Category Archives: 2020

Over the Moon

Over the Moon                 3 ½ stars

Over the Moon is a sweet animated movie from Netflix created by a former Disney animator concerning the grief a young Chinese girl suffers over the loss of her mother and her subsequent journey to the moon on her home built rocket ship. That may sound incredible but it all fits together in a children’s tale about loss and accepting what life throws at you. The young girl, Fei Fei, has a fascination with an ancient Chinese legend about a goddess named Chung’e, who lives on the moon and has lost her lover. Thus, the connection that Fei Fei feels for her and her scheme to build a rocket that takes her, her pet rabbit and her annoying brother to be on the unexpected journey to the moon. There we find all sorts of odd creatures, some that help Fei Fei and others that aren’t so nice. All are done in very colorful animation in a style that reminds us of the old Disney films. The story has many familiar themes, but may be a little thin. The film is supported by some expressive songs by the main character and the goddess, Chung’e who turns out not to be what was expected. The movie should be very engaging for children.

The Duke

The Duke                             4 stars

If the bloody fighting of The Northman or the zany comedy of Everything Everywhere All at Once isn’t for you, perhaps you should try the British comedy, The Duke. Jim Broadbent, the character actor of so many fine films gets his chance at a starring role as Kempton Bunton, a friendly out spoken man who resents the fact that the government expects people to pay for their over the air TV shows and tells the TV police his views when they track him down in his rundown apartment. (I know that they do this in England as I heard about it from a British fellow once.) Kempton and his wife (Helen Mirren) are still aching from the death of their daughter many years earlier. We find out early in the light-hearted comedy that Bunton went on trial for theft. Eventually he concocts a bizarre plan to steal a famous painting of The Duke of Wellington from The British Art Gallery and hold it for ransom, demanding that the government make television free to the elderly. As if this isn’t bad enough, he involves his son in the half baked plot as well. This low key type of comedy with likeable characters should appeal to a wide range of audiences. Sadly, the director, Roger Michell, won’t be making anymore like this as he passed away last year. The movie was actually based on a true story that happened in 1961. It was the only successful robbery of the Art Gallery in history. If you enjoy British comedy you can’t go wrong with The Duke.

Wolfwalkers

Wolfwalkers                       4 ½ stars

From the Irish studio Cartoon Saloon who brought us The Secret of Kells in 2009 comes their latest creation, Wolfwalkers, an animated tale set in Ireland about two girls from vastly different backgrounds who form a fast bond against troubling circumstances. Robyn is an English girl who has been brought to Ireland by her father who has the task of ridding the woods of its inhabitants of wolves. The wolves are very troubling to the local farmers as they attack their livestock. Robyn, being English is not at all accepted by the Irish children of the village, so she finds her own adventures. One day, disobeying her father’s instruction, she wanders into the woods where the wolves live and meets a strange redheaded girl, Mebh, who is very wild and outspoken and who happens to be one of the last of the Wolfwalkers, a mythical creature who is human by day, but transforms into a wolf at night when their human body falls asleep. Though very different, the two becomes fast friends and Robyn is convinced she must do whatever it takes to help Mebh and the wolves survive, even if it involves disobeying the orders and warnings of her father and the villagers. There is a villain involved in the form of the English Lord Protector, who believes he can only stay in power by gaining favor with the locals by having all the wolves killed or run out of the woods. It is an intense story about young people having to face the challenges of an adult world, but also about adults who have something to learn about the magic of childhood. I also enjoy the animation style of the movie as it is very colorful and full of movement and done is an imprecise manner. It is one that adults and children can both appreciate.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga                  2 ½ stars

I doubt that many people have heard of the Will Ferrell movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga that came out near the beginning of the pandemic. I had not heard of it until 2021 and just now looked it up on Netflix. This comedy starring and written by Ferrell tells about the dimwitted Lars Erickssong, a native of Iceland who has dreamed of winning the annual competition of the Eurovision Song Contest since he was a boy and sings as part of the group Fire Saga. There is plenty of stupid comedy which is pretty similar to anything that Ferrell has done in the past. The other half of the Fire Saga dual is Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) who worships Lars and is “probably not” his sister. She does a creditable job at comedy in what is not a typical role for her. Even though they are not all that talented the pair manage to qualify to be Iceland’s entry into the annual event featuring performers from over forty European countries. The musical numbers are overproduced and the movie gets a little too involved in its ridiculous plot. A bright spot is Dan Stevens who portrays a self-absorbed Russian singer who does some overly sexualized musical numbers with his male performers and is too interested in Sigrit to suit Lars. It’s a good one for Will Ferrell fans but it has a few dry spells where the comedy falls short.

