As part of its WWII strategy, Germany tried to kill or imprison the leaders of
Polish society. They didn’t just target military and political officials, but
also anyone who could inspire resistance or righteousness. The Soviets did
likewise, both during and after the War. That left a lot of opportunists and
collaborationists in positions to take advantage. Tragically, they often did so.
They even murdered Yaacov Goldstein’s parents, who had thought they could
restart their lives in the village of Gniewoszow, having survived the
Holocaust. It is not Goldstein who makes that accusation. Yoav Potash interviews
a living witness in the documentary, Among Neighbors, which is now
playing in New York.
It
seems unbelievably cruel that Goldstein’s parents were murdered by their
neighbors, after the National Socialists’ defeat. Yet, that is exactly what Pelagia
Radecka saw. At least Goldstein had a brief reunion with his mother, after the
Allied victory, but she quickly left again in search of his missing younger
brother, promising to return soon. Sadly, she never did.
Radecka
had not seen Goldstein since before the war started, until Potash briefly re-introduced
them for the film (both passed away after the production wrapped).
Consequently, her testimony was not influenced by contact with the victims’
families. She was horrified by the murderers—committed by people she personally
knew quite well—and terrified for her safety. However, in her senior years, she
felt compelled to finally speak out.
Among
Neighbors does not
exclusively concentrate on the testimony and experiences of Radecka and Goldstein
(although perhaps it should have). Periodically, Potash draws back to taker a
wider perspective on Poland’s contested view of the Holocaust. Admittedly, much
of what the film documents should alarm the audience, as when Anita Friedman
and her grown son Adam Tartakovsky explain how they visited Gniewoszow in
search of their family roots, but were essentially run out of town by an
anti-Semitic “welcoming committee.”
Likewise,
Potash thoroughly critiques the subsequently softened Polish laws that
criminalized any official association of Poland and the Polish people with the
atrocities of the Holocaust. However, the film never addresses the Communist
regime’s 1967/1968 “Anti-Zionist” campaign, which purged Jews from positions of
authority and even forcibly deported them. Frankly, the roots of the problem run
deeper than the admittedly troubling but relatively recent Law and Justice Party.
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Alaska would be a terrible state to be a fugitive in. The weather is cold, gun
ownership is high, and probably one out of every ten residents has their own
reality TV show. Nevertheless, that is exactly where a special prison transport
plane crashes. It will be Federal Marshal Frank Remnick’s job to coordinate the
massive manhunts. In addition to the FBI, he has the dubious help of a
scandal-tarred CIA officer thrust upon him as well in co-creators Jon Bokenkamp
& Richard D’Ovidio’s ten-episode The Last Frontier, which premieres
today on Apple TV+.
For
some reason, the transport was diverted to Alalska, where a mystery prisoner,
later identified by the codename “Havlock” was loaded Hannibal Lecter-style.
Shortly thereafter, the plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. Remnick and
his men have no idea regarding any of this when the land to investigate the remote
crash-site, which soon becomes the scene of an ambush. Frankly, this might be
one of the most spectacular and brutal action sequences ever filmed for
television (directed with verve by Sam Hargrave).
Barely
surviving, Remnick quarterbacks the search, ordering a statewide lockdown. He intuitively
distrusts Sidney Scofield, who initially won’t even admit her CIA credentials.
Eventually, she concedes she was reluctantly dispatched by the corrupt Deputy
Director Bradford, because she was Havlock’s handler back when he was an asset,
not so long ago. Obviously, she is supposed to make the problem go away, but
Havlock always seems to be two steps ahead, especially when he kidnaps Remnick’s
wife Sarah, an ER nurse treating the recovered survivors.
Honestly,
The Last Frontier starts off amazingly, but eventually deflates into a
stagnant puddle. Beyond the super-charged action set pieces, the early episodes
have a lot of insight into Alaskans’ “frontier” identity and what community
means up there. At one point, Remnick’s deputy Hutch, memorably portrayed by
Dallas Goldtooth, explains to a suspect that Alaska is hard country, so if you
aren’t connected to a wider community you will die up there. Likewise, Remnick
utterly shames Scofield for her elitist Beltway snobbery.
