Movie Nation

Beloved character actors can become a movie-lover’s idea of a perpetual underdog, somebody we root for.

So it is for me with Tobin Bell. The one and only “Jigsaw” has at last escaped the “Saw” series. But it’s a shame his first decent showcase outside of the whispering, murderous mastermind comes in a movie that doesn’t add up to much.

He’s interesting in the part and lends his “father” character gravitas. The script, however, is half-baked, and the direction lackluster.

“A Father’s Legacy” is a hostage drama, with Bell as an old loner taken prisoner by a home invading robber (writer-director and co-star Jason Mac). Over the course of several days, a bond forms between them as the curmudgeon lectures the intruder on life, responsibility, choices and destiny.

And the young guy keeps asking, “That’s a metaphor, isn’t it?” after every homily.

It’s a tad rougher than your average faith-based tale, never quite proselytizing. And the “secrets” each man relates and the problems the older one faces are Screenwriting 101 melodramatic, the sorts of predicaments and “solutions” that only appear rational to characters in movies.

When we meet him, Billy (Bell) putters around his remote lakeside home, geese-proofing his duck box, chiding the Almighty when the day’s chores are done.

“I only talk to you because Cynthia made me promise to do it every day,” he mutters. “Take me whenever you want,” he adds. He’s ready to go.

The “kid” busts in with a revolver and a bullet wound, which doesn’t rattle the geezer in the least. All the housebreaker’s “I’m in charge” and “I’ll SHOOT you” threats don’t warrant so much as a shrug.

“I don’t appreciate you bleeding on my couch.”

When Billy brushes off a visit from the sheriff’s department, and then passes up the chance to end this situation by getting the drop on Nick the robber, a trust grows between captor and captive.

“If I was gonna shoot you, I wouldn’t have wasted a fresh bandage.”

That’s when the “How’s all this working out for you, son” “legacy” questioning and instruction begins.

The characters’ respective back-stories are soap opera lite, scenes of a wife (Rebecca Robles) “praying for us” which led to our robber’s desperate act. And then there’s the mob that “wants my land.”

There is nothing, simply nothing, more valuable than lakefront property. But it isn’t scenery that the bad guys are interested in. It isn’t anything “interesting” that they’re interested in, either. Screenplay “obstacle” creating and “problem” solving may be elemental to writing movies, but it’s a tricky art.

Bell, with his heavy eyes, weathered face and world-weary whisper, makes a good hermit. Mac makes a better actor than writer director.

“Legacy” adds up to thin drama and thinner entertainment, a tale that manages little suspense and that never really touches the heart.

I guess I’ll have to keep rooting for Bell to get a role worthy of his talents, as “A Father’s Legacy” — good intentions aside — isn’t it.

MPA Rating: unrated, violence, some profanity

Cast: Tobin Bell, Jason Mac, Rebecca Robles.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Jason Mac. A Cinedigm film, streaming June 16, in theaters via Fathom Events June 17.

Running time: 1:30

The chef and traveler is the subject of this July release from Focus Features. https://youtu.be/ihEEjwRlghQ

“It’s Not a Burden” interviews scores of parents being cared for, in various ways and in varying degrees, by their adult children.

It’s a documentary collage of caregiving showcasing the relationships that endure, even if “the roles have reversed” and the parent has become, in essence, the child who needs attention and help with the most basic things in life.

Some are still living in their own homes, but many have moved in with their kids. A large number have dementia, topping the list of ailments that eat up your concerns when you reach the far end of the human lifespan.

Filmmaker Michelle Boyaner, who made “A Finished Life: The Goodbye & No Regrets Tour” and “Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson,” turned her camera on herself and the care she was giving to her mother Elaine and father Morris. She then made a movie that expands out from there, taking in a reasonably diverse cross-section of (mostly Southern California) parent-child relationships at the same stage in life as she was with her divorced parents to paint a picture of an exploding segment of the population — the very old, cared for in varying degrees by their children.

Some parents, like her once-estranged mother, live in assisted living. Others are in nursing homes. But many receive a major part of their care from their kids.

Cecile has moved into a senior community, customizing her modest house with a ramp and walk-in shower for her mother Manuela.

