‘Tuesday’ (2024)
This mixture of dead-serious drama and imaginative fantasy from the Croatian filmmaker Daina O. Pusic is such a big, weird swing that it’s not surprising audiences didn’t flock to it last summer. And it’s a hard picture to summarize without sounding insane; yes, this is a film where Death, taking the form of an oversized macaw, bobs his head and raps along with Ice Cube’s “Today Was a Good Day.” But if you go along with its wild premise — Death visits a terminally ill teenager (the excellent Lola Petticrew) and her mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in a rare and affecting dramatic turn), and they must grapple with their thorny relationship and what this departure would do to it — it’s quite involving, particularly as Pusic (who also penned the script) gracefully pivots to heart-wrenching poignancy in the homestretch.
‘Downhill’ (2020)
Those who prefer Louis-Dreyfus in a more humorous mode will enjoy this comedy of manners from the directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (“The Way, Way Back”), remaking Ruben Ostlund’s 2014 international hit “Force Majeure.” As before, the story concerns a husband and father (played with well-practiced oafishness by Will Ferrell) who responds to a possible avalanche during his family’s ski vacation by fleeing without hesitation, to the shock and consternation of his wife (Louis-Dreyfus). The screenplay (by Faxon, Rash and the “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong) isn’t quite as sharp or subtle as Ostlund’s, but “Downhill” scores plenty of keenly observed points about the fragility of masculinity, and Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus are a well-matched comedy duo.
‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’ (2024)
Viggo Mortensen writes, directs and stars in this Western drama, but it’s less of a showcase for him than for Vicky Krieps, who made such a memorable first impression in “Phantom Thread.” Mortensen directs in a classical style, owing a debt to John Ford, Howard Hawks and the other masters of the genre; his contemporary flourishes are in the focus, which rests squarely on Krieps as the tough-as-nails wife of his frontier sheriff, and the structure, which nests multiple time frames and stories within its single narrative. The result is a welcome mixture of old and new Western cinema, executed with intelligence and heart.
‘Outlaw Johnny Black’ (2023)
In 2009, Michael Jai White starred in and was one of the writers of “Black Dynamite,” a delightfully silly and undeniably affectionate parody of the low-budget Blaxploitation action movies of the 1970s. Here, the screenplay White wrote with Byron Minns sends up the less ubiquitous Blaxploitation Western, in which a tough Black hero shows the frontier what’s what. White also steps into the director’s chair, with less success (the picture is a touch too flabby at 130 minutes), but there are big laughs to be found here, while White remains a compelling presence, equally adept at playing tough and goofy.
‘The Killer’ (2024)
John Woo’s made-for-Peacock revamp of his Hong Kong action classic feels, at least on a surface level, like an act of re-appropriation, taking back his title from David Fincher, who swiped it last year for his own (decidedly mediocre) story of a hit man. Here, Woo strikes the right balance of remake and reimagining, keeping the broad strokes of his story, in which a contract killer discovers his seemingly irredeemable soul after an innocent young singer is blinded in the crossfire of an assignment. This time, Woo changes the sex of his protagonist (she’s played, with charismatic ferocity, by Nathalie Emmanuel) and the setting (from Hong Kong to Paris), but retains the breathless, visceral energy of his action beats. In fact, much of what made Woo’s ’80s and ’90s films so memorable is here: baroque gunfights, two-fisted shooting, motorcycle stunts, religious iconography, unapologetic melodrama, and the camaraderie between cop and criminal. He’s playing the hits, and he knows it — he even places his director credit over birds flapping in slow-motion inside a church — but if this is a late-period victory lap, it’s a richly deserved one.
‘Daddio’ (2024)
This intimate drama from the writer-director Christy Hall is basically a one-set two-hander, playing out the conversation between a crusty cabby (Sean Penn) and his last fare of the night (Dakota Johnson) in real time, during her ride from Kennedy Airport to midtown Manhattan. It could have just as easily been a stage play, and at times it plays like one, mostly in the right ways; the mighty performers benefit from the claustrophobic setting, creating characters of real texture from their prickly but nuanced interactions, creating points of credible contact from their divergent worldviews.
‘Am I OK?’ (2024)
Johnson rarely gets to showcase her comic chops (aside from her winkingly funny work in those terrible “Fifty Shades” movies), but she’s a spark plug of a comic actor, with great timing and a keen ability to keep silly situations grounded. That comes in handy in Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne’s fluffy but enjoyable relationship comedy, with Johnson as a woman who finally admits, at 32, that she’s attracted to women (Johnson generates real sparks with Kiersey Clemons as her first lady-crush). It all gets a little twinkly, and things wrap up just a bit too tidily. But it’s an enjoyable watch, and Johnson continues to prove she can do just about anything.
‘Vamps’ (2012)
The writer and director Amy Heckerling teamed up again with her “Clueless” star Alicia Silverstone for this high-spirited horror-comedy, in which Silverstone and Krysten Ritter play a pair of likable urban women attempting to navigate their social lives with the added complication of being vampires. Heckerling’s clever script playfully explores the practical inconveniences of their bloodsucking lifestyle, while Silverstone and Ritter create a sweet, credibly lived-in girl-buddy dynamic.
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