‘Summer of Soul’: Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples and others shine in Questlove’s documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival.Scott and Manohla Dargis, selected their favorite movies of the year. It seems to have been done mostly because it hadn't been done before, and for no better reason. Even more damaging than the blind trust in A-list movie stars to lead audiences anywhere - in this case, to a sinking slag heap in the Pacific - is the logic behind filming an aquatic adventure on such a huge, unmanageable scale. But this fiscal debacle has become emblematic of too much about the way Hollywood does business. In other words, we would never have heard so much about "Waterworld" if it were only "Waterworld," a reasonably diverting sci-fi film with extras who appear to be wearing rags and old car parts, that we were hearing about. Its storytelling, remarkably crude for such an elaborate production, takes a back seat to its enthusiasm for post-apocalyptic rust and rubble. It lacks the coherent fantasy of truly enveloping science fiction, preferring to concentrate on flashy, isolated stunts that say more about expense than expertise.
It goes slack between taunts and explosions. Directed by Kevin Reynolds, "Waterworld" is a big, brawny, overzealously bizarre epic punctuated by daring action scenes, which are sloppily assembled (the sky or ocean color seldom matches in any two consecutive scenes) but still exciting. What was the point of this hubris-filled exercise? Finally we know. The melting of the polar ice cap, which sets the film's story in motion, is one of the few relevant calamities for which they have not been blamed. How can a made-up tale of rivalry and opportunism beat the backstage melodrama of bringing "Waterworld" to the screen? Afloat on a sea of production crises, the makers of this madly inflated action film have been held accountable for just about every imaginable sin.
THE torrent of loose talk that ushers in "Waterworld," the most wasteful feat of one-upmanship in Hollywood history, threatens to drown out the movie itself.