See How They Run (2022) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Tom George

Starring:  Sam Rockwell, Saorise Ronan, David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Reece Shearsmith

See How They Run is a lightweight murder mystery centered around Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, which has been running in London's West End since circa 1953 and is the world's longest running play.  As See How They run opens in 1953, sleazy Hollywood director Leo Kopernick (Brody) is working at adapting the play to the big screen and making enemy after enemy in the process with his obnoxiousness and alienating personality.   Leo narrates the first few minutes of the film describing the setup in which he would eventually become a murder victim.   He is clearly not a fan of Agatha Christie's work: ("There are no dead bodies in the first ten minutes")

Leo is killed in brutal fashion and his body placed on a couch in the middle of the stage.  Inexperienced Constable Stalker (Ronan) and drunken Inspector Stoppard (Rockwell) are assigned to the case.    Ronan is a lovable, plucky Irish cop and Stoppard speaks and behaves as if he is channeling Captain Jack Sparrow.   Rockwell and Ronan are incredibly accomplished actors, of course, and we wonder why See How They Run requires their services.   But they are in See How They Run all the same and it is always fun to see them.  

There is no dearth of suspects in Leo's murder.   Everyone he ever came in contact with has a reason to want to kill him.   This includes screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris, whose every draft is met with disdain by Leo, producer John Woolf (Shearsmith) who is hiding an affair he is having with his assistant which Leo discovers and uses to his advantage, and at one point even Stoppard himself is a suspect.   See How They Run is amusing for a while, with an ending in which the group of suspects (and Agatha Christie herself) are gathered in a room together Christie-style.   Following the movie, I found myself not thinking much about it, which can be a positive or a negative depending on your worldview. 

Don't Worry Darling (2022) * 1/2

Directed by:  Olivia Wilde

Starring:  Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Nick Kroll, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan

I am not revealing a spoiler by suggesting that Don't Worry Darling is all spoiler.   It is so blatantly obvious from the first frame that Something Is Wrong that the movie is just a slog of a waiting game until the Big Reveal is inexorably revealed.   And when it's revealed, it isn't anything special.   I was able to ascertain the twist because I've seen The Truman Show and The Village. 

I won't be a churl and uncover anything further.   Don't Worry Darling seemingly takes place in the 1950's in a sun-drenched suburban paradise where the men drive off to work every day and the women perform their daily tasks and find ways to kill time until their husbands arrive home and service them on the dinner table.  That is at least the case with Jack (Styles) and Alice (Pugh), who appear to be the perfect couple in this Shangri-La in the middle of the American desert.   The streets and homes look like leftover sets from The Truman Show, but hey you can't have everything.   With that being said, Don't Worry Darling looks gorgeous.   Its production values and performances far exceed the material they are saddled with.

All is not right in this utopia run by Frank (Pine), who is Jack's boss and the leader of The Victory Project, the shadowy company in the middle of the desert where the men work and are forbidden to discuss with their spouses.   While Alice tends to the household chores, Frank's voice penetrates the soundtrack sounding like someone reading from a self-help guide to living up to your potential.   Nameless men dressed in all red lurk in the vicinity as security guards.   A distressed neighbor slits her own throat while standing on her roof.  Yep, nothing suspicious to see here.   Frank may as well be wearing a t-shirt signaling his villainy or perhaps his cult leadership.   The mysterious goings-on which cause Alice to question her reality are as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face. 

No one believes Alice, naturally, crediting her suspicions to anxiety or exhaustion.   Frank, however, seems to relish the challenge Alice provides him.   When she accuses Frank of being an evil manipulator who is controlling lives in front of all their friends at a dinner party, Frank can hardly contain his self-satisfied smirk.   Pugh gives us as sympathetic a protagonist as one could expect.   Harry Styles has been criticized for not being up to Pugh's skill level, but if you think about the nature of their relationship, it makes sense for Styles to take a back seat, even in the town of Victory. 

