Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

 

I was entertained by James Mangold's assured direction of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which felt a tad more like "fan service" than credible conclusion to a truly venerable franchise.

And, as much as I was enchanted by Phoebe Waller-Bridge's roguish Helena and Mads Mikkelsen's sneering Nazi, I was underwhelmed and occasionally wearied by the film's title character (played, of course, by Harrison Ford), who, despite a pretty energetic, age-altered opening sequence set at the end of World War II lent the movie a forlorn creakiness that was, well, sad.

In this send off, the archaeologist / adventurer (Ford) joins forces, reluctantly, with his god-daughter (Waller-Bridge), whom he has not seen since the death of her father and Jones' close university associate, Basil Shaw, played by Toby Jones. Shaw was driven nearly mad by his obsession with a mystical timepiece created by Archimedes in the 3rd century BCE, which he believed if it were whole would have time-traveling properties.

Equipped with Shaw's notes and a lead, Jones and Helena set off to find the dial's missing piece, and as is usual for this series, the quest takes them and Helena's youthful partner-in-crime Teddy (Ethann Isidore) across the globe, recruiting the help of some of Indy's old friends, as the trio stays two steps ahead of nefarious interested parties led by Mikkelsen's Dr. Voller.

The Indiana Jones's franchise, which has belonged to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas since 1981, has been a predictable and bankable commodity that has turned the chase -- foot, vehicular, ocean vessel, aircraft -- into high art unburdened by plausibility or narrative coherence -- all for the sake of "gee-whiz."

Dial of Destiny pulls out all the stops in this regard but so much so that the set pieces felt bloated and tedious, to me -- porterhouse when sirloin would have been fine.

Still, fans will likely devour every ounce of it.

No Hard Feelings

 

IIn Director Gene Stupnitsky's No Hard Feelings, Jennifer Lawrence plays Maddie, a 30-something bartender / Uber driver in Montauk, New York, who has gotten behind in paying her property taxes and stands to lose the only home she's ever known.

After her car is impounded, Maddie discovers a Craigslist ad placed by a couple (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benenti) who are offering an automobile as payment to a twenty-something woman who devirginizes their anxious 19-year-old son (Andrew Barth Feldman), who is heading for Princeton in the fall.

Despite not meeting the age-requirement, Maddie applies and is hired. What proceeds is an uneven -- but frequently quite funny -- tale of two broken people who come to better understand themselves by facing the scariest thing they know -- human connections.

The premise is ridiculously sticky but both Lawrence, who is one of the film's producers, and Feldman are so invested in capturing both the outrageousness of the story's action and the warmth that lies at its heart that despite narrative holes and continuity gaffes it delivers an affirming glow after the credits roll.

Lawrence gives an assured A-lister performance and young Mr. Feldman (a former member of the High School Musical series) has a nice moment at the piano as he serenades Maddie in a restaurant, turning Hall and Oates' Maneater into winning seduction.

The Blackening

 

Director Tim Story takes a funny and insightful screenplay by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins and turns it into if not comedic gold then certainly sterling silver.

Nine Black college friends plan a reunion in a secluded cabin for a Juneteenth celebration, but the party is interrupted by masked murderers with crossbows who threaten to kill them all if they don't play a game -- The Blackening. The game is -- for all intents and purposes -- a test of knowledge of African American history and culture, despite the racist minstrel centerpiece on the board.

The movie is 80 percent social commentary and 20 percent slasher cinema and pits the nine (Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji and Jay Pharoah) alternately against their masked captors and themselves. Narrative gaps don't derail the proceedings, mainly because viewers are likely to quickly forget this is a thriller.

The internal warring offers the heartiest laughs and cultural chestnuts that, I suspect, will be most impactful among people familiar with racial stereotypes and cultural tropes that often don't make it to the big screen. Here, they are wall-to-wall.

They are used here as measures of "authenticity" with the central cast representing different sectors of Black life in the U.S. who more or less unite to battle existential threats.

The Blackening, which seems to be addressing larger issues than racial authenticity, is a knowing and entertaining picture.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

 

Marvel Studios' latest animated feature -- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse -- is a work of art on a level of sophistication and stylistic brilliance that will undoubtedly be added to the canon of outstanding animated work that has included, most prominently, the Disney catalogue, including the wonderful Pixar features of the past 20 years. I predict it will be studied for years.

Marvel is taking full advantage of the narrative complexity of the multiverse introduced in its film and streaming series. This concept proposes there are an infinite number of dimensions of existence, all of which have some version of the same folks, most importantly in the case of this franchise -- Spider-people. Disruptions of the fated events in any one dimension can threaten all of existence.

Shameik Moore (Dope) voices again the version of Spider-Man that is Miles Morales, a Black Hispanic teenager in Brooklyn who has been fighting crime in the same way as the live action heroes (played most recently by Tom Holland). Miles is coaxed by his female counterpart from a parallel universe (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) to follow her as she explore the infinite possibilities "across the Spider-Verse" with a band of other selected Spideys.

As they venture out, visual elements change, color palettes go from muted to bold and back, backgrounds move from flat to three-dimensional, the screen takes on comic book stylings and the rendering techniques of other animators. It's simply beyond clever and merges on genius.

A tight, smartly written story supports all of this spectacle, with enviable complexity for an animated film that runs nearly half-again as long as the tradition long-form cartoon. Dialogue is whip-smart and expositive.

Young children will be mesmerized by the eye-popping action, while their parents will likely be impressed by the treatment of thorny questions about duty and obligations, truth and trust.

As for me, I loved it.