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Every Body is an emotionally engrossing and illuminating documentary about a lesser known human rights issue: the struggles of people born intersex. Director Julie Cohen mainly focuses on the experiences of three intersex people, namely, Alicia Roth Weigel, River Gallo, and Sean Saifa Wall who candidly and generously share their thoughts and feelings so that you can get a sense of what they've been going through and to empathise with them. Cohen grasps that it's not only important to put a human face on their struggles, but also to broaden the scope by looking at systemic issues that are part of the larger, macroscopic picture. For example, there's a hospital, Weill Cornell, that's still legally performing gender reassignment surgery to turn babies born intersex into either male or female. The segment that shed light on that particular issue will make you justifiably indignant. Every Body also doesn't shy away from going darker by telling the tragic story of David Reimer who was born as a male, but underwent surgery that reassigned his gender as a female. The surgery didn't go well and, when he discovered the horrifying truth about the surgery, he went on a downhill spiral pyschologically and ended up committing suicide. To counterbalance the heavier elements, Cohen includes some surprisingly funny and witty moments which provide much-needed comic relief. She doesn't merely inform and anger the audience--this isn't a Michael Moore film, after all. Within despair, there's hope. Within darkness, there's a tiny light. She manages to find that light while also accomplishing what every documentary filmmaker out to do: finding just the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally as well as intellectually. That's a testament to her skills as a director and to how well-edited the film is. It's also worth mentioning the amusing end credits sequence that ends the film on a light note. At an ideal running time of 92 minutes, Every Body opens in select theaters on June 30th, 2023. 
In the Company of Rose is a breezy and illuminating documentary biopic on Rose Styron, a poet, journalist and human rights activist who's also the widow of William Styron, the author of Sophie's Choice Director James Lapine meets with Rose at her home in the Hamptons throughout the course of six years to talk to her about her life and work. This doc is essentially a reader's digest documentary biopic of Rose Styron. It's informative without being very moving or profound, but at least it avoids becoming dry, dull and meandering. Lapine captures Rose's warmth, intelligence, sense of humor, resilience and witty personality which are palpable during their conversations. He's lucky to have her as his subject because her candidness, introspection and emotional generosity helps to anchor the film/ Her humanity which shines brightly from start to finish. She's brave for discussing her struggles with depression and the rocky moments in her relationship with her late husband. To be fair, sometimes it feels like you're eavesdropping on a private conversation between two friends, so there's a voyeuristic element to the film which doesn't go away. In terms of visual style, In the Company of Rose doesn't really stand out, but that's forgivable because its substance compensates for its lack of style. What's ultimately important is that by the time the documentary ends, Rose is no longer a stranger to the audience, but someone who's innately strong, yet vulnerable which makes her all the more relatable and, above all, human. It takes a humanist to capture humanism, so thank you, director James Lapine, for being a humanist. The fact that he keeps the running time down to just 1 hour and 26 minutes is a testament to the skilled editor and Lapine's grasp of the importance of restraint as a filmmaker. In the Company of Rose opens at Quad Cinema via Greenwich Entertainment. 
