Tag: AFI Fest

Review: ‘The Fire Inside’ (2024), starring Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry

December 24, 2024

by Carla Hay

Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry in “The Fire Inside” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Fire Inside” (2024)

Directed by Rachel Morrison

Culture Representation: Taking place from 2006 to 2013, in the United States and in Europe, the dramatic biopic film “The Fire Inside” (based on the life of boxer Claressa Shields) features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Claressa Shields rises from a financially disadvantaged background in Michigan to become a champion Olympic boxer, but she experiences obstacles, sexism and naysayers along the way.

Culture Audience: “The Fire Inside” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in sports biopics and movies about people who triumph against the odds.

Nicole Drury, Jennifer Huggins and Ryan Destiny in “The Fire Inside” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Fire Inside” is good but not outstanding as a biopic of champion boxer Claressa Shields. Ryan Destiny shines in her portrayal of Shields. However, this drama has the usual biopic formulas of underestimated athletes who triumph. The acting performances in the movie are better than the movie’s screenplay and direction.

“The Fire Inside” is the feature-film directorial debut of Rachel Morrison, whose filmmaking background is mostly in cinematography. Morrison made Oscar history as the first woman to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, for her work on the 2017 Netflix drama “Mudbound.” “The Fire Inside” was written by Barry Jenkins, who won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for the 2016 drama “Moonlight.” Jenkins is also one of the producers of “The Fire Inside.”

Mike DeLuca, another producer of “The Fire Inside,” has been nominated for three Oscars for Best Picture: for 2010’s “The Social Network,” for 2011’s “Moneyball” and for 2013’s “Captain Phillips.” “The Fire Inside” also has Brian Tyree Henry (who was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 2022’s “Causeway”) as one of the principal cast members. With all of this Oscar-caliber talent in key roles for making “The Fire Inside,” some viewers might have certain expectations. “The Fire Inside” certainly isn’t a terrible movie, but it’s not Oscar-worthy either.

“The Fire Inside” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2024 edition of AFI Fest. “The Fire Inside” is told in chronological order, from 2006 to 2013, the earliest years of Shields’ boxing career. However, the movie skips over certain of years her life during this time period. For the purposes of this review, the real people will be referred to be their last names. The characters in the movie will be referred to by their first names.

The movie begins in 2006 in Flint, Michigan, where 11-year-old Claressa Shields (played by Jazmin Headley) is shown as a spectator at Berston House, a boxing gym. (“The Fire Inside” was actually filmed in the Canadian province of Ontario.) Claressa wants to train as a boxer, but Berston House trainer Jason Crutchfield (played by Henry) tells her, “We don’t tran no girls at Berston House.” Some of the boys in the gym also taunt Claressa for wanting to become a boxer at this gym.

Claressa won’t leave the gym until she gets a chance to prove herself. And so, Jason allows Claressa to do a boxing match against one of the boys. The boy she’s pitted against is one of the boys who insulted her by saying Claressa was on the “shortbus,” which is slang for saying that Claressa is stupid. Predictably, Claressa wins against this bully.

Jason, who is a happily married father of two kids, goes home and tells his wife Mickey (played by De’Adre Aziza) about Claressa and asks Mickey what she thinks about Claressa being a boxer. Mickey says there shouldn’t be a problem if Claressa really wants to box. And just like that, Jason decides to be Claressa’s trainer and allows her to train with him at Berston House. It’s very “only in a movie” moment.

Claressa’s home life in Flint is chaotic and dysfunctional. She and her two younger siblings—sister Briana and brother Peanut—are being raised by their single mother Jackie Shields (played by Olunike Adeliyi), who likes to party and often neglects her children. Shechinah Mpumlwana has the role of teenage Briana. Nendia Lewars has the role of pre-teen Briana. Sekhai Smith has the role of teenage Peanut. Chidubem Rafael Echendu has the role of pre-teen Peanut.

Jackie frequently doesn’t have enough money to give proper meals to her kids. Claressa’s father Clarence (played by Adam Clark) is an ex-con deadbeat dad who is in and out of her life. Predictably, Clarence re-appears in Claressa’s life after she becomes a champion boxer, and he thinks he can benefit from whatever fortune that he thinks Claressa will get as a boxer.

After showing Claressa in 2006, “The Fire Inside” then fast-forwards to 2011. Claressa (played by Destiny), who has the boxing nickname T-Rex, is now a 16-year-old boxer on a winning streak. Claressa is also living with Jason and his family after getting into an argument with her mother Jackie, who threw her out of the home and let Claressa live with Jason and his family. What happened in the five-year period where she trained to get to this point? Don’t expect the movie to answer to that question because the “The Fire Inside” doesn’t give any details.

Instead, “The Fire Inside” becomes a checklist of accomplishments for teenage/young adult Claressa, leading toward her ultimate goal to become the first American female boxer to win a gold medal at the Olympics. Claressa’s first shot at this Olympic dream is at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. British boxer Savannah Marshall (played by Nicole Drury) is Claressa’s biggest rival. Jason is still her chief mentor/trainer, but because he’s not an official Olympic coach/trainer, he can’t go with her to the Olympics as a coach/trainer. This restriction causes some stress and drama for Claressa.

The movie also has a subplot about Claressa’s romance with a fellow teenage student named Corey (played by Chrystian Buddington), whom she has known since they were pre-teens. (Maurice Wayne Anglin has the role of pre-teen Corey.) Expect to see Jason lecturing Claressa about not letting her love life affect her boxing ambitions. Jason tells Claressa after seeing her hanging out with Corey at Berston House: “No dating at the gym!”

Most of the supporting characters in “The Fire Inside” aren’t given much depth. Corey is supportive of Claressa’s boxing goals, but the movie depicts him as an utterly generic boyfriend. Claressa’s family members get less screen time than her trainer Jason. Nicole Thompson (played by Sarah Allen), the head of media and marketing for the U.S. Olympic boxing team, is a bland executive. Nicole is initially skeptical that Claressa can win a gold medal in boxing. But if Claressa weren’t a champion boxer, then this movie wouldn’t have been made.

“The Fire Inside” goes beyond the expected boxing matches to show how—even with Claressa’s championship status—Jason (who also became Claressa’s manager/agent) struggled to get sponsorship deals for Claressa. It’s stated repeatedly in the movie that this lack of sponsorship support isn’t because Jason was incompetent but because of prejudice against female boxers. It’s admirable that “The Fire Inside” shows the harsh reality that some Olympic champions don’t get the financial rewards or sponsorship support that many people wrongly assume that all Olympic champion athletes get.

Aside from these career struggles, “The Fire Inside” only hints at Claressa’s internal struggles. There’s a poignant scene where she confesses to Corey that she has trauma from being sexually abused years ago by one of her mother’s ex-boyfriends. The movie reveals this information and then doesn’t mention it again. It’s a very superficial way of addressing an issue that no doubt affected Claressa’s emotional well-being.

As for the training scenes and the boxing matches, they are competently filmed but aren’t particularly innovative. The pacing of the movie occasionally drags in scenes where Claressa is not boxing or training, with no further insight into her personality. Destiny does an admirable job of portraying Claressa’s determination, grit and vulnerability. The other cast members do the best that they can in very stereotypical roles.

Unfortunately, the screenplay for “The Fire Inside” diminishes many of the characters by having them speaking in conversations that sound more like contrived soundbites than natural dialogue. Most viewers already know that “The Fire Inside” is supposed to be a feel-good, inspirational story about a real-life person. And the movie at least fulfills that purpose. However, it’s not done in an exceptional way that’s on par with Shields’ exceptional talent and accomplishments.

Amazon MGM Studios will release “The Fire Inside” in U.S. cinemas on December 25, 2024.

Review: ‘The Order’ (2024), starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver and Marc Maron

December 15, 2024

by Carla Hay

Jude Law, Jurnee Smollett and Tye Sheridan in “The Order” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“The Order” (2024)

Directed by Justin Kurzel

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1983 to 1984, in Washington state, Colorado, Idaho, and California, the dramatic film “The Order” (based on real events) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Law enforcement officials investigate and battle against a radical and violent group of white supremacists.

Culture Audience: “The Order” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and suspenseful and well-acted movies about cops versus criminals.

Nicholas Hoult in “The Order” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“The Order” capably tells a tension-filled story based on real events of American law enforcement battling against white supremacists in the 1980s. The acting performances are the main reason to watch this somewhat formulaic dramatic re-enactment. The fact that this true story was made into a movie is already an indication of which side won this battle.

Directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Zach Baylin, “The Order” is adapted from the 1989 non-fiction book “The Silent Brotherhood,” written by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt. “The Order” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, and then made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and AFI Fest. The movie takes place from 1983 to 1984, in the U.S. states of Washington, Colorado, Idaho, and California.

