InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 16

FILM REVIEWS
motions deliberate, the range in his voice a weapon. It’s a
tightrope act that could almost be confused for clunky, with how
overt the performative intent can feel, yet it works, both because
Harrison Jr. can be charismatic as hell and because his
approach rings true to this title character: a talented man
embroiled in internal scrutiny in an effort to exist in a world that
reviles him. Bologne is a difficult genius, blessed to be singular,
cursed to be solitary.
Throughout all of this, the specter of the French Revolution
hovers. Characters remark that France is changing — proles are
talking about democracy, women are talking about equality,
Black Parisians are publicly visible. Chevalier ties Bologne’s
struggles and ultimate self-actualization with the Revolution’s
radical, liberating promise. It’s certainly not the strongest
subtextual incorporation, perhaps because these threads don’t
significantly connect until it’s time for his climactic middle finger
to the established order that wronged him. Because of this, the
ending reeks of Hollywood-ified great man theory veneration, the
sort that takes viewers out of the film and reminds them that
they’re watching a par-for-the-course, crowd-pleasing biopic.
Then the credits roll, and we learn that once Napoleon took
power, most of Bologne’s works and records were turned to ash.
That’s when Chevalier’s raison d’être becomes clear: crafting a
reliably rousing tale about a long-forgotten figure deserving of a
myth to enshrine his legend. — TRAVIS DESHONG
DIRECTOR: Stephen Williams; CAST: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Samara
Weaving, Lucy Boynton; DISTRIBUTOR: Searchlight Pictures; IN
THEATERS: April 21; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 47 min.
GHOSTED
Dexter Fletcher
Dexter Fletcher’s Ghosted is a high-concept romantic action
comedy with movie stars and a decent budget that, were this
2005, would presumably have the potential to be both a hit and a
tabloid item, in the vein of something similar to Mr. and Mrs.
Smith (minus the whole meta matrimony stuff, of course). Now,
these movies still get made despite social media claims to the
contrary, but they’re nearly always relegated to streaming and,
just as often, complete garbage. Fletcher’s film, then, isn’t really a
throwback to the summer movies of the 2000s so much as Apple
TV+’s foray into an emergent genre best described as “Netflix
drivel.”
Reuniting two of the stars of Netflix and the Russo brothers’ The
Gray Man, Ghosted sets up a contentious meet-cute between Cole
(Chris Evans) and Sadie (Ana De Armas), quaintly orchestrated in
the farmer’s market where Cole sells his family’s wares. The pair
spend a whole day together, culminating in a sex scene that
reminds why comparing a film to music videos used to be
pejorative. But afterward, Sadie vanishes, leaving all of Cole’s
many text messages unread. As Cole’s hip younger sister explains
— for audiences unacquainted with the modern parlance of the
film’s title — she has ghosted him. Her reasons are made clear
once Cole stalks her to London and is promptly kidnapped by
supervillains: Sadie is an über-competent CIA assassin. She
saves her one-night stand from his demise, and Cole is
subsequently dragged into a half-baked bit of international
espionage.
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN
Rebecca Zlotowski
“Other People’s Children is told entirely without the expected, more dramatic (louder) moments. Music cues rise or cut in earlier
than expected, a whole scene can fade to black, or a conversation won’t be audible until it’s in the aftermath of conflict. This
strategy gives the characters privacy, and lends more weight to the subtleties of performing reflection rather than action.” —
SARAH WILLIAMS [Published as part of InRO’s Sundance 2023 coverage.]
DIRECTOR: Rebecca Zlotowski; CAST: Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni; DISTRIBUTOR: Music Box Films; IN
THEATERS: April 21; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 44 min.
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