Umberto Eco: A Library of the World is a provocative and captivating documentary biopic on Umberto Eco, a critical thinker who was a novelist, a philosopher, a political and social commentator, and owned a private library that stored over 30,000 books. Director Davide Ferrario comabines archival footage of interviews with Eco along with contemporary interviews with his family members which help you to understand what makes Umberto Eco so extraordinary. To be fair, the doc does suffer from being somewhat hagiographic as it puts Umberto Eco up on a pedestal. If you've never heard of him before, you'll find this documentary to be very insightful and fascinating. Eco is reminiscent of modern philosopher Slavoj Žižek. They're both outspoken, articulate and think outside the box. There are some amusing anecdotes about Eco like the fact that he owned a cell phone, but kept it off the whole time because he doesn't like to receive text messages or voice messages. His cellphone was just for show. Not surprisingly, he was not a big fan of the internet. He also wrote a lot of fiction, but Umberto Eco: A Library of the World doesn't shed enough light on his books, so this isn't a very thorough documentary biopic. It's also surprisingly short despite the fact that Umberto Eco is an interesting, complex man who wore many hats. At only 1 hour and 20 minutes, it opens at Film Forum via The Cinema Guild. As Far as I Can Walk  Strahinja (Ibrahim Koma) and his wife, Ababuo (Nancy Mensah-Offei), migrate from Ghana to Germany before they're deported to Serbia/ They volunteer for the Red Cross, but, one day, his wife chooses to join Syrian refugees headed to Hungary, so he's torn between finding his beloved wife or staying in Serbia to seek asylum there and to pursue a career as a soccer player. Based on the Serbian poem "Banović Strahinja," As Far as I Can Walk has a premise that sounds like it could be a sweeping romantic, epic adventure/thriller. However, the screenplay by writer/director Stefan Arsenijevic and his co-writers, Nicolas Ducray and Bojan Vuletic suffers from occasional lethargy and takes a while to become even mildly engaging. When you first meet Strahinja and Ababuo, they've already left their homeland in Ghana and reached Germany before they get deported to an encampment for refugees in transition in Serbia. What was their home like in Ghana? There aren't any flashbacks or references to their experiences back there, so the filmmakers leave that to the audience's imagination. They've been married for 3 years. What's their marriage been like these past 3 years? How did they meet? It's fine to keep exposition to a minimum, but here it just feels lazy despite the fact that there are 3 screenwriters. In one of the film's many clunky scenes, the narrative gets awkwardly interrupted by voice-over narration (voice of Branka Pujić) that recitates parts of the poem "Banović Strahinja." The words are beautiful to hear, but they distract from the film's narrative momentum and are poorly integrated. Tori and Lokita is an example of a much more suspenseful and emotionally engrossing. If only As Far as I Can Walk were as powerful, understated and captivating as that Dardenne brothers' film. Ibrahim Koma and Nancy Mensah-Offei convincingly moving, raw performances are what helps to keep the film afloat. Any poignancy comes from their performances, not from the often shallow and underwhelming screenplay. The cinematography is fine as well as the use of lighting and colors that compliment the film's somber tone. At a running time of 1 hour and 32 minutes, As Far as I Can Walk is well-acted and occasionally moving, but often dull, clunky and only mildly engaging.
 The Childe  Marco (Kang Tae-Ju), a boxer in Manila, desperately needs money to pay for his ailing mother's surgery. When he discovers that he has a wealthy father in South Korea, he locates him in hope that he will give him money for the surgery. He also meets his half-brother, Han (Kang-woo Kim), a mysterious young woman, Yun-ju (Go Ara), and Nobleman (Kim Seon-Ho). The screenplay by writer/director Park Hoon-jung blends crime thriller, action and suspense. The plot takes a while to get to the meat of the story when Marco arrives in South Korea and learns through his father's lawyer that his father was searching for him. His father happens to be the head of a business empire and Han is his greedy heir. Little does Marco know what kind of trouble he'll be getting into, but he seems to be okay with participating in a heist, so he's far from an angel. Even the boxing matches that he fights in back in Manila are illegal. Now that he's in South Korea, he doesn't know who to trust nor does the audience know, either. Unfortunately, the screenplay doesn't do an effective job of humanizing any of the characters who remain one-dimensional and at a cold distance from the audience. There are some surprisingly funny scenes with dark humor which are well-integrated, though. However, the withholding of key expositional information until the very end is frustrating, although it does allow for some shocking twists. The expositional scenes are clunky and lazily written while making the plot feel somewhat convoluted. Nonetheless, The Childe at least has thrilling, intense action sequences and just enough suspense to keep the audience mildly engaged. The ensemble cast is terrific and helps to invigorate the film, especially the charismatic Kang Tae-u , Kang-woo Kim and Kim Seon-Ho. The action scenes are well-choreographed and stylishly shot, so if you're an action fan, The Childe does, indeed, deliver the goods. To be fair, though, some scenes overstay their welcome and suffer from tonal unneveness. There are also pacing issues. With tighter editing, The Childe could've been a much more entertaining thriller.