“The Order” begins with a brief scene taking place at KOA Radio studios in Denver. KOA talk show host Alan Berg (played by Marc Maron), who is politically liberal and Jewish, is having a heated discussion with a phone caller. The caller doesn’t say his real name, but he is Gary Yarbrough (played by George Tchortov), a ruthless member of the Order, a radical group of white supremacists who have splintered off from the Aryan Nation. Alan is an outspoken critic of these types of hate groups, who believe that people who are white, cisgender, heterosexual and Christian are superior to everyone else. And as soon as this argument is shown in the movie, you just know that Alan will be shown later in the movie in horrible circumstances.

“The Order” than has a scene of taking place in Spokane, Washington, on December 18, 1983. A man is taken into a wooded area at night and is shot dead. The murder victim is later revealed to be Walter “Walt” West (played by Daniel Doheny), who had been printing counterfeit bills for the Order. The Order members who murdered Walt are Gary (who looks like a scruffy militia man) and Bruce Pierce (played by Sebastian Pigott), Gary’s best friend, who is not as vicious as Gary, but he’s still full of hate and doesn’t hesitate to get violent.

The leader of the Order is Bob Mathews (played by Nicholas Hoult), who deceptively looks like a clean-cut and upstanding family man. In reality, Bob is the mastermind of the violent crimes committed by the Order. Later scenes show that Bob created the Order because he thinks the Aryan Nation isn’t acting fast enough and is too “soft” on its goals for white supremacist domination. The Order uses the 1978 white nationalist novel “The Turner Diaries” (written by Andrew Macdonald, an alias for Luther Pierce) as a handbook for many of the Order’s goals and criminal activities.

After the murder of Walt (who was killed because he was perceived as a potential snitch), Bob, Gary, Bruce and a recent Order recruit named David Lane (played by Phillip Forest Lewitski) commit an armed robbery of a bank in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The four robbers (who wore masks during the bank robbery) are elated to get away with this crime, where luckily none of the robbery victims got killed or injured. It’s later revealed that the Order funds its activities and pays its members through robberies of banks and armored vehicles. The Order also bombs buildings that are owned by targets of their hate.

When Bob gets home, he shows his wife Debbie Mathews (played by Alison Oliver) the loot of cash that he got in the robbery. Debbie is happy to see the money that Bob shows to her, and she knows that it’s stolen money, but she has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude about Bob’s criminal activities. She doesn’t approve of people getting murdered, but Debbie’s ethical boundary on what she considers “unacceptable crimes” isn’t shown until much later in the movie.

These first few opening scenes are somewhat jumbled and could have done a better job of establishing the names of these characters. It isn’t until later in the movie that these characters’ names, roles and personalities are put into clearer perspective. It’s a flaw that the movie tends to repeat when introducing other characters.

The law enforcement official who leads the investigation of the Order is FBI agent Terry Husk (played by Jude Law), who has recently moved to Spokane. Terry is separated from his wife, who lives in another state with their two daughters, who are about 6 and 8 years old. Terry is hoping that his wife and daughters will eventually move to Spokane to live with him. But it eventually becomes obvious that this relocation won’t happen when Terry calls his estranged wife one day and finds out that her phone number has been disconnected.

The movie is purposely vague about other information about Terry’s life before he moved to Spokane. He has a surgery scar going down the middle of his chest. He gets nosebleeds. And when his FBI colleague Joanne Carney (played by Jurnee Smollett) shows up in Spokane, she mentions that she heard about Terry’s “scare in New York.” When Terry tells Joanne that his wife and children are expected to move to Spokane, so he “put the pieces back together,” Joanne looks very skeptical that Terry will be reunited with his family.

“The Order” doesn’t dwell too long on Terry’s personal problems because the bulk of the film is about tracking down and apprehending members of the Order. Joanne isn’t seen for most of the movie until near the end. Terry actually gets most of his help from Jamie Bowen (played by Tye Sheridan), a deputy in the local sheriff’s office, who is also eager to bring these criminals to justice.

Jamie is helpful because he grew up in the area where the Order is headquartered. In a scene where Jamie and Terry question Walt’s wife Bonnie Sue Harris (played by Geena Meszaros), Jamie is able to gain her trust because he’s known Bonnie Sue since they were students at the same high school. Bonnie Sue doesn’t trust Terry because she sees him as a “bad cop” outsider.

“The Order” spends a lot of time showing how Bob uses his influence to get his followers to do his bidding. At a church run by an Aryan Nation reverend named Richard Butler, Bob gets up during a service and upstages the reverend by giving a rousing speech that culminates with Bob leading the audience to chant “White power!” Bob thinks that the Aryan Nation plan to get the Aryan Nation members elected to political offices and other powerful positions is a strategy that is too old-fashioned and will take too long.

Bob is also shrewd about masking his radical intentions of the Order. In an early scene in the movie, he commands Gary and Bruce to stop burning crosses in front of the place where the Order’s meetings are held, because burning crosses will draw attention to their lair. Terry and Jamie later find out that Gary and Bruce were ousted from the Reverend Butler’s church because Gary and Bruce were using the church’s printing press to make counterfeit bills.

As the leader of the investigation, Terry is astute and logical, but he can sometimes rub people the wrong way, because he can be prickly and arrogant. With his personal life in shambles, Terry becomes consumed by the investigation and expects Jamie to have the same attitude. Jamie also has two underage kids. However, unlike Terry, Jamie is happily married.

Someone who is not a fan of Terry is Kimmy Bowen (played by Morgan Holmstrom), Jamie’s wife who was Jamie’s high school sweetheart. Kimmy tells Terry—in a conversation that starts out cordial and soon turns tense—that she doesn’t like it when Terry goes over to the Bowen family home and talks about the investigation while the kids are there. “You scare me,” Kimmy candidly tells Terry.

Bob’s home life is not as tranquil as it appears to be. Bob and Debbie have a son named Clinton (played by Huxley Fisher), who’s about 4 or 5 years old. Clinton is adopted because Debbie cannot biologically conceive children. Debbie is insecure about her infertility because she knows how important it is for white supremacist Bob to pass on his bloodline to biological children. Bob has a secret that he’s keeping from Debbie. This secret is eventually revealed to viewers.

During the course of the story, another recruit is welcomed into the Order: Tony Torres (played by Matias Lucas), who has recently moved from Seattle and is a friend of David, who introduces Tony to Bob. Tony blames black people for his recent job loss. Tony also hates black people because Tony’s best friend in high school was killed by a black person. Bob asks Tony what his ethnicity is because Tony’s last name is Torres. Tony is quick to say that he’s of white Spaniard heritage, so that he can be accepted into this hate group.

“The Order” is essentially becomes a “cat and mouse” type of hunt, with only two characters showing any complexity in their personalities: Terry and Bob. The movie’s other characters are not quite fully developed enough to be anything beyond generic, even though all of the principal cast members show talent in their performances. “The Order” is a crime thriller but it’s also a commentary on the insidiousness of hate groups and how they will continue to exist as long as people think that different identity groups are inferior.

Vertical released “The Order” in U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.

Review: ‘Juror #2,’ starring Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland

November 4, 2024

by Carla Hay

A scene from “Juror #2.” Pictured in front row, from left to right: Chikako Fukuyama, Nicholas Hoult, Adrienne C. Moore, J.K. Simmons, Drew Scheid and Hedy Nasser. Pictured in back row: Leslie Bibb and Cedric Yarbrough. (Photo by Claire Folger/Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Juror #2”

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2021, in Chatham County, Georgia, the dramatic film “Juror #2” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A magazine writer is selected to be on a jury for a murder trial when he finds out that the person who died might not be a murder victim but a victim of a hit-and-run accident that he caused a year earlier.

Culture Audience: “Juror #2” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, director Clint Eastwood, and gripping courtroom/legal dramas that have very good acting.

People who love dramas about crime investigations and jury trials will find a lot to like about “Juror #2.” It’s an absorbing and suspenseful story about a juror with a very big secret that influences his actions as a jury member. The secret is revealed early enough in the movie for viewers to know if the person on trial is guilty or not guilty. The real mystery is what the guilty party will do to reveal or cover up the truth.

Directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jonathan Abrams, “Juror #2” is the feature-film debut for screenwriter Abrams. It’s a very taut thriller that has a few minor plot holes or unanswered questions that don’t take away from the overall impact of the movie. Some viewers expecting a certain outcome might not like how the movie ends. “Juror #2” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of AFI Fest.

“Juror #2” takes place in Chatham County, Georgia, where the movie was filmed on location. The story’s protagonist is Justin Kemp (played by Nicholas Hoult), a mild-mannered man who works as a writer for an unnamed regional lifestyle magazine. The movie takes place over the course of a few weeks in October 2021, although there are some flashbacks to things that happened in October 2020.

In October 2021, Justin and his schoolteacher wife Allison Crewson (played by Zoey Deutch) are anticipating the birth of a child, whose gender has not yet been revealed. Allison is in her third trimester of the pregnancy and is due to give birth on October 25, 2021. It’s later revealed that Allison had a miscarriage of twins in October 2020, which is why she and Justin are particularly anxious about her current pregnancy. So far, Allison hasn’t been experiencing any major health issues for this pregnancy.

