Category: Reviews

  • ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ is a candy-coated delight

    ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ is a candy-coated delight

    Ralph reluctantly makes a new friend named Vanellope in 'Wreck It Ralph'
    Ralph reluctantly makes a new friend named Vanellope in ‘Wreck It Ralph’

    One need not be a huge gamer to enjoy the deliriously entertaining Wreck-It Ralph, directed by Rich Moore. This Disney movie proves that evergreen themes like family, friendship and self-esteem can win audiences over in any genre.

    Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) is the oversized villain of the ‘80s-born video game “Fix-It Felix Jr.” He bounds around an apartment building, smashing windows and willows, Hulk-style, until the goody-goody title character of the game (voiced by Jack McBrayer) comes in and cleans up all the messes, restoring tenants’ apartments to pristine condition. But even though having a villain is a necessary part of keeping the game going, everyone else in the video game abhors Ralph. Tired of being persona non grata, Ralph embarks on a mission to win an award in another game and therefore prove he can be a hero.

    How can this be done, you might ask? One of the more ingenious visions in Jennifer Lee and Phil Johnston’s screenplay is the creation of “Game Central Station,” a depot in which characters from all active video games in an arcade can mix and mingle, shuttling through power cords like subways after arcade hours. It’s a clever concept, as is an early scene at an AA-like meeting for bemoaning arcade game baddies. And another one of the joys to be found in Moore’s Disney film is just how visually striking it is. Bright colors abound, especially when events land Ralph in another game entitled “Sugar Rush” (think “Candy Land” meets “Speed Racer”). It’s there that he meets the young rapscallion Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman), a young girl serving an outcast sentence because she’s a glitch – ie, a poorly coded character. (Remember the line “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way” in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This is the next level.)

    Q*Bert is having a hard time of it in 'Wreck It Ralph'
    Q*Bert is having a hard time of it in ‘Wreck It Ralph’

    Vanellope and Ralph establish the sweetest surrogate parent-child rapport since Monsters, Inc. as both try to build up the other’s ego in time for a climactic race. Meanwhile, King Candy (Alan Tudyk, doing the best VO in the bunch) tries to prevent Vanellope from participating – at the same time, Felix teams up with a Calhoun (Jane Lynch), a drill sergeant from another game, “Hero’s Duty,” to bring Ralph back to “Felix” beforethe whole game is shut down (when characters exit their games during the day, the arcade deems them out of order, thus putting them on the slab).

    Ralph gets a lot of mileage early on with its title character’s sympathetic plight and the nostalgic excitement of merging real-life and fictional video game characters, but eventually, it stalls out on the clever. Once Ralph lands in “Sugar Rush,” one wants him to keep game-hopping to see what other locales Lee and Johnston can devise. The fact that he sticks around “Sugar Rush” disappoints us; we want to see a Toys ‘R’ Us-level of bright worlds on display. And the film has pretty much exhausted its creative wheelhouse by the time we reach the climactic race. But its message of self-affirmation cannot be overlooked. And from start to finish, the ride is delicious.

  • ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’: Driving a different kind of Miss Daisy

    ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’: Driving a different kind of Miss Daisy

    Bill Murray is FDR in 'Hyde Park on Hudson'
    Bill Murray is FDR in ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’

    Wieners figure rather prominently in Hyde Park on Hudson. Eventually, hot dogs do as well.

    Hyde Park is the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s momentous meeting with King George VI of England during the summer of 1939. Except, it sort of isn’t. The movie is also about FDR’s many infidelities, including one with his distant cousin Daisy Suckley (don’t get too riled up – wife Eleanor was also a cousin of his as well). These two stories duke it out in Roger Michell’s light but clumsy historical look, with neither one emerging a victor.

    Michell’s movie, set in the Roosevelt country estate in Hyde Park, New York, suffers because writer Richard Nelson never really makes clear what the emotional or political stakes are. In its early scenes, FDR summons spinster Suckley to come to him and assist as part of his planning entourage. An early scene in a field shows the president shooing his Secret Service men away so he can have a dalliance with her. The relationship would continue for some time, though it comes as a bit of a surprise when the sensible Suckley turns out to be devastated to learn FDR has eyes for others in addition to her.

