Every one of us processes grief differently. Most people know the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance—but “In Dust,” a dark comedy starring Matthew Broderick and Géza Röhrig, suggests there are a few phases missing from that list.Röhrig, the Hungarian actor best known as star of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner “Son of Saul,” stars as Shmuel, an upstate New York Hasidic cantor distraught by the sudden passing of his wife Rivkah. Tormented by the thought that her ruach (soul) will not rest until she is turned to dust he becomes obsessed by the rate of her decomposition.
As I said, we all grieve differently.
His anguish pushes him to break religious law and seek guidance outside of his community. A casket salesman (Joseph Siprut), once he realizes Shmuel isn’t in the market to buy a casket, offers no help. “We don’t check their progress,” he says. In desperation he approaches bumbling community college biology professor Albert (Broderick).
The odd couple perform some decidedly non-kosher experiments—most notably with a stolen pig named Harold—to establish a timeline for Rivkah’s decay and put Shmuel’s mind to rest.
“Who doesn’t like bacon?” asks Albert, placing foot firmly in mouth.
First time feature director Shawn Snyder has crafted an offbeat but appealing comedy that offers up laughs as well as bittersweet sensitivity. In what is essentially a two hander, Snyder amps up the absurdity by allowing his actors to be both unlikeable and yet strangely compelling. Röhrig and Broderick are a perfectly matched, if morbid, odd couple.
Röhrig plays Shmuel as a sympathetic character but one who pushes the boundaries of behaviour as he follows through in his tormented obsession. He finds the tragedy and the humour in the situation, equal parts comic exasperation, stubbornness and heartache.
Broderick, often decked out in his ex-wife’s lacy housecoat, is a delight. His Albert has let life pass him by. Hapless and hopeless, he seizes on this experience as a way to reawaken his love of science and life. Broderick is deadpan perfection.
“To Dust” is a one-joke movie but it is a good joke brought to life by two actors who make their extreme characters relatable and recognizable.
Chuck Wepner goes by many names. To some he is The Champ, a heavyweight boxer who once went fifteen rounds with Muhammad Ali. To others he is the Bayonne Bleeder, a fighter sometimes sidelined by his tendency to bleed out all over the ring. Still others call him the Real Rocky in reference to the rumour that his career inspired the Sylvester Stallone movie. He’s an American brawler played by Liev Schreiber in a new movie simply called “Chuck.”
Wepner became a local hero when he was tapped to take on boxing legend George Foreman. There was just one catch. Foreman had to beat Muhammad Ali first. The odds were in his favour but, in an upset, Foreman lost. That defeat should have put Wepner out of the running but the Ali fight was being positioned as a battle of the races and since he was the only white boxer on a long list of fighters qualified to take on the champ, he got the gig. The odds against him were 40-to-1 but the lure of a $100,000 payday was too great to resist. As expected he lost but the fact he shared the ring with Ali burnished his reputation, if not his bank account.
And thus the template of Wepner’s career was set. He’s an also ran, a man who can see the brass ring but never quite grab hold of it.
In the wake of the Ali fight Wepner’s life was turned topsy-turvy. He coulda been a contender but instead moonlighted as a liquor salesman. He was a star at night, hanging around clubs, cheating on his wife Phyllis (Elisabeth Moss) and developing a cocaine problem. His notoriety increased with the release of “Rocky,” the Stallone movie reportedly semi-based on Wepner’s life. A failed audition for “Rocky 2” forces the fighter further down the rabbit hole into a “Requiem for a Heavyweight-esque” life outside the ring.
“Chuck’s” story is little known but feels familiar. The “Rocky” twist and Ali fight add some nice colour to the tale, but this is, essentially, another retelling of an arrogant also ran boxer whose life outside the ring spiralled out of control. In Schreiber’s hands it’s easy to see why people were drawn to Wepner. He’s charismatic and despite his myriad flaws, likeable.
Good supporting work also comes from Moss (in an underwritten role), Ron Perlman and Jim Gaffigan as Wepner’s manager and best friend respectively but the movie, directed by Philippe Falardeau, like it’s main character, feels workmanlike. It covers large sections of the man’s life when it feels like a concentrated version may have been more compelling.
Five years since Harry Potter last displayed his wizarding ways on the big screen his creator, J.K. Rowling, is back with another adventure. The new film is a Potter prequel following the adventures of Newt Scamander, author of the textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (which also happens to be the name of this movie).
Starring Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, it takes place seventy years before Harry studied the text at Hogwarts, it focuses on Scamander’s adventures in 1920s New York City.
I spoke with the cast of Fantastic Beasts recently, asking them how Rowling and the Potter phenomenon touched them personally.