Justin seems like an upstanding family man. However, he has a very troubled past that Allison knew about before they got married. Justin is a recovering alcoholic who’s been arrested and convicted in the past for more than one DUI. He got lucky and apparently didn’t get a felony conviction for his DUI cases, which would explain why Justin is eligible for jury duty. Justin has been clean and sober for a few years, which is about the same amount of time that he and Allison have been married.

Justin gets a jury duty notice, but he thinks he’ll be able to get out of jury duty if he explains that his wife is due to give birth any day that he would be required to be on jury duty in the next several days. Before he goes to the courthouse, Justin and Allison joke that Justin could just say something obscene or weird to get out of jury duty.

During this time, the local news has been saturated with reports about the upcoming trial of James Michael Sythe (played by Gabriel Basso), who is accused of the first-degree murder of his 26-year-old girlfriend Kendall Alice Carter (played by Francesca Eastwood), who died on October 21, 2020. Kendall’s mutliated body was found on a steep incline in a wooded area near a barrier rail on Old Quarry Road, which does not have lighting at night. Her death was ruled a homicide from blunt force trauma.

The defendant in this trial has a history of criminal activities, including domestic violence against Kendall, as well being a known drug dealer. He became the prime suspect because on the rainy night of Kendall’s death, he and Kendall were seen having a physical fight inside and outside a local bar called Rowdy’s Hideaway. People at the bar last saw Kendall and James that night when the couple’s arguing continued in the bar’s parking lot.

Kendall walked away from the bar, and James followed her by foot. Witnesses later testify that Kendall and James had a volatile relationship where they would get in physical fights, break up, and then get back together again. Kendall’s last night alive at Rowdy’s Hideaway is shown in several flashback scenes.

This murder case is being prosecuted by ambitious and steely Faith Killebrew (played by Toni Collette), who is in the midst of a campaign to be elected district attorney. James is represented by public defender Eric Resnick (played by Chris Messina), who is as tough as Faith. Eric fully believes that James is not guilty of killing Kendall and thinks there wasn’t a proper investigation into other possible persons of interest or reasons for Kendall’s death.

And there’s room for reasonable doubt. For starters, there were no witnesses, and no murder weapon was found. However, James doesn’t have a verifiable alibi of where he was at the time of Kendall’s death. He says he drove home alone and wasn’t on Old Quarry Road. There’s no security camera footage to prove or disprove he’s telling the truth. And it appears he had a clear motive to kill Kendall. James has rejected a plea bargain deal and wants to go to trial.

During jury selections, Justin finds out that his jury duty is for this trial. And that makes him want to get out of jury duty even more, because murder trials can be unpredictable regarding how long they could last. Judge Thelma Hollub (played by Amy Aquino), who is presiding over the trial, doesn’t accept Justin’s “baby on the way” excuse for getting out of jury duty. Justin is selected as Juror #2.

It seems to be an open-and-shut case. The case’s medical examiner (played by Kurt Yue) testifies that the blunt force trauma that caused Kendall’s death could only be caused by a weapon that was not used accidentally. Several witnesses testify to James’ violent tendencies and his past domestic abuse of Kendall. James seems to be the only person with a motive to murder Kendall.

But as the testimony goes on and the facts are presented, Justin comes to a horrifying awareness that he was in Rowdy’s Hideaway on the same night of Kendall’s death. And he was driving on Old Quarry Road around the same time that Kendall died and when his car accidentally hit something heavy that he thought was a deer. Whatever he hit went over the barrier rail, but since it was dark and raining, Justin couldn’t see anything when he looked over the rail. After looking at the crime scene photos of Kendall’s body, and hearing where she was injured, Justin now believes that she died from the hit-and-run accident that he caused.

What was a recovering alcoholic doing at a bar by himself? It turns out that Justin was tempted to relapse during the period of time that the movie implies was when his and Allison’s twins recently died from the miscarriage. At Rowdy’s Hideaway that night, Justin had ordered an alcoholic drink, but he didn’t drink it, and he left the bar shortly afterward. While driving on Old Quarry Road that rainy night, he was sobbing and distracted by a phone call from Allison when his car accidentally hit what he thought was a deer.

Now, one year later, Justin is fairly certain that he was the one who killed Kendall. Justin asks for advice from his attorney friend Larry Lasker (played by Kiefer Sutherland), who is a leader of the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings that Justin attends. Larry advises Justin not to tell anyone else about this secret, because Justin isn’t completely sure and no one can prove that Justin was the one who caused Kendall’s death. Larry also says that because of Justin’s history of DUI arrests and alcoholism, and because Justin was at Rowdy’s Hideaway that night, Justin could be facing serious prison time if he confessed to the hit and run.

Justin can’t get out of jury duty, so he thinks the best thing to do is make sure that James is found not guilty by the jury. James doesn’t want it to be a hung jury because there would likely be a re-trial where James would be found guilty. It’s an uphill battle for Justin to convince his fellow jurors to vote not guilty. When the jurors begin deliberations, almost all of them say that they want to vote for a guilty verdict. Justin is the first to cast doubt, but he comes up against a lot of resistance from several jurors who say they refuse to change their minds about voting guilty.

The other jurors have various backgrounds and different reasons for their conclusions about the case. Jury foreperson Denice Aldworth (played by Leslie Bibb), who has previous experience as a jury foreperson, tries to be as fair as possible and attempts to keep the peace when the jurors inevitably argue with each other. Outspoken bus driver Yolanda (played by Adrienne C. Moore) is one of the jurors who says she won’t change her guilty vote. Yolanda keeps saying she just wants to complete this jury duty as soon as possible so she can go home to her three kids. Another person who’s adamant about voting guilty is youth center worker Marcus (played by Cedric Yarbrough), who has an agenda for wanting to find James guilty.

The other jurors are senior citizen Nellie (played by Rebecca Koon), divorced dad Luke (played by Jason Coviello), medical student Keiko (played by Chikako Fukuyama), stoner Brody (played by Drew Scheid), social media influencer Courtney (played by Hedy Nasser), “regular guy” Vince (played by Phil Biedron), college-age Eli (played by Onix Serrano) and retired homicide detective Harold (played by J.K. Simmons), who is the only other person on the jury besides Justin who initially says there’s room for reasonable doubt. There’s also an alternate juror named Irene (played by Zele Avradopoulos), a true-crime enthusiast, who brings a little bit of comic relief to this tension-filled story.

“Juror #2” stumbles a bit in the second half of the movie when Justin does some things that would be obvious red flags of suspicion in the real world. For starters, he hasn’t fully repaired the damage to the car, which he is in the process of selling. There are also some scenes of Faith doing door-to-door detective work that someone on her level of prosecutor would not be doing in real life. In real life, an underling investigator would be doing that type of work. Viewers will have to suspend some disbelief in those scenes, since “Juror #2” is a fictional movie.

What makes “Juror #2 riveting to watch are the engrossing direction and convincing performances. Hoult does a very good job of depicting the inner turmoil of Justin as an expectant father who is trying to hold his life together as he knows that things could easily fall apart if his secret is exposed. At the same time, Justin feels tremendously guilty about the possibility of wrongfully convicting someone who didn’t commit the crime.

Collette and Hoult, who previously worked together in the 2002 drama “About a Boy,” give the standout performances in “Juror #2.” Simmons and Messina also deliver noteworthy performances, even though they’ve played these types of characters many times already—the grizzled cynic for Simmons, the sarcastic dealmaker for Messina. Sutherland shares top billing for “Juror #2,” but he’s only in the movie for less than 15 minutes. “Juror #2” will not only keep people guessing on the outcome but this memorable movie also effectively shows how lines can be blurred between “heroes” and “villains.”

Warner Bros. Pictures released “Juror #2” in select U.S. cinemas on November 1, 2024. Max will premiere the movie on December 20, 2024.

Review: ‘Here’ (2024), starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright

November 2, 2024

by Carla Hay

Robin Wright and Tom Hanks in “Here” (Photo courtesy of TriStar Pictures)

“Here” (2024)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Culture Representation: Taking place in Philadelphia from 1503 to 2022, the dramatic film “Here” (based on the graphic novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Native Americans and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: The movie’s story shows what happens on a section of land through various centuries, including the conflicts and challenges of families who lived in a house that was built on the land in 1907.

Culture Audience: “Here” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind experimental movies that are dull and disjointed.

