Josh Bell
A wide-eyed kid and a traumatized former cult member both go on journeys of self-discovery in this week’s fringe VOD releases, which also feature a drag-queen superhero and a pair of our finest DTV action stars.
Diablo (VOD and select theaters June 13): As producers and co-writers, B-movie action mainstays and frequent co-stars Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror know how to tailor this enjoyably straightforward project to their respective strengths. Adkins plays American ex-con Kris Chaney, who travels to Colombia to retrieve the teenage daughter he never got to meet. Elisa (Alanna De La Rossa) has been raised to believe that her father is crime lord Vicente (Lucho Velasco), who’s none too pleased when Kris grabs her off the street. Vicente sends his own henchmen after Kris, but the real danger is the assassin known as El Corvo (Zaror), an intense psychopath with interchangeable prosthetic hands, including a metal fist that detaches to reveal a knife. Adkins conveys just enough emotion for a convincing bond between Kris and Elisa, and Zaror makes El Corvo truly unsettling. The main appeal, of course, is seeing the two of them fight, and director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza keeps the crisp, kinetic action moving from the first moment to the last. Grade: B
Maxxie LaWow: Drag Super-Shero (VOD June 17): With an aesthetic that falls somewhere between second-tier Adult Swim show and YouTube pre-roll ad for a mobile game, this chipper, well-intentioned animated movie wears out its welcome as a 90-minute feature. It would be more palatable as a bite-size web series, and its title character could easily be repurposed for compact episodic adventures. Maxxie LaWow is the alter ego of shy barista Simon (Grant Hodges), who encounters a pink alien entity that transforms him into the super-powered drag queen, sort of a fabulous, fashion-forward version of the Hulk. Maxxie faces off against sinister drag queen Dyna Bolical (Terren Wooten Clarke), but director and co-writer Anthony Hand isn’t particularly interested in plot. The sci-fi high concept is just a framework for fierce looks, cheesy puns, mediocre pop songs, and voice cameos from various RuPaul’s Drag Race alums. It’s intermittently enjoyable, but the humor is often stale, the characterization is thin, and the story goes nowhere. Maxxie radiates confidence and charisma, but her movie isn’t quite as bold. Grade: C+
Don’t Tell Larry (VOD and select theaters June 20): Larry (Kiel Kennedy) may be the office weirdo at a small Midwest travel company, but his co-workers are nearly as unpleasant to spend time with. That’s an issue for this grating cringe comedy, in which ambitious junior executive Susan (Patty Guggenheim) goes to increasingly desperate lengths to cover up a seemingly innocuous lie she told to Larry on his first day. It’s not long before the fallout leads to the accidental death of the company CEO (Ed Begley Jr.), drawing the attention of an intense police detective (Dot-Marie Jones). Susan and her work buddy Patrick (Kenneth Mosley) keep making things worse, both for themselves and for the audience, in painfully drawn out set pieces including an interminable bit involving multiple characters drinking urine. Larry may be creepy, but Susan and Patrick lose any potential sympathy as they conspire against him. The movie isn’t sharp enough to function as a workplace satire, nor dark enough to be truly transgressive. It’s just gross and irritating, much like Larry himself. Grade: C
Into the Wonderwoods (VOD June 24): French cartoonist and filmmaker Vincent Paronnaud is best known in the U.S. for co-directing Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, but his latest animated film is more traditionally kid-targeted, with a cute if scattered story about a young boy finding his purpose. Ten-year-old Angelo (Kristen McGuire in the English-language dub) gets left behind at a roadside rest stop while traveling with his family to visit his dying grandmother, and he decides to press on through the adjacent forest, which turns out to be full of fantastical creatures. Angelo teams up with the strange denizens of the forest to defeat an evil alien determined to destroy all woodland life, although the specifics are a little vague. Paronnaud and co-director Alexis Ducord operate on the logic of childhood imagination, in a movie that’s equal parts Studio Ghibli and Nickelodeon. It sometimes borders on transcendent, but it’s just as often cloying, especially as the different oddball supporting characters pile up. Still, it remains engaging thanks to the lovely, multifaceted animation and likeable protagonist. Grade: B-
So Fades the Light (VOD June 24): Fifteen years after being liberated from a dangerous cult, Sun (Kiley Lotz) still has nightmares about the man known only as the Reverend (D. Duke Solomon). She’s terrified by her visions, but So Fades the Light isn’t really a horror movie, and the inevitable confrontation between the two characters is more about regret and revelation than revenge. While Sun lives a nomadic life in her vintage van and slowly makes her way back to the compound where she was once forced into the role of “god-child,” she’s unaware that the Reverend has been released from prison and is headed to the same destination. Much of So Fades the Light is a meandering road-trip movie, as Sun encounters people who help her understand what she’s seeking. Lotz gives an affecting, low-key performance, which makes it even more powerful when Sun finally lets out her pent-up rage. The result is deliberately anticlimactic, in a way that both enforces and slightly undermines the meaning of Sun’s journey. Grade: B
