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Review: ‘Devotion’ stirringly tells the story of the Navy’s first Black aviator

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JD Dillard’s 2016 breakout feature film, “Sleight,” was a low-budget gem that showcased what this up-and-coming filmmaker could do. Applying an indie sensibility to a gritty, magic-inspired superhero origin story, his focus on character over spectacle made “Sleight” moving and memorable. In Dillard’s new film, the Korean War epic “Devotion,” the budget may have gotten bigger, and the sumptuous, soaring visuals more spectacular, but the emphasis on character remains the same.

That makes “Devotion” an emotional and fitting tribute to the real men behind an incredible true story. The experiences of Lt. Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown in the Korean War are detailed in Adam Makos’ 2014 book, “Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice,” adapted for the screen by Jake Crane and Jonathan Stewart. Glen Powell, who has cornered the market on playing wingmen this year with “Devotion” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” plays Tom Hudner; the remarkable actor Jonathan Majors plays Jesse Brown.

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Working with Academy Award-winning cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt , Dillard creates an aesthetic for “Devotion” that harks back to classic war films: The pilots’ Brylcreemed coifs gleam against their leather bomber jackets; their shiny new Corsair planes sweep triumphantly through the clouds of coastal New England during their training flights. What they’re training for remains to be seen, as this crop of aviators missed out on “The Big Show” of World War II. Tom, a Naval Academy graduate, is antsy to prove himself. Jesse, the Navy’s first Black pilot, just wants to fly.

Jesse also wants to settle down with his young family, and going to combat is the exchange he makes for doing what he loves, despite the worries of his wife, Daisy (Christina Jackson). Bachelor Tom’s still searching for what he’s fighting for (aside from war hero status). He thinks it’s a woman, but he finds that his purpose in combat is right next to him, in his friend Jesse.

“Devotion,” at 2 hours and 18 minutes, takes its time building the world and the characters within, which proves to be crucial motivation for the second half’s aerial action. In laying the groundwork, Crane and Stewart’s script is refreshingly restrained: It shows the characters in natural conversation as they work together and avoids clunky exposition.

We understand the racism Jesse has experienced through tensions with the Marines aboard their aircraft carrier, and an anecdote he relates to Tom about the grueling, unfair swim test he was subjected to by the Navy. We see how he struggles internally with the trauma of racism in the strange ritual he completes when he’s alone, repeating the horrible insults and slurs to himself in the mirror. “It helps,” he says ruefully when Tom catches him. It’s a coping mechanism that’s not explained or fixed, but just a part of his character.

At the same time, Jesse has become an important symbol — for the Navy, for the nation and for the Black sailors who run to the deck to watch his every takeoff and landing. Jesse, who keeps his emotions close to the vest, is uncomfortable when a Life magazine photographer wants a photo shoot of him, but he is quietly moved when one of the Black sailors presents him with a Rolex watch that they went in on as a token of their appreciation.

Powell, with his sharp, all-American profile, fits the bill of a clean-cut New England pilot from privilege, and the supporting cast, including Joe Jonas, Spencer Neville and Nick Hargrove as the other pilots, brings some personality to the posse. Thomas Sadoski is particularly great as their no-nonsense but empathetic commander. But the performance of the film is Majors’, who always makes the unexpected and interesting choice. It’s in the way he hooks a thumb in his flight suit, or the cadence of his speech, or the long look he gives a sailor who can’t believe that Elizabeth Taylor (Serinda Swan) has just invited this Black pilot to an exclusive Cannes casino.

It is fun to watch the boys flirt with French women during their shore leave, and while it may seem a dalliance before the action, it’s an important part of knowing Jesse and Tom, and their relationship, before we get to the high-flying heroism. Tonally, “Devotion” remains steady, never going for over-the-top emotion or sensation, simply seeking to express something authentically moving and human. It unmistakably achieves that, delivering a stirring story of friendship during war, and beyond, that is both rare and real.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Devotion'

Rated: PG-13, for strong language, some war action/violence and smoking Running time: 2 hours, 18 minutes Playing: Starts Nov. 23 in general release

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‘Devotion’ Review: JD Dillard Brings ‘Top Gun’ Mojo to Historic Account of a Barrier-Breaking Black Pilot

Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell play real-life Korean War heroes Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner, whose friendship reflects the U.S. Navy's early attempts at integration.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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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 essential 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.

In that inclusive-minded blockbuster, it’s seemingly no big deal that many of the young pilots assembled for the movie’s trick-flying mission are women and people of color — the implication being that the battle for equal treatment in the U.S. armed services has long since been fought and won. In “Devotion,” that struggle is still actively underway. Brown keeps a book in which he’s written every insult and epithet that’s ever been thrown at him. Most days, as a brutal sort of motivational exercise, he stares at himself in the mirror and screams them back at the face he sees there — directly into the camera at one point. This is his armor, the way he toughens himself up for whatever fresh disrespect the other pilots might hurl at him.

Plenty of Black men had served in the U.S. military before Brown, though national policy kept them separated from white soldiers, and Jim Crow rules still applied. “Ever think you’d be in a squadron with a colored aviator?” asks one of the other pilots (apart from Joe Jonas, the vaguely defined white supporting characters all sort of blur together). Hudner doesn’t share their disgust with the new situation. Mostly, he’s just itching for action. Hudner enlisted when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but the war ended a week before he graduated, which means he missed the “Big Show” (pilot-speak for the air fights of WWII). Although much of “Devotion” is presented through Hudner’s eyes, Dillard breaks from that perspective occasionally to share Brown’s experience, and every time he does, the movie becomes more interesting: the scene where Brown encounters Elizabeth Taylor on the beach at Cannes, for example, or an important interaction with a lower-ranking Black sailor, who presents him with a symbol of the men’s admiration.

Integration was a difficult process across American society, as those indoctrinated by notions of their own superiority tried to hold on to their power as long as possible. Revisiting these dynamics on-screen is invariably ugly and potentially triggering for many, which is one reason why storytellers prefer to focus on progressive cases such as Hudner, who demonstrates no overt racism when he meets Brown at Rhode Island’s Quonset Point base.

Though they’re both gifted pilots, Brown has trouble adjusting to the fighter plane the Navy introduced in 1950, the Vought F4U Corsair, whose bulky engine blocked visibility. That late-in-the-game change adds a level of suspense to the film’s airborne sequences — a few of which, like the early lighthouse run, exist simply to give audiences a taste of that same exhilaration these men experienced in the cockpit. While flying is a thrill, landing aboard an aircraft carrier can be downright nerve-racking. Not everyone survives this test.

After bonding in the skies, Brown invites Hudner over and introduces the white man to his wife (Christina Jackson) and child — “to see what a man’s fighting for,” as Hudner puts it. Despite this gesture, it takes nearly the entire film for Brown to accept his partner. Why? Hudner may have been ahead of his peers, but so much of his support comes easy — that is, at no personal risk. Brown makes that clear after he’s cited for disobeying a direct order in the film’s most electrifying sequence, a daredevil dogfight immediately followed by the bombing of a Korean bridge.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 14, 2022. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 139 MIN.

• Production: A Sony release of a Columbia Pictures, Black Label Media presentation of a Black Label Media production. Producers: Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, Thad Luckinbill, Trent Luckinbill. Executive producers: JD Dillard, Glen Powell.
• Crew: Director: JD Dillard. Screenplay: Jake Crane, Jonathan A.H. Stewart, based on the book by Adam Makos. Camera: Erik Messerschmidt. Editor: Billy Fox. Music: Chanda Dancy.
• With: Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Christina Jackson, Thomas Sadoski, Joe Jonas. (English, French, Korean dialogue)

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Screen Rant

Devotion review: a respectful war epic that flies high on its true story elements [tiff].

Stylized and cultured, Devotion soars when least expected and is brought to life by its talented ensemble cast led by Jonathan Majors & Glen Powell.

Directed by J.D. Dillard from a screenplay by Jake Crane and Jonathan Stewart, Devotion is based on actual events during the Korean War. Heartbreaking and sincere, the film dives head-first into the lives of U.S. Navy fighter pilots Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner, as well as their very attractive wingmen in the throes of danger. Based on the book Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos, Devotion is a harrowing journey into stories that have remained untold by the men who continue to fight for equality. It's a war epic that walks the line of racial segregation, bravery, and the cost of defending one's country.

Set against the backdrop of the Korean War, Devotion focuses on the U.S. Navy's first Black aviator, Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors). He is a well-trained and skilled fighter pilot who never gets the credit he deserves from the media due in large part to the color of his skin. Jesse's peers in flight are no better than the squadron leaders, as Jesse continuously battles with prejudice in the newly desegregated Navy. Lieutenant Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) enters the scene by joining up with Jesse's team of aviators, with both men admiring one another's abilities in the air and commitment to achieving all the goals of their future missions.

Related: Devotion Movie Trailer Takes Top Gun Star Into The Korean War

As the only Black man in a sea of white faces, Jesse must constantly prove himself capable of carrying out the role he has dedicated himself to in the sky. During a side trip to the French Riviera in an odd sequence that probably didn't belong in this film, Jesse comes across Elizabeth Taylor (Serinda Swan), who invites the boys to a casino for some fun. However, Jesse faces racism again as Tom attempts to defend his brother-in-arms against a team of Marines. It's instances like this throughout the movie that reflect Jesse's determination to just be taken seriously.

A pointed scene where Jesse talks to himself in the mirror becomes a twisted form of daily affirmations that go astray. He hurls stereotypical racial rhetoric at himself, spouting out all the hate speech he has heard his entire life as a way to build up confidence for impending test missions. It works. The danger becomes a genuine reality when the squadron gets to the Korean peninsula. Jesse, Tom, and their fellow fighter pilots fly a combat mission that results in Jesse's aircraft coming under fire. The true story behind Devotion comes into full frame as Tom learns what it takes to be a real wingman in the face of uncertainty.

