Full disclosure: I was never a part of the original “Space Jam” craze. I was 25-years-old when the movie came out in 1996 and never felt inclined to see it during its initial release. I watched it later (at least most of it) and nothing about it has stuck with me. I say that to fully admit my lack of nostalgia for the upcoming sequel, some 25 years after the first film. Yet I still found myself mildly interested for a handful of reasons, mainly because I grew up on Looney Tunes. But I have to say, the latest trailer for the $150 million live-action/animated mash-up did nothing to ease my apprehension.
This time around LeBron James takes the place of Michael Jordan and must save his son from a diabolical A.I. played by Don Cheadle. How does he do it? By putting together a team of classic Looney Toon characters (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, etc.) and beating the A.I.’s evil all-stars in a game of basketball. One thing I will say about the trailer is that the blend of live-action and animation looks great. Both the characters and backgrounds and vibrant and full of color. On the flip-side, after seeing the trailer I don’t know if I can sit through 90-minutes or more of Lebron’s cringe-inducing acting. Whew!
“Space Jam: A New Legacy” releases July 16th in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
In 2016 Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz brought some much-needed spice to the movie musical with “La La Land”. The film was a hit with critics and audiences alike and offered proof that the movie musical was still very much alive. And then you have Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton”, a Broadway musical that went from Tony Award winner to full-blown cultural phenomenon. Those two productions helped pave the way for a film like “In the Heights”, a new musical that borrows from both “La La Land” and “Hamilton” yet for the most part still manages to make something uniquely its own.
There had been talks of an “In the Heights” film adaptation for at least ten years, but it was the success of “Hamilton” that really got things moving forward. Based on a stage musical by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Miranda, “In the Heights” is directed by Jon M. Chu of “Crazy Rich Asians” fame from a script written by Hudes and music by Miranda. It’s set in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, a tight-knit and mostly Latino community pulsing with pride, music and culture.
Image Courtesy of Warner Brothers.
Much like “Hamilton”, Miranda’s music speaks its own unique language, often using rap, singing, and something in between in place a straight dialogue. It’s a skill no doubt, but one that can at times be frustrating and a little exhausting. The movie shines brightest in its big musical numbers where everyone is on their feet and the block bursts with energy and local flavor. It’s that hard-to-define lyrical style (not quite rap, not quite song, not quite spoken word) which turns out to be hit-or-miss. The good scenes crackle with fun free-flowing rhythm. But there are times when you wish Miranda would dial it back and just let his characters just speak.
While Miranda’s lyrics do most of the talking, Hudes gives us some welcomed moments of conversation that help form the backbone of the story. But her writing can be a little shaky, jumping from emotionally rich and moving to on-the-nose and even a bit cloying. Meanwhile the story as a whole struggles to find the right balance of tone. The first half is the best as we hang out with the characters, listen to their stories, and soak in the neighborhood through their eyes, ears, and voices. The final third is all over the place both narratively and tonally. It has several good moments, but much of it feels pasted together and lacks flow. And both Miranda and Hudes fumble their opportunities at political commentary by sloppily wedging in a couple of attempts that couldn’t feel any less organic. One ends an otherwise sublime swimming pool number while the other comes out of the blue and feels completely manufactured.
Image Courtesy of Warner Brothers
All that said, despite its hefty two-hour and 20-minute running time, there really isn’t that much story. But you barely notice because Miranda and Hudes do a great job of making us care about their characters and the deep communal bond that connects them. It’s what makes their individual stories both endearing and in some cases heartbreaking. And it’s the characters and our emotional commitment to them that brings Washington Heights to life. The characters ARE the story and everything from Miranda’s music to Hudes’ words to Chu’s camera emphasizes that. Meanwhile a top-to-bottom terrific cast elevate the script and Chu is smart enough to let them take the lead and carry the load.
The story unfolds over several hot summer days before, during, and after a blackout hits Washington Heights. We mostly follow two young couples, both obviously in love but poor at expressing it. Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) is a bodega owner who has his eyes firmly on Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) who gives him every opportunity to finally ask her out. The problem is he has big dreams of leaving the Heights and going back to the Dominican Republic to run a beachside business like his late father. She is an aspiring fashion designer with plans to move uptown closer to the industry she loves. The other couple is Nina (Leslie Grace) who has just returned home following a difficult first year at Stanford and dreads telling her father that she is considering quitting. She’s in love with Benny (Corey Hawkins) who works for Nina’s widowed father Kevin (Jimmy Smits) and is caught between the daddy-daughter tension.
