DVD Review: Jack and Jill

Directed by Dennis Dugan. Starring Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes, Al Pacino and Nick Swardson. 91 minutes. PG

I get that so many people hate on this movie. I do. It's a ridiculous premise. It's totally nonsensical, flat out stupid even at times. But I think it's hilarious.

This entire movie is a joke, and a very funny one at that. Adam Sandler plays Jack, an average family guy, who's dreading his twin sister's (also Sandler) Thanksgiving visit. She's annoying, loud, judgemental and an utter airhead. But she gets Al Pacino to fall in love with her. (Cue the drums: ba-dum-tsh!) If you don't get it, you won't get it.

For those of us Sandler fans, this is Sandler comedy to the extreme. It's not supposed to be believable, it's not supposed to be logical. You laugh at stupidity, you laugh at funny sounds and you laugh at slapstick. And as usual, Sandler comes with his famous friends in tow: Dana Carvey, David Spade (also hilarious as a woman), Rob Schneider, Norm MacDonald and the whole Happy Madison roster. Plus cameos from Johnny Depp, Regis Philbin and Shaq (along with Spade, another highlight of the movie).

I'm not going to give you a rundown of the jokes, because truthfully, I don't remember them. It happens sometimes with Sandler movies. The jokes happen, you laugh, you move on. (But of course, the better ones live on, like those in Big Daddy, Mr. Deeds and yes, even You Don't Mess with the Zohan.) There's not a whole lot to say about this movie (even Wikipedia slacks on the synopsis with just one sentence), except maybe "Why's Katie Holmes here?" A-

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

Starring James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto and John Lithgow. Directed by Rupert Wyatt. 105 minutes. PG

If I had to judge this film prior to seeing it based on its title alone, I probably wouldn't see it. Talking apes waging war on humanity? Monkeys are cute but that's just not appealing. But after seeing this trailer, there was something deeper to it, something sinister and uncanny. And it didn't disappoint.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is like Deep Blue Sea with chimps. Will (James Franco) is a scientist genetically experimenting on chimps, giving them injections to increase their intelligence, in efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. He's also fuelled by the hope that he could one day reverse the disease in his father (John Lithgow). One day, things go terribly wrong. When an ape escapes and ravages the lab complex, Will's research is shut down and the apes are put to sleep. All except one, baby Caesar (a CGI-ed Andy Serkis), who Will reluctantly takes home. Predictably, Will becomes to attached the chimp and raises him until Caesar has an outbreak and is sent to chimp pound. Caesar, now full grown, is mistreated to the point where he can't handle it anymore. Then things turn dire.

I couldn't say how much of the credit goes to Serkis and how much to CGI artists, but what makes this film so compelling are the apes. More human than the humans, it's hard not to sympathize with Caesar when he's taken away from home, when he feels betrayed and when he's deeply infuriated. But mixed with compassion for the apes is also fear of them. While one half of you wishes you could be there to hold Caesar's hand, the other half wants to keep a very safe distance in fear of their unrestrained power.

Franco also does well as will, but after the likes of 127 Hours, Milk and, yes, even Pineapple Express (let me add, one of the funniest films I've seen in the past 5 years), it's expected. Which is why it's so tough not to be a fan of his. There's an Oscar waiting for him. Maybe not for this film, but we all know they've already inscribed it.

Two others I'm glad to see on-screen: Tyler Labine and Freida Pinto. It's nice to see Tyler Labine (Breaker High's Jimmy) in a bigger role, showing potential I never noticed before. Brampton represent! And as for Pinto, it's great to see an Indian actress getting mainstream Hollywood roles and playing them so well.

Story-wise, the film also delivers. A combination of emotion and tension keep you glued to the narrative. It's pegged as an action flick which usually doesn't lend much to story-telling, but a film that grapples with what exactly it means to be human can't be taken lightly. And it isn't. A-

DVD: Insidious

Photo: amazon.ca

Starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and Barbara Hershey. Directed by James Wan. 103 minutes. 14A

I watch horror films in hopes of getting scared. And in the past 10 years, I've been scared twice. The first time, it was Signs in 2002, which you might say wasn't a horror but if you were as afraid of aliens as I am then you'd understand. The second time was Insidious. I was afraid to be alone in the house. I was afraid to turn the lights off at night. I was afraid of shadows in dark corners. And just when the fear was fading off, I watched it again.

Insidious isn't about the creepy kid on the poster and DVD cover, so please do not let that image dissuade you. This is not akin to Case 39 or The Omen at all. However, I can't tell you exactly what this film is about, because that's all part of the fun. But this is what I will tell you. Renai (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Patrick Wilson) have just moved into a new house but everything just seems a bit odd (Renai's books get pulled off shelves, she hears noises in the attic). And when their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) ends up in an unexplained coma, the oddities heighten into terror.

What really adds to the creepiness of the strange going-ons in the house is what I call the did-I-just-see-that effect. When Renai is out in the garden one day, she catches a dark shadowy figure through the window, dancing in her hallway. But when she runs to the next window, it's vanished. Kind of like when you're home alone and you think you see a shadow in the corner of your eye but when you take a closer look, there's nothing there. But maybe there was.

Rose Byrne in the lead is also very believable as a concerned but terrified mother who's desperately trying to convince her husband that some seriously scary stuff is going down when he's at work. (She's also been the every-genre actress lately. See: Bridesmaids and X-Men: First Class.)

But I must let you know, in order to be scared, you need to invest some belief. You need to be willing to second guess spooky shadows and jump at the creaks and cracks. If not, then you'll be able to sleep soundly at night. In the dark. Alone at home. And there's just no fun in that. A-

Super 8

 

 Photo: Paramount Pictures
 (8 is more than enough.)

Starring Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning and Kyle Chandler. Directed by J.J. Abrams. 112 minutes. PG

Super 8 may kick off with a train wreck of epic (and possibly extraterrestrial) proportions, but J.J. Abrams’ sci-fi adventure film is anything but that. It blazes pre-established trails smoothly and near-effortlessly and moves at a pleasant pace. It’s fast enough to make it worth your while, but slow enough to give you a chance to take in the oft-missed scenery – which in this nostalgia-heavy case, is made up of the love lives, pet projects and various monstrosities (!) facing a group of tween cinephiles in 1970s Ohio.

Abrams pulled off an unimaginable feat while advertising Super 8, keeping the previews completely spoiler-free. In various interviews, the Lost creator, Star Trek director and Cloverfield producer has said that it was an attempt to recapture the magic of movies from his youth: the element of shared, in-theatre surprise. While he most definitely achieves that, he provides professional popcorn munchers with an even more pleasant punch line. He presents a film that completely ignores the last twenty or so years of high-budget, low-plot summer blockbusters, and picks up where Jaws, Back to the Future and Jurassic Park left off, using an out-of-this-world occurrence (and the spectacular special effects that come along with it) as the back-drop for down-to-earth dilemmas -- instead of the other way around. 

