THE WEEKEND WARRIOR August 2, 2024
TRAP, HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, KNEECAP, MOUNTAIN QUEEN, WAR GAME, THE INSTIGATORS
Another month and way too many more movies. By now, hopefully you’ve already read my August preview over at Gold Derby and you know the ins and outs of what I’ve often referred to as the “Dog Days of Summer.” This weekend might not be so bad and there are a few potentially anticipated franchise reboots, but this is going to be a month that has lots of ups and many downs.
TRAP (Warner Bros.)
In this new thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, Josh Hartnett plays Cooper, a father bringing his young daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a daytime concert for her favorite artist Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) in an area, only to learn that the FBI is using the concert as a trap to catch a ruthless local serial killer.
I have such a spotty relationship with Shyamalan’s filmography over the decades I’ve been doing this, even though I genuinely like him as a person, and he’s a great interview, but generally, I’m still quite excited whenever there’s a new Shyamalan movie, since his movies are unlike other stuff being churned out by Hollywood.
This one is interesting since the entire first half takes place in and around a concert arena with a father and daughter doing some bonding until Cooper learns that the concert is actually a trap for a serial killer. Obviously, I want to try to avoid too many spoilers – I’m not quite sure there’s anywhere near the degree of twist as The Sixth Sense or other Shyamalan movies – but the way Cooper behaves (even in the trailer), it certainly seems like he might be the man they’re looking for, doesn’t it?
There’s a surprising amount of humor in Trap, partially because Hartnett gives a suitably and purposely goofy performance as Cooper, as we watch him using clever ways of avoiding the hundreds of police and FBI agents that have flooded the arena, while also making sure his daughter is enjoying the show. This leads to quite some canny trickery that plays well with the concert environment, although that locale changes for the second half.
Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka is an impressive addition to the film with the dozen or more original songs she provides while performing as “Lady Raven,” although she does get more into the drama as the film goes along, and tat’s not necessarily or nearly her strong suit. We do get a welcome addition in Alison Pill in the second half as Cooper’s wife, and I absolutely howled when I discovered (much later) that the one and only Hayley Mills from the original The Parent Trap and other Disney movies, played the elderly profiler trying to catch the serial killer. She’s so great, and that was one of the film’s nicer surprises.
Trap may not offer a lot in terms of its storytelling, as Shyamalan proves once again his ability to create something that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences. A lot of that has to do with the film’s location and premise, but it’s also great to see Hartnett having such fun as he continues what seems to be a hearty second act for his career.
Rating: 7/10
This review has been embargoed until Thursday evening at 5pm EST, so look for it sometime after that. Also, look for my interview with M. Night Shyamalan over on Cinema Daily US sometime soon. By the way, I’ve convinced the Nitehawk in Prospect Park to show one of my favorite Shyamalan movies, The Lady in the Water, so if you’re in New York City (specifically Brooklyn), get down there on August 29 for a special presentation and say “Hi!.”
HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON (Sony)
I’m pretty sure I’ve never read the 1955 children’s book by Crockett Johnson on which this new family film is based, and I’m not really sure anyone, including kids, will have to, since that’s clearly just a jumping off point for this hybrid animation and live action movie directed by Carlos Saldana, best known for helming Blue Sky’s animated films, Ice Age and Rio.
Zachary Levi plays the grow-up Harold, who we meet when he’s in his own world with his friends, Moose and Porcupine, who he drew and brought to life with his magical purple crayon. Their adventures are narrated by a mysterious voice known only as the “Old Man” but when the voice is silenced, Harold goes looking for him with his best friends, in human form played by Lil Rel Howery and Tanya Reynolds, where they encounter Zoey Deschanel as single mother Terry and they try to find their “Old Man.”
I generally think Levi and Howery are quite funny, but their schtick quickly grows stale, and Reynolds disappears for a big chunk of the movie, not once or twice but three times. At first, I did enjoy watching the “New Girl” star fully transform herself into a Manic pixie dream MILF, but there just isn’t a lot that can be done with the premise of a crayon that draws things that become real. Of course, Jemaine Clement plays the main bad guy, since he doesn’t seem to have much range beyond that these days. In fact, this may be the exact same character he played in Jared Hess’ Gentlemen Broncos, which I’m pretty sure was my worst movie in the year it came out i.e. 2009. It’s a shame that Clement really hasn’t progressed much since then but his lazy performance is just par for the course with this movie.
