NEW THIS WEEK OCTOBER 4, 2024 (IN THEATERS AND ON HOME VIDEO)
ANOTHER HAPPY DAY--While in the throes of a particularly nasty case of post-partum depression, unemployed graphic artist Joanna (Laura Lapkus) impulsively decides to reconnect with an estranged aunt (Marilyn Dodds Frank). Because the persnickety old broad is a raging agoraphobe with mental health issues of her own, they're a match made in screwball heaven. First-time writer-director Nora Fiffer's Chicago-lensed indie merits favorable comparison with the films of Nicole ("Enough Said," "Please Give") Holofcener. Both boisterously funny and soul-piercingly sad, it's so beautifully acted that the characters feel more like real people than fictional creations. I can't wait to see what Fiffer does next: her movie ranks among the year's most auspicious filmmaking debuts.
FIRST LOVE--A year after playing Sissy Spacek's prom date in "Carrie," William Katt starred in the only theatrical outing by veteran TV director Joan ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") Darling. Based on Harold Brodkey's short story, "Sentimental Education," the movie generated a lot of salacious publicity at the time for Susan ("The Partridge Family") Dey's nude scenes. As Caroline, the patrician coed who toys with the affections of Katt's sensitive working class lad, Dey is somehow able to make her patently unsympathetic character oddly affecting by allowing us to see the wounded little girl underneath Caroline's haughty facade. (The character's daddy issues stem from having discovered her father's dead body as a child after he committed suicide.) Adding ballast is an ace supporting cast of up-and-coming talent: John Heard, Beverly D'Angelo and Swoosie Kurtz, all of whom leave their emotional marks, as does a soundtrack layered with songs by Cat Stevens and Paul Williams. The film's commercial failure--and its director's gender--probably explain why Darling never got to work in features again. But it remains a sore spot in Hollywood's checkered history with distaff helmers. KL Studio Classics' Blu Ray features an audio commentary with Katt and critic/author Lee Gambin. (B.)
JOKER FOLIE A DEUX--Todd Phillips' eagerly anticipated sequel to his 2019 "Scorsese-pastiche-meets-D.C. Comics" blockbuster finds Arthur Fleck/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix reprising his Oscar-winning role) imprisoned in a state mental hospital while awaiting trial for the murder of five people. (His lawyer, gamely played by the wonderful Catherine Keener, claims that her client is innocent because of a split personality disorder.) When a lovestruck fellow patient (Lady Gaga's Lee Quinzel aka the future Harley Quinn) makes her romantic intentions known, sad sack Arthur is understandably smitten. Their perverse "love story" forms the foundation for a Brechtian musical with Dennis ("The Singing Detective," "Pennies From Heaven") Potter pretensions. Heavy on standards ("If My Friends Could See Me Now," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," et al), the eclectic soundtrack is the main draw of a movie that probably looked better in concept than it does in execution. The overriding flaw is that not a whole lot really happens plot-wise---a problem for a film that runs 138 minutes--and, even worse, Gaga is sorely underutilized. While her live wire intensity makes "Folie a Deux" eminently watchable, it's yet another movie suffering from the dread sophomore jinx. Maybe they should have just left well enough alone. (C PLUS.) https://youtu.be/_OKAwz2MsJs?si=GxR8DBSzITspBf3i
LITTLE BITES--The amusingly monikered Spider One--he's Rob Zombie's kid brother--wrote and directed this memorably creepy body horror flick executive-produced by Cher (!) that would make even master-of-unease David ("The Fly," "Dead Ringers") Cronenberg squirm. A young widow (Krsy Fox's Mindy) is mysteriously saddled with an unwanted houseguest who refuses to leave her basement. He's a sepulchral-looking demon named Agyar (Jon Sklaroff) who needs Mindy's flesh (the titular "little bites") to stay alive. While her 10-year-old daughter (Elizabeth Phoenix Caro) remains temporarily ensconced at her mom's for safekeeping, Mindy hatches a diabolical plan to finally turn the tables on the bloodsucking freak. Whether you choose to read the film as a metaphor for addiction or the perils of motherhood, One's nimble execution--and his considerable flair with actors--makes this a must-see for genre aficionados, especially those who decry the lack of practical effects in today's scary movies. As a bonus, horror icons Heather ("A Nightmare on Elm Street") Langenkamp and Barbara ("Re-Animator") Crampton both turn up in cameo roles. (B PLUS.)
