Tag Archives: Elle Fanning

Trumbo

Trumbo is one of 2015’s best films. Its amazing story, its serious message and its sense of humor make it a “must see” for lovers of movies and movie history.

Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was a real-life screenwriter who wrote scripts for numerous hit movies. He was also a Communist. Along with like-minded members of the movie community such as actor Edward G. Robinson (Michael Stuhlberg) and writers Arlen Hurd (Louis CK) and Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan Tudyk), Trumbo went up against right-wingers like John Wayne (David James Elliott) and gossip queen Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) in Hollywood.

In one of the film’s memorable scenes, Hurd questions Trumbo about an apparent contradiction: he earns riches and enjoys the fruits of his labors while supporting the socialist philosophy of Communism. Another favorite scene features a confrontation between Trumbo and Wayne, in which Trumbo asks Wayne to let him remove his glasses first in case the Duke plans to punch him.

After World War II, Trumbo and other Hollywood figures are summoned to testify before Congress. Trumbo is held in contempt and incarcerated. Upon his return to L.A., because he is blacklisted, he has to work under assumed names. Much of that work is on “B-movies” for Frank King (John Goodman). Another favorite scene has King grabbing a baseball bat and menacing a right-winger who threatens to lead a boycott of King’s movies. Trumbo’s script for Roman Holiday (written under an alias) earned a screenwriting Oscar.

With love and support from his family, including wife Cleo (Diane Lane) and daughter Niki (Elle Fanning), Trumbo gradually edges back into the mainstream. Courageously, actor Kirk Douglas (Dean O’Gorman) and director Otto Preminger (Christian Berkel) step up and hire Trumbo to script Spartacus.

Trumbo deals with a serious topic but has many good laughs. Cranston plays the role with sincerity but a bit of bemusement at the way his career careens. The director is Jay Roach who directed the hilarious Austin Powers and Fockers movies.The script is by John McNamara.

Trumbo concludes with a heartfelt speech at an awards ceremony that allows Dalton Trumbo to say how he feels about what happened to him. In postwar America, just three decades after Russia’s revolution, there was serious concern about the threat of Communism. It is easy to look back now and see how the response to Trumbo’s activism was an gross overreaction.

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The Boxtrolls

 

The Boxtrolls is the best looking animated film to hit theaters in years. A combination of labor-intensive stop action filming and post-production CGI has brought forth a movie that’s filled with images of characters and settings that are brilliant in every sense of the word.

We are 20+ years into the Golden Age of Animation, which began with Disney megahit musicals (Aladdin, Lion King), gathered momentum with Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas and hit light speed with Pixar’s Toy Story. After those fallow decades when, because of TV’s less demanding visual needs, animators did their work on the cheap, studios began to deliver strong product and earned huge returns.

As has been shown over and over during this Golden Age, good looks and technical advances help the cause, but ultimate success still rests on a good story. Strong voice acting helps as well. The Boxtrolls hits the mark on all counts.

Boxtrolls are weird little creatures who live beneath the village of Cheesebridge. They come out at night and salvage junk to use in their underground lair. Because they wear boxes (and can hide within them, like a turtle in a shell), they are called boxtrolls. They may remind you in some ways of the minions in the Despicable Me movies.

A young boy called Egg (voiced by Isaac Hempstead-Wright) mysteriously appears among the boxtrolls who raise him as one of their own. Egg leads the boxtrolls to their confrontation with Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) who is the town’s boxtroll exterminator.

Snatcher’s burning desire is to share in a cheese tasting with the town’s elite. He has, however, a cheese allergy and his physical reactions are displayed with hilarious effects.

Winnie Portley-Rind (Elle Fanning), daughter of cheese connoisseur and leading citizen Lord Portley-Rind (Jared Harris), helps Egg expose the true nature of Snatcher’s work and reveal the good side of the boxtrolls. Other voice talents include Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Tracy Morgan.

The Boxtrolls, co-directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, comes from the Laika production company, the outfit that produced Coraline and ParaNorman.

For fans of animated film, The Boxtrolls is a “must see.” All the creative work comes together beautifully in a movie that is filled with delights. Happily, the technology does not overwhelm the storytelling but, instead, enhances it. I’ll say it again: Brilliant in every sense of the word.

 

 

 

 

 

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Maleficent

Like many of the fairy tales we heard as youngsters, Disney’s Maleficent contains some plot elements that are head-scratchers.

We meet the young Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy) when she’s an innocent girl fairy, living an idyllic life of flapping her wings and flying around an apparent paradise. She shares this happy universe with a number of creatures that look like refugees from Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies.

She forms a friendship with a human from the neighboring land of kings and queens, young Stefan (Michael Higgins). As they grow into teenagers, they continue as chums. But when they become adults, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie with cheeks sharp enough to slice bread) and Stefan (Sharlto Copley, who we met in District 9) see their relationship take a strange turn.

The dictionary definition of maleficent (“doing evil or harm; harmfully malicious”) gives a clue that things may not always continue to be goodness and light for her.

The king of Stefan’s home kingdom leads an ill-fated invasion of the fairyland and his guys are turned back thanks to Maleficent’s power. The king declares that whoever gets Maleficent’s wings will be king when he dies. Stefan, her old friend, sneaks in and manages to do the dirty deed and gains power while Maleficent loses some, but not all, of hers.

She places a curse on Stefan’s daughter Aurora (the remarkably cute Elle Fanning) that dooms her to go to sleep at age 16 and not be awakened until she gets a kiss that comes from true love. Aurora is raised in the woods by 3 fairies, characters that should be charming and memorable, but somehow lack those qualities.

Maleficent is always hovering nearby, monitoring the child’s growth. She has her sidekick Diavil (Sam Riley) alongside, turning him into whatever creature she fancies. He could pass for Orlando Bloom’s less good-looking younger brother.

Eventually, most of the characters live happily and others get by as they can. As mentioned, some of the things that happen are head-scratchers. For instance, just when we think we have Maleficent figured out, she changes her mind—like with that curse thing.

Maleficent is a good-not-great movie, with many wonderful and amazing images. Director Robert Stromberg’s lengthy movie resume is mainly as an effects guy. He does an excellent job of mixing live action by human actors with computer-generated effects.

But the big question remains: Is this movie too scary for little kids? I say yes. As an overprotective dad, I might’ve rated Maleficent PG-13. But it has been deemed PG. This ensures that a good number of little kids will have nightmares. Thank the MPAA, mom and dad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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