Borrowing elements from Ensign Jesse Brown and Lieutenant Tom Hudner's life experiences, Devotion takes viewers to the skies in an epic war story for the ages. Respectful to the real-life segments of the Korean War, J.D. Dillard is careful to paint a picture of racial segregation at a time when the rage of hatred is outweighed by the ultimate task at hand. An ensemble cast that includes Joe Jonas, Thomas Sadoski, Daren Kagasoff, Nick Hargrove, and Spencer Neville help to elevate the valor and courage of the airmen forgotten by history.

With his role as astronaut John Glenn in Hidden Figures , his portrayal of Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick , and now his embodiment of Tom Hudner, Glen Powell seems to have a penchant for playing airmen. Suave and cocky, Powell's take on Tom is well acted and feverishly entertaining. Dillard's direction is at the peak of his career, in the first blockbuster movie on his resume that begs to be seen in IMAX. But it's Jonathan Majors who stands out in Devotion . His painstaking attention to detailing Jesse's life and love for his wife Daisy (Christina Jackson) is felt in every layer of his performance. A combination of vitriol and poetic love are traits at the heart of everything Majors does in this film.

As the unpredictability of war and geopolitical tactics zoom into central focus, Devotion excels when the truth comes out. With a heart-pounding score from composer Chanda Dancy, the movie transitions into a tense plot that carries the film forward, despite its semi-long runtime and glossy exterior. Stylized and cultured, Devotion soars when least expected and is brought to life by its talented ensemble cast.

Devotion had its premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 12. The film will be released in theaters on November 23. It is 138 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for strong language, some war action/violence, and smoking.

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Devotion Tells a Quieter Kind of War Story

Devotion was made well before Top Gun: Maverick came out, but it’s hard not to be reminded of that movie – and, of course, the first Top Gun – in its opening scenes, which cut from sensuous close-ups of a Vought F4U Corsair fighter to the image of a bomber-jacketed Glen Powell, in full Cruisian glory, as he drives alongside a plane taking off from a runway and struts onto the Quonset Point air station on the coast of Rhode Island. But while it’s certainly nice to see Maverick ’s scene-stealing “Hangman” back in the Navy, these opening moments feel more like a knowing nod to the kind of film Devotion will not be. J.D. Dillard’s poignant aviation drama establishes its own unique tone soon thereafter, as Powell’s Tom Hudner enters an empty locker room and hears a man’s voice in the bathroom bitterly muttering, “You ain’t worth shit.”

That voice belongs to Ensign Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), an accomplished flier with whom Hudner is paired early on, and who has, we learn, so absorbed the racism and hatred he’s faced over the years that he often repeats the insults to himself in the mirror, to get himself going. The year is around 1950, and war is brewing in Korea. To Strike Fighter Squadron 32, most of whom missed out on World War II (which they call “the Big Show”), the new conflict is a chance to prove themselves. But Brown stands apart from the others, not just because of his race but also because, as a family man, he has a life he’d like to return to. To his loving wife, Daisy (Christina Jackson), going abroad to war is not an opportunity for Jesse to serve but understandable cause for grave concern.

Devotion tells the fact-based tale of Brown and Hudner’s growing friendship as the “Fighting 32 nd ” ships out and finally faces aerial combat. It certainly works as a war movie, even if the moves are fairly familiar by this point. There’s the early tragedy to remind our heroes of the dangers of their job; there’s the boozy, chummy interlude on the French Riviera (where the men wind up partying with Elizabeth Taylor!); there’s the part where someone defies orders to engage in an act of heroism; there’s the ill-advised rescue mission. Devotion is based on a true story, and the obligatory roll call of archival photos at the end remind us that a lot of this stuff (including the run-in with Taylor) actually happened. But within the familiar often lie uncomfortable truths: A heroic act of defiance, for a Black soldier in 1950, can quickly become insubordination and, potentially, disgrace.

The film, to its credit, manages to make even its more predictable elements feel compelling and new in the moment. Dillard, who demonstrated his facility with suspenseful visual storytelling in the ingenious 2019 castaway thriller Sweetheart , brings confidence and authenticity to the aerial scenes, and the film’s climax, set during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, is genuinely riveting. But again, one shouldn’t expect dazzling, Maverick -style spectacle here (even if the two films share an aerial stunt coordinator in the brilliant Kevin LaRosa Jr.). This is a smaller, more somber picture, where the suspense comes not from the machines but from the men.

That also makes it a tricky film, dramatically. Devotion gets something right about soldiers that a lot of war movies overlook for storytelling purposes: They are not the kind to wear their emotions on their sleeves. These are terse, restrained men, for whom control and discipline are everything. Perhaps more importantly, Brown has clearly learned the hard way not to really trust anybody. As a result, the relationship between him and Hudner, which starts off as a standoffish one and moves towards a sober loyalty, never really comes off as conventionally dramatic. This is not a shouty movie. That’s kind of the point: With these men, one has to read between the lines of what they say and do to understand how they really feel. There are stretches of Devotion where it doesn’t seem like all that much is happening, but then you look closer and you realize that just about everything is happening.

That requires a lot from the actors. Majors brings to Brown a brooding solitude – not just in his line readings and expressions but even in the way he carries himself. Whenever we learn something new about Brown, it feels like a heavy door has briefly opened, but only to reveal a sliver of light. Partly, it’s because this character has dedicated himself to something supposedly greater than himself – a military, a nation, a cause – and yet still has to hang onto his individuality, because the thing he’s given himself over to might not, on some level, be entirely deserving of his devotion.

Perhaps there’s an underlying duality to that title, too. It’s not a service or a flag that these men ultimately devote themselves to, but to one another. Powell’s performance, as a result, is largely reactive, as he’s slowly pulled into Majors’s orbit. It’s touching to see Hudner go from a wide-eyed, happy-go-lucky flyboy to someone more grounded, more compassionate, and maybe even more melancholy. War movies are often about their protagonists developing thousand-yard stares after going through the meat-grinder of battle. In Devotion ’s case, it’s not so much the combat that gives these men their thousand-yard stares but rather the feelings they’ve had to endure.

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Devotion Reviews

Devotion doesn’t have the impact it should have, even if Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell give powerhouse performances.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Mar 6, 2024

The aviation drama tells the thrilling and tragic story of Jesse Brown, the first African-American aviator to complete the basic flight training program of the U.S. Navy.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

Devotion may not break the mould for war or aviation films. Still, it is a well-directed and entertaining film that is perhaps a tad too long but elevated by superb performances from Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2023

Stylized and cultured, Devotion soars when least expected and is brought to life by its talented ensemble cast led by Jonathan Majors & Glen Powell.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Devotion tells a character-driven story with emotionally complex protagonists, proudly focusing on honoring forgotten heroes and interestingly developing moral themes despite the somewhat repetitive structure.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 25, 2023

Jonathan Majors & Glen Powell are the real deal. Fantastic cinematography & riveting performances Devotion sticks out and makes itself different enough than Top Gun!

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Devotion is another example of Majors proving that he is one of the finest young actors working today, but he, and Ensign Jesse Brown, deserved a richer script.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

Its heroism lies in being true to its characters and their stories rather than trying hard to make it a larger-than-life war drama without a beating heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 14, 2023

The script is respectful to a fault, taking a muted, Masterpiece Theatre approach to a full-blooded tale.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 5, 2023

Well made with thrilling aerial sequences, the film falters when it tries to decide who the main character is.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 4, 2023

Majors' rising star shines bright in Devotion as he brings a real-life hero to life on screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 1, 2023

this leaner indie-type production still packs a punch with lead stars, Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell, leading the war along with some riveting aerial battle footage.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 19, 2023

I wish we had learned more about Jesse Brown but this film didn't go deep enough for me. This should have been an Oscar contender but there wasn't enough focus on Jesse's plight and his relationship with Tom Hudner for me to be emotionally invested.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 14, 2023

Despite a really strong performance by Jonathan Majors, this film is very uneven with regards to pacing and character development. It should've been a contender.

A by-the-book biopic... that takes off propelled by Brown's real story but can't surpass Pete 'Maverick'' Mitchell's Mach 10. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 2, 2023

This is a solid and unflashy movie about a little-understood war and some genuine American heroes who were a part of it.

Full Review | Jan 30, 2023

With plenty of heart and soul, Devotion is an emotional spectacle, packed with soaring highs and gut-wrenching potency.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 28, 2023

Devotion foregrounds the virtue of devoted relationships: faithfully showing up for one another and following through on duty, whether in marriage or friendship or war.

Full Review | Jan 27, 2023

Beautiful people in warplanes, always a winning combo. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 25, 2023

…a well-crafted and highly recommendable slice of war heroics that hits all the targets it aims for…

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 25, 2023

Devotion Review

J.d. dillard’s aerial stunner devotion is a thoughtful tribute to two of the korean war’s most celebrated wingmen..

Devotion hits theaters on Nov. 23, 2022.

War dramas based on true stories are often the easiest, and most accessible, way to introduce audiences to their own history and heroes. Telling those stories, however, can get thorny when that hero is a Black U.S. serviceman, as doing his journey justice inevitably means wrestling with challenges beyond those inherent to wartime. And those obstacles often represent pieces of U.S. history many prefer to ignore, even if doing that erases the contributions of talented and courageous people. But when done right, it's the kind of story that can be a transformative experience. Director J.D. Dillard’s Devotion, centering on Ensign Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), the first Black pilot to earn his wings in the U.S. Navy's basic flight training program, is exactly that kind of movie. It focuses on Brown's unlikely friendship with fellow naval aviator Lt. Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) in the early days of a war that put both their training and personal relationship to the test. For many moviegoers, the Top Gun duology shapes how we relate to fighter pilot stories. This true story about elite aviators offers a unique opportunity to replace that colorful fiction with compelling realness. After all, not all heroes wear capes; some flew Vought F4U-4 Corsairs into North Korean airspace to save lives.

