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Sean Means Movie Reviews for April 19th, 2024 – X96

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Sean Means Movie Reviews for April 19th, 2024 – X96



Opening April 19, 2024

Artsies:

• “The Beast” • Time-hopping French/English romance • Broadway • 3 1/2 stars

A movie set 20 years in the future where human emotion is seen as dangerous and AI controls everything.

Director: Bertrand Bonello

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Stars: Lea Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda

 

What I saw:

• “Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver” • Zach Snyder not-“Star Wars” • Netflix • 1 1/2 stars

Warrior Kora and other warriors have to fight to live in their new home Veldt against the Realm.

Director: Zack Snyder

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Stars: Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Anthony Hopkins

 

• “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” • WWII spy action movie • theaters • 2 1/2 stars

In World War II, a group of trained and accomplished soldiers are hired by the British government to take down forces of Germany from behind the enemy lines.

Director: Guy Ritchie

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Stars: Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer

 

 • “Abigail” • tiny vampire vs. criminals • theaters • 3 stars

The daughter of a powerful figure is kidnapped by a group of criminals and brought to a vacant mansion. Little do they know that she isn’t like any little girl they’ve seen before.

Director: Matt Bettinelli Olpin, Tyler Gillett

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Stars: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir

 

———

Next week:

 • Challengers

 • Unsung Hero

 • Boy Kills World




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Movie Reviews

The Idea of You Movie Review: Anne Hathaway’s honest performance makes the film stand out in a not so formulaic rom-com

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The Idea of You Movie Review: Anne Hathaway’s honest performance makes the film stand out in a not so formulaic rom-com

Anne Hathaway’s The Idea of You showing on Amazon Prime Video is pure fluff which will make you feel happy. And with so much happening around us, we really need movies like this.
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No it is not a regular fan fiction. In fact, it is not a fan fiction at all. For me, it is why sadistic people around us hate happy women. When you hit rock bottom emotionally, you will find people loving you and caring for you. But when you are happy and at the high in your life, then people start having problems.

Anne Hathaway’s
The Idea of You
teaches you when you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go, but up. That’s exactly what happened to Solène (Anne Hathaway), a recently divorced woman just about to hit 40. She unknowingly lands up in a relationship with a British boy band sensation Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine).

Solène is in a dilemma because Campbell is way younger to her and on top of that he is the heart throb of many young girls. And he is hugely rich and famous too. It is just that Solène (Anne Hathaway) didn’t know who he was. Solène is a stylish woman who was initially unimpressed by his celebrity status. The Idea of You is a fresh take on the popular rom-com-drama formula

Anne Hathaway’s The Idea of You

The initial part of the film deals with how she has still not come to terms with her sudden divorce and how she was the last one to know that her husband was cheating with her. She got married young and had a baby was very early on life and while she was struggling with motherhood and setting up her art gallery, the husband was having an affair with a lawyer from his firm. The wound of her husband cheating on her is still raw and she is still dealing with it. Burdened with responsibilities of motherhood and loneliness, she really doesn’t know what she wants from life.

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Even when Solène (Anne Hathaway) meets Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) she is totally confused. Campbell is in his twenties and madly in love with her. She feels that the relationship with a young man just doesn’t fit in her life and on top of that she has got a young girl. But she can’t stop herself from meeting him and being loved by him. Yet at the back of her mind there is always that feeling of guilt and things get worse when the intimate images of her and Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) got leaked on the internet. She gets slut-shamed by Campbell’s fans.

The Idea of You is a feel good film and most importantly it is always refreshing to see good looking actors on screen. And with Anne Hathaway flashing her million-dollar dolphin smile every now and then, you definitely can’t take your eyes off her. The place where both Solène (Anne Hathaway) and Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) are in an intense kissing scene and she, a single mother of a teenage daughter, stops herself from getting more intimate by saying, “I could be your mother.” And to this Hayes quickly says, “But you are not.” So, that’s the whole dilemma of Solène.

There is something very pure and beautiful in the way the love between the two are shown. Never for once, will you feel the relationship to be dirty. The simple love and attraction between the two is shown in such a beautiful way makes it a great weekend watch. The music, the styling, and the outfits are great. The story is simple and pure fluff, so just enjoy it!

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: In ‘The Idea of You,’ a boy band is center stage but Anne Hathaway steals the show

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Movie Review: In ‘The Idea of You,’ a boy band is center stage but Anne Hathaway steals the show

In the warmly charming rom-com “The Idea of You,” Anne Hathaway plays a 40-year-old divorcee and Silver Lake art gallery owner who, after taking her teenage daughter to Coachella, becomes romantically involved with a 24-year-old heartthrob in the boy band August Moon. They first meet after she mistakes his trailer for the bathroom.

