lou movie reviews 2022

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When I told my wife that I had to watch “An Allison Janney Action Movie” for a review this week, she was a little startled (although interested in the concept, to be fair). I’m all for unexpected casting, and the truth is that Janney has the range to do just about anything, as she’s proven with her long, award-winning career. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Janney is easily the best thing about “Lou,” but watching this talented actress give so much to a movie that gives absolutely nothing back starts to get depressing. She’s constantly trying to pull “Lou” into more interesting territory, but the clunky filmmaking and silly script keep pulling in the other direction, with her talented co-stars Logan Marshall-Green and Jurnee Smollett stuck in the tug-of-war. 

In what’s sort of a gender-swapped “ Taken ,” Janney plays the title character, a loner in a remote area of the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s. The film opens with Lou in a dark place. She kills a deer to establish her tough guy bona fides for the audience, withdraws all of her money, and writes a mysterious letter to someone about inheriting her home. She slugs some bourbon and prepares to take her own life when a woman renting a home nearby bursts through the door. It’s Hannah (Smollett), and her daughter Vee ( Ridley Asha Bateman ) is missing. Oh, did I mention a storm is coming? It’s about to get ugly outside and there’s now a missing girl.

Hannah knows who took her daughter—her ex-husband Phillip (Logan Marshall-Green), who we meet beating and killing a man who was silly enough to pick up a hitchhiker. It’s revealed that Phillip was not just an abusive husband to Hannah but faked his own death so he could get to his daughter under the cover of being presumed dead. Phillip is not your ordinary sociopath—he was a special forces soldier, and he even brought along a couple of his buddies to help with the kidnapping. All of them underestimated Lou. Of course.

Once Lou and Hannah get out into the torrential rain, “Lou” should have had momentum as a survival thriller. And there’s a great action scene in a cabin wherein the title character unleashes her training on a couple of dudes who don’t see it coming. With some tight fight choreography that Janney completely sells, I was ready for the film to build from there. And then it just stalls out. 

A ridiculous twist doesn’t help. Without spoiling, “Lou” has one of those suspension of disbelief character connections that requires robust writing and direction to push through it. When a movie takes a sharp, unbelievable turn, viewers are willing to set aside skepticism if the story keeps them entertained. But “Lou” can’t manage this trick, allowing us to question the logic of it all in a way that makes the emotional scenes later feel hollow. The minute you start asking whether or not someone would make that choice in a movie like “Lou,” it comes apart.

Credit to Janney for never giving into the idea that Lou has to be likable. She’s a suicidal killing machine. If anything, I wanted the film to lean into her cynicism and nihilism even more but was impressed that Janney never softens her edges. She seems to be the only person involved who understands that this movie needs to be a no-fat, no-frills thriller. Her co-stars, the usually reliable Marshall-Green and Smollett, don’t fare as well with the former turning the crazy dial up too high and the latter being given almost nothing to play beyond panicked mother.

Action movies that reshape the expectations of actors known primarily for drama can be a blast. I loved what Bob Odenkirk did in “ Nobody ,” for example. And Allison Janney proves with “Lou” that she could carry an action movie. If only she got one worth carrying. 

On Netflix today.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Rated R for violence and language.

107 minutes

Allison Janney as Lou

Jurnee Smollett as Hannah

Logan Marshall-Green as Philip

Ridley Asha Bateman as Vee

Greyston Holt as Chris

Matt Craven as Sheriff Rankin

• Anna Foerster

Writer (story by)

• Maggie Cohn
• Jack Stanley

Cinematographer

• Michael McDonough
• Paul Tothill
• Nima Fakhrara

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lou’ on Netflix, in Which Allison Janney Gets Grim and Grizzled for a Survivalist Suspense-Thriller

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Now on Netflix, Lou sees Allison Janney get her The Old Man on. She plays a dog owner and former CIA agent who finds herself in a circumstance that ends her quiet life of seclusion and compels her to once again kick some ass – and you just want her to find Jeff Bridges on whatever dating app retired government spies with considerable hand-to-hand skills and checkered pasts use so they can meet and hang out at the dog park, and maybe have a nice chat over pie and coffee afterward. Seems like it would be psychologically productive. The movie boasts J.J. Abrams as a producer, and is directed by Anna Foerster, a longtime collaborator with Roland Emmerich, who thankfully with her second directorial effort (the first: Underworld: Blood Wars ) shows little influence from the disaster-movie master in crafting a fairly small-scale action-suspense story. And you know what? It ain’t half bad.

LOU : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Lou (Janney) looks like she’s really seen some shit. Probably done some shit, too. She’s mostly expressionless as she hunts a deer, puts a bullet in a deer, butchers a deer, burns some classified documents in the fireplace, finishes a glass of whiskey and props her rifle under her chin. Thunder booms and lightning crackles. But she doesn’t pull the trigger – no, this is one of those framing devices you see in movies. You know, the kind that want to really hook ya . We jump back a day or two. She lives on one of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state. Reagan’s president. The cars are boxy. There’s something about the Iran-Contra scandal on the TV, which is boxy, too. We hear Bon Jovi on the soundtrack. I’d wager it’s about 1987.

Lou drives her rickety truck alongside Hannah (Jurnee Smollett) and reminds her brusquely that the rent’s due. Hannah and her daughter Vee (Ridley Asha Bateman) live in a mobile home on Lou’s property. Lou hovers for a second. Is she gonna say something? She looks like she’s gonna say something. But she’s got years of practice of not saying something, so she doesn’t say something.That night, the storm rages. Hannah nestles Vee into bed while across the way Lou scratches out her suicide note. The power goes out and while Hannah bears the elements outside to check the electrical box, someone snatches Vee and R-U-N-N-O-F-Ts. Hannah’s car is dead. She interrupts Lou’s final moments to find out that Lou’s power is also out and Lou’s phone is dead and then Lou’s truck explodes. Someone planned this: Hannah’s ex/Vee’s dad, a former Green Beret, war criminal and explosives expert. He’s supposed to be dead. But he ain’t dead.

Alrighty then. They’ll have to track him through the woods, Lou says. Lou helps Hannah gear up – flashlights, extra batteries, deer rifle, etc. Lou hands Hannah a knife and says if some man attacks her, “go for the eyes.” Damn. What’s Lou capable of? A lot, of course. A lot. They trek through the ferns and pouring rain and there’s a couple dangerous adversaries and a precarious rope bridge and a lot of mud and rock and a twist or two in the narrative path and some bad decisions made by the characters (but actually the screenwriters) and are we biting our nails yet? Yeah, a little bit.

Allison Janney Didn’t Think She’d Get To Do A Movie Like ‘Lou:’ “I Never Thought It Would Happen”

Performance Worth Watching: Is Janney the Performance Worth Watching in every movie she’s in? Pretty much. She consistently brings extra oomph to characters like Lou, who benefits from the extra dimension Janney brings to cliche-ridden characters.

Memorable Dialogue: Lou starts doing some hardcore survivalist shit:

Hannah: How do you know all this stuff? Lou: Girl Scouts.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: These two women are tough as nails and they’re going to make that man pay . He’s a killer and an abuser and a psycho and he’s endangering his own child on purpose. There’s more to his motivation, but that’s a muddled junkheap of explainy-plot in a third act that somewhat diminishes the impact of the taut suspense built up during the first two, when Hannah and Lou are really put through the ringer: stumbles and tumbles and wounds and inclement weather and a rather tense scuffle with antagonists, all rendering them very wet and weary and limping and reliant on adrenaline and Hannah’s Mom Powers, which range from resilience to extra-resilient resilience.

Foerster keenly establishes the beautiful-but-dangerous setting and leans heavily into the grim atmosphere so everything tonally jibes by the time the story gets markedly dark near the end, and I hope I’m not saying too much by describing it as tangentially oedipal. That stuff isn’t wholly convincing; it’s overwrought, and could use another run through the writers’ room. So I suggest you lean into the craft of the film, which is fast-paced and edited extra-crispy so you feel the tension of the situation and the fortitude of the characters’ predicament, which gets brutal at times: Women Can Be Violent Too, you know. Of course you know. That assertion has been made by a variety of feminist film narratives, which Lou mimics with some righteousness, but never quite refreshes or reinvigorates. And that’s OK – there’s a visceral immediacy to Hannah and Lou’s survivalism that keeps us in the moment. But investing in the characters’ emotional journeys is a less rewarding endeavor.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Lou is a worthy suspense-thriller bolstered by strong performances and direction. And you could do far worse than watching Janney dig in and get dirty for 100 minutes.

Will you stream or skip the survivalist suspense-thriller #LouNetflix on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) September 23, 2022

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

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‘Lou’ Review: Unfinished Business

A child’s kidnapping ignites a protracted bid for redemption in this down-and-dirty thriller.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Whatever else one might say about the Netflix thriller “Lou,” making it must have been murder. Pummeled by near-constant rain, soaked in swampy mud and battered by frequent bouts of hand-to-hand combat, the movie’s headliners look to have suffered miserably.

Consequently, my admiration for Allison Janney, already high, skyrocketed. As the formidable title character, a woman of indeterminate vintage commonly accessorized with shovel, rifle or deer carcass, Janney leaves spry in the dust. Unfazed either by the working conditions or by Maggie Cohn and Jack Stanley’s ridiculously over-the-top screenplay, she lends her grouchy character more than a ramrod spine and steely stare: She gives her a woundedness that keeps us watching long after this prolix quest for redemption should have reached its preordained conclusion.

