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Arts MOVIES from page 41
PENGUINS What’s it rated? G Where’s it showing? Galaxy, Stadium 10 Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson co-direct this documentary about Steve, an Adélie penguin on a quest to find a mate and start a family. Ed Helms narrates. (76 min.) —Glen
New
PET SEMATARY What’s it rated? R What’s it worth? Rent it Where’s it showing? Downtown Centre, Galaxy, Stadium 10 Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer (Holidays, Starry Eyes, Absence) co-direct this new adaptation of the Stephen King novel about a supernatural burial ground. When Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) and his wife, Rachel (Amy Seimetz), move from Boston to rural Maine with their two children, they soon discover something weird is going on in the forest near their home. I sure wish movies could still scare me. I remember being freaked out as a kid, my imagination run amok, but I don’t believe in the occult, so these days, horror movies never horrify me. That said, there are some creepy moments in this second adaptation of King’s Pet Sematary, a few good jump scares, some good acting and directing, but as far as delivering real chills, nope. Nada. The whole point of the story is the mystery of what lies beyond this mortal coil. Rachel, whose sister died young, wants to shield her daughter, Ellie (Jeté Lawrence), from the thought of death and talks about heaven, but Louis thinks making up stories about an afterlife is wrong and states matter-of-factly that nothing exists after death. When Ellie’s cat, Church, is hit by a truck, their neighbor, Jud (John Lithgow), helps Louis bury the animal in a special plot of land, and the next day Church magically reappears. He’s a bit tattered and worse for wear, but more importantly, he does not act like the same cat, yet Jud and Louis think they’ve saved Ellie from the pain of death. If you know anything about Stephen King, you know it’s just a matter of time before someone precious dies, and someone has the bright idea to plant that someone in the resurrecting ground. “They don’t come back the same,” Jud ominously intones. He’s right. Unfortunately, raising the dead isn’t as exciting or scary as it sounds. The film’s watchable but not exceptionally so, and many viewers will know the story from either the book or the 1989 film of the same name, for which King wrote the screenplay, so it’s predictable. For their part, directors Kölsch and Widmyer, and writers Matt Greenberg and Jeff Buhler, mix up the story a bit, so even if you know King’s tale, there are a few surprises to be had, but fundamentally it’s the same idea: We don’t know what lies beyond life, and we probably shouldn’t know! In general the family seems sort of cursed. Louis, a former emergency room doctor who has taken a job as a college physician, is soon haunted by a college student who was hit by a car, and who Louis couldn’t save. Rachel is haunted by her dead sister. Their sprawling new property is haunted by a weird burial ground. Their poor kids are in for a real terror ride. Gage (Hugo Lavoie) is too young to know what’s going on, but Ellie definitely wants to go back to Boston. Jeté Lawrence is really good in the role. She looks like a young Sissy Spacek, and the script gives her a lot to do, especially in the film’s final third. Clarke as Louis is also good—he’s a man being forced to confront his entrenched beliefs, a rational man who discovers his world is no longer rational. This new adaptation is certainly better than a lot of recent horror films, but it’s nowhere near as good as some inventive new entries
At the Movies into the genre, such as Overlord (2018), A Quiet Place (2018), Hereditary (2018), It Comes at Night (2017), 10 Cloverfield Lane (2017), Get Out (2017), or Us (2019). If you love King or you love horror, spring for a matinee, but I’d be happier paying the rental price. (101 min.) —Glen
THE PUBLIC What’s it rated? R What’s it worth? Matinee Where’s it showing? The Palm Emilio Estevez (The Way, Bobby) does it all as the writer, director, producer, and lead character Stuart Goodson, a librarian who helps a group of homeless men stage an act of civil disobedience by staying in a public library after hours to avoid the freezing cold. This film toys with society’s views on several issues, including how we’re handling homeless shelters, the homeless population in general, political figures using everyday issues to their advantage, social media, and fake news. With all these topics in mind, the film doesn’t do the best job of cohesively weaving them together. It all begins with a weather report that Cincinnati is bracing for a bitter cold snap, the warming shelters are filling up, and two homeless individuals have already died from the plummeting temperatures. Next we’re introduced to Stuart, who works at the Cincinnati Public Library, a place for information seekers and a refuge for the homeless during the winter season. Stuart knows and talks to almost all the homeless, who he refers to as his “regulars” and who wait until the library opens to use the restrooms, read, or use the computers quietly. They’re respectful aside from the one or two who suffer from a mental illness, like the man who sang “I Can See Clearly Now” in his birthday suit. It’s a relatively normal day until closing time, when Jackson (Michael Kenneth Williams)— one of the regulars—informs Stuart that he and large group of individuals won’t be leaving the library, as they don’t have anywhere to go. The situation is seen as a lockdown, prompting detective Bill Ramstead (Alec Baldwin) to come in and negotiate with the group. Coincidentally, Ramstead is looking for his son, who’s homeless and dealing with addiction. The situation also calls for prosecutor and mayoral candidate Josh Davis (Christian Slater) to diffuse the situation. Side note—Davis already has a negative outlook on Stuart as Stuart is part of a lawsuit where he and another employee asked a patron to leave the library on account of his odor. Davis sees this as an advantage for his candidacy and feeds negative information of Stuart’s criminal record to skew news coverage of the lockdown. A lazy TV reporter (Gabrielle Union) preoccupied with getting online “clicks” goes along with painting a negative picture of
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PHOTO COURTESY OF SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT
ANTIHERO Well-meaning half-demon Hellboy (David Harbour) must stop an undead sorceress from releasing hell on Earth, in Hellboy.
