There are alternatives in the new films, though, including sex, strident pessimism and economic meltdown.
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN: How many times have we seen this? An unlikely movie becomes a big hit, makes a pile of money and the inevitable sequel is bloated with excess. Director Michael Bay, no stranger to excess at the best of times, simply has too many resources to play with. The film is like some 5-year-old’s bedroom fuelled by fantasy. There are more toys than you can possibly play with, non-stop action and recurrent explosions in lovingly- photographed bursts. What it doesn’t have is much of a story that we can connect with, not a human one anyway. The original film, two years ago, had a nascent romance to hold the film together. The actors, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, are back but their young love is now a much-reduced sub-plot. The main action is the civil war still raging within a race of extra-terrestrials who can shape-shift from common vehicles to robots. (The film was financed by Hasbro, the company that makes the Transformers toys, and had the co-operation of the U.S. military). The battles start early and hardly ever stop. The best of them look great. Overall, though, they become repetitive and hard to follow because it’s often hard to tell the sides apart. Even the rare slow scenes are hyperactive. A simple conversation between Shia and Megan has the camera swirling around their heads. Interesting, though. It does slow down a few other times to show her in near cheesecake poses. (Opened June 24 at theatres all over).
WHATEVER WORKS: Back in his beloved New York after four films in Europe, Woody Allen finds this old script in a bottom drawer where it’s been since the 1970s. He hadn’t filmed it because the man he wrote it for, Zero Mostel, had died. Now, the truth is out. This is second-rate Woody. Partly it’s because Larry David, best known from TV’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, is mostly unpleasant in the lead role. He rails about the uselessness of life and insists that only he can really understand that. Mostel or even Allen himself would have put much more humor into that portrayal. The main problem, though, is the story line. The old grouch in the film takes up with a teenager freshly arrived from the south and even marries her. That she would be romantically interested in him is preposterous. It’s also uncomfortable considering Woody Allen’s own life history and remember that back in 1979, in his film “Manhattan” , Woody was dating a 17-year-old. This script allows him to espouse a self-serving philosophy, the gist of which is, when it comes to promoting love, use “whatever works”. On the plus side, there are many funny lines and a charming performance by Evan Rachel Wood) as the ingenuous teen. (5th Avenue Cinema).
TOKYO SONATA: Movies are rarely as up to date as this, or as emotionally powerful. That it comes from a director known for Japanese horror films is all the more remarkable. Kiyoshi Kurosawa has made a quiet study of a family under pressure when the father loses his job. The company can save money by shifting his work to China. He keeps up appearances, though, and pretends to go to work, leading to some sardonic scenes at a job search office and escalating disappointment. An old friend in the same predicament goes to even greater pains to save face. They meet in a free food line. Meanwhile, the family is splintering. While the mother struggles to keep the peace, a son wants to join the American army. A younger son is getting in trouble at school and secretly paying for piano lessons. For all the grave story content the film is not downbeat but lightened now and then with humor and most of the time with a bright colorful look. The acting is first-rate and a mood-changing third act becomes almost surreal. Playing at the VanCity Theatre. (Late on Friday, one of the director’s best-known horror films, “Cure”, will also be shown.)
LITTLE ASHES: He’s the runaway leader in Vanity Fair’s most handsome man on earth poll. He’s got screaming teenage fans and he’s coming back to Vancouver soon to stir up more excitement and make another movie. He’s Robert Pattinson, the vampire hunk in the “Twilight” movies. Before that propelled him to major stardom, he played Salvador Dali in this modest examination of the artist’s college friendship with two other Spaniards, the poet Federico García Lorca and the film maker Luis Buñuel. Most of his fans have never heard of them, but in the 1920s and 30s they became important champions of modernity, both in art and Spanish society. Not much of that is reflected in this film. Even the rise of fascism is mentioned only occasionally and remains in the background. Up front is a gay love story. The film says Lorca and Dali fell in love, even as Buñuel taunted like a homophobe. It’s not clear how much truth there’s in it or even how far it went. However, the film has an agenda and pushes it. Javier Beltrán does a fine job as Lorca, while Pattison as Dali has mixed results. He’s perfectly good as the young student, unsure of himself and distant, but not at all convincing as the older, flamboyant Dali. He looks ridiculous in that moustache and, as fans already know, flashes some pubic hair early in the film. As art history this film is more laughable than enlightening. (Tinseltown).
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE: Steven Soderbergh often steps away from the big Hollywood sound stages to make a small, intimate film. You’d be hard pressed to figure out the message in this one, though. The central character is a prostitute, although she insists on being called an escort. She’s played rather stiffly by Sasha Grey, a prominent star in porn films. The film has no overt sex scenes as she conducts herself like any other businesswoman, keeping close track of her expenses and taking pride in her work. Some of her clients aren’t even after sex, just companionship. The film is set during last November’s US election and the start of the financial meltdown. Therefore, several clients are fretting about the stock market and just want to talk. She lives with a fitness trainer, who flies off with some buddies for a Las Vegas trip. All these elements are stylishly but confusingly intercut. The time frame jumps back and forth. The intension seems to be to show that selling sex, stocks, gym workouts and gaming are really all the same. Maybe. The film is far too cool to say anything straightforward like that. Essentially, it’s a non-judgemental five days with the escort, who labors to explain her thoughts in an interview with a writer, feels jealousy when a she sees a client with a competitor and hopes for a good review from a sex-worker rating service. (At Tinseltown).
Also opening …
CHERI: The pedigree alone should have made this film an event. Director Stephen Frears, scripter Christopher Hampton and star Michelle Pfeiffer gave us “Dangerous Liasons” 11 years ago. Now they’ve reunited for the tale of a French courtesan and her affair with a much younger man (the Chéri of the title played by Rupert Friend). He’s the son of a former rival prostitute, played by Kathy Bates. The reviews, though, haven’t been kind. Critics in New York and the UK have called it “anemic”, “curiously blank” and worst of all, “ridiculous trash”. They say it’s visually exquisite but misses much of the wisdom about love, age and death found in the 1920s novel by Colette on which it’s based. (Fifth Avenue Cinema).
MY SISTER’S KEEPER: I guess it depends on where your heart is. This film tugs at it relentlessly. From a bestselling novel we get the story of one family’s unusual strategy to avoid losing a child. When their daughter is stricken with leukemia, Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric, as the parents, conceive another daughter to be a source for organ transplants. But she, played by Abigail Breslin, eventually objects, goes to see a lawyer and ends the family up in court. The reviews are all over the map on this one. It’s an audience grabber, but either inspirational or manipulative. (At multiple theatres).
Whatever Works
Tokyo Sonata
Little Ashes