The latest film releases include “Fast X,” “Master Gardener,” “Sanctuary,” and “White Men Can't Jump.” KCRW gets reviews from Christy Lemire, film critic for RogerEbert.com and co-host of the YouTube channel “Breakfast All Day,” and Shawn Edwards, film critic for FOX-TV in Kansas City, and co-founder of the African American Film Critics Association.
“Fast X”
“The Fast and the Furious” franchise is now more than 20 years old. In the latest installment, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) must protect his family from Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), who wants revenge for the murder of his drug lord father in “Fast Five.”
Edwards: “The problem is: All I asked was for these movies just to make a little sense. Not a lot. But just a trace. Because this franchise has drifted (pun intended) out of control a few films ago. I mean, “Fast Five” was actually the franchise’s high point. But now we're at number 10. And these movies might as well be cartoons. … The entire movie is an intellectual nightmare. I mean, this one actually felt like a drinking game. Literally. You can feel Vin Diesel's presence saying, ‘Let's shoot a scene on every continent on the planet.’ And they literally shoot a scene on every continent on the planet. It's almost like a geography test. They jump from city to city and continent to continent. I mean, things are so spastic and chaotic, I was halfway expecting a Transformer to pop up.
But the biggest problem I have with this film — it's a complete setup movie and literally stopped in the middle of a scene. So guess what? We're getting at least one more of these, maybe two more of these. But they need to stop. … It's time to cross the finish line.”
Lemire: “The mythology is so dense, the lore. There are so many characters that are all intertwined from the previous movies. … People have actually asked us this on our YouTube channel, ‘Do I need to have seen the previous ones?’ And it sounds stupid, but yeah, you do. … It is a soap opera, and it rewards your longevity and your dedication to it.
… I had so much fun with this. I don't know why Shawn wants things to make sense. I don't want intellectual cohesion in my ‘Fast and Furious’ movies. … Jason Momoa … is having such a blast. I've never seen him be funny. I think of him primarily as Aquaman and the stoicism, and just the physical rigor that requires. And here he is flamboyant and just this incredibly over-the-top supervillain.”
“Master Gardener”
Joel Edgerton plays a meticulous horticulturist who tends to the grounds of his employer’s beautiful estate. Things begin to go awry when Quintessa Swindell’s character Maya shows up.
Lemire: “It's about the secrets that they both have, and how they are thrust together to confront who they actually are beneath the surface and the facades they've crafted for themselves. … It is fantastic to look at. It’s a lot to do with flowers, and flower is a metaphor for what's actually happening to these people, and the way that they bloom, and the way that they develop. So it’s pretty good.”
Edwards: “At the central core of this movie — it's a love story between Joe Edgerton and Quintessa Swindell. And didn't Joe Edgerton make this movie back in 2016? It's called ‘Loving.’ I mean, once again, he plays a character who's in love with a biracial woman that's half black, half white. And it’s this forbidden affair that shouldn't take place. But because of the nature and the setup of his character in the ‘Master Gardener,’ there's no way Quintessa Swindell’s character is ever going to fall in love with this character — because of his ties to white supremacy. I actually found this film to be tremendously insulting. You have to show me why these people are falling in love. It’s incredibly unrealistic.”
“Sanctuary”
This is about a dominatrix and her wealthy client named Hal.
Edwards: “It starts off beautifully. … It's a single setting. There are only two players in the entire movie. And they are wonderful. And it all takes place in a single night. … It's a lot of verbal jousting that takes place that sets everything up. And you totally buy in because there's this power struggle that's taking place. And as it unfolds, it's completely something else. And I love that. It's just the problem is: That completely-something-else falls flat at the end. But the first three-fourths of the movie is phenomenal.”
Lemire: “The acting really, really is what carries this through the whole time. This is full of twists and turns as to who these people are and what they actually want from each other. And these are both actors who take really interesting chances and choices with the films that they make. And they are always deeply committed.
… They use every inch of this space very effectively. … And the lighting evolves to indicate the way that the evening is going, and the way that their emotions are evolving, and the highs and lows that they experienced together. The writing was always really sharp, and the two of them are excellent together.”
“White Men Can't Jump”
In this remake of the 1992 comedy, Sinqua Walls and Jack Harlow portray basketball hustlers who team up to make some cash.
Lemire: “They didn't need to remake this movie at all. But this is amusing here and there. The two actors have decent chemistry with each other. … It's a good LA movie. It shows a lot of different neighborhoods in LA that we don't often see on film, including Olympic Park and just the various basketball courts that the two of them go to as they are hustling, and sparring, and learning to trust each other.”
Edwards: “As I'm watching, the whole thing felt like they were in the middle of a table read, that there wasn't very much acting. … The 1992 version was a lot darker, you felt there was a lot more at stake. And … this movie felt gentrified … perfectly for 2023. Everything is perfectly wrapped at the end with a bow. And it's happy, feel-good. And you never felt that there was any drama. There was no trauma. And everything just felt manufactured.”