MOVIE REVIEWS ‘RAMPAGE’
‘BEIRUT’
R 1:49
“Beirut,” a tense, moodily stylish political thriller set in 1982 amid the chaos of Lebanon’s civil war, stars Jon Hamm as a former U.S. diplomat who, 10 years after leaving the country in the wake of personal tragedy, is called back to negotiate for the release of one of his erstwhile colleagues, a CIA operative who has been taken hostage by one of the area’s myriad and ever-metastasizing factions.
Directed by Brad Anderson (“The Machinist”) from a script by Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”), “Beirut” bears the stamp of each filmmaker, propelled by Gilroy’s instinctive knack for keeping a clear, coherent story in constant forward motion, and executed with Anderson’s unfussy approach to visuals and character cues.
By the time Hamm’s Mason Skiles is pulled back into duty, he has been working in the relatively sedate world of labor-management mediation in Boston. In those sequences, Hamm affects the sodden alcoholic dejection of Paul Newman in “The Verdict.” That same sense of benumbed fatalism follows him to the film’s title city, where Christians, Muslims, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel and Syria — with America and the U.S.S.R. hovering in close range — are engaged in a heavily armed game of cat-and-mouse that has reduced a flourishing urban center to a wary, wrecked battleground.
Loosely based on the abduction of CIA station chief William Buckley by Hezbollah in 1984, “Beirut” never explicitly invokes the name of that then-emerging group. Rather, it plays like a prequel to the grievous events that would engulf the Middle East during that decade and beyond, as political interests and their proxies collided and triangulated with cynical and often tragic results.
With the exception of Skiles, who continues to harbor frayed hope for deal making, even though he knows better, very few players in “Beirut” are conventionally sympathetic — including the American Foreign Service lifers who haven’t bothered to learn Arabic while embedding in the region. Their dismissive attitude is summed up in Skiles’s description of Lebanon in an early sequence as a “boardinghouse without a landlord,” where the tenants are “bound only by their shared talent for betrayal.”
Some public-interest groups have already expressed outrage at “Beirut.” Among their complaints: that it was produced in Morocco, in large part because Lebanon has been rebuilt to the point that it can’t credibly pass for a war zone; that it reduces Lebanese and Middle Eastern characters to stereotypes, succumbing to tanks-and-beach-umbrellas cliches that so often capture the contradictions of a sophisticated, cosmopolitan society besieged by sectarian strife and brute violence. Such films as “Waltz with Bashir” and “The Gatekeepers” (and, more recently, “Foxtrot” and “The Insult”) have sought to delve more thoughtfully into the contradictions that animated the civil war, and that still influence the region today. In “Beirut” those forces aren’t the subject as much as a mutable, confounding backdrop for Hamm’s character to redeem himself — and, by extension, the frequently misbegotten policies of the country he represents.
The inherent chauvinism of that premise notwithstanding, “Beirut” is an engaging, well-crafted thriller, offering a showcase not just for Hamm but for Rosamund Pike (playing his levelheaded handler) and an ensemble of terrific character actors, including Dean Norris, Shea Whigham and Larry Pine. Reaching back to John le Carré for its world-weary portrayal of tradecraft, “Beirut” is a crafty drama that doesn’t depend on car crashes or shootouts for its sense of propulsive action. It may be a mostly pessimistic portrait of its time and place, but it offers hope, if only that movies of its style, scope and smarts can still get made.
Starring: Rosamund Pike, Jon Hamm, Mark Pellegrino and Dean Norris. (Language, some violence and a brief nude image)
— Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
‘BLOCKERS’
R 1:42
In “Blockers,” Leslie Mann plays Lisa, the single mom of a high school senior named Julie (Kathryn Newton), a vivacious teenager who, as the movie opens, announces a newfound goal of losing her virginity on prom night.
Julie’s best friends Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) quickly warm to the plan, agreeing that, as with everything else in their lives, they’ll take the leap together — or at least at the same time. When Lisa spies the trio’s texts on Julie’s laptop, she and the other girls’ dads — played by John Cena and Ike Barinholtz — embark on an anxiety-fueled, hysterically pitched mission to scuttle the young women’s plans, invading the kids’ prom night like a battalion of helicopter parents humming “Ride of the Valkyries.”