    Especially when Suckley is portrayed by an actress as estimable as Laura Linney, who is known for imbuing strength in adult women despite their flaws and folly. Her skills are largely wasted here. The same goes for Bill Murray, flirting with Oscar as the polio-ridden prez. His scenes with Linney, as well as the smartly cast Elizabeth Marvel (as private secretary Marguerite LeHand) and Olivia Williams (underserved but doing yeoman’s work as the toothy Eleanor), are all lacking in chemistry.

    Murray’s game improves when he gets to show FDR’S callousness, which extend from the women he loves and ignores to the diplomats he hosts. Hyde Park’s better moments occur in his goofy exchanges with King George (Samuel West, wonderful as usual), humanizing the two most powerful men in the world as little more than boys, despite the size and cost of their toys. (As Queen Elizabeth, Olivia Colman also delivers a dignified, humorous performance).

    Nelson manages to squeeze in the import of the king’s visit, as he needs to rally America’s aid for World War II, but one is never worried about an alliance seen as a foregone conclusion. So much of the dialogue centers on whether George and Elizabeth will eat a distinctly American hot dog at a picnic photo opportunity. It’s all a little silly. Had Nelson provided some commentary about the importance of image in diplomacy, Hyde Park might have stood weightier ground.

    Despite praiseworthy costumes from Dinah Collin and loving cinematography courtesy of Lol Crawley, Hyde Park is a bipolar movie, bounding back and forth between Daisy’s soapy storyline and the more stately one involving the royals. And it is confusing. If Daisy is an omniscient narrator, why do so many scenes occur without her in the room? She couldn’t possibly have witnessed many of these private conversations to be able to recount them. It’s hard for a movie like Hyde Park to offer the measure of a man one gets the feeling she hardly knew well in the first place.

  • ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ is good… but should have stayed true to J.R.R. Tolkien’s book

    ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ is good… but should have stayed true to J.R.R. Tolkien’s book

    Martin Freeman stars as Bilbo Baggins in 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'
    Martin Freeman stars as Bilbo Baggins in ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’

    The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first of a new trilogy from Peter Jackson, director of the wonderful Lord of the Rings trilogy.  While The Hobbit’s first installment is good, it doesn’t come near the level of any of the LOTR films, perhaps because they set the bar too high.  Also problematic is that Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a much shorter novel than his follow-up “The Lord of the Rings” and probably doesn’t need three films to tell the story as Tolkien wrote it.

    The tale is told in flashback as the now elderly “Bilbo Baggins” (Holm) is a hobbit writing a memoir of sorts about his adventures when he was young.  The memoir is for “Frodo” (Wood), the cousin Bilbo adopted.  We then see the young Bilbo (Freeman) as he is living in his home in the Shire.  The wizard “Gandalf” drops in to visit and soon dwarves start showing up to gather for a meeting.  Eventually Gandalf and the dwarves convince Frodo to join their quest to regain control of Erebor, their kingdom.  The dwarves were forced from their kingdom by the arrival of Smaug, a dragon that coveted the massive amount of gold within the city of the dwarves located inside a mountain.

    From left to right: Ken Stott as Balin, Aidan Turner as Kili, William Kircher as Bifur, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Graham McTavish as Dwalin, Mark Hadlow as Dori in 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'
    From left to right: Ken Stott as Balin, Aidan Turner as Kili, William Kircher as Bifur, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Graham McTavish as Dwalin, Mark Hadlow as Dori in ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’

    Bilbo, “Thorin” (Armitage) who is the leader of the dwarves and grandson of the slain King Thror, and the other dwarves encounter trolls, orcs, and other hazards on their journey and because this is a trilogy, it’s safe to assume that they will not reach Erebor before the end of this first installment.  But they do encounter a number of hazards and make some very interesting finds.  We are also introduced to “Gollum” (Serkis) and in Bilbo’s encounter with Gollum, the hobbit comes into possession of a certain ring that contains great power and danger.

    Visually this is a stunning film.  The high speed version is incredibly sharp and detailed.  Almost too much so.  Jackson has a way of integrating close-up and panoramic scenes that are wonderful to watch.  He also gives us very satisfying action sequences that aren’t gratuitous but drive the points of the plot forward.

