THE WEEKEND WARRIOR August 16, 2024
THE WEEKEND WARRIOR August 16, 2024
MY PENGUIN FRIEND, SKINCARE, CLOSE TO YOU, THE GOOD HALF, JACKPOT!
Uh oh. We’re getting to the sucky portion of the summer, although this weekend also sees the release of one of my most anticipated movies of the year, so…
You can read my review for ALIEN: ROMULUS (20th Century), and then, we’ll get to the rest of this weekend’s mostly weak offerings. I don’t even think I have a “Chosen One” this week. Nope, I do not.
MY PENGUIN FRIEND (Roadside Attractions)
Jean Reno and Oscar-nominee Adriana Barazza (Babel) star in this family-friendly drama directed by Brazilian filmmaker David Schurmann, in which Reno plays fisherman João, who encounters a penguin in Pantagonia portion of Argentina, that a local little girl calls Din Dim, who then swims off, then comes back, and then goes away again. Essentially, what you see in the trailer is exactly what you get, no more or less, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
This looked cute enough when I first saw the trailer, and I was curious to see Reno and Barraza in something lighter and family-friendly. Unfortunately, Schurmann is not the greatest filmmaker for this material, made evident by how the film just never really connects tonally as it opens with a prologue involving a Brazilian boy and his fisherman father that I couldn’t really figure out its connection to the main story. That’s not a good start.
A lot of the problem comes straight from the weak screenplay by Kristen Lazarian and Paulina Lagudi Ulrich that constantly aims for the lowest hanging fruit in order to try to get the audience on board.
Essentially, the film is made up of many great international actors speaking bad English in heavy accents, which makes you wonder why the filmmakers would have made that decision, other than the fact that this is geared towards younger kids who might not be able to do subtitles. The child actors in the movie are particularly bad, not really making any of it feel authentic, and I still have no idea why the girl who named the penguin “Ding Ding” is the only one who calls it that.
On the plus side, the film is shot by a cinematography legend, Oscar-winner Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire), so it does look fantastic, especially some of the underwater scenes of penguins and the gorgeous locations.
The problem is that the movie is so unapologetically cutesy and corny, driven by a score that goes out of its way to manipulate viewer’s emotions, that you can feel the saccharine and sentimental storytelling slowly creeping into your blood like a slow-acting poison, which just makes it hard to enjoy.
Sadly, My Penguin Friend just isn’t that great, and while the kiddies probably won’t care that much, because DimDin the penguin is so cute, it’s a movie so steeped in manipulative storytelling that few adults will be able to bear it for very long.
Rating: 6/10
SKINCARE (IFC Films)
Elizabeth Banks stars in this dramatic thriller directed by Austin Peters, playing skincare expert Hope Goldman, who is ready to launch her new product line when a competing esthetician named “Angel” (Luis Gerardo Méndez) opens a boutique across the street. Hope is put out, but things get worse when it become obvious that someone is trying to ruin her career, and of course, she assumes it is Angel, since he has the most to gain, particularly her clients. She turns to her good friend Jordan (Lewis Pullman) to help her out of the mess but things just get progressively worse from there.
We meet Hope as she’s taping a talk show segment hosted by Nathan Fillion, and we learn about the new product lines she’s launching, which will take her company to the next level. She has a brick ‘n’ mortar boutique she runs with her assistant, played by MJ Rodriguez, which is where the main conflict comes in.
Before I watched Skincare, I had the impression that this was some sort of horror movie involving skincare, maybe something that creates people’s faces to peel off. That would have been much better than what we do get, as the movie is actually a crime-thriller (of sorts), and it seems to be heavily influenced by the darker work of Coen Brothers without having the quality of writing or the humor that pervades their work.
This movie is also very L.A., and if you know how much I generally hate Los Angeles, you can imagine how my skin was crawling as we’re introduced
Maybe it’s just because I became familiar with Banks more for her comedic work in some of my favorite films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Wet Hot American Summer, I was thrown off a bit by Skincare being more of a dramatic role. Unfortunately, she’s just not very good in this role, maybe this just isn’t the right material for her.
Much of the blame on the film has to fall on director Peters and the weak screenplay that never goes anywhere that’s even remotely compelling. Most of the characters around Hope are just such deliberate douchebags – again, this is L.A.-- but she isn’t particularly likeable either, just very narcissistic and egotistical, putting herself above all else.
