MOVIE REVIEW: DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS

 

In search of a fresh start, two women embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, Fla. However, things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.

Director:  Ethan Coen

Cast: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, Matt Damon.

Release Date: February 23, 2024 

Genre: Action, Comedy, Thriller

Rated R for crude sexual content, full nudity, language and some violent content.

Runtime: 1h 24m

Review:

Ethan Coen's solo directorial debut, Drive-Away Dolls, is a silly crime caper of a road movie that can't quite maintain its manic energy in spite of energetic performances from its two leads.  It’s hard to avoid comparisons to Coen's work with his brother since this film carries plenty of hallmarks of some of their sillier crime comedies like Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading.  This film never reaches those levels of joyful insanity although it comes close on multiple occasions.  The film's pacing runs at a frenetic pace which makes it a breezy watch, but it also keeps some of the stronger sequences from landing the way they should since they aren't given time to breathe.  It’s a shame since the film central duo of Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan turn in inspired performances.  Their oil and water chemistry make the film run with Qualley outsized performance working in perfect contrast to Viswanathan straight laced understated turn.  Qualley gives the character a lively, energetic spirit that feels authentic even with the cartoonish southern accent she sports.  Viswanathan works more subtly, using her deadpan delivery and expressive eyes to great effect.  They're chaotic fun together especially as the situations get more over the top and outrageous.  Their supporting cast is peppered with well known faces who are clearly having a ball even in their limited screen time.  Drive-Away Dolls makes you wish you got to spend more time with all these characters but it's in a strange rush to get in and out as quickly as possible.  

B-

MOVIE REVIEW: BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE

 

Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley overcomes adversity to become the most famous reggae musician in the world.

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Henry Douthwaite, Anthony Welsh, Sheldon Shepherd, Quan-Dajai Henriques, Nia Ashi

Release Date: February 14, 2024 

Genre: Biography, Drama, Music

Rated PG-13 for marijuana use and smoking throughout, some violence and brief strong language.

Runtime: 1h 44m

Review:

Bob Marley: One Love is solid albeit fairly straightforward snapshot biopic buoyed by excellent performances from Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch.  Reinaldo Marcus Green treats his central subject with the sort of reverence and respect you'd expect especially with Marley’s widow and son serving as executive producers.  Green's directs the film with a steady, self assured hand which makes the film an easy watch from start to finish especially since Marley's songs are interspersed throughout.  Green does add in a few visual flourishes in the form of a recurring vision that Marley sees which is visually impactful enough to make you wish he'd added more throughout the story.  A handful of flashback to Marley’s early years, with solid performances from Quan-Dajai Henriques and Nia Ashi, add some texture to his story of his upbringing before moving back to its central story carried Kingsley Ben-Adir.  Ben-Adir is excellent throughout, showing a full level of commitment to the role.  He captures Marley's persona, speech patterns and unique style of performing during his concerts.  He manages to go above mimicry when the film gives him a chance to dig into some of the meatier portions of the man.  Lashana Lynch is just as strong as Marley's wife, Rita, with the two sharing some intense and insightful moments later in the film.  Sadly, there isn't enough of those sequences as we are left with the feeling that we're only scratching the surface of their relationship and ultimately Marley's motivation and turmoil.  The film's final act, especially after his cancer diagnosis, moves unusually fast as it rushes to the finale which ends with a combination of archival footage and title cards.  It’s a strange choice since the film barely started scratching deeper into the man and it ultimately keeps Bob Marley: One Love from being the in depth dive into the man as opposed to a quick overview. 

B

MOVIE REVIEW: MADAME WEB

 

Cassandra Webb is a New York City paramedic who starts to show signs of clairvoyance. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she must protect three young women from a mysterious adversary who wants them dead.

Director: S.J. Clarkson

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O'Connor, Isabela Merced, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, Adam Scott

Release Date: February 14, 2024 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated PG-13 for violence/action and language.

Runtime: 1h 54m

Review:

Madame Web arrives onscreen barely registering a pulse thanks to a bland script and a cast that's as disinterested as the audience.  S.J. Clarkson does her best to give this low rent version of Edge of Tomorrow some life early on but using inventive angles and shots during some of the action sequences.  There are small slivers of energy, especially early, but once the film goes into an endless cycle of repetition which kills any sense of momentum or entertainment.  Those hoping for some mindless superhero action will be sorely disappointed since the majority of that occurs in a flash forward which the film never occurs in the actual film, leaving this film as nothing more than set up for a future installment.  Instead, the film follows Dakota Johnson's Cassandra Webb kidnap/rescue the trio of Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O'Connor and Isabela Merced and chaperon them around before abandoning them for an impromptu day trip to Peru.  It’s all rather nonsensical and illogical which might be goofy if any of the cast put any sort of effort into their performances.  Johnson leads the cast with one of the more uninspired performances in a big budget film in recent memory.  Her consistently monotone line delivery makes it feel like we are watching rehearsal footage instead of the final cut.  That energy runs across her supporting cast  who are saddled with the most generic clichés of early 2000's teenage girls.  It’s so painfully bad that you wouldn't be surprised if they randomly started singing Spice Girls song just to drive the point home about the live action Brats dolls assembled.  Tahar Rahim doesn't fair much better as the film's sort of evil Spider-man from the dollar store with his stilted delivery that makes Johnson look inspired in comparison.  Madame Web is a mess of a film that commits a variety of sins which would be forgivable if it wasn't so incredibly boring.

