HOME MOVIES
The Seagull, directed by Michael Mayer (PG-13, 1 hour, 38 minutes)
Contemporary film audiences won’t find The Seagull, based on Anton Chekov’s character-driven play of the same name, particularly innovative. It rises or falls on the strength of execution.
The role of Irina Arkadina seems tailored to Annette Bening’s expansive charm and close-quarter cuttingness. Intelligent and icily tough, Anton Chekov’s diva reigns over a diverse group of family and retainees, including her perpetually unwell brother Sorin (Brian Dennehy); popular writer (and Irina’s lover) Boris Trigorin (Corey Stoll); Masha (Elisabeth Moss), the practical and dyspeptic daughter of her brother’s estate manager; Irina’s aspiring symbolist playwright son Konstantin (Billy Howle), and Nina (Saoirse Ronan), a wannabe actor of whom Konstantin is enamored.
All of these multidimension-
al personalities are brought together on Sorin’s country estate, where they talk and drink while Konstantin attempts to mount a pretentious production that no one takes seriously. Konstantin resents Trigorin’s talent; Trigorin desires Nina; Masha rolls her eyes, and Irina dominates all of them.
It mostly works, sometimes spectacularly well. This is a remarkably funny
movie at times as Bening and Moss, in particular, trade potent looks. As Nina, Ronan faces the challenge of playing a bad actor with an unearned confidence in her abilities (similar to musically astute Meryl Streep playing painfully bad singer Florence Foster Jenkins a couple of years back.) Stoll’s Trigorin is vain yet touchingly aware of his limitations; even Howle’s Konstantin, who initially presents as merely annoying, eventually achieves a credible humanity.
Solo: A Star Wars Story (PG13, 2 hours, 15 minutes) Go back in Star Wars time to discover how, in his younger days, renegade pilot Han Solo pairs with faithful Wookiee Chewbacca and gets mixed up with notorious gambler Lando Calrissian. By now, you know if this topic, and this series, is a must-see for you. Or not. With Alden Ehrenrich, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton; directed by Ron Howard.
Uncle Drew (PG-13, 1 hour, 43 minutes) Based on the Pepsi web series, this agreeable play-it-safe comedy tells
the tale of a you ng team owner and Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving) rounding up Drew’s old basketball squad to prove that a group of septuagenarians still have what it takes to win. With Lil Rel Howery, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson, Erica Ash, Lisa Leslie. Tiffany Haddish, Nick Kroll; directed by Charles Stone III. Bonus features include seven deleted scenes, three behind-the-scenes featurettes, an animated short, and an audio commentary with the director.
Hot Summer Nights (R, 1 hour, 47 minutes) Timothee Chalamet (Best actor nominee, Call Me by Your Name, 2017) stars in Elijah Bynum’s pretty yet inconsequential directorial debut as a socially awkward recent high school graduate who finds himself while spending a summer dealing marijuana on Cape Code. The DVD includes a making-of featurette and audio commentary with writer-director Bynum, producer Ryan Friedkin and actor Emory Cohen. With Maika Monroe, Alex Roe, William Fichtner, Thomas Jane.