Callum Turner Archives

Review: ‘Atropia,’ starring Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Zahra Alzubaidi, Tony Shawkat, Jane Levy, Tim Heidecker, Lola Kirke and Chloë Sevigny

February 6, 2026

by Carla Hay

Callum Turner and Alia Shawkat in “Atropia” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

Directed by Hailey Benton Gates

Some language in Arabic and Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Barstow, California, in 2006, the comedy film “Atropia” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Arabic, Latin and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An actress employed at a war simulation facility struggles to get respect from those around her.

Culture Audience: “Atropia” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and aimless comedies that aren’t nearly as funny as they think they are.

Tony Shawkat, Alia Shawkat, June Carryl and Zahra Alzubaidi in “Atropia” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“Atropia” should be called “Atrocious,” to serve as a warning about this awful and mishandled comedy. This long-winded movie takes place in a war simulation facility, where everyone is weird and neurotic, but not in a way that’s funny or clever. The movie’s concept had a lot of potential to be hilarious, but the terrible screenplay, messy direction and lackluster performances make “Atropia” an unappealing flop.

Written and directed by Hailey Benton Gates, “Atropia” had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, which is considered the festival’s top award. All this proves is that when only a handful of people on a festival jury get to decide what is “the best,” there’s a good chance that the jury’s judgment is very off the mark and not reflective of what a larger group of industry people would have chosen. “Atropia” will definitely be known as one of the worst movies to win this Sundance prize. (For context, “Atropia” was also competing against far superior Sundance movies in 2025, such as “Twinless” and “Sorry, Baby.”)

“Atropia” takes place in 2006, in the desert city of Barstow, California, The movie was filmed on location in California. “Atropia” begins by showing what looks like a scene taking place in a residential area in Iraq. U.S. Army soldiers are patrolling everywhere outside. One of the soldiers aggressively asks one of the local residents, “Where’s the owner of this truck?”

Tensions flare on the streets between the soldiers and the local residents, some of whom are insurgents. The tensions escalate into a shootout between the soldiers and the insurgents. A woman named Fayruz Abbas (played Alia Shawkat) has been observing this conflict and starts wailing on the street when she sees people injured or dying.

This chaos isn’t real, though. And this place isn’t really Iraq. It’s actually a war simulation facility called The Box, sprawled over 6,000 acres in Barstow. At this facility is a recreation of what is supposed to resemble a country like Iraq. Instead, the fictional nation at this facility is called Atropia, and the people are pretending to live in an Atropian city called Medina Wasl. The behind-the-scenes infrastructure of Atropia is built like a combination of a military base and a movie set.

In the middle of the simulated shootout, someone shouts for the nearby cameras to stop because the fake improvised explosive device (IED) didn’t detonate when it was supposed to detonate. Fayruz expresses her annoyance because it means that she and the other role players have to go through this shootout again. Fayruz Abbas isn’t this actress’ real name, and she’s American, not from the Middle East. Fayuz Abbas is the name she was assigned to role play as this Middle-Eastern character, who apparently doesn’t do much in Medina Wasl but sort fruits and vegetables and watch other people fight.

“Atropia” does not reveal the real names of many of the characters. And you won’t learn much about Fayruz, even though she’s the story’s main protagonist. Fayruz mentions at one point in the story that she’s estranged from her family because her relatives do not approve of this “role playing” job that she has. What you will learn about Fayruz is that she likes to whine and complain a lot because she’s unhappy with her life and unhappy with herself.

How much of an annoying complainer is Fayruz? There’s a scene in the movie where Fayruz is washing some dishes. And then, she talks out loud to the dishes to complain that she’s jealous of the dishes because they get more water and more care than she gets.

“Atropia” has a rambling tone where several people in this large ensemble cast are shown saying a few things that are supposed to be funny but aren’t. And then, it’s on to the next scene where some more people spout some more nonsense. And so on. And so on. The movie doesn’t care to reveal anything substantial about anyone.

Fayruz has a female co-worker role playing as someone named Noor Fouad (played by Zahra Alzubaidi), who has been assigned to portray someone who sells DVDs on the streets of Medina Wasl. Fayruz and Noor are supposed to have a semi-friendly rapport, but their conversations are vacuous and superficial. Fayruz and Noor mostly talk about the fake personas that they and other co-workers have been assigned for their role playing. Abu Saif (played by Tony Shawkat, Alia Shawkat’s real-life father) is the role player depicting the egotistical mayor of Medina Wasl.

A few supervisors at The Box—such as an androgynous manager named Coco (played by June Carryl) and a tough-talking military guy listed in the end credits only as Mr. Speaker (played by Tim Blake Nelson)—show up from time to time to utter forgettable lines of dialogue. But there’s no real sense that anyone is really in charge at The Box, and this is just a place where people are stuck in the desert and doing a lot of time-wasting improvising for lives that they’re pretending to have. It all becomes so tedious to watch after a while.

Who actually pays to simulate being in a war zone in a desert? Apparently, a lot of wannabe U.S. Army soldiers who want to live out their video game fantasies. Two “recruitment specialists” named Hayden (played by Tim Heidecker) and Pina (played by Chloë Sevigny) are tasked with screening potential clients before they can be approved to participate in this war simulation facility. Heidecker and Sevigny share headline billing for “Atropia,” but their screen time is less than 10 minutes in the movie.