Unfortunately,
later episodes embrace juvenile “deep state” paranoia and a rather cynical “ends
justify the means” approach to problem-solving. Frankly, Bokenkamp and D’Ovidio
end up glossing over a whole lot of dead law enforcement officers and innocent
civilians, just because “CIA bad.”
There
is also a gross imbalance between the two co-leads. Jason Clarke is gritty and
forceful as Remnick, but also appealingly grounded and almost “down home.’ In
contrast, Hayley Bennett’s shallow, one-note charisma- and energy-challenged portrayal
of Scofield probably does more than any of the stilted, conspiratorial agency
backstabbing to undermine confidence in the CIA. However, there is a lot of
good, earthy work from those portraying Alaskans, including Goldtooth and Simone
Kessell, as Sarah Remnick.
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According to his grandson, old Wolfgang Zinggi was assigned to a concentration camp
during WWII. After the war, he basically substituted “Zionists” for “Jews” in
his anti-Semitic rants, peppering them with references to “the poor
Palestinians,” because he knew he could get away with it. Zinggi disappeared and
was declared dead several years ago, so a team of researchers hope to find some
illuminating documents in his mold-infested Austrian house of horrors. Instead,
they discover evil of another nature in Johannes Grenzfurthner’s Solvent,
which releases tomorrow on VOD.
Krystyna
Szczepanska is a Polish historian specializing in forensic fieldwork. She has
used Gunner S. Holbrook’s recovery firm several times previously. They also
happen to be on-again-off-again lovers. They will excavate with the permission
of Zinggi’s grandson, Ernst Bartholdi, who hopes to use the footage from
Holbrook’s helmet cam for some kind of ill-conceived publicity film. However,
he will not want the world to see what transpires.
Szczepanska
hopes to unearth concentration camp records. Instead, they find some kind of
extremely contagious and invasive sludge, that might somehow be related to the
mad scientist experiments at Zinggi’s camp. Regardless, tragedy soon strikes,
killing one team-member and strangely debilitating Szczepanska. Months later,
Holbrook still wants answers, so he returns for an unauthorized look-see.
Solvent
is a hard film to
fully get your head around. It is shot entirely from Holbrook’s perspective, found
footage style, which ironically has a distancing effect. Not only does it directly
address the Holocaust, which obviously entails considerable risks, it also
incorporates a subplot involving war crimes in Bosnia. Those are heavy themes for
a gross-out body-horror movie.
Nevertheless,
Grenzfurthner and co-screenwriter Benjamin Roberts do their best to respect the
sensitivities of potential viewers. It is also worth noting Holbrook’s
dishonorable discharge from the American military was due to rather pedestrian
larceny charges. The really scandalous stuff came from a later gig as a merc
working for a Croatian militia.
Be that
as it may, Solvent is a very strange and often extremely disgusting
film. There are not a lot of obvious comparisons to the thing plaguing Holbrook
and Szczepanska. The Zinggi farmhouse and related cellars and outhouses are
also wildly creepy. Ordinarily, the production design team would deserve a lot
of credit, but Grenzfurthner shot on-location, in his real-life late
grandfather’s condemned property, which apparently truly was in the state
suggested in the film, even including the toxic mold.
Paramount+'s RED ALERT chroniclees the tremendous courage of ordinary Israelis and the savagery of Hamas terrorists during the 10/7 atrocities. Yet, it does so in an inclusive manner, reminding the world that Arab Israelis also suffered horribly that fateful day. EPOCH TIMES review up here.
He was born on Halloween and played Dr. Tongue on SCTV’s late-night monster
movie parodies. Unfortunately, SCTV is not currently streaming on any
platform, so an entire generation of Gen-Z’ers have probably never seen it.
However, they have surely seen Spaceballs and Planes, Trains, and
Automobiles, right? If not, they are in for a treat. There should be far
more John Candy films for them to catch up with, but unfortunately, he left us
too soon. Colin Hanks chronicles the actor’s life and work in the documentary, John
Candy: I Like Me, which premieres this Friday on Prime Video.
As you
would expect from films like Planes and Splash, there is a lot of
humor and a lot of sadness in Hanks’ documentary. He had great success, as well
as a good deal of insecurity. No matter how hard he tried, Hollywood often made
Candy’s size the butt of their jokes. Casting directors even discouraged him
from losing weight.
