Moana [2016]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-II)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McAleer) review
Los Angeles Times (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review

Moana [2016] (co-directed by Ron Clements, Don Hall, John Musker and Chris Williams, screenplay by Jared Bush, story by Ron Clements, John Musker, Chris Williams, Don Hall, Pamela Ribon, Aaron Kandell and Jordan Kandell) is a cute, positive and arguably empowering Disney animated feature, that nevertheless would probably cause some initial (and even some  lingering) concern for a fair number of Catholic / Christian parents.  Yet as with all challenges, IMHO it becomes an invitation for Parents and their Families to deepen their understanding of their own Faith, even as as they interact with greater knowledge with their friends and neighbors who may well be of differing Faiths and Cultural traditions.

The story here tells that of a Polynesian Princess heroine named Moana (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) who is  "Chosen by the Ocean" to "Restore the Original Order of Things" / "Save her People" and it is told from the perspective of the Polynesian Culture from which the story originates.

As such, right at the beginning of the film, Viewers are presented a non-Biblical (Polynesian-inspired) Creation story -- explaining (1) how things began (the Creation of the World as the Sea-Faring Polynesian People knew it) and (2) why things came to be the way they were (how if not Sin then at least Decay entered into the World...).  The introduction sets-up and informs the rest of the story.

At this point Christian Parents could find themselves somewhat challenged as to how to put this story into the context of the Christian Faith that they are trying to teach their kids.  Not only is the Polynesian Creation story rather (but not completely) different from those encountered in the first chapters of Genesis, but the Polynesian Creation story also has different characters:

In the Polynesian inspired Creation story presented: In the Beginning, when the world was but Ocean, it was the Goddess Te Fiti who Brought Life into the World, and then a Demigod named Maui (voiced in the film by Dwayne Johnson) pulled Islands out of the Ocean with his Fishhook on which People could live.     

Christian parents can be reminded here that the very first verse of the Bible begins with: "In the Beginning, when the Earth had no form, God's spirit breathed upon the Waters, and God said ..." (Genesis 1:1-2).  Later that God "made a dome to separate the 'Waters above' from those 'below' and called 'the Waters above Sky" (Genesis 1:6-8) and afterwards, "on the third day", God ordered collected "the Waters below into a single basin to make dry land appear, calling the Land  'Earth' and the Waters 'Sea.'" (Genesis 1:9-10).

I mention this to remind Readers here that the Polynesian inspired Creation story presented in this film is _not_ entirely unlike that of the Biblical one, each inspired, in good part, on the Experiences of the Cultures that invented them.  But I would continue then to _underline_ that there is certainly MORE being SAID in the Biblical Creation story (as probably in the Polynesian one) than simply presenting a "Flow Chart" for the Creation of the World.

This is because the Catholic Church, while appreciating, even Glorying in, the beautiful Symbolic Language of the first chapters of Genesis -- The First Chapter of Genesis is proclaimed in its Entirety as the First Reading at the Easter Vigil each year -- nonetheless considers their "Spirit" (their underlying Theology) more important than the "dead letter" of the Words [cf CCC #390].  What has been understood to be be the "underlying Theology" of the first chapter of Genesis?  That: (1) God Exists, (2) God Created Everything, (3) God Created Everything IN A PURPOSEFUL MANNER and WITH A PURPOSE IN MIND.  Indeed, the structure of the Genesis 1 account appears to be similar and arguably _a response to_ the Babylonian Creation account, the Enuma Elish, which had the world created as an "accidental result" of a "Cosmic War" (basically each time a Babylonian God or Goddess died in the course of the Cosmic Battle, something sprouted out of the Corpse...).  As such, at its core, the Biblical proclamation with regards to the Universe (All That Is) is that the Universe has a God-ordained Purpose / Meaning.  This would distinguish it from any number of other Creation stories interested in simply explaining "how things came to be."  

Further, while it _indeed_ "could be fun" for a Catholic / Christian family to compare Moana, the princess heroine in this film, TO MARY (also a teenager CHOSEN to HELP SAVE THE WORLD) and "demigod" Maui to a combination of Jesus (Son of God), the Greek god Prometheus (who also sought to help people / humanity), and even Lucifer (a powerful angel who got greedy), THE KEY DIFFERENCE between THE CURRENT DISNEY STORY and the STORY OF JESUS is that while FEW / NO ONE would argue that Moana / Maui "really existed" that's EXACTLY what we Christians proclaim about Jesus, THAT HE (and his human mother, Mary) REALLY DID: "The Word became Flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14).

