After two years to get the edit right, ‘New Mutants’ is a mess

Images courtesy 20th Century Studios.

2/10 After two years of post-production, you’d think The New Mutants would at least be organized.

In The New Mutants, Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) awakens imprisoned in a facility for adolescent mutants who have killed people with their emerging powers. Moonstar has vast psionic powers, but her primary ability is to conjure the deepest fears of anyone she meets, something she has no control over at this point in her life — obviously, this causes several problems. She is held with Scottish werewolf Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams of Game of Thrones fame), Russian magician Illyana Rasputin (Anya Taylor-Joy, who had just starred in The Witch), Kentucky coal miner Sam Guthrie (Charlie Heaton from Stranger Things) and young Brazilian billionaire Bobby da Costa (Henry Zaga, who had a bit part in 13 Reasons Why). Their only captor is Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), who is ostensibly treating them, but takes her orders from a mysterious superior meant to set up the sequel that will never happen.

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Nostalgia dial revs, roars to ’90 in ‘The Batman’ trailer

If there is one unequivocally good thing about 2020, it’s that 1990 is now exactly 30 years ago. Because mass media nostalgia famously operates in 30 year cycles – roughly, it’s more complicated than that – that means it’s ‘90s time, baby!

Trendsetters of the ‘10s took a few years to come around to explicitly packaging the ‘80s as a product to be sold, Warner Bros. and director Matt Reeves seem to be very aware that the ‘90s are going to be where it’s at in their new trailer for The Batman

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40-minute tantrum takes 90 minutes in ‘Unhinged’

Images courtesy Solstice Studios.

3/10 And we’re back.

In New Orleans, where only two bridges service the mighty river that bisects the metro area, Rachel Hunter (Caren Pistorius) honks her horn at a grey Super Duty stopped in front of a green light. Unfortunately, behind the wheel of that truck is Tom Cooper (Russell Crowe), unemployed, recently divorced and is shown taking several medications for a presumed mood disorder, looking for someone to take it all out on. Cooper follows Hunter to a gas station, steals her phone and leaves his own, then starts taking her appointments and murdering the people she was going to see. He calls her constantly with threats and demands and uses the tracking feature on his own phone to keep tabs on her.

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Reely understanding the ‘Suspiria’ remake

Images courtesy Amazon Studios.

The 2018 Suspiria remake is a daunting masterpiece of queer and anti-fascist cinema that demands to be understood on its own terms. I’ve ‘splained this movie enough times during quarantine, or tried to, that I think it’s time to put a reference article together.

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Revisiting ‘Uncut Gems’ eight months later

Images courtesy A24.

I’ve been revisiting a lot of recently streaming favorites in quarantine, and I wanted to take a few minutes to write about a movie that I don’t think I gave its due on initial examination.

Uncut Gems is a frustrating film to analyze because everything characteristic about it is in its technique and atmosphere, but it’s so focused on Howie Ratner (Adam Sandler) as a character that my strongest instinct is to focus on its narrative. You can ram your head into a wall trying to find some grand meaning in the story, but that’s not what writer/director duo Josh and Benny Safdie were doing here.

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