An early scene in “Atropia” shows Pina rejecting a female potential client, who actually used to be in the U.S. Army, but she was discharged after she lost her right leg in combat during the Iraq War. As soon as she tells Pina and Hayden this information, Pina says that this Army veteran can’t be a part of the simulation because she doesn’t want to trigger anyone’s PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) with reminders of being in a war zone.

“Atropia” has several characters with missing limbs, as a way of showing that The Box hires people with these disabilities to make the war zone look more “authentic.” Many of the applicants who want to role play as soldiers also have missing limbs. It’s intended to be satirical but it comes across as disrespectful to people who have these disabilities in real life, to make them the punchline for some not-funny-at-all jokes in a bad movie.

Another worker at The Box is a U.S. army official named Segall (played by Jamie McShane), who trains Army recruits with the ranking of private. Segall is a checklist of every movie stereotype of a military man who is supervising rookies: He shouts and barks commands as if he’s disciplining unruly brats. He struts around as if he owns the place. And he acts like being feared is the same thing as being respected.

The recruits under his command are all men in their 20s with names like Private Freeburn (played by Dash Melrose), Private Duque (played by Blessing Oluwole) and Private Gomez (played by Gilberto Ortiz), who has the nickname Private iPod because he plays a lot of music on his iPod. You won’t learn anything meaningful about these people either. Gomez and Freeburn like to sing pop/rock songs from the 1990s and 2000s, such as Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” or Phantom Planet’s “California,” as if they like doing karaoke in the middle of training sessions. Freeburn is a war movie cliché of a wide-eyed and naïve rookie who’s about to have his innocence shattered by the horrors of war.

Supporting characters come and go and have no real impact on the story. A role player named Nancy (played by Jane Levy) is assigned to depict a war journalist, but her only purpose to her employers is to put her in low-cut tops and tight clothing, just so the “recruits”can lust over her. A woman named Candy (played by Lola Kirke) doesn’t do anything in the movie but banter with Fayruz over meaningless things.

Channing Tatum shows up for about 10 minutes in “Atropia,” to portray an unnamed movie star who visits The Box to do research for a role he’s doing in an upcoming movie. It’s a celebrity cameo that fizzles out with limp attempts at comedy. Tatum is also featured in an end-credits scene that’s also underwhelming and not funny at all.

“Atropia” (which drags on for 103 minutes, which is too long for its slight plot) misses many opportunities to have smart satire of the anti-terrorist paranoia and American patriotism fervor that fueled the U.S.’s military action in the Middle East after the tragedy of 9/11. “Atropia” also could’ve had some interesting character studies about the types of people who pay to be in these war simulations. Another possibility would be for the movie to have an angle that explores the greed of people who profit from these war simulation facilities. You’ll find none of these creative ideas in “Atropia.”

Mostly, “Atropia” is about Fayruz being confused or miserable. Fayruz likes being an actress, but she’s emotionally conflicted about this dead-end simulation job because she’s been stuck playing someone who’s supposed to be just a bystander. Fayruz feels as if she’s underpaid, overworked and underappreciated. In hopes of getting a better acting job somewhere else, Fayruz films herself on the simulation set so she can put together a video reel of her recent work.

Unfortunately, a lot of “Atropia” is about Fayruz’s bizarre and very unsexy “romance” with an American co-worker, who has been assigned to role play as a Middle Eastern insurgent called Abu Dice (played by Callum Turner), but he’s very unconvincing. What Abu really wants to do is be a U.S. Army soldier. Fayruz and Abu are attracted to each other, but their “courtship” has stops and starts that’s a lot like drunk boxers circling each other in the ring before deciding who’s going to pounce first.

What this means is “Atropia” has several scenes where Fayruz and Abu can’t quite decide how far they want to sexually go with each other. The first time Abu tries to kiss Fayruz, she lets him kiss her for a few seconds, and then she pushes him away. They have awkward conversations where they play mind games about how much they might or might not be attracted to each other. And then they might grope and kiss a little more until things progress into where you think it will go, but none of it looks believable because Alia Shawkat and Turner have no chemistry together.

Fayruz is a chronically insecure complainer. Abu is just a dimwitted creep. During one of their many off-putting conversations, Abu tells Fayruz that when he was serving in the military, he spent his masturbation time in portable toilets, so now he can only get an erection when he smells a lot of defecation. Ironically, it’s another way to describe why anyone might like this dull and repugnant movie, which is full of crap.

Vertical released “Atropia” in New York City on December 12, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cities on January 23, 2026. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on February 27, 2026.

Review: ‘Eternity’ (2025), starring Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner

November 25, 2025

by Carla Hay

Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller and Callum Turner in “Eternity” (Photo by Leah Gallo/A24)

“Eternity” (2025)

Directed by David Freyne

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in an afterlife location called The Junction, the fantasy comedy/drama film “Eternity” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A dead woman must choose if she’s going to spend eternity with her first dead husband or her second dead husband.

Culture Audience: “Eternity” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and charming movies about the afterlife.

John Early and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “Eternity” (Photo by Leah Gallo/A24)

“Eternity” skillfully blends comedy and drama in this unique tale of a dead woman who must choose if she’s going to spend eternity with her first dead husband or her second dead husband. The movie has some twists and turns. Some of these plot developments are predictable, while others are not. “Eternity” has a few tearjerking moments, but they aren’t laid on too thick.