There are certain points in the movie where the action is so crazy and hard-to-follow, it started to hurt my head trying to keep up. At one point, Harold and Moose are working in the warehouse of Terry’s big box store, and Levi cries out, “I can’t take it anymore, it’s soulcrushing!” and it was hard not to feel like he was speaking directly for the film critics in the room at the time I saw it. This movie is indeed soul-crushing, especially once you realize how many people love the original book.
That said, the visual effects aren’t bad as Saldanha uses his background in animation to integrate that with the live action, so the movie isn’t completely terrible, although smaller kids might get frightened by a few of the fiercer CG creatures.
Even so, Harold and the Purple Crayon is unapologetically made just for the smallest of children, and offers nary a laugh for anyone older than, say, 5 years old.
Rating: 4.5/10
KNEECAP (Sony Pictures Classics)
One of the better movies I saw virtually out of Sundance this year was this semi-biopic about Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap with Rich Peppiat writing and directing in collaboration with the guys in the group.
This is such an interesting crime-comedy of sorts, made even more interesting if you go in not knowing anything about Kneecap, which was certainly the case with me, so as I watched it, I was thinking maybe this was a made-up group, especially since the band’s DJ Próvai is quite a bit older than the other two guys, Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara, so I assumed he was a real actor. It also doesn’t hurt that no less than Michael Fassbender signed on to play one of the lad’s fathers, who is constantly in trouble with the “peelers” (aka the police) due to potential terrorist actions for the Republicans that are protesting against the British occupation that’s still a problem even after the official end to “the Troubles.” He’s also involved with drumming the Irish language into the two lads, which they take seriously enough to only speak in the language.
It’s actually kind of amusing that the film starts out by letting the viewer know that despite being set in Belfast, this isn’t another movie about “The Troubles” – there’s been a lot – and instead, we get a fairly comical look at a pair of hoodlums that deal drugs but also feel strongly not only about having their own language but the ongoing conflict with the Brits.
It will be hard for Kneecap to avoid (favorable) comparisons to Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, a movie that did similar things for Scotland, as this uses Belfast as a character to see how the “peelers” deal with troublemakers like the lads that end up forming Kneecap with a local teacher (JJ) who becomes their skimask-wearing DJ. They also have issues with a group called Republican Radicals against Drugs, who realize that having the popular young guys in Kneecap dealing drugs for THEM could help pay for their own actions.
There are certainly aspects to Kneecap that make you wonder if those are the fictionalized portion of the story, something that’s been front and center in the marketing, but I’m sure both 8 Mile and Get Rich or Die Tryin’ had a good amount of fiction and artistic license, and Kneecap stands up to those movies.
If you like hip-hop or just edgy comic storytelling, Kneecap has a lot to offer, and few who see this movie won’t be curious to check out some of Kneecap’s music as well.
Rating: 8/10
I’ll have an interview with Peppiat and Kneecap over at CinemaDaily US soon.
THE FIRING SQUAD (Atlas Distribution)
One movie I haven’t seen and probably never will see is this faith-based biopic from Timothy A. Chey, based on the true story of three Christian prisoners facing execution in a third-world country who turn to Christ for help. The cast stars James Barrington, Kevin Sorbo (ugh), Cuba Gooding Jr. (ugh), and ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? Eric Roberts. This seems to be getting a fairly wide release by Atlas Distribution, that released some of the Atlas Shrugged movies, but its highest grosser so far was Let There Be Light in 2017, which grossed $7.2 million
THE BOX OFFICE CHART
1. Deadpool and Wolverine (Marvel/Disney) - $76.5 million -64%
2. Trap (Warner Bros.) - $24.2 million N/A
3. Twisters (Universal) - $18.6 million -47%
4. Harold and the Purple Crayon (Sony) - $9.6 million N/A
5. Despicable Me 4 (Universal) - $8.5 million -42%
6. Inside Out 2 (Disney/Pixar) - $5.4 million -35%
7. Longlegs (NEON) - $3.7 million -45%
8. Kneecap (Sony Pictures Classics) - $2 million N/A
9. A Quiet Place: Day One (Paramount) - $1.7 million -45%
10. Bad Boys: Ride or Die (Sony) - $1 million -50%
This week’s “Chosen One” is…
MOUNTAIN QUEEN: THE SUMMITS OF LHAKPA SHERPA (Netflix)
Now playing on Netflix is the new doc from Lucy Walker (The Crash Reel), which I really loved, and I thought it was a great companion to another doc from earlier this year that I loved called Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest. That about a Nepali sherpa woman who tried but failed to summit Everest, but Walker’s film is about Lhakpa Sherpa, a woman who not only summited Everest and survived, but went on to do it a record number of times.
