Tag: Cannes Film Festival

Review: ‘The Phoenician Scheme,’ starring Benecio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch and Bill Murray

May 29, 2025

by Carla Hay

Mathieu Amalric, Michael Cera, Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton and Jeffrey Wright in “The Phoenician Scheme” (Photo courtesy of of TPS Productions/Focus Features)

“The Phoenician Scheme”

Directed by Wes Anderson

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1950 to 1951, in Europe and in Asia, the comedy film “The Phoenician Scheme” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Wealthy and corrupt business mogul Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda tries to avoid getting assassinated while instigating and covering up shady deals.

Culture Audience: “The Phoenician Scheme” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the filmmaker Wes Anderson, the movie’s headliners, and madcap dark comedies about eccentric people.

Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Phoenician Scheme” (Photo courtesy of of TPS Productions/Focus Features) 

“The Phoenician Scheme” has more star power than story power. It’s watchable if you can tolerate filmmaker Wes Anderson’s oddball style. The cast’s performances save a plot that becomes a checklist of business betrayals and schemes.

Written and directed by Anderson, “The Phoenician Scheme” (which had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival) offers more of the same types of quirky retro films that Anderson has been churning out on a regular basis. Characters talk in a clipped and rushed tone, as if they’re always in a hurry to get somewhere. There’s meticulous production design, where every location looks unnaturally photogenic, like something of out of a museum.

Anderson’s movies also tend to have cinematography that is very pastel or very rustic, occasionally peppered with black-and-white imagery. The stories, more often than not, center on a morally dubious or conflicted protagonist who’s dealing with corruption in one form or another. Various other characters scurry around or pop in and out of the story to either participate in the corruption or try to thwart it.

“The Phoenician Scheme” fits all of the above descriptions. It’s not a movie where Anderson pushes any new creative boundaries. It’s a movie where Anderson sits firmly in his comfort zone, for better or worse. In other words, you don’t like any of Anderson’s films, “The Phoenician Scheme” will not win you over into become a fan of Anderson.

The protagonist of “The Phoenician Scheme” is Anatole “Zsa-Zsa” Korda (played by Benecio del Toro), known as Korda, who is a wealthy and corrupt business mogul of vague European origins. He has business in a variety of areas, such as arms dealing, property development and transportation. Korda has a reputation for betraying colleagues through fraud and theft. Needless to say, he’s made a lot of enemies.

The first scene in the movie shows Korda narrowly escaping an assassination attempt when the side of private plane is blown up during the flight, instantly killing one of Korda’s employees. Korda tells the airplane pilot that he’s fired before killing the pilot by ejecting the pilot from the plane before it crashes. For a while, Korda goes missing, but he is found alive. Korda’s incredible survival becomes big news in the media.

Korda has more than one close brush with death during the course of the movie. Every time he comes closes to dying, he briefly visits an afterlife realm, where God (played by Bill Murray) and other celestial beings try to judge Korda. Back on Earth, another group of people can be seen judging Korda in a different way: Members of business syndicate, led by a vengeful rival named Excaliber (played by Rupert Friend), vote unanimously to stop Korda, by agreeing to a price-fixing plan that will hinder Korda from buying certain materials for his businesses.

Korda’s grand scheme is to disrupt the economy of Phoenicia. Because he knows he’s an easy target for his enemies, he tries to revamp his business affairs by making his eldest child Liesl (played by Mia Threapleton) the heir to his estate, with Korda aiming to teach Liesl his shady business practices so she can continue his legacy. The only problem is that Liesl is in the final stages of becoming a nun named Sister Liesl. At first, she says no to Korda’s requests, but Korda convinces her to accompany him for his various antics. Liesl think she can redeem her father.

Korda has been married and divorced three times. He has 11 children. His other 10 children are all sons under the age of 18: Jasper (played by Edward Hyland), David (played by Kit Rakusen), David #2 (played by Jonathan Wirtz), Phillip (played by Milo James), Michael (played by Ogden Dawson), Jamie (played by Hector Bateman-Harden), Harry (played by Benjamin Lake), Steven (played by Gunes Taner), Samuel (played by Gabriel Ryan), Thomas (played by Momo Ramadan, also known as Mohamad Momo Ramadan). It’s really just a gimmick to show 10 boys in a room where Korda really can’t keep track of them all.

Korda also persuades a Norwegian entomologist Bjørn (played by Michael Cera), who was teaching Korda about entomology, to become his personal assistant. Bjørn is attracted to Liesl, even though she is about to become a nun. Much of the interactions between Bjørn and Liesl consist of Liesl trying to avoid Bjørn’s obvious infatuation with her.

“The Phoenician Scheme” gets more convoluted in its shenanigans than what is necessary, considering that it’s a very simple plot. The story shows Korda going from place to place in Europe and in Asia, in an attempt to cover up his embezzlements and to do damage control when certain business associates find out that Korda betrayed them. These associates include subway developers Leland (played by Tom Hanks) and Reagan (played by Bryan Cranston); nightclub owner Marseille Bob (played by Mathieu Amalric); and investor Marty (played by Jeffrey Wright), who all deal with Korda’s double-crossing in various ways.

Korda embezzlement has resulted in him having a money deficit that he calls the Gap. He spends much of his time scrambling to find money to fill the Gap before certain people find out that the money is missing. Along the way, he also has encounters with a royal named Prince Farouk of Phoenicia (played by Riz Ahmed) and a radical freedom fighter named Sergio, (played by Richard Ayoade), all while dodging gun shootouts and other deadly attacks.

Korda’s biggest enemy is his half-brother Nubar (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), who is called Uncle Nubar in the movie. Nubar’s grudge is explained in the story. Also appearing in supporting roles are Scarlett Johansson as Cousin Hilda, who becomes Korda’s fiancée; Hope Davis as Liesl’s Mother Superior; Willem Dafoe as a knave; and F. Murray Abraham as a prophet.

The dialogue is filled with quips, but the personalities of the characters are sometimes two-dimensional. Because so many famous people are crammed into Anderson’s films, it seems as if quality is sacrified for quantity, when it comes to character development. Anderson’s films often become less about the plot and more about which characters his celebrity cast members are going to portray and how offbeat these characters are going to be.

There’s a world-weary drollness that del Toro gives to his character that brings some humanity to an otherwise detestable character. Threapleton is a standout and is able to hold her own in scenes with cast members who are better-known that she is. Cera (who is American in real life) is somewhat miscast because he’s never that convincing as a Norwegian. Cumberbatch hams it up as the story’s biggest villain and having the physical-appearance flamboyance (bushy beard and debnair wardobe) to match. The other cast members also consistently stick to the Anderson film tone of hyper-realism.

“The Phoenician Scheme” can be used as an example of the type of stylish screwball comedy that fits Anderson’s filmmaking formula. His movies aren’t for everyone, but viewers who are inclined to like his films will probably find something to enjoy about “The Phoenician Scheme.” However, the movie gets repetitive, and there’s not much of a plot. “The Phoenician Scheme” should also be a wakeup call that Anderson needs to focus more on presenting better stories instead of over-relying on casting many famous people to populate his movies.

Focus Features will release “The Phoenician Scheme” in select U.S. cinemas on May 30, 2025, with a wider release to U.S. cinemas on June 6, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on July 8, 2025. “The Phoenician Scheme” will be released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on July 29, 2025.

Review: ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,’ starring Tom Cruise

May 14, 2025

by Carla Hay

Pom Klementieff, Greg Tarzan Davis, Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg and Hayley Atwell in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Some language in French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the world, the action film “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (the eighth movie in the “Mission: Impossible” movie series) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Asians, Latin people and Native Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: American rogue superspy Ethan Hunt and his international allies race against time to stop a massive artificial intelligence force called the Entity from destroying the world. 

Culture Audience: “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and action movies that are over-the-top spectacles.

Nick Offerman, Angela Bassett, Mark Gatiss and Janet McTeer in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is overstuffed, goes on for too long, and comes dangerously close to the ridiculousness of the “Fast & Furious” franchise. However, the engaging characters and superior stunts outweigh the movie’s flaws. It’s by no means the best “Mission: Impossible” movie in the series, but it’s certainly the one that expects viewers to think the hardest about a convoluted plot that doesn’t deserve overthinking.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (the eighth movie in the “Mission: Impossible” series was written by Erik Jendresen and McQuarrie. “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” had its world premiere in Tokyo and its European premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. McQuarrie also directed and co-wrote 2015’s “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” 2018’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” and 2023’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” whose title was later shortened to “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” after the movie underperformed at the box office. The “Mission: Impossible” movie series is inspired by the TV series “Mission: Impossible,” which was on the air from 1966 to 1973.

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is essentially “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two,” but you don’t need to see “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” to understand “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” That’s because “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is filled with exposition dumps of characters explaining what happened in previous “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and other previous “Mission: Impossible” movies, as well as over-explaining what they’re about to do in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.”

