In the second fall season movie about a famous interracial marriage in history, Oyelowo and Pike star as Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams Khama, the couple whose marriage rocked South Africa under apartheid in the late 1940's and 50's. This film is premiering at the London Film Festival in October, but usually when there are two films of a competing theme, one of them gets a leg up. I have a feeling Loving will the movie that sets sail of these two, but that may be because I can tell the performances of Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga are more of the showcase sort. This looks more like a romanticized love story, so it may be seen as lighter. Then again, who knows? Trailers can be deceiving.
REVIEW: "Kubo and the Two Strings" (2016) Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey. Dir. Travis Knight
Laika Studios has in recent years become the sole studio dedicated to the preservation of stop-motion animation as an art form, and the production of films that showcase this unique style in all its glory. They deserve kudos for that noble cause, and the singular filmography they’ve produced thus far, which includes Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls, films of varying quality but boundless storytelling creativity and visual beauty, two things that aren’t often seen in most American animation these days, which is quite frequently the same old, same old. The studios have gotten good at churning out that CGI product, but let’s be honest with ourselves- doesn’t it all start to blend and look similar in ways that the old traditional 2D style never did?
Kubo and the Two Strings is the fourth entry in the Laika catalog, and probably their best yet. It’s a stirring, spiritual adventure of a young boy’s quest to affirm his family lineage and let go of the ghosts of his past, and not only does it not look like the typical animated product, but the story is a sensitive, mature, and even profound dive into learning how to let go and claim your own destiny aside from the one set out for you at birth. This is a fantasy set in ancient Japan, where a young boy named Kubo must deal with the anguish brought about by his mother’s tragic past, a past that has rendered her untethered to reality as she drifts in and out of a lucid state in which she only occasionally recognizes her son and remembers his father.
Kubo has all kinds of questions about his late father, who was a warrior, and his mother, who descends from a magic realm of otherworldly beings ruled by the Moon King, also known as Kubo’s evil grandfather who stops at nothing to regain control of his traitorous daughter who deserted her kingdom with her newborn son in tow. For now Kubo remains safely hidden in a rural village where he entertains patrons with his tall tales of the Moon King and flying origami figures, but soon that changes, and he embarks on a quest to defeat his grandfather, his two evil aunts and reclaim control of his life. That adventure comes complete with comic relief sidekicks of course, one in the form of a toy monkey come to life (voiced by Charlize Theron), and another of a human sized beetle with memory loss (Matthew McConaughey). Those two companions come with secrets of their own that must be unraveled, while the story plays itself out as essentially one of Kubo’s riveting tales, in which he stars as the hero.
In some ways this is a formula story, but in others there is a deep emotion at its core that cuts to a longing within every child to know who their parents are and where they come from. And unlike other kids movies, this one does not shy away from genuine loss in favor of a pat happy ending that pretends everything can work itself out too perfectly. The film is a visual splendor, with bold, striking colors and several underwater environments that stand out as a majestic celebration of detail. Sadly, it’s still a bit distracting, at least to me, that the movie takes pains to steep itself in Japanese culture and be about Japanese characters, yet the leads are all voiced by white actors in the continued whitewashing tradition of Hollywood. Meanwhile, George Takei cameos as an extra in a crowd scene while Ralph Fiennes voices the Moon King, and you end up asking yourself…why is it that George Takei couldn’t play that crucial role, exactly? You might say what does it really matter in terms of voice acting, but ask yourself if white actors would ever be brought in to play the leads in an animated film about African-American characters. I don’t think I’m off base in thinking other minorities shouldn’t have to be whitewashed either.
