Leonard Maltin

A Less Hostile View of ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 27 May 2016 18:27:50 GMT

Having just seen Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass on opening night, with a paying audience at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, I am late in filing my review. I had a mixed reaction to the film, but I am somewhat surprised by the hostility expressed by my fellow critics. I took it as a given that this sequel to the 2010 Disney mega-hit would have little to do with Lewis Carroll. I also knew that screenwriter Linda Woolverton would call on the same female-empowerment theme that marked the previous Alice, directed by Tim Burton. And I knew that this modern interpretation of Alice would be perfectly personified by Mia Wasikowska, who seems incapable of striking a false note on screen.

          There are many pleasures to be had in this eye-filling extravaganza, from an opening storm at sea (with Alice as the captain of a sailing ship) to the steampunk-like world commanded by Time, played with comic relish by Sacha Baron Cohen.

          To my relief, Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter is a mellower figure this time around; he is also melancholy to the point of depression, which impels Alice to travel back in time in order to save his now-departed family. (This involves the peril of tinkering with events of the past, which as any Twilight Zone fan knows, is highly dangerous.) Even Helena Bonham Carter, who was so furiously funny in the 2010 movie, doesn’t have to work as hard to convey her outsized emotions here.

          These performances compete with the beauty and extravagance of Dan Hennah’s production design. Having worked on The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit movies, he is well versed in fantasy on a grand scale. So is director James Bobin, having worked with Flight of the Conchords and having directed the two recent Muppet movies.

          But, I will admit, I grew tired at a certain point. Like many of these elaborate “tentpole” blockbusters, Alice can be exhausting. I didn’t mind the fact that so many characters’ backstories are spelled out in literal fashion, but having accepted and even embraced the time-travel premise, I was ready for the filmmakers to wrap things up long before they did.

          Having heard dreadful things about the movie going in, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it as much as I did. And I remain a card-carrying member of Mia Wasikowska’s fan club. Lewis Carroll purists should stay away, but judging by last night’s Disney-centric audience, I think moviegoers will find much to enjoy.

X-Men On The Brink

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 27 May 2016 01:00:00 GMT

This screen series based on the colorful Marvel characters has proved to be both durable and flexible: having enjoyed a great run in its initial phase, it spun off two Wolverine vehicles for Hugh Jackman and then rewound the timeline to create a series of prequels, beginning with the excellent X-Men: First Class. Director and co-writer Bryan Singer, who launched X-Men in 2000 has steered this latest installment, X-Men: Apocalypse and delivered another winner. (He’s even planted a not-so-subtle in-joke about the first entry he didn’t direct in the series.)

Essentially, the screenplay (credited to series veteran Simon Kinberg, from a story by him, Singer, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris) follows one major through-line: the world’s first and most powerful mutant, Apocalypse, has awoken after thousands of years. Seeing the world as it is, beset by war and strife, he decides that it must be destroyed in order to be reborn—with him as its unquestioned leader. Although he is unrecognizable under layers of makeup and costuming, this commanding character is played by Oscar Isaac, who in his few short years onscreen has proved to be a rare talent—and something of a chameleon

Aside from him, you need a scorecard to keep tabs on who’s who and who’s new: we’ve acclimated to the idea that James McAvoy is Professor Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender is Erik Lensherr (aka Magneto), the roles created by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. We’ve also seen Jennifer Lawrence take over the role of Raven/Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast, and Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok.

Evan Peters, as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver all but stole X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014. We met Rose Byrne as CIA Agent Moira McTaggart five years ago in X-Men: First Class. But Tye Sheridan is new to the series, inheriting the role of Alex Summers’ kid brother Kurt/Nightcrawler, and other newcomers include Ben Hardy as Angel, Angela Shipp as Ororo Monroe/Storm, Lana Condor as Jubilee, and Olivia Munn as Psylocke, among others.

Whether new or not, the characters’ motivations are crystal-clear and the story unfolds without the clutter one might expect with so many people involved. The action scenes are staged on a grand scale, appropriate to the power of the film’s god-like villain, and the visual effects are spectacular. As usual, Bryan Singer’s longtime editor and producing partner John Ottman also provides the muscular music score.

My only quibble with the picture is its length. When I’m caught up in a movie I become unaware of time, but if I start to feel antsy I know it’s beginning to wear out its welcome. X-Men: Apocalypse is first-rate (first class?) all the way, but I can’t help believing that it would be even better if it told its story more compactly. That’s a relatively small complaint when weighed against the movie’s many assets.

Weiner: You Can’t Look Away

Leonard Maltin — Wed, 25 May 2016 01:00:00 GMT

Many of my friends have said of the current Presidential election follies, “You couldn’t make this stuff up.” The same is true of former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s career—before, during and after his notorious sexting scandal. When Weiner decided to run for Mayor of New York City in 2013 he allowed documentary filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg extraordinary access to his public—and even private—life. The results are utterly fascinating.

Some might call them grimly fascinating, as there is a poignancy to Weiner’s saga: here is a respected public official, dedicated to serving the people, who threw it all away by texting photos of his penis—and making a lame attempt to deny it, at first. His mayoral race two years later was an attempt to gain redemption and credibility, with his high-profile, long-suffering wife (Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin) at his side.

We’ve seen cinema verité profiles before, but this one is almost meta-cinema-verité because its subject is so aware of the process. Toward the end of the documentary he is asked why he allowed the filmmakers to chronicle his story, a question that nags at us in the audience throughout. I won’t reveal his answer, but it ties into his need for validation—as well as his cluelessness.

Weiner is downright uncomfortable to watch at times but, like the proverbial train wreck, it’s hard to look away.

‘Neighbors 2’: A Rare Sequel That Scores

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 20 May 2016 09:00:00 GMT

As sequels go, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising is pretty funny. It reunites the entire team responsible for the 2014 comedy hit, right down to the little girl who plays Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne’s daughter. Writers Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien (along with Rogen, longtime partner Evan Goldberg, and director Nicholas Stoller) have devised a logical and sure-fire premise for this follow-up: Rogen and Byrne are waiting out a 30-day escrow period to sell their house, but a feisty group of feminist sorority girls move in next door and threaten to torpedo the sale.

There are surprisingly serious undercurrents to the comedy: Chloë Grace Moretz and two other girls feel alienated being away from home for the first time and are frustrated that sororities aren’t allowed to throw parties (unlike their male counterparts).

Meanwhile, former frat boy Zac Efron (who led the ruckus in the first movie) is at loose ends. His college pals have moved on to serious careers while he’s still eking out a living as a model at a store where he’s now considered old.

Fortunately, Neighbors 2 never takes itself too seriously, but it benefits from keeping one foot in reality while the other foot goes flying in all directions. Sight gags and farce are just two weapons in its arsenal, and most of these comic devices deliver the intended laughs.

Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz, and other supporting players all have a chance to shine, and an unexpected appearance by a first-rate comedic actor scores an absolute bull’s-eye.

But it’s the likability—and relatability—of Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne that makes the film so solid. Moretz is equally believable, and appealing. Like any sequel, Neighbors 2 lacks the freshness of the original, but manages to deliver what viewers will expect.