Greyhound

Greyhound                         4 stars

If it weren’t for the pandemic we would have had the chance to see Greyhound, the WWII thriller about submarine vs. convoy warfare on the big screen. As it is we have to settle for watching this action packed war film from 2020 on our TV screens. Greyhound was written by and stars Tom Hanks, playing Captain Ernest Krause, who is in his first command in early 1942 on an American destroyer as it escorts a troop convoy crossing the North Atlantic to Britain. The movie chooses to give us little character development on Krause, focusing mainly on the harrowing mission of protecting the convoy from a wolf pack of German U-boats that are intent on sinking as many Allied ships as they can. On the screen we see a troubled Krause dealing with uncertainty as he issues orders to the young crew and receives reports about the radio signals, radar sightings and sonar pings that are all part of the challenge of locating the feared U-boats. We never see the face of the enemy or any crew of the other Allied ships, but get plenty of at sea action through the heavy use of special effects. We know the other participants are there by their voices over the radio including a German U-Boat commander proclaiming: We will hunt you down! The story is fictional, but the conflict that it depicts about the war at sea is entirely real. I have to believe that the Navy jargon and the use of instruments as portrayed is highly accurate. The movie received multiple nominations and awards for its realistic sound effects including an Academy Award nomination. I only wish I could have seen it in the theater.

The Man Who Sold His Skin

The Man Who Sold His Skin         4 stars

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania takes on the high-end art world and the inequalities of immigration policies toward refugees in The Man Who Sold His Skin. Sam Ali (Yahya Mahayni) is a young Syrian man in a war-torn country who only wants to marry his girlfriend when he is targeted by the authoritarian government and is forced to become a refugee fleeing to Lebanon. Sam catches the attention of a famous provocative artist, Jeffrey Godefroi who offers him his freedom if he will allow the artist to use Sam’s back as a canvas in order to tattoo a new piece of artwork. In exchange for the freedom to travel to Belgium where his girlfriend now lives with her new husband and payment from the artwork’s proceeds, Sam must agree to being put on display at art museums for the public to view. The artwork on his back is a visa meant to criticize the treatment of refugees. In making this transaction Sam exchanges one sort of imprisonment for the enslavement of being reduced to a piece of art. Ben Hania shoots some scenes at odd angles using windows and mirrors meant to emphasize how Sam is treated as an object. Sam seems happy with his newly found notoriety at first, that is until he finds that his girlfriend is not so thrilled at the idea of being rescued and he learns of his mother’s feelings about his decision. The premise of the movie is of course absurd and is meant as an indictment of the art world and the racism directed toward certain ethnic groups. The Man Who Sold His Skin received multiple accolades including an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language film, though much of the film is in English. For another attack on the high-end art world though with a comedic twist, I recommend Velvet Buzzsaw.

Quo Vadis, Aida?

Quo Vadis, Aida?              4 ½ stars

Quo Vadis, Aida? from 2021 is a movie that should be seen when the viewer is in the frame of mind to accept a truly tragic situation. The movie by Jasmila Zbanic is based on the true story of what happened at the village of Srebenica, Bosnia during the war there in 1995. This is where one of the greatest war crimes in Europe was committed with the murder of thousands of innocent Bosnian men by the Serbian army. The film is told mainly from the point of view of Aida, a middle-aged Bosnian woman employed by the United Nations as an interpreter. This provides her with insight and access to what is going on at the UN base camp where thousands of Bosnian refugees are seeking protection after being driven out of their homes. As this tragedy unfolds she is also trying to see that her husband and two sons do not fall into the hands of the soldiers. The film shows us the senselessness of war in general and the complete ineffectiveness of the UN to prevent an atrocity due to failure of policy and of bureaucracy. We see how the nightmare unfolds step by step as Aida tries to work with the UN officials to find a way to protect her family and is met by resistance from the authority figures. The UN officers are not solely to blame as they are restricted by the orders from their superiors and so are prevented from following through on their promises to protect the local population. The film plainly tells how this atrocity happens and its effect from a personal point of view. The viewer should go into the film knowing there will be nothing pleasant about the ultimate outcome, though there are few scenes of direct violence shown on screen.

