THE WEEKEND WARRIOR 2/14/25 Reviews and Repertory Round-Up

BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN, ARMAND, YOU ME AND HER, THE DEAD THING, THE GORGE, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Before I get to this week’s reviews and repertory stuff, there are a few other things that need to get mentioned. For instance, I’m not sure I realized on Tuesday in the Early Edition (to paid subscribers) that the Chinese animated sequel Ne Zha 2 was going to be opening wide or at least wide enough to break into the top 10 and maybe even the top 5 this weekend! I won’t be watching or reviewing it, but it’s probably good to note.

In case you missed it, I reviewed Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD already.

As mentioned on Tuesday, Bernard McMahon’s doc BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (Sony Pictures Classics) will be released nationwide by Sony Pictures Classics on Friday, and before we get to some of the other reviews for the week, I wanted to say a few words about it, since I definitely seemed to like it more than others, even some diehard fans. I actually spoke to the filmmakers, too, and I’ll share that over at Cinema Daily US soon. It’s good to go into the film knowing that the title is apt, in that this really is about the origins of the band, showing their earlier lives and music efforts before meeting up and forming the legendary rock band, and make no mistake that it’s the latter when we finally see the four of them together where the movie really shines with archival concert footage which immediately gives you an idea why they became so big so quickly. The film then covers the band’s 1968 U.S. tour just as their first album is being released, making them one of the rare British bands who became bigger overseas even before their first album was released in the U.K. The film is mostly told through the words of the three surviving band members, but the filmmakers also found some rare interview audio with late drummer John “Bonzo” Bonham who died in 1980, pretty much ending the amazing career of a band who only really lasted a few years more than The Beatles. (They did reunite in 2007 for a tribute concert to Atlantic Records’ head Ahmet Ertegun who signed them back in 1968, and that was released as the concert film, Celebration Day.) I’ll be curious to talk to more Zep-heads about the movie as more people have a chance to see it, but I thoroughly enjoyed learning new things about the band and its members, even if the movie only goes through 1969’s “Led Zeppelin II.”

OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS 2025

As in the past few years, the 15 Oscar-nominated shorts in the Live Action, Animated and Documentary categories will screen across the country in select cities starting on Friday. In New York City, they’ll play at the IFC Center and at BAM in Brooklyn, and at least at the IFC Center, they will have sneak previews on Thursday night. I’m actually going to try to write more about these once I have a chance to watch all 15 – someday! – so look out for those, probably right here on my Substack.

Let’s get to some reviews, including a movie that I didn’t get to last week and only got around to watching over the weekend, but it’s supposed to be expanding this weekend…

ARMAND (IFC Films)

Beloved Norwegian actor Renate Reinsve from The Worst Person in the World and last year’s A Different Man stars in the feature film debut by 34-year-old Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, who happens to be the grandson of Scandinavian legends Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman!

In the film, Ms. Reinsve plays Elisabeth, the mother of a 6-year-old named Armand, who has been called into the teacher’s office for a meeting with the parents of another 6-year-old boy, who has been accused of inappropriate and shocking sexual behavior. Elisabeth is puzzled that her son can do anything like what’s being described to her, but there’s also a lot of confusion surrounding the events, too.

This is am movie that reminded me of a bunch of different movies including the German Oscar nominee, The Teacher’s Lounge, as well as Kore-eda’s Monster, but especially the Thomas Vinterberg film, The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen, so this kind of things may be something common in Scandinavia. The movie mostly takes place in a single classroom with a small group of individuals, and we don’t even really get to see the kids in the questioned incident until near the end.

The first signs of weirdness is when Elisabeth does a seemingly random avante-garde dance in slow motion out in the school hallways, something that happens randomly but then isn’t mentioned again. Later in the movie, we get an even stranger sequence that I’m hesitant to even describe, since it also seems to come out of nowhere.

As much as Armand is well-written and Reinsve is good, it feels like it takes forever to get anywhere, and it doesn’t deliver a satisfactory resolution to really justify for the film’s slow pace or how much talking there is without getting anywhere. Even so, parents might find the story to of more interest than a childless film critic such as myself, though this seems to be very typical of how much overreaction is pervasive these days, even across the pond.

