Category: Todd’s Movie Reviews

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, for starters, gets its name right. Arriving seven years after War for the Planet of the Apes, a common criticism (not an especially important one) of the preceding trilogy was that their titles were a bit misleading. 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes should’ve been Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Yet that one came three years later and a more appropriate moniker for it would be War for the Planet of the Apes. However, War was in 2017 even though Rise of the Planet of the Apes would’ve fit better. Apes are indeed ruling the planet in the fourth entry of this Apes run and the tenth overall in the franchise. Climb of the Planet of the Apes might’ve stuck as well since the plot needs the creatures to use their upward mobility to get them out of jams.

Ultimately Kingdom gets more right than its name. A brief prologue reminds us where we left off in War. In its climax, simian leader Caesar (played iconically by Andy Serkis in probably the greatest motion capture performance ever) stopped being an Earthbound dweller and belonged to the ages. “Many generation later” (like 200-300 years), there are groups who study and honor Caesar’s work. Others are agnostic. Young ape Noa (Owen Teague) is in the latter bunch. His clan is more preoccupied with their birding activities which involve coming-of-age rituals that Noa is primed for. This is interrupted by human contact in the form of Freya Allan’s character Mae. All members of that race have been rendered speechless (as we started to witness in War). By Kingdom‘s coming, they’re also undomesticated and homeless and rare to come across.

This interaction inadvertently brings harm to Noa’s loved ones and sets the young ape on a course of discovery and retrieval of kidnapped family members. The abductor is Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand’s superb and complex villain), whose mission involves bringing all clans together where he can rule with an iron paw. While that ape bends the teachings of Caesar to his own twisted ideology, others succeed in extolling the virtues. This includes orangutan Raka (Peter Macon) who joins Noa on the journey and first exposes him to the dominant force in Rise, Dawn, and War (or more appropriately… Dawn, War, and Rise but’s let not get hung up on it).

Raka is maybe my favorite character in a screenplay (by Avatar: The Way of Water scribe Josh Friedman) filled with promising new ones. I say promising because Kingdom is clearly world building to more installments. In that sense, comparisons to Rise of the Planet of the Apes from 2011 are apt. That tale explained Caesar’s childhood upbringing and eventual imprisonment that created the wide divide between apes and human. The movie itself was lean and efficient with a short runtime compared to Dawn, War, and this. Parts of Kingdom could’ve used a shave and tighter edit. The end result, though, is similar to 2011’s reboot in that I look forward to what’s coming while valuing what I just saw. Wes Ball takes over directorial responsibilities from Matt Reeves, who excelled at making the darker Dawn and War. Ball’s contribution may not be quite as distinctive, but it’s well-executed in reintroducing the audience to its visual landscapes and consistent tug-of-war between species coexisting in them.

This is smarter summer blockbuster sci-fi than any other franchise going and the series has been pulling that off for nearly 60 years. There’s been dips in quality (hi Tim Burton and various portions of the 1970s sequels). These past four Apes sagas have climbed to the top in terms of overall quality.

***1/2 (out of four)

Unfrosted Review

To generously take a bowl is half super approach, Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted features stand-up Kyle Dunnigan doing a pretty killer Walter Cronkite impression. His anchor recounts the news with trademark authority followed by darkly amusing off the air grumblings about his love life and alcoholism. Later on, Dunnigan follows up with an impressive Johnny Carson takeoff. There’s lots of comedians and comedic performers in the legendary Mr. Seinfeld’s directorial debut for Netflix. Most of them don’t get the chance to nail their brief screen time like Mr. Dunnigan. A lot of Unfrosted, a mostly fictional account of how Pop-Tarts came to be, consists of stale humor with too many subplots competing against one another.

Even 96 minutes feels long since there’s barely enough witty material for the 22 minutes Jerry used to work in. He plays Bob Cabana, a high level exec at Kellogg’s in 1963. This is one of those screenplays (by Seinfeld and his frequent collaborators Spike Feresten, Andy Robin, and Barry Marder) that constantly reminds us it’s set during that decade in increasingly lame ways. Along with his boss Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) and Melissa McCarthy’s NASA scientist turned cereal conglomerate employee, they are in a race to produce the best toasted pastry treat. In Battle Creek, Michigan, the combat lines are drawn with their rival Post led by socialite Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer). Such lines are not so subtly tied to another race – the space one – of that era.

