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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Love & Friendship
Posted on May 12, 2016 at 5:54 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rate PG for some thematic elements |
| Profanity: | None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Alcohol |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Scuffles |
| Diversity Issues: | Class issues |
| Date Released to Theaters: | May 13, 2016 |
| Date Released to DVD: | September 6, 2016 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B01HE7NTX6 |
That assessment is not exactly accurate. Making a whole family miserable is somewhere between collateral damage and side benefit.
Lady Susan (fearless but effervescent Kate Beckinsale) is a recent widow with a teenaged daughter. In the manner of the era, when the gentry visited each other for months at a time, she has been staying with friends. First, she has no money and therefore her primary asset, aside from her guile and is her relationships with more comfortably settled members of her class. And second, the best chance for her to have a home of her own again is to marry her daughter off to a wealthy man. Stillman makes Lady Susan a more sympathetic character than Austen did, in part due to the vivacity of the actress who portrays her. It’s hard to have her believably portray such a captivating figure without our being captivated ourselves. But in addition, it is clear throughout that she may be ruthless and mercenary, but she has no other options. Her very status and gender constrain her from any other option, but she is undeterred. “In one’s plight is one’s opportunity,” she says. She has a gift for outrageous comments made with so much confidence they almost sound reasonable: About being sent away by her hostess: “If she were going to be jealous, she should not have married such a charming man.” About her daughter’s school: ““The fees are too high to even think of paying!” In the midst of an era of polite misdirection and euphemism, she is focused and direct, a hint of the coming modernity in the days of the harpsichord.
If she was around today, she’d be a CEO. Or a reality star.
Lady Susan has very little by way of education. She is not sure how many Commandments there are or what they contain. But she knows people, especially men. She knows her husband’s family has no socially acceptable vocabulary to tell her she can no longer stay with them. And when a handsome, eligible man warned about her skill with the opposite sex appears ready to resist her, she cleverly upends his expectations and before he knows it, he is captivated.
Stillman presents the story with wit and brio, introducing us to the characters with helpful on-screen descriptors: “his wealthy wife,” “a divinely attractive man.” The slight archness is his, or Austen’s, or Lady Susan’s; all are a bit reductionist when it comes to assessing everyone in the story according to his or her usefulness. He resists the usual musty respect for all classics, especially those featuring corsets, and presents the story with elegance and a refreshing briskness. Lady Susan would approve.
Parents should know that this film includes themes of deception and adultery.
Family discussion: Why did Lady Susan confide in Alicia? How did Lady Susan show her understanding of what it took to gain the affection of the different men around her?
If you like this, try: more Jane Austen films including “Sense and Sensibility” and “Pride and Prejudice,” as well as the books that inspired them
The Meddler
Posted on May 1, 2016 at 11:42 am
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for brief drug content |
| Profanity: | Some strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, marijuana |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Sad offscreen death, minor accident |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Date Released to Theaters: | April 29, 2016 |
But she has trouble filling her days and finding a place to use her generous impulses. And so, as the title indicates, she meddles. She calls Lori many times a day, and when Lori does not answer, she comes over — with a bag of bagels. Lori, grieving in her own way for her father and for a breakup with a handsome actor, does not respond, and so Marnie turns her attention to anyone who comes along, from Lori’s friends to the guy at the Apple store genius bar. What she does not feel ready to do yet is to say goodbye to her husband by burying his ashes and putting up a headstone in the family plot back in New Jersey. “It’s been a year,” she tells his brothers. But it has been two. And she is not ready to think about loving someone new, even after she meets a man who is from her home town and seems perfect for her (Michael McKean).
When Lori’s friend Jillian (SNL’s Cecily Strong) mentions that she needs a babysitter, and so Marnie shows up at her house — with bagels. Jillian says that she does not have a mother and she never had the dream wedding she wished for. So Marnie offers to give her a wedding. And when she encourages the Apple genius (Jerrod Carmichael of “The Carmichael Show”) to go back to school, she offers to drive him. She has so much to give, but the loss of her husband has left her with no place to give it and a fear of losing him even more if she changes too much or gets too close to someone else.
