John Lithgow has a tendency to nibble on scenery.

Or, in the case of “Cliffhanger,” devour it without mercy. He even admits as such.

Now, at 79, the actor has the perfect marriage of those impulses with “The Rule of Jenny Pen.” It’s a fiercely original tale where he’s joined by Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush.

Together, they spin a morbid web of aging, loneliness and creepy hand puppets. “Pen” never works up into a genre lather, but the results are never less than engaging.

Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a massive stroke behind the bench as the story opens.

He’s deposited into a nursing home where workers strain to restore his mobility. Stefan is understandably glum, but his despair goes beyond the stroke’s aftermath.

He appears lonely, for starters. No one visits to brighten his mood. No flowers or cards adorn his bedside. He’s forced to share a room with a fellow patient (George Henare), an indignity he refuses to hide.

Worst of all, another patient haunts his room at night, dancing about with a silly puppet permanently affixed to his hand.

That’s Lithgow’s Dave Crealy, a senior with plenty of life left in his body. He’s a regular at the center, using his “Jenny Pen” puppet to sing songs and interrupt the lives of everyone in the facility.

He’s a first-class bully and no one will stand up to him, not even the center’s staff. And he uses Jenny Pen as his enforcer.

It’s scarier than it sounds.

How can Dave run around unchecked? It’s a question the film doesn’t fully address, although there are hints along the way. That’s more than enough to set this duel in motion.

Rush’s character is wholly convincing, from his arrogant mien to the stroke’s cruel side effects. He’s trapped in his body, unable to fend off Dave’s increasingly violent visits. Rush’s face conveys the depths of his misery and, later, horror.

The screenplay shrewdly lays out enough of Dave’s back story to justify his actions. Stefan’s plight offers a bleak mirror image of Dave’s pain.

One character might learn from the errors of his ways. The other chooses the very worst lessons from his past.

Fascinating.

Tonight at @GlobeCinema see the New Zealand horror THE RULE OF JENNY PEN as part of our Off the CUFF Series! Tickets are available online in advance and at the door.https://t.co/hHRJ3s0g8m pic.twitter.com/KvJgcEppob

— Calgary Underground Film (@CUFF) February 26, 2025

Director James Ashcroft (“Coming Home in the Dark”) uncorks morbid visuals from a stark setting. Jenny Pen becomes a larger-than-life presence, a horror movie tic teased out for maximum impact.

The puppet’s empty eyes are the embodiment of cruelty.

“Jenny Pen” isn’t a quick burn. The story is in no rush to get to the next adrenalized set piece, and the pacing can be problematic, even for a cagey genre yarn.

Lithgow’s performance is near-perfection. He’s older but no less vivid in his ability to create a monstrous figure, one whose devotion to cruelty is a work of brutal art.

The facility appears clean and moderately well run, but there’s a machine-like efficiency which offers another layer of unease. The indignities of aging are never far from the screen.

Two wonderful actors. A story we haven’t seen before. Direction that makes the most of its setting and themes. What’s not to relish about this “Rule?”

HiT or Miss: “The Rule of Jenny Pen” may be the year’s most original horror film, one aided and abetted by two actors at the top of their games.

The post ‘Rule of Jenny Pen’ Lets Screen Icons Shine appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Underdog stories run in the family.

Director John Avildsen gave us both “The Karate Kid” (1984) and “Rocky” (1976). Now, his son Ash Avildsen brings legendary wrestler Mildred Burke’s life to the big screen via “Queen of the Ring.”

It’s clear Pappy worked at a higher cinematic level.

“Ring” has gumption aplenty and it’s impossible not to cheer Mildred’s pluck. As played by Emily Bett Rickards, she’s a force of nature who stifles the Patriarchy with every bicep flex.

Outside the ring, this “Queen” stumbles.

Rickards’s Mildred works at her mother’s diner but dreams of something bigger. She catches a live wrestling match and discovers her true purpose. She’ll stop at nothing to become a champion female wrestler.

There’s only one problem. Well, quite a few, actually, but one stands out. Women’s wrestling was illegal in many states during the 1940s.

Undaunted, Mildred teams with wrestler-turned-promoter Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas, solid) to shake up the sport. Their partnership gets complicated quickly. He’s both caring and cold, and he sees Mildred as his path to path and fortune.

Lucas’ Billy Wolfe is a heel, of sorts. He’s a product of his time, a man looking to work whatever angle is needed to survive.

Mildred just craves enough cash to help her raise her young son. She soon learns the path she’s blazing is about much more than her.

“Queen of the Ring’s” tone teeters on camp, and the dialogue is loaded with “you, go girl” aphorisms. That’s not necessarily wrong given Mildred’s story and the culture in question. Still, it undercuts the value of her achievements.

Example? The screenplay repeats what might be a powerful line about women’s opportunities in the era. You could sling hash or fight other women and get paid for it.

Cute line … why replay it?

The script is so on the nose it’s like a professional wrestling match. That’s not a compliment.

It would be nice to get more behind-the-scenes details about the matches, the tricks meant to evoke real violence and other elements of the sport.

Mildred’s connection to Billy’s adult son (Tyler Posey) feels like a missed opportunity. The filmmakers seem to lose interest in it at the worst possible time. It’s curious how “Queen” holds back whenever Mildred’s romantic urges rise to the surface.

That missed connection isn’t alone. The film’s haphazard storyline makes even simple arcs tricky to trace. Walton Goggins floats in and out of the story, cast as a more humane promoter but never leaving the mark the actor usually does.