The Midnight Sky

The Midnight Sky             2 stars

The Midnight Sky, directed by and starring George Clooney was released at the end of 2020 during the pandemic but I never heard of it until over a year later. Judging by its media presence few people had seen it. This science fiction drama concerns a reclusive genius scientist named Augustine Lofthouse who has isolated himself at an arctic research station as a catastrophe threatens to destroy most of the human population on Earth. So you know right away that we are in for some heavy drama of the hopeless variety. Added to the mix is a group of astronauts and scientists who are headed back to Earth after a several years long mission to investigate the habitat on a distant moon of the planet Jupiter. Unfortunately, no one has informed the crew of the spaceship of the recent developments back home. So it falls on Augustine to find a way to contact them and reveal the bad news and warn them that they would be better off not returning to Earth. (Nevermind that his communication with the ship happens instantaneously despite the fact that the ship is still in deep space.) We are never told exactly what happened, but we assume there must be a radioactive atmosphere around most of the planet due to some human activity. The movie moves at a very slow pace and has an ominous tone to it that really gets depressing. There are a few flashbacks to the young Augustine where we find out he had a promising family life at some point and that it all changed leading him to a lonely life. Some harrowing moments are experienced by Augustine and by the ship’s crew that they manage to survive, but this does little to take us away from the doomed feeling we get from the film. There is nothing fun or for that matter thrilling about the movie. It certainly is no Gravity. There is a plot twist in the movie that I won’t describe, but will only say that I thought the filmmakers were setting this up in a deceptive manner by holding back certain facts until they are revealed at the end. I have not appreciated this type of plot device in other movies and was sorry to see it here. There must be better ways to treat the subject of global disaster than what The Midnight Sky has done. I will say that the special effects used to create the spaceship were impressive. If only they had been used in a better movie.

My Octopus Teacher

My Octopus Teacher      5 stars

I finally saw the 2021 Academy Award winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher” by documentarian Craig Foster. Foster filmed his underwater encounters with the eight-legged subject in the waters off South Africa near his home after going through a period of crisis in his own life. In the film he made daily trips to the kelp forest where all sorts of colorful creatures live and followed the life of a single female octopus, bringing the experience to a personal level. It isn’t a film of scientific study but succeeds in showing what it takes for this animal to survive in the sea, including escaping from the sharks that prey on the octopus and finding ways to catch its own source of food. He does all this using just a snorkel and without a wetsuit allowing him to get close to the animal which reacts to him with curiosity. He even catches a close encounter with one of those hungry sharks followed by a long period of recovery for the mollusk. The film is only a little over an hour and a half long but by the end you feel that you understand something about this creature that is almost an alien to humans. For nature lovers this is one that should not be missed.

The One and Only Ivan

The One and Only Ivan   3 stars

The One and Only Ivan was brought to us in 2020 by Disney and stars Sam Rockwell as a silverback gorilla, Ivan who is kept in a cage and serves as the main attraction at a small-time mall, video-arcade managed by Mack (Brian Cranston). This combination live action-CGI film is intended primarily for children and is told in a quiet manner, focusing on how the animals feel about their situation. The computer animation is excellent, but the movie lacks the action one would associate with the usual Disney style for children’s movies. Also included among the mall animals are an elephant named Stella (Angelina Jolie), a chicken named Henrietta (Chaka Khan), a glam poodle named Snickers (Helen Mirren) and Bob, a lovable mutt (Danny DeVito) who provides the comic effect. This unlikely crew vacillates between wanting to put on a good show for a dwindling audience and longing for a better life away from captivity. But it is only when owner Mack tries to get Ruby (Brooklynn Prince), a very young elephant to perform on her own that Ivan feels driven to action. The movie is based on a popular children’s novel by Katherine Applegate which itself is based on a real life gorilla named Ivan who lived for 27 years in a cage in a mall and was ultimately moved to the open spaces of Zoo Atlanta after getting the attention of protesters decrying the living conditions of the ape. The script is by Mike White who also did School of Rock. The movie is a good one for the kids but may go a little light on its subject of animal captivity. It is available on Disney +.