Year: 2023

October 23, 2023 · Watch the trailer

John Carney has made a career out of writing and directing dramas that are musical without being full-fledged musicals.

The Irish filmmaker behind movies like Broadway crossover hit “Once,” the criminally underrated 2016 indie darling “Sing Street” and the more commercially successful “Begin Again” teams with Apple to take his unique perspective on modern life and musicality into a post-pandemic world with “Flora and Son,” a crisp yet shallow examination of the disconnect and interconnectivity of life on a personal and global scale.

The film follows the titular Flora, a divorced mom struggling to connect with her rebellious teenage son who finds her way through online music lessons with an American guitar teacher and the simplicity of their evolving friendship goes far beyond the computer screen and into a much more cinematic realm.

At the center of the film, Eve Hewson is solid as Flora, providing audiences with someone to genuinely respond to though there isn’t the depth to her character either on the script page or on the screen that really elevates the material to the usual level of Carney’s work.

It’s difficult to understand her chemistry or lack thereof with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Jeff because so much of the film’s premise relies on the two never really seeing each other in person, although Carney’s somewhat frequent mild dream sequences that disengage reality to bring the two closer together truly provide a stellar hook to keep audiences invested in an otherwise muddled storyline.

For his part, Gordon-Levitt is equally solid as Jeff, though it’s clear that the two are not quite on the same page, probably in large part because it’s clear for the most part that they’re not in the same room performing scenes opposite each other and the digital connection doesn’t feel as authentic as the genuine chemistry between the leads in Carney’s other films.

What really keeps things going, however, are the moderately catchy musical number interwoven throughout the film which often play out almost as music videos interspliced within the narrative rather than stopgaps. This bit of filmmaking is stylistically similar to the way that Carney approached the music in both “Begin Again” and “Sing Street,” however both those films benefitted from a distinctive music video style that would feel more repetitive now.

Carney visually has replaced this with the blending of Flora and Jeff’s worlds in a faux-reality, cross-Atlantic fiction meeting within a scene that is the most dynamic element in the film but lacks the same heart overall as Carney’s other films.

The pacing of “Flora and Son” at just over 90 minutes and ease of access on Apple TV+ makes it worth an at home viewing for those unable to make their way to theaters quickly to see Apple’s biggest endeavor to date, teaming with Martin Scorsese for his Western epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” which at its three-and-a-half hour run time is certainly a theatrical experience but one that may be more difficult to easily carve out the time and effort to seek out quickly.

Both films have their time and place, especially for those who would have to make a longer trek to theaters to see Scorsese’s likely final feature.

October 16, 2023 · Watch the trailer

Movies aren’t quite pandemic level bad yet, but it’s sure starting to feel that way.

When theaters closed in 2020, studios started heading for the hills and pulling all of their best films to release the lowest quality movies they had in their arsenal just to put something out in the marketplace without caring what the quality or consequences would be.

Although the end of the writers’ strike does allow for project development to continue, an ongoing actors’ strike has also tremendously burdened Hollywood to where films can no longer be in production and movies that were supposed to be released this fall were delayed or pulled because stars are not able to promote them as they normally would.

As a result, audiences are left with fewer, lower quality options at the cinema or at home than they normally would have heading into awards season and a Taylor Swift concert movie is propping up what would otherwise be a disaster at the October box office.

In another year, a film led by Oscar winners like Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones would normally have had a much warmer reception from audiences than has been the case with director Maggie Betts’ dramedy “The Burial,” which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September before being unceremonially dropped on Amazon Prime this past weekend with almost no buzz at all.

The lack of marketing seems to be justified as “The Burial” is an aggressively mediocre, languishing film based on the true story of a funeral home director in the 1980s whose businesses are being threatened by a larger Canadian conglomerate. He teams with a charismatic African American personal injury lawyer to take on big business in the Deep South.

For what it’s worth, Foxx is actually quite good as Willie Gary, the hotshot “ambulance chasing” lawyer who steps up to the big leagues of corporate litigation. Foxx expertly fuses a mix of Johnnie Cochran meets revival preacher with a honest sincerity that the film’s middling screenplay doesn’t really deserve.