* * *
First Trailer for Casey Affleck in 'Manchester By the Sea'
This film from director Kenneth Lonergan premiered at Sundance to rave reviews, was immediately labeled a major potential Oscar contender, and was eventually bought by Amazon. The studio wants to launch it as its first awards candidate, and in doing so it needs to release it in theaters, unlike what Netflix did last year with Beasts of No Nation. They're planning a limited release in November, right around Thanksgiving, as the perfect date for these kinds of films, so we'll see if this family drama about grief (it seems it may be a bit reminiscent of something like Ordinary People) can take off. I'm guessing Casey Affleck (the greater Affleck, I've always thought, as far as acting talent goes) can probably land a Best Actor nomination at least, but the movie could be in there all across the board, especially once critics chime in. The trailer seems a bit mild, but it's always kind of hard to market old school family dramas in an interesting way. I trust the buzz out of Sundance on it more.
Emma Stone Sings in New Trailer for 'La La Land'
What do you guys think of her voice? It's...okay, I guess. I mean, come on, she's no Judy Garland or anything. I think this movie is going to be a love it or hate it situation, like most exercises of this kind usually are. Looks gorgeous though, that's for sure. Tech noms galore. As for the rest of it, we'll be finding out very soon, since it's premiering at Venice and will be showing at Telluride in just a couple weeks.
Laika's 'Kubo and the Two Strings' has a soft opening
BOX OFFICE 8/19-8/21: 'Suicide Squad' Stays on Top a Slow Weekend
Laika's 'Kubo and the Two Strings' has a soft opening
None of this weekend's newcomers boasted impressive openings, allowing WB's Suicide Squad to continue to reign atop the box office, pulling in $20 million, another 50% drop from last week, making it on par with Batman v Superman's trajectory. The movie has also now earned over $572 million globally, which is kinda depressing when you see how these crappy films just keep making enough money to justify continuing them, no matter how awful they are. When are people going to wise up? It might not be as much as they want, but if it had only earned maybe $300 million or less? Now that would the epic, in the red flop that the studio deserves.
Sausage Party took second place again, falling over 50% itself, for another $15 million and a new total of $65 million, which is a big hit for its $19 million budget. War Dogs came in third with a meager $14 million and a bad "B" Cinemascope, so don't expect that one to stick around, while Kubo and the Two Strings sadly landed in fourth with $12.6 million. The animated film has earned the best reviews in Laika Studios short history, but it looks like families aren't much interested in animation that doesn't look exactly like everything else they see. Too bad. Paramount's Ben-Hur rounded out the top five for a truly epic flop debut, earning just $11 million on a $100 million budget. See now that's absolute rejection from audiences towards a genuinely terrible movie. Can't they manage to do the same for the awful WB superhero slate?
'Ben-Hur' is an epic flop for Paramount
Top 5:
- Suicide Squad- $20.7 million
- Sausage Party- $15.3 million
- War Dogs- $14.3 million
- Kubo and the Two Strings- $12.6 million
- Ben-Hur- $11.4 million
In limited release, Hell or High Water expanded to over 400 locations for a $2.7 million total, a pretty good $5k per theater average, making it the rare platform success this year. It looks likely to overtake the other limited release films as the most successful of 2016, which kind of makes me wonder if this could turn into a sleeper Oscar contender, given its rave reviews. At the very least, if the critics come back for it at the end of the year, it could get launched into consideration. Meanwhile, Natalie Portman's directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness opened with a nice $18k per screen average. Next week it's the horror movie Don't Breathe, Mel Gibson's would be comeback thriller Blood Father, and the Obama date movie Southside With You in limited. Stay tuned.
Amy Adams Talks to Aliens in the Full Trailer for 'Arrival'
So this kinda looks like Contact meets Close Encounters, am I right? Amy Adams seeks her sixth Oscar nomination as a translator for the visiting life forms from another planet, and I think this looks pretty good, actually. I've liked each successive Denis Villeneuve film a little bit better than the last, so this has the potential to be his best yet, hopefully. And unlike Emily Blunt's superfluous character in Sicario, this one looks to actually be all about Adams and her role in the story, so I'm excited. It premieres at the Venice Film Festival in a couple weeks and opens right in the thick of Oscar season on November 11th, so it looks like Paramount's got high hopes for it.
