Giancarlo Esposito Archives

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

October 7, 2024

by Carla Hay

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

“Megalopolis” (2024)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lionsgate released “Megalopolis” in U.S. cinemas on September 27, 2024. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on September 23, 2024.

Review: ‘MaXXXine,’ starring Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon

July 5, 2024

by Carla Hay

“MaXXXine”

Directed by Ti West

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles in 1985, the horror film “MaXXXine” (a sequel to 2022’s “X”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Maxine Minx aims to transition from porn films to her first starring role in a mainstream horror film, but she is being stalked by someone who threatens to reveal scandalous murder secrets from her past.

Culture Audience: “MaXXXine” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the “X” movie series and horror movies that don’t do anything groundbreaking but deliver suspense with good acting.

Mia Goth and Halsey in “MaXXXine” (Photo by Justin Lubin/A24)

As a sequel, “MaXXXine” doesn’t quite live up to expectations and has a very clumsily staged showdown ending. But the movie has a mostly skillful blend of horror and suspense, with Mia Goth giving another memorable performance. Some of the characters in the movie, although interesting, border on being caricatures. And it’s very easy to figure out who the mystery stalker is in the story, if viewers know how 2022’s “X” movie ended.

Ti West is the director and writer of the “X” slasher horror movie series, which began with 2022’s “X” and continued with the 2022 prequel “Pearl” and 2024’s “MaXXXine.” Goth is the star of all three films and is a co-writer of “Pearl.” “X” (which took place in Texas in 1979) shows what happened when the filming of a porn movie called “The Farmer’s Daughter” at a remote farm turned into a massacre when the disapproving farm owners found out that their property was being used to film pornography.

Spoiler alert for people who haven’t seen the “X” movie: Maxine Minx (played by Goth), the star of “The Farmer’s Daughter,” was the sole survivor of this massacre, which was instigated by the farm’s two owners: an elderly couple named Howard (played by Stephen Ure), nicknamed Howie, and his wife Pearl (also played by Goth). At the end of the massacre, Maxine left the property without telling anyone what happened. Maxine is originally from Texas and still talks with a thick Texas twang. The movie “Pearl” showed how Pearl became a serial killer while she was in her late teens and when she living with her parents on that same farm.

“MaXXXine,” which takes place in 1985 in Los Angeles, shows how 33-year-old Maxine gets her first starring role in a mainstream movie, but she is being stalked by a mystery man, who knows she was involved in the 1979 massacre at that Texas farm. This mystery man has hired a sleazy private detective named John Labat (played by Kevin Bacon), who has traveled from New Orleans to track down Maxine in Los Angeles. John has been tasked with informing Maxine that the person who hired him wants Maxine to be punished and possibly murdered.

Maxine has some of the same personality traits that she had in the “X” movie: She is still a cocaine-snorting and arrogant actress who believes she has what it takes to be a superstar. However, Maxine (considering what she’s experienced) is much more cynical and calculating than she was in the beginning of “X.”

An early scene in “MaXXXine” shows Maxine walking confidently into a warehouse-like soundstage to audition for the starring role in a horror sequel called “The Puritan 2.” The director of “The Puritan 2” is the coldly ambitious Elizabeth Bender (played by Elizabeth Debicki), who wants to be considered a film auteur, not just a horror filmmaking hack. Later in the movie, Elizabeth and Maxine have a conversation where they both understand that they are similarly cold-blooded and obsessed with their ambitions.

Maxine is auditioning for the role of Veronica Rutland and has to read an emotionally vulnerable monologue to Elizabeth and two other people on a judging panel. Maxine’s audition is also a screen test because it’s being filmed. Elizabeth tells Maxine that in this audition scene, Maxine has to show how the character of Veronica “confronts her pain.”

The decision makers all know about Maxine’s porn history. She assures them that she’s no longer doing porn movies, and she’s got the talent to do mainstream films. Still, even after doing a very convincing monologue, Maxine is asked to take off her top so the filmmakers can look at her breasts, because the Veronica Rutland role requires nudity. After this audition, Maxine struts outside and shouts to the line of actresses waiting to be called next about how she thinks her audition went: “You might as well go home because I fucking nailed that!”

