Buster Moon talks himself into trouble mounting a show in a Las Vegas-style resort. Dayglo jukebox animation sequel that doesn’t have the focus of the first flick, but nevertheless delivers jokes, visuals, and a musical palette from Mercury Rev to System of a Down via Prince, Billie Eilish, and The King and I. Something for everyone, pretty much.
Here’s the trailer.
A woman who controls her extreme anger issues via a high-tech electrical device investigates a murder. Poor sub-Crank action-comedy: a decent cast helps (several in one-set cameos), but (some OK) quips, poor action, over-direction, the world’s most guessable villain, and stagey visuals don’t. Feels like a TV pilot: has that Nu Boyana aesthetic.
Here’s the trailer.
Mismatched former best friends become superheroes after a laboratory mishap. Perhaps the most perfunctorily-plotted movie in recent history. McCarthy reprises her brash/embarrassed working class schtick, and there’s a few decent song-based jokes. A strong cast helps: Jason Bateman’s enjoying himself.
Here’s the trailer.
Two petty criminals and a hairdresser go on a road trip/crime spree. An odd project – a US remake of Bertrand Blier’s Les Valseuses/Going Places retooled for Turturro’s Quintana character from the Coens’ The Big Lebowski – that inevitably feels like fan fiction. Some minor pleasures along the way; the actors seem to be having fun.
A now-aged mob hitman reflects. A stunning revisiting of themes preoccupying Scorsese throughout his career; gang life, organised crime, Catholic guilt. Sombre and melancholy, and Ellroy-like in its alt-history approach to the American 20th century. A technical, dramatic and stylistic marvel, with fine performances all around, none less than from Pesci, who’s revelatory here. Hugely recommended.
A former high-flying chef finds himself again as a food-truck operator after being humbled. At once obvious and sentimental yet fun, sweet and charming, bolstered by great character actor performances, Chef is a treat if you go with it.
Lang, Hank Pym and Lana re-team, this time to find Pym’s wife, long thought lost in the quantum realm. Superior Marvel adventure, all the better for its modest scale, humour, and invention in blending 3D, action and the conceit of the size-changing tech.
A double-crossed professional thief tracks down the men who left him for dead. It starts well, but Parker loses its way in comic asides, unfocused subplots and a lack of narrative throughline; a disappointment from this director that doesn’t do justice to the Donald E Westlake source material.
![The Irishman [AKA I Heard You Paint Houses] (2019, dir. Martin Scorsese)](https://255review.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/ti.jpg?w=620)
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