Anora (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Sean Baker

Starring:  Mikey Madison, Yuriy Borisov, Vache Tovmasyan, Karren Karagulian, Mark Eidelstein

Anora (Madison) is a New York sex worker so desperate for love and money that she believes it when her romance with a young Russian man named Ivan (Eidelstein), the son of an ogliarch with mob ties, whisks her away to Vegas to be married.  Has he done this before?  We don't know.   He likes to party like any rich young man would, but maybe he sees something in Anora that others don't.  Anora genuinely falls for Ivan.  Ivan maybe fell for her, but his behavior changes when word gets to his parents that he married a stripper.  

His parents come to America to have the marriage annulled.  Ivan suddenly takes off and the parents' thugs and attorney take Anora out into the New York night to find Ivan.  But, just when we think Anora has become a night odyssey, the movie throws up a welcome loop in the form of Igor (Borisov), one of the mostly silent thugs who has clearly fallen for Anora.  He isn't verbose, speaks only when spoken to, but the way he looks at her, the way he covers her with a blanket while she's sleeping, and the way he protects her is moving.  He's obviously the man for Anora, but she fights it tooth and nail because he's merely a bodyguard.  The Igor character turns Anora around and the Borisov performance is sensitive and touching, worthy of an Oscar nomination.

Sean Baker directed 2017's The Florida Project, which delved into the desperate and impoverished residents of a motel just a few miles from Disney World.  Some engaged in sex work, and Baker saw them without judgment.  Willem Dafoe played the motel manager who behaved as a father figure to his tenants.  In Anora, the title character has a family, but she is reticent to deal with them.  Madison, who was memorably set on fire by a flamethrower in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019), is a woman knocked around by life who has love pulled out from under her.  Does she find her true love in Igor?  They have sex, but then Anora breaks down crying.  Is she capable of love?  We know Igor is, and his character turns Anora into something more special than the first half would indicate. 

Cobra Kai (2024)- Season 6 Episodes 6-10 * *

 

Starring:  Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Courtney Henggeler, Martin Kove, Peyton List, Xolo Mariduena, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, Yuji Okumoto, Sean Kanan

Episodes 6-10 of the final season of the Karate Kid spinoff series takes place mostly in Barcelona, where a worldwide karate tournament with future lawsuit written all over it takes place.  Miyagi-do Karate and bitter enemies Cobra Kai are part of the festivities, with John Kreese (supposedly a fugitive) shows up unexpectedly.  His presence is briefly explained, "All the charges were dropped," and that closes that plot hole.  

These episodes have the dojos competing in exercises in which fighters battle on a tall platform and whomever is knocked off loses.  The losers conveniently land harmlessly on the mats below, but if one falls wrong and is paralyzed, the tourney organizers better whip out the checkbook.  The tournament isn't based on realism, much like most of Cobra Kai.  We've come a long way from the All-Valley Karate Championships circa 1984.  

Cobra Kai's second set of final season episodes was entertaining in its own way with subplots involving the mysterious past of Mr. Miyagi, but then just like the finales of seasons ago, Cobra Kai attempts to rectify everything with an all-out brawl during the finals of the tournament.  Fighting goes on for several minutes with no police in sight and the cameras keep rolling (I guess there is a worldwide television audience for this).  Then, a major character dies after falling on a knife, and the tournament director (who was knocked out earlier sparking the melee) finally yells to cease transmission.  This is a lazy resolution to all that has gone before, and I'll bet in the mercifully concluding episodes, we'll find out how all the charges were dismissed.   Cobra Kai reeks of a series that has long passed its sell-by date. 

Red One (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Jake Kasdan

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, JK Simmons, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju

Red One feels like Blue Christmas.  It has a gray pall hanging over it even in the scenes where the sun shines.  Dwayne Johnson plays Callum, Santa Claus' head of security who plans to leave his post after several hundred years of service to Saint Nick (JK Simmons).  Callum has lost faith in humanity as he realizes the naughty list seems to grow longer each year.  Santa asks for Callum to believe in people, but glum Callum insists on tapping out.  However, the night before Christmas Eve, Santa is kidnapped by a witch named Gryla (Shipka), who also believes humanity is irredeemable and wants to imprison every person on the naughty list.  She holds him hostage and slowly saps his strength, which is considerable if you take into account how he's able to deliver billions of presents in one night.  

