Author: BRWC

You People: Another Review. By Jake Peffer.

It seems like every few years we get a new movie about two people falling in love from different backgrounds. When it’s time to meet their family’s chaos and comedy is supposed to ensue. You People is the latest attempt to try and reinvent this subgenre of romantic comedies. Unfortunately, despite its talented cast the movie doesn’t do much to make itself memorable or set itself apart from other movies that are similar.

This is a very straightforward movie in its setup. Jonah Hill stars as Ezra who ends up falling in love with Amira played by Lauren London. Before he can ask her to marry him, he wants to get the approval of her parents played by Eddie Murphy and Nia Long. Amira’s parents aren’t sure how to feel about their daughter getting married to a white man, but Ezra is determined to win them over.

At the same time Amira is tempted to win over Ezra’s parents played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Duchovny. Both Ezra and Amira end up having a hard time with one another’s family and they start to question if they can really be together if their families can’t get along.

You People has all the right things in place but just can’t ever seem to stick the landing. With such a great cast and Jonah Hill on board as one of the writers as well, this should have been much better than what plays out on screen. Throughout the movie it never feels like the cast builds the right chemistry together which in turn makes things not as humorous as they could have been. There are a few laughs to be had here and there but nothing more than a few chuckles which is a travesty when you have the likes of Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jonah Hill in your cast.

The relationship between Ezra and Amira works at times but then doesn’t at certain points. Jonah Hill and Lauren London both give fine performances but even their chemistry doesn’t work too well, and it ends up being hard to root for their relationship when it’s all said and done. It doesn’t help that the movie doesn’t try to do anything new with this concept.

Every cliche from this type of romantic comedy is hit here and it never feels like the filmmakers want to be different enough to make their movie memorable. It’s still early in the year but this will go down as one of the biggest disappointments of the year.

Overall, You People has a great cast that is ultimately let down by a weak script and poor direction. This is as by the numbers as you can get with a romantic comedy. While the cast is trying to do what they can with the material it never reaches a point where the comedy works as well as it should. Add in a run time that is just short of two hours and this is one unfortunately that you can skip.

A Rising Fury: Review. By Samhith Ankam.

Sometimes being timely means going back in time, tracking the present from the past, to be present for the sparks of the bomb about to blow. What this documentary does is show us hope in a never-ending nightmare; the fact that it hasn’t ended proves that they haven’t lost. Groomed into the Ukrainian army but not without a sense of self-nationalism, Pavlo is our anchor in the narrative every minute forward from 2014, when Lesya Kalynska and Ruslan Batytskyi’s documentary started.

The Maidan Revolution, where peaceful protests for integration with Europe were forcibly turned into riots by police, quickly takes hold of the screen without much detail in logistics to truly make us feel present. But, to its credit, the sensation of a nation in a state of implosion gets across, and in time, the explicit Russian presence retroactively becomes an influence, like a virus spreading through the air. There’s a reason the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, suspended the plans for the association agreement with the European Nation.

Dark days when Russia invaded Ukraine recently, escalating a war that’s already made death a mainstay in their lands. The elderly who have to say goodbye too early, the young who haven’t had enough to say goodbye to, and even those 18-20-year-olds who are forced down into the fight and miss out on all the beauty the world has to offer just as they were finally able to perceive it. Instead of haunting you to sleep. But, this isn’t lost in the trauma that it becomes inescapable; addressing the idea of death is almost therapeutic here.

Look to one phone call in the latter half where the sounds of chaos – orders being screamed out, soldiers moving into the cavalry – obfuscate the voice on the other end to *us*. All we have to go with is the person’s face, filled with overwhelming sadness at first, but gulps that cry and mentions that they’ll be starting soon. That’s what runs through this documentary, even if it gets lost in trying to make a story about betrayal, here between Pavlo and his friend, who he considers a role model, Igor. Igor ends up being a Russian spy, converting Ukranian soldiers into fighting for his cause, thereby turning regions into Russia’s control – it’s all explained with a helpful graphic about 2/3rds through.

