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‘SOUL’ TACKLES THE BIG QUESTIONS

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
15657

I really wanted to love Soul…but I didn’t. Being a jazz fan gave me reason to anticipate something great from what I knew of this project. As it turns out, jazz is only one component of Soul, the other being a metaphysical exploration of life itself, both before and after we’re born. Are we imbued with certain traits or tendencies before we take on human form? How do we measure success in life? These are some of the Big Questions facing Joe Morgan (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a high-school band teacher who is offered a one-time chance to sit in with a well-known jazz star. Instead, he is suddenly whisked away to an other-worldly realm, where he is paired with a soul called 22 (Tina Fey) who hasn’t…

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THE MIDNIGHT SKY: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
10743

George Clooney stars in this space parable that starts out well, then goes adrift. Set in the stereotypically bleak near-future, the story focuses on a defeated scientist who chooses to stay behind in the Antarctic, knowing his days are numbered, while his colleagues get the hell out of there. But when he discovers that he has company—a silent 7-year-old girl—his priorities shift completely. He has to make contact with the spacecraft Aether so they can rescue her; that means leaving home base to find a substation with a more powerful radio beam. At this point the movie splits in two, the more interesting part being Clooney and the girl’s perilous journey through ice, snow and wind to a safe harbor. This leads to the film’s…

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WW84 (WONDER WOMAN 1984)

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
35229

WW84 starts on a promising note, taking a page from the Superman playbook: Wonder Woman sweeps into a shopping mall and dispatches a gang of crooks while saving imperiled children, even sharing a knowing wink with one of them. It’s a moment of pure fun that leaves you with a smile on your face and shows our heroine actually enjoying her superpowers. From that point on, the movie struggles to be relevant and serious, but in a superficial, cartoony way. It drones on for two and a half hours but it hasn’t got a lot to say, and sputters whenever it’s trying to convey a message. A prologue on Paradise Island only makes one wish they made more use of that setting and its strong…

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NEWS OF THE WORLD: SUPERIOR STORYTELLING

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
7935

It shouldn’t be unusual to praise a film for its storytelling prowess—especially one based on a best-selling novel—but it’s something I no longer take for granted. Other films may succeed as mood pieces, character portraits, or expressions of personal creativity. This one transported me to another time and place, like a good book, following two characters (played by Tom Hanks and young Helena Zengel) as they embark on an odyssey through Texas in the late 1800s. When it was over I felt as if I had experienced it myself. Hanks admirably underplays the part of a former Civil War officer who’s lost everything. He now ekes out a living traveling from town to town reading colorful newspaper items as an evening’s entertainment. Because he’s a…

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PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN: SURPRISES RIGHT TO THE FINISH

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
8532

Carey Mulligan has never played a woman quite like the one she brings to life in Promising Young Woman… but then, few leading actresses have taken on such a stark and uncompromising character. Writer-director Emerald Fennell sets her up as an attractive young woman who is falling-down drunk at a neighborhood bar, badly in need of a friend to help her get home. But that’s just the tease. This is a woman with an agenda. To reveal much more would be a crime. Promising Young Woman is a female revenge thriller bathed in jet-black comedy. It can easily mess with your head, as it did with mine, and its climax is one of the most difficult scenes I’ve ever sat through. I actually found myself writhing in discomfort.…

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‘ANOTHER ROUND’: ANOTHER GREAT ROLE FOR MADS MIKKELSEN

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
7204

Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen has great charisma—and great taste, as he turns up in one exceptional film after another. Another Round reunites him with writer-director Thomas Vinterberg and co-writer Tobias Lindholm, who collaborated so memorably on The Hunt. Once again their combined efforts give us a provocative film about a subject many people can relate to: drinking. Mikkelsen plays a high school teacher whose life has become dull: he no longer communicates with his wife and bores his history students in school. Then he and three colleagues read about a scientific theory that man is born with a blood-alcohol deficiency. It posits that if one can maintain a 0.5% alcohol level one will function more “normally” and successfully. Because they are schoolteachers they decide to chart their progress, to…

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‘MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM’ IS FUELED BY GREAT PERFORMANCES

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
6063

Two searing performances—by Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman—make Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom more than just a faithful adaptation of a great theater piece. Davis captures the matter-of-fact fury of blues singer Ma Rainey, who is willing to perform two numbers for her white agent/producer—but not before expressing her anger at feeling exploited. All of this comes hurtling at us while her band members try to contend with a trumpeter named Levee, who has his own ideas about how to perform one of Ma’s signature pieces. He also has big dreams about his budding career, unaware of just how easy it is for a white record producer to make him feel like two cents. It’s not pleasant spending an hour and a half in the company…

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