MattCummings

Fountain of Youth is one of those movies that you are instantly attracted to, filled with Indiana Jones- and National Treasure-looking moments. Upon watching it, you are instead immediately reminded as to how bad Hollywood has become. Youth is not only not great but it's not even that good. The casting of Krasinki and Portman doesn't work, and while the Guy Ritchie visuals are good, that's really all it has going for it. It shouldn't be hard to make a globe-trotting alternative historical action movies, and yet Youth somehow proves otherwise. Watch it only after you've watched Dial of Destiny, which is a masterpiece compared to this dud.

Jungle Cruise is a fun but utterly forgettable movie. A laugh in many parts, utterly confusing in others, it fails to keep the attention of meandering and silly plot. But there are bright spots. At this point, no one should be needing confirmation that Emily Blunt is a certified movie star. From Mary Poppins Returns to Live, Die, Repeat she exudes the rare Hollywood "it" that separates her from many others. But not even she can keep the eyes from rolling at the ridiculous plot. Perhaps Jungle Cruise isn't for adults, so in that way kids should enjoy it. For the rest of us, it's like Dwayne Johnson's tattered boatthe La Quila, which should never have been let out of the harbor.

The Pigeon Tunnel isn't just an interview with spy novelist John LeCarre, but a fascinating and deeply rewarding introspection. LeCarre is engaging, open and honest about his childhood and his deeply flawed relationship with his parents. A former British spy - although he contends not a very good one - he would use those experiences to pen some of the best spy novels ever, including my favorite "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Soy." LeCarre visits and revisits betrayal as the central source of his writing, which he claims as art, a thought that many critics might not agree with. In the end, LeCarre imagined a world both bludgeoned with honesty and filled with a desire for fantasy to stunning effect. The Pigeon Tunnel exposes the spy and the man within, leaving us to wonder who he really was. At the end of the film, LeCarre admits "If I'm not writing, I'm an actor without a part," perhaps giving us some amount of insight into this complex and engaging man.