Chris Pine and Ben Foster are Bank Robbers in 'Hell Or High Water'
I must have been sleeping on this movie, which did play outside if competition at Cannes in May, but came out this weekend to some pretty stellar reviews. In fact, it's now the best reviewed film of the year. Described as in intense modern day western with some amazing performances from Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges, it seems like it came out of nowhere to be a can't miss. I always thought Chris Pine had some potential outside of Captain Kirk, so I'm happy for that. I think he's the one with the most serious acting potential of all the major "Chrises"- Evans, Hemsworth, Pratt and Pine. Do you agree?
Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae Help NASA in 'Hidden Figures'
For those who remember 1980's The Right Stuff, featured in that movie were the three female African-American mathematicians whose calculations helped astronaut John Glenn become the first American to orbit the earth. Now their story finally takes center stage in this film coming out at Christmas, which is based on the non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly. The actresses look great together, and it does give off a bit of a vibe similar to 2011's The Help, but I find this true life story a lot more interesting, so I'm looking forward to this. I hope it's decent, although director Theodore Melfi's debut film St. Vincent was only okay. Fingers crossed.
BOX OFFICE 8/12-8/14: 'Suicide Squad' Drops as 'Sausage Party' Opens Big
Well, Suicide Squad ended up following the typical pattern for anticipated DC movies that are reviled by critics, open huge and then fall off a cliff in the second week. Squad fell about 67%, a very steep drop to come in with $43 million, not great at all, but its total is $222 million so far and over $300 million globally, so even though the consensus is that these movies suck, they still make enough money to justify continuing production. The question is how long can this sustain itself without improving the quality of the films? Hopefully audiences will wise to this eventually, but with real excitement already for next year's Wonder Woman, it probably won't be anytime soon.
As for the new releases, the Seth Rogen produced Sausage Party, the raunchy R-rated animated film for adults, kinda gave Suicide Squad a run for its money, coming in way above expectations with $33 million for the weekend. The movie got pretty good reviews as well, but just a "B" Cinemascope (I wonder if naive parents wound up taking their kids to this thing, only to come out of it horrified). That may mean that the legs on this comedy won't hold up well, but then again, there's not a lot of competition for the rest of the summer either. A movie actually intended for the family audience, the remake of Pete's Dragon, came in with a soft $21 million, but with a budget of only $65 million, there's a chance it will recoup its costs in time, since reviews were very positive for it as well. Jason Bourne and Bad Moms filled out the top five, the latter especially having turned into a great success for STX entertainment, as it's holding onto its female audience extremely well, and with just a $20 million budget, will wind up at or near $100 million domestic.
Top 5:
- Suicide Squad- $43.8 million
- Sausage Party- $33.6 million
- Pete's Dragon- $21.5 million
- Jason Bourne- $13.6 million
- Bad Moms- $11.5 million
In smaller release, the annual late summer Meryl Streep vehicle Florence Foster Jenkins, took its positive reviews to a meager $6 million opening from around 1500 locations, while the superbly reviewed western Hell or High Water, starring Chris Pine, seemingly came out of nowhere to make $18k from 32 theaters- people are going to have to seek that one out, as it's now the best reviewed movie of the year, despite little attention paid to it when it showed outside of competition at the Cannes film festival. Next week it's Laika Studios' stop-motion animated release Kubo and the Two Strings, against the Ben-Hur remake and Jonah HIll's black comedy War Dogs. See you all then!
REVIEW: "Star Trek Beyond" (2016) Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto. Dir. Justin Lin
After a summer of mostly dreadful blockbusters, it’s something of a relief to catch up with the Star Trek gang, who as a group are just as fun to hang with as ever, which is far more than you can say for anything in the latest superhero product launched by Marvel Studios or WB’s DC division. JJ Abrams and co. have a much more cohesive handle on the feel of this franchise, and the writers, filmmakers and actors involved have an obvious passion and love for these characters that manages to exceed any weak plot machinations to be had. Who really cares about the latest villain the Enterprise crew has to take on when we’re really just here to see them bonding with each other as pals, right?