When the plot — a dense weave of familial pain and political misdeeds — requires Lou to leave her cabin in the Pacific Northwest and help a young mother (Jurnee Smollett) reclaim her abducted preteen daughter, Lou barely hesitates. Abandoning her careful plans for a final exit, she takes off through a storm-lashed forest on the trail of the kidnapper, distraught mother in tow. The journey will be filled with perils and flashbacks, regrets and secrets as Lou excavates her past; yet the director, Anna Foerster — who, aside from the instantly forgettable “Underworld: Blood Wars” (2017) , has worked mostly in television — pays greater attention to the movie’s impressive fight choreography than to the details of its central mystery.

Methodically violent and more than a little silly, “Lou” delivers a kick in the head to ageism. When did you last hear an arthritic heroine warn a woman half her age not to slow her down?

Lou Rated R for knives, fists, bullets and a lethal tin can. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. Watch on Netflix .

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Lou review – Allison Janney gets her Taken but leaves us wanting

A welcome action lead for the Oscar winner is wasted in a Netflix kidnap thriller that underwhelms and exhausts

T he great Taken-ing of actors over 55, from playing dad to playing dad who is also a retired hitman, was a boon for the Neesons and Odenkirks and Costners but less so for their female counterparts, shuffled on from mom to mom who is also married to a retired hitman. Things seem to be slightly improving this year with more women of a similar age allowed into the action genre that has traditionally left them unarmed, with Michelle Yeoh and Viola Davis fighting their way to box office success (before Jamie Lee Curtis returns to “ end ” Michael Myers next month), and now, inevitably, Netflix is bringing up the rear with a more conventional vehicle, this time for Oscar winner Allison Janney.

If only it wasn’t called Lou, a dreadfully silly title that’s hard to say out loud with any vague sense of excitement (just try it – Lou, Lou, Lou ). It’s sadly also hard to watch it while feeling any vague sense of excitement or any sense of anything, really, a film that works best as a thrilling concept – Allison Janney does Taken – than a real thing.

Janney plays, you got this, Lou, a gruff, self-sufficient loner living, or existing, in the woods, haunted by something or someone, an intentionally simple life until one night things get complicated during a particularly dramatic storm. The daughter of her closest neighbour, Hannah (Jurnee Smollett), has been, we got this, taken , and she needs Lou’s help to find her.

Who is Lou? What is Lou? But most important, why is Lou? I haven’t a clue after an intermittently diverting but mostly unremarkable 107 minutes, a film unworthy of both Janney’s talents and our attention. Lou briefly teases that it’s really about something before yanking the veil from our eyes, holding up its hands and shrugging. The film had been originally set up at Paramount with JJ Abrams producing, a not-unimpressive origin tale given most of the guff that gets churned out over at Netflix , but why this script garnered such attention is perhaps the film’s greatest mystery.

Described initially as Thelma & Louise meets Taken , Lou is a bit more like Sleeping with the Enemy meets Rambo meets Taken but sadly nowhere near as much fun as that might make it sound. The missing kid has been nabbed by an abusive ex, played with soapy menace that quickly froths out to nothing by Logan Marshall-Green, and the initial storm-set tracking scenes, forcing the women to club together, are efficiently engaging. Director Anna Foerster, whose TV credits include genre fare like Outlander and Westworld, knows how to stage action and set a mood (base level competency still counts for a lot in the streaming netherworld), and when Maggie Cohn and Jack Stanley’s script keeps things simple, there’s some equally simple fun to be had. Janney is, as ever, a true pro, and her wearied cynicism, most often used for comedic effect, makes her a believably haunted antihero, and Lou allows some quieter, weightier moments that her other work doesn’t always afford her.

But there’s a dull, derailing twist that complicates and confuses, turning what could have been a tight little chase movie into something far baggier and far harder to get involved in. It edges the film into limp melodrama and takes us further away from the action, a misguided attempt to swap adrenaline with emotion. Janney sells it regardless, but by the end she’s literally and figuratively walking wounded. The sheer existence of Lou might be a step in the right direction for women over 50 in action movies, but it’s a misstep everywhere else.

Lou is now available on Netflix

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Review: Alison Janney grows taciturn in the thriller ‘Lou,’ plus more movies to watch at home

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Allison Janney has spent much of her career playing women who can outthink and outtalk just about anyone. As the title character in the thriller “Lou,” Janney again plays someone two or three steps ahead of whomever crosses her path — though this time she doesn’t talk so much, because she doesn’t want to risk spilling one of her many secrets.

Directed by Ann Foerster from a screenplay co-written by Maggie Cohn and Jack Stanley, “Lou” stars Janney as a reclusive landowner in a small Pacific Northwest coastal community in the late 1980s. Set during a dangerous storm, the film follows Lou’s cash-strapped tenant Hannah (Jurnee Smollett), who needs help when her unreliable ex, Phillip (Logan Marshall-Green), kidnaps their young daughter for reasons that may have something to do with the other shady guys who are creeping around in the woods. As Lou heads out into the rain-soaked wilderness to straighten all this out, she proves so surprisingly capable at tracking and killing that Hannah quickly realizes that her prickly landlord must have a dark past.

The mystery of who Lou is and why she takes an interest in Hannah isn’t as surprising as the movie makes it out to be; but Janney is so commanding as an unlikely action hero that the picture still works. The plot races from one tense outdoor confrontation to the next, as “Lou” tells a simple but effective story about two women enduring the harshness of the elements and the machinations of violent men.

‘Lou.’ R, for violence and language. 1 hour, 47 minutes. Available on Netflix

‘Meet Cute’

Like a lot of recent movies and TV shows about time-loops, the romantic dramedy “Meet Cute” doesn’t waste time setting up its premise. Kaley Cuoco plays Sheila, who in the opening scene hits on Gary (Pete Davidson) in a bar, and confesses something: She has access to a time machine that can reset the past 24 hours, and she has been using it over and over to relive their first magical night together. Director Alex Lehmann and screenwriter Noga Pnueli presume their audience is familiar with the likes of “Groundhog Day” and “Palm Springs,” so they get straight to the action, which sees Sheila repeatedly tweaking small details in her never-ending date with Gary.

Unlike “Groundhog Day” and “Palm Springs” (and “Russian Doll,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Happy Death Day,” “Source Code,” etc.), “Meet Cute” falls into a rut fairly quickly, because it lacks the breadth of imagination that makes the best time-loop stories work. All of Sheila’s machinations come from a mundane place: She’s broken and Gary’s broken; and so they spend most of their time together just enjoying the wonders of New York City while comparing their respective traumas. Even the rules of the time-loop stop mattering after a while.

Lehmann does make the city look magnificent; and Cuoco and Davidson throw themselves fully into these characters, who are equal parts funny, awkward and dark. But while there’s the germ of a great time-loop plot idea here — the notion that even the greatest date won’t keep a person happy forever — Lehmann and Pnueli don’t expand on it enough, or do anything surprising or cool. The one idea turns out to be the only idea, and barely worth repeating.

‘Meet Cute.’ TV-MA, for violence, coarse language and smoking. 1 hour, 29 minutes. Available on Peacock

Natascha McElhone is a wonder in writer-director Valerie Buhagiar’s charming dramedy “Carmen,” a film about a long-overlooked woman who finally comes out of her shell and puts a lifetime of silent observations to use. McElhone plays Carmen, who has spent decades working as a housekeeper for her brother, a Catholic priest on the island of Malta. When he dies, the diocese evicts her; but Carmen still has the keys to the church, where she hides out and secretly hears confessions from women who prefer her practical advice to her brother’s old-fashioned penance.

“Carmen” relies too much on coincidences to keep its story going; and Buhagiar threads in a few too many impressionistic flashbacks to the heroine’s youth and to the romance her family forced her to abandon. But McElhone strikes a fine balance between humor and pathos, playing someone who has spent 30 years watching — and forming opinions — as her neighbors have struggled with the complications of couplehood, parenthood and making ends meet. When she starts breaking rules, making money and dressing pretty, Carmen find herself both exhilarated and terrified. The audience gets to feel all this right along with her, as she lives what she’d previously only studied.

‘Carmen.’ In Maltese and English with English subtitles Not rated. 1 hour, 27 minutes. Available on VOD

‘The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales’

The activist and filmmaker Abigail Disney has often been critical of the company her grandfather Roy and her granduncle Walt co-founded back in the 1920s, but she’s rarely taken her family’s legacy on as directly as she does in the documentary “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” which she co-directed with Kathleen Hughes. The movie follows Disney’s efforts in recent years to shame the Walt Disney Co. for the vast disparity between its executive compensation and the paltry wages paid to its lowest-level employees, who sometimes have to rely on food banks and unsafe housing to survive.

As Disney makes clear, her family’s business is far from the worst offender when it comes to robbing workers of their fundamental dignity. But because of what Walt Disney represents — and because the company used to be a relatively responsible corporate citizen — she and Hughes use them as an example of how far American business has drifted from its mid-20th century ideals. This is an unapologetic advocacy doc; and as such it’s likely to rub some viewers the wrong way. But even those who want to watch it just to argue should find that “The American Dream” is a worthy opponent.

