'All the Bright Places': Film Review

You wouldn't think that sex addiction and testicular cancer are topics that could be mined for any but the cheapest of laughs. And Hooking Up would prove you right.

Two people, each unhappy with their lives, meet and form an unlikely emotional connection. It's a time-honored narrative formula, but Amber McGinnis' debut feature employs it to uncommonly moving and funny effect.

Mayor Musa Hadid is a celebrity of sorts in Ramallah, the historic Palestinian capital in the central West Bank, situated just a few miles north of Jerusalem. But it’s hard out there for this idiosyncratic, handsomely attired and mustachioed character, greeted often by excited kids and curious adults whenever he is spotted in the streets of the bustling town he tries to better for its citizens, burdened by the stifling politics of the region.

A quarter-century after starring in a film called Floundering, James Le Gros still makes an ideal embodiment of his generation's ambivalence about joining the world of squares. In Gary Lundgren's gently warm Phoenix, Oregon, the actor plays an unpublished comic book artist who, after years of tending bar for others, is talked into starting a business of his own.

A rideshare with a giggly geek driver who may be a serial killer. The staggering-through-the-ink-black-woods-with-nothing-but-a-flashlight look and mood of “The Blair Witch Project.” A mystic schlock demon like Candyman, the Slender Man, or the spectral figures from “The Strangers.” A Victrola in the middle of the road, cranking an ancient warbly ditty à la “The Shining.” A cabin full of snowy TV screens out of the “Poltergeist” showroom.

A rideshare with a giggly geek driver who may be a serial killer. The staggering-through-the-ink-black-woods-with-nothing-but-a-flashlight look and mood of “The Blair Witch Project.” A mystic schlock demon like Candyman, the Slender Man, or the spectral figures from “The Stranger.” A Victrola in the middle of the road, cranking an ancient warbly ditty à la “The Shining.” A cabin full of snowy TV screens out of the “Poltergeist” showroom.

A three act play-like look at a certain kind of man's response to the ascent of Donald Trump, The Misogynists casts Dylan Baker as an all-purpose bigot who, deep down, probably knows he's reveling in his last chance to be himself, and better cram in as much as possible. It's a tour-de-force for an actor who's more than willing to be loathsome, and will be welcomed by both Baker's fans and those of writer/director/provocateur Onur Tukel.

A college student proud of his array of mental disorders reacts oddly to being expelled in Inside the Rain, Aaron Fisher's feature writing/directing/acting debut.

An indignant, activist doc about one of those subjects most people agree is crucial but unsexy, Chris Durrance and Barak Goodman's Slay the Dragon takes up the scourge of gerrymandering. Viewers who don't need that word explained to them —it's the convoluted drawing of legislative district boundaries, done in favor of the governing political party — may feel a feature film is overkill.

Dim echoes of David Lynch and early Roman Polanski abound throughout “The Carnivores,” a fitfully fascinating mix of teasing narrative opacity and stylized psycho-thriller atmospherics.

In the striking pre-title sequence ofSchoolgirls,a choir of youngsters move their mouths silently, as though their voices have been stolen from them.

In a family with 10 children, all raised around horse racing, isn't one almost mathematically guaranteed to grow up to be a champion? A sense of inevitability hovers over Ride Like a Girl, despite the film hinging on an underdog theme: It's about one of the family's daughters, after all, and girls don't win the Melbourne Cup.

How many newspaper stories, magazine features and TV segments have been produced so far that marvel at the revolutionary capabilities of CRISPR while giving almost no idea at all how the gene-editing discovery actually works? Those who lament the state of science journalism should take note of Human Nature, in which Adam Bolt and helpful scientists offer an easily understood introduction to techniques often described with head-scratching phrases like "it's a word processor for DNA!" A cogent,

Director Philip Harder, whose previous credits mostly consist of music videos for such performers as Liz Phair, Hilary Duff, Foo Fighters and Prince, has chosen ambitious subject matter for his feature narrative debut. Tuscaloosa, a coming-of-age drama set in 1970s-era Alabama, deals with such issues as mental illness and violent racial clashes.

With his perverse (and some might say perverted) look at the early life of Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister W. L.

Two older working-class men, both secretly gay, meet by chance and a hidden relationship develops in “Suk Suk,” the poignant third feature from writer-director Ray Yeung. Inspired by a sociology professor’s oral history of older gay men in Hong Kong, the drama incorporates documentary-like elements about end-of-life issues for gay elders.

Leslie Odom Jr. and Freida Pinto make sympathetic, easy-on-the-eyes lovers in “Only,” an absorbing post-catastrophe drama, in theaters and on demand March 6. Consider “Only” a variation on the “What would you do in this horrid situation?” subgenre. Only it’s more a “What would we do?” which can be an exponentially more challenging proposition. (Hard enough to agree on where to get takeout.)

"It’s not a cheesy love story the trailer makes it seem like"

What a wonderful surprise this film is! Rather under the radar, Netflix has released one of the better movies of 2020 so far with All the Bright Places, a tremendously effective and mature adaptation of the Young Adult novel of the same name. YA titles can often pull their punches and leave you lacking, but director Brett Haley, one of the most underrated storytellers in the business, does not fall into that trap.

"Is today a good day to die?" Those haunting words make up the first sentence in Jennifer Niven's New York Times best-selling novelAll the Bright Places, her first offering in the realm of young adult fiction. The book was released in 2015 and recently adapted into a Netflix feature film set to premiere Feb.