Precious, Kurbaan, Mr. Fox, The Road: Movies Opening in Vancouver on Nov. 27
PRECIOUS: Sapphire’s 1996 novel Push becomes this season’s must see movie. Be careful though. Although it won big awards in Toronto and at Sundance and is bound to get multiple Oscar nominations, it’s unrelentingly grim; a harrowing experience. The filmmakers have put as many grotesque scenes as they could in here to depict the almost hopeless environment that Precious lives in. She’s an obese, illiterate teenager, sexually abused by her father and verbally abused by her lazy, angry mother who at one point shouts: “I shoulda aborted your m----f----n’ ass.” It sounds unreal but social workers and even Oprah have praised it as authentic. Precious flees into a series of dream fantasies and then gets a chance for genuine escape through education. We’re treated to both the first signs of her growth out of self-loathing and a stunning showdown with her mother. With that role, Mo'Nique, previously known mostly for hysterical, yelling comedy, immediately joins the top level of movie mothers from hell. Credit director Lee Daniels for coaxing that performance out of her. He also turned Mariah Carey into a tough social worker, newcomer Gabourey Sidibe into a poignant survivor and delivered an excellent film. (5th Avenue, Tinseltown and Coquitlam) 4 out of 5
FANTASTIC MR. FOX: This is a wonderful animated film but don’t take the younger kids. It’s too sophisticated for them. The low-key dialogue and intellectual humor will go right over their heads. But it’ll delight you. This is a perfect melding of two quirky minds: Roald Dahl, known for a breezy, glib irony in his short stories, and Wes Anderson, whose films like Rushmore dabble in eccentric characters. Here it adds up to a charming, whimsical and hip tale of a fox with a mid-life crisis. Settled down in a new home, with a wife, a son and a career as a journalist, he realizes he’s still a wild animal and can’t resist the lure of the chicken farm up the hill. One raid turns into three, provokes three angry farmers to fight back and brings on a battle that grows to epic size. The film adds to the original story with a new ending, new characters and many funny bits along the way. George Clooney and Meryl Streep head up the big-name voice cast. (At theatres all over) 4 out of 5
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THE ROAD: Back to the grim side. Here we have almost two hours of Viggo Mortensen trudging through scenes of devastation after some unspecified catastrophe. Trees are uprooted. Buildings are spilling out drywall. The entire horizon is on fire in one striking sequence. Those visuals are astounding. Too bad the movie isn’t. Viggo and a son (played with fine natural innocence by Kodi Smit-McPhee) are heading to the coast. They mutter a lot about “are we good guys” and what would drive them to suicide. Both questions come up repeatedly as their good intentions and something they call “the fire within” are seriously tested. They encounter cannibals hunting for food, a whimpering thief, an old man spouting philosophy. Viggo has dreams about his wife (Charlize Theron) who long ago walked away into the dark. Maybe its an allegory about despair. It’s not clear from the film why Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for the novel it’s based on. He’s known for his prose. The film only has the story. (Tinseltown and three suburban theatres) 2 ½ out of 5
KURBAAN: This film from India is one of the better thrillers I’ve seen in some time. It’s as slick and fast as a Hollywood film and dares to explore something Tinseltown has hardly even touched. What motivates a terrorist in this post 9-11 world? Om Puri, as a cell leader in New York, states the case with quiet passion. We’re not meant to accept it, but we do hear it. The story has a couple of university professors coming from New Delhi to America for teaching jobs, moving into an immigrant neighborhood and befriended by a group of Muslim fundamentalist neighbors headed by Puri. The film develops a strong mood of suspense, throws out a few twists and leads to an extended action sequence. Big stars Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan head the cast. They’re also a couple in real life. That may be why they can get away with on screen kissing and a simulated sex scene, both taboo in Indian films. (Raja and Strawberry Hill Theatres). 3 out of 5
MUNYURANGABO: We know a great deal about the genocide in Rwanda from the news, ongoing court cases and a few movies. This film is about what happened afterwards. Some ten years later two young men, who are good friends although one is a Hutu, the other a Tutsi, are on a mission in the countryside. One wants to kill the man who killed his father. The other wants to reconnect with the family he hasn’t seen in three years. Both have to struggle with the hatred they find still in force amid the poverty and drought, and even within themselves. This is fiction, and very basic filmmaking, but it feels as real as a documentary. The title refers to a noble warrior from Rwandan history. (VanCity Theatre) 3 out of 5
NINJA ASSASSIN: Maybe you’ve seen the ads and the posters where the top edge cuts off the top of a jumping character’s head. Brace yourself. That does happen just a minute or two into this overly graphic martial arts outing. Body parts are hacked off. Blood doesn’t splatter; it splashes and many in the audience cheer a late scene when a bad guy gets a knife in the neck. This movie has a fetish for pain. It’s American but stars the Korean pop star known as Rain. He plays a ninja on the run, having dropped out of a school for assassins. More dedicated students chase and fight him all over modern-day Berlin, drawing the attention of Interpol and eventually a humvee, bazooka and helicopter attack. (I didn’t know Interpol has that kind of firepower). It all turns silly, albeit with style, thrilling action and that excessive bloodletting. (At theatres all over) 2 out of 5
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OLD DOGS: Robin Williams drew praise this summer in a film called World’s Greatest Dad. Unfortunately it hasn’t played here. Instead we get this terrible comedy in which he plays a dad who doesn’t even know he is one until an ex-wife brings him a pair of twins he sired seven years earlier. Not only is that a big wake up to what’s really important in life but also a huge inconvenience. He and his business partner (John Travolta) are working on a major deal with some Japanese investors. They’re forced to make do with weak comedy bits involving penguins, a gorilla, an overly-long tanning session, swapped medicine bottles, blows to the head and crotch and a variety of other dumb and obvious situations. The same people gave us Wild Hogs two years ago. It was a huge hit.
(At theatres all over) 1 ½ out of 5
Also playing ….
THE BOYS: A documentary about the Sherman Brothers, Robert and Richard, who wrote all those great songs for Disney including “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “It’s a Small World After All”, the Oscar winning "Chim-Chim-Cheree" and if you’ve got a really good memory, Annette’s hit “Tall Paul”. Yet, for 40 years their families refused to even speak to each other. Apparently their wives didn’t get along. Their sons made the film to honor them. (Granville Theatre)
COOPER’S CAMERA: A comedy about a dysfunctional Toronto family and their Christmas thrown into chaos by a disruptive uncle. The Daily Show's Samantha Bee and Jason Jones star as a married couple who get a second-hand VHS camcorder as a present and proceed to tape an all-day record of their celebrations. The film is purported to be that footage found and edited almost 25 years later. There’s also a running gag about a sex tape starring Dave Foley found in the camera. It didn’t win many friends when it played at the film festival back in October. (Granville Theatre)
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