Rolling Stone USA - 04.2020

April 2020 | Rolling Stone | 91

COMEDY IS A

science — and Issa Rae

and Kumail Nanjiani

could teach a course

in chemistry. The two

actors generate big

laughs and a sense of

genuine connection as

a New Orleans couple

on the skids who find

out what they really

mean to each other when a bunch of psychos

try to kill them. Why? Scripters Aaron Abrams

and Brendan Gall strain hard to bring clarity

to a tale based on mistaken identity. Luckily,

director Michael Showalter (The Big Sick)

keeps the action percolating even when the

holes in the plot could swallow a tank.

Rae, an Emmy nominee for HBO’s Insecure

and star of sleeper hit The Photograph, plays

Leilani. Nanjiani, of HBO’s Silicon Valley and

an Oscar nominee for co-writing The Big

Sick, is fellow lovebird Jibran, who Leilani

resents for spending more time on making

documentaries then making out with her. It

takes a series of near-death experiences with

crooked cops, drug dealers, and orgiasts out

of Eyes Wide Shut to bring them back in sync.

Nonsense? Maybe. But the hilarious teamwork

of Rae and Nanjiani is a recipe for inspired

lunacy that nothing can spoil. P.T.

Lovebirds

Rae and

Nanjiani

confront a

hater.

LOVE ON THE RUN

THE TRICK TO

crafting a film out

of Charles Dickens’

1850 novel is to get

a live wire to direct.

Enter Armando Ian-

nucci, the political

satirist behind Veep

and The Death of

Stalin, who cuts the

classic to pieces —

but spares nothing

to create a singular, sensational adaptation.

Dev Patel, born in London to Indian Hindu

immigrants, plays the title role of a British

orphan who overcomes hardships to become

the hero of his own life as a writer. Patel is

wonderful, proving Iannucci’s insistence that

the Victorian-era author had a fun side, with a

twist of Monty Python-level irreverence.

Never mind the purists and revel in the

action as actors run with the laughs. There’s

Tilda Swinton as David’s daffy aunt, Hugh

Laurie as the nut-job Mr. Dick, Ben Whishaw

as obsequious villain Uriah Heep, and Peter

Capaldi as Mr. Micawber, the poorhouse

friend immortalized by W.C. Fields in the 1935

film version. Iannucci’s David Copperfield

sometimes bursts at the seams, but always

with an exuberant energy that honors

Dickens without sticking to the page. P.T.

DICKENS UNPLUGGED

The Personal

History of David

Copperfield

STARRING

Dev Patel,

Hugh Laurie,

Tilda Swinton

DIRECTED BY

Armando Iannucci

4

Patel plays a

Dickens hero.

The

Lovebirds

STARRING

Issa Rae,

Kumail Nanjiani

DIRECTED BY

Michael

Showalter

#

DID YOU KNOW

that the iconic

French mime

Marcel Marceau

was once an

unsung hero of the

French Resistance,

smuggling Jewish

children across the

border into Switzer-

land with the Nazis in pursuit? This World War

II story is the core of Resistance, starring Jesse

Eisenberg in a role he delivers with physical

finesse and emotional grit. It’s the young Mar-

cel, himself a Jew in German-occupied France,

who teaches kids real-world benefits in the

“art of silence” — and keeps your attention

riveted to the screen.

It’s no lie that Resistance takes dramatic

license, drifting into Nazi stereotypes and Hol-

lywood action clichés. And it’s only after the

liberation of Paris in 1944, when Gen. George

Patton (Ed Harris) introduces Marceau to the

troops in his trademark performance makeup,

that Eisenberg gets to play the Marceau of

legend. No matter. Writer-director Jonathan

Jakubowicz (Secuestro Express) achieves maxi-

mum impact by keeping our eyes on the man

in the invisible box, one who’s stuck in a dan-

ger zone where children learn that the power

of art can literally be a saving grace. P.T.

NO MIME TO LOSE

Eisenberg

as Marceau

Hail to the Commander in Chief: ‘Dave’

TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, the idea of a guy becoming president without

the faintest clue of how to do the job seemed like a ludicrous Hollywood fantasy. But

unlike some commanders in chief, who’ll remain nameless, Dave Kovic — Kevin

Kline’s everyman at the center of Ivan Reitman’s Frank Capra-esque 1993 film — is a gentle, be-

nevolent adult who found himself in the Oval Office because he happened to look like the real

(and accidentally comatose) POTUS. Kovic’s common sense helps him win the heart of the first

lady (Sigourney Weaver) and launch a federal jobs program. It’s a reminder of a time when we

still believed that handing power to a complete political amateur with no previous experience

could save the country — or at least not send us all down the road to ruin. ANDY GREENE

Dave

1993

AVAILABLE ON

YouTube, Prime Video,

Google Play, iTunes,

and Vudu

Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver

RECONSIDERED

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DEAN ROGERS/SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES; FRÉDÉRIC BATIER/PANTALÉON FILMS; SKIP BOLEN/PARAMOUNT PICTURES; KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK (2)

Resistance

STARRING

Jesse Eisenberg,

Ed Harris

DIRECTED BY

Jonathan

Jakubowicz

3