As in most of his performances, Foxx is magnetic and his charisma shines off the screen while scenes he isn’t drag considerably to an almost borderline unwatchable level.

Conversely, Jones leans so heavily on his traditional deadpan, almost monotone line affectation that his performance is droll and boring, really highlighting the lack of chemistry with Foxx and making a tale that should be unlikely partners coming together to right a wrong feel less like the charming Oscar winner “Green Book” than this story deserves.

Part of the issue – whether it lays at the feet of Betts behind the camera or the script itself – is that “The Burial” can’t find consistency in tone and the courtroom scenes need to be much more entertaining or engaging to make the two-hour runtime worth it for audiences, but the payoff just isn’t there in the end and it makes one wonder what the point of making the film in the first place was.

Amazon needs to find a bigger, more successful film in a hurry as their partnership with MGM has been largely a bust aside from their acquisition of the James Bond franchise, which is stagnant for a considerable time while a quest for a new lead to take the 007 mantle is underway.

While making and releasing mediocre films like “The Burial” does provide ongoing content for them, Amazon’s lackluster movie slate barely is worth the time for even casual cinephiles to watch in the background at home.

October 9, 2023 · Watch the trailer

Why is it that it feels as if the most originality and creativity in filmmaking these days always seems to come from the science fiction genre?

Perhaps it’s due to the ability to be anything or go in any direction cinematically from a storytelling and character development perspective. There’s just an intense freedom in the unknown, the unforeseen, the unimaginable becoming possible with true authentic escapism.

Every year it seems that a new science fiction epic hits theaters in the final part of the year that does not perform as well as the box office as it probably should given how innovative and unique the filmmaking is and support for more creativity in cinema will help bring studios out of the stagnation of intellectual property driven doldrums audiences have faced for the better part of a decade now.

This year’s entry into the original sci-fi category comes from “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” director Gareth Edwards, whose arresting, slow-simmering drama “The Creator” doesn’t quite have the same dramatic highs that James Gray’s “Ad Astra” did in 2019 but engages the mind in unique and interesting ways.

“The Creator” follows Joshua, a retired Special Forces operative pulled back into duty in a postmodern world where artificial intelligence is at war with humanity and caught in the crosshairs is Joshua’s believed to be dead wife Maya, the mother of his unborn child.

At the center of the film, “Tenet” and “BlacKKKlansman” star John David Washington has a brooding persona that really works for Joshua and it’s clear throughout that Washington is singularly focused on the why the motivation of his character rather than the action-forward how that many actors would lean on both physically and emotionally in their performance.

Much like his father Denzel, the younger Washington delivers a layered turn that maximizes both a warm charming smile but also more serious, cold eyes when needed to truly emphasize each moment and the individuality of the emotions within.

The evolution of Joshua’s bond with Maya and a young girl he counters named Alphie really go beyond what a film like “The Creator” should have from a sci-fi narrative, but Washington treats the genre like traditional drama in every scene which accentuates the depth beyond a surface level that most major studios might strive for.

Gemma Chan haunts the background of “The Creator” with a terrific supporting turn as Maya and the way that audiences understand her character through fragments of Joshua’s memory is simply perfect storytelling from Edwards.

Newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles is perfectly cast as young Alphie and while her relative naivety about the world around her might be problematic for most first time actors, Voyles’ soft delivery and innocence shine throughout and help Washington to build the depths of Joshua’s character from an emotional perspective.

“The Creator” is one of the most visually artistic and engaging films of 2023 with a dynamic energy that really shines in its cinematography especially in the brighter moments while the film’s blacks prove to be almost too much at times.

Cinematographers Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer do a great job in camera placement and lighting to accentuate a wide color scheme that makes each area Joshua travels feel unique and independent from one another and there is a deeper artistry to the visuals of “The Creator” in its cinematography and production design that make the world of the film feel much richer than it actually is.

While it won’t be heralded as an awards season contender or even one of the year’s best films, “The Creator” certainly is one of the most original, interesting and introspective movies of 2023 and well worth the price of admission for a film that desperately needs to be a bigger box office draw in order to keep studios making these kinds of truly original works of art.