    Andy Serkis returns to bring Gollum to life in 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'
    Andy Serkis returns to bring Gollum to life in ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’

    However, die-hard fans of Tolkien’s works will not be happy with what’s been done to his novel in order to create a trilogy.  Characters that weren’t in the novel are present in the film, supposedly done in the “spirit of Tolkien”.  In point of fact, Tolkien made changes to his original work as he was working on “The Lord of the Rings” and they were incorporated into later published versions of “The Hobbit”.  If he wanted to transition those characters from the latter novel to the former, he would have done so.  Clearly he did not.

    That doesn’t make The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey unenjoyable or bad film.  It is.  It just isn’t what it might have been, had Jackson and company hewed more closely to Tolkien’s own modified vision and left well enough alone.

  • Alan Cumming delivers brilliant performance in ‘Any Day Now’

    Alan Cumming delivers brilliant performance in ‘Any Day Now’

    Garret Dillahunt and Alan Cumming star in 'Any Day Now'
    Garret Dillahunt and Alan Cumming star in ‘Any Day Now’

    Any Day Now is a powerful, compelling film that is very loosely based on a true story from the late 1970s.  It contains outstanding acting performances and excellent writing.

    “Rudy” (Cumming) is a female impersonator in West Hollywood in 1979. One night he meets “Paul” (Dillahunt), who has only recently started to step out of the closet.  Soon he and Rudy are parked and Paul is having his first same-sex experience.  Afterward he drives Rudy home.  He finds out that Rudy would rather be singing as a man than lip-syncing in a drag show, but Rudy says he can’t afford to make demo tapes and send them out.

    Rudy’s neighbor, “Marianna” (Allman) is playing her music loud and Rudy complains.  Then one night she doesn’t come home. Rudy ends up discovering her son, “Marco” (Leyva), who was left home alone.  Marco gets put into foster care when his mother is arrested, but runs away and goes home where Rudy finds him again. Rudy turns to Paul for help, but he is reluctant to help because he’s got a promising career with the district attorney’s office, which could be derailed if they discover he is a homosexual.

    He eventually agrees to help, and the two soon find themselves in a relationship. They get temporary custody of Marco (after convincing the court they are ‘cousins’) while his mother is in jail.  Rudy and Paul move in together, become a committed couple and make a home for themselves and Marco, who thrives in their care and does well in the special education class where Rudy enrolls him.

    Then the authorities discover that Rudy and Paul aren’t cousins.  Marco is taken from them and put back into foster care.  Rudy and Paul decide to file papers seeking permanent custody of Marco because this has some strategic advantages.  They are opposed by an attorney, “Lambert” (Henry) who will stop at nothing to win his case.

    Writer/director Rufus Fine adapted an original screenplay by George Arthur Bloom.  The original was set in New York and didn’t include a love interest for the man seeking to adopt the “challenged” boy.  Not having seen the original, it at least sounds like this was an improvement.

    Any Day Now is a two or three hanky movie and Alan Cumming’s performance is amazing.  So is his singing voice and the music for this film is one of its many positive attributes.  It very accurately captures the West Hollywood vibe of the late 1970s, and the discrimination gay men faced at the time.

    This is a terrific movie and well worth the full price of admission.

  • You might not be spellbound by ‘Hitchcock’

    You might not be spellbound by ‘Hitchcock’

    Anthony Hopkins stars as Alfred Hitchcock in 'Hitchcock'
    Anthony Hopkins stars as Alfred Hitchcock in ‘Hitchcock’

    Who would have thought that of all things, Hitchcock, Sacha Gervasi’s window into Alfred Hitchcock prior to and during the making of Psycho, one of the most enduring films of all time and a suspense classic, would turn out to be primarily a romance?

    But that’s exactly the yield in Gervasi’s overextended film, which screenwriter John J. McLaughlin has adapted from Stephen Rebello’s piercingly definitive account, “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho”. And in chronicling just a couple of years in the life and career of the director, including his struggles to get Psycho made, yearning for industry adulation, his odd dealings with the female stars he directed, and most especially, his marriage to Alma Reville (Helen Mirren), the film spreads itself far too thin in its portrayal of the famously portly artist.

    Hitchcock’s primary emphasis is on Hitchcock and Reville, a largely unknown force who certainly deserves her own story. But this film isn’t it. McLaughlin’s script sanctifies the woman. She can do no wrong – all of her story ideas for Hitchcock are spot-on, and she fills in for him on set at one point as director with a complete grasp of proficiency. Even a formulaic subplot hinting at a desired affair with writer Whitfield Cook (a caddish Danny Huston) treats her with the utmost sympathy. And as outfitted by Julie Weiss, Reville takes on the form and figure of a movie star herself. It’s a glamorous look at a largely invisible figure, and it goes too far.