Alison Sudol plays free-spirited witch Queenie Goldstein: “I loved the wizarding world so much, from the get go, from the first page of the first book. I already loved The Chronicles of Narnia and Lewis Carroll and here was this world where there was an entirely parallel universe going on along side ours where all these insanely imaginative things were happening. It felt tangible and possible and real. It was such a beautiful place to inhabit in my imagination.”
Dan Fogler plays non-magical (or No-Maj) factory worker Jacob Kowalski: “I was a fan of Star Wars, the hero cycle, Joseph Campbell, fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons and all that. When I saw the [Potter] movies I thought, these really contain all of that and they also have that amazing coming of age feeling like you’re watching a John Hughes movie. All the incredibly personal stuff like when they did stuff like the Sorting Hats struck a chord for me. It reminded me of sleep-a-way camp when everyone found their own cliques.”
Ezra Miller is plays Credence Barebone, a mysterious member of the New Salem Philanthropic Society, a No-Maj anti-witchcraft group: “It’s hard for me to extricate JK Rowling and her work from any aspect of my life from the time I was seven. I think she gave to those of us who partook of her work as young people; those who have these natural gifts, a sense of justice and morality, of wonder and of imagination. A lot of us lose these gifts as we grow old and you look around and adults are boring, tired, jaded and disillusioned but I personally feel JK Rowling gave us a means by which to portage those inherent gifts of childhood over the wilderness and into our adult lives.”
Katherine Waterston plays Porpentina Goldstein, witch and former Auror for the Magical Congress of the United States of America: “I really identified with [Rowling’s] passion and commitment when I was in my twenties and was a struggling actor. You think of those people and have them in your mind as a mantra to keep you going. Not that one day you may have their success but that it is valid to pursue your creative impulses regardless of the outcome.”
Eddie Redmayne plays Newt” Scamander, Magizoologist and author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: “I started watching the films when they came out and for me it was this incredibly warm, wondrous place to go back to every year or two and it felt familiar and new and I got to see some of my favourite actors doing extraordinary work. It became a consistent comfort.”
Five years since Harry Potter last displayed his wizarding ways on the big screen his creator, J.K. Rowling, is back with another adventure. The new film is a Potter prequel following the adventures of Newt Scamander, author of the textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (which also happens to be the name of this movie).
Taking place seventy years before Harry studied the text at Hogwarts, it hits on many of the things that made the Potter movies special—loyalty, courage, Good v. Evil—there are wands aplenty and yet it feels new and fresh.
Rowling fans will recognize the name Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne). An employee at the British Ministry of Magic, at the start of the film he’s just arrived in New York City with a briefcase full of wild, wonderful and fantastic beasts. The year is 1926 and NYC is under attack by a mysterious, destructive paranormal force, dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald has gone missing and the zealous New Salem Philanthropic Society run by anti-magic fanatic Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton) is threatening to expose the seedy underbelly of wizardry in the city.
Not exactly the best time for a wizard to land in America with a case of magic beasts.
A simple mix-up with Newt’s suitcase—he inadvertently switches his with non-magical (or No-Maj) factory worker Jacob Kowalski’s (Dan Fogler) case—unleashes the beasts, finds Newt “arrested” by Magical Congress of the United States of America worker Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and uncovers a far reaching conspiracy that endangers wizards and No-Majs alike.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” feels like a Harry Potter film in spirit but looks nothing like the movies that came before it. Director David Yates, working from a script by Rowling, have reimagined the familiar wizarding world, adding period details ripe with richness. Rowling’s eye for story, quirky minutiae and veiled social comment—“I understand you have rather backward views about relations with non-magic people,” says Newt.—are all on display and should please her fanbase.
Also pleasing are the performances. Redmayne and Company, and this is very much an ensemble piece, find the humanity in the characters, even if they aren’t completely human. The performances feel somehow old fashioned, as if the actors stripped away any sense of method acting or other tricks, instead embracing the theatrical nature of the material. The actors occasionally get lost in the film’s reliance on CGI spectacle but always re-emerge to bring the story’s basic themes of loyalty, courage, Good v. Evil back to the fore.
When Newt says, “I was hoping to wait until we got to Arizona…” during one climatic moment he hints at adventures yet to come which feels like a set-up to a sequel. Those are the kind of words that usually fill me with dread—Just what we need, another franchise!—but “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” with its message that magic is all around us if we know where to look, is a handsome, entertaining and ultimately sequel worthy piece of work.
What is it with Mexicans and death?” asks a youngster in the new kid flick from producer Guillermo Del Toro.
It’s a legit question in light of the content of a film that takes place in and around the Day of the Dead, a national bank holiday in Mexico. “Is that National Zombie Day?” asks the same kid.