Rhythms of Unfrosted becomes familiar in short order – a joke or two that work about a given subplot (like the correlation with the nation’s trip to the moon) that get overused swiftly. There’s bursts of inspiration like Dunnigan’s grousing. Bill Burr’s take on JFK is also a delight. Most of the time I wasn’t blown away by what else the overfilled screenplay had to say.

Since this is Seinfeld we’re talking about, there’s lots of funny people popping in for a day or two on the set. Hugh Grant is the very real Thurl Ravenscroft, a true Shakespearean thespian who voiced Tony the Tiger. The Kellogg gang recruits a hodgepodge of kitschy historical figures including fitness guru Jack LaLanne (James Marsden), Sea Monkeys maker and maybe Nazi Harold von Braunhut (Thomas Lennon), and Chef Boy Ardee (Bobby Moynihan) to develop the product. I could go on and on. Mixing all these talents together is bound to produce some amusing highlights and it does on occasion, but not nearly enough. Sometimes the satire totally misses like when it attempts to connect a mascot uprising to January 6th.

A lot of Unfrosted probably sounded better while Seinfeld and crew were discussing it over Zoom. Most of it might produce more guffaws if its Cronkite impersonator were handling the delivery.

** (out of four)

Challengers Review

Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers swings and lands and swings and misses and misses and lands and repeats. Strengths become flaws as the EDM score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is a charge to hear until it isn’t. The non-linear structure of the love triangle provides glimpses of high-powered melodrama, but it’s also distractingly messy in at least equal measure. Where I find no fault was in the performances even if I wish the script from Justin Kuritzkes served them better.

Volleying between 2006 and 2019 and significant points in between, we are introduced to BFF’s Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) as tennis juniors champs at the US Open. Along with the rest of the sports world, they are smitten by highly touted prospect Tashi (Zendaya) who is biding her going pro jump until the right moment. A late night meeting at a hotel on the day of the boys’ introduction to her provides fireworks that will complicate and influence their dynamic for the next decade plus.

It is 13 years after that encounter that Art and Patrick, long estranged, hurdle toward a match at a Challenger event. Tashi’s go pro unveiling never came into focus, but she and Art have formed a potent partnership while Patrick’s career has stalled. Flashbacks fill in other pertinent details and haphazardly at times. Despite its 131 minutes of action, characterizations of the players can run frustratingly thin.

Tashi seems to hold a lot of power over the gents and Zendaya’s work sells it. She cannot impose her will on the court and strives to do so with those competing on it via other methods. Kudos to the Dune heroine for nailing this unlikable character that should have been more fleshed out. O’Connor and Faist also excel with the former perhaps more of a breakout.

There’s really no one to root for in Challengers by design as this less than holy trinity think far more about themselves than others. You may find yourself calculating who among them is the worst offender. Guadagnino turns the aforementioned score and soap opera vibes up loudly. It works often as a pure guilty pleasure. By its conclusion, however, I might’ve been laughing at the stylistic flourishes and not with it.

**1/2 (out of four)

Abigail Review

From Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (the filmmakers known as Radio Silence), Abigail sautés between a crime thriller and vampire tale. It doesn’t completely land that From Dusk til Dawn style jump off and it overstays its welcome. There are lively breaks in the gory repetition and that’s thanks to some quality casting.

The title character is a young girl (played by Alisha Weir) who we first see practicing her ballet moves in an empty theater. She’s being tailed by six criminals engaged in a snatching plot. They succeed in the abduction, at least theoretically. The mastermind behind the taking (Giancarlo Esposito) provides a creepy old house for them to hold Abigail for 24 hours until the ransom is met. The operation has a strict no real names policy (think Reservoir Dogs), so the group is named after Rat Packers. Melissa Barrera is Joey and she’s tasked with being Abigail’s sole point of contact. We quickly figure out she kidnaps with kindness and is our heroine. She also has a drug problem and might’ve abandoned her son, but she’s rather virtuous compared to the lot.