‘The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.’ Not rated. 1 hour, 27 minutes. Available on VOD

‘Me to Play’

Veteran New York actors Dan Moran and Chris Jones spent decades working on the stage and screen before both men were stricken with the debilitating physical effects of Parkinson’s disease, which has made it difficult for them to remember lines and hit marks. Director Jim Bernfield’s short and sweet documentary “Me to Play” follows Moran and Jones as they work with some of their old colleagues to mount a production of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame,” a play with existentialist and apocalyptic themes that the two leads find especially resonant. The film charts the often difficult rehearsal process, while also spending time with the actors’ family members and friends, who in some cases are unusually honest about what a nightmare it’s been to see someone they love decline. “Me to Play” doesn’t make some grand pronouncement about living with illness or theater as therapy. It’s a small slice of life about a couple of guys trying to exemplify that classic Beckett quote: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”

‘Me to Play.’ Not rated. 1 hour, 12 minutes. Available on VOD and Fandor

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Summary Thinking she’d put her dangerous past behind her, Lou (Allison Janney) finds her quiet life interrupted when a desperate mother (Jurnee Smollett) begs her to save her kidnapped daughter. As a massive storm rages, the two women risk their lives on a rescue mission that will test their limits and expose dark and shocking secrets from their ... Read More

Directed By : Anna Foerster

Written By : Maggie Cohn, Jack Stanley

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Over the course of three decades, Allison Janney has consistently delivered great performances across a range of genres like political TV dramas ( The West Wing ), film dramas ( I, Tonya ), and even movie musicals ( Hairspray ). The latest sees Janney transform into a mysterious, yet resourceful loner who uses her dark past to assist with finding the man who kidnapped her neighbor’s daughter. Directed by Anna Foerster from a screenplay by Maggie Cohn and Jack Stanley, Lou is a quiet thriller that takes a deep dive into the consequences of one’s actions. The film enables Janney and Jurnee Smollett to command every scrap of attention through physical and emotionally compelling performances.

In a small, secluded town, Lou (Allison Janney) spends her days and evenings hunting for food and caring for her dog Jax. After coming to terms with her dangerous decisions and history, Lou is ready to move on from her dark past. Unfortunately, her plans are interrupted when her neighbor Hannah ( Jurnee Smollett ) informs Lou that her daughter Vee (Ridley Asha Bateman) has been abducted by Hannah’s ex-husband Philip (Logan Marshall-Green). Together, the two set out to uncover a terrifying truth amidst a massive storm, showcasing their perseverance and willingness to risk their lives. The rescue mission also reveals some shocking secrets, which connects them in more ways than one.

Related: Allison Janney & Jurnee Smollett Interview: Lou

With Lou , Anna Foerster returns to film after a brief television directing stint with Westworld season 3 — four years after she made her directorial debut with Underworld: Blood Wars . In her latest, Foerster offers a quieter approach in her visual storytelling, concentrating on the characters to guide the plot while balancing three stories in one to discover hidden truths within their lives. By doing so, she humanizes very flawed characters in a way that viewers can connect to emotionally, even when it seems like they do not deserve it. Stylistically, Foerster never goes beyond the traditional Netflix thriller. Yet, her restraint is what allows Cohn and Stanley’s script to shine, especially when the focus is on the development of their characters.

In due time, Lou finds itself caught between moments of reticence, where the film excels, and revelation, where it tends to falter. In execution, the secrets among Lou, Hannah, and Philip are the components of the script that provide the most intrigue. This element enables Foerster to take a methodical approach in her storytelling, exposing secrets at a pace that requires a slow peel-back of the characters involved. Once the actual mysteries are unveiled, it ramps up the action and loses its early influence of great narratives centered on humanity and motherhood. On the other hand, these sequences also come at the right time to push the final act ahead full throttle.

Whether fans of Netflix thrillers end up liking Lou is a toss up depending on preferences in the pacing of these types of stories. But there’s one thing in particular that most fans will agree with: Allison Janney gives a transformative performance. Not only does the Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award-winning actress give a powerful emotional performance, but Janney also delivers a stunning showcase of strength and physicality in her fight sequences. Alongside her is Jurnee Smollett, who is always a reliable talent, capable of stealing scenes and drawing a viewer’s eye directly towards her. Janney and Smollett’s chemistry is enough to lock in attention, even when this layered script takes bizarre plot turns.

In the end, Lou is the type of Netflix film that one may be compelled to watch for the fascinating dynamic among its three main characters. Paired with exceptional performances and onscreen chemistry, Foerster’s latest feels like a step in the right direction for the director's sophomore feature film. Through a disciplined approach in her visual storytelling, Foerster highlights the emotionally captivating aspects of the story while providing emphasis on their developments as individuals. With Cohn and Stanley’s spirited screenplay humanizing even the worst of characters, Lou is bound to be a conflicting yet interesting watching experience for viewers.

Lou released on Netflix Friday, September 23. The film is 107 minutes long and rated R for violence and language.

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Content Caution

In Theaters

• Allison Janney as Lou; Jurnee Smollett as Hannah; Logan Marshall-Green as Philip; Ridley Asha Bateman as Vee; Matt Craven as Sheriff Rankin; Greyston Holt as Chris; Daniel Bernhardt as Tony; RJ Fetherstonhaugh as Gerry; Andres Collantes as Deputy Torres

Home Release Date

• September 23, 2022
• Anna Foerster

Distributor

Movie review.

Lou is done with life.

She’s emptied out her bank accounts, frozen a month’s worth of meat for her dog and written a note for her neighbor, Hannah, detailing her final wishes.

She downs a final shot of whiskey and prepares to end her life. But before she can pull the trigger, Hannah knocks on the door.

Vee, Hannah’s daughter, is missing.

Kidnapped, to be more specific. By her own father, Philip, no less.

Lou doesn’t have to do anything. She and Hannah have had their differences after all (Hannah lives in a trailer on Lou’s property and has been late with rent before). She could follow through with her plans and leave Hannah to handle the mess.

However, Lou isn’t that heartless, even if she is hopeless.

Lou’s done a lot of things in life that rather than make the world a better place have actually made it more dangerous . But this is her chance to make is less dangerous.

Because while Lou’s particular skillset made her lousy at life, it also made her good at other things: like tracking down a military-trained kidnapper in the dark of night during the worst storm the Pacific Northwest has seen in years .

Positive Elements

Lou, we learn, was a spy . And her dedication to her work caused her to neglect her family. And while she’d be the first one to admit she should have done better, we also see the extreme measures she took to protect them from her double life.

Hannah, meanwhile, questions her own mothering ability. And unfortunately, Lou arguably makes it worse, telling Hannah that she should have left her abusive ex-husband sooner. However, Hannah does everything in her power to get her daughter back, even putting her own life on the line to protect Vee’s.

A kind sheriff tries to help Lou and Hannah, breaking protocol to protect them from federal agents who get involved in the case. Hannah scolds her daughter when Vee backtalks her and uses a profanity.

Spiritual Elements

Philip and Vee repeat an old church rhyme. We hear about some New Age remedies for arthritis.

Sexual Content

We hear that a spy had to have premarital sex with a man to keep her cover intact, and that the encounter led to a pregnancy.

Violent Content

Lou prepares to end her life, pinning up a tarp to prevent her blood from splattering her walls and holding a rifle to her own head. She’s interrupted by accident, but it’s clear that Hannah knows what Lou was planning since she later asks Lou not to get herself killed while stopping Philip.

We learn that Philip faked his own death in an explosion. He was wanted for war crimes (he tortured victims for fun and killed mercilessly). And he was physically abusive to Hannah when they were married; we see her scars. During the course of the film, he rigs a car to explode (the passengers escape); beats up and kills a man for flirting with Hannah; beats up Hannah and Lou (though they fight back); threatens to kill both of them (as well as Vee); and tries to blow up a lighthouse with all three and himself inside. He also demonstrates disturbing behavior as he contemplates murdering Vee.

Lou beats up and kills Philip’s military buddies (whom we hear are just as vicious as he is). After shooting one man, she is disarmed and uses a variety of household items against the other. (She ultimately slits his throat with the lid of a soup can.)

People are shot (and some die from their wounds), stabbed and held at gunpoint. A woman nearly drowns when a man holds her head underwater. A building is blown up (though no one is inside)

Lou shoots a deer and notes that she missed its heart by a few inches (causing it great pain instead of instant death). She guts the animal and drags the carcass to her truck, later carving off the meat and freezing it. Her dog licks blood of the spilled innards (and he laps human blood up in another scene). Lou drags and locks the dog in a bathroom before ending her life, so that the dog won’t do the same to her body.

While crossing a broken bridge, Lou and Hannah fall, knocking themselves out. When they wake, Lou resets her own dislocated shoulder. After Lou gets slashed with a hatchet, Hannah dresses the heavily bleeding wound. Hannah bandages her own severely blistered and bleeding ankle.

News reels show images of war. It becomes clear that CIA agents will kill Philip regardless of collateral damage (meaning Hannah and Vee). A man squishes an injured butterfly, frightening his daughter. Lou nearly hits Vee with her car. Philip breaks into Hannah’s house. Hannah says she learned how to use a gun after leaving Philip. A bird of prey eats an animal carcass. We see another dead animal lying on a path.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear the f-word about 25 times and s-word about 30. God’s name is abused at least 20 times (with more than half paired with “d–n”), and Jesus’ name is abused five. We also hear uses of “a–,” “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “d–mit” and “h—.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Philip drugs his daughter twice with halothane to knock her unconscious.

Lou downs a glass of whiskey. Two adults talk about a time they got drunk together.

