Review: 'Swallow' is an unsettling, but sumptuous, drama about a young wife breaking free

A young wife nearly loses control before finding herself in “Swallow,” a disturbingly beautiful first feature from writer-director Carlo Mirabella-Davis that has a lot going on beneath its polished surfaces.

Hunter (Haley Bennett) and Richie (Austin Stowell) live what outwardly appears to be a perfect life. He’s wealthy, a director in the business founded by his father (David Rasche), and they have a stunning lakeside house away from the city. Hunter tends this house, but she feels confined by the airless decor. 

After reading a line from a self-help book, a gift from Richie’s mom (Elizabeth Marvel), to do something unexpected, Hunter does that. She swallows a marble and, a couple days later, fishes it out of the toilet when she passes it. This begins a series of experiments, in which she tries to swallow all kinds of things. (We learn along the way that there’s a name for this type of eating disorder: pica.)

Hunter’s penchant for eating safety pins, batteries and other objects gets discovered — around the same time she and Richie learn she’s pregnant. Richie, backed by his parents, exercise more control over Hunter, hiring a muscular live-in nurse, Luay (Laith Nakli), and sending her to a psychiatrist (Zabryna Guevara) to learn what’s going on in her head.

Bennett (“The Girl on the Train”) gives a powerful, contained performance here, as Hunter transforms gradually from suburban captive to the heroine of her own story. This transformation culminates in a tension-filled scene opposite the great character actor Denis O’Hare, the details of which I will leave for you to discover. 

Mirabella-Davis finds beauty in the well-appointed rooms of Hunter and Richie’s house, and in the curious, jagged objects that appear as out of place in those rooms as in Hunter’s stomach. “Swallow” contemplates the order in the chaos of that abrupt juxtaposition, just as it lets Hunter find her own place in a disordered universe.

——

‘Swallow’

★★★1/2

Opened March 6 in select cities and on demand; opens Friday, March 13, at the Tower Theatre (Salt Lake City). Rated R for language, some sexuality and disturbing behavior. Running time: 94 minutes.

Review: 'I Still Believe' is better as a love story than as a Christian sermon

The Christian-themed romance “I Still Believe” suffers when it’s busy being an overbearing Sunday-school lesson, but soars when it concentrates on the tragic, genuine — and true — love story at its heart.

K.J. Apa, currently breaking hearts as Archie Andrews on “Riverdale,” stars as popular Christian singer-songwriter Jeremy Camp, who we meet as he’s leaving his Indiana home for a California bible college. His parents (Gary Sinise and Shania Twain) give him one gift as he leaves: A new guitar.

Jeremy wants to be a successful Christian musician, and finds a mentor in Jean-Luc (singer Nathan Dean), who fronts a Christian country-rock band. Jean-Luc tells Jeremy to think less about how to succeed and more about what he wants to say through his music.

It’s through Jean-Luc that Jeremy meets another student at the college, Melissa Henning (Britt Robertson). Jeremy falls in love at first sight, in part because Melissa expresses her faith so authentically. Romance, or what passes for it at a bible college, blossoms between Melissa and Jeremy, but not without a hitch: Jean-Luc has a crush on Melissa, too, and she’s never had the nerve to talk him down.

That small crisis is averted, but a bigger one looms: Melissa learns she has cancer, and possibly only months to live. She’s confident that her faith, and her love for Jeremy, will provide the miracle that will save her. Meanwhile, Jeremy’s star is on the rise in the Christian-music scene, with fans moved by the stories Jeremy tells about his faith, and Melissa’s.

The Erwin Brothers, Andrew and Jon, are old hands in the Christian film scene, directing such faith-based titles as “Woodlawn” and “I Can Only Imagine.” Subtlety has never been their strong suit, and the script — by Jon Erin and Jon Gunn (adapted from Camp’s memoir) — lays the melodrama, and the faith-promoting speeches, on with a trowel. (Sidebar: Why on earth would you cast Shania Twain in a Christian music movie and not have her sing, even on the soundtrack?)

That said, there are joys to be had in “I Still Believe,” much of it in the chemistry between Apa and Robertson (who were similarly paired as the young lovers in the cornball “A Dog’s Purpose”). They approach the romance with spirit and sincerity, to the point where cynics might believe in them nearly as much as their characters believe in God.

——

‘I Still Believe’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, March 13, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for thematic material. Running time: 115 minutes.

Review: 'The Traitor' finds a morality tale in the bloody world of Sicilian gangsters

Director Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor” takes a deep dive into the blood-drenched world of the Sicilian Mafia of the 1980s, when talk of honor among the “soldiers” of Cosa Nostra dissolved into battles for power and money.

