I must begin by advising that I almost passed up the offer to screen GHOST IN THE CELL – an Indonesian movie about prison violence, even with some supernatural elements and grim humor as part of the hook. I’ve just seen too many of these to expect any uptick from yet another entry. The high rating I’ve given this shows just how happy I am to have rolled the dice on this one. Even after decades of reviewing, there’s no way to spot a winner just from the title or premise. Sleepers like this justify all the non-magical frogs I’ve had to kiss (figuratively, of course) along the way.
GHOST IN THE CELL is about as literally on point as a title can get. Dimas (Endy Arfian), a feckless nerd is wrongfully sent to a prison full of violence inflicted by inmates on each other, with even more sadistic treatment from the guards and warden. Dimas was a journalist who’d been in the jungles of Borneo to write an expose on abusive practices by industrial exploiters of the natives and land. Someone was killed and posed in an exceedingly gruesome manner. He’s blamed, even though obviously too wimpy to have done anything like that. But when one pisses off the rich and powerful, justice falls off the table.
Once in jail, a few more gory killings occur with similarly lurid arrangements of the corpses’ body parts. There were already rumors that the place was haunted. Soon the inmates suspect that Dimas brought the malevolent spirit with him. One of them, “Six” (Yoga Pratama), claims to start seeing auras of different colors around the others. The theory is that the ghost feeds on anger and when anyone’s aura turns red, they need to calm down immediately, or become the next victim.
As unlikely as that premise may seem, writer/director Joko Anwar makes it thrive as a very dark comedy, with a few surprisingly wild, silly moments that make it stand out from others in the genre. And those who stream it primarily for the gore will be fully satisfied with the horrific dispositions the ghost crafts, as well as what the humans inflict upon each other. If you liked the comedic and yucky combo of films like SHAUN OF THE DEAD, this one takes both elements to entertainingly hyperbolic extremes.
No more details. Let it surprise you as it did me for maximum enjoyment.
GHOST IN THE CELL, in Indonesian with English subtitles, is available on Blu-ray and Digital formats as from Well Go USA starting Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026.
Justin Min as Ben, Timothy Simons as Leon and Ally Maki as Miko,in SHORTCOMINGS. Photo credit: Jon Pack. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
We all have shortcomings but in SHORTCOMINGS, all the characters have them in abundance. This funny, smart, modern comedy follows the lives and misadventures of Ben Tanaka (Justin H. Min, who played Ben Hargreaves in the TV series “The Umbrella Academy” and Jimmy Woo in ANTMAN AND THE WASP), his best friend Alice Kim (comedian Sherry Cola) and his girlfriend Miko Hayashi (actress/fashion maven Ally Maki) as the San Francisco Bay area twenty-somethings navigate relationships and just real life. Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Adrian Tomine, SHORTCOMINGS is filled with laugh-out-loud humor and sharp, witty dialog in a real-life tale that also shows the variety of Asian American experience.
Based on a graphic novel of the same name by Adrian Tomine, SHORTCOMINGS is actor-turned director Randall Park’s first feature. Tomine also wrote the screen adaptation of his graphic novel for this hilarious, pointed comedy, which premiered at Sundance.
The story opens at the movies, where a feel-good wish-fulfillment Hollywood ending to an Asian American romance is on screen. The empowering happy ending sends the audience out of the theater in a glow, to the delight of the people putting on this Berkeley Asian film festival. Ben’s live-in girlfriend Miko is the assistant director of the film festival and very pleased with the film’s reaction. But wannabee film director Ben is rolling his eyes at the crowd-pleaser, complaining that there is not a single realistic character in the movie. Miko defensively pushes back, saying the film’s slick Hollywood style and positive representation of Asian Americans actually will open doors for more varied Asian American films, like Ben might make. Still, Ben continues to argue, even carrying over his negative attitude into the next days, creating a rift in their relationship.
In what may be a breakout role, Justin Min does an impressive job making Ben likable despite the character’s tendency to be argumentative, whiny and self-sabotaging while having no insight on his shortcomings in dealing with people. Further, Ben also doesn’t like change even though he is drifting through life. He calls himself a filmmaker, but really he works as the manager of an art-house movie theater, where he shows minimal interest in the theater’s success.
The couple continues to drift apart, arguing over Ben’s secret habit of searching for photos of white women, an obsession he denies. Shortly after, Miko announces she is going to accept an internship in New York. Ben immediately bad-mouths New York but doesn’t try to talk her out of it. Actually, he is worried about losing Miko, but keeps his worries to himself. When Miko leaves, she tells tells him they should take a break in their relationship. Again, Ben says nothing. But he immediately hits on Autumn (Tavi Gevinson), a pretty white woman he just hired at the theater. Then he quickly drops her to go out with another woman, again white, Sasha (Debbie Ryan) even though his friend Alice tries to warn him off her.
Ben certainly seems like a jerk at this point, and a lot of the characters tell him, again and again, that he is the problem – one time even using a reverse of that classic breakup line “it’s not you, it’s me,” letting him know that it is not the culture, it’s not prejudice, it’s him. But clueless Ben resists taking any of that to heart. With Miko in New York, the film follows Ben and Alice and their romantic misadventures. Sparkling, smart and funny dialog is one of the treats in this comedy but so are the relationship exchanges, which are so real world that you could imagine them in any relationship. The characters and situations, while played for comedy, all have a refreshing realism, with messy real-life situations and characters who are likable, complicated, contradictory and flawed all at the same time. The warts and all characters are refreshing rather than irritating because we are given insights on why they do what they do, even when their behavior is not nice and the characters themselves don’t have those insights.