Other Negative Elements

Hannah recounts painful memories from her time with Philip. She says he was loving and caring at the beginning of their relationship but that he was always broken—and she thought she could fix him. He gaslit her into believing that she was somehow failing him by not loving him enough. Philip never hurt Vee, since Hannah taught her to hide whenever he got angry; but Philip did threaten to kill Vee if Hannah ever tried to take her away from him.

Philip plays psychological games with Lou and Hannah to mess with their heads, since he likes to torture his victims. [ Spoiler Warning ] We learn that Philip was taken from his own mother as a child and abused by his captors before he was rescued. This experience caused lifelong emotional trauma.

We hear about a woman who blackmailed the CIA over documents proving the organization’s involvement in the 1953 coup in Iran. Lou offers to let Philip go free in exchange for Vee’s safe return. Lou lies that a deer ran in front of her car when a sheriff suspects she killed it outside of hunting season. People lie and are sometimes rude and condescending.

Hannah ignores Lou’s order not to use a radio, alerting Philip to their pursuit. Both Lou and Hannah threaten to leave the other behind if they slow each other down.

A woman gags and nearly vomits when she sees a dog lapping up blood.

Lou knows she’s made mistakes. She sincerely—albeit mistakenly—believes that removing herself from the world will make it a better place.

Lou may not believe she’s worthy of redemption. But neither does she want an evil—that of a man killing a mother and her child—to go unpunished because she was more concerned with finding her own version of peace instead of helping to ensure theirs.

Whatever redemptive motivation we find here, is, however, in the context of a move filled with problems. Philip in particular is simply deranged. He wants to kill his family and himself. But instead of just doing it, he kidnaps Vee so he can play some sort of sick psychological game involving himself, Hannah, Vee and Lou.

This twisted situation gives Lou a reason to keep on living. That said, in order to rescue Vee from Philip’s clutches, Lou and Hannah still commit some pretty horrific atrocities themselves.

People die, quite bloodily, onscreen. We witness violence against women and also hear Hannah’s tragic recount of the abuse she endured while married to Philip. And, of course, we hear Philip’s own heartbreaking backstory.

Language is another problem, with many abuses of God’s name (often paired with other profanities), as well as frequent harsh profanity as f- and s-words fly frequently.

In the end, despite being well-written and well-acted, Lou’ s undeniably harsh content will nevertheless shove it out of bounds for many viewers and families.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Lou – Netflix Review (4/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Sep 23, 2022 | 4 minutes

LOU (2022) on Netflix is a new survival thriller starring Allison Janney, Jurnee Smollett, and Logan Marshall-Green. Great suspense, intense action, and brutally realistic consequences. Definitely watch this. Read our full Lou movie review here!

LOU (2022) is a new Netflix survival thriller with action, crime, and (of course) drama as supporting genres.  The plot is fairly simple, though there is also a mystery, you’ll be seeing unravel. Also, we begin in one place, jump back a few hours, and then return to the starting point.

If you’re looking at your phone while the movie is beginning (which you really shouldn’t!), you might get a bit confused. This Netflix movie stars Allison Janney, Jurnee Smollett, and Logan Marshall-Green in the three all-important lead roles.

Continue reading our full Lou movie review below. Watch it out on Netflix from September 23, 2022.

Allison Janney is perfect as Lou

I have long been a fan of Allison Janney ( The West Wing , The Girl on the Train ). From the first time I ever saw her in anything, I have loved her style, so I’m always happy to watch anything with her in the cast. In this Netflix movie, she plays the title character of Lou .

Now, while Allison Janney has played some tough and sassy women in the past, Lou  is right up there with Terminator ‘s Sarah Connor . She’s trained and ruthless. And I love it!

Jurnee Smollett continues to impress

Sharing top-billing with Allison Janney is one of my newer favorites: Jurnee Smollett. So far, she has done no wrong in anything I’ve watched her in. From being Black Canary in  Birds of Prey  to having a starring role in the HBO series  Lovecraft Country , Jurnee Smollett is just killing it. Hell, she was even good in  True Blood though I did not like that storyline.

Lou  is no exception to this amazing path for Jurnee Smollett!

What I really like about Jurnee Smollett in Lou , and everything else she’s done is that she always manages to show strength and emotions. Meaning she’s always showing that you can be a strong and capable person, but not make yourself cold. You can love and hurt, but still, keep fighting.

That’s real and important – particularly in a survival story of this kind!

In  Lou , she has a young daughter, Vee, who is also portrayed wonderfully by Ridley Asha Bateman. Kids can be hit or misses, but the young Ridley Asha Bateman is clearly a hit!

Logan Marshall-Green always delivers

Admittedly, I do feel very spoiled with the cast of  Lou since the core cast consists of three actors I absolutely adore. After Allison Janney and Jurnee Smollett, we’re introduced to Logan Marshall-Green who is somewhat of a chameleon.

He can play the charming good guy or the sadistic bad guy. Sometimes even a little bit of both.

From  Prometheus  to The Invitation to Leigh Whannell ‘s 2018 sci-fi action thriller Upgrade , we see Logan Marshall-Green portray intriguing and fascinating characters. In  Lou , he is definitely not a good guy.

However, to keep things real, we do also get some backstory. Not to excuse his behavior but rather to help explain what shaped him into the man he is today.

Watch Lou on Netflix now!

Anna Foerster ( Underworld: Blood Wars , Westworld ) is the director of LOU  and does an amazing job. From the visual style to the pacing, this is a thriller that  really  works for me. I was a bit worried that the runtime of 1 hour and 47 minutes might be a bit too much. It isn’t. Not even a little bit!

The screenplay is based on a story by Maggie Cohn and was written by Maggie Cohn and Jack Stanley. This is the first feature film screenplay from Maggie Cohn, who previously wrote on  The Staircase ,  Narcos: México , and American Crime Story . For Jack Stanley, this is a writing debut.

LOU is full of suspense, mystery, and brutal action sequences, and it features a realistic backstory not too different from what some true-crime documentaries have covered. You’ll definitely want to watch this on Netflix!

Lou  premieres on Netflix globally on September 23, 2022.

Director: Anna Foerster Writers: Maggie Cohn, Jack Stanley Stars: Allison Janney, Jurnee Smollett, Logan Marshall-Green, Ridley Asha Bateman, Matt Craven, Greyston Holt, RJ Fetherstonhaugh, Marci T. House

Thinking she’d put her dangerous past behind her, Lou (Allison Janney) finds her quiet life interrupted when a desperate mother (Jurnee Smollett) begs her to save her kidnapped daughter. As a massive storm rages, the two women risk their lives on a rescue mission that will test their limits and expose dark and shocking secrets from their pasts.

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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Common sense media reviewers.

Intense revenge thriller has violence, gore, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Treat people humanely, and keep your family close.

Lou and Hannah both put their lives at risk for ki

Main characters are White and Black.

Violence, suspense, and peril throughout. A person

A man flirts with a woman he seems to be in a rela

"F--k," "s--t," "ass," "a--hole," "damn," "goddamn

Ford, GMC, Girl Scouts, CIA, Special Armed Forces.

A woman drinks liquor. A man mentions having been

Parents need to know that Lou is a graphically violent and suspenseful thriller about two women attempting to rescue a child who has been kidnapped by her deranged father. Among the scary scenes are a person preparing to commit suicide by gun and skirmishes between people that result in stabbings, shootings,…

Positive Messages

Treat people humanely, and keep your family close. Not every woman is cut out for motherhood. Parents will often, but not always, do anything for the benefit of their kids. Childhood experiences can have long-term impacts and carry over as trauma.

Positive Role Models

Lou and Hannah both put their lives at risk for kidnapped child Vee. The local sheriff disobeys federal orders to help his townspeople and neighbors.

Diverse Representations

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Violence, suspense, and peril throughout. A person prepares to commit suicide by rifle. Stabbings, shootings, burns, bites, near-death situations, falls, bombs, and fights are shown up close. Some gory detail of blood and dead bodies is visualized. Footage and images of war are shown. A little girl is kidnapped and drugged to go to sleep. A woman describes her experience as the victim of domestic abuse, and she has scars on her arm. The animal world is Darwinian -- a broken butterfly must be killed, animals eat the carcasses of others or are left for dead.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A man flirts with a woman he seems to be in a relationship with.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," "s--t," "ass," "a--hole," "damn," "goddamn," "hell," "son of a bitch," "Jesus Christ," "coward," "gnarly."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

A woman drinks liquor. A man mentions having been drunk with a woman.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Lou is a graphically violent and suspenseful thriller about two women attempting to rescue a child who has been kidnapped by her deranged father. Among the scary scenes are a person preparing to commit suicide by gun and skirmishes between people that result in stabbings, shootings, burns, bombs, and bites. Dead bodies are shown, as is a lot of blood, and two women face near-death situations. In conversation, people also describe or recall traumatic past experiences, including as a result of military or government work. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "ass," "a--hole," "damn," "goddamn," "hell," "son of a bitch," and "Jesus Christ." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

LOU (Allison Janney) is a grey-haired woman living alone in the woods hiding a past that nobody seems to know about in her small, Northwest island community. One night during a power outage caused by a thunderstorm, her neighbor, Hannah ( Jurnee Smollett ), runs into the house claiming that her daughter, Vee (Ridley Asha Bateman), has been kidnapped. She's surprised when Lou immediately pulls together a bunch of weapons and sets out to rescue the child. Against Lou's wishes, Hannah follows her, and the two venture into the rainy forest to track the kidnapper, Vee's father Philip ( Logan Marshall-Green ). In the course of their treacherous pursuit, the two will face physical danger and find out more about each other than they ever imagined.

