Teaser Trailer: Disney’s New Live Action Beauty and the Beast
Posted on May 23, 2016 at 11:14 am
Emma Watson and Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”) star in Disney’s live action “Beauty and the Beast,” coming in 2017. Here’s a peek.
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A Bigger Splash
Posted on May 12, 2016 at 5:23 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Adult |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for graphic nudity, some strong sexual content, language and brief drug use |
| Profanity: | Very strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, smoking, drugs |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Violence including homicide |
| Diversity Issues: | Background of race and class issues |
| Date Released to Theaters: | May 13, 2016 |
Where there is Eden, there is usually a serpent. In this case, it is literal and metaphoric, as Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) and Marianne (Tilda Swinton) are blissfully happy in a lovely home with a pool on an exquisite island near Sicily. Occasionally they are confronted by local wildlife, including a couple of snakes. But mostly they lie naked outdoors, make love in the pool, and go swimming, slathering mud all over each other then sleeping as it dries. Both are recovering, which means both are vulnerable. Marianne is a rock star — in a flashback we see her on stage at an enormous arena with the crowd shrieking her name. She has had an operation on her vocal chords and must not speak at the risk of losing her voice entirely. Paul is a photographer and documentarian who has been to rehab for substance abuse and a suicide attempt. They are gentle and loving with each other.
And then the cell phone rings. It is Harry (Ralph Fiennes), Marianne’s former producer and lover, and he says he is landing on the island in five minutes and needs to be picked up. He arrives with a very young woman named Pen (Dakota Johnson) and it is clear that they are there to break things — to break the silence, to break hearts, to break the fragile peace Marianne and Paul have found when they left home to get away from people like Harry. “We’re hiding out,” Paul tells him. “Not from me!” Harry replies.
Harry is loud, carelessly arrogant, and needy. Some people are obnoxious because they do not know better; Harry knows and relishes it. He is the kind of guy to take up with a girl Pen’s age, but it turns out she is his recently discovered American daughter. Partly because he did not know he was her father until she was grown and partly because he lives in the space between outre and obscene. He literally pees on a grave. “Everyone’s obscene,” he says, “that’s the whole point.” He does not believe in limits, with one possible exception he claims to put on himself. After a lot of hinting from Harry, Marianne invites him and Pen to stay in the house they are renting.
“A Bigger Splash,” takes its title from a David Hockney swimming pool painting, is a remake of the 1969 Alain Delon film “La Piscine” (“Swimming Pool”). The characters experience need, fear, love, loss, and deception. They reflect the power and corruption of celebrity while around them we see glimpses of desperate refugees held in pens. Beautifully composed images show dreamlike settings, but there are intrusions within the pristine purity of the house: the shadow of an airplane about to land, a reptile on the table, some gauche visitors invited by Harry. “You’re not speaking, sweetheart,” he says to Marianne. “So I had to make other plans.” Small details are superbly chosen — a dress awkwardly worn in one scene turns up again later where it is more suitable, Harry’s story about producing a Rolling Stones song (with a fabulous dance), both Harry and Paul placing pills on Marianne’s tongue, a glint of gold and silver on her eyelids. It’s a mood piece, brilliantly performed, resonating like a bell that was rung days before.
Parents should know that this film includes very explicit nudity, sexual references and explicit situations, drinking, smoking, drugs, violence including homicide, and very strong language.
Family discussion: Why did Marianne invite Harry to say with her? Why did Pen lie?
If you like this, try: “Swimming Pool” and “Laurel Canyon”
The Jungle Book
Posted on April 14, 2016 at 5:32 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | 4th - 6th Grades |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG for some sequences of scary action and peril |
| Profanity: | None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | None |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extended peril and violence including bees, a tiger, a snake, and fire |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the film |
| Date Released to Theaters: | April 15, 2016 |
| Date Released to DVD: | August 29, 2016 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B01CTNDO58 |
The wolves are after him. No, the wolves are with him and a sleek black panther is after him. No, he catches him. No, they are friends. It is Mowgli (newcomer Neel Sethi) and the Bagheera (Sir Ben Kingsley), the panther who discovered him as a toddler and delivered him to the best mother he knew, the wolf Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o) who raised him lovingly along with her other cubs. While he matures more slowly and cannot do some of the things they can to stay safe, he can climb and use tools. Although Raksha tells him not to use “tricks” like pulleys, knots, and scoops, he feels very much a part of the wolf pack and solemnly recites along with the others:
Now this is the Law of the Jungle —
as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk
the Law runneth forward and back —
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf,
and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
When the rainy season ends, a dry spell shrinks the river so that the “peace rock” is showing. According to the well-established rules of the jungle, as long as they can see that rock, everyone may drink together in peace, meaning the predators cannot attack their usual prey. The one-eyed tiger with burn scars named Shere Khan (Idris Elba) sees Mowgli and warns the others that as soon as the rock is submerged again and the truce has ended, he will come for the boy and will do whatever it takes to kill him. Raksha reluctantly agrees to let Bagheera take him to the town, where Mowgli can be with other people. On the way, they have encounters with Kaa the mesmerizing snake (Scarlett Johansson), Baloo the easy-going bear (Bill Murray), and King Louis (Christopher Walken), an enormous ape (based on the extinct Gigantopithecus) who presides over an orangutan kingdom living in an ancient temple.
Fans of the Disney animated musical version will be happy to find some familiar moments within the superb score from John Debney.
But this is very much its own film, with stunning integration of the digital animals and the real-life boy. (Disneyphiles may think of Walt’s earliest short films featuring a real-life girl interacting with hand-drawn characters.) The world of the jungle is enchanting and vital, a Rousseauian dream of an Edenic natural world (in this PG film, while there is peril and some characters are injured and killed, any carnivore behavior happens off-screen). Sethi has an engagingly natural quality that is as important in bringing the digital characters to life as the brilliant work of the many, many artists and technicians whose names appear in the credits.
So does the storyline’s respect for this world and its inhabitants. Mowgli does not have many of the physical gifts of his wolf family or his friends in the forest. He does have some skills they do not, and it is heartwarming to see him develop simple tools like a stone ax and a pulley because they are not presented as superior or used to establish dominance, but to help his jungle community and to give thanks for all they have given him. This is gorgeous, inspiring filmmaking.
Parents should know that this movie includes extended peril with some violence and some disturbing images. A theme of the film is the tiger’s determination to kill Mowgli, and characters are injured and killed (including parents).
Family discussion: Why did the wolves and Baloo have different ideas about Mowgli’s “tricks?” Should Mowgli stay in the jungle or live with other humans?
If you like this, try: Rudyard Kipling’s Just-So Stories and two earlier films based on this story, one starring Sabu and the Disney animated version.
Behind the Scenes: The Jungle Book
Posted on April 12, 2016 at 3:08 pm
Why it’s time to tell the story again:
The voice talent:
Trailer: Ben-Hur
Posted on March 22, 2016 at 8:00 am
Morgan Freeman and Jack Huston star in this remake of the Charlton Heston classic, “Ben-Hur,” the story of a falsely accused Jewish nobleman in the time of Jesus (Rodrigo Santoro).