Yes, that is AWESOME (in the True sense of the word) -- that Jesus would "embody," indeed INCARNATE God and (all that was Written about God) in our World in himself -- but then that's again EXACTLY what what the Church has Proclaimed about Jesus for 2000 years: that "[Christ Jesus] is the image of the invisible God" [Col 1:15] and was NOT "just a story" ... separating him from any number of other stories about other mythological, legendary or story-book heroes ... like the ones here in this film.

Anyway, "with all that in mind" ;-) ;-) ... enjoy the story here ;-).  It is really cute.  Little kids will _really like_ "the coconut people" ;-).

But please don't let this story (or others like it) "bring down your faith."

Jesus / Our Faith are in a different category ;-).  


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AFI FEST 2016 - 2 - Crosscurrent (orig. Chang jiang tu) [2016] / Godless (orig. Bezbog) [2016] / Layla M. [2016]

Among the films that played recently at the  2016 AFI Fest here in Hollywood, I was able to see the following:

Crosscurrent (orig. Chang jiang tu ) [2016] [IMDb] [AW] (written and directed by Yang Chao [IMDb] [AW]) is a visually beautiful, heavily Buddhism inspired reflection on timelessness and change as it follows the captain of a smallish-to-midsized family owned freighter taking a somewhat questionable cargo (a load of some kind of "illegal fish") up the Yangtze River from Shanghai to destination(s) ... _somewhere_ "West."

As he's about to start The Journey, he both spots / takes-note-of a beautiful if seemingly random Young Woman on a neighboring vessel in Port and comes across a Book of Poetry (imagine that) left by someone who had made that Journey, up the Yangtze River, some time before.

He then repeatedly runs into the Young Woman on his Journey and she always seems a step or two ahead of him.  And with regards to the Book, perhaps its most interesting characteristic would be that though written by someone who took this Journey Upriver as well, it was NOT ancient, but rather simply written by a random Sailor who made the Journey "in 1985."  But this would be classic Buddhism: What's 10, 20 or even a 1,000 years if one's talking of taking a Timeless Journey (if ever carried on the CHANGING Current of Time) ;-).  And indeed even since 1985, there were some fairly MASSIVE changes in the Geography of this Journey -- the Three Gorges Dam had since been built and some of the cities (!) referred to by the anonymous sailor were either inundated completely or moved.  And yet, there was the Eternal Yangtze River, changed "somewhat" but also Flowing as ever before.

Dear Readers, this is _not_ a "fast moving film."  Indeed, some of the critics have complained about its (to them) "lack of direction."  But as both a Travelogue -- the Buddhist shrines at Digang (Digangzhen) and Pengze, Zhang Fei Temple by Yunyang (moved recently as a result of the Three Gorges Dam), and  Fengdu are highlighted -- and as a Reflection on the Flow of Time, the film's really quite Excellent ;-) -- 4 Stars

Godless (orig. Bezbog) [2016] [IMDb] [CEu] (written and directed by Ralitza Petrova [IMDb] [CEu]) is a small, contemporary BULGARIAN film about the very traditional (orthodox) Christian themes of Conversion / Repentance and Redemption.  A young visiting "home care" nurse named Gana (Hanna, played by Irena Ivanova [IMDb] [CEu]) is introduced to Viewers as an already thoroughly "hardened by life" / cynical sort of person -- we see her "supplementing her income" by STEALING the I.D. cards of the elderly persons that she visits.  She gives the stolen I.D. cards to her boyfriend who in turn sells them to the Mob under the protection of 30-years-on corrupt local police official (hence he's "been in the trough" since BEFORE the fall of Communism) who then use the I.D. for all kinds of Identity Theft type crimes (draining bank accounts, taking out ridiculous loans in the old people's names, etc).  

Well, one of the new "old people" she's asked to start taking care of is an old, formerly jailed by the Communists, Choir Director of a small nearby Orthodox Church.  He invites her to hear his Choir, and it's THE FIRST TIME in a VERY LONG TIME that she's experienced ANYTHING so Innocent / Beautiful.  And so, yes, she starts to have a Crisis of Conscience.  Can she continue to rip-off her Elderly charges as she had so cynically / matter-of-factly done before?  And yet, she's ALSO "tied up with the mob" and so it's NOT EASY to "walk away."  Excellent, and naturally very sad film -- 3 1/2 Stars 