D-

MOVIE REVIEW: LISA FRANKENSTEIN

 

A misunderstood teenager and a reanimated corpse embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness and a few missing body parts.

Director: Zelda Williams

Cast: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, Carla Gugino

Release Date: February 9, 2024 

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Romance

Rated PG-13 for violent content, bloody images, sexual material, language, sexual assault, teen drinking and drug content.

Runtime: 1h 41m 

Review:

Lisa Frankenstein is a fun, if uneven, mash up of a variety of sources that's carried by Kathryn Newton's energetic performance.  Zelda William's film is bright and bubbly the way most nostalgia porn recreates the 80s as a neon filled wonderland.  It’s kitschy and overblown but very much in tune with the rest of the film and story being told.  Diablo Cody penned the script, with plenty of moments showing off her ability to write sharply funny dialogue.  It doesn't have the same level of consistent energy and verve that some of her past work but it’s still funnier more often than not.  It’s a broader satire of all sorts of 80's teen comedy tropes with larger than life characters and ideas that the cast willingly embraces with impressive gusto.  Kathryn Newton carries the film from the opening sequence through its final frame with an effervescent, charming central turn.  Newton is consistently the most interesting performer on screen even during some of the film's weaker moments.  Her wide eyed enthusiasm shines through the layers of mascara, apple candy lipstick and ever expanding 80s hairdo.  Newton has shown some comedic talent in her previous turns like Freaky and Blockers, but this is by far her best showcase.  The supporting cast is solid with Cole Sprouse and Liza Soberano leaving the biggest impression.  Sprouse has fun chemistry with Newton which is impressive since he's required to rely on a psychical performance with his character being mute for the better part of the film.  Soberano is equally impressive as Lisa's incredibly supportive and sweet step sister by giving the character a believable sort of authenticity.  Carla Gugino vamps it up to an impressive degree as the stepmother but sadly the film doesn't take full advantage since the film could have benefited from more scenes between her and Newton.  Ultimately, Lisa Frankenstein is a wonderfully twisted spotlight that lets Kathryn Newton show off charismatic screen presence.

B

MOVIE REVIEW: ARGYLLE

 

Reclusive author Elly Conway writes best-selling espionage novels about a secret agent named Argylle who's on a mission to unravel a global spy syndicate. However, when the plots of her books start to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, the line between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, Samuel L. Jackson

Release Date: February 2, 2024 

Genre: Action, Thriller

Rated PG-13 for strong violence and action and some strong language.

Runtime: 2h 19m

Review:

Argylle, the latest spy riff from Matthew Vaughn, is overstuffed to the point of exhaustion as it hurls a seemingly endless barrage of twists at the screen which would make even M. Night Shyamalan blush.  Initially, Vaughn's film has a breezy feel as it plays with a fun premises.  The early action sequences that pepper in bits of Henry Cavill doing his best Bond impression is energetic and engaging.  Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell have some fun chemistry with both making the best of their likeable onscreen charm.  Howard is appropriately nebbish early on as insanity plays out around her.  Rockwell seems to be having a blast playing the superspy guiding her and it all works fairly well in the film's opening act.  Bryan Cranston hams it up as the film's central villain but much like the movie's plot, his performance gets progressively more exaggerated and outsized especially as the first reveal which alone would have been a fun thread to chase.  Instead, that initial reveal is barely given anytime to breathe before another U Turn takes in another silly direction follow by another and another.  There are a few fun action sequences interspersed between it all, but those slower moments are noticeably slow especially as the film gets more aggressively silly, highlighted by a colorful bullet filled dance and skating sequence which makes it clear that it’s all intentionally stupid.  In a weird way, Vaughn and his cast end up delivering a modern day Naked Gun film which would have been fun if it weren't so incredibly overstuffed.  

C-

MOVIE REVIEW: THE ZONE OF INTEREST

 

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Cast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Ralph Herforth, Daniel Holzberg, Sascha Maaz, Freya Kreutzkam

Release Date: February 2, 2024

Genre: Drama, History, War

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, some suggestive material and smoking.

Runtime: 1h 45m

Review:

Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest is a fascinating study in subtle insinuation of horrific events juxtaposed against the seemingly mundane.  Glazer's distinctive style gives the film an almost clinical detachment from the central family and characters as the audience follows their day to day lives.  It’s unnervingly routine even as smatterings of screams and gunshots linger in the background as the family enjoys parties or birthday celebrations.  Small tidbits or comments from the family members as the film progresses exemplifies the level of causal complicity to horror show playing out over the walls.  Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller play the Höss couple with a lived in authenticity of a pair of people who have been together for a decent amount of time.  If not for the discussions about building a new crematorium or rifling through people's luxurious belongings from the camp, they'd feel like an average couple trying to raise their kids.  The film doesn't shy away from the fact that the evil seeps into the aforementioned children even if they don't have direct exposure to it.  The film is methodical in its approach which may not make it the most accessible experience for the causal movie goer since it doesn't hold your hand and its finale is sure to confounding its share of viewers.  The Zone of Interest isn't an easy film for a variety of reasons, but it is the kind of film that will linger in your mind long after you've watched it.

A-