Movie Review

Family drama Ezra takes on struggles of parenting an autistic child

William A. Fitzgerald and Bobby Cannavale in Ezra.

Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street

As awareness about autism has spread in the world at large, so too have movies and TV shows featuring stories dealing with the neurological and developmental disorder. When projects do broach the topic, the autistic character is almost always the driving force of the plot, either as the main character or as someone around which other characters’ decisions revolve.

Ezrafalls in the latter category, as even though it’s named after the school-aged Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald), it centers on his father Max (Bobby Cannavale), a stand-up comedian who shares custody of Ezra with his ex-wife, Jenna (Rose Byrne). As the film begins, Ezra is in a standard elementary school, but a series of outbursts – some of them physical – have Jenna and others wanting to put him in a special needs school.

When a misunderstanding forces the state’s hand, Max reacts poorly and kidnaps Ezra, with a half-baked plan to hide out with Max’s friend Nick (Rainn Wilson). A call from Jimmy Kimmel Live offering him a coveted spot on the show leads to a longer road trip than intended, with Jenna and Max’s dad Stan (Robert De Niro), as well as the police, trying their best to catch up with them.

Directed by Tony Goldwyn (who has a small part as Jenna’s new husband) and written by Tony Spiradakis, the film is a mostly surface-level examination of what it means to be a parent for an autistic child. How Max and Jenna handle Ezra differs greatly, with Max exposing Ezra to age-inappropriate material and Jenna generally agreeing with the stiffest restrictions put on Ezra when he runs afoul of authority figures. Although they both clearly love him, neither seems to know exactly what to do with Ezra, which is as honest as the film gets.

The father-son impromptu road trip is a conundrum for viewers, as it offers up hallmarks of movies with similar journeys, including unexpected detours and obstacles, but with Max’s crime and immaturity at the center of it. There are emotionally bonding moments along the way, but also a fair share of uncomfortable ones, including a scene in which Ezra tells Max that he needs him to be more like a father than a friend.

As road trip movies tend to do, the film loses focus at times. There’s a semi-weird stop at house of Max’s ex-girlfriend Grace (Vera Farmiga), where her daughter Ruby (Matilda Lawler) bonds with Ezra over ice cream and horses. The relationship between Max and Stan is given a decent amount of time, but it would have been nice if their scenes included more emotional complexity, as there appears to a lot left unsaid between the two characters.

Cannavale is a fine actor who does his best to make Max into a believable character. He makes for a good-if-imperfect dad and a so-so comedian, with scenes showing his stand-up sets not really demonstrating the character’s talent. Fitzgerald is a newcomer who embodies the autistic characteristics well. The stacked supporting cast – Byrne, De Niro, Goldwyn, Wilson, Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg – keeps even the smaller scenes interesting.

Ezra is a serviceable family drama that offers up a nice story with some minor faults. Anyone looking for strong insights into an autistic character will find themselves wanting, but the cast is strong enough to cover up most of the storytelling deficiencies.

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Ezra opens in theaters on May 31.

Movie Review

Daniel Craig searches for elusive new bond in audacious film Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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