Reviewed: ‘All We Imagine as Light,’ ‘The Front Room’ and ‘Ad Vitam’ and ‘Back in Action’
‘All We Imagine as Light’ (2024)
Payal Kapadia’s somber meditation on womanhood and companionship amid the bustling streets of Mumbai feels like a living and breathing document. It follows the lives of three intertwined women, two of whom are nurses and roommates. The more dour of the duo, Prabha (Kani Kusruti), is estranged from her arranged husband, who is now working in Germany, and moves through her days with restrained and wistful introspection. The younger of the two, Anu (Divya Prabha), is bright-eyed, perky and naively idealistic as she constantly overspends and often asks Prabha to cover her rent. She has a secret Muslim lover who asks her to wear a burka when sneaking over for their trysts. That’s one of the interesting things about Kapadia’s portrait of Mumbai – it delves into and illuminates the myriad subtle cultural, linguistic and religious identities that coexist nearly seamlessly in the dense urban setting. The movie places the patriarchy under a microscope, not by lambasting double standards and gender inequality, but by showing the sisterhood formed through common causes and tribulations. Prabha and Anu are busy working out their romantic and professional futures while the third woman, the hospital’s cook, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a steely, no-nonsense, middle-aged widow, rails in vain against a developer who wants to displace her. “All We Imagine as Light” is a quiet film that affects the viewer in ebbs and flow, and Kapadia’s poetic cinematic flourishes add a dreamy, hypnotic affect to the deeply emotional sojourn. Kapadia was recently in Brookline to show the film at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and was rightly praised as a breakthrough filmmaker. The texture and tenor of “All We Imagine as Light” is reminiscent of Deepa Mehta’s Elements trilogy, which bodes well for Kapadia’s future endeavors.
‘The Front Room’ (2024)
Max and Sam Eggers’ nascent dive into the horror genre is alluring for a moment. Coming from the brothers of Robert Eggers (“The Lighthouse”), the movie marks a return to fright fare for pop star and actor Brandy Norwood (“I Still Know What You Did Last Summer”). Here, she plays Belinda, a pregnant adjunct anthropology professor who can’t score tenure or the attention of her students. She and her overworked and generic staff attorney husband, Norman (Andrew Burnap), live in a creaky old East Coast abode and are already tight on money. Will they have enough money for the coming baby, and will the university save Belinda her seat? The fix comes in the form of Norman’s physically addled stepmother Solange (Kathryn Hunter), who has plenty of money and leisure time to help out. She’s also a bit of a kook, steeped in religious babble and wildly incontinent. Once the baby is born, Solange starts performing mystic Christian rituals around the house and inviting parishioners from the church to drop by and intone chants that feel right out of an uber-dark, black mass flick. Essentially, “The Front Room” is a banal, watered-down version of “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) with Hunter aping Ruth Gordon – somewhat effectively at first, until she morphs from edgy and eccentric to a full-on demonic fecal freak. “It’s a double messy mess,” Belinda yells from the front room (thus the title). Norman simply pinches his nose at this and heads off to the office, leaving Belinda to bathe and clean Solange. In the process, Solange lets Belinda know how she feels about interracial marriage, her colonial-minded views aligning with that of the segregated Jim Crow South. Ruth Gordon is the gold standard here, and it’s fun to watch Hunter do her shameless schtick. But as far as the Eggers brothers go, recent fare such as Ti West’s inventive “X” (2022) and M. Night Shyamalan‘s “The Visit” (2015) do the bad-seed trope far better.
‘Ad Vitam’ and ‘Back in Action’ (2024)
Two in which a husband-wife team knuckles up and fights baddies. The first, “Ad Vitam” (Latin for “for life”), is a French action import, something Netflix does regularly: Take an international thriller no one’s ever heard of, quickly (and poorly) dub it and drop it onto its platform for fast hits (as of this week, the movie is the No. 7 most-watched in the country). It makes sense for business, and the film isn’t that bad. Guillaume Canet (“Non-Fiction”) and Stéphane Caillard (“The Take”) star as Franck and Leo, husband and (pregnant) wife police officers – part of an elite tactical response unit (with requisite ski masks and Kevlar) who stumble upon an international conspiracy and cover-up by the French government. They are subsequently targeted by mercenaries and fellow police officers who chase after Franck when he is framed for murder. The movie shows off Franck’s tower-climbing skills and aerial daring. The practical effects, car chases and beatdowns are gritty and well-choreographed – think of the French parkour cop flick “District 13” (2004) starring David Belle – and Caillard’s Leo is not just an accouterment, but a kick-ass can-do in her own right, baby on board or not.
The bigger budget of the two is “Back in Action,” the pairing of Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx (who suffered a stroke while making the movie) as Emily and Matt, former spies who have moved to the suburbs and started a family. They now have two kids, a socially active 15-year-old, Alice (McKenna Roberts) and a precocious 12-year-old techie, Leo (Rylan Jackson), and are so deep undercover that the kids don’t even know their parents’ former lives. The past catches up with Emily and Matt when old friends are looking for “the key,” which has the power to control any grid system. “Ad Vitam” has a similar “key” MacGuffin that leads to crucial evidence. While Alice and Leo initially shun their mom and dad for being old and out of date, they start to appreciate their parents as they spring into action – Emily beating down a bouncer at a dance club and Matt turning a gas pump hose into a flamethrower. Glenn Close is a fun addition, channeling Dame Judi Dench as Emily’s mom and a former MI6 operative. Neither of the films featuring a key to die over, a character named Leo and a mom doing roundhouse karate kicks have a great plot or great acting, but both are highly watchable, popcorn-worthy, pass-the-time hangover candy.
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