THE WEEKEND WARRIOR Feb 7, 2024 Reviews and Repertory Round-Up
LOVE HURTS, BRING THEM DOWN, PARTHENOPE, and more
Well, I was released from jury duty early (huzzah!) so I was able to write some form of column with a few reviews of the movies released this weekend, as well as my regularly repertory round-up. Having already reviewed Heart Eyes (and having no idea if I’m even allowed to review Becoming Led Zeppelin), I’ll just go to straight into the other wide release… once the embargo is up… (waugh waugh)
Before we get to that… first, a quick UPDATE on my box office predictions posted on Tuesday… as I mentioned back then, I was going back and forth between Love Hurts and Heart Eyes to take second place, and after further thought and seeing both movies, I’m changing my order. Everything else is pretty much the same.
1. Dog Man (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) - $19.5 million -46%
2. Heart Eyes (Sony/Screen Gems) - $9.3 million N/A (up .6 million)
3. Love Hurts (Universal) - $7.6 million N/A (down $2 million)
4. Companion (New Line/WB) - $5.1 million -47%
5. Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney) - $4.4 million -30%
6. One of Them Days (Sony) - $4 million -32%
7. Flight Risk (Lionsgate) - $2.9 million -47%
8. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Paramount) - $1.8 million -45%
9. A Complete Unknown (Searchlight) - $1.7 million -25%
10. I’m Still Here (Sony Pictures Classics) - $1.4 million
— Becoming Led Zeppelin (Sony Pictures Classics) - $1 million N/A
LOVE HURTS (Universal)
Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan stars in this action-comedy from former stuntman Jonathan Eusebio (The Fall Guy), which co-stars Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, as well as Daniel Wu, Cam Gigandet, Marshawn Lynch, and more. Quan plays realtor Marvin Gabler, who is trying to create a new life after his former partner from his crime days shows up with a message from his crime-lord brother (Wu).
Mini-Review: Produced by David Leitch and his 87North team, Love Hurts might be one of the most high concept action-comedies in recent memory, but it definitely puts more emphasis on its action over anything remotely originally or even funny.
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once) plays Marvin Gabler, a realtor with a secret past that comes back to haunt him when a poetry-spouting killer named The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) shows up at his office trying to kill him. Marvin has a past life as an assassin, and his crime-lord brother “Knuckles” (Wu) assigned him to kill a woman named Rose (DeBose), on whom Marvin has a crush. Instead, they both went into hiding, although Rose has returned, sending Valentine’s Day cards to Marvin and others, so Knuckles sends a number of killers to get both Marvin and Rose.
Even knowing that general premise, it’s probably good to know there really isn’t much more than that, as much as it tries to throw in additional plot about an embezzling accountant (Rhys Darby) and an ongoing bit of patter between killers, played by Marshawn Lynch and André Eriksen, when they’re not shooting up Marvin’s house.
I like Quan, and it’s commendable that Universal are trying to turn the former “Goonie” into the next Jackie Chan or put him in something ala Bob Odenkirk in Nobody, which was also produced by 87North. The sad fact is that there really is no chemistry between him and DeBose, who continues her run of weak movies after last year’s Kraven the Hunter. (I liked Argylle, but she was barely in that.) Maybe it’s just bad writing, but seeing her do so little with the character of Rose made me wonder whether her winning an Oscar was a fluke or that was just the right character with better timing. Lynch also isn’t given enough room to really shine after such a great performance in Bottoms, and this might just be a case of not having actors able to elevate the weaker cliche-filled material.
First-time director Jonathan Eusebio – best known for his stunt work on films like Leitch’s The Fall Guy and Violent Night – does great work with the action scenes as expected, but he has a harder time parsing a script that’s easy to sell to studio execs but harder to execute without being able to fix its problems. In some ways, it reminds me a lot of last year’s The Killer’s Game, though that definitely had a stronger cast and a lot more action. When Love Hurts tries to focus on characters and story, it falters.
In fact, there are so many characters in the movie that serve very little real purpose or add much to the story, including Sean Astin – who appeared in two previous films with Quan, the last one over thirty years ago– who shows up in a nothing role as Marvin’s real estate boss. My favorite character in the whole movie was probably The Raven, because he seems to have his own distinctive personality and fighting style, as well as a bit of a side romance with Marvin’s co-worker Ashley (Lio Tipton). Being able to cut away to the two of them always adds something to a movie that otherwise, doesn’t have a lot to offer.
Love Hurts thrives when the characters just shut up and fight each other, because the script is quite bad. Even the better fight sequences don’t do enough to keep those who have seen this type of movie many times before entertained in between those action sequences.