That includes former detective Frank (Dan Stevens, clearly having a ball and looking a bit like Bradley Cooper), spoiled brat and computer hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton), and demented getaway driver Dean (Angus Cloud). Low IQ muscleman Peter (Kevin Durand) and Marine Rickles (Will Catlett) complete the sextet.

The young captor doesn’t waste much time engaging in mind games with the unwelcome house guests. In what might have been a juicy twist if the trailer and ads hadn’t clearly spelled it out, she’s a bloodsucker who has been around much longer than her appearance suggests. As if that weren’t enough, she has a father whose name sends chills down the spine of those who hear it.

Abigail should be more of a guilty pleasure than it is. There are times when it flourishes. Stevens steals the show while Barrera is saddled with a semi-serious and boring backstory. Some of the exaggerated violence is reminiscent of Radio Silence’s Ready or Not from 2019. That can be a good thing though it’s a reminder that the pic five years ago was superior. Alisha Weir’s performance is certainly a plus as she switches up the cadence of a preteen and a centuries old devourer of souls.

Despite some clever moves, this ultimately stalls in the third act and takes a while to ramp up in the first place. Its bucket of blood falls on the half empty side a little too often.

**1/2 (out of four)

Civil War Review

When it focuses on snapping the perfect photo, Alex Garland’s Civil War crackles and pops with a tension rivaling the best scary movies. Indeed there is horror to be found in this tale of journalists covering a nation torn apart. It is set in the near future and viewers will bring their own instincts to suss out the political landscape. Garland’s screenplay doesn’t provide the roadmap as a third-term President (Nick Offerman) and his dwindling protective units are being closed in on by separatist groups.

Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) is a veteran shutterbug who’s seen it all. Almost. Along with colleague Joel (Wagner Moura), they plan a trek to D.C. to witness and document the pending downfall of POTUS. An interview before his demise is the wished for cherry on top. Two others hitch a ride with the Reuters duo – seasoned New York Times reporter Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and newbie cameraperson Jessie (Cailee Spaeny, fresh off her starring role as Priscilla in that biopic).

The trip to the capital is a bumpy and episodic one, filled with sudden bursts of carnage and odd and often distracting musical needle drops. Lee’s view of documenting the violence is passive in nature. She refuses (at least outwardly) to let emotion overwhelm her. Just the snaps, ma’am. Jessie has to learn that trait. Dunst and Spaeny are precise and effective in portraying the two sides of the equation.

Another noteworthy performance belongs to Dunst’s husband Jesse Plemons in a one segment role as a militia man deciding whether or not to let the road warriors continue their trip. It is the most suspenseful sequence in a picture with a few of them.

As mentioned, the details of the governmental breakdown are kept to a minimum and we are left to interpret plenty. There is one episode that frightens in a different way. The group passes through a town where the citizens are willfully uninformed of the chaos surrounding them. What doesn’t kill them makes them stronger in their estimation and it’s an eerie divergence on that particular exit.

When the action gets to D.C. in the third act, some energy is lost. The coup is exceedingly well-directed by the maker of Ex Machina and Annihilation (a shoutout especially to the sound designers on Garland’s crew). It just seems like we’ve seen the White House go down in plenty of lesser flicks. Civil War shines brightest when it dwells on the power of the photog in their darkest moments.

*** (out of four)

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review

Unlike 2016’s ballyhooed female Ghostbusters reboot or 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife (which served as a sequel to the first two), Frozen Empire doesn’t need to burden itself with spending time introducing new characters to mix with the oldies and three-year-old newbies. The fifth franchise feature, unlike Afterlife, doesn’t have to employ a long windup before it nourishes our nostalgic hankerings. Unfortunately it still does yet I found it slightly more fulfilling than its two predecessors. That’s not sizzling praise, but I wasn’t totally cold to its charms and it’s the fresher characters that often shine.