One of the most unintentionally laughable things about “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is how the characters take turns in their exposition-dump dialogues by each saying things with perfect timing, as if they know each other’s lines and never talk over each other or interrupt each other during these overly choreographed conversations. It never looks like real conversations, especially in the high-pressure situations that these characters experience. There are also several flashback montages for nostalgia’s sake and to inform viewers who might not have seen or who might have forgotten some key moments in previous “Mission: Impossible” movies.

At the end of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” American rogue superspy Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise)—an operative of the secret agency Impossible Missions Force (IMF)—escaped from with one of two keys that have the power to destroy a massive artificial intelligence villain called the Entity, which is intent on taking over the world. The Entity is not physically embodied in any one being because the Entity is a virtual enemy that can spread wherever and whenever it chooses. However, the biggest human enemy in the “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is Gabriel (played by Esai Morales), an assassin liaison for the Entity.

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” begins with an outer-space galaxy image and a male voice intoning the “Mission: Impossible” movie motto that gets repeated multiple times throughout this film: “We live and die in the shadows of those we hold close and those we never meet.” The voice adds, “The world is changing. War is coming.”

The praise gets a little corny and starts to deify Ethan as a female voice thanks Ethan for hs service, as several scenes from previous “Mission: Impossible” movies are shown like a greatest-hits playlist. The voice adds: “Every personal sacrifice you made has brought us another sunrise,” she says. “And although you never followed orders, you never let us down.

It’s also explained in the beginning of the movie that every corner of cyberspace has been corrupted by the Entity, which has inspired a doomsday cult. These fanatics have infiltrated every level of law enforcement, government bureaucracy and the military. “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” doesn’t do a lot with this “worldwide cult” plot development, because most of the movie shows Ethan mostly hanging out or fighting against a small group of people, most of whom are familiar characters.

Ethan is under orders to surrender to the U.S. government and hand over the Entity key that Ethan has in his possession. Ethan as other plans. His first order of business in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is to a prison break of former Gabriel cohort Paris (played by Pom Klementieff), a French assassin who is currently in prison in Austria because of the events that happened in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.”

This review won’t go into too many more details about what happens, but it’s enough to say that “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” has a lot of dazzling action scenes but the story doesn’t do much that’s surprising. Ethan is joined by Ethan is joined by his two most loyal sidekicks: IMF computer technician Luther Stickell (played by Ving Rhames) and IMF technology field agent Benji (played by Simon Pegg), who have opposite personalities. Luther is laid-back and cool. Benji is high-strung and nervous.

Also along for the ride are Paris and two other of Ethan’s enemies-turned-allies who first appeared in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”: arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (played by Vanessa Kirby); former U.S. intelligence agent Degas (played by Greg Tarzan Davis); and masterful thief Grace (played by Hayley Atwell), who has a mutual growing attraction to Ethan. Alanna is the daughter of illegal arms dealer Max Mitsopolis (played by Vanessa Redgrave), who died in 1996’s “Mission: Impossible,” the first film in the “Mission: Impossible” movie series. “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” reveals that another character in the movie has a parent who died in the first “Mission: Impossible'” movie.

Erika Sloane (played by Angela Bassett), who was the director of the CIA in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” is now the president of the United States in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” Field agent Jasper Briggs (played by Shea Whigham) also returns and continues to hunt Ethan. He has a much smaller role than he did in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.”

Other government officials who are featured in the movie are U.S. Army General Sidney (played by Nick Offerman), who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; U.S. Secretary of Defense Serling (played Holt McCallany); Walters (played by Janet McTeer); CIA director Eugene Kittridge (played by Henry Czerny); U.S. Navy Admiral Neely (played by Hannah Waddingham); U.S. Navy Captain Bledsoe (played by Tramell Tillman); and National Security Agency chief Angstrom (played by Mark Gatiss). They mostly just stand around and worry about decisions they have to make because of Ethan’s actions.

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” has a lot of expected globetrotting, mostly in Europe, North America and Africa. (The movie was actually filmed in South Africa and England.) The trekking includes a stop in Alaska, where CIA analyst William Donloe (played by Rolf Saxon) and his wife Tapeesa (played by Lucy Tulugarjuk) play crucial roles in the story. William was previously seen in the first “Mission: Impossible” movie. It’s explained in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” what William been doing since then.

The expected fist fights, explosions and gun shootouts occur, but the two most impressive action sequences involve (1) a deep-sea dive to go inside a shipwrecked submarine and (2) a battle to reach Gabriel flying in a single-passenger plane. (These action sequences are glimpsed in the movie’s trailers.) The deep-sea sequence is marred only by unrealistic-looking actions where Ethan does certain things without an oxygen tank or pressure suit, which would definitely kill someone in real life in a deep-sea environment.

Cruise famously does many of his own stunts. But the visual effects in these fake-looking scenes don’t look convincing because they make Ethan look superhuman, which defeats the “Mission: Impossible” purpose of showing Ethan as a flawed human being. The filmmakers should’ve left it so Ethan could be a superhero without superpowers that go beyond human capacities.

And in case it wasn’t clear enough, even though it’s repeated enough times in the movie: It’s up to Ethan to save the world. And if he doesn’t save the world, as someone in the movie quips, it’s all Ethan’s fault. The elevating of Ethan to almost messianic levels becomes a running joke in the movie. The concept of Ethan being a superhero is obvious and doesn’t even need to be said out loud. However, it’s good to see that the movie is in on the joke and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Cruise and the rest of the cast members are serviceable in their roles. But there’s sort of a cold disconnect in how most of the characters don’t mention the human stakes of saving their loved ones in this possible apocalypse. The only hints that any of these characters have lives outside of their work are brief glimpses of Erika showing affection and concern for her unnamed adult son (played by Kwabena Ansan), who’s in the U.S. military. William and Tapeesa are the only couple shown in the movie.

One of the drawbacks of making the chief villain an abstract virtual enigma instead of something tangible: It removes the possibility of having a villain with a unique personality. Human villain Gabriel is not in the movie for very long, considering the 169-minute runtime. Although there’s nothing wrong with Morales’ performance, Gabriel is an underdeveloped character and comes across as an inferior imitation of a villain in a James Bond movie.

Does anyone with knowledge of the movie business really believe that “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is the last “Mission: Impossible” movie? No. “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is not a great movie, but it’s good enough in delivering what fans expect. And what people can expect is for this franchise to continue in one way or another.

Paramount Pictures will release “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” in U.S. cinemas on May 23, 2025.

Review: ‘The Surfer’ (2025), starring Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand and Justin Rosniak

May 2, 2025

by Carla Hay

Nicolas Cage in “The Surfer” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“The Surfer” (2025)

Directed by Lorcan Finegan

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Australia, the dramatic film “The Surfer” (a remake of the Telugu-language movie of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asian people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An Australian-born, American-raised businessman goes back to the Australian beach area where he spent part of his childhood so that he can go sufing, but he encounters a group of hostile, violent and terroritorial surfers who don’t want him to surf there. 

Culture Audience: “The Surfer” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Nicolas Cage and suspenseful psychological thrillers where everything might not be what it seems.

Nicolas Cage and Julian McMahon in “The Surfer” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“The Surfer” evokes a moody fever dream where the protagonist is an unreliable narrator. This psychological thriller (about a man in conflict with a group of menacing surfers) is suspenseful but might be too weird or confusing for some viewers. It’s the type of movie that has enough to hold viewers’ interest, even if the ending of the film could be considered divisive.

Directed by Lorcan Finnegan and written by Thomas Martin, “The Surfer” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The movie subsequently made the rounds at several other film festivals, including the 2024 BFI London Film Festival and the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. “The Surfer” takes place in an unnamed city in Western Australia and was actually filmed in Yallingup, Australia.

“The Surfer” is a movie inspired by a mix of fact and fiction. In “The Surfer” production notes, Martin says he got inspiration for the screenplay from Australian writer Robert Drewe’s short stories; John Cheever’s 1964 short story “The Swimmer”; and the 1968 “The Swimmer” film adaptation, starring Burt Lancaster. “The Surfer” is also based on the true crime stories about the real-life surfing gang the Bay Boys, who were headquartered in Palos Verdes, California, and caused terror throughout the 1970s.

“The Surfer” begins by showing an unnamed businessman (played by Nicolas Cage) parked in a car with his teenage son Charlie (played by Finn Little) at Luna Bay, a beach area where this father spent the earliest years of his childhood. The man (who is identified only as The Surfer in the movie’s end credits) speaks reverentially about surfing and how it can teach important life lessons. This is the first time that The Surfer has brought Charlie (who is about 15 or 16 and is identified only as The Kid in the movie’s end credits) to Luna Bay, which The Surfer considers to be a very special place.

The Surfer wants to spend some time surfing with Charlie at Luna Bay. Charlie is not so enthusiastic and wonders out loud why his father told him to skip school for this excursion. The Surfer is in the area because the Lunda Bay house where he spent the earliest years of his childhood is now up for sale. The Surfer is obsessed with buying this house because it’s the last connection that he has to his father, who died when The Surfer was a boy.

