I’m still not sure how anyone could think it was a good idea to build a state-of-the-art multi-million dollar theme park and resort on a small island with a dormant volcano. And not just any volcano mind you. One that erupted 20 years earlier killing many islanders in its fury. But greed and intelligence don’t necessarily come hand-in-hand which is one of the points made by the Chinese disaster film “Skyfire”, a movie that actually debuted in China at the end of 2019 but is just now getting distribution here in the States.

“Skyfire” unashamedly follows the long and trusty line of thrill-a-second disaster films. And like those other movies, “Skyfire” has the sole aim of keeping you on the edge your seat with a barrage of fun, non-stop, CGI-infused action. Oh, and there are characters too because I guess you kinda need them. But it’s mostly about the sheer spectacle of it all and I admit it, “Skyfire” really delivers the spectacle. In fact throughout the movie I kept thinking about how fun it would have been to see it in the big screen.

Image Courtesy of Screen Media Films

While there have been plenty of these types of movies, “Skyfire” is actually China’s first big budget disaster flick. It would feel right at home in Hollywood and I found myself constantly waiting for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to throw himself into the mayhem. Simon West directs this predominantly Chinese produced romp, working from a script written by Wei Bu and Sidney King. It’s your familiar light and silly fare that fully embraces its utterly ridiculous premise (which is part of its charm), which basically becomes a ‘who’s going to make it out alive‘ story bathed in some pretty impressive digital eye candy.

Jason Isaacs plays British businessman Jack Harris, the brains (or lack of them) behind the high-end Tianhuo island retreat. He has poured his entire fortune (plus some) into building a world class resort, a shopping district full of popular retail stores, and an elaborate monorail for those who can chalk up the cash. “We’ve conquered it (nature) for our own entertainment,” Harris cockily brags in an attempt to woo potential investors. How’s that for a statement begging to be proven wrong?

Also on the island is Meng Li (Hannah Quinlivan), part of a renowned team of volcanologists hired by Harris to be safety consultants. Meng Li has some personal history with the Tianhuo volcano and its eruption 20 years earlier. Now it’s expected to stay dormant for another 150 years, but some alarming activity leads the team to think otherwise. Back home Meng Li’s estranged volcano guru father (Wang Xueqi) knows something’s not right with Tianhuo. He travels back to the island to coax her into coming home, picking at some old daddy-daughter scabs in the process. In the meantime Meng Li tries to warn Harris but of course he doesn’t listen (What kind of disaster movie would you have if he did?). Guess what happens next.

Image Courtesy of Screen Media Films

The experts are proven right and the volcano does erupt putting the estimated 50,000 tourists, staff, investors, and developers in immediate danger. From there Simon West stomps the accelerator and spends the rest of the movie at 120 mph+. The characters are given just enough personal detail to distinguish them from each other. Storywise, their main job is to either die or survive, whichever the plot deems fitting. At the same time they’re a pretty likable bunch and you don’t mind sticking with them. Enough so that you actually root for their survival. The only real standout is Quinlivan who shows off some genuine action movie chops.

Movies like “Skyfire” are almost by necessity beholden to a certain expectations. Many of us know the formula well. It’s filled to its volcanic rim with well-worn tropes, genre clichés, and those gooey sentimental moments. The characters are in perpetual danger (the non-stop ultra-dramatic score makes sure we realize it), steadily dodging flying rock, rivers of lava, and bursts of gas. Some of the bigger set pieces really impress such as a scene where survivors attempt to jump from one speeding monorail car to another. Even the lesser ones manage to be enjoyable. Still, chances are if you aren’t into these kinds of flicks then “Skyfire” probably won’t change your mind. But they can be fun and entertaining escapes, especially honest and straight-shooting ones like this. “Skyfire” releases January 12th on VOD.

