Image: ©Lionsgate
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
The Bad Guys (In Theaters April 22)
A crew of five criminal animals go straight in order to avoid jail-time in this Dreamworks animation. Adapted from Aaron Blabey’s graphic novel series, the crooks include leader Wolf (voice of Sam Rockwell), safe-cracking Snake (Marc Maron), tech wiz Tarantula (Awkwafina), master-of-disguise Shark (Craig Robinson) and bad-tempered Piranha (Anthony Ramos). After getting caught committing a robbery, the five are saved by billionaire guinea pig, Professor Marmelade (Richard Ayoade) who pledges, in an upper crust English accent, to reform the thieves using his special method. Being good turns out to be hard work, but the thieves enjoy the awards and accolades and start to like who they've become. In reality, they’re being set up to take the fall for a super-crime. Director Pierre Perifel opts for a Saturday-morning cartoon-look in a comedic adventure chocked full of adult jokes with gags aimed at the kiddies. (Lisa Miller)
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (In Theaters April 22)
This action-comedy draws upon the career and reputation of Nicolas Cage. In the film, Cage is no longer offered decent film roles, and deeply in debt, he accepts a $1-million-dollar payday to attend the birthday party of Spanish billionaire super-fan, Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal). Cage travels to Mallorca, where he is unprepared for the crazy fun the pair will enjoy. Once they're great friends, Cage is approached by two CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz), who reveal that Javi is a ruthless criminal who’s kidnapped the daughter of Catalonia’s president. They persuade Cage that it would be very James Bond to rescue the girl. He pretends to be Javi’s best bud, while secretly hallucinating strategy discussions with a younger, presumably cooler Nicolas Cage. Rescuing the girl will show Cage’s ex-wife (Sharon Horgan) and daughter (Lily Sheen), that he’s more than just a self-involved, unemployed movie star. Director/co-writer Tom Gormican presents Cage in an endearingly comical manner while illuminating the behavior that makes Cage a different breed of cat. (Lisa Miller)
The Whaler Boy (Film Movement DVD)
A Russian-Polish coproduction “with assistance from Belgium” and Johnny Cash playing as the credits roll? Sadly, such a thing will no longer be possible for some time to come, but that unusual combination only begins to describe this award-winner at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.
Directed by Russia’s Philipp Yuryev, The Whaler Boy is set in an indigenous village on Russia’s side of the Bering Straits, a place of hardworking community. The men haul whales onto the shore and carve up the giant beasts for food and other essentials, leaving a bloody stain on the strand gradually washed away by the waves. In that remote town a pair of 15-year-old boys discover an American sex website on their laptops—yes, the village has internet (unless the power goes off, which happens often).
Like 15-year-olds anywhere, sex is a preoccupation, and the internet brings it into their lives along with dreams of immigration to America, land of “McDonalds and hot chicks.” The cinematography has outstanding moments, including a tracking shot down the long, luridly lit corridors of the bordello-like setting from where the sex site is broadcast. (David Luhrssen)