You may recall that Afterlife introduced us to Egon Spengler’s brood that he abandoned for what turned out to be noble reasons. Granddaughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) is Harold Ramis’s spitting image in look, spirit, and overall nerdiness. She’s moved from Oklahoma to NYC along with mom (Carrie Coon), stepdad (Paul Rudd), and brother (Finn Wolfhard) and they’ve set up shop in that iconic firehouse where their patriarch slid down the pole with the OG ‘Busters. They are carrying on the family tradition and, yes, it makes them feel good until Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton, returning after four decades after a memorable role in the original) sidelines Phoebe. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) and Janine (Annie Potts, finally getting to put on a uniform) are still around as is Venkman (Bill Murray)… sort of. One gets the impression that Murray crashes the party just long enough for the paycheck and perhaps a week on set. He still fits in a drolly satisfying one-liner or two as only he can.

There’s a lot of characters to keep up with and the script from director Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman develops juggle problems. Rudd and Coon, whose romance was a focal point three years ago, are given the short shrift. Wolfhard and Celeste O’Connor (who hit it off in Oklahoma as well) fare even worse. Same goes for Phoebe’s buddy Podcast (Logan Kim).

The most promising additions are the brand new ones that factor into the plot. Lazy Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani) sells his dead grandma’s shiny orb to Ray for a quick few bucks. It turns out to be a device that could start a new ice age while also summoning previously captured spirits back to the Big Apple. Nanjiani’s comedic spirits are a high point. Patton Oswalt’s quick work as a library employee in the New York Public Library is one of the better scenes. We have Emily Alyn Lind as a long departed apparition trying to reunite with her loved ones. In the meantime, she plays chess with Phoebe with a slight romantic undertone. Some of this material is decent enough that I wondered whether the wistful remembrances of what entertained us from 1984 is needed anymore.

Saying that Empire is the best sequel in the series is really not saying much. A more appropriate way to say it might be that it’s the least disappointing. Many of the same drawbacks of what came between 1984 and 2024 are present. I did, however, find it funnier than the schmaltzy Afterlife. Maybe there’s a little life left in this franchise after all. Frozen Empire shows that sporadically.

**1/2 (out of four)

The Exorcist: Believer Review

It’s not just priests exorcising the demonic spirits in The Exorcist: Believer, a direct sequel to the iconic horror phenomenon from a half century ago. There’s more inclusivity when it comes to the number of faith leaders involved. We have two subjects undergoing the eventual rituals via two teenage girls. David Gordon Green recently redid the Halloween franchise with three pictures that underwhelmed this viewer. He hopes to start a fresh trilogy with Believer. Despite more characters doing the casting out and doubling those being possessed, this relaunch is far from bewitching. Instead it’s a sullen and poorly edited genre exercise that could’ve passed (or failed) as any knockoff of the original. If it weren’t for Ellen Burstyn briefly returning to her Oscar nominated role, slapping The Exorcist moniker on it seems egregious. I suppose it still does. The sixth one is not the devilish charm. Neither were the second, third, fourth, or fifth though pretending they don’t exist doesn’t help.

A prologue shows us the tragic birth of Angela (Lidya Jewett). Her father Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.) is doing photography work in Haiti with his very expectant wife. An earthquake severely injures her to the point where Victor must choose whether she or his unborn daughter live. Thirteen years later, Victor and Angela are living a seemingly normal existence in Georgia. Yet when Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) try to summon the spirit of her departed mother, they end up disappearing for three days and then returning. If you don’t get the symbolism behind that, the sometimes unintentionally funny screenplay will explain it slowly and obviously.

Slowly is an appropriate word for the first half as Angela and Katherine aren’t exactly themselves upon reemergence. Believer seems to forget that so many Exorcist regurgitations have been foisted upon us. Some have worked. Just none in the official canon (though The Exorcist III has its loopy delights). We know where this is headed and Green’s restart plods along in the known directions. Except for one violent outburst, Burstyn’s return is largely forgettable and a little pointless.

The interfaith participation in saving the girls is a slightly new wrinkle. By the third act, the Catholics are sitting it out and a hodgepodge of would be saviors step in to fill the void. This includes Ann Dowd as Victor’s neighbor (who takes over for the priest because she wanted to be a nun), a Hoodoo practicer, a Baptist, and a Pentecostal preacher. If these characters had walked into a bar, maybe a more lively movie would’ve resulted. Instead they walk into a procedure we’ve seen time and again. A double exorcism does not double the thrills. This was shocking and shockingly well-made (not to mention scary as hell) in 1973. Now it’s unsurprisingly bland.