VERDICT- 3.5 STARS

In filmmaker Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal” Riz Ahmed plays Ruben Stone, a drummer and one-half of the punk rock duo Blackgammon. The other half is Lou (Olivia Cooke), lead singer, guitarist and Ruben’s girlfriend. The two drive their RV/home from city to city playing small gigs and selling just enough merch to get by. Both were lost and wayward souls but found safety and refuge in each other and the music they make together. And then Ruben lost his hearing.

From its earliest moments “Sound of Metal” brandishes a gritty authenticity in its story, its characters, and even the filmmaking. It all starts with Riz Ahmed and his star-making turn as a recovering heroin addict who has put every bit of himself into traveling across the country with his girlfriend performing gigs and working on a new album. Once the threat of losing it all sets in the richness of Ahmed’s performance really comes out. Anger, bitterness, fear, denial – Ahmed maneuvers through his crumbling character’s emotional cycles with a true and uncompromising fervor. It’s soulful and hard-nosed acting that avoids showiness and other similar trappings.

Image Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Ruben’s trouble begins after a show in Missouri when he suddenly loses most of his hearing. Nicolas Becker’s gnarly sound design (easily some of the year’s best) conveys Ruben’s condition by putting us in his head, surrounding us with the same disorienting hums and muffled tones. It’s intensely effective and quite harrowing especially when Marder begins contrasting the normal sounds with what Ruben is actually hearing. Ruben is certain he can fix it despite a doctor telling him his hearing loss is not only permanent but will most likely get worse.

Lou has a better grasp on reality and reaches out to Ruben’s sponsor who finds him a rural rehab facility for the deaf. It’s ran by a kind spirit named Joe (Paul Raci) who immediately gets Ruben into group meetings and starts him learning sign language. After some initial hesitation Ruben begins to make connections, especially with a teacher named Diane (Lauren Ridloff) and her students at a local school for the deaf. At the same time everything he’s doing is to get back to old life instead of learning how to live his new one. It’s a key internal conflict and a central focus of the film’s second half.

Image Courtesy of Amazon Studios

“Sound of Metal” tells the kind of story that filmmakers have often struggled to get right. That’s because there’s almost an inherent temptation to ramp up the drama rather than trusting the story and the audience. In “Sound of Metal” there is no condescension and no overwrought sentimentality. The film’s proverbial feet are firmly planted in the real world (maybe too much so in some cases) and the movie benefits from Marder’s willingness to keep things grounded and character-focused. Same with his choice to cast members of the deaf community. It both adds to the authenticity and fairly represents an often underrepresented group.

Despite being underwritten in places “Sound of Metal” is easily one of the more pleasant surprises of 2020. The film’s tough-minded yet thoughtful story plows some heavy ground and asks challenging questions. How do you put aside everything you’ve ever known and carve out a new identity? At what point do you give up on your dream and face a new reality? Marder gives us lots to ponder and Riz Ahmed embodies it with a performance full of grit and raw emotion. It’s hard to take your eyes off of him and he earns our empathy the very moment the terrifying muffled hum first sets in. “Sound of Metal” is now available on Amazon Prime.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

Full disclosure: I’m not what you would call the biggest Pixar fan. To be clear it’s no fault of their own. It’s just that I’ve grown picky when it comes to animation meaning I may not be the best judge of their films or the “genre” in general. I’m not saying there aren’t animated features I love, but I tend to be a little more critical than most and I rarely go into an animated film with a ton of excitement.

Maybe that’s why Pixar’s latest “Soul” was such a welcomed surprise. I didn’t go in with especially high expectations yet it only took a few early scenes for the movie to get its hooks in me. That doesn’t mean there aren’t bumps in the road. Within ten minutes the story takes a less compelling detour, leaving earth for a more cartoony setting where we learn the basic rules of the film’s central story. But soon “Soul” regains its deeply human pulse, planting us back in the vivid, bustling, and character-rich New York City.

Image Courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Jamie Foxx voices Joe Gardner, a substitute middle school band teacher whose only dream is to become a jazz pianist. When he’s offered a full-time position at the school his cynical mother (Phylicia Rashad) is thrilled at the prospect of her son having a steady job. But Joe is reluctant, fearing it may hurt his stalled jazz musician aspirations. Then he gets what could be his big break.

