Photo © United Artists
Tilda Swinton in 'Three Thousand Years of Longing'
Tilda Swinton in 'Three Thousand Years of Longing'
Bad Roads
Film Movement DVD)
Bad Roads began as a play at London’s Royal Court Theatre and was transformed into this film by writer-director Natalya Vorozhbit. Ukraine’s entry for Best International Film at the 2022 Academy Awards, Bad Roads was shot before Putin’s invasion but reflects growing tension as well as open fighting in some districts. Absurdity occurs when a drunken school principal is stopped at a checkpoint and accidently produces his wife’s passport as ID. And then there is the agonizing horror of women subjected to the worst abuses by Russian militiamen who insist, “It’s not about sex—it’s about power.” (David Luhrssen)
Breathe In
(Kino Lorber Blu-ray)
Breathe In unfolds in an upper-middle class idyll of leafy neighborhoods and rambling homes sitting on broad lawns. How high school music teacher Keith Reynolds (Guy Pearce) can afford to live there is a puzzle? But let’s skip over that missing piece of the backstory.
Hairline tensions are apparent in Keith’s marriage with Megan (Amy Ryan), the perfect suburban mom (complete with a collection of rare cookie jars). Their 17-year-old daughter, Lauren (Mackenzie Davis), rolls her eyes at first when confronted with sharing her room with a British exchange student, the talented pianist Sophie (Felicity Jones) and Keith is irritated by the interruption of housing a stranger. But mom knows best and eagerly imposes her ideal of kindness and hands across the water.
Soon enough, the story’s drift swings in view. Keith, an ex-alt rocker who resents his suburban existence, is trying out for a symphony in NYC. Keith and Sophie gradually fall in love over music. The scenario is precariously close but avoids falling into cliché through its low-key presentation, its sense for the banality of everyday affluence, the blandness that comforts Megan and leave Keith secretly dissatisfied. The performances are believable throughout. (David Luhrssen)
The Invitation
(In Theaters, Aug 26)
After taking a DNA test that reveals a previously unknown cousin Walter (Thomas Doherty), Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) is lured to his British estate to attend a wedding. She doesn’t know that the wedding is meant to be hers, nor what sort of person she’s being forced to marry. Escape is all but impossible since Evie is surrounded by supernatural beings intent upon serving their own agenda. Jessica M. Thompson directs a pic that should put up nice numbers. Following the pandemic, R-Rated horrors have garnered the largest box-office after PG-13 films. Here, Sony found a PG-13 horror perfect for young couples. (Lisa Miller)
Three Thousand Years of Longing
(In Theaters, Aug 26)
What happens when you put an academic (with an expertise in storytelling), together with a djinn whose expertise lies in beguiling the unwary? That’s the set-up of A.S. Byatt’s short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye,” adapted to the screen by director George Miller. Despite the djinn’s magical appearance out of a colorful glass bottle, Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) knows that miraculous good fortune is usually accompanied by unwelcome consequences. The djinn (Idris Elba), needing Alithea to make three wishes in order to gain his freedom, tells her three stories recounting his last three attempts to escape his bottle. Both actors are engrossing and charming, as is the upscale Istanbul hotel where Alithea stays in the “Agatha Christie room.” Billed as an “Aladdin for adults,” will it grant our wish? (Lisa Miller)