Observant viewers will immediately notice that The Surfer has an American accent, while his son Charlie has an Australian accent. It’s explained later in the movie that The Surfer was born in Australia, but he and his mother moved to California after his father died. Charlie’s mother Helen (played by Patsy Knapp and voiced by Brenda Meaney) also has an American accent, which implies that The Surfer and Helen met in the United States but have been raising Charlie in Australia.

The Surfer and Helen have been separated for an untold period of time and are headed for a divorce. In a phone conversation shown later in the movie, Helen urgently asks The Surfer to sign the divorce papers because Helen wants to marry her boyfriend Derek, who is not seen or heard in the movie. Helen has another announcement for The Surfer that isn’t surprising because of how she wants this divorce to be final as quickly as possible.

The first indication that Luna Bay is an unfriendly place to strangers is when a man named Pitbull (played by Alexander Bertrand) brushes past The Surfer and snarls, “Fuck off,” even though The Surfer wasn’t bothering anyone. Just as The Surfer and Charlie are about to hit the waves on their surfboards, they are approached by hostile surfer known only as Blondie (played by Rory O’Keeffe), who gruffly says to these two out-of-town strangers: “Don’t live here, don’t surf here.”

It’s eventually revealed that Blondie is part of a Luna Bay all-male surfing gang called the Bay Boys. The gang’s leader is a wealthy heir named Scott” Scally” Callahan (played by Julian McMahon), who comes across as charming but it’s a mask for his true vicious personality. The Bay Boy gang members are extremely territorial about the beach and will instigate violent attacks on anyone who defies their orders to not surf at the beach. Scally runs the gang like a toxic fraternity, including having macho rituals, dangerous hazing initiations, and rowdy parties with plenty of alcohol and drugs.

Someone who’s a lot friendlier to The Surfer is an unnamed elderly homeless man (played by Nic Cassim), who is identified in the end credits only as The Bum. The Surfer and The Bum establish a rapport, partly because The Bum reminds The Surfer of The Surfer’s father. The Surfer also meets a friendly unnamed photographer (played by Miranda Tapsel) on the beach and has a brief conversation with her where he reveals that when he was young, he spent a number of years being as a surfer and travelogue writer

Someone who isn’t helpful at all (and is on the Bay Boys’ side) is an unnamed local cop (played by Justin Rosniak), who is called to the scene when The Surfer phones in a complaint about the Bay Boys assaulting The Surfer and stealing The Surfer’s surfboard. The cop does nothing about these crimes because he says that Scally’s family is too rich and influential. The corrupt cop also confirms Scally’s lie that the Bay Boys have had the surfboard on display at their beach shack for months. It’s also revealed that several local residents enable and excuse the Bay Boys’ reign of terror.

During this conflict with the Bay Boys, The Surfer becomes increasingly stressed-out about the sale of his childhood house. Early in the movie, the estate agent Mike (played by Rahel Romahn) told The Surfer in a phone conversation that a family has offered a better deal buy the house and pay $1.7 million in cash. The Surfer had made an offer to pay $1.6 million for the house and pleads for more time to match the other potential buyer’s offer. Mike gives Ther Surfer an extra two days to come up with the additional $100,000. Meanwhile, his mortgage broker (voiced by Greg McNeill) tells The Surfer that The Surfer’s credit is stretched to the limit.

It’s never stated what The Surfer does for a living, but he’s a businessman who has clients. He also seems to be successful because he drives a Lexus. But there are signs that The Surfer’s mental health has been unraveling, and his job could be in jeopardy. The Surfer has taken a personal day off from work to spend time with Charlie at Luna Bay on a day that The Surfer should have been in business meetings. A phone conversation with an office colleague reveals that The Surfer wasn’t wearing shoes and socks at a recent client meeting.

As the tension and anger start to build and boil over between The Surfer and the Bay Boys, some other things go wrong for The Surfer. In between, he has dream-like memories of his childhood. The movie’s cinematography is excellent at creating a retro idyllic glow to these scenes that seep into the story when The Surfer wants some escapism from his harsh reality. At several points in the movie, viewers might be asking, “Where is this story going?” How much you will enjoy “The Surfer” will depend on your curiosity to see how the movie ends.

Cage is known for playing a long list of eccentric characters. In “The Surfer,” he does an admirable job of not playing this character as too over-the-top (which is a major criticism that Cage has gotten for his recent performances) but as someone who has sides to himself that are not immediately apparent. McMahon also stands out as the villainous Scally, although there’s nothing complex about this evil character.

Looking beyond the obvious crime thriller aspects of the story, “The Surfer” also has subtle commentary about how outward appearances can be deceiving, when it come to who can be trusted as honest and credible. The Bum is often dismissed by people who think he’s mentally ill and worthless because of his physical appearance and his poverty, but he is a truth teller. That’s in contrast to The Surfer, who has the image of being a respectable businessman, but he could be telling lies to himself and to other people. “The Surfer” might disappoint some viewers looking for a straightforward and predictable story, but this film is actually an artistic depiction of how memories (good and bad) can shape someone’s reality in the past and present.

Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate released “The Surfer” in U.S. cinemas on May 2, 2025. The movie will be released in Australia on May 15, 2025.

Review: ‘The Shrouds,’ starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce and Sandrine Holt

April 17, 2025

by Carla Hay

Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger in “The Shrouds” (Photo courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films)

“The Shrouds”

Directed by David Cronenberg

Culture Representation: Taking place in Canada, the sci-fi horror film “The Shrouds” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asian people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A widower, who owns an unusual business where people can visually monitor corpses that are insides of graves, tries to solve the mystery of who’s trying to sabatoge his business.

Culture Audience: “The Shrouds” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker David Cronenberg, the movie’s headliners and body horror movies.

Vincent Cassel and Guy Pearce in “The Shrouds” (Photo courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films)

“The Shrouds” can get muddled and has some pacing that’s too slow. However, it’s a generally intriguing mix of a sci-fi horror story, a mystery thriller and a conspiracy tale that explores the intersections of corporate greed and death exploitation. The movie is supposed to be set in an unspecified period of time but it touches on timeless issues of grief and what happens beyond death.

Written and directed by David Cronenberg, “The Shrouds” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and subseuqently made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. “The Shrouds” takes place in an unnamed city in Canada. The movie was actually filmed in Toronto.

“The Shrouds” begins by showing a widower named Karsh (played by Vincent Cassel) looking through a hole in a rock wall as he sees the floating corpse of his wife Rebecca, nicknamed Becca (played by Diane Kruger), who died of cancer six years ago. The movie has several dream-like sequences where the lines are blurred between reality and hallucinations.

Viewers soon find out that Karsh is so obsessed with what’s happening to the corpse of his wife, he’s made an entire business of out it. Karsh also has an artificial intelligence assistant named Hunny (also played by Kruger), who looks eerily like a young version of Becca. Hunny is a perky and helpful assistant.

Karsh is next seen getting a dental exam. His dentist Dr. Hofstra (played by Eric Weinthal), tells Karsh, “Grief is rotting your teeth.” Dr. Hofstra then offers to give Karsh the JPG photos of Becca’s teeth from past dental exams. Karsh politely declines this offer.

The next scene takes place at The Shrouds, the name of the business that Karsh owns. It’s a combination of a high-tech, non-denominational cemetery and a restaurant, with the cemetery located right outside the back of the restaurant. As morbid as this might sound, apparently the business is doing well enough that Karsh hopes to expand his business to other cities and is looking for investors.

Karsh is having lunch at The Shrouds restaurant while he’s on a first date with a woman named Myrna Shovlin (played by Jennifer Dale), who describes herself as someone who’s been divorced for 20 years. This date was arranged by Dr. Hofstra, who thought that Karsh and Myrna would hit it off and because he thinks lonely Karsh needs to start dating again. The Shrouds restaurant is decorated with artifacts of ancient shrouds (displayed in glass cases) that Karsh tells Myrna are real shrouds.

Karsh and Myrna makes some small talk. He admits he’s still having a hard time getting over the death of his wife Becca. He tells Myrna that when Becca was buried, “I had an intense, visceral urge to get in the box with her.” Karsh also says that he can’t stand the thought of Becca being alone in her grave. He also describes himself as a “non-observant atheist.”

He further explains that Becca was Jewish, which is why she didn’t want to be cremated. Karsh adds, “She said she wanted to lie beside me in death.” Karsh then shows Myrna what The Shrouds cemetery business looks like by demonstrating how he uses it.

That’s how Myrna finds out that the business has hi-tech graves with built-in video screens that allow people to watch and monitor the corpses inside the graves by computer-related devices with access to the screens. Karsh brags to Myrna that his company has invented the technology (called GraveTech) to make this type of grave monitoring possible. He tells Myrna that people who sign up for this service are not repulsed by looking at rotting corpses but are comforted by this activity.

Karsh also tells Myrna that by monitoring Becca’s corpse, he feels connected to her with her body in death, just as he was in life—perhaps even more in death because he has complete control over when he can see Becca. “And it makes me happy,” Karsh comments. This creepy revelation is enough to make Myrna feel uncomfortable. She quickly ends the date, and Karsh never sees her again.

