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THE BRUTALIST

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
8997

Every rare now and then, a performance comes along that is so organic and natural that even though one is familiar with the actor all memories of his other work recede. That’s how I felt watching Adrien Brody in The Brutalist. It isn’t a matter of acting per se: he becomes Laszlo Toth, a Hungarian refugee trying to make his way in America in the years following World War II. He was born to play this role. Proud, stubborn, independent, outspoken and often reckless, he accepts a friend’s invitation to board in a storeroom of his furniture shop in Philadelphia. We know he won’t be there long, but how and why he departs is crucial to the unfolding saga devised by director Brady Corbet and his writing partner Mona Fastvold,…

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A COMPLETE UNKNOWN: MY FAVORITE FILM OF THE YEAR

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
10690

Biographical films are a minefield, but A Complete Unknown dodges every trap and emerges as my favorite movie of 2024. No one is more surprised than I, because I’ve never been a Bob Dylan fan… but Timothée Chalamet delivers a compelling and convincing performance as the singular troubadour-poet. By not imitating Dylan’s distinctively whiny voice he even improves on some of the songs. Naturally, I am drawn to this film because I lived through the period it depicts, but I credit solid storytelling for its success; even at two hours and twenty-one minutes it doesn’t seem long. Dylan’s saga is the stuff of legend, from the moment he arrived in New York City from Minnesota in 1961. Director James Mangold and his co-writer Jay Cocks lay out the…

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MARIA

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
3091

The overuse of the word “iconic” has rendered it practically meaningless, but if it ever applied to a public figure it would be opera star Maria Callas. Director Pablo Larrain, having focused on two other notable women of the 20th century (Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Diana Spencer) has now turned his attention to the diva whose life in the public eye was as infamous as her talent. With the gifted screenwriter Steven Knight as his partner, Larrain sought an actress who could be convincing both onstage and off and found her in Angelina Jolie. Everything we read and hear about Callas seems to be larger than life, from her performances—preserved in recordings—to her high-profile love affairs. This biographical drama focuses on her later years when she…

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DAY OF THE FIGHT

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
1821

What ever happened to genre movies? Hollywood thrived on westerns, musicals, gangster stories, hospital dramas, whodunits and the like until television consumed almost every category. The Day of the Fight isn’t trying to rewrite the playbook. It’s a boxing picture, and it hits most of the notes we anticipate…but that’s what makes it so satisfying. It gives us what we expect from a boxing movie. As the executive says to forlorn screenwriter Barton Fink, “What do you need—a road map?” Our hero (a perfectly-cast Michael C. Pitt) has just been sprung from prison after twenty long years. Upon his release, he is driven to make amends to people he was closest to, even those who hurt him—like his father (Joe Pesci), now living in a nursing home…

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EMILIA PÉREZ: UNIQUE AND AMAZING

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
6952

Phrases like “game-changer” and “cutting-edge” can’t capture just how audacious and original Emilia Pérez is. I daresay it wouldn’t or couldn’t have been made, or even conceived, just ten years ago. (Maybe five…) I am determined to praise and discuss it without giving too much away. Here goes: Emilia Pérez is a crime thriller that boils over into melodrama, laced with violent action. It has been described as operatic, which makes particular sense when you learn that it is punctuated with a dozen musical numbers. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when filmmaker Jacques Audiard auditioned this idea for his backers. Zoe Saldaña gives an excellent performance as a lawyer who has become bored with her work, making her a perfect choice to take on…

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BLITZ: UNLIKE ANYTHING WE’VE SEEN BEFORE

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
3496

Blitz is a powerful and somewhat disarming film about the longterm German bombing of London in 1940. One might be forgiven for expecting a kinder, gentler rendition of this horrific event because it’s told through the eyes of a 9-year-old boy. Guess again. Writer-director Steve McQueen spares us nothing in his recreation of the conditions before, during, and after each attack. If anything, they seem even more frightening than any dramatization we’ve seen up until now. It opens with a shot of a firefighter losing control of his hose—a truly scary situation I’ve never witnessed before—and doesn’t let up. Up till now, the citizens who endured the seemingly endless noise and destruction have displayed quiet bravery and adopted that stiff upper lip for which the Brits…

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A REAL PAIN

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
4893

Jesse Eisenberg has nothing to prove; he has already staked his claim as an actor, writer, and director. But A Real Pain digs deeper than he ever has before; even the film’s title has multiple meanings. The movie simmers and occasionally boils over. The end result is a satisfying brew (to stretch a metaphor). As a writer he and Kieran Culkin share the emotional burden of the story. Culkin’s is the showier performance but Eisenberg’s quieter demeanor reveals just as much about him as Culkin does, in a different way. They both excel in bringing these recognizable characters to life. The actors portray cousins who have been close all of their lives, through many ups and downs. Eisenberg has followed a conventional path and has a job,…

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