Quick takes on The Many Saints of Newark and other films

The Perfect Candidate is a film from Saudi Arabia. It is one of those films with a good message, but unfortunately poorly executed. Maryam is a young woman doctor in a small town, fighting not only poor roads in her little community, but also the religious prejudice against women in her country. The road outside her clinic isn’t paved, so emergency vehicles struggle to even get patients in the door safely. And when they are inside, they don’t want to be treated by a woman. Maryam sets out to Dubai for a medical conference, but is refused entry onto the plane when she doesn’t have a male guardian’s permission (her father, a traveling musician, is on the road). Maryam rushes to get her uncle’s approval in time to catch her flight, and in order to see him (through a silly circumstance), ends up entering the ballot to run for the municipality’s council. She misses her flight, but goes through with the election, running on a platform of paving the road in front of the clinic. By running, Maryam hopes to also shed a light on the growing vocalization of a strong female population. This is the kind of movie that critics will gobble up, but honestly it’s not very good. It feels way too contrived and there’s a subplot involving Maryam’s father that is only present as filler in the movie. Unless something is lost in the translation, the whole thing feels hokey. ★½

The Guilty is a film of two halves. The first half is fantastic. It follows a cop, Joe Baylor, who’s been on leave from the force while being investigated for some unknown transgression. In the meantime, he’s working at a 911 call center, and this evening, the night before his hearing to be reinstated as a police officer, he takes an unforgettable call. On the phone, Emily, in a scared, frantic voice, says she has been abducted, but doesn’t know where she is. Joe can hear a male voice in the background, but Emily is light on details. While Joe is frantically making phone calls to the highway patrol and local police, Emily’s situation gets more dire. With her cell signal bouncing around at different cell towers, Joe is unable to pin down Emily’s location for her to be rescued. It gets more frantic when Joe learns that she has kids at home alone, and he talks to her 6-year-old daughter, who is going crazy with worry. This part of the film is just as good as it sounds. It’s gripping, tension-filled, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Then the big “reveal” hit with about 30 minutes to go, and while it was out of left field, it made the entire film feel gimmicky to me. All of a sudden, my interest level dropped to a level 2. It wrapped up OK I guess, and Jake Gyllenhaal is great in the lead, but the movie is nowhere near as good as it could have been. ★★

I’m bound to find a good movie out of this batch, but I’m still waiting. Echoes of Violence is the worst one yet. I don’t know why I keep watching these “B” movie thrillers, hoping to find a diamond in the rough. Too often disappointed. This one is about a man, Alex, who is a real estate agent getting ready to show a property in the middle of the desert when he hears a struggle off in the sand. He goes to investigate and sees a man standing over a girl. The girl is covered in blood, and cries for help. Alex is able to overcome the man and scares him off, then brings the girl back to the house. She’s been drugged, and as she comes to, she gives her name as Marakya and says she’s recently escaped a bad man who’s been running a sex trafficking ring for immigrants like her. Her attempted murderer was under this man’s employ, and there will be others trying to find her and silence her. Being an illegal, she doesn’t want Alex to call the police, but she wants to get a ride back to LA to exact her own revenge. The only thing going for this one is the pretty face, as Marakya is very easy on the eyes. The movie though is awful, with every bad gimmick, trope, and stereotype under the sun. ★

10-15 years ago, I would have been very excited for The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to the popular Sopranos TV show. Unfortunately too much time has passed since the show ended in 2007 for me to get too worked about the new movie, but I still wanted to see it. Tony Soprano is a kid when it starts and a teenager when it ends, but he isn’t the focus. Most of the story follows Chris Moltisanti’s (Michael Imperioli from the show, who narrates this film from beyond the grave) dad, Dickie, who was a father figure and idol to Tony when Tony’s own father was in jail. It’s a turbulent time in Newark and in the states in general, with the race riots of the 60s being just one of the events in the backdrop of the film. Ultimately this movie is for Sopranos fans alone. There are lots of easter eggs for faithful viewers, and it is fun to see the “old crew” when they were young, like Uncle Junior, Paulie, Silvio, Pussy, and the rest, but that’s about all this movie is: a walk down memory lane for all the old characters. The plot is too loose to really get behind, and for a film following in the footsteps of the one of the great gangster shows of all time, it is awfully light on gangster material. More of a crime drama than anything else, and not a memorable one at that. Very average on its own merits. ★★½

Based on a true story, I Carry You With Me is a Mexican film about two men, in love with each other, and their lives over a couple decades trying to balance their dreams with their relationship. It is told over a couple timelines: in the present day, where Iván and Gerardo play themselves in modern-day New York; a few flashbacks to when they were little kids dealing with the prejudice from others, even their own family, about being gay; and a large part of when they are young men in Mexico. It is this time period, the tale of their time together before Iván leaves to find his dream of being a chef in the USA, and his first year alone there, that showcases the best parts of the film. Iván has held the secret of his homosexuality, knowing the disappointment he’d face from his family. He’s even fathered a son, keeping his hidden life from everyone. Gerardo is openly gay and accepted by his mother, but ridiculed by his father. The actors portraying these two men, Armanda Espitia and Christian Vazquez, are fantastic. Unfortunately I wasn’t a big fan of the documentary-like approach to the modern day storyline. The movie loses its focus and goes all-in on hitting the hard obstacles illegal immigrants face in today’s America. The younger men storyline : 4 stars. The latter: 2 stars. Evens out to 3. Unfortunately, too many uneven films today. ★★★

• TV series currently watching: Batwoman (season 2)
• Book currently reading: Honeysuckle & Pain by Mark Danielewski