Based on the book of the same name, Devotion opens with Hudner, the last member of VF-32 squadron, arriving on base. He enters the squad’s locker room just in time to catch the tail end of Brown shouting viciously at himself in the adjoining bath area. It’s a striking, if seemingly bizarre, introduction to the man, one that lays the groundwork for Majors’ deeply affecting performance as he epitomizes Brown’s vulnerabilities and unsettling coping mechanisms. Rather than follow Brown as he works to qualify as a fighter pilot, the story drops into events just prior to the attack that triggers war between North and South Korea. It’s a smart decision that makes way for a wartime story focused on the bonds between men.

Shortly after meeting Brown, the other squad members appear. They're a jovial bunch quick to offer Hudner a warm welcome – so on the surface, it's Brown’s reserved attitude that’s most notable, not the fact that he’s the only Black squadron member. It’s confronting the why behind his standoffishness that’ll kick you in the gut. Dillard incorporates the standard elements of a wartime movie aptly, levering his ensemble for its dry wit and tacit commitment to one another to counterbalance the heaviness of looming danger. Devotion doesn’t lack for action but the characters aren’t just a vehicle to chronicle the anxiety-inducing intensity and epicness of battle.

Dillard rightly keeps the lens trained on Majors as he navigates precarious circumstances as the sole Black pilot in the Navy. With a restrained power, Majors masterfully conveys that Brown doesn’t trust easily. Although confident in his skills, he openly tests his squadmates’ mettle. He rejects any attempt to “stand up” for him when others disrespect or threaten him. Brown doesn’t want or need a savior, but he’d welcome a friend he can trust to have his back. If Top Gun: Maverick served up a welcome reminder of what you love about aviation movies, then Dillard’s Korean war film marries those propulsive aerial sequences and cockpit point-of-view to a compelling true story certain to change how you think about a pilot and his wingman. Thankfully, the script balances its character study with sharply pointed action and thoughtful story progression in and out of the air.

Glen Powell’s Tom Hudner, meanwhile, isn’t an audience proxy for “discovering” the realities of racism. It’s 1950. While loss of life may have forced the U.S. military to move away from the overt segregation and disenfranchisement of Black servicemembers, it doesn’t mean their presence was readily accepted. Anti-Blackness and prejudice are everyday facts of life, and Powell portrays Hudner with a steadfastness and the convincing naivete of the privileged. Learning about what motivated him to join the Navy carves out his role in the squad with a relatable clarity. This is just as much his story as Brown’s because Hudner’s inability to understand why his squadmate hesitates to put his faith in him adds valuable perspective as their relationship progresses. Breaking barriers and shifting perspectives was (and still is) an inescapable by-product of Black people striving to live full lives in oppressive circumstances. It can become a cage all its own. With this in mind, Devotion’s about more than recounting the relationship between Brown and his white wingman Hudner.

It’s clear Hudner and Brown are both ace pilots. So, watching the squadron’s first milestone – qualifying for carrier landings – is even more gripping when it becomes clear something other than skill and mastery of his airplane keeps hindering Brown’s performance. And when you do eventually learn what’s tripping him up, you, like Hudner, won’t be able to wiggle away from the stark truth that is the Black experience in a world designed to exclude Black people.

Dillard’s story direction persistently layers in antagonistic encounters to highlight the prejudice Brown constantly faces. An anonymous noise complaint that brings the police to his family’s door. Being forced to pose for pictures and expected to parrot PR-ready quotes about his race for journalists. Swallowing racist disrespect from a Marine on ship. Each incident establishes reasons for Brown’s trust issues. Dillard blatantly rejects the laziness of relying on physical violence to expose the harm that can come to Brown as a result of racism. The impact is even greater as Dillard is careful to work in moments of respect, joy, and camaraderie to provide balance. This isn’t a story intended to paint everyone as a seething racist, just like it’s not one that ignores the fact that Brown succeeds despite a racist system functioning as designed. Hudner and the other members of the squadron don’t actively alienate Brown. They just fail to consider the impact that something seemingly insignificant to them would likely be devastating for Brown. It’s risky to choose subtly and normalcy over the more sensationalized version of discrimination. The pervasiveness and banality of anti-Blackness makes people uncomfortable. Shying away from the expected more physically violent angle in order to leave space for the work this squadron puts in to grow as a unit gives the story its real impact. Because this is, again, just as much Hudner’s story as it is Brown’s.

The first half of the film reveals Brown’s love of flying and family. Unlike his single compatriots, he’s a devoted husband and father. His wife, Daisy (brought to life with a delightful warmth and humor by Christina Jackson), is both his anchor and safe harbor. Powell’s confident and charismatic Hudner acts as a perfect foil to Majors’ stoic intensity and restrained vulnerability. Hudner bucked family expectations to join the military. He’s a true believer, committed to service. Each pilot finds common ground even as they struggle to see eye to eye. Dillard’s direction errs on the side of “show” rather than “tell,” bolstering the unspoken with strategic conversations between characters at pivotal moments over heavy-handed data dumps. The end result is a movie that offers its lessons on friendship and microaggressions without falling out of its storytelling pocket.

The Top 10 World War II Movies

By the time the combat portion of Devotion kicks off, it's impossible not to be fully invested in this team. The aerial sequences, for all their spectacularness, carry more than a hint of grounded authenticity. Even through the action choreography, each member of this small ensemble performs to make the whole greater than its parts. So when the third act takes a somber turn, the macro elements of warfare and engaging the enemy ring true. There aren’t many modern stories built around the Korean war; even fewer that put the racial dynamics front and center from a Black person’s perspective. It may seem counterintuitive, but refusing to flinch from the subject actually makes space for the story of a friendship between two men of different races without it devolving into a shallow savior narrative that does a disservice to its subjects. Devotion is a story about friendship, commitment, and the kind of honest connection that leaves no one behind. It’s jam-packed full of painful twists and turns, exciting action, and the kind of hopefulness that never goes out of style.

Devotion’s a respectful introduction to heroes the world should know and celebrate. Between J.D. Dillard’s thoughtful direction, the shocking clarity of Erik Messerschmidt’s cinematography, a rousing soundscape, and the tight editing, it’s a riveting drama ready to give even the best aerial war story a run for its money.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, answering the call: j.d. dillard on devotion.

Fate beckoned filmmaker J.D. Dillard when it came to delivering the true-life story of war hero Jesse Brown to the big screen. Long before his filmmaking career took flight, Dillard grew up a Navy brat. His father Bruce Dillard served as a Naval flight officer for the Blue Angels and was the second African American in history to do so. Watching videos of his father's aviation skills and also " Star Wars " at a young age sparked Dillard’s love for filmmaking and aviation. At last, he’s now got the opportunity to bridge the two with his latest feature, "Devotion.”

"Devotion” marks Dillard’s first studio feature after helming genre-bending indie darlings " Sleight " and "Sweetheart." The film tells the story of Jesse Brown ( Jonathan Majors ), the first Black Naval aviator in the US Navy, and his budding friendship with wingman ( Glen Powell ) during their tour at the height of the Korean War. The film diverges from the typical war movie archetype as it focuses on the interpersonal relationships shared between Brown and his fellow officers. As per usual, Jonathan Majors delivers a powerhouse performance in the leading role, exhibiting a resounding notion of warmth, and honesty, along with the reservation. His chemistry with the charismatic Glen Powell takes the emotions to uplifting heights.

Ahead of the film's release, Dillard spoke to RogerEbert.com about working with old-school war aircraft along with rigging cameras on the models, the boost of confidence he got from Jonathan Majors’ performance, and bringing his dad Bruce onto the set as a consultant on the film.

After doing “Sweetheart," what made you want to do “Devotion”?

My dad is a naval aviator. I've grown up watching the backseat footage of him in the cockpit and being obsessed with that image as a kid. I think that's also lowkey why I'm sort of obsessed with “Star Wars” and interstellar battles. The scene of Luke in the X-wing, I have that same footage of my dad for real. So wanting to play with that. I started looking for things around aviation. And truly, it could have been anything from science fiction to period drama. I just wanted to kind of do my movie in the cockpit. My agent sent me "Devotion." I had heard Jesse's name before because he was the first Black naval aviator. My dad is also numbered in that he's the second Black Blue Angel. I've heard Jesse's, by way of the number of Black folks. The thing that was kind of nuts was, I'm getting to read the script for the first time, which I cried the whole time because Jesse's story to me was just so extraordinary. It was lowkey my dad's story. What you always hope there's a personal tie in a real way. For it to be that severe and that specific to my dad was not a situation where I just wanted to make this movie. I'm kind of called to make the movie.

Was it difficult going from your small independent features to this massive expansive budget?

In a weird way, not really. When I was finishing “Sweetheart,” I was in a crazy motorcycle accident. It put me in a wheelchair for a few months, did a long rehab, and I took a break from everything. When I came back to work, I shot TV. I shot three shows back-to-back in 2019. That sort of got my set legs back a little bit. I think almost equally as important, it gave me a taste of what a bigger budget set feels like. I think the sort of the budget per day was way more "Devotion" and then it was slighter to “Sweetheart.” Yeah. To get to see what a crew of a couple of hundred felt like. To see not just having a first AD but a second AD and a second-second. You see how the departments expand so big because of that "Devotion" felt really organic. It wasn't just that big jump from the movie. It was actually a year of doing TV that helped me kind of find that.

What was the experience of shooting this expansive feature during the pandemic?

As you know, making movies it's already incredibly difficult. The pandemic just kind of added a kind of hurdle on top of something that was already difficult. So much of what I love about this job is the social component, I get dinner with the cast, and go to dinner with the crew. I love the familial aspect of having folks over on the weekend. We're kind of doing our best to make it a family. With the pandemic, we're also shot pre-vaccine. As close as I was to the material I was, and as personal as it was, the physical process, unfortunately, was forced to feel like more work. You had to find more ways to make it feel less so.