Tom Hanks and Robin Wright (center) in “Here” (Photo courtesy of TriStar Pictures)

“Here” is an overinflated bore that should have been a brief visual arts installation instead of a feature-length movie. The story is too fragmented for character development. The visual effects make real people look like video game characters. “Here” has a much-hyped reunion of the director and the two main stars of the Oscar-winning 1994 blockbuster “Forrest Gump” for an entirely different story, but this reunion in “Here” fizzles instead of sizzles. “Here” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of AFI Fest.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis (who co-wrote the “Here” screenplay with “Forrest Gump” screenwriter Eric Roth), “Here” is adapted from Richard McGuire’s 2014 graphic novel of the same name. “Forrest Gump” co-stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, who played a couple with a troubled relationship in “Forrest Gump,” also portray a couple with a troubled relationship in “Here.” The story concept of “Here” is simple, but it’s difficult to make a meaningful movie out of it. That’s because the story structure (which takes place over multiple centuries) is constructed as visual snippets of the lives of people who occupied a particular section of land in what would become the U.S. city of Philadelphia.

“Here” begins with eye-rolling pretentiousness by showing this section of land during an era when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Dinosaurs are seen galloping and charging through this land. During this brief part of “Here,” people might be wondering, “What is this? A dinosaur movie?” A montage then shows changing seasons and how the land evolved over the next centuries.

And then, the movie’s story officially begins in 1503, when an oak tree sapling begins to grow. The movie later shows that the oak tree was cut down in 1899. In 1907, a Cape Cod-styled house was built where the oak tree used to be.

Some people who hear about this movie might have the wrong impression that “Here” only shows the interior of a house’s family living room throughout various decades. That’s only partially true. Although the majority of “Here” consists of the interior living room scenes, the movie has many scenes that take place outdoors, before this house was built in 1907. These pre-1907 outdoor scenes are ultimately unnecessary and distracting.

These pre-1907 scenes take place in the section of land when it was an undeveloped wooded area. In 1609 and 1610, an unnamed man (played by Joel Oulette) and an unnamed woman (played by Dannie McCallum), who are both Native American, become a couple and have a baby. Their “courtship” consists of the man giving the woman a handmade necklace. That is all you will learn about this couple in this dreadfully shallow movie.

The couple is only shown hanging out in this wooded area. You don’t get to see where they live for shelter. You don’t get to see their personalities. You don’t get to see how they raise their child. You don’t get to see anything about their tribe or community. And you don’t even get to see them talk, because the “Here” filmmakers decided that the Native American characters needed to be completely mute in this movie.

Depriving these Native American characters of names and dialogue just reeks of filmmaker condescension, as if just showing these Native Americans in a few short-lived moments is enough to fulfill diversity requirements. It’s an appallingly tone-deaf approach to diversity. And it’s an example of how underrepresented people are often presented as “inferior” or “less than” the demographics who get the most screen time and dialogue in the average Hollywood studio movie.

“Here” also has intermittent scenes taking place in the 1700s to show portions of the life of Benjamin Franklin (played by Keith Bartlett), his wife Elizabeth Franklin (played by Leslie Zemeckis), their son William Franklin (played by Daniel Betts) and William’s son Billy Franklin (played by Alfie Todd). “Here” isn’t a biopic of the Benjamin Franklin family, so these scenes look jarringly out-of-place, especially since “Here” does a lot of non-chronological timeline jumping.

One minute, there could be a scene taking place in the house in the 20th century. The next minute, there could be a scene taking place in the wooded area before the house was built. There are superficial references to the Revolutionary War in the Benjamin Franklin family scenes. You will not be getting any history lessons from watching this movie.

In “Here,” Hanks and Wright portray a longtime married couple named Richard “Ricky” Young and Margaret Young. Most people who want to watch “Here” for the scenes with Hanks and Wright will be disappointed to see that these two stars are only in about half of the movie. The other scenes are for the characters who are in various timelines. Some of these other characters are family members of Richard and Margaret, while most of the other characters do not know the Young family at all.

Here are the characters who live in this house at various times:

Married couple John Harter (played by Gwilym Lee) and Pauline Harter (played by Michelle Dockery) are the house’s first residents in 1907. John really wants the house and persuades a reluctant Pauline that they should buy the house. John is enthusiastic about being a private airplane pilot in his spare time, so he later mortgages the house to buy a small airplane. John’s airplane pilot activities cause tension in the marriage because Pauline thinks it’s a dangerous hobby. Pauline is particularly upset when she finds out that John took their daughter (born in 1911) on the plane with him for a short ride.

Leo Beekman (played by David Fynn) and Stella Beekman (played by Ophelia Lovibond) are a free-spirited, childless married couple who live in the house from 1925 to 1944. The scenes with the Beekmans are competently acted but have no real emotional connection to the rest of the movie. All you will learn about this couple is that they have a fixation on a reclining, swiveling chair that they call a “relaxy boy chair,” and at one point in time Leo took partially nude photos of Stella to make some extra money.

Al Young (played by Paul Bettany) and his pregnant wife Rose Young (played by Kelly Reilly) move into the house in 1945. At the time, Al is 22 years old and a World War II veteran. It’s later shown that Al has undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and he abuses alcohol as a way to cope with his mental illness. Al has a moody personality that becomes volatile when he’s drunk. Rose is a dutiful and passive wife who has to cope with Al’s unpredictable mood swings.

Al, who grew up during the Great Depression, is constantly worried about money, which is why he took a stable job as a corporate salesperson. Their first child Richard, nicknamed Ricky, is born shortly after they move into the house in 1945. Al and Rose eventually have two other children: Elizabeth (born in 1950) and Jimmy (born in 1952). When Richard is about 16 years old, Al loses his job and has a period of unemployment, which causes turmoil in the marriage of Al and Rose.

Various performers depict the children of Al and Rose, at various stages of the children’s lives. The role of underage Richard is portrayed by Ellis Grunsell, Teddy Russell, Finn Guegan and Callum Macreadie. Lauren McQueen has the role of young adult Elizabeth, while Grace Lyra, Jemima Macintyre, Billie Gadsdon and Beau Gadsdon portray Elizabeth as an underage child. Harry Marcus has the role of young adult Jimmy, while Diego Scott, Logan Challis and Albie Salter portray Jimmy as an underage child.

Richard is very artistic and shows from a young age that he has a talent for drawing and painting. He especially likes to make portraits of his loved ones. Richard wants to be a graphic designer, but Al discourages this career and tells Richard that Richard should choose a profession that has more financial stability and requires wearing a suit in an office.

At 18 years old, Richard (played by Hanks) and his 17-year-old girlfriend Margaret (played by Wright) are in love with each other. The first time that Richard brings Margaret to his house to meet his family, she makes a good impression. Rose tells Margaret that Rose regrets giving up a career as a bookkeeper to become a homemaker. Rose advises Margaret to not make the same mistake and to pursue any career path that Margaret wants to have.

One night, when Richard and Margaret are alone in the living room, they have sex on the living room couch. She gets pregnant from this encounter. Richard and Margaret then have a quickie wedding in the living room in April 1964. In case viewers don’t know it’s 1964 in this scene, the movie makes a point of showing that during the wedding ceremony, the TV in the living room is tuned in to the Beatles performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

In September 1964, Richard and Margaret’s first and only child Vanessa is born. Richard puts aside his dream to become a graphic designer and takes a job as a life insurance salesman to support his family, as they continue to live in this house that is owned by Al and Rose. Vanessa as a child is portrayed by Albie Mander, Eloise Ferreira, Eliza Daley, Elodie Crapper and Faith Delaney. Vanessa as a young adult is portrayed by Zsa Zsa Zemeckis.

Richard and Margaret are loving and devoted parents to Vanessa, but trouble is brewing in the marriage, beginning in the marriage’s early years. Richard keeps postponing plans for him and Margaret to get their own home because he says they can’t afford it. Margaret, who is a homemaker, offers to get a part-time job to help with the expenses, but Richard wants to be the only income earner for their family. Adding to the marital strain, someone in the Young family has a major health crisis in 1979.

While all of these issues are going on in the Young family, “Here” abruptly cuts in and out to scenes that happen before and after the Young family members are living in that house. It’s later revealed that someone in the Young family sold the house in 2005, but Richard and Margaret go back to visit the house in 2022, when the house is up for sale again. This visit is not spoiler information because it’s in the trailer for “Here.”

In 2015, a family of three move into the house: Devon Harris (played by Nicholas Pinnock), his wife Helen Harris (played by Nikki Amuka-Bird); and their teenage son Justin Harris (played by Cache Vanderpuye), who is a high school student. The Harris family has a housekeeper named Raquel (played by Anya Marco-Harris), who gets COVID-19 in November 2020. Don’t expect to learn much more about this family.

Just like in the scenes with the Native Americans, “Here” clumsily handles the scenes with characters who aren’t white. The Harris family scenes have a racially condescending tone to them because the most memorable scenes with the Harris family have to do with pointing out that this family is African American. When the Harris family first moves into the house, Devon comments on how this house probably used to be owned years ago by people who never thought a black family would live there. Later, “Here” has a scene where Justin gets a family talk about how to deal with racist police officers.

