Luke Evans Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘5Lbs of Pressure,’ starring Luke Evans, Rory Culkin and Alex Pettyfer

March 25, 2024

by Carla Hay

Rudy Pankow and Luke Evans in “5Lbs of Pressure” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

Directed by Phil Allocco

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, the dramatic film “5Lbs of Pressure” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans and a few Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: After spending 16 years in prison for murder, an ex-con is paroled and tries to form a bond with his estranged teenage son, as the brother of the ex-con’s murder victim contemplates getting revenge on the ex-con.

Culture Audience: “5Lbs of Pressure” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and tacky crime dramas that are trying to be more artistic than they really are.

Alex Pettyfer and Rory Culkin in “5Lbs of Pressure” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“5Lbs of Pressure” tries to be a gritty and realistic crime drama with multiple storylines converging. But the clumsy handling of the plot and the vapid dialogue result in an unappealing mush of a movie that lacks suspense. If you can imagine what 2005’s “Crash” would be if it had a lower budget and all of the main characters were connected in some way to criminal activities, then you have a pretty good idea of what type of movie “5Lbs of Pressure” wants to be but comes up very short.

Written and directed by Phil Allocco, “5Lbs of Pressure” is based on his 2005 short film “The Mirror.” The title of “5Lbs of Pressure” refers to a scene in the movie when someone with a gun tells one of the main characters that the gun has only five pounds of trigger pressure. It’s a title that is meant to convey how little strength it takes to pull the trigger on a gun that can kill.

So much of “5Lbs of Pressure” looks like it wants to be artistically meaningful, but the movie has a shaky foundation of a substandard screenplay and unfocused direction that are not helped by unimpressive acting from most of the cast members. The movie takes place in New York City but was actually filmed in Manchester, England.

In “5Lbs of Pressure,” there are three main characters whose lives cross paths in the movie’s big climactic scene.

Adam DeSalvo (played by Luke Evans) is a recently paroled ex-con, who spent 16 years in prison for murdering a young male stranger because of a petty argument.
Eli (played by Zac Adams) is the angry younger brother of the guy who was murdered.
Mike (played by Rory Culkin) is a dimwitted drug dealer who really wants to be a professional musician.

“5Lbs of Pressure” goes through a tedious and often lackluster back-and-forth between showing the storylines for these three characters. Adam is first seen showing up unannounced at the workplace of his friend Steve (played Jazz Lintott), who owns a small business. Adam has recently been discharged from a halfway house and needs a place to live. The best that Steve can offer at the moment is a cluttered and small storage room, which Adam accepts.

Adam tells his parole officer Patricia Earl (played by Julee Cerda) that he’s gotten a job as a bartender at a pub called Mirror Bar, located in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood. The opening scene of “5Lbs of Pressure” shows Mirror Bar from the outside at night, while gunshots are being fired inside the bar. The movie then circles back to this scene to show what happened during this shootout.

As an example of how poorly written “5Lbs of Pressure” is, parole officer Patricia tells Adam that because he’s a convicted murderer on parole, he’s not supposed to have a job where he will be around a lot of alcohol. He’s also not supposed to be in places, such as Mirror Bar, which are known hangouts for criminals. Adam tells her that having this job is better than being unemployed, so Patricia quickly drops the matter.

In reality, a parole officer could get in serious trouble for knowing about this parole violation and not doing anything about it. There would also be other people who could easily find out about this parole violation and get Adam in trouble. But “5Lbs of Pressure” doesn’t care about those realistic details because of how it wants to contrive the movie’s climactic scene at Mirror Bar.

Meanwhile, Mike works for his uncle Leff (played by Alex Pettyfer), a local drug dealer who has a nasty temper and who constantly disrespects and belittles Mike. Leff sells cocaine and marijuana, but he thinks he has “ethics” because he refuses to become a heroin dealer, no matter how lucrative the offer. Leff’s sister, who was Mike’s mother, died of a heroin overdose.

Eli, Mike and a thug named Sicky (played by James Oliver Wheatley) work for Neff. All of them regularly snort cocaine. Mike and Eli are in a rock band together that’s on the level of playing small nightclubs, but the band seems to be going nowhere its career. Mike is more committed to being a musician than Eli is.

Eli is currently preoccupied with thoughts of revenge because he knows that Adam has been paroled. Eli and his widower mother Anna (played by Olivia Carruthers) are upset that Adam didn’t get a longer prison sentence. Eli is offended that Adam has gone back to live in the same neighborhood where Eli’s family lives. Eli is also having some relationship problems with his girlfriend Lori (played by Savannah Steyn), who doesn’t want to live in New York City anymore.

