KING CREOLE: the good Elvis movie

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Photo caption: Elvis Presley and Carolyn Jones in KING CREOLE.

If you think that Elvis Presley never made a good movie, you haven’t seen the outstanding MIchael Curtiz crime drama King Creole (1958). Elvis plays Danny, an impoverished wannabe singer who becomes entangled in the New Orleans underworld when he attracts the romantic interest of a sultry Bad Girl (Carolyn Jones), whose boyfriend is the local gangster kingpin (Walter Matthau).

There’s a lot of story packed in King Creole:

  • Will Danny survive his run-ins with Matthau’s menacing crime lord and with the street thug Shark (Vic Morrow)?
  • Will Danny will choose Jones’ Bad Girl over Dolores Hart’s Good Girl?
  • Can Danny repair the difficult relationship with his father (Dean Jagger)?
  • Will Danny make it as a professional singer? (Okay – not much suspense in that one.).

King Creole was shot when Elvis had just turned 22. Having just gotten his draft notice; it was his last film before his military service. This was way, way before Elvis was known for karate kicks, spangles and massive belt buckles. At 22. has only his voice, looks, energy and magnetism – and that’s plenty.

This was Elvis’ favorite of his movie performances, and his charisma, deployed in a grown-up story, makes us wonder what might have been had he returned to well-written screenplays.

Elvis Presley in KING CREOLE.

Of course, Elvis sings in the movie, which resulted in a pretty strong soundtrack album. The film opens with Elvis and Kitty White’s call-and-response duet of Crawfish. Then we hear Danny’s nightclub numbers, including Trouble, As Long As I Have You, King Creole and Hard Hearted Woman.

Elvis Presley and Dolores Hart in KING CREOLE.

Jones, now best remembered for her campy Morticia in The Addams Family, had 44 previous screen credits, but only one as the female lead in a feature film. Besides future stars Matthau and Vic Morrow, the cast features past Oscar-winner Dean Jagger and the reliable noir stalwart Paul Stewart. Dolores Hart was the only Elvis co-star to become a nun in real life.

I got to see King Creole on the big screen at the 2026 Noir City in Oakland, and I featured it in my festival preview. At the screening, guest host Alan K. Rode explained that Elvis was fearful that rock and roll was just a fad, and that he would need to pivot his career. Aspiring to become the next James Dean, he signed with veteran producer Hal Wallis with the request that, after Presley’s Army service, Wallis would help get Elvis into the Actor’s Studio for training.

Until Rode’s introductory remarks, I didn’t know that most of the film was shot in Hollywood. Curtiz made the most of the nine filming days in New Orleans, resulting in a NOLA-drenched effect.

I first discovered King Creole by reading one of Sheila O’Malley’s essays in her blog The Sheila Variations, well before she became one of the film critics on Ebert.com. O’Malley is the best writer about King Creole, and along with Peter Guralnick and Adam Gopnik, among the very best writers on Elvis. Here’s a sample: King Creole (1958): The Dreamspace of New Orleans.

King Creole plays occasionally on Turner Classic Movies and can be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

Elvis Presley and Vic Morrow in KING CREOLE.

The SFJFF Is Back in July

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Photo caption: A scene from Moshe Rosenthal’s TELL ME EVERYTHING. Photo credit: Ziv Berkovich. Courtesy of SFJFF.

One of the Bay Area’s top cinema events is back – the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), running from July 16 to August 2. The SFJFF is the world’s oldest and largest Jewish film festival – this year’s festival is the 46th! The program offers 65 films from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Palestine, Qatar, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

After opening night at the Herbst Theatre, films will screen at the Castro Theatre (for the first time since 2022) , the Herbst, the Roxie, the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and Landmark’s Piedmont.

