Movie Review: “Tomorrowland”

Tomorrowland

“This is a story about the future, and the future can be scary” — the somewhat ominous first words from John Francis “Frank” Walker (George Clooney), at the opening of Brad Bird’s latest opus. Rather than bringing us straight to the shiny future teased in the movie’s trailers, “Tomorrowland” truly begins with a visit to the past, 1964 to be exact, and the World’s Fair in New York. Young Frank (Thomas Robinson) makes his appearance at a booth for the vetting of inventions, and when a taciturn Nix (Hugh Laurie) seems to find every reason to turn down Frank’s only-barely-not-working jet pack, a sweet young pixie named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) chases him down and coyly offers him a second chance to impress with his technology.

Athena hands Frank a pin with a “T” on it and orders him to follow her from a safe distance, while she then dashes ahead to the “It’s a Small World” ride (which actually debuted at the real-life 1964 Fair). Frank manages to scamper onto one of the boats and the pin ensures that he’s spirited away to a world straight out of every futuristic drawing ever produced (or perhaps from the pen of the designer of London’s Shard), where his jet pack manages to save his life almost immediately upon arrival. Frank and Athena are soon reunited and, as much as Nix dourly regards Frank, he’s unable to deny that Frank has some techno skills.

 

Young Frank and Athena at the World's Fair

The younger Frank (Thomas Robinson) talking about his jet pack with Athena (Raffey Cassidy)

 

Skip now to present day, where Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) is trying to sabotage the demolition of a NASA launch platform at Cape Canaveral to stave off a future that puts her engineer father out of work. “It’s hard to have ideas…and easy to give up,” she says. Given how the rest of the movie goes, I’m inclined to agree with her. Over the course of the two hour and ten minute-long film, Casey goes on your standard hero quest through space and time–to the point where I started to wonder if Bird himself gave up and just dropped scenes and concepts from “Back to the Future II”, “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief”, “Contact”, and “The Lorax” into the largest blender he could find.

 

Casey in the wheat field

Casey (Britt Robertson) seemingly transported to a field wheat

 

A strangely un-aged Athena plants a pin on Casey, who soon discovers that it has the power to show her a transformed world with the lovely dichotomy of a super-futuristic city surrounded by fields of completely untended wheat. As it happens, the pin is merely an ad; it shows Casey the visuals but none of it is real. When the time runs out on the hallucination (or very intricate hologram), she finds she’s mostly waded into a swamp. One quick internet search later, she finds a place that may have answers about the vision from the pin: a nerdtopia of a store called “Blast from the Past”, run by Ursula (Kathryn Hahn) and Hugo (Keegan-Michael Key).

It’s once you get to “Blast from the Past” that “Tomorrowland” veers firmly off the “OK for Small Kids” path, when a variety of killbots sporting hyper-bleached toothy grins begin the first of several lengthy appearances, blowing up things left, right and center, and placing Casey firmly in danger. Athena helps save the teenaged heroine, aiding her escape and setting her on the path to meeting up with Frank, at which point the strange story takes turns both predictable and disappointing.

 

Frank and Casey in Frank's house

Older Frank (George Clooney) and Casey (Britt Robertson) having one of many arguments

 

The pairing of Casey and Frank goes well enough, but at this point the story itself becomes too much of an unoriginal hot mess to match with some of Bird’s earlier work (such as “The Incredibles”, which is Bird and Pixar both firing on all cylinders). As much as Frank initially resists Casey’s pleas for help to get to the city of the pin’s visions, he soon wholeheartedly jumps into her quest and all too slowly reveals why it is that he no longer resides in the utopia she glimpsed. The remaining threads of the story then pull together in a manner well-telegraphed to those paying attention.

On the plus side, the casting was fairly well done. Robertson is plucky and adorable (sort of a Jennifer Lawrence-lite), and Clooney plays “get off my lawn” rather well for someone who started out his career as a heart-throb. Cassidy plays Athena just right, and the combination of Key and Hahn needs to get its own TV show (or she needs to be a regular on “Key and Peele”). The visuals of the shiny city with multilevel pools and flying everything are gorgeous, although occasionally the green screening doesn’t quite work as well as it should.

Where “Tomorrowland” falls below expectations is in how often it spends too much time wallowing in misery over discarded gadgets and people, showing the myriad ways one can disable a grinning killbot, and lecturing everyone on how little we appreciate everything around us. Meanwhile, it gives short shrift to the future promised by the eponymous “land”, in particular leaving a whole piece of what’s happening in that city completely unexplained, and the writers maddeningly deny Laurie’s Nix the opportunity to chew all the scenery within reach. Talk about not appreciating something right in front of you.

As far as the question of whether “Tomorrowland” is okay to watch with kids, I’d recommend it for children 8 years or older. Below that age, some of the violent scenes may be too disturbing. It’s actually somewhat difficult to tell which age range is the target for “Tomorrowland”, since portions of it are fairly kid-oriented but the action scenes are really too much for the smaller set. Perhaps all that jumping around between the past, present, and “future” has “Tomorrowland” just as confused as the rest of us.

