The latest film releases include The Crow, Blink Twice, and Between the Temples. Weighing in are Shawn Edwards, a film critic at Fox 4 News and co-founder of the African American Film Critics Association; and Alison Willmore, a film critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.
The Crow
From British filmmaker Rupert Sanders, this stars Bill Skarsgård as a murdered musician resurrected to avenge his death and the death of his fiancee, played by FKA Twigs. The film went into development in 2008, burning through at least a half dozen different directors, writers, and lead actors in those 16 years, including Bradley Cooper and Jason Momoa. At one point, Nick Cave was working on the script.
Willmore: “I got a very careful note from the publicist … that this is not actually a remake of the 1994 film. They prefer to describe it as a reimagining of the 1989 comic book series that the 1994 film was based on. So if you can parse those distinctions, and if those are meaningful for you, this may be the movie for you. If not, I would say it is, at best, this kind of August oddity.
As a child of the 90s and as a goth teenager, obviously the original Crow was a meaningful text to me. It was very moody. It was raining all the time. It felt very in line with the grunge era. This movie does try and update the general story in ways that I think are sometimes unintentionally funny. Bill Skarsgård, he's got this Bushwick mullet. He's got this face tattoo. He kind of looks like Machine Gun Kelly, I would say, if slightly more goth. FKA Twigs is playing the deep love of his life. … They meet in rehab, where they're all having to wear pink sweatsuits, and they bond quickly over their tattoos and general sadness. Things go wrong. He comes back from the dead, [and] is not very good at undead revenge.
… There's just a lot of confusing things going on in terms of the mythology they've tried to come up with for this new version of the film. I think that both Skarsgård and FKA Twigs are very beautiful people who wear a lot of cool clothes. But this movie does not, I think, work in any intentional way. Everything it offers is … accidentally interesting at best. That said, I wasn't sorry I saw it. I had a good time, even though … it is awfully silly.”
Blink Twice
Zoe Kravitz makes her directorial debut. The psychological thriller stars her real-life fiancee Channing Tatum as a tech billionaire who invites a cocktail waitress (Naomi Ackie) to his private island.
Edwards: “The less you know about Blink Twice going in, the better. … This is a really impressive directorial debut, and it's also a flat-out bonkers film. … [Zoe Kravitz] successfully merges horror, satire, and thrills that make Blink Twice, in my opinion, one of the most interesting watches of the year. … It's inspired by Get Out. But it plays more like get off.
… It's like this cinematic smoothie with the themes of misogyny and toxic masculinity, corporate greed, sexual assault, race, class all blended together. And it makes for one heck of a ride. And it's all clearly inspired by Jeffrey Epstein and his island of bad behavior. And it really focuses on the arrogance of tech bros and their god complexes, someone like Elon Musk.
… You can tell that [Zoe Kravitz] studied Kubrick and Hitchcock and Peele and Lee. And does she always retain control of this ambitious project? No, but it's fun watching her, and it's fun watching her deliver. So there's this savage vision. I mean, it's often uncomfortable and jarring, but it's always pretty much intriguing.
… I'm actually really excited to see what Zoe Kravitz does next behind the scenes, behind the camera, because I love it when you know someone has an artistic vision, and they swing for the fences. But I actually thought this was one of the better movies I've seen all year.”
Willmore: “It's a movie that is all about this sense of simmering dread. So I think you get a little bit braced for what's going to happen before we get to any of the big reveals. But certainly, the movie does not flinch away from showing you its dark side when we actually finally get there.
I'm more impressed by Zoe Kravitz directing than I think I am with the script, which is filled with a lot of interesting ideas that I do not think really hold together.
My big frustration was just that — the premise of the film is that this group of women go off to this privately-owned island where they all surrender their phones with a group of men that they've really just met. And I think the Cinderella aspect is certainly there, but I also kept waiting for some acknowledgement of the fact that there is an implicit coercion to that setup that no one ever really talks about. It skips that to … tackle the idea of Channing Tatum's character, in particular, as this enlightened guy who went through a rough patch, and then had a public apology and reckoning, and then came back. And that's another … [one] of the ideas that this film brings up and doesn't quite explore, which is how much we trust people who seem to have come through a public reckoning, and then come back and said they've learned and grown.”
Between the Temples
This Jewish dramedy stars Jason Schwartzman as a recently widowed cantor who reconnects with his former grade-school teacher (Carol Kane) when she becomes his adult bat mitzvah student. This is from writer/director Nathan Silver.
Willmore: “This movie is unpredictable and takes a lot of side paths, but also is really sweet in its central relationship. They form this connection that is, if not quite romantic, also a little closer than it could be described as a friendship. … But mostly, I think that this is just a terrific platform for Carol Kane, who I think is a wonderful talent. … There's just a lot of great texture to this film. … There's just a lot to revel in in this movie. I was a fan.”
Edwards: “I like comedies that are just organically funny. … None of the jokes were stupid, none of the jokes were forced, none of the jokes were dumb. It also presents this fresh take on the possibilities of discovering and developing a new relationship. I mean, yeah, it's not really romantic in nature, like you normally expect from your typical romantic comedy, but it felt real, and you could really connect with this film. … I also have a great appreciation for scripts that really know how to write women well. … It's written by a man, but it's just the way it's done and the approach, it really, really makes this film work.”
