The movie industry, circa 2021, was a weak year. Here is the second of several compilation reviews:
Summer of Soul — This is a documentary which recaptures a music festival held in Harlem 51 years ago, months after Woodstock, that got short shrift. Many concerts then and moving on after 1969 also failed to get coverage, so discriminatory elements likely were not at play. Wonderful early capture of performances by Stevie Wonder, the 5th Dimension, Nina Simone, and numerous others who performed at that now retroactively memorable event.
Old — Another in a series of M. Night Shyamalan’s scary, creepy, twisting plot movies. This is not a gem, but it is a welcome change from the standard fare that many mystery movies offer. The action starts relatively quickly, but then we’re on the ultra-strange beach with the afflicted parties for too long, and we want resolution. You can forgive the plot holes such as how the aging children seems to continually have clothes that fit. About 12 minutes of film editing would have made this a tighter, more compelling flick. Nevertheless, see it for its novelty.
Luxor — This snail-paced movie is somewhat like a travel guide to Egypt, and if you are able to adapt to the pace it is palatable. With Yemen as her next assignment, perhaps employed by the U.N., a British doctor arrives in Egypt for some rest and time away, having just arrived from war-torn Syria. She may also be seeking to re-meet her Egyptian archaeologist boyfriend of 20 years earlier. Nothing much happens, but it’s a curious nothing much.
Stowaway — Despite the bad reviews it’s receiving, I found this movie to be an intriguing think piece, wrestling with the moral dilemma, do you let one person on board your spaceship to Mars die so that three others can live, or do you act with imprudence and condemn all four travelers? Shamier Anderson, as the unwitting stowaway, adds some spark to the movie.
The Virtuoso — With Anthony Hopkins in a bit part, this movie takes us behind the scenes with a hitman, and how he carefully plans his jobs. For about half the movie this is quite captivating. Then, slowly, inconsistencies begin to plague the film a little, but it’s still good. Finally, the last five minutes upend everything in the plot: so many holes now become evident, that you wonder about the mental faculties of the script writer and the director.
Shiva Baby — This train wreck of a film, replete with every Jewish stereotype you can imagine, might be semi-amusing to some, for a few moments. To have an entire film, (about a wake, following a funeral) essentially shot in the same few rooms of a house, with tired semi-plot lines that you’ve seen 1,000 times, is beyond disappointing. How often can the protagonist be asked by nagging Jewish aunts, “How come you’re so thin?” “How come you don’t have a boyfriend?” etc. Don’t merely skip this movie, tell everybody you know to skip it.
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