The latest film releases include Speak No Evil, My Old Ass, The Killer's Game, and Look Into My Eyes. Weighing in are Amy Nicholson, host of the podcast Unspooled and film reviewer for The New York Times, and Shawn Edwards, a film critic at Fox 4 News and co-founder of the African American Film Critics Association.
Speak No Evil
James McAvoy and MacKenzie Davis star in this remake of a Danish psychological horror about two families who meet and become friends during a vacation in Tuscany.
Nicholson: “I think it's actually a movie that is designed to make you yell at the screen. … Usually those kinds of movies where you're like, ‘What are you doing, don't go in the basement’ … the film itself is pretty dumb, and the characters are doing things are just really insulting our intelligence. But this feels like a very smart movie about making relatable, dumb decisions. … It's basically encouraging us to speak up and yell at the screen about everything we might not even do ourselves.”
Edwards: “The thing that really makes the movie work is James McAvoy is a lot of fun to watch because he does this maniacal character so well. I mean, he's done it before in several other projects, but here he really sucks you in as this film derails the further it goes along. … It turns into your typical American thriller/horror vehicle at the end because it's a Blumhouse production. So then they start going for more jump scares and silly entrapments, more so than really keeping it like this tight … psychological thriller.”
My Old Ass
This follows an 18-year-old (Maisy Stella) who goes camping and experiences magic mushrooms. While tripping, she encounters her 39-year-old self played by Aubrey Plaza. It is directed by Megan Park.
Nicholson: “She’s just a really great teenage character that I haven't gotten to see a lot on screen. She's fun, and she's sloppy, and she's loud, and she's rude, and she's really sexually aggressive, and she's selfish. And really, what the story is about is that Aubrey Plaza is giving this girl advice that she really wants her to take, and the girl is struggling to believe it or definitely obey it, because the advice that your sensible elder self is giving you just doesn't seem like it's any fun at all.”
Edwards: “The conceit of this movie — it's not new, but the delivery is totally fresh. And I love that the vibe was so authentic because the characters are very familiar, but somehow they felt very new. And I really love that. And this Maisy Stella — I don't know where she came from, I don't know who she is, but I know she is terrific in this film. I wanted to talk to my older self after this. … I just really connected to this. And sometimes when you finish watching the film, you just want to scream out, ‘Bravo.’ And that's exactly what I did.”
The Killer's Game
Dave Bautista plays a hitman who learns that he’s dying, so he puts a hit out on himself. Until the doctor calls back. Then he has to fight off people he hired to kill him.
Nicholson: “When you look at the cast in this movie, you know that this is, at least, a movie put together by people who genuinely like and respect action films. This is definitely an attempt to do John Wick-light plus extra cartoon, plus a glimpse of this love story between Dave Bautista and Sofia Boutella. … It can feel a little too jokey. The blood looks very fake. But this movie, I will say, if I'm going to kick back and watch a super gory, popcorn movie, it has a gusto about defiling the human body that I have not seen in a while, at least in any movie that's made in America.”
Edwards: “This role is tailor-made for Bautista. They attempt to go for some laughs. I didn't find it very funny, but I did find it very entertaining. The problem with these action films now is you've seen every punch, you've seen every kick, you've seen every flip, you've seen every fight. So that got pretty stale, but I did enjoy Bautista on screen. I think he has something there, but the violence just became way too cartoonish, and the plot gets stuck in neutral.”
Look Into My Eyes
This documentary gives a humanistic look at the role of New York City psychics in people’s emotional lives.
Nicholson: “It’s a very dry, observational, no jump scares, no spooky cinematography documentary that does not at all ever ask you to believe in mediums. It's more just about the power of human connection, the fact that these New Yorkers have come to these psychics to ask questions, and that the questions that they're asking, just the fact of being there trying to find an answer is almost more important than what they hear back, and whether or not that answer does or does not come from a ghost. The psychics that you see in here, none of them are stereotypical in the costume, except for one. There's no crystal balls. What it really does is it follows them into their apartments. And these psychics all live ordinary, relatable lives. And you just observe these patterns.
You notice that most of these psychics are struggling artists. … Then you start to think … the advice that they're hearing from the spirits also sounds like advice they need to believe in too. You have worth on this planet. Follow your creativity. … So really, the pleasure of this film isn't in anything spiritual. It's more about allowing ourselves to observe these really intimate conversations between strangers.”
Edwards: “I think it works best if you're a really good listener, because there's a lot of dialog and a lot of conversation, and you're meant just to listen to these people talk on both sides. And there's a lot of deeply moving conversations that deal with a lot of different emotional things that they're going through. The one fall is it's not very coherent, and it can seem like they're just rambling, but it's always interesting. And a lot of things that they said stayed with me because there's some of this emotional validation that happens by the end of the film. … I do know that a lot of people will not find it very pleasurable. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it, but personally, I found it enjoyable and interesting.”