân) and Lê’s confidant Ông Lương (played by Thành Lộc), who works with his father in the village’s medical examiner place. A friend of Lhung’s is a boy named Hiếu (played by Duy Anh), who’s about 8 or 9 years old and who acts like he’s her bratty older brother. He likes to tease Lhung a lot with mild pranks.

Hiếu disappears one night. The word quickly spreads in the village that Ma Da must’ve taken Hiếu. “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” is so poorly written, Hiếu and his disappearance are not mentioned again for a very long stretch of the movie, which has a flashback scene at the end to finally show what happened to him.

Before the movie gets to its atrocious ending, there are many cliché-ridden jump scares that are not terrifying at all. Nhung disappears and reappears with no explanation. And there are several muddled action scenes of Lê in the water. Ma Da is barely seen in this mostly darkly lit movie. (Ma Da is supposed to look like a drenched teenage girl in a red dress.)

A movie about an evil spirit that haunts a community should at least tell more about the origins of this evil spirit. But “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” doesn’t even bother to make that effort. All that’s left is a movie that throws together a lot of dull, predictable elements seen in other horror films, but without making them part of a cohesive story—just like puzzle pieces that do not fit. Viewers of “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” should not expect a coherent story or a reason to care after the film’s awful ending is revealed.

Lotte Entertainment released “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” in select U.S. cinemas on September 27, 2024. The movie was released in Vietnam on August 16, 2024.

Review: ‘Megalopolis’ (2024), starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight and Jason Schwartzman

October 7, 2024

by Carla Hay

Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in “Megalopolis” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Megalopolis” (2024)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional U.S. city of New Rome, the sci-fi drama film “Megalopolis” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A property mogul causes controversy over his development of an urban mega-complex, as he juggles various problems in his personal life.

Culture Audience: “Megalopolis” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and many of the movie’s headliners, but celebrity name recognition does not save this disastrous and ill-conceived movie.

Aubrey Plaza in “Megalopolis” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Megaflopolis” is a more accurate title for the bloated and idiotic “Megalopolis,” which is drunk on its own pretension and fails miserably to tell a coherent and interesting story. A star-studded cast can’t save this mess. This is the type of movie that can only be described as giant waste on many levels: production budget, talent and a potentially intriguing concept.

Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, “Megalopolis” has been an idea of Coppola’s since 1977. The movie’s production budget was reportedly $120 million to $136 million, much of which was independently financed by Coppola, whose best work is still considered to be his Oscar-winning films from the 1970s, such as 1972’s “The Godfather,” 1974’s “The Godfather Part II” and 1979’s “Apocalypse Now.” Coppola has been coasting on his reputation for being an “auteur,” so “Megalopolis” came with a certain standard of expectations. “Megalopolis” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Unfortunately, the end result of all the years and money it took to make “Megalopolis” (which takes place in a futuristic fictional city of New Rome, inspired by New York City) is a movie that looks like a hack job on an over-inflated budget. This 138-minute catastrophe has a lot to show but doesn’t have much to say. Here’s the gist of the plot: An ambitious and frequently dour property mogul named Cesar Catilina (played by Adam Driver), who prefers to be called Catilina, causes controversy because of his high-priced plans to build a mega-complex called Megalopolis in the middle of the city. Meanwhile, Catilina gets involved in a love triangle, he has struggles with “mother issues” because his mother dislikes him, and he deals with various other people who come in and out of his orbit.

Catilina is getting a lot of criticism for displacing low-income people from their housing because of his development of Megalopolis, which includes business buildings, a shopping center and a giant recreational park. Years ago, Catilina went on trial for murder after he was accused of poisoning his wife. He was acquitted of the charges, but the scandal still affects his reputation.