While Ben is bad at revealing his feelings to his girlfriend Miko, he is more forthcoming with his best friend Alice especially while Miko is gone. Alice, a gay graduate student with a history of serial relationships, can be as insensitive as Ben, which might be part of why they get along so well. While Ben wants to hold on to the relationship he has been sabotaging, Alice’s response to relationship troubles is to run away.
Despite his missteps, Justin Min keeps Ben likable enough that we still care about him, while director Randall Park makes clear that Ben is as much the target of bad behavior as he is often the source. They are all behaving badly, and as the story develops, we see lots of shortcomings of other characters, often with Ben bearing the brunt of that, despite the verbal drumbeat of it being all Ben’s fault. In a way, it is, because his lack of insight on himself and his self-sabotage is at the heart of his troubles.
This is a very funny film but director Randall Park also aims to use humor spotlight some things about Asian Americans rarely seen on scene, like the diversity in the Asian American experience. In one particularly good sequence, Alice, afraid to reveal that she is gay to her conservative parents, persuades Ben to pose has her boyfriend to meet her parents, one Korean and the other Chinese. But she doesn’t want him reveal his Japanese heritage to her Korean grandfather, even though Ben points out that his family has been in the U.S. for several generations, because she worries about lingering prejudices from WWII. It sets up a hilarious, farcical exchange but highlights something non-Asians might not think about.
Eventually, Ben and Alice do end up in New York, partly fleeing their own messes back home, but also giving Ben a chance to find out what is going on with Miko, who has been dodging his calls. We meet Leon (Timothy Simons) and Meredith (Sonoya Mizuno), and more craziness, hilarious moments and telling insights ensue, as the film cleverly wraps things up, although not with the predictably neat Hollywood bow.
With humor that catches you off-guard until the end, delightfully smart dialog, and unexpected insights, SHORTCOMINGS has few shortcomings as a clever, insightful, real-world comedy.
(L-R) Ca’Ron Jaden Coleman, Tia Nomore, Amber Ramsey. Credit: Gabriel Saravia/ Courtesy of A24
Sundance break-out EARTH MAMA spotlights to struggles of a pregnant Black young woman who is trying to regain custody of her two children from foster care, in a quiet, moving indie drama by former Olympic athlete turned writer/director Savanah Leaf. Set and shot in the San Francisco Bay area, this impressive feature film debut for the British-born, under-30 writer/director has garnered awards and promising buzz. Unlike other similar dramas, EARTH MOTHER has a remarkable realism and touching cliche-free drama along with a surprising artistry.
Gia (Tia Nomore) is in drug treatment for a drug addiction that led to her two children being placed in foster. The young single mother has a part-time job with a mall photographer and attends the mandated parenting and other classes yet never seems to quite get on top of all the things required to regain custody. She is frustrated and worried because the clock is ticking on her being able to get her kids back, just as it is ticking on the arrival of her new baby, due in a few weeks.
Gia’s love of her son and daughter is plain to see, when she has her supervised visits, and she is gentle with both her clingy son (Ca’Ron Jaden Coleman), who wants to go with her, and her angry daughter (Amber Ramsey), who resists even looking at her mother.
Outside, Gia lives a life on the edge, with a precarious living situation and very little help from family and no father for the kids in the picture. We follow the heavily-pregnant Gia as she goes through her days, meeting with caseworkers, going to work, attending classes and struggling to make ends meet. From time to time, she relaxes with friends Trina (Doechii) or Monica (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). What emotional support she finds comes from her friends, who have their own messy lives and issues, but mostly she is just coping day-to-day.
Writer/director Leaf cast non-professional actors for her feature debut, adapted from a short film she made with Taylor Russell, and starring popular Bay-area rapper Tia Nomore. While this is Leaf’s first feature, she grew up with a mother who was an animator and set decorator on animated films such as WALL-E, BABE: PIG IN THE CITY and RED. At 97 minutes, Leaf’s drama is as efficient as it is is moving.
A palpable feeling of realism, and a real individual. sets EARTH MAMA apart from any number of dramas about struggling impoverished young Black mothers caught up in the foster care system. Gia is not a flawless person – she makes mistakes, screws up, loses her temper, and sometimes her own worst enemy, but it is always clear she loves her two children and is truly determined to get them back. And Gia’s flaws are not cute little, easily forgivable ones, even though they are humanly understandable, but her determination to keep trying and her love for her kids are her most admirable traits, leading us to care about her.
Likewise, the people who either help and frustrate Gia in achieving her goal of regaining custody are not two-dimensional cliches either, neither angels nor demons, just people trying to help but not always succeeding. Gia faces false assumptions about herself, as well as overcoming her own pride and immaturity, and making her way in a landscape where survival is a daily struggle.
The description above might make this sounds like a grim film but it really isn’t despite its real world grittiness. In a way, EARTH MAMA is a coming-of-age film, where Gia, in her mid-20s, has to find a way to grow up and take control of her destiny, and be the mother she wants to be for her kids. We do see the many challenges Gia faces but we also see her determination to regain her kids, and there is a more hopeful turn later in the film. This affecting drama’s incredible realism is aided by the fine lead performance by Tia Nomore and Leaf’s sure direction and thoughtful, well-researched script.
The title might suggests someone living close to nature but Gia lives in an urban landscape where nature feels absent. The only hint of nature is in her dreams, where her inner life is revealed as she escapes to a peaceful world, and we see her surrounded by quiet forests or tranquil beaches, dressed in soft fabrics, sometimes with her bare pregnant belly displayed. These beautifully-shot, dream-like sequences show the hidden side of Gia hidden, as she grapples with her hard life. Dream-like sequences featuring close-ups of a cooing infant effectively transmit motherly feeling.