 

While the setting, soundtrack (Best “My Sharona” sing-a-long since Reality Bites!) and oddly in-style costumes (High-waisted flares and pastels!) harken back to many a terrific late 1970s, early 1980s drive-in flick (i.e. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goonies), Super 8 would be best subtitled as E.T. meets Freaks and Geeks. That is, if the geeks bowed down to George A. Romero as opposed to Steve Martin. And the freaks were played by AJ Michalka (yes, the half of Aly and AJ) and David Gallagher (yes, the blonde boy from 7^th Heaven). 

The movie’s title refers to the type of film a group of young horror/fantasy movie nerds and budding filmmakers (Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Gabriel Basso) are using to record scenes for their short zombie movie. Since they are trying to get the freaky little flick into a festival, they have decided to spend their summer shooting, scripting, scouting locations and talking about it obsessively. Although not technically the leader at the film’s outset, the group’s Sam Weir is Joe Lamb (brand newcomer Courtney, who is Emile Hirsch’s doppelgänger in looks and Henry Thomas' in acting), a talented little monster make-up artist and model builder with who just lost his mom (in an unexplained accident) and as a result, is slowly losing his deputy dad (Kyle Chandler, TV’s Friday Night Lights). 

Things are going well for Joe and co. until the film’s director, Charles (Griffiths, a camera-wielding Chunk) realizes they’re missing something major: character development. It’s why people “care about what happens,” he says. So they enlist an older girl, Alice (Elle Fanning, who is giving her sister a run for her hard-earned money in the sincerity department), to play their leading man’s wife and a possible victim. But their plan gets slightly derailed when, well, that train I mentioned earlier crash lands all over their set, and sends strangely small white boxes and their creepy AP science teacher flying. 

At this point Abrams could have gone all-out B-movie, focusing directly on the Monster Squad-style pursuit of what will become a car engine-stealing, dog-thwarting force. But he takes a note from Charles – and his co-producer, Steven Spielberg, who injected feeling into mainstream sci-fi and fantasy films many times over throughout his impressive career. Sure, there are some crafty creature creep-outs (one scene literally seemed like a tribute to the bus attack in Jeepers Creepers 2), but Super 8 really soars when it zooms in on the human relationships which come out of them.  One of the best scenes is when the kids are all sitting at a diner, stealing each other’s fries and shooting the middle school shit. And don't get me started on the moment when Alice and Joe finally get some zombie face-time.

The emotion-heavy script is a bold choice on Abrams' part, leaving some questions unanswered and leads undeveloped as far as the big mystery goes, but it makes for a much more moving movie-going experience. You could argue that the film relies too heavily on this retro formula and tired kiddie adventure tropes, and doesn’t break any new ground as a result. However, in this day and age, it's quite the opposite. This generation needs to see that while decepticons and 3D dragons may look cool, without a great story and character to back them up, there's little to actually care about. Super 8 shows us that alien activity, in terms of blockbuster film content and tone, is not something to be afraid of, but fearlessly explored.  A-

Potiche

Photo: Music Box Films

BY: Ava Baccari

Starring Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Judith Godrèche, Karin Viard and Jérémie Renier. Directed by François Ozon. 103 minutes. 14A (French)

It's lonely at the top for the trophy wife, whose life expectedly takes up the same hot-to-stone-cold sentiment as that golden statue perched on a cluttered shelf—once coveted and sparkling, now forgotten (and pretty dusty, too - ouch). Walled up in her domestic paradise, the potiche, which almost sounds classy in French, roams her castle in diamonds purchased with her husband's money, eating meals prepared by the hired help, and occasionally writes poetry. It's the seventies but the desperate housewife world Catherine Deneuve inhabits in Potiche, the latest film by French director François Ozon, captures the droning, lulled existence of a kept woman with only her things and now-adult children to stamp her time in this world.

The latest oeuvre from Parisan auteur Ozon (Under the Sand, 8 Women—also starring Deneuve) is loosely based on the eponymously titled play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, which plumbed the same themes of politically divisive, highly gendered and classist French society in the seventies. The film originally premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last summer, then skipped across the pond in September for its North American debut at TIFF. It's now screening at the Cumberland, here in Toronto.

In provincial France where the feminist movement is oh-so-slowly encroaching on the sprawling, patriarchal town, Suzanne Pujol (Deneuve, still resplendent in her sixties) leads a decidedly content lifestyle—full of pampering and the occasional pillow-fluffing, yet ultimately signifying nothing. At one point, she's visited by her daughter, Joëlle, (Judith Godrèche) who, with a likewise absentee husband, is forced to singlehandedly raise their two boys and is slipping into her mother's same housewife role. Yet when Madame Pujol confides that she's tired of batting a polished eye to husband's (Fabrice Luchini) indiscriminately indiscrete affairs—including a clichéd conjugal relationship with his secretary, Nadège (Karin Viard)—and admits she's flirting with the idea of divorce, her daughter warns that she'll be publicly shamed for such unprecedented, unwomanly behaviour.

But it's not just Suzanne stirring a rebellion against the iron-fisted, draconian rule of the tyrannical Monsieur Pujol. Fed up with the unbearable working conditions at his umbrella factory, the employees take their boss hostage when he refuses to hear their demands for drastic reform. Suzanne steps in to defuse the situation, freeing her husband, and resulting in the company shifting power to the Missus while he recovers from a stress-induced stroke. Seeking the support of her two children to helm the business, she hires her lefty, art-loving son Laurent (Jérémie Renier) and Joëlle, who turns out to be too much like daddy. Here, though, the film levies stereotype to her matronly, female rule—Chocolates all around! Coloured walls!—comprised of the typical cosmetic changes that ensue when a woman moves in on a man's territory.

Yet Suzanne is acutely aware of the power of her female charms—turns out she's had a few extra-marital liaisons of her own—and soon earns the respect of the mayor, Maurice Babin (Gérard Depardieu) a former factory employee and flame. When her husband attempts to seize back power from his wife, now wildly popular for her management style, Laurent prompts his mother to assert her place in the workforce, stating that “women everywhere are taking power.”

The film traces the raw, fledging wave of feminism that universally swept through and defined the politically charged decade and gave birth to the united front of sisterhood. Deneuve's strong, heart-breaking performance glazes over stretches of tedium that plague the second-half of the film, and prevents the narrative from falling into the trap of an underdog-rising trajectory. Instead, what is rendered is a layered, believable transition from fed-up housewife to quixotic heroine who permanently alters the game for women.