One of Catilina’s biggest enemies is Mayor Cicero (played by Giancarlo Esposito), who was the prosecuting district attorney in the murder trial. Mayor Cicero still think Catilina is guilty. Catilina calls Mayor Franklyn Cicero “the chief slum lord” and doesn’t understand why the mayor is opposed to Catilina’s plan to “beautify” the city with Megalopolis. Another person who doesn’t get along well with Mayor Cicero is his hard-partying, sexually fluid daughter Julia Cicero (played by Nathalie Emmanuel), a medical school dropout, who is frequently in the tabloid media for her antics. Teresa Cicero (played by Kathryn Hunter), who is Mayor Cicero’s wife/Julia’s mother, is the calm counterpoint to Mayor Cicero’s fiery personality.

“Megalopolis” opens with a captioned statement in Latin (with subtitles): “Our American republic is not that much different from Old Rome … Will we fall victim, like Old Rome, to the insatiable appetite for power from a few men?” All this means is that “Megalopolis” has a lot of people looking ridiculous as they wear togas and other clothing that are supposed to be inspired by Old Rome. But then, the movies bizarrely drops in some references to William Shakespeare, such as in an early scene in “Megalopolis” when Catilina utters the famous line “To be or not to be” from “Hamlet.”

In the beginning of the story, Catilina has been having a casual fling with a TV talk show host named Wow Platinum (played by Aubrey Plaza), who has grown frustrated that Catilina won’t commit to a more serious relationship. In a TV interview, Wow Platinum asks him: “What’s it like to be rich?” Catilina answers, “You can scare people.” Get used to the cringeworthy dialogue, because “Megalopolis” is full of it.

Wow tells Catilina that she’s “bored” with being his mistress and declares that she wants to be “one-half of a power couple.” She’s tired of waiting around for Catilina to propose marriage to her. And so, gold digger Wow has a quickie wedding with elderly billionaire Hamilton Crassus III (played by Jon Voight), who is Catilina’s uncle and who obviously has a lot of influence in the city. Hamilton’s sister is Cesar Catilina’s widowed mother: Constance Crassus Catilina (played by Talia Shire), who doesn’t hide her disdain for Cesar. She openly tells Cesar that she wish he had been born a girl.

Hamilton is a lot like dying prey, with vultures circling to wait until he can die and fight over his fortune. These vultures include his heirs and his new wife Wow. Hamilton has four grandchildren who are all spoiled siblings: Clodia Pulcher (played by Chloe Fineman), Clodio Pulcher (played by Shia LaBeouf), Claudine Pulcher (played by Isabelle Kusman) and Claudette Pulcher (played by Madeleine Gardella). Claudine is a party girl who is a lover of Julia, the mayor’s “wild child” daughter.

Supporting characters drift in an out of the story, some with more purpose than others. A pop music superstar named Vesta Sweetwater (played by Grace VanderWaal), who has an image of being a teenage virgin, performs at the wedding reception for Hamilton and Wow. Fundi Romaine (played by Laurence Fishburne) is Catilina’s loyal driver/butler/flunky. Nush “The Fixer” Berman (played by Dustin Hoffman) briefly scurries in and out of the movie like a rat scrounging for scraps. Nush is opposed to Megalopolis because he says it’s built on a waste foundation. Jason Zanderz (played by Jason Schwartzman) is a “yes man” in Mayor Cicero’s entourage.

It should come as no surprise that Julia (because she’s got “daddy issues”) decides to work for Catilina, her father’s biggest enemy. One thing leads to another, and Julia and Catilina become lovers, much to the horror of Mayor Cicero. “Megalopolis” has a tired, catty subplot of a jealous Wow trying to break up the relationship between Julia and Catilina (even though Wow is now married to Hamilton) because Wow can’t stand to see Catilina be in love with another woman.

“Megalopolis” lurches from scene to scene and puts forth some not-very-original futuristic ideas (such as cars that travel by air) that are clumsily plopped into the story but never fully developed. Many of the scenes are mind-numbingly bad and embarrassing for the people in these scenes, as well as for Coppola, because of all the substandard acting and terrible dialogue. If you waited your whole life to see disgraced actor LaBeouf in drag as he says, “Revenge tastes best when wearing a dress,” then “Megalopolis” is the movie for you. For people with good taste in cinema, “Megalopolis” should definitely be left off of the menu.

