comedy Archives – Page 12 of 38

Review: ‘Cocaine Bear,’ starring Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ray Liotta

February 23, 2023

by Carla Hay

Keri Russell in “Cocaine Bear” (Photo by Pat Redmond/Universal Pictures)

Directed by Elizabeth Banks

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1985, in Georgia (and briefly in Tennessee and in Missouri), the comedic action film “Cocaine Bear” (based loosely on a true story) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans and Asians) representing the middle-class, working-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: After a drug smuggler dies while parachuting from a plane with large quantities of cocaine, a black bear in a forest area goes on a rampage after ingesting a lot of the cocaine.

Culture Audience: “Cocaine Bear” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching dark and violent action comedies that are intentionally absurdist.

O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ayoola Smart, Alden Ehrenreich and Ray Liotta in “Cocaine Bear” (Photo by Pat Redmond/Universal Pictures)

Just like the bear that’s on a cocaine-fueled rampage, the erratic and unpredictable “Cocaine Bear” aims to shake up people’s sensibilities. It’s a wild and uneven ride, where the movie’s surreal comedy works well, more often than not. If you’re easily offended by the thought of children and animals ingesting cocaine, then it’s best to avoid watching “Cocaine Bear.” If you’re open to watching an adult-oriented comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, then “Cocaine Bear” might be enjoyable, in a way that’s similar to how people enjoy going on amusement park rides that bring some terror to the entertainment.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden, “Cocaine Bear” (which takes place in 1985) is very loosely based on true events. The majority of the movie is fiction. The basic facts that the movie keeps true are that a drug smuggler in his early 40s named Andrew Thornton II (played by Matthew Rhys), who used to be a narcotics police officer in Kentucky, died in Knoxville, Tennessee, after he jumped out of a small private plane with 70 to 75 pounds (or 31 to 34 kilograms) of cocaine, and his parachute malfunctioned. (It’s the opening scene of “Cocaine Bear.”)

Before jumping out of the plane, he had dumped duffel bags filled with several bricks of cocaine in the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest in Georgia. The most common theory is that Thornton had brought too much cocaine on the plane and unloaded some of his stash in the forest, with a plan to go back later and get the cocaine. However, in real life, a black bear got to the cocaine first and was found dead of an overdose. In the movie, the bear doesn’t die of an overdose but instead goes on a killing spree where humans are the main targets. All of the characters in “Cocaine Bear” except Thornton are fabricated for the movie. The “cocaine” seen in the movie is actually sugar or artificial sweetener.

An introduction statement in the movie explains that black bears usually don’t attack people unless it’s for reasons related to food, self-defense or invasion of a bear’s territory. “Cocaine Bear” doesn’t waste much time before the mayhem starts. At Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest, two German-speaking tourists named Elsa (played by Hannah Hoekstra) and Olaf (played by Kristofer Hivju), who also goes by the name Kristoffer, are hiking and taking photos. They see a bear acting strangely, such as dry-humping a tree.

Elsa and Olaf/Kristoffer are intrigued and want to take photos of this bear, although he is more hesitant because he heard that black bears can be deadly. According to the “Cocaine Bear” production notes, the movie’s coke-fueled bear (which the cast and crew nicknamed Cokey) is actually a combination of visual effects and motion caption imagery with stunt performer Allan Henry. In the movie, tourists Elsa and Olaf/Kristoffer are the first people who have a very unlucky encounter with the bear. Only one of these tourists makes it out alive.

The first 20 minutes of “Cocaine Bear” jump around a lot from scene to scene, by quickly showing the other characters in the movie who will encounter the bear. In St. Louis, Missouri, an international drug smuggler named Syd (played by Ray Liotta) was responsible for getting the cocaine shipment that Thornton was supposed to deliver. In real life, the deceased Thornton was found with cocaine that was worth $15 million at the time. In the movie, it’s mentioned that the missing cocaine in the forest is worth about $7 million.

Syd comically has his headquartes at Four Pines Mall, where he likes to hang out with his small crew at O’Shaughnessy’s Burger Time restaurant. Syd’s two main henchmen are his son Eddie (played by Alden Ehrenreich) and Eddie’s best friend Daveed (played by O’Shea Jackson Jr.), who is the more risk-taking and tougher of the two pals. Thornton’s death has made the national news. Syd knows that he’ll be held responsible for any of the cocaine that’s still missing—and he’ll do whatever it takes to find this stash. Somehow, Syd knows that Thornton had dumped the rest of the stash in the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest.

Eddie is first seen literally crying over his drinks in a dive bar in St. Louis, because he’s grieving over the death of a friend/colleague named John. Eddie is babbling about how the person conducting the funeral service mistakenly called John the name Joan. It’s a rambling scene that didn’t really need to be in the movie, especially since Ehrenreich over-acts in this scene. Daveed comforts Eddie, but they won’t have much time to drown any more of their sorrows in a St. Louis bar, because Syd has ordered Eddie and Daveed to go to Georgia to find the missing cocaine in the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest.

Meanwhile, the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest is under the jurisdiction of a local police detective named Bob Springs (played by Isiah Whitlock Jr.), who knows that the forest is being used as a drug-smuggling hiding place for Syd and Syd’s “crime family.” Bob is determined to find a way to bust Syd and Syd’s cronies. Bob correctly assumes that there might be some of some of Thornton’s missing cocaine in the forest, and people in Syd’s crew will come looking for this drug stash.

“Cocaine Bear” gets a little sidetracked with some comedic details that don’t become very clear until later in the movie. For example, there are several minutes of screen time showing that Bob, who wants to adopt a dog, had a Maltese delivered to him instead of the Labrador Retriever that Bob originally wanted. Bob asks his police officer colleague Reba (played by Ayoola Smart) to temporarily look after the Maltese, which is a dog with long white fur that he thinks looks too high-maintenance and “fancy” for Bob. Viewers have to watch an epilogue scene in “Cocaine Bear” to see the reason why the movie keeps showing this Maltese.

Also in the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest area is a hospital nurse named Sari (played by Keri Russell), who is financially struggling and has to work extra shifts to help make ends meet. Sari is the mother of 13-year-old Dee Dee (played by Brooklynn Prince), who has dreams of becoming a painter artist. Dee Dee’s best friend is a slightly younger child named Henry (played by Christian Convery), who has a crush on Dee Dee and spends a lot of time trying to impress her.

Dee Dee and Henry are both playful and a little rebellious. They skip school one day so that Dee Dee can go to a place in the forest’s Blood Mountain, where there is a nearby waterfall that Dee Dee wants to paint so that she can use this painting to get accepted into a prestigious art camp. A big part of the movie is about Sari trying to find “missing” Dee Dee and Henry in the forest. Because Dee Dee and Henry have gone missing on the same day that the cocaine bear goes on a rampage, you can easily predict what might happen with these two kids.

The Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest has a visitor center, where a no-nonsense park ranger named Liz Winters (played by Margo Martindale) works as a manager of sorts. (She’s the only employee of the visitor center who’s seen in the movie.) Liz tries to come across as being tough as nails, but she’s got a soft spot for an animal-rights activist named Peter (played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, in a very fake-looking wig), who calls himself a “life inspection representative.” Peter is a regular visitor to make sure that no animals are being harmed in the forest.

Peter might be aware that Liz has a crush on him. The movie drops in some adult-oriented double entendre jokes. For example, Peter comments to bachelorette Liz about one of the taxidermy animals on display in the visitor center: “You’ve got a dusty beaver here, rancher.” Liz smirks and replies, “I’m working on it.” Later in the movie, two paramedics named Beth (played by Kahyun Kim) and Tom (played by Scott Seiss) arrive by ambulance to the visitor center in one of the movie’s most memorable scenes.

A group of troublemakers in their late teens and early 20s, who call themselves the Duchamps, have been robbing and assaulting people in the forest area. Only three of these gang members are shown in “Cocaine Bear,” and they only have nicknames in the movie. Kid (played by Aaron Holliday), also known as Stache, is the youngest and most likely to talk himself out of tough situations with an opponent. Ponytail (played by Leo Hanna) is the biggest bully in the group. Vest (played by J.B. Moore) is the most likely to get scared when things go wrong.

All of these characters encounter each other in one way or another during “Cocaine Bear.” There’s a lot of gruesome violence that looks straight out of a horror movie. However, “Cocaine Bear” is never really a horror movie because it stays consistently true to its intention of being an action comedy. The bear does some unrealistic stunts and has some human-like facial expressions that seem to be the filmmakers’ way of winking at the audience to show that “Cocaine Bear” is an absurdist fictional film.

In one of his last movie roles, Liotta (who died in his sleep in 2022, at the age of 67) seems to be having fun as the “Cocaine Bear” Syd character, which is a spoof of all the callous criminals that Liotta portrayed in his long acting career. Martindale, Ferguson and Jackson also have great comedic timing and understood that “Cocaine Bear” is meant to have a dark-but-wacky satirical tone in this story about humans versus a wild animal. The rest of the cast members are serviceable in their roles. The bear, without question, is the star of the show.

For a movie about a cocaine-fueled killer bear on the loose, “Cocaine Bear” occasionally disappoints when the movie becomes less suspenseful about when the bear is going to attack next. The adrenaline-packed momentum drags when the movie gets sidetracked with the some of the shenanigan-like conflicts between people who know about the bear.

“Cocaine Bear” also requires a huge suspension of disbelief that the local fire department (which is usually in charge of handling wild animals) wasn’t called as soon as it was known that a wild bear was killing people. Police detective Bob is the main government official on the scene for most of the movie. And there is no mention of the area being evacuated for safety after it’s known that a killer bear is on the loose, and more people get killed by the bear.

However, no one should be going to see “Cocaine Bear” for realism. Banks’ direction is solid but sometimes a little too busy and unfocused. The movie is hit-and-miss when it comes to the storytelling part of the narrative. And some of the main characters (such as Eddie and Sari) are not very interesting. But “Cocaine Bear” delivers the goods when it comes to viewer anticipation to see what this unhinged bear will do next. The movie is destined to become a cult classic for viewers who like this type of entertainment.

Universal Pictures will release “Cocaine Bear” in U.S. cinemas on February 24, 2023.

Review: ‘When You Finish Saving the World,’ starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard

February 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

“When You Finish Saving the World”

Directed by Jesse Eisenberg

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the comedy/drama film “When You Finish Saving the World” (based on the Audible podcast of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A married mother, who works at a domestic violence shelter, tries to emotionally connect with her self-absorbed teenage son, who is an aspiring rock star, while mother and son try to make an impression on separate people whom they both admire.

Culture Audience: “When You Finish Saving the World” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard; writer/director Jesse Eisenberg; the Audible podcast on which the movie is based; and rambling movies about people who think their trivial personal problems are bigger than these problems really are.

Finn Wolfhard and Alisha Boe in “When You Finish Saving the World” (Photo by Karen Kuehn/A24)

How much viewers might like “When You Finish Saving the World” will depend how much they want to watch repetitive and emotionally hollow scenes of a mother and her teenage son who are desperate to impress people who live outside their home while ignoring the problems inside their home. This mother and son feel unsatisfied with their home lives because they really don’t want to pay much attention to each other. It’s a very staged-looking and dull dramedy about privileged and entitled people trying to make themselves look socially conscious. The movie’s tone starts off as cynical and ends in a sentimental way that looks phony and unearned.