Rating: 6.5/10

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Matthew (The Twentieth Century) Rankins’ oddball comedy was Canada’s submission for the Oscars, but it wasn’t even shortlisted, and having tried TWICE to get through it with no luck I’m not even remotely surprised. I remember liking The Twentieth Century since it reminded me of what I liked about Monty Python, but it’s been so long since I saw it, that I don’t really remember much about it. This one begins at a school, which I thought was in Montreal but apparently, it’s in Winnipeg, and it begins with a teacher freaking out at his classroom full of kids of Iranian descent, then switches gears to follow two students who find a large bill frozen under ice. And then it goes from there, but a.) I just couldn’t follow the narrative and b.) if it was supposed to be funny, I just couldn’t find any humor in it. I really have no idea how this has received so much critical love out of festivals. I think Rankin actually plays a character in the movie, but I’m not sure I ever got to him, because I walked out of the press screening at New York Film Festival last year and then gave up on watching it on a screener. In other words, that’s all the review you’ll be getting from me about this one. Sorry!

THE DEAD THING (Shudder)

Hitting Shudder on Friday is Elric Kane’s directorial debut, a relationship thriller starring Katherine Hughes as Alex, a woman who is trying to make a connection, experiencing a number of hookups through an app until she meets Alex (Blu Hunt), the seemingly perfect partner, who she falls hard for, only to discover that he may have been dead the whole time.

Shudder has plenty of decent horror and genre content, but this one doesn’t seem to know if it wants to be horror or not, to the point where much of it is just a drama about this young woman trying to make a love connection, and it’s only when people around her start dying at the hands of the ghost Alex where it’s like, “Okay, maybe this is horror after all.”

It was only after I finished watching this movie when I realized that Hughes was in one of my favorite Sundance movies, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, but she feels grossly miscast here, maybe more due to the material than her acting ability.

There really isn’t a lot I have to say about The Dead Thing, other than the fact that it tries way too hard to be horror with a handful of dull kills, but otherwise, it’s mostly hindered by the weak writing and casting that doesn’t do much to elevate that weaker material. (Apparently, Elric Kane is a podcaster who does the podcast for Fangoria and the New Beverly Cinema in L.A., two facts I found more interesting than his skills or choice of subject matter as a filmmaker.)

Rating: 5.5/10

THE GORGE (Apple TV+)

Black Phone and Sinister director Scott Derrickson returns with this spy-thriller, starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy as two “highly-trained operatives appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within.” Sounds pretty high concept, but I probably haven’t watched it as I write this, mainly cause it’s embargoed until Thursday afternoon. That’s a massive pain in my ass, but I look forward to watching it, because I like both actors.

On paper, The Gorge seemed to be quite high concept, but I wasn’t ready for what the movie actually was going to be. At first, it almost comes across like a romantic comedy set in the oddest of locations, with the two leads as snipers stationed on opposite sides of this gorge that’s filled with mutated beasties. We only encounter the creatures once in the first hour as instead we watch as Teller’s Levi Kane and his Russian counterpart, Drasa (Taylor Joy) spend their time flirting with each by holding up signs to each other from opposite sides of that titular gorge.

These sorts of cutesy interactions seem off to be completely counter to the dangers they’ve been assigned to keep from exiting the gorge. We do see these “Hollow Men” briefly, but then they’re seemingly forgotten until an hour into the movie and our two leads wind up down in the gorge, which is when we start learning the truth behind their mission.

Normally, I’d be awed by the production design used to create the gorge when we see things up close, but the creature design and execution are incredibly weak, mixing practical effects with CGI to bring the unimpressive-looking creatures to life. At times, the movie very much reminded me of a weaker version of the 2020 movie, The Tomorrow War, which ended up being dumped to Prime Video due to COVID. I wasn’t nearly as surprised when I learned that The Gorge was written by that film’s screenwriter, Zach Dean.

