Mack & Rita (PG-13)
Diane Keaton plays the "Rita" of the title, a seventy-something whose sunny personality and kooky yet trendy fashion sense makes her an unlikely social media phenomenon. It's a role the legendary actress and eternal style icon can do in her sleep, but pro that she is, she attacks the material with full commitment... even if that material and the filmmakers feel as if they were asleep. Rita is, in fact, Mack (Elizabeth Lail), a 30-year-old old soul more comfortable hanging with senior citizens than her lifelong best friend (Taylour Page). It is on that friend's bachelorette party trip that Mack is somehow turned into her inner septuagenarian after visiting a spiritual guru. Body swap comedies are by concept inherently silly, but that does not mean they cannot be funny. Katie Aselton's film, though, is definitely not that. It's tedious and trite, wasting Keaton's ever-game efforts, as well as bright young talents such as Lail and Paige, who try to make the best of what little Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh's script gives them. Not only do the jokes not land, neither does whatever statement is trying to be made to make about viral social media fame, and most certainly not the story's insipid message about embracing's one true, inner self. That last point may be the film's obvious thematic conclusion going in, but getting there should not feel like such a chore.
Bodies Bodies Bodies (R)
Halina Reijn's film is being sold as a slasher comedy, yet while a rather substantial number of bodies, bodies, bodies stack up in most brutal and bloody fashion over the course of its running time, this is not really a horror movie. In terms of genre, it is more of a darkly comic mystery-thriller, as a gathering of Gen Z friends and frenemies in a large mansion devolves from drug- and alcohol-fueled fun to substance-addled paranoia and suspicion while playing the title party game. Reijn and her able ensemble cast, which includes Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Rachel Sennott, and Pete Davidson, have a lot of fun playing out the shocking deaths, barbed banter, and outrageous twists. Perhaps the most outrageous one of all is what is ultimately revealed to be Reijn's foremost concern, even over all the graphic gore and macabre humor: wickedly satirizing today's obliviously self-absorbed, social media-mad youth, whose exaggerated earnestness and performative empathy are at once cluelessly naive and passive-aggressively toxic -- and, in this case, downright deadly.
Bullet Train (R)
An actual bullet train is known for its efficiency and focus in traveling directly from place to place, point to point. That is a description that most certainly does not apply to David Leitch's film although the basic scenario is comparably simple. A semi-retired assassin (Brad Pitt) is reluctantly called back into action by his handler (a mostly heard, largely unseen Sandra Bullock) for what is supposed to be a quick one-stop ride to retrieve a case. Little does he know that also aboard are a number of other contractors with various agendas that are all in some way intertwined and, more often than not, in conflict with his assignment. With the entry and exit -- often in bloody fashion -- of the various players throughout the voyage, not only does Pitt's train trip get stretched out, so does the film in terms of plot, as backstories and tangents, in addition to new parallel threads, branch out from that simple main line. But however unwieldy the amount of detours become from a storytelling perspective, the film nonetheless consistently engages as an untaxing blast of summer fun. The main reason for this is Leitch's smart choice to maintain primary focus on his specialty: kick-ass action scenes, of which there are more than enough to maintain his train's energy and momentum. That Leitch also has at his disposal a gifted ensemble (also including Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Andrew Koji, Zazie Beetz, and Bad Bunny) that is more than game for all the fights and funny business takes this ride over the top in entertaining fashion.
Easter Sunday (PG-13)
The only straightforward comedy to be released by a major studio this summer finds rising stand-up comedy star Jo Koy making a likable feature starring debut. Granted, he does not have to stretch much at all here, playing Joe Valencia, a semi-autobiographical version of himself, a Filipino-American comedian and actor. As he awaits news of if he's booked a regular television gig, he travels with his teenage son to his childhood home in Northern California to spend an eventful holiday with his family, and all of their personal drama and quirks. That set-up is also hardly groundbreaking for a comedy, but when sticking with the simple, tried and comedically true premise, the film it at its best. Much of that is due to the believably lived-in, love/hate chemistry between Koy and his co-stars, most notably Lydia Gaston as his ever-demanding mother. Koy also has a solid buddy comedy rapport with his main screen partner, Eugene Cordero, who plays an irresponsible cousin caught up in some shady dealings. As Koy's character gets caught up in those criminal entanglements, director Jay Chandrasekhar (who also appears as Joe's prototypically slimy agent), known for his more raucous comedies with the Broken Lizard troupe, threatens to get these proceedings derailed into overwrought outrageousness. Thankfully, the heart and warmth-with-warts truth of the core family story ends up winning out, and not without sacrificing any laughs, thanks to the charm and skill of Koy and the rest of the cast.
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