Don't Worry Darling is Olivia Wilde's second feature, after the overrated Booksmart (2019).  Wilde exhibits the appropriate technical skills to be a big-time director, but even she needs better material to work from.  Don't Worry Darling is so excited to show us its secrets that it never builds suspense by attempting to hide them.  

Confess, Fletch (2022) * *

 

Directed by: Greg Mottola

Starring:  Jon Hamm, Roy Wood Jr., Marcia Gay Harden, Lorenza Izzo, Kyle MacLachlan, Annie Mumolo, Ayden Mayeri, John Slattery

Confess, Fletch might not have ever had a chance of working because we identify so vividly with Chevy Chase from the 1985 film and its 1989 sequel.   Chase handled the role of investigative reporter "of some repute" I. M. Fletcher with wry cynicism and droll voiceover narration.   The screenplays played to Chase's strengths and although he was a wiseacre, on occasion things did bother him like his ex-wife and getting shot at, and he was funny.  Confess, Fletch and Jon Hamm's characterization sadly are not.   Hamm tries, but never finds his rhythm with the role.   He plays Fletch as detached, so much so that it seems like he was flown in from another film... a better one hopefully.   The jokes fall flat and there is no voiceover narration.  Confess, Fletch plays like a routine, low energy whodunit.   

We have a sense Hamm was trying too hard to make us forget about Chase and the movie wasn't trying hard enough.   The plot, involving Fletch's girlfriend's father's missing paintings and Fletch himself being framed for a murder, almost dares us to care about it.   Fletch is a murder suspect but he hardly seems to notice.   He playfully deals with the detectives on the case (Wood Jr. and Mayeri) while also trying to solve the crime.   Nothing seems to faze this version of Fletch.   If he doesn't give a hoot, why should we?   Confess, Fletch is the textbook definition of "meh".  

The best scenes involve Fletch and his former newspaper boss (Slattery) meeting up and trying to top one another in the deadpan cynicism department.   Slattery and Hamm were, of course, former co-stars of Mad Men so it's great to seem them together again.   They have strong chemistry, which can't be said for Hamm and the rest of the actors.   There are some great character actors (including Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden) present in the movie, but they don't say or do anything memorable.   I don't know if Hamm's characterization is closer to what MacDonald intended, but Chevy Chase casts a shadow far too large for Hamm to escape it.   

Beast (2022) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Baltasar Kormakur

Starring:  Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Leah Jeffries, Iyana Halley

"You're in his territory now," our hero's friend warns when up against the realization that a vengeful lion wants to eat any human it sees.   As Beast opens, the lion's pride is killed by poachers, but he survives with a bloodlust that's excessive even for a hungry lion.   Whether a lion can actually harbor such resentments is debatable, but it sure sounds plausible, especially when the words are spoken by Martin (Copley), the aforementioned friend named Martin who has spent his life in the wilderness studying lions.  Our hero is Nate (Elba), who grew up in South Africa but moved to the States and became a doctor.   He returns to South Africa on vacation in hopes of reconnecting with his two resentful daughters (Jeffries and Halley), who are angry with their father because he was separated from their mother when she died from cancer.

Nate finds he has to reconnect quickly once Martin escorts his friends into the mountains for a safari.  Martin has befriended a pride of lions he has been looking after for a while.   They trust him and will protect against outsiders.   This information will come in handy later on.   Things go from pleasant to nasty quickly, as Martin and Nate encounter a village with any remaining inhabitants torn to pieces by our lion.   The lion soon attacks Martin's truck, ramming itself into the vehicle and soon disabling it.  Again, I don't know if a lion can inflict such damage, but for the sake of the movie we play along. 

The rest of Beast involves Nate and his daughters (with Martin sidelined with a serious leg injury) trying to stay alive while the lion stays on the periphery waiting to strike.   Martin believes the lion's pride was killed by poachers and is now exacting revenge on any human it sees.   During Nate's ordeal, he will encounter real poachers who are so evil they make you sympathize with the lion.  Elba provides a sturdy center to what soon resembles a horror film, in which things jump out at you in the dark.  The characters are mostly thin, but the actors make the most of them.   The camera seems to stalk Nate as he makes his way through unfamiliar territory.   Instead of making Nate a sudden action hero who can do anything required, he tells Martin on the radio, "I don't know what to do,"   This is a refreshing sentiment.  Beast is skillfully made for what is essentially a slasher film with a lion doing the dirty work.

