#Middlebury
“The Front Runner” (R) – Charismatic and cocksure, Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) blew up the 1988 campaign trail. Youth, vitality and a political swagger sent him rocketing to the top of the Democratic ticket, until allegations of womanizing brought it all crashing down around him. Director Jason Reitman gives a well-paced look into the making of a snowball and how a new, changing news world asserted itself over personality politics – the moment when it was decided that a candidate cannot be just about the issues. J.K. Simmons is electric as Bill Dixon, Hart’s campaign manager.
Rami Malek in “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Twentieth Century Fox photo)
“Bohemian Rhapsody” (PG-13) – There is a reason Rami Malek is nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the Queen biopic out this week on DVD and still storming big screens worldwide (it just surpassed $100 million in Japan alone): He’s mesmerizing, and so was his subject. Freddie Mercury was outlandish, over the top and incredibly talented with a fascinating personal story and rocky personality. Add the rest of Queen with Brian May (Gwylim Lee), Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello), plus good casting on peripheral players, and it’s a crowd pleaser, if not 100 percent accurate. The music is magic, and that’s all we really needed.
“Maria by Callas” (PG) – Another biography, this one a documentary by director and screenwriter Tom Volf, is a self-portrait of sorts, an intimate look at Maria Callas, operatic phenomenon and the world’s greatest soprano. From her New York beginnings to international renown, her story is told unabashedly, in her own words – almost entirely in her own voice – from interviews, private footage and personal recordings supplemented by her letters (read by Joyce DiDonato, a contemporary opera powerhouse). Outspoken and outrageous, Callas was no meek miss. She was a true diva. Her voice was an extraordinary gift that she shared with the world, and she knew it.
“Nobody’s Fool” (R) – Tiffany Haddish and Tika Sumpter star in Tyler Perry’s latest rom-com and first foray into R-rating territory. Haddish plays Tanya, recently incarcerated comical misfit whose sister Danica (Sumpter) is a straight-arrow marketing exec with a ho-hum personal life (despite being insanely beautiful, she’s been jilted by her former boyfriend and is in an online relationship). When Tanya is paroled, Danica is dispatched by their mother (Whoopi Goldberg) to help her set her life in order, but shenanigans ensue when Tanya suspects Danica is being catfished online. Omari Harwick plays Frank, a local coffee shop owner who agrees to employ Tanya and courts Danica. I’d like to say it’s hilarious, but it was flat and sadly forgettable.
New TV Releases
“American Vandal” Season 1
“Nightflyers” Season 1
“American Chopper” Season 8
“Miracle Workers” Season 1
“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”
© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.
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