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Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch - The Roses (2025)
Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Roses (2025)
The Roses
(In Theaters Aug. 29)
Most divorcing couples overcome their worst impulses, but this film imagines what can happen when they don’t in director Jay Roach and screenwriter Tony McNamara’s adaptation of Warren Adler’s The War of the Roses. When their decision to divorce morphs into the desire for mutual destruction, Theo and Ivy Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman) find there’s no going back. Transplanted Brits, they are living the California dream with their two kids, before their marriage goes bad. The couple’s American best friends (played by Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon), don’t begin to understand the despair disguised within Theo and Ivy’s witty banter. Only Ivy’s lawyer (a frighteningly ruthless Allison Janney) seems to get it and is a participant in their nightmare. With an expensive home and a booming business at stake, not to mention two teen children, the couple has every motivation to be reasonable, and maybe they would, in a different movie. Some may recall that Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner tore up the screen in a 1989 adaptation of this same dark comedy, but the war waged by a pair of normally reserved Brits, is both painful and painfully funny. (Lisa Miller)
Brenda Lee Rockin’ Around
(Mercury Blu-ray/DVD)
Barbara Hall directed this agreeably paced documentary on the life of a remarkable singer who emerged in the ‘50s, a child prodigy who remains with us today. After Brenda Lee’s father died, her mother worked long hours in a cotton mill, and the toddler brought home pennies to support the family from singing at a corner store. By the time Lee turned 11, she was bringing home real money. She was featured on Red Foley’s television show and was soon on the road with country and gospel acts.
Signed to Nashville’s Decca Records, she was handed to Owen Bradley, a legendary country producer and a fine mentor. He understood that Lee was already at the cusp of rockabilly and rock and roll, and saw her potential to reach pop as well as country, adult as well as teen audiences. The motif of Rockin’ Around is that Lee’s sensuous growl and relatable vocals weren’t easily contained within categories. Unlike record labels in recent times, Decca actually saw Lee as an artist worthy of career development and allowed her to develop with time. (David Luhrssen)
Caught Stealing
(In Theaters Aug. 29)
Set in the late 1990s, this comedy-thriller was adapted from the first book in a trilogy by Charlie Huston. The film uses New York City, along with its range of unusual inhabitants, to foster a sense of crazy dread difficult to recreate elsewhere. Austin Butler appears as Hank Thompson, a once promising California baseball player who left the sport and is now a New York bartender. His girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) is a paramedic who frequently wonders whether Hank takes anything seriously. Hank’s oddball, drug-dealing Brit neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith), seems harmless enough until Russ insists that Hank babysit Russ’s cat while he’s out of town. This leads to Hank being mistaken for Russ’s associate and subsequently targeted by both the Russian Mafia and a Jewish syndicate. Unable to understand what they believe he has that they want, Hank confides in detective Roman (Regina King), who advises him to find out fast. It’s a tall order when Hank is barely surviving their relentless pursuit. Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio appear as deceptively dangerous members of an Orthodox crime syndicate, with Griffin Dunne and Benito A Martínez Ocasio taking on mafioso roles. (Lisa Miller)
The Toxic Avenger
(In Theaters Aug. 29)
In a neat hat trick, a cult favorite of the 1980s is poised to become a mainstream success. The product of Troma’s schlock factory receives new life thanks to writer-director Macon Blair, and the film’s sympathetic Toxic Avenger played by Peter Dinklage. He’s a single dad working as a janitor for a factory spewing hazardous waste when he falls into a vat of the stuff. The janitor emerges as a grotesque-looking creature. He heals instantly and is incredibly strong. Nicknamed Toxie, he easily dispatches those brutalizing the residents of Roma’s Village (a play on the original’s Tromaville). Voiced by Dinklage throughout, the physical creature is performed by Luisa Guerreiro. She credibly conveys the action while restricted by foam prosthetics and electronic gizmos throughout her heavy suit. Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood play the factory-owning brothers while Jason Tremblay appears as Toxie’s son, whom the avenger longs to connect with. Extra gross-out killings are on display, with this emotionally vulnerable Toxic Avenger determined to see justice done at any cost. (Lisa Miller)
