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"Peter Pan & Wendy" is pretty much what you'd expect from a live-action version of one of Walt Disney's animated classics, of which there are many now. A good chunk of this film's audience will put it on expecting to see live-action re-creations of situations they know and love from the 1950 Disney cartoon. Co-writer and director David Lowery doesn't disappoint on that score, even though some viewers (such as this one) might've wished he had. There have been a lot of Peter Pan remakes and reboots and rethinks, but none, really, that turns the story inside out—not even Steven Spielberg's " Hook ," which eventually circled back to "Never lose touch with your inner child." The story begins with Wendy Darling ( Ever Anderson ) leading her younger brother John (Joshua Pickering) and kid brother Michael (Jacobi June) in an enthusiastic play session that includes swashbuckling sword fights and running and jumping, followed by a coup...

James Gunn loves his outcasts. One of the most interesting things about his “ Guardians of the Galaxy ” movies has been watching the tug-of-war between Gunn’s outsider instincts and a franchise-generating machine that’s as insider as it gets. He's one of the few filmmakers who has operated in the massive system of the biggest movie money-making factory in the world without sacrificing his voice. Watching his “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is to see a director who knows how to balance corporate needs with personal blockbuster filmmaking. Mostly. This sci-fi/action/comedy still succumbs to a few of the MCU issues of late—bloated runtime, things-go-boom finale, too many characters—but there’s a creativity to the filmmaking, dialogue, and performances that modern superhero movies often lack. Much of the recent talk has been about the potential for AI-generated blockbusters , and I like when “GoTG 3” is at its messiest. Gunn is like that kid who is not only playing with his act...

“White House Plumbers” is the story of a couple of tried-and-true Americans who wanted to serve their president. That description can go any which way, and it certainly fits the bizarre legacy of seasoned agent G. Gordon Liddy and his associate, Howard Hunt, who led the disastrous espionage operations later known as the Watergate scandal. As this goofy but mild miniseries from co-creators Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck presents it, the two were hotshots who would essentially bicker over who was the biggest patriot. They engrained their loyalty to the country and President Nixon into shady and clumsy work, and their superiors, like Attorney General John Mitchell and Attorney John Dean, supported them. Before Watergate, Liddy and Hunt had become known for getting the job done, though not necessarily in a flattering way for the term "American intelligence."  The political fallout caused by Liddy, Hunt, their first arrested associates, the Nixon administration, etc., ...

Why only 32? (And as it happens, this imaginative documentary contains way more than that many sounds.) Well, because filmmaker Sam Green was inspired by the 1993 hybrid film “Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould,” directed by François Girard , which had in turn been inspired by Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” a signature piece for pianist Gould which itself consists of 32 pieces of music when played in its entirety. Green’s movie is all about audio—how we hear it, why it moves us, the different ways in which it can be heard. In the presentation I experienced, it was mostly through a pair of provided headphones. One of the notions the movie delves into is that while multi-channel sound dispersed throughout a theater via Dolby Atmos or other delivery systems is pretty ginchy in certain circumstances, it doesn’t really correspond to the way humans experience sound spatially. Because we, after all, only have two ears. There’s a mode of binaural recording that puts microphones in the ...

“From Black” begins as a policewoman steps into an unoccupied house. A 911 call plays on the soundtrack. "I just stabbed somebody," whispers a voice on the line. "I have to get out..." she stammers. Meanwhile, the police officer continues surveying the house. "Ma'am, are you still there?" The string section throbs. "I can't get out. It could still be here..." The strings peel as the slow-moving visitor enters another room. The floor’s littered with candles, surrounding a ritualistically carved circle. Something happened here. You can tell from all the blood. Or the partly opened door that the woman walks towards. Or the strings, which continue to drone and strain with alarm.  The music stops right as Sergeant Bray ( Jennifer Lafleur ) pushes two doors open into the next room. There’s more blood inside, this time on a white sheet covering the couch and a nearby armchair. In a moment, we meet the house’s owner, a grieving mother and fo...

Wanted: fresh spies/assassins to save the world in style. “ Mission: Impossible ” has only two more movies left to go, Jason Bourne has retired, and James Bond is being pieced back together. Oh, how Anthony and Joe Russo have struggled to fill the position. Their mega-budget, Netflix spy-versus-spy actioner from last year, “ The Gray Man ,” faded from memory with each cliche and drained the charisma from stars Chris Evans , Ryan Gosling , and Ana de Armas . Now, the “ Avengers: Endgame ” filmmakers are in the executive producer chairs for “ Citadel ,” a globe-trotting, twist-heavy, yawn-inducing Prime Video series that fails its mission to entertain even with lowered expectations.  Among the franchises it takes from, “Citadel” is undeniably post-Bond, starting with its slick two leads, played by Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden . They’re both cunning and quick-witted in an opening scene that takes place eight years ago on a speedy Italian train. Thei...

On July 13 th , 1980, Candy Montgomery struck Betty Gore with an axe roughly 41 times. This is undisputed. Even Montgomery herself admits it. And yet she’s the only person who knows exactly what happened. The story of the death of Betty Gore was a true-crime staple for years for many reasons—foremost among them the uniqueness of an average suburban mom becoming an ax murderer—but it’s also become a streaming mini-series obsession with Hulu’s “Candy” premiering almost exactly a year before David E. Kelley and HBO Max’s take on the subject in this week’s “Love & Death.” The differences between the two projects are interesting, but the ultimate takeaway is largely the same—this is another version of the Montgomery story that works primarily because of its talented cast. The storytelling leaves something to be desired here, and yet star Elizabeth Olsen ’s work becomes increasingly mesmerizing, ably supported by solid turns from the entire ensemble, particularly Jesse Plemons and Tom...