Layla M. [2016] [IMDb] [CEu] (directed and cowritten by Mijke de Jong [IMDb] [CEu] along with Jan Eilander [IMDb] [CEu]) is an excellent DUTCH "scared straight" style film about a young darker-skinned teenager named Layla (played with SPOT-ON teenage arrogance / naivité by Nora El Koussour [IMDb] [CEu]), the daughter of Moroccan immigrants but growing-up in Amsterdam, who despite being at least partially RIGHT about the racially inspired injustices that she and her friends / family experience, MAKES SOME TERRIBLY TRAGIC CHOICES: 

She runs off with her cute, slightly older, "knows a koranic verse or two" (but at HIS YOUNG AGE, ONLY "one or two...") / "just starting to grow a beard..." similarly young, coffee-and-milk-complected Arab-growing-up-in-Amsterdam boyfriend, who she "met online" hence UNDER THE RADAR of her already quite worried parents (They're NOT dumb, but short of locking her up, one simply _can't_ watch a kid _all the time_).  She marries him and, well, essentially _joins_ I.S.I.S. (!!) with him ... -- CHOICES that, of course, COME TO HAVE INCREDIBLY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES.  

The genius of the film is that it PLAYS IT STRAIGHT _all the way_ through.  Viewers completely understand this young girl ... AND YET by the end of the film NO ONE, not even the young potential real-life Laylas out there would miss the film's message: Layla made some REALLY, REALLY BAD CHOICES that for which she was going to pay: There's simply no future for the wife of a probable suicide bomber.  None, except PERHAPS blowing oneself us as well, and THAT by definition ENDS one's future right then and there.  So no growing-up, no kids, no life like your parents or other family.  And if one doesn't do that ... just a REALLY LONG TIME IN JAIL (or returning to become a rest-of-one's-life burden to one's family).  Excellent film -- 4+ Stars


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AFI Fest 2016 - 1 - Kill Me Please (Mate-me Por Favor) [2015] / Harmonium (orig. Fuchi ni tatsu) [2016] / Panamerican Machinery (orig. Maquinaria Panamericana) [2016]

 

Among the films that played recently at the  2016 AFI Fest here in Hollywood, I was able to see the following:

Kill Me Please (orig. Mate-me Por Favor) [2015] [IMDb] [AC.br]*(written and directed by Anita Rocha da Silveira [IMDb] [AC.br]*) is a campy (if still decidedly _upscale_ ...) BRAZILIAN John Hughes-like film about a group of 15 year-old girls living in an new subdivision of high-rises somewhere at the edge of Rio de Janeiro where there were RAPES/MURDERS, usually of young (often teenage) women, happening in the still existing scrublands all around.  Where were the parents?  Well, that appeared to be part of the problem.  In classic John Hughes-like fashion, they're not around.  The parents of Bia (played wonderfully by Valentina Herszage [IMDb] [AC.br]*) the film's heroine are divorced and though Bia's been living nominally with her mother and increasingly creepy / disheveled older brother, ma' has a new boyfriend (presumably somewhere "in the city") and so she's NEVER AROUND as are none of the other parents (and the teenagers' school teachers / coaches play nominal presences in their lives).  So the teens, not unlike the teenagers in The Maze Runner [2014] are left pretty much to their own devices even as there are truly inexplicable things -- RAPES / MURDERS -- taking place "in the scrublands" / "bushes" ALL AROUND.

Since this is a contemporary Brazilian film, religion does play a role.  It's a somewhat goofy one, but not altogether disrespectful.  After all there were TERRIBLE THINGS happening "all around" and so the teenagers would come together to pray -- in a wildly exaggerated teen-oriented charismatic / evangelical manner.  But then, honestly, in the absence of any parents or any other credible civil authority, it became a totally reasonable response to a terribly frightening situation.

All in all, the film could make for an entry to a VERY INTERESTING film festival / series featuring young women directors focusing on the experiences of young women today.  Other entries could include The Virgin Suicides [1998] and The Bling Ring [2015] by Sofia Coppola,  A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2014] by Iranian-American Ana Lily Amirpour, Girlhood (orig. Band de Filles) [2014] by Franchwoman Céline Sciamma and the Oscar nominated Mustang [2015] by Turkish-French director Deniz Gamze Ergüven... -- 3 Stars

Harmonium (orig. Fuchi Ni Tatsu) [2016] [IMDb] [AW] (written and directed by Kôji Fukada [IMDb] [AW]) is an Cannes En Certain Regard award winning JAPANESE psychological thriller about a recently released prisoner named Kusataro Yasaka (played spectacularly with quite / unspoken RAGE - by Tadanobu Asano [IMDb] [AW]) who after serving-out a sentence of some 10 years, decides to reenter the life of his once best friend Toshio Suzuoka (played by Kanji Furutachi [IMDb] [AW]).