“Here” is so enamored with its concept of “scenes (mostly) from a living room,” this ultimately flat and listless movie fails to explore deeper issues and refuses to answer inevitable questions. One of the biggest unanswered questions is: Why is married Richard so stubborn about living with his parents when he knows it makes his wife unhappy?

Richard took a job as a life insurance salesperson so that he could support his family, but obviously the job doesn’t pay enough for him to feel financially independent. It’s not as if Richard and Margaret have several children to financially support. They only have one child. This isn’t a situation where Richard and Margaret stayed in his parents’ house for a few years after their marriage. They stayed for several years.

After a while, it just doesn’t ring true that Richard (who lives rent-free in his parents’ house) isn’t making enough money to save for a down payment and mortgage on a small house for his family of three. Richard doesn’t have any addiction or spending problems that would explain why he keeps using the excuse that he can’t afford to buy a home of his own. By having Richard and Margaret “stuck” in the house for more years than what Margaret wants, it looks like a very contrived reason for the couple’s marital strife.

And speaking of things that look phony, the de-aging visual effects in “Here” are not entirely convincing, especially in scenes with Hanks, Wright and Bettany portraying characters who are supposed to be younger than 25. The faces don’t look natural. And neither do many of the body movements.

The best aspects of “Here” have to do with the movie’s production design, which looks meticulously accurate for each era that is depicted. There are some scenes where the background of the living room is clearly not real but is the creation of computer-generated imagery (CGI), making it obvious that “Here” blurs the lines between real production design and CGI design. The movie’s costume design is quite notable. However, production design and costume design are not enough to make a good movie.

“Here” undoubtedly has a very talented cast, but they are restricted by having characters with personalities that lack depth and have scenes that are cut too short and edited in an off-putting way. If “Here” had omitted everything that happened before the house was built and just focused on the two most interesting families who lived in the house, then “Here” might have been a meaningful film. As it stands, “Here” is a fairly ambitious experiment that is a failed experiment because of muddled storytelling that is in service of soulless visual effects.

TriStar Pictures released “Here” in U.S. cinemas on November 1, 2024.

Review: ‘We Grown Now,’ starring Blake Cameron James, Gian Knight Ramirez, S. Epatha Merkerson, Lil Rel Howery and Jurnee Smollett

April 28, 2024

by Carla Hay

Blake Cameron James and Gian Knight Ramirez in “We Grown Now” (Photo courtesy of Participant/Sony Pictures Classics)

“We Grown Now”

Directed by Minhal Baig

Culture Representation: Taking place in Chicago, in the autumn of 1992, the dramatic film “We Grown Now” features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with a few white people and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two 10-year-old boys, who are lifelong best friends in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing projects, have their friendship tested during a time when their crime-ridden neighborhood has become increasingly dangerous. 

Culture Audience: “We Grown Now” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in emotionally authentic movies about childhood relationships in challenging circumstances.

Blake Cameron James, S. Epatha Merkerson and Madisyn Barnes in “We Grown Now” (Photo courtesy of Participant/Sony Pictures Classics)

Artistically made and emotionally moving, “We Grown Now” avoids many of the cringeworthy traps of African American struggle dramas. The beautiful and brotherly friendship between two boys in 1992 Chicago are the heart and soul of the movie. “We Grown Now” has some stereotypes that have been seen before in many other films about people who live in low-income housing projects, but these stereotypes are not demeaning because the movie shows the reality that most people who are in these circumstances are not criminals.

Written and directed by Minhal Baig, “We Grown Now” had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and screened at other festivals that year, including the Chicago International Film Festival and AFI Fest. The movie received three nominations at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Best Cinematography and Best Editing. Baig is originally from Chicago. She did extensive research about the Cabrini-Green Homes housing project (usually referred to as just Cabrini-Green), where the main characters in “We Grown Now” live.

“We Grown Now” (which takes place in the autumn of 1992) is centered on two 10-year-old boys, who have known each other their entire lives and have both been raised their entire lives in Chicago’s Cabrini-Geen. Cabrini-Green was a group of government-funded apartment complexes built from 1941 and 1962, in order to provide affordable and safe housing to low-income people. About 15,000 people lived in Cabrini-Green during its peak residency. Cabrini-Green was demolished from 1995 to 2011 and became a mixed-used development property for businesses and residences.

In 1992, Cabrini-Green had become a dangerous place to live because of the high rate of crimes, but many of the residents couldn’t afford to live anywhere else in Chicago. That’s the situation with the immediate families of Malik (played by Blake Cameron James) and Eric (played by Gian Knight Ramirez), who are classmates in the same public school. Malik is the more outgoing, confident and academically talented of the two pals. Eric is introverted, sensitive and is comfortable with Malik taking the lead in many of their activities.

Malik lives with his divorced mother Dolores (played by Jurnee Smollett); his talkative younger sister Diana (played Madisyn Barnes); and Dolores’ widowed mother Anita (played by S. Epatha Merkerson), who shares stories with her grandchildren about the family’s history. Eric lives with his widowed father Jason (played by Lil Rel Howery) and Eric’s older sister Amber (played by Avery Holliday), who’s in her late teens or early 20s.

Dolores doesn’t like to talk about her ex-husband, who is not involved in raising Malik and Diana. The movie never shows or explains what caused the divorce and why this ex-husband is an absentee father. However, there’s a great scene in the movie that reveals how Malik still thinks about his father.

Malik’s household is religious, while Eric’s household is not. This difference is apparent when Malik and Eric have a discussion about whether or not there’s life after death. Eric believes that death is final. Malik thinks that there could be truth in the concept of an afterlife. Malik also believes that the afterlife can include rewards or consequences for how people lived before they died.

Malik and Eric (who are being raised by good people in loving households) are typical children who like to have fun. They are both big fans of the Chicago Bulls and naturally admire Michael Jordan, who was known for his high-jumping style of playing basketball. When Eric and Malik are on playgrounds, one of the things that Malik and Eric like to do is play games to see who can jump the highest.

Malik says in a voiceover near the beginning of the movie: “In Cabrini-Green, there’s only one rule on the playground: It don’t matter how old you are, how much money you got, how big or tall or small. All that matters is if you can jump.”

In school, Malik is more likely to speak up in classroom sessions. He is intelligent and curious. Eric and Malik are good kids overall, but they are occasionally a little bratty. For example, they have a classmate friend nicknamed Slug (played Giovani Chambers), whose real name is Samuel but who prefers to be called Tyrone. Eric and Malik sometimes tease Slug over little things, such as his real name.

Something that Malik and Eric like to do, which is shown more than once in the film, is they when they are outside in open spaces, they shout, “I exist! We exist!” Sometimes, they make these statements when no one else is there. Sometimes, they say these things so people can hear them.

One day, the atmosphere at the school suddenly changes when the news spreads about Dantrell Davis, a 7-year-old boy from Cabrini-Green, who was killed by gun violence while walking to school with his mother. (“We Grown Now” brings this real-life tragedy into the movie.) Davis was the unfortunate victim of gunshots fired by a gang member who intended the bullets for a rival gang member. As a result of this tragedy, the school where Eric and Malik attend begins requiring all students to have ID cards in order to enter the school property.

It’s under these tension-filled circumstances that Dolores (who works in the payroll department at an unnamed company) starts to re-think being stuck in a job where she can barely afford to pay her bills. Dolores feels like she’s overworked and underpaid. There’s an opportunity for her at the company to apply for a job promotion in a managerial position that would give her a higher salary.

However, Dolores confides in her mother Anita that she’s afraid to apply for the job because she’d be competing with people who have a college education—something that Dolores doesn’t have. Dolores also says she’s afraid that she might get fired if she indicates she wants to leave her current position for something better. There are racial implications to how Dolores is feeling because she mentions the company has almost no black people in managerial positions.

Anita is encouraging and supportive of all of her family members. Some of the most important parts of the movie are when Anita shares her advice and family stories. What Anita has to say isn’t always immediately appreciated in the moment but might be understood later. Anita and her husband Gordon, who died in 1987, took a big risk by leaving their families behind in Tupelo, Mississippi, to start a new life in Chicago. Dolores has spent her entire life living in Cabrini-Green, just like Malik.

Malik shows signs that he’s more mature than a typical 10-year-old boy. When Malik and Eric play hooky from school one day, it’s Malik’s idea that they should spend the day at the Art Institute of Chicago. These scenes of Malik and Eric together are a joy to watch, whether the two friends are looking in respectful awe at some of the museum’s artwork, or mischievously speculating what an arguing couple are quarreling about from a distance.

However, this day of educational fun comes crashing down with the reality that Malik and Eric were missing for several hours without telling anyone else where they were. The fallout of this unapproved trip will have an impact on Malik and Eric. In Cabrini-Green, where kids often have to grow up fast, it’s still a reality for Malik and Eric and they are not adults who can go wherever they want, when they want.

In 1992, Cabrini-Green had also become a place where law enforcement officers could enter a home without a warrant and do a destructive search. One of the families in this story has this painful and humiliating experience when officers raid the household after midnight for no plausible reason. It’s a harsh lesson that the kids in the family learn.

