"Booksmart"

 ☆☆☆☆☆ 

There's an undercurrent of inevitable heartbreak beating at the core of Booksmart, so even while you're laughing -- and you'll be laughing a lot -- you are also bracing yourself for the moment that is bound to happen. And it does.

There is no way I'd dream of telling you when, where and how, but it plays out just beautifully, first giddy and filled with promise, then devastating, then awkward, then intensely personal. Every moment of it is pitched so perfectly, underscoring what a special movie this is, one that does the unimaginable: It offers a perspective that feels entirely new to teen films, a genre in which nothing seems like it could be new.

Booksmart is directed by Olivia Wilde, and it is hard to comprehend that this is her first directing effort. Everything about this film feels right, even (especially) when it takes a left turn into a hilarious sequence with animated Barbie dolls.

Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein star as two best friends who have dedicated themselves to being the perfect high school student. On the night before graduation, they worry maybe they did it all wrong, maybe they should have had fun. Their friendship isn't like the ones you've seen before; it rings of truth, as does the incredible supporting cast. They, and the movie, ring with a familiarity and truth, and despite an occasional detour into gross-out territory, Booksmart is the funniest, most disarming and, so far, best movie of the year.



Viewed May 25, 2019 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks

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"Aladdin"

 ☆☆½ 

Now that I've seen it, I'm still wondering: What's the point of Disney's new Aladdin? It's a film shorn of all artistic ambition. It exists solely to make money and exert Disney's power. Ironically, the film's big "lesson" is that it's not important how much money or power you have.

Ha.

The new Aladdin is not awful in the way that the torpid, bloated Beauty and the Beast was awful. Indeed, three of its actors -- Mena Massoud as Aladdin, Naomi Scott as Jasmine, and Nasim Pedrad as a new character, Jasmine's handmaid Dalia -- are quite wonderful. They alone are reason to see the movie.

Will Smith as the Genie, alas, is not. As genial of a presence as he may be, he is not a natural comedian, yet director Guy Ritchie seems desperate to make him into Robin Williams. If the original 1992 Aladdin felt like the movie was just trying to keep up with Williams, this Aladdin leaves Smith struggling to keep up with it, and the Genie falls flat.

So, too, does its wimpy villain, a thin-voiced Jafar (Marwan Kenzari, who can't help that he's all wrong for the role). This Aladdin takes away Jafar's songs, adds in an atrocious new one for Jasmine, and continues scrubbing Howard Ashman's original lyrics of potential offense. It's just a "ten-thousand"-ish retread (that'll make sense to sharp-eared viewers) that will feel right at home on the new Disney+ streaming service, and ... hey, wait a minute! That's the point!



Viewed May 25, 2019 -- AMC Burbank 16

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"Avengers: Endgame"

 ☆☆½ 

It's unreasonable at this point to expect a Marvel movie, particularly an Avengers movie, to play by the usual rules of cinematic storytelling. True, Avengers: Endgame is no Last Year at Marienbad, but to any moviegoer who hasn't been paying strict attention to every nuance of more than 10 years' worth of movies, much of Avengers: Endgame is downright inscrutable.

It's a long and complicated movie. For many diehard fans it evokes deep, genuine emotion. I can only report what I felt, which was largely nothing at all. I'm not even so much of it made sense. (Nor, it would appear, are some fans.) That reaction surprised me, because I found the previous film, Avengers: Infinity War, to be unexpectedly compelling and focused. Avengers: Endgame, by comparison, is as flabby and glib as the mighty Thor has become, but is missing his spirit.

Chris Hemsworth's Thor is one of the few truly bright spots in the movie; a reunion scene with his mother (Rene Russo) is emotionally compelling, though the rest of the movie lacks its heart and motivation.

As the massive climax to a decades' worth of movies, Avengers: Endgame throws everything up on screen, with a CG-laden final battle that seems more like watching a video game. Many people were invested in the previous films. While I've seen most of them, they've never resonated, so the apparent shocks of the climax left me cold.

One thing's for sure: There's a lot of it. An awful lot of it.




Viewed May 18, 2019 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks

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"A Dog's Journey"

 ☆☆☆½ 

A Dog's Purpose was a treacly, sentimental Hallmark card of a movie that grossed $205 million worldwide in 2017, guaranteeing a sequel. And that's what we've got. A Dog's Journey is essentially the exact same movie, like one of those interchangeable cable Christmas movies. And that suits me just fine.

A Dog's Journey is every bit as manufactured, glossy, simplistic and effective as its predecessor. It practically shames you into enjoying it. But if A Dog's Journey doesn't in fact wring a few tears out of your eyes (stop rolling them!), you're inhuman or, worse, a cat person.

Dennis Quaid, who sort of starred in the first movie, is back to provide the connective tissue as Ethan, the boy-man who "belongs" to a dog named Bailey. In the first film, Bailey gets adopted by Ethan as a boy, grows up with him, then dies, is reincarnated, dies again, gets reincarnated again, and over and over until he winds up with Ethan once again, proving that even death can't separate a boy and his dog.

This time around exactly the same thing happens, except it's a girl -- Ethan's granddaughter (played with perfect generic blandness by Kathryn Prescott). Things get pretty tough to watch for a while as Bailey keeps, well, dying.

This is an attack dog of a movie that knows exactly where to aim to inflict maximum damage, and refuses to let go. It's so damned cute you won't care.

Death by puppies. Could be a lot worse.




Viewed May 13, 2019 -- ArcLight Hollywood

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