    On the other hand, Hitchcock holds back when it comes to the other threads on which Gervasi pulls. The script shows Hitchcock having frequent internal dialogues with Ed Gein, the real life murderer on whom Robert Bloch based Norman Bates in his novel of “Psycho”, asserting that the director might be just as disturbed as his depraved subject matter. But then it doesn’t deliver beyond that, aside from a few cute bon mots (“Enjoy the finger sandwiches; they’re made of real fingers”) that do not sound threatening at all. And while a competing HBO film, The Girl, focused on Hitchcock’s infamous obsession with star Tippi Hedren, we largely see him merely pulling pranks on the two actresses in Psycho, Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) and Vera Miles (Jessica Biel).

    Anthony Hopkins and Scarlett Johansson in 'Hitchcock'
    Anthony Hopkins and Scarlett Johansson in ‘Hitchcock’

    Miles remarks how her choice of personal life over career cost her the leading role in Vertigo, but the film offers nothing to support her argument or prove that it makes the director reptilian. And if she resented him so much, why take on the thankless role in Psycho anyway? (Though neither actress can do much in these portrayals, at least the distaff members of the Psycho cast get representation; men like Richard Chassler as Martin Balsam and Josh Yeo as John Gavin are barely seen and never heard.)

    As a thesis, Hitchcock is unfocused. It cannot decide if it wants to portray its subject as monster or mere menace. While both his fortune and his marriage face hurdles, neither impediment looms too large or for too long. And a humanizing note rings false. The director bemoans the fact that while nominated, he has never won the Best Director Oscar he so craves. But McLaughlin never addresses the fact that he refused to make more Oscar-friendly fare throughout his career (and he did get an honorary Irving G. Thalberg Award, which goes unmentioned in the film’s post-script.)

    There are joys to behold in the film, however, for cineastes. It is a thrill to see renderings of behind-the-scenes figures like Lew Wasserman (essayed by Michael Stuhlbarg) and Barney Balaban (Richard Portnow), and set designer Robert Gould’s recreations of both the homes and sets of a bygone era have the effect of time travel simulation. Most especially, one gets to watch Hopkins and Mirren, indisputably two of filmdom’s greatest working actors, work together. Hopkins, who has brought real-life presidents and painters to life onscreen before this another home run, marrying the director’s arrogance and insecurity in a devilish turn that does justice both to Gervasi’s light tone and respects the subject himself. And while her role may be inflated, Mirren certainly imbues Reville with dignity and credibility. I would have traded less screen time with her and a bit more of Psycho star Anthony Perkins (James D’Arcy). Both had fascinating lives deserving of their own individual film treatments. But maybe those movies are to come. God knows Hollywood loves a good trilogy.

  • ‘Fitzgerald Family Christmas’ could use a bit more luck of the Irish

    ‘Fitzgerald Family Christmas’ could use a bit more luck of the Irish

    Connie Britton and Ed Burns in 'The Fitzgerald Family Christmas'
    Connie Britton and Ed Burns in ‘The Fitzgerald Family Christmas’

    The big Irish family at the center of The Fitzgerald Family Christmas have a double whammy come year’s end: celebrating the birth of their mother in addition to the birth of Christ. But as Gerry, the well-meaning prodigal son played by writer-director-star Edward Burns, tries to gather everyone together, Burns has almost as much trouble cobbling a believable movie in this by-the-numbers production from his patented assembly line.

    The film suffers from an overload of characters battling an anemic script. Fitzgerald spends an inordinate amount of its running time with various members of the super-size clans reciting aspects of their life stories to each other in order to fill the audience in on who they are and what makes them distinct from one another. (Would a brother not know where his sister went to college or how old she was, even if they are more than a decade apart?) This is how we learn that the oddly-named Gerry Fitzgerald (again, really?) has played surrogate dad to his six younger siblings ever since his father, Jim (Ed Lauter) left his Long Island home and wife, Rosie (Anita Gillette).

