SYNOPSIS: “Elio,” a new Disney and Pixar animated adventure now playing in theatres, centers on Elio, a space-obsessed young boy who accidentally gets beamed up to the Communiverse, a cosmic hub where representatives from Earth meet with extraterrestrials. Mistaken for an ambassador from the blue planet, Elio learns about other civilizations and himself. “Back home I didn’t fit in,” he says. “I thought Earth was the problem, but what if it’s me?”
CAST: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil, and Shirley Henderson. Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina.
REVIEW: As empathetic as it is predictable, “Elio” treads familiar ground but packs a light emotional punch with its story of an outsider who learns he is not alone.
Humans have always gazed at the stars and wondered, “Are we alone?” That includes Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) an eleven-year-old boy being raised by his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) after the death of his parents. Despite Olga’s best efforts, Elio feels abandoned and alone. “There’s 500 million inhabitable planets out there,” he says to her, “and maybe one of them will want me because you don’t.”
When his efforts to be abducted by aliens lead to trouble, he’s sent to a military school where his ham radio helps connect him to the stars and he is beamed up to a colorful world whose aliens think he is an ambassador from Earth who will save their “Communiverse” from the evil Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett).
“Elio” is a kid’s film, with imaginative, vibrantly colored characters and fanciful new worlds, that looks to what Carl Sagan (whose voice appears briefly near the film’s end) called “the deepest of human concerns: Are we alone?” It’s a big concept for a film aimed at the little ones, but it’s presented with a sense of childlike wonder that makes it accessible for all ages.
Beautifully animated in Pixar’s signature style, it looks great but doesn’t have the nuance or deeply felt emotion of the company’s classics. Films like “Up” and “WALL-E” masterfully wove story and sentiment together to form soulful movies that hit the head and heart in equal measure. “Elio” reaches for the stars but remains earthbound in terms of finding the texture that once made Pixar so special.
Still, while “Elio” isn’t a gushing firehose of authentic emotion, it is an imaginative journey into empathy, community and self-acceptance.
“Gloria Bell,” a new film starring Julianne Moore, tells a story about one woman navigating between loneliness and love.
In the remake of his 2013 film “Gloria” Chilean director Sebastián Lelio casts Moore as the title character, a fifty-something divorcee looking for love. An office worker by day, she haunts the discos of suburban Los Angeles in the evening. One night she meets Arnold (John Turturro), a recently divorced man still tethered to his former wife by his ever-present cell phone. They hit it off; he serenades her with quirky, romantic poetry, teaches her how to play paintball and makes her laugh. He meets her family, including the ex-husband (Brad Garrett) and son (Michael Cera) and seems to be falling hard for Gloria. Except for that damn cell phone. Every time it rings it splits his attention between his dramatic former family and Gloria. The prospects for long-term love become more distant every time his phone rings.
“Gloria Bell” is a shot-for-shot remake of Lelio’s 2013 film. It’s a movie that doesn’t rely on conventional narrative but rather focuses on the characters to tell the tale. To that end Moore works wonders. In each episodic snippet Moore illuminates Gloria, giving us everything we need to know in the subtlest of ways. A turn of the head, a too-loud laugh or the way she sings along to the radio. Each of these flourishes breathes life into a character fighting against becoming invisible in a world that values youth.
It’s an astounding performance especially in its understated moments. When Gloria gearshifts from tears to laughter as the weight of a bad relationship lifts or finally dances to her own beat on the dance floor, Moore is vulnerable and jubilant, awkward and comfortable, and always relatable.
“Don’t go getting all grown up on us.“ That’s the sentiment that hangs over “Christopher Robin,” a new film about regaining an intangible starring Ewan McGregor and Winnie the Pooh (voice of Jim Cummings), like a shroud.
The movie begins with 10-year-old Christopher Robin‘s going away party, just before he leaves for boarding school. His playmates, Piglet (voice of Nick Mohammed), Eeyore (Brad Garrett), Tigger (Cummings again), Owl (Toby Jones), Rabbit (Peter Capaldi), Kanga (Sophie Okonedo) and the honey loving bear have gathered to see him off from 100 Acre Woods, their home and Christopher’s escape from real life.
“I will never forget you Pooh,“ Christopher says, “even if I live to be 100 years old.“
But of course he does.
Like the quickly flipped pages of a story park the film rockets through Christopher’s boarding school, marriage, efforts in WWII and his difficulties after the war. Now a husband to Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and a father to Madeline (Bronte Carmichael), he has a job he doesn’t like and responsibilities that keep him away from his family.
Christopher Robin got all grown up.
When his boss instructs him to cut 20% of his operating budget Christopher is pushed against the wall. The frivolities of youth are pushed even further to the background until Pooh, looking for his friends and in search of honey, shows up in London with the grumbling tummy and some sage words of advice. “I’ve cracked,” says Christopher when his childhood friend shows up. “I’ve totally cracked. “I don’t see any cracks,” replies Pooh sweetly, “some wrinkles maybe.”
A mix of live action and CGI characters, “Christopher Robin” doesn’t allow the special effects to get in the way of the film’s message of staying young at heart. The stuffed animals—Winnie and friends—don’t feel like and excuse to sell toys. Instead they are given distinct and engaging personalities that move the story and the message forward. Cummings, who has voiced Winnie since 1988, brings real personality to the character, imbuing his elliptical speaking patterns with equal parts humour and melancholy. Pooh also causes some Paddington-style chaos in the Robin household, adding to the slapstick factor in a movie that toggles between heartfelt and farce.
There is an undeniable sense of loss and longing in “Christopher Robin.” Loss, in the form of a childhood innocence gone missing—“I’m lost,” says Pooh, “but I found you.”—longing in the efforts made to regain the connection to childlike wonder and, in Robin’s case, his own daughter Madeline. Children might not get it, although I’m sure they will enjoy the stuffed characters, but adults will understand the curious tale about the importance of old friends and embracing the inner child.
SYNOPSIS: “Elio,” a new Disney and Pixar animated adventure now playing in theatres, centers on Elio, a space-obsessed young boy who accidentally gets beamed up to the Communiverse, a cosmic hub where representatives from Earth meet with extraterrestrials. Mistaken for an ambassador from the blue planet, Elio learns about other civilizations and himself. “Back home I didn’t fit in,” he says. “I thought Earth was the problem, but what if it’s me?”