Nevertheless,
he built a reputation for unusually sensitive comedic performances. Candy also
appeared in a lot of dogs, out of misplaced loyalties. Nevertheless, he was a devoted
husband and father. In fact, his surviving wife, son, and daughter all appear
at length throughout I Like Me, without ever airing any dirty laundry.
Frankly, the only interview subject who tries to dish any dirt would be Bill
Murray, as part of a questionably conceived comedic bit.
As one
would expect, Hanks had access to many of Candy’s friends and co-stars,
obviously starting with his father Tom, who shared the screen with Candy in Splash,
which is discussed at length, and Volunteers, which is excluded from his
son’s doc (even though that is the film that brought the senior Hanks together
with Rita Wilson). Regardless, the list of participants is quite impressive,
including Murray (Stripes), Steve Martin (Planes), Dan Akroyd (1941,
The Blues Brothers), Mel Brooks (director of Spaceballs), Martin
Short (Really Weird Tales and a SCTV guest star), as well as a
raft of his SCTV cronies, such as Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and
Dave Thomas.
Casual viewers might think of fantasy heroes as virtuous Tolkienesque dragonslayers,
but for real fans, the irresponsible antiheroes are even more important. Conan
was that kind of freebooter and so was Red Sonja (in the books and comics). The
title character of Roger Corman’s 1983 rip-off has always been a cult-favorite,
because he was so grungy and roguish. The reboot might not share much with the
original, but at least the wandering swordsman still refuses to reform himself in
Steven Kostanski’s Deathstalker, executive produced by Guns ‘n Roses’
Slash, which opens this Friday in theaters.
As the
film opens, the universally despised Deathstalker makes his coin scavenging
from dead bodies fallen in battle. That is pretty scummy behavior, but nobody
challenges him, because he is too lethal. However, this time around, he “liberated”
an amulet from a “mostly dead” knight that apparently carries a curse.
From
now on, no matter what he does with it, it always turns up back in his pocket. Making
everything worse, a demonic army led by his old nemesis, Jotak, seems hellbent
on recovering the amulet, even if it does him serious harm in the process. To
lift the curse, he must find Doodad, a little person wizard. However, Deathstalker
must first save the sorcerer from his own magical entrapment. Heck, at this
rate, Deathstalker is practically becoming heroic.
The
ruckus but comfortable combination of bloody carnage and outrageous
over-the-top humor will compute for fans of Kostanski’s previous films, such as
PG: Psycho Goreman. Deathstalker also reflects the former makeup
artist’s passion for practical effects. It doesn’t exactly transport the
audience to an immersive fantasy world, but it certainly dives right in,
embracing the hacking and slashing, as well as the creature-creation.
Yuk Ki-chul came to the provincial town to be a P.E. teacher, but he will end up teaching
the adults a few lessons in ethics, civics, and criminal justice. He is also
supposed to collect past due school fees, but actually helping missing students
is supposedly outside his job description. Of course, Yuk does not see it that
way in director-screenwriter Lim Jin-soon’s The Villagers (a.k.a. Ordinary
People), which releases today on VOD.
Yuk is
a big guy, but he often feels like a small fry. His new P.E. gig was the only
job he could get, after getting blackballed for publicly calling out corruption
in the youth judo league—and it still required a kickback. Regardless, everyone
at school is quite nasty, except maybe Kang Yoo-jin. She is earnest kid, who is
trying to get the police, or anyone else, to investigate the disappearance of
her friend. However, she instinctively distrusts Yuk, because he is yet another
adult.
In this
film, the grownups really are a bad lot. The teachers and administrators only
care about school fees, the local hostess club traffics young women, with the
protection of the local political bigwig, Kim Ki-tae, and the cops are all
corrupt and smell of booze. Yuk hopes that doesn’t also include his old friend,
Kim Dong-soo, who is still just a timid, conflict-averse patrolman, under the
best-case scenario.
Obviously,
Don Lee (Ma Dong-seok) is a big guy, but he is surprisingly human in this early
star-vehicle (from 2018) that is only now getting an American release. This
time around, he bleeds like the rest of us and needs a realistic amount of time
to bash his way through doors. In fact, he even shows vulnerability as sheepish
Yuk. Yet, he always shows massive screen presence.
