All the twists and carefully calculated double crosses in the world can’t save the con artist picture Sharper from being anything more than blandly passible.
John Lithgow
Appropriately candid and righteous, but somewhat lacking on the whole, the showbiz comedy Late Night has a great concept and a well honed social and political viewpoint that would work better if there was some added depth and nuance.
The Tomorrow Man is a good looking, well acted film that would a lot better and more interesting if there was as much consideration given to the story as there was to the casting and cinematography.
Given its timely release, the deadpan, coal black comedy Beatriz at Dinner could easily be read as a trenchant metaphor for American political and social values under the Donald Trump regime, but it really gets to the icy heart of problems that have plagued America for longer than the orange tinted leader of the free world has been in power. The third collaboration between director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White (following Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl) is a balanced human drama so painfully close to the bone that the only option to avoid crying about the situation at hand is to uncomfortably laugh at it.
Opening at a theatre near you this weekend: humanity has a new threat to fear in the prequel to the famous franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes; and Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman star in the unfortunate comedy, The Change-Up.