The Apes are back. But you knew that. Hard to avoid. Take a look at what else is new. The music business in Begin Again, Roger Ebert’s story as he wanted it told in Life Itself, comeback or debut works from three directors. Here’s the list:
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: 4 stars
Begin Again: 3
Life Itself: 3 ½
Dance of Reality: 3 ½
Me and You: 3
Elena: 2 ½
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES: This is kind of like the morning after. The animals which in the last film three years ago (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) had their intelligence boosted in a drug experiment, got loose and were climbing all over the Golden Gate Bridge, are now further advanced. It’s 10 years later. They come into contact with the few humans still alive after an epidemic, agree to a peace arrangement but find it doesn’t last. Hotheads on both sides cause the breakdown. When the apes get hold of guns and ride to the city of humans, a fiery war blows up. This sequel wisely stays with their story more than with the humans. We know from the original book and the many films it has spawned where the story will ultimately get to. This is a step towards their taking control. They’re us, metaphorically speaking.
There’s a strong story line about how wars break out and it’s nicely paced as it’s told. Deliberate and not hectic. Until the battles start. Again it’s the special effects that constitute the centerpiece here. These apes look and act real and the action scenes are thrilling. Andy Serkis is brilliant (through the technique of motion capture) as their leader Caesar. We feel the rage he’s trying to control. Vancouver’s Karin Konoval is back as the ape who taught him to articulate it but James Franco didn’t return. Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman and Keri Russell play the main non-ape characters. It was only partially (rather than like last time, mostly) filmed around here but you’ll recognize our forests and trees. Add in the twin themes of don’t abuse nature and recognize you’re part of it, not above it, and you’ve got a smart piece of summer entertainment. (The Dunbar, Scotiabank and many suburban theatres). 4 out of 5
BEGIN AGAIN: What a bland title. The original, Can A Song Save Your Life?, would have been more intriguing and even in some ways more helpful. The film is about the restorative power of music and, dare I say it, a feel good movie. John Carney, who wrote and directed it, touched on similar territory with his Irish street singers in Once. This time he’s in New York and eventually back out there on the street.
We start in a pub though and through a clever trick see the same scene three times, each showing a different character’s story and arrival there. Keira Knightley, as the shy friend of the performing musician, is coaxed on stage to sing one of her songs while Mark Ruffalo, as a washed-up and just-fired record company guy, comes out of a drunken haze and imagines various instruments accompanying her spare vocal. That sets this fantasy in motion about the record industry, trust in an unlikely mentor and believing in yourself. Keira has been dumped by her boyfriend (played dryly by Adam Levine, the lead singer of Maroon 5) and Mark is hobbled by family issues.
He tries to get her a record deal, fails, and decides to record her himself, in various outside locations. The songs aren’t memorable but there’s a rousing finale and we get a lot of sly digs at the music business. Keira is more natural than I’ve seen her and she is an okay singer. Mark is his usual warm-hearted gruff. Once was emotional. This one is warm and pleasant. (International Village, The Park and some suburban theatres) 3 out of 5
LIFE ITSELF: Roger Ebert, when he was young, had terrible taste in women. He also drank too much and according to one friend speaking candidly “He is a nice guy, but he’s not that nice.” Pretty unusual to hear that in a documentary meant to praise rather than trash a man, but also appropriate. The movies are all about flawed characters. Ebert, the critic, saw thousands of them on the screen and could hardly claim to be different. He insisted that this, his biography based on his own book, tell and show the truth.
There’s not a lot of dirt. It’s mostly a loving tribute by director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and admirers like Werner Herzog and Martin Scorsese, who also served as a producer, colleagues like A.O. Scott and Richard Corliss and Ebert’s wife Chaz.