There’s a very monotonous part of the movie about Mike wanting to do a heroin deal that would get him out of debt to a local gang boss named E.R. (played by Gary McDonald), but Neff is completely against the idea of dealing heroin. Mike secretly goes to Neff’s drug supplier Jamal (played by Lorraine Burroughs, doing a very fake-sounding Caribbean accent) to set up the heroin deal on his own, without telling Leff. You know where all of this is going, of course.

One of Neff’s customers is a rebellious 16-year-old named Jimmy (played by Rudy Pankow), who was told all of his life by his bitter single mother Donna (played by Stephanie Leonidas) that she and Jimmy were abandoned by Jimmy’s father, whom she was married to for an unnamed period of time. Jimmy will soon find out that Donna didn’t tell Jimmy the entire truth: Jimmy’s father Adam wasn’t there for them because he was in prison for murder for the past 16 years, and she cut off all contact with Adam. Jimmy was born while Adam was in prison.

This major plot point (which is not spoiler information) is another example of how the “5Lbs of Pressure” screenplay is badly conceived. Considering that Jimmy and Donna live in the same area where Adam used to live before Adam went to prison, it’s very hard to believe that Jimmy wouldn’t be able to find out what happened to Adam before Adam got out of prison. It’s as if the “5Lbs of Pressure” filmmakers want viewers to believe that no one in the community would tell Jimmy the truth about Adam, or that Jimmy is incapable of doing an Internet search.

At any rate, “5Lbs of Pressure” tries to shoehorn in some family melodrama and sentimentality, as Adam tries to get back in Jimmy’s life, against the vehement objections and disapproval of Donna. Adam is a recovering drug addict who likes to draw illustrations in his spare time. Adam shows his drawing talent to Jimmy and encourages Jimmy to start drawing too.

“5Lbs of Pressure” isn’t a completely terrible movie. It just has just too many boring or idiotic scenes that outnumber anything in the film that can be considered enjoyable entertainment. The acting performances range from adequate to lackluster to awful. The movie’s ending is meant to be “shocking,” but it’s actually quite predictable because of all the clues that are telegraphed so blatantly. “Crash” is remembered for being a controversial Oscar winner for Best Picture, but “5Lbs of Pressure” can’t even claim to be very memorable at all.

Lionsgate released “5Lbs of Pressure” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on March 8, 2024.

Review: ‘Our Son,’ starring Luke Evans, Billy Porter, Christopher Woodley, Andrew Rannells, Robin Weigert, Kate Burton and Phylicia Rashad

June 24, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Our Son”

Directed by Bill Oliver

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, the dramatic film “Our Son” features a racially diverse cast of characters (African American, white and some Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two divorcing husbands fight for primary custody of their 8-year-old son.

Culture Audience: “Our Son” will appeal primarily to viewers who are fans of the movie’s headliners and who are interested in watching divorce dramas from a gay male perspective.

Billy Porter and Luke Evans in “Our Son” (Photo by Amy Mayes)

“Our Son” might get some comparisons to the 1979 Oscar-winning drama “Kramer vs. Kramer” because of the many similarities, but “Our Son” is more like a made-for-TV movie instead of an Oscar-worthy film. The convincing performances elevate this formulaic divorce drama when the pacing drags. “Our Son” had its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.

Directed by Bill Oliver (who co-wrote the “Our Son” screenplay with Peter Nickowitz), “Our Son” has so many characteristics that are just like “Kramer vs. Kramer,” people who’ve seen “Kramer vs. Kramer” will know exactly how “Our Son” is going to end within 15 minutes of the movie starting. The main difference between the two movies is that the divorcing couple fighting over child custody is a heterosexual couple (played by Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep) in “Kramer vs. Kramer,” while the divorcing couple fighting over child custody in “Our Son” is a gay male couple, played by Luke Evans and Billy Porter. But even if viewers don’t know anything about “Kramer vs. Kramer,” it’s still very easy to predict the outcome of “Our Son” as soon as the divorce starts to happen.

Both movies take place in New York City. Both movies have an adorable son under the age of 10 who’s the only child of the divorcing couple fighting over custody of him. Both movies show that one person in the marriage is the more nurturing parent, while the other person in the marriage is the more emotionally distant parent. Both movies have the lower income of one parent used as a reason in the divorce battle as “evidence” that this lower-income parent should not have primary custody.