Lee
also develops a nice halting rapport with former child-thesp sensation Kim Sae-ron,
who broke out in the box-office hit, The Man from Nowhere, but died under
tragic circumstances this year, before her 25th birthday. She plays
the imperiled teen with a melancholy that is quite effective—and rather
haunting, in light of her sad fate.
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The interview segments with survivors of the 10/7 terrorist attacks in D'Souza's documentary THE DRAGON'S PROPHECY deserve to be seen by general audiences, far and wide. Some of the accompanying interpretations of Scripture will be controversial (even divisive), but much of the historical and archaeological context is illuminating. EPOCH TIMES review up here.
When he was in Parliament, Brian Walden was sort of like Labour’s Joe Manchin. He
grew up culturally identifying with the Party, but became increasingly
uncomfortable with its socialist extremists. As a result, when he joined the
media as a long-form interviewer, Thatcher identified him as someone she could “do
business” with. She was right, up until 1989. That fateful interview gets the Frost-Nixon
treatment in the two-part Brian and Maggie, directed by Stephen
Frears, which premieres tonight on PBS.
But
seriously, shouldn’t it be called, Maggie and Brian? Thatcher remains a towering
figure of 20th Century history, but who remembers Walden, beyond
British Gen X’ers (and older viewers)? Regardless, he was a prominent fixture
of the early 1980s media landscape. Much to his London Weekend Television colleagues’
frustration, Walden developed a cordial relationship with Thatcher during her rise
to power and the early years of her administration.
In
fact, the first episode is surprisingly fair to Thatcher, essentially admitting,
via Walden, that the UK was stagnating under socialism and desperately needed
economic liberalization to spur competitiveness. Frears and screenwriter James
Graham also show how Thatcher and Walden bonded through their similar lower
economic backgrounds and commitment to meritocracy for all. In fact, the
acknowledgement of the sexism the future Baroness Thatcher faced, even within
her party, leads to Walden’s understanding why she can never admit weakness,
which he exploits in the second episode.
Essentially,
Thatcher’s downfall comes because she refuses to cop to any mistakes leading up
to the resignation of her Chancellor, Nigel Lawson. Tell the truth, when was
the last time you thought about Nigel Lawson? As presented by Graham, their key
bone of contention was Thatcher’s close professional relationship with economic
advisor Alan Walters, but the underlying issue was how tightly the exchange
rate for the pound should be tied to Europe.
Lawson wanted to peg the Pound to the then Deutschmark at a rate of one to
three, while Thatcher and Walters opposed exchange rate controls. Given Brexit
and the austerity forced on many EU nations after relinquishing their ability to
set national monetary policy, Thatcher’s skepticism of tying the Pound to
Europe seems entirely vindicated. Consequently, it is hard to believe Walden’s
interview could be so damaging—yet it was at the time.
A quick afternoon drink can still help fight crime. However, smoking a pipe is now
frowned upon, but Chief Inspector Jules Maigret still carries his late father’s
unlit pipe, as something to fiddle with to help him think. Georges Simenon’s
famous slath is still an unusually cerebral copper, but this time around, he is
younger and dramatically less jowly. Benjamin Wainwright joins the fraternity
of Charles Laughton, Jean Gabin, Rupert Davies, and Gerard Depardieu (whose
2022 Maigret movie suddenly became far less commercial, thanks to his
bro-mance with Putin), conspicuously standing out from fellow Maigrets. Regardless,
the titular police inspector remains as incisive and intuitive as ever in creator-lead
writer Patrick Harbinson’s six-episode Maigret, which premieres tomorrow
on PBS.
As season
one opens, Maigret has only just been promoted to Chief Inspector of “Le Crim” (a.k.a.
the “Criminal Brigade,” much like the Major Case Squad in Law & Order:
Criminal Intent), but he is already under tremendous pressure from
Prosecutor Mathilde Kernavel to catch a gang of sophisticated armed robbers.
Yet, much to her frustration, he is more interested in investigating the
untimely death of Honore Cuendet, a refined cat burglar, whose philosophy of
stealing, combining elements of elitism and egalitarianism, always amused
Maigret.