Liberated, coiffed, and armed with the support of people she's raised, either by birth or on the notions of humane, dignified interaction in all facets of life, the trophy wife stands as a powerful figure of change—just don't try to shelve her. A-

Bridesmaids

Photo: Universal Pictures

Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Ellie Kemper and Wendi McLendon-Covey. Directed by Paul Feig. 125 minutes. 14A

Don't believe anything you've heard about Bridesmaids.

It's not hysterically funny. It's not a girl-powered revelation. And it's certainly not a female Hangover. It's just an occasionally witty, occasionally crude but mainly true-to-thirty-something-female-life film, which is more than you can say for most lady-centric flicks (okay, "chick flicks") released in the past ten years. (No, I'm not talking to you, Baby Mama.)

Although advertised as a straight-up comedy, Bridesmaids is really a dramedy. While Judd Apatow's (Knocked Up, Superbad etc.) name is often linked to this film, he's just a producer. The real director is Apatow's old friend Paul Feig, the creator of Freaks and Geeks. Like that still-perfect show, the laughs aren't bombastic and the tears aren't melodramatic. Everything is low-key and sudden, like it is in real life, and Feig embraces that, like Lindsay Weir embraced her dad's army jacket (and Nick Andopolis for, like, two episodes) before premature cancellation tore them apart.

Bridesmaids explores happens to BFFs when one of them promises someone else their forever, which as any former lady-in-waiting can attest, can be both heartwarming and shattering. Written by SNL superstar Kristen Wiig and her close friend Annie Mumulo, the film follows a charming but self-destructive woman named Annie (Wiig), who is hovering around rock bottom in nearly every part of her life. Having lost her bakery to bankruptcy, Annie works part-time at a jewelry store her mother's AA buddy owns. While she struggles to sell bargain engagement rings to strangers, she also struggles to sell herself (metaphorically, of course) to a non-douche, her only romantic prospect being a wide-eyed playboy (Jon Hamm) who only wants her when she's underneath him. Physically and emotionally.

When her long-time gal pal, Lillian (Wiig's real-life best friend and former SNL alum, Maya Rudolph), tells her she's getting married, Annie puts on a fake smile and happily accepts her role as maid of honour. But things start to unravel quicker than a toilet paper bridal gown when she meets Helen (Rose Byrne), Lillian's newest friend and final bridesmaid. With gorgeous hair, an endless bank account and too much time to plan parties with giant cookies, puppy party favours and Wilson Phillips cameos, Helen is not only determined to take over Annie's position as maid of honour, but also the only role she has been able to fulfill in her mediocre life: best friend.

While their feud is the driving force of much of Annie's story (which takes one too many turns and airplane scotches for the worse as the girls take on the traditional pre-wedding girlie galas), its not what really sticks, at least in a comedic sense.The biggest laughs come courtesy of the other members of the bridal party, particularly Melissa McCarthy (Mike and Molly, Gilmore Girls), who plays totally against type as the groom's brash, butch sister. The fact that she is obsessed with female fight clubs is not only hilarious, but also telling of her performance. In every scene, she comes in flesh guns-a-blazing and knocks you out.

Wiig is just as impressive, both as a writer and actress. She leaves her over-the-top caricatures behind, and makes a well-rounded woman out of Annie. Although she still has quite a few over-the-top moments, they all have their real-life reasons—emotional and/or alcoholic. She's like a better-dressed (but equally pie-obsessed), Liz Lemon. You laugh with her. You laugh at her. And you almost cry because you realize you totally identify with her. And you could say the same about the film itself.

With the exception of one already-infamous gross-out gag, Bridesmaids is not the kind of movie that wants to be the centre of attention—the girl in the floofy dress and veil. It's the subtly gorgeous girl standing next to the princess-for-the-day. The one who did all the real work. The one who really takes the three-tier cake. A-

Meek's Cutoff

Photo: Oscilloscope Laboratories

BY: Manori Ravindran

Starring Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood and Will Patton. Directed by Kelly Reichardt. 104 minutes. PG

Kelly Reichardt doesn't care for dialogue. In her fifth film, Meek's Cutoff, you'd sooner see dust rolling off lumbering wagons, and the glint of tinny water at the bottom of a barrel before hearing a single word spoken. And while you'd think that all this action and no talking would make for a dreary experience, the quiet in Reichardt's film, about three families lost along the Oregon Trail in 1845, speaks louder than words.

When a wagon team of families sets out to cross the Cascade Mountains, they expect their hired guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) to know where he's going. But after taking what he thinks is a short-cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path that gets them perilously lost. In their struggle to find water and a way back, the families come across a Native American whom they hope will lead them in the right direction. But do the travellers trust a man they can't understand, or continue following one they doubt?

Loosely based on an historical event where fur trapper and explorer Stephen Meek led a group of 200-odd wagons into the Oregon desert, Reichardt has whittled this number down to only three families, staying true to her need for a minimum of everything. But where Reichardt downsizes in cast, she expands in scope, shooting the film in full frame rather than the traditional widescreen, and giving gravity to the travellers' situation by showing us more of the expansive desert landscape.

Although there is minimal dialogue, what little conversations there are contribute to a deeper understanding of the characters, especially as Reichardt constructs a power hierarchy among the Tetherow, Gately and White families. The husbands and Meek may make the decisions, but it's the whisperings of the women that keep the men on course.

The pensive Michelle Williams is a perfect fit as rifle-brandishing Emily, the only one in the group who seems to be cautious of the wayward Meek. We later see her try and communicate with the captive Native American, who doesn't speak English, even going so far as to fix his shoe. "I want him to owe me something," she says, entrusting the stranger to pay her back while others dismiss the idea of the man understanding such an exchange.

As such, while the wagons move from east to west on-screen, we see the reins of power transfer from the husbands to their wives, who eventually decide whether to follow their captor over the mountains. Meek's Cutoff is quiet in its urgency, but powerful all the same, and Reichardt's organic style makes something momentous out of bare essentials. A-

Biutiful

Photo: screenrant.com

BY: Manori Ravindran (Guest contributer/Fellow fille!)

Starring Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez, Hanaa Bouchaib and Guillermo Estrella. 148 minutes. R

Life isn’t beautiful. Not for Uxbal, at least. In Iñárritu’s Biutiful, Javier Bardem is Uxbal, a husband, father and crook coming to terms with a diagnosis of cancer. Set in Barcelona, this gritty drama is about the multiple lives affected when a dying man tries to settle his scores before death.

Uxbal is a complicated character. Making a living from the dangerous business of human trafficking, he oversees a group of Chinese factory workers and undocumented Senegalese immigrants. Though he exploits them, Uxbal treats the workers with respect and cares for their families. He is also a medium who connects with those who have passed into the afterlife. The character's clashing roles are confusing. Should we hate him or pity him? Or should we do both?