I definitely have an affinity for documentaries about mountain climbing, and not just Free Solo, which I did love the year it came out, but this really is a great companion piece to Pasang, which I’m sure more people will have a chance to see, because it’s on Netflix.
Walker does a fantastic job telling Lhakpa’s story, which has a lot more layers since she also ended up in abusive marriage to a Romanian climber with whom she had two now-teen daughters, and that also adds to her many challenges. I found her subject to be a fascinating woman who made up for a limited education (none actually) and English to make a life for herself and her two daughters, one is still horribly scarred from the violence perpetrated by her father (who I believe died of cancer before the making of this film).
Mountain Queen is an incredibly inspiring story of an amazing woman who managed to break through so much personal adversity to turn it into full-on accomplishment; I’d consider this one of the better docs of the year, so far.
I have an interview with Walker over at Cinema Daily US, and if you’re in New York, the Paris Theater (see below) is doing a week-long retrospective of Lucy Walker’s documentary work, which has been VERY rare to see in theaters in New York or elsewhere.
WAR GAME (Submarine Deluxe)
I might not have that much to say about this documentary from Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss, even though it does have an interesting topic that may be of interest to many, especially in this politically-charged climate. Most people will remember the insurrection of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, and as might be expected, there are many in the government who want to make sure it never happens. In order to insure that, a group called Vet Voice put together a “war game” to show what might happen after the upcoming election if the government isn’t more prepared. They have various members of the group playing disgruntled military personnel who have decided to stage a coup of the government, and then actual members of the National Guard, Secret Service, and other security personnel advising the sitting President of the United States, played by a sitting Senator.
It’s a little different situation than 2021 in that this scenario revolves around a sitting President and his political opponent, who is claiming that the election was rigged. Okay, maybe that’s very similar to what’s happening right now, although I saw this just after Biden dropped out of the race and was replaced by Harris, so things are already changing from when this movie was made. I think what the participants in this war game are doing is quite noble and hopefully not necessary, but I’m already so burnt out on January 6 and the Presidential Election that it was hard to truly enjoy the experience watching this play out.
I’m sure I know people who will be fascinated by the way these “war games” help to prepare authorities and leaders for a possible insurrection or coup, but others’ eyes might just glaze over.
THE INSTIGATORS (Apple TV+)
Doug Liman directs this crime-comedy starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as Rory and Cobby, a father and an ex-con trying to rob a politician’s corrupt financial gains. They end up convincing Rory’s therapist (Hong Chau) to join them when they go on the run to avoid being captured. The movie also stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina and Toby Jones, with Jack Harlow and Ron Perlman. It opens in select cities on Friday and will stream on Apple TV+ starting on August 9.
I’m not sure how this heist movie came together with Casey Affleck writing the script with Chuck Maclean from “City on a Hill” (a series I’ve never seen), but much of the film’s potential lies in the cast that script was able to bring together around Affleck, including Damon. We meet their characters as they’re preparing to steal millions of dollars from the mayor of Boston (Perlman) on the eve of his presumed re-election. Things don’t go as planned with far less money in play, which gets them into trouble with the mob boss who hired them (Stuhlbarg). Soon, they have both the police and other individuals chasing after them, and Damon’s Rory turns to his therapist (Chau) to help when Cobby is shot during the robbery.
On the one hand, this movie has that impressive cast, but it also feels like so many other heist movies we’ve seen over the years, and even the distinctly Boston setting doesn’t do much to help that fact. (It just makes it feel like a very light version of The Town.) Much of the film relies on Affleck’s gift of gab, in that he rarely shuts up, compared to Damon’s character, who really doesn’t say very much. In many ways, that’s much better for his character.
So many characters are introduced, many of them coming in and out for one or two scenes with very little purpose to the overall story, and that just makes things needlessly and overly complicated. Hong Chau’s therapist, the only prominent female character, is introduced then disappears for a huge section of the movie, and she really isn’t given that much to do for most of the movie.
There are some decent action setpieces scattered throughout, especially during the last act, and Liman –working with Matt Damon for the first time since The Bourne Identity almost 24 years ago! – does a good job pulling together all the disparate elements but just can’t get much traction out of the weak script than what’s there.
The Instigators may have its moments, but being so derivative and just not very funny doesn’t do much to keep the viewer invested in anything happening on screen and gives them very little reason to care about any of the characters.