 Confidential Informant 
 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny  Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) teams up with his goddaughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) to find the other half of the Antikythera, a dial invented by Archimedes back in Ancient Greece. Their nemesis, Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a former Nazi who now works for NASA, also wants to retrieve the Antikythera. Indiana Jones is back in an all-new adventure. This time around, the screenplay by writer/director James Mangold and his co-writers, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp, keep the plot simple without taking any risks with outrageous set pieces. The opening scene accomplishes three things: it introduces the audience to the villain, Jürgen Voller, when he was a Nazi, it provides exposition about the Antikythera dial that Indiana Jones and Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) manage to take from the Nazis, and it hooks the audience with an exhilarating action scene on top of a train. Two decades later, Indiana Jones has retired and now works as a professor, but Basil's daughter, Helena, shows up at one of his lectures. Soon enough, she convinces him to come out of retirement and to join her on a quest to find the missing half of the dial. The only person who stands in their way is Jürgen Voller who seems to easily figure out where to find Indiana Jones and Helena even in the middle of the ocean. The main weakness, though, is that Jürgen Voller remains an under-written and boring villain. He's not given enough of a backstory and isn't menacing enough either despite the fact that he's a former Nazi. To be fair, plausibility and logic aren't among the film's strengths, but those are forgivable flaws because suspension of disbelief is essential for action adventures. As Hitchcock once wisely observed, "There is something more important than logic: imagination." The screenwriters do a decent job of balancing the action with humor without resulting in an uneven tone. There are no bad laughs here, either, or any cringe-inducing moments that go over-the-top like in the recent Fast X. Although there's plenty of action, it doesn't feel redundant or exhausting nor does it become stale because it takes place in a variety of locations: on an airplane, on a train, on a motorcycle, inside a cave and underwater. Without any spoilers, the film's biggest surprise comes at the very end with a poignant scene that, fortunately, doesn't become cheesy. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is lucky to have Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen becomes they all exude palpable charisma while bringing a sense of authenticity to their role. They rise well above the screenplay and help to keep you engaged and immersed in the story. The action set pieces by land, sea and air are exciting and thrilling with great CGI effects which provide the film with plenty of spectacle while turning into an epic and a rush of pure adrenaline. See it on the big screen; if you wait for streaming, it will diminish the visual spectacle. The music score by composer John Williams is also exceptional without being distracting or intrusive, and the pace moves quickly so that you don't feel the weight of the film's lengthy running time that clocks over 2 hours. At 2 hours and 24 minutes, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a rousing, exhilarating and crowd-pleasing action adventure.
 The In-Law Gang 
 The Man from Rome  Father Quart (Richard Armitage) investigates a series of murders and a computer hacking at church in Seville, Spain, with the help of Cooey (Carlos Cuevas), a cybersecurity expert. The only refreshing part of the screenplay by writer/director Sergio Dow is that it doesn't involve demonic possession or some kind of sci-fi/horror element despite being a crime thriller taking place at a church. No one performs any exorcisms or behaves strangely. Perhaps The Man from Rome could've used a horror/sci-fi twist because the by-the-numbers plot becomes less and less interesting as it progresses. There are too many characters, each of whom remains underdeveloped and lacking a discernible personality that would make them stand out or, more importantly, human. There's little to no backstory about Father Quart who's a dull and forgettable hero. Even the priest that Russell Crowe played in The Pope's Exorcist manages to be a far more engaging character with an off-kilter personality. The suspects include Father Ferro (Paul Freeman), Macarena (Amaia Salamanca), Gris (Alicia Borrachero) and Archbishop Corvo (Will Keen), but they're all underwritten characters who are merely there as plot devices. The convoluted third act reveals who the serial killer and hacker is along with his/her motive and, unsurprisingly, it culminates in an action scene. Unfortunately, the suspense wanes as Father Quart continues his investigation. This is the kind of film that plays everything too safely without taking any risks. It also lacks levity. Is it too much to ask for a little wit or some kind of comic relief to enliven the film? Instead, it becomes a monotonous, lethargic and underwhelming bore. Richard Armitage provides some charisma as the lead, but he's undermined by the shallow, lazy and pedestrian screenplay. No one manages to rise above the screenplay, unfortunately. There's nothing exceptional about set design, cinematography, editing or action choreography that could've added much-needed style to The Man from Rome to compensate for its lack of substance. At least it's not as painfully boring, disappointing and poorly cast as Padre Pio, though, but it's nonetheless too low on thrills and suspense to even become a mindless B-movie.
