The Mortal Kombat star plays an LA cop returning home to avenge his brother’s murder in this charming piece of grindhouse schlock
On an unnamed island in the Caribbean, a cartel boss named Manuel (Edoardo Costa) kills bartender Akeem (Tristan Duncan) merely because he spills a drink on Nora (Cami Storm), a young singer Manuel was planning to lock up in his villa and force to sing only for himself, like a canary. The murder is not only grisly and bad management practice, but also consequential because it brings down the wrath of Akeem’s brother Mark, an LA policeman. It turns out Mark grew up on the island where he left behind an ex-wife, Akilah, his mother and lots of old friends. Swearing to find out how Akeem really died, he moves back and a series of fisticuff face-offs ensue as he works through the chain of command,...
On an unnamed island in the Caribbean, a cartel boss named Manuel (Edoardo Costa) kills bartender Akeem (Tristan Duncan) merely because he spills a drink on Nora (Cami Storm), a young singer Manuel was planning to lock up in his villa and force to sing only for himself, like a canary. The murder is not only grisly and bad management practice, but also consequential because it brings down the wrath of Akeem’s brother Mark, an LA policeman. It turns out Mark grew up on the island where he left behind an ex-wife, Akilah, his mother and lots of old friends. Swearing to find out how Akeem really died, he moves back and a series of fisticuff face-offs ensue as he works through the chain of command,...
- 1/23/2024
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
What splits the fine line between desire and expectations? Is it a thing you can see? Is it a thing you can film?
Film at Lincoln Center’s new retrospective supposes that if any of those questions have answers, they might reside in the cinema of Edward Yang. Moving from “A Rational Mind”––the title of their 2011 retrospective of Yang’s work––to “Desire/Expectations” reframes those questions to be more diffuse, less singular. A rational mind could answer in the affirmative or negative; a slash indicates that desire and expectations may occupy the same terrain simultaneously.
“A rational mind” is also, perhaps, an accusation a Yang character could lob at another, especially in A Confucian Confusion (1994), a workplace farce that subjects a “culture company” in 1990s Taipei to the contradictions of Confucian teachings. In turn (or simultaneously), the film interrogates Confucian-influenced, consumer-friendly spaces––like 1990s Taipei––to rethink old-world molds of tradition and expectation.
Film at Lincoln Center’s new retrospective supposes that if any of those questions have answers, they might reside in the cinema of Edward Yang. Moving from “A Rational Mind”––the title of their 2011 retrospective of Yang’s work––to “Desire/Expectations” reframes those questions to be more diffuse, less singular. A rational mind could answer in the affirmative or negative; a slash indicates that desire and expectations may occupy the same terrain simultaneously.
“A rational mind” is also, perhaps, an accusation a Yang character could lob at another, especially in A Confucian Confusion (1994), a workplace farce that subjects a “culture company” in 1990s Taipei to the contradictions of Confucian teachings. In turn (or simultaneously), the film interrogates Confucian-influenced, consumer-friendly spaces––like 1990s Taipei––to rethink old-world molds of tradition and expectation.
- 12/29/2023
- by Frank Falisi
- The Film Stage
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