Matthew McConaughey and Michelle Dockery in The Gentlemen (2019)
Coming Up for Air (Not Rated)
Stan is trying to juggle competition for the Olympic dive team with his studies. Can the teenager achieve a physical-cerebral life balance? This family drama was produced by Roger Rapoport (Waterwalk), who cowrote Coming Up for Air with Deborah Staples—known to Milwaukee theatergoers for her years of work with the American Players Theatre (APT) and Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Staples costars alongside Carrie Hitchcock (Next Act, Door Shakespeare), Mark Corkins (APT), April Paul (Renaissance Theaterworks) and Neil Brookshire (Peninsula Players). Some scenes were filmed in Wisconsin.
Sunday, Jan. 26, at the Fox Bay Cinema Grill
The Gentlemen (Rated R)
Directed and co-written by Guy Ritchie, this return to the irreverent gangster tale is a reminder that Ritchie once threatened to become the British Quentin Tarantino. Matthew McConaughey portrays American expatriate Mickey Pearson, owner of a profitable marijuana empire in London. Having announced he’s ready to sell, Pearson comes under attack from various baddies. Hugh Grant appears as Fletcher, a writer drawing inspiration for his would-be screenplays from Pearson and other local dealers. The film opens with Pearson’s apparent murder, flashing back to see who and what may have led up to it. Yes, the gimmickry is overused; but worse, Ritchie’s film seems made for his own amusement and misses the mark as a snappy crime drama.
The Last Full Measure (Rated R)
This account is based upon an investigation into the heroic acts of a U.S. Air Force medic, 32 years after the fact. Fellow soldiers and family members demand a Medal of Honor be awarded to William H. Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine) because he saved many lives. Seen through the eyes of fictional Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman (Sebastian Stan), the film gives way to Vietnam War flashbacks as Huffman gathers testimony from Army vets Takoda (Samuel L. Jackson), Mott (Ed Harris) and Burr (Peter Fonda, in his final screen appearance). Huffman also discovers a cover-up that may explain why the medic’s medal was withheld. Depicted as a cardboard cutout, Pitsenbarger nevertheless defines the meaning of sacrifice.
The Turning (Rated PG-13)
Based on the 1898 Henry James horror novella The Turn of the Screw, this ghost story is reset to the present day. Mackenzie Davis appears as a governess employed to educate and oversee a disturbed brother and sister (Finn Wolfhard and Brooklyn Prince, respectively). The film unfolds at an isolated mansion, with overcast skies and handsome, dimly lit sets as Gothic elements to enhance the sense of dread, which might work if there was any actual dread to be found. Executive producer Steven Spielberg dismissed his first director and screenwriter for taking the wrong approach. Portraying the Demoness, Joely Richardson is the fourth Redgrave (she’s Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter) to appear in a film adaptation of this enigmatic tale.
