The Banker
Biopic of Bernard Garrett (Anthony Mackie) and Joe Morris (Samuel L. Jackson), two businessmen in the 1950s American South who strike it rich and buy a bank in Texas in order to help African American people get loans — which they can only accomplish by hiring Matt Steiner (Nicholas Hoult) and training him to be the white face of their operation. A decent if rather unremarkable film that you’ll appreciate then immediately forget. Sturdily directed by George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), though he and his army of writers — it’s seriously never a good sign when a film has no less than FIVE credited writers — oversimplify this story, effectively ironing out all its nuances and complexities. Take, for instance, the sequence in which Bernard and Joe give Matt a crash course in business and finance so that he can convince white executives of his expertise... and the film makes it seem like he accomplishes this in a matter of days. Convincing period costumes (by Aieisha Li) and sets (by John Collins). Jackson and Hoult are always watchable, while Mackie is as wooden as ever. This film is perfectly fine, though it lacks enough risk or ambition for me to really care.
Grade: C+
Big Time Adolescence
Mo (Griffin Gluck) is a high school boy who’s best friends with his sister’s ex-boyfriend, a twentysomething slacker pothead named Zeke (Pete Davidson). As you’d expect, things get way out of hand — drunken tattoos, being wasted at school, drug-dealing, the cops! — before the inevitable lessons are learned. Writer-director Jason Orley’s film debut (which premiered at Sundance) is pretty formulaic and predictable but amusing enough to be worth your time. Gluck has been a charming TV star for years and deserves more lead roles like this. Another fun role as well for Oona Laurence (for our money, one of the most exciting young actresses currently working in film), as Mo’s love interest. Davidson, though not exactly playing against type here, is a solid movie star — the greatest asset of his performance is that, though he plays Zeke’s dead-end life for laughs, he’s always aware of how tragic the character is underneath it all.
Grade: B-
Blow the Man Down
In a small fishing village in Maine, sisters Priscilla (Sophie Lowe) and Mary Beth Connolly (Morgan Saylor) operate their family fishmonger business as they grieve the recent death of their mother. Following a drunken night out at the local dive bar, Mary Beth kills a man in self-defense and flees the scene. The sisters’ decision to hide the body and cover up the incident leads them to uncover some of the village’s darkest secrets. There’s a bit of Coen influence in the way first-time filmmakers Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy infuse their rural crime story with black comedy and well-intentioned characters who find themselves in over their heads. There’s also the strange delight of how they punctuate the film with scenes of fishermen singing sea shanties. But what makes this so special is the female gaze the filmmakers bring to their storytelling. This is a town run by its matriarchs — Marceline Hugot, Annette O’Toole, June Squibb, and a terrifying Margo Martindale — and the Connolly sisters soon learn that it’s unwise to step out of line. An exciting debut by Cole and Krudy, who really excel at world-building. This is a fishy New England underworld that’s unlike anything I’ve seen before.
Grade: B+
Lost Girls
Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan) is a single mother in small-town New York whose estranged eldest daughter disappears. When the police don’t take her case seriously, she begins a one-woman crusade to solve this mystery — leading to a media circus and the discovery of the bodies of other missing girls. Ryan brings great conviction to this role, while Thomasin McKenzie and Oona Laurence offer strong support as her other daughters, though none of these characters feels especially well-defined. Director Liz Garbus is an Academy Award-nominated documentarian (What Happened, Miss Simone?), and she brings a no-frills gritty realism to her narrative debut. She and screenwriter Michael Werwie have such a worthy goal here: illustrating how women are failed by the American justice system — particularly when they’re poor, and especially when they do sex work. Story based on the real-life victims of the Long Island serial killer, who remains at large, so this is definitely an important work of public service that’s worth your time. If only Garbus’s somewhat sleepy filmmaking had the urgency to match the story she’s telling.
Grade: B-
Spenser Confidential
Ever wish you could watch a movie where Mark Wahlberg plays a former criminal who kicks ass and takes down the shady guys he used to trust who have set him up? What’s that — I’m describing half of Wahlberg’s movies? Ah, well, if you’re into that kind of thing, boy does Netflix have a delightful treat for you! Wahlberg reunites with director Peter Berg for yet another tired collaboration featuring the star playing yet another badass whose oversize muscles try to compensate for his lack of character development. Alan Arkin, meanwhile, phones it in as his friend and mentor. Berg has been an occasionally interesting filmmaker, but here it feels like he’s assembled a bunch of pieces churned out by the Hollywood content factory and slapped his name on it. This movie is not even terrible — it’s just 100% formulaic and forgettable, as if everyone involved had to promise to put in their absolute minimum effort before they could sign their contracts. There is one actor who didn’t get that memo, though, and unexpectedly it’s Austin Post (aka Post Malone), who brings a frightening, unpredictable energy to his role as Wahlberg’s unhinged fellow inmate. Unless you’re a Mark Wahlberg Mega-Fan, there really isn’t any reason you’d need to watch this.
Grade: C-
Stargirl
Oh boy, is this Disney+ teen romance ever dreadful. Leo (Graham Verchere) is a sad, introverted teenage boy, still mourning the recent death of his father. His life is changed forever when a mysterious girl named Stargirl (Grace VanderWaal) arrives at school, teaches him about love and kindness, then disappears without a trace forever. Perhaps the most eye-rolling example ever of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope — I never once believed this “character” has a private life of her own. She performs good deeds for strangers and says things like: “Scream, Leo. Don’t you want the universe to hear you?” Many times, I wondered if Stargirl even exists outside of Leo’s imagination. Not that Leo is a believable character either — director Julia Hart and her co-writers seem never to have met a teenager before. They sure work hard to be cute and quirky, though. (Leo is besties with an adult paleontologist, don’t you know — hi, Giancarlo Esposito!) Marketed as a jukebox musical... but that’s actually really insulting: the only musical numbers involve Stargirl strumming her ukulele and singing gentle songs while students watch. Not sure if the massive storytelling issues were lifted straight from Jerry Spinelli’s novel, or if Hart and co. accomplished those all by themselves. Either way, there are far better films out there for you to watch with your own teens.
Grade: D
Uncorked
Likeable but mediocre drama about Elijah (Mamoudou Athie), poised to take over his family’s BBQ restaurant in Memphis, but who secretly dreams of being a sommelier. Narrative arcs for Elijah and his parents (played by Courtney B. Vance and Niecy Nash) are 100% formulaic, but I did enjoy spending time learning about what it takes to be a world-class wine expert — it honestly seems like sorcery to me. Really dumb recurring joke has Elijah’s dad confusing ‘sommelier’ with ‘Somali’: “You really wanna do that African wine thing, huh?” Yikes. This is writer-director Prentice Penny’s film debut, after years of writing sitcom episodes and directing HBO’s Insecure, and you can tell that he’s still developing his filmmaking aesthetic. Like so many of Netflix’s non-prestige films, this is formally bland and excessively lit. As appealing as much of this is, one hopes that Penny will gain the confidence to take more risks with his craft. Athie a cute and charming lead.
Grade: C+