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There are a few hundred things about this premise that might be farfetched, including the odds of finding love anywhere near the porta johns of a music festival. But one of them is not that a young star like Hayes Campbell would fall for a single mom like Solène .

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Solène is stylish, unimpressed by Hayes’ celebrity and has bangs so perfect they look genetically modified. And, most importantly, she’s Anne Hathaway. In the power dynamics of “The Idea of You,” Hayes may be a fictional pop star but Hathaway is a very real movie star. And you don’t forget it for a moment in Michael Showalter’s lightly appealing showcase of the actor at her resplendent best.

“The Idea of You,” which debuts Thursday on Prime Video, is full of all the kinds of contradictions that can make a rom-com work. The highly glamorous, megawatt-smiling Hathaway is playing a down-to-earth nobody. The showbiz veteran in the movie is played by Galitzine, a less well-known but up-and-coming British actor whose performance in the movie is quite authentic. And even though the whole scenario is undeniably a glossy high-concept Hollywood fairy tale, Showalter gives it enough texture that “The Idea of You” comes off more natural and sincere than you’d expect.

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The only thing that really needs to make perfect sense in a movie like “The Idea of You” is the chemistry. The film, penned by Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt from Robinne Lee’s bestseller, takes its time in the early scenes between Solène and Hayes — first at Coachella, then when he stops by her gallery — allowing their rapport to build convincingly, and giving each actor plenty of time to smolder.

Once the steamy hotel-room encounters come in “The Idea of You,” the movie has, if not swept you away, then at least ushered you along on a European trip of sex and room service. At the same time, it stays faithful to its central mission of celebrating middle-aged womanhood. The relationship will eventually cause a social media firestorm, but its main pressure point is whether Solène can stick with Hayes after her ex-husband cheated on her. This is a fairy tale she deserves.

While Showalter has long showed a great gift for juggling comedy and drama at once, “The Idea of You” leans more fully into wish-fulfillment romance. That can leave less to sustain the film, which has notably neutered some of the things that distinguished the book.

The May-December romance has been shrunk a little. In the book, the singer is 20. Given that Galitzine is 29 and the 41-year-old Hathaway is no one’s idea of old, this is more like a July-September relationship. In the book, the daughter is a huge admirer of the pop singer, adding to the awkwardness, but in the movie, August Moon is “so 7th grade” to her.

There are surely more interesting and funnier places “The Idea of You” could have gone. But Hathaway and Galitzine are a good enough match that, for a couple hours, it’s easy to forget.

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But the most convincing thing about “The Idea of You”? August Moon. The movie nails the look and sound of boy bands so well because it went straight to the source. The original songs in the film are by Savan Kotecha and Carl Falk, the producer-songwriters of, among other pop hits, “What Makes You Beautiful,” One Direction’s debut single.

That connection will probably only further the sense that “The Idea of You” is very nearly “The Idea of Harry Styles.” The filmmakers have distanced the movie from any real-life resemblances. But one thing is for sure: With August Moon following 4Town of “Turning Red” , we are living in the golden age of the fictional boy band.

“The Idea of You,” an Amazon MGM Studios release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for some language and sexual content. Running time: 115 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

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Movie Reviews

Film Review: Civil War is Too Timid to Be Interesting

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Film Review: Civil War is Too Timid to Be Interesting

A24

2/5 stars

When I heard that Alex Garland was making a film about a new American civil war to be released in the middle of an extremely contentious election year, I was hyped. The idea seemed more daring and provocative than we have seen in quite some time. Sadly, Civil War lacks any real courage and Garland remains frustratingly “apolitical” with a story that should be inherently political. The result is a thrilling but shallow action movie with little to say with its fascinating premise beyond the tired old cliche that “war is hell.”

Set in a near future in which the United States has devolved into warring factions, we follow photojournalist Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) who is traveling with several other journalists to interview the nebulously tyrannical president (Nick Offerman) before the “Western Forces,” a combined alliance between Texas and California, attack Washington D.C.

The film remains steadfast in its refusal to explain any of the factors involved in this conflict. Who are the Western Forces and what do they want? What has the president done to bring about a full-on civil war? Garland doesn’t even bother to ask these questions, failing to give audiences a sense of urgency. There is also some striking imagery reminiscent of footage from Vietnam and Bosnia. Seeing these images played out on American soil feels like they should be ripe for analysis, but there is no message behind them. The film says nothing about modern warfare or even photojournalism and only leaves us with sheer spectacle. The timid approach to politics gives us a film that feels like it wants to be The Battle of Algiers but becomes White House Down.

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Written and directed by Alex Garland // Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jefferson White, Nelson Lee, Evan Lai, Vince Pisani, Justin James Boykin, Jess Matney, Greg Hill, Edmund Donovan, Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, and Jesse Plemons // 109 minutes // A24 // Rated R

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