The latest film releases include “The Equalizer 3,” “Goldfish,” “The Good Mother,” “Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose.” Weighing in are Katie Walsh, film reviewer for the Tribune News Service, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wrap; and Shawn Edwards, film critic for FOX-TV in Kansas City.
“The Equalizer 3”
Denzel Washington reprises his role as assassin Robert McCall in this final installment of the action thriller saga. It’s set in Southern Italy, where he must help his neighbors who are being controlled by the mafia. Antoine Fuqua, who directed the previous two films plus “Training Day,” also returns.
Walsh: “It’s Denzel having a good time. He is just quietly threatening and inflicting pain on these horrible bad guys, and that's why we want to see these movies. Then it's Antoine Fuqua, who has clearly watched every mafia-in-Italy movie — “Godfather II,” “Shooting the Mafia.” … He's seen all of them and he's putting them to work in this movie. The style is very Baroque. It's over the top. So I think if you just want to go for the Denzel of it all, of him just having a good time with this character, I think it's worth it. It's pretty enjoyable.”
“Goldfish”
A young woman returns home to deal with her mother’s dementia and confronts lingering pain from her childhood.
Edwards: “On the surface, it seems like it would be an immigrant story. In many ways, it really is. But there's a universality to the story, in terms of family, and dealing with issues that cause pain, and struggle in dealing with the issue of reconnecting. And this storyline between the mother and her daughter who has to come back and confront her mom's illness, which is dementia, and deal with issues that have long been lingering since her childhood are so beautifully done in a way that this drama almost feels sort of like poetic in a way.
…I love the way that it's written. It’s real respectful in how the characters are developed and built. And it just really lends itself to being very believable. In a very cathartic way, this film actually plays to be a lot more uplifting than you think it would be. It was really a sense of cleansing as I watched this film, and it's so well done. It's so balanced. It's so nuanced. It's really a masterful job and how it's all executed.”
Walsh: “if you've ever dealt with someone who has dementia, it feels really real. It feels really real in terms of the things that all of us will have to do with our own parents at some point in time, deciding whether they can stay at home or go to a care facility. It's also set against the COVID pandemic. … As much as [the daughter] tried to run away from home and from her relationship, she's forced to confront a lot of things about her identity, her relationship with her mother.”
“The Good Mother”
Hilary Swank stars in this thriller as a journalist whose son is murdered. Joining her is Olivia Cooke, who plays the son’s pregnant girlfriend. The two team up to solve his murder.
Walsh: “This one feels a little forced. To me, it feels like they're trying to combine a lot of hot topic, relevant issues like the opioid epidemic, drug dealing, gun violence, police corruption, and they're trying to force that all together. It also for some reason takes place in 2016 — which did not seem necessary to me — but they're trying to set it against the presidential election in 2016. … It didn't really gel for me. It was not all that mysterious at the end of the day,”
Edwards: “I will totally blame CNN for this film, because it looks like the filmmakers watched CNN late into the night one night and they just took every issue they saw on the newscast and tried to turn it into a film because none of it makes any sense. It's not coherent. ‘The Good Mother’ just plays out like a standard issue, wannabe murder mystery that's truly undeserving of anyone's time, let alone money.”
“Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose”
Nandor Fodor (Simon Pegg) is a paranormal psychologist who investigates a family’s claim of a talking animal. The comedy also stars Minnie Driver, Christopher Lloyd, and the voice of writer Neil Gaiman.
Edwards: “I have watched a lot of movies in my 23-year career. A lot. And it's extremely rare to watch something and not understand what is going on. And I had the privilege of being able to watch this twice, because I was able to watch it at home. But after watching ‘Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose,’ I really had no idea what I just watched. But I was not bored, and I did not hate the film. And I loved what they were trying to say on the surface. I just did not understand it. And to make matters worse, it's a wild attempt at satire, and I got that. But the film is neither clever, nor funny. And it's very convoluted.”