*1/2 (out of four)

Five Nights at Freddy’s Review

Let’s start with the fact with Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), the night guard at the now abandoned entertainment center in Five Nights at Freddy’s is just bad at his job. It’s an excuse to sleep, but there’s a purpose. He’s trying to conjure up the circumstances of what happened to his kidnapped brother years ago. Mike believes his visions during the dreams will lead to finding his sibling or at least uncovering who took him. Emma Tammi’s adaptation of the wildly successful video game series that began in 2014 (which I have no familiarity with) might lead to counting sheep as well, especially in the first half. That’s instead of counting on the animatronic animals to provide worthy scares. It doesn’t happen often.

The genealogical drama doesn’t stop at the protagonist’s abduction visions. He also has a much younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio). Their aunt (Mary Stuart Masterson) wants custody for the paycheck. Mike is desperate for employment to keep little sis with him. He reluctantly accepts the graveyard shift at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Matthew Lillard of Scream distinction interviews him for the gig. The long closed pie shop with four singing critters probably would’ve been an awesome experience back in the 1980s. I could imagine Eleven and the Stranger Things gang or a Goonie hanging at it while working with a better script. Freddy’s is mysteriously not torn down. Kindly and pretty policewoman Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) tells Mike they have a tough time keeping guards on duty. Apparently security during the day is not warranted.

By night 3 of Mike’s gig that he can’t stay alert for, he is forced to bring Abby along. That’s at about the midway point when we already know the house band is capable of wreaking havoc on unwanted visitors. They befriend Abby while Mike is confounded by their existence. At least he’s awake now even if Hutcherson’s performance is missing much of a pulse. I was less groggy too after muddling through the Schmidt family misfortunes for almost an hour. The bear, rabbit, chick, and fox come from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and they are effective creature designs.

If only the screenplay (cowritten by the game’s creator Scott Cawthorn) allowed them to play more in their venue. We have a promising setting that is underutilized. I know this is massively successful IP with millions of young diehard fans and maybe this will deliver for them. Regular old horror fans unfamiliar with the source material (like me) have to settle for infrequent PG-13 frights. I found myself hungering to see what kind of Reagan era games occurred when kiddie customers were devouring mediocre pizza instead of the overly plotted mechanics served here. That makes it hard to recommend one night in this setting so I just say no.

** (out of four)

Barbie Review

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is never dull and it is a triumph of Dream House production design with exquisite casting. Cowriting with her partner Noah Baumbach, the screenplay is home to some great gags and eventually some emotionally inspired sections. It stumbles occasionally in sketchy territory that seems more in place as a mid-level SNL sketch (with some of the show’s vets performing the material). With Margot Robbie as the classic or “stereotypical” Barbie and Ryan Gosling as a version of Ken who believes his profession is “Beach” (where he spends his days), their chemistry clicks as they explore lands ruled by matriarchy and patriarchy.

The comedy around them can sputter in one scene and pop in the next. This is a satire of corporatism and critique of gender identities that wouldn’t exist without that Mattel cooperation. It has its own well-worn cliches present about the Venus and Mars divisions. Venus is Barbieland here while Mars is the world we know. Gerwig and Baumbach are dealing with a tricky balance and the fact that this mostly succeeds is an impressive achievement.

We meet Robbie’s Barbie in Barbieland where every night is Girls Night (!) alongside President Barbie (Issa Rae), Writer Barbie (Alexandra Shipp), and plenty of others professionals. These women rule the joint while Ken and his fellow Kens (they include Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir) beach during the day and pine for their respective Barbies at night. In one funny revelation, it is said that the women literally have no clue where the Kens stay at night (they do not own dream dwellings).

Our lead Barbie’s blissful existence ends when she starts thinking of death. Soon her perfectly perched feet fall flat and cellulite emerges. These real world problems are due to Earthly interference. She doesn’t want to become like Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), whose physical traits resemble a demented child being creative with her doll parts. Barbie must travel to the Real World which she assumes puts females in the same leadership positions as Barbieland. Gosling’s Ken sneaks along for the ride.

