Till: Absolutely riveting

Till (2022) • View trailer

Five stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity, strong disturbing images and racial slurs

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 10.21.22

2017’s Academy Award-nominated live-action short subjects included filmmaker Kevin Wilson Jr.’s My Nephew Emmett, which dramatizes Moses Wright’s late-night dread, as he awaits the men who he knows will kill his nephew.

 

It’s a heart-stoppingly solemn, quietly powerful 20-minute experience.

 

Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall, center) pauses before entering the tiny grocery store, where
the next few minutes will forever change his life, and the lives of many, many others.

Director Chinonye Chukwu’s Till is far from quiet, and even more powerful. Thanks to her astute direction, along with a meticulously detailed and thoroughly absorbing script — co-written by Chukwu, Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp — this film is mesmerizing, appalling and unforgettable.

(Beauchamp spent 27 years researching Till’s heinous murder, and his research prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen the case in 2004.)

 

Chukwu draws an absolutely amazing performance from Danielle Deadwyler, cast as Emmett’s loving and protective mother, Mamie. When eventually confronted with what has happened to her 14-year-old son — what he looks like, when she sees his brutally maimed body — Deadwyler summons a degree of anguish, heartbreak and fury that I’d not have thought possible.

 

This goes far beyond acting; she becomes Mamie Till.

 

Few film performances achieve the impact of similar work in a live theatrical production, because the screen remains a barrier between us and the actors. But Deadwyler’s breathtaking work here is a rare exception; she unerringly navigates an astonishing range of richly nuanced emotions, as Mamie resolutely embarks on a path she never would have chosen for herself, and often dreads walking.

 

But that comes later.

 

Equally impressive is the degree of restraint and dignity with which Chukwu and her writers allow this story to unfold; this must’ve been quite difficult, considering the heinousness of what occurred.

 

Events begin in Chicago, in the summer of 1955. Mamie is a widowed single mother — her husband died in action, during World War II — who is the head of her household, and (tellingly) the sole Black woman working for the Air Force in this city. She dotes on Emmett (Jalyn Hall), nicknamed “Bobo,” her only child; he’s an irrepressibly cheerful bundle of energy.

 

Hall’s performance is equally engaging; his handling of Emmett is a blend of enthusiasm and joy, with subtle touches of youthful arrogance. He simply loves life, his gaze forever radiant. (It’s difficult to be certain, as a viewer, if we detect the boy’s somewhat reckless streak on its own, or because we already know that this side of Emmett will prove his undoing.)

 

Luck: It could use more

Luck (2022) • View trailer

Three stars (out of five). Rated G, and suitable for all ages

Available via: Apple TV+

By Derrick Bang

It has been said — of some poor souls — that if they didn’t have bad luck, they’d have no luck at all.

 

Sam Greenfield (voiced by Eva Noblezada) falls into that category. Toasters malfunction, door knobs fall apart, bicycle tires go flat and pump handles break. Sadly, she also has spent her entire life at the Summerland Home for Girls, as an orphan never lucky enough to find new parents who would offer her a “forever home.”

 

Although Bob the cat regards the Land of Luck's workings as "just another day at the
office," Sam — a human in a realm where she doesn't belong — is amazed by all of
its wonders.

Now, having just turned 18, she has “aged out” and must make her own way in the big, bad world.

Director Peggy Holmes’ Luck is the newest release from Skydance Animation, and the first to emerge since former Pixar guru John Lasseter came on board in early 2019. Although Lasseter is credited solely as co-producer, this film definitely has familiar, Pixar-esque elements that suggest he had a guiding hand in shaping the script: not least of which is the aforementioned first act, as the characters of Sam and her adolescent best friend Hazel (Adelynn Spoon) are established.

 

You’ll detect the mildly retro, heart-tugging pathos that was so important to films such as Toy Story, Up and Inside Out.

 

Hazel, poised to meet an adoptive couple who might become her “forever family,” has stacked the deck as only a child could: with a cigar box filled with good-luck tokens. She needs only a “lucky penny” to complete what she believes will be her can’t-miss shot at happiness.

 

Sam, although desperate to oblige, has enough trouble coping with her own newly acquired adult responsibilities … starting with a darling studio apartment that conspires to make her late for her first day as a clerk at an arts and crafts big box store. This emporium is run by the cheerful Marvin (Lil Rel Howery), who — upon seeing how Sam makes utter hash of even simple assignments — wisely sends her outside on “cart patrol.”

 

At the end of this long, accident-prone day, a dejected Sam sits on the curb and impulsively shares her panini with a stoic black cat. After it departs, she spots — could it be? — a lucky penny.

 

Sam’s subsequent investigation of this coin’s power is a riot, particularly with respect to its control over the jelly-side-down principle. But this applies only when the penny is in her possession; she guards it carefully, intending to pass it along to Hazel.

 

Alas, not carefully enough.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: A disappointing shellacking

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) • View trailer 
2.5 stars. Rated PG-13, and rather harshly, for sci-fi action and violence
By Derrick Bang

I’m not persuaded the world wanted — or needed — another big-screen adaptation of this trés bizarre comic book franchise, but we critics must play the hands we’re dealt.

Having been taken to the underground lair populated by New York's rather odd vigilante
heroes, April (Megan Fox) hears their origin story from Splinter (foreground, seated) while
the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — from left, Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo and
Michelangelo — listen attentively.

While director Jonathan Liebesman’s film is a hot gonzo mess, it does benefit from giddy pacing, wacky humor and a couple of ambitious action sequences. So, yes, young viewers will have a good time, but their older companions probably will find these proceedings too weird, too dumb, and much too disorganized.

Nor does it help that the film’s primary human star, Megan Fox, still can’t act a lick.

From a purely sociological standpoint, this film demonstrates a fascinating phenomenon: the intangible nature of credibility. Avid fans who wholly embrace the frivolous sci-fi nuttiness of, say, Guardians of theGalaxy, nonetheless will be hard-pressed to forgive Liebesman’s take on the Ninja Turtles. It’s not just the concept; both properties exist in equally impossible realms, and require a massive suspension of disbelief.

It comes down to tone and execution. Liebesman’s film is sloppy, its script — credited to Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Evan Daugherty — clumsy and inconsistent. The core premise is an eyebrow-raiser to begin with, but then the villains, and their scheme for world domination, are just lunatic. The narrative is slapdash, details introduced or abandoned at whim.

Original creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman did a far better job with their comic books, back in the 1980s.

Anyway...

In a New York apparently bereft of Superman, the Avengers or any of the other run-of-the-mill champions, an über-violent army of thugs known as the Foot Clan have terrorized the city for months. Nobody seems able to stop them; even the police are helpless, with “protection” having been outsourced (?!) to a private company headed by billionaire industrialist Eric Sacks (William Fichtner).

I dunno ... if helpless citizens are being assaulted, kidnapped and killed as shown here, it seems like the NYPD might rally a bit, perhaps even request assistance from the National Guard or some other federal strike force. Doncha think?