That’s something that writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung inherently understand about this series, and they’ve fashioned a script that feels akin to an episode of the old show, and works as a tribute to Gene Roddenberry’s groundbreaking project that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. This time around, Fast and Furious director Justin Lin takes over the filmmaking reigns from Abrams, and does an admirable job in stewarding seamless action scenes with amusing character moments, as the crew gets separated after a raid on the Enterprise, leaving the group split off into pairs, the best of which are Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban), whose bickering leads to some of the most delightful moments in the film. Pegg, who plays engineer Scotty, manages to give himself a slightly bigger role this time around as well, as he ends up stranded on a new planet with Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a face-tattooed alien with a feisty attitude and spot-on martial arts skills. She’s a great addition to the crew and I hope she sticks around for the next one, unlike the jettisoned Alice Eve from 2013’s Into Darkness, who’s nowhere to be seen in this entry, which takes place roughly five years after the last one ended.
As the end of the five-year mission draw near, Kirk (Chris Pine) is getting restless after so many years in space, and the same goes for Spock, whose romance with Zoe Saldana’s Uhura is on the rocks as he contemplates going to New Vulcan to help repopulate his race (obviously a relationship deal breaker). But trouble strikes when a new villain Krall (played by Idris Elba under about five pounds of makeup) makes it his mission to attack the Enterprise and kidnap most of the crew, for reasons having something to do with his survival being based on absorbing the life forms of others. To be honest, Krall’s motivations are vague at best, and even when the secret of his true identity is revealed, it doesn’t exactly clarify things for the final battle between him and Kirk. The central conflict involves his taking the Enterprise crew hostage, including Uhura and Sulu, while splitting up the others, who have to find their way back to each other and figure out how to rescue their friends. The weakness of the central villain aside however (and yes, both Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan and even Eric Bana’s silly Nero were more compelling adversaries), the pleasure of this film comes purely from the camaraderie and chemistry among the cast, which makes up for a lot in these movies, since the basis for all of them is the crew as a family of sorts. That’s a theme carried along extremely well by this young cast which was passed the torch from a generation of actors who’d been playing these roles for decades. It makes it even more heartbreaking that this was the last appearance of the late Anton Yelchin as Chekhov, who the film is dedicated to along with Leonard Nimoy, who passed away last year. Producer JJ Abrams has already said the role of Chekhov will not be recast, and that’s all for the better in keeping with the image of these characters as portrayed by these particular actors and no others.
There’s a life and personality in Paramount’s rebooted Star Trek series that is not found anywhere in the Disney franchise machine- the increasingly homogenized and studio assembled Marvel films, the as of yet too slavishly beholden to nostalgia Star Wars movies, and the schlock and lazy storytelling from the unmemorable live-action remakes of the animated catalogue. Here there’s a respect for the past that blends nicely with a clear commitment to standing apart as its own universe, and the sense (at least on the creative side) that there’s maybe a little more than pure dollar signs in mind when producing these films. And that’s something to be thankful for in a continually depressing year of big studio drivel.
* * *
'The Knick' Star Andre Holland in Trailer for 'Moonlight'
This indie would have my attention simply for Holland being in it, since I loved him on Steven Soderbergh's The Knick, but the movie looks interesting as well. It's very rare to see stories in film about people of color struggling with their sexuality, which is why it's even more important that these movies get made. Director Barry Jenkins tackles the subject head on here, with a film based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. The lead is played by Trevante Rhodes, but it also stars familiar faces Janelle Monae, Naomie Harris and House of Cards' Mahershala Ali in supporting parts. It's premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
First Teaser for Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in WWII Thriller 'Allied'
So this looks like an Oscar movie if ever I've seen one. And kind of an old-fashioned one too, with espionage, romance, wartime setting...all that good stuff. This is being directed by Robert Zemeckis, who may even be trying to play up the throwback part of it- is this more of an homage to another kind of film than an original one? The best of these can work as their own story as well, on top of the winks. We'll see if this one can pull it off. Allied is coming out right in that Oscar sweet spot too, Thanksgiving weekend.