Directed by David Freyne (who co-wrote the “Eternity” screenplay with Pat Cunnane), “Eternity” had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. The beginning of the movie takes place in Oakdale, New York, but the majority of “Eternity” takes place in a purgatory-like place called The Junction. “Eternity” was filmed in the Vancouver area.

“Eternity” begins in the year 2020, by showing an elderly married couple named Larry Cutler (played by Barry Primus) and Joan Cutler (played by Betty Buckley) in a car that Larry is driving. Joan and Larry have been married for 65 years. They’re about to go to a gender reveal party for an unborn great-grandchild. Joan has medical tubes in one of her arms.

During this car ride, Larry and Joan argue about where they want to spend their next vacation. Larry wants to go to a beach in Florida for their vacation. Joan would rather go to a place in the Rocky Mountains. “We’re not really Florida people,” she says. The conversation turns somber when Larry switches the subject and says, “We have to tell them.” Joan says, “I know.”

The couple’s big secret, which they will eventually reveal to family members, is that Joan (who is a retired librarian) has cancer and is in the final stage of her cancer. Even though Joan is expected to die before Larry, he’s the one who actually dies first. It happens unexpectedly at the gender reveal party, where Larry choked on a pretzel and died.

Larry finds out that he’s dead when he ends up on a train that goes to a place resembling a train station called The Junction. It’s a purgatory (a transition place between life and eternity) where dead people go in the bodies that they had when they were happiest in their lives. Larry (played by Miles Teller) is in his mid-30s when he is at The Junction. Larry finds out that each person is assigned an afterlife coordinator (AC), who helps makes decisions on what type of afterlife the deceased person will choose.

There are different types of afterlife behind several doors at The Junction. For example, one afterlife where people are perpetually at a beach. Another afterlife is where people are perpetually at a nightclub. Another afterlife is where people are perpetually on a cruise ship. Another afterlife is where people are perpetually in a rural wooded area.

Each afterlife realm has a name that reflects its primary lifestyle. Some of the names include Capitalist World, Man-Free World, Surf World and Infantilization World. Various salespeople are in The Junction, where they act like real-estate agents trying to sell different eternity worlds to undecided people in The Junction.

Larry’s AC is outspoken and friendly Anna (played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who tells Larry the ground rules of choosing where he will spend eternity. The biggest rule is that once someone chooses a specific eternity and enters that realm, the person can’t change the decision. Anyone who changes a decision can be stuck in a dark eternal place called The Void. Another rule is that the dead people can’t use ACs or anyone else to pass notes or messages to other dead people. Communication between the dead people must be directly with each other.

Larry also finds out from Anna that most people stay in The Junction for one of three reasons (1) they can’t accept death; (2) they can’t decide which eternity to choose; or (3) they are waiting for a loved one to show up at The Junction so that they and the loved one can decide together which eternity to choose. Larry wants to wait for Joan at The Junction because he wants to spend eternity with her. Anna tells Larry to avoid going through any red doors, which are implied to be doors to hell.

While Larry is waiting at The Junction, he goes into a bar lounge, where he is served by an amiable bartender. Larry eventually finds out that the bartender is Joan’s first husband Luke (played by Callum Turner), who was newly married to Joan when U.S. military soldier Luke died in combat during the Korean War. Larry and Joan got married in 1955, two years after Luke died in 1953. Joan and Luke did not have any children together, although they had planned to start a family before Luke’s untimely death. In The Junction, Luke is in his late 20s, the age range that he was when he was married to Joan, which was the happiest time in Luke’s life.

It should come as no surprise that Luke has been waiting for Joan at The Junction. Luke’s AC is flamboyant and sarcastic Ryan (played by John Early), who has had a longtime rivalry with Anna, who also happens to be Ryan’s ex-girlfriend. When the inevitable happens, and Joan dies and shows up at The Junction. She appears in the body that she had when she was in her late 20s.

Ryan is also Joan’s AC. Ryan would rather see Joan end up with Luke in eternity, so Ryan will no longer have to look after Luke and because Ryan thinks Luke was deprived of a having a long life with Joan. By contrast, Anna wants Joan to end up with Larry because she thinks Larry and Joan have a more meaningful love story. Joan has difficulty deciding which husband to choose. Predictably, Luke and Larry begin competing with each other to be Joan’s eternity choice.

Even though Luke and Larry never knew each other when they were alive, they know enough about each other to feel that the other rival is the inferior choice. There’s also jealousy between the two men. Larry has been envious of Luke’s good looks and image as a near-perfect “war hero” who was more romantic than Larry. Luke has been envious that Larry had 65 years of marriage with Joan, with a family that includes the descendants of Larry and Joan.

Joan befriends an elderly Junction occupant named Karen (played by Olga Merediz), who gives Joan practical advice about life choices. Most people in The Junction are not in elderly bodies, but Karen (who was a closeted lesbian for most of her life) says she was happiest when she was 72. That was the age Karen was when and went on a three-month vacation with her female best friend/lover and was free to be who she really was for the first time in her life. Karen went back to her closeted life (which included being married to a man) after this vacation.

“Eternity” has an uncomplicated premise that becomes a little more complex because of how well the principal characters are written. Olsen gives the standout performance in the cast because of all the wide range of emotions that Joan feels and expresses throughout this story. Joan has to choose between an eternity where she can find out what life would be like during a marriage that was cut short, an eternity where she can continue in an imperfect but happy marriage that she already knows very well, or she can make another eternity choice that doesn’t involve spending her eternity with Larry or Luke.

