The latest film releases are Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Taking Venice, Hit Man, and Queen of the Deuce. Weighing in are Alonso Duralde and Dave White, film critics and co-hosts of movie podcast Linoleum Knife. Duralde is also the author of Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film, released May 14.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
The dystopian action movie is a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, telling the story of the main character originally played by Charlize Theron. This time, Anya Taylor-Joy is the younger Furiosa. It's the fifth installment of the Mad Max franchise, all directed by George Miller. The previous movie was almost shut down because of so many dangerous accidents caused by the action scenes. Plus, Theron and her co-star Tom Hardy had a lot of tension that nearly ended production, but it went on to become a huge success.
Duralde: “I think Fury Road is one of the greatest films of the 21st century. … And I have to admit, I was disappointed. I think that the worst thing a prequel can do is set a character off on the predetermined journey that they're going to be on without filling in the blanks in an interesting way. … The worst thing a sequel can do is rehash the cool stuff from the previous movie, only without the thrill of novelty or discovery that you get when you see something for the first time. … Coming off of Fury Road, it just feels like the second use of a tea bag.”
White: “The Mad Max film series has been superlative action entertainment for decades now. You can revisit them and they stay strong. Obviously, Fury Road is the greatest achievement of them all. … What I truly enjoyed this time around was that all the men in [Furiosa’s] life that she has to destroy, they're more pathetic than they've ever been. They are less formidable and less fascinating than they are good. The villains and weirdos are all back. The danger of it all has been dialed down. And all the guys appear to be sitting ducks.”
Taking Venice
This documentary revisits a conspiracy theory from the height of the Cold War — that the State Department conspired to have American painter Robert Rauschenberg win the grand prize at the 1964 Venice Biennale art contest.
White: “Was all of this a conspiracy? No, in spite of many protests to the contrary. But it was a concerted effort with Castelli in particular doing a lot of diplomat work with the French, who hated the Americans, and the Italians who loved them, possibly because the French hated them. Meanwhile, Rauschenberg was there just to have fun. This movie spends its time laying out all the players and the roles they took on. And it really precision-engineers a moment in time when the U.S. art world was really just swinging and winning. I would watch it again, just to absorb all of it a second time.”
Duralde: “I learned a lot about Robert Rauschenberg and his role in art history, and why he felt so revolutionary at the time. … What's also fascinating is just the intricacy of how juried competitions work, and how often it comes down to electioneering and hair-splitting about rules.”
Hit Man
This action-comedy on Netflix stars Glen Powell as an undercover New Orleans police officer who poses as a hitman to catch bad guys. The film, directed by Richard Linklater, is based on a contract killer named Gary Johnson.
White: “This is a charmingly weird, borderline goofy thriller from Richard Linklater. … In the film, [Johnson] is described as having a forgettable face. Here's my one minor complaint: Glen Powell, who co-wrote the screenplay, is the lead. Glen Powell from Top Gun. Have you looked at Glen Powell lately? The man has a movie star face. It will blind you like staring into the sun. He has a jaw made of an indestructible substance. But his performance as this guy is really great. Linklater seems to be passing the Matthew McConaughey torch down to this new actor.”
Duralde: “My only quibble with this movie is [that] they try to tether it to this real person when it goes clearly way off of anything that anybody ever really actually did. … I'm about 92% on this movie’s side. I love Richard Linklater and what he does and it's very charming, even working outside of his beloved Texas. He’s still bringing that magic.”
Queen of the Deuce
This documentary tells the story of Chelly Wilson, an unassuming Greek grandmother who built an empire of porn theaters in New York.
Duralde: “[Wilson] comes to America with $5 in her pocket, goes to work selling peanuts and hotdogs at a roadside stand, and slowly but surely, builds herself up to be this woman who had real estate and ran all these theaters and became a major player in the nascent pornographic film industry. … The movie really pays tribute to her strength and her love of her family. … Whatever it took, she was going to accomplish it to get it done, and to get ahead, and to take care of everybody around her.”
White: “What she did with her life reflected her commitment to everyone around her. The grandchildren were always around, the porn stars and the mafia figures, you name it, she kept everybody close and she took care of everyone. I think the point of this movie, and the point of her life, was: You are lucky to be alive, so make something wild happen with it. And she did.”