A “strictly family time” vacation with the kids, wife (Connie Nielsen) and Christopher Lloyd along for the ride?
Sharon Stone and Tom Hanks’ kid as villains? Beating your way through a tsumani of rural America carnies?
Mark me “PRESENT.”
Michael Ironside, John Ortiz and Colin Salmon are here to lend support.
August 15.
“Nonnas” is a heaping helping of cinematic Italian-American comfort food, a family rom-com where the romance is in the food and the comedy is in the scrappy little old ladies who prepare it.
Director Stephen Chbosky (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”) serves up Vince Vaughn at his most sentimental in a Staten Island story of an eatery opened with the idea of keeping the memories of dead loved ones alive through the dishes they brought over from the Old Country.
The “Nonnas” (grannies) of the title are played by the likes of Lorraine Bracco (“Goodfellas”), Talia Shire (“The Godfather,” “Rocky”), Oscar winner Susan Sarandon and Brenda Vaccaro, who dates back to “Midnight Cowboy.” As the cooks recruited by Joe Scaravella (Vaughn) to make the dishes at Enoteca Maria, a restaurant he opens with the inheritance from his beloved mother, this quartet shows us how old school “chemistry” was supposed to work in “80 for Brady,” “The Book Club” and other comedies about groups of ladies of a certain age.
They set the tone for a movie that, like their performances, doesn’t try too hard. “Nonnas” may be predicable and sentimental right up to the edge of schmaltzy. But it never crosses that line because the fractious foursome at the heart of it won’t allow it.
Scenes from the ’70s establish childhood Joe’s attachment to his mother and grandmother, the sort of boy who’d rather hang in the kitchen and watch the magic in action at big family gatherings.
Joe may have grown up to work as a bus mechanic for New York’s MTA, sentenced to doting-son singlehood for reasons we can speculate about. But his heart and his palate belonged to mama. When she dies, he takes the words of his lifelong bestie Bruno (Joe Manganiello) Bruno’s wife Stella (Drea de Matteo) to heart.
“Find something that makes you really happy, that honors her.”
A restaurant was NOT what contractor Bruno had in mind. But Joe spies an abandoned one on Staten Island, home to a colorful Italian street market. And he remembers what his own Nonna said.
“One does not grow old at the table.”
He dives in, out of his depth, with no sane business plan. He recruits nonnas to be cooks by posting an ad “in the List of Craig” (this story has an early 2000s setting). His aunt in assisted living, Roberta (Bracco) will be his fiery Sicilian anchor-cook. Antonella (Vaccaro), the elderly neighbor of Joe’s onetime prom date (Linda Cardellini) is the Bolognese balance to Roberta’s fire. And Teresa (Shire), former cook at a convent, is here to keep the peace.
Who’s on desserts? That would be Mom’s hairdresser/bestie, Gia (Sarandon), who makes cannoli to die for.
The Italian dishes served here are generally more obscure than your standard Italian-American restaurant fare. Risotto Aranchini, zepolle, parmigiano reggiono and capuzzelle are cooked, burnt and debated by the cooks and the restaurateur, who is moved to the edge of tears by the many variations of “gravy” (red sauce) these aged spitfires serve up.
“Don’t cry in front of the teamsters,” is pal Bruno’s advice, as the grand opening of Enoteca Maria (Maria’s Wine Bar) approaches, with a minefield of obstacles — inspections, etc. — facing it.
One of the most charming things about Chbosky’s direction and Liz Maccie’s script is the “Big Night” notion that the story doesn’t need for the restaurant to open and become a wish-fulfillment fantasy smash for “Nonnas” to work. The stumbling, good-hearted attempt, the collision of personalities and the many fish-out-of-water obstacles point to bankruptcy being just as entertaining as a Michelin star finale.
Keep an eye out for the most conspicuous extra in the dining scenes, the older guy with the long, white and unruly hair. That’s Jody Scaravella, whose story inspired the film.
As for other inspirations, look for a co-director and co-star of the classic New York Italian eatery period piece “Big Night” in a chewy cameo.
There’s a slice of many a “food means family” dramedy tucked into this script, from “Big Night” to “The Feast of the Seven Fishes” to “Chef” (starring Vaughn’s old running mate, Jon Favreau) on down through the many courses the Hallmark Channel has served up in the genre.
But the “Nonnas” are the stars and the hook that makes this one work.
Vaughn, dialing down the wise-cracking hipster that became his brand, makes a terrific reactor — to the four “nonnas,” to Mangeniello’s Bruno and Bruno’s “Sopranos” alumna wife — taking every body blow to his character’s dream personally.
Vince Vaughn goes sentimental and makes it all go down easily. Go figure.
Rating: PG
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire, Drea de Matteo, Linda Cardellini, Michael Rispoli, Joe Manganiello and Susan Sarandon.
Credits: Directed by Stephen Chbosky, scripted by Liz Maccie. A Netflix release.
Running time: 1:54.
