FILM ROUNDUP

KEITH UHLICH

Three Thousand Years of Longing (Dir. George Miller). Starring: Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba. The critical and commercial success of Mad Max: Fury Road clearly afforded writerdirector George Miller carte blanche with his followup. This wonderfully strange feature, adapted from an A.S. Byatt story, is basically a two-hander between a lonely academic (Tilda Swinton) and a wish-granting Djinn (Idris Elba), the latter of whom tells the eras-spanning tale of his imprisonment. The leads are in a hotel room for much of the movie, and it’s to Miller’s immense credit that he makes these scenes as visually, aurally and thematically interesting as the colorfully over-the-top flashbacks to the Djinn’s tortured life. The whole production has the feel of a Powell-Pressburger fantasia, though one slanted heavily, at least on the surface, toward the didactic. This complements the cultured perspective of Swinton’s character and makes for an interesting contrast when the tale turns fully romantic. Those looking for the pedal-to-the-metal kineticism of Fury Road will surely be disappointed, but there are riches here that show how sublimely versatile a filmmaker Miller can be. [R] HHHH Prey (Dir. Dan Trachtenberg). Starring: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro. Set a few hundred years before a violenceprone extraterrestrial faced off with the former Governor of California, this latest installment of the Predator series surprises with how generally alright it is. That’s not effusive praise, and indeed, the things that don’t work (overreliance on CGI; acting that’s at best shrug-worthy) are legion. Still, there are plenty of positives, particularly how director and co-scenarist Dan Trachtenberg sets this tale of woman v. alien among the tribes of the Comanche nation prior to the founding of America, which effectively reorients the series’ steroidal ‘80s-actioner ethos. Our very 2022 hero is Naru (Amber Midthunder), who wants to prove her warrior mettle to her tribe and gets her chance when one of the towering mandibular martians sets up shop in the nearby forest. It’s bloody fun and games from there, though the film is only at its best after a second group of villains—a hiss-and-spit prone group of psychotic French trappers—show up to act stupid and get dismembered. [R] HH1/2

Keith Uhlich is a NY-based writer published at Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, and ICON. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. His personal website is (All (Parentheses)), accessible at keithuhlich.substack.com. Bullet Train (Dir. David Leitch). Starring: Brad