 

2-1/2 out of 4 stars

“Tomorrowland” opens nationwide on May 22, 2015. This movie is rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action and peril, thematic elements, and language.

 

Movie Review: “Of Dice and Men”

Of Dice and Men

Full Disclosure Notice: I have known Cameron McNary since high school, where he was one year behind me. We lost touch when I went off to college and reconnected on Facebook a few years ago. Cam talked on Facebook about the play he wrote, “Of Dice and Men”, and I have made small contributions to his staging of the play at PAX Prime and to the making of this film. However, my friendship with Cam and my contributions have no effect on how or what I write. I’m only saying all this in the interest of transparency. I actually probably judge the work more harshly than if I didn’t know Cam at all – and had I not known him, it’s unlikely I would’ve planned to do a review, since I can’t make it to any of the official screenings. There. The DISCLOSURE is now over. On with the rest of the show.

“Of Dice and Men” is a cheeky and sweet look at what happens when a group of friends who game together are impacted by choices made by two of the trio at the center of the group. Based on a play of the same name which debuted in a staging at the PAX Prime convention in 2010, “Of Dice and Men” focuses primarily on two characters: the sweet, sensitive John Francis (Evan Casey), and his foul-mouthed, oafish BFF, John Alex (Cameron McNary). The rest of the gang is comprised of: Jason (Ricardo Frederick Evans), John Francis and John Alex’s close childhood friend; Tara (Gwen Grastorf), the lovely and sweet would-be object of John Francis’ affection; and the married couple of Linda (Rebecca Herron) and Brandon (“One Tree Hill”‘s Greg Thompson) – a hysterically funny, hyper-sexed couple that plays together and stays together.

 

John Francis

John Francis (Casey) monologues about being a Game Master

 

The movie opens with John Alex discovering John Francis packing for a move to Berkeley, and your first taste of their friendship is riddled with John Alex’s f-bombs and gesticulations. Clearly he is the “Jay” to John Francis’ (nearly) “Silent Bob”. The next few scenes fill in the backstory, including introductions to the group’s game characters – a halfling, a half-elf wizard, a dwarf, a barbarian, and a cleric. To a certain extent, those who’ve never gamed before, particularly with Dungeons and Dragons, will find themselves lost in the minutiae of the gaming characters’ presentation. The concepts of “hit points” and “rolling for damage” haven’t yet made it to a broad pop culture lexicon, but the unrequited love between John Francis and Tara is easy to understand. In many ways, a brief scene showing all the missed connections between the two is instantly relatable.

 

Tara demonstrates her geek cred

Tara (Grastorf) gives the “Are you for real, dude?” look as she is forced to demonstrate geek cred to a game store employee

 

The majority of interaction takes place at Linda and Brandon’s dining room table – where miniature figures, graph paper, pencils, and scads of dice cover the tabletop. It is here that you see the game characters reflecting parts of each person’s real personality, such as Linda’s randy Scottish dwarf (who will regale you with tales of genital girth and length for days) or Tara’s wispy wizard who dies at the drop of a hat. Brandon, who games only because of his love for his wife, makes a choppy, hesitant barbarian – yet he is, in real life, clearly a thoughtful and strong person.

One night’s gaming results in a fracture when Jason announces that he enlisted in the Marines and is headed for Iraq. John Alex is visibly hurt and lashes out at Jason, and this confrontation makes for a jarring end mid-way through the gaming session. John Francis withholds his own announcement until the following day, dealing with the personal aftermath individually – as friends one-by-one come to his rented room to find him partially packed for a move he’d planned for weeks but never said was coming. The play was inspired by McNary’s best friend shipping off to Iraq around the same time that he was getting married and establishing himself as a real grown-up, so it’s clear that the angst of John Francis and the anger of John Alex represent very real feelings McNary surely experienced.

 

John Alex as Spango and Jason as Kester

John Alex (McNary) as halfling Spango Granetkiller, with Jason (Evans) as Kester, pondering certain doom at Jason’s last night of gaming with the group

 

The movie ponders the question of whether gaming has any purpose or meaning, and though it largely leaves that open to interpretation by the individual, it makes a strong case for it – or any hobby or interest – as having value to those who participate in it. The relationships built between those led through the worlds created by Game Master John Francis all love him, and love each other, and the bonds between them are renewed each time they come together around the table with their dice and miniature pewter selves. The movie is a study of characters with characters, and so it operates on several levels. It screens like a play (which makes sense, given its source material), so there are times where scenes fade to black almost abruptly. On the other hand, several nice touches – such as the graph paper background for the credits and the fantasy world backgrounds for character intros – are clever nods to the geek culture that continues to thrive and sustain gaming.

I would recommend making it to a viewing, if attending one of the several conventions screening the movie (see below). It’s unclear whether the movie will make it out of the con circuit, and it’s also equally unclear to me that it would resonate with a broader audience where gaming might not be as widespread. Still, it’s a sweet indie film and it was clearly made with love of friendship and of gameplay. What more would anyone need to prove whether gaming matters?