However, “We Grown Now” falls short in showing the realities of how black families in America have to educate their kids about how they can be treated differently because of racism. The movie didn’t need to have any preachy or corny lectures. However, when one of the kids gets yelled at by a parent for skipping school for that a day trip to the museum, the parent mostly mentions safety issues and not the racism reality that black kids (especially black boys) have to fight a negative stereotype of being problematic troublemakers.

Another flaw in “We Grown Now” is that Eric’s father Jason is a fairly underdeveloped character. Jason would have a lot to teach his son as a black male growing up in America, but those conversations aren’t really shown in the movie. And whatever happened to Malik’s father remains a mystery. In other words, the black men in the movie don’t have as much importance as the black women.

Despite these shortcomings, “We Grown Now” is still worth watching for the compelling and charming performance by James, who absolutely shines in his role as Malik. James has a natural way of acting that makes everything Malik does entirely believable. He embodies the character instead of just reciting lines of dialogue. Smollett and Merkerson are also quite good in their roles, but they’ve played variations of these types of characters in other movies or TV shows.

“We Grown Now” is not a pity party for low-income people. It’s also not a stereotypical “warning” movie about “at risk” youth who need “saving” from do-gooders, who usually come from outside the community. At its core, “We Grown Now” is a poignant and effective story about the power of true friendships and learning not to take life and loved ones for granted.

Sony Pictures Classics released “We Grown Now” in select U.S. cinemas on April 19, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on April 26, 2024.

Review: ‘The End We Start From,’ starring Jodie Comer, Joel Fry, Katherine Waterston, Gina McKee, Nina Sosanya, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch

March 3, 2024

by Carla Hay

Jodie Comer in “The End We Start From” (Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures and Paramount Global Content Distribution)

“The End We Start From”

Directed by Mahalia Belo

Culture Representation: Taking place in England over the course of about 18 months, the dramatic film “The End We Start From” (based on the 2017 novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: After a woman gives birth to a baby boy during an environmental crisis, she gets separated from the baby’s father, and she has to find ways for herself and the child to survive. 

Culture Audience: “The End We Start From” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Jodie Comer and movies about surviving an apocalyptic-like disaster.

Katherine Waterston and Jodie Comer in “The End We Start From” (Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures and Paramount Global Content Distribution)

Jodie Comer’s riveting performance is the main reason to watch “The End We Start From,” an occasionally vague but well-acted survival story about a new mother trying to survive with her baby during an environmental crisis. It’s a drama where the main character is not identified by any name, and almost all of the characters’ names are one letter in the alphabet, according to the film’s end credits.

Directed by Mahalia Belo and written by Alice Birch, “The End We Start From” is based on Megan Hunter’s 2017 novel of the same name. “The End We Start From” (which is Belo’s feature-film directorial debut) had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, and then screened at several other festivals in 2023, including the BFI London Film Festival and AFI Fest. The movie takes place in England, where an environmental disaster of massive flooding has caused power outages and homelessness for millions of people. The hardest-hit area is London and other cities that are close to large bodies of water.

“The End We Start From” doesn’t waste time in showing a prolonged buildup to this disaster, because this flooding happens in the first three minutes of the film. A very pregnant woman (played by Comer) is alone at her house during a daytime rainstorm when her house suddenly becomes flooded everywhere. It’s not said out loud during the entire movie, but it’s implied that this environmental crisis is the result of climate change.

The next thing that’s shown is the woman is in a hospital and has given birth to a baby boy. Her live-in partner—identified in the end credits only as R (played by Joel Fry)—is at the hospital too. “The End We Start From” never shows how the woman ended up in the hospital and how R found out that she was there. The couple names the baby Zeb.

The safest places in England during this crisis are elevated areas in the countryside, where R’s parents live. The woman (who apparently doesn’t have any other relatives) and R travel to visit his parents—identified by the letters G (played by Nina Sosanya) and N (played by Mark Strong)—who welcome this couple and the baby. It just so happens that G and N are doomsday survivalists, so they have plenty of food and clean water that they have accumulated in preparation for an apocalypse or other disaster. But how long will it be before they run out of these resources?

During this crisis, the best and worst of humanity is shown. Getting to the house of G and N is an ordeal, because the people in this rural area don’t want outsiders coming in to use their resources. There are government officials supervising roadblocks, and the new mother had to literally beg to be let through the roadblock, by explaining that she and R are there to stay with the baby’s grandparents. It’s doubtful that the couple would have been let through the roadblock if they didn’t have a newborn baby.

Through a series of circumstances, the new mother and R have to leave the home of his parents. And then, she and R get separated from each other. She ends up in a crowded shelter, where she meets another new mother named O (played by Katherine Waterston), who is the mother of a 5-month-old baby girl. O says she has a wealthy friend who’s living in a secure and well-stocked commune. O wants to find a way to get to this commune, which she is sure is a safe place to live.

Benedict Cumberbatch has a small role as a man named AB whom the women encounter along the way. And there’s a woman named F (played by Gina McKee) who meets the two women and has a pivotal role in the story. And what about R? The movie shows whether or not R and his partner find each other again. The entire story in the movie takes place over a period of about 18 months.

“The End We Start From” has a lot of harrowing situations that are very realistic to how people would act during a disaster where food, water, shelter and other basic needs become increasingly scarce. There are some flashbacks to how the woman and R met and their subsequent courtship. The movie’s biggest drawback is that very little is revealed about the main character’s life before she met R. However, “The End We Start From” is still an interesting character study in a competently told survival story.

Republic Pictures and Paramount Global Content Distribution released “The End We Start From” in select U.S. cinemas on December 8, 2023, with a wider expansion to U.S. cinemas on January 19, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on February 6, 2024.

Review: ‘The Taste of Things,’ starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel

February 10, 2024

by Carla Hay

Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in “The Taste of Things” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

“The Taste of Things”

Directed by Trân Anh Hùng

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in France, in 1889, the dramatic film “The Taste of Things” has an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A renowned chef and his longtime live-in cook are lovers, but she resists his attempts for them to have a more committed relationship.

Culture Audience: “The Taste of Things” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel and movies about people who love to cook.

Juliette Binoche Benoît Magimel and Galatéa Bellugi in “The Taste of Things” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

The slow-paced drama “The Taste of Things” isn’t for everyone, but it’s a mature story of what can happen when a famous chef tries to get his longtime personal cook to marry him. There’s plenty to like in this movie for romance fans and cuisine enthusiasts. The movie spends almost much as much time detailing the preparation of food as it does on showing how these two people live and love together.

Written and directed by Trân Anh Hùng, “The Taste of Things” is based on Marcel Rouff’s 1924 novel “La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet,” which is French for “The Life and the Passion of Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet.” “The Taste of Things” had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where Trân won the prize for Best Director. “The Tatse of Things” then made the rounds at several other film festivals in 2023, including the New York Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival and AFI Fest. “The Taste of Things” was France’s official selection for the category of Best International Feature Film for the 2024 Academy Awards, but the movie didn’t get any Oscar nominations.

In “The Taste of Things” (which takes place in 1889, in France), Dodin Bouffant (played by Benoît Magimel) is a renowned chef and a middle-aged, never-married bachelor with no children. He has been in a sexual relationship with his live-in cook Eugénie Chatagne (played by Juliette Binoche), who is also middle-aged, never-married, and has no children. Eugénie has been Dodin’s live-in cook at his manor for the past 20 years.

Dodin and Eugénie love each other, but she doesn’t want to commit to marrying him. She tells Dodin that she’s happy with the way their relationship is. Eugénie has turned down Dodin’s marriage proposals multiple times.

Will persistent Dodin get Eugénie to change her mind? That’s the question that lingers for most of “The Taste of Things,” as the movie fills up its time with scenes of preparations and servings of elaborate multi-course meals. Dodin decides he’s going to cook for Eugénie as a way to show his love.

Dodin is also seen with a group of five affluent male friends in many social situations, including when he and these friends get invited to dine with the prince of Eurasia (played by Mhamed Arezki), who originally invited just Dodin, but Dodin insisted that his friends get invited too. Dodin’s five closest friends are Grimaud (played by Patrick d’Assumçao), Magot (played by Jan Hammenecker), Beaubois (played by Frédéric Fisbach), Augustin (played by Jean-Marc Roulot) and Rabaz (played by Emmanuel Salinger). Rabaz is the one who stands out the most because he is a compassionate and very busy doctor.

Eugénie has an assistant cook named Violette (played by Galatéa Bellugi), who’s in her 20s and is a very loyal employee. Near the beginning of the movie, Violette’s niece Pauline (played by Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), who’s about 11 or 12 years old, is at Dodin’s manor to visit and is introduced to Eugénie and Dodin. It isn’t long before Eugénie notices that Pauline is a prodigy in culinary arts, with extraordinary senses of taste and smell. Eugénie wants to formally teach Pauline how to be a chef but first must get permission from her parents.

