The latest film releases include Love Hurts, Heart Eyes, Parthenope, and Armand. Weighing in are Shawn Edwards, film critic for FOX4 News in Kansas City, and Alison Willmore, film critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.
Love Hurts
In this action-comedy, Ke Huy Quan (Everything, Everywhere, All At Once) plays Marvin, a realtor whose past as a hitman catches up with him. Former NFL player Marshawn Lynch also makes a cameo.
Edwards: “Love does hurt in real life, so you don't really need a reminder like this film to make it even more painful. … [Ke Huy Quan] plays this straight and narrow realtor who's based in Milwaukee. He's an everyday guy, unsuspecting guy, and all of a sudden you realize that he's got this crazy past. He has a former partner in crime who he's left for dead. He's used to be this deadly spy, Assassin-type guy, and he now finds himself being pulled back into the business, because if he wasn't pulled back into the business, there would be no movie. … Then he's got this back story, because he's haunted by his brother, who just happens to be this crime lord. And so now he's got all these different choices. … This person who he left for dead is back alive. He's double-crossed his brother who wants revenge. And none of it makes very much sense.
And a big problem with this film is it is directed by a former stunt man and coordinator, and so it does lean heavily into the action. … I got inside the head of the filmmakers, they were attempting to create this John Wick-like action with Jackie Chan slapstick vibes. This is such stereotypical dribble and meaningless fluff. … I'm glad [Ke Huy Quan] got his shot at being a leading man, but does every Asian actor have to display martial arts skills in order to get a paycheck? I mean, he's an Oscar winner. And Ariana DeBose is in the film as well, and those two have zero chemistry together, so therefore the movie doesn't work. I mean, it's like trying to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and you go to the cabinet, and you're out of jelly and you're out of peanut butter.”
Willmore: “I am more bothered by just how shambolic this movie is. … This is a really short movie. It feels like it's been chopped to bits. … It's a silly movie, but you want a silly movie to have at least consistent internal logic. There isn't any there. The characters make incredibly odd decisions.”
Heart Eyes
A serial killer, who wears a mask with heart emojis where his eyes should be, slays couples exhibiting PDA on Valentine’s Day.
Willmore: “It is half a romantic comedy in that it is about two very good-looking young people, one played by Olivia Holt and the other played by Mason Gooding, who have a meet-cute in a coffee shop. … And then end up working together, and then end up going on an awkward, maybe work, maybe actual date that gets them targeted, unfortunately, by the heart eyes killer, despite the fact that they keep yelling at this relentless slasher that they are not a couple. They literally only just recently met. The heart eyes slasher does not seem to have that consistent a pattern in terms of the people that he brutally murders. It is very creatively violent, but also leans a lot into the stereotypes of romantic comedy. … I like when the movie makes a joke out of the fact that these two characters will stop to have a romantic moment in the middle of being chased by a relentless murderer. But I think it also … isn't sharp enough. … I don't think that this movie is frightening remotely even in a fun boo way.”
Edwards: “Heart Eyes is a really good time. I mean, it bops, it wiggles, it scares, and it does get gruesome. And for a horror film, the writing is pretty clever. I mean, Valentine's Day can be a tricky holiday, and this film satisfies both sides of the coin. It satisfies those who hate the holiday, and it satisfies those who love the holiday. And it's really all about the killer's mask. … This film does not take itself too seriously, as it brilliantly pokes fun at both rom-coms and slasher films with a really nimble buoyancy.”
Parthenope
From Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, set in his hometown of Naples, this is about young love — or lust. The eponymous main character is a woman whose beauty leaves men drooling.
Edwards: “It's a film that spans several decades, but it's about nothing more than reflection. It begins in the 50s and we see her grow into a teen. And she is a woman of breathtaking beauty who recalls her childhood and her teenhood and her young adulthood, and she flashes back to when her brothers were obsessed with her, and her anthropology professor was obsessed with her. And then she's trying to make all these life decisions without really making any life decisions. Because there isn't … cohesive dialogue that would help push the story forward. … We're swimming inside of her head, and it's a very pretty picture. But it's too bad that the entire film is a frustrating exercise of all style and no substance. And I didn't think this was the type of movie we were even allowed to make anymore, because it's nothing more than all these men fawning over this woman. … There's nothing about this film that's moving. There's nothing about this film in which … you'll learn anything about the characters. And then this whole obsessiveness with this singular female character ... made me feel pretty gross as I was watching.”
Willmore: “I feel like what Sorrentino is trying to go for here is what he has done in other films as well, which is a reflection on Italy as this place of beauty but also moral decay. I think that Sorrentino wants to make a movie about interrogating what it is like to be enormously beautiful. … But he just can't get inside this character's head, and I think he also has a particularly romantic and sunny view of what it is like to be this beautiful. There's only one of the men that Parthenope encounters who does anything that resembles retaliation when she turns him down … he doesn't think she's very smart, which hurts her feelings. But otherwise, she just glides through life.”
Armand
Renate Reinsve plays Elizabeth, a mother who’s called into a parent-teacher conference. Her 6-year-old son is accused of threatening a peer.
Willmore: “Both Elizabeth, who's a single mother, and then Sarah and Anders, who are the parents of the other child, the child who has spoken up about this incident, are called in for a parent-teacher conference. Elizabeth is like a local celebrity. She's an actress … which adds this degree of complication. … The parts of this movie I loved were the ones that unveil different layers that change your understanding of the dynamics between these characters, who turn out to have much more personal history than you might guess at first. The parts I didn't like were these occasional breaks from the reality of the film. … There's two dance numbers. … There are a few moments where it feels like it's almost impatient with the fact that it's a talky drama. But I think the talking drama parts are the best part.”
Edwards: “As a parent of three, teacher-parent conferences unnerve you to death, particularly when the teacher tells you that your child has done something wrong. So I can sympathize 100% with her situation. Secondly, Renate Reinsve, she's the centerpiece. She's the glue that holds this entire movie together. Because the film hinges on patience and the appreciation of dialogue. And things do feel purposely claustrophobic. There are lots of close-ups and really deliberate camera movement. But … there are a couple of artistic choices that … throw you for a loop. But overall, I found it completely compelling and enthralling.”