Anthony Hopkins as scandal-ignoring Anglicized German Pope Benedict, Jonathan Pryce as a most English take on the Argentine Pope Francis.
Fernando Meirelles of “City of God” directed this two-hander, which seems to have the polish and the pedigree to be a contender.
However cartoonist Charles Addams is remembered, it’s the 1960s TV series based on his work that has real cultural currency.
That show, starring Sean Astin’s dad, bug-eyed John Astin, Carolyn Jones and Jackie Coogan, inspired the hilarious 1990s Barry Sonenfeld films starring the great Raoul Julia, Oscar winner Anjelica Huston, introduced Christina Ricci to the world and gave Christopher Lloyd his third iconic character role.
And now there’s a cartoon, with the voices of Oscar winner Charlize Theron, Oscar Isaac, Snoop Dogg, Chloe Grace Moretz, Oscar winner Allison Janney, Titus Burgess, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara and…drum role please — the Divine Miss M., Bette Midler.
One thing animation does is allow the characters to get close to the way Mr. Addams himself drew them. See what I mean?
It opens Friday. The old rule used to be, “Be suspicious of any cartoon with TOO dazzling a voice actor cast.”
The preview is a bit late — Wednesday night is a mere 24 hours before OPENING night,.
And then there was this last minute embargo on reviews. Late Thursday afternoon.
You’d think thet’d catch on that these are “warnings” that color the perception of their film pre opening as surely as mixed or negative reviews. But we will see.
The short answer is “No, it’s not ‘Netflixable.'”
The novelty of sampling the work of “Nollywood,” Nigeria’s lively film industry, of seeing the rare film (in the West) that looks at the country from an insider’s point of view, wears off far too quickly in this tale of a demonic diety possessed statuette.
“The Figurine” as it was titled for export, “Araromire” for domestic consumption, is a 2009-2010 slow-walk soap opera masquerading as a horror film. It finally gets around to supernatural violence — only hinted at in a long prologue — in its final act.
It is too little too late.
The tale follows two friends, Sola and Femi, played by actor and sometime director Kunle Afolayan, and Ramsey Nouah, who stumble across a wooden idol in a hut when they’re doing their young Nigerians’ national (civilian-ish) Youth Corps training.
Sola hasn’t been able to land a job because he’s put off doing this service. Femi seems destined for greater things in the world of Lagos finance.
But the moment Sola steals that statuette, both of them have a change of luck. Sola impregnates and marries the coquettish Mona (Omoni Oboli). He lands a plum job.
Femi? He doesn’t exactly fall on hard times, but he is left unhappily alone.
What we’ve been told in the prologue, which nobody in the story figures out until late in the second act, is that the “figurine” is of an ancient spirit, “Araromire.” We’ve seen how she was summoned by a native priest almost 100 years before. Her rep? She is the goddess “of luck and good fortune.” She bestows it upon her master for seven years.
But there’s a catch. At the end of those seven years, “It takes it all away!”
The pacing, and the almost punishingly roundabout way Kunle Afolayan’s film sidles up to “the plot” will be a turnoff to many.
And whatever the maturity of Nigeria’s film industry, there are things First World films and film fans take for granted that “Figurine” stumbles over. Actors talk off-mike (No looping?). Takes go on too long, after their payoff. That leads to scenes that meander.
The few exteriors liven the picture up, with only one set really giving us the feel of the place, how people live and decorate their lives there.
Contrast this with the comparitively over-produced “Half of a Yellow Sun” with Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose and Chiwetel Ejiofor, a period piece that felt more like “real life” despite the “Hollywood” casting and design touches.
The face-slaps and corny dialogue (in English, and Nigerian pidgin) — “Don’t tell me you believe such superstitions, too!” — do the players, who aren’t bad, no favors.
In the U.S., only the exceptional film from a culture not known for film as an export typically merits a showing. “Araromire/The Figurine” isn’t exceptional in any way — a pedestrian horror plot, timidly and languidly acted, filmed and edited, its only recommendation being “Well, it’s not EVERY day we see a ‘horror’ movie (even a soapy one) from Nigeria.”
MPAA rating: Unrated, violence, sexual situations
Cast: Kunle Afolayan, Funlola Aofiyebi, Ramsey Nouah, Omoni Oboli
Credits: Directed by Kunle Afolayan. A Golden/Netflix release.