“The Taste of Things” is not a movie that makes any grand or provocative statements about life. The story also holds very little surprises. A few scenes of Eugénie fainting and clutching her abdomen in pain are foreshadowings of what happens to her in the last third of the movie, which won’t be a shock to anyone who’s read “La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet.”

The reliably engaging performances by Binoche and Magimel are worth watching in how they portray this bittersweet romance. Binoche and Magimel have easy chemistry with each other, since they were partners from 1998 to 2003 and have a daughter together named Hana, who was born in 1999. Magimel and Binoche also co-starred in the 1999 drama “Children of the Century.” The tone of “The Taste of Things” is quietly sensual, which is best appreciated by viewers who know that not all movies about romance have to be about messy breakups and predictable makeups.

IFC Films released “The Taste of Things” in select U.S. cinemas on February 9, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on February 14, 2024. The movie was released in France under the title “La Passion de Dodin Bouffant” on November 8, 2023. “The Taste of Things” will be released on digital and VOD on March 28, 2024.

Review: ‘Freud’s Last Session,’ starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode

December 21, 2023

by Carla Hay

Matthew Goode and Anthony Hopkins in “Freud’s Last Session” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Sony Pictures Classics)

“Freud’s Last Session”

Directed by Matthew Brown

Some language in German with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1939 in London (with some flashbacks to previous decades), the dramatic film “Freud’s Last Session” (based on the play of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: In this fictional story, world-renowned Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (an atheist) has a meeting with British writer C.S. Lewis (a religious Christian), as they debate about religion and reminisce about their lives. 

Culture Audience: “Freud’s Last Session” will appeal primarily to fans of Sigmund Freud, C.S. Lewis and star Anthony Hopkins, but the movie gets bogged down by too many dull scenes that veer far away from the story’s basic premise.

Liv Lisa Fries in “Freud’s Last Session” (Photo by Patrick Redmond/Sony Pictures Classics)

In basic Freudian terms, “Freud’s Last Session” is a lot of id in need of more superego. The movie is full of potential that needed much better guidance. This well-meaning drama about a meeting between atheist Sigmund Freud and religious C.S. Lewis starts with the right concept, but it ultimately goes off the rails with too many flashbacks and subplots.

Directed by Matthew Brown, “Freud’s Last Session” is based on Mark. St. Germain’s play of the same name. St. Germain and Brown and co-wrote the adapted screenplay for “Freud’s Last Session,” which takes primarily place in London, in 1939. “Freud’s Last Session” had its world premiere at the 2023 edition of AFI Fest.

“Freud’s Last Session” begins on September 3, 1939: two days after Nazi German forces have invaded Poland. It’s also the same day that the United Kingdom joined the Allied Forces in World War II. It’s on this particular day that Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (played by Anthony Hopkins) and British writer C.S. Lewis, nicknamed Jack (played by Matthew Goode), have a meeting that is fabricated for this story.

The meeting place is at Sigmund’s home office. Sigmund’s wife is away visiting a cousin, but Sigmund is being looked after by his overly attentive daughter Anna Freud (played by Liv Lisa Fries) and a housekeeper. Sigmund is on the verge of retiring. He also has a secret habit of spiking his drinks with morphine.

Viewers should expect Sigmund and Frank to have some debates about religion and whether or not God exists. And although these debates are somewhat lively, the movie turns into a mushy series of flashbacks where the two men talk about their childhoods and other aspects of their pasts. The movie gives very little insight to the talent that Jack/C.S. has as a writer. Jack/C.S. mentions his friend JRR Tolkien (played by Stephen Campbell Moore), who makes a brief appearance in the movie.

Jack has some trauma because he’s a military veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder. He’s also still emotionally damaged from feeling abandoned and neglected by his widower father, who sent Jack and his older brother Warren (played by Pádraic Delaney) away to boarding school. (Oscar Massey portrays C.S. Lewis at age 9, and Lucas Massey portrays Warren Lewis at age 12.)

Meanwhile, the movie goes off on a tangent about Freud noticing but being somewhat in denial that Anna is a lesbian or queer. Anna’s lover is a colleague named Dorothy Burlingham (played by Jodi Balfour), who works at the same university where Anna is a professor of psychology. Anna’s personal drama gets too much screen time in the movie.

Although the acting performances in “Freud’s Last Session” are good enough, the dialogue is often tedious. A movie about perhaps the world’s most famous psychiatrist fails to delve very far into his psyche (or anyone else’s psyche, for that matter) to offer a fascinating story. And that’s a flaw in this movie that’s too big to overlook.

Sony Pictures Classics will release “Freud’s Last Session” in select U.S. cinemas on December 22, 2023.

Review: ‘Smoking Causes Coughing,’ starring Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Oulaya Amamra

May 2, 2023

by Carla Hay

A scene from “Smoking Causes Coughing” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“Smoking Causes Coughing”

Directed by Quentin Dupieux

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in unnamed cities in France, the sci-fi comedy film “Smoking Causes Coughing” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Five superheroes called the Tobacco Force, whose mission is to combat people who cause pollution from smoking, are sent on a team-building retreat while a lizard villain threatens to take over the world.

Culture Audience: “Smoking Causes Coughing” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching quirky European movies that blend societal observations with bizarre comedy.

Oulaya Amamra, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier and Jean-Pascal Zadi in “Smoking Causes Coughing” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“Smoking Causes Coughing” has some amusing satirical things to say about pollution and the concept of utopias. It’s not writer/director Quentin Dupieux’s best movie, and the ending is underwhelming, but most of the movie is entertaining to watch. Unlike his other films that have a overall cohesive narrative, “Smoking Causes Coughing” is more like a series of sketches compiled for a movie. “Smoking Causes Coughing” had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and later played at other film festivals in 2022, including Fantastic Fest and AFI Fest.

“Smoking Causes Coughing” (which takes place in an unspecified future in unnamed cities in France) begins by showing a road trip being taken by an unnamed mother (played by Julia Faure), an unnamed father (played by David Marsais) and their teenage son Stéphane (played by Tanguy Mercier), who are passing by a remote desert-shrub area in their car. Stéphane wants to stop the car because he has spotted five “celebrities” he wants to meet: a group of “superheroes” named the Tobacco Force, who all dress in outfits that are similar to Power Rangers outfits, but in blue, white and gold.

When Stéphane and his parents stop the car, Stéphane runs closer to see the five members in this desert-shrub area. The members of the Tobacco Force have surrounded a giant mutant turtle called Tortusse (played by Olivier Afonso), who moves like a human, and are fighting this creature. Laser-like gas comes out of the Tobacco Forces’ fists until Tortusse explodes, with the body splatter flying in all directions, including on Stéphane and his parents. (Part of this scene is already shown in the trailer for “Smoking Causes Coughing.”)

This star-struck family is unfazed by being covered in gunky remains of an animal. They want to take photos with the Tobacco Force. All of the members willingly oblige and happily pose for pictures with these strangers who have gunk on their faces and clothes. And then this family gets back in the car and is not seen again for the rest of the movie.

The Tobacco Force’s five members, whose ages range from 20s to 40s, have a mission to save the world from pollution, specifically pollution from people smoking. They are also told there is a constant threat of villains trying to destroy the world. The villian who is their biggest threat is named Lizardin (played by Benoite Chivot), who is said to be much more dangerous than Tortusse. The Tobacco Force has a small robot sidekick named Norbert 500 (voiced by Ferdinand Canaud), who does all of the cleaning up after the Tobacco Force’s inevitable messes.

All of the members of the Tobacco Force are named after ingredients found in cigarettes. The oldest member of the Tobacco Force is Benzene (played by Gilles Lellouche), who acts as if he’s the leader of the group. Nicotine (played by Anaïs Demoustier) is flirtatious and bubbly. Ammonia (played by Oulaya Amamra) is sassy and assertive. Mercury (played by Jean-Pascal Zadi) is cautious and a married father of two underage children. Methanol (played by Vincent Lacoste) is the group’s quietest and youngest member. Benzene says that Methanol reminds Benzene of how Benzene used to be when he was Methanol’s age.

The Tobacco Force has to report to a boss named Chief Didier (voiced by Alain Chabat), who is usually just called Chief. This cranky boss looks like a human-sized rat and constantly has green ooze drooling from his mouth. The costumes in “Smoking Causes Coughing” are deliberately made to look like they’re from a tacky, low-budge sci-fi B-movie. For example, Tortusse’s costume looks like it’s ready to fall apart at any moment. Chief is obviously just a cheap-looking puppet.

A running joke in the movie is that Chief (who has a personality as slimy as the green ooze the drips from his mouth) is a ladies’ man who has no shortage of women in his bed. (He is seen with a different lover in every scene.) It’s the movie’s way of commenting on how power can be an aphrodisiac and can make someone look more attractive.

