Got any time left over from your seasonal commitments right now? There are a lot of new movies out. Many pretty good too. There’s another batch arriving on Christmas Day. I’ll have my reviews for those up earlier than usual. At least by the morning of the 25th.
Meanwhile, this week’s list includes a comedy with bite from China and a Bollywood blockbuster.
American Hustle: 4 stars
Saving Mr. Banks: 3 ½
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: 3
Walking With Dinosaurs: 2 ½
The Wagner Files: 3 ½
When Jews Were Funny: 3
Personal Tailor: 3
Dhoom 3: not previewed
AMERICAN HUSTLE: You’ll be better entertained by this one than by any other new movie out there. A great cast, a sharp script and lively presentation come together for a satisfying experience. I say that even though for a while well into the film it’s not too clear what the hustle is and who’s doing it. Stay though. It works itself out, maybe a bit too fast but pleasingly nevertheless.
The story is loosely based on a 1970s FBI sting operation called Abscam in which a fake sheik offered up inducements that ensnared a number of officials including a U.S. senator and six Congressmen. The film announces right off the top that it’s not bound by facts. “Some of this actually happened,” it says. It’s like a jazz solo that plays around the facts. That gives a vibrant shimmer to the film.
Christian Bale starts things off by pasting bits of hair on his bald head and then combing them over. He’s not honest; just a small-time crook who poses as a dry cleaner and sells fake art. He brings Amy Adams into the business after he meets her at a party attracted by the low cut of her dress. He’s also got a wife, played with brassy zest by Jennifer Lawrence. Then he’s busted by an FBI agent played by Bradley Cooper who offers a deal to get off. Help set up a scam with a fake Arabian sheik and catch a New Jersey mayor (Jeremy Renner) taking kickbacks in a casino deal. Things don’t go as planned; a Miami gangster (Robert De Niro) wants in and the scam turns 180 degrees. The movie, though, is always a joy to watch. The actors are all working together and enjoying it and director David O. Russell mixes genres with the same quirky, zany tone he gave us last time in Silver Linings Playbook. (5th Avenue, Scotiabank and suburban theatres). 4 out of 5
SAVING MR. BANKS: There’s a strain of literature study that interprets everything in a work through the author’s own life. You get a lot of that here too although this is chiefly about the making of a film, Mary Poppins. P. L. Travers wrote it and for 20 years resisted Walt Disney’s offers to buy it for the movies. Only when she really needed the money did she agree and then only with conditions. She demanded final say over content; didn’t want Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Banks, wanted no penguins, no singing by Julie Andrews and nothing colored red. A guy I know went back to watch it again and confirms there’s no red in it.
Emma Thompson plays the prickly writer during two weeks of polite conflict at the Disney Studios. She made her demands and suggestions (Laurence Olivier as Mr. Banks?) and Walt himself, played by Tom Hanks had to step in at key times to charm her, give her a tour of Disneyland and share his own story to show why he was so determined to make the film. Parallel to all this, there are flashbacks to the author’s childhood in Australia and her love for her hard-drinking father, played by Colin Farrell. We get to understand exactly what was driving her. It’s a highly enjoyable film, funny and informative although too mature in its themes for little kids. Hanks sometimes looks like Walt, rarely sounds like him (the voice isn’t as we used to hear it so often on TV) but does capture the spirit of the man. The authorized version anyway. (International Village and many suburban theatres) 3 ½ out of 5
ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES: Don’t get your hopes up too high. Yes, it’s funny. That’s as it should be. But the jokes are hit and miss, as if we’ve been given highlights from a massive improv session. And as for the much-vaunted satirical jabs at the modern news business, they’ve been said many times before. If you haven’t encountered them yet there’s much you can think about: some news outlets pander to their audience; deliver sensation and trivia and forgo investigative journalism. I suspect that’s not what you’re looking for, though. You want, and get, more of Will Ferrell’s dim-witted but well-meaning news reader with the impeccable salon-quality hair and the quotable one-liners.
His first movie was set in the 1970s and, after a slow start but a second life on video, became a cult hit. Now in 1980, he gets fired (by Harrison Ford), takes a stint as an abusive announcer at a seaworld park and then is offered revival. A new venture, a 24-hours news channel has a job for him, on the graveyard shift. He rounds up his old team (Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner), challenges the station’s star (James Marsden) to a ratings contest and proceeds to re-make TV news. His plan: let’s tell people what they want to hear and instead of what’s wrong with America, give them what’s right. Eventually the film resorts to that most hoary of plot turns: will he get to his son’s piano recital or be occupied with a breaking news story? And will it be substantial or yet another highway car chase? There are some questionable jokes about blacks and at the end a head-spinning series of celebrity cameos, at least one of which will astound you. (Scotiabank, Rio on Broadway and many suburban theatres) 3 out of 5
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS 3D: “For the first time in history, audiences will truly see and feel what it was like when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.” That’s the hype, not quite the reality though in this adventure tale with educational moments aimed at kids. My sense is they’ll like it, just like they devour films like The Land Before Time. This one is visually realistic, an off shoot from a BBC series. The detail on these computer generated creatures is remarkable. Whenever a new one arrives, the picture freezes and we’re told its name and what it eats. I hadn’t heard of the Edmontosaurus before. At one point, there’s a lengthy info session complete with a chart and animated graphics.
