Los Angeles Times - 13.03.2020

E6 FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2020 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

AT THE MOVIES: REVIEWS

James Patterson and
Liza Marklund’s bestselling
2010 mystery novel “The
Postcard Killers” combined
Patterson’s page-turner in-
stincts with Marklund’s
moody Scandinavian spin
on a serial-killer thriller. The
mediocre movie version is
called “The Postcard
Killings” — a retitling as
clumsy as the film itself.
Oscar-winning “No
Man’s Land” director Danis
Tanovic puts an art-house
gloss on the lurid story of a
New York cop named Jacob
Kanon (Jeffrey Dean Mor-
gan), who’s trying to hunt
down the person or persons
who killed his daughter in
London. With the help of in-
vestigative journalist Dessie
Leonard (Cush Jumbo) and
some fellow lawmen, Jacob
uncovers a pattern of maca-
bre murders, each preceded
by the arrival of a mysterious
postcard.
The mystery elements of
“The Postcard Killings”

don’t hold much suspense.

Despite Tanovic ’s efforts to

depict these crimes and

their aftermath as aestheti-

cized abstractions, there’s

something depressingly

mundane about the way the

murders and the investiga-

tion play out.

Ever since “The Silence of

the Lambs” turned an elabo-

rately grisly serial-killer plot

into an award-winning

mega-hit, movie theaters

and TV screens alike have

been filled with colorful

predators and their tortured

trackers, trapped in a bloody

game of cat and mouse. It

takes a lot to make these sto-

ries feel new. “The Postcard

Killings” — awkwardly

pitched between serious art

and pulp trash — doesn’t do

nearly enough.

— Noel Murray

“The Postcard Killings.”

Not rated. Running time: 1

hour, 44 minutes. Playing:

Laemmle Glendale

Damir SagoljRLJE Films

DESSIE(Cush Jumbo) and Jacob (Jeffrey Dean Mor-
gan) in filmmaker Danis Tanovic ’s mediocre thriller.

‘THE POSTCARD KILLINGS’

Art and trash trip

over each other

Despite the noble ambi-

tions of writer-director Sal-

ly Potter (“Orlando, “The

Party”), “The Roads Not

Taken” proves a morose

and baffling drama; a

painful, snail’s-paced 85

minutes with little payoff.

The film was inspired

by Potter’s time caring for

her late brother, Nic, who

was diagnosed with early

onset dementia in 2010.

Here we find Nic proxy Leo

(Javier Bardem), a writer

compromised by some un-

named but deeply disa-

bling neurological condi-

tion, living in a crummy

Brooklyn apartment next to

the train tracks. He’s con-

fused, incoherent, childlike

and resistant.

Leo’s devoted daughter,

Molly (Elle Fanning), a jour-

nalist (we’re told), arrives

one morning to take him to

the dentist and the optome-

trist.

But Leo simply can’t han-

dle these simple tasks and

the day turns into an awk-

ward series of disasters.

Meanwhile, he imagines

what his life might have

been like had he stayed in

his native Mexico with his

first love (Salma Hayek) or

remained on the Greek is-

land he escaped to after

marrying Molly’s mother

(Laura Linney).

These episodes read as

flashbacks but are intended

as peeks into “parallel

worlds.” It’s an ill-conceived

device that evokes a host of

unanswered questions.

The expressive Bardem

does his best with his mud-

dled role, Fanning is all in,

and Hayek works hard, but

Linney is sadly underused.

— Gary Goldstein

“The Roads Not Taken.”In

English and Spanish with

English subtitles. Rated: R

for language. Running time:

1 hour, 25 minutes. Playing:

The Landmark, West Los

Angeles.

Bleecker Street

THE AILING LEO(Javier Bardem) leans on his

devoted daughter, Molly (Elle Fanning), for support.

‘THE ROADS NOT TAKEN’

Baffling trip into

‘parallel worlds’

A somewhat introverted

boy is doing OK. Then he

meets a possibly magical

girl, and he’s doing great.

In the Disney+ teen ro-

mance “Stargirl” (based on

Jerry Spinelli’s novel), Leo

(Graham Verchere) and

Stargirl (“America’s Got

Talent” winner Grace Van-

derWaal) find each other —

and themselves. As you can

guess from her name, she’s a

free spirit whose infectious

positivity wins over the

school and especially Leo,

who’s been grieving his fa-

ther’s death much of his life.

But what will happen when

her individuality puts her at

odds with the other kids and

even her adoring boyfriend?

It’s a familiar template:

inactive protagonist, dead

parent, popularity worries, a

regional competition. But

the film distinguishes itself

from there, largely because

of the direction of “Fast Col-

or’s” Julia Hart. It’s a Disney

movie, with sequences

showcasing VanderWaal’s

ethereal singing, but it’s shot

more like an indie by cine-

matographer Bryce Fortner

(“Ingrid Goes West”), with

found light and warm colors.

Verchere and Vander-

Waal have some chemistry,

and Verchere has a nice sing-

ing voice. VanderWaal ac-

quits herself well enough in

her film debut. The relation-

ships and situations aren’t

deeply explored, but it’s not

that kind of movie. Does it ef-

fectively deliver its message

of embracing uniqueness in

oneself and others? Sure. It’s

pretty nail-on-the-head.

