‘Sr.’ Review: Robert Downey Jr. Gets Vulnerable in This Oddball Collaboration With Cult Director Dad

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic African American boxing champ Muhammad Ali famously refused to fight for his country, justifying himself with the oft-quoted quip, “No Viet Cong ever called me n—–.” That’s one-half of American history, and an important one. “Devotion” tells the other, presenting the story of a Black pilot so determined to defend — and die for, if need be — the United States that he was willing to endure institutional bigotry to become the Jackie Robinson of the skies: Jesse Brown, the first aviator of color to complete the Navy’s basic training program. A square but satisfying social justice drama set against the backdrop of the Korean War, “Devotion” impressed on the biggest screen possible at the Toronto Film Festival two months before its Nov. 23 theatrical release. Featuring elements of both “Green Book” and “Red Tails,” the film is more than just a stirring case of Black exceptionalism; it also celebrates the one white officer who had Brown’s back, Tom Hudner, treating the bond these two men formed as something exceptional unto itself. Director JD Dillard dazzles with see-it-in-Imax airborne sequences, but the meat of the film focuses on the friendship between Brown (“Da 5 Bloods” star Jonathan Majors) and his white wingman, played by Glen Powell, the “Hidden Figures” actor who most recently appeared in “Top Gun: Maverick.”

As the climate crisis worsens, the need for urgent action grows exponentially. Ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away, and this one threatens total global collapse.

“I am Iron Man!” In another universe, the now-infamous line from the eponymous 2008 movie could have been spoken by Tom Cruise instead of Robert Downey Jr.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egyptian-American director Dina Amer’s politically sensitive drama “You Resemble Me,” the story of Hasna Aït Boulahcen who in 2015 was wrongly believed to be Europe’s first female suicide bomber, is getting a Middle East release via Front Row Filmed Entertainment. Amer’s feature debut, which world premiered positively at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, is a deeply researched character study of the fragile young Muslim woman who became linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris even though she didn’t participate in them. Aït Boulahcen died during an anti-terrorism raid alongside her cousin Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was one of the ringleaders of the coordinated assaults that killed 130 people in the French capital, including 90 at the Bataclan theater. 

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In the DC Extended Universe, it’s not the villains who have identity issues, but the heroes. Bruce Wayne watched his parents get murdered, adopted a teenage sidekick and now spends his nights cosplaying as the creature everyone associates with vampires. Kal-El also saw his parents die and goes through life trying to pass as the earthling Clark Kent, wearing spandex under his work clothes, just in case. These are not the traits of well-adjusted normies, and as such, there’s enormous subversive appeal in seeing trans artist Vera Drew turn such iconic characters inside-out in the illicitly made marvel that is “The People’s Joker.” Coming from a place of deep fan love and equally profound institutional mistrust, Drew’s anarchic feature-length parody impishly treads the line of fair use, so much so that the helmer pulled the film from the Toronto Film Festival after its raucous Midnight Madness premiere, citing “rights issues.” But what did she expect? The irreverent underground project reimagines the Joker’s origin story as a queer coming-of-age/coming-to-terms narrative, using a mishmash of styles: mostly crude live-action of the kind you expect from public-access programming (shot against greenscreens, then composited with rudimentary CG sets), embellished with various forms of homemade animation.

Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan are enjoying a romantic night out.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic No director has done more to deconstruct the myth of the suburban American family than Steven Spielberg. Dissertations have been written and documentaries made on the subject. And now, at the spry young age of 75, Spielberg himself weighs in on where his preoccupations come from in “The Fabelmans,” a personal account of his upbringing that feels like listening to two and a half hours’ worth of well-polished cocktail-party anecdotes, only better, since he’s gone to the trouble of staging them all for our benefit. Spielberg’s a born storyteller, and these are arguably his most precious stories. From the first movie he saw (“The Greatest Show on Earth”) to memories of meeting filmmaker John Ford on the Paramount lot, this endearing, broadly appealing account of how Spielberg was smitten by the medium — and why the prodigy nearly abandoned picture-making before his career even started — holds the keys to so much of the master’s filmography. More similar to Woody Allen’s autobiographical “Radio Days” than it is to European art films such as “The 400 Blows” and “Amistad” (the more highbrow models other directors typically point to when re-creating their childhoods), “The Fabelmans” invites audiences into the home and headspace of the world’s most beloved living director, an oddly sanitized zone where even the trauma — which includes anti-Semitism, financial disadvantage and divorce — seems to go better with fresh-buttered popcorn.

Back in 2014, when “Birdman” was taking Hollywood by storm, Alejandro G. Iñárritu had some choice words about the rise of the superhero film, calling it a form of “cultural genocide.” “I don’t respond to those characters,” he added.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic “If we got rid of every gay man in the military, there would be no military,” a sympathetic officer tells Marine recruit Ellis French in “The Inspection.” That’s an exceptionally open-minded take on the United States’ “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, seeing as how pretty much everyone else French encounters at boot camp is openly hostile to there being a gay man among them. But writer-director Elegance Bratton made it through the system — like the character, he’d been lost and homeless for a decade before enlisting — and this deeply personal narrative debut is one gay Black man’s way of showing how he not only survived the experience, but was strengthened by it. “The few, the proud,” as they say.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic You’ve heard the expression, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” Well, “The Grab” makes the case that society had best brace itself for disorder, since certain parties are gobbling up the world’s food and water resources while the rest of us are distracted by other things. Produced in association with the Center for Investigative Reporting, “Blackfish” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s astonishing, eye-opening doc hits us with the idea that the next world war won’t be fought over ideology, oil or border disputes, but basic resources like meat, wheat and water, none of which should be taken for granted. Experts call this field “food security,” and the entire system is more fragile than it looks. World populations are climbing while water resources are dwindling, which has led countries such as Saudi Arabia and China to seek farmland on other continents. Among its myriad examples, “The Grab” focuses on a 15-square-mile expanse in La Paz, Ariz., an arid desert locale where there’s no limit to the amount of water landowners can pump from the aquifers. Arizona’s policy of unrestricted access means Saudi investors can legally tap into the water table to grow fields of hay, which will be shipped home to feed their cattle, even if it means draining the wells of local farmers in the process.

