“The Smashing Machine”

(Sports/Drama: 2 hours, 03 minutes)

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Ryan Bader

Director: Benny Safdie

Rated: R (Strong language, violence and drug use)

Movie Review:

“The Smashing Machine” features Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. The two previously worked together in “Jungle Cruise” (2021). Despite their performances show them giving their best, the narrative in which they exist is too repetitive.

A documentary titled “The Smashing Machine” (John Hyams) debuted in 2002. It detailed mixed-martial arts and UFC champion Mark Kerr and his incredible abundance of wins in the ring. Now, this movie focuses on Kerr’s life from 1997–2000, just after his successive winning streak comes to an end.

Kerr (Johnson) is accustomed to swift victories, but he becomes depressed after losing a match. His life becomes a downward spiral, leading to drug abuse. His only refuge is the love he has for Dawn Staples (Blunt) and his devoted friendship with fellow fighter Mark Coleman (former mixed martial artist, now commentator Ryan Bader).

At its best, “The Smashing Machine” shows that Mark Kerr was fighting in the ring and at home. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is playing a fighter, something not dissimilar from his WWE days as a pro wrestler. So the athleticism and nature of this role is something he’s familiar with, yet he still provides a relatively good performance. Emily Blunt plays his lover. She is talented and always on point, but her role appears slim here in many ways.

“The Smashing Machine” appears to be a product of the 1990s from a cinematography perspective. From there, it becomes something more modern for a biographical movie. It hits the highs and lows of person’s life in a tabloid form, meaning moments feel redundant at several points. The characters do the same actions too much. We see Mark Kerr fighting in the ring — quick bouts. Then, moviegoers see his arguments with his lover. The two of them are in a dysfunctional relationship. These two parts of the movie repeat far too often.

“The Smashing Machine” appears to be a product of the 1990s from a cinematography perspective. From there, it becomes something more modern for a biographical movie for nearly three-fourths of the runtime. It becomes a man’s quest to achieve despite obstacles, a triumphant sports underdog overcoming, but the latter 30 minutes becomes something more original.

Director-writer Benny Safdie (Adam Sandler movie “Uncut Gems,” 2019) pivots away from a typical biopic ending. He gives audiences a comeback story before taking it away and providing something more inquisitive to consider, while observing the real-life Mark Kerr living an everyman’s life.

Grade: B- (This smashes expectations.)

“Good Boy”

(Horror/Thriller: 1 hour, 13 minutes)

Starring: Indy, Shane Jensen and Arielle Friedman

Director: Ben Leonberg

Rated: PG-13 (Terror, bloody images and strong language.)

Movie Review:

“Good Boy” is a horror movie, where the leading character is a dog named Indy, a pet of director Ben Leonberg, who co-wrote this intriguing horror with Alex Cannon. This entire movie is told from Indy’s perspective. It is very good filmmaking, a throwback to classic horror with an original touch, its perspective from a canine’s viewpoint.

Indy moves with his owner Todd (Jensen) to the family’s rural home after the patriarch of the family dies. The place is rundown, and Todd in the process of renovating the abode. However, Todd is also sick, and when darkness comes at night, Indy bravely protects his master from a sinister presence.

Yes, a canine is the leading character and is more moving than many human counterparts in other horror-themed flicks. This is not new. “Strays” (2023) and “Dog” (2022) are also recent movies where canines are a central character. However, what is new is the fact that a dog takes the primary lead and all humans are secondary performers. Even more, “Good Boy” is a horror movie that is better than most in the genre.

Indy actually belongs to the director, Ben Leonberg in his directorial debut for a feature film. After “Good Boy” concludes, Leonberg details in a behind-the-scenes segment that he and his team filmed more than 400 days over three years. That time was worth it, and this movie is worth it for audiences. Indy is adorable and is the focus of this narrative. Humans are always obscured behind hunting masks, silhouetted, blurred, hidden in shadows, cropped from neck up or are barely reflected in mirrors or other objects. This creates some vagueness at moments, but audiences should keep in mind that events are from Indy’s perspective.

