Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to roll a joint! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” the documentary “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” and the family fantasy “The Legend of Ochi.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: The new family fantasy film “The Legend of Ochi,” starring Willem Dafoe and an adorable puppet, tells the story of a young girl who learns that everything she’s been taught is a lie. “I am strong, and I am cool,” she writes in a note to her father, “and I don’t believe what you say.”
CAST: Helena Zengel, Willem Dafoe, Finn Wolfhard and Emily Watson. Directed by Isaiah Saxon.
REVIEW: “The Legend of Ochi” feels like an arthouse “How to Train Your Dragon” or a 1980s Amblin movie without the lens flares but with a Dr. Doolittle twist.
Set in the mountains of Carpathia, the story of Yuri (Helena Zengel), teenage daughter of her village’s head Ochi hunter Maxim (Willem Dafoe), unfolds as she discovers these woodland creatures aren’t the terrible beasts of her people’s folktales.
These creatures, who like a Gremlin and Baby Yoda had a child, are under constant threat from Maxim who believes they pillage the village, kill livestock and, years ago, kidnapped his wife. When Yuri learns the truth, that her father’s stories are more myth than truth, she goes all “E.T. the Extraterrestrial” and attempts to reunite one of the big-eyed creature with its mother.
Shot on location in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains—where apparently, they had trouble keeping bears from eating the sets at night—“The Legend of Ochi” has the look of a medieval fantasy. Although set in modern (ish) day there is a magical feel to the film’s scenery. The Frank Frazetta-esque backdrop is enhanced by a dramatic, mostly orchestral score by David Longstreth that does as much as the locations to set the stage for Yuri’s adventure.
Against this are a striking human cast. As Maxim, Willem DaFoe takes an over-the-top character who says things like, “I saw the devil dancing in the goblin’s eyes,” and still manages to make him human and not simply a flowery caricature of a mountain man on a mission.
Emily Watson, as Maxim’s ex with a wooden hand, is true grit personified, living life on the side of a mountain, alone, save for her research into the Ochi and their connection with nature.
As Yuri, Helena Zengel hands in a retrained performance, fueled by her concern for the Ochi. If Spielberg still made movies like this, she would be expecting a call.
The themes of connection, resilience and eco-responsibility wouldn’t mean much if we didn’t care about the Ochi, but the animatronic creatures are not only adorable but also bring real emotional appeal. Hand operated puppets, they have an organic, artisanal vibe that sets them apart from so many of their CGI counterparts. They are, at once, a nostalgic throwback to the days of rubber ETs and a charming new presence that gives the movie an emotional core.
“The Legend of Ochi” has much to recommend it but suffers from pacing issues and a predictable ending. Still, as new, stand-alone kid’s fantasy goes, it delivers a magical story that feels definitely and delightfully handmade.
Although “News of the World,” the new Tom Hanks western, now playing in theatres, is set almost 150 years ago its themes feel very contemporary. Racism, fake news and even fear of a pandemic are all essayed in this film based on Paulette Jiles’ bestselling 2016 novel of the same name.
Set five years after the end of the American Civil War, Hanks plays the elaborately named Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a veteran of three wars who now makes a living travelling from town to town doing theatrical live readings of the news of the day.
On one stop he’s offered money to return orphan Johanna (Helena Zengel) to relatives in San Antonio, a four-hundred-mile journey, fraught with danger. “She needs to laugh and dream,” Kidd says. “She needs new memories.”
Both are alone in the world; their families gone. He’s a widower, the 10-year-old was kidnapped years earlier, raised by the Kiowa people as one of their own and recently rescued by the U.S. army. “An orphan twice over.” She doesn’t speak English and, after being torn from the only two places she’s ever known as home, doesn’t trust anyone, especially her new guardian.
As they travel across the country, still divided by the recent war, Johana comes to trust Kidd as challenges, both natural and human, present themselves. Along the way the trip evolves into something more than a job for Kidd or simple survival, it becomes a journey to personal salvation for them both.
“News of the World” is a big, handsome period piece in the style of “True Grit” and “The Searchers” but without the suspense of either of those road movies. The odd couple pairing of Kidd and Johanna may seem strange at first, but it soon becomes clear, despite her unruly behavior, that they belong together. There is some nicely directed peril, courtesy of Paul Greengrass, but the likability Hanks brings to the role is reassuring… perhaps too reassuring.
Kidd is a man battered by war and personal trauma. He’s an imperfect man trying to be a good one in a broken and divided land. But he’s also Mister Rogers, so despite the character’s world weariness, there is never a feeling that he will do anything less than the right thing. It’s noble, but it is not the stuff of great drama.
The thing that does set “News of the World” from the pack is the prescient nature of the story. The world Kidd and Johanna exist in is a lawless one, and one that echoes many of today’s concerns. From human traffickers and a wannabe-small-town fascist to a horrifying lynching and fake news, the film makes it clear that venality and social ills that are part of our contemporary newscasts are a result of a long history of bitter division. The movie fights to find optimism in the story, and it is here that Hanks earns his money. It ends on notes of healing and redemption but the payoff, while satisfying, doesn’t feel worth the long journey.