For his part, Toshio has spent the last 8-10 years building his life, having taken over his (Toshio's) since deceased father's machine-shop business, gotten married to a lovely, quite innocent-proper / morally straight (Protestant Christian) wife Fumie (played again wonderfully by Mariko Tsutsui [IMDb] [AW]) and together with Fumie has come to have a cute-as-a-button 8-year-old daughter named Hutaru (played by Momone Shinokawa [IMDb] [AW]).

And yet, there, one day, at the front day of his shop, stands ... Toshio's once BFF Kusataro and ... Kusataro asks Toshio for some help.  How can Toshio refuse?  And yet ... of course ... Fumie, his wife, knows NOTHING of who this former best friend, was.  And yet (again), she's a lovely, young, humble Christian wife/mother who's been taught to trust / defer to her husband and (also) to be kind to and "help the stranger."

Of course this can't possibly go well, and (mild Spoiler Alert...) IT DOESN'T.  Still one can not but feel for the wife, Fumie, who, after all, HAS DONE EVERYTHING ACCORDING TO THE WAY SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO, and yet, WHAT A NIGHTMARE UNFOLDS ALL AROUND HER.  Great and often _very sad_ film -- 3 1/2 Stars.

Panamerican Machinery (orig. Maquinaria Panamericana) [2016] [IMDb] [FA.es]* (directed and screenplay cowritten by Joaquin del Paso [IMDb] [FA.es]*) is an award winning feature-length MEXICAN parable / social satirical piece that played recently at the 2016 AFI Fest here in Hollywood:

The President of a quite random if also quite large "Civil Engineering Firm" just one day ... dies.  He's just found dead in his chair one morning.

Well, needless to say, the employees are "shocked" as they would naturally be upon hearing of the sudden death of any boss, coworker or acquaintance of theirs.  However, soon it becomes clear that this death was going to have more impact on their lives than other such deaths as they are informed by the Firm's chief accountant (and snake of a man) (played wonderfully by Javier Zaragoza [IMDb] [FA.es]*) that the Firm "hasn't produced anything in years" and had existed only because of the now dead boss lazily kept it afloat with his own money.  But OMG, now he's dead.  What now?

The chief accountant recommends that the employees all barricade themselves in the firm's compound (while _he_ burns all its financial records ;-).  A random, public accountant comes by for random accounting business.  The employees "arrest her," tie her up and throw her into a bathroom which starts to serve as a make-shift jail.  One or another of the employees gets the sense to try to just leave ... After all, her job (like everybody else's in the place) is now over.  Why not just try to start anew?  Again, the hysterical employees catch her before she "jumps the fence" and throw _her_ into their make-shift jail as well.

Why are they doing this?  Can't THEY ALL see that their future at this firm is over?  Well, obviously they're scared.  But scared of what?  Scared of the future?  Scared of having to have to work again?   Just complacent?  The film does make for an amusing social commentary -- 3 1/2 Stars 


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser. 

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The Edge of Seventeen [2016]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (O)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B+)  Fr. Dennis (1/2 Star)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
Los Angeles Times (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (J. Hessenger) review


The Edge of Seventeen [2016] (written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig) while NOT as completely awful as The To Do List [2013] continues a string of more-or-less obviously culturally left-wing propaganda pieces trying to be "next generation John Hughes"-like productions.

In the current film, otherwise promising young actress Hailee Steinfeld plays Nadine an already socially awkward sixteen year-old "with a story" -- her dad (played by Eric Keenleyside), who she dearly loved / counted on, died of suddenly of a heart-attack when she was 13 -- is driven to the edge when her best and arguably only friend Krista (played by Haley Lu Richardson) suddenly starts dating Nadine's hot/far more popular older brother Darian (played by Blake Jenner):

Shocked, dismayed, threatened, Nadine pleads: "Krista, it's either me or him.  It can't be both.  I've had your back for nearly 10 years, and my brother's an a-hole.  You have to choose ... now."    

Shocked now as well and offended by the threat, Krista picks ... you know ... and the rest of the film unspools from there.

Now, what would there be to _not_ like about a film with a set-up like this?  Almost ANY viewer would immediately identify with Nadine's feelings / situation.