“My priority is my mom.”

Mike lives, with his two kids (he’s a single dad) next door to his mother Florence in Huntington Beach.

“I found out she broke her foot when she didn’t come over for dinner one night.”

The caregivers are overwhelmingly daughters like Evette, who flies out to Arizona to check on her still-living-at-home father Robert. He calls her “the drill sergeant,” as she notes that “He says ‘no’ about seven or eight times before he says ‘yes’ to anything.”

We see the cornucopia of pills many of these 80 and 90somethings have to take, which their 5 and 60 year-old children often have to organize for them. And we see and hear signs of dementia, stories about Mom slipping out to dig up the neighbors’ plants, which she then pots at home, or in the case of Boyaner’s mother Elaine, constantly needing reminding that she sold the house on “Serenade Lane in 1983.”

“And how are your folks?” “My folks? Who are my folks” Mom?

Boyaner’s parents are the anchor interviews here, with her colorful once-estranged mother (she ditched her family years ago) speaking for millions when she says “I had to give up an awful lot of dignity” — and bathing and dressing herself — “when I moved here,” to assisted living.

Her father’s declining years have made his hoarding a heartbreak for his family to deal with.

Then we meet Maxine and Esther, daughter and mother who was quite the popular singer and entertainer in Pittsburgh, back in the day — and for many many days.

“I’m 95.”

“96.”

“Jesus Christ! Oh. Sorry. Who do I know who’s 96? They’re all gone.”

Loneliness is the one malady that every child is most concerned with their having to endure.

A priest oversees a retirement home for monks. An old chorus dancer on Broadway and for MGM gets visits from an LGBTQ support group. A daughter recalls making sure her prospective husband realized “We’re a package deal,” her aged mother and her.

With all the different faces of caregiving and children devoted to “quality of life” concerns about their parents, about what their “conscience” has them doing as America’s largest geriatric generation requires this sort of care, “It’s Not a Burden” can’t help but be a bit of a guilt trip. It’s diverse, without being necessarily “representative.” Not everyone who is going to this extreme.

But it’s also a warning, that you can’t be “too prepared” for this eventuality. And that it might be time for that old fashioned value family “responsibility” to make a comeback.

Whatever life is left, one daughter tearfully says, “It’s been less than enough. And it’s all there is.” The level of devotion depicted here has the feel of “the exceptions.” But not to those re-ordering their lives to give something back to their parents.

“Patience,” one and all counsel. “Have the wisdom to remember that this person cared for you” the way you have to care for them.

And don’t fight the many memory disorders that come with extreme age. “Try and join them in their world.”

The film takes in so many voices, covering the same ground from different directions, that it can seem too loosely organized and repetitive. “Collage” seems the best one-word description of it, and that’s not necessarily a knock. With so many scenarios playing out, you’re sure to see one that connects with your life and maybe even suggest a solution to this hoarding problem or that dementia dilemma.

MPA Rating: unrated, some profanity

Credits: Scripted and directed by Michelle Boyaner. A Gravitas Ventures release.

Running time: 1:31

How can a movie set in Brazil’s Carnival, the colorful, hedonistic Bacchanal held in the days leading up to every Ash Wednesday — unless there’s a global pandemic — come off as drab as “Carnaval?”

Colorful costumes, fruity drinks, gaudy clubs, concerts and raves can’t animate this Brazilian still-life of a comedy.

The shorthand for what we’re shown here is a “Girls’ Trip” to Bahia Salvador, a bay of resorts where the beautiful people and those lucky enough to be in their company congregate and party like Lent is coming. Because it is.

That’s where beautiful social influencer Nina (Giovana Cordeiro) hopes to grow her fanbase and join the big leagues, posting posting posting photos and videos to her “followers,” hoping they reach 1,000,000 in number so she’s more on a par with her idol, the gorgeous influencer/model Luana (Flávia Pavanelli).

Nina’s bringing along her pals — three “types.” Mayra (Bruna Inocencio) is the stunning, sensitive one, a veterinarian who doesn’t drink. Vivi (Samya Pascotto) is the cute nerd with the purple hair who brushes off guys with “Let me save you a little time” asking three questions. Answer them, and you get a kiss.