“When You Finish Saving the World” is the first feature film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who is known to most movie audiences as an actor who usually plays neurotic characters. (Eisenberg was nominated for a Oscar for his starring role as Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2010’s “The Social Network.”) “When You Finish Saving the World” is based on Eisenberg’s Audible podcast of the same name. It’s also the first movie from Fruit Tree, a production company co-founded by spouses Emma Stone and Dave McCary with their producing partner Ali Herting. (Stone and Eisenberg co-starred in 2009’s “Zombieland” and 2019’s “Zombieland: Double Tap.”) “When You Finish Saving the World” had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Even though the movie has respected and talented creatives who used their clout to get this project made, “When You Finish Saving the World” still looks and feels lightweight and inconsequential. It’s a film that could have had a lot more to say and a better way to say it. What viewers will get are many scenes where the two central characters snipe at each other and whine a lot (especially when they’re at home), but they put their best selves forward when they become fixated on someone whom they want to impress. They try to come across as enlightened and virtuous to those people.

In “When You Finish Saving the World” (which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city but was filmed in New Mexico), the two main characters are Evelyn Katz (played by Julianne Moore) and her teenage son Ziggy Katz (played by Finn Wolfhard), who are frequently at odds with each other. Evelyn is a politically liberal, longtime activist who currently works as a manager at a domestic violence shelter called Spruce Haven. Ziggy, who’s about 16 or 17 years old, is a wannabe rock star, who plays (according to his description) “classic folk rock with alternative influences.”

Ziggy is the old child of Evelyn and her mild-mannered husband Roger Katz (played by Jay O. Sanders), who stays out of the squabbles that frequently happen between Evelyn and Ziggy. When this family of three have meals together, Roger often has to listen to Ziggy and Evelyn complain about whatever little things that are bothering Ziggy and Evelyn at the moment. When Roger tells Ziggy it’s “cultural appropriation” for white people to play blues music, Ziggy (rude as ever) yells at Roger, “Dad, just shut the fuck up!”

The Roger character had a much bigger role in the podcast, where Roger was a central character. In the “When You Finish Saving the World” production notes, Eisenberg explains why he made Roger a small supporting role this movie version: “Now he is almost a forgotten presence who can’t get anyone to pay attention to him.” Roger’s role in the movie is so small, it has almost no impact on the story. His most memorable line in the movie is when he truthfully says about his household: “Everyone around me is a narcissist.”

Evelyn is disappointed that Ziggy has turned into a self-centered brat who only seems to care about how many more followers he can get on social media. Ziggy currently has 20,000 followers on HiHat, a social media platform that was fabricated for this movie but is obviously supposed to be a lot like YouTube. The irony of Ziggy’s growing popularity on HiHat (where he can reach people virtually around the world) is that Ziggy is a social outcast at his high school where people can interact with him in person. Ziggy is upbeat and cheerful to his followers online, but in real life, he’s often moody and unfriendly.

Evelyn has a personality that can best be described as a combination of being bland and uptight. She had hoped that her only child would want to follow in her footsteps of pursuing a career that involves helping underprivileged and disadvantaged people. She’s asked Ziggy to volunteer at the shelter, but he refuses. Instead, Ziggy does things such as berate Evelyn when she goes in his room and inadvertently interrupts one of his livestream performances, where many of his followers pay to see Ziggy perform his original songs and cover tunes. Ziggy also does video chats directly with his followers.

As an example of how clueless Evelyn is about the Internet and how disconnected she is from Ziggy’s interests, she has no idea what a livestream is. To prevent any more interruptions during his livestreams, Ziggy angrily installs a red studio light outside the top of his bedroom door. He tells his parents that if the light is on, that means he’s doing a livestream—and under no circumstances can anyone go inside the room when the red light is on.

Evelyn thinks Ziggy’s music is a hobby. When Ziggy says that he’s going to be a professional musician, Evelyn asks him: “Have you thought about your end game?” This is Ziggy’s insolent response: “I’m going to be rich, and you’re going to be poor.”

Considering all the real problems in the world, this type of bickering in “When You Finish Saving the World” looks very petty and very much like “privileged people’s problems.” But this is the type of “family turmoil” that the movie is trying to pass off as heavy, when it’s just so trivial. Evelyn should consider herself lucky that she doesn’t have to listen to Ziggy’s off-key singing and tone-deaf guitar playing. (Emile Mosseri composed the music for the movie, including the two forgettable original songs that Wolfhard co-wrote under the alias Ziggy Katz.)

Evelyn and Ziggy clearly aren’t very happy in their lives or with each other. They will each meet someone who becomes a reason for Evelyn and Ziggy to try to project a more socially conscious and caring image in public. Observant viewers will notice that it’s just Evelyn’s and Ziggy’s way of distracting themselves from their problems at home. Evelyn and Ziggy are a lot more similar to each other than they would like to admit.

Evelyn’s “distraction” is a 17-year-old named Kyle (played by Billy Bryk), who arrives at the shelter with his feisty mother Angie (played by Eleonore Hendricks), after leaving their home because Angie’s husband/Kyle’s father has battered Angie. (This abusive man is never seen in the movie.) Kyle is in his last year of high school. Evelyn can’t help but notice that Kyle is everything that she wishes Ziggy could be: kind, respectful to his mother, and compassionate about other people’s problems.

Meanwhile, Ziggy develops a big crush on a classmate named Lila (played by Alisha Boe), who is a full-on stereotype of a progressive social justice warrior who is constantly preaching to other people about the politically correct way to live. The movie downplays the reality that Ziggy is most likely attracted to Lila because of her physical looks, not because he’s attracted to her emotionally or intellectually. At any rate, Ziggy suddenly wants to transform into being willfully ignorant about sociopolitical issues to being the type of sociopolitical activist that he thinks will impress Lila, who correctly suspects that Ziggy isn’t being genuine.

Evelyn’s interest in Kyle becomes an obsession that borders on being very creepy. She wants to treat him almost like a down-and-out family member, even though she barely knows him. One night, Evelyn goes to the shelter, just to give Kyle some leftovers from her family dinner. It’s a thoughtful gesture but also very condescending. Kyle looks uncomfortable with this offer, and he politely tells Evelyn that he’s already eaten dinner.

Evelyn also becomes determined to convince Kyle to go to Oberlin College, a liberal arts school in Oberlin, Ohio. She even goes as far as saying that she will recommend Kyle to someone she knows who is an Oberlin College admissions officer. But does Kyle really want to go to college?

The situation is complicated by the fact that Kyle worked in the auto body shop of his abusive father, who is apologetic about the domestic violence attack on Angie, and he wants Kyle to come back to work for him at the auto body shop. Angie, like many domestic violence victims, is conflicted about whether or not she should go back to her attacker. Evelyn thinks it’s a bad idea for Angie and Kyle to go back to live with their abuser.

However, the shelter only has limited time and space for those it helps. Evelyn isn’t exactly coming up with any real solutions for the issue of where Angie and Kyle can live after their time at the shelter expires. It’s a common problem for temporary residents of domestic violence shelters, but “When You Finish Saving the World” essentially ignores this problem.

One of the biggest issues that viewers will have with the way the movie portrays Evelyn is how she treats very serious and complicated issues with surface-level platitudes. The movie goes overboard in making Evelyn look out-of-touch and borderline incompetent in her job where she’s supposed to help victims and survivors of domestic violence. Sending Kyle to a college that Evelyn wants him to go to doesn’t directly address problems this teenager might have from being emotionally scarred or influenced by the domestic violence experienced in the home. Evelyn is the type of “activist” who is more about “talking” than “doing,” when it comes to real solutions for the people she wants to help.

The biggest problem with “When You Finish Saving the World” is that most viewers just won’t care much about any of the characters in this monotonous film. There’s nothing wrong with the acting in the movie, but all of the principal cast members have been better in other films. “When You Finish Saving the World” is the equivalent of forcing people to watch car wheels spin in the same place until the car starts moving too late. This 88-minute movie only starts to pick up steam in the last 15 minutes. But by then, viewer interest might have waned or disappeared altogether.

A24 released “When You Finish Saving the World” in select U.S. cinemas on January 20, 2023.

Review: ‘Vaalvi,’ starring Swapnil Joshi, Anita Date-Kelkar, Subodh Bhave and Shivani Surve

February 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Vaalvi”

Directed by Paresh Mokashi

Marathi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in India, from December 30, 2020, to January 1, 2021, the comedy/drama film “Vaalvi” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A married man and his mistress scheme up a plot to kill his wife in a fake suicide pact, but their conspiracy does not go as planned.

Culture Audience: “Vaalvi” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching thrillers with plot twists and don’t mind if the story gets increasingly stupid.

Swapnil Joshi and Shivani Surve in “Vaalvi” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

The comedic thriller “Vaalvi” starts off with an intriguing concept about a murder conspiracy. However, it’s ruined by the film’s idiotic second half that relies too much on gimmick gags and unfunny jokes about driving around with a corpse in plain view. The movie has a very uneven tone, as if the filmmakers couldn’t decide how to balance wacky comedy with serious drama. The first half of “Vaalvi” attempts to be realistic and cleverly constructed, while the second half just becomes a mishmash of ill-conceived slapstick scenes.

Directed by Paresh Mokashi (who co-wrote the “Vaalvi” screenplay with producer Madhugandha Kulkarni), “Vaalvi” (which means “termite” in Marathi) should be given some credit for its ambitions to be an entertaining and twist-filled comedy/drama. However, the ideas in the movie are undercut by repetitive and unoriginal scenes. Some scenes in “Vaalvi” might remind viewers of the 1989 American dark comedy “Weekend at Bernie’s,” a movie about two people who bring a corpse with them to public places and pretend that the dead person is still alive.

“Vaalvi” (which takes place over three days) begins by introducing the love triangle that’s becomes the reason for a murder plot. It’s December 30, 2020, in an unnamed city in India. Aniket (played by Swapnil Joshi), whose job is never mentioned in the movie, is unhappily married to a depressed homemaker named Avani (played by Anita Date-Kelkar), who turns 36 years old on this date. Aniket has been having a secret affair with a dentist named Devika (played by Shivani Surve), and they plan to be together by murdering Avani.

Why doesn’t Aniket divorce Avani instead? Avani doesn’t believe in divorce. She’s already told Aniket that she would never agree to a divorce and would put up a big legal fight if he ever tries to divorce her. Aniket has decided it will be less expensive and much easier for him if he kills Avani instead.

Aniket and Avani have been married for 14 years and have no children. Avani says being childless is one of the reasons why she feels worthless. She’s been in therapy with a psychiatrist named Anshuman (played by Subodh Bhave), who has prescribed anti-depressant medication to Avani.