    And so we meet Erin (Heather Burns, unable to defeat her baseline whiny delivery), married to a well-off Jewish atheist husband (yes, they exist) and with a newborn son; dimwit but successful Quinn (Michael McGlone, a vet of Burns’ The Brothers McMullen and She’s the One), dating a woman closer in age to much younger sister Sharon (Kerry Bishé), who in turn is dating the much older, ahem, F.X. (Noah Emmerich); Dottie (Marsha Dietlein Bennett), separated from her husband due to an affair with a much younger lawnmower man; Connie (Caitlin Fitzgerald), a pregnant nurse married to an ungrateful hubby; and Cyril (Tom Guiry), the youngest, fresh out of rehab for a very elliptically described habit.

    Ed Lauter and Michael McGlone co-star in 'The Fitzgerald Family Christmas'
    Ed Lauter and Michael McGlone co-star in ‘The Fitzgerald Family Christmas’

    Gerry has been talking with Jim, who wants to see his family at Christmas since he is ill, and it will likely be his last. As the holiday approaches, and all siblings come up with unexplained reasons to avoid Rosie on her birthday, the Fitzgerald clan splits when it comes to forgiving or ignoring Jim for his past misdeeds. In the meantime, both Gerry and Rosie visit their ailing next door neighbor, Mrs. McGowan (Joyce Van Patten). At one point, Gerry had dated her daughter, but she died, we are led to believe, on September 11, 2001, a month before their intended wedding (we don’t learn how, or why exactly this has led Gerry to stay at home with Rosie and manage the family bar). Mrs. McGowan seems to be the gift that keeps on giving, though, because when Gerry meets her new nurse, Nora (Connie Britton, also a McMullen grad) it’s kismet. Even Gerry opts to spend time with her instead of Rosie on her birthday, a choice that goes unacknowledged and unindicted.

    Burns understands the mechanics of domestic film storytelling well, and he has cast a solid stable of actors to fill out the Fitzgerald family tree. But what he doesn’t grasp, after nearly two decades behind the lens, is how to let a film sit. He conjures up absurd situations to give each of his motley crew of characters a storyline, when their natural personalities could emerge independently. Quinn and Sharon abandon their beloved without any notice – let alone a car – during a getaway trip to help out Connie in a crisis, then demand they find a way back to Long Island immediately. (Again, really?). And Burns doesn’t always justify comments characters assert about each other. We never learn why Rosie is accused of giving special care to Gerry because we do not see her treat the rest of her brood any differently.

    What we do see is a couple of old-time pros hard at work, making even the slimmest of scenes that much sturdier. It is a joy to see the estimable Lauter, Van Patten and especially Gillette work their magic. And they add a dash of authenticity to a movie that creates an otherwise inorganic sense of family. This critic would reunite to see them again any time.

  • ‘Playing for Keeps’ was best kept unproduced

    ‘Playing for Keeps’ was best kept unproduced

    Gerard Butler and Noah Lomax in 'Playing for Keeps'
    Gerard Butler and Noah Lomax in ‘Playing for Keeps’

    Pop psychology writer Dan Kiley was the first to describe the “Peter Pan Syndrome”, and Playing for Keeps gives us a perfect example of this malady in its central character, “George” (Butler).

    George was an international soccer superstar until his career came to a sudden end.  Somewhere along the way his marriage to “Stacie” (Biel) came undone and she took his son “Lewis” (Lomax) and moved to Virginia.  Now that he’s down on his luck (which isn’t fully explained) he’s moved to Virginia to be closer to Lewis and try to repair this broken relationship.  He’s also hopeful of repairing his relationship with Stacie, although she’s living with her boyfriend (and will soon marry).

    George goes to watch Lewis’ soccer practice and is horrified at how awful the team’s coach is.  Soon he’s demonstrating techniques and before long he is the new coach.  This is good because it brings him closer to Lewis.  It’s also good because it brings him into the social orbit of “Carl” (Quaid), father of one of the other boys on the team.  Carl is wealthy, aggressive and wants to ‘help’ George by using him to ingratiate himself with people he does business with.  They are soccer fans.  He also meets a former sportscaster “Denise” (Zeta-Jones) who offers to help George pursue his new dream.  He wants to be a sportscaster himself. Meanwhile, George has turned the soccer team into a winner seemingly through osmosis, since we see very little of anything remotely resembling instruction of skills.

    Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel in 'Playing for Keeps'
    Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel in ‘Playing for Keeps’

    Naturally George gets offered the job at ESPN, which would require him moving to Connecticut.  What happens after that regarding George, his job, his ex-wife and everyone else is so incredibly predictable that even if I were to describe it, I wouldn’t be spoiling anything.

    Why someone chose to put up $35 million to make a movie that’s so insipid and devoid of redeeming value is totally beyond me.  They did manage to make Jessica Biel interesting by successfully playing down her beauty.  Otherwise the awful story made good actors look bad.

    With the exception of Noah Lomax.

    This is the young actor’s first feature film and for someone so young, he demonstrates a surprising emotional range and ability.  It isn’t that he’s cute or adorable, it is that he is just doing some quality acting.  Look forward to bigger and brighter things from him.

  • ‘Lay the Favorite’ is the worst bet in the movie house

    ‘Lay the Favorite’ is the worst bet in the movie house

    Rebecca Hall stars opposite Bruce Willis in 'Lay the Favorite'
    Rebecca Hall stars opposite Bruce Willis in ‘Lay the Favorite’

    Lay the Favorite is a gambling term.  It is also the title of a memoir by a real-life woman named Beth Raymer that is now a film from director Stephen Frears and screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis.  If that sounds like a familiar pairing, it should.  They combined to bring Nick Hornsby’s excellent novel “High Fidelity” to the big screen.  That was an excellent collaboration.

    Sadly, this was not.

    “Beth” (Hall) is working as an in-home private dancer and modeling for an adult website while living near her father in Tallahassee when she decides she needs a change.  She moves to Las Vegas to be a cocktail waitress, a decision her father “Jerry” (Bernsen) approves of.

    Upon arrival she is told the only way to get one of those coveted jobs is grab the tray of one of the incumbents as she retires or dies (that’s not true but it sounded good).  She’s also advised that “Flip-It” (a game where you put quarters or dollars into a slot and a mechanism flips your coin into the air, hopefully to knock other coins already in the machine down) is a game for suckers.

    Catherine Zeta-Jones in 'Lay the Favorite'
    Catherine Zeta-Jones in ‘Lay the Favorite’

    She’s staying at a seedy motel and “Holly” (Prepon), her neighbor, puts her in touch with “Dink” (Willis).  Dink is a gambler, not a bookie, and he uses runners to pick up and drop off cash and to make bets around town, as well as making bets by phone to off-shore sports betting operations.  It is all legal and Dink is successful at it.  Turns out that Beth has a real knack for this.  She also starts getting attached to Dink and that’s a problem for his wife, “Tulip” (Zeta-Jones).  Soon she’s been fired and is about to head off to New York City with “Jeremy” (Jackson), a guy she’s just met, when Dink comes back for her.  He thinks she is his good luck charm and Beth sends Jeremy off without her.

    But soon she’s on the phone asking Jeremy if it is alright for her to come to NYC because she and Dink have had another falling out.  He agrees and soon she’s there and looking for something to do.  That’s where “Rosie” (Vaughn) comes in.  She met him at Dink’s house and he is a bookie.  That’s illegal in NYC, but he plans to start an off-shore operation of his own in Curacao.

    The third act is how Beth’s choice to work with/for Rosie may come back to haunt both her and Jeremy, how Dink manages to deal with his reversals of fortune, and it’s all wrapped up nicely and neatly at the finish.  However by this time it’s very difficult to care about anyone but possibly Jeremy as none of these characters have much in the way of redeeming features.  Beth learned some good lessons from Dink and Rosie but whether or not they made her a better person is unclear.

    A terrifically talented cast goes to waste in this yawner.  Throughout the last 30 minutes I was wishing I’d gone to a different film playing in the next auditorium.  I’d heard bad things about this but based on the prior pairing of Frears and DeVincentis I gave this a chance.

    I should have bet against it.

  • ‘Waiting for Lightning’ may leave you waiting for the best part of the story

    ‘Waiting for Lightning’ may leave you waiting for the best part of the story

    Danny Way takes air in 'Waiting for Lightning'
    Danny Way takes air in ‘Waiting for Lightning’

    Waiting for Lightning is a documentary film that has an amazing tale to tell… yet does so in a rather ordinary fashion.