In the very beginning of “Our Son,” the marriage of Nicky (played by Evans) and Gabriel (played by Porter) seems to be solid but stuck in a rut. It’s not mentioned how long Gabriel and Nicky have been married, but they’ve been a couple for 13 years. Nicky and Gabriel have an 8-year-old son named Owen (played by Christopher Woodley), who is a high-energy and curious child.

Nicky is a workaholic who is consumed with his work as a book publisher. Gabriel is a former actor who gave up acting to become a homemaker after Owen was born. Gabriel is the parent who spends more time with Owen and has a closer emotional bond with Owen. Gabriel also gets help from an amiable babysitter named Isabella (played by Nuala Cleary), who visits the family home multiple times a week.

Owen was born in Philadelphia to a surrogate named Penny, who is not involved in Owen’s life and is not seen in the movie. Owen was conceived through artificial insemination using Nicky’s sperm. The egg donor is Adele (played by Cassandra Freeman), Nicky’s longtime friend from college. Adele, who currently lives in London, has no say in how Owen is being raised. She considers her egg donation to be a gift to Nicky and Gabriel. Adele is seen as a family friend, but she is not in regular contact with Owen.

From the movie’s opening scene, the cracks begin to show in the marriage of Nicky and Gabriel. After Nicky and Gabriel go home from watching Owen dance at a school talent show, Nicky and Gabriel immediately disagree on how they react to Owen’s dance performance. Gabriel gives Owen a small token gift to show his admiration for Owen, while Nicky says the gift is unnecessary. Nicky’s reasoning is that he doesn’t want Owen to be spoiled, while Gabriel sees nothing wrong with giving Owen this gift.

Later, in their bedroom, Nicky and Gabriel argue in private about their different parenting styles. Gabriel expresses frustration that Nicky isn’t more available for parenting responsibilities. Nicky’s response to Gabriel is: “Sometimes, I feel like you don’t appreciate my work.” Gabriel vehemently denies this accusation.

Nicky and Gabriel also disagree about Owen sleeping in their bed with them whenever Owen wants. Nicky thinks Owen is too old for it, while Gabriel thinks that Owen can still sleep in their bed. Gabriel and Nicky call a truce on this argument, give each other a light kiss, and then go to sleep. But there’s more trouble brewing ahead.

Gabriel and Nicky’s social circle consists almost entirely of other LGBTQ people. Two of their closest friends are a lesbian couple named Claire (played by Liza J. Bennett) and Judith (played by Gabby Beans), who happily announce at a dinner party that they are expecting their first child together. Gabriel and Nicky are at this dinner party and express sincere congratulations. But seeing Claire and Judith so happy about becoming parents seems to trigger something in Gabriel.

When Gabriel and Nicky go home from the dinner party, Gabriel makes a confession to Nicky: “I met somebody. Somebody I have feelings for.” Nicky is shocked, because he and Gabriel had agreed to be monogamous, after experimenting with being in an open marriage. (The “open marriage” part of the relationship is never seen in the movie.)

Nicky demands to know who Gabriel’s lover is. “It’s nobody you know,” says Gabriel, who tells Nicky his lover is someone he met at a nightclub about six weeks ago. Gabriel also tells Nicky that he’s sorry for the affair but he’s undecided about what to do. Nicky is hurt and upset, but he still wants to save the marriage.

Meanwhile, viewers see that Gabriel’s lover is a younger man named Will (played by William Demeritt), who meets up with Gabriel for a sexual tryst after Gabriel has confessed the affair to Nicky. During this hookup encounter, Will isn’t exactly thrilled when Gabriel suggests that Will, Gabriel and Nicky should all meet for a drink together to talk things over. Will isn’t just annoyed; he’s completely turned off by the idea. He coldly tells Gabriel, “I can’t go to an emotional place with you because you’re married.” And that’s the end of the relationship between Gabriel and Will.

Gabriel tells Nicky that his relationship with Will is over. A relieved Nicky thinks the end of this extramarital affair will mean that Gabriel will want to work on their marriage. However, Gabriel mournfully tells Nicky that he hasn’t been happy in their marriage for a very long time. Gabriel doesn’t think going back to couples therapy will work either. Gabriel then leaves the home while he figures out what to do next.

Gabriel can’t stay away from Owen for long, and he eventually comes back to the family home. Although Gabriel was the one who cheated, Nicky takes some responsibility for their failing marriage too. Nicky tells Gabriel: “I know I’ve gotten lazy in our marriage. I know I could do better. I could be better.” Gabriel says, “I love you too, baby. I don’t think it’s enough anymore … I’ve spoken to a divorce attorney.”

