The latest film releases are “Scrapper,” “El Conde,” “The Nun II,” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.” Weighing in are Christy Lemire, film critic for RogerEbert.com and co-host of the YouTube channel “Breakfast All Day,” and William Bibbiani, film critic for the Wrap and co-host of the Critically Acclaimed Network.
“Scrapper”
Giving British “Home Alone” vibes, “Scrapper” is about a 12-year-old girl (Lola Campbell) living by herself in a London flat. From writer/director Charlotte Regan, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Lemire: “She's been wise beyond her years, but never in a cheesy, obnoxious, Disney Channel child star way. This is [Campbells’] first film ever, and there's just total purity to her presence, to her performance, to her timing. It occupies this really tricky space between being light and playful, and being true to this working-class scenario and to these people who really don't know each other, and are going to have to figure out how to love each other if they're going to survive. And the way it straddles all that with just total truth, but also lightness. There's a structural playfulness here that is so unexpected.”
Bibbiani: “The humor in this film is just sparkling. It comes from wonderful characters who are actually very interestingly drawn and interact with each other in amusing ways. There's a sort of understated playfulness to the way Charlotte Regan films it. This movie made me happier than most other movies this year, and I just could not tell people to see it enough.”
“El Conde”
In this dark political satire from director Pablo Larraín, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is a 250-year-old vampire who’s stealing, killing, and drinking the blood of his victims. The real Pinochet died in 2006.
Lemire: “We see in this incredibly gory prelude how this person has been around for so many hundreds of years. It almost becomes like a literally bloody version of ‘Succession’ because Pinochet wants to die, but has these horrible children who were useless, who are fighting over the money. And in the middle of all this comes this nun, disguised as an accountant, to help them sort through all of their documents and their bearer bonds. … It's a really cool idea, and then it runs out of steam once you get through the novelty of ‘Hey, what if Pinochet were a vampire?’”
Bibbiani: “I think that moment happens less than five minutes into the film. … I remember watching the movie thinking, ‘You know what would be the absolute most insipid thing they could possibly do with that plot point?’ And then it happened. I was genuinely annoyed by this movie. And I will say this — Pablo Larraín is such a specific filmmaker that to be annoyed by Pablo Larraín is arguably more interesting than being mildly entertained by a lot of other people.”
“The Nun II”
In this sequel to the 2018 horror film, Taissa Farmiga reprises her role as Sister Irene, who once again has to face a demon nun.
Bibbiani: “The original ‘Nun’ movie, which was a spinoff of ‘The Conjuring 2,’ was a stylish and abundantly silly movie. It was incredibly popular. I totally get why we made another one of these. But that nonsensical, Gothic roller coaster ride that you got from the original ‘Nun’ is really frustratingly abandoned here. There's a couple of good jump scares throughout, but it's actually just aggressively generic in most of its construction. It comes together a bit at the end — a lot of ridiculous things happen in the last 20 minutes in rapid succession, and there's a certain amount of entertainment value to be had from that. But this is a movie that really, really, really struggles to justify its own existence.”
Lemire: “I think this one’s better than the first ‘Nun.’ … I feel like this has more atmosphere. This has great mood as far as the misty nighttime corridors and streets of France. And so I think it sets the tone in traditionally Gothic horror ways pretty effectively. And Taissa Farmiga is always really good. She grounds a lot of the material that might seem really silly.”
“My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3”
The Portokalos family reunites in Greece after the patriarch dies — to spread his ashes and locate his childhood friends.
Lemire: “This is just like a fever dream of bad choices. … I really wondered whether it was being shown to me wrong because the framing is so off. … People's heads get cut off. … The first ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ was, of course, an enormous hit, made hundreds of millions of dollars, so they keep remaking it in various versions. And it's broad and hacky and so tired by now.”