Tag: review

Movie review: Life, Animated

The trailer of Life, Animated suggested more of a Disney happy ending.

life-animatedThe trailer was so intriguing that the whole family went to the Spectrum Theatre in Albany on a Saturday night to see the movie Life, Animated.

Back in 2014, I happened to see Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ron Suskind being interviewed on some program, talking about his then-new book, Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism. He, his wife Cornelia, and their older son Walter were dealing with Ron and Cornelia’s younger son Owen’s autism. Much less was known about the disability in 1993, when Owen was first diagnosed, than now.

Ron Suskind’s book discusses the struggle, and the breakthrough, when he and his wife realized that Owen was attempting to communicate with them through Disney dialogue. The movie takes on that same path, but it can illustrate the desire of Peter Pan not to want to grow up, or the fear of Bambi, or being an outcast like Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Owen starts a Disney movie club with others with disabilities and developed relationships with a couple of Disney voice actors. He also travels abroad to explain his condition, and I was intrigued by how little his writer/father gave him.

The trailer suggested more of a Disney happy ending, but the movie delves into what happens when Owen is ready is getting ready to live semi-autonomously. Sometimes the Disney dialogue is insufficient, as when brother Walter tries to explain the birds and the bees to Owen.

What makes this movie, though, is the animation, not by Disney, but by Mac Guff, a French visual effects company, which takes a fantasy of Disney sidekicks and brings it to life.

One of the few negative reviews notes: “It never addresses Disney’s wholly manufactured stranglehold on turning adolescent desire into a consumerist impulse.” True enough, and rather beside the point to a family looking for a way into their child’s mind.

Life, Animated was definitely worth your 90 minutes.

Movie review: Love & Friendship

Billy Crystal from When Harry Met Sally was almost unrecognizable in The Princess Bride.

Love-FriendshipThe Wife suggested that we see Love & Friendship at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany. I had no idea what it was, except that it was based on some Jane Austen novella, “Lady Susan”, which I had never heard of. The movie was written and directed by Whit Stillman.

In its favor: the opening credits, which moved along to the music. Overlays to explain who each character was, some rather humorously rendered. And the always scheming Lady Susan Vernon, played by Kate Beckinsale, who is trying to fix up her daughter Frederica, and herself.

I associate English actress Beckinsale with action pics such as Total Recall and Van Helsing, but she had been in a TV movie, Emma, also based on an Austen work.

Even with the clues, it was a tad difficult to keep many of the characters straight, with the exceptions of Tom Bennett as the silly Sir James Martin, and the distinctive-looking Chloë Sevigny as Alicia Johnson, “the American.”. I chuckled a few times. The Wife liked it more than I, though we both found it too talky. But the women across the aisle found it uproarious.

Interesting that Rotten Tomatoes gave Love & Friendship 99% positive reviews with the critics, but only 69% with the fans. It’s a good film, but not everyone’s cup of tea.

The Princess Bride

The nearby Madison Theatre has been showing classic movies fortnightly on Sunday afternoons in the summer for only 35 cents a customer. The Princess Bride (1987) is one of several movies directed by Rob Reiner that I enjoyed from that period (1984-1995): This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men, and The American President.

And a couple of those actors show up here: Spinal Tap’s Christopher Guest as the evil Count Rugen, Billy Crystal from When Harry… as Miracle Max, unrecognizable to my wife.

I remembered almost all of this: the banter of the framing story between Grandpa and his grandson (Peter Falk, Fred Savage), Wallace Shawn as the bossy Vizzini, and Robin Wright as Buttercup in her first film.

The only major thing I forgot was how Westley (Cary Elwes) met up again with Inigo Montoya (the wonderful) Mandy Patinkin and Fezzik (André the Giant).

The place was nearly packed. A great outing.

Movie review: Finding Dory

Shades of Sigourney Weaver

finding-dory-movieDespite some positive reviews in Rotten Tomatoes (94% at this writing), I was a tad wary to see the new Pixar/Disney film Finding Dory. This comes from my basic lack of trust in sequels, though I liked the Toy Story franchise.

My family was at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany with about 25 other people, and The Daughter was one of only two children; I expect the kiddies had gone earlier in the day, which was Father’s Day.

In case someone had not seen Finding Nemo – it WAS 13 YEARS AGO – there’s a very brief recap of Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) meeting Marlin (Albert Brooks). A year passes, and the forgetful blue fish suddenly has WHAT APPEARS TO BE a flashback. She crosses the ocean with those same groovy turtles from Nemo.

Then the film becomes its own narrative, as she is – shades of Sigourney Weaver – on the trail of her parents, helped by a couple of friends from her fragmented past, and by Hank (Ed O’Neill), a cantankerous octopus who’s trying to escape from the Marine Life Institute, and sees Dory as his ticket out. It was all rollicking fun.

But there’s a point about 2/3s of the way through when Dory’s memory failure threatens to derail her goal, when I heard sniffling, the distinct sound of suppressed crying. The seeming failure of Dory to achieve her goal, because of the inability to recall, thwarting that primordial need to find one’s way back home, also had The Daughter clinging to my arm.