The only good things in Uxbal's life are his children, Ana (Hanaa Bouchaib) and Mateo (Guillermo Estrella), who bounce back and forth between him and his troubled wife, Marambra (Maricel Álvarez). The relationship with his children helps us understand what drives him to go to such measures to provide for his family long after he's gone.

Biutiful is Iñárritu's first feature film since Babel (2006). The two are similar in their representations of a globalized world. Babel connected the lives of four families spread around the world who are affected by the same series of events. Biutiful is more localized. The film is set in Barcelona, but the issues it tackles, such as the exploiting of undocumented immigrants, are global in scope.

The tragic nature of these circumstances is what makes the film so upsetting. When things go horribly wrong in the factory basement housing the Chinese workers, Uxbal's life begins to unravel. Biutiful quickly switches from gritty to unbearable, showing human suffering that is, at times, impossible to watch.

Although the film has garnered mixed reactions from critics and audiences, the Academy has taken well to Iñárritu’s drama. Biutiful recently received an Academy Award nomination in the foreign-language category. Javier Bardem also got a Best Actor nod for his role. It's the first time an actor in the category has been nominated for a performance entirely in Spanish.

It's difficult to recommend a film that will distress audiences, but Biutiful is worth the heartache—if not for Bardem’s striking performance as a dying father, then at least for a depiction of human trafficking that is rarely tackled in film. A-

DVD: Never Let Me Go

Photo: amazon.ca

Starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley. Directed by Mark Romanek. 100 minutes. 14A

Categorizing Never Let Me Go as a dystopian film sets off the wrong preconceptions: zombies, battles between man and machine, lasers. And calling it a love story does the same. But bringing the two together creates a genre in itself. It's not a flimsy love story alongside a dystopian narrative; it is, in part, the dystopia. Dystopian love. Poetic, right?

I can't tell you what's at the core of Never Let Me Go without giving away more than you learn from the trailer, and really, the most I can say is that it's thoughtful, reflective love story that rests heavily on a destructive, pre-determined fate set out by society. Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley) are scientific subjects of sorts, and are pretty much treated that way as they live out the roadmap written for them.

While it's undeniable that Mulligan, Garfield and Knightley work well together, it's Garfield who stands out in this film as the socially awkward though sweet Tommy. It makes you wonder why he was nominated for his role in The Social Network for a Golden Globe and completely ignored in this film where he played one half of couple where he misread feelings, fell to deceit, and fought to live for love, all the while balancing naivety with pure honesty.

What's surprising about this film is that's not overdone, as love stories easily are, especially when they are the main narrative. Although it's the love story that drives the film, weighing it against such a heavy, treacherous dystopia evens it out. And while the two aspects are very powerful on their own, and even more so when combined, together they work to create a real portrait of humanity in an unreal world, reminding us that despite our different situations, we all feel emotions just as passionately. A-

DVD EXTRAS: Behind-the-scenes featurettes and on-set photos.

Somewhere

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

Starring Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning and Chris Pontius. Directed by Sofia Coppola. 96 minutes. 14A

Somewhere is like that canvas in the art gallery painted all blue. It's simple. It's silent. But it's got a lot of meaning. And it leaves half of the room confused and angry.

The film centres around Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), a newcomer to Hollywood, though living a life of ennui already. He drinks a lot, drives a fancy car and hooks up with countless women, but he doesn't feel anything for any of it. It's like a song about drugs, sex and rock n roll on repeat, until there's no thrill to it at all. The opening 15-minute dialogue-less montage of his life is cut abruptly when we meet Cleo (Elle Fanning), his 11-year-old daughter. She visits occasionally and he goes through the fatherly motion at first, taking her to skating lessons, playing video games with her, but when Cleo's mother doesn't pick her up one day, handing Cleo off to Johnny for a while, things change.

Although based on the overindulgent, glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, nearly everything about this film is very minimal. From story to set to sounds, it's all very subtle, reminding us about the beauty of simplicity. Silence can say just as much as song, and in this film it does. It gives the film a sense of reality.

Adding to this, the film is also chock full of emotion. There's not much said throughout the entire film, but through actions, and particularly Fanning's facial expressions, we see the abyss of emptiness in both Johnny and Cleo, for different reasons.

This film takes a lot of risks. While some things are drawn out and extended into what seems like eternity, other elements are completely absent or minimal. It's a film so bold and daring that you could easily see it as either a masterpiece or a disaster. A-

The King's Speech

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

(Royal with brain freeze.)

Starring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush and Guy Pearce. Directed by Tom Hooper. 111 minutes. PG

Back in high school, when Juliet told us that her "only love was sprung from his only hate," I said, "Shakespearean bitches be crazy." Little did I know a few years later I'd be living out that very statement at the movies. Except the loathsome lovah in question wouldn't be related to my father's mortal nemesis but rather, one of my own.

I can't remember a time when I didn't absolutely despise historical dramas. In my generally open mind, they're incredibly dull, drawn out and attentive to minute details - even when the story that inspired it is obviously intellectually engaging. Just because they're based on real life doesn't give them life. Or so I'd say to whatever former close friend or family member who dragged me to see the latest long-winded on-screen representation of my Grade 10 history book.

So naturally when I bought a ticket for critical darling and TIFF '10 favourite (it scored the People's Choice Award) The King's Speech, I was expecting yet another over-hyped based-on-not-so-ancient-events flick I can't even pretend to cheer for. What I got was a freakishly fascinating, funny and, dare I say it, lovely film.

A lot of said glowing mini-review may have to do with Colin Firth, who pretty much embodies those words in every role (yes, even St. Trinian's). Having delivered a wholly heartbreaking performance in the most underrated movie of last year, A Single Man, you'd think he could only regress. But the doubly designated Mr. Darcy tops himself here, playing King George VI, who we find out here suffered from a serious speech impediment before and after taking over the throne in WWII-era Britain, with both genuine helplessness and grace. He doesn't just make you feel sorry for the self-conscious leader. He makes you feel every stutter and stumble. To use a civilian (and 90s childish) pun, he just plain-out rules.

Firth's co-stars, Helena Bonham Carter and Captain Barbosa, er Geoffrey Rush (playing the queen mum and George's speech therapist, respectively) are also excellent. As is the surprisingly lively (and unpolitical!) script, both classy and crass, providing fodder for heavy-hearted history buffs and sailor-mouthed cynics alike.

One minute we get to see dear old Queen Elizabeth (alongside a mini Margaret), imagined as a young girl with passion for whimsy and toy horsies and Winston Churchill, get played by a rat - or rather, a man who seems to play them a hell of a lot (Timothy Spall). The next we get our knit socks knocked off and into a profanity-laden free-for-all that could well be ripped from a Tarantino movie. It was that particular scene, which demonstrates one of Rush's character's many unorthodox teaching methods, that showed this history hater that maybe Romeo's star-crossed mistress wasn't so off after all.