Until she gets her big break in mainstream movies, Maxine is still doing sex work. Maxine works as a performer at a peep show joint called Show World. Unbeknownst to Maxine, she has a stalker who becomes one of her Show World customers one night. Until his identity is revealed, the stalker (who likes to wear all black leather) is seen only from the back. Maxine is friendly with one of her Show World co-workers named Tabby Martin (played by Halsey), who seems to be doing some street prostitution.

Maxine hasn’t completely removed herself from the porn film industry. After she auditions for “The Puritan 2,” she’s seen visiting a porn set and having a conversation in the dressing room with one of the porn movie’s actresses named Amber James (played by Chloe Farnworth), who is one Maxine’s few friends. Amber listens with some skepticism when Maxine brags that Maxine will soon make the transition into mainstream films.

Maxine’s best friend is Leon (played by Moses Sumney), a movie enthusiast who works at a local video store. Leon, who is openly gay, is the closest thing that Maxine has to a family member. Maxine and Leon also spend time hanging out at his cluttered apartment.

Some of the movie’s dark comedic moments are when Maxine interacts with her agent/attorney Teddy Night (played by Giancarlo Esposito), a fast-talking wheeler dealer who wants Maxine to break into mainstream films. Teddy has shady connections and doesn’t hesitate to get involved in doing some dirty work. When Teddy tells Maxine the news that she got the role in “The Puritan 2,” they are both elated. During the first day of filming the movie, Maxine meets her British co-star Molly Bennett (played by Lily Collins), who plays one of the nuns in “Puritan 2.”

As shown repeatedly in “MaXXXine,” Maxine is living in Los Angeles during a time when the serial killer nicknamed the Night Stalker (later identified in real life as devil worshipper Richard Ramirez) was causing terror around the Los Angeles area by breaking into people’s homes and viciously murdering them. Some of the murders that happen in the movie could be blamed on the Night Stalker or could be blamed on the real killer. The murders in “MaXXXine” are inevitably bloody and gruesome.

Maxine’s friends warn her not to go in unsafe places alone at night. But one night, she does exactly that and gets trapped in a dark alley with a Buster Keaton impersonator (played by Zachary Mooren), who wants to rob her with a knife. It’s enough to say that this would-be robber finds out quickly that you don’t mess with Maxine and her stiletto heels.

Two homicide investigators named Detective Williams (played by Michelle Monaghan) and Detective Torres (played by Bobby Cannavale) first come into contact with Maxine when they question her as a possible witness for a double homicide. Some of the movie’s comedic moments (which are hit-and-miss) are in the partner dynamics of Detective Williams (who plays the “good cop” in interrogations) and Detective Torres (who plays the “bad cop” in interrogations). Detective Torres, who reveals to one of the witnesses that he’s a failed actor, often irritates Detective Williams, who thinks Detective Torres is too aggressive during interrogations, and therefore he alienates witnesses.

“MaXXXine” makes great use of its 1980s soundtrack music to enhance some of the scenes. ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin'” is the song playing when Maxine struts into her audition for “The Puritan 2.” In a somewhat unnecessary but still visually compelling scene, Maxine goes to a nightclub and dances among a group of people to an extended mix of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Welcome to the Pleasure Dome.” It may be too “on the nose,” but in a movie taking place in 1985 and has a stalker, it should come as no surprise that Animotion’s “Obsession” is part of the soundtrack. And during the movie’s end credits, Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” is a perfect choice that captures the mood of the very last scene.

“Maxine” also excels with its production design and locations. There are some very memorable scenes filmed on what’s supposed to be the Universal Studios lot, with some of the action taking place in or near the famous Norman Bates house used in the 1960 horror classic “Psycho.” “MaXXXine” also convincingly reacreates the tone and energy of what Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard were like in the mid-1980s. The costume design, hair and makeup are also very accurate.

The movie’s plot somewhat wanders in preference of showing moods and atmospheres. Maxine, who wants to appear fearless and self-assured, feels increasing terror as she finds out that she has a stalker and starts to understand that her stalker wants to kill her. One of the more striking scenes is when Maxine is getting a mold of her face done for “The Puritan 2,” and she has a panic attack flashback when she remembers what happened during the 1979 massacre in Texas. But since viewers know that Maxine wants to be a superstar more than anything else, she’s determined not to let anything to get in the way of her big break in “The Puritan 2.”

