Arts

TRON: Ares
Director: Joachim Rønning
Sea Bailey Productions
In Theaters: 10.10.25

I’m a member of GenX, which means I may not be from the greatest generation, but I’m still old enough to long for the ‘80s, and to smugly and stubbornly cling to the delusion that every significant piece of pop culture from that era is superior to what gets made now. Memories of my TRON popup book still move me to tears, and the only thing that keeps me from revering the original as a groundbreaking classic is that every ten years or so, I make the mistake of actually watching it. While TRON: Legacy worked well enough as a glossy nostalgia fix, it was overlong and so much in the shadow of The Matrix that it got bogged down in trying to be smart and existential that it was something of a mess. The point I’m trying to make is for me, loving TRON and thinking that it’s great are too different things.   

TRON: Ares follows an advanced program called Ares (Jared Leto, Dallas Buyer’s Club) created by tech mogul Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Mare of Easttown), who sends him from the digital world into reality. The only problem? He can only remain in the real world without breaking down. Determined to weaponize A.I., Julian seeks a mysterious “permanence code” that allows digital beings to exist indefinitely in the real world — a discovery secretly made by ENCOM’s CEO, Eve Kim (Greta Lee, Past Lives), continuing her late sister’s work. When Ares and fellow program Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith) are dispatched to retrieve the code, Ares begins to question his purpose after encountering Eve’s compassion. As Julian’s obsession spirals into violence, Eve and her allies fight to free Ares and stop him from weaponizing the code. Torn between his creator’s orders and his growing self-awareness, Ares must decide whether to obey or rebel as the line between human and program dissolves.

I was initially unhappy with the choice of Joachim Rønning to direct, having been less than entertained by the dreadful Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, but last year’s Young Woman and the Sea really turned me around and made me hopeful. Rønning has a strong handle on the eye-popping visual style of the TRON films, and proves himself to be a highly capable action director. The emphasis on action, embracing the silliness and giving us a streamlined plot with an easy-to-compute McGuffin makes TRON: Ares far more enjoyable as an eye candy blockbuster than I was expecting it to be. That’s not to say that it’s a great film, or a great story, but this time around, there’s an unmistakable Terminator influence that I found to  be quite energizing, and the pacing is much more swift than we’ve come to expect from the franchise. Visually, the movie really delivers, but there’s an audible reason for concern: the whole thing is way too damn loud. While it may be a critically incorrect hot take, I don’t love the way Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have become the go-to composers for everything, as I find their music to be repetitive and gimmicky much of the time. But while I’m more fond of Daft Punk‘s score for Legacy, the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack is cool and fun, and it gets the job done, but there are far too many times when the whole theater is shaking from the base, and the dialogue is drowned out (not that the dialogue is ever that important). Between the noise level and the constant flashing lights, this is going to one mighty migraine maker of a movie for many.

As a general rule, Leto’s presence in a movie tends to be a big incentive for me to stay away, but despite looking like Turning Point USA’s version of Jesus Christ doing a commercial for Gorilla Snot hair gel, he’s actually quite well suited for the role. The “what is the thinking about?” feeling of detachment and slightly glazed look in his eyes is perfect for a computer program, and he really nails the lighter moments. It’s great to see Lee starring in a major blockbuster, though this movie certainly doesn’t give any hint of the kind of raw brilliance she’s capable of as an actress. Peters is a charismatic actor who is so skilled that he can get hammy without being insufferable even in a Ryan Murphy series, and his take on Julian Dillinger is young corporate corporate baddie who is basically a Lex Luthor who’s not nearly as fun as Nicholas Hoult’s but miles above Jesse Eisenberg’s nauseating version.

It would be overstating to call TRON: Ares a good film, but it’s a helluva fun TRON movie!  If you’re not already attached to the franchise, you truly have no reason to be seeing this one at all. It’s nothing more and nothing less than a hyperactive, hyperstylized and self aware treat for those who grew up on the original. While it’s not going to make best of the year list by a longshot, I’ll most certainly end up owning a digital copy. —Patrick Gibbs

Read more film reviews by Patrick Gibbs:
Film Review: Roofman
Film Review: A House of Dynamite

When I went into Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated political epic One Battle After Another this past weekend, I figured it would be somewhat along the lines of his past film, the absurdist and irreverent Inherent Vice (2014). The former is based on a 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon and the latter is roughly inspired by another novel by the author, Vineland (1990).

But what I got felt more like a modernized interpretation of Victor Hugo’s 1831 classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to the point where I’m a little surprised more people aren’t also seeing the parallels.

In the late 2000s, a revolutionary known as Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) leads a radical, extremist group called The French 75. In between secretly releasing immigrants from detention centers and planting bombs in various locations, Perfidia has a romantic relationship with her fellow F75 member Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a short, secret fling with Col. Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), who is a white supremacist obsessed with Perfidia.

When things unexpectedly go haywire during a bank bust, Perfidia instantly goes MIA and Pat is left to raise their newborn daughter, Charlene. 16 years later, Charlene, now Willa Ferguson (Chase Infiniti), is kidnapped by Lockjaw’s team, with a lone, junkie ridden Pat, now Bob, alone to rescue her.

Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Tony Goldwyn, Alana Haim and Kevin Tighe make up some of the supporting cast of One Battle After Another, and the movie features a score by frequent Anderson collaborator Jonny Greenwood. Anderson’s new movie is currently receiving overwhelming praise, and while it hasn’t jumped to the top of my favorite films of 2025 so far, I’m a longtime PTA fan and agree with many of the positive reactions.

The writer-director surrounds himself with performers and artists as talented as he is and it almost always pays off, with One Battle the most recent example of such. Infiniti is a revelation opposite all the veteran actors, and I was a bit bummed to see Haim exit after the first act since she was the highlight of Anderson’s previous picture, Licorice Pizza (2021).

