The Little Things: I had plenty to say about this thriller starring Denzel Washington and Rami Malek as FBI agents after a serial killer who may be Jared Leto, but it was in texts with the boys making fun of it. Some decent filming is taken down by total misfires in character and dialogue, not to mention all the most uninteresting possible story decisions — unless it was actually designed as a comedy, which in that case it needs to be assessed as one of the greatest movies of all time. **3/4
MLK/FBI: Look – Martin Luther King Jr. cheated on his wife. Besides that, this documentary explores how terrible the FBI was in their pursuit to figure stuff like that out because MLK was… you know. It’s an interesting watch, though they wrap it up by kind of just saying “hey – I don’t know. We’ll find out more in a decade.” ***1/2
American Skin: Man seeks revenge for his son murdered by cops; takes a police station hostage and starts a Big Conversation about police brutality. An almost hilariously heavy-handed approach to this subject, though I won’t tell you the finish didn’t suck me in. **1/2
Some Kind of Heaven: Darren Aronofsky-produced documentary about a retirement community, a surreal slice of life with a few characters who might be able to hold up their own movie. The talking heads are great, but the real good stuff is the camera choices for all the weird stuff going on in between. ****
Dear Comrades!: Black-and-white drama in Khrushev’s Rusisa, a tragedy seeped in occasional satire. As a geek for historical dramas and satire, that worked for me. ****