Not so ‘Nice Guys’ in Action

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 20 May 2016 08:59:00 GMT

Just to be clear, the leading characters in this violent action-comedy are anything but nice. That’s the level of humor in The Nice Guys, the latest endeavor from Shane Black, whose Lethal Weapon helped make him the hottest screenwriter in Hollywood thirty years ago. This movie is more on the level of Black’s directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, an overblown L.A. action yarn with a smartass sense of humor.

What makes this movie tolerable and even enjoyable at times is the rapport between Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, as a pair of low-rent private detectives who get more than they bargained for while tracing the murder of a porn actress named Misty Mountains. It seems that Misty’s personal and professional ties involve powerful people who don’t want anyone examining their very dirty laundry.

Frankly, neither do I. The Nice Guys is watchable enough, with a nonstop flow of wisecracks and a reasonable evocation of Los Angeles in 1977. (The period setting also relieves Black of having to deal with such modern-day distractions as cell phones and texting.) But it goes on too long for such a trivial story and doesn’t add up to much. It’s hard to care about the mystery angle at all, let alone its resolution.

Still, it’s fun to watch Crowe and Gosling, who seem cheerfully relaxed in their roles, and newcomer Angourie Rice, who plays Gosling’s precocious 13-year-old daughter. And I can’t completely dismiss a movie that evokes the memory of Lou Costello. But these fleeting pleasures don’t constitute a satisfying experience. Moviegoers who are desperate for escapism may find it good enough. I didn’t.

‘Money Monster’ Shortchanges Suspense

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:00:00 GMT

The world is so crazy that it’s tough for social satirists to devise anything more absurd than what we see in our daily news reports. That’s just one of the problems with Money Monster, a Network wannabe that lacks the razor’s edge of Paddy Chayefsky’s writing and isn’t nearly as potent (or prescient) as that 1976 gem.

Instead of Peter Finch’s news anchor Howard Beale we have a Jim Cramer-like TV investment guru (George Clooney) who has more bluster than wisdom. His show is held together by his unflappable director (Julia Roberts), who also functions as his ad hoc producer and protector. When a disgruntled investor (Jack O’Connell) turns up in his studio with a gun and an explosive jacket that he forces the host to wear, matters quickly come to a boiling point.

Or do they?

The set-up in this script, credited to Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore, and Jim Kouf, stretches credibility but could conceivably take place. And there’s no question that a live broadcast of a hostage crisis would have the world tuning in. But while Money Monster is slick and watchable, it never builds the kind of suspense it rightfully ought to. An unstable man may blow Clooney and Roberts to kingdom come: shouldn’t that generate a fair amount of tension?

Director Jodie Foster expertly captures the nuts and bolts of live television broadcasting and sparks the proceedings with a rapid-fire editing style. But somehow, the ticking-clock tautness that the movie promises never takes hold. Is it because we can finger the real villain of the piece so early on? Or that we don’t believe a mainstream Hollywood movie is going to kill off two big-time stars?

Whatever the case, Money Monster works primarily as a vehicle for its high-profile actors, but fails to deliver as a thriller or a satire. Too bad.

Stranger in a Strange Land: ‘Dheepan’

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 13 May 2016 08:59:00 GMT

The latest film from writer-director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone) is a sober, utterly compelling look at a man who flees from his native Sri Lanka—and its brutal civil war—to start a new life in Paris. But this is no ordinary fish-out-of-water story. Dheepan (the leading character’s name) is a man who is desperate for peace and solace in his life.

In order to be granted asylum in France, he finds a woman to pose as his wife; she in turn has already abducted an orphaned girl to pretend to be her daughter. Together, this faux family makes its way to a new country where they don’t speak the language and barely communicate with each other. In time, Dheepan secures a job as a caretaker at a suburban housing project. He isn’t afraid of hard work, but he’s warned to keep his nose out of the “business” going on around him, especially in a building just across a patch of lawn. This is drug-dealing territory and the men involved are ruthless and violent.

As with Audiard’s other films, there comes a point where you stop thinking about the moviemaking process and become immersed in the characters’ lives, as if they were real. The “wife” is the most uncertain of the protagonists, forever threatening to leave for England, where she has a cousin. The “daughter” doesn’t fit in at school, at first, but finally settles in, and even forges a familial relationship with Dheepan.

But finding that peace is elusive for all of them, especially Dheepan, who is haunted by the violence of war he has experienced in Sri Lanka. Eventually he reaches a breaking point where the past and present blur together.

Jesuthasan Antonythasan, who plays the leading role, is not a professional actor, but he eloquently conveys the character’s feelings of solitude and frustration, as well as his dream that he and the women he lives with might form a genuine family.

Audiard provides a fly-on-the-wall viewpoint of everything that transpires, which makes the film both intimate and heartbreaking. He and co-writers Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré clearly know the dramatic turf they are depicting and bring it to life with visceral effectiveness. Dheepan is a film that goes for the gut as well as the heart.

Jazzed About ‘The King of Jazz’

Leonard Maltin — Tue, 10 May 2016 09:00:00 GMT

For a number of people I know, the movie event of the year doesn’t involve superheroes or special effects: it’s a restoration of the 1930 Technicolor musical The King of Jazz. This early-talkie extravaganza was unavailable for many years, and when it surfaced there were questions about how authentic it was to the two-color Technicolor process of that era. (After all, the showpiece is conductor Paul Whiteman’s performance of the George Gershwin “Rhapsody in Blue”—in a medium that could only reveal variations of red and green.) What’s more, the print that circulated was a shortened 1933 reissue version.

    Now, thanks to a major commitment from Universal, the Library of Congress, and the Vitaphone Project (which supplied pristine soundtrack discs), the movie has been given a thorough—and costly—renovation. I envy my friends who will get to see it this Friday at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

         I also can’t wait to see the coffee-table book that David Pierce and James Layton have produced in conjunction with this event. Fortunately,they exceeded their original goal on Kickstarter and have extended the fund-raising effort for this lavish endeavor. You can learn more about it HERE.

The King of Jazz is a wonderful artifact of its time, when bandleader Paul Whiteman was a household name. Billed as a musical revue, it has no plot, just a string of songs, skits, and elaborate production numbers. Whiteman’s vocal trio, The Rhythm Boys, featured a future star in his first screen appearance: Bing Crosby. There is also an animated sequence provided by Walter Lantz that spotlights the great swing violinist Joe Venuti.

I am hopeful that this movie will be screened around the country and, in time, be made available for home viewing as well.

         In the meantime, MoMA curator Dave Kehr is using it to kick off a fascinating tribute to Universal called Universal Pictures: Restorations and Rediscoveries 1928-1937 that focuses on the early-talkie era when the studio was run by Carl Laemmle, Jr., the founder’s son. “Junior” Laemmle, as he was known, took many risks and made a number of daring and exceptional movies. Some, like Dracula and Frankenstein, are classics, but others have gone unappreciated (and largely unseen) in recent times. The MoMA shows seeks to rectify that situation and includes a number of rare titles, many of them restored in 35mm by Universal, others coming from archives overseas.