Anshuman (who isn’t seen until much later in the movie) is the only person in Avani’s life who will listen to her problems. She’s grown emotionally attached to Anshuman. If Avani has fallen in love with her psychiatrist, Aniket doesn’t seem to notice or care. Avani is so lonely, her only companions at home are termites, which she names and treats as little pets. It’s a habit that Aniket finds very annoying and kind of disgusting.

In the beginning of “Vaalvi,” Aniket and Devika are discussing their murder scheme in detail because they plan to kill Avani the next day, on December 31, 2020. Aniket, who controls all of the finances for himself and Avani, plans to lie to Avani, by telling her on her birthday (on December 30, 2020) that because he was unable to pay off their debts, they have lost all of their money and ownership of their bungalow house. Another lie that he plans to tell Avani is that all of their furniture and other belongings will be repossessed the next day.

In reality, Aniket is not financially broke. Unbeknownst to Avani, he hired a moving company and told the movers that everything needed to be moved out of the house and put into storage because he is renovating his house. Aniket’s mistress Devika knows about this lie too, because it’s all part of the murder conspiracy.

The plan is that depressed Avani will be so distraught over losing the house and all of the couple’s possessions, she will want to commit suicide. It’s shown in the movie’s flashbacks that, over time, Aniket was planting the idea of a double-suicide pact in Avani’s head, because he knew she was already depressed. Avani has been open to the idea, but Aniket wants something to happen (such Avani thinking that the couple is financially ruined) to push her over the edge and go through with the double-suicide pact.

Aniket will pretend to want to commit suicide with her at the same time, after everything has been moved out of the house. And they will each write their own suicide note that says they made the decision to kill themselves of their own free will. Aniket has the two pistols that they will each use for this “suicide pact.” The black gun he will give to Avani will be loaded, while the silver gun he will have in his hand will have no bullets in it.

Aniket and Devika discuss this plan in her private office of the clinic where Devika works. According to their plan, when Avani shoots and kills herself, Aniket will pretend to shoot his unloaded gun on himself and then leave the crime scene and eat the fake suicide note that he wrote (to destroy the evidence), but leave behind Anika’s suicide note that she wrote. The plan is for the couple’s housekeeper to arrive for her scheduled work shift and find Avani’s dead body and Avani’s suicide note.

In order to establish an alibi, Aniket will go to Devika’s clinic for a scheduled appointment. While in her back office, he will disguise himself as a food delivery person, go out a back window, and drive a scooter (wearing a helmet to disguise his face) to his house. He will then go to the house and pretend that he’s a food delivery person when Avani answers the door. He will tell gullible Avani that he’s disguised himself to hide from debt collectors.

Once inside the house, he will urge Avani to go ahead with their double-suicide pact. Aniket will then leave the house disguised as the food delivery person, and secretly go to the back office at Devika’s clinic. Aniket and Devika will then pretend to the investigators and everyone else that Aniket was at Devika’s clinic the entire time that Avani was in the house and shot herself.

It’s an elaborate plan that could easily fall apart because of many variables. Devika is the more likely one in this devious infidelity couple to ask the “what if” questions about what they should do if anything goes wrong with the plan. Aniket is over-confident and brushes off any concerns, What if Avani changes her mind about commiting suicide? Aniket says he will just shoot her himself and make it look like a suicide. (It’s easier said than done.)

On December 30, 2020 (Avani’s 36th birthday), Aniket goes home that evening to see Avani literally throwing a pity party for herself. She’s ordered a birthday cake for herself, and she’s getting drunk, because she’s feeling sad about not having any children. Her birthday is about to get worse when Aniket tells her that they’ve lost everything and that their house will be cleared out by repossessors the next day. Avani is predictably devastated, and she agrees that she and Aniket should commit suicide together when the house is empty.

On December 31, 2020, Aniket and Devika start off the day thinking that they have the perfect murder plan. But, of course, this movie wouldn’t exist if things if went according to their plan. Without giving away any spoiler details, it’s enough to say that when Aniket arrives back at his house disguised as a delivery person, Avani doesn’t answer the door. When he goes inside anyway, Aniket finds Avani apparently passed out on the floor, with a prescription bottle next to her.

Here’s where the movie’s plot goes off the rails: Aniket, in all of his stupidity, doesn’t check to see if Avani is dead or not. He makes a decision that alters the course of the story and is the catalyst for the rest of the silly shenanigans that happen for the rest of the movie. And most of it is the plot misstep of certain people taking a corpse in public and pretending that the corpse is a living person.

The people who decide to pretend that a corpse is still alive could have easily hidden the corpse. Instead, they drive around with the dead body sitting up in the back seat of a car, with plenty of witnesses who ask about this silent passenger, thereby ruining the timeline that the deceivers hoped to establish to cover up the disappearance of this person. It’s one of many reasons why the ludicrous plot of “Vaalvi” is fundamentally flawed and doesn’t hold up under any logical scrutiny.

One of the most moronic things about “Vaalvi’ is that even with all the careful planning that Aniket and Devika think that they had for this murder, Aniket doesn’t use gloves after making a crucial decision to pick up Avani’s suicide note and leave it at the crime scene. Devika is worried about Aniket’s fingerprints being on other damning evidence, but he explains that since he lives in the house too, it would be normal for his fingerprints to be on this evidence. It doesn’t explain his fingerprints on the suicide note, if he wants people to think that he was somewhere else when Avani committed “suicide.”

“Vaalvi” expects viewers to overlook the movie’s many plot holes, which might be easier to take if the movie actually fulfilled its intention to be hilarious. Much of “Vaalvi” just becomes painful to watch because it becomes increasingly unrealistic, while the cast members start to become more over-the-top and shrill with their performances. The end of the “Vaalvi” is nothing but a big, lazy plot hole that buries the movie in a mindless pit of absurdity that cannot redeem this disappointing dud.

Zee Studios released “Vaalvi” in select U.S. cinemas on February 10, 2023. The movie was released in India on January 13, 2023.

Review: ‘Next Exit,’ starring Katie Parker, Rahul Kohli, Rose McIver, Tongayi Chirisa, Tim Griffin, Diva Zappa, Nico Evers-Swindell and Karen Gillan

February 16, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Next Exit”

Directed by Mali Elfman

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the United States, the comedy/drama film “Next Exit” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A woman and a man in their 30s, who want to become euthanasia volunteers for a controversial scientist, end up sharing a car for a road trip from New York City to San Francisco, and they bicker and develop a romantic attraction to each other along the way.

Culture Audience: “Next Exit” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of road trip movies that have an “opposites attract” premise for the travelers in a story that can be flawed but entertaining.

“Next Exit” is a road trip movie that can be as erratic and irritating as the would-be couple at the center of the story. The movie would’ve been better with a less predictable ending, but there are enough compelling moments to make this dramedy watchable. Much of the credit can go to how the cast members gamely handle the dialogue and scenarios, which can occasionally be boring and cringeworthy.

Written and directed by Mali Elfman, “Next Exit” is the type of independent film that wants to be adorable and edgy at the same time. It’s a tricky combination to pull off, and “Next Exit” doesn’t always succeed at it. But unless a viewer is completely disconnected from the movie’s characters, “Next Exit” maintains enough interest where viewers will probably be curious to see how the movie is going to end. “Next Exit” had its world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

“Next Exit” begins by showing a video recording of what a controversial scientist named Dr. Stevensen (played by Karen Gillan) has declared is genuine paranormal activity: A boy named Reo Nakada (played by Gavin Powers), who’s about 7 or 8 years old, is shown playing cards with his father Niko Nakada (played by Joe Powers) in Niko’s bedroom. What’s unusual about this video? Reo is dead. And, according to Dr. Stevensen, this recording is of Neo’s ghost playing cards with his father.

Dr. Stevensen insists that this video is proof that ghosts are real. However, much of the general public and the overall scientific community think the video is a hoax. Dr. Stevensen owns and operates the Life Beyond Institute, based in San Francisco, where she wants to test her theories about life after death by having people volunteer to undergo euthanasia.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. government shuts down all funding for this research. In response to this shutdown, Dr. Stevensen is shown on TV in a pre-recorded statement defending her Life Beyond Institute: “It is a critical, not a criminal, enterprise.”

Despite the controversy, two strangers in their 30s who want to be euthanasia volunteers at the Life Beyond Institute will soon find themselves unexpectedly taking a road trip together from New York City to San Francisco. These two people have different personalities, but they have similar reasons for wanthing to make this drastic decision: They both don’t like their current lives and feel they’ve got nothing left to lose.

Viewers first see Rose (played by Katie Parker) in her New York City apartment committing fraud when she sells her TV to a stranger named Chad (played by Ty Molbak), who has come over to her place to get the TV. After taking Chad’s cash, she throws the TV over the stairwell, where it is immediately destroyed. She then goes back in the apartment, and locks the door behind her, while an irate Chad demands to get his money back. Rose makes an escape out of an apartment window and never looks back.

Rose has no personal attachments and has already made up her mind to go on this road trip by renting a car. But when she gets to the car rental place, Rose finds out that she can’t rent a car because she doesn’t have a credit card. Her offer to pay by cash is strictly denied. Her pleas are ignored.

Just by coincidence, a British immigrant is standing next to her and overhears Rose’s plight. His name is Teddy (played by Rahul Kohli), and he can’t rent a car for a different reason: His driver’s license expires in two weeks, and he wants to rent a car for longer than two weeks. When Rose and Teddy find out that they both plan to drive to San Francisco, they quickly decide that the best solution to their car rental problem is to share a ride. Rose (who has a valid driver’s license) will rent the car in her name, Teddy will pay for the car rental with Teddy’s credit card, and Rose will pay him her half of the car rental expenses.

Of course, in every road trip movie, things don’t go as smoothly as expected. From the beginning, Rose and Teddy have a clash of personalities. They are both very sarcastic, but Rose is a sour pessimist and much more emotionally guarded than Teddy is. In the beginning of the movie, Teddy is shown quitting his job working for a congressman named Milton Lucas (played Michael May), who thinks Teddy is making a big mistake. Teddy has told his former boss that he quit because Teddy wants to be a Life Beyond Institute euthanasia volunteer.

Soon after meeting each other, Teddy opens up to Rose that he used to own his own company, but he’s vague on other details about this company. Teddy, who says he doesn’t have any family members in the United States, also reveals that he doesn’t like his life because he’s been in the U.S. for 10 years, and he hasn’t achieved his goals of finding a wife and making enough money to travel around the world. Rose, who is also unmarried with no children, tells Teddy very little about herself at first, but gradually more details emerge about her personal life.

A long stretch of “Next Exit” consists of Teddy and Rose bickering. An example of their banter happens when they check into a motel for the first time together. And what a coincidence: This motel only has one room available. Rose hates the idea of sharing a room with Teddy and lets him and the front-desk clerk know it in a very crabby way.

Teddy’s response is to try to laugh it off with a joke. He tells the front-desk clerk: “If you find me dead in the morning, she did it. Be sure to thank her for me.” He then says to Rose, “You don’t have to be an asshole the whole time.” Rose shouts back, “We’re not buddies! I don’t want to be your friend!” There’s more tension between Rose and Teddy. And some of it is sexual tension.