Derrickson has gotten better and better as a filmmaker over the years, and it’s great seeing him (mostly) taking on a different type of movie. Still, he’s a fairly decent writer, and surely, he must have realized how stupid this movie ends up becoming, especially as we learn more about the purpose of them guarding the gorge. That leads to a Resident Evil-level of video game action and storytelling as they’re attacked by tree-like creatures akin to Tolkien’s Ents and the Green Knight from David Lowery’s movie. It’s just perplexing how stupid the movie gets, although there is about 20 minutes of action as they’re trying to escape the gorge, accompanied by a suitably driving Reznor-Ross score.

Maybe The Gorge would have worked better viewed in a theatrical setting, but I just can’t comprehend how someone could read such a terrible script, and think, “Hey, this might make a good movie.” I also wondered how two relatively decent actors got suckered into taking part in such a crappy movie, even as Sigourney Weaver is generally wasted, essentially appearing in two scenes as Levi’s handler.

The Gorge is a major disappointment – all over the place in tone with so many other issues, and I definitely expected much better from all involved.

Rating: 5.5/10

YOU, ME & HER (Attend)

Dan Levy Dagerman’s appropriately-timed rom-com (of sorts) revolves around a married couple with a young child, Mags and Ash (Selina Ringel, Ritesh Rajan), who travel on vacation in Mexico, which begins the idea that maybe they should bring another person to spice up their sex life. When they meet Angela (Sydney Park), Mags throws out the suggestion of them having a threesome, making this literally the BEST VALENTINE’S DAY MOVIE EVER!!! I’m half-kidding, as you’ll see from my review below. I have no idea how wide this will be released by a distributor with whom I’m not familiar, but I watched the trailer and even that didn’t give me an idea of how bad a movie I was in for.

You, Me & Her has so many problems beyond the basic premise. The screenplay, written by Ringel, is very bad, and the tone is all over the place, beginning with the couple travelling down to a Mexican resort and spending time with a couple of swingers, an overly-long section of the movie that seems to be there to throw in some unfunny bits of awkwardness.

The whole point of the movie is to see what happens when this couple gets themselves involved in a threesome, but Mags and Ash just don’t have much charisma on their own, and I just didn’t care for either of the main actors. Sydney Park is slightly better, and she’s quite pretty, but there are points where she’s completely forgotten as the film devolves into subplots to heighten the drama, but then are completely forgotten minutes later. If this is meant to be a comedy, it’s not very funny; if it’s meant to be taken more seriously, that doesn’t really work either.

Honestly, I don’t care about any overt modern day “woke-ism” if a movie is any good, but the fact that Dagerman chose to make all the main characters of various mixed races makes little no sense. Was that to make anyone seeing this movie think that they’re seeing themselves on screen? I hope not, because there’s very little about the characters that might make one relate to any of them.

Maybe it’s because I’m not married, so I couldn’t fully understand why this idea had to be stretched out across a whole movie, and also why it took so long to get to any actual point. As a director, Dagerman spends far too much ogling his female actors with a “male gaze,” just making the whole thing more lurid and pervy than particularly sexy or romantic, compounded by the frequently stoned Ash drooling over the target of his wife’s interest.

On top of that, this is very much an L.A. movie, and if you know me even remotely, you know that is not a compliment. It’s nothing but a slick vanity project with the weakest of premises and a cast that just can’t do much to make the material any more palatable. This is a truly incompetent movie that would shock anyone that it’s getting an actual theatrical release, since it seems more like VOD or streaming fare, at best. Neither sexy nor funny and not even particularly romantic, You, Me & Her tries to be a sex comedy that fails on every level, and then it tries to be a warm human story about married couples, and it fails there, too.

Rating: 3.5/10

Apparenty, You, Me & Her will open in 250 theaters on Friday.. and I learned after writing this review that Dagerman and Ringel are married themselves, so WTF?!?