In 1980, the opening title cards tell us, Palermo is “the world capital of heroin,” and being fought over by two factions: The old guard of Palermo and the new clan in nearby Corleone. (Yes, the town that gave Mario Puzo’s crime family in “The Godfather” its name.) Trying to stay out of the fray is the fugitive Tommaso Buscetta (played by Pierfrancesco Favino), a “soldier” with some influence on the Palermo boss Stefano Bontade (Goffredo Maria Bruno).

Buscetta tries to escape to Rio de Janeiro, where his third wife, Cristina (Maria Fernanda Cândido), was born. The civil war in Sicily rages, with some of Buscetta’s relations killed. Then Brazilian officials arrest Buscetta and deport him back to Italy — where he meets Judge Giovanni Falcone (Fauston Russo Alesi), who is determined to bring down the Mafia, and wants Buscetta to become the first member of Cosa Nostra to become an informant.

Bellocchio — who told the story of Mussolini’s mistress in 2009’s “Vincere” — and his three co-screenwriters overwhelm the viewer, particularly the non-Italian interloper, with mounds of names, dates and places. Once things settle, or the viewer decides not to worry about the historical details and strap in for the ride, the film reveals itself to be a high-stakes courtroom drama tinged with a bit of farce, as the unwieldy legal proceedings become shouting matches between Buscetta and his indicted former colleagues.

For a good stretch, “The Traitor” is a fascinating meeting of minds between the recalcitrant mafioso Buscetta and the thoughtful jurist Falcone, as each one comes to understand and even admire their adversary. For the most part, though, the film is a showcase for Favino (“World War Z,” “Angels & Demons”), who looks like the Italian version of Tom Selleck, ruggedly handsome and beefy, but also carrying an air of nobility as Buscetta reconciles his childhood code of honor with the realities of the modern Mafia.

——

‘The Traitor’

★★★

Opened January 31 in select cities; opens Friday, March 13, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City), Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy) and Megaplex at The Junction (Ogden). Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and brief graphic nudity. Running time: 150 minutes; in Italian, with subtitles.

Review: 'Big Time Adolescence' is a coming-of-age comedy that gives us too much Pete Davidson

I enjoy Pete Davidson on “Saturday Night Live” as much as the next person, but the coarse coming-of-age comedy “Big Time Adolescence” is proof that Davidson’s abrasive stoner persona is best consumed in small doses.

Writer-director Jason Orley structures his story around the oft-repeated device: The wacky bad influence. That’s Davidson’s character, Zeke, a 23-year-old slacker who is the best friend of the movie’s protagonist, 16-year-old Monroe Harris (Griffin Gluck, the kid brother from “Why Him?”). The movie starts with the “You’re probably wondering how I got here…” framing device, in which Monroe is being taken out of school by a police escort.

Monroe, who goes by Mo, doesn’t hang out much with his peers, preferring to hang out at Zeke’s rundown house to play video games, drink beer and learn pearls of wisdom from Zeke, his pals (one of them played by the rapper Machine Gun Kelly), and his girlfriend Holly (Sydney Sweeney). Mo’s parents (Jon Cryer and Julia Murney) can’t understand why Mo hangs out with the ex-boyfriend of Mo’s older sister Kate (Emily Arlook), but don’t do much to rein him in.

One example of Zeke’s questionable help: When Mo develops a crush on classmate Sophie (Oona Lawrence), Zeke delivers advice on how to woo her and then “ghost” her. And another: When school pal Will (Thomas Barbusca) asks Mo for help acquiring booze so they can get into senior-class parties, Mo goes to Zeke for help — and Zeke does one better, providing marijuana to sell to the suburban kids.

Orley makes space for some funny moments, particularly by Davidson and Barbusca. But the script travels down all the awkward and irresponsible directions you would expect, once the premise is established and plays out to its foreshadowed conclusion — by which time, Davidson’s stoner mannerisms have grown stale. (I would, however, love to hear Davidson and John Mullaney review the movie, the way they did “The Mule.”)

——

‘Big Time Adolescence’

★★

Opens Friday, March 13, at the Tower Theatre (Salt Lake City); begins streaming March 20 on Hulu. Rated R for drug content, alcohol use, pervasive language, and sexual references - all involving teens. Running time: 91 minutes.

——

This review first appeared on this website on January 28, 2019, when the movie premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Review: 'The Times of Bill Cunningham' chronicles the photographer's history but doesn't capture his spirit

If you know Bill Cunningham, it’s likely from his decades of photographing two wildly divergent scenes for The New York Times: The whirl of society galas, and the kaleidoscope of street fashion. You may also know him from the 2010 documentary, sanctioned by The Times, “Bill Cunningham: New York.” 

