Digital Week – May 20

The relationship between incoming Russian president Vladimir Putin and advisor Vadim Baranov (based on the real-life Vladislav Surkov) during the bumpy beginning of the Russian Federation is dramatized with his usual rigor by French director Olivier Assayas. The political chicanery and media spin at the heart of Putin’s burgeoning autocracy is always enticing, but Assayas and cowriter Emmanuel Carrère stay mostly on the surface, rarely diving into the tantalizing complexities involved. Paul Dano makes a one-note Vadim, Jude Law is an effective Putin and Alicia Vikander gives a stellar turn as Ksenia, a woman with whom Vadim gets entangled, but the film never really gains any dramatic or satiric steam, stopping and starting lethargically until the startling if unsurprising final shot.

Eiza Gonzalez shines as Rachel, a stealthy and glamorous lawyer who takes the assets of corrupt billionaires with the help of her reliable sidekicks Sid (Henry Cavill) and Bronco (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Guy Ritchie’s silly but entertaining adventure that traverses New York, the Canary Islands and Saudi Arabia. Although there’s not much at stake here—even when Rachel gets abducted by her latest mark, Manny Salazar (Carlos Bardem), we know she’ll be extracted by Sid and Bronco’s team—Ritchie paces his lark spiffily enough to get this to the finish line in a tidy 97 minutes.

E. Jean Carroll initially appeared on most people’s radars a few years ago when she accused Donald Trump of sexual abuse in a department store changing room and successfully sued him for defamation when he stupidly—but unsurprisingly—said he couldn’t have done it because she wasn’t his type. In Ivy Meeropol’s concise documentary, Carroll becomes more than just her run-in with Trump: she’s also an accomplished editor, writer, advice columnist and even television host who was called the female Hunter S. Thompson for her no-nonsense style. Indeed, she comes across in interviews both new and old along as other video footage as an intelligent and unafraid, the kind of woman who is Trump’s worst nightmare—which she is.

When sister and brother art forgers Coco and Raymond start working with Holden, a young heir who wants his grandfather’s ruined artworks to be repainted and sold as genuine, their suddenly big-time operation enters the purview of Emily, an FBI agent who has befriended their mother in Jing Ai Ng’s fascinating study of the complicated ethics and morality of such partnerships. Although the film’s ending is a bit rushed, the writer-director shows off a sure hand with his complex characters, all of whom are persuasively brought to life by Andie Ju (Coco), Brandon Soo Hoo (Raymond), Edmund Donovan (Holden) and Kelly Marie Tran (Emily).

There seems to be something wrong with married couple Erin and Charlie’s relationship—and we find out early on exactly what it is in this at times risible and always maudlin melodrama that approaches the subject of loss with tired visual tropes and dated emotional cues. Although director Katie Aselton utilizes Sarah Wheldon’s cinematography to inject freshness into California’s overphotographed Joshua Tree, nothing can escape the banality of Aselton’s and husband Mark Duplass’ script. Aselton acts up a storm as Erin, and David Diggs is in fine form as Charlie, but it’s all for naught and feels overlong, despite its brief 80-minute running time.

Luuk Bouwman’s savage documentary focuses on Jan Teunissen, a Dutch filmmaker who became a major Nazi party supporter, for which he spent time in prison but afterward never expressed any regret for what he had done all while saying that he didn’t really anything that awful. Rolf Schuursma, as part of an oral history project, interviewed Teunissen and others about being willing propagandists for Hitler’s regime, and Buowman introduces devastating evidence that Teunissen was far more than simply Nazi-adjacent. It’s an explosive if unsurprising portrait that demonstrates how collaboration is as damaging as being a true believer—and when it came to Teunissen, they overlapped.