While all the characters are presented as fully rounded, good or bad, the flaws in the foster care system and the obstacles it creates for Gia are plain to see. At one point, Gia is pressed by her caseworker to work more hours, causing the young woman to angrily explode, saying she can’t take more hours because she has to go to so many required classes. She is also being required to fill out forms but given little guidance or assistance doing that. Gia’s pride gets in the way too, refusing to ask the caseworker for help.
As Gia’s due date approaches, a social worker more attuned to what Gia is experiencing, Miss Carmen (Erika Alexander) approaches her with the idea of adoption. Gia initially rejects it, even angrily, but as her situation becomes more precarious and the chance grows that her newborn will go straight to foster care, she reconsiders. Gia wrestles with the idea, meets a potential adoptive family, a Black family she selected, but continues to be ambivalent and indecisive. Her dilemma creates a tension in the drama, which culminates in a emotional scene with one of her best friends.
At one of her parenting classes, which Gia initially rejects the idea, even angrily. As her situation becomes more precarious, and the chance grows that the foster care system will take her newborn, she returns to that idea, with open adoption on the table, but still remains conflicted.
Tia Nomore gives a strong performance as Gia in her first acting role, projecting an appealing quietness and a sense she is holding things in and holding it together. Nomore’s steady, open gaze directly into the camera helps us connect with and care about Gia.
Leaf drew on her personal life as the older sibling to an adopted younger sister but the film is not autobiographical The director has said that she means the film as “an ode to mothers,” and she succeeds well in that. With this strong debut film, we look forward to more good films from both director Savanah Leaf and star Tia Nomore.
EARTH MAMA opens Friday, July 28, in select theaters for a limited run.
Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. Courtesy of Universal
“Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” is the famous quote from the Bhagavad Gita that physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer spoke upon witnessing the first denotation of a nuclear device, as the world entered the new era of nuclear weapons. OPPENHEIMER is Christopher Nolan’s epic drama about Oppenheimer, his work on the Manhattan Project, and his treatment after the war. The biographical drama starts like a historical thriller and ends like a profound warning to the world, all set against the sweep of history that changed the world.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Nolan’s epic film in fact opens with a reminder of that myth of the man who stole fire from the gods and was punished eternally for his deed. OPPENHEIMER explores the theoretical physicist’s life, particularly his work on the WWII race to build a nuclear bomb before the Nazi Germany, known as the Manhattan Project, and then the post-war aftermath, when Oppenheimer, haunted by the world-destructive weapon that he helped unleash on the world, sought to rein in that danger, which pitted him against a military eager to launch the Cold War arms race, making Oppenheimer a target for communist-hunting investigations.
J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) was the brilliant theoretical physicist who was selected to run the Manhattan Project, the secret U.S. project to beat Nazi Germany to building an atomic bomb. The young physicist is recruited for that job by Lt. General Leslie Groves Jr. (Matt Damon). Oppenheimer seemed an unlikely choice, the New York-born son of a wealthy Jewish family and an autodidact who read literature and poetry, spoke several languages and read the Hindu sacred text, the Bhagavad Gita, in the original Sanskrit, yet Oppenheimer actively seeks the job, eager to help defeat the Nazis, partly because of what was happening to Jewish people in Europe. Oppenheimer shared his family’s left-leaning political views, and even partied with some communists, but none of that was remarkable or uncommon in that time period, when Americans were still unaware of what was really happening in Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Immediately, Oppenheimer realizes the Manhattan Project has an unexpected edge over the Nazis, despite Germany’s over-a-year head start on developing a nuclear bomb. Hitler’s hatred of the Jews will drive the Germans to purge Jewish scientists from their nuclear bomb research, and Oppenheimer, having visited Europe as a student, knows many of the top physicists are Jewish or have Jewish backgrounds or links. Oppenheimer sets out to recruit as many of those Jewish refugee physicists as possible, using Hitler’s hatred against him.
And recruit them he does, including Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh), and Hans Bethe (Gustaf Skarsgard), along with Jewish-Americans Richard Feynman (Jack Quaid) and Robert Serber (Michael Angarano). Enrico Fermi (Danny Deferrari) wasn’t Jewish but his wife was, causing them to flee fascist Italy, and he joins the effort too. Although Oppenheimer knew Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), and the two were friends, he did not invite Einstein to join the project, but Einstein does appear in the film at a couple of points, and has an important part in the film’s powerful ending.
For the secret project, Oppenheimer selects a remote location in the New Mexico desert, Los Alamos, near an area he has vacationed many times, a region he loves. The desert landscape creates a perfect canvas for Nolan to build this thrilling chase for the bomb.
The impressive cast also includes Robert Downey Jr as Lewis Strauss, the non-scientist who heads the Princeton academy that includes Einstein. Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence (as in Lawrence Livermore laboratory) and David Krumholtz as Oppenheimer’s friend Isidor Rabi.. Emily Blunt plays Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, a biologist frustrated by the era’s confining roles of wife and mother, and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s troubled ex-lover, leftist psychiatrist Jean Tatlock. Many other recognizable faces appear, in a host of small roles.
Nolan’s film, perhaps his best, is a true epic and its length is epic too, at about 3 hours, but OPPENHEIMER is so engrossing and tense that one does not feel the running time. This excellent film has much to recommend it – its riveting and significant content, timely message about ethical consequences of technology, its outstanding performances from an impressive cast (particularly Cillian Murphy), its powerful and largely accurate historical storytelling, plus its visual artistry and technical achievements – to mention a few of its admirable aspects, meaning that it is hard to know where to start in describing the film. Those who know Nolan’s work will find that OPPENHEIMER is very much in his wheelhouse, perhaps the film he was always meant to make.