And then there's the stupid silly stuff, where you're trying to talk to a collaborator of yours and so much of our job is about emotional specificity. You're communicating with your partner, and you're always like, "Are you mad at me? Or can I just not see your eyes?" So that's tricky, especially when you're trying to convey really specific things. There's just a bog over it. So we totally figured it out. I think there is a surprising side effect of the pandemic, in that the experience of shooting really mirrored sort of the experience of the movie, in that we all picked up and left our family and kind of went into a hostile environment together.

And not that I'm ever going to say that going to shoot a movie is going to war, but there were some of these similarities. We're in confined spaces, trying to be safe, trying to take care of each other, and missing our people. I think that sort of bound us differently. And I think that's also sort of the heart of the camaraderie of the group because we're all in this kind of heightened situation together. You make lemonade.

What different aircraft models did you end up having to replicate or find for the aviation scenes?

One of the first things that I did when I came on board was missions. I was like first, we need Jonathan Majors. That's the guy. Then secondly, we have to do as much of this in camera as we can, which is difficult in a movie where all the technology is 70-80 years old. We brought on Kevin LaRosa, who was the aerial coordinator. We immediately started looking for all of these planes. The hero playing in the movie is a plane called the Corsair. There are, I think, 11 or 12 of them left in the world, and we managed to get six of them to the set. Then you have to paint them all to be part of the same Squadron, you've got to make them kind of look like they're the exact same model and do all of that stuff. So it ended up being kind of this weird antique treasure hunt to find all of the planes. We have these planes called the Bearcat. It's the scene where Jesse and Tom are flying in the beginning together, kind of through the boats. We have those planes, we have the MIG, the jet plane that shows up during the first mission. We have the military's very first helicopter. A helicopter so old for that plane to fly again, they had to borrow a piece from the Smithsonian. I think audiences are smart now, especially when you're telling a story in history, people are really sensitive to visual effects. You're going to need visual effects no matter what. You can't skip that. I think in camera to me is not just practice, it's kind of an aesthetic. We did our damnedest to put as much of that lens out for real as we could. It just feels better.

I read that you brought your dad as an advisor, to make sure everything is accurate. What was the decision behind doing that and also, the experience of having him on set?

It was really organic. When I came on board the movie, the first thing I did was send him the script. Then I asked him a thousand questions just about his own experience. All of these things are to try to understand Jesse better. And even though they're 30 years apart in the Navy, a lot of Jesse's and my dad's experiences are very similar. So once it came time to shoot, it was, "Well, of course, you should be down there!" I've never expected him to stay for as long as he did. Because they were there for my parents, which on one end is lucky. Having your parents come to work with you, is a whole vibe. I don't know why it's kind of overwhelming, because it's that time spent together is so rarefied and specific, and to have him there every day, good days and hard days. Sort of looking at him for the emotional continuity of what it i to do this job, what it is to have a family when this is what you do was totally overwhelming. I think that there was a moment where I kind of realized this is as big a deal for him as it is for me. And that sort of added a different lens of how I even felt about the movie and felt about his involvement in it. Do you know what the downside is? He'll never watch a movie of mine more than this one. It was really special. And I'm kind of forever grateful for that time we have.

How much rigging did you have to do to capture those cockpit sequences, especially on those old planes?

So "Devotion" is certainly kind of a sample platter of techniques. We did a lot of exterior rigging, where we put the RED KOMODO on the plane. We would remove panels of the airplane, recreate them with rigs welded onto them, and then put them back on. But you can only put one of those on at a time while you're researching. Because the pilot has to see how that camera affects the maneuverability. At a certain point, you've put too many things on the plane and the pilots go, "I don't like this."

In that first scene by the boats, Glenn and Jonathan are really in the backseat of a real warbird. With, I believe, six cameras jam with them, and they act to that entire scene, at altitude. That required quite a bit of on-the-ground rehearsal, we go over the lines, talk about the moments and where your eye line is, and what you're looking at, you do all of that. Then I'm like, "Okay great. You're gonna go up, you're going to shoot these five lines, come back down, and we'll review." Once we went into the war stuff, it was sort of a mix of things where we shot on an LED volume, and all have the backgrounds we shot at the real location. But now, we had our eyes in a gimbal lock. So I could actually communicate with a man, and we could go over those scenes. Obviously, that stuff is quite a bit more specific in terms of probable performance dances with the action. So we needed to do that stuff here on the ground. But again, going back to in-camera aesthetic, not in-camera, frankly, but thinking of our aesthetic. So even though it's artificial, it gives the feeling of it being real, because we're using all real elements.

One of my favorite things about the film is how it does discuss the Black experience where Jesse just wants to be an aviator not put into a box. Even down to his terms of friendship with Tom where even though you're trying to stand up for Jesse is still sort of a microaggression, it's very condescending. How'd you bring that extra authenticity to telling that aspect of the story?

I think that the big goal of the movie is, even though it took place in 1950, and we have modern conversations, hopefully, led by character, you never want the themes to be bigger than the people. We all know what that feels like. I think the fundamental dance of the movie is a sort of path to mutual understanding but in a way that is not so clean and cookie-cutter. Because we would joke all the time on set, we can't make a 1993 drama directed by an old white man movie.

This is not "Glory 2."

You know what that movie feels like.

Stuff I had to watch in sixth-grade social studies.

Exactly. So, the biggest key to avoiding that is Jesse having an agency and having an inner world, and similarly the conversation of "racism is bad" is so archaic. We've seen stories of how hard it is to get there, but slightly less often, how hard it is to stay there. And also how lonely it is, and I think that's something we all can tap into. There was that, and then there was also, this wasn't going to be the "freeze-frame on the high five credits start rolling, racism ended in 1950" movie. It was never going to be that and I think just embracing some of life, messy, nonlinear feeling of trying to figure somebody else out was what's the point. Jesse and Tom don't end up as best friends; they end up just getting there. Jonathan has said this a lot. I really love his sort of look at it, "you can be soulmates without being best friends." I think to be a soulmate, and that sort of larger degree of, the cosmic understanding of meeting yours, that sort of your time together on a spiritual level that kind of transcends even liking each other. So that was always going to be our goal, more than just making the plain 1993 version of this type of story.

What was one of the most difficult sequences to shoot in terms of the emotionally led components between all of the different characters, since a lot of the movie is about relationships more so than the war itself?

I think the hardest scene is actually two scenes that are kind of the same thing, but they're part of the same part. Right after their first mission, when Tom accidentally writes Jesse up, they kind of get into an argument. Basically, what it means to be there as a wingman was. What was ultimately really hard about that same thing was just thinking of finding how we do this and not hitting you over the nose and Jesse keeps his agency? How do we do it where Tom is not so naive and get it to a point where it's not Disney-clean? Trying to find all of that balance in what simply are two very not long scenes. Sorting within those scenes is the crux of their argument about the movie. You don't want it to be corny. You don't want to be melodramatic. And I think just finding that balance between what needed to be said and what didn't need to be said. That ended up I think, to me being the hardest five minutes.

What about the scene with Jesse in the mirror? How many takes was that?

Here's the beautiful thing about Jonathan Majors. It's maybe the second or third take that we use. And it's actually because of the camera and not him at all. I always think it's kind of interesting to note because it's such a testament to the type of actor Jonathan is. It was our second day of shooting. You normally want to give your actor a month to prep, and we'll figure it out when we'll get there and then we're gonna do that mirror scene. Jonathan so carefully and meticulously builds his characters in prep. Jesse was going to be just as realized on day one as he was on day sixteen. The sort of the culmination of the fruits of our walks in the park, and the poetry we shared, and the songs that we're sharing, and all of that stuff that you would do to sort of mind-meld and discover together, he makes sure that that's in place for production. So when we stepped into that it was a quiet day. You don't give Jonathan Majors direction, that's, "Let's go with a little more energy." He knows the assignment. My direction is quite a bit more technical where it's, "hold the glance a little longer before you drop your head."It ends up being, really specific to the relationship between the drama that he has embodied and the camera. As a director, I always believed in that man, but it does put a little wind in your sails and gives you a little boost of confidence when you see that performance on your second day of shooting. Like "Oh, okay. That's great. I love this movie. Everybody's gotta check this out." So that was really a beautiful and awesome thing to see from him.

"Devotion" opens only in theaters on November 23rd.

Rendy Jones

Rendy Jones (they/he) is a film and television journalist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. They are the owner of self-published independent outlet Rendy Reviews, a member of the Critics' Choice Association, GALECA, and a part time stand-up comedian.

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Dylan mulvaney dreams of making a trans ‘legally blonde’: “i wanna play elle woods”, ‘devotion’ toronto review: jonathan majors and glen powell are the original ‘top guns’ in korean war portrait of first black navy pilot.

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Director JD Dillard says he grew up hearing all about his own father’s experiences as the second African American Blue Angels pilot, so naturally when Adam Makos’ book Devotion   came out he was instantly intrigued about adapting it to the screen. The book tells the story of the friendship and, yes, devotion (where the title comes from in part) of two elite U.S. Navy fighter pilots who made a big difference in one of the Korean War’s most intense battles in the early 1950s. But the story has great significance as it really tells the extraordinary tale of Jesse Brown, who became the first Black aviator in Navy history, and together with his unique friendship and working relationship with Tom Hudner the pair became legend as authentic Navy wingmen heroes.

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Coming just a few months after the gigantic success of  Top Gun: Maverick, this Sony Pictures release, which just had its world premiere tonight at the Toronto Film Festival, is an earnest and sometimes stirring aerial war epic that may not quite soar to those heights (what could?) but in keeping its focus on Brown, the racism he experienced and other aspects of his life — personally and in the air — this is a story that marches to its own beat despite the inevitable comparisons people will make. The success of the Tom Cruise film in fact may make a difference in getting audiences out to see this one as well.

Jonathan Majors plays Brown and he is excellent in the role, showing the sacrifice he made for his family and country, the obstacles he faced, and the genuine camaraderie he had with a mensch by the name of Tom Hudner, who happens to be played by Glen Powell who as it turns out also had a significant role in Top Gun: Maverick, furthering the link between the two 2022 releases. Powell in fact first discovered the book and got the ball rolling, and he has an executive producer credit as well.