Joe is asked to fill in on piano for popular jazz saxophonist Dorothea Williams (voiced by Angela Bassett). Just like that he believes his life finally has meaning. And just like that he loses it all. While walking home after a brilliant audition an impervious Joe unknowingly dodges all sorts of big city hazards only to plunge down an open manhole.

Image Courtesy of Disney/Pixar

He wakes up as a baby-blue ethereal blob caught in a dark void between life and death where souls are quietly ushered to the bright light glowing in the distance. Realizing the finality of entering the Great Beyond, a frantic Joe scurries away eventually falling into a place called the Great Before where unborn souls are given their personalities before being sent to earth. Following me so far? I hope so because “Soul” is just getting started.

Through a series of exhausting events Joe ends up mentoring a rebellious soul named 22 (Tina Fey) who has no desire to be born. The two form a fun yet combustible duo who (thankfully) find themselves back on earth, inescapably tethered via a comic mishap. It’s here that “Soul” really finds its rhythm and begins doing what Pixar films are know for – balancing spirited animated hijinks with thoughtful themes that can resonate with all ages.

Image Courtesy of Disney/Pixar

“Soul” comes from Peter Docter whose studio resume includes “Monsters, Inc.”, “Up”, and “Inside Out”. But he’s joined by co-director and second-in-command Kemp Powers who also wrote the script for Regina King’s upcoming directorial debut “One Night in Miami”. The impressive pair share writing credits with Mike Jones and together they create a story that hits its marks a lot more than it misses. Meanwhile Pixar’s team of animators turn in some of their best work, specifically during the New York scenes where their lighting, crisp motions, and stunning attention to detail really shines.

“Soul” is a heartfelt story about second chances and finding real purpose in your life. It’s about obsessions, mortality, and finding the true qualities that make each of us tick. The film also marks Pixar’s first feature led predominantly by black characters. “Soul” may not always reach it’s incredibly high ambitions, but I appreciate its willingness to reach high. And with its endearing characters, uplifting positivity, and snappy jazz tunes, it’s hard not to leave feeling warm and alive. “Soul” opens December 25th on Disney +.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

Director and co-writer Yuval Adler’s “The Secrets We Keep” is one-half period thriller and one-half domestic drama. Set in small-town America during the late 1950’s, the movie embraces the implausibility of its premise while touching on post-war anxiety, revenge, the fragility of the American Dream, and (as the movie’s title eludes to) keeping secrets from loved ones and then dealing with the consequences once they inevitably come to light.

The aptly titled “The Secrets We Keep” opens with a woman named Maja (Noomi Rapace) sitting in the grass at her neighborhood park watching her young son play. She’s rattled when she hears a distinct whistle coming from a man calling his dog. It’s a familiar whistle; one she’s convinced she has heard before; one that instantly triggers traumatic memories from her past. She follows the man as he gets into his car, never seeing his face but certain their paths have crossed.

Photo Courtesy of Bleeker Street

A day or so later Maja sees the man again (he’s played by Joel Kinneman), this time at a hardware store. Still unable to get a good look at him, she follows the man to his house where he is greeted by his wife and two young children. Maja sneaks across their yard, peers through a window and finally sees his face.

Her next move is far more calculated. As the man walks home from work he stops to help Maja who fakes car trouble. With his back turned she clubs him with a hammer, throws him in the trunk, and drives home. There she reveals to her stunned husband Lewis (Chris Messina) that she has abducted one of the Nazi soldiers who raped her and murdered her sister during the final days of World War II. How’s that for a revelation? And all of that happens in the first 15 minutes or so.

The fast setup and little buildup is a bit jarring, but you certainly can’t accuse Adler of dragging his feet. At least not in the first act. But once his pieces are in place the film slows down and lets the characters open up and take over. It still has the big (and small) genre moments you expect. But it’s at its best when it lets the triad of Rapace, Kinnaman, and Messina navigate the thorny psychology, volatile emotions, and the dubious morality that hangs over the film like a ominous cloud.