The fears and possibilities of Artificial Intelligence have probably lurked in the human brain since human beings started telling stories. Pygmalion and his statue could be seen as members of the AI Universe. So, too, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein . But A.I. has moved out of science-fiction and into reality, impacting various workplaces in ways which would have seemed far-fetched just a couple of years ago. Franklin Ritch's "The Artifice Girl" is a thought-provoking film that examines the ethics of A.I., moving into even the existential aspects of the concept of artificial intelligence. Any deep inquiry into A.I. is also an inquiry into what it means to be human. Ritch, who wrote, directed, and also appears in the film, keeps the story tightly controlled, so the sole focus is on the mental and emotional challenges facing us when we're dealing with our preconceived notions of reality and authenticity. This calls to mind " Blade Runner ," and its source ma...

“He gave us a piece of his fire so we could help ourselves in a business that did not acknowledge us in a manner that we wish to be acknowledged,” recalled Diahann Carroll . “For those who had no voice & those who seemingly had no hope, [he] made the world a better place,” Quincy Jones shared on Twitter . “He has always raised his voice against the dark. For that, we owe him so much,” explained Sidney Poitier . They were talking about Harry Belafonte , a man who at the height of film career, at the pinnacle of his musical prowess, at the apex of his political voice, would not allow himself to be lesser than. How do you define someone who avoided definition? You do so through his friends.  Mr. Belafonte had many friends: Poitier, Dandridge, Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Rita Moreno , Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Altman , Eli Wallach , Marlon Brando , and more. He had many admirers: Oprah Winfrey , Spike Lee , and Colin Kaepernick . He inspired many politicians, activists, humanita...

Jalmari Helander toys with the war movie in gnarly fashion with “Sisu,” a Midnight-ready actioner that earns comparisons to the likes of “ Inglourious Basterds ,” “ Mad Max: Fury Road ,” “The Terminator,” and “Rambo: First Blood.” The title term is a Finnish concept of will and determination, and we see that scene after scene as one famed Finnish killer terminates Nazi soldiers in the waning days of World War II. The Nazis pick a fight with lone soldier Korpi by stealing his newly discovered gold, thinking they can dispose of him like nearly everyone else they've bulldozed through the open, landmine-dappled roads of 1944 Finland. But this one-man army proves a more than deadly challenge for the Nazis' machine guns, grenades, tanks, airplanes, and more.   Jorma Tommila stars as Korpi, our blood-covered hero of few words but many crafty ways to brutalize his hunters and survive their attacks. As the life source of Helander’s lean and m...

A lush, exotic resort, a gaggle of blinkered white tourists, and a dead body in the middle: You’d be forgiven for seeing the parallels between “ The White Lotus ” and Hulu’s latest limited series, “Saint X.”  Based on the acclaimed 2020 novel by Alexis Schaitkin, “Saint X,” on paper, subverts the typical patterns of this kind of story. The show intercuts between the tragic tale of two sisters separated by life and time: one in the past, hurtling toward impending death, and the other in the present, struggling to move on from said tragedy. In 2005, Alison Thomas ( West Duchovny , daughter of David) and her upper-middle-class family fly to a Caribbean resort to soak in the sun, the piña coladas, and (for Alison) the many boys, both guest and employee, she can cavort with before she heads to Princeton in the fall. “This is our chance to try on someone new,” she gushes to her shy seven-year-old sister, Claire, who’s just old enough to idolize her big sister while being blind to her ...

“A Tourist’s Guide to Love” is as harmless as its blandly forgettable title would suggest. It’s not quite a Movie to Fold Laundry To, because the scenery is quite lovely, so you’ll actually want to pay attention. But it is a pleasant escape if you’re seeking lazy Saturday afternoon viewing. Rachael Leigh Cook brings her perky rom-com presence to this made-for-Netflix movie, which checks all the boxes you’d expect from such a slick and glossy example of the genre. Slapstick comedy, fish-out-of-water gags, wacky supporting characters, copious shopping montages, a love triangle, a secret to be revealed and a last-minute dash to say “I love you”—they’re all there, but this time they’re set against the backdrop of present-day Vietnam, which gives “A Tourist’s Guide to Love” an unusual feeling of novelty. Director Steven K. Tsuchida , a TV veteran, was also behind 2021’s “ Resort to Love ,” another Netflix romantic comedy set in a picturesque vacation destination. This is pure formula, b...

Mere weeks into the initial lockdown of 2020, I conducted one of my very first interviews via Zoom. It was with a family of actors whose daughter, Abby Ryder Fortson , had just delivered a performance in the Amazon series, “Tales from the Loop,” that caused me to hail her as “a fierce screen presence.” Afterward, I came across the prize-winning short film, “ Rated ,” that Abby had made with her family. In it, Abby’s own mom,  Christie Lynn Smith , plays Maggie, a mother who wakes up one day to find a star rating hovering above her head. To make matters worse, she only has two-and-half stars (which translates as “fair to middling,” according to Leonard Maltin ), whereas her husband (played by Abby’s father, John Fortson, who directed the film) turns out to have five. As they scramble to get their daughter (played by a scene-stealing Abby) to school, Maggie embarks on a journey to discover why her rating is so low, while facing discrimination once she attempts to go about her daily...