Is It Any Good?

This thriller is all about mood, and it's successful in building suspense through enigmatic characters, gory action, eerie music, and a rainy wooded setting. We're introduced to title character Lou from low angles and often within frames, making the statuesque Janney appear even more imposing, but also potentially boxed in. Details to explain this, and other characters' actions, are only slowly revealed, allowing the film to focus on action but keep the viewer curious about motivation. The constant rain infuses the Pacific Northwest setting with a damp, muddy greyness. Indigenous fauna is also used for effect, from a broken butterfly to predator birds and animals devouring other animals. Eerie music and regular thunderclaps add to the tension.

A film like this can succeed in ambiance but still fail if the actors aren't up to the job, which in this case requires emotional as well as physical performances. Janney brings gravitas to every role, and she's interestingly cast against type here as an irascible and fierce loner living alone in the woods with her dog. It's a role typically written for men (think Eastwood, Costner, or Neeson), but it has a uniquely female twist here (no spoilers). Smollett is also believable as a woman trying to escape her past and build a future for herself and her young daughter. The characters' backgrounds and the historical events alluded to in the film could have been exploited more, and some gratuitously violent scenes skipped.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how violence is portrayed in Lou . Is it glamorized or glorified in any way? How do physical violence and psychological trauma connect in this story?

How does the film incorporate historical facts and fictionalized experiences involving the US military and spy agencies into the storyline? Where could you go for more information to distinguish fact from fiction?

Are Lou's actions justified in the search for Vee? Did you see the plot twist coming? What did you make of the ending of the film?

How do the setting and use of sound contribute to a sense of suspense?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : September 23, 2022
• Cast : Allison Janney , Jurnee Smollett , Logan Marshall-Green
• Director : Anna Foerster
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 107 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence and language
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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'Lou' review: Allison Janney tough as nails in survivalist action pic

Don't mess with Allison Janney.

The Oscar- and Emmy-winning actress has long been nobody's fool, but she takes her toughness up a notch (or nine) in "Lou," in which she plays a stone cold survivalist named Lou who has more than a few secrets stowed away. Get too close to those secrets and you'll be sorry, as she proves when she takes out a couple of poor saps in a cabin using a can of food as her only weapon, a scene that brings new meaning to the term "opening up a can of whoop ass."

As the film opens, Lou is not a happy camper: she has a gun to her head and she's ready to pull the trigger, but she's interrupted when her neighbor Hannah (Jurnee Smollett), to whom she rents her space, barges in. It turns out Hannah's ex-, a dangerous former Green Beret, has showed up and kidnapped her daughter. Lou, falling back on her old habits, finds renewed purpose and decides to help her track him down.

They're on Orcas Island, just off the coast of Washington, and a major storm means no one is getting on or off the island for the time being. Along with her trusty dog Jax, Lou sets off on the trail of Philip (Logan Marshall-Green), tracking him with her very special set of skills.

And just how were those skills attained? Well it turns out Lou was CIA for 26 years, much to Hannah's surprise, and any further information is classified.

Directed by Anna Foerster ("Underworld: Blood Wars"), "Lou" plays like an '80s action thriller, with Janney in a brooding role that might have then been played by tough dudes Schwarzenegger or Stallone. It's a lean and mean action thriller — it's even set in the '80s, with background references to the Iran-Contra scandal and the Challenger explosion — with a small cast and characters with clear motivations, and a few twists that illuminate the path along the way.

And Janney, 62, more than holds her own. If this is the beginning of her Neeson run, well, there are worse candidates. Besides, who's going to tell her no?

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Rated R: for violence and language

Running time: 107 minutes

Lou Review: Allison Janney Gets Brutal in New Netflix Thriller

Some strong action sequences and a brooding Allison Janney save a weak script in the Netflix movie Lou, about the hunt for a kidnapped child.

It was Liam Neeson's role in Taken that many people credit as marking a dramatic shift in action movie stardom. At the time, the 56-year-old seemed unlikely to launch a major action franchise, and everyone was surprised with how much it rubbed off on the cultural canvas, with additional older men taking on action movies , from Keanu Reeves to Bob Odenkirk. However, it really wasn't a big deal. Older men have headlined action movies since there were action movies — Roger Moore was 57 in View to a Kill , Sean Connery was 66 in The Rock , and even Daniel Craig was 53 when No Time to Die was released, just looking at actors who've played James Bond . Older male action stars aren't anything new; older female ones, however, are a different story.

Aside from Helen Mirren's fun performances in the Red films (while she was in her 60s), Jamie Lee Curtis' recent Halloween movies, and Michelle Yeoh's recent turn in Everything Everywhere All at Once at the age of 59, there really haven't been any older female action stars. At the age of 62, Allison Janney has just proved that there should be. While her new film Lou might not be as good as her performance is, the Netflix movie's nonetheless captivating because of it.

The Movie Lou is Not as Good as the Character Lou

Janney plays the titular Lou, a grumpy older woman who lives alone ten miles outside of town. She is solitude incarnate, and while the film's script often paints her as a knockoff version of Lee Curtis' gray-haired character Laurie Strode in the Halloween reboots, Janney makes Lou her own woman. She's the kind of tough, capable person who drags a gutted deer by the antlers through the woods, having killed more food for her freezer. Aside from going hunting with her dog, she's the landlord for a young mother and her daughter, Hannah and Vee. She's terse with them, but Janney opens up spaces in between the sentences that indicate much more depth than the weak script gives her.

If Lou seems more like she's in hiding than in the golden years of retirement, that's because she actually is. The film takes place in the early '80s after the notorious Iran-Contra affair, which Lou knows much more about than the average American (then and today, unfortunately). She was an operative for the CIA, having worked in the field for nearly three decades, and she has the classified documents and film negatives to prove it (the film goes about this in a painfully obvious way, to the extent that it's surprising that they didn't literally label a film canister with the word "Zapruder").

She isn't a glamorous, romanticized spy, though, and the film actually opens with her preparing to kill herself. She's interrupted by her tenant Hannah after Vee is kidnapped by the father, previously presumed dead. In what initially seems like a very stupid, overly fabricated coincidence but turns out to be more than it seems, the paternal kidnapper turns out to also have a CIA background. He had faked his own death after the agency attempted to arrest him for sadistic torture and the murder of civilians (which hardly seems criminal for the CIA), and now he's back for his daughter. Lou, deciding to do something good for the world after her years of ruining it with the CIA, suits up to track him down and rescue Vee.

Allison Janney Kills it in Lou

The very first frame of the film features Janney's silhouette in a doorframe, immediately bringing to mind that John Wayne classic The Searchers and its iconic final shot. It's a clever way to introduce a film about a kidnapped child and the tough old crank who hunts her down, swapping out the genders and setting the stage for the film's similar themes — broken families and cycles of violence. If the violently unstable Phillip, his former wife Hannah, and their daughter Vee are the narrative dots, then the equally violent Lou connects them.

Related: Allison Janney's Best Performances, Ranked

The emotional connections, on the other hand, are never really sold. Jurnee Smollett (who plays Hannah here) is charming and convincing on her own, but she doesn't have much chemistry with anyone in the film, even her daughter Vee (played by Ridley Asha Bateman, who seems surprisingly disinterested in everything that happens). That lack of chemistry actually makes sense for Lou, though, as Janney's character is a damaged and aloof woman who has realized that the only way she can stop destroying others is by avoiding them altogether. Janney's just as excellent with this as she is a fearless killer (an excellence which will be a consistent refrain in basically any review of Lou ), carefully evincing a deep yearning to reach out before immediately squashing any vulnerability with quick cruelty.

There's practically nobody else in the film with enough dialogue to warrant being a character, other than Phillip. As the crazed, dangerous kidnapper, Logan Marshall-Green is given the impossible task of playing a narrative device. Marshall-Green, so great in 2015's The Invitation and the spectacular but underrated Upgrade , does his best with the woefully underwritten, generally baffling character, but it's a fight nobody could win. Phillip's motivations and actions make it seem like he's in an entirely different movie, disconnected from Lou the same way that all the other characters are. Even Lou is disconnected from Lou , but at least that makes sense.

Anna Foerster Directs Great Action for the Otherwise Middling Netflix Movie

Ludicrous and emotionally flat-lining as it may often be, Lou remains entertaining throughout thanks to Janney's committed performance and director Anna Foerster's action movie intelligence. Having directed great action sequences for the television shows Marvel's Jessica Jones and Westworld , and working on every explosion-filled Roland Emmerich movie except The Patriot , Foerster has developed an innate feel for the kinds of visuals Lou needs. Unfortunately, there are really only two or three scenes that unleash her potential, though they are exceptional.

Related: Netflix Original Movies Coming in September 2022

Between Janney, Foerster, and the fight choreographers , the three action sequences are the best part of Lou , outside Janney's brooding. Using rain, campfire, shadows, and other small elements to heighten each scene, the combat in this film is brutal and usually, surprisingly realistic. The organically clumsy nature of some fights lack John Woo/Wick grace but are brimming with bone-crushing, bloody authenticity. Janney is somehow entirely believable as a killing machine, a bit out of practice but extra dangerous because of her suicidal 'nothing to lose' mentality. Lou begins the film wanting to die, and the amount of pain and suffering she gives and gets just might grant Lou her wish.

