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Movie Review

J.R. Jones

Soldier of misfortune

Ralph Fiennes revives Shakespeare's military tragedy Coriolanus

Bleader: Film

Three teenage boys in a Seattle suburb gain the powers of telekinesis and super strength after encountering a mysterious alien life force, but instead of using these gifts to fight crime, they direct them against familiar teen problems like loneliness and abusive parents. As pulp sci-fi this Fox release is pretty good, but it’s also commendable for its sensitive depiction of adolescent behavior: even the bullying scenes avoid the caricature of most studio films. The story takes the form of one boy’s video diary, and though the fake DIY aesthetic is used more imaginatively here than in Cloverfield (2008), it still feels like a gimmick. Josh Trank directed a script by Max Landis (son of director John Landis).

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Film Now showing: Big Miracle

Posted by J.R. Jones on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 5:10 PM

This above-average children’s drama from Universal manages to hit all the right notes as an inspirational story and provides a savvy, even cynical account of an international media event. In October 1988, as the Bush-Dukakis presidential campaign neared the finish line, three gray whales were discovered trapped beneath rapidly forming ice in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, and as the national networks converged, the rescue effort pulled in such disparate actors as Greenpeace, Eskimo whalers, an oil company, the U.S. defense department, and icebreaking ships from the Soviet Union. Screenwriters Jack Amiel and Michael Begler adapted Tom Rose’s nonfiction book Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event—the subtitle has been scrapped from the movie’s advertising, but the balance of sweetness and skepticism is what sets this apart. Ken Kwapis directed, making good use of John Krasinski, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Baker, and Tim Blake Nelson. Trailer follows the jump.

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Film This week's movie action

Posted by J.R. Jones on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Heep big Indian brave Burt Reynolds in Navajo Joe (1966).

Heep big Indian brave Burt Reynolds in Navajo Joe (1966).

In the essay "Hamlet and His Problems," T.S. Eliot famously declared Coriolanus to be Shakespeare's greatest play. I'm not about to wade into that swamp (David Haglund has already led the charge with an interesting piece in Slate), but there's no question that Coriolanus is a thorny, brilliant drama with plenty to tell us about the friction between democracy and military might. Ralph Fiennes's new movie adaptation, the subject of this week's long review, opens Friday at Landmark's Century Centre.

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