July Movie Roundup: Jungle Cruise, Toofaan, The Courier, Roadrunner

Another month has passed, which means I have another eclectic set of movies to review for you. Spy thrills, Disney mayhem, a documentary profile, Bollywood drama: step right up, I've got it all!

Jungle Cruise: Last week, I went to Disneyland (first out-of-state vacation in 18 months, woohoo!). And I actually went on the Jungle Cruise ride, which is essentially a boat tour with a skipper who tells corny jokes as you sail through a fake jungle with models of animals sprinkled throughout. So I felt like I had done all my research when I went to the theater to watch this movie. And oh what a delight it was. When it was over, my friend Laura and I turned to each other and both exclaimed at the same time, "That was super cute!" So if you're looking for something to tickle your fancy while requiring no brain power whatsoever, you know where to go. 

The star of this movie is Emily Blunt, who is my new favorite Disney heroine. Yes, she is starring opposite Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but I would argue she probably has more amazing action sequences than he does and does a fine job punching people in 1916 London and then in the Amazon as she embarks on a quest to find a fabled flower that has mystical healing properties. Jack Whitehall plays her very English and very foppish brother, and provides excellent comic relief throughout, but Johnson and Blunt's chemistry is great and ties the whole movie together. The plot is truly bewildering and the writers have created so much lore around this Disney ride that they really deserve some kudos for their crazy vision. Speaking of crazy, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti are both playing bad guys in this film, and they are both going for it with over-the-top gusto that may require Disney to issue apologies to the governments of Germany and Italy.

This movie is silly and fun and exactly what it says on the tin. It is a Disney movie: London and the Amazon look like theme parks instead of actual places and there is a lot of extravagant CGI to contend with, but the costumes are great, the sets are lush, and the actors are all having a blast. The plot is convoluted and occasionally a bit too scary (I would be worried about taking young kids to this movie considering my grown-ass friend had to clutch my hand at a couple of jump scares), but overall, it is a fizzy and entertaining way to spend a few hours of your week. Hop on and take a wild ride.

Toofaan: I haven't watched a new Bollywood movie in ages, but you know I was gonna rock up to see Farhan Akhtar do his thing in another sports movie, right? The premise is simple - Akhtar plays Aziz Ali, a small-time gangster in Bombay who makes a living as a "debt collector," i.e. beating up people who owe his boss money. However, when he stumbles across a local boxing gym, he finds a way to channel all his energy into this sport, and punch people's lights out in a much more socially acceptable (and legal) manner. 

This is a very Bollywood movie. The plot proceeds exactly as you expect it will: there was one late twist that surprised me, but otherwise, you could see each beat coming from a mile away. But the acting is sublime. Akhtar lost and gained weight to depict the various phases of Ali's life, and he has clearly poured his blood and sweat (literally) into this role. Mrunal Thakur, who plays his love interest, Ananya (for any women named Ananya, this film features a whole song about you, so get excited!), is dazzling and gets to depict a "progressive" Indian doctor who works in a charity hospital and doesn't think arranged marriages are for her (it's 2021, why is this still so novel!). Paresh Rawal is incredible as Nana Prabhu, Ali's boxing coach who is a very jingoistic Hindu nationalist. This movie really honed in on the ugliness of the Hindu-Muslim divide in a far more targeted way than most Bollywood movies do, so that was compelling. But again, it's 2021, why does this damn country still think "love jihad" is a thing and have housing societies that evaluate tenants based on religion? Sigh. 

Toofaan is nothing new, but it feels like a Bollywood classic and is well worth a watch. I dearly wish it had a better soundtrack--there are absolutely no songs here that are worth writing home about--but the acting is top-notch. Giggle at some of the terrible dialogue and then gape at Farhan's physique, and you'll be all good. 

The Courier: When I was on the plane to LA (first time on a plane in 18 months, woohoo!), I finally got the chance to watch this movie that had premiered in March in the US but quietly disappeared again from theaters before I was ready to see it. Set in the 1960s, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne (this is a true story, but what a name), it tells the tale of how Wynne, an unassuming British salesman, was recruited by MI6 to gather intelligence about the Soviet nuclear missile program from a Russian spy, Oleg Penkovsky (Mirab Ninidze). Wynne somewhat reluctantly agrees and despite being told that his only job will be to serve as a "courier," his noble impulses lead him to get much more enmeshed in this dangerous world of espionage.

Written by Tom O'Connor and directed by Dominic Cooke, this is a well-crafted movie. It's a taut spy thriller, dimly lit with fun montages about tradecraft, and featuring extremely high stakes as the Cuban Missile Crisis threatens to annihilate the planet. Cumberbatch gets you to fully empathize with this protagonist, who has been thrust into something that is so far above his pay grade but who will pull out all the stops to protect his family, his colleagues, and his country. It also features two great performances from Jessie Buckley who plays Greville's wife, and Rachel Brosnahan, who plays the US CIA agent working with Greville on this mission. 

I'm a sucker for true stories about how one man saved the world. This is a great example of a man you've never heard of, doing something quietly and heroically. It's about time he got his due, so go watch this movie and spread the good word. 

Roadrunner: When Anthony Bourdain died by suicide in 2018, much of the world was shocked and bereft. Three years later, we still feel his loss keenly, so I was looking forward to watching Morgan Neville's documentary about the late chef and his various culinary adventures, and how he went from being an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan to a world traveler and global raconteur. Having watched the movie, I'd say the first half of it lived up to my expectations, and then the second half devolved into something a bit more squirm-inducing.

Throughout the film, we have interviews with the people who knew Bourdain best, fellow chefs, family members, and the TV crew that followed him around the world for years as he filmed his various TV shows. There's a lot of love in these interviews and it's all quite delightful when reminiscing about the early years, but it's clear that as the movie nears its conclusion and Tony's untimely death, that all of these people are grieving and looking for answers. The trouble with suicide is that you have no answers, only conjecture, and the movie devolves into an odd sort of blame game, with people wildly theorizing about what was happening in the last moments of his life. 

This movie was always going to be sad, but instead of getting a documentary about Bourdain, it turned into a documentary about the people he left behind, and how they are processing their grief. I would recommend it half-heartedly: it's great to see all this amazing archival footage of Tony in his element and speaking his mind, but it's less great to see a bunch of other folk speculate about him now that he's gone.