The King's Speech may be dressed up like my least favourite genre but in truth, it's just irresistible underdog tale masquerading in medals and full tails. Behind the perfectly under-toned lighting, meticulous furnishing and big-expectations back story, lies a totally unpretentious story of an emotionally damaged man who simply wanted to be able to tell his country to stay strong in spite of an oncoming story. And to put it in one of the many terms King Firth uses in his one colourfully colloquial speech, it's the tits. A-

True Grit

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

Starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. 110 minutes. 14A

There's something about westerns that pulls me in and I can't figure out what that is. They're slow, inhumanly ruthless and everyone needs to shower really, really badly. Though whatever it is, it's worked on me again with this Coen bros semi-remake.

True Grit follows Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) on her journey to avenge her father's death and bring his murderer, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) back to town to be hanged. But of course, a 14-year-old can't do it on her own, so she enlists U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a man with true grit, to help her track the villain down. When Cogburn finally agrees to help her for a fee, he refuses to let her tag along and instead teams up with Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) for the hunt. Though a determined Mattie catches up and won't abandon the chase.

What works for this film is its simplicity. The plot is easy to follow, settings are natural and characters are fairly single-minded. Yes, it does lead to some predictability (as with most westerns), but with such a driving storyline, these elements string along well.

But what does rattle the ease is Steinfeld as Mattie. A newcomer among her Academy Award-winning co-stars, she manages to deliver the most compelling performance, and in doing so, seems to make the character of Mattie even larger than she might have been. While she does open the film, she later becomes the tag-along with Cogburn and LaBoeuf, and could easily have fallen into the shadows, if not for the umph she brings to her scenes. Though a bit over-the-top at times, Steinfeld suits the western genre as the strong-willed, gutsy Mattie.

The other surprise about this film is it's un-Coen-ness. Although there is a bit of Coen quirk, if I hadn't know, I'd probably never guess this was a Coen bros film. And while it is still a great film, I hope this isn't a route they stay on, but rather a quick, captivating detour through the dusty West. A-

DVD: Easy A

Photo: amazon.ca

(A for Emma.)

Starring Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Thomas Haden Church, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson. Directed by Will Gluck. 92 minutes. 14A

Pretty, but unpopular ginger gives nerd her panties. Nerd uses them to brag to his friends and get semi-popular for a night. Girl gets nothing - but unnecessarily harassed by a blonde, preppy bitch and a few geeks with hormonal agendas. It's almost too easy to find eerie similarities between Easy A and Sixteen Candles. And every other John Hughes teen movie made before 1987, for that matter.

The adolscent auteur may have passed on last year, but his spirit is alive and well in this Scarlett Letter-inspired teen flick. Easy A takes place in 2010, and features jokes that would sound like gibberish to Samantha Baker (think Twitter, texting and uncool Tom Cruise) and yet, it feels more like an 80s teen movie than anything you've seen since, well, the 80s. It's smart. It's silly. It's semi-scandalous. And it manages to make glad you're not in high school and wish you could go back, at the same time.

From the moment Easy A's protagonist, Olive falls into frame, her books and hair all over the place, you can tell that director Will Gluck (Fired Up) wants you to think of her, and her portrayer (the effortlessly hilarious Emma Stone) as a modern-day Molly Ringwald. There's even a moment where Olive asks why she can't find a guy more like John Bender or Jake Ryan (complete with grainy clips of their fist-pumping, convertible-leaning charm). But with her bug eyes and charming lack of coordination, Olive is a lot more awkward than Ringwald ever was - in a good way. She's not a princess in an way shape or form. She's a relatable, bedroom-dancing-on-a-weekend, cardigan-in-the-summer, stay-in-study-buddy kind of gal. You know, the kind of guy Lloyd Dobler, might fall for.

At the beginning of the movie, Olive is a female Farmer Ted - nerdy, nice and completely unnoticeable. But that all changes after she lies to her friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) about losing her virginity to a college guy. All of a sudden, she's a school slut (you might say a randy Ronald Miller) and her "Kinsey 6 homo" BFF, Brandon (Dan Byrd, Cougar Town) is asking her to sex him straight. She declines. But because hates to watch him bear the wrath of her peers' homophobic hatred, she offers him another promising proposition. One pretend party hook-up - complete with bed jumping, self-made sex sound effects and her panties in his back pocket - in exchange for a gift card of her choice.

Their sexual experiment works perfectly. Brando becomes one of the straight boys and Olive finally gets a reputation. Albeit, a bad one. In order to keep up with her new image, Olive starts dressing like a hussy Hester Prynne - wearing bustiers with fabric As on the boob. And after a few boys find out the truth behind her talked-about tryst, she manages to turn her prude prostitute moment into a serious business. Suddenly, she finds herself swimming in store credits - and unwarranted male attention.

Although it's glossy, High School Musical-style exterior and webcam interludes suggest otherwise, Easy A is a sharply crafted commentary on teenage sexuality and the art of teenage over-sharing. A Can't Buy Me Lust, if you will. As Olive's favourite teacher (Thomas Haden Church) says in a particularly sassy soliloquy, today's teens broadcast their every move on Facebook and Twitter, and somehow, they're surprised when their peers are all up in their private business. And as Olive soon comes to realize, the horny details of your (active, or non-active) sex life are last thing you should be making public - whether that's through texting, tweets, profile updates or just good old-fashioned gossiping.

With an inspired message, snappy, era-defying pop culture dialogue and uniformly solid performances (In addition to Stone, we've got Amanda Bynes as a Bible-thumping Regina George, Lisa Kudrow as the Christy Masters of guidance counselors and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as the coolest parents in teen movie history), Easy A makes the grade, and then some. A-

EXTRAS: Gag reel, Emma Stone's audition footage, Commentary with Stone and Will Gluck


*Review originally published September 27, 2010.

DVD: Splice

Photo: amazon.com

Starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. Directed by Vincenzo Natali. 104 minutes. 18A

Hmm. Odd. Interesting. Very interesting. Splice is a strange film. Its very hypothetical, as all sci-fi films are, but also very relevant and chilling in its possibilities.

Splice tells the story of two biochemists who are also a couple. Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) and Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) are experimenting with the DNA of various animals in attempt to develop cures for diseases, including cancer. Along the way, they create two slug-like new lifeforms by mixing animal DNA. They name them Fred and Ginger. While they continue to study their mushy friends, they begin working on a side project, a side project that their company has forbidden them to work on and for obvious reasons. The couple combine the hybrid-animal DNA with human DNA to create yet another new creature. That's when the lines between ethics, legalities and relationships become blurred and the mess begins to snowball.