“What are the three Quidditch balls in the Harry Potter books?”

And Michelle (Gessica Kayne) is the Samantha in this sexless “Sex and the City,” a blowsy, busty flirt who kisses anything that shaves.

“You just grab them and kiss them,” she says of guys, demonstrating at every opportunity.

Shallow Nina, fresh off a public breakup that got her labeled “The Crossfit Cuckold” on Instagram, goes starstruck over Luana, and gets a LOT of attention from singing superstar Freddy (Micael Borges), who seems nice. Even Luana, set up to be a villain, is no worse than rude — never remembering Nina’s name, even when she’s giving her heartless advice.

“‘Friends,'” the super-influencer points out, “make us lose our focus.”

Nina has to learn the value of “friends” and what sort of men — NOT influencers — are worth getting to know.

Michelle has to discover what it feels like to fall in love, and not in list.

Mayra has to let her freak flag fly and Vivi must meet her soulmate, probably on the Quidditch fields of Brazil.

Deep. Still, it’s all harmless, if pretty much charmless.

MPA Rating: TV-MA, lots of skin and drinking and kissing, very tame otherwise

Cast: Giovana Cordeiro, Bruna Inocencio, Micael Borges, Gessica Kayane, Samya Pascotto and Flávia Pavanelli

Credits: Scripted and directed by Leandro Néri. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:35

Blades and fists break out in this tiny Tokyo cafe named…Hydra.

July 2 the brawl breaks out on streaming.

A couple of things brought this 1950 movie to mind before it popped up on “Sunday Night Noir” a few days ago.

The first was Jeff Bezos over-paying for MGM and its vast library. Film libraries used to be more valuable than they are today. “Intellectual property” rights matter more today, and there’s no reason why the chance to remake, spin off and otherwise mine any legacy studio’s back catalog couldn’t make that MGM deal pay off in ways other than the TV rights and James Bond spinoff possibilities (Amazon series on the early days of M, Q and/or Moneypenny?) we’ve heard mentioned.

“The Breaking Point” was the second version of Ernest Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not.” There were three films based on that plot and characters from 1944, 1950 and 1958. Warners bought the rights from Hemingway and made damned sure they got their money’s worth.

Another reason “Breaking Point” was on my mind was in a shortcoming in the recent PBS “American Masters” on Ernest Hemingway. The series did next to nothing on Hemingway’s extensive dealings with Hollywood. Sixty years after his death and the movies and TV are still tackling his books and short stories, making and remaking them. And while he was happy to take the studios’ money during his lifetime, he griped constantly about what “they did” to his books.

The writing was watered down, censored — the violence, sex and sexual situations always sanitized for America’s protection.

One person he griped about this to was his fishing buddy, the man’s man action director Howard Hawks. A famous anecdote has the bluff Hawks (“Red River,” “Rio Bravo”) shutting “Papa” up with “I could make a fine film out of the worst thing you ever wrote.”

Hemingway was insulted, taken aback, and curious. “Which book is that?”

“That piece-of-s— ‘To Have and Have Not,'” Hawks growled. And thus was the first film made, thus did Bogie meet Bacall, as Hawks, the screenwriter and the studio turned a gritty, down-and-dirty novel into a dark and playful “Casablanca” in the WWII Caribbean. They ennobled the characters and the novel in ways that must have made Hemingway cringe.

When Warner Brothers tried to get a second film out of the book, Michael Curtiz & Co. kept a lot more of the sordid stuff, the amorality and racism in turning “To Have and Have Not” into “The Breaking Point,” a John Garfield vehicle about a down-on-his-luck charter boat captain getting mixed up in people smuggling into and out of Mexico.

This time his ethics are a lot greyer, his motives more desperate. Bogie looked more inconvenienced than in a panic over losing his boat, his dream and his livelihood. Garfield lets us see Harry Morgan sweat.

The “love interest” goes back to being a real femme fatale here, with Patricia Neal carrying a lot more baggage and forbidden allure than the gorgeous but younger Betty Bacall managed. We can believe Neal makes her way with her looks and sex and has slept her way into and out of more than one jam.