As Maxine, Goth gives the type of riveting performance that is the main reason to watch “MaXXXine,” which is a film that makes pointed commentary about the horror that can result from obsessive ambition. The supporting characters in “MaXXXine” just aren’t as well-developed as the supporting characters in “X” and “Pearl.” The Molly Bennett character in “MaXXXine” gets such little screen time and has such little bearing on the overall story, she might as well have not been in the movie.

Detective Williams and Detective Torres eventually become parodies because it seems like almost a joke for viewers to believe that the Los Angeles Police Department only has two cops working on all the homicides that occur in such a short period of time. There’s also a very unrealistic scene where a murder victim is carried out on a gurney on a street into a waiting ambulance while bystanders are watching, and Detective Williams dramatically flings off the bloody sheet that’s covering the victim’s mutilated body, just so Maxine (one of the bystanders) can see who the murder victim is.

“The Puritan 2” director Elizabeth seems like she wants to be Maxine’s mentor, but not enough of that relationship is explored in “MaXXXine.” In fact, Maxine’s actual work on “The Puritan 2” is rushed into the last third of “MaXXXine,” almost like an afterthought. But the weakest link in “MaXXXine” is the ridiculous-looking showdown, which cheapens the quality of the story. After all the buildup over Maxine’s quest for stardom, the results are overly contrived and anti-climactic, like a porn performer faking an orgasm in the type of porn movie that Maxine used to make.

A24 released “MaXXXine” in U.S. cinemas on July 5, 2024. Sneak previews of the movie took place in U.S. cinema on July 1 and July 3, 2024.

Review: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,’ starring the voices of Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Shamon Brown Jr., Micah Abbey, Ayo Edebiri, Ice Cube and Jackie Chan

July 31, 2023

by Carla Hay

Michelangelo, aka Mikey (voiced by Shamon Brown Jr.); Donatello, aka Donnie (voiced by Micah Abbey); Leonardo, aka Leo (voiced by Nicolas Cantu); and Raphael, aka Raph (voiced by Brady Noon), in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”

Directed by Jeff Rowe; co-directed by Kyler Spears

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, the animated film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” features a cast of characters portraying mutant animals and a racially diverse mix of humans representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: Four crime-fighting hero brothers, who happen to be teenage mutant ninja turtles, team up with a teenage aspiring journalist, to stop a mutant insect named Superfly from his plans to enslave and torture humans worldwide.

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise fans, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching comical adventure animation that various generations of people can enjoy.

April O’Neil (voiced by Ayo Edebiri); Raphael, aka Raph (voiced by Brady Noon)l Leonardo, aka Leo (voiced by Nicolas Cantu); Donatello, aka Donnie (voiced by Micah Abbey); and Michelangelo, aka Mikey (voiced by Shamon Brown Jr.), in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is a vibrant example of how good storytelling, talented cast members, and appealing visuals can make animation the ideal format for the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” started out as a comic book series in 1984. It has since spawned several animated series and films (live-action and animated), as well as albums, live tours and a seemingly never-ending supply of merchandise. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is among the best of what the franchise has to offer.

Directed by Jeff Rowe and co-directed by Kyler Spears, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” doesn’t do anything radically different with the basic concept of the franchise. The story still takes place in New York City, where four teenage mutant ninja turtle brothers grew up in the city’s sewers and now fight crime. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jeff Rowe, Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit wrote the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” screenplay.

What’s different about “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is that the movie is much more centered around the teenage characters than the live-action “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movies, which tended to give human adults about the same amount of screen time. The chief villain in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is not human, but a giant mutant insect named Superfly.

The four mutant turtles brothers have distinct personalities, signature colors and preferred weapons that identify each brother.

Michelangelo, also known as Mikey (voiced by Shamon Brown Jr.), is the level-headed leader of the group. His signature color is blue. His preferred weapons are katanas.
Raphael, also known as Raph (voiced by Brady Noon), is the hot-tempered and physically strongest brother, who often clashes with Mike over decisions. Raph’s signature color is red. His preferred weapons are sai.
Donatello, also known as Donnie (voiced by Micah Abbey), is the mild-mannered tech expert of the group and the brother who’s most likely to be a peacemaker in fights between Mikey and Raph. Donnie’s signature color is purple. His preferred weapon is an oak Bō.
Leonardo, also known as Leo (voiced by Nicolas Cantu), is the goofy and impulsive brother who is the one most likely to want to party. His signature color is orange. His preferred weapons are nunchucks.