Skincare is a bonafide dud, a “thriller” with such a terrible premise that never really goes anywhere and offers very little to keep even the least finicky of moviewatcher invested in anything that’s happening. It’s shocking to me that this is even getting a theatrical release, to be honest.
Rating: 5/10
Note: Skincare opens wide in nearly 765 theaters this Friday.
One movie I have absolutely no plans to watch or review is RYAN’S WORLD THE MOVIE: TITAN UNIVERSE ADVENTURE (Falling Forward Films), which may as well be this year’s The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure (Hi, Lee!), a movie for the youngest of children, this one based on a YouTube star who appeals to the younger of children, or at least I assume that’s the case, because other than seeing the trailer, I know absolutely nothing about this movie, nor do I care. It will be opening in 2,100 theaters this weekend (similar to Oogieloves, actually), but it seems very low-key, so expect it to come and go without many people even being aware of it.
THE BOX OFFICE CHART
We’re in a weird place as far as box office this weekend, because there’s one big movie that should do quite well, though I’m hesitant to think it will open over $50 million, just because it’s getting later in August, and there’s plenty of competition still. There are then a bunch of moderately wide releases, none of them really offering much, and though Ryan’s World is getting the widest release, I think My Penguin Friend has the most to offer, though it will still end up towards the bottom of the Top 10.
1. Alien: Romulus (20th Century/Disney) - $45.3 million N/A
2. Deadpool and Wolverine (Marvel/Disney) - $28 million -48%
3. It Ends with Us (Sony) - $23 million -54%
4. Twisters (Universal) - $8.2 million -45%
5. Despicable Me 4 (Universal) - $5.1 million -36%
6. Trap (Warner Bros.) - $3.5 million
7. Inside Out 2 (Disney/Pixar) - $3.2 million -35%
8. Borderlands (Lionsgate) - $2.2 million -75%
9. My Penguin Friend (Roadside Attractions) - $2 million N/A
10. Skincare (IFC Films) - $1.3 million N/A
– Ryan’s World The Movie (Falling Forward Films) - $1.2 million N/A
CLOSE TO YOU (Greenwich Entertainment)
Elliot Page stars in Dominic Savage’s dramedy, from a story that he helped conceptualize, playing Sam, a trans man who is returning home to his family for the first time since getting gender correction surgery. On the train, he meets his now-married former girlfriend Katherine (Hillary Baack, who just happens to be blind) and they reconnect, but once he arrives back home, things don’t go nearly as well.
I was pretty excited to see Elliot Page return to acting in such a prominent way, since I’ve been familiar with him since very early in his career, having interviewed him for films going back to Hard Candy. I will admit that even though I have quite a few trans friends, including a few I knew before they came out, they’re mostly women, so trans men are still a bit of an enigma to me, though not negatively.
I was generally curious how Page would be received in this role, since he’s likely to get far more scrutiny than someone like Hunter Schafer from last week’s Cuckoo, who is fully committed to her new life without necessarily wanting to be thought of as trans.
Sam gets the most flack from his brother-in-law Paul (David Reale) who just refuses to understand Sam’s new reality. Sam’s parents also clearly love him but aren’t fully on board with his new life. That is probably what makes Close to You so compelling, because it does deal directly with so many complicated feelings without immediately discounting all of those around Sam as transphobic (even though Paul clearly is). Apparently, the film involves a lot of improvising, and at times, it might be obvious, though the cast around Page all do a decent job committing to their roles and the part they play in Sam’s life.
I’ll freely admit that I didn’t fully understand the character of Katherine and her relationship with Sam, unsure if they were together back before Sam came out and had surgery or after. It’s never really discussed or mentioned, and I’m not sure it even matters. The fact that Katherine is blind is handled just as matter-of-factly, as we see the two of them reuniting, making it obvious Sam is much happier with her.
As far as family dramas go, you can definitely do worse than Close to You – see below. I’ve seen a few other movies about a trans person coming out to their family that didn’t work quite as well as this does. Hopefully Page can get to a similar place as Schafer and other trans women, who are effectively being cast in non-trans roles, but in Savage, he has found a great partner to tell what could be considered a personal and well-layered story.
