Director: Janis Pugh
Writer: Janis Pugh
Stars: Louise Brealey, Annabel Scholey, Emily Aston

Synopsis: Helen lives with her ex-husband, his 20-year-old girlfriend, their new baby – and his dying mother Gwen. Her life is a grind, and like all the other women she toils with at the local chicken factory, is spent in service of the clock. She lives only for laughing with her friends at work, caring for Gwen, and music. When Joanne, the girl she secretly loved at school, comes back to town, Helen’s world is turned upside down.

Chuck Chuck Baby explores the lives of its characters in the present moment and one in particular who is incapable of it. The film’s main protagonist, Helen, is in a challenging situation. She’s divorced but still living with the man raising another woman’s infant child, which is magnified because she cannot have any of her own. Living in North Wales, she cares for Gwen, a mother figure who lives with her. Even her ex-husband’s girlfriend resides there, and none of them work. Everywhere she turns, Helen is reminded that she’s living a life she never wanted. 

However, that’s all about to change with the return of her high school crush, Joanne (Annabel Scholey), who hardly acknowledges her existence as if she’s going out of her way to ignore Helen. Yet, her return reawakens something inside her. This is a noticeable change because, up to this point, her factory friends have had to drag her along in life practically without her consent. She’s the sad sack of her clan, a group of women working the overnight shift at a local chicken processing plant who break out into song at the sight of some chicken feathers or even a grocery cart.

Despite the joy her friends try desperately to infuse into her everyday comings and goings, life has beaten Helen down, causing her to lose some of her thirst and the joy it can bring. Through self-healing methods involving alcohol, laughter, and music, these women find solace. That doesn’t mean life will immediately turn around for Helen, a woman with fiery red hair who is anything but a spitfire; she’s stuck in an eternal melancholy state. 

Chuck Chuck Baby, which refers to the company where the women work. Headlining the cast is Louise Breasle, who portrays Helen, delivering a stoic yet brave performance that rediscovers some of the joy life can offer. The screenplay, and direction come from Janis Pugh, who previously worked on the The Befuddled Box of Betty Buttifint. That film deals with the fragile nature of living in the past with fractured memories and exploring the theme of healing in Chuck Chuck Baby. This underlying theme runs throughout the film beneath all the whimsical musical numbers.

While the women in the film frequently break out into song, it serves as a symbolic shield to cope with the challenges in their lives. They need some form of creative (or perhaps even self-medicating) outlet to stay in the present moment so they don’t dwell on what lies ahead or what they may have left behind. Pugh’s film is as far outside the box as you can get from your traditional musical, evoking something much more grounded, joyful, and sad.

If anything, this is a modernized British working-class comedy with LGBTQ+ themes, and comparable, in my opinion, to The Full Monty, obviously, minus the work up to the big reveal, pun intended, in which the musical numbers replace their practice sessions. These dames, particularly Beverly Rudd’s Paula, ground the film’s whimsical nature into something grounded and relatable. 

There is something oddly refreshing about the Chuck Chuck Baby experience, besides characters being unkempt and virtually all being free of cynicism. For one, many films try to capture that person of a certain age and reignite their zest for life and love, with mixed results because it’s overflowing with melodrama that targets young adult and teen dramas. Somehow, Pugh captures that youthful exuberance in a middle-aged romance that leaves cynicism on the chicken processing plant floor.

That’s what makes Chuck Chuck Baby so effective, in how Pugh has her film remarkably comfortable in its skin. The story is not necessarily about finding love or purpose, but looking at your lot in life not too far in the future, or even wallowing about situations from past years but finding something in the present moment that makes life worth living. 

For example, when someone professes their love for you while white chicken feathers fall around you like freshly fallen snow, and that one person comes back and declares something passionate. 

There’s joy there, no matter how much chicken crap rests at your feet.

Grade: B-

Director: Sébastien Marnier
Writers: Fanny Burdino and Sébastien Marnier
Stars: Laure Calamy, Doria Tillier, Dominique Blanc

Synopsis: A woman on the verge of financial collapse attempts to reconnect with her wealthy, estranged father and his new family.

