Review by Camden Ferrell

​Don Giovanni is one of the most famous operas ever written, and up until recently, the principal role has never been professionally performed by a transgender woman. This is where the story of James Kicklighter’s new documentary, The Sound of Identity, begins. Even though it’s an interesting subject, the movie doesn’t give adequate exploration to the themes and implications of its story.
 
Lucia Lucas is a renowned opera singer, and she is at a turning point in her career as she prepares to play the lead in Don Giovanni. Through her own testimony, we learn about the process of playing this character and learn insight into her transition and career. She’s an interesting subject that had a lot of promise for a compelling documentary.
 
From the start, the film seems to lack personality. It superficially captures the events depicted, and there isn’t much style in the way its filmed. This leads to many key scenes feeling dull and uninspired despite how interesting the subject is.
 
Lucas is very interesting, and she imparts some really great insight into her transition and her life. These moments with Lucas are where the film succeeds the most. She has a plethora of interesting experiences that serve as a good foundation for the film, but it unfortunately irresponsibly squanders this potential.

In addition to the historic occasion, the film does explore the state of the opera world and the significance of Don Giovanni. It’s interesting, but it distracts a lot from Lucas’ story that should have taken precedent. Regardless, it does also highlight some of the beauty found in the opera and its importance to the art world.
 
Watching the collaboration between Lucas and her mentor, Tobias Picker, is quite enjoyable and sweet. There’s a fair amount of screen time for this, but it’s an aspect that I wish was more developed as it was rather interesting.
 
Despite the film’s flaws, it’s an inspiring story of a fantastic opera singer. Lucas has a beautiful voice, and she breaks boundaries in the opera world with charm and grace. Her magnificent story is muddled in this documentary, and it isn’t given the exploration it warrants, but it’s still enjoyable throughout.
 
The Sound of Identity can suffer from a bland and safe execution, but it benefits from its captivating subject and historical significance. There are some touching moments and interesting testimonials, but it ultimately lacks a cinematic personality to match the personality of its subject.
 
The Sound of Identity is available on VOD June 1.
 
Rating: 3/5

Review by Dan Skip Allen

There have been a lot of football movies that have come down the pipe in the last fifty or so years. A lot of them have been pretty straightforward. They just put obstacles in the way of the players, coaches, and team in the film. Sometimes they are comedies such as The Replacements or The Waterboy, but mostly they are dramatic fare such as Friday Night Lights or Remember the Titans. Every once in a while, a Christian football movie gets released as well. Under the Stadium Lights is a mixed bag. It has a lot of dramatic moments, but mainly has a religious message to it.

The film focuses on the Abilene High School Eagles, a team that was considered the best in their division until they lost in the first round of the playoffs. They have to reevaluate who they are and what they're playing for. They have a mantra of "Who's your brother's keeper?" It's a creed that each one of these players has to embrace. It's not easy because most of these players have tough lives off of the field and away from school. As the creed suggests, though, they are not alone.

In sports films, the hook has to get the audience invested in the characters and story. The Christian angle can be that for sports films. They have an inspiring story using a religious message to move the film forward. Under the Stadium Lights is in the vein of other Christian films with its message, but it does things a little differently than normal. That's what sets it apart from all those other Christian sports films

The football in the film is never staged like a regular film. With the actors playing their roles as players, coaches, announcers, teachers, or parents, all the actual football scenes and games are taken from archival footage from games that were previously recorded during the season the film takes place in. That's very different than many other football films. Even though this film had a big-name star in Laurence Fishburne, it is pretty much stacked with relative nobodies except the coach, played by Glenn Morshower, a veteran character actor, and ex-NFL player and Hall of Famer Eddie George.

The budget couldn't be that big with not being able to film the football scenes or getting bigger named actors to play the characters in the film. It's a blessing because this allows for the filmmaker Todd Randall to focus more on the story and the message set out in the book Brother's Keeper by Al Pickett and Chad Mitchell. Milo Gibson plays Chad Gibson in the film and Abigail Hawk plays his wife. He is the main focus of the message that the film is trying to talk about.

The book Brother's Keeper is a nice thing to use for the script to tell this inspirational story. The lead Gibson's belief in faith, family, and football propelled this team, school, and town forward. The unique style of using archival footage to do the football scenes was ingenious. That helped focus more on the characters and their story. Todd Randall used every cent of the budget to his advantage.

Under the Stadium Lights hits theaters and VOD on June 4.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review by Sean Boelman

Stephen King has long stated that Lisey’s Story is one of his favorite novels that he has written, largely due to its personal nature, so it makes sense that he did the screen adaptation himself. However, despite the winning combination of King, director Pablo Larraín (Jackie), and actress Julianne Moore, this exhibits all of the author’s worst tendencies unrestrained.

The series follows the widow of a famous author who confronts the past of her marriage when she is targeted by a dangerous stalker obsessed with her husband’s work. On paper, it sounds like a relatively standard thriller, but in reality it’s biggest issue is that it is anything but, with too many tones and genres clashing with each other. 

King’s writing of this series is very all-over-the-place, and it seems like it’s the results of nobody telling him no. There is the core thriller storyline, but also portions that feel like melodrama, psychological horror, supernatural horror, and even fantasy drama. There are definitely some moments in which they come together nicely, but for the most part, it’s inconsistent and scattered.

The other issue with King’s scripting is that it is paced like a novel. There are a lot of flowery details that could have been omitted in bringing it to a serial format, shortening it from eight episodes into six (or perhaps even a single feature-length film). King ultimately gets too lost in weaving through these timelines and worlds for it to be super entertaining.

