Josh Bell
This week’s low-profile VOD releases feature Swedish pop stars, British mobsters, Japanese military guards, and an awkward French Jewish guy.
Sounds of Summer (Viaplay September 18): Proof that formulaic musician biopics transcend borders, this film about the early days of Swedish pop group Gyllene Tider is boring and predictable even for international audiences who’ve never heard of its subject. There’s minimal conflict involved in the rise of the band from the small city of Halmstad, where singer-songwriter Per Gessle (Waldemar Wahlbeck) recruits a group of local musicians to realize his dream of rock stardom. Per has the requisite disapproving working-class dad, and the band faces mild skepticism before scoring a record deal and its first national hit in 1980. Wahlbeck maintains a blank smirk for most of the movie, and the other band members barely register as characters. The story climaxes with a concert tragedy that left three fans dead, but even that horrific event is merely a blip on the journey to further success. Gessle (known in the U.S. for his later work with Roxette) wrote some catchy tunes, which make a much greater impression than anything in this uninspired movie. Grade: C
A Nice Jewish Boy (VOD and Film Movement+ September 19): The literal translation of this French movie’s title is The Last of the Jews, which better captures its melancholy tone and downbeat plotting. Writer-director Noé Debré veers from whimsy to bitterness in the story of 26-year-old man-child Bellisha (Michael Zindel), who still lives with his ailing mother Giselle (Agnès Jaoui) in the apartment where he grew up, and has never held a job or gotten a degree. Bellisha is an irritating compulsive liar, but he somehow charms nearly everyone in his life, from his indulgent mother to the married neighbor he’s sleeping with. The Jewish community in Bellisha’s impoverished neighborhood has disappeared, and he makes various flailing efforts to find a new home for himself and his mother, but the movie is as unfocused as its protagonist, with half-formed observations about race, religion, and class alongside goofy scenes of Bellisha attempting to rap. There are some nice moments in the mother-son relationship, although Bellisha is so oblivious that even those tender interactions largely ring hollow. Grade: C+
Prisoner of War (VOD and select theaters September 19): Although it finds a way to have action star Scott Adkins drop-kick a Japanese soldier into a landmine, this World War II-set thriller is mostly a poor fit for Adkins’ skills, and it loses momentum whenever he’s not in the midst of a fight. He’s not particularly convincing as RAF pilot James Wright, who’s captured by the Japanese after his plane goes down over the Philippines. Sent to a POW camp run by the ruthless Lt. Col. Ito (Peter Shinkoda), Wright schemes to help his fellow prisoners escape, while periodically being forced into gladiator-style matches against Ito’s soldiers. The repetitive plot stretches to nearly two hours, and the scenes of planning and bonding among the prisoners are dramatically inert. Actor-turned-director Louis Mandylor (Adkins’ co-star in the Debt Collector movies) aims for a B-movie action version of something like David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai, but he’s no Lean, and Adkins is no Alec Guinness. The bursts of kinetic fight choreography only carry things so far. Grade: C
Takeout (Tubi September 19): Filmmaker Jem Garrard has become a reliable purveyor of higher-end Tubi originals, with movies like the entertainingly campy drag queens-versus-vampires showdown Slay. Takeout is another high-concept single-location thriller, although it’s not nearly as fun. At a rundown chain diner on the edge of some nowhere town, a trio of employees become convinced that one of their late-night customers is a notorious serial killer who makes dolls of all his victims. They try to keep him from leaving long enough to claim the reward for his capture, but numerous obstacles arise over the course of the night, some humorous and some deadly. Garrard starts with an intriguing premise and throws in one solid mid-film twist, but the thin story doesn’t support even the relatively short running time. Later setbacks — including placing a cute child in peril — feel increasingly like contrived delaying tactics. Both the comedy and the suspense are inconsistent, making for a lesser entry in Garrard’s growing Tubi oeuvre. Grade: C+
All the Devils Are Here (VOD and select theaters September 26): There are troubling signs of one of cinema’s most overused twist endings almost right from the start of this gritty British crime drama, and it’s disappointing to see the filmmakers squander their talented cast and promising character dynamics in favor of a cheap gotcha. Veteran character actor Eddie Marsan gets a welcome lead role as career criminal Ronnie, who’s hoping to wind down his outlaw days with the proverbial one last job. After a robbery that devolves into unanticipated violence, Ronnie and his three accomplices hide out in a dilapidated farmhouse, waiting for the all-clear signal from their boss. Director Barnaby Roper delivers a moody, existential take on the Reservoir Dogs template, with Sam Claflin as an unhinged trigger-man and Burn Gorman as an enigmatic mob accountant. Even as the characters start to make deeper connections, though, there’s the nagging sense that this is all leading to a dead end, and when confirmation arrives, it takes all the impact out of a potentially rewarding chamber piece. Grade: C+
