Year: 2022

Director Adrian Lyne, the filmmaker behind some of cinema’s most compelling erotic thrillers, hasn’t stepped behind the camera in two decades.

The mastermind of Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal and Lolita last put out a new movie in 2002 with Unfaithful, a sexy Diane Lane and Richard Gere film that quadrupled its budget in box office revenue.

With plenty of time to craft his next project, a pair of beautiful stars in the leads and a script based on a story written by the author behind Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, there shouldn’t have been any reason why Lyne couldn’t execute his vision for a steamy psychological ride that would leave audiences on the edge of their seats for hours.

That’s perhaps why it’s so disappointing that Deep Water, the latest Hulu original film to hit the streaming service, doesn’t quite maintain its spark in a disjointed feature with lofty highs and lackluster lows.

Lyne’s film follows Vic Van Allen, a husband teetering on the edge of divorce who allows his wife Melinda to carry on several affairs, although each man who enters the picture mysteriously disappears along the way with Vic as the prime suspect.

Ben Affleck continues a strong run of character driven performances in recent years as Vic, often brooding through his home with a distant stare that belies unspoken intensity underneath.

When the situation calls for it, especially in conversations between Vic and other men, Affleck is cerebral and direct in his affectation, driving his point home with a callously calm intimidation to leave viewers guessing.

Ana de Armas counters Affleck’s more subdued control with a sensual free-spirited approach to Melinda. The chemistry between the two is chaotic and electric. Neither performer fully trusts the other, nor really understands the psychology of their partner and their unease provides the perfect recipe to foster audience suspicion on both their parts.

Well into the R-rated category essential for successful erotic thrillers, Lyne makes sure his film oozes sexuality through regular, but not gratuitous nudity and intensely intimate moments that further the complexity of Vic and Melinda’s relationship.

The supporting cast is often treated as disposable as Melinda’s erstwhile lovers, but Grace Jenkins often steals scenes as the Van Allen’s adorable daughter Trixie and Tracy Letts provides much needed gravitas as a friend with concerns about Vic’s motives.

Though it’s largely a well-shot and well-crafted movie, Deep Water is vastly disappointing at times with its cinematography when Vic and Melinda are driving around town. The shots are hastily put together and the use of green screen technology to layer in the background is shoddy and distracting, especially when looking through the rear window.

So often, moody moments where composer Marco Beltrani’s score helps paint a picture of a marriage in disarray is paired with deafening silence in the attitudes and faces of Affleck and de Armas, only to have the whole scene ruined by obtrusive lights that feel completely out of place.

Lyne does a terrific job however framing the audience geographically in each of the film’s locations from the outset. He smartly establishes the sizeable emotional gap in Vic and Melinda’s marriage through an early shot of a stairwell in the couple’s Louisiana home. Melinda disappears up a flight of stairs to the right after glaring wistfully at her husband only to have Vic venture up the adjacent stairs to the left, the separation between them clear from simple blocking.

The biggest flaw of Deep Water likely is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as the film was slated to be released in theaters nearly two years ago. It seems the delays caused the filmmakers to overanalyze their screenplay, trimming nearly a half-hour out of the running time.

What happens in the final cut, unfortunately, is a rushed ending with several unfulfilled or short-changed storylines as if the majority of the third act was abruptly removed. This does help maintain the focus on Vic and Melinda, although much of the larger world-building Lyne establishes in the first 45 minutes becomes wasted as a result.

Deep Water would have been a major disappointment in a theatrical setting, where its subpar cinematography and disjointed screenplay would prove fatal. But in a more casual streaming setting, it’s exactly the kind of tawdry erotic thriller that could charm ardent cinephiles for a couple of hours on date night.

Director Domee Shi isn’t a household name in animated film like Brad Bird, creator of the Incredibles films or Pete Doctor of Inside Out and Soul, are synonymous with Pixar movies.

But the Chinese-Canadian filmmaker has developed a career out of making animated movies pulling from her heritage, first with the Oscar-winning short film Bao in 2018 and now with her major feature Turning Red, which forgone theaters and moved immediately to the Disney+ streaming service this weekend.