The result is something that has been missing from movies, especially horror movies for a long time. Leonberg and team share the art of taking one’s time to make a film an enjoyable art.

Grade: B+ (Good Movie.)

“Bone Lake”

(Thriller: 1 hour, 35 minutes)

Starring: Alex Roe, Maddie Hasson, Marco Pigossi and Andra Nechita

Director: Mercedes Bryce Morgan

Rated: R (Strong bloody violence, grisly images, sexual content, graphic nudity, strong language and drug use.)

Movie Review:

“Bone Lake” has an enticing start at least after the first five minutes. This is when William (Roe) and Cinnamon (Nechita), ‘Cin’ for short, arrive. They are a young, beautiful couple with model waistlines in abdominal muscles. They arrive at this very nice mansion, only to find Sage (Hasson) and Diego (Pigossi) already there, preparing for a few very romantic days.

The two couples decide to remain in the very spacious mansion at the same time. The mishap is an apparent mix-up by the owners who rent out the place for vacationers. Soon, lies, sex and videotape emerge and Sage and Diego find their relationship is tethering. Even more, the couples began to have their own little riffs with each other.

“Bone Lake” is a horror movie on the surface. It is advertised that way in all its trailers. This is a thriller with surprises.

That fact does not take away the entertainment value of “Bone Lake.” It is a seductive mix between a sensational soap opera episode and what seems like a romantic reality show for a moment. The problem is the writers were boneheads. They do not make the apex’s twist a more superior moment. Instead, the moment feels shallow, so audiences are left with a very violent slasher horror — albeit gratifying ­— for the last few scenes.

Grade: B- (Lake is nice for sailing, but it has some calcium buildup.)

After a quarter century as a working actor, it’s hardly surprising that Bradley Cooper would be drawn for subject matter to the cathartic nature of performing and its effect on relationships. What’s less expected is that all three of his highly accomplished films as director have used that spark in such different ways. A Star Is Born explored the arc of a couple respectively experiencing the glow of the spotlight and the chill as it dims, while Maestro weighed the creative genius of an impassioned artist against the limited oxygen left for a uniquely complex love story.

In Cooper’s tenderly observed third feature, Is This Thing On?, performance is a rebound reflex, a therapeutic means of working through the end of a marriage and stumbling onto the self-discovery necessary to process what went wrong — inadvertently realizing that the foundations on which it was built remain intact. It’s an unassuming comic drama that sneaks up on you, its emotional honesty fueled by gorgeous performances of unimpeachable naturalness from Will Arnett and Laura Dern.

Inspired by British footballer-turned-comedian John Bishop’s personal story and written by Cooper and Arnett with Mark Chappell, the movie drops the bombshell of marital breakdown with a disarming absence of melodrama. “I think we need to call it, right?” says Dern’s Tess Novak, while cleaning her teeth before bed. “I think so too,” concurs Arnett’s Alex. Refreshingly, it’s a mutual decision that appears not to be pickled in bitterness but grounded in maturity and mutual respect.

Peeling away any superfluous connective tissue along with the preamble, the script picks up on Alex and Tess having an amicable get-together with their friends in Manhattan — long-married couple Christine (Andra Day) and Balls (Cooper), soon to be empty nesters, and gay newlyweds Stephen (Sean Hayes) and Geoffrey (Hayes’ real-life husband Scott Icenogle).

Only later when they sit on a Grand Central platform sharing a hash cookie and Alex absent-mindedly gets up to board the Metro-North train with Tess does it become clear that the couple is already living apart.

Slightly stoned and clearly in no rush to go home alone, Alex wanders into the Olive Tree Café in the West Village. To avoid paying the $15 cover charge, he puts his name down on the sign-up sheet for open mic night at the Comedy Cellar downstairs. After an uncertain start, he begins riffing with candor and self-deprecation about his divorce after 26 years with his ex, revealing that he’s living alone in a city apartment. Seemingly to his own surprise as much as anyone’s, his impromptu material gets laughs.