Rating: 5.5/10
BRING THEM DOWN (MUBI)
Actor Christopher Abbott – recently seen in Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man – stars in Christopher Andrews’ feature film directorial debut with this dark revenge thriller set in rural Ireland, involving a feud between two neighboring families with Barry Keoghan playing the neighbor’s troubled kid, Jack.
Maybe reading that, you’re going to think you already saw this in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, which also starred Keoghan in a small role, but that was definitely more of a dark comedy while Bring Them Down is a bonafide drama that’s all about when two neighboring families get into a conflict, and things escalate far too quickly.
There’s a prologue of two women in a car with someone named “Mikey” driving, which leads to a crash and many years later we meet Abbott’s Michael as he’s living with his sheep farmer father Ray (the ubiquitous Colm Meany), the two of them only speaking in Irish to each other. When their neighbor Gary (Paul Ready) calls to report finding two of their rams dead on their property, which his son Jack says was thrown into the “slurry pit.” Michael later sees them at the stock market – i.e. a market for animal stock, not the one on Wall Street – where he finds the two rams. An altercation leads to a car chase and a crash, but things just get worse as Michael’s entire herd is found dead, seemingly killed by rustlers. Another important part of the equation is Nora-Jane Noone’s Caroline, Gary’s wife and Jack’s mother who was one of the women in the car during the prologue who is preparing to leave her family for a job in Cork.
There are such complex relationships in play and not being a sheep farmer myself, I wasn’t really that knowledgeable about the practices of what “bringing them down” meant exactly. There were certain points where I wasn’t really sure what was going on, since the story revolves around knowing more about animal husbandry than this city boy could ever possibly know.
For a long time, I wasn’t really sure what was happening, but that was probably intentional on the part of Andrews, since about halfway through the film, after some of the more shocking moments, he rewinds the time clock, and we begin to watch the same story through the eyes of Jack. That’s when some true revelations come out, more about Jack’s side of the family and why some of the events happened. We never fully learn the meaning of that opening or Caroline’s relationship with Michael, although it’s hunted that
Colm Meany is okay, though he’s such a regular in Irish films now that his casting is a little obvious, but Abbott and Keoghan are both fantastic, and Bring Them Down is a solid directorial debut from Andrews, a revenge thriller that builds to something far more interesting in its second half as we revisit events from a different viewpoint. It’s quite original and clever in that regard.
Rating: 7.5/10
PARTHENOPE (A24)
Paolo Sorrentino, the Italian filmmaker behind his country’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty and the Oscar-nominated The Hand of God returns with an oddly-titled drama that is actually the name of its protagonist, as played by Celeste Dalla Porta in her earlier years and by Stefania Sandrelli later in life. Like The Brutalist, this is essentially a biopic about a fictional person, following their entire life with its ins and outs over the course of decades.
Mind you, I have always had a rather mixed relationship with Italian cinema, enjoying films by Fellini and Luca Guadagnino, but also having some real classics (like L’Avenurra) that I just didn’t care for. Reviewing this one is made even tougher by the fact that I saw it so many weeks ago and has been so ensconced in Sundance viewing that it’s tough to remember the intricate details of a fairly complex character study… including the characters’ names.
We meet the beautiful young woman Parthenope (as played by Dalla Porta) living on the seaside town of Naples in the ‘50s, dealing with the adoration of a young lad from the village as well as a rather incestuous relationship with her brother. There’s a danger of this portion being a bit overcome by its male gaze, since the actress is gorgeous and scantily clad, and feels as pretentious as it’s gorgeous. Gary Oldman shows up briefly as an ex-pat, who becomes equally smitten with the far-younger woman, which feels like a running theme in Sorrentino’s films.
The movie starts getting interesting more in its second half as we watch Parthenope going to university and studying philosophy, a goal that’s nearly sidelined by her pursuing an acting career and encountering some of the awfulness of that world, in the form of Isabella Ferrari’s Flora Malva, an acclaimed diva who arrives in Naples with many demands. Later in life, Parthenope has an affair of sorts with a lecherous bishop, played by Peppe Lanzetta, but by then, she’s much wiser about how she can use her wiles to get what she wants from the men she actually likes. I won’t say much more about the plot, as it’s good to let it unfold as it does.
One thing Sorrentino’s film really excels at is showing that Parthenope is more than just a nice face and body but actually a smart and clever woman who surrounds herself with interesting characters and isn’t just jumping into bed with every rich man who looks her way – there are a few of those as well.
More than anything, Parthenope is an interesting character study by Sorrentino, one enhanced by the gorgeous settings and how they’re shot by cinematographer D’Aria Dantonio. While it starts out as something dull and pretentious, and it often tries too hard to be provocative, but by the end, it was probably one of my favorite films directed by Sorrentino.
Rating: 7/10
Parthenope will open in New York and L.A. on Friday, essentially two theaters each.