Teller’s nuanced performance as Larry succeeds in showing that Larry has a lot more in his inner life than being just a “regular guy.” Larry is clearly meant to be the most “relatable” character in “Eternity.” Turner gives a solid performance as Luke, who isn’t just a “pretty face” but has a lot of passion and thoughtful romance to offer to Joan. “Eternity” has some laugh-out-loud moments and some tender emotional scenarios, as Joan spends time with Luke and Larry to make her decision. Larry and Luke also have a few moments where they get to know each other better in this purgatory environment.

Although it’s very believable that Joan was in love with Larry and Luke when she was married to each of them, it’s never believable that Anna and Ryan used to be lovers. “Eternity” tries hard to convince viewers that Anna and Ryan still have sexual tension with each other, but Anna and Ryan come across more like platonic “frenemies” rather than people who ever had a romantic interest in each other. However, Randolph and Early have great comedic timing as Anna and Ryan, since the purpose of Anna and Ryan is mostly to be the movie’s “comic relief” characters.

“Eternity” is not a manipulative film that tries to be all things to all people. The dialogue is often witty and incisive but never preachy or overly judgmental. Although a few parts of the movie feel repetitive, when it comes to Joan dragging out the time that she takes to make her decision, “Eternity” keeps viewers guessing about what choice Joan will make. And when Joan makes her final decision, “Eternity” unapologetically celebrates it. It’s a movie that takes an optimistic view about true love and how life choices—even if they are mistakes—are still worth learning from in anyone’s journey of being honest about the difference between what we want versus what we need.

A24 will release “Eternity” in U.S. cinemas on November 26, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on December 23, 2025.

Review: ‘The Boys in the Boat,’ starring Callum Turner, Joel Edgerton, Jack Mulhern, Hadley Robinson, James Wolk, Peter Guinness and Chris Diamantopoulos

December 15, 2023

by Carla Hay

“The Boys in the Boat”

Directed by George Clooney

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1936, in the United States and in Germany, the dramatic film “The Boys in the Boat” (based on the non-fiction book of the same name) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Against the odds, the University of Washington junior varsity rowing team becomes a winning team in the United States, and competes in the 1936 Olympics against the Nazi German team that is expected to win the gold medal.

Culture Audience: “The Boys in the Boat” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker George Clooney and old-fashioned sports movies that are conventional to a fault.

Chris Diamantopoulos, James Wolk, Joel Edgerton and Dominic Tighe in “The Boys in the Boat” (Photo by Laurie Sparham/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Boys in the Boat” is the cinematic equivalent of stale and lukewarm comfort food for people who like formulaic underdog sports movies with no surprises. The acting performances are competent, but the screenplay and direction have too many dull clichés. Even if you didn’t know the true story on which this movie is based, it’s very easy to know how the movie is going to end within the first 15 minutes of watching the film.

Directed by George Clooney and written by Mark L. Smith, “The Boys in the Boat” is based on Daniel James Brown’s 2013 non-fiction book of the same name. The movie waters down, oversimplifies, and omits many interesting facts from this true story. The end results are a plodding and monotonous catalogue-type film, where most of the characters are either stereotypes or utterly forgettable.

“The Boys in the Boat” movie takes place in 1936, when the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression. In the city of Seattle, a financially struggling, working-class student named Joe Rantz (played by Callum Turner) is on the verge of being removed from enrollment at the University of Washington because he hasn’t been able to pay his tuition. In the beginning of the movie, Joe is told by a university official that Joe has two weeks to pay the tuition that he owes, or else he can no longer be enrolled in the university.

As luck would have it in a movie like “The Boys in the Boat,” Joe finds out that he can make the money that he needs in a short period of time if he gets chosen for the university’s junior varsity rowing team: the Washington Huskies. Only eight students will be chosen from a group of about 100 students who have tried out for these coveted slots. The team’s head coach Al Ulbrickson (played by Joel Edgerton) is a typical no-nonsense sports leader who warns everyone that being on this rowing team is physical torture, and most of the people who want to be on the team don’t have what it takes to succeed in rowing.

It’s not spoiler information to say that Joe makes the team, because the movie’s trailer and other marketing materials already reveal who’s on the team. The other students who are chosen are Don Hume (played by Jack Mulhern), Shorty Hunt (played by Bruce Herbelin-Earle), Jim McMillin (played by Wil Coban), Chuck Day (played by Thomas Elms), Johnny White (played by Thomas Stephen Varey) and Gordy Adam (played by Joel Phillimore). Nathan Coy (played by Tom Claxton) is the team’s reserve member. Glenn Morry (played by Frankie Fox) is the team’s coxswain.

Joe’s love interest is Joyce Simdars (played by Hadley Robinson), who was his crush in the fourth grade, but she moved away with her family and hasn’t seen Joe in years. But lo and behold, there she is at the University of Washington as a student. And when Joyce and Joe see each other again, she immediately reminds a slightly embarrassed Joe about the love note that he gave to her when they were children. Joyce, who comes from an affluent family, says she mainly enrolled in the university to get away from her religious mother. The romance between Joe and Joyce goes exactly the way you think it’s going to go in this type of movie.