Running time: 2:01
The Colorado cut-ups wade into the whole NBA/Winnie the Pooh censorship controversy in China, and take the hit for it from the One Party “Republic.”
Tonight at 10, we’ll see what frightens the Winnie the Pooh overlord so very much.
“Furie” is a female Vietnamese “Taken” predicated on the simple premise that you “Never take on a tigress who is defending her cub.”
It’s a showcase for Vietnamese actress, model and pretty-convincing martial artist Veronica Ngo (Ngo Van Tranh), who takes takes beating after beating, and delivers beating after beating, as she brawls her way through the child-trafficking trade of Indochina.
Hai Phuong (Ngo) is a debt collector in Tra Vinh, feared by some, hated by most. She isn’t shy about busting deadbeats in the mouth, and often finds herself chased off by machete-wielding debtors who underestimate her lithe frame and capacity for violence. Some even dare to come to her house and make threats.
Her little girl (Mai Cát Vi) is bullied for being a fatherless child, and for how Mommy provides for them. She can’t be more than 10, but already she’s got a business plan — fish farming — that she hopes can fix all this.
That goes by the boards the day Mai is kidnapped, right in front of her mother at the market. Hai Phuong takes a beating, but so do a LOT of henchmen. The market is busted up, and as the bad guys spirit the child away in a boat, Hai Phuong steals a moped and the cross-country chase is on.
Naturally, the trail leads to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. A desperate visit to the police station misses connecting her with the detective (Thanh Nhien Phan) on the kidnapping beat. But Hai Phuong steals a rap sheet leading into this underworld where children and others are grabbed for all manner of criminal activities, including organ harvesting.
The machete fights of the rural districts turn into a screwdriver/hammer brawl, a hatchet fight, fire-extinguisher-as-weapon on a train, and of course, a cat fight.
Tranh Hoa has a Michelle Rodriguez in “Girlfight” and “Fast and Furious” look and vibe, the two-fisted Dragon Lady/mastermind of this enterprise, or at least the top dog Hai Phuong right in front of her. Their throwdown is epic.
Guns? They’re saved for the finale.
The story is as plain as they get, with a ticking clock driving Tigress Mom’s dogged pursuit and Ngo’s ability to handle intricate fight choreography with anybody. Slo-mo and sound effects do a decent job of covering up the blows-that-aren’t-blows, the simple throw-weight that make the fights laughable from a “How’d she recover from THAT?” perspective.
Ngo, Tranh Hoa and Thanh Nhien Phan have mastered the badass glower and cooly cruel sneer action heroes wear when the brawls are about to start, or their characters are getting their second wind in mid-fight.
But it is Ngo who must carry picture across its (anti-climactic) finish, keep us involved when it lapses into third act lulls. And she does. It’s no wonder Hollywood has finally discovered her (at 40) and is casting her in action films by Spike Lee and Gina Prince-Bythewood. Even without a “cub” to protect, she’s a tigress.
MPAA Rating: unrated, graphic violence, some of it involving children and child abduction
Cast: Veronica Ngo, Mai Cát Vi, Thanh Nhien Phan, Tranh Hoa
Credits: Written and directec by Le-Van Kiet. A Well Go/Netflix release.
Running time: 1:37
When the child has to become the adult because of a parent lost in addiction, you get the painful, guilt and rage that such an unnatural reversal brings with it.
This film festival favorite is headed into theatrical/VOS release.
Keep an eye out for Annabelle Anastasio’s domestic melodrama “Mickey and the Bear” Nov. 13.
If only they hadn’t given away most of the movie in the trailers.
If only Ang Lee hadn’t tried to conjure up an action film out of close-ups of indifferent actors — two of them Will Smith.
If only the digitally-augmented action beats weren’t so obvious — digital de-aging, physics-defying, unnatural, unsurvivable fights and chases, a parkour practitioner straight out of video game graphics.
If only the screenplay didn’t provide the perfect, pithy single sentence review of “Gemini Man.”
“It’s like The Hindenburg crashed into The Titanic!”
It’s a thriller about a hitman who hugs — everybody — a picture that skips from Belgium to Buttermilk Sound, Cartagena to Budapest. And it’s something of a digitally-augmented debacle.
Smith plays Henry Brogan, a supernaturally gifted government assassin who can hit a passenger in a hurtling bullet train from two kilometers away.
He’s just done his “one last job,” and shared a toast.