The title  Devotion  is just that as it is key for wingmen to have that kind of devotion to their partner, but this movie also has some moving scenes with Brown and his wife (Christina Jackson), the fear of being separated and perhaps never seeing each other again as he takes off on duty. The loneliness and frustration for Brown of being the only Black pilot in the Navy is also explored, but he stands out for other reasons among the white hot-shot pilots and that is his own unique flying style and ability, demonstrated early on when the pilots compete to be part of the front lines of the Navy pilots who here are sent on a deadly mission, a key one in the Korean War. That is where Dillard gets to stage some edge-of-your-seat aerial stunts and battles, but remember this is 1950, not the Top Gun  universe that saw flashier planes and skill-sets. These were pioneers by comparison.

I also really liked some of the lighter scenes here, particularly when Brown, Hudner and buddies get some time off to go to Cannes, where the film festival happens to be taking place. Here also racism rears its ugly head, but Brown really triumphs with a chance meeting with Liz Taylor and an invite by her to join her that night at the casino, something his buddies are flabbergasted by. It is fun to watch, and clearly Majors, getting also to spout perfect French, enjoys playing it and destroying stereotypes of the period.

However. the most gut-wrenching moments come when Jesse’s plane goes down in battle and he can’t shake loose of it. This is where the friendship between Tom and Jesse is shown at its finest but most harrowing, as Tom risks everything to rescue Jesse. Both actors, Powell and Majors, deliver on the emotional aspects that likely won’t leave a dry eye in the house.

The acting is uniformly fine all around, but this is ultimately a film that belongs to Majors, who delivers one of his finest performances. Thomas Sadoski as Dick Cevoli and Joe Jonas as Marty Goode both have their moments as well. Of course Powell, as his second Navy fighter pilot role of the year, fits it like a glove but also brings some edge. The script by Jake Crane and Jonathan A. H. Stewart doesn’t break new ground in the genre but serves the characters and Brown’s inspiring story. Chanda Dancy’s score soars as well as the planes.

Producers are Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, Thad Luckinbilll and Trent Luckinbill for the Black Label Media production, which will be released by Sony in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.

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Top Gun: Maverick gets its real-life match in the dramatic thriller Devotion

The true story of America’s first Black Navy aviator comes ready-made for Maverick’s big year

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At first, it seems supremely unlucky that Devotion is being released in the shadow of Top Gun: Maverick ’s utter domination of the 2022 box office. Devotion is another movie about elite naval pilots, featuring training sequences, practical effects galore, and a snowy climactic rescue. It even co-stars Glen Powell, who plays Maverick ’s sneering, villainous ace Hangman. So it’s easy to imagine the cinematic story of real-life pilot Jesse Brown ( the MCU’s Kang, Jonathan Majors ) getting overshadowed by the superpowered nostalgia around Tom Cruise returning to one of his best-known roles, especially given that Devotion ’s Korean War-era hardware isn’t as high-octane as the jets in this year’s biggest hit.

On the other hand, Top Gun: Maverick has reached such a rarefied level of success that it could create an appetite for similar material, rather than making another fighter-pilot picture pale in comparison. If calling Devotion an unofficial Top Gun prequel seems too diminishing, try this: In some ways, it’s a finer and more moving experience than Cruise’s reckoning turned victory lap.

Devotion takes place in 1950, at the outset of the Korean War — sometimes referred to as a “forgotten” war because of the lack of attention it received compared to World War II or the later conflict in Vietnam. Devotion pilots Tom Hudner (Powell) and Jesse Brown (Majors) are members of the Silent Generation, more spiritually than technically: Born at the tail end of the Greatest Generation that went off to World War II, they both enter the field just as that war is ending. They’re eager to serve, but they both understand the gravity of the duties they’ve assumed.

This is especially true of Jesse, the first Black pilot to complete the U.S. Navy’s training program. His wife, Daisy (Christina Jackson, playing a woman who in this telling might as well be named Worried Supportive), waits at home with their toddler. Assigned to work with Tom, Jesse is guarded at first; some of the film’s best moments come during the pauses where Jesse is clearly deciding what and how much to say to his colleagues. He’s too proud for subservience, but too controlled for physical confrontation, and the movie is nuanced in acknowledging how Tom’s ramrod-straight decency doesn’t necessarily lend him a complex understanding of the racial dynamics at play. His efforts to help his new wingman are not always welcome. His character arc is about his unspoken realization that he is not, in fact, going to serve as Jesse’s designated white savior.

Nothing especially seismic or unpredictable happens for most of Devotion . Tom and Jesse grow closer, though they aren’t inseparable. Their squadron trains, then ships out as the Korean conflict escalates. The only other character who makes much impression is the squad’s commanding officer, Dick Cevoli (Thomas Sadoski), who at one point offers straight talk to Tom about the value of a lifetime of “showing up,” rather than flashy heroism.

Yet the film’s combination of squareness and relative understatement, courtesy of director J.D. Dillard ( Sleight ), accumulates a quiet power. Not everyone grew up idolizing Tom Cruise’s smug hotshot Maverick, and this is a Naval-aviator movie without quite so much need for speed. Accordingly, the aerial combat isn’t as big-canvas thrilling as similar material in Maverick . But it does look convincing, and there’s something satisfying about how it emphasizes precision over power. Throughout the film, Dillard and Majors find grace notes, like the moment where Dillard’s camera stays fixed on the nose of a grounded plane as Jesse gets his bearings, or the striking look at Jesse’s preflight ritual. He stares at himself in the mirror, reciting every ugly dismissal ever thrown his way, and Dillard shoots this so Majors faces the camera directly, torturing and steeling himself at the same time.

It’s far more powerful than the movie’s occasional attempts to insert bits of contemporary vernacular into the proceedings, the most glaring of which has a Black serviceman approaching Jesse on behalf of a group working on the aircraft carrier, and telling him, “We see you.” At least the movie stops short of having anyone tell Tom to check his privilege. This stuff works best when the movie doesn’t rephrase the conflicts in more modern terms.

Devotion never feels like a textbook — history or sociology — because Dillard shows such impressive command of the material. Aided by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, he gives the movie’s visual tone a hushed, dusky quality, mitigating the rah-rah elements inherent in a movie that depicts a military conflict out of context. This film isn’t a particularly astute portrayal of war, but it does ably depict sacrifice — something ultimately missing from the movie-star restoration of Top Gun: Maverick . Comparing the two movies isn’t especially fair, but it’s still worth noting that this smaller production is doing more with less.

Devotion debuts in theaters on Nov. 23.

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Review: ‘Devotion’ is a quiet tale of allyship amid heroics

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Jonathan Majors, left, and Glen Powell in a scene from “Devotion.” (Eli Ade/Columbia Pictures-Sony via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Jonathan Majors in a scene from “Devotion.” (Columbia Pictures-Sony via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Jonathan Majors in a scene from “Devotion.” (Eli Ade/Columbia Pictures-Sony via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures shows, from left, Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Thomas Sadoski, Nick Hargrove, Daren Kagasoff, Joe Jonas and Spencer Neville in a scene from “Devotion.” (Eli Ade/Columbia Pictures-Sony via AP)

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There must be something about actor Glen Powell that casting directors associate with the heavens.

He’s played astronaut John Glenn in “Hidden Figures,” voiced a NASA official in the animated film “Apollo 10 1⁄2” and has two roles this year as a hotshot Navy aviator.

Here he is in “Devotion,” kicking off the movie with an entrance that’s pure cocksure, smirking golden boy, a replay of his earlier role as Jake “Hangman” Seresin in “Top Gun: Maverick.”

But this time the year is 1950, and Powell’s swaggering Lt. Tom Hudner is not the hero. The real star of “Devotion” is Ensign Jesse Brown, the first African American to complete Navy flight training. He’s played superbly and deeply by Jonathan Majors. So why is Powell so front and center?

The film is perhaps not what you were expecting. It is not an action thrill ride, a “Top Gun” set in Korea. There is no “Highway to the Danger Zone.” It is, rather, a quiet portrait of an airman over the course of a year, and, to be honest, it’s really not so much about him as about the notion of allyship.

Based on the book by the same name by Adam Makos, “Devotion” is assuredly directed by J.D. Dillard, who skillfully mixes shots in tight quarters with excellent aerial combat sequences. The script by Jake Crane and Jonathan A. H. Stewart is a slow-burning affair that will have audiences tugging at the leash.

It’s not a typical biopic with lots of flashbacks. In fact, there are none. We meet a gruff Brown after he has endured all manner of racism — hazed, bullied and forced to repeat Navy tests multiple times. His commanding officer refused to pin his lapel wings at graduation. Such experiences he reveals in off-hand comments. He has written every slur and demeaning putdown he has been told and repeats them in a mirror for motivation.

Once Brown returns nightly to his wife and baby daughter, the grimness dissolves. In the domestic sphere, he is a dotting father and loving husband. The bond he shares with wife, Daisy (better than wonderful Christina Jackson), is the rock hard earth that allows him to soar. “Play nice,” his wife tells him.

The rest of the cast includes a nifty but small part for Joe Jonas, showing lots of charismatic promise, and Thomas Sadoski as the aviator’s commanding officer. He plays it like a cool assistant professor at night school who is likely to turn his seat backward during a lecture to “rap with the kids.”

A tentative friendship blooms between Brown and Hudner, who sees in the Black airman a striving pilot and an admirable man. Both long for combat, having learned to fly in the years after World War II just as the Korean conflict is heating up. They both learn to wrestle with the Vought F4U-4 Corsair, a temperamental fighter aircraft.

Hudner’s fondness for Brown has a condescending flavor, though he wouldn’t admit it. The white pilot is always ready to jump to his Black friend’s defense, be it a stare-down with intolerant U.S. soldiers or fussy French waiters. He’s the first to throw a punch, even when Brown wasn’t looking for violence. “I can fight my own fights. Been doing it for a long time,” Brown tells his wingman.

