Materialists: 4/10
Love is confusing, and so is Materialists. Celine Song’s sophomore flick follows an all-business matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) who finds herself caught in the middle of her very own love triangle. She is stuck between a seemingly perfect financier (Pedro Pascal) and her rough-and-ready ex-boyfriend (Chris Evans).
Materialists explores the intersection of class and love. At its best, the film provides thoughtful insight into classism and success. However, most of the film feels underdeveloped and cold. Johnson’s inability to convincingly convey human emotion feels like some sort of robotic satire—either unintentional and concerning, or simply the wrong choice—stripping the movie of any warmth.
Materialists is nowhere near as compact or clean as Song’s first film, Past Lives, as people constantly do things that feel out of character just to further plot points. But Materialists continues Song’s troubling thematic trend: her movies just feel amateur.
Still, there are flashes of promise—a genius scene where Johnson persuades a reluctant bride, unique dialogue, a stellar performance by Evans, or a great gag about male leg heightening surgery. Song likely has a truly great film in her arsenal, it just might take her another 15 years to mature before she can make it.
F1: 8/10
When women in Hollywood turn 60, they find a plastic surgeon. When men in Hollywood turn 60, they find a plastic surgeon, and then they find Joseph Kosinski. Hollywood’s master of redemption arcs follows Top Gun: Maverick with F1, another perfectly cheesy and totally exhilarating two-hour film.
F1 stars Brad Pitt as Sonny Hanes, a dejected racecar driver making one last bid for global success in—you guessed it—Formula 1. Throughout the season, he confronts both his past traumas from a near-deadly crash and his worries for the future, embodied by his young teammate, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris). Though at times F1 can feel like an overly obvious redemption ploy by Pitt, the movie is well-executed, well-focused, and truly exciting.
Pitt is solid, but the film is carried by its supporting cast. Javier Bardem as the team principal, Ruben Cervantes, is so much fun. Kerry Condon is a great foil to Pitt’s childish recklessness as the team technical director turned love interest (yes, it’s very disappointing that she had to be the love interest). Damson Idris is so insanely charming it’s impossible not to root for him.
Sure, some gags stick around a little too long, the pacing drags early in the second act, and Pitt’s third-act monologue doesn’t quite land—but these are minor flaws. Kosinski and executive producer Lewis Hamilton do the impossible, they deliver a totally reasonable summer blockbuster.
Superman: 7/10
Filmmaker James Gunn faced a massive job with Superman. He had to establish his newfound DC Universe as something completely different but equally valuable to the Marvel Universe. While introducing us to a set of characters we’ll need to know and love for this project to work in the future, and touching on more relevant social themes, Superman doesn’t ever compromise the quality of the individual film for the studio’s long term goals.
The film stars David Cornsweat as the titular Superman, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and A-lister Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Cornsweat creates an impossibly kind Superman, while Brosnahan’s Lane is much more realistic and cynical. But if one is looking for a perfect example of Gunn’s DC excellence, look to Nicholas Hoult. Hoult’s performance is convincingly villainous, while still deeply unserious. He’s a perfect supervillain.
Superman’s social commentary is the main thing separating it from other superhero films. Themes of kindness, empathy, alienation, and protecting the powerless feel strikingly relevant today, painting DC as riskier and more meaningful than the assembly-line superhero films dominating theaters right now.
But Gunn’s Superman has its flaws, too. It’s a good 20 minutes too long, its CG battle sequences tire early, and its third act climax is triggered by a deeply stupid and rushed conflict. Nonetheless, Superman might have just saved the DCU.
Jurassic World Rebirth: 5/10
The newest film in the Jurassic Park canon, Jurassic World Rebirth, is a confusing addition. It’s nowhere near as suave or sleek as the 1993 original, overstays its welcome by 15 minutes, and removes much of the complexity that made the first film so intelligent. There’s not nearly enough death, and no dinosaurs really feel threatening. It has a couple of smart chase scenes and something to say about the dangers of the capitalist healthcare system (weird direction to take a Jurassic Park movie, but I’m not judging), but overall, Rebirth just comes off as awkward.
Scarlet Johanssen and Johnathan Bailey are fine. Bailey’s American accent flattens out all his textbook charisma, and Johanssen and Bailey fall so flat in the chemistry department that the film drops that idea altogether halfway through. The rest of the supporting cast are completely serviceable. Though a surprise standout star-turning performance comes from The Summer I Turned Pretty’s David Iacono, as Xavier, a stoned teenage boyfriend turned unlikely hero.
But, by miles, the greatest thing about Jurassic World Rebirth is that it acts as the catalyst for the return of one of America’s greatest living actors, Mahershala Ali. That’s right, the two-time Oscar winner is back, and boy, is it beautiful. Ali takes an underwritten and comically cliché role and complicates it into something soulful and rebellious. He’s one of the best we have right now. Let’s hope Rebirth is just that for his career.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps: 7/10
Ironically enough, it seems the fourth time was the charm for the Fantastic Four franchise. As Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) try to save the crew’s newest member, their baby, Franklin, from the space god Galactus, one thing is extremely apparent: Marvel’s setting up The Four to be some of the next era’s lead players. And they’re doing a damn good job at it, too.
Pascal’s calm demeanor and underlying superiority complex make his Richards feel like a logical successor to RDJ’s Iron Man. Meanwhile, Kirby, Quinn, and Moss-Bachrach all provide stellar supporting performances. The film really gives all four of its leads screen time, and they all get grandiose emotional arcs. Fantastic Four does a great job of fully introducing these heroes. It gives them all their own believable weaknesses while still showing their ultimate strength and teamwork when the pressure is on.
On an aesthetic level, the choice to bring in a retro-futurist 60’s vibe is genius. It makes the film feel artsy and quirky, giving an otherwise run-of-the-mill superhero flick so much more character.
On the other hand, the film’s pacing is its major fault. The first act of the film is way too short, which leaves the audience with an unclear vision of who The Four truly are until much later in the film. The second act is also shaky, as it’s built on a completely feeble foundation, but once Fantastic Four reaches its thrilling (though sadly formulaic) climax, it finally starts to click.