OPPENHEIMER is divided in two parts, which Nolan labels “Fission” and “Fusion,” for the pre-bomb and post-bomb world. The epic starts out as biography and a gripping thriller, as the young Oppenheimer ascends and the Manhattan Project races to build the first atomic bomb. Post-war, it shifts to taut drama about his fall, as the now-famous Oppenheimer is haunted with guilt over giving mankind the power to destroy the world, and seeks use his fame to limit nuclear weapons, which angers the Pentagon, eager to start the arms race, and makes him the target of a investigation in the rising tide of the Cold War and a shifting political climate. The pivot point between these two parts is the testing of the first nuclear device, Trinity, in which what had been theoretical suddenly becomes horrifying reality, prompting that famous quote from Oppenheimer.
The film jumps back and forth in time, as Nolan film’s sometimes do, and has three threads it follows. But there is no trouble following the narrative, even if the significance of a single scene might not be immediately clear, and the director aids that by presenting one of these threads is in black-and-white. Two of the thread are focused on Oppenheimer, before and after the Trinity nuclear test, while the third, in black-and-white, is centered on a Congressional hearing to confirm Lewis Strauss for a cabinet-level post. What that thread has to do with the story is not clear until later in the film, but it’s significance is powerful.
From the start, ethical and moral questions are part of the equation. Why try to create the most destructive weapon ever seen? In one scene, the physicists debate that question but one fact looms over all: Hitler’s Germany is already working on such a weapon. If they can’t be stopped, the next best thing is to get the weapon first. “I don’t know if we can be trusted to have such a weapon but I know the Nazis can’t,” Oppenheimer says in the film.
The film’s pivotal moment is the test of the first nuclear device, the Trinity test, where what had been only theoretical becomes devastatingly real, and changes the world forever. It is a heart-stopping, showstopper sequence that is the cinematic highlight as well as pivot point of the film, where the realization of the true significance of what they have done causes Oppenheimer to utter that famous quote. Nolan handles this immersive sequence with brilliance, giving the audience an unsettling feeling of being there in the moment. The lack of awareness of the danger of radiation actually poses is one reason some scenes are so harrowing to watch.
The scenes of the detonation are riveting but the film does not include footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as the story is told from Oppenheimer’s view and it is not something he witnessed. Once the two bombs are created, they are whisked away, and Oppenheimer learns about their use and targets the same time and way as everyone else- on the radio. Instead, there is a sequence after the bombs are dropped, where Oppenheimer speaks to the Manhattan Project scientists and staff. As he speaks, shots of the jubilant people in the crowd sometimes slowly morph into images that suggest the bombs’ victims, a haunting, horrifying effect that reflects Oppenheimer’s inner turmoil at that world-changing moment.
Post-war, Oppenheimer finds himself suddenly famous but consumed with guilt, and tries to use that fame to press for limits on nuclear weapons, hoping the horror of the atomic bombs will put an end to all wars. But not everyone has grasped how the world has been transformed by the new technology, and Oppenheimer fails to see the shifting political landscape of the coming Cold War, making him a target.
The post-war second half adopts a deeper, more thoughtful tone, more like a courtroom drama, as it examines how Oppenheimer was treated after the war. Suddenly, Oppenheimer is world famous, and the scientist tries to use that fame to press the government of the nation he served so well to take seriously the danger of new power unleashed on the world. He wants them to grasp, as one character notes in the film, that this is not a weapon but a new reality for the world. But even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the devastating effects of ionizing radiation emerged, many do not see it. Instead, Oppenheimer’s activities, particularly his opposition to the development of a hydrogen bomb, angers the Pentagon, focused the dawning Cold War and arms race.
The film basically gets the history and science right, although it is careful not to overload the audience with the latter. However, this is important to note this is basically biography, told from the subject’s view, and not a definitive exploration of the Manhattan Project and the resulting bombings. That means that some may feel that there are things it overlooks or doesn’t cover in sufficient depth but historical completeness was never the intent of the film. As the film depicts, Oppenheimer did not pick the targets, and after the Trinity test, all control is taken out of his hands. Oppenheimer learns about the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the same way every American did, on the radio.
Much of the reason the film is so immersive and gripping is how Nolan shot the film, which is analog, on 65mm film in large-format15-perf IMAX, with ten times the resolution of standard film, and the highest resolution film ever used. This is a must-see epic that is best seen on an large IMAX screen. In 19 lucky locations around the U.S., it is also being shown in 70mm format, the best choice.
Oppenheimer’s lack of understanding of the political shift underway post-war as the Cold War dawns is illustrated in a scene where he meets President Truman (Gary Oldman). The physicist wants to take the opportunity to speak out against developing the more-powerful hydrogen bomb, but Truman isn’t open to that topic. Frustrated, Oppenheimer tells Truman he feels he has “blood on his hands” a grave error in speaking to the President who ordered the dropping of those bombs, who abruptly ends the meeting.
The scene also illustrates the way in which Oppenheimer became his own worst enemy in the post-war world he helped create, as well as the target of an angered Pentagon, a theme further expanded as Oppenheimer faced an investigation about renewing his security clearance, where questions about his pre-war left-leaning political associations, once considered inconsequential, were raised anew in the commie-hunting atmosphere. The film culminates in a powerful sequence that brings all its threads together and leaves us stunned.