On the international festival circuit, American filmgoers are typically exposed to sophisticated, highly experimental arthouse fare. The likes of Philippe Garrel, Jacques Doillon, and Luc Moullet attract passionate followings within the relatively closed off world inhabited by dedicated cinephiles. However, these films generally struggle to reach a wider audience in the United States. Your average non-cinephile is quick to stereotype foreign films as artsy fartsy, pretentious nonsense. This means that it’s exceedingly rare for genuine commercial blockbusters to gain a foothold in the American market. For every A Man and a Woman (1966), there are dozens of hit films that fail to strike a nerve outside of a domestic setting. This contradiction often comes into play when one surveys the landscape of modern French cinema. There are plenty of great potboilers and romantic comedies being churned out in France but you wouldn’t know it if you walked into your local multiplex.

Sébastien Marnier’s The Origin of Evil (2022) is the sort of film that gets pushed out of the American market because arbitrary labels get attached to any and all foreign language films. It tells the twisty tale of the wealthy Dumontet family, which is headed by Serge (Jacques Weber), a commanding patriarch who regards his family members as vultures circling around his increasingly frail body. He will leave behind a valuable estate and when his secret lovechild Stéphane (Laure Calamy) appears on his doorstep, claiming that she wants to get close to her long lost father, it puts everyone on edge. His wife Louise (Dominique Blanc) and daughter George (Doria Tiller), regard her as an avaricious interloper who will try to steal their share of the inheritance left behind by Serge. While attempting to endear herself to Serge, Stéphane begins to wonder whether his relatives are actively plotting his downfall and comes to understand that she has unwittingly placed herself in the line of fire. 

As in any good thriller about morally vacuous rich people who are driven to commit increasingly perverse acts in their quest to increase their social status, the cast serves as a big selling point. Everyone from Calamy to Blanc goes big and with good reason. The film’s plot is so preposterous that the characters need to operate on a slightly heightened plane, where everyone lives their life as though they’re performing a farce on stage. It’s a real joy to see Calamy, who has already proven herself to be a masterful comedienne, return to her roots. In recent years, she has become better known for her work in gritty character studies and crime dramas, and while it’s gratifying to see her display her full range, it’s pleasant to see her weaponize the feisty charm that so endeared her to audiences back in the early 2010s. This slightly ditzy quality also allows her to play off against the hard-nosed, severe Weber in an effective manner. 

Beyond its ensemble cast, The Origin of Evil also boasts delightfully ostentatious production design and a rhythmic score that sets the tone for the entire film. The filmmakers work to immerse you in the nerve-racking situation that Stéphane finds herself trapped in, while also throwing in a couple of unexpected grace notes. However, the screenplay is guilty of under-developing many of the juicy plot points that get doled out over the course of the film’s first hour. As it hurtles into its third act, Marnier’s handling of tone and pacing gets a bit shakier. All of a sudden, it feels as though thorny, difficult subplots are being wrapped up rather too neatly. Perhaps this points to the fact that this sort of plot-heavy thriller is better suited to the needs of long-form storytelling. One can easily imagine a three hour cut of this film that has more time to linger on the high points in the film’s plot. As it is, the film ends up concluding right at the point when it seemed like things were really starting to heat up. Unfortunately, it comes as a real disappointment at the end of two hours of cracking entertainment.

Grade: B-

Director: Alejandra Márquez Abella
Writers: Alejandra Márquez Abella, Bettina Gilois, and Hernán Jiménez
Stars: Michael Peña, Rosa Salazar, Julio Cesar Cedillo

Synopsis: A biopic about Jose Hernandez and his path from a farm worker to becoming an engineer and an astronaut. A tale of perseverance, community and sacrifice to accomplish a seemingly impossible dream.