Unfortunately,
his seemingly questionable priorities offer an opportunity for Inspector Cavre,
the rival Maigret was promoted over, to undermine his authority with the
prosecutor. The rest of the Squad is solidly Team Maigret, particularly Sgt.
Lucas (who is now a woman). “The Lazy Burglar” establishes Harbinson’s template,
combining a classic, titular Simenon novel, with a second original, more
contemporary mystery. He still spruces up the classic case, turning Maigret’s
prime murder suspect into grotesquely wealthy Syrian wheeler-dealer, closely
connected to the current regime.
The
initial two-parter also introduces us to Madame Louise Maigret, the Chief
Inspector’s beloved wife, who is also quite a bit younger than usual, but their
close partnership represents the most important consistency with the previous
Maigret productions fans know and love. In fact, this might be the most
heartfelt, touching marriage currently depicted on television.
Maigret
and Kernavel are initially on the same page at the start of “Maigret’s Failure,”
investigating the disappearance of a popular influencer. Unfortunately, the
Ministry insists Maigret take time out to protect Fumal, a widely despised, but
powerful captain of industry. Ironically, Fumal personally requested Maigret, his
old childhood nemesis, whom he now hoped to have as his new bodyguard. Instead,
Maigret deduces Fumal fabricated the threats, so he cancels the protection detail.
Super awkwardly, Fumal is murdered shortly after.
Although
Harbinson takes a lot of liberties with Simenon’s stories, episodes three and
four are good exampless of how he captures a good deal of the darkness Maigret
often confronts in the novels. “Failure” also nicely leads into the next
two-fer mystery, “Maigret Comes Home,” by establishing Maigret’s thorny
relationship with the Countess de Saint-Fiacre, his father’s former employer.
Unfortunately, the Countess becomes the victim in the two-part conclusion.
Sadly, Maigret couldn’t return in time to save her, but he stays long enough crack
the case, even though he is supposed to be in Paris tracking down a random
psych killer.
Stella Goldschlag was Jewish and a jazz singer. In National Socialist Germany, that
meant she had two very big strikes against her. Unfortunately, she dealt with her
situation quite poorly, with a decidedly collaborationist strategy. She survived
the war physically intact, but lost her soul, as viewers will witness during
the course of Kilian Riedhof’s historically accurate biographical drama, Stella:
A Life, which premieres today on VOD.
Their
fans seem to think Goldschlag and her [almost entirely Jewish] swing band were
hot stuff, but legit jazz listeners will be underwhelmed by her rendition of “Sing
Sing Sing.” They will also be put off by her lack of compassion for fellow bandmates
concerned about their imprisoned family members. Obviously, Goldschlag naively believes
her blonde Aryan looks and her father’s WWI veteran status will protect her
from the worst, but viewers know it won’t work that way.
The
closing credits rightly assert Goldlschlag was both a victim and a collaborating
perpetrator. It is easy to lose sight of that first part during Stella: A
Life. Over the course of the early 1940s, she starts in denial, pivots to an
exploitative role abetting her black marketeer lover, Rolf Isaakson, but then
agrees to become the worst kind a collaborator when captured by the Gestapo.
In
fact, Goldschlag herself volunteers to become a “catcher,” as they call the
snitches they employ to ensnare other Jews. Initially, Goldschlag struggles to
meet her quota, but she and the formerly reluctant Isaakson soon become quite
good at it. Clearly, it helped sooth Goldschlag’s conscience thinking her
betrayals would protect her parents. Yet, those promises turned out to mean
absolutely nothing.
Riedhof’s
film is very dark and in many ways quite demoralizing. Nonetheless, Goldschlag
is an acutely human character and Paula Beer’s performance is truly fearless, because
she never compromises or waters down the singer’s ruthless, manipulative, and
self-centered persona. The way Beer shows Goldschlag clinging to her supposed victim
status, despite all the pain she causes for her friends and neighbors really
rings uncomfortably true. Indeed, had Goldschlag lived long enough, it is easy
to envision her as one of the “as a Jew” “Anti-Zionists,” deliberately self-tokenizing
herself, to curry favor with “Free Palestine” extremists (and in fact,
Goldschlag later converted to Christianity and regularly expressed a virulent
brand of anti-Semitism).