The problem that I had with the film was with the soullessness of what follows.  To the cultural Left, God MUST be Dead.  And to be honest, if the film at least just left God "dead," I'd have far kinder words to say about the film -- even if the film, more or less obviously presents a case of "a teenage Job" ;-).  Instead, the film's maker(s) need to have God ridiculed:

In a totally gratuitous scene, Nadine is shown SITTING ON THE TOILET and THERE decides for some reason to PRAY.  Yet two seconds into her "prayer" she returns to complaining to God about how HE was "never there for her."  And at the end of her "prayer" and apparently her "movement" she reaches for the toilet paper and ...

Liberals reading this Blog, if you ever doubt WHY Donald Trump was elected President THINK OF THAT SCENE.  That was 2 minutes offered to MILLIONS of _captive viewers_ THAT DID NOTHING (added NOTHING to the story) BUT GRATUITOUSLY INSULT THE FAITH OF TENS OF MILLIONS OF SAID VIEWERS.   That's why Donald Trump is President -- because of DECADES of stupid, gratuitous insults (OVER and OVER) such as this.   

Franco too, did not become DICTATOR in Spain in a vacuum.  He BECAME the REASONABLE CHOICE for Spain because the Left CHOSE to "shoot up nuns."  Say what???  Yes, the looney Communists of Spain would STORM CONVENTS and _shoot-up nuns_ ... in up-to-then Super CATHOLIC Spain.  One of the nuns they shot-up in this way, María Francisca Ricart Olmos, OSM is now a Blessed from my religious order (the Servites).  Generally speaking, when a Party chooses to pointlessly / gratuitously _shoot-up nuns_, they literally LOSE "THE WAR" ...

I mention this because Left often has an utter blindness as to how they piss people off.  It doesn't take "a Racist" to get PISSED-OFF at the sight of NUNS being shot-up.  It doesn't take "a Racist" to get pissed-off at the depiction of "Prayer as Bowel Movement."

And that is why I am disappointed and ANGRY that those who could have made a very good film here CHOSE to STUPIDLY CHEAPEN IT by _making it_ a CULTURAL LEFT-WING PROPAGANDA PIECE. 

With sadness ... 1/2 Star.


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Bleed For This [2016]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (O)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J.P. McCarthy) review
Los Angeles Times (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review


Bleed For This [2016] (directed and screenplay by Ben Younger, screen story by Ben Younger, Angelo Pizzo and Pippa Bianco) is an appropriately R-rated (Parents please do note ...) quite-to-thoroughly-engrossing biopic / blue collar boxing movie.  Simplifying things _a bit_, the film tells the story of the truly stunning comeback of boxer Vinny Paz / Pazienza (played to Oscar Nomination worthy heights by Miles Teller).

Vinny Paz / Pazienza would not have become deserving of a movie about his life (but then _absolutely_ so) if not for (1) what happened to him (a few weeks after winning the WBA middle weight boxing title, he got into a head-on car crash leaving him with a broken neck) and (2) how he responded to it (DESPITE HAVING A BROKEN NECK, and having to wear a mechanical contraption called "a halo" attached to his torso / skull FOR SIX MONTHS so that his neck bones would heal, he never gave up his desire to return to boxing and _recapturing_ his title, which .. GO SEE THE MOVIE).

I mean MOVIES EXIST FOR MOVIES LIKE THIS.  It really is an absolutely incredible story about truly _never_ giving up.

Now there are problems with the movie, among them THE (FOUL) LANGUAGE.  Now Dear Readers do understand that I grew-up in Chicago and just spent the last 12 years back in Chicago serving at a lovely if also linguistically colorful blue collar / ethnic parish in Chicago, so I'm largely "tone deaf" to expletives.  But I do have to agree with the reviewer for the USCCB (Catholic Bishops' Conference) website (link as always above) who does complain about the language.  EVEN IF such language is (kinda) "real," it's certainly NOT edifying.  And honestly, it's a bit exaggerated, as are hookers and strippers all around in the film.  Again, Parents do note that this is an R-rated film and deservedly so ...

Still it is one heck of a story, just one that one (unlike the Rocky movies) one would be insane to show to a twelve year old ...

Good job folks, but you also should be somewhat ashamed ...


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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-II)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
Los Angeles Times (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review


Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [2016] (directed by David Yates, screenplay by J.K. Rowling [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb] based on her book written under pseudonym [GR] [WCat] [Amzn]) is a generally fun Harry Potter prequel that also would seem to have borrowed visually / conceptually from the Men in Black movies, and thematically from Marvel Comics X-Men series.

