Adann Kennn-Alexxandar

“American Fiction”

(Drama/Comedy: 1 hour, 57 minutes)Starring: Jeffrey Wright, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Issa Rae, and Sterling K. Brown

Director: Cord Jefferson

Rated: R (Language throughout, some drug use, sexual references and brief violence.)

Movie Review:

Jeffrey Wright is an impressive actor. His performance makes “American Fiction” an exceptional treat. His curmudgeon character easily garners one’s attention and maintains it. This fictional account, a directorial debut of Cord Jefferson, is worthy of audiences’ time.

Dr. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright) is a literature professor. He frowns upon the stereotypical notions of black people by the publishing world establishment. He wishes to write about other black experiences in the United States. After he writes what he believes is a trite stereotypical narrative using the penname Stagg R. Leigh, Arthur (Ortiz), Ellison’s agent, sends the novel to major book publishers who love the book. To Ellison’s chagrin, the book becomes a hit, winning book awards and gaining the attention of moviemakers too.

“American Fiction” is an adaptation of Percival Everett’s book “Erasure.” This “dramedy” was nominated for five Academy Awards, which include actor nods for Wright and Sterling K. Brown, Best Adapted Screenplay for Jefferson and Best Motion Picture.

The movie is good. It is worthy of those Oscar nominations. Wright is believable as Monk Ellison. He brings a commonsense approach to this role that is tangible.

Cord Jefferson has just made himself a star player as a director and writer. “American Fiction” is a movie that makes one laugh throughout, while inserting nice dramatic moments that add to the majesty of this movie.

Hats off to Cord Jefferson, Wright, Brown, others of the cast and crew for this stimulating, poignant photoplay. It is a nice candid observation about race, writing and personal ambitions.

Grade: A- (Good fiction)

“I.S.S.”

(Science-Fiction, Thriller: 1 hour, 35 minutes)Starring: Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina and Pilot Asbæk

Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Rated: R (Violence and language)

Movie Review:

The International Space Station is the setting for the apocalyptic tale. The movie is intriguing and offers thrills but contains illogical character actions.

After war breaks out on Earth, a six-member crew aboard the ISS waits to hear from those below. The Americans and Russians have the best relationship until they receive a message from their perspective countries informing them to take control of the space station by any means necessary.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite (“Our Friend,” 2019) directs this science-fiction feature with zeal. Her strengths work despite writer Nick Shafir’s inability to make the actions of these people in space as thrilling as the situation in which they exist.

A group of intelligent scientists and astronauts commit actions that are unusual behaviors for people who are congenial initially. Their actions need a better execution via more time to give them a reason to evolve into predatory beings. The story takes time to develop the characters but fails to make their aggression towards each other plausible.

Grade: C+ (Come aboard despite the lack of gravity.)

“Founders Day”

(Comedy/Horror/Mystery: 1 hour, 47 minutes)

Starring: Naomi Grace, Tyler James White and David Druid

Director: Erik Bloomquist

Rated: R (Strong bloody violence, language and violence language)

Movie Review:

“Founders Day” is a slasher flick that doubles as a comical, political satire. On the surface, it appears connected to the later “Purge” movies via its advertisement pictures. The good thing is it is not related to the “Purge” franchise. The bad part is “Founders Day” is worse.

A small town is plagued by gruesome murders. Ominous sentiment disperses throughout the close-knit community. Residents are fearful and feel unsafe in the town, and pressure mounts for elected officials and law enforcement to find the murderer.

“Founders Day” appears like a bad horror movie from the 1980s. It is directed by Erik Bloomquist (“Intermedium,” 2023). He is no stranger to eccentric horror movies such as “She Came from the Woods” (2023). They play like comedies, ergo the problem. His narratives are facetious.

“Founders Day” is entertaining, but it becomes as unstable as its characters when this script reaches its climax. It offers some smartly written bits, yet the clichéd horror parts are superfluous.

Ultimately, this script loses its zest even more when it attempts to rectify matters by explaining matters via a flashback.

Grade: C (A lost day.)

“Origin”

(Drama/History: 2 hours, 21 minutes)

Starring: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal and Niecy Nashe

Director: Ava DuVernay

Rated: R (Thematic material involving racism, violence, disturbing images and language)

Movie Review:

Aunjanue DuVernay brilliantly creates a drama that plays like a biographical documentary. Her work offers something that expands beyond moviedom. She taps into what causes hate, prejudices and fearmongering. She focuses on these serious issues while capturing something beautiful about humanity – the zeal to progress undeterred by tragic past and present.

This photoplay follows the life of Isabel Wilkerson (an impressive Ellis-Taylor). After the death of Trayvon Martin, Wilkerson begins a quest to track the nature of racial discrimination across multiple countries, primarily the United States, Germany and India. As she explores her subject, she finds common themes regarding race, endogamy, systematic racism and internalized discrimination.