And so begins the divorce battle between Gabriel and Nicky. Gabriel eventually tells Nicky that he doesn’t love Nicky anymore. Nicky doesn’t want the divorce and goes through all the five stages of grief over the end of the marriage. Because Gabriel had essentially been raising Owen like a single parent before the divorce, Gabriel incorrectly assumes that Nicky will automatically agree to let Gabriel have primary custody of Owen.

Nicky gets angrier the more that he starts to hear about how much alimony and child support he would have to pay to Gabriel if Gabriel had primary custody of Owen. Nicky also feels very hurt by Gabriel rejecting Nicky and refusing to get back together. These negative feelings from Nicky escalate until he decides he’s going to fight for primary custody of Owen. Nicky’s main argument in this custody battle is that he’s the more stable parent because he earns a lot more money than Gabriel.

Gabriel’s financial situation is shaky but not alarming. After filing for divorce, Gabriel gets his own place (a small apartment) and a low-paying job helping homeless youth at a non-profit center. The person who got him the job is a talkative friend named Matthew (played by Andrew Rannells), who has been working at this non-profit for the past 10 years. Matthew is one of the friends who was at the dinner party where Claire and Judith announced that they are going to become parents.

Nicky and Matthew briefly dated each other when they were “23, newly out, single, and living in the city,” according to Matthew. Their romantic relationship didn’t work out, but Nicky and Matthew decided to remain friends. Naturally, Matthew feels caught in the middle of Nicky and Gabriel in this divorce/custody battle. Matthew tries to stay neutral, but it’s awkward. “Our Son” realistically shows how divorces and similar couple breakups also have an effect on friendships.

Nicky hires a tough-minded and ambitious attorney named Pam (played by Robin Weigert), who happens to be a lesbian. Gabriel’s attorney is the more easygoing Lorenzo (played Alfred Narciso), who is no pushover either. The expected arguments ensue between Nicky and Gabriel. The divorce also takes a toll on Owen, who has a hard time accepting that his parents are not getting back together.

“Our Son” also shows how Nicky reluctantly gets back into the dating scene during his divorce. He meets an attractive younger man named Solo (played Isaac Powell) at a nightclub. And everything that you think will happen does happen after Nicky and Solo flirt with each other. The sex scenes in “Our Son” are not completely explicit, but they’re definitely meant for adult viewers.

“Our Son” capably explains some of the legal issues involved in this type of custody battle. For example, Pam tells Nicky almost from the start that just because Nicky is Owen’s biological father, that doesn’t mean Nicky has more parental rights than Gabriel, because Nicky and Gabriel legally adopted Owen together. Why can’t Nicky and Gabriel agree to joint custody of Owen? Gabriel believes that Nicky’s job is too demanding for Nicky to have the time for joint custody.

Porter and Evans give admirable performances that show the nuances of why couples who thought they would be together for the rest of their lives end up splitting up due to incompatibility. (Stay for the end credits to hear Porter and Evans duet on the song “Always Be My Man.”) It would have been very easy to portray Nicky as the “villain,” but there are no real “villains” in this story—only people who get hurt by the pain of divorce.

Owen’s arrival in the relationship did not cause the breakup of Gabriel and Nicky, because their incompatibility issues were already there. Nicky and Gabriel both have their share of flaws and responsibilities in why their marriage failed. But who’s the more deserving parent to have primary custody of Owen? You’d have to be asleep for most of the movie to not see the answer that you know is coming.

“Our Son” goes deep with some raw emotions, but this type of divorce/custody battle has been done on screen so many times before (especially in TV shows), it all seems overly familiar. The movie’s supporting characters are mostly underdeveloped. Kate Burton has a small role as Maggie, also known as Miggie, who is Nicky’s mother. Likewise, Phylicia Rashad makes a brief appearance as Maya, who is Gabriel’s mother.

Even with the movie’s clichés and flaws, “Our Son” does a very good job of showing how there’s not much difference in divorces between gay couples and heterosexual couples. In the production notes for “Our Son,” filmmaker Oliver says when co-writing the screenplay, he drew from a lot of his own experiences of being a gay parent. That authenticity comes through in a lot of the movie’s dialogue and scenarios, although “Our Son” somewhat glosses over many of the racial issues that would come up in an interracial marriage and custody battle for an interracial child. A talented cast and interesting main characters are ultimately what save “Our Son” from sinking into a mediocre mush of melodrama.