For grown-ups, there’s a

well-curated song score; for

younger viewers, it’s a

pseudo-fantasy about let-

ting your freak flag fly.

— Michael Ordoña

“Stargirl.”Rated: PG for

mild thematic elements.

Running time: 1 hour, 44

minutes. Playing: Streaming

on Disney+.

Disney+

LEO(Graham Verchere) and Stargirl (Grace Van-

derWaal) find each other and themselves in teen tale.

‘STARGIRL’

Letting freak flag

fly, Disney+ style

great and noble cause of So-

cialism.”

The year is 1979, the East

German city is Poessneck,

and the Strelzyks have been

building a balloon and plan-

ning an escape to the West

for two years.A sudden

change in the weather man-

dates an attempt that very

night.

However, the family’s

partners in this venture,

Günter Wetzel (David

Kross) and his wife, Petra

(Alicia von Rittberg), decide

out of caution to stay behind

and not attempt to escape.

An additional complica-

tion is that the Strelzyks’

neighbors include the family

of Erik Baumann (Ronald

Kukulies), a buffoonish type

with engineer Peter Strelzyk

(Friedrich Mücke), his wife,

Doris (Karoline Schuch),

and their teenage son, Frank

(Jonas Holdenrieder), all

gathered at a Youth Dedica-

tion ceremony where young-

est son Fitscher (Tilman

Döbler) is being indoctri-

nated into supporting “the

The creation of tension
on screen is wonderful to
watch, not to mention being
invariably entertaining; the
unheralded German drama
“Balloon” being the latest
case in point.
Based on a true story of a
hot-air balloon escape from
East Germany so celebrated
back in the day that Disney
starred John Hurt and Beau
Bridges in an 1982 English-
language version called
“Night Crossing.” “Balloon”
is none the worse for wear
the second time around.
The film’s director,
Michael Bully Herbig, is best
known in Germany for his
comedies, but collaborating
on the screenplay with Kit
Hopkins and Thilo
Röscheisen has released the
taut thriller director in him.
Herbig was responsible
for one of the film’s smartest
moves, the decision to actu-
ally build a physical replica
of the narrative’s towering,
100-foot airships, at the time
the largest hot-air balloons
in Europe, rather than rely
on CGI technology.
In an added wrinkle, it
was Herbig’s contacts in
Hollywood that made it pos-
sible for the film to be made
at all, for the families in-
volved had sold the film
rights to their story to Dis-
ney in perpetuity.
But Herbig took the
chance of flying to Los Ange-
les to see if he could meet
with director Roland Em-
merich, perhaps Germany’s
most successful studio film-
maker, and Emmerich man-
aged to secure the German-
language rights to the story
for him.
As “Balloon’s” rather as-
tonishing tale plays out, it is
clear why so many people
have been interested in it,
and why it continues to in-
volve viewers no matter how
many times it is told.
Since the story has a de-
gree of familiarity, director
Herbig and his co-writers
made the smart decision not
to start at the very begin-
ning of a years-long process
for the would-be escapees
but on the very day of their
first attempt.
Before we get to an actual
balloon, the film introduces
the key personnel, starting

who nevertheless works for

the Ministry of State Securi-

ty, the dreaded Stasi, who

tirelessly spy on all citizens.

With the balloon carefully

packed away inside a small

trailer attached to their

trusty Wartburg auto, the

Strelzyks do make that ini-

tial attempt but it does not

end well.

Not only does the family

have to make its way home

and pretend that nothing

happened, they have to de-

cide how they should pro-

ceed knowing that the East

German government hates

attempted escapes and is

surely looking for them.

If every thriller needs a

good antagonist, “Balloon”

has a superb one in relent-

less Lt. Col. Seidel (the vet-

eran Thomas Kretsch-

mann), a Stasi higher-up

who takes escape attempts

personally and mounts a

methodical investigation to

find out who the failed bal-

loonists were.

Back home and uncer-

tain about what to do next,

the Strelzyks contrive to vis-

it Berlin in hopes of figuring

out another way to exit, but

soon enough, everyone con-

cerned, including the newly

re-interested Wetzels, real-

ize that, crazy as it sounds,

building a second balloon is

their only chance at free-

dom. Which is where the ten-

sion begins in earnest.

Given that the Strelzyks

and Wetzels live in one of the

most surveillance-heavy

states of modern times, they

are aware that everything

they do, from buying large

amounts of fabric to spend-

ing hours sewing it together,

are situations that make

them deeply vulnerable,

where even the slightest

misstep can lead to doom.

Filmmaker Herbig and

his team prove to be espe-

cially adept at contriving

situations where anything

anyone does causes fear,

anxiety, stress and worry,

leaving everyone, very much

including the audience, ex-

isting on the knife’s edge of

unremitting tension. It’s a

classic movie place to be,

and we’re grateful to “Bal-

loon” for putting us there.

Marco NagelDistrib Films US

A DESPERATE BIDby two East German families to ride a hot-air balloon to freedom circa 1979 is smartly depicted in the German film.

This soars just like the classics

The based-on-fact Cold War drama comes together similar to great escape films

‘BALLOON’

‘Balloon’

Not rated

Running time:2 hours,

5 minutes

Playing:Laemmle Royal,

West Los Angeles,

Playhouse, Pasadena,

Town Center, Encino

KENNETH TURAN
FILM CRITIC