American Gigolo (2022)

Matt Roush says...

 A curious throwback, this downbeat sequel to the slick 1980 movie hit (daring for its time) puts The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal in the unenviable position of trying to live up to the image created by Richard Gere as the swaggeringly seductive Julian Kaye. He’s got the abs for it, though they’re now covered in prison tattoos after spending 15 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit—but whose details he still can’t remember. Julian feels neither hero nor antihero as he re-enters society after a sudden exoneration. Gretchen Mol takes over for Lauren Hutton as the ex-lover wealthy wife (of a tech mogul now, not a politician) who can’t quit her “Johnny”—his real name, as we’re reminded in unsettling flashbacks to his indoctrination into the sex trade at a perilously young age. Rosie O’Donnell barks every so often as the detective still trying to figure out who’s behind the long-ago murder. At least the Debbie Harry soundtrack holds up.

What's Worth Watching (Sep 10)