Review by Sean Boelman

After his unfairly maligned (and actually quite fun) debut Terminal, director Vaughn Stein’s newest film Inheritance largely lacks the inspiration that put him on the map (for better or worse). Unfortunately, the script by first-timer Matthew Kennedy is so bland that it is hard to enjoy its occasionally strong elements.

The movie follows an up-and-coming district attorney whose father dies unexpectedly, leaving her an unexpected and shocking inheritance that threatens to undermine the power and wealth of the family. It’s an intriguing premise that isn’t fully taken advantage of, with twists and turns that are frustratingly predictable.

A big part of the issue here is that the film is simply too long. At over an hour and fifty minutes in length, the movie truly struggles to keep the audience’s attention for the entirety of its runtime. The middle section is particularly slow, composed of conversations between the two characters with some flashbacks, many of which could have been cut out.

That said, perhaps more damning is that the film is almost entirely exposition. It’s a giant info dump that leaves little to the viewer to discern, force-feeding them anything of depth that the movie has in regards to its themes. A bit of subtlety could have elevated this film above the plethora of other thrillers with similar premises.

The character development is also very lackluster. There are two lead characters, and neither of them has a particularly compelling arc. The protagonist’s arc is supposed to lean into the moral ambiguity of the situation, but instead, it plays off as indecisiveness. The co-lead is very generic and archetypal.

Lily Collins isn’t particularly impressive in the lead role. Sadly, she simply isn’t believable as the character. For the most part, her role is lacking in emotion, but when she does go for it, it is very over-the-top. Simon Pegg gives a performance that is at least moderately entertaining, although it’s not particularly fitting given the otherwise serious nature of the movie.

The film falls flat on a technical level too. It’s certainly disappointing that, given the highly stylish thriller that his debut was, Stein didn’t do more to give this one a bit of flair. Even the portions of the movie that are set in a confined location don’t work well at all, lacking a sense of visual geography.

Inheritance is a very disappointing and ultimately quite boring thriller. There are a few solid moments throughout, and Simon Pegg gives it his all, but those aren’t enough to make this dull script worth your time.

Inheritance hits VOD on May 22.

Rating: 2/5

Review by Sean Boelman

The fourth (and supposedly final) entry into Michael Winterbottom’s travelogue series starring British comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, The Trip to Greece may be the best one. Letting the food take a backseat to the character development and hilarious interactions, this film proves that Winterbottom, Coogan, and Brydon are still some of the most able comedians working today.

For those who are familiar with the series, the premise of this film will be no surprise. Comedians and friends Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon take a culinary tour of Greece, along the way having several conversations that are either insightful or comedic, and sometimes both. It’s a simple set-up, but even though there have been four of these, the premise has not worn itself thin.

As always, the humor of the film banks on the chemistry between Coogan and Brydon, and their individual talents. Both are finally becoming more known to American audiences than they were when the first film was released a decade ago, but here, they aren’t relying on their usual tricks. There’s even a joke in the film about one of them falling back on their safe character when they can’t think of anything else in the moment.

The ideas of fame and mortality have always been at the center of these films, but these topics are even more prevalent now. A significant portion of the film addresses Coogan’s acclaimed performance as Stan Laurel in the biopic Stan & Ollie, which the fictionalized version of himself believes to have elevated him to “actor” status over comedian (as if Philomena hadn’t already done that).

But what is so endearing here is the level of emotion that Coogan is able to shine through. Beneath the cocky facade and bits, it’s clear that the character — and perhaps the actor himself — fears that he has peaked. The previous two films have talked about how Coogan wanted to recapture the glory of Philomena, and now that he’s gotten that chance, he worries that he might not be able to hold onto it. 

On the other hand, Brydon’s emotional arc was pretty well wrapped-up in the other three films. Here, he exists mostly as a second half to bounce lines off of Coogan and as a comedic performer. And he’s as funny as ever here, whether he’s trying to out-compete Coogan in impressions, or simply singing “Grease” in Greece, capturing the irony of the moment.

With the lessened focus on food here, the cinematography isn’t as spectacular as usual, but the food shots (when there) are gorgeous, as are some of the shots of the scenery. This airs in the U.K. as a miniseries, so it’s likely that some of this content was cut from the feature film version in favor of the deeper character-driven material.

The Trip to Greece delivers exactly what fans of the series are hoping for in droves. While it is sad that we likely won’t get to see Coogan and Brydon sampling flavors of a country again, Winterbottom completed his story with the most poignant chapter yet.

The Trip to Greece hits VOD on May 22.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review by Sean Boelman

Benjamin Ree’s new film The Painter and the Thief documents what is one of the most bizarre and intriguing true stories to grace the screen in quite a while. Thanks to its stranger-than-fiction narrative and some absolutely gorgeous visuals, this is a captivating documentary that demands to be seen.

The movie follows an artist whose valuable paintings are stolen from her as she forms an unlikely friendship with the thief who took them, allowing them both to gain new insight about the world. It sounds like something like this could never happen in real life, and yet it did, and the result is a fascinating work of nonfiction that challenges.

As one would expect, the film is about second chances and how people can redeem themselves for mistakes they have made in the past. There’s not a whole lot of subtlety in the messaging, but the conversations that the two subjects have about morality and their past bad decisions are plenty thought-provoking for the movie to be effective.

The relationship that forms between the two subjects is obviously very unorthodox, and the portion of the film that is spent exploring their friendship is pretty brilliant. When the two are allowed to share the screen, audiences’ attention will undeniably be locked on the movie as they wait to see how things will play out.