OPPENHEIMER seems a sure thing for Oscar nominations, an engrossing, brilliant epic that mixes a rise-and-fall biography of a complicated genius, with tremendous ticking-clock historical thriller followed by a revealing drama about a struggle over a technology with the power to destroy the humankind, and the ethical choices around it.
Indy’s back, in a new chapter that is a throw-back to that original Steven Spielberg RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK that hooked us to begin with. While Harrison Ford returns as archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones, along with a bunch of other Spielberg characters from the first one (along with some new ones), and this is the final film in the series and a farewell to Ford as the character, Spielberg does not direct INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY. Fear not, director James Mangold (FERRARI VS FORD) seamlessly captures the Spielberg vibe. You’d never know if you didn’t look at the credits. Plus, the story is still by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, with a screenplay by co-written by Mangold, Jez Butterworth, David Koepp and John-Henry Butterworth.
James Mangold may be less well known that Spielberg but he has a string of excellent films to his credit, including LOGAN, the 310 TO YUMA remake, and GIRL, INTERRUPTED. While the original RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was gangbusters, a film that hearkened back to 1940s adventure films, the Indiana Jones sequels that followed were more a mixed bag, with some better than others. This final Indiana Jones movie recaptures some of the original’s magic.
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is a wonderful farewell to the role for Harrison Ford, who is no longer the young thing he was in the 1981 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Unlike other Indy sequels, this one acknowledges that passage of time, and even makes it work for the story. The film opens with a fabulous flashback sequence, that takes us back to the early days, battling Nazis who are looting archaeological treasures.
Harrison Ford plays the part as the young Indy thanks to some impressive visual sampling, motion-capture and other special effects. The result is so effective, it is thrilling, even awe-inspiring, and worth the price of admission alone.
Actually, Harrison Ford, young or old, alone is worth the price of admission; he is that good . Going back to the ’40s lets this Indiana Jones movie do something that is always a mark of a good one in the series – have Indy punch Nazis. Having Harrison Ford play the part, instead of a younger actor playing Ford playing the part, is part of the fun, thanks to modern movie magic.
Late in WWII, Indiana Jones, disguised in a Nazi uniform, and his fellow archaeologist Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) infiltrate a Nazi operation that is smuggling art and archaeological treasures back to the Reich. The Nazi in charge of this operation is looking for a certain item rumored to have mystical powers but a young Nazi scientist Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen, also de-aged) alerts him to an object with more impressive power, the Archimedes Dial (inspired by, and resembling, a real-life archaeological treasure, the Antikythera mechanism). Fights and a thrilling chase onboard a racing train ensues, as Indy and the Nazi scientist struggle for control of the object.
After the flashback, the story moves to 1969, where an older Indy (Ford) is jolted out of bed – in just his boxer shorts – by a blast of rock music and a parade celebrating the moon landing just outside the window of his little big-city apartment. We see Harrison Ford, in all his craggy glory, as the older Indy, long past his adventuring days and actually getting ready to retire from his job as professor of archaeology But the wrench in the works for that plan, is his long-lost god-daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), the child of his buddy in the adventure we just saw, who turns up seeking a lost archaeological treasure she believes Indy has. But there is a hitch because that same Nazi scientist (Mikkelsen again), now working for NASA and hiding his past, is after it too. And of course, he’s still secretly a Nazi.
Echoing the original, this young woman draws a reluctant Indy into the adventure, in this case by stealing the object. We also get brief appearances by old friends, like John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, and a whole lot of fast-paced adventuring fun.
The MacGuffin that both the Nazis and Indy are chasing, the Archimedes Dial, looks a lot like the real-world Antikythera device, but the ancient device in the movie is not only in working order but has the power to find fissures in time. Or could, if they had both halves.
Pursuit of this object sparks a chase across continents and plenty of thrilling action and adventures (including punching Nazis), with call-backs to scenes from the original. The abundant chases and fight scenes are breathless and exciting, with danger mixed with touches of humor. We also get a car chase in Tangiers, in tuk tuks, those tiny three-wheeler vehicles that are small enough to navigate the narrow, twisting lanes, which is great fun.
While many fans of the original will delight in this throw-back film, built to wrap up the Indiana Jones story while providing that nice farewell to the role for Harrison Ford, INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is also a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it film because it departs from the basic premise of what might happen in a 1940s adventure movie, by introducing a bit of sci-fi. No details, to avoid spoilers, but sci-fi haters won’t be happy.
To be honest, the plot does run a bit out-of-control late in the film. Some extra suspension of disbelief is required, but no more so than needed for the typical MISSION IMPOSSIBLE gravity- and physics-optional CGI stunt fest.
While some of this plot is a stretch, a little forgiveness is warranted, as INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY does right by the characters and by the spirit of the Indiana Jones series. It ties up everything nicely, in a touching, reasonable and satisfying bow. Why ask for more?
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY opens in theaters on Friday, June 30.
Natalie Terrazzino in HUNT HER, KILL HER. Courtesy of Welcome Villian Films
There have been dozens of films in which an innocent woman is forced to summon previously untapped toughness and resourcefulness to fend off a group of assailants. An early example is a blind Audrey Hepburn in WAIT UNTIL DARK whose home is invaded by thugs mistakenly thinking some drugs were stashed there. Among the grittier, bloodier explorations of the premise is 1978’s I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, which spawned a slew of sequels and imitators including its next-generation return bout, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE: DÉJÀ VU, in 2019.
In HUNT HER, KILL HER, Natalie Terrazzino plays a woman on her first night as the janitor in a large industrial facility. She’s worried about her sick child left in the care of a neighbor. She starts hearing sounds that are troubling, since she’s supposed to be the only one there for the whole night.