Still, there was the finale, over the top even by cartoon standards, but would have seemed even more ridiculous had it not been earned emotionally. There were other fine vocal actors, such as Ty Burrell, and it looked nice, as Pixar films are wont to do. And yes, you should stay to the end.

The short before Finding Dory was Piper, about a young sandpiper, which was, I’ll admit, kind of adorable.

TV review- O.J.: Made in America

O.J. Simpson – race be damned – was one of the most popular figures around.

OJ-Made-in-AmericaSeriously, I didn’t know it was going to be on, but came across it flipping through the channels. On the heels of the popular The People v. O.J. Simpson, part of the American Crime Story series on the FX network – which I did not see – comes O.J.: Made in America, a sprawling five-part documentary on the cable sports network ESPN.

Many people know about the bizarre low-speed chase of Simpson’s Ford Bronco, Most are aware of the “trial of the century,” an appellation that may very well be correct. At least in the United States, almost EVERYONE had an opinion about the former football player’s guilt or innocence in the murders of his estranged wife Nicole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

The most mild-mannered person I have ever known was incensed when Simpson was acquitted of the crimes, as was most of white America. Yet many black Americans literally cheered the verdict. This phenomenon is established fact. What the documentary explains, among many other things, is WHY there was such a disparity in response.

The first segment shows how Simpson went from Heisman-trophy-winning running back for the University of Southern California Trojans to stardom in the NFL, becoming the first player ever to rush for 2000 yards in a season. But when Simpson retired from football and returned to Los Angeles, he remained famous, as an actor (The Naked Gun movies), advertising pitchman (Hertz car rental), and broadcasting (Monday Night Football). He met and fell madly in love with a young, blonde, beautiful actress named Nicole Brown.

I loved the second part. It was about the two different versions of Los Angeles, one “wealthy, privileged, and predominantly white. A world where celebrity was power, and where O.J. – race be damned – was one of the most popular figures around… Then there was the other LA, just a few miles away from Brentwood and his Rockingham estate, a place where millions of other black people lived an entirely different reality at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department.” In fact, in describing the Rodney King beating and the subsequent riots that erupted in 1992, the filmmakers spent about a half-hour not talking about O.J. at all.

Part 3 was about the murder itself, and the chase, and while I knew much of it, there were details I was unaware of. Part 4 described the trial and the re-Negrofication of Orenthal James Simpson by the defense team. Part 5 detailed all the bizarre stuff after the acquittal, including the book O.J. wrote, If I Did It.

The story was enhanced by the recollections of district attorney Gil Garcetti, lead prosecuting attorney Marcia Clark, LA police detective Mark Fuhrman, LA policeman and Simpson friend Ron Shipp, Ron Goldman’s father Fred, defense attorneys F. Lee Bailey, Carl Douglas, and Barry Schreck, and many other participants. The narrative speaks deftly about the power of celebrity and class, spousal abuse, police/community relations, and racial identity in a way that resonates to this day. I concluded that 1) O.J. likely did the murders but that 2) the prosecution did not make its case due to the tremendous efforts of the defense team and some of the rulings of Judge Lance Ito.

I’m glad I watched O.J.: Made In America, though it was quite depressing. The series is available on some streaming services, and no doubt will be available on DVD soon; perhaps it’ll be rerun someday. Ron Shipp believes O.J. Simpson will hate it.

Movie review: The Jungle Book

The standout of The Jungle Book, both visually and aurally, may be King Louie.

jungle-book-2016I’ve never read the 1894 stories by Rudyard Kipling known as the Jungle Book. Nor did I ever catch the 1967 film that was the last full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney himself. And no copy exists in the Albany Public Library; I may have to get a copy through interlibrary loan.

I have watched scenes of the older film featuring the songs I Wanna Be Like You and especially The Bare Necessities.

So seeing the 2016 version, done with special effect animals and scenery, plus a real boy (Neel Sethi as Mowgli) in the center of the action, was a very different experience. The technological challenge was daunting for director Jon Favreau, who has piloted such diverse fare as Iron Man and Chef.

He succeeded.

My wife claims that I flinched more in this film that the three of us saw at Albany’s Madison Theatre on Sunday than she can recall, especially with the appearances of angry tiger Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba). I recognized right away the voice of Bill Murray as the crafty bear Baloo, and that was actually a relief after all the action that had taken place up to that point.

All the voice actors were quite fine: Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, the panther; Lupita Nyong’o as Mowgli’s wolf mother, Raksha; Giancarlo Esposito as Akela, the wolves’ father; and Scarlett Johansson as the snake Kaa. The late Gary Shandling had a small role as Ikki, the porcupine. Even Favreau got into the act as a pygmy hog, and used his kids Madeline and Max as Raquel the rhino and a young wolf.

Still, the standout, both visually and aurally, may be King Louie, voiced by Christopher Walken, who’s seeking the “red flower.” My spouse, who’s not a Walken fan, even said so. This is NOT Walt’s Louie.

If The Daughter had been five, I believe this film would have terrified her, but as a tween, she’s more impervious to scary movie action.

This is a fine film. Read SamuraiFrog’s review.

Ramblin' with Roger
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