Highlights include:

  • The lineup brings many notable premieres to the Bay Area, including 8 World Premieres, 2 International Premieres, 2 North American Premieres, 5 United States Premieres, and numerous West Coast, California, and Bay Area Premieres. Many, perhaps most, of the feature filmmakers are expected to attend.
  • Opening night with the California Premiere of Tell Me Everything, the second feature from Israeli director Moshe Rosenthal, fresh off its premiere at Sundance.
  • Centerpiece program with include US Premiere of Assaf Machnes’ Where To? with its mixed Israeli, Palestinian, and European cast and crew and a story set in Berlin.
  • Closing night with Paula Eiselt’s We Met at Grossinger’s about the iconic Catskills resort.
  • Nationally acclaimed actress and writer Rachel Bloom will appear to receive the Freedom of Expression Award.

Just before the fest, I’ll be publishing some recommendations. I’ve already screened a sample of the program, and I’ve seen some good ones. Check out the program and buy tickets at SFJFF.

Neta Riskin in NANDAURI, Courtesy of SFJFF.

EPiC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT: pure Elvis

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Photo caption: Elvis Presley in EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, Courtesy of NEON.

The appeal of the documentary EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is that it’s pretty much just Elvis, and that’s both entertaining and insightful. The film focuses on Elvis’ ten-year residency in Las Vegas, where he performed 1100 shows, sometimes as many three in an evening. All we see is archival film (some never-before-seen) of Elvis performing, rehearsing, getting to and from shows and being interviewed. Other than the voices of interviewers, we only hear the words of Elvis himself.

There are bits where he reflects on his mother, his army service and Colonel Parker. The most revealing elements of EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert are:

  • His unfilled aspirations to make better movies and to perform in Europe and Japan.
  • His patience and generosity to the fans who want to inavde his personal space by touching and kissing him. Asked about the frenzy of crazed adulation, he says he accepts it as part of the job and that it doesn’t bother him. He reflects for a moment and then says that he thinks he would miss it. Wow.
  • Despite his reputation for being both simple and mercurial, his calm discipline when being asked the most ridiculous and provocative questions, and his refusal to take the bait and be trapped into controversy.
  • Elvis’ playfulness, both behind the scenes and on-stage, often referencing his own image. He seemed to deal with the grind with jokiness.
  • The unusual continuity in his band over a decade, which indicates that the musicians must have liked him as a person and found him easy to work with. His corny gags and goofiness seem to keep the work fun for the band.

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is the first documentary feature directed by the famed Baz Luhrmann, whose work over the past twenty-five years I have despised as shallow eye-candy. After starting with the sweet little Strictly Ballroom and the visually spectacular Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann has made garish, hackneyed crap like Australia and The Great Gatsby. Here’s my rant on his recent biographical narrative Elvis.

But Luhrmann really can’t add an excess of glitz to somebody who is karate-kicking in white bellbottoms, with his fringe swishing and his massive belt buckle gleaming.

So, what we have hear is pure unfiltered Elvis, not interpreted by someone else, except, of course, for Luhrman’s choices in what to put in and what to leave out. One of Luhrmann’s best choices is an extended segment near the end of the film – an epic performance of Suspicious Minds with Elvis teasing out one faux finale after another. This clip brings together many of the themes in EPiC – Elvis’s charisma and magnetism, his showmanship and relationship to a live audience, his command of performance and his playfulness.

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is streaming on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

IN THE HAND OF DANTE: the heist and the impenetrable

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Photo caption: Oscar Isaac in IN THE HAND OF DANTE. Courtesy of Netflix.

In the Hand of Dante is director and co-writer Julian Schnabel’s film adaptation of the Nick Tosches novel; I haven’t read the book, but it’s likely one of those impossible-to-make-into-a-movie novels – and it’s got to be better than this film.

The movie braids together two parallel stories – one that begins in 21st century New York and the other set in early 14th century Italy. The modern story is in back-and-white; the period story is in color.

The modern story follows the arc of a heist film. Oscar Isaac plays a fictionalized Nick Tosches, a contemporary writer who is enthralled with the work and life of the pre-Rennaisance Florentine poet Dante Alighieri. The movie Tosches knows that an original manuscript written by Dante himself would be invaluable on the antiquities market and thinks he knows where a previously unknown specimen exists. A criminal kingpin (John Malkovich), with his vile enforcer (Gerard Butler) and weaselly sidekick (Louis Cancelmi), bankrolls two heists – one to steal the Dante original and a second to swipe contemporaneous works that can be used to authenticate the Dante work.