The Prime Video film, A Million Miles Away, is akin to those beloved Disney live-action sports films based on true stories like The Rookie, Miracle, and Remember the Titans. The Michael Peña vehicle is a pure crowd-pleaser designed to have you stand up and cheer. For the most part, it does so because the film fully showcases the American dream and is there for the taking. You must have the will and determination to grab it but never let your dreams fall by the wayside. If you don’t stand up and cheer or at least give Jose M. Hernandez a Judd Nelson fist pump in the air, you may be dead inside.

Peña plays Mr. Hernandez, the son of Mexican immigrant parents who helped them pick the fields of American food every morning at four before he had to go to school. His parents, Salvador (Julio Cesar Cedillo) and Julia (Veronica Falcón), keep pulling their children out of school to migrate with the seasons to pick up work, despite the pleas of Jose’s teacher, Miss Young (Michelle Krusiec), who sees the immense potential in young Jose.

However, Salvador and Julia sacrificed their plans, even selling their home, to support Jose’s dream of an excellent education and achieving what they could not. After graduation, Jose lands a job at NASA, becoming an engineer, even though the receptionist hands over a large set of keys, thinking he must be the janitor who cleans their floors. At first, he is given menial tasks like making copies and forcing their hands to respect him by pointing out a flaw in their algorithms. His persistence pays off in many ways, as he meets a beautiful car saleswoman, Adela (Rosa Salazar), who is the opposite of the usual men she dates—a nerdy Chicano who aspires outside the bubble society has planned for them in those buzzing central California farmlands.

Director Alejandra Márquez Abella wrote the script along with Bettina Gilois and Hernán Jiménez, based on the biography written by Hernández. While the movie has your usual genre tropes and clichés, especially regarding Salazar’s Adela supporting her husband practically unconditionally, the film is exceptionally well-made and executed for family viewing. The first act is set up beautifully, with one of my favorite character actors (I know I’m using that term liberally), Cedillo’s Salvador, having a heart-wrenching revelation in the car with his family about the opportunity he has for his family.

The second act of A Million Miles Away is held up by Peña’s charming performance, showcasing his knack for disarming humor and folding in an endearing stoic poignancy. The actor also has exceptional chemistry with Salazar, with a romance that does not necessarily feel swooning but infectious. The writers also do an outstanding job showing the struggle of not only Hernandez achieving his dream but also the struggle it puts on the film’s subject and the family as a whole.

A Million Miles Away boasts a great cast that reflects an accurate cultural representation of the people and setting. This contributes to the beautiful sense of community that has their hopes pinned on Jose, who not only represents himself or his family but an entire community of people. I have been a massive fan of Salazar since her remarkable turn in the rotoscope animated series Undone and a devoted supporter of Cedillo since being Tommy Lee Jones’ travel companion in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. You also have Ozark’s Veronica Falcón bringing authentic mothering to the role, and even Bobby Soto does good work here, trying to shrug off the infamous film The Tax Collector, playing Jose’s younger brother.

Frankly, this film feels like one of those stories that live up to that “incredible true story” tagline, while at the same time, showing us that anyone can achieve anything they put their minds to. However, Abella’s movie hits differently. The sense of wonderment and achievement of living the dream through someone else’s eyes through a cinematic experience that only the movies can bring. 

A Million Miles Away is the year’s best family film. The kind of film that inspires you to reach for the stars and park there, if not just for a short while

Grade: B+

Director: Sebastián Silva
Writers: Pedro Peirano and Sebastián Silva
Stars: Jordan Firstman, Rob Keller, Vitter Leija

Synopsis: Follows social media celebrity Jordan Firstman as he starts a search for filmmaker Sebastian Silva who went missing in Mexico City. He suspects that the cleaning lady in Sebastian’s building may be involved in his disappearance.

In Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun, the writer/director/actor plays a fictionalized version of himself dealing with a variety of struggles. As the Emil Ciroan novel he’s reading succinctly puts it, Sebastián is dealing with The Trouble with Being Born. HBO is turning down every pitch he throws at them as he finds himself living in a friend’s barely-held-together apartment. At no point in the film do we see Sebastián, the auteur of this meta-layered film, in a glamorous light. Instead, it’s a rather upsetting depiction of what it can mean to be an artist. To give and give and give, and everything is either taken for granted or cast aside into a pile of garbage due to a simple accident. It’s this depiction of artistry that makes the sudden turning point in Rotting in the Sun very intense and scary. But before that, Silva’s film has a ton of fun, indicating an interesting dichotomy to the filmmaker. 

As Mateo, Sebastián’s friend, finds the filmmaker disappearing deep within a K-hole losing his way in life, he pokes fun. Rather than sit down one-on-one, he takes light jabs in a way that may seem similar to how people typically treat relationships. As humans, we acknowledge when times are tough, but it usually takes quite a while to get to that point. Instead, it seems like society as a whole has found it easier to simply look past it and assume the storm will blow over soon. All will turn out okay if we simply ignore the warning signs and push them down with a beach trip. And that’s exactly what Sebastián does. Finding himself on the nude beach of “Zicatela”, one might think Sebastián is looking to get away from the darker thoughts brewing within. Yet, with book in hand, things don’t turn out nearly the way he, or the audience, might have assumed.

From there, Silva’s Rotting in the Sun takes a two-pronged attempt at showing how society grapples with mental health. More specifically, it deals with the consequences of society ignoring it; or at least it attempts to. On the surface, Rotting in the Sun is a clever film in how it goes about addressing its core themes. But its final two-thirds feels far too dull to resonate with viewers all that well. As three distinct parties try to cope and/or deal with the culpability of their actions, there’s no question that Silva knows exactly what he wants his film to say. It’s all there, captured in moments via handheld camerawork that feel not just worrisome, but damning. Yet, the finale involving Vero, arguably the most dense role of the film, from Catarina Saavedra, feels like it gives up on itself when all is said and done. A bow is put on the film and all its characters’ issues before either a palpable resolution is felt or a purposeful non-resolution is apparent. It’s a frustrating end to an otherwise solid house of cards being built.

Rotting in the Sun may squander its potential as a meaningful commentary on society dealing with mental health, but it doesn’t miss the mark when it comes to one of its central characters. Playing a fictionalized version of himself, every word out of comedian/influencer Jordan Firstman’s mouth is incredible. Taking a meta approach to comedy can be hit-or-miss nowadays, but Firstman handles it very well. He’s often laugh-out-loud funny without having a hint of tackiness to it. It’s impressive the levels at which this performance works when very little of it actually feels performative. What’s most ironic is his entire character feels like a commentary on performative Internet behavior in and of itself, so there’s just many comedic layers to enjoy here. While Rotting in the Sun certainly has issues thematically, it’s great that a distributor like MUBI is around to showcase the talents both in front of and behind the camera. While the commentaries within the film are rather broad overall, Silva’s film is one that’s entertaining and forces you to, at times, question a wide range of topics from social media and mental health to classism and nude beaches. The film is at its strongest when it plays out like a full-fledged beach comedy, but Silva must at least be applauded for not relying solely on this setting. Instead of stripping that beach of all its comedic potential, Silva rips his characters, and in turn, himself, back to reality in an attempt to make a film that speaks to a specific moment in time: the present many of us find ourselves in.

Grade: C-

Director: Vanessa Caswill
Writers: Katie Lovejoy and Jennifer E. Smith
Stars: Haley Lu Richardson, Ben Hardy, Rob Delaney

Synopsis: Hadley and Oliver begin to fall for each other on their flight from New York to London. The probability of ever finding each other again seems impossible, but love – and London – may have a way of defying the odds.

The Netflix film Love at First Sight is exactly what you think it will be. It’s wholly manipulative, dripping with sentimentality, and overflowing with romantic drama cliches. Not to mention casting the most talented and completely adorable actress of her generation, Haley Lu Richardson, who can blind your eyes to all of these staples if you allow it. Then you cast a hunky guy with some vulnerability and an accent that weakens a good portion of viewers’ knees, and you have a crowd-pleasing streaming hit that keeps Netflix subscribers returning for more.