The final set piece and fight scene, though pretty ridiculous, is also done very well, with tight editing and gorgeous cinematography. Just as the film begins with a nod to The Searchers , it ends with a direct reference to the famous battle on the beach at the end of Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island , a perfect film where two morally compromised characters are drawn toward an inevitable deadly duel. The fight stands out from the rest of the film, with the sound cutting out and the entire thing becoming genuinely operatic, taking those aforementioned themes of filial damage and cyclical violence to a poetic extreme.

Lou Should've Been About the Action

Lou is a film that wants to be a thriller but should've been a downright action movie. If Foerster was able to just let loose with Lou and create more great action sequences than these, it would have been a pretty wonderful film, one truly worthy of Janney's great performance.

Ultimately, Lou is just like its titular character — detached, damaged, and dark, but with enough sparks of brutality left in it to surprise. If only the film was more consistently intense, emotionally committed, and dramatically coherent. Then it'd be more like Janney than her character. From J.J. Abrams' production company Bad Robot, Lou is now streaming on Netflix .

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Lou (2022)

September 26, 2022 by Robert Kojder

Lou , 2022.

Directed by Anna Foerster. Starring Allison Janney, Jurnee Smollett, Logan Marshall-Green, Ridley Asha Bateman, Greyston Holt, Matt Craven, Toby Levins, Marci T. House, and Jaycie Dotin.

A storm rages. A young girl is kidnapped. Her mother teams up with the mysterious woman next door to pursue the kidnapper, a journey that tests their limits and exposes shocking secrets from their pasts.

Add Allison Janney to the growing list of older but capable action stars. A debut directorial effort from Anna Foerster, based on a story from Maggie Cohn, who wrote the script alongside Jack Stanley, Lou opens with the eponymous older woman penning a suicide note filled with regrets while leaving behind some cash for an unknown character. With a shotgun locked and loaded, pressed against her temple, the filmmakers rewind time to that morning, which follows Lou and the remote island town preparing for an impending catastrophic storm (one that will shut down all transportation coming in and out.

The day also reveals that Lou takes place during the Reagan administration (briefly mentioned on television screens to explain away a lack of modern technology once the proceedings shift into a thrilling cat and mouse game), but what sticks out most is Allison Janney’s cold and steely tough persona; she’s particularly skilled at tracking and hunting (partnering up with her dog Jax), even when conversing with a young woman and her daughter about upcoming rent.

That woman is Hannah (Jurnee Smollett), who is trying to keep her young daughter Vee (Ridley Asha Bateman) hidden from an abusive Special Forces demolition expert ex-boyfriend (a man that she doesn’t believe for a second is dead, despite what she is told), a complete psychopath played by Logan Marshall-Green.

For Lou’s alienating antisocial behavior and payment strictness, there’s also a visible sense of softness and pained remorse underneath that rocky exterior and a desire to open up about something important or say something kind, but without the courage or ability to find the words to do so. Nevertheless, once the evil man fueled by rage locates and kidnaps Vee, that protective instinct is triggered; moments before attempting suicide, Lou has been granted an admittedly cliché shot at redemption.

There is no denying that Lou is pulling from the action movie playbook while also inserting a preposterous reveal halfway through that threatens to strike down every bit of goodwill like relentless lightning. However, such familiarity turns out to be mostly irrelevant since the filmmakers are so competent and assured in execution, receiving a boost from committed performances and excellent photography from Michael McDonough embracing the harsh environmental elements (touched up by some impressive visual effects).

Instead, Lou functions like satisfying trash, partly because the film is interested in trying to say something about motherhood and stubborn lone wolf behavior with its revelations. It’s nothing profound, but that’s also not necessary, given the satisfying bombastic material.

Lou is wise enough to realize that this is Allison Janney’s show, utilizing her survivalist resources and hardened combat abilities to hang with generic henchmen in brutal brawls, cleverly making use of their surroundings. That’s not to say Jurnee Smollett doesn’t also get a chance to impress with physicality, as they both appear as if they have gone through hell and back during their trek across the jungle during endangering weather.

There’s a sequence involving a wooden bridge knocked sideways that they must hang off and shimmy across, showcasing some creative thought went into these set pieces, as does a stunningly shot hand-to-hand final battle set against a beach’s crashing waves. It’s easy to get swept up in such exhilarating action scenes, striking photography, and a conflicted yet fierce turn from Allison Janney, even if the story and revelations are silly.

Flickering Myth Rating  – Film: ★ ★ ★  / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Lou (2022) Netflix: Movie Review & Ending Explained – What Does Philip Want From Lou And Hannah? Is Lou Alive After Her Fight With Philip?

Westerns and Samurai films are famous for epitomizing this particular trope. However, since this storytelling style has entered comparatively modern settings, it needs to be recognized as its beast. Hence, the name geriatric action. Some of the best examples are: Taken (2008), Red (2010), The Dark Knight Returns duology, The Expendables (2010), John Wick (2014) , The Last Stand (2013), The Equalizer (2014), Logan (2017) , The Foreigner (2017), Rambo: Last Blood (2019), and Samaritan (2022). The only films that have countered this testosterone-fest are Halloween (2018), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), and the topic of today’s discussion, Lou (2022).

Lou (2022) Movie Review: 

Anna foerster has the right ingredients for a solid geriatric actioner, but she uses the wrong recipe.

Meanwhile, Lou spends an entire day making arrangements for her eventual demise that she will bring upon herself with the help of her rifle. But she’s forced to put that plan on the back burner as Hannah bursts into her house claiming her estranged husband, Philip (Logan Marshall-Green), has kidnapped Vee and is on the run. And since the phone lines are down and Philip has exploded Lou’s car, Lou decides to track him down and rescue Vee from his clutches.

The second problem is that Foerster, Cohn, and Stanley spend a lot of time on exposition and re-establishing something we already know about the characters, thereby killing the story’s urgency. The fact that Philip is diabolical is very apparent. We don’t need to see him squish a butterfly or hear why he’s such a monster.

Allison Janney, Jurnee Smollett, and Logan Marshall-Green are undoubtedly talented bunch of actors. But the writing stops them from internalizing anything as they are forced to constantly talk about what they are feeling. The cold opening for Janney’s Lou is incredibly effective and gives us a hint at the kind of nihilism she is experiencing. Janney relays that emotional baggage through her body language, the weariness in her voice, and her aversion to overly expressing what she’s truly feeling. However, since Foerster doesn’t cut down on the exposition, all that nuance goes down the drain. The same can be said about Logan.

Spoiler alert : The article is going into spoiler territory. You have been warned.

Lou (2022) ending, explained: , what does philip want from lou and hannah is lou alive after her fight with philip.

From the get-go, it seems like Philip has kidnapped Vee to mess with Hannah. Since he is guilty of war crimes, he will never get custody of his child. So, the reasoning behind his actions makes some sense (only from his perspective, though). But the fact that Hannah is so invested in helping Hannah and Vee out indicates that there’s more to it than meets the eye. At the midway point of the film, the connection between Philip, Vee, Hannah, and Lou become apparent when Lou sends Hannah to call Sheriff Rankin (Matt Craven) while she heads towards where Philip is holding Vee hostage. She tries to get jump on him. However, he ends up cornering her, and that’s when we know he’s Lou’s son. Lou is the one who exposed him so that he could go to jail. She subliminally pushed Hannah to shift to a place where she could look out for her and Vee. But that’s not the only reason why he’s angry with Lou.

By the way, while all this is going on, Rankin receives a disturbing call from the CIA to confirm whether Lou and Philip are at Orcas Island because they are actually wanted fugitives. When Rankin comes to warn Lou about this turn of events, Lou steals his quad bike and heads towards the lighthouse, where Philip is holed up. Hannah gets there before her, though. She convinces Philip to let go of Vee. He complies. And once Vee is out of the picture, Hannah and Philip duke it out. But Vee does this weird thing where she goes into the basement of the lighthouse instead of going for the exit door. Yes, it does lead to the discovery that Philip has rigged the lighthouse to blow up. However, it seems like a weird way to let Lou mess with the controls of the bombs – thereby preventing Philip from causing an explosion while they are all in there – and use it later to signal the CIA to their position. Because why will one hide when they can escape?

After they leave, Rankin essentially informs the audience that Hannah and Vee are moving to Seattle with the help of Lou’s money. The scene shifts to a ferry that Hannah, Vee, and Jax are on. While Hannah and Vee look at the open waters, Jax turns and gives a perplexed expression after seeing someone. That someone is a woman with an injured hand who is looking at Hannah and Vee from afar. And the injury is similar to Lou’s, thereby hinting that she’s still alive and looking after her daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

Related Article: Rrr [2022] Review: S. S. Rajamouli Delivers One Of The Best Indian Action Films With Jr. Ntr And Ram Charan

Lou (2022) official trailer.

Lou (2022) External Links:  IMDb Lou (2022) Movie Cast: Allison Janney , Jurnee Smollett , Logan Marshall-Green

Where to watch lou, trending right now.

Loves to talk about movies, TV shows, short films, and basically anything that emerges from the world of entertainment after watching Raja Hindustani and The Lost World: Jurassic Park on the big screen within the span of one week. Occasionally talks to people, and heavily judges them on the basis of their love for Ryan Gosling, Keanu Reeves, Edgar Wright, and arguably the best TV show ever made, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese's Dark. Opinions are incredibly subject to market risks, so engage in a debate with him after reading all scheme information and other related documents carefully.