Should this creature exist? Is this an experiment? Or has this become a relationship? Is this a being that needs to be loved? Or should this creature be killed? And where exactly did they cross the point of no return? These are all questions Splice asks and dances around but is never really meant to answer. It's rather to get the audience thinking these things as Elsa and Clive come to terms with them.

The subject isn't the only quirky part of this film, so are both the lead characters and their relationship. They're obsessive, workaholic scientists with an undying love for each other. They like to eat candy and listen to heavy rock while they work, occasionally sprinkled with some lip action. In their own odd way, they seem like a modern fairytalesque couple.

By far the strangest parts in this film are the sex scenes. Without giving too much away, they are all very awkward and somehow wrong yet hard to turn away from. You want them to happen as much as you don't want them to happen.

This film was also tagged as a horror but it's not exactly. It does have many horror elements but only a very short portion of the film could actually be considered "horror." Instead, the most horrifying thing about the film is the thought that scientists somewhere are creating new organisms. Sometimes they just die but other times they're killed, loved, nurtured, cloned, bred... who really knows. It's strange to think about that world you will probably never have access to.

That's what makes this film so intriguing. It pulls you into a hypothetical world of genetic science and lets you explore, knowing that for now, you don't have to venture into the real horrors of the biochemical world yourself. But it reminds you that they exist and may one day escape. A-

DVD EXTRAS: Featurette with Vincenzo Natali

Easy A

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

(It's not easy being seen.)

Starring Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Thomas Haden Church, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson. Directed by Will Gluck. 92 minutes. 14A

Pretty, but unpopular ginger gives nerd her panties. Nerd uses them to brag to his friends and get semi-popular for a night. Girl gets nothing - but unnecessarily harassed by a blonde, preppy bitch and a few geeks with agendas. Oh, and a few Home Depot gift cards.

Aside from the shameless Home Depot cameo, it's almost too easy to find eerie similarities between Easy A and Sixteen Candles. And every other John Hughes teen movie made before 1987, for that matter. But that's precisely why it works.

Hughes may have passed on over a year ago, but the adolscent auteur's spirit is alive and well in Easy A. The Scarlett Letter-inspired teen flick may take place in 2010, and feature jokes that would sound like gibberish to Samantha Baker (think Twitter, texting and uncool Tom Cruise), but it feels more like an 80s teen movie than anything you've seen since, well, the 80s. It's smart. It's silly. It's semi-scandalous. And it manages to make glad you're not in high school and wish you could go back, at the same time.

From the moment Easy A's protagonist, Olive falls into frame, her books and hair all over the place, you can tell that director Will Gluck (Fired Up) wants you to think of her, and her portrayer (the effortlessly hilarious Emma Stone) as a modern-day Molly Ringwald. There's even a moment where Olive asks why she can't find a guy more like John Bender or Jake Ryan (complete with grainy clips of their fist-pumping, convertible-leaning charm). But with her bug eyes and charming lack of coordination, Olive is a lot more awkward than Ringwald ever was - in a good way. She's not a princess in an way shape or form. She's a relatable, bedroom-dancing-on-a-weekend, cardigan-in-the-summer, stay-in-study-buddy kind of gal. You know, the kind of guy Lloyd Dobler, might fall for.

At the beginning of the movie, Olive is a female Farmer Ted - nerdy, nice and completely unnoticeable. But that all changes after she lies to her friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) about losing her virginity to a college guy. All of a sudden, she's a school slut (a randy Ronald Miller?) and her "Kinsey 6 homo" BFF, Brandon (Dan Byrd, Cougar Town) is asking her to sex him straight. She declines. But because hates to watch him bear the wrath of her peers' homophobic hatred, she offers him another promising proposition. One pretend party hook-up - complete with bed jumping, self-made sex sound effects and her panties in his back pocket - in exchange for a gift card of her choice.

Their sexual experiment works perfectly. Brando becomes one of the straight boys and Olive finally gets a reputation. Albeit, a bad one. In order to keep up with her new image, Olive starts dressing like a hussy Hester Prynne - wearing bustiers with fabric As on the boob. And after a few boys find out the truth behind her talked-about tryst, she manages to turn her prude prostitute moment into a serious business. Suddenly, she finds herself swimming in store credits - and unwarranted male attention.

Easy A is basically The Breakfast Club of coming-of-age comedies, exceeding your expectations at every turn. Although it's glossy, High School Musical-style exterior and webcam interludes suggest otherwise, it's a sharply crafted commentary on teenage sexuality and the art of oversharing (a Can't Buy Me Lust, if you will). As Olive's favourite teacher (Thomas Haden Church) says in a particularly sassy soliloquy, today's teens broadcast their every move on Facebook and Twitter, and somehow, they're surprised when their peers are all up in their private business. And as Olive soon comes to realize, the horny details of your (active, or non-active) sex life are last thing you should be making public - whether that's through texting, tweets, profile updates or just good old-fashioned face-to-face gossiping.

With an inspired message, snappy, era-defying pop culture dialogue and uniformly solid performances (Amanda Bynes as a Bible-thumping Regina George, Lisa Kudrow as the Christy Masters of guidance counselors and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as the coolest parents in teen movie history), Easy A makes the grade, and then some. A-

Grease Sing-A-Long

Photo: Comingsoon.net

(It's - still - electrifying!)

Starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton John, Jeff Conaway and Stockard Channing. Directed by Randal Kleiser. 110 minutes. PG

Back in June of 1978, a little movie called Grease hit theatres. The high school musical, which centered around a '50s love story featuring a blonde, bookish exchange student named Sandy Olsson and a jet black-haired greaser named Danny Zuko, had done fairly well as a Broadway show, and Hollywood decided they wanted a piece of the action. In order to bring it to the big screen, they enlisted the help of Saturday Night Fever heartthrob John Travolta, Australian pop princess, Olivia Newton-John, and a brand-new Bee-Gees-penned title track. The combination was nothing short of electrifying (some may even say chill-multiplying), winning over critics and crazed teenage fangirls alike and inspiring what I think is an awesome sequel starring Travolta's future Hairspray co-star, Michelle Pfeiffer. (I'm not joking.)

Thanks to Zac Efron and the kids from Glee, adolescent operas are en vogue again. And naturally, Hollywood is itching to cash in on the craze again. So they've decided to re-release Sandy and Danny's classic sing-song senior year saga once more. But this time, it's not just digitally remastered or whatever. It's completely interactive.

The Grease Sing-A-Long is exactly what you think it is: a shamelessly fan-friendly audience participation version of the musical we all know off-by-heart. Wait, what makes this different than all the other random Sunday afternoon viewings you belt your brains out to, you ask? Well, first of all, it's in public, so you're obliged to wear something other than your high school gym shirt (many people opt for poodle skirts and pleather jackets). Second, the words are provided for you (not that most Pink Ladies and T-Birds need em'). And these light-up lyrics aren't the plain-old white-and-yellow subtitles kind either. They're straight out of an early 90s edition of Tiger Beat.

