director Sydney Pollack
failed to sync the image
with the sound. Then digital
angels stepped in, and glory,
glory, hallelujah! During
Franklin’s euphoric vocal on
the title song, the Rev. James
Cleveland gets up, sits to one
side and cries like a baby. No
mystery. That’s what you do
when you witness a miracle.Avengers: Endgame
Yup, here’s that Marvel
movie that cost so much
(a reported $356 million)
and made so much more
($2.7 billion worldwide and
counting) that it’s on its way
to toppling Avatar as the
all-time box-office champ.
Mighty impressive. But the
real mind-blower is just how
undeniably good Endgame
really is. Directed with a
fan’s reverence by the Russo
brothers, Anthony and
Joseph, the movie brings a
sense of epic closure to theexistential
obstacles
that fate keeps
putting in her path.
She wants so bad to do
good — if only little things like
a drug-addict son ( Jake Lacy)
and the pitfalls of ordinary
life didn’t make it so hard
to keep the faith. Jones and
Place capture the rhythm
of a woman on the verge in
ways that define them as film
artists of the first rank.An Elephant
Sitting Still
China’s arthouse cinema is on
fire. Ash Is Purest White, from
writer-director Jia Zhangke,
uses a crime-drama narrative
to indict environmental
and moral damage done in
the name of progress. Bi
Gan’s Long Day’s Journey
Into Night finds meaning
beneath a dreamscape that
includes a nearly one-hour
3D tracking shot. But the top
spot belongs to Hu Bo’s An
Elephant Sitting Still. Running
four hours, this tale of teens
trapped in industrial limbo22 films in the MCU that
began in 2008 with Iron
Man. Yeah, it stings watching
some of our favorite Avengers
die. And how about the way
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) got
fat, the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)
became extra-brainy and
Captain America (Chris
Evans) stole the show with a
climactic slow dance. For all
the spectacular action and
the thrill of seeing the whole
Avengers gang show up for
a seriously massive battle
royal, it’s the way Endgame
breaks our hearts that makes
it unforgettable.Booksmart
Audiences didn’t come out
to give this extraordinary
one-crazy-night comedy their
full support. It’s their loss.
Olivia Wilde, in a sly and
sensational feature debut
as a director, brings comic
zing and touching gravity to
this tale of two bookworms(Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn
Dever) who decide to party
big-time before graduation.Diane
In this devastating portrait of
female resilience from writer-
director Kent Jones, Mary Kay
Place gives the performance
of her career as a widowed
retiree who’s determined
to dodge the dead ends andAmazing Grace
Perfection is rarely achieved
in movies, but this heaven-
sent concert doc, my only
five-star film of 2019 to date,
hits the sweet spot. Over
two days in January 1972,
the Queen of Soul, Aretha
Franklin — she was 29 at the
time — sweeps into the New
Temple Missionary Baptist
Church in Watts in front of
a congregation and testifies
to God in song. The blessed
thing took nearly half a
century to come out becausePETER TRAVERS
BEST OF 2019, SO FAR
At halftime, these fierce, far-from-unlucky 13 raised the bar for what’s next
Taron Egerton
soars as
Elton John in
Rocketman.92 | Rolling Stone | July 2019 +++++Classic |^ ++++Excellent |^ +++Good |^ ++Fair |^ +Poor
Lupita Nyong’o
is scary-good
in Jordan
Peele’s Us.Keanu
Reeves just
kills it in
John Wick 3.CLOCKWISEFROMTOP^ RIG
HT:^ NIKOTAVERNIS
E/LIO
NSGATE;^ ©M
ARVEL^ STUDIOS^201
9 ;^PARAMOUNT^ PIC
TURES;^
CLAUDETT
E^ BARIU
S/
UNIV
ERSAL^ PIC
TURESThe Avengers
take on
Thanos in
Endgame.