By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

An entertaining big screen epic with efficient storytelling, Hunt for the Wilderpeople expands distribution this weekend. This film is an old-fashioned summer movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen. With his fourth movie under his belt, director Taika Waititi has proven his mettle and will be directing the next Disney/Marvel Superhero movie, Thor Ragnarok.

With a far more somber tone, The Innocents opens tomorrow. An official selection from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, this film is a European drama told with English subtitles. Whereas Hunt for the Wilderpeople is an outdoor Disney-style family epic, The Innocents feels like an acclaimed Ingmar Bergman drama with deep themes. It is set in Warsaw, Poland in December of 1945.

While performing their morning prayers, a Polish nun slips out of the cloister and seeks medical assistance. After receiving directions from some street kids, the nun enters a Red Cross M.A.S.H. unit and asks Mathilde (Lou de Laage), a French female doctor, for assistance. The French doctor refuses, but later spies the Polish nun on her knees praying in the snow.

Dr. Mathile visits the nunnery and uncovers many secrets under the cloth. The brutality of the soldiers are a given, but the Head of the Cloister hides many secrets that are both hypocritical and life-affirming.

While our local weather has been beach friendly, The Shallows will make one question if it is safe to go to the beach. A modest mainstream box-office success, this film is the spiritual sequel to Jaws that audiences always wanted.

While escaping the grief of losing her mother, Nancy goes to a secluded Mexican beach to surf. While waiting for one last wave to take her into shore, she spots a dead whale. She investigates and runs afoul a man-eating shark. With echoes of The Old Man and the Sea, All is Lost and The Deep, The Shallows presents a showdown between an intelligent protagonist and a primal antagonist.

At one hour and 25 minutes, The Shallows is a simple story with enough visualization to feel like an epic experience. Director Jaume Collet-Serra provides visual clarity with sly use of special effects. As the main protagonist, Blake Lively gives a low-key performance full of intelligence and fear. The director is smart enough to slow down the film’s pace to simply allow his leading lady moments to sit and think. This film is better experienced because of these directorial choices.

By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

The recent 4th of July weekend was full of outdoor activity. While the motion picture industry posted a modest weekend with Finding Dory, being the weekend champion for three weeks in a row. The BFG earned less than $19 million, despite being the first Walt Disney Movie directed by Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg and his colleague George Lucas [supposedly] predicted this Hollywood box office implosion approximately three years ago. This implosion is very similar to the 1960s, in which major Hollywood Studios were losing money producing movies like Hello Dolly and Cleopatra, while young independent cinema earned larger profit margins with films like Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy and American Graffiti. Everything old is new again.

Opening this weekend in neighborhood cinemas is Hunt for the Wilderpeople, an independent film from New Zealand. The most recognizable face is that of Sam Neill of Jurassic Park and The Piano fame. The most talked about actor from this wild independent film will be that of young Julian Dennison, who portrays the misfit Bobby.

Told in multiple chapters, this film opens with Ricky being deposited on a farm by a social worker. The troubled boy is treated warmly by the matriarch of the house, but he is kept at a distance by the curmudgeon Hec ( Neill). For a few idyllic months, Ricky is treated like a little boy, until the mother figure dies unexpectedly.

Not wanting to return to the cement jungle of his younger days, Ricky fakes his death to go live in the forest. Given that his bravado was formed by absorbing too much American pop culture, Ricky confuses fantasy with reality and is rescued by Hec.

While Hunt for the Wilderpeople has several serious scenes, this film is full of confrontational humor. When Hec first rescues Ricky, the hungry boy hallucinates that he is talking to a giant hamburger. Throughout this rites of passage film, we see the growth of two disparate people who grow to genuinely love and respect each other.

While there has been much good word of mouth for The Secret Life of Pets, which opens this weekend with full Hollywood marketing hype, the Hunt for the Wilderpeople is not as visible but is worthy of seeking out. Director (and co writer) Taika Waititi will be a name to reckon with in the box office future.