         Just last year I wrote about my interest in The Road Back (1937), the little-known sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front directed by the great James Whale. (read my column HERE) MoMA is showing a longer print than the one Universal reissued in 1939, along with the “butchered” version, although the 105 minute cut that Whale debuted in 1937 is still lost. On the brighter side, there are early films from director William Wyler (including a comedy vehicle for Slim Summerville and ZaSu Pitts), and work by unsung heroes like Edward L. Cahn, Tay Garnett, and John M. Stahl. You can find the calendar listing and Dave Kehr’s program notes HERE.

         As my mentor/hero William K. Everson always said, saving a film is pointless if no one gets to see it. That’s why this show is so exciting and so relevant.

Summer Movie Preview with Grae Drake and Me

Leonard Maltin — Sat, 07 May 2016 09:00:00 GMT

Yes, it’s time for another movie preview show featuring me and my colorful partner Grae Drake, senior editor of Rotten Tomatoes. We enjoy doing these half-hour shows for ReelzChannel and try not to reveal our opinions to each other beforehand. That makes our conversations more spontaneous and fun to do. This time around we’re reviewing one movie (Captain America: Civil War) and previewing a good many of the upcoming summer releases, including X-Men: Apocalypse, Star Trek Beyond, Finding Dory, and Independence Day: Resurgence.

         If you’d like to see sample segments from the show, click HERE.

         And if you’d like to watch the entire program, check out ReelzChannel on DirecTV channel 238, Dish Network 299, AT&T U-verse 799 or 1799, Time Warner 128. To see if your local cable provider offers Reelz, click HERE.

         Here are showtimes for our latest special:

•        5/7/16 at 11:30am E/8:30am P

•        5/8/16 at 2am E/11pm P (on 5/7)

•        5/8/16 at 11am E/8am P

•        5/9/16 at 7am E/4am P

•        5/13/16 at 7:30am E/4:30am P

•        5/15/16 at 10am E/7am P

•        5/17/16 at 7:30am E/4:30am P

•        5/19/16 at 7am E/4am P

‘Dough’ Hits a Sweet Spot

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 06 May 2016 20:02:36 GMT

Dough is a sweet, feel-good film from England that may not edge out Captain America at the box-office but offers what TV folks call counter-programming. It’s aimed at mature (read: older) moviegoers who favor simple, straightforward storytelling over special effects—which doesn’t and shouldn’t exclude younger viewers—and it delivers on its promise. It also offers a leading role to the great Jonathan Pryce (familiar to mass audiences from Game of Thrones).

Pryce plays an Orthodox Jew who has inherited the neighborhood kosher bakery started by his immigrant father in 1947. He is proud to carry on a family tradition (even though his customer base is shrinking) and resentful that his son has become a successful lawyer instead of joining him in the business. When his apprentice quits to work for a supermarket right next door, owned by a greedy and ambitious rival, he is forced to hire his cleaning woman’s son, a young African immigrant (Jerome Holder) who has no knowledge of baking—and is a practicing Muslim. Desperate for money, the young man is also dealing drugs on the side, and inadvertently ties his two jobs together. Meanwhile, Pryce is faced with the possibility of having his building sold by his landlord, a widow who’s always had a yen for him, played by the delightful Pauline Collins.

Dough, written by Jonathan Benson and Yehudah Jez Freedman and directed by John Goldschmidt, deals with issues of immigration, assimilation, changing times and values, but brings a light touch to these topics. This is escapist fare that doesn’t ignore today’s realities but explores them through a prism of humor. Some of it is broad and a bit obvious but the movie is so likable that it’s hard to complain. Besides, any film that celebrates the making of challah is OK by me.

Incidentally, the distributor, Menemsha Films, is conducting a contest: the prize is a trip for two to New York and tickets to see Jonathan Pryce as another formidable Jew named Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at Lincoln Center. You can learn more HERE.

Four Sexually Charged Characters Make ‘A Bigger Splash’

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 06 May 2016 12:00:00 GMT

Any movie that opens by showing its leading actors matter-of-factly lying naked by a pool is almost certainly European. In fact, A Bigger Splash is the most European movie I’ve ever seen in the English language—which I mean as a complete compliment. I was swept away by this sensual, provocative, and unpredictable tale of four people whose lives intersect on Italy’s volcanic island Pantelleria.

          Tilda Swinton plays a glamorous rock star who has come here with her companion (Matthias Schoenaerts) to unwind while she recovers from throat surgery. Their idyllic vacation is disrupted by the arrival of an old friend (and her onetime lover), a bombastic rock ‘n’ roll record producer played with unprecedented gusto by Ralph Fiennes. He is a force of nature—dare I call him volcanic?—who has brought with him a nubile young woman (Dakota Johnson) he has just recently met, who happens to be his daughter. Needless to say, sparks fly in all directions.

          A Bigger Splash beckons us into its isolated world which is populated by four distinctly different characters. Director Luca Guadagnino paints a highly sexualized portrait of these larger-than-life personalities against the starkly beautiful backdrop of Pantelleria. He has worked with Swinton before, most notably on I Am Love, and they clearly have a simpatico which now extends to the rest of the talented cast.

          The film is a remake of Jacques Deray’s La Piscine (1969), which the director adapted with Jean-Claude Carrière from Alain Page’s novel. It starred Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, who were ex-lovers in real life. Fortunately, the story is not linked to any time period and works splendidly in this remake, scripted by David Kajganich.

          A Bigger Splash is a richly satisfying film with an unforgettable performance by Ralph Fiennes. As it happens, he is just one of the many reasons to see the picture.

Captain America—This Means War

Leonard Maltin — Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Is there really nothing left for comic-book superheroes to do on the big screen but fight each other? I find that a sad state of affairs and frankly, not much fun to watch. Nothing could be as dreary as Batman v Superman, but this latest Marvel offering is teeming with good guys, including two “converts” from the last movie, Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and several new recruits: Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland). That’s a lot of characters to juggle, even for series screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who did such a good job with the last Captain America movie. They also have to introduce a new villain and a character or two who straddle the fence.

The premise of this chapter in The Avengers saga is sound and intelligent: having created a certain amount of havoc in their last call to action, the government wants to regulate the actions of our heroes. Even the iconoclastic (and egotistical) Iron Man, Tony Stark, thinks this is a good idea. But true-blue Captain America does not: he feels the Avengers have proven themselves and shouldn’t be restrained in any way. With this, the other Avengers are forced to choose sides.

No wonder Captain America: Civil War is almost two and a half hours long: there are so many plot threads and character arcs to deal with. The novelty of introducing a new Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is a high-point, but to my great disappointment, Ant-Man gets short shrift (and that’s putting it mildly).

Bigger isn’t always better, and this film is bursting at the seams. Are the action scenes spectacular? Yes. Are the characters well-defined? Yes, and that’s what saves the movie. But I found it more frustrating than entertaining.