“Orgin” is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” The Pulitzer Prize author and journalist’s life is portrayed in this movie effectively by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard,” 2021). While this drama exceptionally chronicles pivotal moments of history, Ellis-Taylor’s portrayal of the real-life Wilkerson is award-worthy. She is brilliantly emotive even when her character is quiet.

Ava DuVernay has many numerous firsts as a black woman in cinema. It is rightfully just that she would be the person to direct this skillfully done movie about race around the world throughout history. She creates a drama that plays like a documentary — something she is apt at producing.

“Origin” is a historically revealing screenplay. It offers solid work from Ava DuVernay and a talented cast. It also feels like a scholarly documentary as much as it is a drama. The two compete often, but both aspects offer an educational experience.

Grade: B+ ( A good cinematic point of origin moviegoers should see soon.)

“The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown” (Adventure/Animation: 1 hour, 29 minutes)

Starring: Gauthier Battoue, Paul Borne and Wyatt Bowen

Directors: Laurent Bru, Yannick Moulin and Benoît Somville

Rated: PG (Action, rude material and brief language)

Movie Review:

“The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown” is an interesting adventure, considering its primary target is children. Yet it provides enough of an entertainment apparatus that it should be appealing to the entire family.

This amusing adventure starts with the Jungle Bunch, a group of detectives. They are a variety of animals, including the group’s tiger-striped Kung Fu penguin leader Maurice (enigmatic), his goldfish son Junior, and banana-crazy gorilla Miguel (Pascal Casanova). Sure, the grouping is odd, but the group manages to solve mysteries within the jungle. Their latest mission is of grave importance. An enigmatic villain coats the jungle with a pink substance that explodes when in contact with water. The Jungle Bunch must find the scientist who created the substance to counter the villain responsible.

This movie provides entertainment through this sense of adventure. The characters are a parallel, miniature version of Indiana Jones with a villain that seems straight out of a James Bond feature.

Based on the television series that started in 2011, this second movie for these endearing animals has a familiar presence, yet it also has an old-school, appealing approach. It is a straightforward story with some nice entertainment that works for the whole family.

Grade: B- (Operation: good.)

“Argylle” (Action/Thriller: 2 hours, 19 minutes)

Starring: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston and Director: Matthew Vaughn

Rated: PG-13 (Strong violence and action and some strong language)

Movie Review:

Jason Fuchs (“Wonder Woman,” 2017) penned this screenplay that starts as a comical action thriller. However, this movie goes on too long with double-crossing bits and exasperating character shifts.

Elly Conway (Howard) is an espionage novelist. She remains to herself most days, but her life changes when she finds herself amidst an actual spy scenario. Agent Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell) arrives to save Conway and her cat Alfie. Conway’s latest book is too similar to actual clandestine events. Covert agents pursue her wanting to keep what she knows buried.

Matthew Vaughn (“X-Men: First Class,” 2011) directs this action movie. The scenes are energetic. Scenes contain multiple major movie stars: Samuel L. Jackson, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Catherine O’Hara and singer Dua Lipa.

These actors comprise a large ensemble. However, the abundant list has too much flip-flopping regarding who is the antagonists and the protagonists. Their characters’ alliances are constantly changing.

This fluidity is entertaining for a bit, but this quickly becomes tiresome. Flip-flopping characterizations are annoying. The agents’ loyalties to their country or organization appear skeptically unstable. The bad guys are the good guys and the good guys are the bad guys at least at first. Then, wacky science-fiction bits happen to explain an already muddled story.

Despite the amount of entertainment achieved from this movie, constantly changing personalities are not a good moviemaking tactic to surprise audiences.

It just leaves one disillusioned about this movie because characters and their motives are all one is left with eventually. Those motives are trite objects resulting in mundane, clichéd material. Too much double-crossing leads to an unconvincing playout.

Grade: C (Argyll is too farfetched.)

“Lisa Frankenstein” (Comedy/Horror/Romance: 1 hour, 41 minutes)

Starring: Kathryn Newton, Liza Soberano and Cole Sprouse

Director: Zelda Williams

Rated: PG-13 (Violent bloody imagery, strong language, sexual assault, teen drinking and drug content)

Movie Review:

“Lisa Frankenstein” is a beautiful mess, but it thrives in the ambiguous environment it creates. It is engaging in that it appears like a campy teenage comedy/romance from the 1980s, especially since the setting is that period. However, this unconventional love story never really obtains any stable type of reality.

Lisa Swallows (Newton) is a reclusive high-school senior. She spends a great deal of time in an old cemetery where fantasizes about one grave’s statue the most. After some unusual circumstances return the corpse (Sprouse) to life, Lisa must reevaluate her life as she helps find body parts for the walking dead creature. Along the way, they find love too.

