Photo ©Paramount Pictures
Top Gun 'Maverick'
Top Gun 'Maverick'
The Bob’s Burgers Movie
(In Theaters May 27)
The much-loved adult animated TV show (12 seasons and still going strong), was greenlit for a movie in 2017. Bob Belcher (voice of H. Jon Benjamin), and his wife Linda (voiced by John Roberts), are already panicked about making their next payment on the family burger joint when a giant sinkhole opens in the street, cutting off access to the restaurant. The Belcher kids, Louise (Kristen Schaal), Tina (Dan Mintz) and Gene (Eugene Mirman), aren’t buying the explanation that the hole resulted from a broken waterline, prompting the trio to put their lives in peril to investigate.
As bonuses, creator Loren Bouchard depicts more of Bob’s origin story and reveals the answer to a longstanding mystery regarding Linda’s hat. Further upping the ante, it’s a musical? The TV show's cast reprise their roles here, with two of the three Belcher female voices performed by men. COVID-19 delayed the film’s release by two years. (Lisa Miller)
Dementia
(Cohen Media Group Blu-ray)
Set in nocturnal city, a labyrinth of dead-end streets, Dementia (1953) is one of the artfully strangest films produced in that era from the fringe of Hollywood. Dementia is the darkest of film noir whose German Expressionist roots are in high relief for being a nearly silent movie. There is an inventive score by avant-garde composer-inventor George Antheil, a nightclub scene with jazz by Shorty Rogers’ band, and sporadic sounds of laughter and police brutality, but the dialogue passes in silence and without subtitles. The story is told visually—and it's an enigmatic tale filmed in deep pools of black and white.
None of the characters have names, only designations. Gamine is the protagonist, confronted by the awful Rich Man; his sinister helper, the Evil One; and memories of Father (played by the same actor as the corrupt Law Enforcer). The dark city is a dangerous place for women as Gamine runs from danger to danger … but she might be having her revenge. Is she the serial killer of men trumpeted in newspaper headlines? Or is Dementia a series of fractured, disturbing nightmares? Or do Gamine’s waking moments blur into hallucination? Dementia was initially banned but turned up years later with a cringeworthy voiceover narration by Ed McMahon under the title Daughter of Horror. The new Blu-ray release is the version to own. (David Luhrssen)
Playground
(Film Movement Blu-ray)
Seldom has a filmmaker gone as deep into the humiliation of childhood bullying as Laura Wandel. The Belgian director’s Playground (2021) is filmed at a child’s eye level, measuring the distance between the troubled child protagonists and the strange, looming adult world.
At first Nora seems to be the target of bullies. She’s a seven-year-old sitting in the back of the classroom, making friends slowly and not especially good at anything demanded by the curriculum. But soon enough it’s her nine-year-old brother, Abel, who endures ongoing abuse from a gang of older boys. He stoically refuses to snitch. Nora is forced to make judgment calls—and be strong.
Playground recreates the scary environment of a new school swarming with unfamiliar kids—their noise rebounding from the building’s hard surfaces—and the differing levels of engagement from teachers. Maya Vanderbeque is brilliantly expressive as Nora, needing no words to show her emotions. (David Luhrssen)
Pushing Hands
(Film Movement Classics Blu-ray)
Ang Lee is the most remarkable director to emerge in the 1990s for his ability to work at a high level in many genres. For his debut feature, Pushing Hands (1991), Lee wisely stayed close to home as he honed his skills. Pushing Hands concerns an elderly Chinese man, Mr. Chu (Sihung Lung), recently moved to America and living with his devoted but stressed son (Ye-tong Wang), resentful Anglo daughter-in-law Martha (Deb Snyder) and their young boy. Mr. Chu’s presence in the house disrupts Martha’s self-absorbed routine as a literary novelist. Marital divisions emerge. Mr. Chu becomes the problem in an otherwise stable household.
Although each character is understandable, sympathy resides with Mr. Chu, a benign tai-chi master who finds an outlet (and love?) teaching the ancient physical-emotional exercise at the Chinese community center. Beautifully filmed from the opening credits on, Pushing Hands is a thoughtful story about generational cultural transition, immigration and family tension. Even at a young age, the Taiwan-born Lee was working out a sophisticated synthesis between art house and Hollywood, family drama and martial arts—and the worthy goal of balancing competing cultural and social values. (David Luhrssen)
Top Gun: Maverick
(In Theaters May 27)
Thirty-six years after the 1986 blockbuster, Tom Cruise returns as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Age has yet to solve Maverick’s daredevil streak, with his latest test pilot antics getting him grounded. Ordered to tweak the Navy’s best young aviators, Maverick learns that some of are destined for a perilous mission. His ace student is Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), son of Maverick’s deceased flying partner Goose. Jennifer Connelly appears as the Hard Deck operator and Maverick’s love interest. Director Joseph Kosinski delivers breathtaking flight scenes of both exterior aircraft and from both within the cockpit. Retaining its winning formula of 75% percent action and 25% corn, earns a big thumbs up on Rotten Tomatoes where the PG-13 effort received a 96% fresh rating. (Lisa Miller)
