While the cast of the upcoming "Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man" was more or less what everyone was talking about towards the end of this week, there were a few notable releases that went under the radar.
From a psychological thriller miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch to a film about complex families, here's what you can binge on this weekend.
'Ezra' (out May 31, in theaters)
The film's portrayal of parental worry and how worry can tap people's reserves, making them act irrationally or impulsively, is insightful and perceptive.
Tugs clumsily at the heartstrings.
The film doesn't tango with people's perceptions of autism in a thorny or especially productive way, and at times topples over into the maudlin. At one point, one of Max's stand-up routines turns deathly serious when he forgets he's on stage and reflects, all too honestly, on his life. But the performances go a long way toward papering over the story's clichés.
[Slant]
Consensus: it might not be the best family drama, but it's definitely not the worst.
'The Dead Don't Hurt' (out May 31, in theaters)
Mortensen's sophomore filmmaking feature sets a modern romance within an old-fashioned western... Krieps continues an astonishing run of complex female characters whose inner thoughts she conveys with the subtlest of facial expressions.
I suppose you have to give Viggo Mortensen's Western drama "The Dead Don't Hurt" some credit. It starts with one cliche, and it goes out with another.
"The Dead Don't Hurt" is stuffed to the gills with western tropes, with not a whole lot to add to the genre, especially in terms of furthering feminism onscreen.
Consensus: unless you're a Western film nerd or Viggo Mortensen super fan, you can skip this one. Vicky Krieps, as usual, looks to have done great.
'Eric' (streaming on Netflix)
Disturbing but profound, the show asks why only certain people are allowed happy endings and what that means for those who won't ever see justice.
[Variety]
"Eric" is filled with enough important issues to make it seem like a series filled with fresh, serious ideas. But they're really just window-dressing around another bad-dad saga that's too distracted chasing a long shaggy tail.
Like so much straight-to-streaming fare, Eric is a diverting full day of entertainment that you will neither regret nor remember.
[Observer]
Consensus: a real mixed bag here. Thank goodness it's on streaming, so you can pause, rewind or bin it at leisure. When was the last time Benedict Cumberbatch was in something really good?
'Ren Faire' (out on HBO, June 2-9, 2024)
"Ren Faire" is something else entirely. The three-part series, directed by Lance Oppenheim ("Some Kind of Heaven"), has cinematic visuals complete with extreme close-ups, a roving camera, and multiple angles on dialog scenes. That is a smart choice. The obvious approach to the film about the inner-workings of a renaissance faire would be to point out the seams in its illusion of the past; to make fun of the people who believe so deeply in its cheaply constructed alternate reality. Oppenheim does the opposite, buying into the faire's insular world the same way its subjects do, and framing them with low angels, slow-motion, and shallow focus. That aesthetic lends an epic feel to their attempts to seize control of the faire — which in turn makes the whole struggle that much funnier.
An engrossing documentary debuting Sunday on HBO, it chronicles a Renaissance festival impresario's effort to find a worthy heir.
Consensus: an HBO documentary with an up-and-coming director and big name producers. If not now, it's worth your time somewhere down the line.
"MoviePass, MovieCrash" (out on HBO now)
Director Muta'Ali's "MoviePass, MovieCrash" is a thorough but circuitous breakdown of how executives' obsession with exponential growth all but destroyed the company.
An enjoyable, intriguing, and engrossing retrospective of a failed dream.
[IGN]
Among the ironic lessons of "MoviePass, MovieCrash" is that the people who used the service the most helped ruin it, though it wasn't really their fault — it was a great deal. One that seemed too good to be true. And was.
[WSJ]
Consensus: MoviePass was a fever dream, and so is this documentary.
[Image: "Eric." Credit: Netflix]
