It’s that time of year. That’s why there are so many new movies to read about today. And that’s not all. Come back Christmas Day, when four more will open.
These are already here:
Aquaman: 2 ½ stars
Mary Poppins Returns: 4
Bumblebee: 3 ½
Mirai: 4
Shoplifters: 4 ½
The Favourite: 4
Second Act: 3
Ben Is Back: 3 ½
Welcome to Marwen: 2 ½
AQUAMAN: He’s probably the least interesting of the comic book characters who’ve wandered over into the movies. For one thing, he doesn’t have any super powers, except that he can talk to fish. See how far that gets you when the future of the planet is at stake. He, played by muscle-bound Jason Momoa, is positioned between two worlds: land, where he was born to a lighthouse keeper and his wife (Nicole Kidman) and the realm she came from, Atlantis, deep in the ocean. He’s actually called a halfbreed.
Naturally he has to head down there to explore his heritage and incidentally stop his half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson) from carrying out a vile deed. That guy holds a grudge against us for polluting the oceans and poisoning the children. He wants to make Atlantis rise again and make himself “Ocean Master.” He cites his ecological motivations only one time, so what really drives him? The script doesn’t ponder deeper thoughts like that. It does urge Aquaman to de-throne him, find a way to de-code a parting message from the previous king and consider taking the job himself. Willem Defoe, Dolph Lundgren and Amber Heard are there to train, inspire or encourage him. There are some big action sequences, terrific underwater scenes and exotic sights. But the effects aren’t as sharp as you’d want; the story is old hat and the film, big, bloated and long, takes itself too seriously. (Scotiabank, Marine Gateway and suburban theatres) 2 ½ out of 5
MARY POPPINS RETURNS: How do you improve on a film as beloved as Mary Poppins? You can’t but this one does something remarkable. It is almost as good. The charm, the humor and the magic are all there again, partly because it duplicates much of the original point by point. A song with animated penguins and other characters? Sure, just jump into the illustration on an antique bowl. It was a sidewalk drawing in the first film. Chimney sweeps dancing up a storm? We’ve got lamplighters this time. There are more parallels just like those and, of course, the big one. Mary, the magical nanny, wafts down on a kite to help the Banks family get out of another jam. Emily Blunt plays her with the right mix of sweet and strict.
The children she tutored back then are now grown up. Michael (Ben Whishaw) is a widower, with children of his own and about to lose the family house to the bank, run by Colin Firth. Unless, they can find proof that they’re shareholders in the bank. They’ve got a week to turn up the certificates. There’s lots of frantic searching and many opportunities for song. They come in big, energetic production numbers, usually with the friendly head lamplighter (Lin-Manuel Miranda) joining in or leading. The songs aren’t memorable but the staging of ditties like (Underneath the) Lovely London Sky and A Cover Is Not the Book brings them to life if only for a while. Meryl Streep makes a brief, not necessary but good fun, appearance and sings in a perfect comic Russian accent. Dick Van Dyke has a cameo and Angela Lansbury has a whole song. But this movie belongs to Emily Blunt. She matches the Poppins spirit exactly. (5th Avenue, Dunbar, Scotiabank, Marine Gateway and many suburban theatres) 4 out of 5
BUMBLEBEE: What a nice surprise. Here’s a Transformers movie without the bombast. But, would you believe it, lots of heart. Michael Bay isn’t directing this time and overall there’s a Steven Spielberg feel. (He’s one of the executive producers). It’s still a toy-commercial but a little less than usual. It has an E.T. vibe as a California teen (Hailee Steinfeld) finds the VW Beetle she’s rescued from a junkyard is really an alien ship on a mission. It’s transformed in disguise and can show actual feelings, like a loyal pet. This is a good one to take kids to.
Eventually we learn that Bumblebee is an Autobot, involved in that ongoing war with the Decepticons somewhere out there in space. He’s been sent to establish a base but suffers damage during his arrival when he lands right in the middle of a military exercise run by Agent Burns (John Cena). He has to hide, not only from him, but also from two Decepticons who come looking for him. To elude them he has to keep quiet and communicates only through the songs he chooses on the radio. 80s nostalgia flourishes here. All this is presented without irony or cynicism, a welcome change we can probably attribute to the director, Travis Knight. He’s known for a number of animated films he worked on in Oregon, including Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. He’s made this, the 6th Transformers movie, the best yet. (Scotiabank, Marine Gateway and suburban theatres) 3 ½ out of 5
MIRAI: This is a wonderful piece of film animation from Japan. Unfortunately the viewers who would most benefit from it are too young. Five or six year olds wouldn’t get the message here about sibling rivalry overcome by reverence for ancestors. They might actually get some bad ideas from the film, as a boy named Kun does all by himself. He’s excited when the new baby he’s been told so much about is brought home but disappointed when he sees she’s not ready to play with him, can’t talk and takes up all his mother’s time.
That jealousy is depicted with well-observed accuracy, except that Kun goes further than most. He dares to hit baby Mirai on the side of her head with a car from his train set. The rest of the film finds a way out the problem. Kun is brought to understand his family history through visions that come to him in a magical garden. He meets his great grandfather as a young man, his mother as a girl and his baby sister as the teenager she’ll grow up to be. He runs away, takes a noisy and scary train ride into Tokyo and learns the terrors of life cut off from family. It’s a child’s view, whimsical, naïve and beautifully depicted by director Mamoru Hosoda. Parents will understand it completely. (VanCity Theatre. Check the website viff.org for times because there are both Japanese-subtitled and English-dubbed versions) 4 out of 5
SHOPLIFTERS: This Japanese film has something in common with Roma, the Mexican film that’s doing great business at the Van City Theatre right now. Both are constructed with incidents, more than plot, to give a portrait of a family. Of the two, this one has more of a story through-line and I like it slightly better because of that. These people are crooks but they are a family and they’re decent.They’re poor; they share a crowded apartment with grandma who lives on a pension and they support themselves by shoplifting.