“To the next war, which is NO war.”
But that last job wasn’t what it seemed, and the people who run him send assassins after him. Brogan barely has time to grab his “blown bag” (bugout bag), fetch the fetching marina manager/agent “minder” (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and summon his pilot pal (Benedict Wong), who whisks them off to Cartagena.
The bad guys can find them there, because the baddest bad guy, a former boss (Clive Owen) has this mercenary operation, “Gemini,” that can get to anybody.
And his ace agent looks just like Brogan, only 28 years younger.
The digital process of taking that many years off Will Smith is good enough to pass muster, but makes for a more wooden performance. It’s the plainly animated running, fighting and racing a motorcycle that take you out of the picture.
Three credited credits screenwriters — two of whom have “Breach,” “Captain Phillips,” “Game of Thrones” and “The 25th Hour” in their credits — and all they could come up with was that “Titanic/Hindenburg” crash line, and a lot more generic junk like this.
“I need you to get to get me to Budapest!”
“What’s in Budapest?”
Apparently, the two acclaimed writers deferred to the dude with “Turbo” on his resume for most of the dialogue.
Lee, director of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain,” sees the picture in nurturing, protecting, parenting tones, which is why he went with so many closeups. The players have their strengths, but can’t find anything in their skillset to give this script that feel.
That adds up to a movie with a whole lot of running around, zero pathos, no romance — one of the many holes in Will Smith’s movie acting game — and a central conceit that’s given away in the trailers.
And that “crash?” Well, it’s something to see man.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence and action throughout, and brief strong language.
Cast: Will Smith, Clive Owen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Credits: Directed by Ang Lee, script by David Benioff, Darren Lemke and Billy Ray. A Paramount release.
Running time: 1:57
So Will Smith starred in the second film based on Richard Matheson’s “I Am Legend,” the version that actually used that title.
The one starring Chuck Heston? “The Omega Man.”
Now Will’s got another trip to the sci-fi well, “Gemini Man,” about an assassin cloned by Big Brother (Clive Owen is Big Brother’s cousin, twice removed) and forced to face the younger version of himself.
Early word on this has been bad, but Smith’s overcome “bad” or at least “listless” (“Aladdin”) before.
“Gemini Man” opens Friday and may be hard-pressed to chase “Joker” off the top of the box office mountain. Because “Joker” just set another Oct. record — best Monday in Oct. EVER.
Documentary filmmaker Louis Schwartzeberg, of DisneyNature’s “Wings of Life,” didn’t need to add “The Magic Beneath Us” to the title of his “Fantastic Fungi.”
We were already thinking, “Oh, it’s a magic mushroom movie.” He might as well have titled it “Shrooms,” am I right?
And yes, this documentary about the many beautiful and often utilitarian types of mushrooms on Planet Earth gets around to the “mind/consciousness expanding” corner of the story. Not every expert here counts that as the source of their fandom.
But in the latter third of this eye-opening and sometimes eye-popping film, we do hear from our fair share of long-bearded prophets from the ’60s and ’70s, extolling the virtues and even the biochemistry of that part of fungal world of edibles, inedibles, decay-inducing, pollution-eating lifeforms of the Basidiomycota and Agaricomycetes divisions.
They exist “somewhere between plants and animals,” one of the legion of professional and amateur mycologists (mushroom experts) weighing in here declare. And they have uses all across the spectrum, from basic biodiversity to culinary treats to the darned thing growing out of that rotten log that could cure cancer and treat Alzheimer’s.
TED talkers (Paul Stamet) and foodies (Eugenia Bone, Michael Pollan) sing the song of ‘shrooms — no, they do NOT like them so labeled, connotations you see — and immerse us in the world these fungi made, and how humanity might have been shaped by our primate ancestors ingesting mushrooms that promoted Big Thinking.
There we are, back to the ‘shrooms thing.
Stamet is the central interview subject here, an amateur mycologist who has turned himself into one of the world’s leading experts in the field. His TED talk was “Six Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World,” and he makes a great case.
And yeah, some of his initial interest might have come from the psychedelic side of things. The film’s overall “heightened consciousness” of “profound experiences” bent spins out of that.
But this movie is fascinating on a lot of levels, not just what the Mayans and Native Americans of North America knew about fungi with mind-expanding properties.