Two movies I really want to watch soon are these next two and if I find the time, I’ll add reviews either here or on Letterboxd, but for now, I just want to make you know that they exist and are probably decent.
ARMAND (IFC Films)
Opening in limited release this weekend and then expanding wide or wider on February 14 is Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s drama starring Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World, A Different Man), which was Norway’s selection for the Oscars and got shortlisted but not nominated. Ms. Reinsve plays defamed actress Elisabeth, who is called to a parent-teacher meeting where allegations and accusations fly.
JAZZY (Vertical)
Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) reunites with The Unknown Country filmmaker Morrisa Maltz for her follow-up film, which is a portrait of the title character, Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, the young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in Spearfish, South Dakota, during her early years from six to 12-years-old, whose best friend Syriah is moving away. Ms. Shangreaux plays herself in the film as does Syriah Fool Head Means, and it’s based on stories written by the two of them with Gladstone having a smaller supporting role, as well as Raymond Lee and Richard Ray Whitman. I missed this at the Tribeca Film Festival last year but hope to get to watch it soon.
Other films out this weekend…
KIDNAPPING INC. (Dark Star Pictures)
I LOVE YOU FOREVER (Utopia)
PAINT ME A ROAD OUT OF HERE (Aubin Pictures)
SUZE (Tribeca Films)
RENNER
REPERTORY
Let’s see what’s going on at the Metrograph, shall we?
Ryan J. Sloan’s microbudget thriller Gazer, which Metrograph Pictures will release theatrically on April 5 is getting a sneak preview on Friday night, and to celebrate, Metrograph is doing a “Ryan J. Sloan and Ariealla Mastroiani Selects” series this weekend which includes Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966), not to be confused with Brian de Palma’s Blow Out (1981) and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974) – all playing this weekend and all which I do often get them confused with each other.
Spike Lee’s documentary 4 Little Girls (1997) will screen a few times this weekend as part of the Thornton Dial tribute series, plus the unfortunately-timed “Emilia Perez and Jacques Audiard Selects” will screen the Safdies’ Uncut Gems, starring Adam Sandler, on Thursday night. Darren Aronofksy’s much-maligned mother! (2017), starring Jennifer Lawrence will screen this weekend as part of “Knock Knock” while Kim Ki-young’s Korean thriller, The Housemaid (1960), screens one more time on Tuesday.
“Brigitte Lin on Screen” is close to wrapping up (maybe?) but not before screening Jackie Chan’s Police Story (1985) a few times this weekend, as well as Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express (1994) on Friday and Sunday.
Some fun stuff this weekend as part of “15 Minutes,” including David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake (2018), starring Andrew Garfield, and Joseph Mankiewicz’s classic thriller All About Eve (1950). If you’ve yet to see Scorsese’s King of Comedy, starring Robert De Niro, that will screen one more time on Tuesday night.
“Amongst Humans” is screening the original Village of the Damned (the one from 1960, not the 1995 John Carpenter remake) a few times as will Sophia Alaqui’s fairly-recent Animalia, and John Cameron Mitchell’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2018), which unfortunately, is based on a Neil Gaiman short story, but hey, Metrograph has never been afraid of cancelled people going by how many Kevin Spacey movies have screened over the past few years. ;) Also, Joe Cornish’s can’t miss Attack the Block (2011) will screen one more time on Monday night.
“The Many Lives of Laura Dern” also continues with one final screening of Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (2019) on Thursday night as well as David Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006), which will also screen on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Raise Ravens and They Will Pick Your Eyes Out” is also not ending anytime soon with screenings this weekend of Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates (1969) and Victor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive (1973).
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
First of all, I’m going to return to the Nitehawk Prospect Park on Sunday for this month’s “Sundays on Fire” series of secret rarely-seen Hong Kong action cinema, presented by Subway Cinema and my pal Grady Hendrix (who might actually be on a book tour right now).
Monday night’s “Iconic Chainsaw” offering at Prospect Park is the 1982 horror film, Pieces, which I’ve never actually seen! “Adventures in Black Cinema” presents the 1995 Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), starring Denzel Washington, on Tuesday, which is also part of the “Man on Fire” retrospective of Washington’s films.
Over in Williamsburg, they’re showing the absolute horror classic, the 1981 My Bloody Valentine, on Thursday night, but sadly, they’re not playing Heart Eyes so you can’t do that double feature, which doesn’t even open at Prospect Park until Friday. WTF?!? Williamsburg will offer its own films as part of “Man on Fire” with another great Tony Scott film, Crimson Tide (1995) on Saturday and Sunday brunch-time. This week’s midnight movie on Friday and Saturday night is one of my all-time faves, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971), starring Malcolm McDowell. Seriously if you haven’t seen this movie yet, what are you waiting for?!?