“Next Exit” predictably has Rose and Teddy encountering quirky and occasionally alarming characters during this road trip. And the most cliché thing that can happen in a road trip movie happens: The travelers have car trouble. In this case, it’s a flat tire. Rose and Teddy get car tire help from a Catholic priest named Father Jack (played by Tongayi Chirisa), who gets quite an earful when Rose unloads on him with a rant about her issues with the Catholic Church.

In a bar, Rose and Teddy meet a border patrol officer named John (played by Tim Griffin), who makes a drunken confession that is very disturbing. On another occasion, Teddy and Rose pick up a weird hitchhiker named Karma (played by Diva Zappa), who says she’s on the way to meet her psychic aunt in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In Arizona, Rose and Teddy end up visiting Rose’s sister Heather (played by Rose McIver), Heather’s husband Nick (played by Nico Evers-Swindell) and their adolescent daughter Steph (played by Sloane Weber), who all seem to be living a happy suburban life. But things are not at all what they seem, and the movie takes a somewhat dark turn, as some family secrets are revealed.

“Next Exit” missed some opportunities to have better character development for Teddy and Rose. Instead, there are distractions of putting Teddy and Rose in contrived and occasionally outlandish scenarios, for the purposes of getting more comedy or more drama out of the story. However, the movie obviously wants viewers to root for Teddy and Rose to fall in love with each other. Those intentions are sincere, but they don’t always feel earned. If Teddy and Rose fall in love, then what does that mean for their euthanasia plans?

Although “Next Exit” has several supporting characters, their time in the movie is fleeting and presented like characters appearing in sketch segments. The vast majority of screen time is about Rose and Teddy, a would-be couple who aren’t so much Mr. and Ms. Right but are more like Mr. and Ms. Right Now. Cast members Parker and Kohli give solid performances as these two conflicting characters. “Next Exit” tends to have a rambling narrative, but it’s ultimately very easy to see where this story is going and how it’s going to end.

Magnet Releasing released “Next Exit” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on November 4, 2022.

Review: ‘Scrapper’ (2023), starring Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson

February 12, 2023

by Carla Hay

Harris Dickinson and Lola Campbell in “Scrapper” (Photo by Chris Harris)

“Scrapper” (2023)

Directed by Charlotte Regan

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in England, the comedy/drama film “Scrapper” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians and black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After her single mother dies of a terminal illness, a 12-year-old girl secretly lives by herself and finds her life upended again when her absentee father unexpectedly shows up to take care of her.

Culture Audience: “Scrapper” will primarily appeal to people interested in well-acted movies about estranged family members who must learn to live with each other.

Lola Campbell in “Scrapper” (Photo by Chris Harris)

There’s not much of a plot, and it’s easy to predict how the story is going to end, but “Scrapper” is charming because of the central performances by Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson as a feisty 12-year-old girl and her wayward father. It’s one of those movies where the main characters are a mixture of tough and tender. Ultimately, the movie’s message is about making the most of whatever family that you have.

Written and directed by Charlotte Regan, “Scrapper” has its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the grand jury prize for U.S. World Dramatic. The movie pokes fun at institutions—such as government-run schools and social welfare programs—as frequently inept in addressing the real needs of children. Mostly, “Scrapper” shows the main characters going on a personal and often uncomfortable journey to define what “family” means to them and having resiliency during difficult times.

In the beginning of “Scrapper” (which takes place in an unnamed city in England), these words are seen on screen: “It takes a village to raise a child.” The words are then crossed out and these words are written underneath: “I can raise myself, thanks.” The latter statement is the attitude of 12-year-old Georgie (played by Campbell), who has been secretly living by herself in a council flat, ever since her single mother Vicky (played by Olivia Brady, shown in flashbacks) died of a terminal illness. Georgie’s father has not been involved in raising her, and he can’t be located. The movie doesn’t specify how long Georgie has been living by herself, but it looks like it’s been a few months.

Georgie still goes to school, but she’s been able to deceive school officials and child welfare services by pretending to live with an uncle (who doesn’t exist) named Winston Churchill after her mother’s death. It’s a knock at adult authorities that they don’t think it’s unusual for Georgie to have an uncle named after a former U.K. prime minister. How has Georgie been able to fool all of these adults?

Georgie is acquainted with a young man named Josh (played by Joshua Frater-Loughlin), who is a cashier at a local convenience store. She asks Josh to record different statements on her phone that could be answers in response to questions asked by any adults who call to check in on Georgie. The statements include “Georgie is doing great at school, thanks” and “We are doing fine, thank you.” Georgie pretends that Josh’s voice is the voice of her non-existent Uncle Winston, and she plays these recorded statements whenever any of these adults call. So far, this scheme has worked.

The adult authorities in “Scrapper” are depicted as soulless bureaucrats who don’t really care about the children they are supposed to be looking after in a responsible way. At Georgie’s school, a teacher named Mr. Barrowclough (played by Cary Crankson) tells Georgie how he thinks she should cope with her mother’s death, by saying that Georgie should only take a morning off from school, not an entire day. The two child welfare officials—Sian (played by Jessica Fostekew) and Youseff (played by Asheq Akhtar)—who are in charge of checking in on Georgie only do so by phone and don’t care about visiting Georgie in her home.

Georgie, who is tomboyish and sassy, likes to think of herself as being strong and independent. She makes money by stealing bikes and selling them to a young woman named Zeph (played by Ambreen Razia), whose “bike shop” is really the back of Zeph’s truck. In the beginning of the movie, the only person who knows Georgie’s secret is her best friend Ali (played by Alin Uzun), who is about the same age as Georgie. He is skeptical about how long Georgie can keep up her charade, but he keeps her secret.

Throughout the movie, various local kids who are around Georgie’s age are shown making comments to the camera to give their thoughts on Georgie. These children do not have a good opinion of Georgie, whom they think of as weird and a troublemaker. A group of “mean girls,” led by a brat named Layla (played by Freya Bell), say derogatory things about Georgie. Triplet brothers Kunle (played by Ayokunle Oyesanwo), Bami (played by Ayobami Oyesabwo) and Luwa (played by Ayooluwa Oyesanwo) are mostly in the movie as comic relief, since they often bicker and disagree with each other.

One day, Georgie is at home and is startled to see a young man with bleach blonde hair climbing over the fence in the backyard. His name is Jason (played by Dickinson), and he’s no ordinary intruder. Jason, as he tells a shocked Georgie, is Georgie’s father. It’s the first time that Jason and Georgie have met. Jason, who is also English, explains that he had been living in Spain with some male friends, but he came back to England after he heard that Vicky died.

Georgie is hostile and rude to Jason, whom she sees as an interloper who has no business being in her life. Georgie grew up thinking that Jason had abandoned her and Vicky. Jason tells his side of the story, which is very different from the story that Vicky told Georgie. “Your mum never wanted me around,” Jason tells Georgie.

With nowhere else to live, Jason tells Georgie that he will be living with her at this flat, whether she likes it or not. He says if she doesn’t let him live there, he will report her to the child welfare authorities. And so begins the uneasy and sometimes volatile way that Georgie and Jason get to know each other.

One of the first things that Georgie does when she meets Jason is scold him for not sending any child support money. “We’re not exactly rolling in it,” Georgie says. Jason replies that he’s not exactly “rolling in it” either. Georgie tries to get rid of Jason in various ways, but these tactics don’t work. During one of their frequent arguments, Jason tells Georgie: “Remember, I can tell the socials [social workers] whenever I want, so drop the attitude.”

Over time, Georgie finds out that she and Jason are a lot more alike than she would care to admit. They are both stubborn and rebellious. Georgie also gets a different perspective of why Jason was not in her life up until this point. It’s her first experience in understanding how complicated adult relationships can be. She also has to rethink her lifelong perception of Jason as being the “deadbeat dad” who didn’t care about her.

“Scrapper” would not work as well as it does if it weren’t for the stellar performances of Campbell and Dickinson, who make this father-daughter duo entirely believable. “Scrapper” has a tone of being sarcastic and sweet, which is a combination that would have made this movie look very uneven, but Regan’s sharp writing and direction keep this combination on a steady track that never feels overly contrived or forced. “Scrapper” is by no means a profound or groundbreaking film, but it entertains in all of the intended ways and is a movie that most viewers won’t forget.

UPDATE: Kino Lorber will release “Scrapper” in New York City on August 25, 2023. Picturehouse Entertainment will release “Scrapper” in the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 25, 2023.

Review: ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance,’ starring Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault

February 7, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance”

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Some language in Spanish and French with no subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in London (and briefly in Miami), the comedy/drama film “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people, black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Exotic dancer Mike Lane returns to the stage when he is invited by a wealthy socialite to choreograph, direct, and dance in an exotic dance show at the London theater that she owns.

Culture Audience: “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault; the “Magic Mike” franchise; director Steven Soderbergh; and unapologetically predictable but charming movies featuring dancing and romance.

Salma Hayek Pinault, Ayub Khan Din and Jemelia George in “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” (Photo by Claudette Barius/Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” is funny, sexy and the most emotionally layered “Magic Mike” movie, as it focuses more on the title character’s love life. The film stumbles with a contrived “race against time” plot development, but the performances are entertaining overall. People who are expecting the male friendship bonding that defined the first two “Magic Mike” movies will be disappointed in “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” (the third movie in the series), which admirably took a risk by not trying to copy the previous “Magic Mike” movies. The romance in the story centers on a wealthy middle-aged woman and a working-class younger man, which is the type of coupling that makes certain people very uncomfortable and might affect how they view this movie.

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” reunites director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Reid Carolin, who directed and wrote 2012’s “Magic Mike,” which is loosely based on star Channing Tatum’s experiences of being a stripper before Tatum was famous. Carolin wrote the 2015 sequel “Magic Mike XXL,” directed by Gregory Jacobs. The “Magic Mike” dancers tap into the concept originated by the Chippendales dancers, by creating sexy on-stage personas that encourage interaction with and participation from audience members.

The “Magic Mike” movie series has also spawned a real-life Las Vegas show and a touring production called “Magic Mike Live,” created and directed by Tatum. There was also a 2021 reality series on HBO Max called “Finding Magic Mike,” a contest where the winner would get to be a dancer in “Magic Mike Live.” Tatum, Soderbergh and Carolin were among the executive producers of “Finding Magic Mike.”

In the “Magic Mike” movie series, Tatum portrays Mike Lane, an exotic dancer doing all-male revue shows for audiences consisting mostly of women. In the first two “Magic Mike” movies, Mike was planning to retire from stripping by having his own furniture-making business. The end of “Magic Mike XXL” shows Mike following through with those plans.

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” begins in Miami, with Mike bartending in the backyard of upscale party held at a mansion. His furniture business has failed, and he’s financially struggling because he’s taking jobs that are low-paying, temporary gigs. At the party, Mike serves drinks to an attorney named Kim (played by Caitlin Gerard), who is with her husband (played by Christopher Bencomo). Kim thinks Mike looks familiar.