Sarandon gives one of her best performances, which means she is truly superb, and Byrne is excellent as well. When Lori’s ex and his new girlfriend find Marnie and Lori having dinner together on Valentine’s Day, there is a beautifully funny and heart-wrenching moment as both mother and daughter try so hard to appear to be doing fine that they do not notice they are undermining each other. In another scene of piercing bittersweetness, a day of emotional upheaval ends in mingled laughter and tears. JK Simmons brings dry wit and humanity to the role of an ex-cop and hen farmer whose quiet understanding gives Marnie her first chance to let go a little, and to acknowledge, after some resistance, that it is something she wants and needs to do, for herself and for Lori.
Writer/director Lorene Scafaria (“Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist” and “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”) has a rare gift for finding the space in between joy and grief, and a rare understanding of the power of small moments to tell a big story. As Marnie watches Lori’s script being filmed, she is moved by the way Lori has used her writing to work through her grief, and as we watch this film, we share that feeling.
Parents should know that this film has some strong language, sexual references, and drug use.
Family discussion: Why does Marnie want to help people she hardly knows? What’s the difference between being supportive and meddling and how does that change in different circumstances?
If you like this, try: “Hello, My Name is Doris” and “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”
Trailer: Equals
Posted on April 26, 2016 at 8:00 am
Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart star in a futuristic story about a time when emotions are outlawed and love is the worst crime of all.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Posted on April 21, 2016 at 5:11 pm
It’s both a prequel and a sequel to a movie no one was all that eager to see, with only 48 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes and one of those counted as positive didn’t muster much enthusiasm: “This Snow White may not be the fairest of them all, but sometimes, especially during the heat of summer, fair-to-middling does just fine.” This one is more middling than fair.
In the first film, the evil Ravenna (Charlize Theron) bewitched a king, killed him on their wedding night, and locked his daughter in a tower. Then, when she grew up to be Kristen Stewart and threatened to challenge Ravenna’s status as the fairest of them all, Ravenna ordered the Huntsman with no name to kill Snow White and bring back her heart so Ravenna could eat it and achieve permanent fairness.
In this film, we see Ravenna murder her husband, the king, over a game of chess, and we meet her sister, Freya (Emily Blunt), who is in love and pregnant. Her sister is the one with the magical powers. Freya has none — or so she thinks. But when she is faced with the ultimate loss and betrayal, all of a sudden she discovers her power, or, should I say, she lets it go. Yes, she is the queen of cold and ice. So, she leaves and takes over her own queendom, where her primary occupation is stealing children, telling them that love is illegal, and turning them into fighting machines, with freezing things a close second. Two children grow up to be world-class fighters and to be Chris Hemsworth (this time he gets a name: Eric) and Jessica Chastain as Sara. They break the big rule, and Freya punishes them terribly. Eventually, Eric ends up trying to find the magic mirror, complicated because it was stolen by goblins and because it exerts an evil “Fellowship of the Ring”-style power over anyone who looks into it. He is accompanied by two dwarves, played by Nick Frost and “The Trip’s” Rob Brydon, when, as I pointed out before, little people characters should be played by little people actors. They come across two female dwarves. One is played by Sheridan Smith, who, with Colleen Atwood’s gorgeous costumes, provides the movie’s few bright moments.
The storyline makes even less sense than the first one, with (SPOILER ALERT) repeated reliance on that weakest of plot twists, the character you are supposed to think is dead who turns out to be still alive. Blunt and Theron are game but given little to do but strut and declaim. Chris Hemsworth manages to bring his character to life and there are some striking visuals, but that can’t make up for a dreary mess.
Parents should know that this film features extended fantasy peril and violence, characters injured and killed including an infant, monster, some disturbing images, sexual references and situation, some strong language and crude comments.
Family discussion: What happened when Eric looked in the mirror? Why were so many of the huntsmen loyal to Freya?
If you like this, try: “Stardust” and “Jack the Giant Slayer”