Archive | June, 2026

‘The Death of Robin Hood’

21 Jun

A myth reconsidered in this grim but powerfully told version of a life that might not have been heroic.

Revisionism is a powerful dispeller of myth. Consider how Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppola, and Stanley Kubrick reframed the public understanding of the Vietnam War. Or how Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood cut the morally righteous reins on the American Western.

What about Robin Hood, the legend who stole from the rich and gave to the poor? A regular champion of the poor, like Mother Teresa, and a candidate for a Nobel prize? Not so much in Michael Sarnoski‘s dark reckoning, where Mr. Hood is looking for atonement before his book closes on his not-so-noble reputation. He’s played by

Hugh Jackman with world-weary gravitas, conveying sadness in his eyes and the simmer of rage in his heart.

The film is gorgeously shot by Paul Scola, who worked with Sarnoski previously on “Pig” (2021) — then again, the bare north mountains of Ireland do a lot of this movie’s heavy lifting. We learn early on that this is not Errol Flynn’s swashbuckling Robin Hood. Our Robin has been enmeshed in the cycle of violence all his life, hunted by the kin of those he killed. He’s adroit at bloodshed. There’s no flashback to show us whether the younger Robin’s deeds were derring-do or thuggish savagery.

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Winding down with old friends at Tampopo

12 Jun

Since the announcement of the closure, people have been flocking by in droves for one last donburi bowl and to wish its owner, Yasumasa Ito, the best.

When 2025 became 2026, Yasumasa Ito decided 34 years was long enough and it was time to shut down Tampopo, the venerable Japanese noodle and donburi bowl bodega in the Lesley Building in Porter Square. Cambridge Day posted an appreciation piece highlighting our favorite dishes, and lauding Ito for maintaining high quality over the years. 

That story led to this story: around Memorial Day, the Day received an email from Kotaro Moria, who lives in Kanazawa — also known as “Little Kyoto” — in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture. Moria told us he appreciated our story, and it was a reason why he was coming to Boston to help Ito through the last 30 days of Tampopo’s existence.

Moria studied at Fisher College 16 years ago and worked for Ito while he was here. He now runs an IT and web design firm in Japan.

“I knew Tampopo was closing,” Morita said. “Another staff member asked me to make a website so customers could send messages to Ito-san. While I was working on it, I saw a recent photo of him. He looked thinner than I remembered, and I thought that this was hard on him, and I felt like I should go help. A few days later he took me up on it.”

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Reviews of “The Breadwinner,” “Pressure” and the Netflix documentary, “The Crash”

6 Jun

Exploring war (D-Day), gender, and true crime on film

“Pressure”

Who knew that the timing of D-Day was much ado about dueling meteorologists? Obviously, David Haig, whose play about this little-known chapter of the war gets the big-screen treatment in the capable hands of Anthony Maras (the deft thriller, “Hotel Mumbai”) — and Haig, who co-wrote the screenplay. The setting is the Southwick House — a sprawling mansion in England — some 72 hours before the planned invasion that would change the course of history. General Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) tries to hone the fine details of the landing with the other commanders, including British general Bernard Montgomery and his U.S. counterpart, Omar Bradley. The big question is the weather.

Churchill recommends his chief weather guy, Scottish meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott, stoic and complex), who gets posted above Ike’s weather guy, Irving Krick (Chris Messina, Michael Jordan’s brash agent in “Air”) — and that’s where the rub comes. Krick, who notched great success in the North Africa campaigns, lives by almanacs and historical trends, while Stagg works from real-time data and tracks the current conditions. Two different methods, two different calls drive Ike and the command team bonkers with just two days until the launch. Stagg predicts 10-foot waves that would blow the landing force off course.

History books chronicle how it all plays out, but Maras and the inspired ensemble reenact it to a deeply compelling effect. Scott and Fraser, a long way from “Mummy” (1999)— anchor the film, with Damian Lewis stealing scenes as Montgomery, both anxious and devilishly cheeky. Kerry Condon makes Kay Summersby, Ike’s indispensable aide, feel essential, her warmth and resolve a counterweight to the chaos around her. Backstories about a failed earlier attempt, led by Ike, that got a lot of young men killed, and the bombing of the hospital where Stagg’s pregnant wife is convalescing, lend human depth. Some of the best insights of “Pressure” are the stark contrast between the British stiff upper lip and American maverick arrogance. The title is a play on weather pressure, the decision to go or not, and the weight of the world. Towards the end, the film shows some ancillary staging of the landing (the 82nd anniversary is nigh), but nothing that will end up in conversations with “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) or “The Longest Day” (1962).

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Reviews of “Ladies First,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War” and “Kontinental ’25”

1 Jun

Complicated people in places that are characters in their own right

“Ladies First”

Speaking of gloriously gonzo, Sacha Baron Cohen, the hot mess (said with respect and gratitude) behind the devilishly caustic “Borat” films, stars in this rom-com-lite, gender-reversal spin with a side of nasty. The movie has a killer cast (Charles Dance, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Fiona Shaw, Emily Mortimer and the ever-underrated Kathryn Hunter), yet can’t find the footing to distinguish itself.

Director Thea Sharrock based it on the 2018 French comedy “I Am Not an Easy Man,” but the updating triggered “What Women Want” (2000) vibes in me. Maybe that’s because both Cohen and Mel Gibson play chauvinistic ad execs who get gendered comeuppance when a reality-altering happenstance changes the fabric of their universe — Gibson’s self-centered id can hear the thoughts and desires of women nearby, while Cohen’s crass conqueror gets a bop on the head and comes to in a female-driven world where fast food staples are now Burger Queen and Five Gals.

The big timestamp — side note here — is the instantiation of #MeToo. “What Women Want” and “I am Not an Easy Man” predate it, leaving “Ladies First” to walk a delicate line — which it does so with clunky awkwardness. Cohen’s Damien Sachs ascends to head of the Atlas ad agency and promotes newly hired creator Alex Fox (Pike) to be his Guinness team lead for gender optic reasons. Fox overhears Sachs’s pleasing-the-client logic, but before the ugly truth can gain any traction, the world flips and Fox is suddenly Sachs’s boss. We are in a universe where men are used as sex symbols to sell product, and at church it’s the Mother, the Daughter and the Holy She.

The best part of the movie is Shaw as the CEO (in the man’s world she was a lowly receptionist) who wants Sachs’ middle manager as a play thang. Also fun is Hunter’s Glenda, a cleaning woman in one reality and the minter of CEOs in the other. Her gravely British baritone and accompanying demeanor bring a brash bubbly element to the otherwise drab formula. In the she-ocracy Cohen does get to belt out some “Sex Farm” nonsense that’s humorous for a nanosecond, but overall, “Ladies First” is a lot of sharp edges that never find ripe fruit to cut into. Sexism at its most basic is skin deep, but films about It — comedic or not — shouldn’t be.

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