“I live in Number Seven. My friends just kick the door open.”

Morgan’s character is married, with responsibilities and a righteous, beatified wife (Phyllis Thaxter) whom he struggles to stay faithful to. Neal’s Leona Charles does not make that easy.

“Ya know, one of these days you’re gonna get your arm broke reachin’ for something that don’t belong to ya.”

The people smuggling involves dealings with Chinese crooks (Victor Sen Yung chief among them) to get Chinese refugees of uncertain criminal connection into the country, something Harry has no qualms about, but chickens out of doing when he’s double-crossed.

He doesn’t dwell on the violence or criminality he engages in to save his indebted boat, doesn’t shy away from taking meetings with a mob go-between (Wallace Ford). But he’s still looking out for his trusting, protective deck hand (Juano Hernandez here, less “cute” than the Walter Brennan version in the 1944 film).

“To Have and Have Not” was light and funny, with Bacall playing at being the woman of experience keeping Bogart on his heels, Hoagie Carmichael tickling the ivories as she sang (Neal also sings) and Brennan playing “colorful” to the max.

“The Breaking Point” has similarly sharp dialogue, but without the cute. “Breaking Point” is also plainly much more of a film noir take on the novel, which suits, considering Hemingway’s “The Killers” place as an oft-remade, morally ambiguous story firmly anchored in noir tropes and conventions.

In 1958, a third version of the novel, “The Gun Runners,” was filmed, just as desperate and violent, but simplistic and built around Audie Murphy. He was a decorated war hero and legendary figure to “The Greatest Generation,” but a cherubic, baby-voiced mediocrity on the screen. He had a long career in action and Westerns, with only his WWII autobiography “To Hell and Back” and John Huston’s “The Red Badge of Courage” standing out as watchable.

“The Breaking Point” holds up and reminds us of how Garfield always made “tough” guys conflicted, damaged and uncertain of their choices. And who can forget how Neal was earthy Southern “sex” and “sin” incarnate on the screen.

The film’s not great Hemingway. Few films based on his work are. It’s still pretty damned good. And it’s as close to this novel as we’re likely to ever get in an adaptation, no matter who owns the remake rights, now.

MPA Rating: unrated, violence, infidelity, smoking, alcohol

Cast: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Juano Hernandez, Phyllis Thaxter. Victor Sen Yung, Wallace Ford

Credits: Directed by Michael Curtiz, script by Ranald MacDougall, based on the novel “To
Have and Have Not” by Ernest Hemingway. A Warner Brothers release.

Credits:

Running time: 1:37

The cheerful, generous employment of vintage second-gen video game graphics and a broad, goofy Nickelodeon/Disney Channel comedy touch are what the makers of the indie film “Hero Mode” hoped to skate by with.

They don’t quite pull it off, but it’s a good example of the resources you can pull together if you land just enough “names” in your cast, and they’re willing to gamble on your script.

Chris Carpenter of “As Far as the Eye Can See” is Troy Mayfield, tenth grade teen programming tyro at Lincoln High, a computer whiz always in search of “the perfect game.”

The son of a programmer, he wants to create such a game, not just play it. His pal Nick (Philip Solomon) is his videographer/hype man who pushes him to release his every creation to “The App Store.”

“We’ll get rich, and then the girls!”

But Troy is a perfectionist, which is how he undercuts widowed Mom (Mira Sorvino) at a company party where they desperately need to impress an “angel investor” with the family company’s newest creation — “Jackhammer.” The antic, aging nerd (Sean Astin) who designed it basically ripped off “Mario” and “Wreck-It-Ralph,” but that’s not the worst problem.

It’s glitchy, hopelessly dated and dull. Even nostalgists won’t go for it if they pitch it at the upcoming game convention, PixelCon.

Troy scares away the investor by pointing out what a disaster “Jackhammer” is, and as he’s suspended from school for “fixing” everybody’s standardized test scores, he has the time to lock himself in an office and save the company and the jobs of folks like Jimmy (Astin), Laura (Mary Lynn Rajskub), Marie (Kimia Behpoornia) and accountant Lyndon (Monte Markham).