The film is the second straight Pixar release to premiere exclusively on Disney’s online streaming platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic following Luca last year and while this allows the film to reach a wider audience more easily, Turning Red suffers from lack of studio support and almost feels like an afterthought from a studio whose most successful film in recent memory, “Encanto,” is likely to win multiple Academy Awards later this month.

Shi’s film follows 13-year-old Meilin, an introverted, academic-oriented eighth grader with a small group of close friends who bond over a mutual love for boy band “4Town.” They plan to attend an upcoming concert in their hometown of Toronto, only to be waylaid by Meilin, who turns into a giant red panda when overly excited.

Rosalie Chiang provides a bright cheer to Meilin, especially when narrating in the first act of the film. When Meilin turns into the panda, Chiang adds a slight panic to her cadence that accentuates Meilin’s frantic excitability.

Sandra Oh is exceptional as Meilin’s overbearing mother Ming and her line readings of Ming’s frequent screeches instantly transport audiences back to their own childhoods during those moments where their own parents unintentionally embarrass them.

The best animated portions of the film are when Meilin is in panda form as Turning Red becomes more visually dynamic with a better character model than Meilin in human form.

Parents of younger children should probably watch Turning Red on their own before deciding whether to allow their kids to watch the film. Some of its rebellious themes, sexual innuendos and allusions to menstruation may not be subjects parents would approve of.

Pixar’s animation is largely sharp throughout and Shi integrates Japanese anime style often into the design of the film when characters get excited, representing this glee with bulging eyes on the verge of tears that comes from the anime influence.

The contrast in light and shadow Pixar’s animators are able to develop create a genuine three-dimensional element to the film that also is among the visual highlights.

Though the film is set in the early 2000s, the only real signpost of the setting comes in the form of the boy band “4Town” that the girls try to see in concert from the opening moments of the film. In that way, Turning Red feels instantly dated as if it should have come out over a decade ago and not in 2022.

Billie Eilish and Finneas, likely to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song for their theme to the James Bond film No Time To Die, craft several catchy yet unmemorable tunes for “4Town” and it’s in the moments where Turning Red leans into its cultural roots that the film becomes something beyond a strange PG-13 coming-of-age dramedy.

Because it’s a Pixar film and released in limited theatrical markets to maintain eligibility, Turning Red is a likely contender for Best Animated Feature at next year’s Academy Awards, although the much more anticipated Lightyear spinoff of the Toy Story franchise this summer could push it out of contention.

Not nearly on the level of Disney’s far superior family magic film Encanto, Turning Red may not be an ideal choice for younger audiences nor as much of a wide-spread crowd pleaser although catching the film on Disney+ offers a great opportunity for families to try the largely entertaining movie at low cost.

Almost by definition, films based on video games are subpar features meant to propel teenagers into buying the latest installment in the entertainment franchise on PlayStation, Xbox, or computer console.

Movie franchises have spawned from several popular titles over the years including multiple Tomb Raider installments, fighting series like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, as well as a Resident Evil series.

In recent years, PlayStation has been the most aggressive in attempting to develop its original content with several planned films and television series in the works. The first of which, Uncharted, starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, debuted this past weekend after being twice delayed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the action-adventure gaming franchise of the same name, Uncharted follows a young Nathan Drake as he is lured into a high-stakes quest for the long-lost treasure of world traveler Ferdinand Magellan by a fortune hunter who worked with Nathan’s missing brother Sam.

Perhaps the biggest flaw of director Ruben Fleischer’s film is Holland himself, who gives a charismatic performance as Nathan, but sounds and acts too much like his now iconic Spider-Man character to be fully believable here as a naïve treasure hunter. The young British actor pulls off his American accent quite well, and yet ardent Marvel fans will hear and see Peter Parker on the screen.

This especially occurs during the film’s numerous stunt pieces, which often require Holland to perform some sort of parkour leap or long swing that one might expect from a certain comic book webslinger. And while it’s to be sure that Fleischer is ramping up the dynamics of these sequences to give the video game aesthetic, Holland might not the perfect choice.