Simmons gives us a buff Santa Claus who needs to stay in shape to complete his duty on Christmas Eve.  No plump Santa in this movie.  Johnson, however, plays Callum as taciturn and gloomy when he should be having more fun.  The movie itself sets the same tone.  The heavily CGI-laden action scenes take up several minutes at a time, but the stakes just aren't there.  When Callum recruits expert hacker Jack O'Malley (Evans), who unwittingly gave the coordinates of the North Pole compound to Gryla, they go through the cop-buddy movie routine of dislike turning into like.  Neither actor seems to be enjoying himself.  They're going through the motions. 

Red One is not going to establish itself as a holiday classic anytime soon.  It's an action comedy with emphasis on action and not comedy, but soon we grow tired of both.  I enjoyed Simmons playing Santa not as a world-weary man, but as an ambassador of hope who just keeps plugging away until people's better nature takes over.  The rest of the movie feels very much defeated.  

Heretic (2024) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

Starring:  Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East

The opening scenes of Heretic are riveting, but when the plot mechanics set in and the mystery lifts, Heretic morphs into an average thriller where characters miraculously survive lethal stab wounds.  Heretic takes place mostly within the home of Mr. Reed (Grant), a seemingly genial man who welcomes two Mormons who knock on his front door into his home.  The women are Sister Barnes (Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (East), who came to the house because Mr. Reed filled out a card expressing interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  

Mr. Reed is welcoming, awkwardly charming, and is baking a blueberry pie, as the aroma of the house would indicate.  The sisters state a woman must be present, and Mr. Reed assures them his wife is in the other room but shy about coming out to the living room.  The sisters take that explanation at face value, but soon find Mr. Reed isn't what he seems.  He engages them in a conversation about religion, but he clearly has an issue with the concept of religion and faith.  He says he has found "the one true religion", which the women discover to their horror later.  

Hugh Grant began his career as a romantic lead, but he is also an expert cad and villain.  He gives a fascinating performance here as a man who is angered by the idea of believing in a God who would allow these kind women to be fed to wolves like him.  In his mind, God has abandoned us.  The women try not to believe that, but it's hard to doubt the mounting evidence.  No matter whether Sisters Barnes and Paxton agree with Mr. Reed or not, their fate is sealed.  East and Thatcher provide effective counterpoints as two young missionaries who are naive and entirely too polite to protest and try to escape when it's clear early that Mr. Reed is deranged.   

Heretic's setup is so effective that the payoff can't possibly match it.  The final act morphs into the typical, which is a pity because the early atmosphere is suspenseful and creepy.  Heretic is a movie which can't quite grab the greatness within its grasp. 

City of Lies (2021) * *

 

Directed by: Brad Furman

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, Shea Whigham, Neil Brown, Jr., Dayton Callie

Brad Furman's City of Lies delves into the unsolved murder of Chris Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G.), the famous rapper shot and killed in the wee hours of the morning of March 9, 1997.  This was nearly six months after Tupac Shakur's slaying on the Las Vegas strip.  The media speculated an "East Coast/West Coast" feud between rivaling artists.  Detective Russell Poole (Depp) is assigned to the case and finds he is stonewalled because some LAPD cops moonlight for Death Row executive Marion "Suge" Knight and Notorious B.I.G.'s death opens a Pandora's Box of LAPD corruption.

City of Lies opens nearly twenty years after Wallace's shooting, with Poole still trying to piece together who shot Wallace.  He kept a promise to Wallace's mother Voletta (playing herself) to solve the murder, even after he was kicked off the case and forced to retire.  Poole teams up with journalist Jack Jackson (Whitaker), who is writing a historical article on Wallace and finds himself trying to solve the murder as well.   Was Poole ousted because he was coming too close to the truth which would blow the lid off of the department's corruption?  They've already taken a hit with Rodney King, OJ Simpson, and the Rampart investigations.  Being implicated in Wallace's death would be one more turn of the screw.