Those who saw that film may find director Mark Bozek’s new documentary, “The Times of Bill Cunningham,” somewhat redundant. Those who didn’t may find it incomplete.

The heart of the film is an interview a young Bozek conducted with Cunningham in 1994 for a career retrospective at Carnegie Hall. It was supposed to be a 10-minute interview, but Bozek got Cunningham talking for far longer.

Cunningham, who died in 2016 at the age of 87, certainly had an interesting life. As a young man, he worked at Bonwit Teller, the famed fashion retailer, but had a side business designing hats for society ladies and movie stars — even Marilyn Monroe – under the name William J. He lived in the studio apartments at Carnegie Hall in the 1950s, with such neighbors as Marlon Brando, Leonard Bernstein and Paddy Chayevsky. He worked as an assistant to designers Sophie Shonnard and Noni Park, founders of the exclusive fashion house Chez Ninon, whose most famous client was Jacqueline Kennedy.

It was Shonnard and Park who first gave Cunningham a camera, which launched the career that defined him. He shot everything he could, but was particularly fascinated with the goings-on of the New York elite and the fashion choices on Manhattan’s streets. He eventually worked both gigs into two pages every Sunday in the Times, “Society Hours” and “On the Street,” with rich photo collages that showed his view of the city. Vogue editor Anna Wintour once quipped, “We all get dressed for Bill.”

Bozek augments the interview footage with the garrulous, slightly embarrassed Cunningham with a wealth of photos from the late photographer’s private files. There are images of every celebrity you can think of from those decades; he even got a shot in 1978 of the reclusive Greta Garbo, walking along in a nutria coat.

What’s missing, in Bozek’s construction and perfunctory narration (nicely delivered by Sarah Jessica Parker), is a lot of context for how Cunningham’s predilections for fashion translated into his work. The photos make for an interesting slide show, but one wishes for a little more about the man behind the camera.

——

‘The Times of Bill Cunningham’

★★1/2

Opened February 14 in select cities; opens Friday, March 13, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably PG-13 for mild language and mature themes. Running time: 74 minutes. 

Review: Satirical 'Greed' is part farce, part Greek tragedy, part political lecture

In the satire “Greed,” writer-director Michael Winterbottom has a lot to say about the inequality of wealth in the world — but his story works better when he shows instead of tells.

At the center of the story is Sir Richard McCreadie (Steve Coogan), aka “Greedy” McCreadie, a British billionaire at the head of a major retail conglomerate. Having just given his top executive and ex-wife Samantha (Isla Fisher) a $1.2 billion dividend on the business — borrowed from the bank, and stashed in a tax haven in Monaco — Sir Richard and his trophy wife Naomi (played by Victoria’s Secret model Shanina Shaik) plan a lavish 60th birthday party on his Greek isle.

The theme of the party is ancient Rome, though Sir Richard’s only familiarity with the era is repeated viewings of “Gladiator.” That doesn’t keep him from commissioning a plywood arena, and the rental of a lion.

While the party planning goes on, with Sir Richard’s assistant Amanda (Dinita Gohil) trying to prod a group of Syrian refugees off the nearby beach, other dramas play out. Daughter Lily (Sophie Cookson) brings her boyfriend Fabian (Ollie Locke), to live out their relationship for a reality-TV crew (directed by former “Doctor Who” companion Pearl Mackie). Younger son Finn (Asa Butterfield) broods in the background, making arch references to Oedipus — the king who murdered his father — to Sir Richard’s unctuous biographer, Nick (David Mitchell). 

Winterbottom — who has worked with Coogan on such varied movies as “The Trip” and its sequels, “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story” and “24 Hour Party People” — has crafted a script that’s as much policy-paper data as jokes. We are told about legal tax evasion, shady bankruptcy dodges, and the average daily wages of a Sri Lankan garment worker (about £4), but without the finesse with which “The Big Short” put across similar information.

“Greed” works, to pinch a phrase from “Wall Street’s” Gordon Gekko, when Winterbottom deftly skewers the childish antics of the McCreadie family, revealing how little they notice the damage they do to the less-wealthy around them. In this way, Coogan is particularly well deployed, his talent for playing arrogant gits taken to its apex.

There’s more than a little of a certain American billionaire (or so he claims) in Coogan’s portrayal of McCreadie. He’s a fake-tanned man obsessed with appearances and ignorant of culture, who knows how to make deals and run up bills but not how to build anything of value. Coogan’s satirical performance is sometimes sharp but often a meat-axe — but, either way, they get the job done.

——

‘Greed’

★★★

Opened February 28 in select cities; opens Friday, March 6, at six theaters in Utah: Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City), Megaplex at The District (South Jordan), Megaplex Thanksgiving Point (Lehi), Cinemark Jordan Landing (West Jordan), Cinemark Provo 16 and AMC Provo 12. Rated R for pervasive language and brief drug use. Running time: 104 minutes.