And then, Kim remembers that Mike gave her a lap dance at a party, where Mike was hired as a stripper, and he showed up dressed as a cop. Kim and Mike coyly trade banter about the last time time they saw each other, while Kim’s husband has no clue that they are talking about a stripping encounter. “I know you,” Kim says to Mike. “You were a cop, right?” Mike smirks and says, “I let you off with a warning, right?”

Kim apparently thinks that Mike is still in the business of stripping, because the next thing Mike knows, the party host who owns the house has invited him inside for a private meeting. The host of the party is Maxandra “Max” Mendoza (played by Salma Hayek Pinault, also known as Salma Hayek), an assertive and outspoken socialite who knows what she wants and how to get it. Max introduces herself and tells Mike she heard from Kim about Mike’s special talents, and she asks what his price is.

Max balks when Mike says his fee is $60,000. She then makes it clear that she only wants a dance, with no sex, and offers $6,000 for the performance. Mike accepts the offer and gives her the type of erotic dance that people expect to see in a “Magic Mike” movie. Max is so turned on, she and Mike end up spending the night together. “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” has a rating that indicates it’s not recommended for children, but that’s mostly because of the erotic dance moves and the adult language in the movie.

People might be surprised that for a movie that’s selling sex and eroticism, there’s no nudity in “Magic Mike’s Last Dance.” All of the sex in the movie is suggested or implied. That restraint might be too tame for some viewers, while other viewers won’t have a problem with it and might find it refreshing that the movie isn’t exploiting sex in a gratuitous way. If people are only interested in “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” for the possibility of seeing any of the stars naked, then they’re seeing the movie for the wrong reasons.

Max is so electrified and inspired by her night with Mike, she tells him, “If I had known what this night would’ve been like, I would’ve gladly paid you $60,000.” Mike tells her that he won’t charge her for the lap dance after all. Max invites Mike to London for a job that will pay $60,000, but she doesn’t divulge the details of the job until Mike is in London, where Max has her main home. (She pays for the entire trip, of course.)

Max tells Mike that although their night of passion was meaningful to her, she wants their relationship from now on to be strictly business. Still, it’s obvious she doesn’t really want a “business only” relationship, because she invites Mike to stay in her home instead of having him stay in a hotel. Mike eventually finds out that Max’s personal life is kind of messy and complicated. The job she has for him is something he’s never done before, and the stakes are very high.

Max is separated from her rich husband Roger Rattigan (played by Alan Cox), and they are in the process of divorcing (after 18 years of marriage), in a very contentious legal battle. Roger comes from “old money” and has a domineering mother (who’s never seen in the movie) who is ultra-conscious of having the family’s name as a prestigious brand, which is in the business of entertainment and media. The Rattigan family owns the Rattigan Theatre, which currently does productions of stuffy plays. Max currently owns the theatre, because she’s still technically married to Roger, but her impending divorce might change that ownership.

Max wants to shake up the crusty old establishment at the Rattigan Theatre by bringing to the theater an erotic dance show featuring mostly male dancers. And she wants Mike to be the show’s director and choreographer. This new dance show is expected to be put together in just one month. The initial plan is to stage the show as a one-night-only special event. But will the show continue beyond that night?

Why does Max want to do this show? It’s partly to feel empowered and partly to get revenge on Roger, who cheated on her with his assistant. Max tells Mike that the Rattigan Theatre is where Roger first saw Max, when she was an actress with a small supporting role in a play. Doing this dance show would be Max’s way to make a statement about how much control she has over her own life and to come full circle regarding her personal history with the Rattigan Theatre.

At first, Mike is overwhelmed by the offer and feels it might be out of his league to direct this type of show for the first time. (Mike never mentions that $60,000 is way too low of a salary for this type of job, but the movie makes it obvious that Mike isn’t very smart when it comes to money.) Eventually, Mike becomes excited about doing this show and approaches the job with a lot of ideas and enthusiasm. He gets assistance from of a no-nonsense producer named Renata (played by Suzanne Bertish), who helps cast the show, while Mike and Max do some recruiting of street dancers in London.

Max and Roger have a highly intelligent and perceptive adopted daughter named Zadie Rattigan (played by Jemelia George, a scene stealer in her feature-film debut), who’s about 14 or 15 years old. During the divorce proceedings, Max has primary custody of Zadie. Zadie also acts as the movie’s intermittent narrator, which is an interesting creative choice that’s another indication that “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” isn’t a typical “Magic Mike” movie. Max has a butler/chauffeur named Victor (played by Ayub Khan Din), who is at first very frosty with Mike. Some other people in Max’s social circle perceive Mike as Max’s temporary boy toy.

Zadie also warns Mike that Max has a tendency to be fickle. Zadie tells Mike that their family therapist has a nickname for Max: Queen of the First Act. That’s because Max has a pattern of throwing herself into a shiny new project—whether the project is thing or a person—and whenever there’s a big obstacle, Max abandons the project and doesn’t finish it. In other words, Max doesn’t stick with a project through the final act. And you know what that means: There’s going to be a major obstacle to this show getting staged.

The stage show that Mike is directing is replacing a regency play called “Isabel Ascendant,” where a woman has to choose between two suitors: one who’s rich and unlikable, and the other who is poor and lovable. Max is offended by the play’s outdated premise that a woman’s happiness is dependent on being married to man, and that these types of stories tend to make a woman choose between love or money in a marriage. “Magic Mike’s Last Act” gets a little repetitive with Max’s “female empowerment” speeches, but unless she says these things out loud, it might not sink in with some viewers.

Max fires the “Isabel Ascendant” director named Matthew (played by Gavin Spokes) for being rude to Max, but she tells the “Isabel Ascendant” people that their salaries will still be paid while the production is on hiatus. An actress named Hannah (played by Juliette Motamed) has the role of demure Isabel in the play that will be replaced by Mike’s stage show and the show’s rehearsals. However, Hannah (who wears a nose ring and is sassy in real life) doesn’t want to go away quietly.

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” hits a lot of expected beats when it comes to the overall story arc. The way that Max and Mike navigate their relationship in an uncertain manner is at the heart of the movie. Fans of the first two “Magic Mike” movie will be pleased to see cameos from four of the other stars from the first two “Magic Mike” films, but these cameos don’t involve dancing onstage. Mike is seen in a video conference call with his former dance buddies Ken (played by Matt Bomer), Tito (played by Adam Rodriguez), Big Dick Richie (played by Joe Manganiello) and Tarzan (played by Kevin Nash), who all have varying reactions to Mike’s new job and living situation.

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” for better or worse, is really about Mike and Max. Tatum and Hayek Pinault have convincing chemistry together as would-be lovers who are living in the moment and don’t want to be stuck in the past. It’s a story of personal reinvention and taking a risky chance on love that could turn out to be a heartbreaking disaster. The way the story is told is a lot like Max and Mike’s relationship: It doesn’t always run smoothly, it has sex appeal (even if it’s in choreographed dance moves), it’s refreshingly honest about its imperfections, and it can offer a good time for viewers who want to see this type of escapist entertainment.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” in U.S. cinemas on February 10, 2023.

Review: ‘Maybe I Do,’ starring Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey and William H. Macy

February 5, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Maybe I Do”

Directed by Michael Jacobs

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

Culture Clash: A young woman pressures her boyfriend to propose marriage to her, while their married parents have extramarital encounters with each other.

Culture Audience: “Maybe I Do” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headlining stars and don’t mind watching all this talent wasted in a dull and unimaginative movie.

Susan Sarandon, Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey in “Maybe I Do” (Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment)

“Maybe I Do” should be titled “Maybe You Don’t Want to Watch This Slow-Moving Train Wreck That’s a Waste of Time and Talent.” Everything about the dreadfully boring romantic dramedy “Maybe I Do” looks forced, fake and awkward. The principal cast members just recite their awful dialogue (often stiffly) and never look convincing as couples. And there’s nothing romantic at all about this movie, unless you think it’s romantic to watch people in miserable marriages and a constantly whining woman threatening to break up with her boyfriend unless he proposes marriage to her. That’s essentially what viewers will see for about 80% of “Maybe I Do,” which has too much mindless repetition and not enough character development.

Written and directed by Michael Jacobs, “Maybe I Do” is based on a play that Jacobs wrote. The movie had the potential to be a witty look at an unlikely but not entirely impossible situation: Two unhappily married couples, who are strangers to each other, step outside their respective marriages by spending intimate time with the other couple’s spouses. Unbeknownst to these four spouses, one of the couple’s son is dating the other couple’s daughter. And when all six of them meet each other for the first time, it becomes a landmine of secrets, lies and pent-up resentment that could potentially destroy relationships.

This entire concept is already revealed in the trailer for “Maybe I Do,” which takes an excruciatingly long time to get to the very disappointing moment when the four spouses and their two children are in the same room together for the first time. Until then, “Maybe I Do” drags on and on with cringeworthy, unrealistic dialogue and painfully unfunny scenarios. Most of the principal cast members look like they have no emotional investment in their characters and only showed up for this movie for their salaries. Whatever they were paid for “Maybe I Do,” it wasn’t worth the embarrassment of being in this flop that most viewers will forget soon after seeing it.

“Maybe I Do” (which takes place in New York City, but the movie was actually filmed in New Jersey) begins by showing a sensitive sad sack named Sam (played by William H. Macy) , who is crying while watching a romantic movie in a nearly empty movie theater. Sam is by himself and has a quirk of putting candy, such as M&Ms and red licorice, on his popcorn to eat with the popcorn. (Don’t ask why, because the movie never bothers explaining this quirk.) Also in the movie theater is Grace (played by Diane Keaton), who sitting nearby and is also by herself. Sam and Grace are in their 70s.

Grace notices that Sam is crying, so she goes over to this stranger to comfort him. Grace strikes up a conversation with him in this theater (and apparently not caring that it’s very rude to talk in a movie theater when the movie is playing), and she finds out that they are both “distressed” and like to go to movies alone. It’s the first of many eye-rolling scenes in “Maybe I Do,” which is polluted with overly contrived scenarios that look very phony.

The next time Grace and Sam are seen together a few scenes later, it’s the same day that they’ve met. At this point, Sam and Grace have decided they’re going to spend some time together in a motel room, after changing their minds about it once. Sam says he just wants to “talk” in the motel room, and Grace nervously agrees.

They both know that they are unhappily married to other people. It’s an example of the movie’s sloppy writing and terrible editing to not show the conversation that Sam and Grace had about their marriages before they decided to get a motel room together. As far as viewers can see, one minute Sam and Grace have met. The next minute, Sam and Grace are getting a motel room together and feeling guilty about it. Viewers eventually find out if anything sexual happens between Sam and Grace in that motel room.

In the motel room, Grace and Sam sit on a bed together and turn on the TV. And what do you know: Porn just happens to be playing on the channel at that very moment. Grace, who is uptight and very sheltered, looks at the sex scene on TV, and she comments to Sam with amazement: “That’s how they do that?”

Grace and Sam eventually turn off the TV because what they’re watching is making them uncomfortable, as if they couldn’t possibly turn the channel and watch something else. It’s supposed to be a funny moment in the movie, but it just makes Grace look pathetic that she’s willfully ignorant about sex at this point in her married life. It should come as no surprise to viewers that Grace’s husband is cheating on her.