Other movies out this weekend…

THE LONG GAME (Vertical)
ROUNDING (Music Box Films)
BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY (Peacock)

---

REPERTORY

Beginning on Thursday, the first four or five Harry Potter movies will be released across the nation. It begins on Thursday night with the OG, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

METROGRAPH

This weekend, the series “Knock Knock” kicks into high gear with screenings of Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger (1990) on Saturday and then again on Tuesday; Eli Roth’s titular thriller Knock Knock (2015), starring Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas on Saturday and Sunday; as well as Darren Aronofksy’s mother! (2017), starring Jennifer Lawrence, which seems to have found its fans, but I think it’s an abomination and one of my favorite filmmaker’s worst movies!

This weekend’s offering as part of “Brigitte Lin on Screen” is Wong Kar-Wai’s 1994 film Chungking Express, which I’m not sure if I’ve seen but I’ll be seeing it again on Valentine’s Day (by myself, of course), mainly since Faye Wong’s cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” – were you aware that I worked with the Irish band just as that song was all over the radio? It’s true! – has been such a big influence on my good friend, Olive. “Zhang Ziyi in 35mm” continues at least though next week with more screenings of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster (that’s one more screening on Monday afternoon).

So many movies as part of “15 Minutes” this weekend, including All About Eve on Thursday afternoon and a couple more times next week; more screenings of David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake (2018); Fassbinder’s Veronika Voss (1982); and Andrzej Żuławski’s 1975 film, That Most Important Thing: Love, which is only has one screening Saturday night and then a couple more next week.

This weekend’s highlight of “Amongst Humans” is a bunch of screenings of Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic, Alien, which I’d see again if I hadn’t already watched it a dozen times; another screening of John Cameron Mitchell’s How To Talk to Girls at Parties (2018); and a Thursday night screening of John Carpenter’s They Live (1988), another sci-fi classic.

“The Many Lives of Laura Dern” may be running out of steam with a bunch of screenings of David Lynch’s Wild At Heart (1990), co-starring Nicolas Cage, but they’re also screening 1982’s Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, starring a very young Dern AND a super-young Diane Lane!

Next Wednesday, the Metrograph is doing an all-day David Lynch marathon showing four movies that the Metrograph has been showing almost non-stop this year as part of “In Dreams: A David Lynch Tribute” … and if you think THAT is cynical, keep reading below… (At least cinematographer Fred Elmes will be on hand for intros and QnAs for a couple of them, and two will be on 35mm.

Mostly repeat stuff as part of “Raise Ravens and They Will Pick Your Eyes Out” but also screening Jafar Pahani’s 2015 film, Tehran Taxi, and Carlos Saura’s

Cría Cuervos from 1976. I still have no idea what this series is supposed to be about.

You can still catch some movies that are part of “Delphine Seyrig: Rebel Muse” on Metrograph’s digital platform for just $5 a month, which also includes 14 films as part of “We Heart Hertzog,” 8 films from the genre legend, Roger Corman, 15 films as part of the digital-only “Bad Romance” series, and guess what? You don’t have to live in NYC to watch all these movies! (Although they may be geo-blocked to North America or the US, not sure.)

FILM FORUM

Jean Luc-Godard’s A Woman is a Woman (1961) will continue at least through February 20, although Lina Wertmüller’s Swept Away will come to an end on Thursday aka today! This Sunday’s Film FOrum Jr. is Disney’s The Little Mermaid – no, not the crappy live action movie from a few years back, but the OG animated movie from 1989. Also, on Saturday afternoon, there’s a special screening of the classic rom-com When Harry Met Sally (1987), as seen in the recent Hellman’s Mayonnaise ad during the Super Bowl. That’s sold out but there will be a standby line. Monday sees Jack Arnold’s 1953 film, The Glass Web… in 3D!

IFC CENTER

Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock continues at least through next week, but there’s still plenty of chances to see David Lynch movies, including Mulholland Dr. and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Lost Highway and Inland Empire. I love Lynch but the number of repertory theaters making money off his death seems a bit unfortunate. This weekend’s midnight offerings on Friday and Saturday night include the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible (THAT’s a fun date movie… NOT!), the J-horror movie, House, and John Carpenter’s The Thing – no, seriously, has anyone NOT see that movie yet? Apologies for my cynicism. :)

ROXY CINEMA

Nope, no David Lynch movies here but they seem to be doing a Vincent Gallo retrospective with 1998’s Buffalo ‘66 and The Brown Bunny (2003) screening in 35mm on Friday, as well as Claire Dennis’ Trouble Every Day from 2001. A few of those will screen through Monday, and if you’re not a fan of Gallo – I have some crazy stories about when I worked with *HIM* in the same recording studio as the Cranberries! – then you can put yourself through the original Twilight (2008), starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, on Thursday night and Sunday afternoon. I think I’d have to go with Vincent Gallo over that option, but maybe that’s just me.