October 2, 2023 · Watch the official trailer

Somewhere along the way, filmmakers got the impression that every financial crime story needs to be told as a dark ensemble comedy that sneers at the rich and roots for the relative underdog.

It’s the wrong lessons that studios have learned from successes like Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Adam McKay’s “The Big Short,” which have relegated complex financial transactions into something that can only be explained by making light of the situation.

The depths of underhanded dealings that happen daily on Wall Street and beyond deserve far more nuance than are ultimately provided in these films.

And while the intention is to not leave audiences completely depressed or with a sour taste in their mouths about the world’s economy, perhaps a bit more context and additional dramatic aspects in storytelling might more well round the experience of moviegoers who may only know of these crises when they sit down in theaters or feel them in their own pocketbooks.

Such is the case with director Craig Gillespie’s latest film, “Dumb Money,” which takes a moderately shallow look into the exploitation and inflation of stock prices surrounding the fledgling company GameStop during the early days of COVID-19.

While “Dumb Money” isn’t a pandemic movie in the truest sense, it does start to further unravel the everyday lives of citizens across all class levels during a pivotal time in world history from a largely comedic perspective.

The film requires a deep ensemble cast in order to tell such a complex story even somewhat effectively and “Dumb Money” is led by a terrific performance from veteran character actor Paul Dano whose unlikely, underground stock hero Keith Gill is just quirky and charming enough for audiences to rally behind without being so demonstrably likable that the singularity of the performance takes over the larger comedy of the film.

Through both affectation and line delivery, Dano has an unique ability to stand out in a crowd of much louder character with a quieter, sharper turn which is offset by an over-the-top, brash and largely unnecessary effort from “Saturday Night Live” alumni Pete Davidson as Keith’s stoner brother Kevin.

Shailene Woodley is also excellent in short bursts as Keith’s wife Caroline while the numerous small scale retail investors portrayed by a wide array of actors including “In The Heights” star Anthony Ramos and “Barbie” star America Ferrera help to layer the overall world of “Dumb Money,” but aren’t given enough for audiences to truly become invested in their characters beyond their mere financial burdens.

Conversely, the world of big Wall Street is capably, slimily portrayed by the film’s most notable stars with Seth Rogen excelling at times and going way too far at others as a bumbling hedge fund manager who is set to lose billions on the rise of GameStop. Both Nick Offerman and Sebastian Stan in much smaller roles stand out well beyond Rogen’s most bombastic portrayal.

Tonally, “Dumb Money” leans from straight forward comedy to more dry humor to the occasional dramatic moment relatively well, though the tone is generally inconsistent enough to keep audiences from becoming fully immersed in the narrative. This is probably due to the fact that “Dumb Money” focuses on perhaps one or two too many storylines and side characters rather than giving ample time to go deeper into the story itself.

On the whole, however, “Dumb Money” is a largely fun time at the movies that will leave viewers frustrated at Wall Street greed and cheering for the little guy in the end and is solid enough to take a chance on in theaters before the true awards season begins.

September 25, 2023 · Watch the trailer

When people complain about unnecessary movie sequels that waste their time and money, they usually aren’t talking about big budget comic book films from Warner Brothers and Disney, even if those arguments would apply.

It’s most often flicks with the same title and a new number to indicate the next installment, like a new chapter in the same book people never finished reading.

Such is the case with “Expend4bles,” a return to tired intellectual property ten years after the begrudgingly made “The Expendables 3” in 2014 saw aging action stars team up in “Ocean’s 11” fashion to kill a bunch of nameless baddies.

The hook of the original trilogy was seeing numerous heavy hitters share the screen together, putting Rambo himself Sylvester Stallone with “The Terminator” Arnold Schwarzenegger, “The Transporter” Jason Statham alongside martial arts legends like Jet Li and Chuck Norris.

Niche nostalgia for action stars of yesteryear is practically gone now with “Expend4bles,” as headliner Stallone takes a major backseat to Statham and numerous D-tier “stars” like Megan Fox and 50 Cent, who have no track record as action heroes and lack the charisma or draw to bring in new audiences.