Karsh will soon become consumed with two other women who become his lovers, as already revealed in “The Shrouds” trailer. Terry (also played by Kruger) is Becca’s twin sister. Terry used to be a veterinarian, but she now works as a dog groomer. Terry is a conspiracy theorist who believes that Becca was secretly being used for experiments during Becca’s cancer treatments.

Soo-Min (played by Sandrine Holt) becomes Karsh’s other lover. She meets Karsh because she was sent by her husband Karoly Szabo (played by Vieslav Krystyan), a wealthy Hungarian who might be interested in bringing The Shrouds to Europe. Soo-Min happens to be blind, but she doesn’t let her blindness stop her from being a shrewd and calculating businessperson.

Before these romantic entanglements happen, The Shrouds cemetery is mysteriously vandalized. The perpetrator also sent a video recording to Karsh of the nighttime vandalism when it happened. The video does not show the vandal’s face, and the vandal doesn’t speak in the video.

Karsh doesn’t report this crime to law enforcement because he thinks it will be bad publicity for his business. Instead, he enlists the help of a computer technology expert named Maury Entrekin (played by Guy Pearce) to try to find out who’s behind this sabotage. Maury also happens to be the ex-husband of Terry, but he has remained on friendly terms with Karsh since the divorce.

The movie’s most valuable player in the cast is undoubtedly Kruger, who gives standout performances as three very different characters. She makes each character very distinct from each other in very convincing ways. Cassel is adequate in his role but comes across as somewhat stiff in some scenes. Holt and Pearce are serviceable in their performances.

Cronenberg is known for making movies with striking and inventive visuals. In this regard, “The Shrouds” continues that tradition. However, this movie won’t be considered a masterpiece. Some of the characters could have been better-developed. For example, Terry is ultimately defined by her feelings for Karsh (she had a longtime crush on him) and some sibling rivalry cattiness (Terry was jealous of the more-glamorous Becca), rather than being a well-rounded person with a full life of her own

“The Shrouds” blends the multiple storylines—the mystery of the vandal, Karsh’s love triangle, and the business expansion of The Shrouds—to sometimes clumsy results. And at one point in the movie, it becomes very easy to figure out (before it’s actually revealed in the movie) who’s responsible for trying to ruin Karsh’s business. And as a horror movie, it’s not that scary and is really more of a psychological drama. Despite these flaws, “The Shrouds” can keep viewers interested if they are curious about finding out the answer to the mystery and want to think about what would happen if GraveTech cemetery technology existed in real life.

Sideshow/Janus Films will release “The Shrouds” in select U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on April 25, 2025.

Review: ‘Misericordia’ (2024), starring Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot, Jacques Develay, Jean-Baptiste Durand and David Ayala

March 21, 2025

by Carla Hay

Félix Kysyl and Jean-Baptiste Durand in “Misericordia” (Photo courtesy of Sideshow/Janus Films)

“Misericordia” (2024)

Directed by Alain Guiraudie

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2023, in Saint-Martial, France, the dramatic film “Misericordia” features an all-white group of people representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An unemployed con artist goes back to visit a bakery family whom he used to work for, and he proceeds to cause chaos in their lives.

Culture Audience: “Misericordia” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in twist-filled psychological dramas about con artists and their victims.

Pictured clockwise, from center: Tatiana Spivakova, Salomé Lopes, Sébastien Faglain, Catherine Frot and David Ayala in “Misericordia” (Photo courtesy of Sideshow/Janus Films)

“Misericordia” is a spellbinding psychological thriller about how a con artist fools people into thinking he’s harmless but is actually intent on causing havoc in people’s lives. It’s a superbly acted story about manipulation and murder. Some of the subject matter is intended to be unsettling in showing how victims of con artists can continue to dismiss or ignore indications or evidence that they’ve been conned because it’s easier than facing the truth.

Written and directed by Alain Guiraudie, “Misericordia” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It then made the rounds at several other film festivals in 2024, including the Telluride Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. “Misericordia” (which takes place in 2023, in the small town of Saint-Martial, France) received seven nominations, including Best Picture, at the 2025 Cesar Awards, the French version of the Oscars.

“Misericordia” (which takes place in 2023) begins by showing Jérémie Pastor (played by Félix Kysyl), a con artist who’s in his 30s, returning to Saint-Martial, after many years spent living somewhere else. He has most recently lived in Toulouse, France. Jérémie used to live in Saint-Martial when he worked for a family-owned bakery. The family’s patriarch Jean-Pierre Rigal (played by Serge Richard, seen in photos and flashbacks), who was the bakery’s manager, has recently died at the age of 62. Jérémie is back in town to attend the funeral.

Jérémie’s presence gets mixed reactions. Jean-Pierre’s widow Martine Rigal (played by Catherine Frot) seems happy to see Jérémie. By contrast, Martine’s son Vincent Rigal (played by Jean-Baptiste Durand), who’s about the same age as Jérémie, isn’t thrilled to see Jérémie and asks him when he’s going back to Toulouse. Jérémie says he’s only visiting for a few days. He ends up staying much longer than that.

Jérémie tells people he is currently unemployed and has no plans on what to do with his life. Martine assumes that Jérémie’s unemployment means that he’s struggling financially, so she generously invites him to stay at her house. She says that Jérémie can sleep in the bedroom that Vincent had when he lived there. Vincent has his own home with his wife Annie Rigal (played by Tatiana Spivakova) and their son Kilian Rigal (played by Elio Lunetta), who’s about 7 or 8 years old.

Vincent is slightly annoyed to see Jérémie sleeping in Vincent’s former bedroom. He’s also suspicious that Jérémie has come back to Saint-Martial to take over the bakery. Now that Jean-Pierre is deceased, Vincent is expected to become the chief manager of the bakery. Jérémie assures Vincent that he has no intentions of working at the bakery again.

In a conversation with Vincent, Jérémie mentions that he recently broke up with a girlfriend whom he had been dating for three years. The movie eventually shows that Jérémie is bisexual, queer or sexually fluid. Jérémie doesn’t put a label on his sexuality. After a while, it’s pretty obvious that he’s sociopath who will have sex with or try to seduce anybody if it’s a way to get what he wants.

And that’s why there’s another reason why Vincent is highly suspicious of Jérémie: He senses that Martine has a weird crush on Jérémie: Martine treats Jérémie like a second son, but she also seems to be sexually attracted to Jérémie. Vincent is concerned that Jérémie will take advantage of widow Martine’s loneliness.

There’s an even more complicated twist to this dynamic, which further explains Vincent’s apprehension and resentment about Jérémie. When Jérémie used to work at the bakery, Jérémie told Jean-Pierre that he was in love with him. It’s unclear if Jean-Pierre did anything sexual with Jérémie, but Jérémie is the type of person who would at least try to sexually seduce someone he wants to target.

Martine and Vincent know about all Jérémie’s “romantic feelings” for Jean-Pierre, which is why Vincent is alarmed that his mother Martine seems so willing to let Jérémie back into their lives, even if it might be for a few days. The tension starts to grow between Jérémie and Vincent when Vincent sees that Martine is treating Jérémie like a son who has permanently come back home to live with the family.

A local elderly priest named Philippe Griseul (played by Jacques Develay) is a friend of the family and frequently stops by the house to visit. Martine lives near a wooded area, where the priest likes to pick mushrooms. One day, Father Griseul is on one of these mushroom-picking walks when he sees Vincent and Jérémie playfully roughhousing in the woods. It’s not a real fight, but there’s some real anger simmering between Vincent and Jérémie.

Another person who affects the dynamics between Jérémie and the Rigal family is Walter Bonchamp (played by David Ayala), a middle-aged bachelor who lives near Martine. Walter is an eccentric loner who doesn’t know Jérémie very well. But when Jérémie sees Walter again, Jérémie pretends that they were good friends during the time that Jérémie worked at the bakery.

The word “misericordia” is a Latin word for having compassion or pity for someone. And that is the reason why Jérémie is a successful con artist. He’s not handsome, nor is he especially charismatic. But he has a “sad sack” way about him that makes people feel sorry for him and want to offer to help him. Vincent can see right through Jérémie, which is one of the reasons why Jérémie and Vincent clash with each other.

As already revealed in the trailer for “Misericordia,” Vincent disappears and is reported missing to the local authorities. Two unnamed police officers (played by Sébastien Faglain and Salomé Lopes) show up and start investigating. Jérémie is the main person of interest because he was the last-known person to see Vincent alive.

Jérémie denies anything to do with Vincent’s disappearance. The cops put Jérémie under surveillance anyway. He becomes paranoid, which starts to affect what he does. About halfway through the “Misericordia,” the movie shows what happened to Vincent, so there’s no real mystery. The only mystery is if whoever is responsible for Vincent’s disappearance will be caught and held accountable.