Rapace is terrific, giving a strong two-sided performance that requires both physicality and emotional heft. Her Maja is a woman full of repressed sorrow and painful secrets. Seeing this man again forces her to relive all of her past horrors. But the question lingers, does she have the right guy? There is no evidence and nothing to go on other than her feelings and flashes of old memories. He insists she’s mistaken and his name is Thomas. He says he is Swiss not German, and that he moved to America to start a family with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz). Kinnaman’s sincerity and restraint make a strong case.

Photo Courtesy of Bleeker Street

That leaves Messina’s Lewis, a man utterly in the dark who wants to believe his wife but understands the ramifications of her being wrong. He’s still processing the slew of secrets hidden by his wife for 15 years – her family’s Gypsy background, her time in a war camp, the rape, the murder of her sister. More urgently, he has the determine whether to go with Maja’s instincts or stop her from crossing a line and making a mistake she will come to regret. This ends up forming the central conflict of the entire film.

Shot mostly in Louisiana, Adler and his production designer Nate Jones nail the look and feel of the late 1950’s and of small-town America. It was a time when aftershocks from the second world war were still being felt all over the world. “The Secrets We Keep” taps into that yet on a more personal level. But it’s still very much a genre film albeit one that is well acted, consistently entertaining, and that dabbles in its themes more than explores them. Overall it’s not a bad way to spend 97 minutes. “The Secrets We Keep” is now showing in select theaters and on VOD.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

If there is ever a movie in 2020 with his heart in the right place it’s “Sno Babies”. This small budget indie aggressively and unflinchingly takes on the ravages of drug addiction and recovery. And the film doesn’t just talk about its subject. Portions of all profits from production to rentals to soundtrack sales goes to the Global Recovery Initiatives Foundation (GRI) to raise awareness and funds in an effort to help those recovering from opioid addiction.

Inspired by actual events, “Sno Babies” tells the story of 16-year-old Kristen (Katie Kelly), a bright and beautiful honor student with aspirations of attending Princeton. She comes from a good Catholic family and loves hanging out with her best friend and classmate Hannah (Paola Andino). The one kink in this otherwise perfect life is that she and Hannah are addicted to heroin. We see the genesis of Kristen’s addiction in a brief yet potent prologue where she’s given a lone OxyContin pill by her self-serving boyfriend. It begins her tragic decline which the film chronicles vividly and with a real sense of urgency.

Photo Courtesy of Better Noise Films

Skip ahead 15 months. Kristen has moved to the cheaper and more easily available heroin which she and Hannah shoot up on an increasingly regular basis. From there director Bridget Smith concentrates on showing Kristen’s downward spiral, pulling no punches and depicting the depths of her addiction in startling detail. It’s not an easy watch. It’s uncomfortable and heartbreaking. Yet when focused on Kristen the film feels rooted in realism. It forces you watch several grim and uneasy sequences which I’ll let you experience for yourself. They leave their mark in large part due to Katie Kelly. The 20-year-old Texas native gives a performance of intense commitment, one that viscerally sells Kristen’s descent while also capturing our empathy.

Unfortunately the story wanders away from Kristen far too often. There’s a perplexing side story about a guy named Matt (Michael Lombardi) who runs a cash-strapped nature preserve left to him by his father. His wife Anna (Jane Stiles) is desperate to start a family and has her eye on a new house, but selling the preserve would be the only way they could rustle up the funds. Matt’s story does intersect with Kristen’s but not in a necessary or meaningful way. It gets even stranger when he becomes obsessed with killing a wolf which eventually leads to a cringy bit of foreshadowing which the movie could have done without. I found myself spending most of his scenes eager to get back to Kristen.