UPDATE: Vertical will release “Our Son” in select U.S. cinemas on December 8, 2023. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on December 15, 2023.

Review: ‘Pinocchio’ (2022), starring Tom Hanks and the voices of Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

September 8, 2022

by Carla Hay

Tom Hanks and Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) in “Pinocchio” (Image courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.)

“Pinocchio” (2022)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed magical world, the live-action/animated film “Pinocchio” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An elderly wood carver makes a puppet boy that comes alive and then goes on a quest to become a human being.

Culture Audience: “Pinocchio” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Tom Hanks and the original 1940 “Pinocchio” movie, but all the star power of this “Pinocchio” remake can’t save the movie from being a lackluster retelling of a classic story.

Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) in “Pinocchio” (Image courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.)

Watching how Pinocchio’s nose grows in Disney’s original 1940 “Pinocchio” movie is much more interesting to look at than this unnecessary “Pinocchio” movie remake from filmmaker Robert Zemeckis. The original “Pinocchio” movie is a Disney animated classic. This Disney 2022 remake of “Pinocchio,” which is a live-action/animation hybrid, is like watching a substandard imitation dressed up with modern technology. Even having a talented cast isn’t enough to elevate Zemeckis’ version of “Pinocchio” out of its stagnant blandness.

Zemeckis is the director, co-writer (with Chris Weitz) and one of the producers of this version of “Pinocchio,” which is based on author Carlo Collodi’s 1883 Italian children’s novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio.” In addition to the 1940 animated film, there have been several other movie versions of “Pinocchio.” Italian actor/filmmaker Roberto Benigni directed, co-wrote and starred as the title character in a disastrous live-action reimagining of “Pinocchio,” released in 2002. Benigni then starred as Pinocchio creator Geppetto in director Matteo Garrone’s live-action “Pinocchio,” which was released in 2019 in Italy, and in 2020 and 2021 in other countries.

Zemeckis’ “Pinocchio” is the first of two “Pinocchio” movies releasing in 2022. Guillermo del Toro co-directed and co-wrote “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (due out on Netflix in December 2022), featuring the voices of Gregory Mann as Pinocchio, Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket and David Bradley as Geppetto. We don’t need two “Pinocchio” movies in one year. Enough already.

What viewers will see in Zemeckis’ version of “Pinocchio” is a lazy retread of Disney’s 1940 version, except for a few new characters (that don’t change the overall arc of the story), four new songs and a very different ending that’s the one truly unique thing about Zemeckis’ “Pinocchio.” Some people might not like this new ending, but the intentions are good in sending a message about celebrating self-acceptance. However, it’s not a good sign when a movie remake waits until the very end to show something that’s a surprise departure from the original movie story.

There’s no question that this version of “Pinocchio” has a talented cast, but their talents are not showcased in an exemplary way in the movie. Tom Hanks portrays Geppetto, the lonely and elderly wood carver, who makes a boy puppet named Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) as a companion, because Geppetto is grieving over the deaths of his wife and son. (The movie doesn’t mention how and when they died, but Geppetto has a family photo showing him with his wife and underage son when Geppetto was a young man.) Geppetto also has a pet goldfish named Cleo and a pet cat named Figaro, whose animation makes this feline look very fake. These animal characters add nothing important to the movie.

Geppetto has a home workshop filled with clocks that he’s made, but he refuses to sell them because he says his wife adored these clocks. There’s no explanation for how Geppetto makes a living if he won’t sell what he’s made. However, it’s abundantly clear that this version of “Pinocchio” is a soulless Disney remake when it has blatant shilling of other Disney movies. Many of Geppetto’s cuckoo clocks are basically Disney merchandise, with the clocks revealing characters from Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Toy Story” (the Woody character, voiced by Hanks), “Cinderella,” the Zemeckis-directed “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Dumbo.”

Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the wise, talking cricket who becomes Pinocchio’s companion, is the narrator of this version of “Pinocchio,” and he tells the story as a flashback. This narration choice is awkward because viewers should feel like they’re going along for the ride and experiencing the journey as the characters are experiencing the story, not being guided by a know-it-all creature who tells this narration as a flashback. Jiminy Cricket’s hindsight narration ends up being a detriment to the movie.

One night, a northern star beams a light into Pinocchio, who is turned into a living, talking puppet. Jiminy Cricket is there to witness the whole thing. Shortly afterward, Pinocchio is visited by the Blue Fairy (played by Cynthia Erivo), who touches him with her wand and gives Pinocchio a mind of his own. The Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio that in order for him to become a real boy, “You have to be brave, truthful and unselfish.”