Lionsgate released “Megalopolis” in U.S. cinemas on September 27, 2024.

Review: ‘Anora’ (2024), starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Yura Borisov, Darya Ekamasova and Aleksey Serebryakov

October 6, 2024

by Carla Hay

Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in “Anora” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Anora” (2024)

Directed by Sean Baker

Some language in Russian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2018 in New York City and in Las Vegas, the comedy/drama film “Anora” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A 23-year-old sex worker/stripper thinks she’s hit the jackpot when she marries a 21-year-old customer, who is the son of a billionaire Russian mogul, but her dream turns into nightmare when her new husband’s family pressures her to annul the marriage.

Culture Audience: “Anora” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of filmmaker Sean Baker, star Mikey Madison, and movies that tell sordid stories from a sex worker’s perspective.

“Anora” takes viewers on a frenetic and wild ride that goes on for a little too long as it zig zags to an inevitable outcome in this story about a sex worker and a Russian heir who have a quickie marriage. This foul-mouthed movie’s best asset is the acting. There’s really not much to the comedy/drama plot, which is stretched nearly to the breaking point during the movie’s 138-minute runtime.

Written and directed by Sean Baker, “Anora” is another movie in Baker’s filmography about people (usually sex workers) who live in the margins of society and are financially struggling or struggling to make a lot more money than they are now. Baker’s movies are filled with people shouting, cursing, getting naked, hustling, lying, and doing drugs. The characters in his movies are presented in a way that is not judgmental or exploitative but as a way to show how people like this live with a combination of self-absorbed survival skills and a yearning for some type of human connection underneath their “tough” exteriors.

“Anora” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or (the festival’s top prize), the equivalent of Best Picture for the festival. “Anora” has also made the rounds at other major festivals, including the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. Unlike other movies that have previously won the Palme d’Or, “Anora” isn’t particularly innovative, and the movie’s story is quite predictable. But for viewers who can tolerate some of the repetitive nature of the story, “Anora” is worth watching for the principal cast members’ captivating performances, particularly from Mikey Madison, who portrays the movie’s title character.

The movie (which takes place over a few weeks in 2018) begins with a scene in New York City, where much of “Anora” was filmed on location. A 23-year-old Russian American named Anora (played by Madison), who prefers to be called Ani (pronounced Annie), is shown working at her job at a dark and seedy strip club that tries to look more upscale than it really is. Ani, who does topless dancing, is a pro at flirting with customers and is very skilled at convincing many of them to spend more money on her by going in the back room for lap dances. Most of her customers are men who are in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

But one night, a 21-year-old Russian immigrant named Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov (played by Mark Eydelshteyn) goes to the club with his best friend Tom (played by Anton Bitter), who is also Russian and about the same age. Ani immediately catches the eye of Vanya, who doesn’t speak English very well. Ani happens to be fluent in Russian because, as she tells Vanya, she had a Russian grandmother who never learned English.

It doesn’t take long for Vanya to invite Ani to party with him the next day at the Brooklyn waterfront home where he lives by himself. She eagerly accepts his invitation. When Ani goes to this home, she is in awe when she sees that Vanya must be very affluent to live in this sleek and luxurious house.

At first, Vanya plays games with Ani when she asks him how he could afford this place. He lies to her and says he’s a drug dealer. And then he says he’s an arms dealer. Finally, he tells her the truth: His father is a famous Russian billionaire named Nikolai Zakharov (played by Aleksey Serebryakov), and Vanya has been in the United States as a university student.

Vanya has recently dropped out of school, so he is under orders by his father to return soon to Russia to start working in the family business. Ani knows exactly why she was invited to party with Vanya. He tells her he wants to have sex with her. They negotiate the price that he will pay her. They smoke some marijuana and get down to business.

Vanya is 21 years old, but he’s immature and acts more like someone who’s about 16 or 17 years old. He has a teenager’s fascination with playing video games. He’s impulsive and irresponsible. He’s also very sexually inexperienced. (Ani sometimes tries not to laugh at how quickly Vanya finishes during sex.) But Vanya becomes immediately infatuated with Ani, who teaches him how to improve his sexual performance.