Laurel and Hardy Looking Better Than Ever

Leonard Maltin — Wed, 04 May 2016 18:52:09 GMT

Laurel and Hardy are coming back to theater screens beginning this weekend in Los Angeles, and that’s cause for celebration. If you’re already a fan, come and enjoy yourself; if you have kids or grandkids, be sure to bring them along. Every young person deserves to experience great comedy like this. Here is the schedule for the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Aero in Santa Monica, with details about screenings and special guests. And this just in: the opening night show on Friday at the Egyptian will also include the rediscovered silent short The Battle of the Century, featuring the comedy duo’s legendary pie fight.

         I grew up watching Laurel and Hardy every day on local television. That’s when I fell in love with Stan and Ollie, as did millions of other baby boomers. Little did I dream back then that the prints were inferior, the newly-shot credits full of spelling errors and missing clever graphics and optical effects. Here is one example of what I saw as a kid and what has been done to restore the original opening: Come Clean.

Several years ago the UCLA Film and Television Archive launched a major effort to restore the Laurel and Hardy short subjects and feature films from the best surviving 35mm materials. These films have been neglected and mistreated over the years to an alarming degree, so the task has been formidable. Longtime L&H fan Jeff Joseph made it his mission to change all of that, which required both money and determination.

         Now he has acquired the theatrical rights to the L&H library, hoping to introduce these beloved comedians to a new generation. What’s more, he has taken UCLA ‘s 35mm restorations and given them a digital clean-up, with startling results. It’s no exaggeration to say that the films haven’t looked this good since they were first released in the 1930s.

         Here are two vivid examples: the first from Me and My Pal  and the second from Their First Mistake.

To learn more about the restoration effort, read what Susan King has reported in this interesting column: Laurel and Hardy Restored.

   And to contribute to the Laurel and Hardy Preservation Fund at UCLA, click HERE.

Age is Just a Number at the TCM Festival

Leonard Maltin — Wed, 04 May 2016 00:36:58 GMT

I’m still recovering from the TCM Classic Film Festival this past weekend, where I hosted ten events…but I suspect that some of the people I interviewed are doing just fine because they seem to have limitless energy, not to mention charisma. I’m talking about Darryl Hickman, who’s 85, Rita Moreno, who’s 84, Gina Lollobrigida, who’s 88, and Eva Marie Saint, who knocked me for a loop when she cheerfully volunteered that she’s 92!

Rita is still busy doing television, so it’s amazing to think that she played Tuptim in The King and I sixty years ago. She’s as sassy and funny as ever, and when she teased the crowd with mentions of her longtime lover Marlon Brando, she urged them to check out her recently published memoir. Eva Marie was also frisky and funny, so it’s equally difficult to think that The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming is now fifty years old.

I had met all of these talented people before except Miss Lollobrigida (who says everyone calls her Lolo) and had a ball chatting with them, especially in front of the enthusiastic TCM audiences.

I had an entire hour with Lolo, who won everybody over with her self-awareness, humor, and candor. Yet my activities were just a fraction of the festival as a whole; you can read more and watch videos at the channel’s website HERE.

Best of all, I got to preside over some of the festival’s more unusual—and in some cases, unique—programs. On Friday evening I introduced composer Richard Einhorn’s oratorio Visions of Light, which was inspired by Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc. A sell-out crowd at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre was eager to see the film and hear the orchestra and vocal soloists—but didn’t know that there was also a 78-voice “flash mob” chorus seated in the first four rows of the theater until they sang.

On Saturday night I hosted a two-hour presentation on the history of widescreen movies, produced by the tireless Christopher Reyna. We consulted for several weeks about which clips to use, as Chris scoured various studios and archives to find the right ingredients—from a 70mm excerpt of the Tryptich finale to Abel Gance’s Napoleon to a 35mm CinemaScope Tom and Jerry cartoon, which was recommended by my cartoon pal Jerry Beck. In between we screened excerpts and trailers for The Robe, This is Cinerama, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, and other milestones. The chariot race from Ben-Hur takes your breath away, and even in this age of GoPro video the roller-coaster ride that opens This is Cinerama is still stunning. Perhaps the most surprising footage was from the Corbett-Fitzsimmons prizefight shot in 63mm back in 1897. Imagine that! (The promoters even painted their copyright notice on the edge of the arena to discourage would-be pirates.)

Sunday morning brought the eagerly-awaited revival of Smell-O-Vision at the Cinerama Dome, where a hard-working team offered Michael Todd Jr.’s Holiday in Spain (originally shown as Scent of Mystery). Leading lady Beverly Bentley was there, with clear recollections of the film’s premiere in 1960, along with her stand-in and friend Sandra Shahan and Gary Dawson, the son of Diana Dors, who makes a memorable cameo in the film. Having seen the movie on Blu-ray last year (and been unimpressed) my wife and I were skeptical that this presentation would be worthwhile. But with audience members opening spray vials on cue and using fans to spread the aromas we had to admit we were wrong. The movie played much better on the curved Cinerama screen and the scents—from roses to red wine—wafted through the theater just as they were supposed to.

In the midst of my chaotic schedule I even got to see a few extracurricular films: A House Divided (1931), a family melodrama set in a fishing village with a commanding performance by Walter Huston (and dialogue by his son John, whose first screen credit this was), a gorgeous 35mm Technicolor print of The Yearling, followed by a conversation with its ever-appealing star, Claude Jarman, Jr. conducted by Cari Beauchamp, and Law and Order (1932), another Walter Huston film I’ve always admired but hadn’t seen in years. Based on W.R. Burnett’s novel Saint Johnson, it’s a potent retelling of the Wyatt Earp legend costarring Harry Carey. I also enjoyed watching Tea and Sympathy on a big screen before talking to Darryl Hickman.

Playwright Robert Anderson had to mask the topic of homosexuality and tack on a “conventional” ending to suit the censors of the time, but the movie still plays well and is surprisingly relevant at a time when bullying young people over their sexual orientation is still prevalent. Kudos are also due director Vincente Minnelli and cinematographer John Alton who made all their widescreen compositions seem so unforced and natural.

As I say, it would be easy to go through the festival catalog and recite every event that took place, but I just wanted to share some of my first-hand experiences. Tired as I am, it was an exhilarating weekend, and I’m already looking forward to next year.

Susan Sarandon Shines in ‘The Meddler’

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 09:00:00 GMT

I feared that The Meddler would be a one-joke movie; the “joke” being that a widow (Susan Sarandon) moves from New Jersey to California to be near her daughter (Rose Byrne) and just won’t leave her alone. Cell phone calls, texts, and unannounced visits to her house—even barging in while her daughter is taking a shower—are an everyday occurrence.

Fortunately, writer-director Lorene Scafaria based this screenplay on her own real-life situation and refuses to reduce its subtleties and complications to the level of a routine sitcom episode. She also has the benefit of a highly skilled actress in the leading role and Sarandon makes the most of it, Jersey accent and all.

The Meddler presents a three-dimensional character who is often portrayed in terms of cliché. Sarandon is independent enough to visit her local Apple store, where she learns to use new devices and befriends the young man who coaches her... yet she still feels the pain of her husband’s death and can’t deal with her close-knit family back in New Jersey. She is lonely and needy but not a victim. Unfortunately, her solution to almost all her problems is to cling to her daughter, who has run out of patience.

