Battle of the Sexes – 8

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What a relief, after seeing a trio of heavy, intellectual films at the New York Film Festival, to watch a thoroughly enjoyable, funny and teary, battle in which almost everyone is a winner, above all Billie Jean King. The movie is more about her complicated love life than her tennis, but there is enough historic verisimilitude – including play-by-play from Howard Cosell – to remind you of the real-world stakes at play. Emma Stone is a bit bland, without Billie Jean’s edge; but the supporting cast is delightful: Steve Carrell above all, then Alan Cumming, Sarah Silverman, Elisabeth Shue, to name the recognizable faces.

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat – 5

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The artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is the hole at the middle of this documentary: we never hear his voice, don’t see his paintings, learn nothing of his background, and catch only fleeting glimpses of his face. Instead, we get talking heads remembering the days when he emerged on the Lower East Side scene. What the film does provide is a shocking reminder of what terrible shape New York was in from 1978 to ’81. But the gaping hole left me hungry. (NYFF)

Zama – 6

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Sort of a cross between Last Year at Marienbad and Aguirre, Wrath of God, this Argentine period drama offered memorable still images – loved that tricorner hat! – but not much continuity or sensible plot. Life was pretty crummy in Spanish South America, and I was happy to have a shower afterward. A bit of a senseless slog. (NYFF)

Mother! – 5.5

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An intense two hours of close-ups of a bewildered Jennifer Lawrence’s face, as she copes with a haunted house and situations beyond her control. It’s not a movie that makes much sense, but neither does a Hieronymous Bosch altarpiece. Javier Bardem is only slightly nicer than he was in No Country for Old Men, but in a Gaslight sort of way. For unrelenting dread, devoid of musical background, this was a well-made movie. I grade it so low only because I wouldn’t want anyone to go see it on my account.

Step – 7.5

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Although this film takes place in Baltimore, it might as well be another country, so foreign to my personal experience is the world it shows, starting with sport? competition? of “step,” which is sort of like synchronized swimmng on land. This is one of those heartwarming documentaries that gets lucky, as we follow a group of high-school steppers from the start of their senior year all the way to their first-ever win at the year-end regional contest. And the individuals singled out for attention get into colleges of their choice. My only reservation was that the “star” of the team and film, a beautiful Michael Jackson lookalike, knew she was pretty and showed it a bit much. The story of underprivileged underdogs overcoming obstacles and winning was totally formulaic, but hey, it’s a good formula.

Wind River – 7.9

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If you think the West Texas of Hell or High Water was bleak, wait until you see Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation in Taylor Sheridan’s follow-up film. Not only is it bleak topographically, economically and psychologically, we see it in the depth of winter, with snow blanketing all signs of life. But bleak can be beautiful, and here the photography creates a mood that is the takeaway, if not the point, of the movie. Jeremy Renner’s Marlboro Man and Elisabeth Olsen’s in-over-her-head FBI agent populate the landscape, along with sullen, disaffected Native Americans: I don’t think there is a smile in the entire 107 minutes. While the story is told almost exclusively through the eyes of Renner and Olsen’s characters, the scene that explains the mystery is somehow shown us through the perspective of the two corpses.

An Inconvenient Sequel – 6

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Preaching to the choir, or more like droning to the choir, Al Gore is a plodding, un-nuanced presence to spend two hours with. The early scenes of global warming’s effects are bracing, but they are never really put in context and quickly give way to the former Vice President’s leadership training seminars. Shots of the Paris Climate Conference are of interest, but it’s hard to believe that our hero Gore is really playing a pivotal role. And then when Trump is elected and pulls the U.S. out of the Paris Accords, you wonder where this meandering documentary is heading. If you only see one environmental movie this year, make it Tomorrow.

Logan Lucky – 7.5

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A totally fun movie, filled with colorful characters and a believably silly heist plot. It’s never clear whether we’re laughing at or with the good-old-boys of the NASCAR world. The fact that they get away with their robbery and nobody gets hurt suggests that Director Steven Soderbergh didn’t mean to insult; the movie’s lack of acceptance in the South, however, makes one wonder. Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Daniel Craig are good company, and the film’s ambiguous ending actually provides something to think about as you leave the theater.

Detroit – 8

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Not a fun movie. In the first part you feel you are in the middle of Detroit’s 1967 race riot. In the next, you are held captive in the Algiers Hotel Annex as a trio of white policemen brutalize a random group of blacks, and two white girls. Then, in almost a coda, you see justice denied, thanks to all-too-familiar legal tactics. Will Poulter, the white police villain, will never get an award for his ugly, but extraordinary portrayal. Director Kathryn Bigelow maybe won’t, but should. Fifty years later we still have Charlottesville and Black Lives Matter, but I like to think Detroit is a historic relic and a useful reminder.

Girls Trip – 6.9

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A formulaic comedy about four old friends reuniting for a weekend on the town – in this case, EssenceFest in New Orleans – made fresh by starring four black women in an almost all-black setting, with one goofy and one out-of-it white woman as comic relief. Regina Hall was engaging as the woman who has it all, loses it all, then finds her true strength, bringing tears to my eyes, as the formula dictates. It was also refreshing – liberating? – to hear uber-bawdy lines from women, for a change.