Uptown at Netflix’s New York theater, they’re still playing Emilia Pérez non-stop as if nothing has happened to its Oscar chances, and the associated “Why Not Cinema?” series continues with Ken Loach’s fantastic I, Daniel Blake on Thursday; Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation on Friday; Alexandre Rockwell’s In the Soup, starring Steve Buscemi, on Saturday; and more, running through next Wednesday where it ends with Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, starring Joaquin Phoenix.
Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman is a Woman (1961), starring Anna Karina, will have a 4K DCP restoration released this week, while Lina Wertmüller’s Swept Away (1974) continues to run at least until the 13th. This Sunday’s “Film Forum Jr.” is Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934), starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.
David Lynch’s Eraserhead continues to play through Friday along with Lost Highway, which continues through the weekend, along with Mulholland Dr, all part of the IFC Center’s “Remembering David Lynch” series, which continues through Feb. 13. The Coens’ Oscar-winning Fargo will play at midnight on Friday and Saturday, as will Rob Reiner’s Misery, based on the Stephen King novel and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 horror film, House. The 50th anniversary re-release of Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock continues to play through next week.
Running this weekend is “Conjuring Nosferatu: Robert Eggers Presents” with some really interesting choices, many films I’ve never seen, including Archie Mayo’s Svengali (1931), Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946), David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946) and more, running through next Tuesday only! “Frederick Wiseman: An Institution” also continues through the month, though it’s taking the weekend off to continue next Wednesday with more fantastic docs from the legendary master of the genre.
Very cool to see that the Anthology is kicking off a Willem Dafoe retrospective called “Wild at Heart: Willem Dafoe” with Mr. Dafoe in person this Saturday! Showing this weekend are a trio of Abel Ferrara movies, Go Go Tales (not great) and Pasolini (pretty great) and Tomasso (which is pretty good), Masao Adachi’s 1971 film Siberia, Kathryn Bigelow and
Monty Montgomery’s The Loveless (which I had never heard of), as well as Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (of course, but already sold out), and much more. Most of these movies will play three times over the course of the next couple weeks but Dafoe will only be there this Saturday and on Feb. 16.
A 4k restoration of Wim Wenders’ excellent Paris, Texas plays on Thursday, Saturday, and Monday, while James Mangold’s Girl, Interrupted, starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, will play in 35mm on Saturday and Sunday. The 4k restoration of the Oscar-winning Amadeus will screen on Monday as will a 35mm screening of the original Twilight. On Sunday, you can bring the kiddies to a free screening of the animated The Secret life of Pets at noon – first come, first served, so get there early!
In case you can’t get to the IFC Center for David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. it’s also playing in the East Village on Friday, as is Blue Velvet and Eraserhead. In other words, there’s no avoiding the late, great Lynchmeister if you live in New York City this weekend. They’re also showing Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. on Friday, and then next Wednesday, you can see Casablanca in 35mm.
Screening as part of “Snubbed Forever” will be the 1957 Delmer Davies Western, 3:10 to Yuma, starring Glenn Ford, as well as Rosemary’s Baby and John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in John Ford’s The Quiet Man (1952). In celebration of Black History Month, they’re also doing a series called “Pioneers of African-American Cinema” with Symbol of the Unconquered and The Flying Ace this weekend.
On Thursday night, you can see the horror classic, The Exorcist, while Friday night, you can see Denzel Washington’s Oscar-nominated turn in Training Day, and on Saturday, you can do a double feature of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet and Spike Lee’s School Daze, the latter part of Cult Café. Cinema for Kids and Anime Archive will show Mamoru Hosoda’s 2018 film Mirai on Sunday afternoon (the English dub) and Monday night (subtitled). Not a movie, but on Monday night, they’re doing a Sky Room Talk about “Cary Grant and James Stewart: The Hitchcock Men.” On Wednesday night you can see Anthony Quinn in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962).
Starting on Friday is “Obayashi ’80s: The Onomichi Trilogy & Kadokawa Years,” which runs for a week until February 14. I’m really not familiar with any of these film, so just click on the series title to learn more.
BAM (BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC)
Hey, BAM is back in the repertory biz with a new series called “The Black Worker,” and impressive series including films I’ve seen like Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar and many others that I haven’t. Click on the series title to learn more.
I guess I had to skip the Alamo last week… I literally FORGOT the Alamo (ha ha) but this Saturday, you can catch Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King the extended edition on Saturday, Feb. 8.
This weekend, there’s a series retrospective for director Jerry Schatzberg, but since I know nothing about him or his movies, just click on the link if that’s of interest.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back next Tuesday with the early edition featuring box office analysis and predictions for Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World and Paddington in Peru, that’ll be for paid subscribers only but there should also be a review of Captain America for everyone.
Tell me you weren't kicked off the jury because you were rifling through a binder of license plate numbers and the prosecution "had it all wrong."
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