Rating: 7/10
THE GOOD HALF (Utopia)
Nick Jonas also returns home in this dramedy directed by Robert Schwartzman, in which the pop star plays Renn Wheeland, an L.A. writer who travels back to Cleveland after the death of his mother, played by Elisabeth Shue, where he has to deal with all sorts of lingering family issues revolving around her. On the flight, he meets Alexandra Shipp’s Zoey, and they form a quick bond.
I first saw this at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, but I didn’t review it and then had to wait until this weekend for its limited release, following a Fathom Events release last month. I did rewatch it, and unfortunately, I think it’s another movie with a lot of squandered potential.
The problem with the movie, which is written by Brett Ryland, is that Zack Penn’s Garden State came out 20 years ago, and it’s a much better movie than the seemingly thousands of similar family dramas that have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, and other festivals since then.
Jonas is decent, and he’s surrounded by a solid cast including Brittany Snow as his sister Leigh, and Shue is great in the flashback sequences where we see her relationship with Renn. Shipp’s character seems mostly wasted, as if Ryland felts that these things have to have some sort of love interest, even if she is there more as a platonic sounding board for Renn to ramble on about his feelings.
Schwartzman isn’t a bad director, as he has began directing other’s scripts, but I thought 2020’s The Argument was just far better and more solid tonally as a straight-up comedy, where this one just can’t commit to the drama but also delivers negligible laughs. Schwartzman, who also fronts the band Rooney, does some great stuff with the musical choices (mostly ‘80s tunes) and the score, but it doesn’t do much to help with the overall flat tone.
The Good Half is probably more or less for Nick Jonas completists only. It never really delivers on what is essentially overused indie drama clichés, without offering anything new or interesting or better than dozens of similar movies. Everyone that moves away from their childhood home eventually goes back to visit, but that doesn’t mean we necessarily need to watch a movie about it.
Rating: 5.5/10
I’ll also have an interview with Schwartzman over at Cinema Daily US that I did out of Tribeca Film Festival last year but never ran as originally planned.
JACKPOT! (Prime Video)
Hitting Prime Video today is this new action-comedy from director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids), starring Awkwafina as L.A. denizen Katie Kim, who gets caught up in California’s Grand Lottery, where someone is selected to win, but then they have to survive the day, as everyone else can kill them and take their winnings.
That’s the simplest of high-concept premises (a bit Purge-like) that begins with a prologue of Seann WIlliam Scott trying to survive said lottery, before it shifts focus to Awkwafina’s character who is just trying to get her acting career going in L.A. before being picked as the new lottery winner, and we basically watch Katie being chased by greedy, cut-throat people wanting the billions she just won. Her savior comes in the form of John Cena’s Noel, who offers to protect Katie for a cut of her winnings, and he does his best to protect her from the murderous throngs. About an hour into the movie, Simu Liu shows up as “Louis Lewis,” who runs his own protection agency and offers to help both of them.
Remember what I said above about Skincare being such an apologetically L.A. movie? Well, Jackpot! Is similar with a screenplay by Rob Yescombe that assumes that those seeing the movie will know about the general nature of the city and the movie business there. Having Katie be an actress trying to make it just drives the home, but fortunately, Awkwafina is good in that role, and it allows her to do what she does best, while being well-paired with Cena, who mixes his own knack for humor with his obvious ability to take part in large action sequences.
Listen, Paul Feig knows how to direct comedy, something he’s proven time and time again, and in many ways, that saves Jackpot! from being a complete bust, although it’s just as much about how well the action and fighting are blended into the comedy. (If you stick through the end credits, you get about ten more minutes of ad lib alts that are all as funny as anything in the movie.
The one aspect of the film I didn’t like was Ayden Mayeri as Katie’s annoying roommate, Shadi (or maybe she’s an AirBnB landlord), who just wasn’t very funny, and she has a big role in the movie, frequently paired with her equally dumb boyfriend. I cringed every time they showed up, because they are literally the opposite of the generally funny Awkwafina-Cena pairing. While it was nice to see her reunited with Liu after Shang-Chi, his character was just a little too obvious in his intentions which took away from the film’s last act.
While part of me prefers seeing movies like this being released into theaters since comedies are better to see with others, I understand the business well enough to know that this movie is probably more apt to be on Prime Video, where it will probably be seen by a lot more people. (I also enjoyed seeing legendary New York cross-dresser Murray Hill in a small role.)
