A killer horror comedy lights up the end of January while a lot of silliness and one serious-minded indie feature unfold in this week’s roundup.
“Companion”: The horror revival continues to thrive with the release of actor Drew Hancock’s quick-witted directorial debut, a crafty commentary on modern relationships and technological advances. It’s scary, observant and savagely funny. The less you know about it, the better time you’ll have watching it. So I’ll tread softly here, avoiding spoilers you can all-too-easily find online or by watching its too-revealing trailer. Shrewdly cast, Hancock’s diabolical treat is superbly shot by Eli Born and stars everyman actor Jack Quaid (Prime’s “The Boys”) as crazyish-in-love average-joe Josh. He and the thoroughly enamored with him Iris (Sophie Thatcher, following up her “Heretic” performance with another slam-dunk) met cute at a grocery store and are now in the folds of a relationship. They accept an invite to spend a weekend getaway with two other couples at an extra-fancy secluded estate near a lake — one of the most overused horror tropes.
The property belongs to predator-like creep Sergey (Rupert Friend, channeling the guy any woman should avoid at a party), who is not well-acquainted with the buttons affixed to his very open shirt. Other guests include Sergey’s girlfriend and Josh’s judgy friend Kat (Megan Suri) and the hopelessly devoted to each other Eli (Harvey Guillén), a lovable open-hearted guy, and Patrick (Lukas Gage), a dreamboat. But something doesn’t quite compute with any of these couples (if it did, there wouldn’t be a movie) and that gets more apparent after a violent act reboots what we’ve just seen. Hancock’s film doesn’t exist to just surprise and entertain, which it does throughout, but it also has something to say about selfish modern attractions and man’s narcissistic behavior. The fingerprints of executive producer Zach Cregger (who, like Hancock, branched out from actor to director and burst on the scene with one of this decade’s best horror films, 2022’s “Barbarian”) can be spotted given how smart “Companion” is, too. The film is yet another clever release in the horror genre, which is serving up one great movie after another these days. It also makes the perfect anti-Valentine’s Day movie for those wanting some blood in their bad romances. Details: 3½ stars out of 4; in theaters Jan. 31.
“I’m Still Here”: Fernanda Torres’ best dramatic actress win at this year’s Golden Globes and her surprise Oscar nomination appear to have shocked the Hollywood elite and even Torres. No matter how outside of the box it is, it’s an earned honor given the quietly shattering performance the Brazilian actor renders as the real-life Eunice Paiva, a matriarch who, with her children, endured a nightmarish series of events. Eunice (as portrayed by Torres), embodied the resiliency and the resolve of the Pavia family as she saved and protected her children when her former congressman husband Reubens was taken away from them in 1971 by military agents during the tyrannical rule in Brazil, and then becomes one of the missing. The harrowing sequence when the authoritarian government muscles into the home contrasts with director Walter Salles’ relatable opening scenes when the “Central Station” auteur presents us with the everydayness of one average family living near Rio de Janeiro’s beach. It’s an effective decision that draws us into the middle of the military’s Draconian, brutal measures to quell dissenters.
Rather than focus on Reubens, Salles shifts to Eunice and the family, all the while ensuring that each of the children such as Marcelo Rubens Paiva, author of a 2015 memoir that serves as the basis of the film, are given full-blown personalities. The unstable home environment for them threatens to all but collapse once Eunice and her daughter get taken into custody. Both return home and Eunice resumes, valiantly trying to keep the foundation of her family intact as the government conspires against it.
Salles’ film jumps decades for a touchingly rendered ending that is so profound you’ll be moved to tears. “I’m Still Here’s” message to not forget what happened, lest it happens again, couldn’t be more timely, more topical, more urgently needed. Details: 4 stars, now playing in San Rafael and San Francisco; opens Jan. 31 at the Orinda Theatre and the Elmwood, Berkeley; expands on Feb. 7 to the 3Below Theaters in San Jose and the AMC Mercado in Santa Clara.
“Flight Risk”: Mel Gibson hops back into the directorial cockpit for a forgettable confined-space thriller that experiences turbulence the instant the screenplay demands it cuff and silence its best asset — actor Mark Wahlberg, whose go-for-broke performance as a psycho “pilot” flying a federal agent (Michelle Dockery) and a very annoying, often hysterical informant (Topher Grace) overshadows everyone else. He plays a reprehensible creep who tosses off sexist and homophobic remarks and wings his passengers away from their destination, and is a character you love to hate. But screenwriter Jared Rosenberg puts him on mute about a third of the way through and that leaves us stranded with Madelyn (Dockery) and Winston (Grace), two one-dimensional bores. Gibson can be a very good director, but he won’t want to put “Flight Risk” high up in his flight log, even if it deploys his savage punches of jarring violence and pays homage to a Karen Black “Airport 1975” moment when Madelyn assumes the wide-eyed piloting duties. Despite debuting at No. 1 at the box office, “Flight Risk” lacks aspiration and chugs predictably along like a cut-rate actioner that would be better landing at home on a streamer. Details: 1½ stars; in theaters now.
“Paradise”: “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman wedges in a few signature elements that helped define his TV series (complex character development, developments guaranteed to make you blubber) but then force-fits all of that into an extra-daffy setup. It makes for a weird oil-vinegar mix; an awkward yet awkwardly entertaining eight-part Hulu time-waster. Fogelman’s premise strains credibility to an almost unbearable point as he travels along a potholed plot road with a lot of enthusiasm and a deficit of logic. A “surprise” reveal at the end of the first episode jumps the shark and then some.
