POP CULTURE FILM REVIEWS BY AMY DIAZ
The Current War (PG-13)
Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse battle for electrical dominance in the late 1800s in The Current War, another “Benedict Cumberbatch as difficult genius” movie.
Which is not totally a criticism. Cumberbatch is very good as the difficult genius — Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Strange (does Smaug count?). Thomas Edison slots into that list entertainingly — but this definitely isn’t anything new from Cumberbatch. I won’t pretend to have a great handle on the science here so let’s just say that Edison and Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) are engaged in a familiar Mac/ PC VHS/Betamax technological fight with the grand prize being the method by which the U.S. will be electrified (and who will profit). Edison’s DC power is initially preferred but Westinghouse’s AC system is cheaper and has the potential to serve more people and, with the work of another difficult genius, Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), Westinghouse solves some of the early problems with AC. The ultimate decider of which system, direct or alternating current, will be the winner is (at least in this telling) the powering of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Along the way, all three men endure personal and professional setbacks, including the rapidly declining health of Edison’s wife Mary (Tuppence Middleton). The movie out now is called “The Director’s Cut” for reasons that, accord-
AT THE MULTIPLEX Coming soon
* Indicates a movie to seek out. Find reviews for most films on hippopress.com. Opening this week: Terminator: Dark Fate (R) Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger return to the Terminator franchise; The Irishman (R) Martin Scorsese’s Jimmy Hoffa movie starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro opens in limited release before it begins streaming on Nov. 27; Harriet (PG13) This Harriet Tubman biopic stars Cynthia Erivo, whom you may remember as the best part of last year’s Bad Times at the El Royale; Motherless Brooklyn (R) Edward Norton wrote, directed and stars in this movie about a 1950s New York City private investigator; Arctic Dogs (PG) This animated movie (about a fox who wants to join the dog-run delivery service) features the voices of Jeremy Renner, Heidi Klum and Anjelica Huston, among others, and gives your sugared up children an out-of-the-house entertainment option.
The Current War
ing to Wikipedia, are Weinstein-related (the movie was originally about to hit screens right around the time of the Weinstein Company implosion). This movie begins and ends at some weird places, particularly in the life of Edison — he is already a famous inventor (the phonograph is sort of hovering in the background of this movie’s events), and we see him on the cusp of another culture-altering endeavor. It feels at times like we’re watching a movie about Steve Jobs that focuses mainly on his NeXT/ Pixar years. About George Westinghouse, we get even less context — except for a strange flashback to, I guess, the Civil War, which runs throughout the movie. This movie helpfully gives us title cards when it introduces new characters but I feel like it thinks I know a lot more about
In theaters now: Joker (R) Joaquin Phoenix, Frances Conroy. This movie puts the chocolate of the Batman saga in the peanut butter of late 1970s-early 1980s cinema, in particular The King of Comedy, for this aggressively aggressive look at the Joker’s origin story that really likes itself and all the Serious Fi-ulm work that Phoenix is doing. Except, blech, this movie is no fun at all to sit through and its outlook on society is, er, unpleasant. CMaleficent: Mistress of Evil (PG13) Angelina Jolie, Michelle Pfeiffer. For a movie whose whole appeal is the Jolie/Pfeiffer match-up, this sequel to 2014’s Maleficent doesn’t give either woman enough opportunities to have big hammy fun or enough scenes where they can try to out evilqueen each other. And, like the first movie, this movie feels rather dark for younger moviegoers. C
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The Addams Family (PG) Voices of Charlize Theron, Oscar Isaac. This animated take on the all together ooky Addams family has some nice elements — everything to do with Wednesday Addams and her discovery of the psychological horror show that is junior high, Allison Janney as a normalcy-obsessed home flip TV show host — but it never quite pulls together. C+