There really isn’t any dramatic friction until that point, which makes this aimless until it hits as a bang, breaking the hope in Pavlo’s eyes. 

If he’ll regain the spark in his eyes matters, but this also broadens the scope at times, to the point of incoherency in the narrative, to show hope at the collective level, not the individual. And look at today, Ukraine fought back and continues to fight back through the pain. But, one wishes this documentary was put together in a way that doesn’t wander to get it all across.

Shadowplay: Review. By Alif Majeed.

Revenge movies have taken into many sizes and shapes over the years. The best thing about the revenge movies is the way how one filmmaker’s opinion of revenge can change from another’s. There is something about watching people get their just desserts that makes it very satisfying. 

For example, when Ingmar Bergman made The Virgin Spring, the depiction of the act of violence and the subsequent revenge was so swift and matter of fact, it was almost we were a voyeur helplessly looking in, and there is no satisfaction to be had. But when Wes Craven remade the same movie into The Last House on the Left, the same act of both the rape and the subsequent comeuppance was so protracted and stretched that its violence is one of the major factors for its cult status today. (Add to its ironic tagline, “it’s only a movie!”)

So watching Shadowplay brought some mixed emotions in me. The central performance, by Milan Ondrik, who is after the guy responsible for the death of his estranged wife, is striking and effective. But the whole movie often felt tiring and could stretch your patience thin. 

The movie starts with Eva being at the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessing a robbery while jogging in the night. After attempting to contact her estranged husband Kavka, she gets beaten up and kidnapped by the robber. The subsequent scene that shows her demise calls back moves like Amores Perros at how a random incident can turn into a stroke of luck and change the lives of everyone involved.

Ridden by guilt at not picking up his wife’s call and when he realises how the murderer can get away with the murder and a much lighter sentence, he takes things in his own hands. 

Reading that synopsis, it’s easy to mistake the movie for a 70s grind house revenge thriller. But director Peter Bebjak pays much attention to ensure that this man’s journey takes us in at how he wants to get his revenge even if it tests our patience along the way. What holds it’s all up together is Milan Ondrik’s performance as a man wracked with guilt about his wife’s death for which he feels he is responsible. You can feel the heartbreak and aching melancholy of this man who is destined to self destruct his way to get his vengeance. 

His scene where he meets and asks the killer why he did it also touched a nerve for me. Jan Janovsky, who plays the killer, depicts him as a man who is equally wracked with guilt but cannot admit wrongdoing because of the system and there is a certain sensitivity in the way he portrays the killer.

That, for me, was my major issue with Shadowplay. The slow burn melancholic approach the movie takes might just not be for everyone. It takes a long while to get going that you might get tempted to just get to the end to get to the revenge part. But watch it for the central performance of Milan Ondrik, who just about helps you complete the journey even if the movie could test you till the very end.

Plane: Review. By Jake Peffer.

Gerard Butler has become one of the bigger action stars over the last 15+ years. From 300 to his Olympus Has Fallen series he’s made a name for himself taking on the tough guy roles. While not all his movies are exactly quality hits Butler has managed to keep his roles consistent and he continues to keep getting them just about once a year now. Plane is the latest in his filmography and is arguably one of the best action movies in his career.

Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is an airline pilot who is piloting a commercial aircraft during a terrible storm. The aircraft only has a handful of passengers on board but Brodie it determined to do whatever he can to make it through the storm. When the plane loses all of its power Brodie manages to land the plane on an unknown island with minor casualties. Once on the island the passengers find themselves in the middle of a war zone lead by a group of local rebels. The rebels end up taking the passengers hostage leaving Brodie with only one person that can help him in Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murdered who was being transported by the FBI.

Director Jean-Francois Richet does a good job right off the bat establishing the situation, getting right into the action then pairing up the two main characters and letting them carry the rest of the movie. The plane struggling in the sky then eventually having to land is an extremely tense sequence as it leaves you guessing if everyone on board will make it out alive. Once the characters make it to the island the action is turned up to another level. While the movie could have used a little more action throughout it provides some great sequences that should leave action fans happy.