Joe’s family background is reduced to a soundbite, in a scene where he tells the team’s boat maker George Pocock (played by Peter Guinness) that he’s been on his own since he was 14 years old. The character of George is a sports movie stereotype of a wise elder who’s not the main coach but who gives mentor advice to troubled athletes. Joe’s mother died when Joe was about 4 years old. His father Harry Rantz left to find work when Joe was in high school, and Harry didn’t come back. Joe briefly mentions he has a stepmother who had two young sons in her care. “It worked out best for everybody,” Joe says of his fractured family.

Really? Because in real life, things were much more difficult for Joe than how it’s described in the movie. In real life, Joe had an older brother named Fred, who is completely erased from the story. And although it’s true that Joe’s father Harry left, what the movie doesn’t mention is that Harry took his wife and stepsons with him. According to “The Boys in the Boat” book, Joe’s stepmother disliked Joe and insisted to Harry that Joe had to be left behind to fend for himself.

This traumatic abandonment is barely explored in the movie, which failed to give a deeper understanding of Joe’s intense motivation to succeed on the rowing team, other than the need to get money for tuition. Instead, the movie turns this parental abandonment into a glib line that Joe says about things working out for the best. You can almost do a countdown to the scene when deadbeat dad Harry (played by Alec Newman) shows up again at a certain point in Joe’s life.

“The Boys in the Boat” makes the same mistake that mediocre and bad movies about sports teams tend to make: Instead of giving distinct and memorable personalities to several of the team members, only one or two team members get this type of showcase. But even in this area, “The Boys in the Boat” falls short with trite dialogue for the two team members who get the most screen time: Joe and Don. Joe is in the team’s seventh boat position to set the pace, while Don is in the eighth position as the stroke anchor.

Joe is a typical star of a team in a sports underdog movie: He’s talented but he had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get to where he is. Joe is a good guy who’s a little bit introverted. He’s very shy when it comes to dating, which is supposed to make him look endearing to the viewers of “The Boys in the Boat.”

In these types of generic sports movies, the protagonist can’t be completely confident or completely privileged, or else the protagonist won’t be “relatable.” But “The Boys in the Boat” filmmakers don’t want to make Joe have too many hardships, or else that won’t make him “relatable” either. Even when Joe experiences a “will he or won’t he stay on the team” moment, there’s no real gravitas, because this moment comes and goes so quickly in the movie.

Every star on the team has a rival on the same team, who could either become a close ally or a bitter enemy. In this case, Joe’s competition for being the team’s biggest standout is Don, who’s even more socially awkward than Joe when it comes to dating. At least Joe can initiate a conversation with a potential love interest. In a scene taking place at a school dance, Don is afraid to look at and talk to a woman who looks at him flirtatiously when she’s sitting about six feet away from him.

Don’s rowing teammates are at the same dance. They know that Don is a talented piano player. And so, when they see that Don is having a hard time connecting with any women at this dance, what do his teammates do? They get up on stage and tell a reluctant Don that he has to play piano for the crowd, with the ulterior motive being that this performance will impress any women who could be Don’s love interest.

Don starts off playing bashfully, but he quickly improves and wins over the people in the audience, who respond with loud cheering. It gives Don the confidence he needs when that woman who was looking at him earlier has an inevitable conversation with him at the dance. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

The coaches in the movie are also fairly predictable. Coach Ulbrickson is typically gruff and tough in training and during rowing matches, but he shows a compassionate side when necessary. His two assistant coaches—Coach Tom Bolles (played by James Wolk) and Coach Brown (played by Dominic Tighe)—are mostly inconsequential characters. Coach Bolles is the more upbeat counterpart to frequently scowling Coach Ulbrickson, while Coach Brown is written with an almost completely blank personality.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports journalist Royal Brougham (played by Chris Diamantopoulos) shows up occasionally to give the coaches information on how rival teams are doing. The movie becomes a checklist of stepping stones for the team, until the Huskies reach their ultimate challenge: competing in the 1936 Olympics against the frontrunner rowing team from Nazi-controlled Germany. There is no suspense, because there would be no “Boys in the Boat” movie if the villain team won.

Along the way, viewers of “The Boys in the Boat” are constantly pounded over the head with corny dialogue saying that because the University of Washington’s junior varsity team members come from working-class backgrounds, they “deserve” to win more than any affluent and privileged students from opposing teams. This heavy-handed messaging is especially hammered into the Pacific Coast Regatta scenes, where the Washington Huskies face off against the better-funded and more experienced Cal Bears from the University of California at Berkeley. It’s reverse snobbery that’s kind of obnoxious and hypocritical, considering that “The Boys in the Boat” director/producer Clooney comes from the same type of affluent and privileged family background that is frequently insulted in this hokey movie.

And therein lies what is ultimately the undoing of “The Boys in the Boat.” By trying too hard to look “relatable” by appealing to “working-class/common-person” sensibilities, everything is “dumbed down” and ends up looking too phony in the movie. “The Boys in the Boat” needed to give audience members more credit in being able to handle the grittier and more complex nuances of these real rowing team members, instead of forcing these athletes into looking like “too good to be true” heroes with cardboard personalities.

Amazon MGM Studios will release “The Boys in the Boat” in U.S. cinemas on December 25, 2023.

Review: ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,’ starring Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Callum Turner and Jessica Williams

April 5, 2022

by Carla Hay

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”

Directed by David Yates

Culture Representation: Taking place in the 1930s in the United Kingdom, New York City, China, Germany, Austria and Bhutan, the fantasy film “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people and Asians) portraying wizards, witches and Muggles (humans with no magical powers).

Culture Clash: In this prequel movie to the “Harry Potter” series, good wizard Albus Dumbledore assembles a team to do battle against his former lover Gellert Grindelwald, an evil wizard who wants to oppress Muggles and take over the world.

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of “Harry Potter” universe fans, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” will appeal to viewers of fantasy films about battling wizards, but viewers of this jumbled movie will be very confused unless they saw or know what happened in 2018’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

Mads Mikkelsen in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

Messy and often tedious, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” stumbles and fumbles around like a franchise in search of a coherent plot. It’s ironic that this sequel about battling wizards has lost the magic of the first “Fantastic Beasts” movie and doesn’t even come close to the best “Harry Potter” movies. The “Fantastic Beast” movies, which are the prequels to the “Harry Potter” movies, began with 2016’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and continued with 2018’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” and 2022’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.”

David Yates, who directed the last four “Harry Potter” movies, directed all three of these “Fantastic Beasts” movies, and he has been announced as the director of more “Fantastic Beasts” movies. Unfortunately, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” looks like a movie where, even though many of the same filmmakers from previous “Fantastic Beasts” movies are involved, they’ve gotten too self-satisfied with their financial success and are just churning out uninspired mediocrity. “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is a perfect example of a movie with “sequel-itis,” where there’s little to no effort to surpass the creativity of the first (and usually best) movie in the series.

“Harry Potter” and “Fantastic Beasts” book series author J.K. Rowling has been the screenplay writer for the “Fantastic Beasts” movies. For “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” Rowling and Steve Kloves are the credited screenwriters. However, they make the mistake that a lot of movie sequel screenwriters make when crafting a story: assuming that everyone seeing the movie saw a preceding movie in the series.

If you don’t know who Grindelwald and Dumbledore are, if you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a magician and a Muggle, and you don’t care enough to find out, then “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is not the movie for you. But if you are new to the franchise and are curious, then you probably still need to go and watch the previous “Fantastic Beasts” movies to fully understand what’s going on in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.” Otherwise, too many parts of the film will be baffling to you.

What is easy to understand is that “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” has the predictable cliché of a good leader versus a bad leader, who wants to take over the world/universe/fill-in-the-blank space with whatever population. If it’s a fantasy film, various supernatural powers are used and/or spells are cast. And then, it all leads to a big showdown that has the expected outcome. The End.

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” follows the same formula, but it doesn’t care enough to inform new viewers about meaningful backstories of the main characters. Viewers would have to know in advance that magizoologist Newton “Newt” Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne) is a British Ministry of Magic employee, who works in the Beasts Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Viewers would also have to know that Newt is the protégé of Albus Dumbledore (played by Jude Law), a highly respected member of the British Wizarding Community and a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he teaches students how to defend against the dark arts. (It’s the school that’s later attended by Harry Potter and his friends.)

Viewers would also have to know that Dumbledore is gay and that he and his ex-lover Gellert Grindelwald (played by Mads Mikkelsen, replacing Johnny Depp in the role), who were a couple when they were in their late teens, are now sworn enemies, because Grindelwald is now an evil wizard who wants to take over the world. One thing that “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” does explain more than adequately (and repeats to the point where it insults viewers’ intelligence) is that Dumbledore and Grindelwald made a blood pact when they were a couple to never directly harm each other. This pact manifests itself in the movies with thorn-like chains around their wrists and a pendant that gets pulled out to show from time to time.

Viewers would also have to know that in this world populated by secret and not-so-secret wizards and witches, human beings with no magical powers are called Muggles. One of these Muggles is Jacob Kowalski (played by Dan Fogler), a lovelorn baker who has been Newt’s ally in all of the “Fantastic Beasts’ movies. However, Jacob has mixed feelings about helping Newt in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.” That’s because he’s in love with a witch named Queenie Goldstein (played by Alison Sudol), who was in a forbidden romance with Jacob because it’s taboo for wizards and witches to have romantic relationships with and marry human beings.

Viewers would also have to know the backstory about Newt’s sometimes tension-filled relationship with his older brother Theseus Scamander (played by Callum Turner), who is considered an upstanding employee of the British Ministry of Magic. By contrast, Newt is considered an unpredictable, somewhat roguish employee of the British Ministry of Magic. As explained in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” Newt and Theseus fell in love with the same woman named Leta Lestrange (played by Zoë Kravitz), whose fate is shown in that movie.

And then there’s the complicated history of Credence Barebone (played by Ezra Miller), whose real name was revealed to be Aurelius Dumbledore in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” He’s been caught in a tug-of-war between good and evil. In the beginning of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” Credence/Aurelius (who is very dour and mopey) is on evil Grindelwald’s side. And so is Queenie, the love of Jacob’s life.

What does all of this mean? Dumbledore is going to assemble a team to defeat Grindelwald, who is a political candidate in the upcoming election for supreme head of the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW). This election is supposed to show that Grindelwald is not going to operate in the underworld, but he wants to become part of the establishment government in power. Grindelwald’s two opponent candidates in this election are Brazil’s minister of magic Vicência Santos (played by Maria Fernanda Cândido) and China’s minister of magic Liu Tao (played by Dave Wong), while the outgoing ICW supreme head is Anton Vogel (played by Oliver Masucci), who is Germany’s minister of magic.