Skipping over the usual “breaking-the-news” scenes regarding Tess and Alex’s separation, the film focuses more on their adjustment and that of the people closest to them. The chief moments of revelation are those pertaining to Alex’s burgeoning stand-up career as he gains confidence and begins to feel a camaraderie with fellow performers — many of them played by New York comedy scene fixtures, adding immeasurably to the film’s fond sense of place.

The most poignant moment takes place in Alex’s car as he’s driving his 10-year-old sons (Blake Kane and Calvin Knegton) — not twins, but “Irish twins,” as he describes them on stage — back home after an overnight stay at his apartment. Disconcerted to find themselves and their mother serving as joke material in the notebook they discover beside their dad’s bed, the boys are confused, one of them particularly upset.

It’s a forgivable movie-ish contrivance to have Tess on a quasi-date (with Peyton Manning in an amusing appearance) wander into the Comedy Cellar by chance and catch Alex’s act, just as he’s sharing the unaccustomed sensations of sex with another woman for the first time in decades. He also confesses that it made him miss his ex-wife more, wondering what that’s about.

Arnett and Dern so fully inhabit their characters that nothing about that awkward encounter feels false. Instead, it uncovers mutual affection and attraction that have been dormant rather than dead, in a funny, sexy, kinda sorta reunion. There’s no swift solution to Tess and Alex’s problems as a couple, but there is a new willingness to talk about their frustrations.

Just as Alex finds a contentment that he’s been missing through stand-up, Tess returns to volleyball, a sport at which she excelled in her younger years, finding gratifying opportunities as a professional coach. While Alex’s stand-up evolution is the hook, the heart of the movie is their marriage. It’s to the filmmakers’ credit that rather than one man’s reawakening, it becomes a re-evaluation for both partners of the value and meaning of loving commitment.

The shifts in the central couple’s relationship are also echoed in different ways by the other couples around them. That includes Alex’s parents — his father Jan (Ciarán Hinds), a warm, sensitive soul with empathetic access to his son’s feelings; and the hilariously plain-spoken Marilyn (Christine Ebersole), who makes no apologies for the close friendship with Tess that she has no intention of severing.

Family scenes with the boys and their two big adorably lollopy dogs at home or at their grandparents’ place are so lived-in and natural — the defining strength of Cooper’s work with his entire cast — that we feel the pangs Alex feels in stepping away from that life.

The other chief marital comparison point is Christine and Balls, notably during an annual group weekend with Stephen and Geoffrey in a sprawling house in Oyster Bay, Long Island, where Alex and Tess sneak around to conceal the fact that they are, if not definitively back together, at least having sex. (A lovely interlude as the various guests wander down to breakfast while Christine gently sings “Amazing Grace” seems a direct nod to The Big Chill.)

In amusing intersecting scenes, Balls tells Alex that seeing him so happy has inspired him to ask Christine for a divorce. Christine, who has always been closer to Tess and a little prickly around Alex, tells him that watching him stagnate and lose his spark has confirmed her belief that marriage just doesn’t work.

This is a superb ensemble piece with a wonderfully loose, almost improv vibe and an emotional trajectory that rarely goes exactly where you might expect. Cooper’s grasp of the material is unerring, imbuing it with a sweetness that’s never cloying, a generosity of spirit that’s never unearned. And the film’s intimacy throughout is amplified in the frequent tight close-ups of cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s expressive visual language.

The movie gives the distinct sense of a quick, unfussy shoot with an easygoing sense of community — on the set, in the stand-up milieu and among Tess and Alex’s friends and family. Everything flows; nothing feels forced.

Cooper gets considerable humorous mileage out of his goofy stoner role, starting with a guffaw-inducing pratfall entrance involving an exploding carton of oat milk. But there’s no scene-stealing, just harmoniously synced ensemble work that makes us invested in all the connections orbiting around Alex and Tess, roles in which Arnett and Dern could not be better. Arnett’s comic timing is a given, but the actor finds previously unseen depths in the ache roiling underneath.