MONSTER SUMMER--During an otherwise uneventful 1997 summer on Martha's Vineyard, aspiring journalist Noah (Mason Thames, best known for "The Black Phone") begins to suspect that a supernatural force is threatening his friends. Coming to Noah's aid is a crusty retired cop (Mel Gibson) whose jaundiced approach to detective work hits just the right note for this too-"Stranger Things"-y-by-half tweener bait. Thames is an okay lead, but the film rightfully belongs to old pro Gibson. Lorraine Bracco and Kevin James unaccountably turn up in smallish roles as, respectively, Noah's sinister next door neighbor and a jaded newspaper editor Noah hopes to impress with his Hardy Boys antics. Maybe they owed somebody a favor. (C MINUS.)
THE OUTRUN--Despite a master's degree in biology, London twentysomething Rona (Saorise Ronan) spends most of her time clubbing. In the process, she becomes a raging alcoholic, prompting her live-in boyfriend (Paapa Essiedu) to move out. In a last ditch effort to get sober, Rona returns home to Scotland's desolate Orkney Islands. The archipelago's bleak, unforgiving landscape mirrors her battered soul (perhaps too neatly), and serves as backdrop for director Nora Fingscheidt's non-linear adaptation of Amy Liptrot's 2017 addiction memoir. While it pales in comparison with past recovery dramas like 2012's "Smashed" which was buoyed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead's brilliant lead performance, Ronan single-handedly makes "The Outrun" worth seeking out. The four-time Oscar nominee makes nary a false move, even if the film surrounding her leans a bit too heavily on addiction movie cliches. Stephen Dillane and Saskia Reeves as Rona's parents (he's bipolar and she's a religious zealot) make their too-brief moments of screen time count, but it's Ronan's showcase from start to finish. (B MINUS.)
https://youtu.be/ReKQYf4Jdpc?si=bmXEh1GlZ55VTgPj
SEBASTIAN--25-year-old Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is an aspiring London novelist who moonlights as a male escort ("Sebastian" is his nom de plume) as research for a novel about sex workers. Not surprisingly, living a double life turns out to have unexpected consequences. After losing his freelance gig at a tony literary magazine for missing too many deadlines, he gets stranded in Belgium--sans passport and laptop--by a disgruntled married client (Inguar Eggert Sigurosson). Coming to his rescue is a kindly retired professor (Jonathan Hyde's Nicholas) who becomes a mentor of sorts, encouraging Max to finish his book even after discovering that their play-for-pay trysts were grist for the future tome. Finish-born director Mikko Makela makes the sensationalistic material--replete with graphic gay sex scenes--less sordid than it sounds thanks to empathetic, lived-in performances. Even though Mollica doesn't really seem "hot" enough to be an in-demand prostitute--he's as blandly, anonymously handsome as overrated flavor du jour Paul Mescal--the soulful pensiveness he brings to the role is ultimately quite touching. Even better is veteran actor Hyde who effortlessly conveys a lifetime of heartache and disappointment with the tilt of his wrinkled brow. The sole extra on Kino Lorber's Blu-Ray is the theatrical trailer. (B.)
THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT--Director Michael Felker cut his teeth editing movies by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson which artfully played with the time/space continuum. But unlike that filmmaking duo's "Something in the Dirt" or The Endless," Felker's debut effort is, sadly, a bit of a metaphysical muddle. Estranged brother and sister Joseph and Sydney (Adam Thompson and Riley Dandy) meet up at a roadside diner after having apparently committed a robbery (the bags of cash Joseph is carrying are a dead giveaway). The plan is to cool their heels at an abandoned farmhouse for two weeks until the "heat" dies down. That self-imposed limbo winds up stretching ad infinitum, though, as they begin following cryptic messages from a tape recorder locked inside a safe. The dearth of any salient particulars or even backstory in Felker's script--the only thing we know is that Sydney did prison time for a previous robbery and has a young daughter--is initially frustrating and ultimately quite maddening. Can Joseph and Sydney time travel their way to freedom? Or will they be killed by a mystery assailant instead? Thompson and especially Dandy are both very good, but there's only so much they can do with their skimpily written roles. Like some of Christopher Nolan's more gnomic films (e.g., "Interstellar"), the build-up is more intriguing (and entertaining) than the ultimate payoff. (C PLUS.)
