By Anne Brodie
The all-star cast of The Fabulous Four, Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Megan Mullally, and Sheryl Lee Ralph is a hoot. It isn’t a film critics’ film, aimed squarely at the older female demographic with an easy, funny script and the energy and familiarity of the four stars. Friends since college, they will reunite in Key West for Marilyn’s (Midler) wedding. Kitty (Ralph) and Alice (Mullally) lie to Lou to get here there; there’s bad blood with Marilyn going back decades – Lou claims she stole and married her boyfriend. But they lure her down saying she’s won a six-toed cat (an obsession) from Ernest Hemingway’s house. And now, six months after her husband’s death, Marilyn’s get married again. Lou discovers the ruse and the truth and goes into a permanent snit. Kitty, a cannabis farmer, keeps them well supplied, too well supplied and hijinks follow; Lou somehow adopts a wandering group of admiring Gen Zs, they saw her stop a bike thief by slingshotting him with her Kegel balls. She finds her entertainment not with her co-called friends but with a ship’s captain and with stranger (Bruce Greenwood) who turns things upside down. Marilyn, a TikTok dance star is in constant entertainment mode, Alice stays high and Kitty discovers her grandson is a stripper. Will the fun awkward moments ever end? No. This lighter-than-air concoction does its job with no pretensions and we get to spend time with stars we’ve known all outr lives! All’s well. Theatres.
The late Julian Sands’ final film role in The Last Breath isn’t a meaty one, but it showcases the British actor’s versatility. He set aside the elegant romantic leads he dominated in the 80s to play Levi, a grizzled tourist dive business operator in the British Virgin Islands who enjoys knitting. He and his business partner Noah (Jack Parr) rely on wealthy dive tourists but the business is floundering. But due to a storm shifting underwater sands, Noah discovers what Levi’s been hunting for forty years – the sunken WWII warship USS Charlotte – in mint condition 30 metres / 98 feet down. A group of spoiled rich kids show up and decide to explore it en masse, a bad idea as such a dive requires extreme control and caution, it’s now an historic site and these kids like to party. Against emphatic warnings from Levi and Noah, they insist; although we know what is going to happen, director Joachim Hedén gives top-notch special effects and insidious, realistically increasing anxiety and real scares. The group leader Brett (Alexander Arnold) ignores all safety precautions and lands them in the soup with dwindling air in their tanks and a single air pocket inside the ship. The storm seems to have changed the locale in another way – sharks have suddenly arrived. Sands is the draw, but there’s not much of him. The shots underwater cinematography are beautiful. In Theaters and TVOD.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, an Amazon Original film is the mostly true story of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s extraordinary plan to knock off Nazis in a remote part of occupied Spain. James Bond creator and top government advisor Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox) helped forge a plan to bring together a small unit of top dirty fighters (ungentlemanly) with extreme skills and rapid responses. “Hitler’s not playing by the rules, neither will we”. The team was given the OK to do what it took to get the job done, later inspiring the British SAS and modern Black Ops warfare. This little band is efficient; Nazis board their boat, outmanning and outgunning them, and what ho! Within seconds the Nazis are floating in the sea. Marjorie (Eiza González) a Jewish operative who lost her parents to Nazis poses as an American to infiltrate the German enclave; people do what she says; she’s a dirty fighter too. Guy Ritchie’s actors are all great looking, mostly musclebound, the action scenes are nonstop and over the top, and the weaponry and explosions are endless. It’s unsatisfying as a film because there is too little character development, overshadowed by the action. But its fun if you don’t take it too seriously. Stars Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusamokun, Henrique Zaga, Til Schweiger, with Henry Golding, and Cary Elwes.
A new look at global citizens uprooted in Ian Harnarine’s Doubles, starring Rashaana Cumberbatch, and David Fraserung. The film’s opening sequence features Dhani (Sanjiv Boodhu) explaining to us that he is 104th generation Brahmin, the highest caste in Indian tradition. But he lives in Trinidad with his mother where such things have no meaning, and scrapes by on their earnings as street food vendors. By chance, they discover his father Ragbir (Errol Sitahal in a marvel of a performance) who left them decades earlier, is now a chef in Toronto, and when his mother Sumintra (Leela Sitahal) is robbed they hatch a plan to shake him down for money he owes them “for leaving us”- he owns a tract of land in Trinidad. Dhani finds Ragbir in Toronto. Not a chef but a dishwasher in a Scarborough diner. Dhani doesn’t pretend to hide his disgust but agrees to stay in his basement flat, and rejects his father’s efforts to bond with him. That disgust lingers for his father who is alone, poor, and has a debilitating illness with one bright light – a friend, a waitress at the diner who keeps a close eye on him and makes sure he has what he needs. Instead of sympathy and offers of help, Dhani offers only repudiation, snark, and demands for non-existent money or title to the land. The next day Ragbir gives Dhani a tour of Toronto in Christmas mode, where he shows him his first fragrant, real Christmas tree; he almost smiles. Ragbir is hospitalised and needs a bone marrow transplant and Dhani decides to return to Trinidad; he has tried our patience; he feels he’s owed and won’t let go. And then a Christmas miracle. Beautifully written and executed, even if we are wary of our guide. Sitahal’s quietly stunning performance is the centrepiece of the film. Theatres now.