Vanya invites Ani back to his place for a big party the following night. Ani brings along her best friend from work: another sex worker named Lulu (played by Luna Sofia Miranda), who’s about the same age as Ani. Vanya introduces Ani and Lulu to some more of his partier friends, who have already heard that Ani is a paid escort.

Vanya and Ani continue to have sex with each other, get drunk and stoned (on marijuana and cocaine), and hang out and goof around together with their friends on Coney Island. By the time Vanya and Ani have had a few sexual encounters, he tells her that he will pay her to be his “horny girlfriend” for a week. After they negotiate on a price ($15,000), Vanya admits he would’ve paid up to $35,000 if Ani had asked.

And so begins a binge of sex and partying, fueled by alcohol and drugs, that leads Vanya and Ani to go to Las Vegas and live like visiting high rollers. Vanya surprises Ani by proposing marriage to her. She thinks he’s joking at first, but he’s not. She gleefully accepts his proposal. Ani and Vanya then quickly elope (without a prenuptial agreement) at a small wedding chapel in Las Vegas.

Now that she’s married to the heir of a billionaire fortune, Ani quits her job at the strip club, where her co-worker rival Diamond (played by Lindsey Normington) is very jealous and declares that the marriage won’t last long. Ani doesn’t want to listen and essentially struts out of the club like someone who has won the lottery. Ani also makes plans to move out of her rented apartment as she envisions a life of being a pampered and jetsetting wife of a billionaire.

You know where all of this is going, of course. When Vanya’s family members in Russia find out that he has married an American sex worker, they immediately set out to get the marriage annulled. An aggressive Armenian thug named Garnik (played by Vache Tovmasyan) and his more mild-mannered sidekick Igor (played by Yura Borisov) have been dispatched to track down Ani and Vanya and end the marriage.

Garnik and Igor report to a “fixer” named Toros (played by Karren Karagulian), who reports directly to Vanya’s father Nikolai. Vanya seems to be afraid of Nikolai. But when Vanya’s mother Galina Zakharov (played by Darya Ekamasova) gets involved, it’s easy to see who is the more ruthless parent.

“Anora” has a lot of expected hijinks and mishaps, as Ani and Vanya (who gets intoxicated to the point of being incoherent and barely conscious) encounter the people who want to end the marriage. The marketing materials for “Anora” have described this movie as a “love story.” But make no mistake: This is a gold digger story. “Anora” fails to convince any viewer with enough life experience that what Ani and Vanya have is more than drug-fueled lust. And in Ani’s case, that lust includes lust for money.

“Anora” gets a little bit ridiculous with some of the sitcom-like scenarios in the last third of the movie. However contrived these scenarios are, the talented cast members make their characters’ personalities convincing enough to maintain viewer interest. “Anora” invites viewers to question if Ani really is capable of having lasting love if there isn’t some transactional financial benefit for her and if she isn’t offering herself for sale as a sexual plaything. The impact of the movie is when Ani begins to understand that she herself doesn’t know the answer to that question.

Neon will release “Anora” in select U.S. cinemas on October 18, 2024.

Review: ‘Queer’ (2024), starring Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, Henrique Zaga and Omar Apollo

October, 5, 2024

by Carla Hay

Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in “Queer” (Photo by Yannis Drakoulidis/A24)

“Queer” (2024)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the early 1950s in Mexico City and in South America, the dramatic film “Queer” (based on William Burroughs’ novel of the same name) features a white and Latin cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: While living in Mexico City, a wealthy, drug-addicted, queer American writer looks for love with a man and goes on a quest to find an elusive psychedelic drug.

Culture Audience: “Queer” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, star Daniel Craig, author William Burroughs and decadent movies told from a queer perspective.

Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey and Lesley Manville in “Queer” (Photo by Yannis Drakoulidis/A24)

Like a lot of movies that portray drug addiction, “Queer” is sometimes unfocused, rambling and incoherent. However, Daniel Craig gives a memorable and uncompromising performance in this experimental drama inspired by Williams Burroughs’ life. “Queer” is not a biopic but a movie based on a semi-autobiographical novel. It’s a portrait of a troubled person who has self-esteem issues and who is struggling to find love and acceptance in a world that is often unwelcome and hostile to people who aren’t cisgender heterosexuals.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, “Queer” is adapted from Burroughs’ 1985 novel of the same name. The “Queer” movie is the second film released in 2024 that was directed by Guadagnino and written by Kuritzkes, who previously collaborated on the tennis drama “Challengers,” another sexually charged film with themes of obsession, ambition and transactional relationships. Unlike the sex scenes in “Challengers,” the sex scenes in “Queer” have full-frontal nudity and are much more explicit. “Queer” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival. It later had its North American premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2024 New York Film Festival.

In “Queer” (which take places over a three-year period in the early 1950s), Craig has the central role as William Lee, which is the alias that Burroughs used briefly and early in his long career as a writer. Burroughs was know as an influential Beat Generation author, whose best-known work is the 1959 novel “Naked Lunch.” Burroughs was born in 1914, in St. Louis, Missouri. He died in 1997, in Lawrence, Kansas. Burroughs was a Harvard University graduate and an heir to the fortune of the Burroughs Corporation, which was founded by his paternal grandfather William Seward Burroughs. This wealth allowed Burroughs the writer to live a lifestyle where he didn’t have to work, and his drug addiction (he was openly addicted to heroin) was well-funded.

The William Lee in the “Queer” movie prefers to be called Lee. He is in his late 40s and is exactly what you think a well-educated, drug-addicted intelluctual writer would be: On the one hand, he has a fierce snobbery toward anyone who can’t discuss literary work that’s up to his standards. On the other hand, he loves getting down and dirty with shady, uneducated people and criminals. He uses his ability to float between high society and the unlawful margins of society as the source of many of his writings.

Lee’s writing is not as much of a priority to him as his main preoccupations: doing drugs and looking for gay sex. Omar Apollo has a small role in the movie as young man whom Lee picks up for a casual sexual tryst in the movie’s first sex scene. Lee has his flings at a motel where the manager is so accustomed to the place being used for gay sexual hookups, he lays out a towel on the bed as soon as guests rent a room.

In real life in the early 1950s, William Burroughs was divorced from his first wife Ilse Klapper and living in Mexico City with writer Joan Vollmer, their son William Burroughs Jr., and Vollmer’s daughter Julia Adams from her ex-husband Paul Adams. (A scene in “Queer” recreates how Vollmer died in real life, but with another character in this movie’s death scene.) In the movie “Queer,” Lee is not married, and he’s not exactly “in the closet.” He’s living the life of an openly gay bachelor in Mexico City, with no family ties at all. In fact, his loneliness and detachment from any family members are the reasons why Lee makes many of the decisions in this story.

Lee hangs out at a gay bar called the Ship Ahoy, where many men from the U.S. Navy are known to frequent. Lee’s bar-hopping pals are mostly other American queer men. His closest friend is Joe Guidry (played by Jason Schwartzman), who loves to gossip about his sex life and other gay/queer men’s sex lives. A running joke with Joe is that the men he often sleeps with end up stealing things from Joe. Another frequent Ship Ahoy customer is Winston Moor (played by Henrique Zaga), who is sometimes Lee’s drinking companion.

One night, Lee is walking down a street and casually observing a group of Mexican men who are involved in rooster fighting. Lee looks up and notices another white American man, who’s in his 20s. The stranger is across from Lee and is also casually walking by this disgusting and inhumane animal cruelty. Lee and this stranger look at each other in the way that people do when you know there’s an instant and unspoken attraction between them.

Lee is surprised to see this stranger again that night at Ship Ahoy. The stranger is at a table by himself. When Lee awkwardly bows and tries to flirt with the younger man, this would-be paramour seems to be a little turned off and doesn’t show any interest. Lee keeps seeing this stranger at various places until they finally have a conversation and get to know each other better.