Photo Courtesy of Better Noise Films

One of the film’s loudest and most effective warnings shows how easy the symptoms of a loved one’s addiction can be missed especially if you’re not looking. Kristen’s parents (played by Shannan Wilson and Ken Arnold) are career-obsessed workaholics and oblivious to their daughter’s life-threatening problem. They think themselves to be good parents because they only focus on the externals such as providing Kristen with a nice home, giving her an expensive private school education, taking her to church. Yet despite it all they never truly SEE their daughter which only exacerbates her problem. With practically no guidance or stable outlet of support, Kristen is left to her own devices – the absolute worst thing for an addict. It’s a powerful and needed message.

With “Sno Babies” not only will you get a gut-wrenching revelation of addiction’s devastating effects, but you’ll also be helping in immensely important cause. The movie itself hits hard when centered on Kristen. Smith and writer Mike Walsh never dull the edge of Kristen’s story and Katie Kelly’s performance firmly anchors it in reality. If only we didn’t spend so much time on a distracting side story that never feels needed or relevant. It steals a significant amount of running time away from the far more impactful plot line – the one that still makes this a film worth seeing. “Sno Babies” premieres September 29th on VOD. #LetsSaveLives

VERDICT – 3 STARS

Mere seconds into the trailer for the new film “Sputnik” I immediately felt strong “Alien” meets “The X-Files” vibes. That’s all I needed to be onboard with this Russian sci-fi horror picture from first-time feature film director Egor Abramenko. Originally slated to debut at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, “Sputnik” joined many other movies in seeing its big premiere postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully IFC Films is dropping it this Friday on VOD and it deserves an audience.

The story (co-written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev) opens with a prologue set in outer space. In 1983 two cosmonauts heading home from an orbital space station encounter something mysterious just outside the earth’s atmosphere. Their space capsule eventually lands but the retrieval team finds the mission commander Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov) suffering from short-term amnesia and his co-pilot in a coma.

Photo Courtesy of IFC Films

The cosmonauts are taken to a secret research faculty in Kazakhstan ran by Colonel Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk). He is under pressure from Moscow to figure out what happened to the crew, specifically their “national hero” Konstantin. But it’s soon discovered that there is more at stake than just propaganda. Turns out Konstantin is host to an alien parasite that is using his body as an incubator of sorts. He doesn’t know it’s inside him, but Semiradov does and the potential benefits to the government could prove invaluable.

Semiradov recruits Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina), a neuropsychiatrist who is in hot water with the Health Ministry for using some controversial methods to save a young boy’s life. Semiradov needs someone willing to “take risks” to save a national hero for the government’s propaganda machine and save a potential weapon for the Soviet military. But to do so she’ll have to navigate through the facility’s numerous secrets in order to find out what’s really going on. And some of her discoveries have dramatic (and potentially fatal) implications.

“Sputnik” is built upon a surprisingly rich attention to character. It’s spends much of the first half uncoiling the people we meet almost exclusively through Tatyana’s point of view. Even as the action intensifies in the second half, the characters are always front and center. The performances are well-tuned for a Cold War era thriller. Akinshina brings a needed steely grit to Tatyana while Bondarchuk’s Colonel Semiradov is an enigma – cold, emotionless, and impossible to read.

Photo Courtesy of IFC Films

One of the film’s biggest strengths is found in the eerie atmosphere it maintains from start to finish. Abramenko makes great use of both visuals and sound to create a chilly and unwelcoming environment. Cinematographer Maxim Zhukov shoots in moody washed out color tones and with a slight grain to his images. It effectively looks cut from its time. Meanwhile the ominous score from Oleg Karpachev cuts in at the just the right moments, reenforcing the sense of dread.

I’m almost certain that “Sputnik” will be too much of a slow-burn for some. Yet at the same time Abramenko is constantly moving his story forward whether it’s through the chilling mystery or character growth. I love his patience in allowing his crafty genre brew to play out. And while the influences of “Alien” and “The X-Files” are all over it, “Sputnik” etches its own identity that feels fresh in this day of stale rehashes. “Sputnik” premieres this Friday on VOD.

VERDICT – 4 STARS