She was key in talking about his last years, his long fight with cancer and eventual loss to it. The camera takes us to his hospital room a bit too often but that was part of his wish: don’t hold anything back. A cringe-inducing suction procedure could have been cut, I think. I was surprised that he and Gene Siskel didn’t get along at all. Those arguments they had through various incarnations of their TV show were real. A few outtakes suggest that although I remember one that would prove it absolutely. Ebert was genuinely offended when Siskel accused him of just parroting the press kit. The film has a recurring discussion of the role of the critic. Ebert, the best-known movie critic ever, is both accused or and praised for popularizing. (Rio Theatre starting Sunday) 3 ½ out of 5
DANCE OF REALITY: One of the true wild men of world cinema is back after 23 years and in great form. Alejandro Jodorowsky from Chile made his reputation with two cult films, El Topo, a favorite with midnight audiences and his follow up The Holy Mountain, which was partially financed with Beatles money by their manager. A recent documentary showed his failed attempt to make a movie of the science fiction novel, Dune.
The Cinematheque is showing all three along with this new one, a very strange autobiography. This one piles imagination upon weirdness upon incongruity upon gross stuff and it still works. As long as you accept what he shows you without complaining. It’s completely fanciful how he recounts his boyhood in the 1930s living with a tyrant of a father (a fan of Stalin and leader of a tiny local Communist party) and a mother who sings all her dialogue in operatic voice. Logic isn’t a necessity. Jodorowsky himself shows up every once in a while to explain a detail or to comfort the boy.
The father goes off to assassinate the national dictator and ends up grooming his horse. The mother does to her husband what Nicole Kidman did to Zac Efron but full frontally. Gross. There’s also torture, a demonstration by amputees (who are promptly arrested) and a continuing insistence by the father that God does not exist. “You die. You rot. There is nothing beyond.” A lot of ideas are tossed around and there are comic bits sprinkled in all the way. It’s colorful, surreal and highly entertaining, if you’re up for it. (Cinematheque)3 ½ out of 5
ME AND YOU: It’s been 11 years since his last film and many years since his big ones like The Last Emperor, 1900 and Last Tango in Paris but Bernardo Bertolucci has still got it. The Italian master is now 73 and confined to a wheelchair and his new one is a miniature about a brother and sister who both need to grow up. He manages to enthrall you with a simple story and a bare-bones production and a lot of heart.
Teenager Lorenzo wants some time alone. He tells his mom he’s on a class ski trip but actually has set himself up for a week in the basement of their apartment building. He’s got junk food, an MP3 player, a book and an ant farm. Then his older half-sister barges in. She’s a heroin addict and, failing to find anything valuable in a box she’s stashed there, decides this is a good place to get herself off drugs.
A brittle relationship reveals itself between the pimply-faced kid who “doesn’t need anyone” and the fragile junkie who hides her desperation with attitude. But also a truthful depiction of how siblings interact. Bertolucci, who has dealt with unsavory aspects in previous films, keeps it all innocent. His fixation is on rising up out of the darkness. This film does just that. (VanCity Theatre) 3 out of 5
Playing in tandem with …
ELENA: A young Brazilian filmmaker gives us another glimpse of sibling bonding but there’s a much darker undertone in this documentary. Petra Costa’s sister Elena committed suicide in New York where she became depressed over a career that was going nowhere. The two had been playful and close growing up in Sao Paolo, according to some sparkling home movies. Petra adored Elena, as younger siblings often do. She sets out to find out what drove her to that final act and gets a great deal of the story with the help of audition videos she left behind and audio letters she sent home. 
It’s chilling to feel her gradual slide into depression. She talks of frustration (“no one calls you back”), terrible loneliness and this eerie line “I’ll go down this drain.” Petra visits New York herself to walk the same neighborhoods and talks with her mother, who also went there years earlier as an actress. What emerges is not just a connection between sisters, but a suggestion that what afflicted Elena may run in the family. That elevates the film, which is often dreamy and mesmerizing, sometimes meandering and overly affected, into a wider tragedy. (VanCity Theatre) 2 ½ out of 5