Usually, coyotes are reluctant to attack people, but it can happen. In this case,
maybe they heard some Acme Corp. executives live in the tony Hollywood Hills
neighborhood. Whatever their reasons might be, they are clearly quite ticked
off. A geeky dad has no idea why the feral pack is prowling around his home,
but he quickly starts to regret their doggy-door in Colin Minihan’s Coyotes,
which opens this Friday in theaters.
Scott
is a bit of a man-child, but the recent success in comics allowed him to move
his family into the exclusive neighborhood. His wife Liv, is a cool mom, but
obviously the grounded one in the family. Their daughter has reached the stage
where she is conspicuously embarrassed by her parents and generally surly to be
around. According to their disconcertingly intense exterminator, they are also living
with rats in their walls. Unfortunately, that won’t be the worst of it.
Since
this is LA, they could lose power at any moment, for no apparent cause, so it
is hardly surprising when a freakish storm cuts the electric lines. Unfortunately,
that tree Scott was supposed to prune crushes Liv’s car, nixing their mobility
and making him look bad. Consequently, when the coyotes attack, their only ally
will be their sleazy, unstable neighbor Trip and hi “visitor,” Julie. Frankly,
Liv and Scott never really think of a good euphemism to obscure the reason Trip
pays her to spend the night with him, which leads to many an awkward moment.
Most anthology films are like trick-or-treats bags on Halloween night. There’s
always a lot of stale candy corn mixed in with the candy bars. In this case,
the ratio of candy corn to candy bars is annoyingly high. However, each
installment faithfully respects the found footage format and the theme. A new V/H/S
anthology film has become a Halloween tradition on Shudder, so they truly
embrace the holiday with a series of Halloween festivities that go
spectacularly awry in V/H/S/Halloween, which premieres tomorrow on
Shudder.
Ironically,
the least Halloweeny parts of V/H/S/Halloween are the framing bits, known
collectively as Bryan M. Ferguson’s “Diet Phantasma.” Supposedly, Diet
Phantasma is a Halloween soda, but it is a little too horrific, causing
outlandishly gory side-effects for the test subjects. Frankly, these wrap-arounds
are rather confusing, because it is never clear what is the nature of the soda
that makes it so deadly, and illogical, because killing off one test subject
after another creates huge legal liabilities in the real world.
Likewise,
the trick-or-treating gone horribly wrong premise of Anna Zlokovic’s “Coochie
Coochie Coo” is all too familiar buy now. The two mean girl prospective victims
are also a chore to spend time with. This segment is only really distinguished
by some gross-out imagery.
Fortunately,
it is followed by one of the strongest constituent films, “Ut Supra Sic Infra,”
directed by Paco Plaza, co-creator of the [REC] franchise. After a Halloween
party ends in a mysterious massacre, the police bring the sole survivor to the
scene of the crime for a re-creation of the deadly events. For reasons that
make horror movie sense, the found footage cuts out after someone reads the cryptic
titular inscription on the wall three times. Unwisely, they make it a scrupulously
faithful re-creation. The results are wild and macabre. If anything, this
segment could have been drawn out longer, but least it never overstays its
welcome.
Arguably,
that is exactly what Casper Kelly’s “Fun Size” does. It also features teens who
are a little too old and a little too rude for trick-or-treating, but they
encounter a more original danger. It starts with a bowl full of weird, retro-sounding
candy nobody recognizes. The sign says only one per person, but one idiot takes
two. Suddenly, the bowl magically sucks them into a sinister candy factory, where
they are menaced by a massively creepy pumpkin-headed ghoul. At first, it is
subversively funny, but then it starts to drag.
Crime is up in Chicago and its all because of politics. That’s not Trump talking.
It is an admission from a senior Internal Affairs officer, who refuses to reactivate
Sgt. Hank Voight’s Intelligence Unit, even though they have been completely
cleared of any wrongdoing. Instead, he keeps Voight assigned to beat work, grossly
underutilizing his talents. Yet, Voight finds a way to work a big case anyway
as he bides his time in “Consequences,” the thirteenth season premiere of Chicago
P.D., which airs tonight on NBC.