Pinocchio later finds out that when he tells a lie, his nose temporarily elongates. The bigger the lie, the longer his nose gets. When he tells the truth again, his nose goes back to its original size. This pivotal plot development gets very underwhelming treatment in this “Pinocchio” remake, compared to how it was better-used in the original “Pinocchio” movie.

Of course, Geppetto is shocked that Pinocchio has come to life. He treats Pinocchio like a son, but Pinocchio still longs to be human. There’s a lot of talk in the movie about Pinocchio wanting a conscience as part of his humanity. And it isn’t long before Pinocchio ends up being separated from Geppetto. Pinocchio unwittingly becomes part of a traveling circus and is financially exploited by a magician named Stromboli (played by Giuseppe Battiston), who is helped by two con artists: a sneaky red fox named Honest John (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) and his mute alley cat sidekick Gideon.

Other familiar “Pinocchio” characters are in this remake: street urchin boy Lampwick (played by Lewin Lloyd) befriends Pinocchio. And the villainous Coachman (played by Luke Evans, hamming it up to the hilt) is also in the movie. This “Pinocchio” remake keeps the same story line for Pleasure Island, which has some of the movie’s best visual sequences.

There are three new characters that give this version of “Pinocchio” more female representation than the original “Pinocchio” movie: a talking seagull named Sofia (voiced by Lorraine Bracco); a circus puppeteer named Fabiana (played by Kyanne Lamaya), who wears a leg brace that’s mentioned in the movie; and a French ballerina puppet named Sabina (voiced by Jaquita Ta’le), who is Fabiana’s constant companion. These characters don’t change the basics of the story, but they just allow the movie to have more diverse characters interact with Pinocchio.

This version of “Pinocchio” has somewhat of a useless sequence of Pinocchio trying to fit in with human children at a school. The school has a teacher named Signora Vitelli (played by Sheila Atim) and a headmaster (played by Jamie Demetriou), who expels Pinocchio from the school when the headmaster finds out that Pinocchio is not a human boy. It’s just another way to show why Pinocchio is desperate to become human, because Pinocchio wants to please his father by going to school to get an education.

This remake of “Pinocchio” makes a half-hearted attempt to be a musical, but there are only seven songs that are sung in the movie. Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard wrote four original songs for this movie, with all of them unremarkable and not worthy of praise: “When He Was Here With Me” and “Pinocchio Pinocchio,” performed by Hanks; “I Will Always Dance,” performed by Lamaya; and “The Coachman to Pleasure Island,” performed by Evans. The Leigh Harline/Ned Washington-written songs from 1940’s “Pinocchio” that are in this “Pinocchio” remake are “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor’s Life for Me),” performed by Key; “I’ve Got No Strings,” performed by Ainsworth; and “When You Wish Upon a Star,” performed by Erivo.

This version of “Pinocchio” has a mishmash of international language accents, some delivered in better ways than others. Hanks’ Geppetto accent drifts in and out of sounding Italian and American. Lloyd’s version of Lampwick has an accent that sounds half-British, half-Brooklynite. It’s as if the actors know this “Pinocchio” movie is far from award-worthy, and some of them didn’t bother to work on having a consistent talking accent for their characters.

Disney has been getting criticism for doing inferior remakes of classic Disney animated films. This version of “Pinocchio” is an example of why this criticism exists. Disney had such little faith in this version of “Pinocchio,” it was not released in theaters. Disney also placed a review embargo on this version of “Pinocchio,” so that critics could not publish reviews of the movie before Disney+ released the movie to the public. This late embargo is always a sign of a bad film. Pinocchio should hold his nose for being in this stinker movie.

Disney+ premiered “Pinocchio” on September 8, 2022.

Review: ‘Crisis’ (2021), starring Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer and Evangeline Lilly

March 7, 2021

by Carla Hay

Greg Kinnear and Gary Oldman in “Crisis” (Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution)

“Crisis” (2021)

Directed by Nicholas Jarecki

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Detroit and Montreal, the dramatic film “Crisis” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: The lives of three different Americans—a scientist, a Drug Enforcement Agency undercover officer and a recovering opioid addict—all collide when a new “non-addictive” opioid prescription drug called Klaralon is being rushed to market.

Culture Audience: “Crisis” will appeal primarily to people who like to watch formulaic dramas about the “war on drugs” that have some ridiculous plot developments.