And that’s when the film gets interesting (although things get a little surreal when their carrier docks in Cannes and the aviators somehow meet up with Elizabeth Taylor.) This lesson of how to be an ally for diversity comes into sharper focus as the film progresses. It is Hudner who needs to evolve his thinking. It is why Hudner is so prominent in a film about a Black pioneer.

When a group of Black sailors — who have come out on deck to cheer Brown land his plane on the carrier — approach him with a Rolex gift to say how proud he makes them, one says: “We see you.” But Hudner also needs to see him. Not through white savior lenses but as a man. “It was never your job to save Jesse,” Brown’s wife tells him.

But, ultimately, this is a weird way to honor a man who would posthumously receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. In many ways, framing his heroics beside a white wingman undermines the singularity of Brown. Even the film’s poster — with both actors’ pictures equally large — gives a false equivalency. This hero didn’t need any help.

“Devotion,” a Sony Pictures release in theaters Wednesday, is rated PG-13 for “strong language, some war action/violence and smoking.” Running time: 139 minutes. Two stars out of four.

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Online: https://www.devotion.movie/

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

‘Devotion’ Delivers a Respectful Last Flight for a Forgotten Hero | Review 

While 'Devotion' may not look to reinvent the genre, it does carve out its own space in this year’s impressive slate of war films.

For audiences who enjoy films about high-flying pilots and the tragedy of war, 2022 has delivered a trio of films that nose-dive and army crawl their way through different wars and their associated war games. Top Gun: Maverick was an awe-inspiring legacy sequel, while All Quiet on the Western Front was a gut-wrenching war horror, but with Devotion, you get a harrowing biopic that is equal parts sky-bound epic and a sobering reminder of the real sacrifices of war.

Based on the true story of Naval Aviator Jesse Brown , Devotion ’s title may not immediately make sense, but as the story slowly unwinds, we start to see the layers of different forms of devotion. Jesse ( Jonathan Majors ) is devoted to his career in the Navy, he’s devoted to his wife Daisy ( Christina Jackson ) and their daughter Pam, both of which are very expected forms of devotion. But the exploration of devotion at the heart of the film is the unlikely friendship and camaraderie he finds with his wingman Tom Hudner ( Glen Powell ), and how that bond has carried his memory into the present decade.

Devotion doesn’t get bogged down in the politics of the Korean War, instead hoping that its audience knows enough about the conflict of the war to understand the broad strokes it paints around the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and the fight between North Korea and South Korea. This helps and hinders it to some degree, considering the Korean War is largely viewed as the “Forgotten War,” despite having a direct impact on modern warfare.

RELATED: 'Devotion': Director J.D. Dillard and Christina Jackson on Why You Should See the Film in a Movie Theater

J. D. Dillard approaches Jesse and Tom’s story from a place of great respect, but at the same time, he doesn’t fall prey to the temptation to sugarcoat the situation or to embellish the cut-and-dried story that Adam Makos ’ similarly titled book laid out. Jesse was the first Black man to complete the U.S. Navy's basic flight training program, he was hailed for breaking barriers, profiled by The Associated Press, and photographed for Life magazine. But he also faced racism—from his neighbors, from his peers, and from the other soldiers that they were shipped off to war with. Dillard shirks the notion of showing opinions changed by harrowing heroism, there is no magical happily ever after, and Tom isn’t treated like a hero simply for being a good friend to Jesse. It’s a rare and welcomed decision in a long list of biopics that dishonor their subjects.

Devotion will likely be subjected to comparisons between it and Maverick , which aren’t entirely unwarranted when Powell is back in aviators for the second time this year, and the story follows familiar beats. But rarely does war or its various war games stray from an anticipated path. Beyond a handful of familiar beats, drawing a serious comparison between the two would be a disservice to what Devotion aims to be. Dillard doesn’t lean into spectacle or awe, instead, he relies on the powerhouse of emotions that Majors delivers in his role, paired with the earnest compassion that Powell brings.

The only area where Devotion truly falls short of perfection is the unremarkable cinematography that plays against the film’s scenery. Cannes is stunning, with brilliant blue skies and rows of pastel-colored architecture, but beyond this location, its other settings feel washed out and made for technicolor. While it’s possible that cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt ( Mank ) designed this as an ode to the 1950s of it all, it, unfortunately, shrouds scenes in unnecessary darkness that erodes the vibrancy of the emotion on display.

Despite the impressive cast of Daren Kagasoff , Nick Hargrove , Joseph Cross , Spencer Neville , and Joe Jonas (to name only a handful), Devotion doesn’t take the time to really flesh out the ensemble, and it overlooks some of the more necessary connective tissue in its rush to deliver a tidy 139-minute story. While this isn’t exactly to the detriment of the film’s plot, it does leave audiences wanting more emotional resonance—even as they’re tearing up at the film’s somber conclusion. Most of that falls on the shoulders of the film’s scribes Jake Crane and Jonathan A. Stewart who approach the story from a thousand-foot drop. It ultimately does work to get the audience from points A and B to C, but it left me wanting to see more of the charm and fun of Cannes—which is tragically cut short by the realities of war.

Devotion wouldn’t be half the movie it is without Majors and Powell at the center of the emotional rollercoaster, they’re a dynamite duo that effortlessly delivers on believable conviviality and a sort of brotherhood that would propel someone to make it their life’s mission to bring the other home. They capture the connection between Jesse and Tom that transcended their own deaths and bring a performance worthy of their legacy.

While Devotion may not look to reinvent the genre, it does carve out its own space in this year’s impressive slate of war films. It’s a solid, straight-laced story, that doesn’t shy away from the realities of war or the 1950s. Once it finds its wings in the final act, it soars to a place of real power.

Devotion comes to theaters on November 23. Check out our interview with Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell below:

StarTribune

Review: 'devotion' spotlights jonathan majors as a korean war pilot.

If "they don't make 'em like they used to" is a thing you say about movies, "Devotion" is for you.

There's a Gary-Cooper-bravely-going-into-battle vibe to the fact-based drama, set during the Korean War. Jonathan Majors plays Ensign Jesse Brown, who broke racial barriers among Navy pilots in 1950. Glen Powell, in his second airman-who-doesn't-play-by-the-rules role of the year (after "Top Gun: Maverick" ), plays colleague Tom Hudner, who serves alongside him and becomes his lone buddy.

Majors ("The Last Black Man in San Francisco," "Lovecraft Country") has been on the verge of big stardom for a few years, and "Devotion" could be the movie that finally does it for him.

His Brown is haunted, a quiet and soulful man whose confidence is a very convincing facade. He reveals his doubts and anger only when he's alone, staring into a bathroom mirror and parroting all the most awful things that can be said to a Black man who's blazing a trail. In another actor's hands, the scene might be too much, but Majors' spare, dignified performance is powerful because he doesn't resort to easy theatrics.

There are some exciting flying scenes — featuring Corsairs, the Jaguars of the air — and we're told enough about the war to know how high the stakes are. But the movie is more interested in Brown's incredible-but-true adventures overseas (Elizabeth Taylor pops up, as she did in real life) and his long-distance love of his wife and baby back home in Rhode Island (Christina Jackson is a powerhouse as Jesse's fiery wife Daisy).

Their love is one thing the bland, generic title refers to. Allegiance to country is another. But the real meaning of "Devotion" becomes clear only as the movie ends, and the handkerchiefs come out.

***1/2 out of 4 stars

Rated: PG-13 for language.

Where: In theaters.

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Devotion review – sturdy flyboy biopic needs more maverick spirit

Toronto film festival: An inspiring yet by-the-numbers retelling of the first Black man to compete in the navy’s flight training program

B efore there was a Top Gun, there was Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner. Brown held the distinction of being the first Black aviator to complete the navy’s flight training program, serving in the Korean war with Hudner as his trusty wingman. But in Devotion, director JD Dillard’s screen dramatization of their time in uniform, the decorated flyboys and their brothers-in-arms of the Fighting 32nd lack the cocksure jockishness flexed by Maverick and his cohort. Despite the superficial similarities to the dogfighting bonanza of the summer (and shooting in what could be the exact same patch of tundra for the identical emotional climaxes), this polished double biopic distinguishes itself with a solemnity and stillness in the moments between missions. Training its crosshair on the ingrained prejudice of the military and the question of how well-meaning white allies can best support its undoing, the film compensates for relatively middling action set pieces with a stolid maturity. Except for the part where Joe Jonas tries to score with Elizabeth Taylor.

The guys’ waggish detour to a Croisette casino with the crown jewel of Hollywood’s golden-agers (played by Serrinda Swan, a serviceable lookalike) is as rowdy as it gets, anomalous to the stiff-lipped snap-and-salute tone. (It’s also one in a handful of scenes that could be easily trimmed to get a 138-minute runtime in fighting shape.) From the first meeting between Lnt Hudner (Glen Powell, looking every bit the naval officer Ken doll he did in the Top Gun sequel) and Ensign Brown (Jonathan Major), there’s a tentativeness in their bonding that goes beyond the usually gradual nature of the process. The difference in their races hangs over every scene they share, though the issue isn’t any bigotry on Hudner’s part. Quite the opposite – he’s all too insistent about sticking up for a perfectly capable adult who wants nothing more than to be treated like anyone else.

Brown encounters discrimination everywhere he goes, whether from bartenders refusing to serve him or drunken louts trotting out the laziest slurs they’ve got. While he’s gotten good at turning the other cheek as demanded by a white-dominated society, he can’t deny the accumulated pain in his more intimate moments. A shaken yet determined Majors gets a chance to show his range in the private baring of his weariness, as in his ritualistic repeating of past invective hurled at him or the recounting of a swim test stacked against him that he nonetheless passed. Hudner takes it upon himself to defend his buddy, just as he’d want done for himself, oblivious that slugging strangers and filing special reports only brings unwanted attention to a Black man who’d rather fly under the radar than give tokenistic quotes to reporters from Time magazine. And maybe it only seems like it because he gets the final beat, but Hudner’s slow enlightenment about the difference between performative solidarity and true showing up turns into the core substance of a film ostensibly focused on tribute to a pioneering African American.