Schwartzberg points his time-lapse camera at fungi growing, devouring rotting flora and (a dead rat) fauna, at stunning bioluminescent mushrooms and this “icicle-like” mushroom, Hericium erinaceus, “Lion’s mane,” whose nerve-growth stimulating properties could hold a meaningful treatment for Alzheimer’s.
We’re told that research and breakthroughs in the study of mushrooms make preserving old growth forests a matter of human survival, and we’re soberly reminded that every mass extinction event on Earth has had one certain survivor. The damned mushrooms will be here long after we’re gone.
There’s a poetic, credulous narration read by Oscar winner Brie Larson that summons up “the pulse of eternal knowledge” that grows out of the rot and hurls spores into the air, and makes a fantastic pizza topping along the way.
The viewer can bring his or her own skepticism to the “cured my stuttering” and “cured my mom’s cancer” claims of Stamets, while still hoping the hard research into applying these “natural” cures to what ails us proceeds with all haste, with as little involvement by Big Pharma as possible.
If you can grow something to treat your anxiety in your compost heap, who needs Bayer, Merck, GlaxoSmith this or CVS that?
The answers to what ails us might be right there on the forest floor — mushrooms, not just for Pizza Hut and Timothy Leary disciples any more.
MPAA Rating: unrated
Cast: Paul Stamets, Mary P. Cosimano, Andrew Weil, Suzanne Simard, Michael Pollan, many others — narrated by Brie Larson
Credits: Directed by Louie Schwartzberg, script by Mark Monroe. A Moving Art release.
Running time: 1:21
In “Entangled,” we can size up Marin, played by Ana Girardot, by what we see and hear. Or we can let “what happened to me” make up our minds for us.
What happened to her was a miscarriage.
“It hurts,” she says, in a French-accented voice-over that plays like a long letter or email she is sending to her boyfriend of many years Mark (Peter Mark Kendall). She hates that he wants to “act like nothing happened.”
But she doesn’t want to talk about it. She keeps him at a distance, living on her own in a posh Manhattan apartment.
She hates when he and others ask “if I feel better.”
And she gets really mad when one of Mark’s friends’ wives offers the feeble comfort of “I am so sooo sorry.”
Confronting Mark later, it’s “Who do you think you are telling them about MY miscarriage?”
Her therapist has to hear that Mark “doesn’t get what it is like for me,” even though the shrink knows things Marin won’t say to Mark, her “secrets.”
“I’m tired of being in my head. When I look at myself, I see negative space.”
We begin to, as well.
“I want to see myself through someone else’s eyes.”
Way ahead of you there, dear.
We’ve seen just enough of Mark in the office, chatting with friends about Marin, how she “needs space/needs time,” to wonder if he’s cheating on her. With say, his stunning assistant or somebody else his less ethical married pal invites to their table in whatever bar they’re “working late” at this night.
Marin? “I just want to touch someone new.”
First-time writer-director Milena Lurie seems to want “Entangled” to be a portrait of the emptiness Marin feels in recovering from this most solitary of traumas. What she’s managed is something far less flattering and indulgent.
As we hear Girardot’s plaintive, flat-voiced narration — “Escobar: Paradise Lost” is her most famous credit in North America — we’re treated to Marin showering and pondering, Marin taking a soak and musing, Marin getting dressed in her too-sexy underwear, Marin hanging out at a fashion shoot with friends and peers.
A model? Maybe. Something or someone pays for that penthouse.’
She summons a pal (Lucy Walters) with a simple “Can you come over?”
She shares an erotic dance with another model-beautiful woman at a bar-party.
She reconnects with a French ex (Grégory Fitoussi) who finds an excuse to “be in New York.” And when he’s late, she lets herself be picked up by a charming, rich bar prowler (Jonathan Cake).
And at some point, for me it was distressingly early, you check out of Marin’s plight, her fragile emotional state, and pick out everything beyond her great looks that just…grates.
As pretty as everything and everyone are in this vapid film, there’s nothing to disentangle here, no empathetic performance to cling no matter what sympathies we bring to someone going through this.
MPAA Rating: unrated, nudity, sexual situations, smoking, alcohol, profanity
Cast: Ana Girardot, Peter Mark Kendall, Lucy Walters, Grégory Fitoussi and Jonathan Cake.
Credits:Written and directed by Milena Lurie. A Samuel L. Goldwyn release.
Running time: 1:32
Movie Nation 