Rolling Stone - USA (2019-07)

July 2019 | Rolling Stone | 93

Ocasio-Cortez, the supernova

who beat New York Rep. Joe

Crowley and sent him home.

Unabashedly partisan, Knock

Down the House benefits

from unrivaled access to the

Ocasio-Cortez campaign.

The Mustang

A female director, France’s

Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre,

takes on the dangerous

aftershocks of male rage

in this story of a real-

life program that allows

hardened convicts to bond

with wild mustangs as

therapy. But one horse and a

prisoner (a superb Matthias

Schoenaerts) resist taming as

the film springs surprise after

surprise.

Rocketman

Instead of predicting whether

this Elton John biopic can

match the record-shattering

$900 million success

of the Freddie Mercury

saga, Bohemian Rhapsody

(it won’t), focus on how

Rocketman triumphantly

goes its own way. Taron

Egerton not only acts the role

of the young, gay, addicted

Elton, he sings his songs and

adopts the outlandish stage

persona that allowed the shy

singer-songwriter to hide his

fears behind the glitter. It’s

a stupendous performance

that enables Dexter Fletcher’s

film to emerge as unique and

spins around the theft of a

cellphone. But it’s only a

device to reveal the tensions

simmering underneath a

society on the brink of a

nervous breakdown. The

shattering power of the film

— we never see the elephant

— comes in the way Hu details

how his country’s politically

motivated infrastructure is

squeezing hope out of its

youth. In a tragic irony, Hu

committed suicide at 29, soon

after completing his first and

only film. It’s a masterpiece.

High Flying Bird

Once again, director Steven

Soderbergh shows you don’t

need big cash to create a

small wonder. The Oscar-

winning director of Traffic

shoots this sports drama on

an iPhone as he tracks a fast-

talking agent (the brilliant,

blistering André Holland)

trying to end-run an NBA

lockout. For Soderbergh

and screenwriter Tarell

Alvin McCraney (Moonlight),

basketball is a life-and-death

game strictly for gladiators.

Throw race, profits and

personal branding into this

nest of vipers, and boom!

Hang on for a killer ride.

John Wick: Chapter

3 — Parabellum

It’s impossible. How does

this break-all-the-rules

action series keep topping

itself? Keanu Reeves has

found the role of a lifetime

in John Wick, a pooch-loving

assassin with a $14 million

price on his head. Director

Chad Stahelski, a former

stunt double for Reeves,

choreographs the mayhem

like the Balanchine of

bedlam. It’s fun. It’s art. It’s

bloody outrageous. More,

please, and soon.

Knock Down

the House

There’ve been some doozy

docs this year, from the

eye-opening Apollo 11 and

the sexually candid Ask Dr.

Ruth to The Brink, about

the alt-right mind of Steve

Bannon. The top choice, from

director Rachel Lears, looks

at four progressive female

candidates eager to unseat

male do-nothings. The focus,

naturally, is on Alexandria

The

Farewell

STARRING

Awkwafina

Zhao Shuzhen

DIRECTED BY

Lulu Wang

$

EXTRAORDINARY

on every level, The

Farewell gentles its way

into your mind and

heart. But by the end

you’ll be stirred to ca-

thartic tears. Writer-di-

rector Lulu Wang drew

on her own life to cre-

ate the story of a Chi-

nese family who come together to celebrate a

wedding that’s closer to a funeral. Awkwafina,

the comic dynamo of Crazy Rich Asians, dials

down to give a sublime and finely textured

performance as Billi, a New Yorker who re-

turns home to China to see her grandmother

Nai Nai (the wonderfully frisky Zhao Shuz-

hen), who’s been diagnosed with terminal

lung cancer. The catch is that Nai Nai’s rela-

tives don’t want her to know the painful truth.

The lie doesn’t sit well with Billi, but she grits

her teeth and fakes it. Wang builds a funny,

touching and vital film about what makes a

family in any culture. It’ll get you good. P.T.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

David

Crosby:

Remember

My Name

STARRING

David Crosby

DIRECTED BY

A.J. EATON

$

GET READY for the

raw and riveting David

Crosby: Remember My

Name. How could we

forget? At 77, the white-

haired troubadour can

boast an enviable ca-

reer as a founding

member of both the

Byrds and Crosby,

Stills and Nash, and as

a solo artist. Just don’t expect pretty pictures.

Directed by A.J. Eaton and produced by Cam-

eron Crowe, who asks the probing questions,

the film doesn’t skip over Crosby’s years as a

heroin and cocaine junkie who did prison

time and an SOB who alienated his

colleagues, especially Graham

Nash and Neil Young. Luckily,

the music is everywhere, vin-

tage and present, and the

honeyed voice that never

ages resonates with a truth

that doesn’t quit. No apolo-

gies from this lion in winter.

Hear him roar. P.T.

ROCK ON, CROSBY

Awkwafina’s

Billi and

her family

reconnect.

mesmerizing mythmaking.

He’s still standing.

Rolling Thunder

Revue: A Bob Dylan

Story by Martin

Scorsese

The title alone is a grabber.

What holds you spellbound

is the wonderful mischief

Dylan and Scorsese invest in

dodging the usual concert

souveniring. Yes, there’s

seminal footage of the Rolling

Thunder Revue from the mid-

1970s. And we hear Dylan

speak, then and now. But

Scorsese adds scenes from

Dylan’s 1978 film fantasia,

Renaldo and Clara, blurring

the line between fact and

fiction. It’s a swirling circus of

provocations that illuminates

and obfuscates like a Dylan

song. Don’t miss it.

The Souvenir

Talk about polarizing. Some

hate on The Souvenir, unable

to keep up as writer-director

Joanna Hogg scatters her

memories as a fledgling

London filmmaker in the

1980s. Others get blissfully

lost as the protagonist (a

revelatory Honor Swinton

Byrne) pushes past the wrong

man (Tom Burke) and her

own insecurities to come

up with a version of herself

she can live with. It’s a life-

changing challenge, and 100

percent pure cinema.

Us

I first saw Jordan Peele’s

second horror movie at

SXSW in March, and it’s

still messing with my head.

Lupita Nyong’o, in one of the

great performances in horror-

movie history, plays Adelaide,

wife to Gabe (Winston Duke)

and mother of their two

kids. On a beach vacation,

the family are confronted

by zombified doubles who

threaten to take over their

lives. Adelaide seems to

know more than she’s letting

on, which leads to a

climax that will keep

you arguing into

your nightmares.

Peele is a master

at subverting

genre so that

the unthinkable

becomes

uncannily real.

Crosby

opens up

in song

and story.

Aretha

defines

Amazing

Grace; Dylan

reps Rolling

Thunder.

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