Kysyl gives a compelling performance as manipulative Jérémie, who is not as “smooth” as he likes to think he is. Although the other cast members give very good performances, “Misericordia” is effective mainly because Kysyl is convincing in his “Misericordia” role as a con artist who pretends to be a “regular, harmless guy” but is actually the opposite. “Misericordia” has an ending that some viewers might dislike, but it’s an ending that is uncomfortably realistic, considering everything that takes place in this memorable story.

Sideshow/Janus Films released “Misericordia” in select U.S. cinemas on March 21, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on March 28, 2025. The movie was released in France on October 16, 2024.

Review: ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,’ starring Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela and Henry B.J. Phiri

March 7, 2025

by Carla Hay

Susan Chardy and Elizabeth Chisela in “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” (Photo by Chibesa Mulumba/A24)

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”

Directed by Rungano Nyoni

Some language in Bemba with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2024, in an unnamed city in Zambia, the dramatic film “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” features a predominantly African cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: During a trip to visit her home country of Zambia, a young woman discovers her uncle dead on a road, and his death opens up emotional wounds about family secrets.

Culture Audience: “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in watching offbeat films about how adults deal with childhood sexual trauma.

Elizabeth Chisela in “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” (Photo by Chibesa Mulumba/A24)

The drama “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” requires patience and curiosity because the storytelling doesn’t get to the point right away. The movie has a patchwork style of narration: Not all of the pieces are perfectly matched, but together they present the big picture. It’s a story about generational trauma from sexual abuse, where the unspoken weighs heavier than what’s said out loud.

Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The movie made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” takes place in an unnamed city in Zambia, where the movie was filmed on location. It’s shown at the end of the movie why it is titled “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.”

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” begins with a visually striking scene: A woman in her late 30s/early 40s named Shula (played by Susan Chardy) is driving on a remote road at night. She’s dressed in a black vinyl inflatable suit and is wearing a white beaded helmet and wraparound shades. Shula looks like she just stepped out of music video that draws equal parts inspiration from a late 1990s video such as Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” and an early 1980s video such as Davd Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes.” It’s mentioned later in the movie that Shula is dressed this way because she came from a costume party.

Shula sees the body of an unconscious or dead man in the middle of the road. When she stops her car and gets out for a closer look, she sees that the man is her 52-year-old uncle Frederick “Fred” Chitampo (played by Roy Chisha), and Fred is definitely deceased. Shula suddenly has a vision of herself as a child when she was about 7 or 8 years old (played by Blessings Bhamjee), and this child version of Shula looks back at the adult Shula gets back into the car.

The first person whom Shula calls is her unnamed father (played by Henry B.J. Phiri), who is Fred’s older brother. Shula’s father tells her to do two things: (1) Lock herself in the vehicle and (2) Send him money for a taxi. Shula’s father doesn’t seem too upset that his brother is dead.

The night that Shula finds the body, she follows her father’s orders to stay locked in the car. During her vigil, Shula sees her cousin Nsansa (played by Elizabeth Chisela) walk down the road. Nsansa also notices the body and inspects it to make sure that Fred is really dead. Nsansa, who has a bottle of beer, is drunk. She appears giddy after she sees that Fred has died.

All three of these family members don’t show any grief over Fred’s death. It’s the first indication that something is “off” with this family. The cause of Fred’s death is never revealed in the movie. Since there was no police investigation, viewers can assume that the authorities decided that Fred died of natural causes.

Shula doesn’t look happy to see Nsansa there. In fact, when Nsansa asks Shula to open the car door to let Nsansa in the car, Shula refuses to open the door. Nsansa bangs on the car door and front passenger window for at least two minutes, demanding to be let inside. Eventually, Shula opens the door.

Nsansa calls the police to report the dead body. The cop on the phone tells her to wait for someone to pick up the corpse. That doesn’t happen until the next morning, when first responders arrive to take the body away. Shula and Nsansa spent the night together in the car.

The rest of “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” shows what happens before, during and after Fred’s funeral in the span of about four or five days. It’s never made clear where Shula currently lives, but it’s implied that it’s somewhere in the United Kingdom. There’s a brief scene of Shula in a hotel room, where she’s on a videoconference call with about 15 work colleagues. Shula is the only person of color on this videoconference call.

These are clues that wherever Shula lives now, it’s a very different culture than the one she’s come back to in Zambia. All of her closest family members live in Zambia, including her parents (her unnamed mother is played by Doris Naulapwa); Nsansa; Shula’s younger cousin Bupe (played by Esther Singini); and Shula’s aunts Ruth (played by Gillian Sakala), Catherine (played by Carol Natasha Mwale), Linda (played by Loveness Nakwiza) and Bukata (played by Bwalya Chipampata).

At the wake for Fred’s funeral, all of the women are wailing and crying—except for Shula, who sits silently with a detached expression on her face. Shula hears eulogies and chatter praising Fred as a great man. And when Shula goes to a copy shop to place an order for invitations to a memorial service for Fred, she has to read the words that describe Fred as a person who was saintly.

After a few private conversations between Shula and Nsansa, they don’t come right out and say what the big family secret is, but it becomes obvious, based on hints. Nsansa, who is always drunk or on the way to getting drunk, is addicted to alcohol to cope with whatever emotional pain she is feeling. Later, Bupe makes a confession that many people in the family don’t want to hear.

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” shows how society’s etiquette of not speaking badly about dead people can affect those left behind who were hurt by the dead person. If the dead person committed horrific crimes and was never held accountable for those crimes, justice can be elusive or unattainable, especially when so many people want the easy way out of denying that the crimes occurred. The choice to stay silent is especially true for some people if the perpetrator is a family member.

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” is an atmospheric cinematic portrait of a family suppressing shame and guilt, no matter how much damage this suppression might cause. Chardy’s gripping performance as Shula is the heart and soul of this movie, which doesn’t present the story in a formulaic way. Shula’s homecoming turns into an awakening that confronts the pain of some very ugly and unsettling truths.

A24 released “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” in select U.S. cinemas on March 7, 2025.

Review: ‘Parthenope,’ starring Celeste Dalla Porta, Stefania Sandrelli, Gary Oldman, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Isabella Ferrari and Silvia Degrandi

February 21, 2025

by Carla Hay

Celeste Dalla Porta in “Parthenope” (Photo by Gianni Fiorito/A24)

“Parthenope”

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino

Italian and Neapolitan with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Naples, Italy, in 1973 and in 2023, the dramatic film “Parthenope” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A 23-year-old woman has a strange relationship with her brother and is sexually irresistible to many people she meets while she’s an anthropology student and deciding what to do with her life.

Culture Audience: “Parthenope” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino and artsy European films that don’t have much to offer besides gorgeous locations and depictions of luxurious but empty lifestyles.

Celeste Dalla Porta, Daniele Rienzo and Dario Aita in “Parthenope” (Photo by Gianni Fiorito/A24)

Much like the movie’s title character, “Parthenope” is pretty to look at but has a hollow personality. This Italian drama pretends to be erotic and provocative, but it is neither. Viewers might be as bored or frustrated as the movie’s shallow characters.

Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, “Parthenope” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival as an In Competition film eligible for the festival’s top prize: the Palme d’Or. It’s an example of a movie that most likely got into this elite festival in this prestigious category because of the director’s fame and connections, not because of the quality of the movie. If “Parthenope” had been written and directed by an unknown filmmaker, it’s doubtful that this vapid film would have been regarded as highly by people who think this is a great movie.

“Parthenope” (which take place in Naples, Italy, where the movie was filmed on location) has most of the story taking place in 1973, while the last 20 minutes take place in 2023. By the time this 137-minute movie ends, you’ll see plenty of gorgeous scenery of people luxuriating near beaches with sky-blue water, or lounging around in upscale homes and hotels. However, you can get plenty of those types of visuals for free in any number of video travelogues on the Internet.

What you won’t get by the end of the movie is any sense of who any of the characters really are and what is the point of this entire story. In 1973, Parthenope di Sangro (played by Celeste Dalla Porta) is a beautiful anthropology student who attracts sexual attention almost everywhere she goes—from men, women and even her own brother Raimondo (played by Daniele Rienzo), who has been obsessed with her since they were children. A huge part of the movie is about Raimondo (her older brother) being jealous when Parthenope gets any sexual attention from other people.

This quasi-incestuous storyline is supposed to look edgy, but most of the time it looks silly because the acting is so bad. Far from being turned off by Raimondo’s obvious sexual attraction to her, Parthenope seems to encourage it. There’s a scene where Parthenope and her boyfriend Sandrino (played by Dario Aita) are slow dancing, and Raimondo joins in on the slow dance, as Parthenope embraces Raimondo like a lover. There are multiple scenes where Parthenope looks like she is about to kiss Raimondo on the lips like a lover, and then the camera quickly cuts away.