“Of Dice and Men” will next be screened at Gen Con 2014 on August 15, 2014, Intervention Con on August 23, 2014, Dragon*Con 2014 (screening date/time TBD, sometime between August 29 – September 1, 2014), and PAX Prime on August 31, 2014. More information about screenings can be found at the official “Of Dice and Men” website.

2-1/2 stars out of 4

“Of Dice and Men” is currently rated PG-13; it contains frequent use of profanity and one scene with mild violence. 

Movie Review: “The Hundred-Foot Journey”

Hundred Foot Journey

The opening of “The Hundred-Foot Journey” immediately transports viewers to a location evoking all five senses: a bustling, chaotic Indian marketplace where shoppers compete for the best ingredients for their kitchens. A crowd envelops a vendor offering urchins, arguing their case to justify their right to purchase – when the seller stops them all and agrees to sell to the mother of the young Hassan Kadam, who has opened an urchin and is savoring each taste with nearly sensual relish. Hassan is a cooking prodigy, urged on by his mother – the matriarch of the family and the head chef at the family’s restaurant in Mumbai.

Following a post-election riot, tragedy strikes and both the restaurant and Hassan’s beloved mother are lost in a fire. The family flees India and heads to Europe, taking refuge first in Holland, followed immediately by England. Deeply unsatisfying attempts to grow roots in their new environs lead the family back to the mainland, this time to France. A chance brake failure strands the Kadams just outside Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, in the south of France, and the young Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon of “Mood Indigo”, an amazing ringer for a young Winona Ryder) tows them to town.

 

Marguerite feeding the Kadams

Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon) offers the stranded Kadams a homemade feast

 

Hassan’s brother and sisters are eager to leave, but their eccentric father, played by Om Puri (“Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Gandhi”), insists on establishing a restaurant in an abandoned building on the edge of town. This gorgeous farmhouse has the unpleasant disadvantage of being directly across the street, exactly one hundred feet away, from Le Saule Pleurer (translation: “The Weeping Willow”), a high-class establishment that garnered a star from le Guide Michelin. As Marguerite explains, “one star [from Michelin] is good, two is amazing, and three is only for the gods.”

 

Kadam family arguing

The Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri, far left) and anchored by Hassan (Manish Dayal, far right standing), argues over whether to settle in the south of France

 

Le Saule Pleurer’s owner is the taciturn Madame Mallory, a widow with a heart of ice and a burning desire to garner another Michelin star. Madame Mallory is played by the sublime Dame Helen Mirren (“Red”, “Red 2” and – the first place I saw her – “White Nights”), whose failed French accent is the sole flaw in her otherwise fantastic performance. The fully grown and strikingly handsome Hassan (Manish Dayal of “White Frog” and the “90210” reboot) continues to thrive in the kitchen, turning the family’s Maison Mumbai into a destination worthy of attention. With Marguerite a sous chef for Le Saule Pleurer, Hassan and Marguerite find themselves on opposite sides of a quickly simmering war between the two restaurant owners, Papa on one side and Madame Mallory on the other.

 

Hassan studies French cooking

Hassan (Manish Dayal) studies les livres de cuisine lent to him by Marguerite

 

Hassan eagerly devours the French cookbooks Marguerite snuck over to him, learning the key sauces, ingredients and techniques needed to prepare fine French cuisine. (I’m nearly positive one of them is Le Cordon Bleu Cuisine Foundations, and if Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking isn’t one of them – it should be.) The two young chefs have more and more surreptitious rendezvous, including one where Marguerite confides what is required to prove cooking chops to Madame Mallory. Meanwhile, moves and countermoves by the two restaurants’ generals escalate until a breaking point is reached – xenophobes deface the wall outside Maison Mumbai and set a fire that temporarily injures Hassan. During his convalescence, Hassan manages to break down the divide between himself and Madame Mallory, proving to her that he has the talent to make it in her storied kitchen and finally getting her to admit that he is “more chef than anyone [she] has met.” This begins his personal journey of discovery, not just for Hassan but also for Marguerite, Papa and Madame Mallory.

 

Madame Mallory in her kitchen

Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) is not amused by limp asparagus

 

“The Hundred-Foot Journey” is a lovely film, neither too lighthearted nor too depressing. The charm of the south of France is seasoned with beautiful scenes in marketplaces and lush forests, and the time spent in the kitchen seems like a missed opportunity to bring back “Smell-o-Vision”, though lovers of French and Indian cuisines (like myself) can easily imagine the rich scents wafting up from the pots and pans scattered on stovetops in both restaurants. The actors are all superb, although it helps that excellent talent is paired with a humorous, sweet script. My only beefs with the movie, and they’re sized more like an amuse-bouche, are Mirren’s dodgy accent and the fairly maudlin ending. Still, these are insufficient reasons to spurn this film; it was surely one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. As far as whether or not to bring kiddos, there are a couple of scary scenes – particularly the two attacks on the Kadam family restaurants – but otherwise it’s a family-friendly movie. Consider “The Hundred-Foot Journey” a very solid investment of two hours and something worth ordering again and again.

3-1/2 stars out of 4

“The Hundred-Foot Journey” opens nationwide starting August 8, 2014. This movie is rated PG for thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality.