Thumbnails Jul 23

by Tony Medley

The Last Rider (9/10): 96 Minutes. PG-13. Before there was the notorious bike-riding cheater Lance Armstrong, there was Greg LeMond, the first American to win the Tour de France, the exhausting bicycle race through 2,000 miles. Not being a fan of watching men ride bicycles, I was dimly aware of LeMond. But this documentary, directed by Alex Holmes and told by LeMond himself and his wife, Kathy, and others who were there, with footage never seen before, tells a compelling story that is much more than a bicycle race. The first half shows Greg’s life leading up to the 1989 race, which is covered in the second half. It even has films of Greg and Kathy meeting for the first time. While watching a 2,000-mile bicycle race might rival watching water evaporate for excitement, this is a film that exudes drama, especially if you don’t know the byzantine facts leading up to the race and the outcome.

No Hard Feelings (8/10): 103 minutes. R. Never one to shy away from full frontal nudity, Jennifer Lawrence sparkles as a 33-year-old woman with serious financial problems who is hired by a rich couple (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) to initiate their shy, withdrawn son (Andrew Barth Feldman) into manhood prior to his entrance into Princeton. This is a funny, sensitive film that was a pleasant surprise, marred only by Lawrence’s gratuitous smoking, which is becoming increasingly prevalent in films again. Since it has nothing to do with the plot, obviously money talks, and that’s shameful.

Blood & Gold (8/10): 110 minutes. R. Netflix. Set in Germany near the end of WWII, a group of Nazi soldiers is looking for gold they believe is hidden in a small German town. In a well-made, tense stylized action drama that pictures Germany at the end of the war as anarchical, standing in their way are a disgruntled private fleeing from the Wehrmacht, Robert Masser, and a young woman, Maria Hacke, living with and protecting her mentally challenged brother.

The Lesson (6/10): 103 minutes. R. If this is any example, noirs, like baseball, ain’t what they used to be. While Daryl McCormack gives a fine performance as the protagonist Liam, a fledgling writer hired to tutor the son of famous writer J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant) and his wife Hélène (Julie Delpy), the film has inexplicable plot holes any good noir avoids. Directed by Alice Troughton from a script by Alex MacKeith, the mystery slowly builds towards the climax but then any resemblance to a competent noir is destroyed by an ill-advised epilogue; in short, Troughton blinked.

Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny (5/10): 154 Minutes. PG-13. The sixth in a series that started in 1981, this is of a genre whose theme is to make the same movie over and over again with just a change of McGuffins. This time it’s a time warp clock, apparently invented by Archimedes (287 BC-212 BC).

The “same movie” genre probably traces its genesis to James Bond’s Dr. No in 1962. The first three Bond films were terrific; the rest sacrificed story and dialogue for special effects and just got increasingly passé. Sean Connery was right to try to bail after the third. Then came the Fast & Furious franchise, a series of odious car crash films that seems to never end.

Now, this, which constitutes just one ludicrous chase after another, each stretching credulity past the breaking point. The film does, however, have a couple of plusses. Harrison Ford is not only almost as charismatic as Connery, but he is also a fine actor who gives a stellar performance. The second plus is John Williams’ music, which should get him another Oscar® nomination. As for the rest of the film, it is a half hour longer than the previous films, which were already too long; wake me when it’s over.

Suits streaming on Peacock (3/10): 9 Seasons of 44-minute episodes. TV-MA. I watched the first two seasons of this show featuring a law firm associate masquerading as an attorney a decade ago and liked it, especially Patrick J. Adams as the non-attorney. But one of the actresses slowly became the lead actress, and she was so annoying and non-credible it became unwatchable for me, so I tuned out. Several years later she married a British prince and began annoying the whole world.