The movie is a tight 107 minutes and it is briskly paced. There isn’t a lot of characters standing around talking about nothing for no reason. Everything moves quickly but not so fast that it takes anything away from the story. Gerard Butler is great here as Captain Brodie Torrance. He’s had an up and down career for the most part and this is certainly one of his brighter highlights. This is a somewhat more reserved role for Butler, but it still gives him plenty of moments to shine and show off his great action skills. Mike Colter works as a perfect counterpart to Butler’s character. It would have been great to have a little more between their characters the pair do work very well together and ends up being one of the biggest highlights of the movie.

Outside of the Butler and Colter the rest of the cast is fine, however none of them are really given much to do. There isn’t much development given to any of the passengers outside of a few cliche stereotypes but throughout the movie it is hard to not care about what happens to them. The villains are weak as well with even less development being given to them. They do come off as menacing and the actors themselves do well with what they are given but the movie could have benefitted from giving those characters more of a motive and something to latch onto.

Plane is a tense movie with some great action sequences, a simple but interesting storyline and good performances from Gerard Butler and Mike Colter. Despite some lackluster villains and side characters the movie doesn’t overstay its welcome and manages to provide some solid entertainment.

The Fabelmans: Another Review. By Nick Boyd.

“The Fabelmans” is an entertaining, poignant film based on Steven Spielberg’s childhood.  The movie shows the growth of a young Spielberg and his developing love of filmmaking.  

It starts with young Sammy Fabelman seeing his first movie “The Greatest Show on Earth” in a theater with his devoted parents and being both frightened and mesmerized by the train crash on screen.  He then asks for his own train set in order to recreate and control the trains crashing, but his mother suggests using a camera instead so that he can view the scene over again without destroying his toys.  Thus begins Sammy’s love for making movies of his own, beginning with filming the silly antics of his sisters.  The young Sammy is full of mischief, wonder, and curiosity. 

Sammy’s parents are Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and Burt (Paul Dano). His mom is a free spirited former concert pianist while his father is a dependable computer engineer, who is good friends with his lively and witty co-worker Bennie Loewy (Seth Rogen), someone Sammy sees frequently at their household, more family member than friend. 

When Sammy becomes a teenager, he is played by another actor, newcomer Gabriel LaBelle. At this stage, Sammy has the usual adolescent struggles, compounded by the struggles of his parents’ marriage and the fact that his family has moved out of state due to his dad’s job situation.  He has difficulty fitting into his new school, especially since he is seemingly the only Jewish family in town.  He gets bullied because of that, although his situation is helped when he meets a sweet Christian girl who becomes his girlfriend and fervently tries to convert him to Christianity, even going as far as having him try to ‘inhale’ Jesus in a scene.  While some might see the scene as too broad in its overly Christian portrayal, I thought that it offered a warm comedic touch.

In another comedic yet poignant performance, Judd Hirsch plays Uncle Benny (a lion tamer), who visits the Fabelman household for a short stay after the death of Mitzi’s mom.  He tries to impart his wisdom and experience to Sammy, especially when it comes to his dreams of getting into show business. 

Sammy’s adolescence is also where he gets better filmmaking equipment and starts making short war films with his peers, mainly his scout troops. They are entertaining and show that he is honing his filmmaking craft. 

While editing a family camping trip by himself that he filmed, Sammy discovers a secret about his mom that devastates him.  He has to figure out what to do with this revelation and the impact that it will have on his family. 

LaBelle gives a breakthrough performance as young Spielberg, making him vulnerable and full of conflicting emotions.  The audience comes to really care about his journey.  As the parents, Williams and Dano are also standouts, giving performances of depth and insight. 

As the movie concludes, Sammy receives advice from a legendary film director that gives him a new perspective.  Overall, the movie provides an effective mix of comedy and drama, and offers a nostalgic glimpse at the Spielberg family, particularly Sammy as we learn what shaped the life of one of the most eminent directors of our time.