Photo © Fast Charlie NOLA LLC
Pierce Brosnan in ‘Fast Charlie’
Pierce Brosnan in ‘Fast Charlie’
Fast Charlie
(Limited Theatrical Release & Streaming VOD, Dec. 8)
An enforcer and hitman, Charlie Swift (Pierce Brosnan) lives in a tastefully decorated home, cooks Italian food to unwind, and intends to purchase a fixer-upper home in Tuscany—where he hopes to retire someday. His boss of 32 years, Stan (played by the late James Caan in his final role), is a friend until a rival decides Biloxi belongs to him now. Charlie and his associates are next on gangster Beggar Mercado’s (Gbenda Akinnagbe) hit list. He’s got the goons to do the job, except they lack Charlie’s experience, expertise and will to survive.
Adapted from Victor Gischler’s darkly comic crime novel Gun Monkeys, Phillip Noyce directs, staging numerous amusingly grotesque killings and near misses, most perpetrated by Charlie in acts of self-defense. Charlie’s survival is complicated by his determination to protect Marcie, the widow of a loser he once executed. Played by Morena Baccarin, Marcie is a taxidermist, and despite their age difference, she and Charlie simmer on the way to a slow boil. Brosnan’s debonair, silver-haired killer may be witty, charming, and a good cook, but is he husband material? (Lisa Miller)
Lord of Misrule
(Limited Theatrical Release & Streaming VOD, Dec. 8)
Set in the English countryside, this “folk horror” uses genre conventions: isolation, pagan beliefs and a naive outsider, to create tension. Rebecca Holland (Tuppence Middleton) comes to Berrow to serve as the village’s vicar. She arrives with husband Henry (Matt Stokoe) and young daughter Grace (Evie Templeton). Soon, the village will be celebrating the Lord of Misrule who protects their crops against the Lord of Blight. Rebecca’s daughter Grace is named Harvest Angel. She loves her winged costume, but complains she’s seeing strange, cowled figures with animal heads and Rebecca thinks Grace might be torturing her bunny. When Grace goes missing, the local police fail to vigorously investigate. Town elder Jocelyn Abney (Ralph Ineson), counsels Rebecca that “All is as was.” Directed by William Brent Bell, stylish cinematography helps to create a creepy atmosphere. Paintings around town may reveal the truth, but if those aren’t obvious enough, the true believers are willing to explain. (Lisa Miller)
The Magic Flute
(Shout! Factory Blu-ray)
The opening notes of Mozart’s glorious Magic Flute sound out at the onset. Tim (Jack Wolfe) is led to the hospital bed where his father, an acclaimed opera singer, is dying. The old man entrusts him with a book, an early manuscript of The Magic Flute, telling him to return it to the conservatory library where he stole it decades ago. Tim is starting his first semester at that academy, and finds himself in a musical Hogwarts, complete with eccentric instructors, sinister students and magic in the form of a parallel universe where the world of The Magic Flute becomes real. Investing the entertaining 2022 movie is the music by one of Europe’s greatest composers. (David Luhrssen)
