‘Where to Land’ (2025)
The first film from indie stalwart Hal Hartley in more than 10 years – a Kickstarter campaign got it off the ground before a Covid pandemic delay – is a loose, autobiographical reflection on the director’s life and body of work like Almodóvar’s deeply personal “Pain and Glory” (2019). At the center is Joseph Fulton (Bill Sage), a lion in winter edging toward 60 and one-time maker of successful romantic comedies who’s taking a break from the director chair to get his last will and testament together. He also has a desire to put his hands in mother earth, and applies for a job as a cemetery groundskeeper. Through a comedy of miscommunication, Joe’s girlfriend, Muriel (Kim Taff), an actor in Season 14 of her “Wonder Woman”-esque TV series, and his niece and assistant, Veronica (Katelyn Sparks) discover an unopened, confidential letter from a hospital and think it all adds up to Joe dying. Adding fuel to the fire is the subplot about a wannabe screenwriter (Jeremy Hendrik) claiming to be Joe’s son. It’s a stoic, reflective affair with some strong writing. The best moment is when a film studies professor (Aida Johannes) challenges Joe with SAT word salad and Rorschach test reasoning about the meaning of his films. It’s blazingly brilliant, but begs the question as to why Joe’s rom-coms are being intellectualized as if they’re “One Battle After Another.” No offense to rom-coms, but it’s apples and oranges – and Joe, a likable sort, doesn’t really emanate the auteur je ne sais quoi that many in the film seem to heap on him. As to the title, the film begins and ends with a Shackleton-esque-esque ship amid rough seas – a clear metaphor for hitting a patch of turbulence late in life and what to do. It works, even if weakly employed. As with most Hartley (or Mamet, for that matter) films, it’s less about the oblique references and more about matters of the heart and struggling soul.
‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ (2025)
The source for this cockamamie psychological thriller is a 2016 mystery crime novel by Ruth Ware about a Norwegian oil heiress dying of cancer whose vast fortune is driving the boat – literally: The waning Anne Bullmer, her husband, Richard, and a cast of B-level celebs board a luxury yacht set for a slow sail to the Norwegian fjords so Anne can hold a press conference and announce the posthumous destination of her dollars. Ware’s novels are enjoyable hate reads; the modus operandi is always a cheap, manipulative shell game that is at once frustrating and fun to grapple with. Same here in this adaptation by Simon Stone, who showed such promise with the Ralph Fiennes archaeological drama “The Dig” (2021), but the pacing’s off and the implausibility more obvious. The casting is a strong suit, with Guy Pearce as the debonair hubby with much at stake and a statuesque Keira Knightly (“Pride & Prejudice,” “Bend It Like Beckham”) as Laura “Lo” Blacklock, an investigative reporter asked by Anne (Lisa Loven Kongsli) to join the cruise to document Anne’s final days and the announcement. Anne shares with her a document showing that her billions are all earmarked to charity and Richard is written out. (That’s not a spoiler.) To keep us off balance, much is told from Lo’s addled perspective, including what follows: the sounds of a struggle in Cabin 10, a thud and a splash. After a head count of guests and crew on the mini-cruise ship, though, no one seems to be missing and the person-overboard SOS is waived off. Case closed. But no, Lo refuses to stop digging. The more she finds, the less anyone will believe her, and there’s clearly a covert effort afoot to thwart her. Knightly is quite convincing in the delusional/not-delusional part, and the framing of the luxe yacht on the high seas is breathtaking. Too bad the plot had weak sea legs in print and founders more on the screen.
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