In this news:
The Amateur: 3 stars
Incandescence: 4 ½
Fog of War: 2 ½
Sacramento: 3 ½
THE AMATEUR: It’s not as thrilling as it should be, not like the best spy movies, but it’s worth your time for several reasons. Rami Malek’s subtle performance, for one, as a man whose grief drives his need for revenge. He’s a low-level decoder with the CIA whose wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed on a trip to London. By tapping into security-camera footage from there he suspects it was a terrorist incident, can make out the killer and wants to go after him. His superiors say they’re investigating but he’s not convinced they are and insists he’s going.
A trainer (Laurence Fishburne) gives him some gun-firing lessons (for which he’s inept) and adds the ominous caution that he’s not a killer. That idea comes back several times to test him on his quest. An ordinary man dangerously out of his comfort zone is a strong part of the story. It’s Malek’s third thriller since he won an Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody.
A third point of interest is the movie’s backstory. It’s a re-make. The original was produced 44 years ago in Canada by Garth Drabinsky (remember him?). Robert Littell wrote the screenplay first and then the novel, which is now the basis of this new film. James Hawes, a British television director who is known for some “Doctor Who” episodes keeps it moving briskly and colorfully in several cities around the world. The story, though updated (not cold war anymore), gets improbable along the way and at times obscure. Why did she have to be killed, for instance? What’s this about rogue missions? What is the CIA hiding? Hard to tell. (In theaters) 3 out of 5
INCANDESCENCE: The forest wildfire season will soon be back upon us and this is an essential primer for you. The information is valuable, though we’ve received most of it before both in the news and documentaries. Here we get spectacular visual contact. We see the fires on the horizon at night; they’re eerie. In the day, they’re a giant ball of hot color, beautiful in a way but, in the words of one person in the film, like “a living breathing animal.” A wildfire is like a pig, he says. “It devours everything.” The film shows plenty of evidence of that: houses reduced to ashes and rubble; bare black trunks standing in empty forests; wildlife displaced. And the strongest of the film’s virtues is meeting the people who live with it.
Directors Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper spent several seasons capturing the images and talking to folks in BC’s Okanagan Valley, principally around Kelowna which has had two destructive events. Some 15,000 had to evacuate in one. They take us to people who lost their homes, the firefighters who responded and the Indigenous people who talk about their ancient ways of dealing with fire. Controlled burns not suppression is the answer they say. Someone else says all we are able to do is “watch what the fire wants to do.” It’s ravenous and the visuals get across that scary power. The sudden flaring up; “like a ten-headed snake,” the terror when the wind kicks up. The sense of loss that follows; survivor guilt for some. You understand it through the real impact on people and subtly, without hectoring, get how climate change is connected. (Showing in a few theaters – VIFF Centre in Vancouver now for five days, Sechelt, Salmon Arm and Peachland in B.C. April 19, May 1 and 31 respectively, Edmonton May 4 and 7 and streaming on the National Film Board website, , starting May 26) 4 ½ out of 5
FOG OF WAR: This small film with a couple of well-known stars is also about spying. Much weaker though, with a plodding start and not a great deal of excitement after that. It's a mystery and that will keep you interested but with little tension or suspense. Is there a Nazi spy here, a traitor living on a remote farm in Massachussets during World War Two, sending intelligence out by way of lights at night? The plot draws us in but without grabbing us. The answer proves to be what you've expected.
Jake Abel plays an Air Force pilot who's back home with an injury after his plane was shot down and he had to escape by parachute. He's a recognized hero. His fiance (Brianna Hildebrand) takes him to visit her relatives at their farm, and though she works for the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA) he's the one recruited to investigate the people there. They include Uncle Bob (John Cusack) and Aunt Maude (Mira Sorvino) and Viktor, a refugee from Belgium played by Géza Röhrig. A couple of army officers come visiting in their Jeep to underline that something serious is suspected. What it is takes a twist several times. One character talks up fascism as a way of "preserving our elevated way of life." Exposing that idea is probably the real reason for this script. Suspense is only brief, near the end. (a few VOD/Digital platforms) (2 ½ out of 5)
G20: There's a line spoken part ways into this international thriller that suggests it has some political smarts to it. As the leaders of the richest nations on earth gather for a G20 meeting, the British PM (played by Douglas Hodge) tells the U.S. president (Viola Davis) that "Nobody likes a bulldozer." You can imagine many would want to say that to Donald Trump but sadly the smarts don't continue. This president is pushing a fantasy plan to solve world hunger. She'll help African farmers with their lack of access to bank services by turning them on to cryptocurrency. OK, you know who and his rich friend are crypto fans also but here nothing is explained about how it would function.
The idea does stir up some Australian terrorists though. They attack the conference and take the politicos hostage, while their leader (Antony Starr) makes grand speeches that they are not terrorists. They are, he says, people who refuse to let world leaders strip away the rights and wealth of their citizens. Anti-crypto? Maybe but, instead of elaborating, the film swerves into an action fest forthwith.
The president has a military background and with more training since then she can fight and shoot with the best of them. But is there a traitor in her entourage? There's help from her secret service chief and from a crowd of soldiers that amasses outside. There are thrills from heavy helicopter action on the roof and a fight for a metal crypto wallet. Nothing to undo that unreality of it, though. Viola Davis's Oscar-winning talent is wasted here, although since she's also the producer, she seems willing. (Streaming on Prime Video) 2 ½ out of 5
SACRAMENTO: Here's a warm-hearted celebration of friendship as two pals with differing personalities go out of a roadtrip. Rickey played by Michael Angarano is vibrant and out-going. Glenn played by Michael Cera is neurotic and only mildly hyper. He's ready to ditch his overbearing long-time friend but agrees to travel with him from Los Angeles to Sacramento to scatter his dad's ashes. It's more than empathy. Rickey was there for him when Glenn's dad died. Out of that intertwined relationship we get a somewhat contrived but also effective exploration of how friends connect.
There are twists in the story along the way -- helping to create the contrived complaint -- but also scenes that will resonate. Rickey, in therapy, is told "Anger is just sadness with nowhere to go." Glenn's wife is pregnant, about to give birth, and he's anxious about being away from her. He talks to her on the phone several times. The two men, though, don't talk much to each other about how they feel. That's probably true to life. The film is light; not a deep study. It's amusing and conveys feelings (good and bad) about how our lives change. And it has these interesting details: Angarano directed it and co-wrote and co-produced it as well as starring in it. And he's got both his ex (Kristen Stewart) and his current partner (Maya Erskine) in it playing the boys' wives. Changing lives. (In Montreal, Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver theaters) 3 ½ out of 5
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