One day they also take in a young girl they find crying, showing bruises from mistreatment by her parents and obviously not wanted by them judging from the yelling argument they overhear. They’re saving her in a sense, but then also teach her the tricks of shoplifting. How long can that go on, especially when her disappearance makes the TV news and suspicion falls on her parents. Meanwhile, grandma dies. How can they keep collecting her pension check? Hirokazu Koreeda, who both wrote and directed, adds to his stellar filmography with this warm piece of pure humanism. He won the top prize at Cannes this summer with it. (International Village) 4 ½ out of 5
Incidentally, The Cinematheque, which calls him the “now-reigning Japanese master” is supporting his new film by bringing back his first. Maborosi, from 1995, will play there four times starting January 3. Check http://www.thecinematheque.ca/ for more info.
THE FAVOURITE: If you want a better tale of intrigue in a royal court than the current Mary Queen of Scots, here it is. This one stars three top-notch actors (Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz) and was made (in English) by the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. I didn’t think much of his previous films like Dogtooth and The Lobster but this one is good. He’s dropped some of his obsession with things bizarre and quirky (not all thank, goodness) perhaps because he didn’t write the script this time. He runs with it though and the result genuinely fun.
Queen Anne (Colman) is on the English throne fretting over war or a peace treaty with France and whining about both her gout and her inability to bear children. Her 17 pregnancies have failed and she’s got 17 pet rabbits instead. She’s sleeping with her chief advisor (Weisz) until an ambitious country girl (Stone) works her way up from maid into the Queen’s bed. The Tory leader in Parliament (a preening and over-wigged Nicholas Hoult) latches on to her to talk the Queen into ending the war, so as not to have to raise taxes for it. There’s a lot going on and they all, especially Colman, play their characters excellently. And there’s enough weirdness in that story to satisfy even Lanthimos, I would think. (The Park and suburban theatres) 4 out of 5
SECOND ACT: Career-minded young women can easily enjoy this one as long as they can forgive a startling plot twist that almost splits the whole film in two (for a while at least) and as long as they don’t mind being manipulated by the emotional flips that come along. That common dilemma –career or family—starts the story, then disappears under larger ones –denied promotion at work and job-hunting under false pretenses—and then gets crowded out by an even bigger, improbable one. I won’t spoil it for you except to say that a late explanation doesn’t really fix it.
Jennifer Lopez (in her first movie in three years) plays a woman whose good work at a discount store is not recognized. She gets a try-out at a cosmetics company thanks to a fake on-line profile created by her godson. There, she’s in a race against the boss’s daughter (Vanessa Hudgens) to develop a new “green” skin-care line. The contest takes on more complications than it can handle and the film changes course again. Lopez and Hudgens are both warm and appealing in their roles and their message for young women is positive: it’s only your fear that holds you back. Other than that, this film is very light. (International Village and suburban theatres) 3 out of 5
BEN IS BACK: Not really holiday season fare, but maybe it is, because it does take place on Christmas Eve. That’s when Ben (Lucas Hedges) returns from drug rehab and shows up unannounced at his family’s home. His sister (Kathryn Newton) and his stepfather (Courtney B. Vance) are not happy to see him. Mom (Julia Roberts) is pleased but she’s about to find out more about him than she ever knew. It’s a story that will resonate with parents of young drug addicts.
It’s not extreme, it’s rather on the safe side, but it probably will affect you. Hedges is a likeable actor (remember Manchester by the Sea, Lady Bird and others) and you don’t expect him to get really evil. His friends, maybe. The family house is broken into, the pet dog is gone and mom and son go out to find it. Tension builds as they get to a grim neighborhood, a drug house and an AA meeting. The tour not only reveals much to mom about her son but also tests her ability to maintain her love. Julia Roberts shines in the role. So does Hedges who under the direction of his dad Peter subtly brings out powerful emotions of shame and pretense that he’s got his life under control. (International Village) 3 ½ out of 5
WELCOME TO MARWEN: Almost eight years ago, this true story was told in a fine documentary. Now Robert Zemeckis has re-imagined it into a drama that’s not nearly as engrossing. The problem is, the tale is so bizarre about one man’s fantasy adventures that visualizing them makes them feel less real. A movie. Not actual mental health problems afflicting Mark Hogancamp, well-played by Steve Carell. He’s an upstate New York man, a former comic book illustrator, who was severely beaten outside a bar, went into a coma and had no memory when he came back out. For self-therapy he created an elaborate diorama in his backyard of a World War II battle in a Belgian village. His photos were art; bringing them to life with guns blazing, jeeps charging and actors remade to look like action figures is fascinating to see, but not forever. The film is heart-felt but drags later on.
The script adds two stories to show the strains on Mark’s damaged psyche. Will he brave a trip to court to speak at the trial of his attackers? Will his attraction to the pretty woman (Leslie Mann) newly moved-in across the street lead to anything? They’re the hub of the movie, but are repeatedly upstaged by the battle scenes; Nazis shooting from a tower, a band of women soldiers firing back, Cpt. Hogie, as he calls himself, in the middle of it. And then there’s his fetish for women’s shoes. Hard to integrate that. The film was made around here, including Surrey and Maple Ridge. Look for a few Canadians in the cast, like Veena Sood as a judge. (International Village and suburban theatres) 2 ½ out of 5