The stranger’s name is Eugene Allerton (played by Drew Starkey), who used to be in the U.S. Navy but is currently an unemployed student in Mexico City. Lee is unsure of what Eugene’s sexuality is. Eugene hangs out at the Ship Ahoy (a known establishment for gay men), but Eugene is also seen dating a fiery redhead named Joan (played by Ronia Ava), who looks like the type who wouldn’t want Eugene to be dating anyone else.

Lee is a big talker, but he’s surprisingly shy about coming right out and asking Eugene what Eugene’s sexuality is, even though Lee clearly wants to have sex with Eugene. When Fred advises Lee to ask Eugene if Eugene is queer or not, Lee says it’s not a good idea and tells Fred that it would be too forward and impolite to ask Eugene. Meanwhile, Lee and Eugene have the type of flirtation that you just know will lead to something more. Because it’s already revealed in the movie’s trailers, it’s not spoiler information to say (and it should be no surprise) that Lee and Eugene eventually become lovers.

Lee falls in love with Eugene. The problem for Lee is that he isn’t quite sure if Eugene feels the same way about Lee, or if Eugene is just using Lee for a “sugar daddy” situation. Eugene also doesn’t seem to want to commit to declaring if he’s gay, bisexual or neither. When Eugene is around cetain people, such as Joan, he gives the appearance that he’s heterosexual. Meanwhile, Lee can eventually no longer hide from Eugene that Lee is seriously addicted to heroin. Lee also abuses other drugs, such as alcohol, cocaine and psychedelics.

“Queer” is told in three chapters and one epilogue. Much of the third chapter is about a trip that Lee and Eugene take to South America to find an elusive psychedelic drug called yage (prounced “yah-way”), also known as the plant that is the basis for ayahuasca, a potent psychedelic. They travel to a remote jungle area, where they meet a grungy psychedelic American expert named Dr. Cotter (played by Lesley Manville, who is almost unrecognizable) and a man she calls her husband named Mr. Cotter (played by Lisandro Alonso). It leads to the most hallucinogenic and visually creative part of the movie.

“Queer” makes some interesting musical choices that are meant to be unconventional but sometimes comes across as pretentious and downright annoying. Oscar-winning music composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (who also wrote the musical score for “Challengers”) have composed very modern music for a movie that’s set in the 1950s. For better or worse, “Queer” does the same thing that “Challengers” does: It often plays the score music so loudly in certain scenes, this blaring volume can become an irritating distraction.

The songs on the “Queer” soundtrack consist mostly of songs that were written decades after the 1950s. A few Nirvana hits are prominently featured in the beginning of the movie, first with Sinéad O’Connor’s cover version of “All Apologies” and later with Nirvana’s original recording of “Come as You Are.” Later in the movie, a few songs from Prince (such as “Musicology”) can be heard when “Queer” ramps up its sexual content.

Purists who think the music of a movie should be realistic for the time period of when the movie takes place will no doubt be put off by these musical choices in “Queer.” Some viewers who aren’t aware of this musical mismatch might feel disoriented when watching “Queer” and might think to themselves when they see clothes and cars from the 1950s but hear music from the 1990s and 21st century : “What decade is this movie supposed to be in anyway?”

At 135 minutes long, “Queer” tends to a little bloated in the story it’s trying to tell. The movie is based on a short story. And it’s easy to see why because there isn’t much of a plot. “Queer” has some “druggie” movie clichés such as “dope sick” scenes, “getting high” scenes, and “desperate to find drugs” scenes. The cinematography is very immersive, while the movie’s visual effects (although often grotesque) are quite unforgettable.

Despite the movie’s flaws, Craig gives a riveting performance throughout “Queer” as the insecure and self-destructive Lee. Starkey is also quite good in the role of the emotionally mysterious Eugene. Manville is a scene stealer and gives one of the most transformative performances of her career. Ultimately, “Queer” is not the type of movie that expects everyone to understand it or like it. It’s a movie that exists on its own terms, in all of its messiness in chronicling a period of time in the life of a privileged but troubled writer.

A24 will release “Queer” in select U.S. cinemas on November 27, 2024.