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Reviews of movies showing in theaters or streaming online
‘AMERICAN FICTION’:
Former journalist and Emmy-winning TV writer Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut, “American Fiction,” is a social satire that wields a deceptively sharp shiv, not a cleaving broadsword, as it surgically slices through the many hypocrisies of the culture industry at large. In adapting Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure,” Jefferson assigns himself and his film the double-edged task of critiquing popular representations of African American life, while simultaneously serving a representation that is otherwise lacking. It’s a lot to juggle, but he pulls it off, thanks to a wildly talented cast and plenty of good humor that still allows for well-placed jabs to the gut of Hollywood and the publishing industry. Jeffrey Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an academic and novelist who has grown weary of campus politics, but hasn’t managed to find stardom in publishing. After an incident with a student, he’s asked to take a leave of absence, and he heads to a book festival in his hometown of Boston. “American Fiction” is a lot like Monk’s drink of choice: Chenin blanc. Dry, bracing, elegant and a bit unexpected. It’s a thoughtful and complex film that unfolds under repeat viewings and signals the arrival of an exciting new filmmaker. 1:57. 3 stars. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
‘THE COLOR PURPLE’: Like Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film version, the new screen edition of “The Color Purple” feels like a musical, the difference being the new one is a musical. It’s based on the 2005 Broadway hit, which spun off tours and a 2015 revival that, like the first Broadway staging, handed its female lead a Tony — LaChanze first, Cynthia Erivo second.
This new movie stars the powerhouse Fantasia Barrino, who replaced LaChanze as Celie in the original Broadway run. Barrino portrays the adult Celie, the abused, discarded but finally restored Georgia girl who survives a wrenching separation from her sister and lands on a heart-swelling reunion decades later. As a girl, the character’s played by Phylicia Pearl Mpasi. The new film spans 36 years, 1909 to 1945. Both Mpasi and Barrino are wonderful. And they’re surrounded by a cornucopia of triple threats — including Taraji P. Henson, Corey Hawkins, Danielle Brooks, H.E.R. and Colman Domingo — doing their best to elevate the synthetic fabric of this latest adaptation. 2:21. 2 ½ stars. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
‘FERRARI’: Michael Mann’s directorial elegance, flecked with violence and a kind of rapturous loneliness, is all his. And his latest, “Ferrari,” Mann brings a long-gestating portrait of Italian automaker Enzo Ferrari to
completion. Parts of it are first-rate; parts of it are routine. As Ferrari, Adam Driver manages a dutiful, careful but indistinct performance on the heels of his last high-profile Italianate turn in Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci.” The late screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin’s storyline focuses on the Ferrari crises of 1957, when the auto legend and former racer was about to go under. Broke. Overextended. Longtime younger lover (Shailene Woodley) and publicly unacknowledged preteen son (Giuseppe Festinese) in one villa; long-suffering wife and business partner Laura Ferrari (Penelope Cruz) seething and scowling in another. Her husband’s rampant philandering is well-known to Laura; Enzo’s artfully compartmentalized secret life and son are not. The movie reinvents no wheels. But it sure knows how to film ’em. 2:04. 2 ½ stars. — Michael Phillips
‘THE IRON CLAW’: Filmmaker Sean Durkin is interested in exploring the dynamics of dysfunctional
families, particularly ones with imposing, controlling or otherwise distrustful father figures. The patriarch in Durkin’s latest film, “The Iron Claw,” is also obsessed with controlling and maintaining an image of his family, one of powerful masculinity. But this is a true story, the tale of the Von Erich clan, a wrestling dynasty who ruled the rings in the 1980s and ’90s. It’s an almost unbelievably devastating fable of young men crushed under the expectations of their demanding father, Fritz (Holt McCallany), who served as the coach, mentor, employer and the overseer of a Texas wrestling promotion that churned through his brood of boys. Zac Efron stars as Kevin Von Erich, and this is Efron’s best screen performance yet. Ultimately, “The Iron Claw” is a ghost story, a tale of a family haunted by those they’ve lost and their own responsibility in these deaths. It is so much more than just melodrama — it is myth-making on a grand yet intimate scale, a film that attempts to express a small sliver of the Von Erich legend, and beautifully
does justice to Kevin’s personal journey. 2:10.
3 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh
‘MIGRATION’: You can learn a lot about yourself — and those closest to you — on vacation. That’s the animus behind the HBO series “The White Lotus,” and it’s also the major theme of the new family animated film “Migration.” An odd comparison, perhaps, but it all makes perfect sense when you consider both projects are written by Mike White. He has taken this notion about the transformative power of travel from his TV series and transplanted it to a kid-friendly animated film about a family of ducks who finally decide to take an annual migration away from their pond to see what they can see. “Migration” is swift and appealing, a high-flying jaunt that doesn’t need to break the mold on these kinds of family adventure movies. The character design is familiar, but the flying scenes are remarkably conceived and executed; it’s colorful, comforting and crisply rendered. But it is also laced through with a swirl of cultural commentary that reveals White’s worldview. 1:32. 2 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh
‘WONKA’: The new “Wonka” works considerably better than its reasons for existence would suggest. It exists because, why not? It’s one more brand-familiar origin story, the easiest thing in the movie world to get made. It exists because it’s one more musicalization of nonmusical source material, adding seven original songs to a project attached to Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” The 1971 film version of that novel was likewise a musical; two of its tunes, “Pure Imagination” and the “Oompa Loompa” song, turn up in the latest screen addition to Wonkalore. Director Paul King and co-writer Simon Farnaby manage this little chunk of intellectual property quite well. And as candy magnate Willy Wonka, Timothée Chalamet lightens the load, delivering the majority of his lines in a style (to swipe a line from Cole Porter) classifiable as “murmuring low” and taking it easy. Neither script nor actor have much interest in capturing hints of Wonka’s callous, misanthropic streak as imagined by Dahl and the earlier films’ interpretations. Chalamet handles the musical demands with a sincere light tenor and some simple but nimble dance moves. And somehow, “Wonka” solves one of the sternest design challenges in all of cinema: Making a chocolate river look like something other than a wastewater treatment plant’s worst day ever. 1:56. 3 stars.
RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.