Jackpot! is a perfectly fine and often quite funny action-comedy that thrives on the pairing of Feig with Awkwafina and Cena, though it doesn’t always work, so it’s hard to imagine it becoming a cult classic favorite or anything, not that it’s meant to be.
Rating: 6.5/10
ROB PEACE (Republic Pictures)
FYI, I made a mistake a couple weeks back, because I included this movie, written and directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the column for August 2, but it’s actually opening this weekend, so I’m not sure how I screwed that up. As I mentioned, i saw ths out of the virtual Sundance, and I reviewed it over at my old home, so I have little reason to review it again, but it is finally coming out this Friday in limited release. Jay Will plays the title character, a young man from a bad neighborhood who ends up getting into Yale, despite his father Skeet Douglas (Ejiofor) being a drugdealer, who Rob then has to help get out of jail, which means turning to drugdealing himself. I haven’t seen the movie since January, but thought it was okay with a great turn by Mary J. Blige as his mother Jackie. It will open in roughly 500 theaters on Friday
Other movies out this week…
THE DELIVERANCE (Netflix)
THE UNION (Netflix)
MOUNTAINS (Music Box Films)
KNOW YOUR PLACE (Blue Harbor Entertainment)
SURPRISE! (Freestyle Digital Media)
REPERTORY
Before we get to all the normal New York repertory stuff, there’s a pretty big nationwide repertory release in CALIGULA: THE ULTIMATE CUT (Drafthouse Films), the 1979 movie starring Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren that was thought to be a major disaster and theatrical bomb, but it’s now been recut with footage that’s never been seen before for a new 3-hour version that I’m watching tonight! (Weds) I’ll have more to say about this on my Letterboxd, which I’ll link to soon.
Also, a bunch of theaters across the country will be showing start showing a 15th Anniversary screening of Henry Selick’s stop-motion animated, Coraline, based on the Neil Gaiman novel, starting on Thursday.
Oh! I almost forgot that the Alamo Drafthouse will be having a special “Hot Fuzz Movie Party” based around Edgar Wright’s hilarious comedy starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. At the NYC Downtown, it’s playing Friday through Sunday and next Wednesday and many of the screenings are sold out, but maybe you’ll have luck at other locations.
If you’re around on Saturday and enjoy cartoons, definitely check out Tommy Stathis’ “Saturday Afternoon Cartoons: Made in NYC,” which has been a regular semi-bi-monthly series since the Metrograph reopened post-COVID. I’m a regular at these things, and I’m bummed I’ll be missing this Saturday’s offering since I have a prior commitment.
Some exciting new series starting at my favorite local arthose this weekend, including “Also Starring… Carol Kane,” which will shine the spotlight on this great actress, probably best known for Scrooged and The Princess Bride (both which will be shown as part of it), but this weekend, you can watch the classic immigrant film, Hester Street (1975), on Saturday night with Ms. Kane there in person doing a QnA. (As of now, this screening is sold out but it will play again next Thursday.) Also, this weekend is Cindy Sherman’s 1997 film Office Killer and Karen Arthur’s 1978 horror film, The Mafu Cage.
I’m equally excited for “In Concert,” which as you guessed, is concert films, this weekend showing the 1980 Richard Hell movie Blank Generation, and on Friday night for one screening only (which I’m deeply saddened I’m going to miss) is Joe Target Rees’ The Cramps and the Mutants: The Napa State Tapes, and a Metrograph staple, a 35mm showing of Edo Bortoglio’s 2000 film, Downtown 81, which followed none other than Jean-Michel Basquiat around New York City.
Another new series is “Bad Trips” with lots of fun offerings like the Korean zombie flick, Train to Busan (2016) and Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), which I’m assuming ties into Metrograph Pictures’ release of India Donaldson’s Good One.
“Twisted Sister” continues with a classic bad sister movie in Robert Aldrich’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Newer films in the series include Catherine Breillat’s 2001 film, Fat Girl, and Jane Campion’s 1989 film, Sweetie, the latter in 35mm.
“Ties That Bind: Tales of Madness” continues to show Argento’s Suspiria through the weekend, and will also show the terrific Swedish vampire flick, Let the Right One In, and George Franju’s Eyes without a Face (1960).
“Passages” seems to be winding down but will show Edward Yang’s debut feature That Day, On the Beach (1983).