Armie Hammer and Evangeline Lilly in “Crisis” (Philippe Bosse/Quiver Distribution)

It seems as if the dramatic thriller “Crisis” (written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki) was made to be a “cautionary tale” about how big pharmaceutical companies are just greedy, corporate drug dealers in the so-called “war on drugs.” However, the movie becomes so enamored with showing enmeshed storylines of the three main characters that it all just becomes a tangled mess that tries to tie up loose ends neatly in a very unrealistic way, in order to have a cliché movie ending. The acting performances are solid, but the movie’s writing and direction are bloated and messy.

The story goes back and forth between the perspectives of three Detroit people, who all end up being connected to each other in some way in the opioid crisis. It’s a crisis that has fueled demand for opioids, whether they’re sold as legal prescriptions or through the illegal drug trade. Much of the story revolves around a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) sting to take down a cartel of Armenian gangsters in Montreal who traffic drugs to and from the U.S. and Canadian border. You can tell already that this movie is more convoluted than it needs to be.

Dr. Tyrone Brower (played by Gary Oldman) is a scientist (presumably in biochemistry, because the movie never says), who teaches at an unnamed university in the Detroit area. This university has had a long-term business relationship with a corporate pharmaceutical company called Northlight, which has hired the university to do research on drugs that Northlight wants approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Tyrone is in charge of these research studies, and he prides himself on having high ethical standards.

Tyrone’s latest research study for Northlight is for a painkiller called Klaralon, which is supposed to be the world’s first “non-addictive” painkiller. Of course, there are caveats to using Klaralon. It’s only “non-addictive” if taken in the correct doses. And there’s some cockamamie explanation later in the story that Klaralon won’t become addictive if patients stop taking Klaralon after 30 days.

It’s an example of a poorly thought-out screenplay, because it doesn’t factor in the reality that most patients who are prescribed painkillers need to take the drugs for longer than a month. And no legitimately greedy pharmaceutical company would want to market a drug with such short-term usage. The goal would be to keep people on these drugs as long as possible to make the maximum amount of money from selling these drugs. And there are plenty of plot holes and other illogical missteps in this movie, which ruin any credibility that “Crisis” might have intended to look like a gritty drama that’s supposed to be taken seriously.

The second person in this trio of main characters is Jake Kelly (played by Armie Hammer), a hardened DEA officer who’s undercover in the Canadian city of Montreal. He’s invested a lot of time in a DEA sting to bust an Armenian gang that has been cornering the market with illegal OxyContin sales and is trying to do the same for Fentanyl. The leader of this drug cartel is named (try not to laugh) Mother (played by Guy Nadon), and his right-hand goon is named Guy Broussard (played by Éric Bruneau). “Crisis” writer/director Jarecki portrays Stanley “Stan” Foster, who is Jake’s closest and most-trusted DEA colleague in the sting.

Jake has a personal reason for wanting to bust this drug-dealing cartel: His younger sister Emmie (played by Lily-Rose Depp) is a needle-using opioid addict. During the course of the story, Emmie starts off in rehab but then ends up leaving rehab early to go back to her junkie lifestyle. You can easily predict the scene in the movie where Emmie goes missing, Jake finds her strung-out in a drug house, and he forces her to leave while she has a temper tantrum.

And speaking of drug addicts, the third person whose perspective is shown in “Crisis” is that of single mother Claire Reimann (played by Evangeline Lilly), a recovering opioid addict who’s still struggling with staying clean and sober. Claire is shown in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, where she confesses to the attendees about her urge to use opioids and how it affects how she raises her 16-year-old son David (played by Billy Bryk).

Claire says, “I can’t even sit through a hockey game without even thinking about it. I would like to be a better person for him. And I’m working on that.” David’s father is not seen or mentioned in the movie, so it’s implied that he’s an absentee father who has no contact with Claire and David.

The university that Tyrone works for relies heavily on funding from Northlight to keep the school financially afloat. Therefore, Tyrone is under pressure to deliver lab results that will be pleasing to Northlight. However, there’s a problem with the trial studies for Klaralon. The mice that were tested in the experiments died after 10 days of being administered the drug. The trial period was extended to 30 days, and led to the same results. There’s also evidence that Klaralon is more addictive than Fentanyl.

Tyrone finds out this bad news at the worst time, because Northlight is soon going to present the university’s research on Klaralon to the FDA for approval to sell the drug. In good conscience, Tyrone refuses to lie and pretend that Klaralon is safe to sell to the general public. He meets with Northlight executives Dr. Bill Simons (played by Luke Evans) and Dr. Meg Holmes (played by Veronica Ferres), who are portrayed as soulless and money-hungry. Tyrone tells them that the drug is dangerous and not ready for FDA approval, and asks them for more time to do more lab tests.

