Category: Reviews

‘The Marvels’: A messy, confounding story grounds this MCU space odyssey

Jeff Mitchell

“The Marvels” (2023) – “The jump point is still leaking energy.” If that quote seems confusing, you aren’t alone.  “The Marvels” – the sequel to “Captain Marvel” (2019), starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani – has a confounding plot, one that completes its cooked chronicle through several conveniences over an (approximate) 95-minute runtime. It’s a messy space odyssey that shoehorns two Disney+ characters on the MCU’s big screen – Monica Rambeau (Parris), who works for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and a 16-year-old Jersey City kid, Kamala Khan…

‘The Persian Version’: Too many shifts in tones, times, and ideas crowd the earnest intentions

Jeff Mitchell

“The Persian Version” (2023) – “Oh girls.  Girls just wanna have fun.  They just wanna.  They just wanna.” – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1983), performed by Cyndi Lauper and written by Robert Hazard Within the first 10 minutes (or so) of director/writer Maryam Keshavarz’s “The Persian Version” – with a “Based on a True Story…Sort Of” tagline on the movie poster – a pre-teen Leila (Chiara Stella) sneaks Michael Jackson, Prince, and Cyndi Lauper cassette tapes on a New York City trip to Iran. She then leads an…

‘Anatomy of a Fall’: Huller rises and delivers the best lead actress performance of the year so far

Jeff Mitchell

“Anatomy of a Fall” (2023) – “I need you to be precise.  Tell me everything.” – Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud) Director/co-writer Justine Triet’s courtroom drama, “Anatomy of a Fall”, feels precise in just about every moment.  However, a barrage of facts, figures, explanations, clarifications, and evidence – throughout a 152-minute runtime – cause knotty twists and turns in this absorbing legal rollercoaster, one that rides and rolls through mountains of intimate stress and anxiety in the French Alps. Very early in the first act, Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis) falls to…