The performances sort of reflect this as well — there is what feels like random intensity in some of these characters and interesting relationships that are half developed. It’s like watching a bunch of skilled chefs working, semi-independently, on a meal and in the end everybody presents really good toast and maybe one guy gives you ketchup. Huh, you think, and how am I supposed to put this together? Despite what feels like attempts to retroactively Sorkin-ize this movie into a lively process film, The Current War never fully comes together. It is a pile of cool-looking wing-dings and glowy doodads that never feels like one coherent and needed creation. C+ Rated PG-13 for some violence content and thematic elements, according to mid- and late 19th-century technology the MPAA. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Reand inventors than I do. jon with a screenplay by Michael Mitnik, And yet, the times this movie covers are The Current War is an hour and 47 minso fascinating that I found myself eager to utes long and is distributed by 101 Studios. muddle through even if I didn’t get all of the references to past inventions or com- Black and Blue (R) pletely understand where everybody fit in A rookie cop finds herself chased the bigger sweep of history. This age of by both criminals and fellow police science and invention and all its optimism officers in Black and Blue, a movfeels like a perfect place to find narratives ie that feels a bit like the two-part that are exciting on their own and have a pilot for a TV show that I would lot of familiar connections to modern dis- totally watch. Because Naomie Harris is awesome cussion about scientific advancement. Perhaps being so packed with interesting (she is the best of all Moneypennys) and stories and ideas created a problem that her “rookie cop with a combat background The Current War couldn’t figure out how returning to her embattled home neighto solve. The movie jams in so much about borhood” has seven-season procedural so many people and elements of the age written all over it. There you go, CBS All that we don’t get a lot of development on Access, there’s a free idea that would perhaps finally induce me to subscribe. any one person or thing.
Bourne-ish movie from director crime caper movie that earns a B+ Ang Lee. C+ in part because of the A+ performance from Lopez as the larger Abominable (PG) than life ringleader Ramona. Voices of Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson. *Judy (PG-13) Actually, those adults take a back- Renee Zellweger, Rufus Sewell. seat to the teen characters who Miss Zellweger will take her help get a Yeti from their home Oscar, please and thank you, for in Shanghai back to his home on her performance as late-in-life Mount Everest. This slightly scary, Judy Garland, performing shows above-average pretty movie isn’t in London and wrestling assorted standout but it serves as A-OK demons as she attempts to make Zombieland: Double Tap (R) entertainment for your 8- to enough money to move near her Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg. 12-year-old. B kids. B Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin also return for this totally unnec- *Downton Abbey (PG) Ad Astra (PG-13) essary, pretty goofy but kinda fun Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery. Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones. follow-up to 2009’s zombie com- Plus most of the other core Down- Pitt gives a subdued performance edy Zombieland. Stay for the end ton-ers and a few newbies who are in this bum-out space movie that credits, which feature maybe the part of the “King and Queen come is more interesting around the movie’s best dumb scene. Bto Downton” storyline that is the periphery (moon pirates! easy trips only thing that really happens in to Mars!) than in its central story Gemini Man (PG-13) this “warm blanket and a cup of (a man and his father issues yada Will Smith(s), Mary Elizabeth tea” cozy episode-like movie. B yada anti-matter). B Winstead. Two Will Smiths (one CGI-ed to *Hustlers (R) Once Upon a Time … in Hollyroughly Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu. wood (R) age) is just enough to remind you A group of exotic dancers devel- Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt. what a fun action movie star Smith op a multi-layer scam to separate An aging star of TV Westerns can be but not actually enough fun unlikeable Wall Street-types from and his stunt double try to reconto add life to this sci-fi-flavored, their money in this totally fun cile themselves with what comes
next, while the hippie girls of the Charles Manson cult flit around Hollywood in 1969 in Quentin Tarantino’s big nostalgia-soaked movie. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would — despite the slightness of Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate and all the strangeness of that plotline. B It Chapter Two (R) James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain. The kids of It Part 1’s Losers Club have grown into adult stars — including Bill Hader, who turns in the movie’s standout performance — in this sequel that I enjoyed more than the first one (even though it possibly makes even less sense and is way too long). C+ Rambo: Last Blood (R) Sylvester Stallone, Adriana Barraza. Farm-dwelling, horse-training Rambo is forced to kill a bunch of dudes after bad things happen to a granddaughter-type girl in his orbit (the movie keeps a lot of Rambo bio info close to the vest). All I need my late-era Stallone movies to be is fun and this movie is not. C