Expect some repeats to play through next week as part of “In Pursuit of Shadows,” and Zabriskie Point plays through the weekend as part of “Under the Pavement, The Beach.”
“Summer at Sea” will basically screen Maren Ade’s Everyone Else (2009) over the weekend before her follow-up Toni Erdmann shows next week as part of another new series.
Starting this Friday and running through next Thursday (but probably will be extended) is “Blaxtoitation, Baby!” showing some stone-cold classics like the original Super Fly, the Pam Grier films Cleopatra Jones, Foxy Brown and Coffy, as well as Blacula, and Melvin Van Peebles’ independent mega-hit, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song, from 1971, plus lots more. Incidentally, is anyone even remotely surprised that the most overrated crime noir film ever made (Hi, James!), Herman Melville’s Army of Shadows, is continuing on though the 22nd?
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut will be playing here regularly for the next week at least, three to four times a day, and a few of the “Defamed to Acclaimed” films will continue through the weekend including Mike Judge’s eerily prescient Idiocracy around midnight on Friday and Saturday, as well as Josie and the Pussycats and Dune. Both Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and Amadeus continue their runs through next week.
The “From the Heart” series, programmed by Between the Temples filmmaker Nathan Silver, runs through the weekend with screenings of Mike Leigh’s Meantime from 1983, and Joan Micklin Silver’s 1988 romance, Crossing Delancey. Now, wait a goshdarn second… they’re playing Hester Street at Metrograph, an ACTUAL Lower East Side theater this weekend and this upstart in Tribeca is playing another Lower East Side-based movie? I think I’m going to need to talk to someone about this. Movie Mindset and the Film Stage will show Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Polanski’s The Ghost Writer in 35mm one more time on Sunday.
Running this weekend is “Cuban Cultural Center of New York Presents: 2024 Summer Film Festival: Insula” through Aug 22 with some of the offerings including Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls (2000), John Sturges’ The Old Man and the Sea (1958) and lots more.
The 15th Anniversary screening of Coraline will screen, and sadly, drag queen Hedda Lettuce is taking a week off.
Not to be outdone by all of Metrograph’s great summer and beach programming, FilmLinc will run “Jacques Rozier: Chronicler of Summer” through next week, and if I had any idea who that was or knew anything about him, I’d have more to add about that.
“Tobe Hooper in the ‘80s” runs through Tuesday with the 1985 Lifeforce on Thursday night (tonight!), and guess what? I’ll be there! Friday is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 from 1986, and then Saturday is Invaders from Mars (also 1986) and 1981’s The Funhouse, and then I think there are some repeats including Poltergeist (one of my all-time faves) on Sunday.
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
This weekend, as part of “The Class of ‘99,” Prospect Park will screen South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and then, there’s Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey on Monday night, Molly Shannon’s Superstar on Tuesday, and Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke on Wednesday. Some cool stuff coming up in “The Future of Film Is Female,” too, including Desiree Akhavan’s 2014 film, Appropriate Behavior, on Saturday afternoon, and her 2018 film, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, on Sunday. She’ll be in attendance for QnAs and a book signing.
At Williamsburg, “The Class of ‘99” will show Ravenous on Friday night late, and James Mangold’s Girl, Interrupted on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and then Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead on Monday night.
BAM (BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC)
Starting on Friday and running through next week is an interesting series called “SWEAT!” with some cool and interesting offerings, including Alan Parker’s Angel Heart (1987), starring Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro, Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike XXL, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz (1979), Kurosawa’s Stray Dog, Wong Karwai’s Fallen Angels, and more… and if you want to know how these movies are connected, you’ll just have to click on that link above.
As part of the “See It Big: 70mm,” MoMI is playing Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (of course), as well as Ron Howard’s Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet (good luck with that one). Apparently, that’s it for this weekend.
Friday night’s offering in the John Carpenter/Alan Howarth retrospective in 1983’s Christine, and then “Cult Café” will show the comedy Tommy Boy (1995) on Saturday night. Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, screens Sunday for families, and Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night screens later that afternoon. On Wednesday, one of my all-time favorite Burt Reynolds’ movies, The Longest Yard, will screen as part of “Movies Turning 50,” presented by AARP Long Island, because yeah, that makes me feel very old.
Next week, the “Dog Days of Summer” gets real with a reboot of The Crow, Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice, and more, including a lot that no one will care about.