A scene in the Oyster Bay attic bedroom when Alex suggests a therapy exercise in which they confess the things they dislike about each other is both needling and perceptive in its insights into the give and take, the corrosive compromises, the pettiness that flares into resentment that can come to define a long-term relationship. But the script never gives up on Alex and Tess, and neither do we.

Without spoiling the outcome too much, it’s fair to say that although there are thematic overlaps here with Noah Baumbach’s exquisite Marriage Story, the tone and ultimate outlook are entirely different. It’s unlikely that any movie will ever use “Under Pressure,” the hit by Queen and David Bowie, with anything close to the searing emotional power of the Aftersun climax. But a performance of the song by the school band in which Tess and Alex’s boys play brings its own kind of joyous release to cap this soulful, satisfying movie.

Remember when snack choices fueled the most contentious debates around Super Bowl halftime? Cheetos versus Doritos. Hot wings versus garlic knots. And who the hell brought carrot sticks?!

Now Turning Point USA, the far-right organization founded by slain MAGA activist Charlie Kirk, has presented its followers with more tough choices: Who should play at Super Bowl LX’s halftime show?

Never mind that the NFL already announced earlier this month that Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny had landed the spot. Turning Point USA announced Thursday that it would be staging its own counterprogramming in protest of the league’s choice. It’ll be called “The All American Halftime Show” — and it most certainly won’t be in Spanish.

Ever since the NFL announced that Bad Bunny (whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio) would play the Big Game on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, critics have been decrying the decision as an assault on Americanism.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said booking Bad Bunny was “a terrible decision.”

President Trump, who admitted he’d never heard of Bad Bunny before the late September Super Bowl announcement, said the NFL’s booking of the performer was “absolutely ridiculous.”

White House advisor Corey Lewandowski said it was “shameful they’ve decided to pick somebody who seems to hate America so much.”

Yet in comparison with other artists and celebrities who’ve widely criticized the president and his policies, Bad Bunny is not all that political or outspoken. He has, however, expressed concerns about the potential of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detaining fans at his concerts. The artist said last month that he would not book any U.S. dates for his tour over fears that fans would be swept up by ICE. “There was the issue of — like, f— ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” he told i-D magazine.

That was enough to deem Bad Bunny an enemy of the MAGA state and to characterize his Super Bowl show as part of a larger, hostile Latino invasion.

But let’s call it what it is: politicians and their pundits leveraging Hispanophobia for votes, influence and donations. The performer represents a population that’s been targeted by the current administration via unconstitutional sweeps of brown people in American cities, regardless of their immigration status. Bad Bunny is a U.S. citizen, like many of the folks with no criminal records who’ve been detained and even deported. Vilifying the artist and those who look and speak like him has generated votes for the right and deflected from concerns about the fragile economy and skyrocketing cost of living under Trump.

Turning Point advertises its planned counterprogramming as a show “Celebrating Faith, Family, & Freedom” and asking followers to weigh in on music genres they would like to hear at the alternative halftime show. The first option on the ballot? “Anything in English.”

The survey is situated right under a donate button, and another option to click “yes” to approve receiving “recurring automated promotional & fundraising texts from Turning Point.”

Despite the fact that the 79-year-old president had never heard of the wildly popular artist before, Bad Bunny is a three-time Grammy Award winner, a global superstar and has bested Taylor Swift’s Billboard chart numbers in the U.S.

So who does MAGA think it can get to upstage Bad Bunny at its unofficial Super Bowl side show? House Speaker Johnson suggested that “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood would attract a “broader audience.” But as Variety pointed out, the 1980s country icon boasts fewer than 500,000 Spotify listeners, compared with Bad Bunny’s 80 million.

Turning Point USA appears to be working on that problem. “Performers and event details coming soon,” said a statement on its site.

During his “Saturday Night Live” guest appearance last weekend, Bad Bunny derided the MAGA freakout around his forthcoming Super Bowl show, delivering his monologue in Spanish. He earnestly thanked his fans for acknowledging the contributions of Latinos in the U.S. Then in closing, he switched to English: “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.”

No word yet if chips, salsa and guacamole will become the next target of performative, fundraising outrage on the right. Make Pretzels Great Again.