Viewers are told in the movie that Sandrino has also been in love with Parthenope since childhood. Sandrino is the son of the housekeeper who works for Parthenope’s family. Parthenope and Sandrino become lovers as adults in 1973, so expect to see Raimondo glaring and pouting in envy when he sees Parthenope and Sandrino being lovey-dovey with each other. Not much is revealed about the siblings’ family except they appear to be affluent, based on what their waterfront home looks like. Raimondo’s creepiness is excused as Raimondo being “fragile,” which is the word that someone uses to describe Raimondo in the movie.

What’s so special about Parthenope besides her beauty? Nothing. Time and time again, the movie shows that she doesn’t have a charismatic personality, impressive intellect or even the ability to pretend that she has either of those qualities. This movie is just a collection of scenes of Parthenope interacting with people and fielding or making sexual advances or flirtations. There’s not even any sexual heat or spicy sex scenes in these interactions. Everything looks so staged and fake.

Even her anthropology professor Devoto Marotta (played by Silvio Orlando) can’t seem to resist Parthenope, although he’s one of the few men in the movie who doesn’t try to have sex with her or look at her with lust. Professor Marotta, who wants to be Parthenope’s mentor, gives Parthenope perfect scores for her grades, even though the movie shows no evidence that Parthenope is smart enough to earn those grades. Showing up in class and being handed those grades doesn’t count as evidence, especially when Parthenope admits in a classroom scene that she doesn’t even know what anthropology is.

Parthenope doesn’t have the curiosity of someone who is truly interested in anthropology. Maybe that’s why the movie barely shows her being an anthropology student and mostly shows her as a young woman who wanders from upscale place to upscale place and soaks up the attention she gets wherever she goes. Parthenope doesn’t seem to have any friends other than Sandrino, nor does she seem interested in making any friends.

The movie makes Parthenope’s restlessness a contrivance because she’s supposedly unsure about what she wants to do with her life. At a posh hotel’s restaurant, she meets famous British author John Cheever (played by Gary Oldman), who’s drunk and who heaps this compliment on her: “Are you aware of the distractions your beauty causes?” That’s enough for Parthenope to engage in a conversation with him because she’s thinking maybe she could be a writer too and John can be a valuable connection.

During this conversation, a talent agent named Lidia Rocca ([played by Emanuela Villagrossi) happens to be at a nearby table and approaches Parthenope to tell her that she’s so beautiful, she should be an actress. Lidia gives her business card to Parthenope. It doesn’t matter that this talent agent doesn’t actually know if Parthenope has acting talent because the movie is all about showing that Parthenope has strangers who are immediately attracted to her, and these strangers either (1) want to do things for Parthenope and/or (2) want Parthenope to do sexual things for them.

John gives more compliments to Parthenope, but he’s so drunk, Parthenope has to help him up to his hotel room. At one point in the hotel room, she’s stripped to nothing but a bikini bottom and wearing a towel. Just when she thinks this “seduction” is going a certain way, John confesses: “I could fall in love with you if I could prove to myself that I don’t like men.”

And faster than you can say “John’s not going to be Parthenope’s sugar daddy,” Parthenope loses interest in John and instead has to console herself by flashing her naked breasts at a teenage guy who’s pruning some of the flowers on an adjacent balcony. This guy is enthralled, of course, and when he extends his hand to give her a flower, Parthenope just giggles and runs away. Yes, it’s that type of movie.

Other people who encounter Parthenope in this superficial parade of banality are an acting coach named Flora Mallow (played by Isabella Ferrari); an unnamed cardinal/senior bishop (Peppe Lanzetta) during a ritual involving the liquefaction of San Gennaro’s blood; and a diva-like actress named Greta Cool (played by Luisa Ranieri), who is supposed to be a Sophia Loren type of movie star. Parthenope has awkward-looking encounters with all of these people, some of whom are inevitable sexual predators who abuse their power.

“Parthenope” throws in a sci-fi element in the last third of the film. It comes from out of nowhere and looks very pretentious. A storyline showing Parthenope at 73 years old (played by Stefania Sandrelli) also looks clumsily tacked-on near the end of the movie. It looks like writer/director Sorrentino struggled to come up with a way to fill up time for the movie because apparently there’s some kind of unwritten rule for “auteur” filmmakers that any movie they make has to be more than two hours long to be taken seriously as “art.”

The dialogue in “Parthenope” is simplistic and delivered in a wooden manner by most of the cast members. Dalla Porta sometimes shows some life in her acting, but in too many scenes, she has the flat personality of an artificial intelligence robot. Oscar-winning actor Oldman clearly did this movie for the salary and for the trip to Italy. It’s the only logical reason why Oldman agreed to deliver embarrassing lines such as when his character John says to Parthenope: “Beauty is like a war. It opens doors.”

At least John has an excuse: He’s supposed to be drunk when he utters such tripe. Sandrino is sober, and he’s reduced to acting like a lovesick puppy instead of being a fully formed adult human being. In an early scene in the movie, googly-eyed Sandrino asks Parthenope as he’s lurking near a window at her home: “Can I come in?” Parthenope answers, “You can circle the carriage.” She then uses the word “carriage” as a euphemism for her vagina. Who talks like that? Only people in awful movies like “Parthenope.”

After a while, “Parthenope” looks like a tiresome parody of the TV commercials that Gucci had when 1970s-obssesed Alessandro Michele used to be Gucci’s creative director. There’s a lot of “bohemian chic”/”boho chic” fashion and interior design on display. The characters move and talk as if they’ve taken too much Valium. How very 1970s but also how very boring to watch.

When troubled author John says that beauty opens doors, he didn’t mention that it depends on what types of doors can be opened with beauty. In the case of “Parthenope,” the doors that are opened lead to a vacuous pit of self-indulgent and meaningless storytelling. Anyone looking for anything more should keep the doors of “Parthenope” firmly shut by not bothering to watch this monotonous and smug vanity project.

A24 released “Parthenope” in select U.S. cinemas on February 7, 2025.

Review: ‘Emilia Pérez,’ starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez

January 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldaña in “Emilia Pérez” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Emilia Pérez”

Directed by Jacques Audiard

Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place from 2018 to 2023, mostly in Mexico (and briefly in Thailand, England, Israel, and Switzerland), the musical film “Emilia Pérez” (based on the operetta of the ame name) features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with some black people and white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A ruthless drug cartel leader enlists the help of an attorney to get gender affirmation surgery as a woman named Emilia Pérez, but things get complicated when she has her unsuspecting former wife and kids live with her.

Culture Audience: “Emilia Pérez” will appeal primarily to fans of the movie’s headliners and unconventional movie musicals that have better performances than songs or screenplays.

Selena Gomez in “Emilia Pérez” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Emilia Pérez” (about a transgender former drug trafficker) is a musical but it’s more like an artsy telenova. The performances are the main reason to watch this uneven movie that has a messy screenplay and mediocre songs. “Emilia Pérez” is not even close to being the masterpiece might be hyped up to be some of the movie’s biggest fans. However, the dramatic parts of the film are watchable enough for viewers who are curious to see how the story is going to end.

Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez” is based on Audiard’s operetta of the same name, which was inspired by Boris Razon’s 2018 novel “Écoute.” The word “écoute” means “listen” in French. “Emilia Pérez” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where the movie won the Grand Jury Prize (the equivalent of second place); Best Soundtrack; and Best Actress, with the prize shared by “Emilia Pérez” co-stars Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. “Emilia Pérez” is also France’s official entry for consideration for Best International Feature Film for the 2025 Academy Awards.

“Emilia Pérez” (which takes place mostly in Mexico) begins in 2018, by showing a 36-year-old defense attorney named Rita Mora Castro (played by Zoe Saldaña), who was born in the Dominican Republic but has been living in Mexico for years because she was educated in Mexico. Rita is having conflicted feelings as she prepares for a murder trial in Mexico City. Her client Gabriel Mendoza (played by Emiliano Hasan) is accused of murdering his wife. Rita suspects he is guilty, but her supervisor/lead defense attorney Berlinger (played by Eduardo Aladro) has decided that their strategy is to say that Gabriel is not guilty because Gabriel’s wife committed suicide. Gabriel ends up being found not guilty by a jury.

Rita is feeling unfulfilled in her life. In the musical number “Todo y nada” (which means “everything and nothing” in Spanish), Rita mentions she’s becoming disillusioned with her work, and she’s tired of people asking her why she’s not married and has no children. Rita also wants to start her own law firm, but she doesn’t have the money and thinks she’ll experience obstacles because of her race. (She identifies as Afro-Latina.)

Shortly after this verdict, Rita is in a courthouse restroom when she gets a strange phone call from an unidentified man, who tells her if she wants to become rich, she needs to go to a nearby newsstand in 10 minutes. It’s under these circumstances that a curious Rita goes to the newsstand. She is kidnapped on the street while waiting at the newsstand. Rita is taken in a van, where she meets her kidnapper while she has a hood over her head.

The kidnapper is a drug cartel boss named Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (played by Karla Sofía Gascón), who has a very unusual request. Manitas has been living as a man, but Manitas really identifies as a transgender female and has felt this way since childhood. Manitas wants Rita’s help to find a safe place to get gender-affirming surgery, and then fake Manitas’ death, so that Manitas can start a new life living openly as a woman with a new name.