Then, to her surprise, Sarandon chances to meet a man (the always-welcome J.K. Simmons) who opens the door to a possible relationship.

Weaving comedy and drama together, Scafaria gives us an empathetic look at two women struggling to get by. Byrne has her own issues to deal with, but despite her complaints she does love her mother. That’s what I like about The Meddler: it’s firmly rooted in reality, but thanks to good writing and superior performances, it’s thoroughly entertaining. The supporting cast is first-rate, and it’s great to see Susan Sarandon in a leading role that makes such good use of her talent.

Engaging With Film At Ebertfest

Leonard Maltin — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I love attending film festivals away from home, so I can immerse myself completely. I think I know, by now, what makes for a successful one: a good location, interesting films, equally interesting guests, and an engaged audience. Roger Ebert's Film Festival, now in its 18th year (and familiarly known as Ebertfest) has all of that and more. The beautifully restored 1,500 seat Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois, which Roger attended as a boy, is an ideal venue. The famed film critic's wife and partner Chaz is a warm and gracious host. Her guests are filmmakers who had some relationship with Roger or represent the kind of people he would have supported. And the audience is terrific: intelligent, friendly, open-minded people who travel from far and wide, confident that Chaz and festival director Nate Kohn will offer them a program that's worth their while.

Because I teach in Los Angeles on Thursday night, my wife and I regretfully miss out on the first few days of programming. This year, we didn't get to see one of our favorite people, director Guillermo del Toro (who screened Crimson Peak), as well as Paul Weitz (Grandma), Stephen Apkon and Andrew Young’s buzzed-about documentary Disturbing the Peace, and the Alloy Orchestra accompanying the 1924 French silent film L'Inhumaine, not to mention a revival of Kasi Lemmon’s Eve’s Bayou. Fortunately, I had conducted an interview with Angela Allen, John Huston’s longtime script supervisor, at the TCM Classic Film Festival several years ago. She appeared with a screening of The Third Man, on which she worked when she was just starting out. Angela seemed fresh as a daisy after flying in from London, while Alice and I were bedraggled after a day of travel from Los Angeles!

We made up for lost time on Saturday with a trio of moviegoing experiences we won't soon forget. First, Australian-based writer-director Paul Cox presented the premiere showing of his highly personal feature The Force of Destiny. I've long admired Cox's work, going back to Innocence and A Woman’s Tale, but this picture is special because it is rooted in his recent experience with cancer--and finding a life partner for the first time (before that, he says, "I was too busy making movies"). Imagine being told you have six months to live, and then making a film about it! The talented David Wenham stars as a sculptor who is forced to confront his own mortality and reassess his relationships—with his daughter, ex-wife, and a young Indian woman who comes into his life.

As good as the film is, the lasting gift I take with me is Cox's incredibly moving introduction. He has generously permitted me to reprint it below. If you prefer, you can watch him deliver these words on the Ebertfest live-stream video that now appears on YouTube.

The next selection was a documentary called Radical Grace, which has already won notice at other festival showings, and deservedly so. The subject is a network of American nuns who feel that their mandate is to help people in need, be they sick, poor, disenfranchised, or in need of guidance and direction. One of the sisters teaches classes so ex-prisoners can obtain their GED. For their efforts they were officially censured by the Vatican (before Pope Francis came along) and chastised by the American archdiocese. This raises the issue of women's roles in the Catholic Church, and the little-known history of their influence in the early centuries following Jesus' demise. What a compelling and provocative film this is, told (as so many good stories are) by focusing on a handful of charismatic and committed individuals. Director Rebecca Parrish, producer Nicole Bernardi-Reis, composer Heather McIntosh, and Chaz Ebert's longtime friend, the outspoken Father Michael Pfleger of Chicago joined Chaz for a post-screening discussion. You can find it HERE.

That night, I had the pleasure of interviewing actress Nancy Allen following a screening (in 35mm) of the 1981 thriller Blow Out, which was written and directed by her then-husband, Brian De Palma. It was fun to revisit this picture, which I hadn't seen since it was new. I'm still not crazy about the ending, which I find incredulous even for the genre, but it holds up very well on almost every other count--including John Travolta's performance, the expert use of Philadelphia locations, and the premise itself, inspired in part by Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup. (In the Italian film, the central mystery lies in a photograph while here it's a sound recording.) Like so many movies of the period, it reminds us how much has changed in the past few decades: not only is it a pre-cell phone piece, but it's a celebration of analog technologies like tape recorders, 16mm film, and pay telephones.

Allen proved to be a good guest who shared vivid memories of making the film, working with her husband (whom she met when she costarred in Carrie), shooting on practical locations, figuring out her "dumb bunny" character and creating her look with costume designer Ann Roth. I also asked her about working with Steven Spielberg on 1941, Robert Zemeckis on I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and Paul Verhoeven in Robocop, which offered her one of her juiciest roles as patrolman Peter Weller's partner. (It turns out her father was a New York City cop.) The only mistake she made was referring to the film as being 25 years old: it's actually 35, though you wouldn't know it to look at Allen, who was the object of many a crush during her movie heyday. You can watch our conversation HERE.

Nancy's time these days is taken up with an organization called WeSpark, founded by her friend and I Wanna Hold Your Hand costar, the late Wendie Jo Sperber. (Alice and I got to know Wendie because our daughter attended school with her son, and we participated in her charity’s earliest fundraisers.) WeSpark offers support and counseling to people suffering with cancer and--just as important--their children and families. You can learn more HERE.

The festival finale was a screening of Oscar Micheaux's 1925 silent drama Body and Soul, starring the imposing Paul Robeson, accompanied by an unconventional, free-jazz score played by the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, composed and conducted by Renée Baker. It took some getting used to for me, but once I got involved with the film itself I found the modern, often-discordant music surprisingly suitable. I have a feeling the surviving print, though in great condition, is missing some crucial footage and hope a longer version may emerge. I was happy to share the stage with the composer and Chaz Ebert for a discussion, which prompted some excellent questions from the audience. If you're curious about Baker's work, and the other films she is scoring, click HERE.

Ebertfest is the only gathering I know that is centered around the life and work of an individual... but Roger Ebert was no ordinary critic. He was as inspired as he was eloquent, and his passion lives on in this remarkable festival, championed by his singular wife Chaz. I feel very fortunate to have attended.

* * *

PAUL COX SPEECH – AT EBERTFEST 2016

Thank you for sharing Force of Destiny with us. This film would not exist without the generosity of heart and spirit from my transplant donor. Thank you anonymous donor. Thank you! Some six years ago I was diagnosed with cancer of the liver – after a long wait and much despair, I received transplant of the liver. It changed my life considerably. The priorities of the world I lived in seemed so terribly wrong, so terribly out of place and out of tune with the reality I felt within. Then a young man I’d met in pre-transplant classes died because a liver couldn’t be found in time. I realized how terribly lucky I’d been receiving a transplant in time and I almost felt guilty for the loss of this life.

