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Film Review - The Adam Project

’The Adam Project’ movie review: Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy (’Free Guy’) reunite for a time-travel thriller - The Washington Post

[MOVIE B] The Adam Project (MO) -- File Tuesday

In the time-travel thriller “The Adam Project,” Ryan Reynolds reunites with Shawn Levy, his director on last year’s video game rom-com “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/free-guy-movie-review/2021/08/10/67185c08-f601-11eb-a49b-d96f2dac0942_story.html" target="_blank">Free Guy</a>” (nominated for an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/02/08/oscar-nominations-2022/" target="_blank">Oscar</a> for visual effects, a.k.a. the popcorn-movie category). But Reynolds/Levy isn’t the most noteworthy pairing in the film, which centers on Adam Reed (Reynolds), a fighter pilot from the year 2050 who travels backward in his “time jet” to the year 2022 during a rescue mission, teaming up with his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell). Scobell makes for a funhouse-mirror reflection of Reynolds, a smart-alecky and asthmatic bullying victim who is a sort of a Mini-Me version of the acerbic, grown-up Adam: somewhere between a PG-13 version of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/deadpool-marvels-merc-with-a-mouth-has-teeth-too/2016/02/11/5941019c-cce6-11e5-88ff-e2d1b4289c2f_story.html" target="_blank">Deadpool </a>and Reynolds’s glibly sardonic art-thief character in “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/november-12-new-streaming-movie-roundup/2021/11/10/c53be262-3816-11ec-8be3-e14aaacfa8ac_story.html" target="_blank">Red Notice</a>.”

Okay, so “glibly sardonic” describes almost every Ryan Reynolds character: i.e., snarky, larky and full of malarkey. It’s a pleasure, though, to watch Reynolds and Scobell play off each other, with one character bringing the wisecracking wisdom of hindsight to the dynamic, and the other acting more than slightly chagrined to see what he grows up to become.

As for the whole time-travel thing, there are some logic holes, as there always are whenever characters meet past or future versions of themselves, or mess with the timeline (also known as the Butterfly Effect.). At one point, there are three versions of Reynolds’s character, all at different ages, and all living in the same moment. There are also two versions of Catherine Keener, who plays Maya, Adam’s nemesis from the future, as well as Maya’s younger self (created via a not-especially-convincing bit of digital deepfake wizardry).

True to his glib self, Adam has a catchall answer for the plot conundrums, such as: If middle-aged Adam is the grown-up version of the 12-year-old Adam, does Big Adam from the future retain a memory of meeting Little Adam in the past? It’s a good question. But the answer, as contributed by writers Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin, T.S. Nowlin and Jonathan Tropper, is nonsensical. In the future, Adam explains, the “prevailing wisdom” in the field of time travel science is that, once you return to your “fixed time” — that is, the time you were meant to inhabit — your mind erases any memories of what happened to you outside that time.

How convenient. Or, rather, how inconvenient, considering the film uses time travel as a form of high-tech family therapy.

In addition to Adam’s rescue mission, which is best left unexplained except to say it involves Zoe Saldaña, there’s a second narrative involving a reconciliation with Adam’s father (Mark Ruffalo), who happens to be the inventor of time travel, not to mention a little too wrapped up in his work. That’s actually the more satisfying of the two story threads, and involves less suspension of disbelief than the action sequences, which involve a lot of chase scenes, special effects and futuristic weapons, including a lightsaber-like thing.

In that regard, “The Adam Project” is reminiscent of the 2000 film “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/entertainment/movies/reviews/frequencykempley.htm" target=_blank>Frequency</a>,” a surprisingly satisfying time-travel-adjacent thriller and murder mystery in which a man (Jim Caviezel) uses ham radio — tapping into the past via an electrical disturbance caused by the aurora borealis — to talk to his dead father (Dennis Quaid). The (pseudo-)science in both films is secondary to the interpersonal drama, whose themes of yearning for a lost connection are especially resonant.

“The Adam Project” isn’t especially smart, but it does leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Its science grade is only passing, but its emotional IQ is above average.

PG-13. Available on Netflix; also at Cinemark’s Fairfax Corner 14 and Egyptian 24. Contains violence, action, strong language and suggestive references. 106 minutes.

Michael O'Sullivan has covered the arts for The Washington Post since 1993, contributing reviews and features on film, fine art, theater and other forms of entertainment to Style and Weekend.

Michael O'Sullivan

’The Adam Project’ movie review: Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy (’Free Guy’) reunite for a time-travel thriller

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Ryan Reynolds meets his Mini-Me in the time-travel thriller ‘The Adam Project’ 

Film Review - Turning Red

’Turning Red’ movie review: Domee Shi’s semi-autobiographical first feature film is audacious, funny and sweet - The Washington Post

The themes that filmmaker Domee Shi touched on (in only seven minutes) in her brilliant, Oscar-winning animated 2018 short, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/a-viewers-and-bettors-guide-to-the-2019-oscar-shorts/2019/02/06/67517072-2720-11e9-81fd-b7b05d5bed90_story.html" target=_blank>Bao</a>” — about a young man struggling to cut apron strings in the face of powerful, maybe even suffocating maternal expectations — get a full-blown workout in “Turning Red,” her richly layered, thematically bold feature-length animated follow-up.

Here, those themes have become even more personal: The son is now a daughter: 13-year old protagonist Meilin “Mei Mei” Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), the child of Chinese immigrants, growing up in 2002 Toronto and just discovering the wonders of the opposite sex. Shi, who was born in China in 1989, moved to Canada at an early age, and was raised, like the character Mei Mei, in the shadow of the city’s iconic <a href="https://www.cntower.ca/en-ca/home.html" target="_blank">CN Tower</a>. Among other things, the film is a semi-autobiographical love letter to the director’s adopted city: home to Canada’s largest immigrant community, and here populated by a tapestry of characters who are not just from Asia, but the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and the Indian subcontinent. In short, the hyper-specificity of the film’s temporal, geographic and cultural setting — vividly rendered, as we have come to expect from a Pixar film — makes “Turning Red” seem like a version of Shi’s own coming-of-age story.

Mei Mei wakes up one day to discover that she has turned into a giant red panda. In “Bao,” the son was represented, less literally, as an anthropomorphic <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2019/03/18/__trashed-6/" target=_blank>bao</a>, or Chinese steamed bun, but only in his mother’s dream. Here, the transformation is quite literal. When Mei Mei changes back to human form — her temporary, werewolf-like metamorphosis is triggered by strong emotion, and can be undone by calming down — her once-black hair remains a bright, flame red.

The metaphorical implications are fascinating and, considering this is a Disney film, rather audacious. When Mei Mei confesses to her mother Ming (Sandra Oh) — haltingly, and without specifics — that a change has come over her body, Mom’s first reaction is understandable. “Did the red peony bloom?” Ming asks her daughter, euphemistically referring to the onset of puberty, and offering an armful of feminine hygiene products. “You’re now a beautiful, strong flower, who must protect your delicate petals and clean them regularly,” she adds, in one of the film’s more hilarious examples of motherly misunderstanding and circumlocution.

But despite the biological implications suggested by its title, “Turning Red” is much more than a menstrual PSA. It turns out that all the Lee women share Mei Mei’s predicament: a magical inheritance from an ancestor who possessed the ability to become a red panda to protect her people. Today, all of Mei Mei’s female relatives — her aunts and grandmother (Wai Ching Ho) — have managed to contain the beast, as it were, via an ancient ritual. On one overly simplistic level, “Turning Red” evokes and gives new meaning to the once-widespread sexist sobriquet for menstruation: the Curse. But Shi has a lot more to say.

