Pete Croatto, Film Roundup, June 2014

An ICON contributor since 2006, Pete Croatto also writes movie reviews for The Weekender. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Broadway.com, Grantland, Philadelphia, Publishers Weekly, and many other publications. Follow him on Twitter, @PeteCroatto.

The Signal (Dir: William Eubank). Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Beau Knapp, Olivia Cooke, Laurence Fishburne, Lin Shaye. Here is the apotheosis of a “should have” movie, where the only way to talk about it is to play Monday morning quarterback—or story editor. Three college friends embark on a road trip out West to bring one of them (Cooke) to school. But computer-savvy Nic (Thwaites) and Jonah (Knapp) are obsessed with finding a crafty hacker named Nomad who nearly shattered their college careers. After tracking Nomad to a shack in the desert, things get weird. The trio awakens in a sterile, blindingly white underground bunker, where their stoic liaison (Fishburne) withholds the details of that night and their lengthy stay. The Signal has a perfect parable of an ending, but the proceedings leading up to it are limp and draggy. (Condensed, this would make a perfect Twilight Zone episode.) The conclusion is a highlight rather than the bow that should tie up a twisty and thought-provoking work. [PG-13]

We are the Best! (Dir: Lukas Moodysson). Starring: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne. The joy of Moodysson’s wonderful coming-of-age drama-comedy is that it captures the experiences of a time when your friends could expand your ideals, and a celebration consisted of a junk-food pig out. In 1982 Stockholm, teenage best friends Bobo (Barkhammar) and Klara (Grosin) find salvation in punk music. So it’s only natural that the girls start a band, even if the instruments to start are a tennis racket and pots and pans. The band rounds into form when the girls recruit a devoutly Christian (i.e., rigid) classmate who is an accomplished classical guitarist (LeMoyne). The three outcasts battle jealousy, crushes, and clueless adults to carve out their own space in a world they don’t understand. Moodysson’s organic approach—there are no eloquent speeches or 25-year-old teenagers—ensures that the characters act like girls and possess the problems of girls. Forget the era, the feelings here are timeless. (With subtitles.) [R]

Ida (Dir: Pawel Pawlikowski). Starring: Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza, Dawid Ogrodnik. Anna (Trzebuchowska, in her screen debut), a young aspiring Polish nun whose life has been confined to a convent, is reunited with her unmarried aunt (Kulesza), a blunt, hard-drinking judge. The young woman’s desire to learn about her past throws Anna and her aunt’s world into different kinds of tumult. Set sometime in the early 1960s, director-writer Pawlikowski’s stark, haunting work is shot in black and white, but Ida’s definitive aesthetic is its framing. Thanks to the array of wide-angle shots, the space looks like it’s either going to crush Anna’s future or embolden her to explore it. By not coddling the audience, Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love) makes it clear: Anna has to figure things out on her own, and that makes our connection to the character even stronger. Ida’s sad and poetic portrayal of life’s uncertainty will linger in your thoughts weeks after you’ve seen it; I speak from experience, folks. (With subtitles.) [PG-13]

And, finally, a dispatch from the summer movie season: Neighbors (Dir: Nicholas Stoller). Starring: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, Lisa Kudrow, Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gallo. When it comes to multiplex fare, comedies regularly offer substantive fare for a grown-ups’ night out. Here’s another example. Mac and Kelly Radner (Rogen, Byrne) are settling into a life of domesticity: baby, big house in the suburbs, interrupted sex life. The landscape changes when a fraternity moves in next door. The couple starts off worried, but after the frat’s president (Efron) invites them to party, a peace is established—for a day. After the Radners call the police with a noise complaint, the gloves come off. What makes Neighbors smarter and sweeter than the average revenge comedy is why both parties keep sparring. The Radners are desperate for excitement while Teddy, the fraternity president and a senior, has nothing else. Both parties are trying to fight the onslaught of time. We don’t root for these people as much as feel for them. Oh, and the movie is funny. Byrne (Bridesmaids, I Give it a Year) is terrific as the new housewife who revels in being devious—when she’s not miserable.  [R]