Posts Tagged ‘Owen Teague’

KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES: 4 STARS. “succeeds because of its humanity.”

Set three hundred years after the events of 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes,” the latest film in the Apes franchise continues many of the themes established in the earlier films. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” now playing in theatres, explores topics of power and prejudice, of control and culture clashes.

Generations after the rule of Caesar, the original ape potentate, humans have become feral, while apes, like young chimpanzee hunter Noa (Owen Teague), live in clans as the dominant society. When Noa’s village is destroyed and family displaced by the marauding gorilla warriors of the power mad Bonobo despot Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), he begins a journey of revenge.

Along the way, he encounters the intellectual orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), a disciple of the teachings of the original Caesar. From Raka the young ape learns the fundamental rules; ape shall not kill ape and as apes together, we are strong.

The journey continues with the addition of Mae (Freya Allan), a human Raka befriends—“She is smarter than most,” he says.—on the way to Proximus Caesar’s secret “kingdom,” an expedition that could determine the fate of both human and ape civilizations.

“In their time, humans were capable of many great things,” says Proximus Caesar. “They could fly, like eagles fly. They could speak across oceans. But now, it is our time. And it is my kingdom. We will learn. Apes will learn. I will learn. And I will conquer.”

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is jam packed with big ideas and even bigger action scenes, but feels intimate because of its emotional content. While I have nostalgia for the rubber “damn dirty apes” masks of the original film franchise (1968 – 1973), the motion-capture performances on display here allow the actors to display emotional nuances the Roddy McDowell-era masks simply could not. Small facial gestures of concern, anger and happiness go a long way to creating ape characters that don’t simply feel like anthropomorphic oddities. These new school apes have a wider range of expression and that brings with it an intimate feel to the epic story.

Director Wes Ball ensures the emotional content is never diminished by the action. Not exactly wall-to-wall with action scenes, Ball takes his time with the worldbuilding and introduction of new characters before staging the first of the film’s big set pieces. It makes for a slow start, which makes the whole thing seem over long at two-and-a-half hours. But when it really kicks into gear in the second act, it does so with great stakes and is punctuated by the kind of adrenaline rush finale you expect from a big summer blockbuster.

It is, I suppose, ironic that “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” succeeds because of its humanity, but science fiction works best when its ideas, though presented in a speculative fashion, are reflective of the world in which they exist. This is a big budget summer blockbuster, but has its DNA in Pierre Boulle’s original book, and the “Planet of the Apes” screenplay by Rod Serling and Michael Wilson, which value social commentary about abuse of power, prejudice and social divisions over spectacle. In our real world, a mixed-up, shook-up place, those themes resonate.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” doesn’t have anything as memorable as the first film’s Statue of Liberty reveal, but is a worthy addition to the franchise, and sets up an interesting sequel.

EILEEN: 3 STARS. “more about what’s left unsaid, than the obvious story points.”

In “Eileen,” a 1960s-set, Hitchcockian psychological thriller starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway, a lonely woman’s life takes a sinister turn when she meets a glamorous new co-worker.

Mckenzie is the title character, a lonely and unhappy twenty-something secretary at a small-town Massachusetts juvenile detention centre. She lives with her ex-cop father (Shea Whigham), a widower with a nasty drinking problem and a personality to match. “Get a life, Eileen,” he says to her. “Get a clue.”

To pass the days she daydreams of having relations with her co-workers and, at night, is a voyeur, spying on couples making out in their cars at Look Out Point.

She is invisible at home and at work; a blank slate. “Some people, they’re the real people,” Eileen’s dad says. “Like in a movie. They’re the ones you watch, they’re the ones making moves. And other people, they’re just there, filling the space. That’s you, Eileen. You’re one of them.”

A ray of light in the form of Dr. Rebecca St. John (Anne Hathaway) illuminates the dark corners of Eileen life. Stylish and vivacious, the detention centre’s new counsellor is everything Eileen isn’t. A glamorous vision, squeezed into a red dress, topped with a burst of blonde hair, Rebecca drinks and smokes— “It’s a nasty habit,” she says, sparking up a fresh Pall Mall, “that’s why I like it.”—and her arrival inspires Eileen to examine her own wants and desires.

As Rebecca takes an interest in Sam Polk (Lee Nivola), a young inmate convicted of a gruesome crime, revealing a dark secret, Eileen shows there is more to her than meets the eye.

Based on the 2015 novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, “Eileen” begins as a character study, a slice-of-life look at a floundering woman, becomes a multi-pronged psychological thriller in its final third. The film takes an audacious turn, one that changes the film’s power dynamic, and closes things off with a bang (and a tremendous performance from Marin Ireland as Rita Polk, but no spoilers here).

Until then, it is a slow burn, a film that luxuriates in its characters. Mckenzie balances the character’s bored exterior with her bombastic inner life, creating Eileen, a ticking time bomb of emotion, careening toward a life defining moment (no spoilers here). It’s finely tuned work that cuts through the film’s dark ennui.

Hathaway has the showier role as Hitchcockian icy blonde Rebecca. Intelligent, enticing and ultimately empathic, she stands in stark contrast to the movie’s deliberately dull backdrop. Rebecca is a polar opposite to Eileen, the catalyst that gives the movie its spark.

“Eileen” is more about what’s left unsaid, than it is about the obvious story points (keeping it vague and spoiler free here). The suggestion of a budding relationship as a hand brushes against a knee, a shared slow dance in a bar and stolen looks, is ultimately more suspenseful than the pulpy twist at the film’s end. The end, while impactful, is more conventional than we might have expected from this moody period piece.