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Lou (2022) review – a horrendously dull thriller

This review of the Netflix film Lou (2022) does not contain spoilers.

I have now lived long enough to see a film where the Golden Girls can kick some ass and takes names later while their victims cry before their lives end at any moment. That’s the kind of film experience you get from Lou . This is an action film starring the six-foot and 62-year-old Allison Janney, one where Netflix tries to make a discount version of Bob Odenkirk’s Nobody . Despite Janney’s admirable turn, Lou doesn’t have the bone-crunching or lip-splitting but lacks the humility and self-deprecation of an unassuming killer hiding in plain sight.

Lou stars Janney as the titular character living a quiet and stoic life in the pacific northwest. Lou is brutal and uncompromising. A hunter and tracker, she ignores the local sheriff’s (Matt Craven) obvious laws about hunting season. She rents out another property she owns next door. That person is a single parent, Hannah (Jurnee Smollett). She has a small child, Vee (Ridley Ashlee Bateman). That doesn’t offer her any goodwill with Lou.

The statuesque and weathered Lou demands that Hannah pay the rent on time, even if the worst storm in a century is about to come down hard upon them. That’s fine until Hannah’s supposed dead husband Philip (Logan Marshall-Green) shows up to kidnap Vee in the middle of the storm. With the power out and the phone lines down, Lou and Hannah track Philip into the lush greens of the pacific northwest to get Vee back.

Anna Foerster directed Lou . She is reportedly working on Source Code 2 , and now I have severe doubts about the quality of the cult classic’s sequel. Working from a script from Maggie Cohn ( Narcos: Mexico ) and Jack Stanley ( Shell ), this action thriller is a horrendously dull mixture of cliches strung together from better films. The script plays more like a storyboard than a completed work. We never fully understand the actions behind some plot twists and surprises offered here that are explained briefly. This fails to establish a psychological component the film had its sights on.

The wonderful Janney is an interesting choice for an action hero. However, there is such a lack of urgency in her performance that I was taken aback by her Alex Honnold-like coolness under pressure. And considering the twist that takes place, you should consider the stakes are higher than previously thought. The audience isn’t in on it, but Lou certainly is. It’s simply incongruent with the actions happening around her. To highlight that fault, you have subplots, like Philip’s backstory and Lou’s secret, that could have brought more intrigue and fun to the action experience.

Lou has a tone and individualism that is all the rage nowadays. For instance, Philip rocks it out to the robust melodies of Toto any chance he gets. He even had his daughter listen while he chose to crush a butterfly in his bare hands. And as much as I loved seeing Janney’s Lou kick the ass and making Daniel Bernhardt cry — he played the titular character in the Barry episode “ Ronny/Lilly” that remains one of the most significant episodes of television ever produced — Lou is a lazy and generic action thriller that sleepwalks through its nearly 110 minutes.

What do you think of the Netflix film Lou (2022) and the ending? Comment below.

You can watch Lou (2022) with a subscription to Netflix.

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‘The Hermit’ – First Look at Lou Ferrigno as a Cannibal Pig Farmer in New Horror Movie

Known for his starring role in the original “The Incredible Hulk” TV series back in the 1970s, Lou Ferrigno is next making his way into the horror genre with upcoming film The Hermit .

Variety has shared the first images and details this morning.

In the film from director Salvatore Sclafani , “Dragged on a vacation to the woods, two self-absorbed teens venture off trail, stumble across a farm, go in, see animal heads hanging from the wall and fight for their lives against an unstoppable cannibal pig farmer.”

Malina Weissman (“A Series of Unfortunate Events”) and Anthony Turpel ( Bloody Bridget ) co-star alongside Lou Ferrigno in The Hermit , which is now in post-production.

Scatena & Rosner Films has acquired worldwide rights to the horror movie.

“We are very excited to have this film and its team in the S&R family,” Scatena & Rosner’s Jordan Rosner said in a statement. “On a personal note, I’ve been a fan of Lou’s since childhood, and seeing him bring such a compelling performance to the horror genre is very exciting.”

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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‘Arachnid’ – Matilda Lutz Starring in Spider Horror Movie

Spider horror movies seem to be all the rage, with Infested streaming on Shudder and Sting now available on Digital at home. And there’s another one on the way, with Deadline reporting that Matilda Lutz ( Revenge ) will star in an upcoming spider movie titled Arachnid .

The project is the first from the new genre label Badlands, a partnership between Thunder Road ( John Wick ) and Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss that Deadline first reported on.

Jayson Rothwell ( Underworld: Blood Wars ) wrote Arachnid , with Ángel Gómez ( Voces ) directing. Deadline notes, “the spider thriller is due to begin filming this July in Madrid.”

“I am lucky to be in business with Thunder Road and Renegade,” Strauss said in a statement shared by Deadline. “Badlands will be an extension of both companies’ entrepreneurial spirit and is moving quickly to acquire and produce a fresh slate of horror IP.”

“Thunder Road has been looking to expand into the horror space and we are thrilled to partner with someone as smart, creative, and hardworking as Scott,” said Thunder Road Partner and President of Production Erica Lee. “His experience and track record speak for themselves and our team is dedicated to making Badlands a success.”

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An Unfinished Film | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review

The Act of Watching: Lou Ye Mixes Picture Lock Dreams & Lock Down Nightmares

Does a film exist if it was never completed? It’s a reality that no working filmmaker ever wants to entertain, and yet we find sixth-generation Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye take the plunge (possibly exorcise some personal and professional demons) for what is a riveting, highly inventive mid-career oeuvre masterstroke. Part documentary yet part faux documentary, part fiction (with thriller genre elements) and part critical essay, An Unfinished Film seeks to contextualize the past by reframing the present.

Set just a couple of months before the global standstill of January 2020, this revolves around a film crew reuniting to revive a feature that didn’t make it to the finish line. While Jiang Cheng (Qin Hao) may require some adjustments to embody his character once again, the crew led by the film’s director Xiaorui (Mao Xiaoru) are poised to greenlit for a second time and measures to resume shooting the film that was abruptly halted a decade earlier take place. As the crew delve into the contents of old hard drives and sound cards, it evokes memories of Lou’s earlier filmography. The neat part here is this is captured in full documentary style (one wonders how the film might have come across if Lou had inserted himself in the composition). And while An Unfinished Film doesn’t explicitly reference his oeuvres, one can’t help but recall the filmmaker’s past struggles with Chinese censors, reflecting on the experiences depicted in his films from the 2000s from Suzhou River (2000) all the way up to Spring Fever (2009). Memories are real. Anxiety is real. And here it’s compounded.

Time stamps document a new timeline and there is something to be said about knowing that everyone one screen are part of a slow-moving disaster that will spill over into all facets of life. The worst part, the shoot happens to take place in Wuhan. Lou skillfully moves from documentary to a creative set of holla-hopes and it subverts its initial format. Entering the heart of the storm, it shows how frail and incapacitated we were and it sheds light on the individual and collective panic. A damning statement against Wuhan perhaps, but also the inefficiency of the government, when the first sanitary masks pop up we understand that the plug is about to be pulled for a second time — but it signifies that the confined space within the hotel where the film is being produced will become a prison. And here, the film takes a bold step forward, presenting a shared screen display of cabin fever, celebration, resilience and the innate need for creativity.

Technically sound, with some choice editing, when the film graduates into stream of different panic-inducing new steps that supplant the concerns of just the sequence before — it showcases the film’s genius in seamlessly blending various tones and themes. The type of film you’ll want to rush towards the end credits to confirm whether you might have been catfished or not, under the guise of a collective unfinished business at the most unfortunate of moments in recent human civilization we are also gifted the best of the post-pandemic themed films and the torment of what it is to be a filmmaker with a long memory. Trying to manoeuvre around government censorship is akin to figuring out how to wrestle with a reality of the lockdown. Coming off the pristine Saturday Fiction , An Unfinished Film shows us how one man’s misery is that same man’s fortune.

Reviewed on May 16th at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival – Special Screenings section. 106 Mins.

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).

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A woman wins an all-expenses-paid trip to a company's gorgeous "institute" outside of Florence, and also the chance to meet the restaurant chain's wealthy and charismatic owner. She finds a ... Read all A woman wins an all-expenses-paid trip to a company's gorgeous "institute" outside of Florence, and also the chance to meet the restaurant chain's wealthy and charismatic owner. She finds a different adventure than the one she imagined. A woman wins an all-expenses-paid trip to a company's gorgeous "institute" outside of Florence, and also the chance to meet the restaurant chain's wealthy and charismatic owner. She finds a different adventure than the one she imagined.

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Streaming on Max: The 21 Absolute Best Movies to Watch

Here are some highly rated films to check out, plus a look at what's new in May.

Turtles All the Way Down adapts the 2017 novel by John Green.

Wondering what you should watch on the Max streaming service ?

Max  replaced HBO Max last year and streams a variety of titles, including Warner Bros. movies like Dune and HBO originals like Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off. Below, you'll find a batch of can't-miss films on the streamer, plus a look at new releases for this month. (If you're still trying to figure out if Max is for you, skim  our review of the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service ).

New releases for May

Note:  These descriptions are taken from Max press releases and lightly edited for style.