For a film franchise in the loosest terms possible, “Expend4bles” is a clear sign that replaying the same basic story over and over again only works when there’s enough talent behind it to make the action compelling.

“Expend4bles” follows the formula of prior installments with Stallone’s Barney Ross and Statham’s Lee Christmas leading a team of mercenaries into Libya to prevent the theft of plutonium by a vigilante group hoping to ignite World War III.

Stallone really commits to his leadership role while also bringing a self-deprecating sentimentality to Barney that works in small doses but requires audiences to have a clear memory of his earlier work in the series to be effective.

The film is primarily a showcase and transition to push Statham into the spotlight as the dry wit of the talented Brit also helps bring levity while allowing Statham to dazzle with an array of increasingly technically proficient fight sequences. The close quarters combat skills he and martial arts stars Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais bring to “Expend4bles” almost make up for the bizarre plot and mismatched cast.

In fact, the entire film is better served as being a launching point to revive Statham’s “Transporter” series rather than another team-up movie as he’s leaps and bounds better than all of his on-screen counterparts, most notably Megan Fox, whose inability to create plausible chemistry with Statham significantly hinders the film’s ability to move away from Stallone’s character.

While the hand-to-hand combat sequences have some allure to them, the larger set pieces are laughably bad and it’s routinely clear when scenes are shot in front of a green screen rather than on a soundstage. Nameless villains in action films have always been terrible marksmen, but “Expend4bles” is so comically bad at making plausible decisions by bad guys that the unintentional comedy of it all ruins the experience entirely.

There’s absolutely no need for audiences to spend money on seeing “Expend4bles” in theaters when it doesn’t pack the necessary punch visually to see it on the big screen and its inevitable run as filler for the action genre of the Peacock streaming service makes it a hard pass.

September 18, 2023 · Watch the trailer

Several years ago, an unlikely biopic about unlikely heroes in the American space program took the box office by storm as “Hidden Figures” made nearly $240 million dollars and earned three Oscar nominations for telling the story of three African American mathematicians.

In somewhat surprising fashion, it’s taken almost a decade for studios to find a similar story to bring to the big screen, with Amazon Studios producing and them quietly releasing writer/director Alejandra Márquez Abella’s major film debut, “A Million Miles Away,” on their Amazon Prime streaming service this past weekend to little fanfare.

Starring veteran actor Michael Peña, “Million Miles” follows the true story of farm worker José Hernandez and his relentless pursuit to become an engineer and astronaut while remaining loyal and devoted to his close-knit family and Latino community.

Peña is the perfect choice to play José as he is able to lean into a quiet affability and charm that instantly warms the heart and Peña’s genuinely natural charisma subtly seeps into the performance as well, making José easy to root for as the film progresses. While the film isn’t particularly comic in any way, Peña keeps the mood light with his wry smile and he’s able to carry both lighter and heavier drama with ease.

For a film about relationships at its core, Peña has terrific on-screen chemistry with Rosa Salazar, who plays José’s wife Adela. Though the film doesn’t spend much time on the romantic side of their relationship, Peña and Salazar are able to cut through with nuance and some truly poignant and emotional moments play out as José and Adela’s love shines through in the ways they support each other no matter the personal cost.

The thing about making a successful biopic, especially one about someone audiences won’t already be familiar with, is that the film needs to have a tremendous hook to lure audiences in early and move at such a pace that boredom never sets in as viewers don’t come into the movie with a preconceived disposition to like the protagonist or know what’s coming next.

“Million Miles” has a bit of the hook early, setting the scene with José at a young age eager to learn about the stars and conflicted by his family’s need to work the fields rather than help him get an education. This sequence is wonderfully scored by a bilingual version of the classic song “California Dreaming” by the Mamas and the Papas that really gives the movie an early lift before Pena ever appears on screen.

Where the film ultimately suffers is the screenplay, which does a lot more telling than showing and creates an overly long, drawn out pace to the entire film as equal time is devoted to José’s pursuit of a career as an astronaut with weighty family drama. “Million Miles” works for the most part and both major themes in the film are important and handed decently well, but Abella doesn’t seem to put all the pieces together on screen consistently from a scene-to-scene basis.

