The latest film releases are Bob Marley: One Love, Madame Web, Drift, and This is Me … Now. Weighing in are Shawn Edwards, film critic at Fox 4 News and co-founder of the African American Film Critics Association, and Katie Walsh, film reviewer for the Tribune News Service and the Los Angeles Times.
Bob Marley: One Love
This biopic of the Jamaican reggae singer stars Kingsley Ben-Adir in the titular role. It’s directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard).
Edwards: “Kingsley Ben-Adir is fabulous as Bob Marley. … Although he does avoid singing any notes, I mean, he's still able to pull off the look and feel and the nuances. … And it's a fine film, but I think they left out a lot. And I do believe that Bob Marley is probably more worthy of an episodic series than a two-hour movie. And I found the movie to be on the short end. It only clocks in at about 144 minutes. … And I would have really liked to see them give us more about Rita Marley, because she was really influential in the writing and producing the music. And I would suggest that you watch Kevin MacDonald's excellent documentary, which came out in 2012, Marley, first, and not the other way around.”
Walsh: “One thing that really frustrated me is that they don't explain at all what the political situation is, why the country is on the brink of civil war, what is going on. So it's all contextless in a way that I felt [was] really frustrating. It's obviously great to hear the music, the performances are really good. It just falls prey to a lot of storytelling traps that they could have avoided.”
Drift
Cynthia Ervio plays Jacqueline, a Liberian refugee who forms a friendship with Callie (Alia Shawkat) when they meet on a Greek island. The film premiered last year at Sundance.
Walsh: “It is a small and subdued film, but it is really beautiful and really moving. This is directed by Anthony Chen, who did a great film in 2019, called Wet Season. He just really has an ability to make these quiet dramas about unlikely friendships between people really compelling and very character-driven, very place-driven. … This film was really beautiful. And I'd highly recommend it.”
Edwards: “The characters were so authentic that the dialogue was so real. And the way that the story unfolds, it takes time. You definitely have to have patience. But all the details are there. And the use of flashbacks — a lot of times filmmakers, they either overuse flashbacks or underuse flashbacks. In this particular film, the flashbacks really help you to piece together this heartbreaking, tragic story without beating you over the head. It's just such a fascinating job that [Chen] is able to tell this very female-centric story without bastardizing any of it.”
Madame Web
This live-action Spider-Man spinoff stars Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney. It’s directed by first-time theatrical director S.J. Clarkson.
Edwards: “We've now gone to the bottom of the well in terms of comic book characters, and we're trying to get minor characters [in] feature films and that has to be stopped. It's all pretty much a mess. And to say or mention any association to Spider-Man, it's really not fair because for some reason, this film pretends to exist in the world that Spider-Man doesn't exist. But there’s winks and nods that lead you to believe that this is connected to Spider-Man. It doesn't make any sense.
… Dakota Johnson is perfectly cast for this character because she has this skeptical gaze that works for a character, and her character’s totally clueless. It's a bad movie for many reasons, and it's lifeless.”
Walsh: “This is a camp classic, and Dakota Johnson is going to troll her way to this movie having a bigger weekend than they ever expected — the press tour alone. I highly recommend seeing this movie because it is so hilariously funny. … I can tell you why they made this movie. [It’s] because Sony only has the rights to Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and they have to keep making spider movies in order to keep the rights.”
This is Me … Now
This musical is a fictional narrative based on Jennifer Lopez's love life that involves Ben Affleck. It coincides with the release of J. Lo’s first album in a decade.
Walsh: “It's essentially a visual album … several music videos strung together with a loose plot in which Fat Joe plays her therapist. … Jane Fonda, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Jay Shetty, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and various other people are like her Zodiac guides as she loves and loses and loves again, and tries to repair her broken heart. … It is one of the strangest things I've ever seen in my life. And it's a brilliant ploy on Jennifer Lopez's part to get people to listen to her new album.”
Edwards: “The Super Bowl commercial is better than this. She's trying to create this visual album that works as her cinematic confessional. And she's throwing everything at it. But none of it works. But the biggest … thing in all of this is the music isn't any good. It doesn't make you move. … The lyrics aren't meaningful. It's just all gibberish. And we cannot go without mentioning Ben Affleck, who plays this unhinged anchor, and this has to represent an all-time low for him as an actor.”