Review: 'Ordinary Love' is a marriage story that relies on extraordinary acting

The drama “Ordinary Love” bears, in many ways, the most accurate movie title of all time — because it gently and precisely chronicles a year of crisis in the life of a most ordinary married couple.

Joan (Lesley Manville) and Tom (Liam Neeson) live near Belfast, and have what appears to be be a long and mostly happy marriage. They take walks together to keep fit, they go shopping, and they banter teasingly about who gets to take down the Christmas decorations. There is sadness in their relationship — a daughter, Debbie, who died young, is mentioned throughout the movie, though without much detail.

Then, one night, Joan takes a shower and notices a lump near her left breast. Thus begins an odyssey of doctors and tests, from mammogram to MRI, through surgery and chemotherapy. Joan copes with nausea, fatigue, pain and hair loss — using Tom as her emotional punching bag when her suffering is too great. Tom tries to stay strong for her sake, but sometimes loses his temper over how ineffectual he is in the face of Joan’s cancer.

Playwright Owen McCafferty, making his screenwriting debut, based the story on the experiences he and his wife, Peggy, endured when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The result is painstaking detail, presented with care and empathy by husband-and-wife directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn. 

If there’s a weakness in “Ordinary Love,” it’s that there’s little defining Tom and Joan’s life apart from their cancer fight. It’s up to Neeson and Manville to fill in those blanks through their tender, lived-in performances. Manville, especially, gives a flinty, empathetic performance, finding Joan’s breaking point and the resilience to push past it.

——

‘Ordinary Love’

★★★

Opened February 14 in select cities; opens Friday, March 6, at Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for some sexuality/nudity. Running time: 92 minutes.

Review: New take on 'Invisible Man' is a scary, tense thriller with a message for the current moment

An enduring science-fiction classic gets repurposed brilliantly in “The Invisible Man,” an effectively chilling horror movie with a timely theme.

The classic version, first written by H.G. Wells more than a century ago, follows an inventor who develops a way to become invisible — but then goes mad because of it. In this new version, director and screenwriter Leigh Whannell transfers the apparent madness part to another character: Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss), the psychologically abused wife of Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a scientist whose specialty is optics.

The movie begins with Cecilia carrying out a plot to escape from Adrian’s high-security house overlooking the Pacific. She drugs Adrian, then slips away to a road where her sister, Alice (Harriet Dyer), picks her up — but not without Adrian nearly catching her.

Cut ahead two weeks, and Cecelia is still a paranoid wreck, afraid to step on the porch of the house where she’s staying — where her cop friend James (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter, Sydney (Storm Reid), live. Then Harriet returns with the news that Adrian apparently committed suicide. The news is confirmed by Adrian’s brother, and his lawyer, Tom (Michael Dorman), who tells Cecelia she’s inherited a $5 million trust fund from Adrian.

Cecelia, though, still isn’t convinced Adrian is dead — and a series of incidents, small at first but growing in severity, lead her to believe that Adrian is alive, and has mastered a way to make himself invisible. Of course, everyone around her starts to believe she’s gone crazy. Thus does Wells’ classic tale transform into a gripping story that illustrates the importance of believing women.

(Anyone accusing the movie of being “woke” to score brownie points should remember that horror has tackled big issues for decades: The pitfalls of scientific arrogance in “Frankenstein,” nuclear destruction in “Godzilla,” racism in “Get Out,” and so on.)

Whannell has launched two horror franchises, writing the screenplays for “Saw” (2004) and “Insidious” (2011), and making his directing debut on “Insidious: Chapter 3” (2015). He may have a third on his hands here, a better handling of Universal’s famous monsters than the bloated “Dark Universe” series the studio planned, but pulled the plug on after the Tom Cruise vehicle “The Mummy.”

Here, Whannell starts with the nail-biter of an opening of Cecelia’s escape, then performs a slow burn as incidents start happening to Cecelia — and she must fight to keep her sanity when everyone else is doubting it. Sometimes the effects are small and subtle, but they build to some striking set pieces. (Once again, the trailer gives away more than it should.)

None of Whannell’s clever moves would hold together, though, without Moss at the center. It becomes almost repetitive to talk about how good an actor Moss is — examples like “Mad Men” and “Her Smell” are everywhere — but it’s undeniable. Moss finds in Cecelia both a vulnerable victim and a fed-up fighter who can outfight and outthink her unseen tormentor, and her performance turns “The Invisible Man” into something deeper than a standard horror movie.

——

‘The Invisible Man’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, February 28, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for some strong blood violence, and language. Running time: 124 minutes.