The film’s production design is notable and period accurate, especially in scenes that have nothing to do with José’s space odyssey and the film does skirt around budget constraints by minimizing the amount of CGI work needed as José trains to become an astronaut, opting for more practical sets.

While it isn’t something that audiences would rush out to the theaters for, “A Million Miles Away” is a heartwarming, genuine tale with a terrific lead performance that’s worth considering for an at home watch on Amazon Prime.

September 10, 2023 · Watch the official trailer

Hollywood is really struggling right now.

With writers and actors both on strike, the current and future landscape of moviemaking is screeching to a halt with expected box office draws moving to next year and the prospect of new productions growing slimmer each passing week.

Studios are having to reassess and prioritize films that they normally wouldn’t as a means of survival both in theaters and on their streaming services.

Originally shown as a “work-in-progress” screening at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, “Hypnotic” from Texas director Robert Rodriguez starring A-lister Ben Affleck should be something that be a major draw but limped out the gate back in May to almost zero marketing and fell by the wayside just as quickly.

The film has made its home as the new movie du jour on NBC/Universal’s streaming service Peacock and despite prime placement and Affleck in practically every frame of the film, nothing about “Hypnotic” clicked with audiences as well as the film’s unique premise might suggest.

Affleck stars as an Austin police detective who’s unable to regain his focus after the abduction of his young daughter. Despite returning to active duty, his Danny Rourke seems completely out of sorts when he stumbles upon a secret government program that might have connections to his daughter’s disappearance.

Affleck truly wants to make the avant garde, bizarre screenplay work with a committed turn, leaning heavily on Rourke’s deep loss and sorrow from his daughter’s disappearance and it manifests well in a relentless, borderline obsessive compulsion to risk his own life to move one step closer to the truth.

It’s in the film’s quieter moments that Affleck does his best work and totally outclasses his castmates, especially Alice Braga as Diana, the love interest with a complicated past of her own that never really develops any chemistry with Affleck and feels out of sorts in these more dramatic moments that pull audiences out of the narrative.

As movie villains go, William Fichtner usually delivers an exceptional, stoically slimy performance and “Hypnotic” is no exception as the elusive, mind-bending Dellrayne. Rodriguez needs a compelling antagonist to make his narrative work and Fichtner has just the right blend of charm and sinister undertone to draw audiences in early before the plot fully unravels.

In a single scene, Jackie Earle Haley does some solid work as a contact for Rourke, but the character actor is woefully underutilized here.

From a narrative perspective, “Hypnotic” feels something more akin to the world of thriller auteur Christopher Nolan as the world-bending nature of the screenplay and psychological aspects of the storytelling almost feel ripped from the pages of “Inception” or “Tenet” and it’s enough of a departure from Rodriguez’s filmmaking style that “Hypnotic” becomes incredibly disjointed from act to act.

Genre bending is a difficult tightrope to walk for a filmmaker and the balance starts off well, but as the narrative unfolds, the limitations of the premise and the weak storytelling begin to truly show the weakness of “Hypnotic” as a whole.

Action sequences are few and far between for a film premised on a cat and mouse crime chase, though what is presented, especially in the first act, has some solid visuals and enough compelling intrigue that would have been the beginning of a terrific thrill ride. “Hypnotic” just never comes together.

Given the dearth of quality options in theaters, cinephiles in need of a quick and easy watch could been convinced to give a solid Affleck performance in a lower tier thriller a chance. Its 90-minute run time and ease of access on Peacock are the main benefits for audiences to seek out “Hypnotic” on a night in.

September 1, 2023 · Watch the trailer

The odds of a classically trained actor like Denzel Washington making a sequel, let alone a franchise, were so low that it was stunning to see him appear on the big screen more than once as 1980s television character Robert McCall from “The Equalizer.”

It made sense for the original film – which saw him paired with his “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua in 2014 – but a return to the character in 2018 felt unnecessary despite the sequel being decent action fodder.

Washington and Fuqua have decided to complete the trilogy with “The Equalizer 3” hitting theaters as the second highest grossing film ever over Labor Day weekend behind Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” proving Washington to be a major box office draw despite a lack of a press tour given the current actors strike in Hollywood.