Grace’s husband is brash and arrogant Howard (played by Richard Gere), who is having a secret affair with materialistic and demanding Monica (played by Susan Sarandon), who is married to Sam. Howard and Monica are first seen in “Maybe I Do” while they are in a hotel bedroom, where Monica is trying to get sexually intimate with Howard, but he’s not interested. In fact, Howard wants to end this affair with Monica, but she still wants the affair to continue.

Here are some examples of the dull and trite lines of dialogue that Howard utters during this tryst with Monica: “Are we living our best lives? And also, what are we doing here?” The stars of “Maybe I Do” probably thought the same things while making this obvious dud of a movie.

Later, Howard says to Monica: “This is about leading the lives we have, to have the lives we deserve. It’s incredible to me you’ve been able to turn a one-night stand into something that it’s taken me four months to get out of.”

Monica gets upset when Howard tells her that he wants to end this four-month affair. She angrily tells him, “You walk out that door, and I’m going to figure out a way to get you back. I’m going to hurt you. I’m going to push that button, and you’re going to cease to exist.” Who talks that way? Only someone in a horribly written movie, or someone who thinks the world works like an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

Meanwhile, the movie eventually reveals that Howard and Grace have a daughter named Michelle (played by Emma Roberts), while Sam and Monica have a son named Allen (played by Luke Bracey), who are having their own relationship problems. Michelle and Allen, who are in their early 30s, have been dating each other for a period of time that is never detailed in the movie.

However, they’ve been dating long enough for Michelle (who is very pouty and very bratty) to feel like her relationship with Allen needs to become a marriage. Allen (who is very laid-back and very bland) is in no rush to get married and likes the relationship exactly as it is now. Michelle issues an ultimatum to Allen: Tell her that he wants them to eventually get married, or she will break up with him.

This ultimatum comes after Michelle and Allen attend the wedding of Michelle’s best friend Sophia (played by Natalie Ortega), because this wedding triggers Michelle even more into wanting to get married. Michelle and Allen have a big argument during and after the wedding because of a stunt that Allen pulled at the ceremony. During the part of the ceremony where the bride throws her bouquet to the single women gathered to catch the bouquet (and whoever catches the bouquet is supposed to be the next one in the group to get married), Allen impulsively jumps above the women and catches the bouquet himself.

Why? Because he knew that Michelle was expecting to catch the bouquet, and he didn’t want her to use it as an excuse to pressure him to get married. Allen’s stupid plan backfires, because Michelle gets so angry at this stunt (which she calls the “most humiliating” experience of her life), she refuses to let Allen touch her until he decides if their relationship will lead to marriage.

And she gives him one day to decide. This is how she moronically gives this deadline: “This is my heart. This is my mind. All of it can be yours if you call within the next 24 hours. Operators are standing by.” Again: Who talks like that? And who would want to be married to someone who talks like that?

There’s a slightly misogynistic tone to “Maybe I Do,” which portrays all three women as mostly to blame for why the men feel miserable and trapped in these couple relationships. And they are some of the worst negative stereotypes for women: Michelle is a nagging shrew. Grace is a judgmental prude. Monica is a selfish manipulator.

Sam is portrayed as the most sympathetic person of the six main characters, because he is starved for love and affection but is constantly rejected by Monica. Sam laments to Grace that Monica “hates him,” and he’s grown to “hate” Monica too. The movie makes it look like Sam has been trying to make his marriage work with Monica, but she has been cruelly dismissive to Sam. Meanwhile, “Maybe I Do” makes it abundantly clear that Grace’s hangups about sex are what probably drove Howard to cheat on her.

“Maybe I Do” writer/director Jacobs could have done so many more interesting things with these characters, but he resorts to using lazy stereotypes of characters that these principal cast members have played versions of before in many other movies. Having two Oscar winners (Keaton and Sarandon) in the movie’s cast doesn’t mean much when they are further typecast in hollow roles. Jacobs, who created the TV comedy series “Boy Meets World” (which was on the air from 1993 to 2000), brings a stale sitcom tone to the movie, including have a corny musical score that’s sounds like it came from an outdated sitcom. In other words, don’t expect anything new, fresh and exciting in “Maybe I Do,” which clumsily lumbers along until its very predictable and uninspired end.

Vertical Entertainment released “Maybe I Do” in U.S. cinemas on January 27, 2023. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on February 14, 2023.

Review: ‘Bad Behaviour’ (2023), starring Jennifer Connelly, Alice Englert, Ben Whishaw and Dasha Nekrasova

January 30, 2023

by Carla Hay

Jennifer Connelly in “Bad Behaviour” (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute)

“Bad Behaviour” (2023)

Directed by Alice Englert

Culture Representation: Taking place in Oregon and in New Zealand, the comedy/drama film “Bad Behaviour” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A depressed actress, who used to be famous when she was a teenager, goes to a therapeutic retreat, and she experiences odd situations while trying to mend her strained relationship with her adult daughter, who is working in New Zealand as a movie stunt performer.

Culture Audience: “Bad Behaviour” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Jennifer Connelly and pointless and dull movies where self-absorbed people are obnoxious.

Ben Whishaw in “Bad Behaviour” (Photo courtesy of Ahi Films)

Observational comedies about self-pitying, privileged neurotics can be amusing if done with some clever self-awareness. “Bad Behaviour” tries too hard to be cutesy and dark, with no wit involved. It all adds up to being an irritating, self-indulgent mess. “Bad Behaviour” had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It’s yet another movie about someone who goes on a “getaway trip” to try to find some relief from personal problems, and the person finds out that running away from these problems isn’t the answer.

“Bad Behaviour” is the feature-film directorial debut of Alice Englert, who also wrote the movie. Englert is best known as an actress, with roles in such films as 2012’s “Ginger & Rosa” and 2019’s “Them That Follow,” as well as TV series such as 2016’s “Top of the Lake,” 2020’s “Ratched” and 2022’s “Dangerous Liaisons.” Englert also happens to be the daughter of Oscar-winning director Jane Campion. This family connection is worth noting because Campion makes a cameo in “Bad Behaviour” as an unnamed doctor, while Englert has an acting role Campion’s 2021 film “The Power of the Dog.”

In “Bad Behaviour,” Jennifer Connelly portrays Lucy, a depressed actress who is going to a therapuetic retreat in Oregon at a place called Loveland Ranch. While driving by herself to this retreat, Lucy calls her daughter Dylan (played by Englert), a stunt performer who is in her 20s and is currently in New Zealand on the set of a sci-fi action movie. A lot of the movie’s action scenes take place in a wooded area. (“Bad Behaviour” was actually filmed in New Zealand.)

The phone conversation between Lucy and Dylan is brief, because Dylan’s phone service isn’t very good in these woods. However, they are on the phone long enough for Lucy to tell Dylan that Lucy is going on a “semi-silent retreat in the wildnerness, so don’t expect to hear from me.” Dylan is very indifferent and doesn’t seem very interested in talking on the phone with her mother. Before their phone connection get cut off, Dylan tells Lucy that Dylan is at work. “I have to teach a guy to strangle me,” Dylan says in a distracted tone.

When Lucy arrives at Loveland Ranch (which is in a semi-isolated wooded location), she’s told by the receptionist Petunia (played by Ana Scotney) that there is no WiFi service outside of the reception area. The retreat participants are also discouraged from using their cell phones, because cell phones are considered to be distracting for this retreat. Petunia also says that the people on this retreat are being filmed for a documentary. It’s the first sign that this so-called “private” retreat has a lot of contradictory things about it. It’s partially because this retreat is like a very bad, unfunny joke, and partially because the writing for this movie is so sloppy.

Lucy is surprised to hear that the therapy sessions will be filmed. And so, Lucy tells Petunia that she doesn’t want to be filmed when she’s revealing personal information during these sessions. Petunia accepts this request from Lucy and says that Lucy can just tell the camera operator Mark (played by Thomas Sainsbury) when Lucy does not feel comfortable being filmed, and Mark will stop filming Lucy. All of this doesn’t matter in the end, because viewers will see later in the movie that Lucy eventually forgets that the cameras are there.

Everything about Loveland Ranch reeks of being pretentious, pricey, and aimed at gullible people who are desperate for emotional comfort. The retreat is led by a famous guru named Elon Bello (played by Ben Whishaw), a Brit whose therapy credentials are never mentioned, probably because he doesn’t have any legitimate therapy credentials. There are about 10 participants in the therapy sessions that take place in “Bad Behaviour,” with each therapy session becoming more and more annoying to watch.

This is the type of nonsense that Elon spouts when greeting the therapy participants: “I invite you to begin this time with yourselves, without the stories that drove you here … I invite us to be quiet, to give yourself permission to be a little mysterious … I encourage you not to smile at each other, no winking, so signing. You can use the [writing] board, or come to me or Petunia if you’re feeling panic, of course.”

The problem with Elon’s instructions is that he constantly contradicts them, thereby giving the therapy sessions a rambling and unfocused tone—much like how Englert directs this movie. For a so-called “semi-silent” retreat, people sure do a lot of talking about themselves and their sob stories, and they make a lot of noise. In one therapy session, the participants are paired up for role playing, with one person in the pair acting as a sad baby, while the other person is acting as a nurturing mother.

At first, Lucy is emotionally closed-off and doesn’t want to reveal too much of herself. Eventually, she is told that she has to fully open up about herself to the rest of the group, which is a direct contradiction to Elon saying earlier, “I give you permission to be a little bit mysterious.”

It’s how viewers find out that Lucy is a “has-been” actress whose fame peaked when she was a teenager. Her main claim to fame was starring as a “warrior princess” in a TV series called “Florida Fierce.” She also has a long history of depression, stemming from her unhappy childhood being raised by alcoholic parents, who also had a history of depression.

In a “confession session,” the participants are told to confess the biggest thing that makes them feel ashamed about themselves. Lucy says she’s ashamed that “I’m just a greedy, needy, lazy, paranoid human being, living off the money I made from the character that gave me an eating disorder.” Elon irresponsibly makes no effort to find out from Lucy how this eating disorder is affecting her now.

During a break from the sessions, Lucy sneaks outside in the back of the building to use her phone to text an unidentified person. This person advises Lucy that she needs to “purge” her emotional baggage at this retreat. The text conversation also includes some other information about Lucy’s life that can only be seen if viewers are able to pause the screen and read these text messages.

This information includes the fact that Lucy’s mother was suicidal. When Lucy was 17, Lucy used to date a friend of her father. This “friend” gave herpes to Lucy. Later in Lucy’s life, Lucy’s ex-husband Ralph, who is Dylan’s father, left Lucy and Dylan. These are all important details of Lucy’s background that can explain why Lucy feels depressed and damaged, but “Bad Behaviour” only touches on the suicidal tendencies of Lucy’s mother. It’s a missed opportunity to explore other aspects of Lucy’s life that led her to this point.

