‘Another Day In America’ (2024)
Seeking something different and off the beaten path, I saw that Amazon had just dropped a new version of “War of the Worlds” starring Ice Cube and Eva Longoria. It gave me pause. Didn’t Spielberg and Cruise redo this right back in 2005? Still, I was curious. What I got for my inquisitive sins was the H.G. Wells’ sci-fi classic told lamely through Zoom screens, with a professorial-looking Ice Cube as a defense scientist hooting inanely at a computer screen (“kick their asses!”) as tanks blast away at the wispy robotic walkers of the invading aliens. It’s nearly unwatchable, maybe the worst film of 2025, which is why I turned for relief to Emilio Mauro’s made-in-Boston, lo-fi, corporate culture kick-in-the-pants – something I took a gamble on reluctantly when Mauro reached out to me, but I’m glad I did. The film unfolds over the course of a business day in a generic office space of cubicles and white-slatted blinds, a drab labyrinth of toil and tension known as the fictional Haskin Rogers Corp. Just what Haskin Rogers makes its bank on is smartly never articulated, we just know that there are deals in the works, killer office parties and that the mantle of power has just been passed from papa Haskins (Brian Goodman) to son (Steve Memmolo). The company’s no-nonsense HR director, Tracy (Alexis Knapp, “Pitch Perfect”), serves as the film’s proxy for ferreting out hypocrisy and the isms flowing freely in water cooler byways. It starts from the moment we roll in at 9 a.m., slyly labeled “Time does not heal all wounds,” as a fairly well-ensconced employee is fired for homophobic and anti-Islamic tweets made in high school and college. Much of the film’s success comes from the strong performances of the all-in ensemble, namely Ritchie Coster as Greg, a senior player who wants the company’s lone Black woman (Daphne Blunt) fired because of her racy social media presence and alleged romantic ties to a valued client makes regular, off-the-cuff barbs about the new trans hire. Greg’s back-and forths with Tracy propel the film and underscore the divides. The most recognizable name in the cast is Natasha Henstridge (“Species”) as an enigmatic, outside power broker with the last name of Rogers. Other that shine are Damien Di Paola (“Chappaquiddick”) as a “Goodfellas”-talking task master strong-arming underlings and crossing a few lines himself, and character actor Paul Ben-Victor, who charms as a higher-up cynically sick of the corporate swim. Mauro’s script is airtight, irreverent and pushes the envelop the way Neil LaBute’s “In the Company of Men” edgily did nearly 30 years ago. On the matter of race, the film has a bit of a “Crash” (2004) arc to it. In the opening credits, we’re told that the film’s based on “true events” that happened here a while back and made national headlines; to divulge more would be to do the film and the viewer a disservice. “Another Day in America” played as party of the Boston Independent Film Festival, not to be confused with International Film Festival Boston, and just dropped onto streaming platforms.
‘Clown in a Cornfield’ (2025)
For what begins as a fairly generic teen slasher flick – have sex and die, can’t tell one victim-to-be from the next – “Clown in a Cornfield” dishes up some drolly sharp commentary on such things as repressed sexuality, identity struggles, the perils of social media and rampant corruption and cronyism. Set in the fictional town of Kettle Spring, Missouri, the film could have been called “Make Kettle Springs Great Again.” The mayor’s a doppelgänger for Elon Musk (Kevin Durand, “Fruitvale Station”), and given that the town’s struggling economically since the corn syrup plant burned down (blamed on partying teens), Kettle Springs seems like the kind of place our current Potus might swoop in for an economic fist-bump photo op. Its polarizing generational divide is well illustrated when Quinn (Katie Douglas, of television’s “Ginny & Georgia”), our imperiled young heroine du jour, tries to dial out for help from within a random farmhouse she’s broken into: She can’t figure out how to use the rotary phone. New to the sleepy town, along with her widower doctor dad (Aaron Abrams), Quinn falls in seamlessly with the happening crowd, but as the town’s big Founder’s Day celebration nears, several of her cadre go missing – each offed by a killer clown named Friendo, the old mascot for the corn syrup factory. As gore fests go, “Clown in a Cornfield” is a fairly connect-the-dots affair until the youth have their big hoedown, which induces Friendo’s full ire. Whole pages from “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” (1988) and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974) get lifted, and you could even argue that “Sinners” is in there too if the films weren’t released congruently. Like “Sinners,” “Cornfield” layers in social themes under the bloody covers. It doesn’t do so with the resonance of Ryan Coogler’s summertime surprise, but it does have teeth.
‘The Pickup’ (2025)
Poor Eva Longoria steps in it twice this week by starring in this ersatz “48 Hrs.” knockoff as the dutiful wife of Eddie Murphy’s armored-car guard caught between duty and criminal forces. Treading heavily on that 1982 cop-buddy comedy hit directed by Walter Hill, “The Pickup,” directed steadily by Tim Story (“Barbershop” and the 2005 version of “The Fantastic Four”) feels like an excuse to pair SNL alums Murphy and Pete Davidson, except here, Murphy plays the aging lion that Nolte made so gruffly indelible while Davidson plays the wisecracking, clueless fly in the ointment. They play Russell Pierce and Travis Stolly, respectively. It’s Russell’s 25th wedding anniversary and one of his last runs as he and Longoria’s Natalie look to exit the city and open a bed-and-breakfast. Travis, a failed cop wannabe, gets paired up with Russell for a standard run, except on this day a trio of well informed crooks decide to heist the truck. Led by Keke Palmer’s Zoe, Travis’ former one-night stand, the taking of the fairly empty truck is for a bigger mission – a casino – and because the hijacking doesn’t goes as smoothly as planned, Zoe coerces Russell and Travis to throw in as her impromptu team for the next job. It’s a lot of illogical, plot-point hand waving to justify one endless car chase after another and so Davidson and Andrew Dice Clay, as a take-no-shit dispatcher, can shout radio wave-transmitted profanity at one another. Murphy, who seems bored throughout, casts a warm avuncular weariness (“I’m too old for this shit” seems etched on his lips but never falls) while Davidson overflows with amped-up, bug-eyed, cluelessness. Holding it all together is sleek and cool Palmer, while Longoria gets relegated to the back of the truck – literally – and Clay and former NFLer Marshawn Lynch (“Bottoms”), as a crack mechanic in on the job, add entertaining distraction. One worthy but too-little-too-late Easter egg is the brief riff of the Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance,” which was heard in Murphy’s first “Beverly Hills Cop” picture in 1984.
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