The latest film releases are Fly Me to the Moon, Longlegs, Sing Sing, and Sorry/Not Sorry. Weighing in are Alison Willmore, film critic for New York Magazine and Vulture, as well as Witney Seibold, senior staff writer at SlashFilm and co-host of the podcast Critically Acclaimed.
Fly Me To the Moon
This romantic comedy is set in 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission. It stars Channing Tatum as a NASA director and Scarlett Johansson as a marketing executive hired to fix the space agency’s image.
Willmore: “This movie isn't just set in another era. It feels like it was beamed out of another era as well. … I was charmed by it. It is relying on movie stars … bickering and movie stars falling in love, and movie stars, at least in the case of Scarlett Johansson, wearing some very enviable costuming. There is something that is very charming about this desire to make a movie entirely out of step with current trends, and just have it be about the sheer charm and appeal of these two actors just appreciating each other and their own competence, as they guide NASA through the launch of Apollo 11.”
Seibold: “This is just a reminder that sometimes all you really need is … two big movie stars with good chemistry, delivering witty lines at one another to make a wonderful movie. It's ironic that this film is being marketed as poorly as it is because it's also very much about the power of marketing, and especially the power of marketing to sell a really grand, inspiring American institution like the space program. In the midst of all of this inspiring sappiness, we have two unbearably attractive leads flinging woo at one another, and we're just along for the ride.”
Longlegs
Maika Monroe stars in this A24 horror movie as a young FBI agent pulled into a manhunt for a devil-worshipping serial killer (Nicolas Cage). It is directed by Oz Perkins, the son of actor Anthony Perkins.
Seibold: “The M.O. of the main killer is very, very strange because even though he's leaving these notes behind at these murder scenes, he wasn't present at the murder scenes. And there's these mysterious cases that are linked only by these notes. Maika Monroe isn't just the FBI agent on the trail, but she's also mildly psychic. And they lean into her psychic intuition and finds that she has some strange personal insight into this particular Longlegs case. This was directed by Oz Perkins, who has directed a few notable-ish horror films in the past. He here is amalgamating several eras worth of horror cliches. … The plot doesn't cohere in any meaningful way, and when it finally does, it feels really contrived and dumb.”
Willmore: “The place that it ends is not a place that makes you feel like you have come to a satisfying conclusion, where you understand entirely what was going on. But that said, I thought there was something about the ways in which it starts … as a Silence of the Lambs thriller, where you believe that you're going to watch an investigation, and instead what you get is something that makes less and less real-world sense as it goes along. … Perkin does have a strong sense of style. And there are a few of these set pieces, including the opening one, which is the first moment you get a glimpse of Nicolas Cage's character, and then you don't see him for quite a while — it is deeply upsetting.”
Sing Sing
Colman Domingo stars as a man incarcerated at Sing Sing prison in New York for a crime he didn’t commit, who finds his purpose in a theater group. It’s based on a real program that operates out of eight New York state facilities.
Willmore: “It incorporates a lot of actual alumni from the real program, so formerly incarcerated men who came up through the program and who are now playing variations on themselves. … There are different levels of comfortable on screen, but … Clarence Maclin is essentially the co-star with Colman Domingo, and I thought he was just tremendous. … I do think Colman Domingo is probably going to be someone we talk about as we get to the awards race. … But for me, I was more interested in some of the other cast members in the end.”
Seibold: “[Colman Domingo’s] performance feels actorly, you can see all the hours of rehearsal and character delving that he did. And he's acting opposite these very natural, non-professional actors who are bringing a different kind of truth to their roles. … I preferred watching the prisoners give their more natural performances. … It feels like the filmmakers didn't have enough faith in the the actual alumni from this program, and wanted instead to give them a little bit of a leg-up by adding Colman Domingo.”
Sorry/Not Sorry
This documentary examines the sexual misconduct allegations that led to the downfall of comedian Louis C.K. largely through the eyes of his victims. It also takes a look at how he was un-cancelled by many fans when he returned to the stand-up stage.
Seibold: “I think if you had been paying attention to the Louis C.K. story as it was breaking in about 2017, this is just a recap of a lot of that. Comedian Jen Kirkland speaks a lot in this movie about her experience with being victimized by Louis C.K., and really sums up this weird feeling of privilege in the comedy worlds that these men who have these really terrible habits and propensity for crime are allowed to just skate by just because they're popular, or just because there's an anything-goes attitude backstage. And it's gross, and it starts to interrogate a lot of that.
I think the most interesting part of the movie, however, is saved for at the very end when Louis C.K. tries to come back from it, he feels like he had been canceled for long enough and decided to start appearing at comedy clubs again, after the scandal had broken and he served no jail time. I think the real outrage comes when we have to realize that there are a lot of people who are still gonna go see Louis C.K., and who don't care. And I feel like there's a grander interrogation that could have been had about that in this film. More than anything, it's just a lot of people recounting the details of the case.”
Willmore: “I felt like the movie should have started where it ended, which is Louis C.K. was one of the few people during the height of MeToo, who apologized. He apologized, he went away for a bit, and then he came back. … He then started making jokes at the expense of the people that had made accusations against him. … You suddenly don't believe anything about his apology, or his previous public image as someone who was more sensitive, more enlightened, more empathetic.
… But I think for me, also, the big takeaway … is that this is a movie about the allegations against Louis C.K., in which very few of the women who spoke out … agreed to participate. And I think that speaks to where we are with MeToo, and who has actually been affected by those accusations. … If you can't get the participation of the people who were brave enough to speak out … I feel like you have to question what the purpose of the movie you're making is.”