Oscar Isaac in IN THE HAND OF DANTE. Courtesy of Netflix.

The period piece takes us to the early 1300s and the life of Dante himself (also played by Oscar Isaac). Butler and Cancelmi also play medieval figures. Gal Gadot plays Dante’s wife – not his idealized muse – in the period piece and Tosches’ fantasy love in the modern story. Most of the Dante story centers around the politics of Florence and the papacy, with a bizarre piece with Martin Scorsese, under a massive tangle of white long hair and beard, as a sage who guides Dante’s thinking.

The heist story is procedural and features the off couple pairing of the intellectual Tosches and the sadistic philistine hitman (Butler). This is the most accessible thread of the film, and there’s really nothing exceptional about it except for the profound indecency of the hitman. The modern story tries to mirror the themes of artistic freedom and obsessive love of the Dante story, and even throws in 9/11. On the whole, everything except the heist story is impenetrable.

None of this is the fault of the cast, which is uniformly good – except for the artificial-seeming chemistry between Isaac and Gadot. It’s always great to see Louis Cancelmi, and Duke Nicholson is exceptional as the hitman’s first terrorized and degraded victim. Besides Scorsese, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa and the iconic Franco Nero show up in cameos.

Julian Schnabel is one of the great contemporary painters, and branched into filmmaking with the arthouse hit Basquiat in 1994. This is only Schnabel’s sixth narrative feature in thirty-two years, including the wonderful The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Schnabel is a gifted artist in every medium, but In the Hand of Dante is a rare misfire.

At the outset, there’s a scene involving the boy Tosches being guided past a traumatic experience by his uncle Carmine, played by Al Pacino – and Pacino is magnificent. It’s by far the best-acted and most compelling scene in In The Hand of Dante. Unfortunately, another two hours and twenty minutes follow.

In the Hand of Dante is streaming on Netflix.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Mila Al Zahrani in UNIDENTIFIED. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – it’s the last weekend of Frameline; here’s my festival preview and my recommended international films – Frameline Goes International. I also posted a new review of the documentary Coroner to the Stars. And I also reviewed the world premiere of the mesmerizing Memorizu at Tribeca; I’ll let you know when this remarkable film releases in the US.

Yesterday, I published a new review of John Early’s bracingly inventive comic melodrama Maddie’s Secret.

The best film in theaters now is the feminist Saudi Unidentified:, a whodunit with a jaw-dropping ending. The best movies recently available to watch at home are the wholly original revenge thriller Is God Is, the psychological thriller Exit 8, and the genial Italian comedy The Last One for the Road.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Exit 8: nightmare on a loop. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Unidentified: a slow burn whodunit – until the shocker ending, In theaters.
  • Maddie’s Secret: a bracingly inventive comic melodrama. In theaters.
  • Coroner to the Stars: too transparent? In theaters.
  • Pressure: engrossing study of high-stakes decision-making. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Power Ballad: what (and who) makes a ht song? In theaters.
  • Mirrors No. 3: two enigmas explained. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.Is God Is: an extraordinary new story-teller. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • The Last One for the Road: the party never ends. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Marty, Life Is Short: an engaging profile. Netflix.
  • Sirat: gripping, hypnotic and devastating. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango and included with Hulu.
  • The Christophers: twisty, watchable and disposable. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Omaha: in the best interest of the children. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial and That’s the Weight of the World: underwhelming. HBO Max.
  • The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

ON TV

Veronica Lake and Joel McCrea in SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS

On June 27, Turner Classic Movies will be presenting a film recognized as the masterpiece of a great filmmaker, but one that has slipped from the current conversation – Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels. Sturges was the first workaday Hollywood screenwriter to transition into a major writer-director, and between the ages of 42 and 46, he churned out The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, Sullivan’s Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero and The Great McGinty, an impressive body of work. Unfortunately, his turbulent personality led to conflict in his business affairs, which exacerbated his drinking. He burned out and was dead at age 60, but he left behind some of the very, very smartest and funniest movie comedies. Sullivan’s Travels is a fast-paced and cynical comedy about a pretentious movie director who goes on the road to be inspired by The Average Man – and gets more of an adventure than he expects. There has never been a better movie about Hollywood. Sullivan’s Travels is on It’s on my own 50 Greatest Movies of All Time list.