In addition to Newt and Jacob, the others who are on Dumbledore’s team are Professor Eulalie “Lally” Hicks (played by Jessica Williams), a sassy teacher at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; Yusuf Kama (played by William Nadylam), an even-tempered Senegalese French wizard; and Bunty Broadacre (played by Victoria Yeates), who is Newt’s loyal and trustworthy assistant. Queenie’s sister Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein (played by Katherine Waterston), a love interest of Newt’s, makes a brief appearance toward the end of the movie. Aberforth Dumbledore (played by Richard Coyle), Albus’ somewhat estranged brother and the owner of the Hog’s Head Inn, is in the movie as an explanation for more of the Dumbledore family history.

And you can’t have a movie called “Fantastic Beasts” without some magical creatures running around. In “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” the creature at that’s the center of the story’s intrigue is the rare Qilin (pronounced “chillin”), which looks like a combination of a horse and a dragon. The Qilin has the ability to read someone’s heart and determine if someone is good or evil. In the beginning of the movie, Newt discovers a Qilin that has given birth. However, Grindelwald wants to kill any Qilins, to prevent Grindelwald’s dark heart and sinister intentions from being exposed.

There’s also the Manticore, a three-eyed beast that’s up to no good and looks like a combination of a crab/lobster and a scorpion. And there’s a shape-shifting avian creature called a Wyvern. Returning to the “Fantastic Beasts” series are the Bowtruckle named Pickett and the Niffler named Teddy. Although these creatures all contribute some way to the story, the visual effects for these creatures and the battle scenes won’t be winning any awards.

The opening scene of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is an example of how drab the movie is when in areas it should be electrifying and intriguing. The scene shows Albus Dumbledore and Grindelwald meeting each other at a restaurant. A scene that should sizzle with unresolved feelings between these two former lovers just ends up fizzling with dull dialogue.

Dumbledore tells Grindelwald of their blood oath to never directly harm each other: “We can free each other of it.” Dumbledore adds, “I was in love with you.” Grindelwald is unmoved and expresses his disgust of Dumbledore interacting with Muggles: “Do you really intend to turn your back on your own kind?” Grindelwald sneers. And of the human customers in the restaurant, Grindelwald asks Dumbledore if he can “smell the stench [of humans] in the room.”

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” has more monotonous conversations throughout the movie, which makes the characters’ personalities very hollow and formulaic. The story has a lot of globetrotting to several countries to distract from the weak plot. The pacing is too slow in areas where there should be a higher level of intrigue. Many of the action scenes are poorly staged and look too forced and awkward. There’s nothing wrong with any of the cast members’ performances in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” but there’s no real spark to anything about this movie, which plods along until its very predictable conclusion.

The movie’s biggest failing is not adequately explaining crucial backstories. (At one point in the film, Lally does a rushed “exposition dump” by giving a babbling summary of what happened in the first two “Fantastic Beasts” movies.) The film’s lackluster dialogue and trite action scenes don’t help matters. The end result is a movie that seems to take its loyal fan base for granted and doesn’t really make new “Fantastic Beasts” viewers feel welcome.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” in U.S. cinemas on April 15, 2022. HBO Max will premiere the movie on May 30, 2022.

Review: ‘Emma’ (2020), starring Anya Taylor-Joy

February 21, 2020

by Carla Hay

Anya Taylor-Joy in "Emma" — Anya Taylor-Joy in “Emma” (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)

“Emma” (2020)

Directed by Autumn de Wilde

Culture Representation: This comedic adapation of Jane Austen’s 1815 novel “Emma” is set in the fictional countryside town of Highbury, England, and revolves around the white upper-class main characters and some representation of their working-class servants.

Culture Clash: The story’s title character is a young woman who likes to meddle in people’s love lives as a matchmaker, and her snobbish ways about social status sometimes cause problems.

Culture Audience: This movie will appeal mostly to fans of Jane Austen novels and period movies about British culture.

Anya Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn in “Emma” (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)

This delightful and gorgeously filmed adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1815 novel “Emma” stays mostly faithful to the original story but spices it up a bit to appeal to modern audiences. In her feature-film debut, director Autumn de Wilde takes the comedy of “Emma” and infuses it with more impish energy that’s lustier and more vibrant than previous film and TV adaptations.

The title character of the story is Emma Woodhouse (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), a woman of privilege in her early 20s, who lives with her widowed father in the fictional countryside town of Highbury, England. Emma is a somewhat spoiled bachelorette who thinks she has such high intelligence and excellent judgment that she takes it upon herself to play matchmaker to people she deems worthy of her romance advice.

The movie takes place over the course of a year in the early 1800s, beginning one summer and ending the following summer. Viewers know this because different seasons are introduced in bold letters, like a different chapter in a book.

One of the changes from the book that the movie makes is that it begins with Emma attending the wedding of her friend and former governess Miss Taylor (played by Gemma Whelan) to Mr. Weston (played by Rupert Graves). (The book begins after Emma has attended the wedding.) Because Emma had introduced the Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston to each other, Emma feels that she has what it takes to play matchmaker to the unmarried people in her social circle. It’s at the wedding that viewers are introduced to most of the story’s main characters.

Emma’s father, Mr. Woodhouse (played by Bill Nighy), is a loving dad but often exasperated by Emma’s antics. He’s a hypochondriac who tries to shield himself from imaginary drafts of cold that he’s sure will cause him to get sick.

