At a lengthy running time of 1 hour and 48 minutes, 40 Acres, by writer/director R. T. Thorne and co-writer Glenn Taylor, opens at Angelika Film Center and other select theaters nationwide via Magnolia Pictures.

 

      In Jurassic World: Rebirth, Zora (Scarlett Johansson) embarks an a covert mission to a remote island to extract the DNA of dinosaurs which will be used to develop a pharmaceutical drug. Duncan (Mahershala Ali) and Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) join her mission before a shipwrecked family, Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Teresa (Luna Blaise), Isabella (Audrina Miranda) and Xavier (David Iacona) tag along. There are more characters in the screenplay by David Koepp, but, much like the main characters, they're merely underwritten plot devices. Koep's screenplay has stilted dialogue, clunky exposition and very little wit or comic relief. Is it supposed to be funny when Zora asks a Big Pharma rep (Rupert Friend) how much they're willing to pay her for the mission, he replies, "10 with 6 zeros," and she quips, "Is the 10 separate from the 6 zeros?" to which he replies that it's not. Out of all places, they have that conversation out in public along the East River in Manhattan. Why wouldn't they pick a private location to discuss such a secretive mission? Lack of internal logic is the least of the film's problems. The systemic issue is that the plot spends too much time treading water with bland exposition before Zora and her team reach the island. Once they reach it, the suspense and narrative momentum escalate ever so slightly, but without any surprises.  

        The jungle scenery looks picturesque, at least, and the CGI dinosaurs are well-designed and creepy, especially the mutated dinosaurs. However, there are some scenes, like on a cliff, where you can sense the use of a green screen. Out of all of the performances, Scarlett Johannson's performance is the weakest link.  Her line delivery here sounds almost as awful and unintentionally funny as Gal Gadot's line delivery in Death on the Nile and Wonder Woman 1984. There are also pacing issues and, like too many blockbusters these days, the length running time makes the film overstay its welcome by 30 minutes.  At 2 hours and 13 minutes, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a visually stunning, but overlong sequel with ephemeral thrills, lack of imagination and a distractingly bad performance by Scarlett Johansson. It opens nationwide via Universal Pictures.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 4




 

       In Kill the Jockey, Remo (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), a jockey who works for Sirena (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a mobster, goes on the run after accidentally killing a race horse and getting sent to the hospital while very drunk and high on ketamine. Abril (Úrsula Corberó), his pregnant girlfriend, must find him before Sirena and his henchmen do. Writer/director Luis Ortega and his co-writers, Fabian Casas and Rodolfo Palacios, have made an outrageously funny, off-kilter and refreshingly unpredictable dark comedy with shades of Kaurismäki and Buñuel. To explain what happens after Remo escapes the hospital would be to spoil the film's many surprises, but it's worth mentioning that it's just as absurd as it is profound without going over-the-top or becoming heavy-handed.

      The filmmakers have a great commend of tone which they effectively establish within the first few minutes and maintain it without tonal unevenness. They also grasp that comedy is often rooted in tragedy because Remo comes across as a deeply disturbed and sad human being with a lot of mixed emotions going on inside of him. He's a hot mess and tries to drown his sorrows with booze. How does Abril, who's also a jockey, put up with him? She surely doesn't really think that he'd make for a good father let alone a good husband. However, it's best to suspend disbelief while watching Kill the Jockey because what it lacks in logic it makes up for through imagination---as Hitchcock once observed, "Logic is dull." Through its wild imagination, the film explores the timely theme of gender identity.

      Nahuel Pérez Biscayart gives a strong performance in the role of Remo while Úrsula Corberó also shines as Abril. The exquisite cinematography and production design provide visual style that becomes part of the film's substance. At a running time of 1 hour and 36 minutes, Kill the Jockey opens at Film Forum via Music Box Films.  It would be an interesting double feature with Diva.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2




 

      Sophie (Alicia Silverstone), a pharmaceutical marketing exec, has a sexually-charged affair with Elliot (Karl Glusman), a younger man who lives with his ailing mother, Peggy (Catherine Curtin), in Pretty Thing. When she abruptly ends the affair, he stalks her and refuses to accept her rejection. Director Justin Kelly and screenwriter Jack Donnelly have made a captivating, suspenseful and gritty thriller. There's also clever moments of comic relief, i.e. a quick shot of Elliot's iphone which shows a photo of his mother in the background right after he gets off the phone with Sophie. The screenplay does an effective job of making both Sophie and Elliot deeply flawed characters. She's lonely, but only looking for a fling; he's looking for something more serious and suffers from emotional neediness. Why doesn't she go to the authorities? Why doesn't she just ignore him? not only does she string him along by inviting him to Paris for a sexual tryst during a work trip, but she also visits his mother and talks to one of his friends about him behind his back. Both she and Elliot suffer from emotional immaturity.  

      Alicia Silverstone gives one of the best performances of her career, and Karl Glusman also impresses with his convincingly moving performance. They both have palpable chemistry together much like Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson do in Babygirl. Pretty Thing is essentially Fatal Attraction meets Babygirl, although Sophie and Elliot's sexual escapades don't involved BDSM, he doesn't order her a tall glass of milk, and Sophie isn't married, so she's not cheating on anyone by sleeping with him. Some of the plot turns aren't surprising, but some of them actually are, especially in the third act that isn't afraid to go into dark territory. It might be best to pair it with something lighter like >Clueless or Blast From the Past in a double feature. At a running time of 1 hour and 36 minutes, Pretty Thing opens at Village East by Angelika Film Center and on VOD via Shout! Studios.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

       Three friends, Jonathan (Jon Rudnitsky), Steve (Karan Soni), and Elizabeth (Cazzie David) hatch a plan to steal a film print of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction from his movie theater in Stealing Pulp Fiction. Somehow, their therapist, Dr. Mendelbaum (Jason Alexander), joins their heist.  The screenplay by writer/director Danny Turkiewicz has a premise that sounds like it could be turned into a funny, tongue-in-cheek and zany caper. However, the execution of that premise leaves a lot to be desired because it's consistently unfunny, witless, dull and inane. Not a single joke lands which makes it on par with Bride Hard as yet another disappointing American comedy. We've clearly come a long way from the hilarious and witty comedies of the 1930s and 40s during the Golden Age of American cinema. If you want a truly funny and brilliant caper that has repeat value, see A Fish Called Wanda which gets everything right that Stealing Pulp Fiction gets wrong.  At 1 hour and 28 minutes, it opens at Quad Cinema via Tribeca Films.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 4




 

       Videoheaven is a documentary about the history of video stores. Director Alex Ross Perry tells the history through clips from a wide variety of films from Walking and Talking to Ghost World that feature scenes with video stores. The archivist clearly worked very hard to find and ensemble the film clips. Movie buffs will be initially engaged by trying to predict which film the next clip will be from or if and when a clip of a film they're expecting to be included will show up. Beyond a trip down memory lane for those who grew up renting movies at video stores, Videoheaven doesn't offer much to the audience. It's ultimately a tedious and exhausting endurance that doesn't justify its nearly 3-hour running time. At 2 hours and 53 minutes, Video Heaven opens at IFC Center via Cinema Conservancy.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 4