But really, I’m most taken by how Hugo-esque the general story of One Battle After Another is. Lockjaw is a clear modern equivalent of Claude Frollo, both Perfidia and Willa are an amalgamation of Esmeralda, and Bob/Pat is our burnout-esque Quasimodo. I wasn’t expecting one of my favorite filmmakers’ movies to remind me of a famous French book, but if there was ever a time for either’s exposure, it’s probably now.

A dopey “on-the-spectrum” crook on the lam plot and two movie stars who know how to work a closeup headline the charms of the delightful and just dark enough “Roofman,” a caper comedy where the real caper is getting away with it.

It pairs up the graceful, athletic and best-in-comedic roles Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, an earthy actress who easily summons up wary, wounded and beguiling with just a dimpled smile and a twinkle in her eye.

Throw in the deadpan delight Lakeith Stanfield, June Temple who brings more to trashy-funny than any of her peers, Peter Dinklage at his most irritable and veteran Oz-villain Ben Mendelsohn — cast against type as a good-hearted pastor — and you’ve got yourself a winner.

Still not sold? Dinklage and Mendelsohn SING. Bet you didn’t hear that coming.

“Roofman” is a period piece comedy from the golden age of Big Box Stores, from Blockbuster Video to Best Buy and Toys R Us.

In the early 2000s, one physically fit and clever robber terrorized McDonald’s stores all over because he’d found the billion dollar franchise’s security Achilles Heel. Busting in through the roof after hours, and then making the manager empty the safe before opening in the AM was easy money. He did it 45 times.

Jeffrey Manchester was a former member of the famed 82nd Airborne parachuting infantry. He knew how to get into places and sometimes even pull himself out of them. One thing the movie leaves out is that he’d worked at a McDonalds. He knew corporate protocols.

“Roofman” gives our anti-hero a best friend and former comrade in arms (Stanfield at his most sarcastic) who tells him “observation” of “details” is his “superpower.”

The “Roofman” desperately wants to provide the finer working class things to his in-the-process-of-moving-on-ex (Melonie Diaz) and their three kids. But “superpower” or not, sooner or later — 45 robberies in — even physically fit commandos get caught.

This movie by writer and director of “The Place Beyond the Pines” and “The Light Between Oceans” (Derek Cianfrance) is about what happens after Manchester gets caught, ingeniously escapes from prison and has to hole up for months in the crawl space and after hours floor space of a Charlotte, N.C. Toys R Us.

Our lovable, pushover criminal — he gives his jacket to a McDonald’s manager (Tony Revolori) when he locks him in the store freezer — finds he can’t go home again, his wife’s moved on and the cops are watching all his old haunts like a hawk. So on the advice of that old Airborne comrade Steve (Stanfield), he shelters in place.

His dream? Fleeing the country to “somewhere with beach and NO extradition treaty,” Venezuela or Brazil.

But hiding out in that big box toy store, bathing in the bathroom, sleeping behind a false wall, clothing himself with colorful not-quite-kiddywear and dining on peanut M & Ms’, he immerses himself in the dynamics of the business and the friction within this culture.

The boss (Dinklage) is a brusque bully, not interested in the “personal life” issues divorced mom Leigh (Dunst) trots out whenever she needs time off. Our store squatter surreptitiously intervenes on her behalf. When Leigh asks that same boss for donations to her church’s toy drive, she’s rebuffed. The handsome ex-con can fix that, too.

That’s how they meet and how the “detail” oriented criminal falls in love and his best laid plans “gang aft agley,” as the poet said.

That church introduction is an unalloyed delight, almost wholly out of character for this filmmaker but not these two stars. Tatum’s Jeffrey, going by “John,” goes all tongue-tied amidst the widowed and divorced man-eaters of this integrated, musical and joyous church. Dunst does the worn down divorcee charmed to blushing by the hunk who pays her extra attention.

And seeing Mendelsohn (“Rogue One,” “The Dark Knight Rises”) paired with Uzo Aduba (“Orange is the New Black,” “Tallulah”) as the bubbly married couple who minister to this flock is enough to restore your faith in casting directors, if not Southern Fried Christianity. She plays matchmaker and when he breaks into song I just about fell out of my seat. They’re a hoot.

Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso”) scores points as shifty ex-Airborne Steve’s partner in crime.

I don’t know what it is about Charlotte, North Carolina and goofball crime stories — many of them true — that have big screen appeal. Remember Zach Galifiankis and “Masterminds?” Steven Soderbergh’s NASCAR yahoo caper comedy “Logan Lucky?” Something about the city, or maybe it’s haughty self-regard (I used to live there) makes dumb criminal tales from there irresistible.

Cianfrance betters those two earlier efforts by leaning into the “Cool Hand Luke” of the caper, the ways Manchester gets away with this and that, avoiding capture.

“When they stop watching you,” he says of “working” the guards and those he deals with in prison, “you can start watching them.”

That “keep running” and you’ll outdistance any police dragnet theory is dismissed by Manchester, who narrates his story and insists “The trick is to stop — find a place no one will look.”

No wonder the cops refer to this guy as some sort of savant, “maybe a genius,” and kind of “an idiot.”

The narrative drags on a bit as the story makes its turn towards the dark finale. But with its Christmas shopping climax, we may have ourselves the first delight of the holiday cinema season right here in mid-October. And if you miss Tatum and Dunst’s chemistry in cinemas, don’t fret. They’ll be “out” for good behavior and out on video by Veterans’ Day.

Rating: R, some violence, nudity, sex, profanity

Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Lakeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Ben Mendelsohn, Tony Revolori and Peter Dinklage

Credits: Directed by Derek Cianfrance, scripted by Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn. A Miramax/Paramount release.

Running time: 2:06