WHITE BIRD: A WONDER STORY--Putting aside the fact that there's something intrinsically distasteful about turning the Holocaust into a sentimental YA fiction, this long-delayed adaptation of R.J. ("Wonder") Palacio's graphic novel somehow manages to transcend its built-in ick factor to become a satisfying middle-brow tearjerker. Told largely in flashbacks as Helen Mirren's grandmere Sara recounts her traumatic teen years in Nazi-occupied France to a troubled New York grandson (Bryce Gheisar), it's precisely the type of movie that's grown increasingly out of fashion in today's tentpole/franchise-driven theatrical marketplace. (Thirty years ago it would have been a Miramax release that played for months in arthouses before segueing into crossover multiplex success--and probably scored beaucoup Oscar nominations in the process.) The 1940's scenes--with 15-year-old Sara (Ariella Glaser) hidden from Nazi soldiers by a crippled schoolmate (Orlando Schwerdt) and his kindly parents--are so compelling and strongly acted that they're pretty much irresistible. Much of the credit belongs to gifted director Martc Forster whose eclectic resume (including "Monster's Ball," "Finding Neverland," "Stranger Than Fiction," "The Kite Runner," "World War Z," "A Man Called Otto" and even a Daniel Craig Bond, 2008's "Quantum of Solace") makes him impossible to pigeonhole except for the sheer professionalism he brings to every assignment. Even when the material isn't Grade-A, Forster's execution has never been less than exemplary. (B.)
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BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE--Like another recent 36-years-later sequel ("Top Gun: Maverick"), Tim Burton's belated follow-up to his 1988 sleeper hit proves to have been well worth the wait. Winona Ryder reprises her role of Goth teen princess Lydia, now a widowed cable TV host with an angsty teenage daughter (Jenna Ortega's Astrid) of her own. Returning to Winter River, Connecticut for her dad's funeral, Lydia decides to shoot an episode of her "Ghost House" series at--where else?--her spook-laden family home. It isn't long before Michael Keaton's irrepressible Beetlejuice hones in on the action, even serving as a couples therapist for Lydia and her obnoxious producer-fiancee Rory (Justin Theroux). Despite being haunted by fearsome ex Delores (Monica Bellucci) who spends a good chunk of the movie reassembling her dead body piece by piece (they're conveniently stored in separate boxes), Beetlejuice sets his marital sights on Lydia. The climactic "wedding," scored to Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park," ranks among the most demented and hilarious setpieces of Burton's gloriously bonkers career. Also back for the ghoulish festivities are Catherine O'Hara as Lydia's pathologically self-absorbed artist stepmom Delia and the iconic "Shrunken Head Bob." Playing former "B" actor Wolf Jackson who now heads the afterlife police, Willem Dafoe steals every scene he's in. While Burton has had more misses than hits this century, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" proves he's still got the right stuff. And major props to Burton for making a 2024 franchise tentpole that runs a mere 108 minutes; the original was 92 (!) minutes. (A MINUS.)
FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE--Chen ("The Emperor and the Assassin," "Life on a String") Kaige's 1993 arthouse smash has always felt like the movie David Lean could have made if he'd elected to follow "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Dr. Zhivago" with a Chinese-language historical romance. Despite being the first Asian film to win Cannes' Palme d'Or where it shared top honors with Jane Campion's "The Piano," 16 minutes were chopped off the original 171-minute run time by Miramax major domo Harvey "Scissorhands" Weinstein prior to the U.S. release. Finally restored to the "Cannes Cut," Criterion Collection's gorgeous new 4K Blu Ray rendering is a cause for rejoice in all self-respecting cinephile households. Along with Zhang ("Raise the Red Lantern," "Shanghai Triad") Yimou, Chen was one of the leading lights of China's "Fifth Generation" of filmmakers. A member of Mao's army in his youth, Chen frequently referred to "Concubine" as his official mea culpa for having publicly denounced his own father at the time. Spanning fifty tunultous years, this glorious old-fashioned epic--with staggering Technicolor vistas courtesy of director of photography Gu Changwei--boldly uses the wide-screen format to tell a surprisingly intimate story about the lifelong friendship between two wildly disparate orphans (brawny Duan Xiaolou and androgynous Cheng Dieyi) apprenticed to the Beijing Opera as children. During the '40s Japanese occupation, the duo makes the acquaintance of House of Blossoms' courtesan Juxian (Yimou muse Gong Li), inaugurating a love triangle which creates an irreconcilable rift between Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) and Dieyi (best known for his starring roles in John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow" and Wong Kar-Wai's swoon-worthy gay romance, "Happy Together") who still harbors an unrequited crush on his boyhood pal. The movie heartbreakingly climaxes in the aftermath of Mao's Cultural Revolution when loyalties, and even love, were crushed by government-mandated political dogma. The Criterion disc includes a new conversation between Chinese cultural studies scholar Michael Berry and producer Janet Yang; a 2003 documentary about the making of the film; Chen's 1993 American television interview with Charlie Rose; and an essay by author/scholar Pauline Chen. (A.)