The what kid mainly does is irk everybody, try to do it all himself and all but seal their fates with his ego.

The scenes that have the most comic life to them are in high school, which is a pity as the script basically abandons that setting for the Playfield Games offices. Bobby Lee as the “Namaste” preaching vice principal and Erik Griffin are the funniest players in it, Nickeloden-broad and LOUD.

There’s a villainous rival company, Xodus, because of course there is, run by the villainous Rick (Nelson Franklin). A cute granddaughter of the accountant (Paige Massara) stops by the show off her bangs and distract poor Troy.

And by golly, if we don’t NAIL that PixelCon presentation and launch with a bang, we’ll lose the house, so Mom says. She’s got MS, and the stress isn’t helping her condition.

As you can tell with that summary, “Hero Mode” isn’t interesting enough to stand on its own, despite manic efforts by Astin and an amusing line here and there.

“Your kids are going to love this SO much they’re gonna wet YOUR bed!”

The graphics demonstrate how good a “video game movie” you can make on a low budget these days. And the combined elements of the picture make it more interesting to dissect “How they got this made” than watch.

There’s always a bevy of actors from long-canceled sitcoms in films like this. Creed Bratton from “The Office” plays Astin’s character’s disapproving father, and players from “Modern Family,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Veep” fill out the cast.

When they signed on the dotted line, TV actor and production manager turned producer and sometime writer and director A.J. Tesler got to make his movie.

But about the best we can say about it is that at least they had the good sense to abandon the working title — “Mayfield’s Game.”

MPA Rating: PG for suggestive references, language throughout and brief violence

Cast: Mira Sorvino, Chris Carpenter, Indiana Massara, Philip Solomon, Sean Astin, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Creed Bratton, Nelson Franklin and Monte Markham.

Credits: Directed by AJ Tessler, script by Jeff Carpenter. A Blue Fox release.

Running time: 1:29

The ideal person to review the new “Spirit” animated movie would be maybe nine, probably a little girl and certainly a fan of the “Spirit: Riding Free” TV series that spun off of the 2002 movie, “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.”

A guy old enough to have interviewed Jeffrey Katzenberg about Dreamworks’ “vision” for the original, dialogue-free film, isn’t on the same wavelength as the target audience. But the world isn’t fair, kids.

“Spirit Untamed” is almost exactly what anybody not nine would expect out of a feature film spun out of an animated TV show. Bland. Passable animation, but not “cutting edge,” not even on the blade. Simplistic story, maudlin “friends” and “teamwork” sentiment, dialogue that sounds generated by a “talk down to the kids” app.

“I made you something.” “When did you have time?” “There’s always time for friendship-based crafting!”

It’s not terrible, just young. Very young.

In the Railroading Era West, a girl named Lucky (Isabella Merced) moves back in with her railroad scion and engineering whiz Dad (Jake Gyllenhaal) years after her mother’s death.

Mom was a Latina circus trick rider who called her little girl “Fortuna,” and died after a stunt went wrong. So Lucky was raised by her Aunt (Julianne Moore).

Now settled in at Miradera, Lucky is taken by a stallion she saw on the ride there, that sapron-colored wonder Spirit. She renews their acquaintance at a local corral, where bronco-busters/rustlers led by Hendricks (Walton Goggins, watered down) expect to “break” him.

Dad? He’s still spooked by the animal that killed his “other” girl, his wife (voiced by Eiza González) in flashbacks.

“You will NOT go near them again — EVER. No horses!”

But Lucky befriends the daughter (Marsai Martin) of the owner of the corral (Andre Braugher), and the musically-inclined, tries-too-hard Abigail (Mckenna Grace), and their horses. And Lucky wins Spirit’s trust.

Before you can say “Fortuna Esperanza Novarro Prescott, you get BACK here,” “las cabelleras” are off on adventure across the “Ridge of Regret” to foil Hendricks and his desperadoes way over on Heck Mountain (Hah!) in whatever nefarious scheme they’re cooking up.

And Abigail is leading them in songs.

“When the trail gets rough, I got my pals and that’s enough, join up, join UP…We just listen to each other and together make it through, Join up, JOIN up!”

Cute tune and it comes off.