The film follows former Marine and Special Ops assassin Robert McCall as he tries to quietly live his life and secretly help strangers take on crime lords while seemingly on retirement in Italy. After his work puts him in the crosshairs of the Sicilian mafia, McCall must protect his new-found friends while also helping the U.S. government stop a drug syndicate by any means necessary.

If there’s any reason to see “Equalizer 3” in theaters, if at all, it’s for the effortlessly engaging talents of Washington in the lead role. It’s crazy to think that the best actor of his generation has spent three films shooting and carving up baddies with relative ease, and yet, Washington has a fluidity to his performance that perfectly blends his natural charm with a callous brutality that makes his Robert McCall feel more like a western hero like Shane than John Wick.

Washington is so magnetic in the role that it makes almost everyone he interacts with over the course of the film completely and entirely disposable.

Perhaps the only other performance of any consequence is partially of Washington’s doing as well, reteaming with his “Man on Fire” costar Dakota Fanning who plays a CIA analyst with similar goals to Robert. There’s a fun dynamic that loosely plays on the protector/protectee element from their first film together and in a film where the plot is just a rehash of a Clint Eastwood style Western like “High Plains Drifter,” scenes between the pair are especially memorable.

Director of photography Robert Richardson makes “Equalizer 3” look far better than the third movie in an action trilogy based off a television show should look, with a hazy hue over most of the cinematography that gives off both a gritty vibe to the entire picture while also bathing Italy in a distinct charm and beauty with a sinister underbelly.

The film’s many action sequences are brutal, bloody affairs that certainly earn an R-rating while not being exceedingly graphic. Much of the violence in “Equalizer 3” happens at such a rapid pace that it almost feels like a blur and some viewers who wince or turn their heads might miss the gore altogether.

The action quality isn’t nearly on the level of a “John Wick,” but that isn’t entirely the point of a Washington-led film and the symbiotic relationship Fuqua has with the veteran actor just draws out dramatic scenes far exceeding what might possible in most action-heavy films.

Washington’s charisma and the film’s exotic location beautifully captured by Richardson make “The Equalizer 3” something audiences might want to consider checking out in theaters and it’s enough of a stand-alone feature that seeing the prior two installments isn’t entirely necessary before making a trip to the big screen.

August 28, 2023 · Watch the official teaser

Before the fame and the money, before the prestige and the attitude, a kid from Kerrville, Texas, was the best football player on any field he stepped onto without even really trying.

Johnny Manziel had the “it factor,” the swagger to match his surreal talent that made every play look and feel to fans as if they were watching a video game come to life.

The Tivy star went on to steal the national spotlight and win a Heisman Trophy at Texas A&M and was a first-round draft pick nearly a decade ago.

But his meteoric rise was matched with an Icarus-esque fall from grace and is the subject of the latest in a series of sports documentaries made by Netflix with “Untold: Johnny Football” coming out on the streamer earlier this month.

Director Ryan Duffy chronicles Manziel’s infamous career both on and off the field with insights from Manziel, his family and close confidant Nate Fitch as well as various football personalities who interacted with Manziel during his collegiate and professional career.

Woven tightly into three acts over 70 minutes, “Johnny Football” clicks at a rapid pace for a quick overview of Manziel’s career for those unfamiliar with his football legacy, but Duffy isn’t nearly as interest in the quarterback’s on-field efforts as he is at revealing Manziel’s habitual entitlement and rebellious nature.

It’s encapsulated perfectly in the opening moments of the film, first with Manziel receiving acclaim from Texas A&M alumni and staff at a hall of fame ceremony and then immediately juxtaposing it with the legendary Aggie lighting up a joint at his Scottsdale, Arizona home. Duffy wants to give the audience just enough of the positive side of “Johnny Football” in order to make the more outrageous aspects come across as unconscionable.

This broad look into Manziel’s life doesn’t take into full account the massive impact Manziel had on the world of collegiate athletics nor his singular impact on Texas A&M beyond the superficial cult celebrity status that made it impossible for him to attend classes in person by his sophomore year due to mobs of autograph seeking fans.

