The latest film releases include “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Final Cut,” “Black Ice,” and “Theater Camp.” KCRW gets reviews from William Bibbiani, film critic and co-host of the podcasts Canceled Too Soon and Critically Acclaimed; and Alison Willmore, film critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
This is the seventh installment in the 27-year-old franchise starring Tom Cruise, now age 61, who’s still doing his own stunts. Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby and Rebecca Ferguson also star as members of a secret U.S. spy team led by Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. This time, they’re fighting artificial intelligence.
Bibbiani: “The plot is just an excuse to travel the world and do car chases and jump onto moving trains. … There's nothing particularly wrong with that. Despite being very entertaining by being very globetrotting, despite having fantastic action sequences, we've reached the point where these movies no longer actually feel like ‘Mission Impossible.’ This is just ‘James Bond.’ But whereas the modern ‘James Bond’ movies are super depressing and want you to really think about how much it would stink to be James Bond, the ‘Mission Impossible’ movies are like: What if ‘James Bond’ — but fun?”
Willmore: “In ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ Tom Cruise was showing off against the drone plane, right? He was making the case that you still need human pilots, by which he was basically saying, ‘You still need movie stars like me.’ And in this case, he's facing down AI. So he's really making a point in terms of fighting on behalf of analog movies.”
“Final Cut”
This French zombie horror/comedy is a remake of the 2017 Japanese cult hit “One Cut of the Dead.”
Willmore: “The movie is essentially them showing you how this disparate group of actors and crew members come together … to make the movie that you've already watched. … This film becomes a little bit more about the idea of authenticity and making quality work, even if it's not highbrow. And I don't think that works quite as well. I would say if you can find the Japanese film, it is the one to watch.”
Bibbiani: “The remake is too slick. And I think it is weirdly apologetic about the kind of movie that the characters are making. When you watch the zombie movie that they're making, it is way more-in-your-face about how inept it is, whereas in the original ‘One Cut of the Dead,’ it's actually fun and freewheeling and it feels more real. Here, the film is slightly apologetic about itself, and I really think that undermines the wholesome, everything-is-wonderful-about-filmmaking kind of vibe it’s trying to create. If you only ever see the remake, it will probably be fine and be okay. But ‘One Cut of the Dead’ is literally on Shudder right now and you don't have to pay extra for it.”
“Black Ice”
This documentary exposes racism – past and present – in Canadian and American hockey. Executive produced by Drake and LeBron James, the film won the People's Choice Award for Documentaries when it premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Bibbiani: “It focuses on the current aspects of the industry where, sadly, there aren't a lot of players of color, and the ones that are playing professional hockey are often denied meaningful opportunities. They're treated with outright racism, not just by fans, but also by their coaches, other teams. But there's also another aspect of it where they … discover a history of a Black hockey team from over 100 years ago, who were directly responsible for helping the sport evolve into its current form. … To see just how important that is and how swept under the rug it was, is both illuminating and, obviously, incredibly shameful.”
Willmore: “The film is a sidelong look at race in Canada. … One of the interviewees, who's an academic, talks about how because Canada was set up as the end of the Underground Railroad … the place where you would go to get away from America and racism and anti-Blackness — that Canada has historically been bad at talking about racism within it because it doesn't fit with the Canadian national story and identity. And there's a lot of denial or looking away, and I felt like that … was so interesting that I almost wanted more to be explored on that.”
“Theater Camp”
This largely improvised mockumentary stars Ben Platt and Molly Gordon. It revolves around a sleepaway camp in upstate New York and is based on an 18-minute short film that Gordon, Platt, Noah Galvin, and Nick Lieberman uploaded to YouTube a month or so into the COVID pandemic.
Willmore: “It is really a celebration of the idea of theater camp as the sanctuary and haven for all of these young kids. … Most of the male attendees seem to be gay. Most of the girls are … big personalities. And it just is so affectionate about those kids and about the adults, most of whom are … former attendees … and are now eccentric teachers.
… And I think at a moment where we're seeing actors and writers fighting back against large corporations, the underlying story about the scrappy theater camp trying to fight off acquisition from a banker … that has extra resonance.”
Bibbiani: “If this is the soothing balm you're looking for right now, this late 90s, Sundance comedy kind of thing, like ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ but not quite as funny, ‘Waiting for Guffman’ but not quite as mean spirited, this will do you right.”