‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life’ (2024)
“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” begins in the dense, tightly shelved Shakespeare & Co., Paris’ storied English-language bookstore, where its protagonist Agathe (Camille Rutherford, the journalist who appears early in “Anatomy of a Fall”) works while trying to succeed as a writer. Agathe has lived with her sister and her young nephew for the past several years since the death of their parents in a car crash, and is clearly a bit “stuck,” so her friend Félix (Pablo Pauly), with an obvious-yet-endearing crush on her, sends an application on her behalf to the Jane Austen Writing Residency. After deciding begrudgingly to go, just before boarding a ferry to cross the English Channel she surprises Felix (and, seemingly, herself) with a passionate kiss. What follows is a familiar, Austenian romantic entanglement. At the residency, which is run by Austen’s descendants, Agathe meets the proprietors’ son, Oliver (Charlie Anson): brooding, pompous, dour. A Mr. Darcy if ever I saw one. It’s evident early on where the story’s going, and that predictability makes the plot drag at times. Behind the lens, Laura Piani’s direction shows promise, but her writing, less so: “You’re scared. You don’t live. You just hide,” Felix tells Agathe. Predictable plot and clunky dialogue aside, what Piani does know how to create a mood, a sense of feeling and a state of being. There’s a soft, wistful atmosphere that lingers over the film, a longing that comes through the screen and is brought to life in different ways by each of the three protagonists. The film’s also beautiful, set in the foggy, lush fields of the English countryside (though the residency scenes were actually shot in France), which contributes to that slightly dreamlike quality, as does a soundtrack heavy in classical pieces and supplemented by a nice guitar-and-woodwind score by Peter Von Poehl. Overall, “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” is a sweet, easy watch with lovable characters that’s charming enough to make its clichés forgivable. There aren’t many surprises – it plays out and ends exactly as you would expect – but sometimes that’s just what you need. (Madeleine Aitken) At Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge.
‘Lilo & Stitch’ (2025)
“Lilo & Stitch” joins the ranks of “Snow White” (2025) and “The Lion King” (2024) as yet another Disney remake no one asked for and no one needed. Like those other recent films (see also “Mufasa”), “Lilo & Stitch” falls flat in comparison with its 2002 animated predecessor. For the most, it remains mostly faithful to its source, centering on Lilo (Maia Kealoha), an orphaned 6-year-old being raised by her older sister, Nani (Sydney Agudong), who encounter Stitch (Chris Sanders, who co-directed the original), an alien lab experiment that lands unexpectedly on the shores of Hawaii. Posing as a dog – albeit blue – Stitch goes home with Lilo and Nani, where he causes destruction at every turn. Stitch uses Lilo and Nani as human shields against Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) and Pleakley (Billy Magnussen), aliens responsible for returning him to the United Galactic Federation, while Nani tries to manage his well-intentioned mischief. This “Lilo & Stitch” has some of the same sweetness that made the original resonate; as a newer, live-action update, it’s also faster and louder. Stitch is more maniacally crazy, his antics amped-up and more over-the-top, in an obvious bid for laughs that feels more cringeworthy than funny. Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind, but this Stitch doesn’t inspire much warm tenderness. Watching the little alien wreak havoc on Lilo and Nani’s home seems more cruel in live action, especially given that Nani’s doing everything she can to protect her sister from child services. Nani and Lilo have their moments, supported by solid performances from both Agudong (steadfast) and Kealoha (adorable), but overall, it’s a pretty cheap re-creation of what was, with few redeeming moments amid the chaos. Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (the heartwarming “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”) I had hope for this redo, but it was charmless and had the bland, generic feeling of a Disney Channel original. Stick with the classic. (Madeleine Aitken) At Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge; Apple Cinemas Cambridge, 168 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge Highlands near Alewife and Fresh Pond; and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville.
‘Fountain of Youth’ (2025)
In this “National Treasure”-cum-“Mission: Impossible” knockoff, the issue isn’t so much the lifting, the miscast lead or the wasting of Natalie Portman’s talents, but more so the slack composition and lazy execution. Good (“Snatch,” “Covenant”) or bad (“Swept Away,” “Revolver”), director Guy Ritchie usually keeps things visually compelling and taut, but in this globe-hopping quest, sadly even that is missing. The miscast lead is John Krasinski as Luke Purdue, an Indiana Jones-styled relic hunter. Paintings seem to be his main jam. To get one, he raises the Lusitania; later, there’s a whole lot going on in the inner bowels of the Great Pyramids in scenes that are nearly cloned, cel by cel, from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981). Caught in the jet stream of action is Portman as Luke’s sister Charlotte, just getting out of a bad marriage and worried about the custody of her kid, and there’s something their dad did back in the day that plays into the present – just what that is doesn’t much matter, as the film is pure MacGuffin fluff. Hot on Luke’s heels is some shadowy org led by an enigmatic figure known as The Elder (Stanley Tucci), who pretty has a deployment of commandos with assault weapons at every far-flung destination Luke hits. In theory, if Luke gets all the “pieces,” he gets the map and key to the Fountain of Youth – given that all roads point to North Africa, I guess Ponce de León clearly had it wrong. In the mix is Domhnall Gleeson (“Ex Machina”) as the wealthy billionaire funding the whole shebang. While I normally like Krasinski, a pleasingly casual, nonchalant comedic presence in “The Office” series and the brains behind the “Quiet Place” films, he flounders here as a JV mashup of “The Saint” and Robert Downey in Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” films. He suffers by the juxtaposition of Tom Cruise currently burning up the box-office in “Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning.” As flimsy as the “National Treasure” films were, there was an endearing hokeyness to them, and Nic Cage usually gets you there just by showing up. With “Fountain of Youth,” everything looks old, uninspired and tired. Besides Eiza González as the fiery leader of The Elder’s covert-ops team, no one escapes the indignity of this soulless cinematic scavenger hunt. (Tom Meek) On AppleTV+.
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
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