Manziel’s luxurious lifestyle after winning the Heisman was largely attributed to being paid under the table by autograph brokers, and although Duffy does touch on how the NCAA responded with an investigation into the incident, “Johnny Football” only scratches the surface to the full impact that Manziel’s brazen disregard for decorum and his amateur status had to completely change the way top college athletes are compensated for their talents in the current sports arena.

Also lost in the shuffle is the lasting impact Manziel had on the prestige of Texas A&M’s football program. Because so much of the film focuses on fame and money, the financial impact of Manziel’s Heisman Trophy win is addressed, but once the film begins to talk about his decision to go pro, everything beyond Manziel – including the Cleveland Browns where he was eventually drafted – essentially fades into obscurity.

Clearly, the focal point of “Johnny Football” and the main reason people will want to see the documentary is to hear Manziel talk candidly about the whirlwind ride his talent and fame took him on over the course of four years and he certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Manziel is almost too cavalier with his candor, acknowledging his complicity in his downfall thanks to heavy alcohol and drug addiction, but the contrition (or lack thereof) doesn’t help win anyone over to his side who wasn’t there before watching.

While it isn’t a revelatory documentary from either a filmmaking or journalistic perspective, “Untold: Johnny Football” does have enough excitement and insight to make the film worth a casual watch for cinephiles and sports fans getting ready for kickoff this fall.

August 21, 2023 · Watch the trailer

Warner Brothers and their DC Comics film division have been trying – and largely failing – to replicate the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Yet somehow, almost by accident, they may have actually stumbled upon a winning formula with their latest feature, which combines the best aspects of properties like “Iron Man” or “Spider-Man” with the comic charm of “Ant-Man” and DC’s “Shazam!”

The resulting “Blue Beetle,” which dropped in theaters this past weekend to minimal fanfare given its mid-August release date, is campy fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously or connect to a larger cinematic universe. Instead, the focus is an origin tale of a little known secondary hero in the DC Comics canon that could prove to be the way forward for Warner Brothers.

Director Angel Manuel Soto’s first big-budget studio feature follows Jaime Reyes, the first college graduate in his family, who loses his job only to find himself connected to a piece of alien technology that puts his family and minority neighborhood in the crosshairs of a weapons contractor seeking to obtain the “scarab” inside of Jaime at any cost.

Even though the general formula for this superhero tale is pretty standard by this point, “Blue Beetle” feels vibrant, fresh and original thanks in large part to writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer’s focus on family and the plethora of newcomers making their major English language film debuts.

At the heart of the film, Xolo Maridueña provides a quiet sympathy mixed with an eagerness to enjoy his newfound abilities that’s a fun cross between Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. While he doesn’t quite have the best comic timing, his big heart and terrific chemistry opposite love interest Jenny Kord played by Bruna Marquezine.

Susan Sarandon is less than ideal as the villainous Victoria, but luckily, the screenplay spends much more time on the positive female influences on Jaime with Adriana Barraza’s Nana and Belissa Escobedo as Milagro serving as standouts.

Without question, the best part of “Blue Beetle” is the pitch perfect comic relief from George Lopez as Jaime’s eccentric uncle Rudy. Lopez steals most every scene he’s in with a dry affectation, oversized goatee and over-the-top mannerisms that match the ridiculous, yet perfect costumes designed for Rudy.

Action sequences aren’t anything to write home about as the CGI isn’t particularly inventive or exciting, though some scenes have comedic elements layered in that help bring levity to the narrative especially in the somewhat excessively long final sequence.

Because Warner Brothers and DC have largely underwhelmed in recent years, “Blue Beetle” feels like a breath of fresh air for a studio longing to build back a shared universe. While it clearly isn’t on the level of last year’s “The Batman” starring Robert Pattinson, that film’s darker tone and stand-alone nature puts it on a separate plane.

There probably won’t be a better film released theatrically this month than “Blue Beetle,” which is less of an indictment of the slate of August and more a result of what a pleasant surprise the unlikely superhero film has turned out to be.

Given the original take on a well-told origin tale and the solid comic aspects, “Blue Beetle” might be the perfect escape for end-of-summer fun as younger audiences make their way back to the classroom.