There's are only a few new ones to review today but they're all highly rated.
Notice though that Marvel has re-released Avengers Endgame too. The official reason? "For fans to see (it) one more time on the big screen before it finishes its theatrical run."
Actually, it's to get fans to help the parent company Disney elevate it above Avatar to be the #1 grossing movie of all time. It was only $38 million behind as of Wednesday evening. A few additions, including "an unfinished deleted scene " will be the lure.
A better reason? You can refresh your memory in time for the new Spider-Man movie. It takes place immediately after Endgame and opens Tuesday.
Also check out http://www.thecinematheque.ca/ They've got a terrific series of space movies starting this coming week. A newly restored 2001 is just one of them.
Meanwhile, these are new in town this week:
Yesterday: 3 ½ stars
Long Day's Journey Into Night: 4
Buddy: 4
Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind: 3 ½
Annabelle Comes Home: --
YESTERDAY: Pure fantasy for Beatles fans. How important were they? it asks. Danny Boyle’s new film, written by, British comedy veteran Richard Curtiss, poses the question by imagining a scenario in which they never existed.
To get there they have to follow a very improbable (winding?) road. It limits what they can do with the inquiry but they do entertain with this high-concept idea. They evoke waves of nostalgia, let us hear covers of 17 beloved songs and settle down content with a feel-good romantic comedy.
Not surprisingly, since there are films like Notting Hill, Love Actually and Slumdog Millionaire in the background as antecedents.
The story boosts Jack Malik, a struggling pub singer played by British TV actor Himesh Patel, into a major star because, after a power outage and a bicycle accident, he’s the only one who knows the Beatles songs. He passes them off as his own and in a recurring motif is interrupted whenever he tries to explain where they really came from. So, he’s not really cheating.
We’re on his side as Ed Sheeren (yes, the real guy) takes him on tour and Kate McKinnon, as an L.A. Music promoter offers visions of what she says is most important: money. We get many wry observations about the music business.
While Jack plays to huge crowds (and sings Back in the U.S.S.R. in Moscow) he all but disregards his long-time girlfriend (Lily James) who has been in love with him since they were children. Will he wake up to her? Will anyone expose his musical deception? Will he admit it himself? The film keeps you hanging on, laughing quite often and enjoying an easy, warm glow. (5th Avenue and suburban theatres) 3 out of 5
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT: (or Last Evening on Earth, if you translate the original Chinese title) is not the Eugene O’Neill play but a completely original and even audacious second film by Bi Gan. To me it’s one of those rare films that I can’t really figure out but love anyway. It’s long, slow and mesmerizing. It alerts us at the opening about dreams (“an out of body experience”) and then trips out on one of them. Or so it seems. It’s not often clear what is and isn’t. But then it puts on a bravura display of filmmaking technique that you have to see.
A man (Wang Jue) returning to his hometown when his father dies, inherits a van and recalls that he once loved a woman there (played by the Chinese film star Tang Wei) and sets out to find her.
He only has an old photo and somebody else’s phone number to help him. He finds a woman in prison who says she sent the photo, a gangster his friend was involved with and the friend herself, although she says she’s not her. The story becomes a swirl of impressions, memories, vaguaries. We don’t know what’s happening now and what was in the past. And yet it’s engrossing. Although a character shown eating an apple for over two minutes does test your patience.
Then the film tops itself. Wang falls asleep in a movie theatre and for the next hour in a single shot, no edits, we watch his wanderings. Down into a mine and back out he goes, a ping pong game, a precise and difficult billiard shot, a scooter ride, descent on a zip line to a village far below, up and down stairs, into rooms and down alleys. And more. Amazing to watch and again, is it a dream or is he awake? Doesn’t matter. Just go with it. It’s worth it. (VanCity Theatre) 4 out of 5
BUDDY: Hey dog lovers. Here’s another one just for you. It’s Dutch, is very moving without overdoing it and highlights how close the connections can be between human beings and their animal friends. These six in Heddy Honigmann’s documentary are primarily workers. They’re service dogs.
Missy guides a blind man to the door of the train he wants to get on. Makker enables a blind woman to go running in the woods. Mister enables an army veteran with PSTD to go outdoors at all. But none of them equal what Kaiko can do.
Erna Aarnsen is wheelchair bound. Kaiko opens the fridge door and gets the pitcher of cream for her and picks groceries off the shelves at the store.
At night Kaiko pulls up the duvet cover on her bed to fully cover her and most remarkably, pushes the plunger on her hypodermic needle to inject her medicine. The film shows many simpler examples. Kay pulls her master’s wheelchair with a rope. Utah is friends with an autistic boy and prevents him “from getting too angry.” What it doesn’t show is maudlin sentiment. Even when it acknowledges that dogs like this have a short working life and will have to be replaced it does not tug at the emotions. You can add them yourself. (VanCity Theatre) 4 out of 5
GORDON LIGHTFOOT: IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND: He’s one of our greatest songwriters and a beloved performer but he’s not known for revealing much about himself when he talks. He chose to let out a little more than usual for this film, possibly because he knows and trusts the directors. Joan Tosoni and Martha Kehoe have a long background in music and TV documentaries here in Canada and have worked with him before. This bio is diligent, respectful and surprisingly frank and candid. That’s when Lightfoot admits his regrets about how he treated people at times. ”I caused emotional trauma,” he says.
I’d heard rumours of that and experienced a very minor example myself years ago. I wrote a review of his latest album and he read the one negative comment out loud from a coffee house stage while I was there. Hardly comparable to what he recalls in the film.
He tells of a drinking problem, drunken rages, leaving his wife and kids and how all that found its way into his songs. Before that, it’s a straight appreciation of his art, with lots of performance clips, excerpts from some 26 songs and laudatory comments from many: Ian, Sylvia, Randy Bachman (“unique sound”), Alec Baldwin (“so clean”), Murray McLaughlin (“craftsman”), Geddy Lee, Steve Earle, Anne Murray and on and on. It’s a celebration. There are interesting background stories and some of the early clips –the barbershop quartet he was in or him on Country Hoedown—are priceless. It’s a well-rounded portrait; not complete but OK for now. (VanCity Theatre, Sat. Mon. Wed. and Thurs.) 3 ½ out of 5
Also now playing …
ANNABELLE COMES HOME: Ready for another haunted doll movie? Chucky is out there in Child’s Play and Annabelle is back in her third film, part of the very successful Conjuring films that are now up to #7. I’ve seen several, but not yet this one, which I understand takes place between the opening and the rest of the first Conjuring film. (Fans care about these things).
Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are back as real-life demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren but they leave for most of the film having locked Annabelle safely away in a display case. Their 10-year-old daughter and her babysitter are alone, but a friend comes over to play, disregards the warnings, opens the case and havoc ensues. The reviews have been a mix of “good scary fun” and “repetitive.” “Popular” is likely the most appropriate word.