3 movies you should check out in April
A story about a boy and his horse and an innovative horror film are two of the movies that wowed Monitor film critic Peter Rainer during April.
鈥楢 Quiet Place鈥� is about a good deal more than scaring us
At a brisk 90 minutes, "A Quiet Place" is one of the most inventive and beautifully crafted and acted horror movies I鈥檝e seen in a very long time, and I think the main reason for its power is the family crisis at its core. John Krasinski, who costars, directed, and co-wrote the script, understands something crucial that is lost on far too many horrormeisters: The more we care about the people in a scare picture, the scarier and more emotionally imposing it becomes.聽
The film鈥檚 setting is an apocalyptic near-future where the planet鈥檚 population has been decimated by ravenous crustacean-looking aliens who possess supersensitive hearing. Lee and Evelyn Abbott (Krasinski and Emily Blunt) and their two young children, Marcus (Noah Jupe) and Regan (Millicent Simmonds), have enclosed themselves in their isolated upstate New York homestead.聽
I would admire 鈥淎 Quiet Place鈥� even if it were just a terrific scarefest. But what makes it a classic is that, like 鈥淕et Out,鈥� a body-snatching movie about racism, or 鈥淭he Babadook,鈥� a supernatural horror film about childhood fears, it also works so well on so many other levels. It transcends its genre even as it fulfills it. Grade: A- (Rated PG-13 for terror and some bloody images.)
鈥業n the Intense Now鈥� is document of incendiary time聽
Brazilian writer-director Jo茫o Moreira Salles聽intercuts his mother鈥檚 movies of a 1966 group tour in China during the inception of the most radical phase of the Cultural Revolution聽with archival footage from three other radical movements, all from 1968: The May uprisings in France; the brutal ending of the Prague Spring; and the brief rebellion in Brazil against the reigning military dictatorship.聽
It takes a while to get into the ruminative rhythm of this film. But it鈥檚 worth it.聽Salles is interested not only in the brief efflorescence of radicalism and rebellion in those years. He鈥檚 also caught up by what came after: the sense of loss that results from hopes shattered.聽
It鈥檚 difficult to get all misty-eyed about students whose shining hour was lit, however blindly, by the depredations of Maoist and Soviet Communism. It鈥檚 more than a bit confusing that Salles doesn鈥檛 more acutely recognize the error of his ways in showcasing the parallel insurrections of France and Czechoslovakia as if they were on the same human rights plane.
In the end, the political confusions of Salles鈥檚 movie, which seem all of a piece with the political confusions of that era, sit small beside its achievement as a document of an incendiary time when hope, along with the stench of tear gas and gunfire, was in the air.聽Grade: B+
'Lean on Pete' is a tale of a boy and his horse
Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) has recently relocated with his itinerant single father, Ray (Travis Fimmel), to Portland, Ore. and begins to frequent the local quarter horse track. A scruffy trainer and owner, Del Montgomery (Steve Buscemi), gives the boy part-time work, and pretty soon Charley has bonded with Lean on Pete, a 5-year-old quarter horse.
When a violent turn of events renders Charley essentially homeless, he attempts to rescue both Pete and himself by taking to the road.聽
Writer-director Andrew Haigh is British, and his outsider鈥檚 eye probably accounts in part for the film鈥檚 lyrically askew vision of working-class fringes 鈥� the trailer homes, run-down fairgrounds, and homeless encampments.聽Plummer impresses here. Buscemi鈥檚 performance is likewise marvelous.聽
Haigh鈥檚 films sometimes drift off into a desultory nothingness, but he has a real feeling for people 鈥� not to mention horses. At his best, he can strike more emotional notes from silence than most directors can with a full chorus of sound.聽Grade: B+ (Rated R for language and brief violence.)