The problem is you cannot help smiling and feeling anything but genuine affection for the picture. 

The story follows a young woman traveling to England for the first time for her estranged father’s wedding. Hadley (Haley Lu Richardson) has yet to talk to her dad (Rob Delaney) since he left for a professorship in literature at Oxford. To make matters worse, Hadley missed her flight and will arrive just a few hours before the nuptials instead of the day before. Thankfully, she meets a handsome young man her age, who ever so charmingly drops the fact he’s studying mathematics at Yale as they bond over the one condiment both of them detest (it’s mayonnaise, in case you were wondering).

As “fate” (played by Jameela Jamil), as we will explain later would have it, Oliver (Ben Hardy) is bumped into business class and right next to this generation’s next Meg Ryan. As the night in the friendly sky progresses, they begin to connect on a deeper level. Naturally, after spending the night sleeping side by side in seats with an exceptional amount of legroom, they wake up beside one another.

It hardly matters, but they both wake up looking immaculate. Their hair is perfectly in place, and no one thinks they must brush their teeth or swig some mouthwash. When Hadley and Oliver deplane, they get separated at customs and work through their own personal demons and impending tragedies before their paths cross again.

Love at First Sight is based on the best-selling novel The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith and adapted for the streaming screen by Katie Lovejoy (To All the Boys: Always and Forever). Directed by Vanessa Caswill (Gold Digger), her film is an utterly charming romance that hits the right notes of laughter, sweetness, and poignancy to captivate viewers who love their films with a light touch.

The script is broken up into three parts, with the first thirty minutes being the most effective as the viewer is swept up in their flirtations because of the exceptional chemistry between the leads. The first act flies by, and you’ll appreciate the efforts not to overindulge the viewer in the romance. The script then moves into both leads dealing with their family situations, with Hadley experiencing a Neal Page moment that Hardy’s Oliver is going through something far more significant than he led on.

That storyline is not as entertaining and does drag slightly at times going forward. For example, this leads to Oliver and Hadley having your typical romantic cliché with a slight fight or disagreement. However, the film bucks the trend of your usual subterfuge, which is refreshingly different yet still unabashedly pulls at the heartstrings without regret. (I should also mention solid work by Sally Phillips and Dexter Fletcher in cameos). Even the storytelling tool of Jamil’s narrator, who represents “fate” that all stories like this depend on, is so different that you won’t mind that the character is overplayed.

Yes, Love at First Sight is a genre movie, so you will have your usual redundancy across the board regarding a film like this. However, this romance is quirky, soulful, and well-designed compared to other movies of its ilk, like the lazy and dull Ellie Kemper vehicle Happiness for Beginners that came out last month on the streaming giant. It’s a romance film that hits the right not all, but most of the right notes for fans of the genre and newcomers alike. 

And sometimes, that’s all you need, but just make sure you have Haley Lu Richardson as your lead. 

Grade: B-

Director: Don Argott
Writer: Don Argott
Stars: Jason Kelce, Travis Kelce, Kylie Kelce

Synopsis: Highlights Kelce’s 2022-23 season, which started with him having to make one of the hardest decisions a professional athlete would ever have to make: Is it time to retire yet?

The new Prime Video sports documentary Kelce heavily depends on your enjoyment of the professional sport of (American) football. The narrative film focuses on Jason Kelce, and he’s not even the most popular Kelce in the National Football League. While I give the filmmakers credit for not putting their total focus on Jason Kelce’s unquestionably more popular brother Travis, this film is purely nothing more than a puff piece about a Philadelphia sports hero (bordering on legend due tohis Batman fascination alone). What’s disappointing is that the film’s subject is a character, a card, and a natural cut-up. However, the viewer doesn’t learn much about the man that we already know from numerous interviews or his popular podcast.