The film awkwardly tries to capture the sport’s racial woes via a trio of black female wrestlers. It’s a sweet aside, but the actresses in question aren’t given enough screen time, or dialogue, to matter.

Wrestling biopics, like the overrated “Iron Claw,” suffer from the sport’s obvious fiction. That’s partly addressed here via “shoot” matches where reality overtakes the scripted outcome.

That’s a fascinating nugget worthy of more screen time.

The film likely had a modest budget but made the most of its resources, from the vintage cars to period re-enactments which never ring false. The sense that we’re stepping back in time is constant and impressive.

So, too, is Rickards. She does much more than “look” the part of the iconic wrestler. She feeds off the role, understanding its cultural value. She practically wills the viewers to embrace Mildred’s journey.

Resistance is futile.

The flawed film’s very existence speaks to Hollywood’s cultural soft power. Mildred’s life story should be known far and wide. Now, thanks to Rickards and the “Queen” team, it just might be.

HiT or Miss: “Queen of the Ring” recalls an empowering chapter in women’s sports history, but the story isn’t as rugged as the iconic wrestler in question.

The post ‘Queen of the Ring’s’ Flaws Are Its Heel Turn appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Martin Campbell’s “Cleaner” begins with promise, especially because it stars Daisy Ridley.

The establishing scenes are all about how Ridley’s character, Joey Locke, became skilled at sneaking out of her home during a rough childhood.

In present day, Locke is a window washer for a skyscraper.

There’s also a subplot about her troubled relationship with her brother, Michael, played by Matthew Tuck, but the appeal here is seeing Ridley suspended high above the earth and cleaning the windows of a massive building.

During one of her nighttime assignments, the building is taken over by terrorists. The leader of the operation is played by Clive Owen, the situation is dire, only one person can possibly stop the bad guys, who have taken hostages and- oh no.

It’s a rip-off of “Die Hard” (1988).

Unlike the best “Die Hard” rip-offs, such as “Under Siege” (1992), “Cliffhanger” (1993), “Executive Decision” (1996), “Cleaner” is such a non-starter, it made me question why Ridley, Owen and especially Campbell wanted to make this.

Considering that Campbell’s prior works includes two pivotal 007 thrillers, “Goldeneye” (1995) and “Casino Royale” (2006), as well as top-notch popcorn thrillers “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) and “Vertical Limit” (2000), it’s a wonder why he’d attempt a middling rip-off of one of the most iconic and still-wildly popular action movies of all time.

The last film I caught of Campbell’s was “The Protégé” (2021), the failed Maggie Q vehicle that wasted her time (as well as Michael Keaton’s and Samuel L. Jackson’s) and ours. Campbell’s latest is a similar miss – it’s too polished to be a called a cheap rush job but too underwhelming to take seriously.

The dialogue is full of cliches, like “nobody gets a free pass.”

Coming from the director of two exceptional 007 thrillers, “Cleaner” is minor league. It has been made with competence and energy, but that’s it. It’s busy but not exciting. Three writers penned the film, who presumably took turns cutting and pasting from “Die Hard’s” screenplay.

The stakes have never been higher. Here’s an EXCLUSIVE look at Daisy Ridley in #Cleaner, in theaters TODAY! pic.twitter.com/FM2QE7Jap4

— IMDb (@IMDb) February 21, 2025

I wish Ridley’s take on a Bruce Willis role could at least dumb fun (Rey Hard? Yippe Kai Yay Mr. Skywalker?) but this is a film entry Ridley will probably want her fans to forget, especially coming after her acclaimed work in “Young Woman in the Sea” (2024).

Admittedly, Ripley gives a strong performance, even while sporting a bad Peter Pan haircut, but she’s been much better elsewhere.

Owen is a poor substitute for “Die Hard’s” Alan Rickman. The last time I remember even seeing Owen in a movie was Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man” (2019). Roles like the one Owen is stuck playing in “Cleaner” are beneath an actor who was one of the biggest stars of the early 2000’s, a former 007 candidate who still has “Children of Men” (2006) as his calling card.

If the point is that Ridley is actually dangling outside that office building, I never felt the danger. The scenes of her outside the skyscraper are filmed and edited in ways that downplay the height and gravity.

If Ridley is really doing Tom Cruise-like stunts, the movie isn’t selling it.

* *

We sat down with DAISY RIDLEY to discuss her early acting days, the great challenge of her new #StarWars movie, and hanging off buildings for ‘Cleaner.’ Tune in here: https://t.co/AxcuPrPgQs pic.twitter.com/Qy7D3Imj8u

— In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast (@InTheEnvelope) February 27, 2025

The painfully generic score by Tom Hodge could be used on any middle-of-the-road TV crime series.

The premise reminded me of a famously unmade Jackie Chan project about a Twin Towers window washer. That production was cancelled after 9/11.

RELATED: WHY ‘DIE HARD’ STILL MATTERS

The promise of “Cleaner” is botched from the get-go – it takes too long to get Ridley’s character into the building and the gradual “Die Hard” thievery only underlines how masterful John McTiernan’s 1988 thriller still is decades later.

To say the least, “The Towering Inferno” (1974) is preferable, though the idiotic but entertaining 2018 Dwayne Johnson vehicle “Skyscraper” is also so much better than “Cleaner.”

Why am I even giving this junk one-star? There’s one genuinely cool villain death and the end credit song “Vertigo” by Griff is really good.

One Star (out of five)

The post ‘Cleaner’ Won’t Make Anyone Forget ‘Die Hard’ appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.