Laggies: Lynn Shelton’s Film Blends a Coming-of-Age Story With a Quarter-Life Crisis
Laggies is a fantastic movie, filled with down-to-earth characters, transcendent themes, and witty comedy

A missed highway exit leads Darry Marzouki, an unemployed magician, to cross paths with Irène Montier Duval, a wealthy woman carrying a Hermès bag full of cash. Out of love, she acted as an intermediary in an arms deal between a French minister and Korea. When the deal was exposed, the minister tried to pin the blame on her. On the run, she offers to pay Darry to drive her to Geneva in his BMW. The problem? The BMW isn’t his—he impulsively stole it from his hot-tempered brother-in-law, who’s out for blood. Unable to accept Irène’s offer, Darry pretends to be an activist heading to a summit in Locarno. Irène, eager for a change, plays along. They have little in common but spend three unforgettable days together—while being chased by Koreans, French intelligence, a minister, and the furious brother-in-law. In the end, one finds love, the other freedom.
Laggies is a fantastic movie, filled with down-to-earth characters, transcendent themes, and witty comedy
As I typed this, Chris Evans was being “cancelled” on Twitter. I did a little research on this since I always thought Chris Evans was well-received. It turns out the backlash is because of a white savior movie he made called Red Sea Diving Resort.
The Gates, John Burr’s new thriller film, is a disturbingly realistic portrayal of three Black twenty-somethings - Derek (Mason Gooding), Kevin (Algee Smith), and Tyon (Keith Powers), as they accidentally take a wrong turn into a gated community that’s more like a modern-day sundown town. The three friends witness a variety of crimes in their new surroundings, including an attempted homicide and an attempted rape. As they attempt to alert the authorities and do the right thing, they are thwarted at every turn by the worst horror stories of American conservatism - racist white suburbanites, reckless gun violence, corrupt police, religious mania, and a megalomaniacal pastor.
Adam Sandler goes hard as an NBA scout in this male-heavy sports-drama.
Ultra-violent storytelling has never been my thing, but the issues with Scarface go beyond that. The film perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Latinx immigrants and uses gore and misogyny for shock value that never serves any purpose. The whole venture is frustratingly empty, and left me desiring something more.
Portraying how easy it is to be an ally heavily benefits the majority audience. The more we encourage it, normalize it, and give people the tools to become one, the sooner we can co-exist peacefully.