GREG ARAKI'S TEEN APOCALYPSE TRILOGY--Unlike some directors who eventually outgrow the mantle of "enfant terrible" (e.g., Francois Ozon), Gregg Araki never fully discarded that bratty appellation. Starting with "The Living End," his $20,000 critical and commercial breakthrough, Araki was officially designated as poster boy of the nascent Queer Cinema. Following the success of his 1992 provocation in which two gay men--one who's been recently diagnosed as HIV positive--hit the road for a "Clyde and Clyde"-style crime spree, Araki has consistently pushed the envelope. The fact that the Criterion Collection is releasing Araki's self-described "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" (1993-'97) shouldn't be terribly surprising. After all, Criterion previously gave Araki predecessor John Waters their bells-and-whistles treatment with lavish renderings of zero budget Waters underground classics like "Mondo Trasho," "Pink Flamingos" and "Female Trouble." Araki's stories of teen alienation, hazy/fluid sexuality and hyper-aggression might not feel as shocking as they seemed at the time, but they're no less transgressive or in-your-face gnarly. 1993's "Totally F***ed Up" was Araki's winking avant garde homage to John Hughes' '80s high school movies. Loosely plotted and episodic in nature, it artfully delineates the lives of six gay Los Angeles teens (4 boys and a lesbian couple). Besides introducing actor James Duval who would become Araki's designated creative muse, starring in all three of his "Apocalypse" films, it was also the only Araki movie to world premiere at Lincoln Center's tony New York Film Festival. Although 1995's "The Doom Generation" was semi-facetiously marketed as "A Hetero Movie by Gregg Araki," its Queer bona fides were unmistakable. Jordan (Duval) and Amy (Rose McGowan) impulsively pick up a sexy hitchhiker (Jonathan Schaech's amusingly monikered Xavier Red) who temporarily upends their relationship by sleeping with both of them. He also takes the couple on an increasingly violent joy ride that eventually brings them to the attention of the F.B.I. After Jordan is killed by neo-Nazis crackers, Amy and Xavier drive off together, destination unknown although it looks an awful lot like the abyss. (Parker Posey does an unforgettable cameo, too.) If Russ Meyer had directed a bi, mixed race "Very Special Episode" of "Beverly Hills 90210," it might have looked something like Araki's Hellzapoppin "Nowhere" (1997). Dark (James Duval again) and Mel ("The Craft" breakout Rachel True) are an L.A. high school couple in an open relationship who inadvertently get caught up in alien abductions, bad acid trips, suicides and rape on a day when the world is predicted to end. Working with the biggest budget of his career until then, Araki went for broke in the gonzo casting department. Ryan Phillippe, Heather Graham, Scott Caan, Chiara Mastroianni, Guillermo Diaz, Debi Mazar, Beverly D'Angelo (clearly having a ball playing Dark's reprobate mom), Christina Applegate, John Ritter (as seedy televangelist "Moses Helper"), and even former "Brady Bunch"-ers, Eve Plumb and Christopher Knight. All three films on the Criterion box set include juicy audio commentary tracks: "F***ed Up" (with Araki, Duval and actor Gilbert Luna); "Doom" (Araki, Duval, McGowan and Schaech); "Nowhere" (Araki, Duval, True and sundry costars). There's also a new conversation between Araki and Richard ("Boyhood") Linklater; a documentary featurette on the trilogy's Pop Art-influenced visual style; "James Duval's Teen Apocalypse Trilogy," an affectionate catching-up hangout between Araki and Duval; Q&As with Araki moderated by "My Own Private Idaho" auteur Gus van Sant and Andrew Ahn; a "Doom Generation" comic book; trailers; and an essay by critic Nathan Lee. (A.)