the occurring incident. While the men in the library aren’t doing anything other than avoiding the cold, the situation feels like it’s escalating when a SWAT team is called in. While Estevez does a relatively solid job of laying out a story that humanizes the homeless population—something we too often forget to do, in my opinion—he doesn’t really spend a lot of time on the homeless characters in the film. There are plenty of mentions that some of the men are veterans, some have mental illness, and others are just down on their luck, but instead of making them relatable people, they feel more like a point being made. The film might have also been a little bit more powerful if the best lines were given to someone other than Estevez; actually, Estevez should have had a smaller part, period. In an era of dehumanizing people and political situations The Public, a little too simply, urges us to think twice about differing populations of people and the way we handle certain situations. While I’m not saying you should run to the theater the first minute you get, the film is worth seeing in theaters. I believe it has an earnest message, but its delivery could have been better. (122 min.) —Karen Garcia
superhero fantasy about 14-year-old foster kid Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who is chosen to inherit magical powers from a dying wizard (Djimon Hounsou). All Batson needs to do is say the magic word—the wizard’s name, Shazam!—to transform into an adult superhero (Zachary Levi) with super strength, flight, and other abilities. Believe the hype! The film’s universal acclaim since its release is welldeserved. (132 min.) —Caleb
SHAZAM!
What’s it rated? R What’s it worth? Full price Where’s it showing? Downtown Centre, Park Writer-director Jordan Peele (Get Out) helms this new horror thriller about a family—father Gabe Wilson (Winston Duke), mother Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph), and son Jason (Evan Alex)—terrorized by evil doppelgängers. (116 min.) —Glen
What’s it rated? PG-13 What’s it worth? Full price Where’s it showing? Downtown Centre, Galaxy, Park, Stadium 10, Fair Oaks, Sunset Drive-In Horror director David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) successfully steps out of his comfort zone to helm this
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PHOTO COURTESY OF HAMMERSTONE STUDIOS
UNPLANNED What’s it rated? R What’s it worth? Full price (if you’re prolife); Don’t bother (if you’re pro-choice) Where’s it showing? Park Co-directors Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon steer this drama based on the memoir of the same name. A life-changing experience turns Abby Johnson (Ashley Bratcher), the youngest clinic director in the history of Planned Parenthood, into an anti-abortion activist. A study in polemicist filmmaking, Unplanned will do little to persuade people on either side of this controversial issue. (110 min.) —Caleb
US
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WOMAN AT WAR
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE Writer-director-actor Emilio Estevez (center) helms The Public, a drama about homeless people who take over the Cincinnati public library during a cold snap.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CANAL+
What’s it rated? Not rated What’s it worth? Full price Where’s it showing? The Palm Benedikt Erlingsson directs, co-writes, and co-produces this comedic thriller about an environmental activist (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) crusading against the Icelandic aluminum industry. But her life changes when her longforgotten application to adopt an orphan child from Ukraine finally gets approved. The film uses a light touch to explore the issues of environmentalism—eco-terrorism never seemed so droll—but it will leave an impact. Plus, it’s a lot more fun to watch than An Inconvenient Truth! (in Icelandic, English, Ukrainian, and Spanish; 101 min.) ∆ —Caleb New Times movie reviews were compiled by Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey. Contact him at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
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EQUINE THERAPY Violent convict Roman Coleman (Matthias Schoenaerts) is given a shot at rehabilitation via a therapy program involving wild mustangs, in The Mustang, based on an actual rehabilitation program in Carson City, Nevada.
42 • New Times • April 18 - April 25, 2019 • www.newtimesslo.com
GO STEVE! Narrated by Ed Helms, Penguins tell the story of an Adélie penguin named Steve, who’s on a quest to find a mate and start a family.