As a burlesque of parental angst and sex panic, “Blockers” possesses sharply observed moments of inspired lunacy. Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, this combination of satire and slapstick also includes the requisite number of dumb, gross and otherwise icky sight gags, whether in the form of Cena agreeing to a “butt chugging” contest with a bunch of beer-buzzed 17-yearolds, or some unsettlingly graphic close-ups of male genitalia.
Mann, a gifted comedian given a gratifying showcase for her talents (especially later in the film, when she winds up in a hotel-roomturned-love-nest), makes the most of a role that presents the broadly comedic twin of “Lady Bird,” which also centered on a mom dealing with impending separation by spiraling into terror and misplaced rage.
Directed by newcomer Kay Cannon from a script by Brian Kehoe and Jim Kehoe, “Blockers” suffers from ungainly, choppy pacing. It feels like a slapdash collection of scenes rather than a balloon sent smoothly aloft, with jokes often falling as flat as Cena’s buzz cut (a running gag centers on his tough-guy character’s propensity for crying, a go-to bit that ages fast). There are more than a few stretches when nothing much happens save for getting one group of people to the next backdrop for a sex joke or sight gag (frequently at the expense of a freewheeling couple played by Gina Gershon and Gary Cole).
Still, the underlying values of “Blockers” are refreshingly healthy and affirming, proclaimed not only by Kayla’s pointedly levelheaded mom (Sarayu Blue) — in a fiery speech about the double standards and the dubious politics of policing female sexuality — but by the girls themselves.
Smart, self-aware, comfortable with asking for what they want — and, more important, with refusing what they don’t want — these teen feminists feel like avatars of an age when the term “me too” will have more to do with pleasure-with than powerover. Together with their male contemporaries — Miles Robbins delivers a particularly scene-stealing turn as the mellowed-out Connor, who sports a manbun and an equally cloying it’s-all-good vibe — the girls of “Blockers” emerge as admirable examples of autonomy, confidence and self-respect, never more so than when their clueless parents are running amok, half-cocked.
Starring: Leslie Mann, Kathryn Newton, John Cena and Geraldine Viswanathan. (Crude and sexual content, vulgar language throughout, drug material, teen partying and some graphic nudity) — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
‘THE MIRACLE SEASON’
PG 1:39
The arc of high school history bends toward victory in “The Miracle Season.” But you already knew that from the title of this tear-drenched sports melodrama.
The movie fictionalizes the aftermath of the 2011 death of Caroline “Line” Found (Danika Yarosh), a brash and beloved girls volleyball star in an Iowa depicted here as idyllic. She departs from the story early, leaving the team weaker physically and emotionally. Yet losing Line motivates the three other major characters to step up their games.
Line’s lifelong best friend, Kelly (Erin Moriarty), must replace her pal on the court while keeping her in her heart. Line’s kindly dad (William Hurt) must reconcile himself to the loss of both his daughter and his wife in the same week. And icy, inarticulate coach Kathy “Brez” Bresnahan (Helen Hunt) must locate her voice — and her humanity.
Her friend showed her “how to live,” Kelly explains in the sappy voice-over introduction. By movie’s end, the whole cheering section is wearing “Live Like Line” shirts.
Director Sean McNamara, who has made a score of unmemorable movies, stages the volleyball showdowns effectively, even if the outcome is never in doubt. The rest of the film has a cozy TV-commercial vibe, pumped by tunes from Katy Perry and the inevitable Neil Diamond. It’s no champion, but it’s still a reasonably good cry.
— Mark Jenkins, Washington Post
‘BLUMHOUSE’S TRUTH OR DARE’
PG-13 1:40 Rating unavailable
A harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when someone — or something — begins to punish those who tell a lie or refuse the dare.
Starring: Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane and Sophia Ali. (Violence and disturbing content, alcohol abuse, some sexuality, language and thematic material) — IMDB.com
PG-13 1:47 Rating unavailable
Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry transforms this gentle ape into a raging monster. As these newly created monsters tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. (Sequences of violence, action and destruction, brief language and crude gestures)
— IMDB.com