What helps viewers dog paddle through “Paradise’s” choppy sea of implausibility is its incredible cast. “This Is Us” alum Sterling K. Brown reteams with Fogelman to play Xavier Collins, an unflappable Secret Service agent assigned to protect Kennedyesque president Cal Bradford (James Marsden, well cast and the breakout here) living in a white-picket-fenced world. (More on that in episode 2.)
When the prez winds up murdered in his bedroom, it’s up mostly to Xavier, a father of two, to snoop around for the guilty party. The suspects list runs long: Cal’s manipulative, controlling right-hand person (Julianne Nicholson) who has her own vision of the way a brave new world needs to be; another Secret Service agent (Jon Beavers) with a checkered past; a high-ranking psychologist (Sarah Shahi); even Xavier himself.
Twists and cliffhangers aplenty make the seven out of eight episodes I saw indeed watchable, with the story sallying back and forth in time and peppering in details about critical events. You can’t take any of this seriously and that’s what blunts “Paradise’s” dramatic force and somewhat wastes the terrific acting from Brown, Nicholson and Marsden. Too bad for them, and for us, the series’ main plot conceit is indeed a mirage, a fake-out trick that crumbles upon closer inspection and isn’t developed enough. It’s hard to get behind this show and equally difficult to get beyond it. Details: 2 stars; three episodes drop Jan. 28 with one following every week after that.
“Prime Target”: Leo Woodall continues to show his range, having jumped from a splashy breakthrough performance in Season 2 of “The White Lotus” to Netflix’s rom-com standalone “One Day” and onto this silly brain-twisting eight-part series from Apple TV. The British actor’s sophisticated turn as brainiac Cambridge University post-grad mathematician Edward Brooks is his finest performance yet, one that shakes up the material and makes it look better. Brooks is a complex guy, a numbers obsessed, socially awkward gay man. He’s clueless when it comes to people skills, which comes to the fore when a bartender, played by Fra Fee, expresses interest in him. But it is Brooks’ mind-blowing ability to find a pattern in numbers that attracts huge interest. It’s a find that could shatter the stability of the financial world. Because that knowledge could give absolute power, it curries the intense interest of an unwelcome batch of shadowy types, some involved with an archaeological discovery after an explosion in Baghdad and others from inside and outside the academic community. A hacker (Quintessa Swindell) observes Edward and soon realizes there’s more afoot and at stake here. Showrunner Steve Thompson’s compulsively watchable series alternates between the ludicrous and the smart. And even though it telegraphs its “surprises” way too often, it’s always entertaining — even as it gets tied up into plot knots by its end. As a bonus, Martha Plimpton co-stars and Stephen Rea appears in a smaller role. They get to chew a bit of the scenery, and it’s a welcome addition to this passable thriller that’s elevated by its lead star. Details: 2½ stars, three episodes available now with a new episode dropping every Wednesday through March 5.
“Santosh”: Shortlisted for best international feature, U.K.’s Oscar entry dismantles the criminal justice system and the insistent patriarchy that exists in India. Directed and written with fierceness by Sandhya Suri, “Santosh” is a tough film — particularly in its graphic, brutal third act — but its outrage gets justified by the story it tells. Suri centers the film on the recently widowed Santosh Saini (Shahana Goswami) who becomes a cop so she can make ends meet after the death of her officer husband (a law permits spouses to fill spots left vacant by the deceased). The 28-year-old runs into sexism from cops and the communities she visits, including a rural village where a female teen has gone missing. When a corpse is found, the investigation draws in Geeta Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), a weary and wary veteran on the force. It’s obvious that Geeta has endured a lot and knows all too well that the system is broken, and that gives the exchanges between Geeta and Santosh a hidden, deeper meaning and context that surfaces near the end. “Santosh,” which saw its release in India delayed by the country’s film censorship board, is undeniably powerful, but a scene of torture goes on too long and makes us look away, numbing the effect of a very good film, and preventing it from being an even better one. Details: 3½ stars, opens Jan. 31 at the Kabuki, S.F. and the Cine Lounge Fremont 7.
“Dark Match”: It’s an offer too good to be true. If a group of scrappy wrestlers agree to compete in a private match held in an isolated, massive house, a major payday awaits. The money’s too good to pass up but once Miss Behave (Ayisha Issa, who owns the screen) enters the bacchanalia-like lair she soon suspects that organizers have dubious reasons for getting them there. Director Lowell Dean’s ‘80s-era-set throwback never takes itself too seriously, except when it comes to those wild “kills” in the ring — which make it a gory delight. Bolstered by the presence of a legit pro-wrestling star with acting abilities — Chris Jericho — “Dark Match” is violent and funny and all but demands a sequel. Details: 3 stars; available Jan. 31 on Shudder!
“Into the Deep”: A passable, even good killer shark movie is somewhat of an endangered cinematic species. (Netflix’s “Under Paris” being that rare, notable exception.) But shark movies don’t get more atrocious than this ham-fisted, shot-on-the-cheap exercise with a cardboard plot to match its cardboard characters. Scattershot in every way — particularly those laughable shark attacks that use what looks like a weird splash of red marker to denote the frenzied bloodshed — director Christian Sesma’s listless disaster hinges on surly pirates demanding that a shark-traumatized scuba diver (Scout Taylor-Compton) and her chums dive down to retrieve illegal goodie bags at the bottom of the sea. Even worse are the serious-minded bits involving Richard Dreyfuss of “Jaws” who waxes and wanes about sharks and how man is jeopardizing these beasts of the sea. Not a bad message per se, but having Dreyfuss deliver a repetitive PSA about protecting these man-easters as the credits roll in a movie about sharks eating people is one of the most bizarre moments put up on screen. Details: 1 star; available On Demand now.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.