Voight always
had a knack for stepping on toes, but it almost got the best of him last
season. Technically, his unit is now out of legal jeopardy, but two of his
officers remain on leave and the rest are working beats, just like him. Voight is
grumpier than ever, if not more so. Yet, he has a genuine knack for relating to
the honest, working-class residents on his beat, like Aunt Aggie. Not
surprisingly, he reverts to his usual beast-cop mode when she is hit by
multiple stray gun shots.
Of
course, Voight intends to track down the shooter, despite Internal Affairs’
shackles. That means forging an alliance with undercover ATF Agent Eva Imani.
She instantly dislikes Voight because she is a reckless, corner-cutting lone
wolf with authority issues, but he kind of likes her—for exactly the same
reasons. In fact, Voight might have a spot for her, if he can get his unit up
and running again.
Law
& Order: SVU just
released an episode unambiguously portraying ICE agents as villains, so Dick
Wolf and his team are clearly not MAGA-inclined. That is why the “Consequences”
episode lands with such irony. The whole premise of sidelining the Chicago P.D.’s
most effective anti-crime unit purely for reasons could have been written by
Pam Bondi. Yet, it is a sure sign of good storytelling when the plot points and
characters turn in complicated ways. If showrunner Gwen Sigan and the writers’
room produce episodes that cut in ways they didn’t necessarily intend, that is probably
a good thing. It clearly suggests more attention was devoted to story
development than political takeaways, as they should.
Indy is calmer under pressure than Scooby-Doo, but he is still just a dog. He has
no frame-of-reference to understand what is happening to his owner, Todd.
Frankly, us humans won’t always be so sure we know either. Regardless, Indy,
the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Terrier will do what he can to save Todd—and he
really is quite resourceful in Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy, which opens
Friday in theaters.
The
audience quickly deduces Todd has a history of mental health issues, likely
complicated by problems of addiction. His sister Vera definitely feels the need
to keep tabs on him. She also clearly appreciates Indy’s healthy influence.
Nevertheless, she is surprised and somewhat justifiably concerned when Todd
suddenly moves into their grandfather’s long vacant farmhouse.
In
fact, the suggestive old school VHS home movies that Todd watches clearly lead
us to suspect some kind of sinister force contributed to Grandpa’s demise. Much
to Indy’s alarm, the same mysterious force soon starts tormenting Todd as well.
Or perhaps poor Indy cannot fathom Todd’s behavior, so he perceives it as
something truly monstrous outside his own control.
Frankly,
Good Boy would have been even more successful if it had more forcefully
embraced the supernatural elements and foreclosed any metaphorical speculation.
Nevertheless, a star is truly born in Indy, who is indeed a very good dog. Honestly,
Indy probably gives one of the best starring performances you will see at the
movies throughout the entire Awards season-dominated fourth quarter of 2025.
Evidently,
it took Leonberg over three years to film Good Boy, because Indy (his
own dog) had limited patience with the silly filmmaking process. However, it
was worth conforming to his schedule, because hee is a wildly endearing and
eerily expressive on-screen presence. Surely, Leonberg and his producer-wife
Kari Fischer developed their own working methods with Indy, but they always got
the perfect look from their star. Plus, Max has some highly memorable scenes as
Grandpa’s old dog, Bandit.
It takes a strong mickey to knock out Marko Zaror, but there is a nasty drug going
around Thailand’s dive bars. Of course, those are the only places the brooding former
SEAL he plays would ever consider patronizing. He has a lot to forget,
including the death if his brother, but he finds someone worth living and
fighting for. Unfortunately, the same gang behind the super-potent compliancy-inducing
drug has been hunting for Athena in Brandon Slagle’s Affinity, which
releases today on VOD.
Bruno
blamed himself when his brother died during a mission. The depressed drinking also
went badly, when a gang of roofie-wielding criminals assumed he would be easy
prey, but he came to in time to defend himself. His friends, Fitch, a former
teammate, and Joe, a crusty expat, keep encouraging him to pull himself
together. Bruno finally does exactly that when Athena washes up on his river
dock.