Rating: 6/10
COUP! (Greenwich Entertainment)
In this new comedy from Austin Stark and Joseph Schuman, Peter Sarsgaard plays a grifter who shows up at a seaside estate in the midst of the 1918 Spanish Flu and is hired as a private cook by a journalist (Billy Magnussen) and his socialite wife (Sarah Gadon). When the plague hits the island, the couple’s new cook rallies his fellow staff to rebel and take over the mansion. This sounds interesting, and I hope to see it soon.
ROB PEACE (Republic Pictures)
I saw this movie written and directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor out of the virtual Sundance. In fact, 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. Adapted from Jeff Hobbs’ book, “The Short and Tragic Life of Rob Peace,” Jay Will plays the title character, also known as Shawn, a young man from a rough neighborhood, whose father, Skeet, played by Ejiofor, is a drug dealer. His mother Jackie is played by Mary J. Blige, and Shawn/Rob proves to be an amazingly smart kid, who is able to get into Yale University. When his father is arrested for crimes he may not have committed, Shawn turns to drugdealing in order to earn the money need to help get his father out of jail.
REBEL MOON - THE DIRECTOR’S CUT (Netflix)
I never got around to watching the second half of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, even though I saw the first part of it last year and wasn’t too crazy about it. Now, the filmmaker will be releasing Director’s Cuts of both parts of the movie on Netflix this Friday, and maybe I’ll use that as a chance to watch the rest of the movie, as I’ll be really curious what he’s done differently.
MODERN MASTERS: SS RAJAMOULI (Netflix)
Another doc that I’m very interested in is this one directed by Raghav Khanna about the Telugu director of RRR and the Baahubali movies, because I really don’t know much about Rajamouli from before I saw RRR and he won an Oscar for the original song from the movie. I wasn’t able to get a screener of this unfortunately, so I guess I’ll be seeing it with the rest of you when it hits the streamer on Friday.
DOCTOR JEKYLL (Hammer Films)
Eddie Izzard stars in this moder retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” directed by Joe Stephenson, who spells his name differently so probably no relation. It’ll hit theaters and VOD on Friday.
SEBASTIAN (Kino Lorber)
Opening at the IFC Center on Friday with director Mikko Makela and star Ruaridh Mollica on hand for a number of QnAs is this queer drama following 25-year-old freelance writer and wannabe novelist who works as a sex worker under the pseudonym “Sebastian,” meeting men via an escort platform. This premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, I guess earlier this year?
CAT VIDEO FEST (Oscilloscope Labs)
ALSO opening at the IFC Center in New York and at locations across the country – you can see a map of where this is playing here – is this annual assemblage of (you guessed it) cat videos, for the cat enthusiasts who don’t mind leaving their homes and cats behind to go see other people’s cats on the big screen.
Other stuff out this week…
THE DUEL (Lionsgate/Grindstone)
#AMFAD - ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD (Cineverse)
DETAINED (Kinogo Pictures/Quiver Distribution)
SHE RISES UP (Abramorama/Sky Films)
A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER (Netflix series)
SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM: THE SANDY CHEEKS MOVIE (Netflix)
I also want to mention that this year’s Festival of Cinema NYC will take place in Forest Hills, Queens beginning this Friday and running through August 11. I really don’t know much about this film festival except that it’s just too damn far away from where I live on the Lower East Side to check it out. Sorry!
REPERTORY
Only the River Flows will continue to play here, and you can read what I thought about that over on my Letterboxed.
This week’s newest series is “Twisted Sister,” which is about sisters, I guess? This weekend, it will screen the Hungarian drama My Twentieth Century (1989) and Jacques Rivette’s Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974).
Ahead of her new movie, Good One, debuting at the Metrograph, filmmaker India Donaldson will present Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum (2008) and Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet (2011) on Saturday.
Also opening this weekend as part of “Shinji Sómai X3” ahead of a new DCP of his 1993 film Moving is 1985’s Typhoon Club and 1993’s P.P. Rider, neither of which I know anything about.
On Thursday night, you can catch Point Break (1991) as part of “Lazy, Hazy, Swayze Days” while “Under the Pavement, The Beach” about the protests of May 1968 will continue this weekend with Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (2003) starring a naked Eva Green, who I totally would go see, if she hadn’t once called me a “pervert.” (True story!)
Also, as part of “In the Realm of Tatsuya Fuji,” the Metrograph is screening Naomi Kawase’s Radiance from 2017.
“Summer at Sea” continues with Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953) and Danny Boyle’s The Beach (2000), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, both of which are on my dance card this weekend.
Besides getting to see Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (a movie in my all-time top 3) as part of “Long Live Scala Cinema!,” you can also see Bette Gordon’s Variety from 1983.
