Heartfelt ‘Soul,’ bittersweet ‘Sylvie’s Love’ are best bets
George Clooney’s latest sci-fi epic also worth seeing
Pick a genre. Any genre. You’ll find it represented in the crop of new films opening this holiday week. Here’s a rundown.
“SOUL” >> Leave it to Emeryville-based Pixar to find something tender, funny and touching about a middle-aged man’s existential crisis. With its all-star vocal cast — Jamie Foxx, Oakland native Daveed Diggs, Tina Fey, among others — and innovative digital animation, “Soul” reminds us that life is good even if dreams don’t turn out the way we wished them.
It’s told from the perspective of a Black middle school band teacher (voiced by Foxx) who confronts mortality after an accident. Joe’s mishap thrusts him into a cleverly conceived waiting room in the afterlife, a sort- of good place that Joe is eager to leave so he can attend the killer jazz gig of his dreams. Co-directors Pete Docter and Kemp Powers take a Frank Capra approach, and while “Soul” might not express anything revelatory, its message remains universal. One quibble: They should have have used more music. Attached to “Soul” is “Burrow,” the lovely short from former Lafayette resident Maddie Sharafian about a determined young rabbit. I’ll be watching that one again and again.
DETAILS >> **** out of 4,
**** for “Burrow”; both streaming on Disney+ beginning Friday.
“SYLVIE’S LOVE” >> Classy, glossy and imbued with sensuality, writer- director Eugene Ashe’s decade-spanning Black romance makes for perfect holiday viewing. Nnamdi Asomugha smolders as a mid-20th-century sax player smitten with Tessa Thompson’s sassy record store employee, later studio executive. Every element of Ashe’s film is swoon-worthy, from Fabrice Lecomte’s lush score and Phoenix Mellow’s gorgeous costumes to Declan Quinn’s exquisite cinematography and Asomugha’s and Thompson’s luminous performances.
DETAILS >> ****; available now on Amazon Prime.
“THE M I DN IGHT SKY” >>
George Clooney returns to what bas been for him fertile terrain — the metaphysical sci-fi drama. While fans of nonstop futuristic mayhem will likely be disappointed in this film’s deliberate pacing, others will find this sensitive story artistically and emotionally satisfying. Based on the novel “Good Morning, Midnight” by Lily Brooks-Dalton, it catapults us into the aftermath of a global event that’s taken out the entire population — except a terminally ill scientist (Clooney). Thinking he’s alone at his Arctic base station, he is surprised to be joined by an enigmatic young girl (Caoilinn Springall). Clooney intercuts those scenes with ones of a crew (Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, Demina Belcher, Kyle Chandler) voyaging back from Jupiter, unaware of what awaits them back home. There’s a supposed major reveal that isn’t all that surprising, but Clooney’s judicious use of special effects and the intimacy of the story add to its major impact.
DETAILS >> ***; available now on Netflix.
“NEWS OF THE WORLD” >>
Concord native Tom Hanks sits tall in the saddle for his first Western, a rousing old- school feature from Paul Greengrass that’s satisfying and surprisingly timely. Five years after the Civil War, a retired captain (Hanks) roams the Texas range until one day he encounters 10-year- old Cicada ( Helena Zinger), raised by the Kiowa tribe, and later abandoned with no one wanting to help her. That the two become closer might well be a predictable development, but everything about the film is compelling and deftly handled, including an exciting shootout in the desert.
DETAILS >> ****; in select theaters; expected to be released for streaming in January.
“MONSTER HUNTER” >> Bmovie queen Milla Jovovich partners up with martial arts superstar Tony Jaa for, you guessed it, another mindless video game adaptation from Paul W. S. Anderson. Hardly a good movie and barely even a movie at all, this one’s a guilty pleasure with a desert smackdown featuring the dynamite duo dispensing with a “Starship Troopers” infestation of scuttling, scurrying mutant spider-crab-scorpion thingies. The silly script revolves around an alternate world intruding on our own. Or something. The fact that it’s pure poppycock is half of its dubious charm. Ditto getting an eyeful of Ron Perlman rocking a blonde headbanger hairdo and a surly digital pirate cat. This is perfect fare for a drive-in, which is where it’s playing for now.
DETAILS >> ***; check Bay Area drive-in schedules.
“HALF BROTHERS” >> A stressed- out son (Luis Gerardo Mendez) jets from Mexico to America just days before he’s set to get hitched when his estranged father (Juan Pablo Espinosa) becomes seriously ill. He meets an annoying half- brother (Connor Del Rio) he didn’t know existed and embarks on a road trip tied to a scavenger hunt dad cooked up. It’s an inane setup that doesn’t work. Director Luke Greenfield’s bromantic comedy is a tonal mess, shifting from immigrant drama to infantile comedy. It’s almost like someone created the screenplay off the narrative limbs of others. Mendez deserves better. The best scenes involve an adorable goat. DETAILS >> **; available on various platforms.
“ASSASSINS” >> As riveting and preposterous as a Robert Ludlum novel, Ryan Murphy’s terrific documentary of the bizarre assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother is a spellbinding, shocking story that pries open a seemingly cutand- dried case and stirs up a beehive of questions about corruption, power and malfeasance. The tenacious Murphy gained unprecedented access to the two female suspects charged in the 2017 murder of Kim Jong-nam at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport. He also gained the confidence of friends and attorneys in this case.
DETAILS >> ****; streaming as part of the Virtual Cinema series at the Roxy Theater, www. roxie.com, and the Smith Rafael Center, rafaelfilm.cafilm.org.