3 To See This Weekend!!

Rich Hill is a documentary that follows three disadvantaged young men who live in a town called Rich Hill, which is about 70 miles southwest of KC just on the MO side.  It won the U.S. Documentary prize at Sundance, but I’m not sure why.  There doesn’t seem to be a point.  It’s interesting and mostly sad, but it didn't look at a random set of kids in that town, it focused just on the most troubled and there was no arc or analysis at all.  It wasn't quite a commentary on poverty or parenting or mental illness either...but it is still in my thoughts so I can say it was absorbing.  The best contrast that was drawn in the film was between those kids and the annual 4th of July pie auction that brings in thousands of dollars each year. Clearly someone in that town has money to spend, so I think it would have been a better portrait if it also showed a child from the wealthier part of town and would be more of a real image of small town (or anytown) America - the haves AND the have-nots, living side by side yet ignoring each other and just going about their business. Ultimately, I think it just makes the “haves” who are watching it (and going to Sundance) feel like they are looking at the poorest town in America and when the lights come up, they can go about their normal lives.  I grew up in a very poor town myself, but there is always more to the story. There are recent updates on the three kids online too and it seems to only get worse for them, if you’re interested.

2.75 out of 5 stars

Guardians of the Galaxy is based on a comic book, but don’t let that scare you away (or draw you in).  Let it stand on its own, which it does very well.    This comic scifi adventure story of a ragtag set of thieves and assassins is thoroughly charming and enjoyable.  It has the feel of a modern Red Dwarf or Spaceballs, with all the necessary parallels with Star Wars thrown in.  Bradley Cooper as the Rocket the racoon is my favorite, but not for his sometimes spot on, if accidental, Gilbert Gottfried impression.  Unencumbered by his own good looks on screen, he seems free to express himself in ways not yet seen.  In this film, he essentially leads a successful version of the A-Team, for all his folly in the previous film of the latter.  For those of us of a certain age, the multitude of 80s references to music, toys and other pop culture of that time period abound in a very detailed way – not just your run of the mill allusions.  One final note, see the movie for this at least: Glenn Close (doing her own impression of herself from 101 Dalmations) says the word, “prick”.

3.25 out of 5 stars

Dolphin Tale 2 is a sequel to Dolphin Tale 1 (surprise!), which itself was based on the book which was based on the real life story of an injured dolphin who washes ashore and is taken in by a marine mammal hospital in Florida and helps tell the coming of age story of a young boy.  The story here is pretty much the same, but the boy is 3 years older.  This one tugs at the heartstrings just as well as the first, and the acting is just as bad, but it’s got that certain something anyway, darn it.  The two young leads are so bad they seem almost real, unlike their adult on screen counterparts (Ashley Judd, Harry Connick, Jr.  and Morgan Freeman), who must have signed on just to do something educational for children, because it wasn’t for the Lifetime movie dialog.  The real draw is the animals and new twist is somewhat reflective of the recent hullabaloo surrounding Sea World and last year’s documentary, Blackfish.  There are several plot developments focused on making sure the audience knows the hospital is doing everything by the book and putting the animals first, over humans or even money, and not doing anything against nature by keeping them there.  It wasn’t subtle, but I guess I prefer it to the reality of Sea World.

3 out of 5 stars

The Giver is a Gift

Yes, I've read the book by Lois Lowry.  I've read the whole series in fact.  I loved it.  I was eagerly anticipating this movie, without much hope actually, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It's another futuristic dystopian story, but this one was written long before Hunger Games, Divergent and Maze Runner (which I have also read) and it has a slower pace that may be what seems to be keeping movie goers away.  This film is more thoughtful and meant to make you think, with the look and feel a bit reminiscent of Logan's Run and other much older movies.  The film is mostly in black and white, so "color" in all its forms and meanings can be on full display when encountered.

As usual, many things were changed from the book (not because of length, which is usually the case, because it was a short book to begin with - I read it in just a few hours), but I tend to see books and movies as separate forms of art and can appreciate them separately as well.  One of the things I found unique about the book was that the main character is a boy whose love for an infant consumes him - we're used to seeing this from a female character.  That is still true in the film version, but someone in Hollywood felt compelled to make the central love story a romantic one, with a girl who was a minor character in the book.  I know the reasons behind it, and it worked alright on film, but that kind of thing irks me anyway.

The young, beautiful cast (including a brunette Taylor Swift) is a little wooden overall, but that also seems to fit the stiffness of the society they are in.  The older cast members are used effectively with Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep having some fun and all of their relationships setting up multiple sequel opportunities that seem to have nothing to do with the sequels in book form unfortunately.

Overall, the film asks the same questions as the novel and the same questions as all dystopian fiction: "If we get rid of all the bad, does all the good go with it?", "How do we get rid of all the bad in the world and at what cost?", "What makes us human and life worth living?", "Will we always eventually rebel and return to our animalistic beginnings - is that better?".  Here in the Western World, and especially in the U.S., it's clear that we are taught that individuality is best and freedom is fundamental, but elsewhere in the world, this film and others like it would be considered blasphemy or simply incomprehensible. 

All of these questions and issues are why I love to read these books and see these movies myself, attempting to see it from every angle.  The Giver is much  more open ended than most, ending almost exactly the same way the book does, which caused debate for more than a decade until the "sequel" was published.  I liked that the film reminded me of that feeling from the book and why I liked the story in the first place.  It may be too much to hope for a sequel to this version, since it's all financially based, but I would welcome the "gift".

3.25 out of 5 stars

Movie Review: If I Stay

Chloe Grace Moretz is the heart of this movie and thank goodness she's gifted, because in movie form at least, there isn't a lot to the story.  The well-loved book is the story of a teenager on the verge of womanhood who is put into a coma by a car accident that takes the rest of her immediate family and explores her internal turmoil of whether to "stay" or go.  I haven't read the book, so I can only imagine what's missing, but the movie does manage to stand on its own.  The central unanswered questions in the movie are presumably the same ones that interested readers of the original novel: What would you do if you got a choice like that?  What would it be like to stay without your family?  What would it be like if you "went"?

Unfortunately, the film essentially turns out to be just a love story (The sequel, "Where She Went" looks to be even more so), but her male counterpart is a worthy actor as well.  Told mostly in flashbacks, the parts of the story about their developing relationship are perhaps the least compelling, but the exploration of relationships in general make up for it (although in an effort to make her parents seem too perfect to lose to death, they are made a bit cartoony in contrast).  There is definitely enough there to make you cry at the appropriate moment.  Stacy Keach as her grandfather has a small Oscar-worthy speech and it's refreshing to see Moretz play a self-conscious character, since most of her breakout performances have been powerful and self-possessed (Hugo, Kick-Ass).

I won't avoid the inevitable comparison to the recent young adult novel turned movie, "The Fault in Our Stars", but I will just say that Fault was simply better overall.  A better comparison might be to the "non-fiction" book turned movie called "Heaven is For Real", because the only thing about "If I Stay" that keeps coming back to my mind is the questions about comas, death and the after-life, the rest of the movie is basically forgettable.

3 out of 5 stars