After running its “The Complete Melville” for the last week, and of course, that’s been held over through August 8, the Forum is also showing a new 4k restoration of Melville’s Army of Shadows (1969) for the next two weeks, 18 years after it finally got a U.S. release and was received with almost universal praise… except from me. Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams will continue through August 8, as will Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.
Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver will be screening late night on Friday and Saturday in 35mm. Also beginning on Friday is a new series called “Defamed to Acclaimed,” dedicated to movies that were considered “failures” ahead of the new restoration of Caligula: The Final Cut. This series has such a wide variety of movies that it would be impossible to list them all, but obviously, you can expect to see classic bombs like Ishtar and Showgirls, the David Lynch Dune from 1984 (I wonder if Max Evry will drop by!), Heaven’s Gate, and … what? Citizen Kane?! I think the point of the series is to show that even theatrical bombs have gone on to find fans. They’re offering 3-ticket packs for $30 for members and $45 for non-members, so take advantage of that to see some of these in theaters for the first time in decades. This will be going on until August 15.
Hey, did you know that the Village East has maintained the long-running tradition of regularly playing the musical-comedy-horror classic, The Rocky Horror PIcture Show? Well, it has, and it’s playing this Saturday night. On Monday, you can see the John Travolta classic Saturday Night Fever at two showings at 4pm and 7pm. Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso will also play on Wednesday as the theater’s long-running Miyazaki series.
Beginning Friday, you can see all of Lucy Walker’s documentary work as part of “Mountain Queen and the Cinematic Summits of Lucy Walker” with her films Waste Land (2010), The Crash Reel (2013), Blindsight (2006), and Devil’s Playground (2002) playing through the weekend with a collection of short films on Monday. Ms. Walker will be there for QnAs after the Friday night screenings of Waste Land and The Crash Reel. “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection 1994” continues through the weekend with screenings of Cabin Boy and Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express, Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, Spike Lee’s Crooklyn, and more.
Hey! The Roxy is back open after being closed for renovations! It begins on Saturday with screenings of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (celebrating its 25th anniversar) on Saturday through Tuesday, presented by my pals at The Film Stage, as part of their “Fidelio” series. On Tuesday, you can see Abel Ferrara’s Welcome to New York (2014) as part of that same series. Next Wednesday and Thursday, you can see Clint Eastwood’s Absolute Power (1997) and Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer (2010). Welcome back, Roxy!
Did I forget to mention “Spectacle Every Day: Mexican Popular Cinema” in last week’s column? Well, it’s continuing through August 8, if that’s something of interest to you. I know nothing about Mexican films from the ‘40s and ‘50s.
The doc Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger continues through the weekend, but otherwise, no rep stuff.
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
At Prospect Park, “The Class of ‘99” will screen Galaxy Quest on Sunday, Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai on Monday, and PT Anderson’s Magnolia on Wednesday. Williamsburg’s “The Class of ‘99” series includes Michael Mann’s The Insider on Thursday (tonight!), The Blair Witch Project late night on Friday and Saturday, and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense at a more reasonable brunch-time hour on Friday and Saturday. (I guess both theaters are keeping screens open for Deadpool and Wolverine, so not as much rep stuff.)
The museum’s regular “See It Big: 70mm” series has two big ones, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) on Thursday night and Saturday afternoon – and don’t worry, it will be playing a LOT in August, though I think the 2001 museum exhibit is long defunct – and the Lawrence of Arabia will be playing as part of the same series on Saturday. Oddly, MoMI also doesn’t have a ton of rep stuff this weekend. Are they showing Deadpool and Wolverine too!?
Out in Huntington, Long Island, the Cinema Arts Centre is showing John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness (1987) on Friday night and then the original Dumb and Dumber (1994) on Saturday night as part of Cult Café. The animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) by Lord and Miller screens for the kiddies on Sunday, as does Robert Altman’s Three Women (1977) as part of the CAC’s Shelley Duvall tribute. Monday, there’s Little Shop of Horrors, the 1986 musical directed by Frank Oz, and then on Wednesday, another stone-cold classic, Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs (1987)!
This is “Silent Movie Week” at MOMA with many little-seen films from the ‘20s, most of them with piano accompaniment, running through Aug. 6. Next Thursday, they start playing Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which will lead to a series on Hooper’s ‘80s films.
Next week, there’s Blake Lively in the drama It Ends with Us, Eli Roth’s movie based on the video game Borderlands, and German filmmaker Tillman Singer’s new horror film, Cuckoo.
So many embargo’s….