MADDIE’S SECRET: a bracingly inventive comic melodrama

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Photo caption: Kate Berlant and John Early in MADDIE’S SECRET. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Writer-director John Early’s comic melodrama Maddie’s Secret is inventive, sometimes bracingly so. Early also stars as the kind and modest Maddie, who lives with her adoring husband Jake (Eric Rahill). Maddie is a passionate foodie who doesn’t get to show off her culinary genius in her job as a dishwasher at a content mill, churning out celebrity cooking shows for social media’s unquenchable appetite. A personal video goes viral, and Maddie’s company propels her into celebrity chefdom.

Thing is, Maddie has been hiding her light under a bushel because she has an eating disorder with hurtful body image issues. Now, she is trapped into the role of a public-facing Internet sensation who is expected to spend her life celebrating food. All the time, she is desperately hiding her disorder from everyone, including Jake and her best friend Deena (Kate Berlant). That’s a conflict-laden situation that could launch a comedy, a drama, or, in the case of Maddie’s Secret, both.

Here’s the comedy – Maddie’s Secret is an homage to the television disease-of-the-week movies of the late 20th Century, with all the tropes of melodrama, including the overwrought line readings. It also savagely sends up LA’s content creation industry. This aspect of Maddie’s Secret is broadly funny; after all, Maddie’s Secret was written by a comic, almost all of the cast are comedians and the protagonist is played by an actor in drag.

John Early and Eric Rahill in MADDIE’S SECRET. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

But Early mocks the over-earnestness of the issue movie genre while taking the issue itself seriously. Maddie really is suffering from a real disorder. Maddie’s Secret never soft-pedals the physical and emotional consequences of Maddie’s bulimia. Just as heart-breaking are the impacts to Maddie’s closest relationships as she lies to cover it all up. (Indeed, in a panic, she tells Jake the worst possible lie to mask her purging.) There are moments in Maddie’s Secret that are as funny as a heart attack – literally.

Early’s real triumph here is in balancing the tones of the movie – somehow the silliness of the send-up doesn’t interfere with the melodrama.

Early is also excellent in portraying Maddie’s decent soul and damaged psyche, her hidden pain and self-loathing. Berlant and Rahill are especially good as Deena and Jake. So is Kristen Johnson as Maddie’s nightmarish mother Beverlee.

Maddie’s Secret opens this weekend at theaters including the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco, Alamo Drafthouse in Mountain View, and, in LA, Laemmle’s Monica Film Center, Town Center 5, Glendale and Tasveer Film Center.

MEMORIZU: a cinematic essay on memories

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Photo caption: Issei Ogata, Tasuku Emoto, Shiki Inoue and Moeka Hoshi in MEMORIZU. Courtesy of Tribeca.

The mesmerizing Memorizu begins with Yuta (Tasuku Emoto) traveling hours away to a rural town on Japan’s southernmost major island. He’s planning to spend two months caring for his elderly father-in-law, incapacitated by a broken leg. The widowed father-in-law, Makoto (Issei Ogata), is grouchy and maddeningly particular, but Yuta dutifully carries on, looking forward to video calls from his wife Yuki (Moeka Hoshi) and their young daughter Hana (Shiki Inoue). This area is unfamiliar to Yuta, but he soon settles into a routine – walking the dog, eating his lunch on a bench with a view of a farm horse, and minding Makoto’s portrait photography shop.

