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☆ ‘Gran Turismo’ Review: From Game Controller to Steering Wheel
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Archie Madekwe Photo: Sony PicturesThe auto-racing drama “Gran Turismo,” based on the Sony PlayStation game and released by Sony’s Columbia Pictures, makes much of a concept I’d never heard before: “to podium.” It means to finish in the top three, and according to a crusty coach, only those “who podium” get to celebrate with champagne. Does the team that finishes second in the World Series dive into the Veuve Clicquot? Previous to this picture, finishing second or lower was commonly known as “losing,” but I suspect “Gran Turismo” is signaling modest ambitions both for its protagonist and itself: It would be content to be dubbed the third-best sports-underdog movie of the year.

Persons: Archie Madekwe Organizations: Sony, Turismo, Sony PlayStation, Sony’s Columbia Pictures

☆ ‘Dreamin’ Wild’ Review: When Past Melodies Resurface
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/dreamin-wild-review-casey-affleck-zooey-deschanel-walton-goggins-227d1130

Persons: Dow Jones, casey, affleck, zooey, deschanel, walton

☆ ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ Review: Coming Out of Their Shells Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-mutant-mayhem-review-coming-out-of-their-shells-again-f90305db

Persons: Dow Jones, f90305db

☆ ‘The Beasts’ Review: Rich Soil for a Thriller Movie
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Luis Zahera and Denis Ménochet Photo: Greenwich EntertainmentIn “The Beasts,” a genial farmer named Antoine is trying to make a living selling tomatoes and other produce in farmer’s markets in Galicia in the Spanish countryside. So why do two brothers from a neighboring parcel of land seem eager to launch a vendetta against him? It isn’t till the middle of the film that we come to recognize that the villains of the piece have an unnervingly valid complaint.

Persons: Luis Zahera, Denis Ménochet, ”, Antoine Organizations: Greenwich Entertainment Locations: Galicia, Spanish

☆ ‘Haunted Mansion’ Review: Disney Jumpstarts Spooky Season
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

What to Watch: The 15 Best New Movies and TV Shows From AprilThis copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/haunted-mansion-review-disney-jumpstarts-spooky-season-b094ccd9

Persons: Dow Jones

“Obviously, the little girls that are going to see Barbie, none of them are going to have any idea what those dashes mean,” Mr. Cruz told Fox News. “This is really designed for the eyes of the Chinese censors, and they’re trying to kiss up to the Chinese Communist Party because they want to make money selling the movie.”The response on the right is not a one-off. For a generation of conservative personalities, weaned on Andrew Breitbart’s much-cited observation that “politics is downstream of culture,” Hollywood and other ostensibly liberal bastions are to be confronted head-on, lest their leanings ensnare young voters without a fight. Recent years have provided ample evidence, some on the right say, for a “go woke, go broke” view that progressivism is bad business. (Of course, there is no way to trace exactly what determines any movie’s success or failure, and many observers adhere to the screenwriter William Goldman’s axiom: “Nobody knows anything.”)“Barbie” cannot be said to have gone broke.

Persons: Mr, Cruz, Andrew Breitbart’s, ensnare, ”, Mario, Halle Bailey, ’, William Goldman’s, Barbie, Rich Cromwell, ” Kyle Smith Organizations: Fox News, Chinese Communist Party, Mario Bros, Black, Wall Street

☆ ‘Oppenheimer’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s Explosive Historical Epic
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Cillian Murphy Photo: Universal Pictures“This isn’t a new weapon. It’s a new world,” someone remarks as J. Robert Oppenheimer develops the atomic bomb in “Oppenheimer,” a brainy and breathless exploration of the rise and fall of a physicist dubbed, not without reason, “the most important man who ever lived.” Like Prometheus, the mythic figure to whom he is compared here, Oppenheimer suffered for his works, bedeviled from within and without. So a story that is essentially about a scientist who spent his life writing equations becomes, in the expert hands of writer-director Christopher Nolan , a boiling cauldron of drama.

Persons: Cillian Murphy, Robert Oppenheimer, “ Oppenheimer, ”, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan Locations: “

☆ ‘Barbie’ Review: Beyond Her Ken
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Margot Robbie Photo: Warner Bros. PicturesIn “Barbie,” Will Ferrell plays the CEO of Mattel, who muses, “Remember Proust Barbie? That did not sell well.” It’s the film’s second reference to the French modernist novelist, and its makers would have been well advised to heed their own joke and question the wisdom of stuffing this fantasy-comedy with references to the mastectomy and IRS troubles of the doll’s creator, gynecology, the mass devastation of indigenous people by smallpox, and (this comes up many times) “irrepressible thoughts of death.”