A mysterious package is delivered by a rather dodgy courier. She soon finds herself under attack by a handful of masked intruders, with no idea who they are, or why they’re after her. Is she just unlucky enough to be in the way of a heist? Are they using the premises for some criminal enterprise? Or could she be the target? Her life depends on defeating them, no matter which motive is driving their lethal engines.
What ensues is a typically unlikely set of dodges, defenses and counterattacks throughout the large, labyrinthine building. This plain, mild-mannered woman must become the “Die Hard” version of Bruce Willis, with a touch of MacGyver, to survive the night. What happens isn’t all that surprising. These flicks are all about the methods by which the woman survives. Ruby Rose headlined something similar in 2020’s THE DOORMAN, though that one established her character’s trained fighting skills up front. Terrazzino appears far less qualified for this unexpected survival struggle.
Fans of gore-fests will find plenty of ickiness in the proceedings. The whole ordeal is about as disorienting for the audience as the star, since we never get a full sense of the size, configuration and contents of the premises as she frantically scrambles to hide, set traps and fend off the attackers. Nothing special about her or the mostly-anonymous assailants. Or the plot. This one, which was directed by Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen from a script by Swinson. just scratches a particular cinematic itch of tables being rightly turned by an underdog in the bloodiest of displays.
HUNT HER, KILL HER opens in theaters on Friday, March 3, and is available for streaming on multiple VOD platforms as of April 14.
Will Smith and Ben Foster in “Emancipation,” now streaming on Apple TV+. Courtesy of Apple Studios
An unrecognizable Will Smith stars as an enslaved man in Civil War era Louisiana, who decides upon hearing about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to escape from a labor camp through the bayou in an attempt to reach Union forces in Baton Rouge, in Antoine Fuqua’s EMANCIPATION. Will Smith’s character was inspired by a real person, the man with the heavily scarred back in the famous Civil War photo, who really did escape slavery to reach an Union encampment. The photo, known as “Whipped Peter” or “the Scourged Back,” was widely circulated during the Civil War and was instrumental in convincing Northerners of the truth of the brutality of slavery.
EMANCIPATION is a true-story inspired tale of the Civil War South without the mint juleps and “Gone with the Wind” fantasy. As the film opens, we see enslaved blacksmith Peter (Will Smith) living a hard life on the plantation of Captain John Lyons (Jayson Warner Smith), along with his wife Dodienne (Charmaine Bingwa) and their children. It is two years into the Civil war when Confederate forces arrive to conscript him and other enslaved men to work building a railroad track, much to the dismay of the plantation owner. In an emotional scene, Peter is taken from his family and shipped off with others in a prison cart. Arriving at the muddy labor camp, he and other enslaved people are worked until they drop, with bodies thrown into a common grave. All the time, they are under the watchful eye of a renowned slave-catcher named Fassel (Ben Foster) and his two employees, one of whom is a former slave, and the camp is encircled by hanged bodies and heads on pikes as warnings of the risks of escape. Rumors about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation are overheard and, when an opportunity arises, Peter and three others, Gordon (Gilbert Owuor), Tomas (Jabbar Lewis), and John (Michael Luwoye) escape to cross the treacherous bayou in a bid to reach the Union forces fighting at Baton Rouge.
That chase makes up the bulk of the film, as the escapees are pursued by Fassel and his henchmen. One of the escapees is killed and the others decide to split up, making Smith’s character a man alone in a dangerous wilderness of swamp, venous snakes and alligators, pursued by a blood-thirsty fanatic, giving the film a propulsive thriller urgency, as it races towards its moving, inspiring conclusion.
Not a lot is known about the real man in the photo but director Antoine Fuqua and scriptwriter William N. Collage have taken what is known and crafted an inspiring story of determination to reach freedom amid the violence of slavery. It is also a violent story, as Fuqua does not blink in showing the true brutality of slavery, nor the relentlessness and cruelty of slave-catchers. The film is shot in a highly-desaturated color, so much so that at times it appears to be black and white, a visual choice that tamps down the visceral effect of the violence. Many on the characters in the film are based on real people, including Peter and his ruthless pursuer Fassel (in a chilling portrayal by Ben Foster), the plantation owner Captain Lyons, and a Black officer Captain Andre Cailloux (an excellent Mustafa Shakir), a legendary heroic figure of the Civil War.
The story is admirable and the film is inspiring and heroic, but it is not a film without flaws. The desaturated color tends to come and go scene to scene, which proves more distracting than if it was consistent. Smith’s character and his wife speak with Caribbean accents, sometimes in French creole, and other enslaved people have those accents too, and although there is some historic basis (some French plantation owners fled the Haitian Revolution for Louisiana), the accents seem likely to puzzle at least some audience members, raising questions that go unanswered. As said earlier, Smith is nearly-unrecognizable with his face covered in a beard and his stoic character also damps down his unusual on-screen charm. Scenes are often very dark, which is appropriate to the tone, but in the low light of the swamp, it makes it difficult to discern nuances of expression on Smith’s face. The character’s steely demeanor also limits the range of expression, although Smith does a fine job with what the director allows.
It is a great subject for a film but the film tries perhaps a bit too hard to fill in the blanks of the little-known actual person in the famous photo, which raises questions the film doesn’t answer. In many ways, the film feels like a bold Oscar bait reach and while it has admirable aspects, Will Smith feels miscast. Following up his Best Actor Oscar win for “King Richard” and all the uproar around “the slap,” Will Smith seems determined to take another bite at that apple with a dramatic role. But while his role in “King Richard” allowed him to show some of the charm that had made him an audience favorite, this role does not. Smith’s Peter is determined to be free and committed to his faith and the family he loves, but he is a rather steely, remote character, inspiring and determined rather than likable or warm. It doesn’t feel like the right character for Will Smith, although as noted he does as a fine job as possible with it.