Unfortunately (due to no fault of the filmmaker), the story goes off the rails in the second half when one of the subjects experiences a life-changing accident. However, Ree could have utilized this change in a way as to reinforce his themes about rebirth, and this is largely left underdeveloped.

Visually, the film is just as beautiful as one would expect from a movie that features a painter as its main subject. The work of artist Barbora Kysilkova is featured prominently throughout the film, and Ree uses her style as a frame of reference for the very brutal and realistic way in which he shoots the documentary.

Ree doesn’t insert himself into the narrative, instead allowing Kysilkova to be the star of the movie and driving the story along. Rather than interviewing them, Ree allows Kysilkova and Karl Bertil-Nordland to have conversations of their own, capturing them in a fly-on-the-wall fashion, lending the film a very naturalistic feel. 

The Painter and the Thief is a truly unique and amazing documentary. Although it may not sound like the most cinematic story on paper, it is one of the most unexpectedly compelling things to come out in a while.

The Painter and the Thief hits Hulu, VOD, and virtual cinemas on May 22.

​Rating: 4.5/5

Review by Sean Boelman

The newest film from British director Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), Military Wives is a new semi-musical melodrama. And while it may not subvert any expectations, it’s a sweet and uplifting movie that is unlikely to leave any but the coldest hearts unmoved, and may even leave some viewers without a dry eye.

Inspired by the phenomenon of military wives’ choirs that sprung up on military bases across the world, the film follows a group of women who get together to form a singing group in an attempt to take their minds off of the danger their husbands are facing. It’s an interesting story with implications larger than what it lets on, even if they aren’t fully explored.

One of the most frustrating things in the movie is that it doesn’t address the giant elephant in the room: the war. Although a few clever lines speak to the issue (one of the wives talks about not having married into the war), this topic is largely left alone. While the film works fine as a cutesy tale of the homefront, one can’t help but feel like it could have been more.

The two lead characters are both very compelling, but unfortunately, there is a lack of interesting supporting players. Only one of the other wives is given a compelling arc, and much of the emotion that viewers will feel towards her arc is earned through tear-jerking. It would have been nice had the script by Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard spent more time developing the dynamic between the wives.

The actors all do a very solid job in their roles. Kirstin Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan play the two leads, and they have an interesting dichotomy between them. Thomas works well as the emotional center of the movie with Horgan as the more lighthearted relief, allowing the film as a whole to have a rather nice feel to it.

At a bit under two hours in length, the film does run a bit long, but that is because it takes a while for them to get to the point of actually forming the wives’ choir. Once the choir is formed, it becomes an entertaining, if predictable underdog story that breezes by relatively quickly. There’s just some excessive exposition tacked onto the beginning.

The performances themselves are certainly uneven, and even though this fits the story of the movie, it can be very frustrating. For a majority of the first half of the film, the songs are mediocre covers sung poorly, but once the group finds their groove, it becomes legitimately pleasant. The original song, “Home Thoughts From Abroad”, may even be deserving of awards recognition when all is said and done.

Military Wives may not be a great movie, but it’s entertaining and heartwarming enough to be worth a watch. Some may think it’s sentimental drabble, yet there is an undeniable and infectious charm about it that will earn it a lot of love.

Military Wives hits Hulu, VOD, and virtual cinemas on May 22.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review by Sarah Williams

Perhaps the biggest sell of The Wolf House is its radically unhinged animation. It jumps between 2D, 3D, stop-motion, and anything in between as it scraps to follow its story. Rather than feeling messy and tacked together, the end result is a memory book of fairytale horror and reality. It works because the 2D interacts with the 3D, styles melding on screen at the same time to an effect of collaboration of multiple artists coming together to tell a story like it's being retold around a campfire by a group that knows it well.
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There is no respite from the horror of this nation, this trapped place in which there has never been a way to flee, and it's a cold reflection of reality. It is the story of a young girl, from Chile's Colonia Dignidad, a German madman, a child predator fanatical with misplaced religious devotion. He has turned this land into a military dictatorship in service of Augusto Pinochet, and she is in danger after coming into trouble for losing three pigs. This last part sounds like the setup to a children's story, some fairytale book read before bedtime. And maybe it does seem to be so from here, as we have three pigs, and we have a house — the wolf house in the woods that our young heroine shelters in, but the broken fairytales of reality are far darker than anything in fiction.

The text grows richer knowing the history of Chile and the events that may parallel the story, but much of that imbued history lesson can be learned from watching it all play out. Would the film play better with the context? Yes, but the learning experience, even though shallower, still plays well for an audience not raised with this knowledge. It's colonial trauma projected onto the life of one young girl, and her youth is only clearer when her story is told through a classic children's tale, and we see the contrast between the typical sheltered childhood, and the fear in her life. The stop motion models are painted, cracking and messy, like a child's experiment come to life. The cobbled together style is eerie, with animation so focused on perfection it's unsettling to see the cracks in these models.

It's not the only recent animated film to tackle raw societal struggles through stop-motion in a powerful manner. Emma De Swaef's This Magnificent Cake! is a soft felt recreation of the horrors of Belgium's imperialist acts. It covers the pain of colonialism in this soft fabric so it's more easily digestible before the subject matter is broken down, while The Wolf House bares the messy underbelly of power struggle early on. This melding of animation is often dark and clashing, the power dynamic clear even within the medium. An exploration of trauma through the myths of childhood, perhaps The Wolf House makes the much needed statement that America has fallen behind on that animation is a medium, not a genre, and the surreality of the tools used to make a film do not have to make it any less raw.

The Wolf House is now streaming in partnership with indie theaters. A list of participating locations can be found here.

Rating: 4/5