No it isn’t. Instead its refreshingly dark but delightful story based on folklore with sumptuous visuals and good messages about family, fate and gender dynamics.
The story begins with a bet between spirits La Muerte (Kate del Castillo) and Xibalba (Ron Perlman) on who will win the heart of the beautiful Maria (Zoe Saldana), warrior Joaquin (Channing Tatum) or bullfighting musician Manolo (Diego Luna). The stakes are high. If she marries Joaquin the devious Xibalba will rule in the Land of the Remembered, while La Muerte will be banished to the Land of the Forgotten. As part of a double cross Manolo is plunged into the underworld, only to have to fight his way back to his hometown and the woman he loves.
“Finding Nemo” and “Bambi” aside, mortality is not a big topic in children’s movies. “Book of Life,” however, embraces it; weaving an entrancing story that toggles back-and-forth between the land of the living and dead. It celebrates the vibrancy of the Day of the Dead celebrations, complete with skeletons in dazzlingly costumes and a character with a disembodied head. “The Walking Dead” this ain’t.
For some children the demonic bulls and Xibalba’s grandly goth appearance might be the stuff of nightmares, but the fanciful creations are for the most part kid friendly in a “Nightmare Before Christmas” kind of way.
For parents the scariest thing about the movie may be the appropriation of songs by Mumford & Sons and Radiohead for a kid’s movie.
Director Jorge R. Gutierrez updates traditional mythology with modern storytelling, making sure that the movie moves along at the speed of light. It occasionally feels a bit too jam-packed, with a noisy finale that isn’t nearly as interesting or inventive as the unconventional stuff that came before it, but the pandering to predictability in the final moments doesn’t diminish “Book of Life’s” impact as a beautifully crafted fantasy.
In the hands of anyone but director Guillermo Del Toro Hellboy could have turned out to be just another cinematic superhero. Thankfully Michael Bay and his soulless Hollywood brethren didn’t get their hands on the story of a little demon baby from the dark side who grows up to be a Baby Ruth-loving warrior battling the forces of hell.
Del Toro, the visionary behind a string of beautifully realized fantasy and horror films, including the Oscar nominated Pan’s Labyrinth, first brought Hellboy to the screen four years ago in a film that played up the horror aspects of the character’s comic book roots. This time around he plays on a bigger canvas, adding elements of fantasy and not one, but two love stories.
The action in Hellboy II: The Golden Army begins when an ancient truce between humans and the citizens of the underworld is broken by the ruthless Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) and an array of mythical creatures. “Let this remind you why you once feared the dark,” he says as the quest to reclaim all three pieces of a magical crown that will reunite the mighty Golden Army begins. That’s where Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his colleagues at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense come in. Comprised of Hellboy’s pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), aquatic empath Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), and ectoplasmic mystic Johann Krauss (James Dodd), the BPRD are the only government agency who have a chance against the evil netherworld soldiers.
Complicating matters is a PR problem—the public doesn’t take well to the irresponsible knucklehead Hellboy, with his red skin and horns—and matters of the heart as Abe discovers unexpected love in the elf princess Nuala (Anna Walton) and Liz’s relationship with Big Red hits a rough patch.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army is one of the rare sequels that is better than the original film. Working with a bigger budget this time around Del Toro has the money to fully realize his vision for the film; and what visions they are. He’s opened up his fertile imagination to create some unforgettable images like a Troll Market underneath the Brooklyn Bridge that rivals the famous Star Wars cantina scene, a new ectoplasmic character and a myriad of strange and wonderful creatures from the underworld.
These stunning images will make your eyeballs dance, but the amazing thing about Hellboy II: The Golden Army isn’t Del Toro’s astonishing visual sense, or his equally impressive way of choreographing large action scenes like the battle between Big Red and a vine creature on the streets of New York. No, it is his ability to balance the two with a really compelling story and not allow his characters to get lost in the din.
Despite setting the film in a fantastic world where mystical creatures interact with humans Del Toro doesn’t skimp on characterization, wit or believable (and in some cases heartbreaking) relationships. Abe Sapien’s amphibian love for a princess he can never have could easily have fallen flat, but Del Toro and actor Doug Jones give Abe enough humanity that even though he’s basically a giant fish with ESP the audience still feels for him when his heart is broken. The kicker comes when he gets drunk and sings Barry Manilow’s Can’t Smile Without You. Who among us hasn’t done that at least once?
At the center of it all is Ron Perlman in the title role. Perfectly cast, he plays the character as an everyman with an attitude to create one of the most fun and entertaining superheroes to come along in a movie summer chock full of beings with extraordinary powers.
