Chicago gets trashed some more in the second film in the Divergent series. But two road movies and a meditation on art with a classical pianist named Seymour might be better bets.
Here’s the list:
The Divergent Series: Insurgent: 2 ½
Living is Easy With Eyes Closed: 3 ½
Lost and Love: 4
Hard to Be A God: --
Seymour and Introduction: --
The Gunman: --
THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT: More young adult struggles in a dystopian future. Of course. It’s the second of three parts in the series. Oddly though, while the film is strong with women as leaders (Kate Winslett, Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer and Maggie Q) and the story centers on the young woman played by Shailene Woodley, it feels like a boy’s adventure. Army trucks come crashing in. People are shot point blank to the head (and not just by the villains). Buildings are pulverized in 3-D. Well, dimly-lit 3-D.
There is little attempt made to help anybody who didn’t see the first film. That Chicago is now a walled-in city, its people grouped into five factions to discourage discord but that Tris (Woodley) is a divergent. She doesn’t fit in any category and is therefore a threat. Along with Theo James (a hint of a love interest), Ansel Elgort and Miles Teller (both of whom she has co-starred with in other movies) she sets out to find why her mother sacrificed herself fighting the system. Initially that entails a visit to a non-violent rural community and then right back to the city so that Winslett and her security troopers can pursue them.
A welcome bit of innovation has Winslett hook her up to a series of hoses so that she can hallucinate her thoughts and secrets. Most everything else is standard YA action film stuff. There’s little tension and the middle sags badly as the characters work through an overload of story detail. Then curiously, in the closing minutes it throws two big surprises our way. Interesting but not enough to rescue the film from its ordinariness. (5th Avenue, Scotiabank and suburban theatres) 2 ½ out of 5
LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED: Feel-good movies have a bad reputation most days, but then one like this comes along. It’s a snapshot of an era from Spain and it’ll have you beaming with its warm, humanistic vibe. And apparently it’s a true story. A high school teacher captivated by the music of the Beatles – watch him teach the poetry of the song "Help"—hears that John Lennon is starring in a movie being filmed nearby (How I Won the War, 1966) and drives across country to talk to him. Along the way he picks up two hitchhikers, a pregnant girl escaping a convent, and a long-haired boy running from his military-tough father.
Javier Cámara, familiar from Pedro Almodóvar films, plays the teacher with a mild but jovial obsession. The Beatles are synonymous with freedom to him. This was the Franco era in Spain and during the car ride he talks a lot about liberty, free will and never giving up on your dream. That also gets him to the movie set. I won’t elaborate on that; it happens in the distance anyway. But there’s a tape in the end credits of Lennon singing "Strawberry Fields" that I’ve never heard before. (VanCity Theatre) 3 ½ out of 5
LOST AND LOVE: That vague title adorns one of the most emotional films in town right now. It’s from China and deals with the anguish of losing a child to kidnappers: the pain of your child being there one second, gone the next. Is it your fault? Can you bear the guilt? This is a first film from Peng Sanyuan, a popular novelist, who was moved to make it after repeatedly reading stories like it in the newspapers. She says she broke down crying when she pitched the idea to the producers. The film is more restrained but it is touching and elegantly presented.
Superstar Andy Lau plays a farmer who’s been riding China’s small-town and city roads for 14 years searching for his missing, probably snatched, son. He’s got baby pictures of him on giant flags attached to his motorcycle. When he needs a repair done he meets a young mechanic (newcomer Jing Boran) who says he had been abducted years before. Of course he wonders if this is him, but that would be too easy a story arc. Instead he helps the young man search for his parents and the road trip continues. Sanyuan develops their yearning for family ties with considerable passion. She also details the restricted life abducted children face. They can’t get identity papers, ride trains or planes or get jobs; people reject them on all fronts. Both the information and the drama are strong here. (International Village and Riverport) 4 out of 5
These films are also playing, which I haven't seen yet:
HARD TO BE A GOD: Russia has produced several science fiction classics (think Solaris).This might be another. Various publications, including the Georgia Straight, call it a work of "genius." This is the last film by director Alexei Gherman, who was widely hailed as a visionary. He worked on it for years but died before it was released. Apparently it engages you on an intellectual level and you don’t even notice that it’s almost three hours long and at times pretty disgusting.
In the story a group of scientists is sent to a planet that hasn’t progressed past a state like our Middle Ages. They’re to observe only, but can they? (Showing at The Cinematheque Sunday and five times next week)
SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION: This one looks very interesting. It got strong praise at the Toronto International Film Festival not just for letting us meet a strong personality, New York classical pianist Seymour Bernstein (no relation to Leonard), but for exploring the demands you face if you want to succeed at an art or pretty well anything. Bernstein now mostly teaches and has many stories to tell. Ethan Hawke, at his first time directing not just acting, met him at a party, found common ground in their feelings of stage fright, and convinced him to talk on camera. He also coaxed him to perform a concert. Very good word on this film. (International Village)
THE GUNMAN: From the reviews I’ve seen, I presume I haven’t missed much here. Sean Penn does a full Liam Neeson, i.e. tries a second career by turning into an action star. He’s even directed by Pierre Morel who did it for Neeson with the wildly successful Taken. Penn plays a hitman (a common profession in the movies). He tries to quit; his boss says no, he runs and Idris Elba and Javier Bardem chase him across Europe. Odd how often we’re supposed to care about the welfare of people like that. (international Village and suburban theatres)