LEE--Watching a Kate Winslet movie is always an adventure. A performer who makes good films better and dreary ones tolerable ("The Mountain Between Us" anyone?), she has a restlessness that's made Winslet one of the leading actors of her generation. Besides a gift for making a character's inner life transparently readable, it's her fascinatingly unquiet presence that draws us in. "Lee," esteemed-cinematographer-turned-middling-director Ellen Kuras' prosaic biopic about fabled World War II photojournalist Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, isn't truly worthy of Winslet, but her mercurial performance single-handedly keeps you in the game. First introduced as a party girl living an expatriate American's life in mid-1930's Europe after hanging up her modeling career, Lee describes herself as someone who drinks and screws too much "while taking the occasional picture." After a whirlwind romance with the dashing Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgard) that leads to marriage, Lee gets the itch to try her hand as a war correspondent. Not only does she get British Vogue editor Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough, very good) to finance her adventure, Lee gets permission to travel with the American troops, even finding a mentor in Time Magazine photographer David Scherman (Andy Samberg, egregiously miscast). Miller's photos of the liberation of France and corpses of Holocaust victims helped make her career; a morbid picture she took sitting naked in Hitler's bathtub made her briefly notorious. The framing device of Miller being interviewed in 1977 by a young journalist (Josh O'Connor from "Challengers") probably worked better in the script than it does on screen where it mostly feels like an attempt to shoehorn as much biographical/historical exposition into the mix as possible. Miller's abrasive personality clashes with the more decorous biopic cliches, happily giving Winslet a lot to work with. She's never less than riveting, even when the film surrounding her seems permanently becalmed in a sea of terminal meh. (C.)
MOTHER--When Albert Brooks' "Mother" opened on Christmas Day 1996, awards pundits all seemed to agree that it would be the movie that finally won Debbie Reynolds an Oscar. (Shockingly, she'd only been nominated once previously for 1964's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown") Apparently AMPAS disliked Debbie as much as they did Brooks since she wasn't even recognized for her career-defining performance. Brooks' sole nomination was for his supporting turn in James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News." (I still find it mind-blowing that he didn't even rate an original screenplay nod for 1985's "Lost in America," the best American comedy since "The Graduate.") The movie's set-up is deceptively simple. Twice-divorced fortysomething sci-fi author John Henderson (Brooks) moves back in with his Sausalito, California mom (Reynolds' Beatrice) hoping to cure his writer's block. The fact that Beatrice makes passive-aggressiveness an Olympic sport is immediately signaled when she introduces John to a neighbor as, "Oh, this is my son; the other one." (John's kid brother Jeff--Rob Morrow from "Quiz Show" and "Northern Exposure"--is the apple of Beatrice's eye despite being a preening narcissist.) Picking favorite funny moments is probably a Sisyphean task, but Beatrice's description of the ice crystallizing over her orange sherbet as a "protective layer" is something I've been quoting for nearly 30 years. Although Reynolds was actually Brooks' third choice to play Beatrice (both Doris Day and Nancy "Just Say No" Reagan turned him down), it proved to be remarkably fortuitous for all concerned. Not only did Reynolds' bravura performance help make "Mother" Brooks' top-grossing film, but Carrie Fisher, Reynolds' daughter, was instrumental in getting her ex, Paul Simon, to rewrite the lyrics to "Mrs. Robinson" for the movie's soundtrack ("Here's to you, Mrs. Henderson..."). Despite being the antithesis of "prolific" ("Mother" was only the fifth of seven movies Brooks wrote, directed and starred in over 45 years), I've been championing him as a national treasure since his short films which aired in the early days of Saturday Night Live. And while I'm delighted that the Criterion Collection is honoring him this month with dual releases of "Mother" and "Real Life," Brooks' 1979 feature debut, there are, sadly, precious few bonus features. Separate interviews with Brooks and Morrow, an affectionate essay by critic Carrie Rickey and the '96 teaser trailer directed by Brooks are the lone supplements. (A.)
MY OLD ASS--After taking shrooms with best friends Ro (Kerrie Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler), college-bound 18-year-old Elliott (former kid actor Maisy Stella in a potentially star-making performance) makes the acquaintance of a woman (Aubrey Plaza, dependably wry) claiming to be her 39-year-old self. Adult Elliott dispenses valuable life lessons to Young Elliott, some of which she follows (spending quality time with her kid brothers and appreciating mom and dad more) while conveniently ignoring others (e.g., steering clear of a boy named Chad). The latter advice--and the reasons for it--provides writer/director Megan Park's film with the sort of twist ending you'll never see coming, and that will probably move you to tears. (It did me.) Besides the pitch-perfect Stella and Plaza, there are memorable supporting turns from Percy Hynes White, Maria Dizzia and Alain Goulem as, respectively, the enigmatic Chad and Elliott's salt of the earth parents. A rare coming-of-age film that both adults and teenagers can embrace, this is one of the year's smartest, funniest and most touching discoveries. (A.)