This inspiring story has a lot of potential, enough that one can’t help wanting it to succeed, but the inconsistent desaturated color, puzzling details that go unexplained, and Smith’s iron-jawed character work against it. It is not as strong as cinema or as successful narratively as 12 YEARS A SLAVE. Still, it is beautifully shot and deserves credit as a heroic story that is far different from most Civil War tales.
HACKSAW RIDGE tells the true story of Private Desmond Doss, a medic who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving 75 men on Okinawa during World War II. What sets this heroic story apart is that Doss was a pacifist who refused to even carry a gun, much less fire one, yet won the right to serve and then the respect of his fellow soldiers for his bravery and compassion.
Mel Gibson directs HACKSAW RIDGE yet the film has the sepia-toned look and historic epic sensibility of a Clint Eastwood film. Patriotism, courage and faith are big themes in this war epic. However, by the time we reach the Okinawa battlefield, we definitely know we are watching a Mel Gibson film. Gibson’s taste for plenty of guts with the glory is legendary. Gore abounds and the battlefield scenes are gruesomely realistic, filled with exploding bodies and decaying carnage strewn across a battlefield where days of fighting have left their mark. It may be a realistic depiction of war but it takes a strong stomach to watch on a big screen.
This is not the first movie to spotlighted a war hero who was also a pacifist. Gary Cooper starred as a World War I hero with religiously based pacifist beliefs in SERGEANT YORK. Doss is played by Andrew Garfield, perhaps best known for his role as Spider Man. Like York, Doss had to find a way to reconcile his beliefs that killing, in any circumstance, was wrong with the idea of serving in the military in wartime.
The film opens on a battlefield but quickly flashes back to Doss’s earlier life. Young Desmond (Darcy Bryce) and his brother Hal (Roman Guerriero) grow up in a rural landscape but in a home filled with violence. Beatings by their hard-drinking father (Hugo Weaving), who has been traumatized by his experiences in WWI, are as common as the very rough play the boys engage in with little parental supervision. His father’s war experience and the household violence contrast with his parents’ fundamentalist Christian religion and particularly his mother’s (Rachel Griffiths) pacifism, a combination that shapes Desmond’s beliefs as an adult.
A chance visit to a hospital instills in Doss an interest in medicine as well as an interest in a pretty nurse, Dorothy (Teresa Palmer). When the U.S. joins the fight in WWII, Desmond sees a way to serve his country while not violating his beliefs – by being a medic.
These early scenes have an old Hollywood nostalgia to them. Basic training puts Doss with the usual assortment of types, a pretty boy, a working-class New Yorker, an Italian, an bookish type, and so forth, with Doss playing the sweet country boy. Vince Vaughn plays the tough sergeant in charge. Doss has to fight to stay in the army, which would rather just excuse him from service as a conscientious objector, revealing some of the character’s strength of will. The training scenes offer Gibson the chance to explore Doss’s ethical beliefs and demonstrate his commitment to his ideals. But one senses the director is eager to get back to the battlefield. The film’s old-fashioned movie tone vanishes abruptly once we arrive at Okinawa, and are immersed in the first gut-wrenching, brutal battle scene.
Garfield does an excellent job as Doss, playing him with a quiet inner strength and kind heart that is irresistible. Hugo Weaving is outstanding as Doss’ broken, war-traumatized father, and he adds depth and complexity to the character that another actor might have missed. Another standout is Vince Vaughn, in a nice non-comedic turn as drill sergeant Howell. Sam Worthington is also memorable as Captain Glover, determined at first to get rid of the pacifist Doss but eventually coming to respect him.
Some viewers will find the grim battle scenes difficult to watch, no matter how much it may mimic the reality of war. However, this is a skillfully made film, one of Gibson’s best. Gibson’s films often feature graphic violence but religion is another of his running themes. Doss’ pacifist beliefs are drawn from his religious faith, which the film highlights, but Gibson is gentler with the non-religious and non-Christians in the audience on that count than with the violence. Still, the film will appeal to church audiences, if they can get past the gruesome battlefield scenes.
While Gibson demonstrates deft directorial skill in HACKSAW RIDGE and offers a brief examination of Doss’ pacifism, we always feel like this film is more about the thrills of bloody battle than anything. The real person at the center of this film deserves admiration for his courage and a principled commitment to his beliefs, and his is an inspirational story, but there just seems to be something off about celebrating a pacifist’s bravery through a film that seems to revel in war.
In the Swedish dark comedy A MAN CALLED OVE, director/scriptwriter Hannes Holm takes us on a roller-coaster trip through the life of old curmudgeon. Ove (Rolf Lassgard) is the kind of guy every neighborhood seems to have, the obsessively neat, angry rule-enforcer who checks up on things and sees that everyone follows the rules – all of them.
Ove cracks down on his neighbors during his daily rounds to check up on things, a habit left over from when he was the chair of the neighborhood committee. But Ove definitely is not a friendly neighbor. Basically, this crabby widower just wants to be left alone. Recently widowed, he visits his late wife Sonja’s (Ida Engvoll) grave every day, to bring flowers and complain. Suddenly without a job at age 59, he decides to join her. But people keep interrupting his suicide attempts, with friendly visits or requests for help. Particularly bothersome is his friendly new neighbor Parvaneh, an Iranian woman, and her Swedish husband Patrick (Tobias Almborg) and their their two cute little girls.