Wahlberg fares somewhat better as fortune hunter and erstwhile mentor Sully as his charisma and surly Boston personality makes him a solid antihero with just enough questionable motivations to create dramatic tension with Nathan.

The best performance in the film is given by Antonio Banderas, playing slightly against type as the heir to a global financier family with claims to the Magellan gold. It’s a welcome sight to see Banderas play someone this ruthless and the gravitas and edge he brings to the role makes for a formidable and logical foe in a film where logic is somewhat lax.

For an action-adventure movie, Uncharted has a lot of turn-your-brain-off style entertainment that can be a lot of fun in bursts, especially a cargo plane sequence ripped directly from one of the video games that sets the tone for both the first and third acts of the film.

Visually, Uncharted has some beautiful sequences that feel like the cinematic cut-scenes one might find in the video games and the exotic locations are treated as truly unique and special. 

Fleischer doesn’t always find the right tone throughout as the film becomes a mixed bag of everything from National Treasure to Angels and Demons to the Tomb Raider movies without defining itself separately.

In spite of all of its many flaws, moviegoers desperate for a little bit of mindless fun and willing to go with the incredulous nature of the plot may find Uncharted worth taking a chance on in theaters.

Sometimes the best performances an actor can deliver on screen are the ones that closely mirror who they are in real life.

They could be portraying another actor and draw from their own personal experiences to get into the right state of mind or perhaps they have gone through similar struggles and find that the best way to connect to the character.

And yet, in some instances, a character can be written in such a way that it just feels like the actor portraying them is just being 100 percent themselves just with a fake name and made-up storyline.

Marry Me, the latest romantic comedy to arrive in theaters as well as streaming on Peacock, essentially asks the question, “What if Jennifer Lopez randomly proposed to an average nice guy on the street and brought him into the world of superstardom?”

Director Kat Coiro’s major feature film debut evokes the classic Julia Roberts rom-com Notting Hill but without the same amount of heartfelt laughter and emotion.

When pop superstar Kat Valdez finds out her fiancé is cheating on her seconds before a live televised wedding, she spontaneously opts to marry Charlie, a stranger in the crowd, instead.

Lopez plays a heightened version of herself as Kat in a performance that’s slightly naïve to the world around her and just wants to make genuine connections with the people in her life.

Her chemistry with the dorky, yet charming Owen Wilson can be a tad hit-or-miss, but where Lopez truly shines in Marry Me are in the film’s numerous musical moments. Backed by a soundtrack she created, it often feels like Lopez is shooting a music video with dazzling wardrobe, a cavalcade of dancers and a flashy, constantly moving camera.

When Marry Me is at its most entertaining, it’s Kat walking down a flight of stairs in a million-dollar ballgown while belting a ballad or a montage of Kat and Charlie’s lives being changed by the other while Kat records the song playing in the background. It’s the Lopez show from start to finish.

Wilson, on the other hand, is as understated as he can be as the everyday man that he’s played in film after film after film. His chemistry with Lopez isn’t exactly ideal but works in the context of this romantic comedy as it doesn’t really matter how connected Wilson and Lopez actually are. He is effective on his own, especially as a sympathetic teacher. In a larger context, however, it’s clear Wilson is not on the same page as Lopez in the overall scheme of Marry Me.

Among the supporting players, none is better than comedienne Sarah Silverman as Wilson’s coworker and guidance counselor who just happens to be LGBTQ+ to keep her from being a better match than Lopez. Silverman delivers the comedy from start to finish and is largely responsible for much of the laughs of Marry Me as well as the impetus of the film’s plotline as well.

Written by four screenwriters, the overall plot of Marry Me is so incredulous that It makes the traditional romantic comedy seem bland by comparison, but Lopez and Wilson make the script work in their favor to create a largely enjoyable film.

While it isn’t the kind of movie that would be recommended to travel to the theaters to see, the fact that it is equally accessible on the Peacock streaming service makes Marry Me worth a mild recommendation for moviegoers to seek out if they already have the streaming service.