Their hard-earned friendship makes for an inspiring profile in camaraderie, even when packaged in simplistic morals. Brown’s wife (Christina Jackson) plays a thankless role that could have been scripted for her in checklist form: provide warm familial memory to sustain husband, express concern over risks he takes, weep in his absence, deliver clueless Caucasian’s lesson to be there when needed instead of leaping to provide aid out of pity. Jackson does it all with poise and a sensuality that shows us why she goes so well with her soft-spoken, strait-laced spouse. “It’s important to know who you’re flying with,” Hudner tells her in a visit to his partner’s home before they ship out. Jake Crane and Jonathan A Stewart’s screenplay abides by that maxim, more invested in the grounded portrayal of these men and their relationships than their exploits in the sky.

Sturdy if unexceptional, this prime cut of dad-bait hangs on the performances of Majors and Powell, two abundantly charming men hamstrung by straightforward material. The latter has an all-American face that looks like privilege made flesh, full of prep school educations and rugby trophies and summers on the compound. He’s an apt counterpoint to Majors, sculpted for a stoicism rooted not in masculine repression, but in carefully maintained control over anger. His whole life, he’s had to work twice as hard to get half as far, a trite biopic standby that Majors does his best to redeem with stifled frustration and exhaustion. Military men down to their bones, Brown and Hudner both put on a brave facade as they respectively wrestle with external hardship and self-imposed guilt, stowing their angst under a plain appearance. Dillard attempts to do the same with his unadorned point-and-shoot direction. He, however, has nothing richer lying underneath the placid surface.

Devotion is screening at the Toronto film festival and will be released in the US on 23 November

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‘devotion’ review: despite a passionate jonathan majors, this korean war epic seldom takes flight.

Based on the true story of the U.S. Navy's first Black aviator, the film will land on a number of IMAX screens when it bows Nov. 23.

By Michael Rechtshaffen

Michael Rechtshaffen

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If you believe the marketing, then Devotion , an inspirational aerial combat epic set during the Korean War, would like very much to be thought of as Top Gun: Corsair.

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Five years have passed since the end of World War II, and, this being 1950, Ensign Brown’s presence in the U.S. Navy’s basic flight training program doesn’t exactly go unnoticed; he constantly finds himself brushing off both pointed and casually racist remarks from his fellow officers. When he first meets up with Hudner, a straight-arrow new recruit, Brown proceeds to form a respectful if cautiously arm’s-length friendship with the Annapolis graduate.

In adapting the Makos novel, screenwriters Jake Crane and Jonathan A. H. Stewart seem to be content to trot out the usual war picture platitudes with stiff dialogue that has all the personality of an instruction manual. Meanwhile, director Dillard favors drawn-out dramatic pauses that keep getting in the way of crucial tension or momentum. Even a sequence during a leave in Cannes, when a chance beach encounter with Elizabeth Taylor (Serinda Swan) results in an invitation to party with her at a casino, ends up feeling lifeless and needlessly. protracted.

Despite those considerable obstacles in his path, Majors, whose recent credits include Lovecraft Country and The Harder They Fall , invests a tremendous amount of emotional conviction in his character — whether he’s playfully engaging at home with his devoted wife, Daisy (Christina Jackson), or castigating his reflection in a mirror, painfully reciting every hurtful/racist thing that was ever directed at him.

Powell, who also appeared in Top Gun: Maverick , isn’t given as much to work with — his character is a virtual cypher by comparison, with little in the way of backstory, and only really finds a semblance of purpose when he must come to the rescue of his injured partner.

In the absence of fuller character development, their fellow flyers, including those played by Joe Jonas and Nick Hargrove, have even less opportunity to make an impression.

Fortunately, cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt ( Mank ) manages to liven things up with those IMAX-worthy aerial visuals, which really didn’t require Chanda Dancy’s over-modulated music cues to kick in at the slightest provocation, even in the absence of a Lady Gaga on the soundtrack.

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A pair of U.S. Navy fighter pilots risk their lives during the Korean War and become some of the Navy's most celebrated wingmen. A pair of U.S. Navy fighter pilots risk their lives during the Korean War and become some of the Navy's most celebrated wingmen. A pair of U.S. Navy fighter pilots risk their lives during the Korean War and become some of the Navy's most celebrated wingmen.

• J.D. Dillard
• Jonathan Stewart
• Jonathan Majors
• Glen Powell
• Christina Jackson
• 177 User reviews
• 104 Critic reviews
• 66 Metascore
• 2 wins & 9 nominations

• Jesse Brown

• Daisy Brown

• Dick Cevoli

• Bill Koenig

• Marty Goode

• Carol Mohring

• Captain Sisson
• See all cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The US Navy named a ship in honor of Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the USS Jesse L. Brown FF1089. It was Knox Class, commissioned 17 Feb 1973. Decommissioned 27 July 1994.
• Goofs For winter flying in Korea pilots would have been dressed in "Poopy Suits", heavy, bulky, rubberized anti-exposure suits which were decidedly unglamorous.

[Brown walks towards the restroom mirror and breathes deeply]

Jesse Brown : You ain't shit.

[breathing deeply again]

Jesse Brown : You ain't never landing that plane, nigger.

[continues to breathe deeply]

Jesse Brown : Boy.

[continued deep breathing]

Jesse Brown : Your monkey-ass shouldn't even be flying.

[Continues to breathe deeply as tears flow down his face. He grunts before shaking his head off and looks down. He then wipes his tears and looks at the mirror again before heading to the USS Leyte]

• Crazy credits With a message of gratitude, the director, as a child, is seen held by his father in his flight suit.
• Alternate versions For unknown reasons, the film switched distribution from Columbia Pictures after it's theatrical release to Paramount Pictures for it's home video release. However, the end credits of the film still say "Columbia Pictures Presents".
• Connections Referenced in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: The Illusion of Winning (2022)
• Soundtracks K.C. Caboose Written by Rex Stewart Performed by Brick Fleagle Courtesy of Craft Recordings, a Division of Concord

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 19 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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Star power can't save Devotion and The Son , the latest Pitch Perfect spinoff is amusing but slight

What's worth your time in movies and TV this weekend? EW's critics review the latest releases: Devotion, The Son, Lady Chatterley's Lover, and Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin.

Leah Greenblatt is the critic at large at Entertainment Weekly , covering movies, music, books, and theater. She is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and has been writing for EW since 2004.

Kristen Baldwin is the TV critic for EW

Senior Editor, Movies

In theaters now

Airplanes, danger zones, a certain brand of squinty square-jawed masculinity: Devotion sure looks like a low-flying Top Gun , and not only because it costars golden-boy Maverick alum Glen Powell . It even arrives with the hook of an inspiring real-life story — about the first Black aviator in U.S. Navy history — and two talented actors who seem to represent the hopes of young Hollywood. But the movie's propulsive trailer , alas, conceals the sputtering dramatic engine of an oddly dull and dutiful biopic, too restrained to serve the valiant efforts of its leads.

Lovecraft Country 's Jonathan Majors , recently inducted into the extended Avengers universe , is Jesse Brown, a Mississippi native who famously broke color lines to earn his wings as a Navy pilot. Cloaked in the careful reserve of a man used to deflecting cruelty and hate on a daily basis, he seems like an unlikely friend for Powell's gregarious All-American Tom Hudner to latch onto; he's also married with a young daughter, a settled-down outlier in the rowdy bachelor culture of their military unit. But Tom is the kind of guy who gets what he wants, and soon the pair have formed a tentative friendship, just in time to be deployed in an operation that isn't yet being called the Korean War.

There are a few appropriately harrowing flight-training sequences, and a glamorous furlough in Cannes that collides with an actual movie star (that's Ballers ' Serinda Swan as a vampish Liz Taylor); lessons are learned and bonds forged. The screenplay steers so consistently toward generalities, though, that it's hard to invest in any real stakes for the sketched-out characters on screen, and director J.D. Dillard ( Sleight , Sweetheart ) hits his story beats with dogged competence but not much flair: As Jesse's devoted wife Daisy, The Good Fight 's Christina Jackson seems to be waiting nearly two and half hours for a line not out of the Faithful Housewife handbook. Powell and Majors, both born with surfeits of natural charisma, strain mightily to imbue their scant dialogue with deeper meaning, but Devotion , earnest and determinedly earthbound to the end, never really captures the air up there. Grade: B– — Leah Greenblatt

Lady Chatterley's Lover

On Netflix now

If you've pitied actress Emma Corrin , forever playing the scorned or abandoned wife in period dramas (see: The Crown , My Policeman ), be assured that she more than gets hers in Lady Chatterley's Lover — a movie so happily, explicitly sexed, it may turn the Netflix logo a deeper shade of red.

D.H. Lawrence's vaunted novel, scandalous enough to be banned for several decades after it was first published in Italy in 1928, has been adapted many times on screen, most recently for the BBC in 2015 . French director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (who made 2019's lovely, meditative prison drama The Mustang ), approaches the material here with refreshing straightforwardness, bringing an air of feminist modernity to the production without tilting into full anachronism — a take closer to Joe Wright's 2005 Pride & Prejudice , you could say, than the recent, relentlessly winky Persuasion .

Here, Corrin's Constance Reid is a young aristocrat just bohemian enough to believe that her union with a lord of the manor (Matthew Duckett, perfectly priggish) can be a marriage of equals. But when he comes back paralyzed from the Great War, and apparently unconcerned about her finding any sort of physical satisfaction for the rest of her life, the Lady's eye begins to wander. That gaze doesn't have far to go on their remote British estate, and so it lands on the gamekeeper ( Godless star Jack O'Connell , so quietly magnetic it seems unfair). He may come from the lower classes, but he reads James Joyce in his spare time, and is, as you may have guessed, very good with his hands.