Image Courtesy of Warner Brothers
The stories of the two couples cross over and include many of the same neighborhood people. There’s the aforementioned Kevin who can’t fathom his daughter not going back to California for her sophomore year. We get Usnavi’s fiery teen cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV). And the barrio’s matriarch Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) who raised Usnavi and almost every other kid on the block. There are the three high-energy gossips who run the local salon (Daphne Rubin-Vega, Stephanie Beatriz and Dascha Polanco). Even Miranda pops up now and then pushing a cart and peddling flavored shaved ice to the local kids. They all form the beating heart of the movie. And led by a star-making turn from Ramos and the eye-opening presence of Barrera, this is easily one of the best ensembles of the year.
While Chu struggles with some awkward pacing on the film’s back-end and his movie is around a half-hour too long, he has no problem pulling us into the titular neighborhood. Alongside his terrific DP Alice Brooks, Chu captures the effervescent spirit of a changing Washington Heights and give us a taste of the music, personality, and culture that is so deeply a part of its identity. At the same time Christopher Scott’s kinetic choreography pops off the screen, mixing with Miranda’s hip-hop and Salsa infused beats to give us the film’s most vibrant scenes (an absolutely electric nightclub fiesta may be my favorite). It all leads to an imperfect yet rousing crowdpleaser that may be the ideal movie for those looking to finally burst out of quarantine. “In the Heights” opens today (June 11th) in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
These days everything Lin-Manuel Miranda touches turns to gold. We’ll get to see if that trend continues later this year with the real ease of “Tick, Tick… Boom!”, an upcoming musical drama that will mark the 41-year-old New Yorker’s feature film directorial debut. The movie is based on the stage musical of the same name by the late Jonathan Larson. It has been called an autobiographical work about Larson’s struggle to make it in theater. Sadly he died tragically in 1996. He was only 35. The first trailer dropped today courtesy of Netflix.
“Tick, Tick… Boom!” adds some extra detail but it looks to be the same story at heart. Scripted by Steven Levenson, the film stars Andrew Garfield as Jon. He’s an aspiring theater composer who finds himself amid a midlife crisis as he nears his 30th birthday. In a clip we see Garfield singing romantically about the Bohemian lifestyle, yet deep down Jon doesn’t feel a day closer to reaching his dreams than when he first started. It makes for a potentially compelling story. The film also stars Vanessa Hudgens, Robin de Jesús, Alexandra Shipp, Judith Light, and Bradley Whitford. Again, will Miranda’s hot streak continue?
“Tick, Tick… Boom!” is set for a Fall release. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
“Fast and Furious” wisecracker Tyrese Gibson is handed a much more serious role leading the upcoming action-thriller “Rogue Hostage”. Jon Keyes directs from a story by screenwriter Mickey Solis. Their movie, set mostly in a Wal-Mart styled department store, starts out with glimmers of promise. But as the tropes start to pile up and the flimsiness of both the characters and the story is exposed, it quickly becomes evident that the film’s title isn’t the only thing that’s generic.
Gibson plays Kyle Snowden, a former Marine suffering from severe PTSD following a traumatic tour of duty in Afghanistan. Now he works for child protective services with his fellow caseworker and friend Clove (Brandi Bravo). Through a couple of vague information drops we learn that Kyle’s wife up and left him and their young daughter Angel (Zani Jones Mbayise). We never learn why, only that her departure has left Kyle in a tough spot.
Image Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
Kyle’s stepfather, a wealthy local business owner named Sam Nelson (John Malkovich), doesn’t help much. He barely notices Kyle’s struggles, instead offering such unhelpful advice as “You need to find your purpose again.” The hard-to-read Nelson is much more interested in his bid for Congress, and with the election right around the corner optics are everything.
Of course in a movie like this you have to have a baddie and here we get it in the form of Eagan Raize, an angry militant type holding a pretty big grudge. He’s played by Christopher Backus who has both the look and demeanor that the role demands. His introduction is foreboding and frightening. It teases a ruthless and unstable antagonist, driven by something unseen and determined to see his personal mission through. Unfortunately like so much else in “Rogue Hostage”, he too becomes a shallow caricature and the kind of cookie-cutter villain you could plug into almost any movie of this type.
Image Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
The story is kickstarted when Kyle and Clove rescue a young Mexican boy and stop by Sam’s store to get him something to eat. Inside Sam is prepping to shoot a new campaign ad making it the perfect time for Eagan and his two heavily armed cousins to barge in and take over the place. From there the movie turns into your prototypical hostage flick with Kyle trapped inside with an assortment of surface-level characters – the resourceful store manager Sunshine (Luna Lauren Vélez), a young shoplifter (Holly Taylor), Nelson’s self-absorbed press secretary (Susannah Hoffman) to name a few.
