Co-incidentally just as Disney has started up its streaming TV service, Netflix, the pioneer, has put a real contender into movie theatres for a brief run. The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese is close to a masterpiece. They’ve got another one, Marriage Story, coming in a couple of weeks. Disney has a Lady and the Tramp remake, with real dogs, and a Star Wars spin-off. And already 10 million subscribers. The gathering entertainment war is even more fascinating than the content.
Meanwhile, in theatres …
The Irishman: 4 ½ stars
Charlie’s Angels: 2
Ford v Ferrari: 3 ½
The Warrior Queen of Jhansi: 2 ½
The South Asian Film Festival:—
The Good Liar:--
THE IRISHMAN: For movie buffs this is an event. Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci together again in a story about organized crime and, as a bonus, Al Pacino joining in for the first time. Memories of Goodfellas and Casino are enough to unleash the anticipation and it’s satisfied brilliantly. At almost 3 ½ hours it is unnecessarily long but trust me, you’ll never be bored. There’s so much in here about real events and people, all of it propelled by a potent narrative drive and top notch acting and filmmaking. You’ll enjoy just sinking into it.
Robert DeNiro is at the centre as the Irishman, Frank Sheeran, who moved up from truck driver (and thief) to mob hitman (thanks to Pesci’s character) and then to bodyguard and fixer for Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters Union leader played by Pacino. There’s a lot of history there. The mob runs guns for the Bay of Pigs invasion, helps get Kennedy elected and then turns on him when his brother the attorney general comes after them. The film then purports to show what happened to Hoffa, whose disappearance and supposed murder has never been explained. This version is as the real Sheeran told it for a book (which has been disputed) and as DeNiro playing him, recalls it sitting in an old age home. We also get to see him as a much younger man.One of the plusses of this film is the computer de-aging given all these characters to show them as they were over several decades.
Most interesting is a sense of regret that forms near the end. After the usual bravado of the gangster life we get a good portrayal of how it corrodes the psyches of the men in it. Sheeran’s daughter brings it out, tentatively when she is young, but firmly when she’s grown up and portrayed by Anna Paquin. She does it with few words, just looks, but you feel the chill when she realizes her suspicions about him are correct and he says “She disappeared forever from my life that day.” The film deplores American greed and violence but there’s more visceral power in that personal loss. (Just one theatre, VanCity , which is showing it 20 times, and then in two weeks, Netflix) 4 ½ out of 5
CHARLIE’S ANGELS: I’m all in favor of movies that show that women can do anything that men can do. This one even says it explicitly but doesn’t go on and prove it particularly well. Oh, the angels fight and shoot and kick all sorts of men (a couple of times right in the crotch) but all these scenes are staged so much to make a statement that they don’t feel real. They’re play acting at best. Top that off with action set pieces that are hard to follow because they’re not shot or edited well. A few are just laughable. A car chase through Hamburg for instance. Both sides are firing automatic weapons that are even bigger than we see in the U.S. Absurd.
This is the third time the 1970s TV series has been rebooted into a movie. The first one was funny and fun. This one is not. Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and newcomer Ella Balinska are the angels who the never-seen Charlie sends out on missions. We watch (FYI not ogle) them in London, Los Angeles, Paris and mostly in Berlin and Istanbul where the film was shot. They’re trying to stop a technology sale, of an energy device that can revolutionize the electrical power industry but in the wrong hands could be weaponized to cause brain seizures and strokes. Yeah, another one of those stories. Elizabeth Banks directed and scripted and plays their handler Bosley. There’s also a retired Bosley played by Patrick Stewart and a sub-plot about who of them can you trust. The two Stewarts are memorable. Little else is. (Scotiabank, Marine Gateway and suburban theatres) 2 out of 5
FORD V FERRARI: I love mavericks vs stuffed shirts stories. There’s something satisfying about them. This one really happened. It perfectly pits the ingenuity of creators against imperious bosses and at the same time lets them be fully-realized individuals too. The film is about car racing (not so much in favor for climate-change activists) but also about friendship and perseverance and achievement (which should always be favored). Matt Damon and Christian Bale do some fine acting to bring out those traits in the story of easy-going race car designer Carroll Shelby and his volatile driver Ken Miles.
The Ford Motor Company was in a bit a slump (this was before the Mustang) in the 1960s and decided there was publicity in taking on Ferrari at the racing game. Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca commissioned Shelby to design a super car and win the 24-hour Le Mans race. When he brought along Miles, as his driver, the battles with bureaucracy kicked off. The film, by James Mangold, has great fun with them, not surprisingly because he has excelled with maverick tales before. This one doesn’t feel new; we’ve heard very similar fictional versions before. But two things bring it alive. Genial Damon and intense Bale are pleasing to watch as a duo with huge differences but a common goal. And better yet, the racing sequences are terrific, beautifully shot and thrilling to sit through. They’ll get your pulse up. (5th Avenue, Scotiabank, Marine Gateway and suburban theatres) 3 ½ out of 5
THE WARRIOR QUEEN OF JHANSI: It was known as Swords and Scepters when it got its world premiere here in March at the Women in Film Festival. The story is well-known in India, not so much here, and offers an inspirational message about a queen who fought the British. That was in the 1850s, when the country was ruled by the British East India Company. Through increasingly tyrannical methods they provoked a rebellion and when they took away the autonomy of her central India state, as well as her title and therefore her respect and livelihood, the queen joined the revolt.
There was a long siege at her fort, a huge battle with the attackers using ladders to climb the walls and several cavalry skirmishes. The Rani became a symbol of resistance. In London, Queen Victoria (Jodhi May) argued with her advisors about how to respond. In India, the lead general (Rupert Everett) had to follow the demands of the company guy, played tough and well by Nathaniel Parker. The realities of colonialism are clearly spoken. The film was something of a passion project for the director, India scholar Swati Bhise and her daughter Devika, who plays the Rani and helped write and produce. The performances are fine but the film is stodgy, too agenda- and message-driven and ascribes her too much personal credit for the rebellion which was wide-spread. (Silver City Riverport) 2 ½ out of 5
And also from there, this …
SOUTH ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL: It’s the 9th annual and now on in Surrey (mostly at SFU there) with a weekend of films from India and Pakistan, a few from elsewhere. The Illegal for instance, about an undocumented worker, and Jhalki, about forced child labor, are both American. Jhalki screens Saturday evening,
The crime thriller Laal Kabotaar (Red Pidgeon), which screens this evening at 6:00, has a man bent on escaping his city but having to rely on a revenge-seeking woman. The film is Pakistan’s submission to the Academy Awards. You can see the whole schedule at https://visaff.ca
Also now playing …
THE GOOD LIAR: It seems like a prestige project. Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen star, Jim Carter from Downton Abbey is there too; and Bill Condon, Oscar winner some years ago for screenwriting, directs. Of local interest, Bron Creative out in Burnaby helped produce it, probably by investing in it. But the reviews haven’t been strong. “This tale of con-artistry is torpid when it should be thrilling,” says The Wrap. A scheduling conflict prevented me from getting a preview.
McKellen as the con-man meets a rich widow, played by Mirren, on a dating website and tries to swindle her. There are complications, “a minefield of danger, intrigue and betrayal” according to the publicity notes. The Guardian says it’s a great duel but others fling about words like “ludicrous” and “little spark.” (5th Avenue, International Village and suburban theatres)