Despite those 1980s vibes, this movie is out there for a modern rom-com. Again, it feels like a 1980s movie, yet it does not create an endearing presence of a movie of yesteryear.

Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, makes a major debut with this modern take on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” Diablo Cody, who won an Oscar for writing “Juno” (2007), is the writer of “Lisa Frankenstein.”

A joke about love and romance exists with Lisa Frankenstein, that Diablo Cody barely allows audiences to see. The story has an implied meaning. Along the way, moviegoers see only the gist of it. Cody let audiences figure it out on their own.

The problem is an interesting fantasy that waffles between reality and daydreaming. The portrayal of characters in the real world juxtaposed with what is in the head of the main character is frayed and unclear.

One can almost hear Dr. Frankenstein cry out, “It’s aliveeee.” Except, there is no Igor to pull the switch.

Grade: C+ (Not fully alive, but it impresses in some aspect.)

“Out of Darkness” (Horror: 1 hour, 28 minutes)

Starring: Chuku ModuSafia Oakley-GreenKit Young

Director: Andrew Cumming

Rated: PG-13 (Violence and grisly images)

Movie Review:

“Out of Darkness” is an intriguing horror movie. It is also an adequate survival movie. It takes place in prehistoric times.

Set approximately 45,000 years ago in the Scottish Highlands, six nomads search for a safe place to call home. As they journey across cold ragged terrain, an unseen being interrupts their trek, stalking the group for days, usually at night.

Director Andrew Cumming and co-writers Ruth Greenberg and Oliver Kassman create a setting, and intriguing characters, even when the script is commonplace material. They do this by keeping their characters consistent for primitive beings of the Stone Age.

Six people have a goal, and they bring audiences along for their adventure. They just want to reach a safe destination that may live peacefully. Along the way, they encounter frights, dangers and different adversarial personal attributes to achieve their ultimate goal. Additionally, they must evade the being stalking them.

These elements are lifted by a screenplay filled with surprises. It keeps unexpected events happening throughout the runtime. The result is something different, a horror movie set many years ago.

Grade: B (this feature sheds a new light on the horror genre.)

“Madame Web” (Action/Science-Fiction: 1 hour, 56 minutes)

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabel Merced and Tahar Rahim

Director: S. J. Clarkson

Rated: PG-13 (Violence/action and language)

Movie Review:

“Madame Web” is another Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, and it is origin story about a lesser-known comic book character called Madame Web. Think of this as MCU’s “Groundhog Day” (1993). The action scenarios are entertaining, but this appears like another one-hit wonder for a Marvel movie.

Nearly drowning to death, Cassandra Webb (Johnson), a paramedic, finds out she can see glimpses of the future. She realizes her current visions are of three young women stalked by a murderer as she races to help them. Ezekiel Sims (Rahim), the killer, has a link to Webb’s past. Webb must use her psychic abilities to stay ahead of Sims, who has Spider-Man like abilities of his own.

This movie thrives on the presence of Dakota Johnson. While she works as a paramedic, she is not appealing as a superhero in a manner that is arresting. However, she and other characters in this movie appear as precursors for future “Spider-Man” sequels. Several characters, such as Ben Parker, make appearances that indicate characters will appear in other MCU variations.

Other characters are here, dangling in the wind. Their purpose is less obvious.

“Madame Webb” has some neat themes for an action movie — a protagonist who can see and alter the future and can exist in multiple places at once. However, the story does not jive. Time appears irrelevant between scenes, moving faster and slower to facilitate the narrative without stability. Thus, these temporal lapses create an inconsistent story.

Grade: C+ (This web is not sticky enough to capture audiences for a sequel.)

“Bob Marley: One Love” (Biographical Drama/Music: 1 hour, 47 minutes)

Starring: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch and James Norton

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Rated: PG-13 (Marijuana use and smoking, some violence and strong language)

Movie Review:

Capturing the life of Bob Marley, played by talented Kingsley Ben-Adir, is no easy task. The singer-songwriter was influential in multiple ways. This biographical photoplay tries to capture the more interesting part of his life during the last five years. However, the flashbacks keep interrupting.

The screenplay tries to cram most of Marley’s life into this feature by inserting the past into the singer’s last few years. While focusing on the late 1970s, the movie also injects Marley’s past as a biracial child, his romantic courting of Rita Marley (Lynch) who becomes his wife, and his Rastafarian roots. The problem is his past is unnecessary to understand Marley in the late ‘70s.

Marley’s philosophy and songs are hypnotic, just as the charismatic British actor who plays him, Ben-Adir. The scenes with Ben-Adir playing Marley and Lynch playing his wife Rita are the best dramatic moments.

Of course, the music of the reggae icon is a focal point. Marley’s lyrics and music remain potent and carry the movie when Ben-Adir and Lynch are not interacting.

