Photo © Sony Pictures
Where the Crawdads Sing
Where the Crawdads Sing
Last Passenger
(Cohen Media Group Blu-ray)
We expect the trains to run on time but what if one runs past its stops and just keeps going? Runaway train (or bus) movies are a subset of the thriller genre and among them is this 2013 British film. Last Passenger takes its time to establish that Dr. Lewis Shaker (Dougray Scott) is a nice guy and a responsible single dad to his seven-year-old. He gains new responsibilities when the breaks fail on the night train home from London, the conductor and engineer disappear, and a mysterious villain threatens the lives of the remaining handful of passengers. The point of interest are the passengers, including an officious businessman, an Eastern European thug and a beautiful potential love interest for Lewis—if they survive. (David Luhrssen)
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
(In Theaters July 15)
This comedy, loosely based on Blazing Saddles, was originally meant to feature an unexpected Black man arriving to save an Asian village. Over time, the live-action film became an animated PG-movie featuring cats and dogsm... that is, a dog. He’s Hank (voiced by Michael Cera), a down-on-his-luck beagle who arrives to warn an Asian village of an impending invasion. He wants to join their fight, despite the village residents all being dog-hating cats. First, Hank needs Samurai training, which he gets from sarcastic tuxedo cat, Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson). Together they hope to repel warmongering Somali cat, Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais). Heck yeah, the fart jokes fly high and far with a voice cast that includes Mel Brooks, Michelle Yeoh, Djimon Hounsou, George Takei and Gabriel Iglesias. (Lisa Miller)
Vive L’Amour
(Film Movement Classics Blu-ray)
Ang Lee is the most famous filmmaker to emerge from ‘90s Taiwan, but there was also Tsai Ming-liang, whose Vive L’Amour (1994) won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. It seems influenced by advanced Italian directors of the ‘60s for its adventurous sense of taking cinema to new places, its lack of conventional narrative, even its lack of dialogue for long stretches. Vive L’Amour features three characters: a real estate saleswoman, her bad boy boyfriend and a suicidal young man who becomes obsessed with her boyfriend. They come together in a vacant apartment on her sales list, a space whose posh emptiness serves as a metaphor of the society it represents. (David Luhrssen)
Where the Crawdads Sing
(In Theaters July 15)
Published in 2018, Delia Owens’s novel has spent 150 weeks on the bestseller list. This adaptation stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Catherine “Kya” Clark. Abandoned by her family as a child, Kya lives off the marsh lands during the 1960s. Residents of the nearby coastal town dismiss her as “The Marsh Girl.” That changes when Kya becomes an attractive young woman, gaining attention from well-known local boys, Tate and Chase (Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson). When one of the youths is subsequently found dead, Kya is arrested and tried as his killer, even as events surrounding the killing become increasingly unclear. Reese Witherspoon produces while Olivia Newman directs. The cast includes David Strathairn and Garret Dillahunt, while the soundtrack features an original song by Taylor Swift. (Lisa Miller)