Do viewers have to know the above information about the brothers before seeing “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”? No, but it helps viewers tell these characters apart quicker than viewers who are unfamiliar with these characters. The brothers’ origin story is explained early in the movie, which generally does a good job of setting up the story for people who might be seeing these characters for the first time.

In the beginning of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” it’s shown how these mutant characters came to be. An eccentric scientist names Baxter Stockman (voiced by Giancarlo Esposito) went rogue and created mutants from animals that he kept in his lab. His lab was eventually raided by the government. Stockman died during this raid, but he left behind a toxic ooze that can turn any being into a mutant.

Four baby turtles managed to escape from the raid and were found and raised by a mutant rat Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan), a jaded but very overprotective adoptive father who kept the four brothers hidden in the sewers with. When the brothers became old enough to be curious about the outside world where humans live, Splinter reluctantly gave in to the brothers’ pestering to take them outside.

The experience did not go well at all. Upon emerging in the middle of Times Square, this mutant family was attacked and taunted by humans, out of fear and hatred. Splinter vowed never to take the brothers above ground again. But now that the brothers are teenagers, they want to defy a parent’s rules, as teenagers tend to do. These brother turtles have been sneaking out at night and fighting crimes, but they have to do so in disguise (they wear masks) and as mysterious and elusive heroes.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” has many themes about “fitting in” to society, trying to find self-acceptance, and experiencing prejudice based on outward appearances. The turtle brothers long to be part of the human world but can only watch from a certain distance. While many human teenagers in high school think school is to confining, the turtle brothers feel confined in their own environment and are fascinated with wanting to go to high school, which represents freedom to the turtle brothers.

One night, the turtle brothers help a human teenager named April O’Neil (voiced by Ayo Edebiri), who’s about 16 or 17 years old, after her scooter is stolen. (The character of April is usually an adult in other “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” stories.) April (who is an aspiring investigative journalist) is smart and witty, but she has her own “misfit” issues because she’s bullied at school and is somewhat of a social outcast with her student peers. She’s been given the unflattering nickname Puke Girl by some of the school bullies because of an incident when she vomited out of nervousness during the school’s live closed-circuit TV newscast. Meanwhile, Mikey develops a crush on April and gets a little bit of teasing about it from Raph.

The word is out that there’s a criminal mastermind who’s plotting to destroy the world. His named is Superfly (voiced by Ice Cube), a swaggering mutant insect, who has a hatred of humans because of the way he was treated by humans. Superfly has a gang of mutant accomplices, of course. These sidekicks include Leatherhead (voiced by Rose Byrne), Mondo Gecko (voiced by Paul Rudd), Ray Fillet (voiced by Post Malone), Genghis Frog (voiced by Hannibal Buress) and Wingnut (voiced by Natasia Demetriou).

The turtle brothers team up with April to try to stop Superfly, with the hope that if they succeed, then human society will finally accept the turtle brothers. In addition to battling Superfly, the turtle brothers also have to contend with a nemesis named Cynthia Utrom (voiced by Maya Rudolph), a government official who was responsible for the raid that led to Dr. Stockman’s demise. Cynthia is menacing in a bureaucratic way, unlike Superfly’s street-tough methods. Other supporting characters are two dimwitted mutants: warthog Bebop (played by Rogen, one of the producers of the movie) and rhinoceros Rocksteady (voiced by John Cena), who both bring some comic relief with their buffonery.

All of the principal cast members do admirable jobs of making their characters memorable and with identifable personalities, while the animation is a combination of gritty and gorgeous. Superfly is a ruthless “gangster” villain (Ice Cube plays this role to the hilt), but the movie also shows Superfly as an example of someone who was bullied who ends up becoming a worse bully than his tormentors. Another standout is Edebiri in her voice role as April, who has a lot of heart and relatable humanity, thanks to Edebiri’s engaging performance.

Fortunately for viewers, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” doesn’t over-complicate its “good versus evil” plot. The action sequences are entertaining to watch, while the dialogue is often laugh-out-loud funny. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” doesn’t get preachy about it, but amid all the cartoonish fun is a cautionary message about the repercussions of mistreating others. The movie ends on a cliffhanger, but there’s so much to like about “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” many viewers will still want a sequel, even if there had been no cliffhanger.

Paramount Pictures will release “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” in U.S. cinemas on August 2, 2023.