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All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
(Capelight Blu-ray/DVD; Streaming on Netflix)
The 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front remains a milestone in cinema and a moving testimonial on the tragedy of war. The new All Quiet on the Western Front is less a remake than a return to the source, Erich Maria Remarque’s bestselling 1928 novel about the experience of Germany’s frontline soldiers during World War I. The novel and the 1930 and the 2022 films powerfully dramatize combat in a war that made no sense while making millions of casualties.
German director Edward Berger catches the repetition as well as the horror, the boredom as well as the anxiety, of trench warfare. “Faster! Faster! To the ladders!” the officers shout as their men scramble over the top and surge across the muddy no man’s land and into the French barrage of machinegun and shellfire. Bodies drop, mud splatters, shrapnel scatters and pings. And in the aftermath, the dead are recovered from the battlefield, shipped home in plain coffins while their uniforms are bundled up, boiled in cauldrons and sent to garment factories where rows of women at sewing machines recycle them for the next wave of troops. (David Luhrssen)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(In Theaters June 2)
The sequel to the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) was split into two chapters after the filmmakers realized their story overcrowded a single film. At two-hours-twenty-minutes, this middle portion features hundreds of Spider-People across multiple universes. Shameik Moore voices Miles Morales, a teenaged Spider-Man in our universe. Miles is approached by his love interest Gwen Stacy/Spider Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) to help rescue the Spider-People from a diabolical villain. That antagonist is Jonathan Ohnn/the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a scientist turned supervillain after an accident covers his body with interdimensional portals. Oscar Isaac intones the leader of the Spider-Society, Miguel O’Hara, seeking to protect Spider-People throughout the cosmos.
The fantasy takes Miles and Gwen to numerous universes, each visually distinct from the others, but all computerized-animation, done comic-book style. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, the film is projected to gross $75 million its opening weekend. While the directors claim the story stands alone, they warn that it ends on a cliffhanger. (Lisa Miller)
Enter the Slipstream
(Limited Theatrical Release & Streaming on Amazon and AppleTV, June 2)
The economics of fielding a cycling team are daunting. With more than 120 riders and staff traveling the globe to compete, the cost of running America’s oldest team was seven million dollars in 2018. Against this backdrop, Enter the Slipstream follows the team during the 2020 racing season. Founded by Jonathan “JV” Vaughters in 2003, the Colorado-based squad is his response to rampant doping, its manifesto stressing drug-free competition. Filmed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, director Ted Youngs’ documentary seeks to introduce viewers to the cyclers who live, eat and breathe their sport. Team superstar “Rigo” Uran, attempts his comeback following a catastrophic injury. Everything he and his teammates hope to accomplish culminates in the sport’s biggest contest: the Tour de France. So many challenges and so little time, these 87-minutes also feature cyclists Dani Martinez, Sergio Higuita, TeJay van Garderen, and Neilson Powless. (Lisa Miller)