Set in Prohibition Era New York of the 1920s, the "Wizarding community" States-side at the time is portrayed in the film as being decidedly _underground_ if also quite _thriving_.  Yes, there was a fairly prominent / loud "Anti-Wizarding" movement (which in many respects looked like any/all "anti-Vice" movements of the time).  Yet, as with Prohibition itself at the time, there was a "live and let live" attitude taken by the Authorities: so long as the Wizarding community "kept to itself" (didn't "cause trouble" / didn't "flaunt" its presence publicly) the civil Authorities left it alone, indeed, to the point that the "Wizarding community" was portrayed as having its own (underground) "parallel government."

The existence of this "parallel government" is actually / interestingly shown as causing its own problems ... those "at the top" of this "parallel social pyramid" / "government" actually seemed to _want_ to "keep things the way they were" with Magic "repressed" and the "Wizarding community" remaining "underground".  Why?  Because said repression actually kept _them_ "the Elites" in this community "in charge."  Fascinating ;-)

But this repression had its costs, especially on "the young" of the "wizarding community" as they had (unsurprisingly) difficulty "repressing" their "magical powers."

So into this just under the surface "pot boiler" enters an English "Magi-zoologist" named Newt Scamander (played quite wonderfully in a slightly "fish out of water" sense by Eddie Redmayne).  He comes to the States with a suitcase full of strange "Fantastic Beasts" knowing that, yes, they were _nominally_ "illegal" but really _not with a clue_ as to what kind of a chaos he's bringing to the States with his very peculiar "baggage."  A few of his magical beasts "get out" of his bag, and ... the rest of the story ensues ;-).

Among that which ensues is Newt's running into an America circa-1920s "every man" named Jacob Kowalski (played wonderfully, if honestly, why didn't the film-makers CAST AN ACTUAL POLISH AMERICAN ACTOR TO PLAY THE ROLE, by Dan Fogler) who enters the story with "a very little Dream" of opening up a small "Polish style Bakery" (in part in honor of his sainted, once baking, grandmother) and found to his dismay that it was _not_ going to be easy to get "a start-up loan" -- with the Quintessentially "Anglo" banker telling him in effect "to make money son, you're gonna have to have money to begin with."

AS A MILD SPOILER, Kowalski's running into the parallel Wizarding World does actually come to help him out.  But before he finds said help, he's plunged into an "Alice in Wonderland" world that before entering it, he honestly would have never ever imagined.  All he had wanted to do is to quit his job "at the cannery" and "sell PACZKIS (pronounced "poonchkis") for a living" in honor of his sainted grandmother.  (Dear Readers, if you haven't had pączki (basically a Polish style "Bismark" or "Danish") in your life, YOU HAVE MISSED OUT ;-).  And yet, before he could get to open his little Polish bakery, what Marvels he had to witness / endure ...  

Anyway, the film becomes an interesting social parable reminding us of the various parallel subcultures that exist around us and the ultimate value of "helping each other out" even if we don't necessarily understand all that is going on in the said subcultures around us.

So, set nominally in 1920s New York, and largely about "Wizarding" ... it's a story that's remains largely "about us" even today.

Good job folks, pretty good job ;-).


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Arrival [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McCarthy) review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan) review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico) review
AVClub (A.A.Dowd) review


Arrival [2016] directed by Denis Villeneuve, screenplay by Eric Heisserer, based on the story "Story of your Life" [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Ted Chiang [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a quite thoughtful / cerebral (read also rather _slow moving_ if beautifully shot) "first contact" Sci-Fi story that has _much more in common_ with 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968] than, well, the shoot-em-up Independence Day [1996, 2016] scenarios.

This is not to say that the arrival of twelve _enormous_ stone monolith-like objects from (...??) to earth, piloted apparently by a race of "septopods" (with _big_ octopus-like heads and seven elephant-trunk-like appendages), was not scary.  And yes, governments / intelligence services all around the world were scrambling to get answers to the obvious questions: Why were they here?  Where did they come from?  What did they want?

Yet, when U.S. Army Colonel Weber (played dead-on by Forest Whitaker) comes, hat-in-hand, to Ivy-League linguistics professor Dr. Louise Banks (played wonderfully by Amy Adams), it's clear that getting answers to these urgent questions was not going to be easy:  How do these aliens communicate at all?

The film becomes a fascinating meditation on the very nature of language, taking adage that "every language we learn gives us a new/different way of perceive the world" to a, well, SciFi-ish extreme ;-).  Still one fascinating if certainly "cerebral" (if also beautifully shot) movie.

Good job!


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