Persons: Margot Robbie Photo, “ Barbie, ” Will Ferrell, “, Proust, ” Organizations: Warner Bros, Mattel

☆ ‘Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One’ Review: Real Tom Cruise, AI Enemy
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Tom Cruise Photo: Paramount Pictures‘Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One” has been in the works for years, and yet it arrives with a startling timeliness. With its nefarious Russians, a disaster deep underwater and, most of all, an artificial-intelligence theme, it smartly illustrates how to build the foundations of an action thriller out of the concrete of grim reality. Few more bone-chilling phrases will be heard at the multiplex this year than “the Entity”—the film’s name for the AI that is on the verge of taking command of the world.

Persons: Tom Cruise Organizations: Paramount Pictures

☆ ‘Joy Ride’ Review: Raunchy Cross-Cultural Chaos in China
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

What to Watch: The 15 Best New Movies and TV Shows From AprilThis copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/joy-ride-review-raunchy-cross-cultural-chaos-in-china-3f1ab674

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ ‘The Passengers of the Night’ Review: When Lives Intersect
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

What to Watch: The 15 Best New Movies and TV Shows From AprilThis copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-passengers-of-the-night-review-when-lives-intersect-887dfcf2

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Review: Harrison Ford and Fool’s Gold
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Harrison Ford Photo: LucasfilmI saw “Raiders of the Lost Ark” on my 15th birthday and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” on my 57th. I’d love to report that the fifth chapter made me feel like a high-school freshman again, but unfortunately this series has gone the way of my aching knees.

Persons: Harrison, “ Indiana Jones Organizations: Harrison Ford, Lucasfilm, “ Raiders

☆ ‘No Hard Feelings’ Review: Jennifer Lawrence’s Crash Course in Adulthood
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman Photo: Columbia PicturesThere’s a solid comic foundation underneath “No Hard Feelings,” and it isn’t the labored series of bawdy jokes centered on the film’s star, Jennifer Lawrence , which form the movie’s marketing strategy. Much more interesting is her sexy character’s foil, a 19-year-old virgin so unsure of himself that he whines it’s time to call an adult when things take a turn for the strange. “You are an adult,” she reminds him.

Persons: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman Organizations: Columbia Pictures

☆ ‘The Flash’ Review: Ezra Miller’s Speedster Stumbles
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ezra Miller Photo: Warner Bros. PicturesWhat was heretofore known as the Butterfly Effect becomes the Canned Tomatoes effect in “The Flash,” a sci-fi superhero tale about what goes wrong when the tiniest alteration is made in the history of humanity. Seeking to save his mom from being murdered and his dad from being falsely accused of the slaying, speedy-footed Barry Allen, aka the Flash, travels past the speed of light, enabling him to go back in time and put a can of tomatoes in his mother’s shopping cart. This decision saves his parents, but could lead to the end of the world. These days, in multiverse-obsessed comic-book movies, there is always another world, so no great loss.

Persons: Ezra Miller, Barry Allen Organizations: Warner Bros

☆ ‘Asteroid City’ Review: Wes Anderson’s Spacey Surface
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

What to Watch: The 15 Best New Movies and TV Shows From AprilThis copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/asteroid-city-review-wes-andersons-spacey-surface-78ef9c0b

Persons: Dow Jones Organizations: andersons

☆ ‘Elemental’ Review: A Glowing Pixar Rom-Com
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Review: A Stiff, Robotic Return
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) Photo: Paramount PicturesIn a late spring that has already brought us the 10th Fast & Furious flick and the 10th Spider-Man movie from Sony, the Transformers franchise feels comparatively fresh. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is merely the seventh installment in the Michael Bay-linked series about giant robots walloping each other all over the screen. This one’s a prequel to Mr. Bay’s 2007 rock-em-sock-em epic, which doubled as perhaps the world’s most expensive toy infomercial.

Persons: Peter Cullen, Michael Organizations: Optimus, Paramount Pictures, Sony

☆ ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Review: A Tangled Web
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Spider-Man/Miles Morales (voice of Shameik Moore) Photo: SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENTIt’s easy to disdain and deplore (and I do disdain and deplore) the two letters that ate Hollywood: “I.P.” But intellectual property is like bread: It’s often stale and bland, but it can be fresh and delightful. The latter attributes were evident in every sparkling and witty minute of 2018’s animated triumph “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which posited a multiverse in which all sorts of different Spider-People existed simultaneously in their own worlds rendered in distinct styles of animation. The script reworked 1960s characters and storylines with heart and comic brilliance, plus one of the craftiest and twistiest plotlines of any comic-book blockbuster.

