thewashingtonpost.
friday,april3,2020eZ18
Movies
more name to that list: Malgorza-
ta szumowska, whose moody
thriller “the Other Lamb” evokes
everything from “Picnic at Hang-
ing Rock” to “Midsommar” and
“Martha Marcy May Marlene” i n
its depiction of ritualized hyste-
ria. Raffey Cassidy delivers an
impressive turn as selah, a teen-
ager born into an all-female cult
that worships a leader called
shepherd (Michiel Huisman); as
she begins to question her own
fealty, she befriends the group’s
most damaged and disobedient
outcast, brilliantly played by De-nise Gough. The slowly moving
plot and studied mannerisms of
“The other Lamb” aren’t terribly
arresting or original, but szu-
mowska suffuses it with high
style, tasteful flourishes and a
gorgeous gray-and-indigo palette.
It’s a very pretty picture, even
when things get ugly. Unrated.
Available on demand and vari-
ous streaming platforms. Con-
tains nudity, disturbing images,
violence and sexuality. 97 min-
utes.
— Ann Hornaday“Coffee & Kareem,” stars ed
Helms and Te rrence Little Gar-
denhigh as the title characters:
the first a bumbling Detroit po-lice officer, and the other a foul-
mouthed fifth-grader and aspir-
ing rap star who is determined to
scuttle a romance between Coffee
and his mom, played by Ta raji P.
Henson. The bad-pun title says it
all about a formulaic romp that
hits all the expected action-come-
dy beats, with plenty of obscenity,
jokes about police violence and
pedophilia and cartoonish vio-
lence played for laughs. Betty
Gilpin appears in a thankless and
utterly unsurprising supporting
role. TV-14. Available on Netflix.
Contains crude language, slap-
stick violence and some mature
themes. 88 minutes.— A.H.New movies available online
With at least 18 states having
taken up the issue of gerryman-
dering in recent years — consider-
ing and, in most cases, passing
legislation that would combat the
partisan redistricting of political
maps — the documentary “slay
the Dragon” comes at the peak of
a populist wave. Democratic and
Republican voters alike seem to
have grown sick of politicians
dividing up voting districts in
ways designed to favor one fac-
tion over the other. (Maps are
redrawn every 10 years, at the
time of the U.s. Census, typically
by the party i n power at t he time.)
In this stirring — and, more im-
portantly for many, motivating —
new film by Chris Durrance and
Barak Goodman, we follow two
such fights. The first takes place
in Michigan, where activist Katie
Fahey is shown leading the grass-
roots anti-gerrymandering group
Voters not Politicians. The sec-
ond battle takes place in Wiscon-
sin, where a redistricting-reform
lawsuit, spearheaded by married
attorneys nick stephanopoulos
and Ruth Greenwood, finds its
way to the supreme Court. You
can easily Google the outcome of
these stories, but it’s well worth
watching the film, not just for the
way in which Fahey, stephanopo-
ulos and Greenwood personify
the passion of these crusades, but
for the way that “Dragon” lays
out, lucidly and compellingly, the
history and practice of gerryman-
dering, and the reasons it’s worth
taking up arms against it. PG-13.
Available on demand and vari-
ous streaming platforms. Con-
tains brief strong language. 101
minutes.
— Michael O’SullivanBetween Jennifer Kent’s “The
Babadook” and Julia Ducour-
nau’s “Raw,” women are proving
dab hands at the burgeoning
genre of elevated horror. Add onealso streaming“almost Love” is a rom-com
centering on a gay couple and
their friends (scott evans, Kate
Walsh, Augustus Prew, Michelle
Buteau, Colin Donnell, Zoe Chao,
Christopher Gray, John Doman
and Patricia Clarkson) who are
navigating the relationship jun-
gle at the midpoint of marriages
and other entanglements. Ac-
cording to the Washington Blade,
“The appealing and diverse en-
semble cast blends together
seamlessly. It’s an effective and
inclusive combination of veteran
character actors, rising stars and
fresh new faces.” Unrated. Avail-
able on demand and various
streaming platforms. 92 minutes.The TruTV show “Impractical
Jokers” featured four lifelong
friends from staten Island who
competed to embarrass one an-
other with hidden-camera stunts:
Joseph Gatto, James Murray, Bri-
an Quinn and salvatore Vulcano
(collectively known as the im-
prove-comedy troupe the Te nder-
loins). The feature-length spinoff
“impractical Jokers: the movie”
follows the same basic premise,
except that the four middle-aged
antiheroes are competing against
one another for three coveted
tickets to a Paula Abdul concert.
In the movie, Quinn proclaims
he’s having a blast with his bud-
dies, saying: “I’m giggling with
my friends. It feels pretty good.”
According to Variety, “That about
sums up the appeal of this group
of merry pranksters whose she-
nanigans, this film proves, are
best enjoyed on the small screen.”
PG-13. Available on various
streaming platforms. Contains
suggestive content, language,
some drug references and brief
nudity. 93 minutes.The documentary “it started
as a Joke” e xplores the history of
the alt-comedy event known as
the eugene Mirman Comedy Fes-
see streaming on 19iFc Films
in “the Other Lamb,” raffey Cassidy delivers an impressive turn as selah, a teenager born into an all-
female cult that worships a leader called shepherd (michiel Huisman).magnolia Pictures
a scene from “slay the Dragon,” a movie that follows two fights over gerrymandering, one in michigan
Sign up at FocusInsider.com for exclusive access to early screenings, film premieres and more. and the other in Wisconsin.THE BEST REVIEWED MOVIE OF THE YEAR
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