There’s a little slapstick, some novel rider’s-eye-view (over the horse’s mane) camera angles and a life lesson from dead Mom and a motto from Dad’s family — “Prescotts NEVER give up!”

And that’s your movie. No sense claiming it is more than it is, no sense beating up a TV-inspired/TV animation quality major motion picture that isn’t “major” in the least.

If your kids like animated movies and horses and they’re little enough, why not?

MPA Rating: PG for some adventure action

Cast: The voices of  Isabela Merced, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marsai Martin, Julianne Moore, Andre Braugher, Eiza González and Walton Goggins

Credits: Directed by  Elaine Bogan, Ennio Torresan , script by Kristin Hahn, Katherine Nolfi and Aury Wallington. A Universal release.

Running time: 1:28

“Tove” is an utterly conventional biopic about a seriously unconventional woman.

Tove Jansson was a Swedish-speaking Finnish writer, painter, cartoonist and caricaturist, one of the country’s most celebrated artists thanks to the pan-European fame her “Moomin” children’s books and comic strips generated.

She was a free spirit who lampooned Hitler during World War II, when Finland was allied with Nazi Germany in fighting Soviet Russia. She danced like there was no one else there, carried on affairs with married men and women and gained a little respect as a painter of frescoes and public art before her little Smurfish cartoons about fantasy trolls, their lives and adventures, made her reputation.

All of which is lightly-covered in Zaida Bergroth’s by-the-book film, based on screenwriter Eeva Putro’s not-quite-academically-dry screen depiction of her life.

As in most screen biographies, we’re treated to the Waypoints of a Life, with a little spark here and there, little wit and lots of scribbling. Because that’s what artists do in screen biographies of artists.

See Tove, played with a dash of spunk (and only a dash) by Alma Pöysti, who once voiced a “Moomins” animated film, hook up with married Socialist member of parliament and newspaper publisher Atos Wirtanen (Shanti Roney). They meet at a party, and before Atos has finished describing his “freedom” and open marriage, Tove’s suggested “Meet you in the sauna,” (in Swedish and Finnish, with English subtitles).

See her stern, “focused” sculptor father (Robert Enckell) give her endless variations of his “Your time and talent are misspent,” lecture.

Listen to Tove turn a rich patron’s condescension around on him — “My father always said we should feel sorry for the (non-artistic)…I always say, that without the bourgeoisie, we’d have no work at all.”

Watch as the rich, patronizing Helsinki mayor’s wife/theater director, Vivica Bandler (Krista Kosonen) offers her a “commission.” It’s to draw up a cute party invitation note. Catch Vivica’s “Have you ever kissed a woman?” come-on.

Check out the look on smitten Atos’ face when Tove tells him, poetically, that “I’ve found a new room, in the house of the soul,” the loveliest way of breaking the “I’m bisexual, but probably a lesbian” news ever.

The waypoints include swapping paintings for rent, that first suggestion that she do a kiddie comic out of these quirky sketches, using the oddball character names and words she’s invented for her imaginary Moominworld — “Mymble, Thingumy, Bob.”

It’s all presented and acted sympathetically if entirely too perfunctorily to be moving, inspiring, amusing or despairing.

That’s not saying that “Tove,” Finland’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar (totally outclassed by the actual nominees) isn’t watchable.

But when your most moving moment is silent closing credits footage from the home movies from Tove’s later life (turned into a couple of Finnish documentaries), maybe you need to try again.

When “conventional” means that you show us one more version of the stern, disapproving dad revealing his “true” pride, after his death, when you see the scrapbook he kept of his daughter’s career, something we’ve seen in many a movie, most recently in “Dream Horse” just two weeks ago, maybe you need to make your movie fit your subject.

A “Tove” as adventurous artistically, socially, politically and sexually as the real Tove Jansson was, no mere “caricaturist” or “cartoonist,” would be something to see.

MPA Rating: unrated, adult sexual situations, smoking, drinking

Cast: Alma Pöysti, Krista Kosonen, Shanti Roney, Joanna Haartti and Robert Enckell

Credits: Directed by Zaida Bergroth, script by Eeva Putro. A Juno Films release.

Running time: 1:43