THE NIGHT CLERK (2020)

Rated:  R

STARS: Tye Sheridan, Ana De Armas, Helen Hunt, John Leguizamo
DIRECTOR: Michael Cristofer
GENRE: Mystery/Suspense

With Helen Hunt, Tye Sheridan, Ana De Armas, and John Leguizamo, The Night Clerk doesn't lack for star power. What it does lack is that edge-of-your-seat tension and buildup to an explosive climax. The film, which has now made its way to Netflix, creeps along at an escargot pace, getting creepier by the minute. You might be okay with that, because The Night Clerk is a character study of a most fascinating dude. And the plot challenges you to stay on your toes and be your own amateur sleuth. At just 90 minutes running length, this is one you might easily watch a second time, in case you're sketchy about some things after the first go round.

Bart Bromley (Tye Sheridan) works the overnight shift as a hotel desk clerk. He's a young guy, socially awkward. More than most. He has Asperger's Syndrome. He's set up cameras in some of the rooms so he can observe the guests. He's not after sexual gratification. He likes to study people.Their speech patterns and mannerisms. So that he might develop, he thinks, a more "normal" public persona.

A woman named Karen (Jacque Gray) checks into the hotel. She lets a man into her room. They have an altercation that turns violent and Karen ends up dead. Bart has recorded the whole thing. When questioned by the police, his quirky behavior arouses the suspicions of detective Espada (John Leguizamo). 

Bart gets transferred to one of the hotel chain's other properties. An intriguing young woman named Andrea (Ana De Armas) checks in, Bart has his spy equipment observing her in her room. Andrea is drawn to Bart because she had a brother with Asperger's. Eventually they get around to spending the night together in a nonsexual, cuddly kind of way. Bart is falling hard for her. Andrea lets it slip that she is seeing a married man.

In a deja vu kind of moment, Bart observes a man with Andrea in her room. The man's behavior turns abusive. At this point, we've got to be thinking there's more here than meets the eye. Oh, how brilliant you are! Andrea's admission about the married man should point you (if you've been using your noodle) to a possible connection between herself and Karen's killer. 

I bought into Tye Sheridan's portrayal of Bart. He makes him quirky, but doesn't overdo it. Bart's an intelligent guy, and there's a balance that needed to be struck in order to bring that out within the framework of his social awkwardness.  

Ana De Armas, as Andrea, had a meaty part in the previously reviewed Knives Out. She's getting a lot of work and is becoming a fast rising star.

Helen Hunt, as Bart's overprotective mother, has a couple of emotive scenes, but it seems they could have plugged anybody into this non essential role. But then they wouldn't have had Helen Hunt to put up on the marquee.

John Leguizamo, as the detective, gives an understated performance, in line with the mood of this understated film.

The ending of The Night Clerk may have  you saying: WHA???  But then I do that every morning when I open my eyes to this creepy and strange world we live in.

Grade: B -

JILL'S TAKE

Finally, a Netflix offering I didn't hate. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. Unlike Tim, I felt the pace worked and I couldn't tear myself away from this offbeat film. (Not even for a bathroom break.)

At 23 years of age with a mere duo of film credits, Tye Sheridan played the main character in The Night Clerk with a clarity and consistency that is indeed impressive. However, I did find it slightly questionable that someone with Asperger's Syndrome, who flinched when a barber accidentally touched his skin, would permit the lip-lovely Ana De Armas to caress and kiss him.

It reminded me of that movie As Good As It Gets (that won Helen Hunt an Oscar in 1998) when Jack Nicholson's character was "cured" of his OCD because of love. ("You make me want to be a better man.") Hokey, yes. But then movie goers are natural born romantics, aren't they.... I guess the blame for that psychological disparity would have to be placed on Pulitzer prize-winner (The Shadow Box) screenwriter and director Michael Christofer.

I've had such a mad-on about watching movies on Netflix rather than in movie theaters that I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever be able to appreciate any film I watched on TV – which, in the past, has been reserved for Netflix "series." Thankfully, with the advent of The Night Clerk I was able to!

Grade: B +

  



    

SERGIO (2020)

Rated: R

STARS: Wagner Moura, Ana de Armas, Bradley Whitford
DIRECTOR: Greg Barker
GENRE: Biopic

Sergio, just released on Netflix, is a biopic based on the true story of Sergio Vierra de Mello, a Brazilian diplomat for the United Nations whose long career was a series of personal and political ups and downs.

If the narrative in the film is to be believed, de Mello was an effective negotiator--a charmer who spoke straight and tough to power, but had a truly "diplomatic"way of facilitating negotiations between opposite sides, such as when he brokered a peace deal between East Timoor and Indonesia.

In 2003, he was appointed as a special U.N. envoy to Iraq, which turned out to be his last hurrah. A suicide truck bomb blast took him out. His story is told in hop, skip, and jump flashbacks, all eventually feeding into that explosive moment.

Wagner Moura, who portrays Sergio, does an admirable job of communicating the man's sensitivity and sympathy for the plight of the everyday people whose lives were impacted by the Iraq war. But his relationship with his family suffered, as evident in the scenes with his two young sons, who basically don't know him.

A love story runs parallel to the political. There is fiery chemistry between Moura and the captivating Ana de Armas, who plays fellow U.N. employee Carolina Larriera. At first she balks about him being married and having a family, but she eventually comes around and passion flares, in similar fashion to the way the film, where the camera lingers too long on some scenes, resulting in its nearly two hour run time,won me over; it's like quicksand in the way it slowly draws you in.

Sergio is told with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, and in that way is not particularly brave or insightful in its conclusions (everyone now agrees that Iraq was a tragic misstep for the U.S.), except as a character study of one man who maintained his integrity in the face of the prevailing mob mentality ("You're either with us or against us") fostered by the Bush administration at the time. An engaging story of triumph and tragedy. 

Grade: B +

JILL'S TAKE

Many many years ago, when I was a teenager, I had two serious crushes on movie stars: James Dean and Montgomery Clift. Both sensitive types who portrayed weak, vulnerable men. They shaped the type of men I've always been attracted to. Or so I thought until my last serious crush on a film star. Wagner Moura was the polar opposite of weak and sensitive as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series "Narcos." But like Dean and Clift, he sure made my heart beat faster.

So when I saw that he was the lead in the latest movie offering on Netflix, I couldn't wait to watch it. Moura still can turn on the charm (as he did playing Escobar). A good 40 pounds lighter, without a moustache, he still has incredible sex appeal. But sex appeal isn't enough to carry this choppy, deafeningly loud, interminably long film. Trying to follow the two storylines---his career versus his love affair—gave me a headache. Is it a political movie with lots of steamy love scenes? Or an extra marital affair wrapped around a lot of bombings? (I'm getting a headache again just trying to figure it out!) 

I'm not big on history, ancient or recent. Maybe if I was, I would've enjoyed Sergio more. I'm really getting discouraged with the idea (I thought was brilliant at the time!) of reviewing Netflix films. Obviously, The Irishman and Marriage Story were flukes. All Netflix seems to be offering in the way of new movies these days is.....crap. Sorry, Tim. Let's wait until real movies start happening again....

Grade: C