TURNING RED

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In a broad sense, “Turning Red” is, like “Bao,” about growing up, growing apart and growing into whoever you choose to become. For Mei Mei, that person is not the same tightly contained woman as her mother, or whom her mother wishes her to be. (Ming is Shi’s answer to the perfectionist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/06/27/dear-tiger-mom-your-perfectionist-parenting-style-may-be-detrimental-to-your-child/" target="_blank">Tiger Mother</a>: a Panda Mom, as it were.) On one level, Mei-Mei is simply becoming a teenager: “I like boys,” she defiantly declares at one point, “I like loud music, I like gyrating. I’m 13 — deal with it.” The film’s main plot concerns the efforts of Mei-Mei and her friends to attend a concert by <a href="https://www.4town.com/" target="_blank">4*Town</a>, a fictional boy band whose spot-on PG love songs were written by Finneas O’Connell and his sister Billie Eilish, and include the amusing lyric:

Had friends and I’ve had buddies, it’s true.

But they don’t turn my tummy the way you do.

Zooming out even further, “Turning Red” delivers a bigger, and in some ways more universal message: It’s okay to not always be in control, to let your freak flag fly. To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a red panda is just a red panda. And sometimes it’s a metaphor for that inner spark of creativity, the flame of originality that is to be cherished, not extinguished. With “Turning Red,” Shi demonstrates that she’s got it, in spades.

PG. Available March 11 on Disney Plus. Contains mature thematic elements, suggestive material and some rude language. 100 minutes.

’Turning Red’ movie review: Domee Shi’s semi-autobiographical first feature film is audacious, funny and sweet

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Pixar’s ‘Turning Red’ is a brilliant, hilarious follow-up to Oscar-winning short ‘Bao’

I AM HERE

’I Am Here’ movie review: Documentary tells the story of 98-year-old Holocaust survivor Ella Blumenthal - The Washington Post

Combining animation and voice-over interviews, the Holocaust-memoir documentary “I Am Here,” while a moving tale of survival, calls to mind another, far superior film that tells a thematically related story using a similar structure. Like Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s transfixing and inspirational “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/flee-movie-review/2022/01/18/378585f2-7873-11ec-9102-d65488c31bb1_story.html" target=_blank>Flee</a>,” — the animated saga of an Afghan refugee that has just been nominated for three <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/02/08/oscar-nominations-2022/" target=_blank>Oscars</a> in an unprecedented trifecta of major categories: best animated feature, best international feature and best documentary feature — “I Am Here” introduces us to another memorable survivor.

In 2019, on the occasion of her 98th birthday, Polish-born Ella Blumenthal related her World War II experiences under the Nazis to documentarian Jordy Sank from her home in Cape Town, South Africa. (Blumenthal is now 100, and comes across as lively and sharp as a tack.) To tell this narrative, Sank cuts away from interviews with Blumenthal and archival photos and footage to illustrate Blumenthal’s ordeal — first in the Warsaw Ghetto, followed by imprisonment in camps at Majdanek, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen — with simple animation. As with the experiences of “Flee’s” pseudonymous subject “Amin,” the primitive, almost crude cartooning makes for an effective and stirring form of storytelling. It’s like Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/01/27/maus-ban-tennessee-mcminn-county-holocaust/" target=_blank>recently targeted by censors</a> — a monstrous fable delivered in a more-digestible form.

Censors love to target comics such as 'Maus.' Here's why.

We’re introduced to Blumenthal’s story with a bit of context: In response to a Holocaust denier, Blumenthal offered to share her personal story with the denier —  not in anger but with love. Although we are never shown such a meeting, the saga that she weaves in front of Sank’s camera is, in a manner of speaking, directed toward an unseen someone, and not the average viewer. It’s not that we’ve heard Blumenthal’s tale before — even as one of millions, including the stories we’ll never hear, it’s heartbreaking — but that it’s framed as a rebuttal in a debate. Most viewers of “I Am Here” will need no such convincing.

“I Am Here” is, at its core, something much less complicated: a bearing of witness to horror. It’s inspirational, yes, but sadly far from unique. In its oft-heard contours, then, lies both its power and its tragic familiarity.

PG-13. At area theaters. Contains Holocaust-related thematic material, disturbing images and violence. 73 minutes.

’I Am Here’ movie review: Documentary tells the story of 98-year-old Holocaust survivor Ella Blumenthal

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Documentary tells a Holocaust-survival story in simple animation

HUDA’S SALON

HUDA?S SALON

New movies to stream from home this week. - The Washington Post

From Hany Abu-Assad, the Palestinian-Dutch writer-director behind the Oscar nominated films “Paradise Now” and “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/omar-movie-review/2014/02/19/dd4a6202-94db-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html">Omar</a>,” “Huda’s Salon” tells two separate, yet intertwined tales. Set in the walled West Bank city of Bethlehem, both explosive narratives are set off at a hair salon, where a young mother, Reem (Maisa Abd Elhadi) has just been blackmailed by the shop’s owner, Huda (Manal Awad), who hopes to enlist Reem in a network of women working as spies for the Israeli intelligence corps. (The blackmail involves taking photographs of a fake sexual tryst, staged while Reem was drugged.) When word gets out about Huda’s activities, she is abducted by the Palestinian resistance movement, and interrogated, over the course of the film, by a methodical inquisitor named Hasan (Ali Suliman). Reem, meanwhile, terrified of what her irrationally jealous husband (Jalal Masarwa) might do if he sees the photos, is simultaneously being hunted by Hasan’s thugs. As disturbing as it is to imagine a business executive entrapping a customer into becoming an informant, it’s more troubling to realize that this betrayal is being carried out at the behest of a state agency. But Abu-Assad leans into the story’s nuances and contradictions. During her interrogation, Huda tells Hasan, “It’s easier to occupy a society that is already repressing itself” — a reference to the patriarchal restrictions of the Arab world. At moments like these, it feels as if there’s a third person present at Huda’s interrogation: Abu-Assad himself, whispering overly theatrical lines into his protagonists’ ears. These stagy scenes are the most contrived of “Huda’s Salon.” It’s Reem’s plight that is the most affecting — and the most doomed. R. Available on demand. Contains disturbing violence, graphic nudity, mature thematic material, some strong language and smoking. In Arabic with subtitles. 91 minutes.

[Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide]

FRESH

In a lineage of cannibal films that includes everything from the ghoulish black comedy of “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1982/11/05/eating-raoul-no-spice/34d9a1b8-511c-4d67-9300-724877eecf03/">Eating Raoul</a>” to the serial-killer horror of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/thesilenceofthelambsrkempley_a0a158.htm">Hannibal Lecter movies</a> to the idea of flesh-eating as a metaphor for female sexual desire in “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/art-house-horror-film-raw-is-an-impressive-directorial-debut-by-julia-ducournau/2017/03/23/0bbd169e-08c8-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html">Raw</a>,” “Fresh” falls somewhere in the cracks between those movies. When unlucky-in-love millennial Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) has a meet-cute in the produce aisle with Steve (Sebastian Stan), a handsome, funny and successful surgeon several years her senior, they seem to have real chemistry. That is until, on one of their very first dates, Noa discovers that Steve’s previous pillow talk — saying, in effect, that he just wants to gobble her up — is meant literally. Other plot specifics are best left unspoiled, because “Fresh,” true to its name, is not what you might expect. Oh, it’s gruesome, all right, and there’s plenty of distasteful — even, at times, offensive — damsel-in-distress energy. But the debut feature of director Mimi Cave (working from a screenplay by Lauryn Kahn) is full of unexpected touches, not the least of which is casting the genial Stan in the role of heavy. I wouldn’t call “Fresh” feminist — not entirely — and it’s not often laugh-out-loud funny (except when Noa expresses dismay to discover that Steve, on top of everything else, is married). But it’s different, keeping viewers on their toes with its critique of contemporary dating and the objectification of women, while at the same time satisfying the basest appetites of traditional horror fans. R. Available on Hulu. Contains strong and disturbing violence, some bloody images, crude language throughout, some sexual material and brief graphic nudity. 114 minutes.