 The Passengers of the Night  fter her husband leaves her, Elizabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg) struggles to make ends meet while raising her two children, Matthias (Quito Rayon Richter) and Judith (Megan Northam), alone. She finds a job at a late-night talk show on the radio hosted by Vanda Dorval (Emmanuelle Béart). She befriends Tallulah (Noée Abita), a young homeless woman, at work and lets her stay with her. Tallulah and Matthias fall in love with each other while Elizabeth begins a relationship with a new lover, Hugo (Thibault Vinçon). The screenplay by writer/director Mikhaël Hers and his co-writers, Maud Ameline and Mariette Désert begins at Elizabeth lowest point when she's jobless, lonely and single when her marriage comes to an end. It's up to her to pick up the pieces and rebuild her life while being a good parent to her children, each of whom has their own struggles and flaws. The Passengers of the Night maintains a melancholic tone that doesn't become saccharine, heavy-handed or hackneyed because the screenplay treats everyone on screen as complex, fully-fleshed human beings, warts and all. When Tallulah enters Elizabeth's life, she becomes like a surrogate daughter to her. Is she helping Tallulah to feel better about herself and to cure her loneliness or out of genuine compassion, kindness and empathy for another human being? Would Elizabeth have taken care of her if she were still married? That's up to the audience to interpret on their own. Either way, Tallulah becomes an integral part of Elizabeth's family. Their interactions feel authentic with dialogue that lacks stiltedness and over-explaining much like the dialogue in Eric Rohmer's films. Yes, the film does cite its source with a delightful scene taking place in a cinema where an Eric Rohmer film plays. The Passengers of the Night is filled with small moments that add up to much more than the sum of its parts. No one gets cancer or kills anyone. There are no villains nor does the plot veer into different tangents. It does span across 7 years between 1981 and 1988, but the time jumps aren't confusing for that matter. If the filmmakers were to jump back and forth chronologically instead of following a linear path, it would've been confusing and distracting, so kudos to them for avoiding non-linear storytelling. The performances by everyone, even those in the supporting roles, are superb and natural which helps to further ground the film in authenticity. Emmanuelle Béart makes the most of her brief screen-time as Elizabeth's superior while adding gravitas to the film. The pace moves slowly, but not too slowly, so writer/director Mikhaël Hers trusts the audience's patience. He also trusts their intelligence and imagination through the use of poetic images, i.e. a large subway map that lights up which Tallulah stares at during the opening credits. At a running time of 1 hour and 51 minutes, The Passengers of the Night, is tender, bittersweet and genuinely engrossing.