From there nothing about how “Rogue Hostage” plays out will surprise you. Despite hitting some pretty conventional beats, it sets itself up to be a fairly entertaining genre film. But soon all hints at originality start to unravel and it becomes your garden-variety hostage thriller with most of the clichés yet none of the thrills. And it tosses in so many themes yanked from today’s newspaper headlines. Income inequality, white supremacy, guns, the southern border, crony capitalism and more, all handled superficially and with no punch whatsoever. Just more frustration from this unfortunate misfire. “Rogue Hostage” opens tomorrow (June 11th) in select theaters and on VOD.
Younger audiences won’t remember Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the hosts of the immensely popular television ‘ministry’ The PTL Club. Starting out of a small North Carolina studio, the Bakkers grew their show nationally and eventually into its own TV network. They even launched a 2500-acre theme park and resort. The couple’s lavish lifestyle was enough to rouse suspicion, but it was Jim Bakker’s sex scandals that brought the powerful hucksters to their knees.
The new film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” sees Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain stepping into the roles of the televangelist power couple. The two stars make for a fascinating match and there is certainly plenty of material to cover. The film, directed by Michael Showalter, dropped its first trailer and looks to be taking a very sympathetic look at Tammy Faye. Jim Bakker was clearly a corrupt and contemptible charlatan but Tammy Faye’s hands weren’t exactly clean. It’ll be interesting to see if Showalter’s film sticks to their true story or has something else on its mind.
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” opens in theaters September 17th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Gina Rodriguez gets a hefty lead role in the newly streaming Netflix film “Awake”, a sci-fi action-thriller built around a weirdly intriguing premise. The movie is directed by Mark Raso from a screenplay he wrote with his brother Joseph. Raso’s previous film was 2017’s road-trip drama “Kodachrome”, also for Netflix. “Awake” is a much different animal – a movie that seems to have some big ideas and plenty of genre ambition. But it’s so scattered and lacking much-needed detail that it’s impossible to fully buy into the world the movie creates.
Rodriguez gives it her all playing Jill, a former soldier and a single mother with a troubled past. Like so much of “Awake”, most of Jill’s history is skimmed over and barely touched on leaving us with a fairly incomplete image of who she is. We know her husband is dead. We know that her mother-in-law (Frances Fisher) has custody of her two kids, the younger dinosaur-loving Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt) and her disgruntled estranged oldest Noah (Lucius Hoyos). And when we first meet Jill we see her smuggling pills out of a university lab where she works as a security guard and then selling them to street dealers.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
The movie loads Jill up with all of that baggage in the first ten minutes and then forgets it the rest of way. Instead she becomes a mother protecting her children after a mysterious event plunges the world into chaos. Essentially something similar to a massive EMP knocks out power across the globe – electricity, automobiles, computers, basically anything with electronics is shut down. It also takes away people’s ability to sleep, something the movie never comes close to explaining in a sufficient way. But obviously it’s bad news. “Without sleep your mind will bend and bend until it breaks”.
Jennifer Jason Leigh pops up as Dr. Murphy, a psychiatrist and a sleep deprivation expert who got Jill the job at the university and now wants her to come help at a remote facility nicknamed “the Hub”. There Murphy and a team of doctors are studying the only known person who can still sleep. What they don’t know is that young Matilda can also sleep. Refusing to let her daughter become a lab rat, Jill flees with her children into the crumbling society encountering a number of increasingly desperate (and in most cases hostile) people groups along the way. Mad scientists, a nudist cult, grubby backwoods rednecks, a so-warped-it’s-silly version of evangelical churchgoers – just some of the threats Raso throws at this family of three.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
If you try hard enough you can find the occasional thematic morsel to chew on. What happens when morality gives way to despair? How far is too far in the world of medicine and science? Stuff like that. But by the end I wasn’t convinced the movie had much interest in wrestling with anything weighty. Instead it all unwinds in a violent finale that has to be a lot more unsettling on paper than on screen. And the long-awaited “explanation” turns out to be no real explanation at all. Bummer.
“Awake” constantly teases us with its interesting ideas and you stick with it even through the rough patches in hopes of a satisfying payoff. Unfortunately the payoff never comes. It’s as if the Raso brothers came up with a cool and compelling story concept but were unsure how to tell it. So we get an intriguing mess that hopes viewers are interested enough to stay with it but not interested enough to want answers to the most basic questions. Oh, and the head-scratching gaps in logic, some cringy attempts at little girl humor, and the frustrating plot-holes don’t really help. “Awake” premieres today (June 9th) on Netflix (www.netflix/awake).
Keith & the Movies 