Week of July 10-16 (Rhoades)

Tropic Overview

Tropic Cinema Offers Must-Sees and Wanna-Sees

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Film Critic, Cooke Communications

This week Tropic Cinema offers an interest film selection, a couple of must-sees and some wanna-sees.

If you haven’t seen “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” do. Yes, it’s about two teen outcasts who befriend a classmate dying of leukemia. It’s sad, it’s funny, it’s a must-see. Tulsa World calls it

“smart and funny and meaningful, the kind of movie that you may not be familiar with yet, but which you might watch many times in the years to come.” And Parade Magazine says, “Give into it, go with it and let it take you where it leads you -- and don't get caught up in thinking that you already know where that will be.”

You might describe “Dope” as “John Hughes for millennials.” Black kids in the hood have replaced Molly Ringwald in the Chicago suburbs. Here a smart kid named Malcolm (Shameik Moore) must figure out how to trade a dope dealer’s stash for a Harvard education. Cinelogue.com says, “This dope coming-of-age comedy is about dopes and dope dealers, but it's also a heartfelt and perceptive
examination of cultural trends with style and energy to spare.” And The Skinny opines: “A smart bag of references, to both modern meme culture and bygone music and movies, Dope is neither pastiche nor misty-eyed nostalgia.”

“Self/less” is a clever science fiction film, with Ben Kingley as a rich guy with cancer who does a body swap and winds up looking exactly like Ryan Reynolds. But being someone else is not as easy as he’d hope. Beliefnet says it has “some provocative concepts about life, death, memory, identity, and, well, karma.” And Tri-City Herald says, “Decent sci-fi if it's your thing and from Tarsem Singh who is one of my favorite directors and a very good storyteller.”

And if you just want to see something silly, there’s “Spy” with Melissa McCarthy as an inexperienced secret agent. Aside from the fat jokes, which she takes to the bank, this is one of McCarthy funnier outings. Chicago Readers notes, “Hollywood is gradually figuring out what to do with Melissa McCarthy.” And NOW Toronto concludes, “This is an awful lot of fun. Don't wait for the DVD; see it with a crowd.”

So which films here are you’re must-sees and which are your wanna-sees? No matter, with only four films you can see them all.

srhoades@aol.com