Corrin and O'Connell spend most of the next hour-plus flirting and cavorting and doing things al fresco that would not be out of place at a Roman orgy. Sniffy husband and a generally disapproving society aside, there isn't actually much dramatic conflict in Chatterley , though that feels like a relief, frankly, in a sea of stories that rarely allow for female desire without some mortal moral punishment (if only Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary had been so lucky). What's left, then, is just an unabashedly heady romance, rich in pretty costumes — when they're wearing them — and lush, lusty atmosphere. Grade: B+ — Leah Greenblatt

In limited theatrical release November 25

Director Florian Zeller pulled off several miracles with 2020's The Father , an elegant drama about dementia that was never mawkish, and a reminder (for anyone who needed it) that Anthony Hopkins was always more than fava beans and a nice Chianti. If Zeller doesn't match the same poise with his follow-up, The Son , a ruinous family tragedy that borders on audience brutality, he still demonstrates admirable commitment to life's tougher stories — this filmmaker will never be accused of dumbing anything down.

Still, down is where Zeller means to take us, to a long-foreshadowed hellish place of pain that every parent fears, even high-powered Manhattan lawyers like Peter Miller ( Hugh Jackman ), cusping on career advancement and happily remarried. Peter's reboot with Beth ( Vanessa Kirby , tops in a tricky role) — they even have an infant — is interrupted one night by his ex-wife, Kate ( Laura Dern ), concerned about their teenage son's moods and school absences. An intervention is required, and while it's not what Beth signed up for, the surly, fragile Nicholas (Zen McGrath) moves in.

The Son struggles hard not to be a bad-dad drama; at almost every juncture, it shows divorced parents trying to make the right calls, even as Nicholas bobs in the choppy wake of a recent-enough split. But it doesn't take long to sense that Zeller is making something darkly cynical and a bit sadistic. You see it in Jackman' increasingly furrowed brow and distracted eyes (the sledgehammer performance becomes a full-on descent). There's obviousness in the film's sun-dappled flashbacks to happier days, and one outrageous mid-argument reveal that would make Chekhov blush.

Give Zeller credit, though, for not flinching in the ways that count: Depression doesn't have an easy solve, nor, in many cases, a discernible cause. Sometimes, a father is the least-qualified person to deal with it. ( The Son 's Hopkins shows up for an electrifying cameo that reveals, with a minimum of dialogue, how optional the guilt can be.) Unlike The Father, which expanded Zeller's stage source material with maze-like complexity, The Son pins us in for an endgame that you wish had more of a takeaway than a gut punch. Grade: B– — Joshua Rothkopf

Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin

Streaming now on Peacock

It feels almost irresponsible, in this age of IP abuse, to praise the fourth extension of a franchise that has delivered diminishing creative returns with each successive installment. But here we are. Peacock's Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin is a slight but unexpectedly amusing spin-off of the film franchise. The show won't win any trophies for originality, but it keeps a pleasant beat thanks to an appealing ensemble and a fat heart.

Though it's been seven years since we last saw Bumper Allen ( Adam Devine ), he's still right where we left him in Pitch Perfect 2 : Working security at Barden University, performing with the a cappella quintet The Tonehangers, and dreaming of superstardom. When his TikTok mashup of "99 Luftballons" and "Take On Me" goes viral in Germany, Bumper accepts an invitation from former a cappella champ-turned-manager Pieter Krämer (Flula Borg) to launch his career in Berlin. Only after relocating to the land of beer and Bratwurst does Bumper learn that Pieter has his own industry challenges to overcome.

Rather than build a series around the cocky and insufferable antagonist of the Pitch Perfect movies, showrunner Megan Amram ( The Good Place ) gives us a Bumper who's softened by maturity and the humility of persistent failure. But Berlin follows the formula that (mostly) worked for the films. There's the big competition: Pieter and influential DJ Das Boot (Lera Abova) aim to help Bumper land a coveted "newcomer" spot in the German Unity Day concert. The cartoonish rival: Pieter's flamboyant and manipulative ex-girlfriend/bandmate, Gisela ( Jameela Jamil ). The love interest: Pieter's assistant Heidi ( Modern Family 's Sarah Hyland ), a kindhearted American and secret songwriter. And the showy songbursts: A Guns N' Roses duet in a dumpster; "Barbie Girl" at an avant-garde art show.

The half-hour episodes are breezy and light, perfect for background viewing — though you might miss some of the sharp and silly wordplay. (A Dutch a cappella group called "Holland Oats"? You bet I laughed.) Devine tempers Bumper's overconfidence with newfound shades of earnestness and self-awareness. Borg, reprising his role from Pitch Perfect 2 , delivers every line with a chipper frankness that is both authentically German and consistently funny. The story hits all the notes you'd expect — friendships are tested, lessons are learned — but the familiarity is by design. Even when you've heard a song a million times, it's sometimes still fun to hum along. Grade: B — Kristen Baldwin

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• Joe Jonas on the pressure of acting in Devotion : 'I've got to show my worth'
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‘Wicked Little Letters’ Review: Prim, Proper and Profane

Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley elevate a comedy about a weird true tale of defamation and dirty words.

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By Alissa Wilkinson

“This is more true than you’d think,” handwritten text informs us at the start of “Wicked Little Letters.” I looked it up , and they weren’t kidding. The movie involves tweaks and elisions to history, of course. But at least in its major outlines, the true story matches the film, in which a dour spinster named Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) and her raucous next-door neighbor Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley) tangle over a series of mysteriously obscene letters that started arriving at the homes of people in the English coast village of Littlehampton in 1920. As you may intuit, this movie belongs to a very particular subgenre summed up in one declaration: boy, small English towns are full of weirdos.

Directed by Thea Sharrock (who has an impressive two movies out this week — the other is “The Beautiful Game”) from a screenplay by the comedy writer Jonny Sweet, “Wicked Little Letters” is a darkly funny take on the tale, leaning a lot more toward the farce than the darkness. Edith, the oldest daughter in a large and very pious family, still lives with her parents (Timothy Spall and Gemma Jones). They sleep in three twin beds in the same room. They rarely go anywhere and are constantly scandalized.

Edith has been under her father’s thumb so long that any will she possessed has been wholly squashed out, which makes her exactly the ideal of feminine virtue for 1920s England. The men have returned from war — those who survived, anyhow — and retaken the jobs and roles women filled, relegating them back to the kitchen and domestic life. Edith, homely but docile, is everything a good Christian Englishwoman should be.

And of course, anyone who deviates from Edith’s type is suspicious. Rose, for instance, has committed a quadruple feat of sin: living with her Black boyfriend (Malachi Kirby), having a daughter (Alisha Weir) who dares the unladylike act of picking up a guitar, enjoying a night at the pub and, most of all, being Irish.

When she arrived in Littlehampton, she was a figure of affable curiosity to her neighbors, especially Edith. But by the time we meet them, Edith has accused Rose of sending elegantly written obscene letters to her and to the neighbors — letters containing marvelously inventive strings of epithets so vile that I cannot reproduce them in this newspaper. Edith endures the letters with a visage so saintly that you can practically see her halo: “We worship a Messiah who suffered, so by my suffering, do I not move closer to heaven?” she intones to her parents, eyes modestly cast down.

We soon learn why Edith says Rose is motivated to write the letters. This is where the movie loses some steam, because early on, it’s obvious that all is not as it seems, something the put-upon local cop Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) is sure of from the jump. Gladys’s father was a police officer, which is why she became one, though the men she works with lord their maleness over her, putting her down at every opportunity. (She introduces herself to everyone as “Woman Police Officer Moss,” because they’re going to comment on it, anyhow.) Gladys is determined to hunt down the facts, with the help of a few local women who’ve managed to maintain minds of their own.

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“Wicked Little Letters” plays like a caper, its mystery worn lightly in what is less of a mystery and more of a lavish consideration of how annoying and stupid the men of Littlehampton (and perhaps, by extension, men in general) were around 1920. Each one is an idiot (save for Rose’s partner, who has dealt with plenty of slights of his own), made foolish and useless by the kind of misogyny that insists they must be better than women because, well, I mean, women , you know.

The magistrates and clergy and officers of the law all refuse to see what’s right in front of them precisely because they’re blinded by prejudice. They are boorish and boring and bad, and the more weak minded or browbeaten of the women follow right along.

This makes for gently witty comedy, everyone falling into their types easily and pleasantly. (At one point, “DIE SLUT” is splashed in paint across Rose’s door. “It’s German,” she remarks to her daughter, pulling her inside.) The movie is full of goofy side characters and one-liners, yet elevated occasionally to genuine complexity by Colman and Buckley, who are consistently the best thing about any movie they’re in. And, it’s fun to see them together, given Buckley recently played a younger version of Colman in “The Lost Daughter.”

“Wicked Little Letters” would almost be a pretty family-friendly comedy (or at least well suited for more delicate palates) save for one thing: A great deal of its humor comes from the spectacle of watching various upright, uptight, prudish figures spew uninterrupted streams of profanity in inappropriate places: courtrooms, living rooms, the middle of the street. It is pretty funny the first and second and third time. It starts to feel like a crutch after a while.

If that doesn’t bug you, then “Wicked Little Letters” is enjoyable enough, buoyed by its cast, the kind of movie that provokes a few chuckles but won’t stick to your ribs. But I was left pondering a particular characteristic of this kind of period movie. It has a point to make about the plight of women in a patriarchal world, whether they’re seen as angels or trollops; that’s not merely set dressing for the movie, but the text itself. Yet I can’t escape the feeling that we’re meant to laugh at the dull-witted prejudiced people of a hundred years ago, the way they suppress themselves and oppress one another. Aren’t we lucky we’re not like them anymore?

That’s one way to look at it. The truth is more complicated. But perhaps the movie knows it: This is , as we were warned, more true than you’d think.

Wicked Little Letters Rated R for many, many, many naughty words and one brief bare bum. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters.

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

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