• Turtles All the Way Down  (2024):  Romantic drama. The film tackles anxiety through its 17-year-old protagonist, Aza Holmes. 
• Stop Making Sense (2023 rerelease):  It's the 1984 Talking Heads concert film directed by renowned filmmaker Jonathan Demme, newly restored in 4K to coincide with its 40th anniversary.
• The Iron Claw (2024):  Sports drama. The film tells the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s.
• Nikki Glaser: Someday You'll Die  (2023):  Comedy special. Glaser dives into a wide range of topics, including why she doesn't want kids, the harsh realities of aging, her sexual fantasies, and plans for her own death.
• MoviePass, MovieCrash (2010):  Documentary. The film is about MoviePass, which in a span of eight years went from being the fastest growing subscription service since Spotify to total bankruptcy.

Read more:   Best TV Shows to Watch on Max

The best movies to watch

The films below consist of notable new releases and blockbusters, HBO and Max originals and Warner Bros. films made exclusively for Max . All score around 65 or higher on Metacritic.

Turtles All the Way Down (2024)

Don't usually dabble in the young adult genre? You shouldn't let that keep you from taking in Turtles All the Way Down, based on a 2017 novel of the same name by John Green. The film stars Isabela Merced (Madame Web, upcoming sci-fier Alien: Romulus) as a teen who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. With elements of romance and a captivating performance from Merced, this straight-to-streaming movie deserves more attention.

Priscilla (2023)

Sofia Coppola's Priscilla, about the relationship between Priscilla and Elvis Presley, is streaming on Max along with other recent films from entertainment company A24. Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi star in the stylish flick, which tells things from Priscilla's point of view. If you like new A24 flicks, Max's stash also includes The Iron Claw, The Zone of Interest and Dream Scenario (Love Lies Bleeding and Civil War will hit the streamer eventually).

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Avatar: The Way of Water reintroduced audiences to James Cameron's film franchise after 13 years and won an Oscar for best visual effects. The sequel centers on the Sully family -- Jake, Neytiri and their kids -- and is brimming with adventure and heart. It'll be  at least a couple of years  until Avatar 3 arrives, but you can pass the time by rewatching this on Max.

The Fallout (2022)

After a shooting occurs at her high school, 16-year-old Vada Cavell must navigate friendships, school and her relationship with her family. The Fallout skillfully approaches serious subject matter with realistic dialogue and compassion for its characters. With strong performances from stars Jenna Ortega, as Vada, and Maddie Ziegler, as her new friend Mia Reed, the feature will keep you glued to the screen for the entirety of its 90-minute runtime.

Dune (2021)

Remember 2021, when Warner Bros. movies hit HBO Max on the same day they premiered in theaters? That exciting period may be over, but at least we'll always have the memory of watching Denis Villeneuve's stunning sci-fi epic Dune at home. If you've never seen the film or need to brush up on what "the spice" is before Part Two, stream Dune now.

King Richard (2021)

King Richard is a feel-good biopic about the father of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams. The film winds back the clock to before the sisters became household names, giving us a glimpse of their upbringing in Compton and time spent practicing on run-down courts with their father, Richard Williams (Will Smith). Convinced his daughters are going to be successful, Richard works tirelessly to get their star potential noticed by professional coaches. A complicated man with a tremendous personality, Richard is fascinating to get to know, and his unwavering belief in Venus and Serena is inspiring. 

Son of Monarchs (2020)

A rare (nowadays) 90-minute film, American Mexican drama Son of Monarchs will stay with you long after the end credits roll. This deep character study follows two brothers who are changed in markedly different ways by the trauma they suffered in childhood. This story, folding in magical realism, follows how they move forward in life -- the butterfly metaphors are strong, with biologist Mendel returning to his hometown surrounded by majestic monarch butterfly forests.

Bad Education (2019)

Based on a magazine article by journalist Robert Kolker, this tale about a public school embezzlement scandal and the student journalists who broke the news is captivating from start to finish. Allison Janney and Hugh Jackman are great in their roles as the school officials who took part in the scheme. The drama also won the 2020 Emmy award for Outstanding Television Movie. 

Wonka (2023)

Dune's Timothée Chalamet stars in this prequel to Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and it's a total treat. With new and familiar tunes, a committed cast and oodles and oodles of whimsy, the film allows audiences to get to know a young Willy Wonka with giraffe-sized ambition and undeniable chocolate-making skill. It's a quirky, comforting flick from Paddington director Paul King that you'll absolutely want on your plate.

Barbie (2023)

Unless you've been living in Barbie Land (or another place that isn't the real world), chances are you're very familiar with this pink-coated comedy already. The flick -- Warner Bros.' highest-grossing global release of all time -- brings a long list of stars together for a hilarious and heartfelt adventure. Greta Gerwig directs, Margot Robbie plays the titular role, and Ryan Gosling belts out an incredible power ballad as Ken.

Father of the Bride (2022)

Max's Father of the Bride introduces a Cuban American family that includes patriarch Billy, a traditional guy who struggles to digest surprising news from his eldest daughter: She's met a guy, and she wants to marry and move away with him. The third film adaptation of a 1949 novel of the same name by Edward Streeter, the movie is an enjoyable iteration that includes stars like Andy Garcia and singer Gloria Estefan.

Let Them All Talk (2020)

Meryl Streep playing an eccentric author in a Steven Soderbergh comedy. What more do you need to know? If you do want to know more: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Hughes (Streep) is struggling to finish her next book, chased by her literary agent (Gemma Chan). She boards a cruise ship with old friends, who inspired her best-known work. Tensions are strong. It looks great -- Soderbergh uses crisp, natural light -- and most of the dialogue is improvised. See how Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen, Lucas Hedges and the rest of the impeccable cast have fun with that.

Kimi (2022)

Steven Soderbergh directs this engaging tech thriller set during the COVID-19 pandemic. Angela, a Seattle tech worker played by a neon blue-haired Zoë Kravitz, has agoraphobia, a fear that prevents her from making it past the front door of her apartment. But when she uncovers an unsettling recording while doing her job, she's pushed to make the leap. Kimi is a stylish thriller complete with eye-catching cinematography, a solid score and a protagonist you'll be rooting for.

No Sudden Move (2021)

A movie from Steven Soderbergh, the great director behind Erin Brockovich, Ocean's Eleven and, more recently, Logan Lucky? Twists, thrills and desperate characters populate this crime thriller set in 1950s Detroit. When a seemingly simple job gets out of hand, a group of criminals must work together to uncover what's really going on. Take in the incredible cast: Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm and Amy Seimetz. While the plot can be a little convoluted and some won't be able to get past the fish-eye lens cinematography, Soderbergh's sense of humor and immersive direction make this crime caper an entertaining night in.

Documentary

All That Breathes (2022)

This captivating documentary is filled with images that will stick with you. It centers on two brothers in New Delhi who run a bird hospital dedicated to black kites -- birds of prey that are a staple of the sky. It was a contender for best documentary feature at the 2023 Oscars.

Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off (2022)

Tune into this HBO doc for the gravity-defying skateboard stunts, a time capsule of the '80s skateboarding scene, and a version of Hawk you've probably never seen. We get to know the renowned athlete as a lanky, stubborn but determined kid who adopted his own skateboarding style. Hawk's persistence is something to marvel at, along with all the stunning skateboard moves this film packs in. Hang on for a memorable ride.

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021)

This film about beloved author, chef and globe-traveling TV host Anthony Bourdain comes from documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville, who also directed 2018's Won't You Be My Neighbor? and the Oscar-winning film Twenty Feet from Stardom. In interviews with people who knew Bourdain, like his friends, former partners and longtime colleagues, the doc tracks his career path, relationships and personal struggles. Bourdain fans and those less acquainted with the star will likely appreciate this two-hour look at his life.

The Color Purple (2023)

This movie musical version of The Color Purple is adapted from Alice Walker's 1982 novel and the Broadway play. Set in the early 1900s, the film tells the story of Celie, a Black woman living in the South who faces multiple hardships but is able to find strength in the bonds in her life. The cast includes Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo, Halle Bailey and Danielle Brooks, who received a 2023 Oscar nomination for her role as Celie's daughter-in-law, Sofia.

In the Heights (2021)

In the Heights  stars Anthony Ramos (whom you might recognize as John Laurens in Hamilton) playing Usnavi, a bodega owner struggling to keep his business afloat while a heatwave strikes Washington Heights. Secretly in love with his neighbor Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who dreams of getting out of the salon and out of the neighborhood, Usnavi serves the people of Washington Heights with a whole lot of love, lottery tickets and cafe con leche. Between the choreographed twirls and fireworks, In the Heights is an examination of wealth disparity, immigration, classism and the importance of culture.

The Batman (2022)

Robert Pattinson steps out as Batman in this moody superhero flick directed by Matt Reeves. The movie takes place in a perpetually gray and rain-soaked Gotham City, where Bruce Wayne starts to seek out a murderer with an affinity for riddles. Along the way, he meets Catwoman, played by a swaggering Zoë Kravitz. A satisfying dark mystery with great scene-setting and storytelling, The Batman is also getting a Max spinoff series, The Penguin, in 2024.

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Over-the-top violence abounds in this DC film about supervillains who agree to help the US government in exchange for some time off their prison sentences. Their mission is to destroy something alluded to as Project Starfish, harbored in the fictional island country of Corto Maltese. With a notable cast that includes Margot Robbie, Idris Elba and John Cena, 2021's The Suicide Squad is a wickedly entertaining, darkly funny bloodbath that differs from what you usually see in superhero movies. (Peacemaker, a spinoff TV series, is also available on Max.)

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