 Prisoner's Daughter  After serving 12 years in prison and getting diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, Max (Brian Cox), a former boxer, moves in with his estranged daughter, Maxine (Kate Beckinsale), who's taking care of her 12-year-old son, Ezra (Christopher Convery). Prisoner's Daughter is just as bland as its boring, unimaginative title. Nuance, poetry and subtlety aren't among the strengths of the undercooked, unfocused and overstuffed screenplay by Mark Bacci. Not only does Max have a troubled past, he also has a dysfunctional relationship with his daughter who's still traumatized by her childhood. Oh, and he also has terminal cancer. Ezra suffers from being bullied by classmates at school. Maxine has an ex, Tyler (Tyson Ritter), who's a musician, a drug addict and Ezra's biological father who wishes to meet his son. The subplots don't end there. Ezra initially doesn't know that Max is his grandfather because Maxine lies to him that he's his uncle. However, Ezra catches on surprisingly quickly to lie, but there's not much of a pay-off to his realization. You'd think he'd be very mad at his mom for lying to him. Alas, he doesn't. Not surprisingly, though, Ezra and Max quickly bond. He teaches Ezra how to defend himself against his bullies by taking him to boxing lessons. Hank (Ernie Hudson), an ex-con, also trains Ezra in boxing. Screenwriter Mark Bacci omits important exposition about what crime Max was incarcerated for. Even when Ezra asks him what crime he committed, he's very vague and then says that some things are better unknown. That doesn't sound like Max has learned or grown much while being incarcerated because he seems ashamed of his past and too emotionally immature to tell the truth without being evasive or gaslighting Ezra. Also, Maxine doesn't seem like a good parent because she lets an ex-con train Ezra in boxing and doesn't protect him from her abusive dad. With stitled, witless and clunky dialogue, Prisoner's Daughter fails to pack any emotional punches. Brian Cox's charisma and his moving performance are the only elements that keep Prisoner's Daughter afloat. Kate Beckinsale is miscast and gives a performance that's either hammy at times or wooden and unconvincing at other times which makes it hard to grasp Maxine's inner life--especially when she's crying or yelling. There are also pacing issues, choppy editing, unremarkable cinematography and dull set design, so the production values here are mediocre at best. It's surprising that the production design lacks style here because Catherine Hardicke is also the production designer for 2 Days in the Valley which excels at production design so much that it becomes part of its substance, i.e. an orgasmic seashell. There's nothing like that here to bring much-needed liveliness to the film. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, which feels more like 2 hours, Prisoner's Daughter is a clunky, overstuffed and undercooked misfire.
 Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken  Ruby (voice of Lana Condor), a high school student, lives with her mother, Agatha (voice of Toni Collette), Arthur (voice of Colman Domingo), and younger brother, Sam (voice of Blue Chapman). When she learns that she and her family are actually krakens in disguise, she sneaks away into the sea to find her grandmother (voice of Jane Fonda), to reconnect with her kraken roots and to discover her kraken superpowers. Meanwhile, she befriends a mermaid, Chelsea Van Der Zee (voice of Annie Murphy), who claims to be the daughter of an evil mermaid that her grandmother warned her about. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken shares the same systemic problem that Elemental also suffers from: it doesn't take its ideas far enough or include enough "world-building." The screenplay by writer/director Kirk DeMicco and his co-writers, Brian C. Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi, throws a lot of exposition at the audience within the first 15 minutes and doesn't even get to the meat of the story until Ruby meets her grandmother for the first time. By the time the hour mark arrives, there are already too many undercooked subplots for one movie, i.e a boy in Ruby's school who she wants to take to prom. Mastering exposition is an important skill for every screenwriter, but the 3 screenwriters do a subpar job of incorporating it. After Ruby meets her grandmother, there's yet another scene with more exposition that refers to a backstory that explains what caused a rift between Ruby's mother and grandmother. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken doesn't quite succeed as a coming-of-age film nor as an adventure nor as a comedy, unfortunately. A lot of squandered opportunities to find comedy and poignancy can be found after Ruby discovers that she's a monster with superpowers. Also, there's a plot twist in the third act that doesn't quite land because it gets revealed in the scene prior to the scene where Ruby discovers the twist. Why put the audience ahead of Ruby in terms of important information? It makes it harder to be on the same page that she's on. There are also a lot of characters who are underwritten and poorly introduced as though they were merely there to move the plot forward. Moreover, the third act feels rushed with an uplifting ending that's unearned. Despite the screenplay's many shortcomings, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken at least has bright, colorful and dazzling animation to delight young kids who will probably enjoy this film more than adult will. The pace moves quickly, sometimes too quickly, especially during the first few scenes and the third act. Jane Fonda is well-cast as the voice of the grandmother who has a sweet, but somewhat preachy and contrived scene with Agatha. It's refreshing to see a film that doesn't bombard the audience with "Easter Eggs", but, to be fair, there aren't enough subtle details, tongue-in-cheek humor or witty jokes that would've made the film rewatchable. At a running time of 90 minutes, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a harmless diversion with dazzling animation, but it's overstuffed and undercooked without being funny, clever or exhilarating enough to rise above mediocrity.
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