Instead, “Bad Behaviour” goes on an off-putting tangent where Lucy and another retreat participant get into an unspoken competition about who’s going to get the most sympathy in these therapy sessions. Lucy’s rival to be the Loveland Ranch queen of neuroses is a fashion model in her 20s named Beverly (played by Dasha Nekrasova), who soon tells everyone at the retreat that she has suicidal thoughts. “I like to write suicide notes, and I fantasize about my funeral,” says Beverly. “I’d rather be dead. That’s my shame.”

In response, Elon says to Beverly: “You are at an airport right now. You know your flight will crash. Do not get on it.” He adds with a smirk: “Although sometimes, crashing has its benefits.” This comment is meant to be part of the the dark comedy of “Bad Behaviour,” but it’s all just so lackluster, despite having the very talented Whishaw in this role of a flaky guru.

At first, Lucy tries to be friendly to Beverly, but Lucy loses interest when Beverly acts haughty and superior to Lucy. For example, during a break from the therapy, Beverly asks Lucy to take photos of Beverly on Beverly’s cell phone, so that Beverly can post the photos on Beverly’s social media. The two women then low-key bicker about the proper lighting and how Beverly poses for these pictures.

Lucy and Beverly then take their hostility to each other into the therapy sessions. They trade thinly veiled insults related to their respective ages. When Beverly confesses that she’s worried about losing her “currency” of youth and beauty when she gets older, Lucy snarkily says that it’s inevitable. Meanwhile, Beverly makes snide remarks to make Lucy feel like a washed-up old hag.

It’s unfortunate that with all the ways that this movie’s plot could have gone, it devolves into a tiresome and lazy cliché of two women who are jealous of each other and get catty about it. Something happens later in the movie between Beverly and Lucy that takes this already jumbled and unappealing movie to the point of no return in ridiculousness. “Bad Behaviour” is trying desperately to be an artsy dark comedy, but too many aspects of this dreadful film look like ripoff ideas from a semi-scripted and tacky reality show.

In addition, “Bad Behaviour” awkwardly meshes the concurrent storylines of Lucy and Dylan. Most of “Bad Behaviour” goes back and forth between showing Lucy at the Loveland Ranch in Oregon, and Dylan on the movie set in New Zealand. Dylan’s activities are even more tedious and less insightful into her personality than what is shown about Lucy. Occasionally, Lucy and Dylan are seen talking to each other on the phone while they are so far away from each other.

There are too many scenes of Dylan running, fighting, and jumping around the movie set in visual effects costumes, with no real point to these scenes. She’s training another stunt performer named Dion (played by Beulah Koale) during the filming of this movie. There’s some sexual attraction between Dion and Dylan. And you can easily predict the rest.

“Bad Behaviour” brings up too many questions that it never bothers to answer. Sure, viewers know that Dylan has a lot of resentment toward Lucy, but the movie offers very little explanation for what their mother/daughter relationship was like before the events in the movie take place. The cast members’ performances aren’t bad, but they’re not that special either. The best acting in the movie comes from Connelly, who delivers some convincing-looking emotions in the scenes where she has to show those emotions.

However, the dialogue and tone of “Bad Behaviour” are just a confused mishmash, since Englert can’t quite capably juggle the movie’s intended combination of comedy and drama. The character of Elon is very shallow, as are all the people at the retreat. The movie spends so much of its focus on the “Lucy verses Beverly” storyline, it’s to the detriment of character development. Karan Gill has a very clumsily written role as a young attorney named Leonard “Leo” Gow, who becomes part of the story in the last third of the movie.

“Bad Behaviour” isn’t the worst movie you could ever see. The cinematography, especally in the outdoor scenes, can be quite eye-catching. However, considering the talent in this movie’s cast, “Bad Behaviour” should have been a lot better than the monotonous and aimless slog that it is. There’s an attempt to “shake things up” with a sudden turn of events, but everything about it looks phony and out-of-touch. “Bad Behaviour” is like a misguided therapy session that tries to look it might have some purpose, but it ends up doing more things wrong than right, and it becomes a waste of everyone’s time.

UPDATE: Ahi Films will release “Bad Behaviour” in New Zealand cinemas on November 2, 2023, and in Australian cinemas on November 9, 2023. Gravitas Ventures will release “Bad Behaviour” in select U.S. cinemas, digital and VOD on June 14, 2024.

Review: ’80 for Brady,’ starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field and Tom Brady

January 28, 2023

by Carla Hay

“80 for Brady”

Directed by Kyle Marvin

Culture Representation: Taking place in Boston and in Houston, in 2017 and briefly in 2020, the comedy film “80 for Brady” (inspired by a true story) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Four elderly women best friends, who superfans of football star Tom Brady, win a contest to go to Super Bowl LI, and experience various hijinks before and after they lose their Super Bowl tickets.

Culture Audience: “80 for Brady” will appeal primarily to people who are fans the movie’s stars, American football and movies about senior citizens who have a zest for life.

Lily Tomlin and Tom Brady in “80 for Brady” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

As lightweight as a styrofoam football, “80 for Brady” is a transparently old-fashioned comedy about four female fans of Tom Brady who go on a Super Bowl adventure. The cast members’ chemistry is the main reason to watch, because the jokes are hit and miss. This is the type of movie where you know even before it starts how it’s going to end, but it’s still a breezy and inoffensive ride that should bring some mild grins even to the most cynical viewers.

Directed by Kyle Marvin, “80 for Brady” is inspired by a true story and has a trailer where about 80% of the plot is revealed. Even without seeing the trailer or knowing anything about “80 to Brady” before seeing the film, viewers will know about 15 minutes into the movie what to expect. The “80 for Brady” screenplay by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins has many hokey sitcom-ish elements that could have been a lot more cringeworthy if not for the immense talents of the four principal actresses at the center of the story. It also helps that all four actresses are entirely believable in their “80 for Brady” roles as longtime best friends.

Lily Tomlin portrays Louella, nicknamed Lou, the group’s most enthusiastic risk-taker. Jane Fonda is Patricia, nicknamed Trish, who is a flirtatious and fun-loving divorcée. Rita Moreno has the role of sassy widow Maura Martinez, whose husband Francisco died the previous year. Sally Field depicts sensible and socially inhibited Elizabeth “Betty” Bachman, a retired Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of applied mathematics. Betty is the only one in this group of four who is married; she’s been married to her husband Mark (played by Bob Balaban) for 51 years. All four of these female friends are in their 80s, except for Betty, who is 75.

The story of “80 for Brady” begins in Boston in 2017, when these four New England Patriots superfans look forward to watching Super Bowl LI, where the New England Patriots will be playing against the Atlanta Falcons at NRG Stadium in Houston. Fans of American football already know that Super Bowl LI had one of the most stunning victories in Super Bowl in history, so it’s no surprise that it would eventually be recreated in a scripted film. The four Patriot superfans in “80 for Brady” would love to go to the Super Bowl in person, but they can’t afford the trip and the price of the Super Bowl tickets.

As explained early on in the movie, these four best friends are particularly fond of quarterback Tom Brady. They’ve adored him, ever since 2001, his first year with the New England Patriots. However, Trish also has a big crush for Rob Gronkowski, who was the tight end for the New England Patriots at the time.

Trish has such lustful admiration of Gronkowski, she’s turned her steamy fan fiction about him into bestselling romance novels. Trish has the author pseudonym Virginia Le Doux, the name of a poodle that Trish used to own. Her current book is called “Between a Gronk and a Hard Place.” Gronkowski makes a cameo in “80 for Brady,” as already shown in the movie’s trailer. Other former National Football League (NFL) stars who make cameos in “80 for Brady” are Marshawn Lynch, Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman.

Lou, Trish, Maura and Betty are avid viewers of a TV show for New England Patriots fans called “Pats Nation,” hosted by two guys named Nat (played by Alex Moffat) and Pat (played by Rob Corddry), who announce that the show is giving away free tickets to Super Bowl LI. The winner will be whoever “Pats Nation” thinks has the best story for why that person deserves to go to Super Bowl LI. Only one entry per person is allowed. And so begins a not-very-funny stretch of the movie where Lou, Trish, Maura and Betty all come up with different ways to make their statements for the contest.

This part of the movie looks very outdated, because people enter the contest by calling a hotline phone number and saying why they deserve to go to the Super Bowl. Haven’t these people ever heard of online technology? Maura, who lives at a group home called Calm Gardens Retirement Resort, gets some of the residents to help her with this contest by making phone calls on her behalf, by using their own names and promising they will give her the tickets if they win. One of these residents is Mickey (played by Glynn Turman), who is obviously attracted to Maura, but she’s still grieving over her husband and doesn’t seem ready to be in another romantic relationship for now.

Because viewers already know that these four friends are going to the Super Bowl, it’s only a matter of time before it’s revealed that Lou won the contest by making a heartfelt statement about how she, as a recovering cancer patient, and her three best friends became fans of Brady and the New England Patriots. “80 for Brady” has all sorts of contrived slapstick comedy to make this Super Bowl trip wacky and challenging. Accidents, misunderstandings and physical mishaps are all part of the predictable antics.

The hijinks start before they even get on the airport. Maura has taken some sleeping pills and can’t wake up when Lou, Trish and Betty arrive to pick up Maura and go to the airport. Calm Gardens Retirement Resort has a policy not to wake up sleeping residents. A well-meaning employee named Tony (played by Jimmy O. Yang) is determined to enforce this policy and won’t let Lou, Trish and Betty visit Maura.

Trish puts on a flowing blonde wig and a star-spangled, tight outfit, as if she Boston’s version of Dolly Parton. Trish then flirts wth Tony as a distraction, while Lou and Betty sneak into Maura’s room and try to wake up Maura. They eventually “smuggle” a passed-out Maura in a wheelchair, but not before Tony sees them and tries to stop them. Mickey helps by announcing on the P.A. system that “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak is in the building. Several curious residents gather in the hallway and block Tony’s path, so Maura and her pals are able to get away and go to the airport. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

The “80 for Brady” trailer already shows many of the four pals’ other experiences after they get to Houston. Betty enters a contest called Spicy BBQ Hot Wings Challenge, hosted by Guy Fieri, who portrays himself in the movie. Trish meets a handsome ex-NFL player named Daniel “Dan” Callahan (played by Harry Hamlin), who has two Super Bowl rings from two different teams. You know exactly where the storyline is going to go for Trish and Dan.

At a pre-Super Bowl party, the shenanigans continue. Maura, Betty and Lou are unknowingly given gummy bears laced with an unnamed drug, which results in Maura hallucinating that everyone she sees looks like Guy Fieri. Maura ends up playing poker with some strangers, including comedians Patton Oswalt (as a character named Brisket) and Retta, portraying herself. She becomes fast friends with one of the poker players named Gugu (played by Billy Porter), who happens to be the leader of a group of dancers performing at the Super Bowl.

Betty is considered the most “responsible” on in the group, so she’s put in charge of keeping the Super Bowl tickets safe. As soon as she’s given that responsibility, you just know something is going to happen to the Super Bowl tickets. Ron Funches has a generic supporting role as a stadium security staffer named Chip, who becomes an obstacle for the ladies when they try to go into the stadium without their tickets.