    It is the story of a man named Danny Way.  If you’re not a skateboarding fan you still may have heard of him, because back in 2005 he did something amazing.  He jumped over the Great Wall of China on a skateboard.  As a result he is one of only three people in the history of the Great Wall to have their name written on it in gold.

    But this documentary isn’t just about his jump.  It is telling the story of how Danny Way came to be in a position to attempt and make that jump.  Telling how he made himself one of the very best in the world at what he does, and how he never stops pushing himself to achieve more.

    Danny Way’s story is much more complex and sadly that story is overshadowed by the nearly non-stop footage of a young Danny skating at a level far beyond his tender years.  There are interviews with important people in skating’s “who’s who”; and we are told the story of how Danny came to love skating.  How he grew up without a father, how his step-father and mother split up, and how the third and final father-figure to enter his life, Mike Ternasky, was killed in a tragic accident.

    Ternasky was the mentor a young man like Way needed at just that time.  Had he lived, Way might have exceeded even the spectacular achievements of his stellar career.  However, the lack of a male influence in his life for most of his formative years made for a difficult childhood.  That he has done what he has done is a testament to his drive, internal fortitude, and the influence of his mother.

    His accomplishments are the stuff of legend and the film details a number of them.  He holds the land speed record for skateboarding at nearly 75 miles per hour.  He is the only person who has ever jumped out of a helicopter on a skateboard.  Since 1990 when Thrasher Magazine began giving out its skater of the year award, only one other skater besides Danny Way has won the award twice.

    But when the end credits of Waiting for Lightning start to roll, after honoring Ternasky, and the aforementioned father and step-father, the viewer is left wanting to know more.  More about the man and just how he overcame all of the challenges life put in front of his board’s wheels.  That’s the missing part of this documentary, replaced by lots of great footage of skating.

    If you’re a skater or a fan of skating, by all means go and see this film.  If you aren’t, it may not be for you.

  • ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ is a fine first feature film

    ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ is a fine first feature film

    Quvenzhane Wallis stars in 'Beasts of the Southern Wilds'
    Quvenzhane Wallis stars in ‘Beasts of the Southern Wilds’

    The “Bathtub” is a geographic area physically separated from the ‘mainland’ of Louisiana by a levee. But the real separation is the type of lives the residents of the Bathtub actually live. This is the setting for Beasts of the Southern Wild, a film that has mythical creatures, tragedy, triumph and wonder. The residents don’t live luxuriously, but they manage to live large in spite of their humble abodes and lifestyles.

    “Hushpuppy” (Wallis) is a six-year-old child who lives with her father “Wink” (Henry) in separate trailers some distance away from the center of the Bathtub. She goes to school where her teacher, “Miss Bathsheba” (Montana), teaches the students about the ‘Aurochs’, wild creatures that live trapped beneath the polar icecaps. When the ice caps melt, she says, the Aurochs will escape. Miss Bathsheba is teaching her charges how to survive that event.

    A seminal event in Hushpuppy’s life comes when she is ordered to “Beast It”, open a crab up for eating with her hands instead of using any utensils. This is a challenge that Hushpuppy meets head-on.

    There is a major storm coming to the Bathtub and many of the residents flee. When you live outside the levees, storms mean flooding in a major way. But Wink won’t leave and he and Hushpuppy find the area ravaged by the storm and the storm’s surge of saltwater. The plant life and much of the fish that provides their sustenance begin to die from the effects of the salt. Wink’s solution is to try to blow up the levee which will prevent flooding.

    Ultimately, Wink and Hushpuppy wind up in a shelter where Wink’s illness worsens. When the backs of the people running the shelter are turned, all of the Bathtub’s residents that are there leave and go home. The doctor at the shelter made it clear what would happen to Wink if he did not get treated, but nothing would keep him from going back to the Bathtub. He tells Hushpuppy to “be strong”.

    This is an outstanding first feature film by Zeitlin and it doesn’t matter at all that we never find out if the Aurochs are real or only exist in the mind of Hushpuppy through what her teacher has told her. Wallis was only five when she was cast and seven when the film was first shown, but she performs with a maturity and energy rarely (if ever) seen from such a young child actor. All of the performances in the film are first-rate and while it is only 93 minutes, it seems to both flash by in an instant and yet resonate in your mind long after the final credits have scrolled.