Mini reviews of 'Annabelle Comes Home,' 'The Third Wife' and 'Being Frank'

Annabelle Comes Home

⋆⋆½ out of four stars

Rated: R for horror violence and terror.

The third "Annabelle" film, which marks the directorial debut of writer Gary Dauberman, is the best in the trilogy. (We're not talking Oscars here; we're judging it relative to the first two.)

Dauberman has written the scripts for all three movies. He was an obvious choice to take on this project, which dives deep into the case history of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) through an ingenious conceit.

While Ed and Lorraine are gone, their daughter, Judy (Mckenna Grace), remains at home with her babysitter, Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman), whose meddling friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) makes her way into the room of cursed and haunted objects the Warrens keep under lock and key.

Daniela's objective is to find closure with the spirit of her dead father, but she's not ready to face the menacing Annabelle. Although Judy warns her against it, it's too late. When Daniela unleashes Annabelle, she unleashes just about every evil spirit contained in the room, a smart device to get a glimpse of the Warrens' deep case history.

The movie is a torch passing to a new generation, with Judy gifted with similar clairvoyant powers as her mother. The 13-year-old Grace is an uncommonly mature actor for her age, and the film would not be as compelling without such a strong actor in this role.

But in what is essentially a haunted house tale, the film is strung too tightly, rarely breaking bad, denying the cathartic chaos one craves in this kind of film. Strange to say, but it needs more jump scares.

katie walsh, Tribune News Service

The Third Wife

⋆⋆⋆ out of four stars

Rated: R for sexual material; in subtitled Vietnamese.

Theater: Edina.

Mining the past to unearth fables for the present can be the lazy filmmaker's way out. But when it's done well, film's power to shine a light on timely issues through the lens of the past is nearly unmatched. That the technique is successful in this tale of the awakening of a 14-year-old bride is all the more surprising in that it is the first feature film from Vietnamese-born writer/director Ash Mayfair.

Set in rural 19th-century Vietnam, the story follows May (stunningly played by newcomer Nguyen Phuong Tra My), whom we first see en route to marry a much older landowner. In addition to catering to the sexual desires of her husband — who already has two other wives — she is also expected to perform such menial tasks as giving her father-in-law a sponge bath.

Finding herself in what amounts to competition with her husband's other wives, May seeks refuge with various females who work around the home. If May is subjugated because of her gender and youth, she is never the victim. As she is bedded on her wedding night, we recognize the look on her face — the face of a girl unschooled in the ways of the world to come. Yet Mayfair doesn't allow us to linger on it long enough to see the pain and fear.

Mayfair trims nearly every piece of fat and gristle from the plot. Dialogue is terse. The only excess is the film's cinematography, which paints the countryside in lush, naturalistic strokes, revealing the filmmaker's tender affection for the land. While some viewers may crave more context, Mayfair takes the viewer's hand, showing us what's next with a confidence and assurance that is sometimes hard to find, even in veteran filmmakers.

hau chu, Washington Post

Being Frank

⋆⋆ out of four stars

Rated: R for profanity, sexual references and drug use.

Theater: Edina.

The fact that the title character of this comedy runs a ketchup company turns out to be oddly apt. This feels more like a condiment than a main dish.

Philip (Logan Miller of "Love Simon") is a high school senior who, against the wishes of his father, Frank (comedian Jim Gaffigan), sneaks off to attend a lakeside festival where high schoolers gather for spring break. After hitting on a cute girl (Isabelle Phillips), Philip spots Frank nearby. To his horror, he learns that Dad has a second home, a second wife and a second family, and that his crush is his half-sister.

Such entanglements could have been the basis for an awkward black comedy, or maybe even an effective family drama. But the film — much like Frank — never really picks a side. In what's supposed to pass for irony, Philip and Frank, who had been drifting apart, grow closer as they become co-conspirators, with Frank trying to pass off Philip as the son of his best friend. While Gaffigan and Miller have a nice rapport, their performances aren't strong enough to overcome the movie's overall uneven tone.

The film's best moments are when it turns serious in looking at Frank's relationship with his son. This is the narrative-feature debut of documentarian Miranda Bailey, who perhaps would have been better served sticking to sincerity.

pat padua, Washington Post