An Oakland native’s beautiful indie about a father and son dealing with a dire diagnosis, an HBO Max series for fans of “Mare of Eastown,” and a sinfully fun catfight between a mother and her son’s new girlfriend.
They are all new and are all worth watching.
Here’s out roundup.
“Paper Bag Plan”: Oakland native Anthony Lucero’s exceptional follow-up to his indie sweetheart “East Side Sushi” will likewise melt hearts and sooth aching souls. Lucero’s beautiful film is filled with empathy, insight and compassion as functioning alcoholic dad Oscar (Lance Kinsey, giving one of the most graceful performances of the year) seeks ways to make his quick-witted 25-year-old disabled son Billy (Cole Massie, in a phenomenal performance) more self-sufficient due to his own dire health diagnosis. Oscar has spent much of his life as a caregiver and furniture store worker; he can barely make ends meet. He hits on the idea that with a little training and support from his Burbank neighbors, Billy could train and land a bagger job at a grocery store.
While such a scenario sounds potentially maudlin and manipulative, Lucero — who wrote the film from a personal place — never allows that to happen by making the characters complex and flawed, and laboring under real-life issues. That realistic sensitivity and the performances from the two leads make the tears flow — in particular one perfect ending sequence. But these tears are earned, not provoked. Lucero is a rare voice in filmmaking right now, a director who shows enormous compassion and empathy for working-class characters. We need more movies like “Paper Bag Plan” — one of the best indie films of 2025 — and more filmmakers like Lucero. Details: 3½ stars; opens Sept. 12 at the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland and the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael; and on Sept. 19 at Cinelux Almaden Cafe & Lounge, San Jose. Lucero will be on hand for Q&As after the 6:45 p.m. screenings Sept. 12 and 13 at the Grand Lake and following the 7 p.m. Sept. 18 screening at the Smith Rafael Film Center.
“Night of the Juggler”: Some movie productions run into trouble almost from the first take. Robert Butler’s 1980 pulp fiction classic encountered a whole lot of bad luck early on, including one director (Sidney J. Furie) leaving the project after star James Brolin broke his foot performing a stunt. Other headaches arose and it didn’t help that some critics shrugged when the film came out. But the gritty “Juggler” deserves better treatment than that — and is finally getting it, thanks in part to a pristine 4K restoration released out from Kino Lorber. In this 1980-set thriller, Brolin is all brawny and hunky (his shirt knows few buttons) as a desperate dad and former New York cop on a relentless pursuit of a madman (Cliff Forman) who has mistakenly kidnapped his daughter. Following closely on his heels is a corrupt cop who wants payback for something Brolin’s character did as a cop. Vigorous car chases through the grimy, tricky streets of New York ensue, and they’re outright nailbiters that would no doubt violate today’s safety codes. But the real reason “Juggler” stands tall is that it doubles as a terse action film and a gripping look at the mean streets of New York in the ’80s. You can practically smell the streets. This is immersive filmmaking at its finest. Details: 3½ stars; 4K UHD Blu-ray will be released Sept. 16.
“Girlfriend”: Kick off those uncomfortable work shoes and break out that nasty boxed chardonnay. Then just pour yourself onto the couch to imbibe in the campiest of catfights that are custom-made for laughing and yelling at as the misdeeds unspool onscreen. As director and star of three episodes of “The Girlfriend,” Amazon Prime’s addictive six-episode series, Robin Wright fully embraces the guilty-pleasure opportunities presented in the source material — Michelle Frances’ page-turner of a novel. In fact, every actor in the cast also realizes this “Girlfriend” needs to be as kitschy as hell. Wright radiates glamour and chilling cunningness as London gallery owner Laura, a member of the upper-crust who gets all flaky when she meets her son Daniel’s (Laurie Davidson) flashy and sassy new girlfriend Cherry (Olivia Cooke). The relationship between the creepily touchy mom and son raises alarm bells, while Laura heads down a dangerous road as she investigates who Cherry is and then aims to break this couple up by any means necessary.
But Cherry — a survivor with a dark past and killer instincts for getting ahead — is no pushover. The two parry and thrust as if they’re in a fencing match to the death, with Davidson lending strong support as the silver-spooned guy who enjoys being the object of both women’s affections. “It’s wicked fun to behold even as showrunner Ken Woodruff gleefully allows the series to jump the shark a number of times. “Girlfriend” is hardly high art, but it is an outright gas. Details: 3 stars; now available on Amazon Prime.
“Task”: The plot of HBO’s seven-episode standalone series sounds like it contains standard-issue ingredients from gritty crime novels, with small-time drug dealers and stealers caught in a web of violence and bone-headed mistakes. The difference here is that “Task” weighs in on the fallibility of people and — best of all — the spiritual power of forgiveness for others and for ourselves. The reason for this more textured and literary, not to mention philosophical, approach is that it comes from Brad Ingelsby, creator of “Mare of Easttown.” Ingelsby specializes in giving us morally compromised characters that face a day of reckoning in Philadelphia suburbs or outer fringes in Delaware County, this time amongst the FBI rank and file. Ingelsby isn’t interested in black-and-white heroes and villains; he’s far more interested in a moral gray zone and how all of us are capable of being good and bad given the cards we’ve been dealt. That makes it deeper and more thoughtful than many other popular crimes series. Like “Mare,” it’s a polished act — from the directing and writing to the career-high performances from a perfectly selected cast.
Looking like he could be Peter Falk’s “Columbo’s” long-lost relative, Mark Ruffalo disappears into the role of former priest and FBI agent Tom Brandis. Still grieving the death of his wife and the imprisonment of his son, Brandis binges on booze but possesses a sharp and intuitive mind, even if his family life is in disarray. On the orders of his bureau chief boss (Martha Plimpton who makes every scene better), spearheads a young, somewhat untested team (Alison Oliver, Fabien Frankel and Thuso Mbedu — all so good you can’t single just one out) looking into a string of robberies unbeknownst to them that are carried out by two sanitation workers Robbie Pendergrast (Tom Pelphrey, who should start rehearsing his Emmy speech right now) and Cliff Broward (Raul Castillo). They tangle with the wrong gang, which lands both — along with those around them, including Robbie’s 21-year-old niece Maeve (Emilia Jones) — in big trouble with a biker gang that deals with Fentanyl led by Perry (Jamie McShane) and Jayson (Sam Keeley, an actor to watch.) There are many more characters sucked into this tragic American crime story and none gets lost in the shuffle or feel like they’re one-dimensional. Each has been shaped and often trapped by their environments, their experiences and their demons. “Task” finds humanity in the bleakest of spaces here and while it doesn’t absolve its characters of their sins, it does offer them a bridge to understand each other and a chance – no matter how brief – for redemption. Details: 3½ stars; seven episodes, first episode released Sept. 7 with one episode released each Sunday after that.
Contact Randy Myers at [email protected].