Rita knows about Manitas’ reputation for being a ruthless criminal. However, she relates to Manitas feeling “stuck” and wanting a drastic life change. The money that Manitas wants to pay Rita would also make her a millionaire, so she accepts this offer with little hesitation. Of course, being kidnapped and pressured into this taking this offer is a big reason why Rita says yes to Manitas.

Manitas has a wife named Jessi (played by Gomez) and two sons: Diego (played by Lucas Varoclier) and Angel (played by Théo Guarin, who are about 4 and 6 years old at the time of Rita’s kidnapping. Jessi (whose full name is Jessica) was born in the United States and still has several family members living there. Jessi is a loving parent to the children, but she remains a bit of a hollow enigma throughout the story.

Manitas plans to have Jessi, Diego and Angel live in Switzerland, where Jessi doesn’t really know anyone. Rita has been tasked with telling Jessi that Jessi and the children have to go into hiding in Switzerland because Manitas’ criminal enemies want to harm them. Manitas death will then be faked, so that Manitas can start a new life as a woman.

“Emilia Pérez” (which has a total running time of 132 minutes) takes an awfully long time before Manitas gets gender affirmation surgery, which doesn’t happen until about 40 minutes into the movie. Before that, there are some very contrived-looking scenes of Rita going to the Thai city of Bangkok and the Israeli city of Tel Aviv to find the place that will give the surgery. She decides to choose a surgeon named Dr. Wasserman (played by Mark Ivanir) in Israel to give Manitas the procedure. The musical scenes for this search for a surgeon have the weakest songs in the movie.

After the surgery, Manitas has been reinvented as a bachelorette named Emilia Pérez (also played by Gascón), although she uses the title Señora (Mrs.) for her name. Four years later, Emilia and Rita see each other again at a dinner party in a London restaurant. Rita is surprised to see Emilia there but soon finds out that Emilia planned for Rita to be there.

Emilia wants Rita’s help again: This time, Emilia wants Rita to bring Jessi, Diego and Angel over from Switzerland to live with Emilia in Mexico. (Gaël Murguia-Fur has the role of older Angel. Tirso Rangel Pietriga has the role of older Diego.) Emilia explains that she misses her children and she wants Rita’s assistance in telling Jessi, Diego and Angel that Emilia is a distant cousin of Manitas, who gave her some inheritance money to take care of them financially.

For a while, the plan works. At first, Jessi is a little suspicious over how Emilia is overly affectionate with Diego and Angel. And at times, Emilia slips up when she describes Dego and Angel as her kids. (The children call her Auntie.) Overall, the family is harmonious but this wouldn’t be telenova-type of story if things continued to go smoothly.

Because Manitas is supposed to be dead, Emilia doesn’t mind that Jessi has a lover named Gustavo Brun (played by Edgar Ramírez), whose occupation is unclear. However, it’s implied that whatever he does for money is suspicious. What Emilia doesn’t know is that Jessi and Gustavo were secret lovers when Jessi and Manitas were married. Although Jessi says that she loved Manitas, she apparently married Manitas when they were very young, and she wasn’t sure if Manitas still loved her.

Emilia feels guilty about all the murders she was responsible for when she was a drug cartel boss, so she reinvents herself as a philanthropist who has started a nonprofit charity to find missing people whose disapperances are believed to be related to drug cartels. Rita works as Emilia’s attorney for this charity and is morally conflicted when Emilia solicits donations from rich criminals. It’s during this charity work that Emilia meets Epifanía Flores (played by Paz), whose missing husband’s body was found by Emilia’s workers. Emilia and Epifanía have an instant attraction and become intimately involved with each other.

“Emilia Pérez” has moments that are thoroughly engaging, especially in the scenes where Emilia and Rita are interacting with each other. But the first third of the movie is somewhat confusing because it looks more like Rita’s story. For a movie called “Emilia Pérez,” it’s a bit of creative misstep that the title character appears so late in the movie.

Another flaw in the movie is the relationship between Jessi and Gustavo is not shown enough for viewers to understand what Jessi sees in him. All that viewers will see about the romantic part of their relationship is that Jessi likes to talk dirty to him over the phone, they’re definitely in lust, and they like to have sexy dances with each other when they go out to a nightclub. Gomez is adequate in her role as Jessi, who is an underdeveloped character.

“Emilia Pérez” is also sketchy with details over why Emilia has so much financial control over Jessi and the kids. As the “widow” of Manitas, Jessi would be entitled to a lot more that what she gets, in terms of an inheritance and financial independence. Viewers can only conclude that Jessi must be less-than-smart if she believes everything that Rita tells her and willingly goes to live with a “cousin-in-law” whom Jessi has never met before and knows almost nothing about. Jessi’s financial dependence on Emilia is crucial to a major plot development in the last third of the film.

Gascón (who is a transgender woman in real life) and Saldaña are the obvious standouts with their committed performances. Saldaña’s song-and-dance number of “El Mal” during a charity event is a highlight of the movie. Gascón also excels in her dual roles as Emilia and Manitas. “Emilia Pérez” blends romance, action and drama into a poutpourri that isn’t thoroughly appealing because of some plot holes, unanswered questions, and songs that are underwhelming. However, the personalities of Emilia and Rita are interesting enough to keep viewers engaged in story that isn’t often seen on screen.

Netflix released “Emilia Pérez” in select U.S. cinemas on November 1, 2024. Netflix premiered the movie for streaming on November 13, 2024.

Review: ‘Oh, Canada’ (2024), starring Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi

December 19, 2024

by Carla Hay

Richard Gere and Uma Thurman in “Oh, Canada” (Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

“Oh, Canada” (2024)

Directed by Paul Schrader

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2023 in Montreal, with flashbacks in the U.S. and Canada from the 1960s to the 1990s, the dramatic film “Oh, Canada” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A famous documentary filmmaker, who is terminally ill with cancer, confesses his past misdeeds during a documentary interview conducted by two of his former students.

Culture Audience: “Oh, Canada” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Paul Schrader and meditative dramas about people looking back on their lives.

Jacob Elordi in “Oh, Canada” (Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

“Oh, Canada” doesn’t reach its intended impact as an important movie from filmmaker Paul Schrader. However, this drama about a flawed documentarian looking back on his life has interesting performances from the cast members. This is the type of movie that isn’t horrible, but viewers should not expect “Oh, Canada” to be among the best films from Schrader or the main stars of the movie.

Written and directed by Schrader, “Oh, Canada” is based on Russell Banks’ 2021 novel “Foregone.” “Oh, Canada” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and also screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2024 New York Film Festival. The movie takes place in Montreal, on December 23, 2023, but the story’s protagonist tells memories (seen in flashbacks) that go back to the 1960s.

“Oh, Canada” begins by showing three documentarians setting up a library/study room for an interview in the Montreal home of acclaimed documentarian Leonard “Leo” Fife (played by Richad Gere), who is terminally ill with cancer. (The movie never says what type of cancer he has.) The interview is for a CBC documentary about Leo’s life. Leo says he wants to give final confessions about his life for this interview.

The people conducting the interview are two of Leo’s former students, who are also successful documentarians on their own: Malcolm (played by Michael Imperioli) and his wife Diana (played by Victoria Hill), whom Leo jokingly says are the “Mr. and Mrs. Ken Burns of Canada.” Malcolm and Diana are accompanied by their 24-year-old assistant Sloan Ambrose (played by Penelope Mitchell), who is star-struck by Leo.

Also present during this interview are Leo’s wife/producing partner Emma (Uma Thurman) and Leo’s nursing assistant Rene (played by Caroline Dhavernas), who are there to observe and to make sure that Leo doesn’t overexert himself during this interview. Emma was a student of Leo’s at the same time as when Malcolm and Diana were Leo’s students. Although Leo’s voice can be heard for the movie’s narration of his internal and external thoughts, another narrator can be heard in the movie: Leo’s adult son Cornel (played by Zach Shaffer), whom Leo abandoned in 1968, when Cornel was abut 4 or 5 years old.

The year 1968 was a pivotal year in Leo’s life. It was the year that he became a draft dodger during the Vietnam War by moving permanently from his native United States to Canada. Jacob Elordi portrays the young Leo in flashback scenes. Because Leo’s story is told from his perspective, viewers can speculate that he is an unreliable narrator. Leo makes unflattering confessions about himself that he knows will upset Emma, but he seems to want to ease his conscience before he dies.

“Oh, Canada” jumps around a lot in the timeline, but viewers essentially find out that Leo abandoned his first two wives and children. His first wife Amy (also played by Hill) was 18 years old when she had an unplanned pregnancy. She and Leo apparently had a quickie marriage, she gave birth to a daughter named Heidi, and the marriage ended in divorce after Leo abandoned them.