The lions are CGI to be sure and soon Nate is wrestling our lion to the death.   By this time, the bad lion has become the Michael Myers of lions.   He survives a fall, a jeep landing on him, being burned, an explosion, and being stabbed with a tranquilizer dart which keeps him out of commission for only a few minutes.   I expect to see a Beast 2 in which our lion friend returns to stalk Nate and his daughters again.  

All the Right Moves (1983) * * *

 

Directed by:  Michael Chapman

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson, Chris Penn

If high school football meant as much to my community and school as it did in All the Right Moves, then I missed it.   I'm sure losing a game sucked, but it didn't take on the essence of tragedy as portrayed in this film.   However, the small borough in which I grew up wasn't the depressed Pennsylvania steel town in which All the Right Moves takes place.   In the tiny town of Ampipe, a football scholarship may be the only way to avoid working for the rest of your life in the local steel mill or becoming unemployed during economic downturns.   It is here where All the Right Moves ups the human stakes.   

One can compare All the Right Moves to Friday Night Lights, both of which center on the effect of high school football games on their communities.   Winning and losing isn't just winning and losing.  A Friday night loss can devastate the collective psyche of the town even more so than the players, who stand to have the most to win or lose.   A win can buoy hopes and dreams at least until the next game.  All the Right Moves documents the pressure not only the community places on the shoulders of its players, but the amount the players put on themselves. 

Stefan Djordjevic (Cruise) is one such player.  He is a star defensive back for the local high school football team on the cusp of the most important game of his life against a top-ranked rival.   A win will allow Stefan his pick of schools to attend.   A loss may limit his choices.   Coach Nickerson (Nelson) is also looking for an assistant-coaching position for a college team, so he has the same aspirations as his players.   Stef's team loses a heartbreaker in the final seconds, causing Stef and Nickerson to blow up at each other and the coach to kick Stef off the team.   Later that night, Stef tags along with boosters who dump trash on the coach's lawn and write graffiti all over his house.  Nickerson then further exacerbates the matter by blackballing Stef from being seen by college recruiters.   

Tom Cruise was fresh from the success of Risky Business when All the Right Moves was released.  Even then, he was a star in the making with a mature screen presence and a vulnerability which endears him to the audience.   We root for Stef, who understands the gravity of the mistakes he made, and we can also identify with Nickerson, whose motives are understandable although his actions are wrong.  Stef also has a plucky girlfriend (Thompson), whose wisdom beyond her years allows her to see that loving Stef means allowing him to go away.  

All the Right Moves is very 80's with its heavy synthesizer score and pop song soundtrack, but it doesn't detract much from the story and the intelligent performances.   The resolution is something you don't see much of even today:  Two people working out their problems not with violence, but with honest discussions that force each person to look hard in the mirror and understand the consequences of their actions.   It earns its happy ending, unlikely as it may be, but we are glad to see it happen.  

Fall (2022) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Scott Mann

Starring:  Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mason Gooding

The opening moments of Fall feature a married couple named Becky (Currey) and Dan (Gooding) rock climbing on the side of a mountain with their friend Hunter (Gardner) nearby, but not close enough to assist when Dan falls to his death.   Or, considering how phony the visuals look when he see Dan clinging to his rope while the camera looks down, he falls into a green screen abyss.   

Fast forward to "51 weeks later" and Becky is still mourning Dan while drowning her sorrows in alcohol and avoiding phone calls from her concerned father (Morgan), who not unreasonably wants Becky to move on with her life.   Becky resolves not to do this until she gets a call from Hunter, whom she hasn't seen in a while.   Hunter became a social media influencer performing daring and deadly stunts to the delight of her thousands of followers.    Hunter proposes to Becky to break out of her doldrums and climb an abandoned 2,000 foot-tall radio tower in the middle of some Southwestern state.  Becky surprisingly agrees, and Hunter documents the entire event for her Instagram account.  