Memorizu is the impressively confident debut feature by writer-director Miiku Sakanishi, who shows us that even the littlest moments add up to define a life. As these moments are documented by images – snapshots, photographic portraits, videos – Sakanishi forms Memorizu into a cinematic essay on memory. The editing by veteran editor Shinichi Fushima is impeccable, and Sakanishi’s pacing keeps us engrossed even with little movie action.

Many images, like selfies and even class photos, seem disposable, but they evoke memories that are re-experienced forever. Yuta himself begins taking photos on his daily rounds. It seems that his corporate job gives Yuta the flexibility to get away, while Yuki has to stay to care for Hana and for her job as a tour guide/translator for Chinese tourists; the video calls between them become increasingly important..

Eventually, we see more emotionally charged images: a flashback video from Yuta at the time of Hana’s birth, Makoto’s portrait of his best friend; and, most affecting, a recorded voicemail. Memorizu is authentically heartfelt without sinking into sentimentality.

Memorizu introduces us to Sakanishi as a gifted new auteur. I screened Memorizu for its world premiere at Tribeca, where it won the Best New Narrative Director Award.

CORONER TO THE STARS: too transparent?

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Photo caption: Dr. Thomas Noguchi in CORONER TO THE STARS. Courtesy of Journeyman Pictures..

The absorbing biodoc Coroner to the Stars tells the story of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the former Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner and his bouts with fame (or infamy). His LA County jurisdiction meant that he was responsible for conducting the autopsies of a striking collection of celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, William Holden, Natalie Wood, John Belushi and the Manson Family’s murder victims. Noguchi was also responsible for making his reports public – and therein lies the rub.

The public is fascinated by the details of celebrity deaths, and the news media eagerly panders to that need, however prurient or ghoulish. Official records in California, including coroner’s reports, are public. Noguchi did not shy away from the media spotlight, which triggered controversy. He was clearly fulfilling his legal duty, but did he enjoy it too much? Was he a publicity hound? Can an official be transparent without being unseemly? Indeed, Coroner to the Star’s tag line is Fame kills.

Writer-director Ben Hethcoat and Keita Ideno, in the first feature for both, present an extraordinarily well-sourced, credible and insightful documentary. Noguchi is still alive at age 98 and appears in the film to speak for himself.

Dr. Thomas Noguchi (right) in CORONER TO THE STARS. Courtesy of Journeyman Pictures.

Noguchi’s work (and style) stepped on some influential toes – the families and friends of the deceased, the major Hollywood studios and bureaucratic/political foes. Whenever he came under attack, the subtext was his race and the public perception and acceptance of Asian-Americans. Noguchi was a post-war immigrant who didn’t experience the Japanese-American internment during WW II, but Japanese-Americans traumatized by the camps would organize to defend LA’s highest ranking Japanese-American official.

Noguchi was also an internationally recognized pioneer in forensic science. Coroner to the Stars reveals his determination, in the RFK autopsy, to avoid the mistakes that resulted in the continuing, unresolved contention about the JFK assassination. Coroner to the Stars, without sensationalizing it, also touches on a key finding of the RFK forensic evidence.

Rock-solid in its exploration of race, science and history, Coroner to the Stars thoughtfully considers the challenge of acting professionally with what is sensational. I screened Coroner to the Stars for its world premiere at the 2025 Slamdance. It’s opening at the Laemmle theatwrs in LA: the Royal on June 23, the NoHo on June 24, and the Glendale on June 25-26.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Brandon Fraser in PRESSURE. Courtesy of Focus Features.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the Japanese psychological thriller Exit 8 and the Saudi feminist shocker Unidentified. This is the opening weekend of the 11-day Frameline; here’s my festival preview and my recommended international films – Frameline Goes International.

I also watched the HBO Max documentary Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial and That’s the Weight of the World. It’s director Questlove’s remarkably well-sourced doc about musician Maurice White and his seminal band Earth Wind & Fire, with archival footage interpreted by surviving band members and White’s widow, and with comments by Barack and Michelle Obama, Stevie Wonder and Lionel Ritchie. I found the story underwhelming, and, although I loved Questlove’s Sly Lives! and his Oscar-winning Summer of Love (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), I can’t recommend this one.

