Missing the Mark

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (C+) - A lot of good ideas here fail to find traction or go off on tangents, and the cast often seems to work at cross-purposes.

It's as if Spike Lee, having never been to film school, tried to meld "Get Out" with "Idiocracy" for his debut feature. Lakeith Stanfield was quite the discovery in "Short Term 12," but he was forgettable in "Get Out," and he strikes the wrong tone here as a telemarketing employee tempted by corporate riches, falling short as a leading man. He can be forgiven for failing to grasp the gestalt in this mess, though Tessa Thompson ("Creed," "Dear White People") is electrifying, as usual, as the subversive artist girlfriend. Armie Hammer, playing the face of corporate evil, is a dud, as usual.

Hip hopper Boots Riley (The Coup) never corrals his big ideas about capitalism, greed, race and class. He's directing with boxing gloves on. A bizarre twist midway through the film is, frankly, preposterous, and it's hard to take any of this polemic seriously. Maybe that's the point, but I don't think it is. There's visual panache, but that's what music videos are for.

VALLEY OF LOVE (B-minus) - Worth it for the pairing of screen legends Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu, this story of a son's suicide bringing back together his long-estranged parents to, of all places, Death Valley in California, suffers from a slow pace and a lack of a payoff.

But there's something about this slow grind that keeps you hooked. It's certainly not the sight of Depardieu's enormous, hideous gut, which is often on prominent display. It's more the volumes that Huppert speaks through simple casual glances and imperceptible arches of an eyebrow. There is sadness here but also healthy nostalgia for those fulfilling, captivating relationships of your 20s and 30s that launched your adulthood.

BONUS TRACK
The Coup, featuring Stanfield, with "OYAHYTT" from the "Sorry" soundtrack: