Month: March 2024

“Spaceman” (** out of four) was a mostly lifeless outer-space melodrama in which an astronaut (Adam Sandler) is a half-a-year into his space expedition when he starts having concerns about his long-term survival and harks back to flashbacks involving his wife (Carey Mulligan) and is gradually helped by an ancient creature (voiced by Paul Dano) he discovers in the bowels of the ship. Nicely understated performance from Sandler and some effective moments in final third aren’t enough to sustain film, as it is too lethargic and laconic. Eerie music score by Max Richter is a definite plus.

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“Outlaw Posse” (** out of four) was a scattershot retro-Western set in 1908 about a lone gunslinger (Mario Van Peebles who also wrote and directed) who returns to the hills of Montana to retrieve buried gold but is pursued by a vicious villain (William Mapother) who wants it all for himself. Tongue-in-cheek effort from Van Peebles has attitude and style but doesn’t add up to all that much. Incidentally, this is not sequel to Van Peebles’ 1993 “Posse”, despite similar stories, characters, and even costumes. Strong supporting cast (including Whoopi Goldberg, Edward James Olmos, Cam Gigandet) are sorely wasted.

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“Lola” (** out of four) was an unwieldy character melodrama about the title character (Nicola Peltz Beckham who also wrote and directed) who tries to survive her toxic household with her parents (Virginia Madsen and Trevor Long) but backslides into addiction and hopelessness and has to do everything in her power to maintain her sanity and stay alive for herself and for her younger (Luke David Blumm). One-note story of survival and redemption doesn’t have the emotional fuse and power that it needs. Madsen (looking a lot like Cathy Moriarty here) adds some resonance as her religious wackjob mom and it’s an interesting companion piece to one of her first roles in “Fire With Fire.”

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“The Late Game” (** out of four) was a middling sports-melodrama about a middle-aged guy (Alec Reusch) who attempts to find new meaning in his life by joining a late-night hockey league but finds expected opposition with his teammates and managers (Zac Bell, Matthew Archie Starling, and others) who shrug him off due to his age. Easygoing and amiable story about being middle-aged and trying to re-engage in sports but simply isn’t funny enough or moving enough to make it worthwhile. Robert Redford’s “The Natural” covered similar ground and was more emotionally rich and (also) much funnier.

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“Scrambled” (** out of four) was a thinly conceived comedy about a thirty-something (Yvonne Strahovski) who becomes increasingly disillusioned with her life and being an eternal bridesmaid and decides to freeze her eggs but this leads her onto a journey of self-discovery that results in clashes with her dying father (Clancy Brown) and the multiple men (Andrew Santino, Michael Welch, and others) in her life. Spirited performance from Strahovski gives this maximum mileage but film doesn’t have enough steam, story, or laughs to keep it afloat for feature length. This is one comedy idea that remained in infancy stage and never grew beyond that.

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“The Drive-Away Dolls” (** out of four) was an excessively unpleasant road melodrama about two friends (Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan) who hit the road together to get away from their various problems but soon find far more as they are pursued by various miscreants and criminals. Director Ethan Coen’s first film without his brother Joel shows flashes of their quirky and macabre humor and also elements of their at times self-indulgence and ugliness. Hard-core Coen Bros. cinemaphiles may find some homages to their past classics but film still comes up as a hollow exercise in excess.

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