Then I found myself writing the screenplay of Force of Destiny, although I never thought I would make another film and had been advised to “take it very easy.”

It was the only way of returning the kindness and care I’d received from the doctors, hospital staff and caring friends and family. This film is not the story of my demise and resurrection. I call it a “spacial love story” and of course it’s laced with a few personal experiences. Indeed, life is not just for the living but what you do with it.

Hopefully Force of Destiny won’t send you home with an empty heart, and hopefully the film will enrich your life instead of pandering to the lower instincts. The proof of your lives is the love we leave behind and life must be an act of love whatever the consequences. Auden said “We must love one another or die” and the Polish poet Herbert said, “We must love others, soon it might be too late.”

It’s a great honor to premiere this film here in America at Roger’s Festival.

When Roger heard that I was ill, he wrote the most tender and loving letter of solidarity that I’ve ever received. Chaz and I were surprised and deeply touched.

A few weeks ago I heard that so called soldiers or fighters had shot fleeing children in the back because they’d thrown stones at men in uniform. A mother with her dead son in her arms begged the men to kill her. She begged those thugs and her God to let her die with her child. Poor mother… poor child… poor humanity.

I felt so ashamed to belong to the human race. Every day the very foundations of our civilization are being mutilated and destroyed. We have to take back the power from the forces of darkness.

We cannot live in a world without a conscience. That mother begging to be killed with her child made me want to make another film. A film dealing with this world with this present darkness. I can’t wait for years to get this fund and I don’t have the luxury of time. So if you have any spare coins in your pocket, please let me know!

I very much hope you appreciate and enjoy Force of Destiny. It’s a film about love and beauty. The only things that matter in this life.

‘The Jungle Book’ Reinvented

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 16:38:23 GMT

Jon Favreau’s new production of The Jungle Book for Disney is nothing short of spectacular: a reinvention of the much-loved cartoon feature brought to life with taste, heart, and cutting-edge technology. When I heard composer John Debney’s rerecording of the Disney logo music, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” a smile crossed my lips, and any doubts I had about combining a live-action Mowgli (Neel Sethi ) with CGI-rendered animals was dispelled within moments.

Much has changed since Walt Disney made his lighthearted animated film in 1967, and that too is reflected here. This is a much more intense film where life-and-death struggles are explicit, if not graphically depicted on camera. (I would urge parents of young children to heed the PG warning.) In place of George Sanders’ elegantly evil Shere Khan we have a much more ruthless villain, as voiced by the imposing Idris Elba.

But with Bill Murray inhabiting the character of Baloo the bear there is still plenty of room for fun; he’s a perfect choice. And grownups in the audience will get a kick out of hearing Christopher Walken in the role of King Louie. Both characters get to sing their signature tunes, “The Bare Necessities” and “I Wanna Be Like You” (the latter with newly-penned lyrics by Richard M. Sherman) in a deft transition from straightforward action to vaudeville-style performance. Kudos go, once again, to director Favreau and composer Debney for figuring out a way to incorporate these emblematic songs without making them seem out of place in the new environment of this Jungle Book.

Only the action climax seemed a bit protracted to me, but then, no one in 2016 would dare release a major feature film running a mere 68 minutes as Disney did in the late ‘60s. This is The Jungle Book for a new generation that doesn’t seek to obliterate the original; thank goodness. It’s a terrific piece of entertainment that I daresay would please Walt Disney himself.

‘Sing Street’ In One Word: Irresistible

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 07:00:00 GMT

Sing Street is a real charmer from John Carney, the writer-director of Once and Begin Again. Like those films, this isn’t a musical in the conventional sense of the word but it uses original songs (cowritten by the filmmaker) to move the story forward and reflect the feelings of its main character. It’s a perfect integration of music and storytelling, set in Dublin in 1985.

Newcomer Ferdia Walsh-Peelo plays Conor, a 15-year-old lad whose bickering parents’ money woes result in him having to transfer to a public school filled with tough, unfriendly kids and run by a mean-spirited priest. His refuge is music. In this he is encouraged by his older brother, a college dropout, who advises his sibling on the best bands, past and present…and celebrates the emergence of music videos on the telly featuring Duran Duran and The Cure.

Then Conor lays eyes on Raphina (Lucy Boynton), a striking teenage beauty with a plan to move to London and become a model. In the meantime, she serves as Conor’s muse and agrees to appear in a home-made video he shoots with a handful of schoolmates.

Carney draws on his vivid memories of growing up in the 1980s, when Ireland seemed to offer nothing but a dead end to kids of his generation… but the period also allows him to tell his story without the distraction of cell phones and texting. What a blessing. Conor’s diminutive manager doesn’t even have a family telephone and tells interested parties who read his flyers to come by his address in person!

The beauty of Sing Street, which Carney crafted from a story he wrote with Simon Carmody, is that it feels authentic while embracing classic movie-style wish fulfillment. There is even a fantasy sequence that only a Scrooge could reject. If this isn’t exactly the way it was, it’s the way it should have been.

Both Conor and Raphina are finding their way. He says that when he looks in the mirror he’s still trying to figure out who he is. She is poised and beautiful enough to be a model and knows it, but doesn’t have anyone to back up her dreams, which require getting away from Dublin and moving to London.

Sing Street is a feel-good movie that offers more than empty-headed escapism. I found it irresistible.

Melissa McCarthy as ‘The Boss’: A Near-Miss

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 10:00:00 GMT

It’s hard to define good taste, but it’s easy to recognize its absence. That’s the problem with The Boss. So much of Melissa McCarthy’s new movie is hilarious that it’s frustrating to watch it cross the line and never quite recover. Even the punchline gag is unfunny and left the audience I saw it with audibly uncomfortable—and strangely silent. That’s not how you want to have people leave a theater.

McCarthy is in top form as the world’s 47^th richest woman, a self-made billionaire whose unhappy childhood at an orphanage and a series of foster homes has made her ferociously self-reliant and ruthless in her business dealings. Just ask her onetime boyfriend, Peter Dinklage, with whom she is now engaged in a blood feud. He rats her out to the government and looks on with smug satisfaction as she is imprisoned for insider trading. When McCarthy emerges from the hoosegow she has no one to turn to except her longtime, long-suffering assistant, single mom Kristen Bell and her wide-eyed daughter (nicely played by Ella Anderson).

The premise of The Boss, written by McCarthy, her husband Ben Falcone (who also directed) and Steve Mallory, is pretty good. McCarthy creates an outrageously funny leading character whose non-stop, potty-mouthed insults are hard to resist, even if you’re embarrassed to be laughing at some of them. But when she starts a Girl Scout-like organization to sell Bell’s delicious brownies the film takes an unexpectedly ugly turn, especially in one scene that I won’t describe. You’ll know it when you see it.

If you’re a dedicated McCarthy fan you’ll still want to see The Boss. It made me laugh out loud, which doesn’t happen all that often. But I came away discouraged that the talented people who made it couldn’t deliver the solid, satisfying comedy it might have been. McCarthy’s talent deserves, and demands, better.