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

“Wild at Heart: Willem Dafoe” continues through the weekend with screenings of many Dafoe classics including Martin Scorsese’s The Last Tempation of Christ, and of course.. David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, which is already sold out on Saturday night, although Dafoe will be there in person for a QnA following a screening of Paul Schrader’s Light Sleeper.

VILLAGE EAST

On Valentine’s Day, you can see Casablanca on 35mm pretty much all day (either here or on Long Island at the Cinema Arts Centre – see below)

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER

“Frederick Wiseman: An Institution” continues with lots of rarely seen films from the legendary documentarian, this weekend showing High School II, Central Park, and more.

PARIS THEATER

On Saturday, the Paris is celebrating Netflix’s Oscar-nominated doc short, The Only Girl in the Orchestra, by screening F.W. Murnau’s 1926 film, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, calling the double feature, “A Double Bill for a Double Bassist.” There will be a QnA after the short with the filmmaker/subject. Murnau is still very dead.

NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG

At Prospect Park, on Thursday night (tonight), the Miss Malice Presents series will show the horror film, The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), preceded by a drag show. On Saturday and Sunday brunch-time, you can catch Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues (1990) as part of “Man on Fire: The Selected Works of Denzel Washington,” and next Wednesday night, they’ll screen Lee’s Malcolm X. Also at Prospect Park, the Panos Castanos’ Mandy (2018), starring Nicolas Cage, will screen on Monday night as part of “Iconic Chainsaws.” Also on Saturday and Sunday during the day at Prospect Park, you can see the new DCP of Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964).

Over in Williamsburg, they’re showing their own Deznel offerings with Remember the Titans (2000) on Saturday and Sunday, and then, next Wednesday, they’re showing Spike Lee’s He Got Game (1998) – I doubt Spike-Denzel fans can’t be in two places at once. Decisions, decisions… “Re-Consider This” is showing Julie Taymor’s Beatles musical, Across the Universe, on 2007. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1966 film, You’re a Big Boy Now, will screen in Williamsburg on Thursday night in 35mm, but sadly, that is already sold out.

MUSEUM OF MOVING IMAGE

The “Snubbed Forever” series continues with screenings of Jack Conway’s The Girl from Missouri (1934), starring Jean Harlow, on Friday and Saturday afternoons; Michel Gondry’s 2004 film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, screens on Friday and Saturday afternoons after that; and then, Taylor Hackford’s An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), starring Richard Gere, screens on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. “Pioneers of African American Cinema” continues with Richard E. Norman’s 1926 silent film, The Flying Ace.

CINEMA ARTS CENTRE

This weekend’s offerings include the classic Casablanca and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Friday, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Kenan and Kel’s Good Burger on Saturday. The latter will also play Sunday afternoon, and there’ll be a screening of the doc, Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, followed by the British filmmaking duo’s The Red Shoes (1948). And on Monday, take a wild guess what’s playing. Clue: It’s been mentioned multiple times above. You got it. David Lynch’s Wild at Heart. Sigh.

MOMA

Screening on Thursday and Friday nights are a double feature of Anthony Harvey’s 1966 film, Dutchman, and Billy Jackson’s 1971 short film, We Are Universal.

JAPAN SOCIETY

“Obayashi ’80s: The Onomichi Trilogy & Kadokawa Years” continues through Friday.

That’s it for this week. Next week’s big movies are Osgood Perkins’ horror film, The Monkey, and the drama, The Unbreakable Boy. I’ll have an Early Edition featuring box office stuff for the paid subscribers and reviews of other movies later in the week.