AGAINST THE ICE

Co-written by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Game of Thrones”), “Against the Ice” is an Arctic adventure tale based on “Two Against the Ice,” a 1957 memoir by Danish explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen about his 1909-12 expedition to Greenland. <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/against-the-ice-review-1235175372/">Variety</a> writes: “Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Joe Cole and the snow in Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s beard, the film faithfully recounts the many perils that Mikkelsen (Coster-Waldau) and sidekick Iver Iverson (Cole) faced in their attempt to retrieve the findings of an ill-fated previous expedition. Yet somehow, aside from a nicely mounted polar bear attack and a well-turned sled-vs.-cliff encounter, it never feels particularly perilous.” TV-MA. Available on Netflix. 103 minutes.

ASKING FOR IT

Vanessa Hudgens, Kiersey Clemons, and Alexandra Shipp lead an all-female vigilante gang in “Asking for It,” a thriller about women seeking revenge in the wake of a sexual assault. In its review of Eamon O’Rourke’s feature debut (which also stars Ezra Miller, Gabourey Sidibe, Radha Mitchell and Luke Hemsworth), the <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/asking-for-it-film-review-kiersey-clemons-vanessa-hudgens/">Wrap </a>writes: “Every scene is designed to feel portentous, but with so much talent working together, the constant jump cuts, graphic still shots and Lilah Larson’s ever-present (and excellent) score do keep us effectively on edge.” R. Available on demand. Contains disturbing and violent images, sexual material, nudity and strong language throughout. 102 minutes.

The documentary “Citizen Ashe” examines the life and career of tennis player Arthur Ashe, who in 1975 became the first African American man to win Wimbledon, when he defeated the heavily favored Jimmy Connors in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/arthur-ashe-broke-ground-for-black-tennis-players-and-athlete-activists/2020/07/01/2a2bc0fe-b729-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html">a dramatic 1975 showdown</a>. According to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/02/movies/citizen-ashe-review.html">New York Times</a>, “Ashe’s story certainly has moments of great drama and high tension, but, as a sports figure, he inspired decidedly undramatic sobriquets like ‘the gentle warrior.’ This documentary shows you a truer, sharper picture.” Unrated. Available on Apple TV Plus, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, FandangoNOW and more. 96 minutes.

Dear Mr. Brody

From Keith Maitland, the director of the acclaimed documentary “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/tower-is-a-well-crafted-documentary-that-deliberately-leaves-out-a-major-detail/2017/02/13/d3f5433a-eef5-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html">Tower</a>,” “Dear Mr. Brody” takes a documentary look at Michael Brody, the heir to a margarine fortune, who, in 1971, announced his intention to away his $25 million inheritance to anyone who wrote to him in need. Focusing on a cache of unopened letters that were recently discovered, the film is a “fascinating” examination of, according to <a href="https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/dear-mr-brody-review-1234994293/">Variety</a>, “greed, need and altruism.” Unrated. Available on demand. 98 minutes.

Performers Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball Relaxing in Chairs

Contributor

On the heels of Aaron Sorkin’s dramatic Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz biopic “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/being-the-ricardos-movie-review/2021/12/07/5983bae2-56c8-11ec-a808-3197a22b19fa_story.html" title="www.washingtonpost.com">Being the Ricardos</a>” comes the documentary “Lucy and Desi.” Directed by Amy Poehler, this portrait of a pioneering TV power couple has two fascinating subjects but, according to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/feb/28/lucy-and-desi-review-amy-poehler-lucille-ball-documentary">Guardian</a>, “feels more like paint-by-numbers PR.” PG. Available on Amazon. Contains mature thematic elements, smoking and coarse language. 102 minutes.

[Golden Age of TV is tarnished in Aaron Sorkin’s ‘Being the Ricardos’]

RUN & GUN

In the thriller “Run &amp; Gun,” Ben Milliken plays Ray, a reformed criminal who is blackmailed into accepting one last job from a mobster (Richard Kind of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). But Ray is ultimately double-crossed, and must revert to his old skills to escape assassins. R. Available on demand. 96 minutes.

THE WEEKEND AWAY

Photographer

Michael O'Sullivan

Washington, D.C.

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