In the interview, Leo would rather talk about his time with his second wife Alicia Fife (played by Kristine Froseth), the mother of Cornel. Alicia was pregnant with another child in 1968. Alica and Leo were visiting Alicia’s wealthy parents in Richmond, Virginia, and were planning to buy a home in Vermont, where Leo had been offered a teaching position at a university. Flashback memories show that Leo and Alicia were excited about her pregnancy and about their planned move to Vermont.

However, during this visit, Alicia’s businessman father Benjamin “Ben” Chapman (played by Peter Hans Benson) and Ben’s brother Jackson Chapman (played by Scott Jaeck) offered Leo a job as CEO of the family business, which would require Leo to remain in Virginia. Ben and Jackson tell Leo that they want to keep their business in the family. They think Leo is the only suitable candidate because Ben’s and Jackson’s other children (all daughters) are married to men who “aren’t fit to run a lemonade stand.” Leo asks for a few weeks to think about this job offer.

Meanwhile, flashbacks of Leo’s memories reveal that he is a serial seducer of women and committed infidelity for some of these seductions. In 1968, he became a documentarian as a “fluke,” when he was working at a trucking farm in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, and he filmed crop duster planes dispensing chemicals on the farm crops. This chemical turned out to be Agent Orange. Leo’s footage was used for his breakthrough 1970 documentary “In the Mist,” which established Leo as a documentarian with a specialty in exposing corruption.

“Oh, Canada” shows snippets from Leo’s other documentaries, but “Oh, Canada” is more concerned with Leo exposing his own personal corruption. The movie shows the events leading up to Leo deciding to permanently move to Canada as a draft dodger. Although Sloan tells Leo that she thinks he’s a “hero” for being a draft dodger to protest the Vietnam War, Leo’s confessions reveal that his reasons for dodging the draft were actually selfish motivations to abandon his family and to start over with a new life.

Emma knew that Leo was previously married with children, but it upsets her to hear the candid details about just how much Leo hurt other people with his self-centered and reckless actions. At various points during the interview, Emma wants the interview to stop because she claims Leo is “confused” because of his medication and his illness. However, Leo wants to continue and finish the interview.

“Oh, Canada” has a narrative that is purposely disjointed, as if to depict the hazy memories of a terminally ill cancer patient. During some of the re-enactments, Leo sees himself in his youthful memories either as his youthful self or as his current elderly self. Leo also remembers Sloan as looking like Alicia. And memories of time that he spent in 1968 with an artist painter acquaintance named Stanley Reinhart (played by Jake Weary) and Stanley’s wife Gloria (also played by Thurman) are also fuzzy. Leo remembers Gloria (one his sexual conquests) as looking like Emma.

“Oh, Canada” uses these twists of memory and perception in a way that might be considered artistic or might be considered off-putting to viewers. A flashback scene with Leo, Emma and an adult Cornel suggests that Emma already knew that Leo was a deadbeat dad, but Emma just doesn’t want Leo to make confessions about it on camera for a documentary about his life. There are also interpersonal dynamics at play between Malcolm, Diana and Sloan that affect what happens in the story.

“Oh, Canada” doesn’t have any major surprises, but the cast members give performances that are compelling enough if viewers to want to know how the movie ends. Gere is quite skillful at portraying a world-weary, jaded person who is coming to terms with his shortcomings as a form of self-reflection and perhaps to seek a little bit of redemption. Elordi, Thurman and the other cast members capably handle their roles in “Oh, Canada,” but don’t do anything outstanding that takes the movie to a higher level of quality.

“Oh, Canada” makes astute observations about how fame affects what famous people choose to convey about themselves for public perception and how the private reality might be very different. There is also some irony toward the end of the movie about documentary ethics and Leo as a “role model” for the type of exposé filmmaking that made him famous. “Oh, Canada” effectively shows how this documentary filmmaker tells his life story when he knows his life will soon end, but he still can’t resist the urge to make selective edits.

Kino Lorber released “Oh, Canada” in select U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.

Review: ‘Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,’ starring Matilda Fleming, Maria Dizzia, Ben Shenkman, Francesca Scorsese, Elsie Fisher, Lev Cameron, Sawyer Spielberg, Gregg Turkington and Michael Cera

December 14, 2024

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise, from left: Leo Chan, John Trischetti Jr., Brittany Hughes, Maria Dizzia, Sean Carr, Tony Savino, Mary Reistetter, JoJo Cincinnati, Laura Robards, Ben Shenkman, Francesca Scorsese, Jordan Barringer and Matilda Fleming in “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point”

Directed by Tyler Taormina

Culture Representation: Taking place on an early 2000s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, a fictional city on New York’s Long Island, the comedy/drama film “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” 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: Various people of different generations gather for a Christmas Eve dinner party at a family home, where there is some adult bickering and teenage rebellion.

Culture Audience: “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching Christmas holiday movies that don’t have a real plot.

Pictured clockwise, from left: Matilda Fleming, Francesca Scorsese, Leo Hervey and Ava Francesca Renne in “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is a movie that doesn’t have a point with a story that’s aimless drivel. It’s nothing but a dull compilation of mindless drama and unfunny comedy scenes with forgettable characters during a Christmas Eve night on New York’s Long Island. By the end of this time-wasting film, you probably won’t be able to describe anything that’s consistently compelling about the movie.

Directed by Tyler Taormina, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” was co-written by Taormina and Eric Berger. The movie had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, which might be why some people might be fooled into thinking this is a good film. The reality is that the Cannes Film Festival has had plenty of bad movies. “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is one of them.

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” (which takes place in in the early 2000s, in the fictional Long Island city of Miller’s Point) begins by showing a family of four driving to the home of the children’s grandmother for a large family gathering. (“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” was filmed on location in Suffolk County, Long Island.) In the car are spouses Lenny (played by Ben Shenkman) and Kathleen (played by Maria Dizzia) and their two children: teenage Emily (played by Matilda Fleming) and pre-teen Andrew, nicknamed Andy (played by Justin Long), who’s about 10 or 11 years old. Emily is about 15 or 16 years old.

Lenny is a mostly attentive father who seems to get along with everyone, but he has a tendency to be bossy and preachy. Kathleen is a neurotic worrier. Emily is a teenage rebellion stage and often gets into arguments with Kathleen. Andy doesn’t have much of a personality and is barely seen in the movie.

The Christmas Eve family gathering is being held at the home of Kathleen’s widowed mother Antonia (played by Mary Reistetter), who doesn’t say much in the movie either. Kathleen’s siblings are also at this Christmas Eve dinner party: gossipy Elyse (played by Maria Carucci), macho Uncle Ray (played by Tony Savino), outspoken Matthew (played by John Trischetti Jr.) and “average guy” Uncle Ronald (played by Steve Alleva), who thinks he’s the most talented cook in the family. Ray likes to brag that he’s an aspiring author. No one cares.

One of the biggest problems with “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is that it’s overstuffed with characters where almost nothing is told about these characters. Too many characters come and go in the story, with no effort to let these characters stay long enough for viewers to get to know them. Some people seated at the main dinner table are never identified by how they know Antonia and her family. About 80% of “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” consists of very boring conversations that go nowhere. The movie goes from one scenario to the next with no real purpose.

You won’t learn much about the family at the center of the story. Ronald wants to put Antonia in a nursing home, while Ray is vehemently against the idea. Ray offers to have Antonia live with him, while his siblings are skeptical that Ray is capable of taking care of their mother. There’s also some family disagreement over whether or not Antonia’s house should be sold after she dies.

Meanwhile, Emily sneaks out of the house to drive around with some of her friends, including Michelle (played by Francesca Scorsese) and Sasha (played by Ava Francesca Renne), while an unwelcome pest named Craig Salwen (played by Leo Hervey) tags along. The highlight of their excursion is being able to illegally buy alcoholic drinks at a liquor store. Michelle, who is slightly older (about 19 or 20) than the teens she hangs out with, has a brief flirtation with a retail worker named Lynn (played by Elsie Fisher), who is in the movie for less than 10 minutes.

There are other scenes that are completely useless, such as an early scene of adolescents playing a video game in a room. A kid named Plati (played by Keon Mosley) suddenly goes into a dark storage room in the house and emerges from the room holding an iguana. And then, the movie abruptly cuts to another scene. This bizarre scene with the iguana is not mentioned or referenced in the movie again.

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” occasionally shows two law enforcement officers on patrol: Officer Gibson (played by Michael Cera, one of the producers of “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point”) and Sergeant Brooks (played by Gregg Turkington), who are both weirdos. They like to flash their squad car headlights whenever they think anyone is speeding, even if these two cops don’t necessarily pull anyone over for speeding. These two cops who don’t say much until a strange and very unamusing part of the movie where they both talk in deadpan voices about acting on sexual feelings for a co-worker.

The acting performances in “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” are mediocre to awful, with no character in the movie having a personality that could be considered interesting. “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is so slow-paced and inert, it’s like watching a snow plow stuck in a rut. Instead of shoveling snow, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is like a snow plow that just shovels a lot of crap.

IFC Films released “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” in select U.S. cinemas on November 8, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on December 3, 2024. AMC+ premiered “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” on December 6, 2024.

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