“The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Rome” star, the ostensible love interest for this June 27 release, sets out the stakes and the “team sport” nature of Formula One racing.
You’ve got a plot that was clever enough to land veteran character actress Veronica Cartwright (“Sideways,” “Alien,” “The Birds”).
Shooting and editing your film, you can’t wait to get to the third act where you can “explain” its cleverness to death.
And then you kind of give away the game by titling your picture “The Ruse,” implying that things are not at all what they seem. Clever.
Writer, director, producer and editor Steven Mena’s latest is a tepid, sleepwalking tale of a home health care nurse (Madelyn Dundon) stuck in a not-that-spooky lakeside house with a haughty, demented and ill-tempered retired orchestra conductor (Cartwright) who is sure her late husband Albert “visits” her.
Was Albert behind the previous nurse’s (Kayleigh Ruller) disappearance? What we’ve seen in the opening scene suggests as much.
But even though Nurse Tracy vanished without quitting or even saying goodbye, Nurse Dale needs the “second chance” this ordeal-of-a-job promises. She’s ever so eager to get back to work after something unfortunate happened on her last assignment.
Her controlling live-in boyfriend (Drew Moerlein) disapproves. She’s ogled by the delivery guy (T.C. Carter) who tries a tad too hard every time he shows up with food or whatever at the remote home in rural Maine. Then there’s this single-dad neighbor, Tom (Michael Steger), who shows up at the darnedest times — in the middle of a blackout thunder storm, for instance — to “just see if you needed help.”
His little girl (Nicola Jeanette Silber) is the only blunt, cards-on-the-table character in this world.
“I give you three days, tops,” she chirps. The place is “haunted,” she insists. She’s seen the “ghost.” And when she leaves, she doesn’t tell Dale “Good bye.”
“Nice knowing you” is the best line in the script.
Cartwright is in fine form as an invalid who boasts of her full life, insults Dale’s underachieving (by comparison) 28 years and has been labeled “OCD” by an earlier nurse, in addition to her respiratory and dementia problems.
But she’s not scary by herself. And this movie slow walks its away through no real jolts at all before backing into a third act built around a rural Maine cop (Michael Bakkensen) who is a regular Sherlock Holmes at leaping to the wrong conclusion, leaping again and tumbling into some solution that he insists the police are entirely too clever to “miss.”
Writer/director Mena (“Bereavement,” “Brutal Massacre: A Comedy”) has made half a dozen films now, and a few people might actually see this one, as it stars Ms. Cartwright.
The production values are good even if the performances surrounding Cartwright are a tad tentative, low-heat and low-energy. And as he edited this, the funereal pacing is on him, too.
Still, if your thriller’s quick enough and cryptic enough, viewers won’t notice it’s not remotely as clever as you thought it was. But when you title your ghost story “The Ruse,” you’ve already given away that.
Rating: R, violence
Cast: Veronica Cartwright, Madelyn Dundon, Michael Steger, Drew Moerlein, Kayleigh Ruller and T.C. Carter
Credits: Scripted and directed by Stevan Mena. A Seismic release.
Running time: 1:40
This Cannes competitor is a 1940s period piece with a heavy dose of magical realism in the plot.
Aswan Reid has the title role, with Deborah Mailman in the supporting cast.
Tiny distributor Vertical has this, so we’ll all have to hunt to find it when it hits theaters. “Soon?”
A tale of kinky Southwest Christianity and an “accident” that wasn’t. Along with other violence.
Qualley the high-heeled detective in a ’72 Chevell convertible, Evans a pastor who with a taste for dangerous sex and Plaza the guardian of the evidence locker.
Ethan Coen directs and co-wrote it. No Joel Coen to be found.
August 22, this hits theaters.
Kinda creepy looking?
This comes out May 16.
Whatever dangerous edge 2018’s “A Simple Favor” had is giddily tossed aside for “Another Simple Favor,” a goofy acceptance that bringing these two ladies back for another round of cat lioness and mouse games was never going to be “logical.”
The killer thriller about the mysterious, rich and beautiful changeling Emily (Blake Lively) and her envious, admiring and gullible new “friend” Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) morphs into a farce about an absurd “reunion” arranged by the acquisative social-climber/killer Stephanie outed, outsmarted and put in prison in the first film.
“Another” is a jokey, wisecracking comedy with just the occasional murder, a movie of “true crime” podcasts, a best-seller that isn’t and endless extravagant costume changes — Blake Lively’s “brand” — set against the glories of the gorgeous Italian island of Capri.
Ah, what the hell? It’s almost summer, right? Here’s your “beach read” movie of the season, served up on Amazon because who’d have the patience to sit through this in a multiplex?
A couple of credited screenwriters and our stars keep the banter slicing and sassy and “Simple Favor/Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig guides us from laughs to laughable to ludricrously long in a dramedy that outstays its welcome, and then some.