Otherwise, the movie just goes from one musical hit to the next and scenic flashback moments. Again, the music is good and worthy rather than during a flashback scene or other.

The flashbacks are another story. They move audiences from Marley‘s present to his past. The movie loses its flavor partially in the process. This photoplay must rely on music as a way to describe the man himself and the fine performances of the cast.

The execution of his story is lacking and leads one to want to see more of Marley. More exists to understand for a man who died at 36 years old yet is still impactful. “One Love” relies on the actors’ performances, mainly Ben-Adir, and the music, which are enough to make Marley’s story attractive.

Grade: B- (Love is in abundance although not as powerful as its subject.)

“Turning Red” (Animation/Comedy: 1 hour, 40 minutes)

Starring: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh and Ava Morse

Director: Domee Shi

Rated: PG (Thematic material, suggestive content and language)

Movie Review:

“Turning Red” has returned to theaters. This is a Pixar Animation Studios production. It is one of many movies that Walt Disney Pictures moved to its online platform. If it is playing in one of the select cities near you, it is worth viewing, especially for families with teenage girls.

The path of 13-year-old Meilin Lee (Chiang) is in eighth grade. As she begins to like a young boy in her class, her body undergoes surprising changes. The transition to adulthood is not easy for her and the women in her mother’s family. When the women enter puberty, they transform into giant red pandas when they are emotionally stressed.

Of course, the big red giant panda is a metaphor for a young woman gaining menstruation cycle and other aspects of adolescence. This good animated feature uses the big red panda in a way that is comical and adventurous.

The characters are invitingly entertaining. They create a sense of nostalgia. They take viewers back to middle school, where confronting traumatic elements exist while undergoing puberty.

Should have movie cinemas, turning green at the box office again. It is a well-constructed feature that should impress most audiences.

Grade: B+ (Spend some green to see red.)

“Land of Bad” (Action: 1 hour, 53 minutes)

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Russell Crowe, Ricky Whittle and Luke Hemsworth

Director: William Eubank

Rated: R (Strong bloody violence. Language throughout,)

Movie Review:

This engaging action film has a very serious undertone. It offers an interesting cast with Russell Crowe, the Hemsworth Brothers and some others. However, it is familiar territory following “Kandahar” (2023) and “The Covenant” (2023).

An Army Special Forces Operational Detachment Alphas (ODAs) team’s mission to retrieve a significant asset is compromised when ambushed by an extremist militia. Air Force JTAC JJ Kinney (Liam Hemsworth), an unexpected member of the team is its only member not captured or injured. Drone pilot Capt. Eddie ‘Reaper’ Grimm (Russell Crowe) must guide Kinney and later the remaining members of the elite team through enemy territory to complete the mission. First, they must survive hostile forces pursuing them.

If you see this, take some tennis shoes because this movie is one where the characters are constantly running. It is constant action sequences after its first few minutes.

Boredom is not an issue with this movie. Even when scenes offer modest returns, they are interesting enough to keep one’s attention.

Grade: B- (Land of intense action.)

“The Taste of Things” (Period Drama/Romance: 2 hours, 15 minutes)

Starring: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel and Emmanuel Salinger

Director: Anh Hung Tran

Rated: PG-13 (Sensuality and partial nudity)

Movie Review:

“Taste of Things” is a French language film about one of the things for which the French are known, gastronomy, the artistic endeavors regarding cuisine. This is a well-acted movie about cooking. It is a romance starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel. Their romance is lukewarm, but the cooking scenes in their spacious kitchen are hot.

Eugénie (Binoche) is the long-time personal chef of gourmand Dodin Bouffant (Magimel), who is a fine cook himself. The two have worked together for nearly two decades, cooking traditional foods to the exotic. To get Eugénie to say yes to his marriage proposal, Dodin cooks her an extravagant meal.

The movie starts with several characters cooking a major feast. A multi-course meal graces the screen. We see the cooks preparing it and serving it to guests. All is savory. If one is not hungry at the beginning of this movie, one will be by the end.

A nuanced romance is the presentation when the visuals are not food. It is a nice slow process that is different from modern romance screenplays. Eugenie and Dodain’s courtship fits the style for the era this period drama takes place. The romance is the lesser part of this movie, although interesting. It is not as impactful as the kitchen scenes.

The preparation of food is phenomenal. Director Tran Anh Hung (“The Scent of Green Papaya,” 1993) beautifully choreographs kitchen scenes shot by cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg (“The Death of Louis XIV, 2016). Together, they create a feast for the eyes.

“The Taste of Things” offers the appetite a cinematic treat. Tastefully executed cooking scenes are delicious, even if the romance is subtly bland comparatively.

Grade: B (Bon Appétit!)

Adann-Kennn Alexxandar has been reviewing movies for more than 25 years for The Valdosta Daily Times.