Film Gate Reviews: May 2022

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Smart, funny and way too real.

Wow. The type of movie that can take your breath away from a combination of laughter, shock and heart-breaking tragedy. Emergency is a dark comedy that can keep you laughing despite the seriousness and real world realizations of the consequences. Kunle and Sean are two Black students at university; they go from a teacher using the N-word to get ready for a night of partying to an unconscious White girl.		2022 Directed by: Carey Williams Screenplay by: K.D. Dávila Starring: RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins

Nice nods to the original and spectacular action.

It has been a long time since I last saw Top Gun but I’ve remembered how much fun it is. The first half of Top Gun: Maverick seems to want to recreate all of the individual elements of the original without capturing any of the movie magic, but don’t worry that changes just as quickly as Maverick can change course in an F-18. The final act, their mission, is dazzling. It’s fun, engaging, breath-taking and just really impressive movie-making.		2022 Directed by: Joseph Kosinski Screenplay by: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie Starring: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller and Glen Powell

Slow and cheesy.

A Perfect Pairing – first off, that title, is it ever cheesy. It took me awhile just to get over the fact that I was going to press play on a title so punny that it loops back around to witless. But you are getting what you expect: a romantic comedy centered around the wine industry. As is true for pretty much all Netflix rom-coms, the American heroine must fly across the world to find a suitable mate.		2022 Directed by: Stuart McDonald Screenplay by: Hilary Galanoy, Elizabeth Hackett Starring: Victoria Justice, Adam Demos

Too subdued and unoriginal.

Senior Year is Rebel Wilson’s latest comedy offering. She’s 37, has been in a coma for the last 20 years, and now she’s returning to high school to graduate finally be named prom queen (graduation is for the un-cool kids). Cue all the 2002 jokes and how society has become so pretentious. It definitely has its fair share of cell phone jokes, an Ally McBeal joke, and how non-confrontational everything is now, but it’s relatively tame. I was expecting way worse.		2022 Directed by: Alex Hardcastle Screenplay by: Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli and Brandon Scott Starring: Rebel Wilson, Sam Richardson

Universal themes, well crafted characters.

What starts as a rom-com about family turns into a bittersweet comedy about the collapse of a picture-perfect family and an examination of gender roles in today’s society. The Perfect Family is not a pure comedy and it also shifts away from not one but two tales of romance to eventually reveal itself as an unexpected dramedy about women finding themselves at all stages of life.		2021 Directed by: Arantxa Echevarría Screenplay by: Olatz Arroyo Starring: Belén Rueda, Carolina Yuste and Gonzalo Ramos

A silly dated action comedy.

A Polish true story masquerading as an action crime comedy, The Getaway King is more chaotic than it is interesting and more silly than it is entertaining. The backdrop is 1988 Poland at the end of Communism, and I would have to assume those that lived there at that time got a lot more of the backstory that would have made this more interesting. For the rest of us the historical and cultural significance is downplayed so much, it’s missing that crucial touchpoint.		2021 Directed by: Mateusz Rakowicz Screenplay by: Lukasz Maciejewski and Mateusz Rakowicz Starring: David Ogrodnik, Robert Wieckiewicz

Committing murders just for the fun of it is not that funny.

A dark comedy that seems to revel in how silly murder can be. Suicide for Beginners starts with a solid hook – an obviously depressed man is planning the perfect suicide, well murder-suicide since he has already kidnapped his ex-girlfriend. It’s dark and plays up the comedy dichotomy big time with bright colors in a cheerful suburb and a happy-go-lucky score backing it all.		2022 Directed by: Craig Thieman Screenplay by: Ethan Hunter, Craig Thieman Starring: Wil Daniels, Sara Tomko

Creepiness but a lack of interesting characters in a corn field.

My first instinct of Escape the Field was a low-budget indie version of Escape Room, and yeah, very close to it. Escape Room spent more time at the beginning introducing the characters and then went more heavy into the action, whereas Escape the Field starts right in the middle of the corn field and tries to maintain a steady feel of creepiness.		2022 Directed by: Emerson Moore Screenplay by: Emerson Moore, Sean Wathen, Joshua Dobkin Starring: Jordan Claire Robbins, Theo Rossi

Light-weight drama and slow-burn romance.

A coming-of-age teen romantic drama that’s about finding yourself, Along for the Ride survives on the strength of its lead character. Auden (Emma Pasarow) is a smart girl, but not implausibly smart; she’s shy, but not so shy that she won’t at least try to hang out; she knows herself well enough that she likes being the smart un-cool girl, but now she’s trying to change herself to make friends, to fall in love.		2022 Directed by: Sofia Alvarez Screenplay by: Sofia Alvarez Based on the novel by Sarah Dressen Starring: Emma Pasarow, Belmont Cameli