That’s the thing about Kelce: the entire experience makes the viewer ask either “What was the point?” or “Why now? Do we need the Jason Kelce documentary? Sure, the player’s popularity has never been higher (much of that is due to his younger brother being a superstar). After watching Kelce, you will walk away thinking the film was clearly designed as a sendoff of a popular sports player who put off his retirement, which indeed must have been to the chagrin of the filmmakers. Also, the documentary appears to be a setup for the Kelce brothers’ popular digital podcast, New Heights, which they started last year.

That’s not to say Jason Kelce’s story isn’t worthy of a feature-length movie. The man is a former Super Bowl champion, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, and probably even more impressively, a five-time first-team All-Pro. All of this is remarkable for a man who went to a non-power school at the University of Cincinnati and was a lowly sixth-round pick for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2011 NFL Draft. There may be nothing more sports and even film fans like than an underdog story, and Jason Kelce is the epitome of it.

I would have loved a more intimate look at Kelce’s struggles to get to the NFL, but it’s only talked about briefly when using Rudy as a comparison to his rise in college football without much insight. In fact, much of his college experience is spoken of in the film, with Kelce being there for his younger brother Travis, who was kicked off the team, and Jason putting his reputation on the line and taking responsibility for his brother if they gave him a second chance.

The film’s theme is the struggle to play on the gridiron again. Kelce talks about that at length, even offering a glimpse of how he deals with pain, bruises, and inflammation before every practice at the ripe age of 35. While that offers quality insight, it appears the filmmaker must have been limited with their cameras because hardly any of the film shows the man training and rehabbing in the confines of the Eagles facility, which takes away the impact of knowing the pain and struggle it takes to walk out on the field every Sunday to get to that point.

I would have preferred more insight from Jason’s charming wife, Kylie, on his struggles and how the life of a professional athlete can affect family life at home. Still, we must recognize that Mrs. Kelce was pregnant at the time with their third child, so any undue stress a feature film would have put on her would have been inappropriate.

I will say, if you have seen any of Kelce’s podcasts or news story highlights, that the man is incredibly funny, down-to-earth, and authentic. The documentary feature does capture that to a degree. Kelce’s debate to bring a fan to the hospital during the delivery of their third child and his dry delivery describing growing a GMO garden filled with weeds. A natural leader, there are also some stirring speeches he delivers to his teammates before the big game the film leads up to that show you the kind of man he is.

By all accounts, and we realize this is all in front of the camera, Jason Kelce is a great teammate, a loving husband, and an even better father (the video of him playing with his children after the Super Bowl loss is adorable). Yet, the film’s theme does try to give you some understanding of what it takes to continue as a professional athlete, that work-life balance and the demands fans and media put on an athlete to make a retirement decision that is anything but easy are not reasonably met. Director Don Argott’s lens only went as deep as the subjects allowed, which limits the film’s impact. That makes Kelce a sports documentary film strictly for football diehards but even more so for the niche Philadelphia Eagles fans.

Grade: C-

Director: Atlee
Writers: Atlee & S. Ramanagirivasan.
Stars: Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Deepika Padukone

Synopsis: A high-octane action thriller which outlines the emotional journey of a man who is set to rectify the wrongs in the society.

To talk about Jawan without spoiling a damn thing is nearly impossible. However, it would rob you of the pleasure of discovering the film for yourself. There’s very little I can say without revealing an ounce of the plot other than it is an astonishing piece of work that consistently engages its viewer through a series of insane plot twists and one breathtaking action scene after the other. It’s perhaps the best Bollywood film of the decade, but definitely one of Shah Rukh Khan’s finest motion pictures. 

After [literally and figuratively] resurrecting from the dead in Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan, the King of Bollywood is on a more-than-determined quest to reclaim his throne as India’s most profitable and acclaimed star. The early box-office projections show Jawan easily obliterating Pathaan’s record-breaking gross and likely setting more records for Khan to easily beat once Tiger vs. Pathaan eventually comes out. Before the fourth chapter in the YRF Spy Universe, Khan’s recent stint of critical and commercial duds caused him to take a break from acting, thus robbing the world of the power he held in films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Chak De! India and Om Shanti Om. 