Zack Sharf Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu does not like superhero movies. The Oscar winner said in 2014 while promoting “Birdman” that superhero movies were a form of “cultural genocide,” adding, “I don’t respond to those characters. They have been poison because the audience is so overexposed to plot and explosions and shit that doesn’t mean nothing about the experience of being human.” Robert Downey Jr. weighed in on Iñarritu’s comment in 2015 during an interview with The Guardian to promote his turn as Iron Man in the Marvel blockbuster “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” but the actor’s retort was somewhat controversial. Downey Jr. noted that he “respects the heck out of” Iñarritu but also mocked Iñarritu’s Spanish roots by saying, “For a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like ‘cultural genocide’ just speaks to how bright he is.”

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In early 2021, while Americans were focused on the transfer of power back home, daredevil director Matthew Heineman (“Cartel Land,” “City of Ghosts”) assembled a crew and flew to Afghanistan to check in on the status of America’s longest war. At that point, Osama bin Laden had been dead a decade, the Taliban was weakened but not defeated, and the U.S.-trained Afghan Army was holding its own fairly well — and yet, nearly 20 years in, there was still no end in sight for American involvement. That changed almost as soon as Heineman arrived, as the Biden administration made plans to pull out. In that moment, what might have been another business-as-usual desert war doc — with routine patrols, precisely targeted drone strikes and soldiers expressing their ennui — shifted to something audiences hadn’t seen before. The title, “Retrograde,” refers to the process by which military forces extricate themselves from conflict, removing or otherwise rendering useless the equipment they’d used to engage the enemy. For Heineman, that meant capturing all kinds of cinematic sights: A brawny soldier smashes a heap of computer monitors, helicopters airlift vehicles out, and things go boom as a team tosses all remaining ammo into a trench, douses it in gasoline and lights the pile with a well-aimed rocket. The Taliban won’t be using these bullets.

Although Robert Downey Jr. is currently one of the most famous actors on the planet, he reminds the audience early in the new documentary “Sr.”— about his late father Robert Downey Sr.— that for many years, he was simply just known as “Bob Downey’s kid.” Which is ostensibly the impetus of “Sr.,” directed by celebrated documentarian Chris Smith (“American Movie”), yet, essentially hosted and presented by RDJ, to put his father in proper cinematic and historical context.

Armie Hammer is living in one of Robert Downey Jr's houses. The 36-year-old actor had a spell in in rehab back in 2021 after struggling to overcome alcoholism and is now said to be staying in a house owned by his fellow Hollywood star Robert,57, as he continues to conquer sobriety. A source told PageSix: "He is shacking up in one of Robert's extra houses.

Robert Downey Jr. celebrated true love in his life Saturday while celebrating his 17-year wedding anniversary with wife Susan. The 57-year-old "Avengers: Endgame" actor shared a snap across his social media platforms from their Jewish wedding ceremony in New York.  The couple met while working on the 2003 film "Gothika" where Robert starred alongside Halle Berry, and Susan was a budding producer.

Robert Downey Jr and his wife Susan are celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary this weekend, and to mark the occasion, the Hollywood actor decided to share a never-before-seen photo from their big day.MORE: Ben Affleck reveals real reason he and Jennifer Lopez called off 2004 weddingTaking to Instagram, the Iron Man star posted a photo taken shortly after they exchanged vows back in 2005. It shows Robert, then 39, dressed in a black suit and a purple spotted scarf cosied up to his 30-year-old bride, who is wearing a stunning plunge neck wedding gown and veil.WATCH: Robert Downey Jr speaks to HELLO!"Today marks 17 years of unadulterated marital bliss," the caption read. "Susan, you are my bedrock, touchstone and lucky stars to boot."MORE: Robert Downey Jr opens the doors to his fun family home – take a lookMORE: Celebrity engagements of 2022: Simon Cowell, Michelle Dockery and moreThe couple exchanged vows in a Jewish ceremony in the Long Island town of Amagansett, New York, surrounded by a star-studded selection of friends and loved ones, which included Keanu Reeves, Sting and Ellen Barkin.A post shared by Robert Downey Jr.

EXCLUSIVE: After a very eventful summer that included the blockbuster phenomenon Top Gun: Maverick,  Miles Teller looks to have found his next event pic and is reuniting with a familiar friend for it. Sources tell Deadline, Teller is in final negotiations to star in Skydance’s upcoming film, The Gorge, with Scott Derrickson directing the pic, which is based on spec script by The Tomorrow War scribe Zach Dean. Skydance produced Top Gun: Maverick, which starred Tom Cruise and Teller and which just passed the $1.4 billion global box-office milestone.

Hulu has announced that its reimagining of the 1987 horror classic Hellraiser will debut exclusively on the streamer in the U.S., as part of its annual “Huluween” celebration of fright-filled content, on October 7. (Watch the first teaser for the new film, unveiled today by Hulu, above.)

A modern family! Despite filing for divorce from husband Eric Dane in 2018, Rebecca Gayheart and the Euphoria actor have been busy enjoying a family vacation together with their children.