George Knightley (played by Johnny Flynn) is the handsome and cynical brother-in-law of Emma’s older sister Isabella (played by Chloe Pirrie). He thinks Emma can be an annoying meddler, but he nevertheless seems fascinated by what she does.

Mr. Elton (played by Josh O’Connor) is a social-climbing local vicar who has his eye on courting Emma, mostly because of her wealth and privilege. He’s unaware that Emma doesn’t see him has husband material.

Miss Bates (played by Miranda Hart) is a friendly, middle-aged spinster who is slightly ashamed about being unmarried at her age. She lives with her mother, Mrs. Bates (played by Myra McFadyen), who is a friend of Mr. Woodhouse.

Missing from the wedding is Mr. Weston’s son, Frank Churchill (played by Callum Turner), who has a different last name because he was adopted by his aunt, who is frequently ill. Frank chose to stay home with his aunt instead of attending his father’s wedding.

Emma, who says multiple times in the story that she has no interest in getting married, nevertheless takes it upon herself to tell other people who would be suitable spouses for them. She starts with her gullible best friend Harriet (played by Mia Goth), a slightly younger woman of unknown parentage who idolizes Emma for being more glamorous and seemingly more worldly than Harriet is. Knightley can see that Harriet will be easily manipulated by Emma, and he expresses disapproval over Emma befriending Harriet.

A local farmer named Mr. Martin (played by Connor Swindells) has asked Harriet to marry him, but Emma convinces Harriet to decline the proposal. Why? Even though Mr. Martin is kind and clearly adores Harriet, Emma thinks that Harriet deserves to marry someone who’s higher up on the social ladder. As far as Emma is concerned, Mr. Elton would be an ideal husband for Harriet, so Emma sets out to pair up Harriet and Mr. Elton, whom Emma describes as “such a good-humored man.” It’s too bad that Emma doesn’t see that his humor is really buffoonery.

Mr. Knightley occasionally stops by to visit the Woodhouses, and he warns Emma not to interfere in other people’s love lives. He thinks Mr. Elton would be a terrible match for Harriet. Mr. Knightley is right, of course, but Emma ignores his warnings. Emma begins to manipulate communications between Harriet and Mr. Elton, with the goal that they will end up together and happily married. At one point in the story, Emma and Mr. Knightley have a big argument and they stop talking to each other.

Meanwhile, a new ingenue comes on the scene named Jane Fairfax (played by Amber Anderson), who is the orphaned niece of Miss Bates. Jane (who is close to Emma’s age) is attractive, intelligent, talented. And everyone seems to be gushing about how wonderful she is, so Emma gets jealous. As Emma complains in a catty moment, “One is very sick of the name Jane Fairfax!”

Frank Churchill, a very eligible bachelor, begins spending more time in the area. And it isn’t long before Emma has thoughts about who would make a suitable wife for him.

However, things don’t go as planned in Emma’s matchmaking schemes. A series of events (and a love triangle or two) make Emma frustrated that things aren’t going her way. Unlike most heroines of romantic stories, Emma can be very difficult, since she can be bossy, selfish and occasionally rude. However, there are moments when she redeems herself, such as when she tries to make amends for her mistakes. If you know anything about romantic comedies and don’t know anything about how “Emma” ends, you can still figure out what will happen and if she’ll fall in love.

One of the changes made in this “Emma” screenplay (written by Eleanor Catton) that’s different from the book is that it puts more heat in the characters’ sexuality, with a makeout scene that’s definitely not described in the book. Another change is Emma shows more acknowledgement of people in the working-class, such as her servants and Mr. Martin, by interacting with them more than she does in the novel.

As Emma, actress Taylor-Joy brings a little bit more of a “hot mess” attitude to the role than Gwyneth Paltrow did when she starred in 1996’s “Emma.” Whereas Paltrow’s version of Emma was the epitome of prim and proper, Taylor-Joy’s version gives the impression that she would be ready to show her legs or knickers under the right circumstances. And as Mr. Knightley, Flynn’s pouty-lipped delivery gives him a smoldering quality that Jeremy Northam’s Mr. Knightley didn’t quite have in 1996’s “Emma.”

“Emma” director de Wilde comes from a music-video background (she’s helmed several videos for rock singer Beck), and perhaps this background explains why this version of “Emma” has a snappy rhythm to the pacing, which is sort of a tribute to 1940s screwball comedies. This pacing is subtle if this is the first version of “Emma” that someone might see, but it’s more noticeable when compared to other movie and TV versions of “Emma,” which tend to be more leisurely paced.

This version of “Emma” is also pitch-perfect when it comes to its costume design (by Alexandra Byrne), production design (by Kave Quinn), art direction (by Alice Sutton) and set decoration (by Stella Fox), because everything will feel like you’ve been transported to the luxrious English estates of the era. The costume design in particular is worthy of an Oscar nomination.

“Emma” certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea for people who don’t like watching period pieces about stuffy British people. However, fans of Austen’s “Emma” novel will find a lot to enjoy about this memorable movie adaptation.

Focus Features released “Emma” in select U.S. cinemas on February 21, 2020.

UPDATE: Because of the widespread coronavirus-related closures of movie theaters worldwide, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has moved up the VOD release of “Emma” to March 20, 2020.