The lyrical letters are all bubbly and doodle-like, done up in the same bubblegum pinks and electric blues of the movie's awesome cartoon credits. And they aren't alone. Each song has its own set of funky, over-the-top illustrations to accompany the words. Many of them are meant to mask the more suggestive sections (i.e. a cow with large udders and a black cat replace "lotsa tit" and "pussy [wagon]" in "Greased Lightning"), but most of the time, they highlight the silliness of the scene, making it seem even more fun and hopelessly campy than it already is.

As any seasoned Grease-r might expect, there's plenty of hot pink hearts and lightning bolts to go around the more straight-forward sing-songs, but there's also some misguided popsicles ("Sandy"), horny hot dogs (also, "Sandy") and randomly appearing rings ("Won't go to bed, til I'm legally wed! I can't I'm Sandra Dee!") littered amongst the lyrics. And as Mr. Zuko might say, that's only the beginning!

When Danny wonders what Sandy's doin' now ("Summer Lovin'"), large question-mark thought bubbles pop up beside his bouffant. Then after he sings that he took her bowling in the arcade, a bowling ball magically appears in his hand and flies into Sandy's faux lemonade stroll. And just wait until you see what they've done with "There Are Worse Things I Could Do." Let's just say the illustrations are gossip girls in disguise.

Although there are plenty of in-jokes for those who don't really need to look at the lyrics, the Grease Sing-A-Long is also very first-timer friendly. There's a cartoon mime who teaches the hand jive for those who weren't born with the godly ability. And if you don't know the "Greased Lighning" arm dance, you will by the second chorus. There's no on-screen dance prompts, but you won't need them if you are sitting high enough. My audience was hopelessly devoted to mimicking Danny, Kenickie and co. to a T-Bird. If you're perceptive, you'll have yourself a blast too.

The real reason the Grease Sing-A-Long works so well is that, after 22 years, it's still got that big-screen groove and that feeling. The cinematography is more magical than ever - almost as though the screen has gotten a little, well, greasy. Sandy seems to have developed a halo and Rizzo suddenly has a false alarm preggers glow. It's very RuPaul's Drag Race. And the acting, which has always been perfectly overdone (see: Danny's "Don't make me laugh!" moment and Sandy's "Fake and a phony!" spiel)., works even better when mega-magnified.

Whether than a you're fist pumping on your futon for the 150th time or in a stair-hopping with your best friend down the aisle of an over-air-conditioned theatre for the first (this actually happened to the people next to me), Grease will always be the word. At least that's what I've heard. A-

*Unfortunately, the Grease Sing-A-Long has wrapped up it's highly limited engagement in Toronto (there were only four shows at the Scotiabank, last Friday and Saturday night). But I'm sure it will be back. Because nothing goes together like a ram-a-lama-lama-da-ding-a-da-ding-a-dong like summer movie lovers, Travolta and musical interludes.*

Splice

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

(Hmm...)

Starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. Directed by Vincenzo Natali. 104 minutes. 18A

Hmm. Odd. Interesting. Very interesting. Splice is a strange film. Its very hypothetical, as all sci-fi films are, but also very relevant and chilling in its possibilities.

Splice tells the story of two biochemists who are also a couple. Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) and Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) are experimenting with the DNA of various animals in attempt to develop cures for diseases, including cancer. Along the way, they create two slug-like new lifeforms by mixing animal DNA. They name them Fred and Ginger. While they continue to study their mushy friends, they begin working on a side project, a side project that their company has forbidden them to work on and for obvious reasons. The couple combine the hybrid-animal DNA with human DNA to create yet another new creature. That's when the lines between ethics, legalities and relationships become blurred and the mess begins to snowball.

Should this creature exist? Is this an experiment? Or has this become a relationship? Is this a being that needs to be loved? Or should this creature be killed? And where exactly did they cross the point of no return? These are all questions Splice asks and dances around but is never really meant to answer. It's rather to get the audience thinking these things as Elsa and Clive come to terms with them.

The subject isn't the only quirky part of this film, so are both the lead characters and their relationship. They're obsessive, workaholic scientists with an undying love for each other. They like to eat candy and listen to heavy rock while they work, occasionally sprinkled with some lip action. In their own odd way, they seem like a modern fairytalesque couple.

By far the strangest parts in this film are the sex scenes. Without giving too much away, they are all very awkward and somehow wrong yet hard to turn away from. You want them to happen as much as you don't want them to happen.

This film was also tagged as a horror but it's not exactly. It does have many horror elements but only a very short portion of the film could actually be considered "horror." Instead, the most horrifying thing about the film is the thought that scientists somewhere are creating new organisms. Sometimes they just die but other times they're killed, loved, nurtured, cloned, bred... who really knows. It's strange to think about that world you will probably never have access to.

That's what makes this film so intriguing. It pulls you into a hypothetical world of genetic science and lets you explore, knowing that for now, you don't have to venture into the real horrors of the biochemical world yourself. But it reminds you that they exist and may one day escape. A-

DVD: Youth in Revolt

Photo: Amazon.com

(Que Cera, Cera.)

Starring Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Justin Long, Ray Liotta and Steve Buscemi. Directed by Miguel Arteta. 90 Minutes. 14A

Everyone and their second-cousin complains that Michael Cera only has one sorta clever schtick: the gawkwardly cute dude in brightly-coloured cords. Everyone and their second-cousin hasn't seen Youth in Revolt.

Adapted from the awesome C.D. Payne teen novel of the same name, Youth in Revolt is the Cera vehicle you should be quoting and recommending to your friends. This hysterical flick has everyone's favourite Brampton-ite (sorry, Biebs) stepping out of his superawks Superbad shell and into two, completely opposing personas: the straight-laced, but sex-crazed wannabee teenage hooligan Nick Twisp and his suave, moustached sex bomb of a French alter ego, Francois. Needless to say, watching him move back and forth between the two is a blast.

Nick Twisp was a normal 15-year-old once. Well, sort of (he spent a lot of time masturbating in his room alone, renting Fellini films and listening to Frank Sinatra). The multiple personalities come out as a result of his conflicted relationship with teenage bombshell Shenni (Portia Doubleday), the girl of his incessant wet dreams. Nick meets Sheeni while on a pseduo-family vacay (him, his mom and her latest jerky bf) at a mobile home camp. She takes to Nicky immediately, taking him for long afternoon walks and seductively asking him to lather her naked back with SPF 15. You know, kid stuff.

