Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

MODERNISM, INC.—A GOOD DOCUMENTARY BY DESIGN

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews July 20, 2024

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I must confess that I wasn’t familiar with Eliot Noyes although, like other baby boomers, I was affected by his work. Noyes, the subject of this first-rate documentary, was an esteemed graphic designer who spearheaded the philosophy and practice of modern design in the years following World War Two. (During the war he was a pioneer in an altogether different field: the use of gliders.) But his ideas were formulated before the U.S. went to war: in 1939 he was the first curator of Industrial Design at the Museum of Modern Art! These are just a few of the takeaways from Jason Cohn’s absorbing feature film. We learn about the man who believed that “good design is good business” from three of his children (including…

TWISTERS DELIVERS THE GOODS

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews July 19, 2024

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Shortly after seeing, and enjoying, the 1996 movie Twister, I noticed something on a colleague’s desk that made me laugh out loud: a copy of the published screenplay. If there were ever a film that made me want to read its script less than this, I couldn’t name it. Like its predecessor, Twisters does something only a movie can do, by giving us a vicarious experience that feels exciting and real while it’s happening, and easily forgettable as soon as it’s over. Although it is directed by Lee Isaac Chung, best known for his exceptional indie sleeper Minari (2020) there is nothing to set this white-knuckle disaster movie apart from the 1996 film or other popcorn movies in this genre. The characters are painted in broad strokes, at least when we…

MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews July 11, 2024

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If you are already a Powell and Pressburger aficionado, this highly personal documentary, hosted and produced by Martin Scorsese, will be catnip. I found it positively thrilling. If you are unfamiliar with their notable work from the 1940s—The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, et al—it will serve as a unique and indelible introduction. Either way, Made in England is a towering achievement that I would call a “must-see.” Whenever he talks about films he cares about, Martin Scorsese is mesmerizing. Here, he not only speaks with conviction but personal experience—from the time he first set eyes on The Thief of Bagdad on local New York television (in black & white) to his later friendship with Michael Powell. He even illustrates how concepts from their…

THE CONQUEROR: HOLLYWOOD FALLOUT

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews June 27, 2024

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The backstory of the notorious turkey The Conqueror, starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, has all the ingredients for a stimulating documentary, but Hollywood Fallout puts that story into a larger and more troubling context. Spoiler alert: the U.S. government lied to its citizens about the dangers of long-term radiation emanating from atomic bomb tests in the Nevada desert, and stonewalled the residents of St. George, Utah, where its effects were particularly devastating. That’s where the erratic billionaire Howard Hughes sent director Dick Powell, movie stars John Wayne and Susan Hayward, and a large cast and crew to make this misbegotten film in 1956. A large number of those people died from one form or other of cancer—enough to remove it from the realm of coincidence. Writer/director William…

DADDIO: AN INTRIGUING CURIO

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews June 27, 2024

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If you’re going to make a two-character film you’d better have two really interesting people in your script and damned good actors to play them. Daddio has exactly that, and the result is an intriguing curio that serves as a showcase for the talents of Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn. He drives a Yellow Cab and she is his latest passenger at JFK airport, heading for midtown Manhattan. A bad accident has slowed traffic to a dead stop, which he takes as a cue to initiate a conversation with her. Penn is a quintessential New Yorker whose job has made him an amateur psychologist and philosopher. He believes he can size up anybody who climbs into his taxi. In Johnson he senses a vulnerable subject, and she…

NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN JUNE

Blu-Ray/DVD June 26, 2024

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The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE. NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN JUNE: MONKEY MAN, IMMACULATE, BOUND, THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Monkey Man (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment): Dev Patel’s stunning directorial debut almost didn’t get seen at all by audiences when original distributor Netflix got antsy about some of the action movie’s political themes, but thankfully Jordan Peele and Universal swooped in to bring this exciting saga to theaters and, now, to physical media. Patel stars as an underground fight-club brawler who goes to work in a high-class brothel as part of a long game of revenge, which unfolds thrillingly and brutally. Also available: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Warner…

THE BIKERIDERS: COMPELLING FROM START TO FINISH

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews June 22, 2024

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Jeff Nichols is one of the most original writer-directors working today. If you haven’t seen Take Shelter, Mud, Loving, or Midnight Special you’re missing out. What’s more, he is utterly unpredictable, tackling a wide variety of subjects that capture his interest. His latest feature (postponed from its planned release last fall) was inspired by a 1967 book of photographs and interviews by Danny Lyon, who chronicled the life and times of a rowdy midwestern motorcycle gang called The Vandals. The story is told in flashback by Kathy (Jodie Comer), an observer and sometime-participant in the gang’s violent misadventures. These guys don’t have a purpose or credo; they just like to hang out together smoking, drinking and riding. They don’t mind bashing heads if the occasion calls for it. And…