Despite the strong performance by Depp as a dogged, but world-weary former detective, and some solid supporting work, City of Lies buckles under its own weight.  It doesn't crackle with intensity like a superb police procedural should.  It never lifts off, even though the public remains interested in the high-profile unsolved murder.  How is it Wallace's killing is still not solved nearly thirty years later?  City of Lies believes it has the answer, but it scarcely brings those answers to life.  

Here (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Zemeckis

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Paul Bettany, Robin Wright, Kelly Reilly

Robert Zemeckis' Here is an experiment in which a camera is planted in a spot and documents what happened in that spot throughout history.  The movie starts with the dinosaurs up to the present day, with multiple stories zig-zagging through time.  The bulk of Here takes place in a living room in a suburban Pennsylvania house.  Across the street is an old colonial home once owned by Benjamin Franklin, and the land on which these homes are built are ancient Native American tribal lands.  We meet the owners from the 1910's through the 2020 COVID pandemic.   My girlfriend told me that the movie reminded her of Disney World's Carousel of Progress only with sad parts.  It is an astute observation, and Here manages to be more than that.  Some parts are hokey, but others earn the audience's emotional response.

Here's main storyline focuses on the Young family, with WWII veteran Al Young (Bettany) and his wife Rose (Reilly) buying the home shortly after the end of the Second World War.  They settle into suburban life, raising three children with the oldest being Richard, who will grow up to be played by Tom Hanks.  Hanks is a gifted artist, but at eighteen knocks up his high-school sweetheart Margaret (Wright) and marries her.  Richard abandons his plans at an art career to raise his daughter in his father's home.  Meanwhile, Margaret laments the sacrifices she made for her family and verbalizes them at her 50th surprise birthday party. 

After a shaky start, I began to appreciate Here's sweep through time.  Zemeckis' style doesn't dominate the story and the characters.   Hanks and Wright, even de-aged, are still effective while harkening back to their pairing in Forrest Gump.  Could I have done without the time-jumping aspect?  Yes, a linear story framing would've worked well, but I was still moved by what's presented in the film.                                   

The Old Man (Season Two on FX) * *

 

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Lithgow, Alia Shawkat, Amy Brenneman, Joel Grey, Navid Negahban

The first season of The Old Man was terrific.  It told the story of former CIA operative Dan Chase (Bridges), who is forced out of hiding by assassins working for an Afghan warlord Faraz Hamzad (Neghban) looking for personal payback.  It turns out Dan fled Afghanistan with the warlord's wife and baby daughter Parwana, who grew up believing she was Dan's biological child.  The mother passed away and Parwana (Shawkat) goes by the name Abby Chase but also Angela Adams when she is working for the FBI under Harold Harper (Lithgow), who aided Chase in smuggling Hamzad's family out.  

The finale of season one saw Parwana/Angela/Abby kidnapped successfully by Hamzad and brought to his village where he controls a lucrative lithium mine in Afghanistan.  Parwana doesn't put up much of a fight in her acceptance of the villainous Hamzad and her family she never met.  Soon, Parwana's concern for her family outweighs her loyalty to Dan and Harold as they travel to Afghanistan to rescue her.   The first season's complicated history between Dan and Harold was in the forefront and it crackled.  In the second season, they bicker like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men, but that is the depth of their relationship. 

Season two meanders often, with Dan and Harold trying to save Parwana (who isn't exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of being saved), and then uncovering a conspiracy involving Russians trying to usurp control of the mine and wipe out the villagers.   This involves a visit to their mentor Morgan Bote (Grey), who is pulling the strings behind the scenes, although how he is doing so isn't fully explained.  Morgan has Dan's lady friend Zoe (Brennaman) with him when Dan and Harold drop in.  Was she kidnapped?  Did she go willingly?  There is no explanation on that either. 

Bridges and Lithgow shine even if the plot and subplots weigh them down.  I feel Lithgow is the heart of the show, acting as Dan's conscience while seemingly one step behind the plot as we are.  Harper halfway still believes in institutions like the FBI and CIA, even while seeing their handiwork firsthand.  The first three episodes drag, with endless dialogue and Parwana's monologues about how she found what was missing from her in Afghanistan.   Things perk up occasionally after that, and who knew being kidnapped could be such a positive experience?