Note: the genial Italian comedy The Last One for the Road is now on VOD.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Exit 8: nightmare on a loop. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Unidentified: a slow burn whodunit – until the shocker ending, In theaters.
  • Pressure: engrossing study of high-stakes decision-making. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Power Ballad: what (and who) makes a ht song? In theaters.
  • Mirrors No. 3: two enigmas explained. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Is God Is: an extraordinary new story-teller. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • This Tempting Madness: she can’t remember whodunit. In theaters, but hard to find.
  • The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford: remembering when people had attention spans. In theaters.
  • The Last One for the Road: the party never ends. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Marty, Life Is Short: an engaging profile. Netflix.
  • Sirat: gripping, hypnotic and devastating. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango and included with Hulu.
  • The Christophers: twisty, watchable and disposable. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Omaha: in the best interest of the children. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial and That’s the Weight of the World: underwhelming. HBO Max.
  • The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

ON TV

Robert Redford in THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER

On June 23, Turner Classic Movies airs The Great Waldo Pepper, with Robert Redford playing a daredevil stunt pilot barnstorming across America in the 1920s. It’s a wonderful period piece, brightened by the unregulated, and therefore harrowing, aviation of the time. Redford’s protagonist is disappointed that he missed on WW I aerial combat, and he’s as alienated as any 1970s movie character. Directed and co-written by George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting), It’s a fine film, but here’s why it’s overlooked – Redford made it immediately after Jeremiah Johnson The Way We Were, The Candidate, The Sting and The Great Gatsby, and immediately before Three Days of the Condor and All the President;s Men; so, it kind of has gotten lost in the Redford canon. The fine cast includes Susan Sarandon, Bo Svenson, Margot Kidder, Edward Herrman and Geoffrey Lewis.

UNIDENTIFIED: a slow burn whodunit – until the shocker ending

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Photo caption: Mila Al Zahrani in UNIDENTIFIED. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

In the Saudi mystery thriller Unidentified, we meet Nawal (Mila Al Zahrani), a recent divorcee, who is restarting her life with an entry-level job scanning files at a Riyadh police station. Addicted to a true crime podcast with makeup tips, Nawal is intrigued – and ultimately obsessed – by the discovery of a high school girl’s body in the desert. The girl has been killed, and nobody knows who she is. Because no one has reported a missing teenager, the cops assume that her family doesn’t want the case publicized, and so they don’t upset people by asking around. The mystery looks headed for the cold case files, but that’s not acceptable to Nawal, who embarks on an unauthorized investigation of her own.

Unidentified is the work of Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker, Haifaa Al Mansour, and Nawal is an nontraditional woman who has left her husband, lives by herself, drives a car, and refuses to kowtow to male authority. Nawal blows by male disapproval in a society where arranged marriages remain the norm and honor killings are not uncommon. Her investigation takes her inside the exclusive schools and gated compounds of the rich, to a hookah bar disco and across the endless sand dunes of the Saudi desert. Otherwise as uncovered as possible, Nawal dons a burqa for its advantages in tailing a possible witness.

Unidentified is a slow burn whodunit, until a shocker ending that I sure didn’t anticipate. The final twist is an utter gobsmacker.

Mila Al Zahrani in UNIDENTIFIED. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Al Mansour previously directed Wadjda (2012), the Elle Fanning Mary Shelley (2018) and The Perfect Candidate (2019), also starring Al Zahrani. She’s also directed plenty of TV episodes, including Florida Man, City on Fire, Fear the Walking Dead and Bosch: Legacy. In Nawal, Al Mansour has constructed a character whose intimate familiarity with Saudi culture, much of which she rejects, helps her navigate rings around the police.

Unidentified opens in select theaters this weekend, including in LA at Laemmle’s Town Center 5, Royal, and Glendale.