Jake Gyllenhaal Breaks Down in ‘Demolition’

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 09:59:00 GMT

We all process grief in our own way: that’s the crux of Demolition, in which Jake Gyllenhaal loses his wife and proceeds to fall apart. I should have been on the verge of tears through all of this, but somehow, I just didn’t care.

Bryan Sipe’s screenplay establishes Gyllenhaal as a man who seems to have everything: a beautiful spouse, a magnificent home, and a cushy job on Wall Street working for his father-in-law (Chris Cooper). But in the wake of that fatal accident he realizes that none of it has meaning. When Cooper tells him that in order to fix something, you have to take it apart and put it back together, his son-in-law takes the aphorism literally and begins to demolish everything around him, hoping that it will lead to some sort of epiphany.

He also initiates an obsessive correspondence with the customer relations representative of a vending machine company that cheated him out of a candy bar while he was in the hospital with his wife. Naomi Watts plays the woman on the receiving end of those letters whose curiosity impels her to respond to Gyllenhaal and get to know him. Her unruly teenage son (Judah Lewis) becomes the widower’s unlikely ally.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives another fine performance here, but because it’s so difficult to understand what’s going on inside him, I found it almost impossible to relate to his character. Without that connection, Demolition keeps us at arm’s length.

I have such regard for director Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y., Dallas Buyers Club, Wild) that I refuse to place the blame for this misfire on his shoulders. He delivers everything the script can offer, along with his talented leading actors. I carried nothing away from this movie, and I don’t think it’s worth my time to take it apart.

New and Notable Film Books—April 2016

Leonard Maltin — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 08:00:00 GMT

As usual, film books pile up faster than I can read them, so with the exception of the first title below and the picture-book that follows, I cannot call these reviews. They are summaries based on skimming the pages of books that all look interesting and worthwhile. Another installment of this periodic column will follow soon.

SLOW FADE TO BLACK: THE DECLINE OF RKO RADIO PICTURES by Richard B. Jewell (University of California Press)

The eagerly-awaited follow-up to RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan is Born is now here, and I gobbled it up like a box of popcorn. Longtime USC professor Jewell gained access to RKO paperwork several decades ago, before it was locked away in storage. Because of this he is able to document in detail how RKO went from a year of record profits (1946) to a scramble for survival, followed by an even stormier period under the mercurial ownership of billionaire Howard Hughes. Jewell refers to his book as a “business history,” but he is all too aware of film history and how some box-office flops have stood the test of time. (I Remember Mama lost more than a million dollars in its initial release!) Jewell’s scholarship is impeccable and his text is plain-spoken and highly readable. Every studio deserves a similar examination; thank goodness the right man tackled this particular task.

HOLLYWOOD CAFÉ: COFFEE WITH THE STARS by Steven Rea (Schiffer Publishing)

I am a sucker for publicity photos from Hollywood’s golden age, so I had a great time going through this handsome hardcover book from the eminent critic who brought us Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling with the Stars. What’s more, the cover photo of Dick Powell and Ellen Drew reminds me of one of my favorite lines of dialogue from their film Christmas in July: “If you can’t sleep at night, it isn’t the coffee—it’s the bunk.” Thank you, Preston Sturges. Besides that wonderful cover shot there are scores of others featuring Rita Hayworth, Ray Milland, Ginger Rogers, William Powell, and others right through the 1960s and beyond like Elvis Presley. There’s even a shot of Bobby Clark (of Clark and McCullough) with Ella Logan in The Goldwyn Follies. This is a perfect book to leave on a coffee table—where else?—to amuse your guests.

ORSON WELLES, VOLUME 3: ONE-MAN BAND by Simon Callow (Viking)

This is not the last volume in actor-author Callow’s sprawling examination of Orson Welles; it covers the years 1947-64, so there is still more to come. This chunky text (466 pages) explores some of the great man’s most interesting years, spent largely away from New York and Hollywood. During that time he produced two films that many consider among his finest, Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight, worked in radio and theater, and acted in other people’s movies (like The Third Man) in order to finance his own. He also mounted a legendary London stage production of Moby-Dick. He was something of a chameleon and certainly a contradictory figure in both private and public life, which Callow doesn’t shy away from. Other books on Welles continue to come out, each with its own raison d’être, but it is unlikely anyone will attempt a biography as detailed or intimate as this one in our lifetime.

“CITY ISLAND” AND “TWO FAMILY HOUSE”: TWO SCREENPLAYS AND TOO MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT THE MAKING AND SELLING OF TWO INDEPENDENT FILMS by Raymond De Felitta

Raymond De Felitta is one of my favorite filmmakers, and I can’t imagine any aspiring writer, director, or producer who wouldn’t benefit from the hard-earned wisdom he shares in this self-published volume. Indie filmmakers who want to put a personal stamp on their work need guidance, as well as luck, to realize their dreams. I hope they take a page from De Felitta’s playbook and pay attention to the characters and situations he develops so well in the screenplays for two of his finest movies.

DIRTY WORDS AND FILTHY PICTURES: FILM AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT by Jeremy Geltzer (University of Texas Press)

With a background in law and long experience working for major studios, Geltzer brings important practical knowledge to the subject of movie censorship. Using prominent court cases and landmark decisions, he cites some of the most notorious examples of movies that tested the concept of freedom of speech in the United States, from Thomas Edison’s The Kiss to Ecstasy (with the future Hedy Lamarr), The Miracle, and Russ Meyer’s Vixen. He doesn’t devote much space to pre-Code movies and the impact of the Production Code crackdown in 1934 but moves on to examine films that bucked that system—like Howard Hughes’ The Outlaw—and the growth of pornography in the 1960s and beyond.

Everybody Wants Some—And Should

Leonard Maltin — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 15:35:17 GMT

The time is August of 1980, the setting is Texas, and the guys who populate Richard Linklater’s newest film are members of a college baseball team who share living quarters. The newly-arrived freshmen face the challenge of fitting in with this highly disparate group, both off and on the field.

Everybody Wants Some!! draws us in as our nominal hero (Blake Jenner) arrives at school, and meets his new housemates, lugging a crate of precious LPs. Each character he encounters is colorful, well-defined, and perfectly cast. Advertised as a “spiritual sequel” to Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, this film is a genial celebration of hedonism, college drinking, casual sex, hanging out with friends, and breaking down awkward social barriers. It is completely disarming and utterly delightful.

I’m not sure how the filmmaker works with his actors to create such tangible characters, but there is a spark of spontaneity in every scene. It never feels as if anyone is reading memorized dialogue—even when, in some later scenes, they become philosophical and a bit self-serious. That, too, is part of college life.

Linklater also has a gift for casting. Some of the actors are experienced, with solid credentials in film and television (like Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt, and leading lady Zoey Deutch, daughter of Lea Thompson), while others are fairly new. They work together in perfect harmony to create a likable and believable ensemble.

Everybody Wants Some!! is lighthearted entertainment, but like all good comedy it is rooted in truthful observation, which is why it—like Dazed and Confused—may prove to have staying power.