Nobody does twisty, dry, dark comedy as well as the Swedes. Both funny and touching, the film takes us through Ove’s up-and-down life through a series of flashbacks. Based on a best-selling novel, this film was a huge hit in Sweden, but this neighborhood curmudgeon character is a universal type. While we recognize Ove’s type, this dry and dark comedy turns him into a fully rounded, more complex person, and also goes off in completely unexpected story directions. This film will remind some viewers of another clever comedy about an old man with an unexpected past “THE 100 YEAR OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT A WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED.” This film is a bit more touching and Ove’s remembered life is not near as wild as that one, but it has its surprises too, a life filled with ups and downs, heartbreak and love, and unexpected twists.
Two of the joys of this film are its beautiful photography, particularly stunning in the flashbacks, and its fine acting. Lassgard is perfect as the older Ove, glowering and suppressing a snarl every time he encounters another human interruption. All he wants to do is join his wife in death. Every time Ove attempts suicide, he drifts off into reveries of his earlier life as he waits for death – a wait that is always interrupted by something or someone.
Lassgard is not the only gem in this cast, although his performance and the director’s deft touch in presenting the sometimes traumatic events of his life really lift the already-good story. Filip Berg is moving as young Ove, a decent young man coping with a challenging start in life, as is Ida Engvoll, who sparkles as lively Sonja in the flashbacks.
Bahar Pars is wonderful too as irrepressible Parvaneh, a lively, strong-willed pregnant woman who shrugs off her neighbor’s grouchy manner. The cracks in Ove’s armor begin to appear around her, as well as her two little girls and a stray cat, that Ove defends from another neighbor.
The film is funny, surprising, moving, and even romantic as it unspools Ove’s story. This gentle, delightful film touches on an unexpected range of contemporary issues. In other hands, sentiment could have gotten the better of this film but director Holm keeps enough comic edge to rescue it from that fate, keeping it funny but warm, a little gem that will have you leaving the theater with a smile.
A MAN CALLED OVE, in Swedish with English subtitles, opens in St. Louis on Friday, Oct. 14, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Ben Affleck plays an accountant with some special skills and special challenges in the mystery/action thriller THE ACCOUNTANT. Directed by Gavin O’Connor, what makes THE ACCOUNTANT different from other high-body count thrillers is the protagonist at its center, an autistic math savant. Christian Wolff (Affleck) is brilliant with numbers but has trouble with social interactions. His social difficulties look like autism spectrum, possibly the high-functioning type that used to be called Asperger’s, but his unusual upbringing by his brutal military operative father, designed to help him ward off bullies, has equipped him with skills in martial arts and weapons.
On the surface, Wolff is an accountant with a small office in a strip mall outside Chicago but his real profession is as a forensic accountant auditing the books of big-time criminal organizations, to uncover who is skimming money within those organizations. Wolff’s work has drawn the attention of the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division and its department head Ray King (J.K. Simmons), who has brought in a promising young analyst, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), to help track down this mysterious accountant.
Aware he is under scrutiny, Wolff decides to keep a low profile by taking a job for a legitimate company instead. Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) is CEO and founder of Living Robotics, a high-tech company making robotic prosthetics that is on the verge of an IPO. A low-level accountant, Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), has uncovered a multi-million dollar discrepancy in the books and Wolff has been called in to unravel that puzzle, before the company’s public offering.
Ben Affleck delivers a strong performance as Wolff, who has been shaped by his autism and by his odd and harsh upbringing. Affleck makes Wolff a touching character with dazzling math skills, and the film develops a bit of romance with Kendrick’s character. It is kind of fun to see math whizzes, two of whom are women – both Kendrick and Addai-Robinson play math girls – and an autistic character in lead roles but the film’s story doesn’t always make a lot of sense.
Early in the film, we meet Chris as a child, played by Seth Lee, who displays symptoms of autism and is only close to his younger brother (Jake Presley). Their father (Rob Treveiler) and mother (Mary Kraft) meet with a neurologist (Jason Davis) at his treatment facility, to talk about their difficult son. The scenes act as a sort of clinical description of autism spectrum, although the film is coy about Chris’ diagnosis and never uses those words, allowing the story some wiggle room in developing the fictional character.
When the boys’ father refuses to let his older son go the home-like residential facility for treatment, their mother abandons the family. The boys’ father, who works as a shadowy, globe-trotting military psychologist, then takes the two young boys with him around the world, immersing them in a brutal training program of martial arts and weaponry, purportedly to help them deal with bullies but which looks more like cruelty.
The film then flashes forward to the adult Chris, living his secretive loner life while earning big money, which he mostly stashes away in his plan to stay mobile. Christian may be socially awkward but he makes a few emotional connections, particularly with a mob-connected prison cellmate Francis Silverberg (Jeffrey Tambor), who puts him in contact with the criminal underworld figures who might be interested in Wolff’s remarkable accounting skills. Meanwhile, an underworld enforcer (Jon Bernthal) seems to be trailing Wolff, or at least his employers.
Affleck’s performance is good, even lifting the movie at times, and the restrained interactions between him and Kendrick have a certain quirky romantic charm. The action is well-done, fast-paced and entertainingly good, but the underlying story tends to unravel, particularly at the end where a couple of surprise reveals make little sense.
THE ACCOUNTANT may has been intended as a kind of Bourne-like thriller, with an action hero character with a particular problem and a mystery at its heart. It does not reach that level but it does give the audience a pretty good action thrill ride, as long as you do not look too deep into its inner workings.