Princeton James’ chilling whodunnit Queen Rising stars April Hale as Madison, a teacher facing financial ruin and about to lose her longtime family home. She is offered a way out. A publisher expresses an interest in her story and connection to the infamous College Town slayings in Memphis where several students were murdered; there were no solid suspects. They took place on her campus in Memphis causing her to flee the city and trauma. She’s offered a massive advance for a book which would allow her to keep the house, take in her beloved sister, and live well for a long time. She values the concept of property growing up with an abusive father and a mother who emphasized the urgency of a woman owning land and running her own life. But she’s concerned about stepping into the trauma of the killings. Publishers’ agent Greg (Xamon Glasper) begins to record her story; she’s had troubled relationships with men, coloured by memories of her father. Having seen her mother seriously injure her father, she speaks of the “killer instinct” in all of us. One of her romantic partners Ben has a serious anger problem, we think of him when in a jealous rage he acts out. When a series of murders rock the campus, she reports him as a potential suspect. Twists and turns lead to a deeply shocking conclusion. The filmmakers didn’t give a thing away. The brutal moments are shot not as horrific, but as ordinary, which is scarier; things that just happen. And let’s face it, dating can be a landmine! Not a great film but an effective thriller. Also stars Jessie Reeder, Dash Kennedy Williams, Kenon Walker, and Phil D. Wallace. TVOD now.
Now back for a second go-round, The Responder debuted two years ago but remains vivid in my memory thanks to the fierce out-of-control character created by the mighty Martin Freeman. He’s back for Seeries 2 as Liverpool police officer Christ Carson. Carson’s /Freeman’s intensity, seeming madness, and propensity to play at the corners of disaster remain in place even as he tries to calm down be a better dad and officer. He reckons a day job away from the unpredictable night shift will help as he may be suffering from “work-induced mental illness”. He says the job has ruined him, that he is a shell. His intense reactivity to events in all aspects of his life is worsening. He attends a therapy group but won’t talk. Hs estranged wife says she’s moving to London with their daughter whom he loves dearly. His work life takes place in an urban hellscape of drugs, depravity, violence and disrespect both on the job and in the precinct. Carson speaks to the boss about a day job but is told he’s considered a loose cannon, unsuitable. Meanwhile, there’s the ever-present criminal riff-raff that must be dealt with, a crushing, punishing burden considering how fragile he’s becoming, the tenuous connection to his partner who has seen him at his worst – time and time again – and his officers’ bad opinion of him that could cost him the whole thing. Freeman’s phenomenal job in getting this mad character over is award-worthy – his expressions, movements, and speech patterns give him away – he’s desperate, and ulnerable. It is painful to watch him spiraling – we got to know him in Series 1 and now there are more demons inside him as he handles multiple cases, tries to be a better person, and simply survive. That’s the hook – and we cant look away. Now streaming on BritBox.
Inspired by real-life events, Women in Blue (Las Azules) set in Mexico City in 1970 follows four diverse women who do the unthinkable – at least to their circles. They join the police force, a huge cultural no-no in traditional culture. But the City and its conservative leaders have invited women to apply due to rising crime. María (Mori), Gabina (Amorita Rasgado), Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana), and Valentina (Natalia Téllez) defy the status quo hoping to find good pay and meaning as policewomen. From diverse backgrounds with unique motivations, they unearth their natural strengths – focus, instinct, forensic talent (one a natural fingerprint analyst), and their will to prove themselves. A serial killer is out there and the women set up their own investigation to unmask and catch him, going where the male officers cannot. But they ruffle feathers, particularly within their own families. One’s father, also a police officer forbids her to join but she defies him, another faces sexual abuse at her low-paying sweatshop job, a wealthy woman looks on it as an adventure and defiance towards her cheating husband and a shy religious woman needs to step out of her comfort zone. They are determined to succeed and strike a blow for women’s liberation and their own. But little do they know they were hired for a sinister reason. The police don’t take the recruits seriously, adding danger to their investigation but they will step up. In Spanish with English description. AppleTV+ on July 31st.