Best movie eclipse scenes? Well, “Twilight: Eclipse,” of course, but also “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” based on Mark Twain’s novel. There have been many versions, but I like the musical with Bing Crosby.
Best of all is the film from the great innovator of special effects and movie magic, George Melies, best remembered for another moon movie, “The Trip to the Moon,” (and for “Hugo”). This one is “The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon.”
We mourn the loss of one of the great figures of 20th century entertainment, Jerry Lewis, a performer who was at the top in nightclubs, movies, radio, and television. He was a successful and innovative director of film as well.
He was an extraordinarily gifted physical comedian.
He liked to describe his act with Dean Martin as “the handsome man and the monkey.”
After Martin left him, Lewis was devastated. In one of his most successful solo films, “The Nutty Professor,” a sort of reverse Jeckyll and Hyde story, he essentially played both roles.
Lewis became a director who learned every technical aspect of filmmaking, down to loading the camera. He invented the instant video feedback system that is now standard.
He was also a superb dramatic actor, most notably in Martin Scorsese’s “King of Comedy,” playing a kidnapped talk show host, opposite Robert de Niro.
He was also a tireless, if sometimes controversial, fundraiser for muscular dystrophy with annual Labor Day telethons.
Shawn Levy’s insightful book, King of Comedy: The Life and Art Of Jerry Lewis, has the best description I’ve seen of the complicated relationship between Lewis and his audience. His talent could be overwhelmed by his voracious need for attention and his barely hidden hostility. He had a rare combination of ferocious commitment to entertaining, putting everything he had into it, but holding a great deal back, never showing us who he really was, as any truly great entertainer should do.
But at his best, with Martin and working with director Frank Tashlin, he was as good as it gets.
Fantasy peril and violence, characters injured and killed, monster
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
August 18, 2017
Copyright 2017 Gravitas Ventures
For generations, there have been children who have had more fun playing with the box than with the toy that came inside. The reason is easy to understand: a blank box puts no limits on imagination. It can be a clubhouse, a rocket ship, or a submarine, or all at once. It needs no batteries and there is no technology to break down. There’s no disappointing discovery that what looks cool on the commercial does not actually work. Cardboard can be anything and imagination can take you everywhere.
That is the theme of “Dave Made a Maze,” both the story on the screen and the story of the movie itself. Annie (Meera Rohit Kumbhani) comes home from a short trip out of town to find her boyfriend Dave (Nick Thune) has taken over their living room with a cardboard maze, or, rather, a labyrinth so intricate that he is literally lost inside it. Like the TARDIS, Dave’s construction is bigger on the inside. Annie grabs some friends and a box cutter and goes inside. A film crew led by their friend Harry (James Urbaniak) comes along to document (and sometimes shape) the adventure.
Co-writer/director Bill Watterson (not the Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist) has created a slacker/artisanal “Cat and the Canary” or “Ghost and Mr. Chicken,” a comedy/horror film with real stakes and deadpan delivery, all the funnier for being so understated.
The star of the film is unquestionably the maze/labyrinth itself. Production designers Trisha Gum and John Sumner, clearly having the time of their lives, worked with the genius artists of the Cardboard Institute of Technology to create an endlessly inventive world, enchanting, spooky, hilarious, and, when you don’t expect it, pretty scary. Just because the blood is made of yarn and paper, we learn, does not mean it is not real. On the other hand, one labyrinthian portal somehow turns the characters into paper bag puppets, a transformation which thankfully turns out to be temporary. Dave’s maze, a manifestation of his frustration at not having a job that fulfills him, turns out to have a malevolent sentience he and his friends have to battle. Having different artists work on different rooms and corridors adds to the continuous surprise and disconnect, with one section looking like a mock-up from “2001,” another sporting origami birds, and others playing with perspective and space. I was especially taken by the intricate cardboard mechanics underneath one space, with several others hinting at an even more expansive and complex cardboard world.
Part of the film’s charm is the way Annie and Dave’s friends immediately accept the premise and just go for it. But what makes this one of the most imaginative films of the year is the way it makes a virtue of its micro budget. Like Dave himself, the filmmakers have found what the cheapest materials can do better than the most sophisticated animation equipment. They’ve created a tactile environment that puts no limits on their imagination or ours.
Parents should know that this film has very strong language, fantasy peril and violence, a monster, and characters who are injured and killed.
Family discussion: Which was your favorite room in the maze? Why did the maze get out of control?
If you like this, try: “Safety Not Guaranteed” and “Coherence”
Some peril and violence, prison riot, illness, explosions
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
August 18, 2017
Copyright Bleeker Street 2017
Steven Soderbergh, gifted us with the delectable champagne cocktail “Oceans 11,” a sophisticated improvement over the Rat Pack heist film set in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. His new film, “Logan Lucky” is “Oceans 7-11,” a hillbilly heist, a redneck robbery.
The setting is Appalachia. Instead of a Las Vegas casino, the target is a NASCAR race track in Charlotte, North Carolina. But once again there is an all-star cast, a wickedly clever plot, wonderfully engaging characters, and delicious humor, with one “Game of Thrones” joke that is by itself worth the price of admission. The credits cheekily inform us that “Nobody was robbed during the making of this movie. Except you.” Even more cheekily, the credited screenwriter does not seem to exist. But that is all part of the fun.
Channing Tatum plays Jimmy Logan, a good-hearted man from West Virginia who is down on his luck. His ex-wife (Katie Holmes) has remarried a wealthy car dealer and they are planning to move to Virginia, taking his daughter with them. He has just lost his construction job, not because of his performance, but because his old leg injury is considered a liability risk. His bartender brother Clyde (Adam Driver), a veteran who lost his hand to an IED, insists that the Logans are all just cursed with bad luck. Their sister Melly (Riley Keough), a hairdresser, is more optimistic — also very smart about cars and a few other things, too.
Jimmy needs to make some changes in his life. So he makes a list of everything he needs to do to rob the racetrack. It begins: “1. Decide to rob a bank. 2. Have a plan. 3. Have a backup plan. 4. Establish clear communications. 5. Choose your partners carefully.”
As in any great heist film, Jimmy then assembles his team, though perhaps “carefully” is not the way to describe what happens. Foremost is explosives expert Joe Bang (Daniel Craig, with a bleached blonde crewcut, an impeccable Southern accent, and a ton of attitude). Unfortunately, as he informs them, he is “IN. CAR. CER. ATED.” But Jimmy has a plan. Joe agrees but insists that they include his two dimwit brothers (Brian Gleeson and Jack Quaid).
Also as in all great heist films, even the best-laid plans have to go wrong, so there are many unexpected developments along the way. The fun of these films is the problem-solving before the big day, with careful planning, and then the problem solving on the big day as, well, take a look at Logan’s item #3, and another reminder later on that things will go wrong. The movie has fun with the characters, but not at their expense, at least not at the expense of the heroes/anti-heroes. It doesn’t treat them like hicks or rubes.
Keough is a standout and Craig is a complete hoot. There are small gems of performances along the way, including Dwight Yoakam as a prison warden and Katherine Waterston as a health care provider. We’re as much in the dark as the FBI investigators (led by Hillary Swank), and right up until the last minute we are not sure of exactly what happened. But the answer is a total delight, as is the cast, all having way too much fun.
Parents should know that the film includes strong and crude language for a PG-13, tense family confrontations, some disturbing images, an amputated limb, references to war casualties, fights, and peril (mostly comic).
Family discussion: What was the most important item on Jimmy’s list? What did he forget?
If you like this, try: “Welcome to Collinwood,” “Out of Sight,” and “Oceans 11″