She is
clearly running from something, but the ex-SEAL agrees not to ask, as he nurses
her back to health. Obviously, she has suppressed her tormented memories of a
shadowy gang—and it hardly takes much cinematic intuition to figure out they
are the same outfit behind Bruno’s boozy misadventure. In fact, the henchmen,
led by the formidable Krieger soon re-abduct her, igniting a war with Bruno and
Fitch, his reluctant backup.
Krieger’s
boss not so shockingly turns out to be famous geneticist Dr. Kovalovski, who is
up to some ridiculously crazy mad scientist business. Honest, it is hard to
keep a straight face during the third act revelations (which many of the
marketing descriptions perversely give away). For the most part, Affinity is
a gritty exercise in Marko Zaror butt-kicking, but it has a truly wacky secret
waiting to reveal itself—and wacky really is the most apt adjective.
Some fans
might appreciate the twist, because it is certainly different. Regardless,
Zaror does what he does best, early and often. He also gets rock solid support
from Brahim Chab as his chief sparring partner, Krieger, and Brooke Ence as his
comrade, Fitch. In fact, Affinity is notable for showcasing Ence’s first
appearance outside DC-related properties (Wonder Woman, Justice League, and
CW’s Black Lightning). She and Zaror make a good team—and she is largely
spared the screenplay’s goofy excesses.
You would think after the 2018 “Camp Fire” killed 85 Californians, local politicians
would have fixated on the dangers of forest fires—but they didn’t. Nor can they
pretend they had no time to prepare contingencies for the 2024 California
wildfires when real estate developer and civic leader Rick Caruso managed to
arrange private firefighters and water tanks to safeguard the Palisades Village
development. Paradise, California was at the epicenter of the painful lesson that
went unlearned. It could have been far worse without Kevin McKay. Instead of a
politician or a first-responder, he was a school bus driver who had to drive
through Hell-on-Earth, inspiring Paul Greengrass’s true-life drama, The Lost
Bus, which starts streaming on Apple TV+ this Friday.
You can
blame global warming, or like Trump, the environmental policies that halted
underbrush clearing. Either way, it won’t much matter to McKay once the fire
starts blazing. He is a bit of a sad sack, who is particularly down since his
father’s death a few months past and euthanizing his loyal dog during the
opening minutes. Frankly, the latter probably hit him harder. Regardless, his
petulant teenaged son Shaun is not about to stop arguing and sulking.
Nevertheless,
McKay’s first instinct is to evacuate his son and somewhat infirm mother
(played by McConaughey’s real life son and mother) when he first sees the black
smoke choking the horizon. Yet, he agrees to pick up the 22 elementary school
kids, who have no ride. Of course, he cannot take them alone, so by-the-book teacher
Mary Ludwig reluctantly agrees to ride shotgun. Based on America Ferrera’s
portrayal, she must be a real pain in the classroom.
Inevitably,
each detour leads to another, forcing McKay’s bus into several precarious
positions. Naturally, the spotty radio and cell service completely crash, leaving
them cut-off from the rest of the world. They could really use a driver like
Liam Neeson in the Ice Road movies, but the scruffy McKay turns out to
be more resourceful than he looks.
In
fact, Matthew McConaughey is aptly cast as the beleaguered McKay. McConaughey can
both convincingly embody his working-class soul, while finding the tragic
poetry in his existential struggles. Likewise, Yul Vasquez is credibly grizzled
and commanding as Chief Martinez, whose role in the film is strictly business. Conversely,
Ferrera’s character’s sole purpose seems to be making McKay’s job harder. Still,
they do have a late but effective meeting-of-minds scene that helps build last-minute
chemistry.
The sequences
of runaway combustion look okay, but not great. Arguably, the little-seen
documentary Paradise (ironically titled, given it follows insufficiently
supplied Russian fire-fighters waging their own losing battle) more successfully
captures the sensation of a raging woodland fire. However, Greengrass and cinematographer
Pal Ulvik Rokseth vividly convey the ominousness of billowing black smoke.
It is nice to see a
film that celebrates blue-collar heroism, which is genuinely how Greengrass and
co-screenwriter Bruce Inglesby seem to relate to McKay’s story. They also
largely avoid politics and ideology, except for some mushy and vague environmental
throwaway references.