Most of the film though is a less-than-novel adventure. A runt-of-the-litter dinosaur (voiced by Justin Long) grows up competing with a brother (Skyler Stone) and developing romantic feelings for Juniper (Tiya Sircar), from another Pachyrhinosaurus herd. His progression to maturity is accompanied by a comic side-kick, a parrot voiced in a hip Latino accent by John Leguizamo. Yes, all the characters speak, some in a smart-alecky tone. The effect is to turn a science lesson into a cartoon. A visually stunning one, though. Check out the dark woods, the northern lights (the story is set in Alaska), the dinosaur migrations and the head-butting fight. (International Village and some suburban theatres) 2 ½ out of 5
THE WAGNER FILES: At VIFF this year, the film Ludwig II showed us the young king’s enthusiasm for art, music and progressive politics as he found them in Richard Wagner. The actor who played the valet, Samuel Finzi, plays Wagner himself in this considerably different take on the great composer. His music and passion for life are celebrated as they should be. His life is exposed though. He was an insolvent, frequently on the run from his competitors, a con man who fleeced Ludwig, and a cheat who slept with his best friend’s wife and had four children with her before he married her. She became his manager.
All this comes out in what is essentially an innovative documentary. Early on, in a surprise anachronism, he picks up the phone and talks to his mistress. They ride in a modern taxi together. There are more phone calls and some parts of the story are told in animation. Experts and musicologists talk too, as much about the dirt as the art. His fondness for donning pink silk dresses for instance. His anti-Semitism, which also gets a thorough airing when he’s lying in a bathtub griping his complaints. The result is an apparently correct and intriguing portrait of the musical giant. (VanCity Theatre) 3 ½ out of 5
Playing in tandem with …
WHEN JEWS WERE FUNNY: This film doesn’t suggest they aren’t funny anymore. Just different; not like the standup comics Alan Zweig used to watch on the Ed Sullivan show. The Toronto director says he recently rediscovered his own Jewishness and felt compelled to explore Jewish humor. Some of the old guys he has on camera, Shelly Berman, Jack Carter and Shecky Greene, don’t see anything uniquely Jewish, just comedians who happened to be Jewish. Younger guys like Howie Mandel, Mark Breslin and David Steinberg offer explanations: struggle incubates humor; Jews add a melancholy and testy tone. “We are the arguing people,” says Simon Rakoff. The humor is still there; its only the quaint accent that’s gone. Seth Rogen might agree and I’ll repeat this suggestion: get on to U Tube, find Alan King’s great “survived by his wife” routine and laugh. The film has only 5 or six clips, far too few, of masters like King. At the Toronto Film Festival it was named best Canadian feature. (VanCity Theatre) 3 out of 5
PERSONAL TAILOR: It’s only in one theatre but deserves more exposure. This is a Chinese comedy that is not only funny but also dares to be bitingly critical. Among its targets in modern China: obsession with money, corruption and a list of environmental offences including smog, clearcut forests, grasslands destroyed by coal mining and rivers polluted with sludge. Yeah, it’s also funny. The heavy message only comes at the very end, after a series of stories make you chuckle or, in the opener, gasp. Asian actors play Nazis in that one. A colonel menaces “Fraulein Jenny” when he’s not playing Bach on the piano. Turns out it, and all the stories, are fantasies staged by a company for people who want to test themselves.
They let a chauffeur live as an honest politician for a day, a young woman as the daughter of a rich man and a poor woman as one of the super-rich. Most don’t react well. A producer of vulgar films who wants to create art suffers “high-culture shock.” An insider joke from director Feng Xiaogang who has a growing reputation and box office success built on wit and social criticism. This film is a loose sequel to his Dream Factory from 1997 and his recent famine-themed Back to 1942 is China’s submission to the Academy Awards. (Riverport) 3 out of 5
Also now playing …
DHOOM 3: This is the one Bollywood fans will be flocking to. The action contingent anyway. It’s the biggest film out of India this year and follows its blockbuster predecessors with much the same formula. Logic doesn’t matter. Just get beautiful people, songs and outrageous stunts on the screen. Last time, a snowboarder, towed by a train in the Namibian desert, managed to jump up on top while avoiding the bullets flying at him. This film, set in Chicago, promises even better stunts because they’ll be performed by Hollywood types. I haven’t seen it but the trailer is great fun.
Superstar Aamir Khan joins the cast, along with Katrina Kaif, and fans will not only be able to see him race his motorcycle but also tap dance and perform circus gymnastics. He plays a thief who’s planning to rob the circus. Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra once again play Indian police offers, who seem to have no international limits on their authority. Last time they chased a thief in Rio, amid all the carnival color of course. (Riverport and Strawberry Hill theatres)
NOTE: All movie stills in this posting were supplied by the producers. They are the exclusive property of their copyright owners.