Whenever there’s a comedy about best friends who are senior citizens, there always running gags that essentially seem to be saying, “Look: These old people are a lot stronger, smarter, and livelier than people think. Don’t underestimate them.” When it comes to that formula, “80 for Brady” follows it to the hilt.

Fonda and Tomlin have worked together on the Netflix’s 2015 to 2022 comedy series “Grace and Frankie” (and previously on the Oscar-nominated 1980 comedy film “9 to 5”), so they have an easy camaraderie with each other on screen. Moreno has some of the best comedic scenes in the movie, particularly in the party scene where she’s hallucinating. Field handles her role quite well, considering that Betty goes through the expected transformation from being the “uptight friend” to someone who learns how to loosen up more. The supporting characters in “80 for Brady” aren’t developed enough to really make a big impression, since the cast members in these roles have played versions of these types of characters in other movies.

These types of senior-citizen comedies usually have a cliché about one of the friends having a health/medical condition but hasn’t told the other friends about it. There’s no subtlety about it in “80 for Brady,” which has multiple scenes of Lou’s worried daughter Sara (played by Sara Gilbert) begging Lou to call Lou’s doctor, who reached out to Sara (Lou’s emergency contact) because Lou wasn’t returning the doctor’s messages. Considering that the movie announces early on that Lou is a recovering cancer patient, there really is no mystery about why her doctor might be calling.

Aside from this health issue, “80 for Brady” keeps the tone very jovial, even when the pals get into uncomfortable predicaments. Some of the comedy is downright silly, such as an early scene where Lou imagines that a bobblehead toy of Brady tells her, “Let’s go,” when she says out loud that she’s thinking about entering the contest to win the Super Bowl tickets. The movie has an abundance of people gushing about Brady, as if he’s the greatest American football player who could ever exist.

Why is there all this the over-the-top fan worship of Brady in this movie? Brady is one of the movie’s producers. He also has a small supporting role in “80 for Brady,” although many of his scenes are on the football field. Is this movie a vanity project for Brady? Yes and no. You can’t go 15 minutes without hearing Brady’s name in this movie, but he wisely chose not to appear as a leading star of the film.

Most famous athletes finance movies so that the athletes can launch acting careers too, but they usually end up embarrassing themselves with terrible acting. Brady does a fairly competent job as an actor, but he’s clearly not a natural when it comes to acting skills. He plays a slightly goofier version of himself who doesn’t take his sex symbol status seriously, but the movie definitely takes his celebrity status a little too seriously.

And speaking of not taking anything too seriously, viewers should not take “80 for Brady” that seriously at all. It’s a fantasy version of what a Super Bowl experience would look like if four superfans won Super Bowl tickets and had things go wrong and things go right in some extreme ways. Simply put: “80 for Brady” fulfills its intention to be harmless entertainment that isn’t masterful comedy but can be a satisfactory amusing diversion.

Paramount Pictures will release “80 for Brady” in U.S. cinemas on February 3, 2023. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on March 7, 2023. “80 for Brady” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 2, 2023.

Review: ‘Wyrm,’ starring Theo Taplitz, Lulu Wilson, Sosie Bacon, Natasha Rothwell, Paula Pell, Azure Brandi and Tommy Dewey

January 15, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Wyrm”

Directed by Christopher Winterbauer

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city in the mid-1990s, the comedy film “Wyrm” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: In an alternate reality where people have to wear electronic collars until they get their first romantic kiss, a nerdy freshman in high school tries to get rid of the stigma of being the only person in his school who’s still wearing this collar.

Culture Audience: “Wyrm” will appeal primarily to people are interested in watching quirky coming-of-age comedies.

Azure Brandi, Dan Bakkedahl, Theo Taplitz, Natalia Abelleyra and Tommy Dewey in “Wyrm” (Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment)

Amid the overabundance of comedies about nerdy teenage guys who want to be more sexually experienced, “Wyrm” is memorable for its unique story and quirky characters. This movie doesn’t try to have broad appeal because it’s for people who are interested in low-budget, independent films about eccentrics. The comedy in “Wyrm” is also mixed with a touching story about grief and how people choose to remember the deceased.

“Wyrm” (pronounced “worm”) is the feature-film debut of writer/director Christopher Winterbauer, who based the movie on his 2017 short film “Wyrm.” The feature film “Wyrm” (which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city) had its world premiere at the 2019 edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, but the movie wasn’t released until 2022. Most of the comedy is deadpan and almost satirical, so don’t expect the typical formula of teen comedies where a geeky male outcast is trying to date his “dream girl.”

According to the “Wyrm” production notes, the movie is set in an “alternate reality” in the mid-1990s. It’s a reality where people’s sexuality is monitored in terms of levels. To reach Level One sexuality, someone must experience a romantic kiss. People have to wear an electronic collar that can’t come off until they reach Level One sexuality.

Wyrm Whitner (played by Theo Taplitz), who’s about 14 years old, is a freshman in high school with his twin sister Myrcella (played by Azure Brandi), who has a prickly relationship with Wyrm. Wyrm and Myrcella had an older brother named Dylan (played by Lukas Gage, shown briefly in flashbacks), who died in a car accident when Dylan was about 16 or 17. Dylan has been dead for less than a year.

Wyrm and Myrcella’s parents are emotionally absent. Their father Allen (played by Dan Bakkedahl) spends most of his time either at work or in the parents’ bedroom. Wyrm’s mother Margie (played by Rosemarie DeWitt) is on a trail hiking trip for an undetermined period of time. (Paula Pell has a cameo as a park ranger named Tanya.) Although there isn’t much information about the Whitner family dynamics before Dylan died, it’s implied that these parents are avoiding spending time with Wyrm and Myrcella because it’s the parents’ way of grieving.

For now, Myrcella and Wyrm are essentially being raised by their bachelor uncle Chet (played by Tommy Dewey), who met his current girlfriend Flor (played by Natalia Abelleyra) in an Internet chat room. In an early scene in the movie, Chet tells Wyrm: “I just think with the right girlfriend, you’d really be happy.” Chet also paints a portrait of Wyrm.

Wyrm has become preoccupied with interviewing people on his portable tape recorder about their memories of Dylan and about their thoughts on romantic relationships. Experiencing his first romantic kiss (preferably from his first girlfriend) soon becomes another preoccupation for Wyrm. He’s getting pressure to have his collar “popped” (unlocked) for various reasons.

When Wyrm and Myrcella entered high school, they both had Level One sexuality collars. However, Myrcella has recently had her collar “popped” because she’s been dating a Norwegian immigrant student at the school named Mads Nillson (played by Ky Baldwin), who was Myrcella’s first romantic kiss. Wyrm is now the only person at the school who has a Level One sexuality collar.

An early scene in “Wyrm” shows what type of comedy that the movie has about teen sexuality. Wyrm’s friend/classmate Charley (played by Samuel Faraci) tells Wyrm: “Mads Nillson fingered your sister at the cinema yesterday.” Charley then asks Wyrm if Wyrm feels the same things at the same time as Marcella does because they’re twins. Wyrm says about twin telepathy, “I think that’s only [with] identical twins.”

Wyrm and Myrcella, who share the same room, soon clash over how her level of sexual experience will now affect their living situation. Myrcella reads to Wyrm a formal declaration of why she wants to move into Dylan’s former room so that she can have more privacy. Wyrm thinks it’s disrespectful and too soon for anyone else to have Dylan’s former room.

However, Wyrm tells Myrcella that if Mads comes over to visit: “I don’t want Mads Nillson fingering anyone in my room.” Myrcella replies, “I don’t want to be related to the only freak in ninth grade who can’t get his collar popped.”

Wyrm’s level of sexual experience will also affect whether or not he can graduate from ninth grade. He’s called into a meeting with his school’s child development specialist Reginald “Reggie” Corona (played by Davey Johnson), who tells Wyrm: “You are literally the last incoming freshman to complete their Level One sexuality requirement. We’re collecting collars on Picture Day.”

Wyrm asks for an extension on when he can get his collar popped. Reggie agrees to the extension but cautions that time will soon run out for Wyrm. Reggie advises Wyrm to play on people’s sympathy to find a girlfriend: “A death in the family should work in your favor.” Wyrm gets even more pressure from the school’s vice-principal Cynthia Lister (played by Natasha Rothwell), who has a separate meeting with Wyrm in her office and ominously says to him: “Lonely people are dangerous, especially lonely boys.”

Wyrm doesn’t get any sex education from his parents, who avoid talking to him about it. There’s an intentionally amusing scene were Wyrm asks his parents: “How do kiss a person? And how do you finger them?” Each parent tells Wyrm to ask the other parent. Myrcella, now feeling sexually superior to Wyrm, wants to distance herself from him and treats him like an outcast at school.

Teen movie cliché alert: A student has recently transferred to the school from Florida. Her name is Izzy (played by Lulu Wilson), who is a sassy non-conformist. Wyrm is immediately attracted to Izzy, and wants to date her, but there’s a problem: Izzy has a boyfriend named Kyle, who’s in Florida, and Izzy wants to stay loyal to Kyle. Izzy doesn’t care about Wyrm being an unpopular student and school, because she’s not part of the popular crowd either, not does she want to be part of the crowd.

Thus begins the “will they or won’t they get together” part of the Wyrm/Izzy relationship. Along the way, Wyrm spends time with two other teenage girls who give him more insight into male/female relationships. Lindsey (played by Sosie Bacon) is a 17-year-old sarcastic student, who uses a wheelchair and who knew Dylan very well. Wyrm’s friend Charley introduces Wyrm to his sister Becky (played by Cece Abbey), who’s about 15 or 16, and is kind-hearted and appreciates Wyrm’s quirkiness.

“Wyrm” has some familiar story arcs found in many teen comedies, but they’re slightly off-center enough to avoid being completely predictable. The Level One sexuality collar is a symbol of the pressure that is put on teens to have certain sexual experiences by they time they’re a certain age. Whether or not people agree with this pressure, it exists, and those who are deemed sexually inexperienced are often unfairly labeled as social failures.

“Wyrm” doesn’t pass judgment on its title character, nor does it assign blame to any particular person for why Wyrm desperately tries to get his first romantic kiss, or risk getting the stigma of “being left behind.” Instead, the movie’s “alternate reality” is used as a mirror to show people how much it reflects what many teens experience in real life to a different degree.

The movie also has a meaningful depiction of how people cope with death and how their memories of someone who’s deceased can be altered for various reasons. The interviews that Wyrm conducts about Dylan are ostensibly so that Wyrm can make a tribute to Dylan. But as time goes on, viewers can see that these Wyrm is using these interviews to deal with his grief and to get to know Dylan better, since Wyrm and Dylan weren’t very close to each other.

As social misfit Wyrm, Taplitz gives a commendable performance that solidly carries most of the emotional wright in the movie. The rest of the cast members are perfectly fine, but the movie lives or dies on whether or not viewers will be interested in Wyrm. Some of the movie tries too hard to be offbeat, but there are enough moments of genuine humanity that can make “Wyrm” resonate with viewers who might not have much in common with the characters.

Vertical Entertainment released “Wyrm” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on June 10, 2022.