Becky is still in remarkably good shape despite drinking nightly and not doing any climbing for the past year, but nonetheless the climb of the rickety ladder ascending the tower goes south quickly.   Hunter and Becky make it to the top and sit on a small, round platform nearly a half-mile from the ground, but when Becky attempts to descend the ladder, the ladder crumbles and strands Hunter and Becky on top.  Their cell phones get no signal, the drone Hunter brings along to provide aerial shots can only fly so far away, Becky dropped the bag which contains their water bottle onto the satellite dish below, and vultures being hovering and swooping as hours turn into days in which the friends are stranded.

It is here where Fall becomes an entertaining mixed bag.  Hunter and Becky try not to lose hope, but as each of their plans is thwarted by outside forces or just plain bad luck, it is almost impossible for the women to not start thinking of their mortality.   Fall keeps us involved because it functions as a nightmare in which you're stuck someplace and can't escape.   Granted, Becky and Hunter put themselves in their predicament, but you still can't help but feel sorry for them.  Some of the developments which pop up strain credulity to its limit, however, while the ending leaves you scratching your head.  The movie is reminiscent of the dark and menacing Open Water (2004), another movie in which two people are stranded (that time amongst sharks) with just enough wherewithal to understand their situation while falsely hoping they can escape it.  

Bullet Train (2022) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  David Leitch

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Logan Lerman, Michael Shannon, Hiroyuki Sanada, Andrew Koji, Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Bad Bunny, Zazie Beetz

Bullet Train is an ironic title for a movie that has to stop dead about every fifteen minutes to explain who did what to whom and why.   Despite some inventive action scenes and gung-ho performances by actors who are clearly enjoying themselves, Bullet Train overstays its welcome with too many characters to account for and too much plot.   In order to make time for every character to have his/her day in the sun, other ones have to disappear, and in some cases for so long we forget they're still in the movie.   Or they're simply killed off in quick, sometimes gory fashion.   

Bullet Train opens with Ladybug (Pitt) strutting down a Tokyo street to a Japanese version of Staying Alive.   We learn quickly through phone conversations with his handler Maria Beetle (Bullock) that he is a hired assassin, but after therapy wishes to leave his life of crime behind.   He refuses to carry or use a gun, but Maria assures him this latest gig is a snatch and grab job.   His mission is to board the Bullet Train which speeds around the city, steal a metal briefcase, and depart the bus.   Ladybug was brought in as a last-minute replacement for another operative who "called out sick".   The heist, of course, doesn't go as planned, because there are other criminals and hit men (and women) after the case as well.

Some of the element after the briefcase includes The Prince (King), a fashionably dressed young lady with a British accent which belies her steely interior, brothers and career hired guns Lemon (Henry) and Tangerine (Taylor-Johnson), a father (Koji) whose son was pushed from a building and now lies in the hospital in a coma, a cartel leader (Bunny) looking for revenge, and others who pop in and out and wind up fighting Ladybug or any combination of the characters listed above.   Characters switch alliances and turn on each other with lightning speed, so much so you wonder if they could sue for whiplash if they weren't bleeding to death from gunshot or stab wounds.   I won't even attempt to encapsulate these subplots.   

The one person each of the characters has in common is The White Death (Shannon), a Russian crime leader who is like a Keyser Soze to these people.   He is feared, but so many stories are told about him we wonder which parts are real and which are fiction.   Even though there is plenty of violent action to go around, Bullet Train stages it in a tongue-in-cheek manner.    Yes, a guy has blood spurting from his neck, but we're kind of, sort of kidding around.   Bullet Train, however, is not a parody, but a movie which owes its dialogue and style to The Usual Suspects and Tarantino.   Bullet Train doesn't lack for style, dialogue, blood, shooting, stabbing, or fighting, but despite moments of fun which don't come often enough, the movie begins to feel like an exercise in style more than something to care about.