SPEAK NO EVIL--Unlike most English-language remakes of transgressive Euro thrillers that inevitably manage to lose something in translation even when they're helmed by the original directors (e.g., Michael Haneke's "Funny Games" and George Sluizer's "The Vanishing"), James ("Eden Lake") Watkins' slick gloss on Christian Tafdrup's bleakly nihilistic Danish shocker is nearly as disturbingly effective as the original. (It might be even more impactful if you haven't seen the 2022 original.) When Ben and Louise (Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis) accept an invitation from the friendly couple (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi) they met on vacation to spend a weekend at their country home, things quickly escalate from mildly disturbing to flat-out terrifying. As good as McNairy and Davis are in their unofficial "Halt and Catch Fire" reunion, the movie truly belongs to a superb McAvoy whose tour de force performance turns from rakishly charming to menacing on a dime. (B.)
TOTEM--A family birthday party forms the backdrop for Mexican writer/director Lila Aviles' deeply felt sophomore effort (2019's "The Chambermaid" marked her auspicious filmmaking debut). Told principally through the eyes of a preternaturally wise 7-year-old (Naima Senties' Sol), Aviles demonstrates an astonishing control of pacing and mood. Because the party is for Sol's terminally ill painter father (Mateo Garcia Elizondo) who may not live long enough to blow out the candles on his cake, everyone, particularly her flibbertigibbet aunties, is walking on eggshells. Observing all the frenetic activity surrounding her--and this is a supremely immersive film--the intrepid Sol often seems like the oldest and wisest person in her grandfather's sprawling, chaotic home. Aviles' use of small visual cues (ghostly images in silhouette, strategically placed jump cuts, long takes) give form to Sol's inchoate feelings. Despite the potentially maudlin subject matter, the tone is never funereal or remotely sentimental. (Aviles has too much respect for her audience to shamelessly tug on our heartstrings.) Instead she's made a humanist masterpiece that, in its artistic rigor and piercing soulfulness, recalls Victor Erice's coming-of-age classic "The Spirit of the Beehive." The only extras on the Janus/Sideshow/Criterion Channel Blu Ray are an interview with Aviles and the theatrical trailer. (A.)
TRANSFORMERS ONE--Like last year's unexpectedly sanguine Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, the first fully animated "Transformers" movie in 38 years manages to breathe new life into Hasbro's 1980's IP. Oscar-winning director Josh ("Toy Story 4") Cooley's origin story introduces Optimus Prime and Megatron when they were still worker-bee robots bonding over mutual contempt for the elite Transformers who rule their home planet Cyberton. Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) embark upon a mission to retrieve the lost Matrix of Leadership, hoping to restore the Energon they need to survive. Besides heavy-hitters Hemsworth and Henry, the vocal cast--including Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, Steve Buscemi and Laurence Fisburne--is as impressive as the frequently stunning 3-D-style computer animation. Along with sprightly action sequences and wise-cracking comedy, the film even manages to serve up some genuine emotion. Who knew Transformers could be so expressive? (B PLUS.)
THE WILD ROBOT--Director Christopher ("How to Train Your Dragon," "The Croods") Sanders has described his animated adaptation of Peter Brown's kid-lit staple as "a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest." What he didn't mention was that the narrative plays an awful lot like a cross between Brad Bird's 1999 cult classic "The Iron Giant" and Pixar masterpiece "Wall-E." Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o voices titular service robot Rozzum Unit 7134 (aka "Roz") who, after crash landing on a remote island, immediately begins searching for a master to serve. In short order, she becomes surrogate mom to an orphaned gosling (Kit O'Connor's Brightbill), as well as making friends with a veritable menagerie of critters including opposum Pinktail (Catherine O'Hara), fox Fink (Pedro Pascal) grizzly Thorn (Mark Hamill), and beaver Paddle (Matt Berry). What's most interesting about a film intended for very young children is its assiduously unsentimental attitude about mortality. ("Death's proximity makes life burn all the brighter" one sage critter opines) The gorgeous backdrops--sunsets, changing seasons, sea vistas--have a near painterly precision while the animal designs are, disappointingly, a tad on the conventional side. (B.)
---Milan Paurich
