Mariem Pérez Riera’s “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It” isn’t necessarily a look at the life and 70+ year career of “West Side Story” actress Rita Moreno. If anything, it’s more about how she was a victim of toxic masculinity, and was castigated by powerful men within the Tinsel Town studio system. The end result has Moreno, instead of reflecting on her astonishing and barrier-breaking career, playing the victim card throughout. It’s a missed opportunity and one that has Riera and Moreno attempting to use the current zeitgeist for the sake of relevance. [C]
Fitness influencer Sylwia (Magdalena Koleśnik), with close to 600,000 Instagram followers, oozes an artificial facade of contentment in her videos. She has endorsement deals, photo spreads in magazines etc. Alas, don’t judge a book by its cover, what this spirited blonde also has is deep insecurities and, drumroll please, a stalker who parks his car in front of her residence and masturbates to her. There are are hints of a better and more profound movie in “Sweat,” but it just doesn’t say anything new about fame; it’s a glossy and safe portrayal of the artifice that comes in creating a successful social media personality, but we are left asking ourselves “what was the point of it all?” [C+]
You never really know what you’re going to get when it comes to genre-hopping director Francois Ozon. He’s one of the most prolific filmmakers out there, having released 11 movies in the last 12 years. Some great (“Swimming Pool,” Double Lover,” “Under the Sand”) and others mediocre (“5x2,” “Ricky”). “Summer of 85” belongs in the latter category. Tackling a queer summer romance in the south of France, the film retains some of Ozon’s most endearing cinematic obsessions of the last 20 years (love, tragedy, obsession), but lacks the needed substance to make you care for Alexis and David’s fling. [C]