Single-mom Stephanie got a popular podcast and a book out of that near-death experience with Emily. But when we catch up with her, the book-tour is almost-going-bust. A public reading and book-signing is the perfect place for the woman she knew as “Emily,” but whose real name was “Hope,” a cunning, marry-for-money black widow with a twin named “Faith,” to show up.
“Prison?” Her latest sugar daddy got her out. Hard feelings? Nooo. Not even about the book.
“I feel like you left out all the good parts!”
A little zippy and very public repartee, with a few f-bombs and c-words thrown in because that’s as “edgy” as this mess gets, and Stephanie agrees to be maid of honor for “the woman who tried to murder you.”
One crowded private jet flight to Capri later, Stephanie realizes Emily’s marrying not just Dante (Michele Morrone) and not just money, but into the mob. And with a rival mob in the ceremony, along with a venomous mother of the groom (Elena Sofia Ricci), the ex (Henry Golding) Emily/Hope tried to kill as a drunken, embittered wedding guest, a hapless FBI agent (Taylor Ortega) and the mad mother (Elizabeth Perkins) and sketchy aunt (Allison Janney) of the bride in attendance, things are pretty much guaranteed to turn messy and even bloody.
The comedy is supposed to spin out of a lot of situations and characters, but mainly plucky little Anna Kendrick’s playing of a mousy fish out of water, casually insulted by the insensate rich, under suspicion by many as Emily’s “stalker” and a murder suspect in her own right.
“Crime’s your kink!”
Not to worry. These are the ITALIAN police we’re talking about here.
But Kendrick can land only so many zingers on her own, and while supporting players Janney, Perkins and Alex Newell (playing Stephanie’s literary agent) grasp for giggles, they evaporate like bubbles in wine that’s rapidly going flat.
The picture devolves into random rants, a masturbatory murder in a shower and scene after scene after scene of gorgeous Blake Lively swanning around in the gorgeous costumes of Renee Ehrlich Kalfus.
And whatever interest — and laughs (those HATS) — that holds isn’t enough to distract us from guessing plot twists a dozen scenes in advance or from giggling at how Feig and screenwriters Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis stumble through a “How do we END this mess?” debate, one which Feig clumsily slaps on the screen without bothering to edit.
Rating: R, violence, some nudity, almost constant profanity
Cast: Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Alex Newell, Michele Morrone, Taylor Ortega, Lorenzo de Moor,
Elena Sofia Ricci, Allison Janney and Henry Golding.
Credits: Directed by Paul Feig, scripted by Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis, based on characters created by Darcey Bell. A Lionsgate/MGM release on Amazon Prime.
Running time: 2:02
Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” will own the box office until “Mission: Impossible” and “Lilo & Stitch” return. So this patchwork comic book action had better make hay while the sun shines.
“Thunderbolts*” opened at an underwhelming (for a Marvel movie) $74 million last weekend, and didn’t clear the $100 million mark in its first week.
With no significant competition other than the enduring “Sinners” and “Minecraft” phenomena, it should lose only 50% this weekend,. Friday’s and Saturday’s numbers point to a $33 million weekend, The Numbers confirms. That’s a 55% fall-off, which considering it didn’t have an epic (for May) opening weekend, is nothing to swoon over.
“Sinners” is maintaining its audience share better than any spring movie in recent memory, adding another $21 million, hurdling past the $200 million mark with lots of room to spare.
“A Minecraft Movie” is falling off to an $8 million weekend, with more than $400 million in the box office bank already, just in North America.
“The Accountant 2” is hanging in the top five for another week, clearing over $6.
IFC’s well-received title-says-it-all horror outing “Clown in the Cornfield” is underwhelming its way to a $3.8 million opening in fairly wide release. It had looked to open even worse ($3), so that’s a “win.”
Lionsgate paired up Kerry Washington, whose real stardom is on TV these days, with Omar Sy (“The Intouchables,” “Jurassic World”) for the actioner “Shadow Force,” and roll it out way to the sound of crickets. Maybe a $2 million opening, if Sunday holds true to form.
And tiny distributor Vertical took a chance with a wide release of a Josh Hartnett villainous turn actioner “Fight or Flight.” “Flight” is a pun title for an aviation thriller. And it’s an accurate description of the audience, which isn’t showing up. A $2 million take just behind with “Shadow Force” is the way things played out.
Briarcliff’s Rebel Wilson rom-com “Juliet & Romeo” isn’t making a ripple in wide release. It’s in 1350 theaters and may clear $350K, based on Thursday night/Friday’s take. That’s a bomb.
Not a lot “new” to get most of us up and out to movies, I have to confess.
But all in all, it’s a bad-not-terrible-weekend for cinema chains and the studios that under-supply them. They’re still praying for Tom Cruise and Disney to save the summer May 23.
Because a new “Final Destination” movie and a Jenna Ortega star vehicle “Hurry Up Tomorrow” next weekend won’t do enough make May a “merry month.”
This drama is a “festival darling” that Freestyle picked up for wide release May 16.
Another shot in the culture wars? Looks intriguing.
Movie Nation 