The flirtation comes to halt when Sheeni admits the truth: she likes her men a bit older, wiser and well, recklessly Parisienne (her ideal dude is Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless). Oh, and she has a boy thing back at school named Trent. Desperate to win some bonus points in his lady's wandering eyes, Nick decides to well, revolt, letting his inner Frenchman take over.

The rest of the movie recounts his explicitly rebellious exploits, including blowing up half a town, naked hitchhiking, French dog adopting and pleasuring a cartoon while on high-off-his-ass on mushrooms. It sounds juvenile, like Road Trip with a side of American Pie, but like it's lead character (and actor), it's so much smarter than you'd expect. Unlike those blatant sex romps, Youth in Revolt has a subtle script, relying on dignified disses, as opposed to limp dick jokes, to bring laughs. But that shouldn't be a surprise, considering the book's sarcastic scribe, Payne, co-wrote it.

Unfortunately, if you are a fan of Payne's original book, you'll notice quite a few sections have been removed during big-screen transfer, namely, the awkward relationship with Nick's BFF, Lefty, Fuzzy and the multiple Alberts. But these changes don't really take away from the story, save for an unsightly cut near the close (One word: Carlotta). Plus, it's hard to really focus on what's missing when Cera's on-screen, bringing the our favourite single (and ready to mingle) dude to totally awesome life.

Michael does such a pitch perfect job embodying Francois, it's downright depressing this movie didn't do better a the box-office. The dude is a deadpan wonder, making you forget all about Bleeker, Evan, George Michael and that other Nick (friend to Norah and her infinite playlist). At least for an hour and a half. A-

EXTRAS: A commentary with Arteta and Cera, deleted scenes, extra animated sequences, auditions

DVD: Alice in Wonderland

Photo: amazon.ca

Starring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway. Directed by Tim Burton. 108 minutes. PG

When Lewis Carroll's Wonderland works are adapted, we hope to be thrown into a world that's a wild and extravagant as his stories made us imagine. We also hope to be thrown a surprising jolt every so often on the ride. Disney's newest rendition of Alice in Wonderland surpasses these hopes and sends expectations exploding.

Most of us know the gist of the story. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) chases a white rabbit into a rabbit hole, tumbling head-first miles down to Wonderland where she meets a slew of curious and curiouser characters, all the while trying to get back home. In this version, Alice's journey revolves around a feud between sisters (the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter)) and Alice is plunked right into the dramatic mess.

For those of us who've grown up with Disney's original 1951 take on the Carroll stories, there are certain characterizations that we may already be familiar with. The Mad Hatter has a lisp, the caterpillar words are always painted in colourful smoke and the White Rabbit is always frazzled. It's tough to come into Burton's film with these pre-conceptions, but it's even more astonishing when Burton's new characters completely blow them away and create memorable, believable personalities anew.

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter is not as scene-hogging and annoying as the trailers and DVD cover stage him to be. He's a sweet and likable aid to Alice. He could be a bit madder though, rather than let his bright eyeshadow and frizzy hair play the madness for him.

Carter as the Red Queen is terrifying, and she should be. Hathaway as the White Queen seems to be inspired by Glinda the Good Witch and is a little awkward, but in Burton's world, it works. However, it was Wasikowska who stole the spotlight.

Wasikowska makes Alice real. When her mind runs, she sends your mind running. When she believes, you believe. As the thread throughout the film, her commitment brings the story to life as she tugs the audience along on her trippy adventure through Underland.

Yes, Underland. It's Burton, what did you expect? It's much darker than Disney's original Wonderland, but not so much that it's frightening. Characters are literally blown out of proportion (Red Queen's bulbous noggin, the Tweedles' egg-like bodies), scenes are hazier, surrounded by fog and smoke, and evil is eviler. But it's all kid-friendly; there is no gore and no sexual innuendo. Can't say much for the drugs though, the film is littered with pot, hash and shrooms, but we already knew that.

Alice in Wonderland is an entertaining, nutty thrill ride that impresses with loops and curves when you're least expecting it. 'Rents and kiddies can both enjoy the whirlwind. A-

EXTRAS: Featurettes with the cast

The Trotsky

Photo: TIFF.net

(Youth in Russian revolt...)

Starring Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Colm Feore and Michael Murphy. Directed by Jacob Tierney. 120 minutes. 14A

Jay Baruchel has come a long way from PMK. This year, the deliciously lanky Canuck is starring in two big-ticket American movies: the highly underrated She's Out of my League and the upcoming summer blockbuster, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. While those movies are guaranteed to up his star status, I doubt they will make audiences take him seriously as an actor and masterfully awkward comedian. His latest Canadian flick, The Trotsky, however, is a whole other, hilariously offbeat, story.

The Trotsky follows a determined young man (Baruchel) from Montreal who wholeheartedly believes he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky. It all starts when he realizes he has the same birth name as the former Russian revolutionary (Leon Bronstein) and just escalates as he notices that his life eerily mimics the events of My Life, Trotsky's biography. In an effort to fulfill his pre-planned destiny as a socialist leader, Leon dresses up in Trotsky's signature glasses and three-piece suits, attempts to evoke unions wherever he goes and constantly searches the Yellow Pages for his Vladmir Ulyanov (FYI non-history junkies, that's the birth name of Lenin). He even goes as far as to throw himself at a 27-year-old woman, simply because her name is Alexandra, like Trotsky's first wife. Oh, and he's totally fine with his inevitable ice-pick death, as long as it's "somewhere warm."

The story may be far-fetched and slightly pretentious (especially for less-informed young viewers), but that's precisely why it's so damn charming. Unlike every teen movie in recent history, it's not afraid to make viewers think in between chuckles. Like when Leon and his co-ed comrades hold a dance for "Social Justice." All the guests come dressed as their favourite freedom fighters and political activists, but they never explain themselves. You have to figure out whether they have come as Anne Frank or Ayn Rand.

The movie is essentially Pump Up the Volume (Christian Slater classic - watch it now!) with a much more politically charged message. But you don't have to be a political science major to enjoy it. Baruchel's performance is enough to make the movie well worth the over-priced theatre visit. He is perfectly over-the-top as Leon, turning the simplest lines into gawk-ward gold. Like when he looks a bitchy classmate in the eye and deadpans, "Are you my Stalin, Dwight?" Can you say, eh plus?

Besides Baruchel, the only other star really worth mentioning is the setting. Director Jacob Tierney is proud of his film's Canadian background and even flaunts it, purposely inserting legitimate - and stereotypical - Canuck icons into the movie. We get appearances by Liane Balaban (The New Waterford Girl), Colm Feore (Bon Cop, Bad Cop), beavers and of course, Ben Mulroney. It sounds shameless, and it kind of is, but it's much more fun than say, One Week, which felt like a feature length ad for Timmies. The difference is, this isn't a movie about Canada. It's about a good old Canadian boy, who just happens to think he's Russian. A-