What’s new to theatres, VOD and streaming: December 17-19, 2021

December 17, 2021Norman Wilner and Radheyan Simonpillai

Nightmare Alley

(Guillermo del Toro)

Del Toro’s follow-up to The Shape Of Water is to Edmund Goulding’s 1947 noir – starring Tyrone Power as Stanton Carlisle, a carny who reinvents himself as a high-society mentalist only to find his new world just as dangerous as the one he escaped – as Peter Jackson’s King Kong was to its inspiration. It’s a bigger, bolder telling of the original story that celebrates (and expands upon) every aspect of it. That means this Nightmare Alley is longer than its predecessor – and considerably slower to unfold – but its deliberate, measured pace lets del Toro wander through the exquisitely manicured world he’s built, indulging a stellar supporting cast (featuring Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, David Strathairn, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett) and showcasing a career-best performance from Bradley Cooper as his gimlet-eyed, empty-suited antihero. It’s not for everyone, but in the right light it’s a treasure. 150 min. Now playing in theatres. NNNN (Norman Wilner)

Spider-Man: No Way Home

(Jon Watts)

You know in WrestleMania when the matches keep pausing so some starry personality – whether it’s Legion of Doom or John Cena – can unexpectedly run (or dance or skip or hop) out from the wings? That’s what Spider-Man: No Way Home does. The latest, laboured movie in Tom Holland’s up-to-this-point winning iteration of the webslinger is all about webbing characters through multiverse -magic from previous iterations of the franchise. You know Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Jamie Foxx’s Electro are here because they’re featured in the trailer. Critics were repeatedly instructed not to reveal the remaining multiverse guests, probably because the movie doesn’t have much else to offer beyond “surprise” and fanfare. Like those wrestlers who would work up the crowd by flaunting their own presence, No Way Home is satisfied with itself for just daring to resurrect dated contracts and negotiate new terms to bring all these old players into the MCU ring. But unlike the genuinely clever and joyous Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, this one struggles to figure out what to do with them. It goes big with nostalgia and applying force-fed emotional stakes to the retcon. But they also betray what made the best Spidey movies work. It was never about the fanfare but the humility of a superhero carrying a backpack. 148 min. Now playing in theatres everywhere. NN (Radheyan Simonpillai)

And Just Like That…

(Michael Patrick King)

HBO Max’s misguided Sex And The City sequel/reboot catches up with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) some 17 years after the influential TV show ended. They’re now well into their 50s and dealing, not very gracefully, with social media, podcasts, tired marriages, kids, the new cultural landscape and death – both literal (one recurring character keels over in the first episode) and figurative (Kim Cattrall’s Samantha is gone, and sorely missed). Show runner King seems so busy checking off hot-button issues and appeasing his white liberal guilt that he renders SATC’s iconic characters ridiculous. Carrie and Miranda, in particular, act in a way that makes no sense given what we know about them. The series was always lily white, and as if to compensate for that, King has awkwardly provided each of the women with instant POC friends. The only character who seems multidimensional, at least after the four episodes shown to critics, is Sara Ramirez’s bold, non-binary, queer stand-up comic/podcast host. The original series worked so well because it confidently introduced viewers to trends and fashions. Now its characters are out of touch and trying to play catch up, and it’s just not as interesting to watch. New episodes every Thursday on Crave. N (Glenn Sumi)

The Lost Daughter

(Maggie Gyllenhaal)

While holidaying on a Greek island, an academic (Olivia Colman) finds herself drawn to an overwhelmed mother (Dakota Johnson), befriending the younger woman and inserting herself into her affairs. In her feature debut, Gyllenhaal adapts Elana Ferrante’s 2008 novella as a sort of outdoor chamber piece, showcasing Colman’s remarkable ability to suggest a roiling emotional journey through the smallest of glances or gestures. As the initially hostile Leda softens to Johnson’s struggling Nina – and starts reflecting on her own challenges as a young mother – Colman shows us every emotion fighting to break through. (Her masterful performance is mirrored in flashbacks by Jessie Buckley as the younger Leda; they look nothing alike, but Buckley captures Colman’s voice and manner perfectly.) The Lost Daughter is the very definition of a “small” movie – I would even argue that’s the point of it. It’s an acutely felt character study, and a moving meditation on the compulsions that drive people to make their lives worse instead of better. And Gyllenhaal has an unerring feel for those tiny moments of pressure that expose the foundational cracks in a person’s psyche. 121 min. Now playing in theatres and available to stream on Netflix Canada December 31. NNNN (NW)

Flee

(Jonas Poher Rasmussen)

A hit on the fall festival circuit – it was the second runner-up for the TIFF People’s Choice documentary award – Rasmussen’s unconventional documentary tells the story of a refugee who fled Afghanistan as a teenager, eventually arriving in Denmark. Identified only by the pseudonym “Amin,” Rasmussen’s subject he tells his story in a series of extensive audio interviews, illustrated with delicate, slightly stylized animation. It’s a striking solution to the problem of maintaining Amin’s anonymity, while also avoiding the trap of shooting re-enactments on a soundstage. The inherent exaggerations of animation allow Rasmussen to capture the emotional reality of Amin’s dangerous coming of age as a queer youth in repressive, fundamentalist Kabul, and also to play up the danger of his departure from Afghanistan by forcing us into the perspective of a terrified kid. But Flee also captures the joy of self-discovery, as Amin comes into his own the further he gets from his birthplace, ending in an exuberant, cathartic moment Rasmussen allows us to experience right alongside his hero. 90 min. Subtitled. Now playing in theatres. NNNN (NW)

Red Rocket

(Sean Baker)

In Tangerine and The Florida Project, writer/director Baker told stories about the people left behind by what politicians call progress and whom society regards as victims: sex workers struggling to make a quasi-legal living, children left to their own devices while their parents hustle to stay afloat. With Red Rocket, he turns his gaze towards another sort of hustler: Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) is a porn star who’s fallen on hard times and returns home to rural Texas for a fresh start, moving back in with his ex (Bree Elrod) and her mother (Brenda Deiss) and looking for work – until he meets a fresh-faced 17-year-old (Suzanna Son) and decides she’s his ticket back into adult films. Set in the summer of 2016, with the U.S. presidential race heating up in the background, the movie draws a clear line from the endless boasting of Donald Trump to Mikey’s all-consuming ambition, but the longer Red Rocket goes on – and it does go on – the less focused it seems, ultimately leaving us wondering just what story Baker thinks he’s telling. 128 min. Now playing in theatres. NNN (NW)