Persons: Miles Morales, Shameik Moore Organizations: SONY, ENTERTAINMENT

☆ ‘BlackBerry’ Review: From Must-Have Smartphone to E-Waste
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The cast of ‘BlackBerry,’ including Jay Baruchel and Matt Johnson Photo: IFC FilmsThere’s no ephemera like business ephemera: Remember Bell Atlantic? Palm Pilot? Unlike “Friends” and “Seinfeld,” brands that disappear tend to be forgotten quickly. If you strolled around a campus today asking about the BlackBerry, would anyone even know what you were talking about? Yet as of 2007—in retrospect, a watershed year—it held a commanding position in the smartphone market.

☆ ‘Master Gardener’ Review: A New Paul Schrader Antihero
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver Photo: Magnolia PicturesLate in his career, Paul Schrader has completed an evocative trilogy about tightly wound, obsessively focused men yearning for expiation of their sins. The 76-year-old writer-director has returned yet again to some of the same psychological territory he visited in his earliest successful script, “Taxi Driver” (1976), and in many others about loners struggling to maintain their composure in a world of pain and guilt. Following his recent efforts “First Reformed” (2017) and “The Card Counter” (2021), he has rounded out the triptych with another penetrating character study, “Master Gardener.” The title figure is a quiet, rigorously devoted horticulturist with a messy past. In cultivating a gorgeous bounty of flowers in a large botanical garden, he seeks his own renewal.

☆ ‘Fast X’ Review: Jason Momoa Joins the ‘Furious’ Family
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Vin Diesel Photo: Universal StudiosSending a film critic to pass judgment on a “Fast & Furious” movie is like sending a food critic to rate the fried Twinkies at the town carnival. Nor am I in the target audience for these films, though if they ever make one called “The Flabby and the Phlegmatic,” I’ll have lots of insights. Still, duty calls me to give an honest appraisal of “Fast X,” and here it is: What the Ford was all of that?

☆ ‘Chile ’76’ Review: Resistance and Paranoia Under Pinochet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Aline Küppenheim Photo: Kino LorberA woman is choosing colors in a paint store when there’s a disturbance outside. After some sounds of struggle and another, unseen woman crying out, everything goes silent again. There is an awkward pause. Then customers and clerks carry on with their business. None of them discuss what they have just heard.

☆ ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Review: A Space Raccoon Story
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) Photo: MarvelIt’s been a superhero’s journey for writer-director James Gunn : He rose to great heights, was ruined, then re-emerged more powerful than ever. Five years ago Marvel Studios’ corporate parent, Disney, publicly fired Mr. Gunn as he started work on his third “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie over some inappropriate jokes he’d made years earlier on Twitter. A year later Mr. Gunn got himself uncanceled. He is now not only the sole writer and director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Mass production of comic-book movies has stretched thin the talents of Mr. Gunn and most of his fellow toilers on the superhero assembly line.

☆ ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Review: A Candid Kids’ Classic Comes to the Screen
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Can people under 40 even conceive of an American culture that wasn’t obsessively focused on youth? In the early ’70s, when Judy Blume ’s heartfelt coming-of-age novel “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” hit shelves, stories for youngsters based in everyday realism were rare. A sixth-grader, Ms. Blume’s diffident, self-conscious heroine anxiously asks God about her many worries, which include not yet having developed breasts nor experienced her first period. This level of frankness was nearly revolutionary at the time, and so the book was treasured as tweener samizdat.

☆ ‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant’ Review: Action in Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Dar Salim and Jake Gyllenhaal Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer PicturesThe possessive title is an odd choice for “ Guy Ritchie ’s The Covenant.” Mr. Ritchie made a name for himself in his native Britain directing kinetic and funny gangster comedies infused with hip comic dialogue and an ironic streak, notably “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch,” then carried that spirit with him to Hollywood in such efforts as the two Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey Jr. Yet his latest offering, an Afghanistan war yarn, is such a straightforward action drama that it could have been made by Clint Eastwood . Only the jokey homoerotic banter stamps it as typical of Mr. Ritchie’s work. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as John Kinley, a supremely competent master sergeant in 2018 Afghanistan tasked with finding and destroying Taliban bomb factories dotted around the country. He goes on a mission with a new local interpreter he doesn’t fully trust, Ahmed (Dar Salim), who despises the Taliban for killing his son and is further tempted by the prospect of earning a special visa to immigrate to the U.S. in exchange for satisfactory service.

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