New and Notable Animation Books

Leonard Maltin — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 16:48:17 GMT

ANIMATION: A WORLD HISTORY Volume 1: Foundations/The Golden Age; Volume 2: The Birth of a Style/The Three Markets; Volume 3: Contemporary Times by Giannalberto Bendazzi (CRC Press/Focal Press)

“Monumental” is the only word to describe this comprehensive history of world animation. Bendazzi also does what few film historians even attempt by placing each era of animation into the larger framework of what was happening in the world, especially in the arts. With the aid of a knowledgeable team of contributors, he traces animation’s prehistory and pioneering days, then surveys the contributions and achievements of each major country around the globe—including little-documented nations in Africa and South America. I daresay this coverage is unprecedented in its sweep. Nowhere else will you find useful entries on Émile Cohl, Len Lye, Chuck Jones, Fyodor Khitruk, Norman McLaren, Osamu Tezuka, George Griffin, and John Kricfalusi in one place. Bendazzi is opinionated, which makes reading and browsing this epic work all the more interesting, but his subjective views are based on wide-ranging knowledge and scholarship. Students of animation will be indebted to him for years to come.

THE NINE OLD MEN: LESSONS, TECHNIQUES AND INSPIRATION FROM DISNEY’S GREAT ANIMATORS by Andreas Deja (CRC Press/Focal Press)

No one is more passionate or eloquent about the work of great Disney artists than Andreas Deja, a master animator and lifelong Disney aficionado whose work has distinguished the studio’s output since the 1980s. Andreas was lucky enough to forge close ties with seven of Walt’s legendary “nine old men” and is the perfect person to show us what made each one unique. Using original animation drawings—and generous sequences of penciled artwork—he identifies the qualities that set Ward Kimball’s output apart from, say, Milt Kahl’s or Frank Thomas’s. Seeing these expressive and beautiful, drawings through Deja’s eyes is revelatory and makes this one of the most valuable animation books ever published—for fans and professionals alike.

MICKEY MOUSE: EMBLEM OF THE AMERICAN SPIRIT by Gary Apgar (Walt Disney Family Foundation/Weldon Owen)

This lavishly illustrated book explores Mickey Mouse’s impact on our culture, tracing Walt Disney’s career in a parallel stream. Art historian Apgar (who compiled the equally interesting A Mickey Mouse Reader) proves that a scholarly study doesn’t have to be dry or dense. His clear-eyed assessment of Mickey’s many roles (movie star, merchandise king, American symbol, corporate spokesperson and more) makes for compelling reading, even if you think you know all there is to know about this unique and ubiquitous character. Illustrations are derived from an impressive variety of sources worldwide, showing Mickey’s influence on modern art, political cartoons, and pop culture, among other realms. This book is a valuable addition to Disney scholarship with relevance beyond the usual boundaries of an animation book.

HOW TO BE A DISNEY HISTORIAN by Jim Korkis; foreword by Leonard Maltin (Theme Park Press)

Jim Korkis has contributed so much to our knowledge of All Things Disney that he impressed Walt’s daughter, the late Diane Disney Miller, who wrote a foreword to his book The Vault of Walt. I, too, am in his debt for his indefatigable research and willingness to share his knowledge with the world. That’s why I agreed to write an introduction to this volume and explain how my 1973 book The Disney Films came about. Jim feels that a new generation of devotees, researchers, and scholars should learn from the experiences of those who preceded them—hence this book, which calls on longtime Disney archivist David R. Smith as well as such respected authors as Michael Barrier, Alberto Becattini, Jerry Beck, Greg Ehrbar, Jim Fanning, Sam Gennawey, Didier Ghez, J.B. Kaufman, Jeff Kurtti, David Lesjak, Todd James Pierce, Russell Schroeder, Brian Sibley, Paula Sigman Lowery, and Werner Weiss, as well as Theme Park Press publisher Bob McLain. I can hardly be objective about this volume but I hope it proves useful to budding Disney authors and researchers. You couldn’t ask for a better guide to the field than Jim Korkis and the many contributors he has called upon.

Big, Noisy, Greek…and Obvious

Leonard Maltin — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 15:36:00 GMT

I’m not sure anyone was waiting for, let alone demanding, a sequel to the surprise sleeper of 2002, but it’s here just the same, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 may well please its intended audience. But like many sequels, the spark of the original film can’t be reignited so easily.

Writer and star Nia Vardalos is as likable as ever. The same can be said for most of the supporting cast, but under Kirk Jones’ direction everyone mugs shamelessly, as if playing to an audience in the second balcony instead of inhabiting a giant movie screen. Subtlety has no place here.

Vardalos’ eager-to-please character is still anchored to her boisterous Greek family…but now she’s married to the high school principal (John Corbett) and the mother of a teenage girl who finds her completely embarrassing. The girl is under family pressure to stay home in Chicago for college but she wants to get away. Meanwhile, Vardalos’ father (Michael Constantine) discovers, quite by chance, that a priest never signed his marriage license, so officially he and his spouse (Lainie Kazan) aren’t legally wed. And so it goes.

If you’re undemanding and don’t mind the visual equivalent of a relative jabbing you in the ribs on every punchline, you might enjoy yourself. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is sweet, sentimental, innocuous, and amusing at times, but the “obvious” factor colors every aspect of the film. “Opa!” indeed.

Batman & Superman v. The Audience

Leonard Maltin — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 08:22:12 GMT

I’m about to give away the biggest spoiler imaginable regarding this multimillion dollar movie: it sucks. That’s not a word I usually employ but I can’t think of a better way to describe my reaction to the overblown, overlong, poorly written film awkwardly titled Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It’s built on the foundation of a bad idea (pitting two larger-than-life superheroes against each other) and goes downhill from there.

My biggest complaint is that the brain trust behind Batman v Superman has managed to drain all the fun out of these characters and their world. I thought superhero movies were supposed to be fun.

I don’t even understand the premise, which has Bruce Wayne/ Batman blaming Superman for the cataclysm at the end of Zack Snyder’s previous movie…and spending the rest of the picture finding a way to destroy him. Affleck spends the entire film expressing one emotion: unrelenting anger.

Henry Cavill cuts a fine figure as Superman/Clark Kent but he too has little to work with. I was trying to figure out why he doesn’t “own” the role, as others like George Reeves and Christopher Reeve have in the past. Then I figured out the problem: writers Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer haven’t imbued him with any personality. It would take a superhuman actor to breathe life into such a two-dimensional part. And, as usual in a Christopher Nolan production, there is virtually no humor to be found…except in the dryly witty portrayal of Alfred by Jeremy Irons.

I usually like Jesse Eisenberg but I found his portrayal of the psychopathic Lex Luthor to be utterly monotonous. There is no color, shading, or nuance: just one note over and over again. Other good actors, including Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Holly Hunter, Harry Lennix, and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Joe Morton are wasted as well.

I feel sorry for kids and families who will be sucked into seeing this blockbuster. Parents will have a hard time explaining the grimly dark, confusing story to their children. Don’t kids deserve to cheer for a superhero in this kind of movie? Director Zack Snyder and company don’t seem to think so.

My daughter just asked me if there was anything I did like about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and I had to answer, honestly: no.