And not even Nicotine and Ammonia are immune to this attraction. Another running joke in the movie is that Nicotine and Ammonia both want to be the “favorite” employee of Chief and probably date him, but Nicotine and Ammonia don’t want to admit it to each other. Still, Nicotine and Ammonia sneakily try to find out what Chief says and does when he’s alone with the other woman. Nicotine and Ammonia also pretend not to be jealous when they see Chief with any of his girlfriends.

The Tobacco Force has been having some in-fighting recently, so Chief orders this quintet to go on a team-building retreat, which is also in a desert-shrub area. The best way to describe their living situation at this retreat is it looks like a high-tech camp. The group members are supposed to be by themselves at this retreat, but it should come as no surprise that they get some unexpected visitors.

A large part of “Smoking Causes Coughing” is about people sitting around a campfire and telling their scariest or most unusual stories. Benzene tells a story about two married couples—spouses Bruno (played by Jérôme Niel) and Agathe (played by Doria Tillier) and spouses Christophe (played by Grégoire Ludig) and Céline (played by Adèle Exarchopoulos) going on a camping trip together. Someone in this group of spouses gets alienated from the other three people, and choas ensues.

“Smoking Causes Coughing” has a total running time of about 80 minutes, which is a good-enough length, because this movie doesn’t have much of a plot. The performances of the cast members are mildly engaging but not particularly outstanding, People should not be fooled into thinking that the “superhero” costumes are indication that “Smoking Causes Coughing” is an adrenaline-packed action movie. This is a film that is for viewers who like seeing movies with unusual characters, eccentric comedy and the appeal of some very unexpected things happening.

Magnet Releasing released “Smoking Causes Coughing” in select U.S. cinemas, digital and VOD on March 31, 2023. The movie was released in France on November 30, 2022.

Review: ‘Saint Omer,’ starring Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda

January 1, 2023

by Carla Hay

Guslagie Malanda (far right) in “Saint Omer” (Photo courtesy of Super LTD)

“Saint Omer”

Directed by Alice Diop

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2016, in Paris and Saint-Omer, France, the dramatic film “Saint Omer” (based partially on a true story) features a cast of white and black people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A writer/teacher becomes obsessed with attending the trial of a Senegalese immigrant woman accused of murdering her own toddler daughter. 

Culture Audience: “Saint Omer” will appeal primarily to fans of courtroom dramas that reflect larger issues in society.

Kayije Kagame (center) in “Saint Omer” (Photo courtesy of Super LTD)

“Saint Omer” skillfully draws parallels between the gripping drama of a courtroom trial and how mothers are judged by society, when it comes to race, class and privilege. The movie is partially inspired by director Alice Diop’s real-life experiences of becoming obsessed with the case of Fabienne Kabou, a Senegalese immigrant woman accused in 2013 of killing her own baby girl by abandoning the infant on a beach at the rising tide in Berck-sur-Mer, France. Diop traveled from Paris to attend Kabou’s trial, which was held in Saint-Omer, France. Saint-Omer is located about 131 miles (211 kilometers), or a four-hour train ride, from Paris. It’s the same plot presented in “Saint Omer,” which was co-written by Diop, Marie N’Diaye and Amrita David.

“Saint Omer” had its world premiere at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize. The movie then made the rounds at several other high-profile film festivals in 2022, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival and AFI Fest. “Saint Omer” has been selected as France’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film for the 2023 Academy Awards. “Saint Omer” is also Diop’s first narrative feature film. She previously directed the 2022 documentary “La Permanence” and the 2016 documentary “We.”

“Saint Omer” opens in 2016, with the introduction of a Paris-based writer/teacher named Rama (played by Kayije Kagame), who teaches a film class and is also working on a novel. Rama and her supportive husband Adrien (played by Thomas de Pourquery) are happily married. She is also close to her two sisters Khady (played by Mariam Diop) and Tening (plauyed by Dado Diop) and their mother Seynabou (played by Adama Diallo Tamba), who are all of Senegalese heritage. The only hint of sadness in the family is when the family members look at old home videos and talk about Seynabou’s late father, who unexpectedly passed away of an unnamed illness. It’s mentioned when they watch these videos that he doesn’t look sick in the videos.

Rama’s world is about to be rocked to the core when she becomes caught up in getting the latest news about a 36-year-old Senegalese woman named Laurence Coly (played by Guslagie Malanda), who is accused of murdering her own 15-month-old daughter Adélaïde in 2015, by abandoning the child on a beach during a high tide. Laurence was raising Adélaïde as a single mother. The prosecution says the motive for this murder was that Ph.D. student Laurence didn’t want the burden of raising a child while working on her thesis.

Rama is struck by how much she and Laurence have in common, in terms of being Senegalese French women of the same age and educated with graduate degrees. Rama is also pregnant, but doesn’t reveal that information right away. And just like Laurence’s child, Rama’s child will be biracial, by having have a black mother and a white father.

Rama is compelled to attend the trial every day, so she travels to Saint-Omer by train, and she stays at a hotel for however long the trial will take place. She tells Adrien and her family that maybe the trial could be an inspiration for her next novel. However, it soon becomes obvious that Rama is going to the trial for more than just informational purposes or research. She’s going to see what kind of person Laurence is and how she will be treated by the criminal justice system in this trial. So much of Laurence’s case is subtly and not-so-subtly focused on how Laurence’s race and immigrant status might have affected what she’s been accused of doing.

The majority of screen time in “Saint Omer” consists of the trial proceedings, especially the riveting testimony of Laurence, who essentially tells her life story under questioning. It’s a story of a woman whose life is a mess of contradictions: She sought to gain social-status privilege but was also repelled by social-status privilege. She hates her dysfunctional relationship with her unavailable father, but she also got involved in a dysfunctional relationship with an unavailable older married man, who was the father of Adélaïde. She’s educated about the psychology of people but also ignorant about how she should treat her own mental-health issue of depression.

Laurence’s father Robert is a United Nations translator, who was in a relationship with Laurence’s mother for seven years, but they never married, and he ended the relationship to be with another woman. Robert financially supported Laurence up until a certain point, but he was never emotionally available to her, according to what Laurence says in her trial testimony. Laurence says that her single mother put a lot of pressure on her to succeed. In 1998, at the age of 18, Laurence moved from Senegal to France, because she wanted to get away from her parents.

Laurence’s ex-lover/Adélaïde father Luc Dumontet (played by Xavier Maly) and his wife Cécile Jobard (played by Charlotte Clamens) also testify in the trial. But it is Laurence’s testimony that captivates the courtroom spectators (and the viewers of “Saint Omer”) the most. Rama feels such a strong connection to Laurence, when Rama happens to see Laurence’s mother Odile Diatta (played by Salimata Kamate) randomly outside the courtroom, Rama impulsively strikes up a conversation with Odile and tries to get to know her better.

Malanda’s transfixing performance as Laurence is really the centerpiece of “Saint Omer,” because Rama’s story takes a backseat when the movie focuses on Laurence’s testimony. However, viewers get to see how this trial is affecting Rama when she goes back to her hotel room and has conversations with Adrien about it. Keeping her pregnancy a secret starts to take its toll. Rama eventually reveals in a powerful scene why she kept her pregnancy a secret. Kagame’s performance as Rama is very good, but Rama is not as complex as Laurence.

The underlying tone of “Saint Omer” asks viewers to pay attention to the clues of how people in the movie react to Laurence as a defendant in this case. There’s a stereotype that women who are accused of murdering their children usually have a financial motive, either because they can’t afford childcare or want to get insurance money. Laurence doesn’t fit that stereotype, so it adds fuel to the public’s fascination with her.

Laurence also doesn’t fit the stereotype of an underprivileged, undereducated “angry” black woman who gets accused of a violent crime. There are racial implications in how people react to Laurence’s demure image, eloquence in speaking and calm demeanor when she’s on the witness stand. Does it unnerve people that Laurence comes across as mournful and defeated instead of angry and defiant? And what does that say about how people think black women “should” act in the situation that Laurence is in during this trial?

By extension, Rama feels some of this racial judgment in Saint-Omer, a city that has a large population of working-class white people. How do many of these people feel when they encounter or see well-educated immigrants who are of a different race? The voir dire process shown in “Saint Omer” gives an insightful look into people’s attitudes among the pool of potential jurors before they even hear a word of testimony from Laurence.

The trial in “Saint Omer” is a symbol for larger issues of how the criminal justice system treats people of different races who are accused of the same crimes. Who deserves mercy and redemption? There are no easy answers, but there are patterns to how a defendant’s fate in the criminal justice system is largely determined by the defendant’s race and socioeconomic status. “Saint Omer” is also a thoughtful warning of what can happen when mental health problems go untreated, which is an issue that transcends all cultural boundaries.

Super LTD released “Saint Omer” in select U.S. cinemas for a one-week limited engagement on December 9, 2022. The movie’s release expands to more U.S. cinemas on January 13, 2023. “Saint Omer” was released in France on November 23, 2022.

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