The latest film releases include “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” “Every Body,” and “Prisoner's Daughter.” KCRW gets reviews from Katie Walsh, film reviewer for the Tribune News Service, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wrap; and Tim Grierson, senior U.S. critic for Screen International and author of “This Is How You Make a Movie."
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
In this fifth installment of the franchise, Harrison Ford returns as the titular character who races to find an artifact that can change history. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays his goddaughter.
Walsh: “They are trying to bop you over the head with nostalgic reminders and cameos. … They're trying to make you feel something with these reminders. But they're not actually making you feel anything with storytelling or character work. And it's a movie about time travel, literally, and then on a macro-level, it's just about them wanting to … travel back in time to recapture the magic of young Harrison Ford, which they do so quite literally and in a way that I find frustrating. And also at this point, I'm like, ‘Can we just leave this man alone?’”
Grierson: “It feels very much like a lot of sequels these days, where … they just didn't want to screw it up. And when you do that, I feel like you're not ambitious, you're not interesting. And then the last thing I would say is that as opposed to the original films, that had such great action sequences, the action sequences in this movie are not good specifically because they are so CGI-heavy that nothing feels real in any of them. So it's a big disappointment for me as well.”
“Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken”
This animated comedy follows a high school student who discovers she is a descendant of the kraken queens. She has to use her powers to protect the ocean from mermaids.
Grierson: “The movie has a lot of similarities to Pixar movies: ‘Turning Red,’ and ‘Luca.’ … But it also has a comparison to the most recent Pixar movie ‘Elemental,’ in that for me, I think the animation is really really gorgeous. … The underwater stuff looks great. My problem was that some of the story stuff is a bit familiar, a bit derivative. As appealing as Ruby is as a main character, I found the characters around her perhaps not as engaging.”
Walsh: “It is following this very standard, teen movie story. She wants to go to the prom but she happens to be a kraken and so it's a funny twist on that. … Also these ideas of friendship and figuring out who you are obviously. Like ‘Turning Red,’ it has this puberty metaphor built into it about when you reach a certain age, you turn into a giant monster, like the women in your family do, but you also get your powers.”
“Every Body”
This documentary, directed by Julie Cohen, follows the stories of three intersex activists.
Walsh: “This film really packs in a lot of scientific information about intersex people, as well as historical context and the way that the medical establishment has really … forced surgery on children, forcing parents to choose which gender their child should be at birth … and giving these kids surgery without their consent. And it's also told them to shroud their lives in secrecy. A lot of the intersex movement is about stopping the surgeries on kids until they can consent to what they want to be and it's also about coming out and living their lives without shame and secrecy.”
Grierson: “It is intended to be very much the introduction for a lot of viewers into this subject matter. It doesn't aspire to be definitive in any way. It's very personal and intimate. The movie also, I think, is very sympathetic and gracious about their parents — what the parents went through, not realizing that they were doing more harm than good for their kids.”
“Prisoner's Daughter”
A man who served 12 years in prison tries to reconnect with his daughter after finding out about his terminal illness. It stars Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale.
Grierson: “[Brian Cox’s character has] spent a lot of his life in and out of prison, and he is a bad person who has done bad things, [and] is legitimately trying to make amends with his daughter because he knows his time is running out. Brian Cox is so good that Kate Beckinsale kind of pales in comparison, unfortunately. I would also say that the movie starts off pretty decently and there's a connection between these two characters. But it gets more and more convoluted as it goes along.”
Walsh: “The script by Mark Bacci is so predictable and standard. We know that they're gonna have a tough relationship because she doesn't want to let them back in. But then he's going to teach the grandson how to stand up to the school bullies and they're all going to have a nice experience together, but it's got a timeline on it. So this one you can skip.”