Their journey introduces them to single mom Gloria (America Ferrera) and teen daughter (Ariana Greenblatt). Mom works for Mattel, which is entirely run by males including Will Ferrell’s CEO. She has her own ideas for Barbie iterations and that may be causing Robbie’s imperfections. While she deals with the patriarchy ruling the land, Ken revels in it and soon brings that superior attitude back to Barbieland. A buoyant battle for the sexes follows.

Barbie improves as it goes along. It manages to mostly earn the moving moments that populate the final act. I suspect some of the broader material could’ve been cut down. For example, Ferrell and his band of execs don’t really add much. Yet I dug McKinnon as the oddly configured Weird Barbie. This is an experience where we have Gosling stealing scenes with hilarity and Ferrera doing the same with heartier stuff. Robbie is in the middle of it and she is smartly cast (narrator Helen Mirren has a moment of snarky meta fun commenting on her incredible beauty). There’s plenty to ponder in the politics of Barbie, but maybe not thinking about it too hard is the way to go. The same logic can be applied to Ken’s out of place friend Allan (Michael Cera). He doesn’t really belong, but I enjoyed him. Same goes for the movie where our central character is figuring out where she belongs.

*** (out of four)

Asteroid City Review

Wes Anderson’s mix of melancholia and quirky humor is abundant in Asteroid City with its massive cast and dueling aspect ratios. This is a stunning looking feature focused on the behind the scenes made for TV airing of a play (shot in black & white). The play itself is presented via Technicolor hues in a Western desert setting in the 1950s. Whether it’s the characters they’re playing or the actors and directors themselves, they exist in Anderson’s wheelhouse of themes. From dealing with grief to unlikely romances and coming-of-age under unique circumstances, any filmmaker would be rightly accused of ripping off Anderson if this weren’t made by him. Whether it works will depend on how into him you are. I’m not a die-hard though his signature style popped for me in The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and more. It can also leave me cold. That happened in portions of his previous effort The French Dispatch while other segments were more successful. This City was lukewarm.

The play we see (which takes up the bulk of screen time) happens in the sleepy title dwelling awoken by a youth astronomy convention. One of the top outcasts competing is Woodrow (Jake Ryan), the movie’s Max Fischer from Rushmore but nicer. His father is war photojournalist Augie and he’s played by Jason Schwartzman, who played Max in Anderson’s acclaimed dramedy from 1998. He’s recently widowed and (in a gag that works throughout) hasn’t figured out how to tell his son and three young daughters who might be witches that mom has passed. Tom Hanks is his wealthy father-in-law who lives on a golf course and reluctantly is teeing up accommodations for the family.

Another competitor is Dinah, daughter of Midge (Scarlett Johansson), a sullen movie star who assumes her fate will be similar to ingenues like Marilyn Monroe. She engages in a fireworks free tryst with Augie while Woodrow develops a crush on Dinah.

We’ve seen plenty of all-star casts in his oeuvre, but Anderson outdoes himself in Asteroid City. From Steve Carell’s motel manager to Matt Dillon’s auto mechanic or Tilda Swinton’s scientist and Rupert Friend’s singing cowboy who’s sweet on Maya Hawke’s teacher, the cast is a loaded group. Some are practically blink and you’ll miss them appearances – hey there’s Jeff Goldblum! And Hong Chau! Jeffrey Wright, who gave a segment stealing performance in The French Dispatch, has a highlight scene as a General judging the convention.

Without going into spoiler territory, the plot eventually employs sci-fi elements in an idiosyncratic Wes way. While this is happening, we get monochrome interludes with Bryan Cranston’s host introducing and commenting on the teleplay, Edward Norton as its writer, and Adrien Brody as the randy director. These are great performers, but the best moments come in Asteroid City. The backstage business of meeting the performers counterparts didn’t have a deep impact with me.

Neither did Asteroid City as a whole. Schwartzman and Johansson (who really sells her considerable star magnetism) have a couple memorable scenes of courtship. The technical work, particularly the production design, is impeccable. Yet the emotional and comedic payoff that has worked in Tenenbaums and beyond feels more remote in this bright wasteland.

**1/2 (out of four)