Not surprisingly, the Northlight executives refuse and even come up with a ludicrous idea to sell Klaralon anyway. Despite all the signs that it’s a deadly drug, the Northlight executives justify this rush to market for Klaralon, by saying that the company won’t be responsible for any deaths if they include a warning that the drug cannot be taken for more than 30 days. Tyrone thinks it’s a terrible idea and isn’t afraid to say so.

After this meeting, Bill tries to entice Tyrone to sign a “modified” lab report with a “corporate donation” of $780,000. Of course, it’s really a bribe to sign a falsified report. Tyrone knows he’s being offered a bribe, but he doesn’t want to alienate Northlight, so he asks for a little more time to look over the agreement.

When Tyrone tells his boss Dean Talbot (played by Greg Kinnear) about this ethical problem, Tyrone is surprised and disappointed when the dean sides with Northlight. Dean Talbot essentially tells Tyrone that if he doesn’t sign off on the report and take the money, Northwell will cancel its contract with the university, and it will ruin the university financially.

Dean Talbot also says that just because some mice died in the lab experiments for Klaralon, that doesn’t mean that people will die from taking Klaralon too. Anyone with basic knowledge of science might be yelling at their screen at this dumb part of the movie. And the dean reminds Tyrone that the university isn’t responsible if people become addicted or die from the drugs that the university researches.

Dean Talbot also strongly hints that Tyrone will be fired if he doesn’t do what he’s told. Tyrone can’t afford to lose this job because his much-younger wife Susan (played by Mia Kirshner) is pregnant with their first child together. He’s also at an age (in his 60s) where it would be difficult to find work somewhere else. And Tyrone loves his job and doesn’t want to leave.

“Crisis” tries to do too much during its nearly two-hour running time. The story goes off the rails when tragedy strikes Claire and she turns into a vigilante. With the help of a private investigator, Claire finds out some information to try to solve a mystery. And then, she starts acting as if she’s a one-woman DEA crime-busting team. She goes back and forth between the U.S. and Canadian border. And a lot of nonsense ensues. It’s just all so ridiculously portrayed in the movie.

There are inevitable shootouts that are also badly handled in the movie. And for a powerful drug cartel led by a guy named Mother, they have a lot less people handling their business than they would in in real life. But that’s because this is a low-budget independent film, so apparently the filmmakers probably didn’t want to hire any more actors because they spent a great deal of their budget hiring an Oscar winner such as Oldman.

Oldman’s Tyrone character is supposed to be the “moral center” of the story. He’s the type of professor who tells his students: “Without us crazies, where would the world be?” As far as his big ethical dilemma about Klaralon, he might as well wear a sign that says, “Whistlebower.” Hammer and Lilly are serviceable in their roles, which don’t make much of an impression in this fairly generic movie.

Michelle Rodriguez has a small role as Jake’s DEA supervisor Mia Garrett, who doesn’t do much but scowl when she hears some of the updates that Jake gives her. Scott Mescudi, also known in real life as rapper Kid Cudi, has a much smaller role as Ben Walker, an investigator for the FDA. These two characters don’t have memorable personalities. Even the chief villain Mother is a banal stereotype of the type of elder “mob boss” that’s been seen in dozens of other crime-related dramas.

“Crisis” tries to be somewhat preachy about the far-reaching effects of the opioid crisis and the “war on drugs.” Claire is supposed to represent the “everyday person” who’s affected by this crisis. But by having her do some outlandish and very unrealistic things in this story, it actually makes her character and this movie less relatable to everyday viewers. Claire also crosses paths with Jake in some of the movie’s most preposterous scenes.

“Crisis” would have been a better movie if it focused only on Tyrone’s storyline and was a drama inspired by 1999’s “The Insider,” the Al Pacino/Russell Crowe movie about a whistleblower in the tobacco industry. “Crisis” could have been an intriguing story, because it’s rare for a dramatic movie to give an in-depth look at any corruption that goes on behind-the-scenes when drugs are being tested for FDA approval. Instead, “Crisis” overstuffs the plot with a run-of-the-mill “let’s take down a drug cartel” storyline that so many other movies have done before and done much better.

Quiver Distribution released “Crisis” in select U.S. cinemas on February 26, 2021, and on digital and VOD on March 5, 2021.