Suppose Pathaan was SRK’s resurrection from the nadir of his acting career. In that case, Jawan not only celebrates some of his greatest acting skills but also cements him as one of the greatest performers who ever lived, and not just in India. Some American journalists who completely missed the point of what he achieved in his multi-faceted career called him “the Tom Cruise of India,” but they fail to realize that Tom Cruise can’t do what Shah Rukh Khan does, just like he can’t do what Tom Cruise does. Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise, and Shah Rukh Khan is Shah Rukh Khan. There is no “Tom Cruise of India,” they’re both completely different actors with skill sets that have respectively gained them the adulation of billions of fans worldwide, and can’t be put on the same pedestal, other than the fact that they’ve had massive commercial highs and lows, just like any public figure. 

Jawan is Khan’s best film since Chennai Express – and one of his greatest roles to date. The film sees him play multiple characters with a deft balance of physical comedy (his timing is so impeccable it hurts), emotional weight, and total badassery, always owning every ounce of the frame. No one can grace a camera like Khan does. He consistently involves the audience watching throughout the film, looking directly at the camera and subtly breaking the fourth wall. He never fully breaks it, but when one of his characters says he wants to hear people clap after a tense situation ends positively, who is he talking to? The characters on-screen, the audience, or both? No matter: the audience clapped, responding everything Khan was doing for them with massive cheers. 

Appearances from Deepika Padukone, Sanjay Dutt, and even the director saw them go wild, making them take out their phones (with the flash on) to celebrate their icons on screen again. Normally, it would be bothersome, but it’s part of the custom (and fun) of seeing a great Indian film on the big screen. Someone on Twitter (I’m never calling it X) said that Shah Rukh Khan doesn’t make films but festivals while posting a video of a packed movie theater with a crowd so massive it surpasses the heights of the Barbenheimer craze in North America. Whoever said that SRK does festivals is right. You don’t even see these movies elicit these strong reactions for the entirety of their runtime. However, Jawan is one of those rare treats best seen with a packed crowd that is collectively blown away by the film’s multiple twists and mind-numbingly incredible action scenes. 

Believe me when I say this (even when I’m not even touching on the plot): the movie goes into so many wild directions through its 170-minute runtime that, even if you’ve started to figure out where the story goes and connecting its narrative threads, it will eventually catch you off-guard. And to do it in a way that feels natural to the story’s progression is even more impressive. Most spiderweb-constructed films like these usually fail within the third act, but Jawan only grows stronger by its masterful pre-interval sequence and delivers a finale for the ages. It’s also a much more politically charged film than I had anticipated, but its social commentary will resonate with all moviegoers, regardless of which country you’re from. It also allows Khan to give his most impassioned monologue in ages, another way to showcase the magnifying power he holds in front of a camera. 

He also has incredible chemistry with Nayanthara and Padukone. However, you already know that with the latter, if you’ve seen Pathaan or perhaps his other collaborations with her (Om Shanti Om remains a masterpiece). On the other hand, Nayanthara’s character takes a much different route than expected from the promotional materials, giving her much agency and emotional depth with Khan’s characters as the runtime progresses. 

Jawan is also a visual feast, always going the extra mile to widen the audience’s eyes in awe and bedazzlement. The movie gives John Wick: Chapter 4 a run for its money through its insane pre-interval scene that completely shifts the initial movie’s direction into something so crazy it could only happen in your wildest dreams. And yet, it works and brings about some of the greatest on-screen action you may ever see in a motion picture. I’m almost convinced the highway chase between large trucks and motorcycles is the greatest action scene ever put into film. But then something even more grandiose happens, and now I’m convinced this is the greatest action scene ever put to film, and so forth. 

