adamgehrke.com

Following a tragic life event pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) finds herself on the precipice of of a world tour and stressed out, and, before long her reality and sanity begins slipping; faces of the people around her begin taking on a demonic smile dysmorphia that only she can see. But, what’s truly driving this evil, can it be explained, and can it be stopped?Written and Directed by Parker Finn, this surprisingly effective second installment in the Smile series brings plenty of jack in the box jump scares and shadow boxed punches of terror to keep horror fans happy for at least the first two thirds of the film. And, Scott is clearly a perfect foil for the character given her prowess as an actor and a singer, her talents far exceed the rather cobbled finish in the third act. Where new horror such as It Follows (2014) manages to keep audiences in suspense by specifically not showing the monster, Smile 2 devalues its scare potential dramatically by showing us the evil and it’s hard to go back once we know the monster. Still, strong production values keep this Halloween-y timed fright fest in good company and with subtle nods to Rami and Burton, fans of the genre will find the jumps and chuckles still enjoyable. Running two hours and seven minutes, a tad long, Smile 2 is rated R.

Almut (Florence Pugh) is an up and coming chef in the U.K. culinary scene and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) is a soon to be divorced U.S. Citizen working and living in the U.K.. When a chance encounter brings the two together, a whirlwind love affair is spurred with learning to navigate the tapestry of life, what will the two weave together?Written by Nick Payne and Directed by John Crowley this non-sequential love story aims to strike chords and pull heart strings through “clever reveals,” kind of like opening an advent calendar out of order, which serves the story and the art to an extent but ultimately reveals a Cream of Wheat romance that still manages to telegraph it’s anticlimactic end well in advance. In all, the performances and production value are top notch, but it’s not enough to keep this stale narrative from grounding out before the finish. If you’re looking for the feels, you’ll have to search elsewhere as the audience ends up too insulated from what tragedies life may bring. Running one hour and forty seven minutes, We Live in Time is rated R.

Still in the 1970’s and imprisoned at Arkham Asylum, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) awaits his trial for his crimes as Joker. But, when a chance encounter with Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), a fellow patient and fan, stirs up new emotions, Arthur finds himself conflicted in his duality of self, Joker and Arthur. Sometimes all it takes is just a little push to send things into motion, and all the world’s a stage. Will Arthur get what he wants, what he deserves, or both? Written by Scott Silver, Todd Phillips, and Bob Kane, this terrestrially bound continuation of Joker (2019) moves at a glacial tilt occasionally shifting to inner dialogue set-pieces based in 1970’s golden era song lyrics, which admittedly is stylistically more colorful and interesting, Phoenix’s physical movement is haunting as Joker and Gaga’s voice soars, but the end result isn’t enough to lift this drawn out and mundane pseudo-romance. Moment’s of dark humor do illicit a chuckle or two throughout, but for fans of the psychopathic criminal mastermind, the search continues, alas, we’re left with just a sad clown. In totality, for all of the non-action throughout, the real narrative boils down to the last 30 seconds of the film, which is to say, this parallel universe/D.C. universe feels too close to boring to be interesting, almost like the way A.I. models create lifelike images based on comics, sometimes fun and interesting for a moment, but in actuality void of the spirit and reason we love their true construct, for escapism and the impossible, of which we only get measured doses of here. Running two hours and eighteen minutes Joker: Folie à Deux is rated R.