There is also a frustrating amount of ambiguity in the character development. Although the eponymous protagonist has a compelling arc, all of the supporting characters have questionable motivations and roles in the story. And since the mystery element of the story is the least compelling of them all, this lack of depth is just frustrating.

Julianne Moore is one of the few things that allows this series to function. While it isn’t among her best work, she still brings a lot of emotion to the role that will invest the character in the story. On the other hand, nearly everyone in the supporting cast, including Dane DeHaan, Clive Owen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Joan Allen, is over-the-top.

Larraín’s visual prowess also makes this series a lot more interesting than it would otherwise be. A lot of Larraín’s work in the past has stood out because of the way in which it adds a dash of color and surrealism to a realistic world, so it was certainly interesting to get the chance to see him work on something far less grounded from the start.

Lisey’s Story has a lot of great talent involved, and they manage to keep the series going at a passable rate. There is no denying that King is an amazing novelist, but it can be argued that his writing style when unchecked is more suited to the page than the screen.

Lisey’s Story streams on Apple TV+ beginning June 4, with new episodes released subsequent Fridays. All eight episodes reviewed.

​Rating: 3/5

Review by Sean Boelman

If there has ever been a film that is a victim of unfortunate timing more than anything else, it is HBO’s Oslo, which comes out as the Israel-Palestine conflict is escalating again. A solid acting showcase for its ensemble, but disappointingly toothless when it comes to its politics, this is a prestige project that will definitely fall flat.

Adapted by J.T. Rogers from his own stageplay, the movie follows the mediators who facilitated the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This is undeniably an important moment in history, but the way in which Rogers presents it — a blend of boardroom drama and melodrama — isn’t as riveting as it should be.

Rogers should be praised for the very extensive approach he takes to dramatizing these events, but it all becomes a bit overwhelming after lasting for nearly two hours. Rogers’s dialgoue is pretty sharp, but it’s also consistently very dense, occasionally to the point of making a viewer feel like they need an encyclopedia to understand the dynamics.

The message of the film seems to be one of peace and cooperation, coming together to compromise and find a solution that is mutually beneficial to both sides of a disagreement. However, the movie comes across as painfully centrist in execution, unwilling to take a stance on the mistakes made by either party.

And in trying to be as neutral as possible, Rogers tells the story from the perspective of two Norwegian diplomats. This adds a marriage subplot into the film that is entirely unnecessary and only bloats the runtime further, but more frustratingly, results in neither the Israeli nor Palestinian characters feeling fleshed out.

The two lead actors in the movie, Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott, both do a very solid job in their roles. Wilson, in particular, impresses as the impassioned but ethically staunch half of the duo, delivering her dialogue (which is among the best in the script) brilliantly. There are also some strong supporting players, but none has a substantial enough role to really stand out.

Director Bartlett Sher (who also directed the stage version) doesn’t do a whole lot to make this particularly cinematic, with a very stagey style. An emphasis is placed on the blocking and dialogue which are enough to keep the audience invested in a captive environment, but not so much if they are watching on a screen from home.

Oslo tells a really interesting story, but not always in the most interesting way. Even though the writing and performances are solid, a lack of energy in the direction will prevent it from connecting with viewers.

Oslo debuts on HBO on May 29 at 8pm ET/PT.

Rating: 3/5

Review by Sean Boelman

One would hope that society had progressed past the need for films that preach acceptance to cis straight (and usually white) men, but we still get a seemingly numerous amount year after year. Port Authority is yet another movie that means well, but ultimately serves an audience that already understands its message.

The film follows a 20-year-old from a small town in the Midwest who arrives in New York City and falls in love with a trans woman, opening his eyes to the LGBTQ community in a way that he had never known before. For a premise that had the potential to be really atrocious, writer-director Danielle Lessovitz handles it in a surprisingly tasteful way, even if it does pander a bit too often.

Lessovitz’s movie shows the most potential as an exploration of kiki ball culture, but more often than not, the scene serves as little more than a backdrop for the melodramatic plot. That said, there is other media which has explored the queer community more effectively than this in the past, making this an inessential addition to the canon of LGBTQ cinema.

Perhaps most frustrating is the fact that Lessovitz relies on the tired trope of a cis straight protagonist discovering themselves as a result of their interaction with a queer character. It’s the LGBTQ equivalent of the “Magical Negro” archetype, and it’s about time that we stop telling these stories through this lens.

Additionally, it’s frustrating that the trans character in the film has so little development. The dominant arc is the cis male protagonist’s, and even the romance is told from his perspective. As a result, anything that the movie has resembling authenticity goes out the window in favor of a contrived love story.

Fionn Whitehead tries his best to give a solid performance, but likely due to issues with the script and character, he too often feels like he is whining. On the other hand, trans actress Leyna Bloom gives an exceptional turn, nearly stealing the show from her male co-star even though she is held back by the writing.

The film is also very strong in a technical sense, implying that Lessovitz is much stronger as a writer than a director. The ballroom scenes, while not as bountiful in number as one would hope, are an absolute highlight, giving the movie a much-needed dose of added energy that helps it stand out despite the cheesiness.

Port Authority is a well-shot but unimpressively-written drama with a very basic approach to its themes. It definitely could have been a lot worse than it is, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are better films that do the same thing.

Port Authority is now in theaters and hits VOD on June 1.

​Rating: 3/5