I would love to discuss the movie in detail, but I would hate even to spoil an ounce of this thing to anyone. Sometimes, I touch upon key details that stood out for me and discuss several elements in detail. However, Jawan is a different beast. It’s a film best experienced without having seen (or read) anything about it beforehand, other than the pre-conceived fact that Shah Rukh Khan plays more than one character and that some known Indian stars also appear. Just know that the movie never takes your expectations in check and keeps obliterating them at every turn. It delivers thrills the likes of which you’ve never seen, with Shah Rukh Khan giving one of the very best performance(s) of a career filled with so many legendary roles. Pathaan saw him crawl back to his throne as the King of Bollywood, while Jawan forever cements him as an icon, no matter what other movie he chooses to do next. 

Oh, and he’s not going anywhere.

Grade: A+

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writers: Michael Green; Story by Agatha Christie
Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey

Synopsis: In post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.

I cannot imagine anyone other than Kenneth Branagh playing the legendary literary figure Hercule Poirot. The director brings an eye-opening amount of nuanced depth to the role. From the breathtaking scene of deductive reasoning in Murder on the Orient Express to the poignant portrayal of staggering strength and vulnerability in the sequel Death on the Nile. On top of that, his direction and the scripts by Michael Green made the character charming, funny, and even goofy, which can be endearing, while also making the plot reveals feel fresh, even though people have been stealing from Agatha Christie’s plot devices for years.

Yet, I am sorry to say that even though this critic kept holding out hope for the first 90 minutes, it became apparent that in the franchise’s third outing, A Haunting in Venice, when Poirot unveils what is in that clever mind of his, the reveal is underwhelming. You realize you saw a beautiful-looking monster in the house picture without much tension or even fascination.

A Haunting in Venice is based on Christie’s book, Hallowe’en Party, the 41st in the Poirot series. Michael Green is back to bring the adaptation to the big screen, along with Branagh’s direction. There are a couple of things that could be improved with the execution of this film compared to the first two. One, they no longer have a cast that rivals the previous most expensive plot camouflage you have ever seen to keep you guessing who the murderer is. Two, the source material is one of Christie’s most unheralded efforts and seems like a studio ploy to pander to up-and-coming Halloween audiences, which always does well in theaters. Finally, the casting of Tina Fey was a mistake because her one-note shtick grows tiresome quickly and shows her limited dramatic range.

While the film does have some big names, including Branagh, Fey, Jamie Dornan, and Michelle Yeoh; the rest of the cast, led by Kelly Reilly, doesn’t hold a candle to the first two. This takes away from the suspense because the film is not well-plotted enough to distract you from the apparent killer, which follows a classic trope that you can see a mile away.

Also, you would think Green would solve the book’s problems, but what made the book remarkable in the first place was changed to appease mass audiences. This causes the build-up to the reveal to be underwhelming (especially the second one), trading well-crafted plot points for dull attempts at supernatural horror thrills that feel cheap. The entire third act feels like such a throwaway. It’s practically a sin since you have to stick to the landing when it comes to genre films like this.

Then we come to Fey, one of the smartest comedic minds of her generation, but her acting is on par with Jerry Seinfeld here. At first, her whip-smart retorts seemed an homage to classic dames in 1930s Jimmy Cagney pictures. It’s fun at first, where this little bit of stunt casting feels like there’s a chance her performance will take off. However, when the film turns serious, Fey cannot stand up to Branagh’s Poirot, making the character feel lackluster and small in comparison when there needs to be a heaping amount of friction to make the subplot interesting.

A Haunting in Venice is exceptionally produced and beautiful to look at. There aren’t many locations that rival Venice, when it comes to bringing beauty and a haunting allure to films that want to add some of the thrills and chills of the movie theater experience. And while I have an issue with Fey, most of the cast does an admirable job (though Yeoh’s laughable chair-spinning scene may live in infamy). However, while watching the third installment, I thought the film had been a victim of studio marketing, claiming the movie was trying to put a spin on the film into a different genre. 

Yet, it became apparent Branagh and Green made a concerted effort to keep a supernatural element in the film, but like the source material, it simply doesn’t work and adds nothing to the story.

In fact, it takes away from it.

Grade: C-