by
Julien Faddoul
The Lion King
Photorealistic CG remake of The Lion King (1994).
Disgusting on every conceivable level, including the aethstetic one. Greed and sycophantic subversion are the only themes that resonate onscreen. As a work of plagiarism, it’s expectedly as egregious an artistic atrocity as Disney has committed yet, with many sequences rendered shot-for-shot, line-for-line from the 1994 film. Kind of ironic for a work that preaches the circle of life. At the same time, it’s probably the cinematic apotheosis for our present times: many erudite viewers will acknowledge a similarity between Scar/The Hyenas and another current would-be-dictator with a pack of henchmen who profess vile tenets (though Favreau is careful to tread lightly here.) But this is really a story of corporate manipulation on the flock of idiotic sheep that are modern civilian audiences who just don’t give a damn. This is the umpteenth Disney remake so none of this was a surprise, but this is certainly one of the saddest cinematic experiences I’ve ever been subjected to.
d – Jon Favreau
w – Jeff Nathanson
ph – Caleb Deschanel
pd – James Chinlund
m – Hans Zimmer
ed – Adam Gerstel, Mark Livolsi
p – Jon Favreau, Jeffrey Silver, Karen Gilchrist
Cast: Donald Glover, Beyoncé Knowles, James Earl Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, John Oliver, John Kani, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Eric André, Florence Kasumba, Keegan-Michael Key, JD McCrary Shahadi Wright Joseph
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Peter Parker and his friends go on a summer trip to Europe.
Exhausting, painfully smug romantic-comedy-meets-snarky-action superhero film with no inventiveness whatsoever and far too much time being spent on cleaning up the mess left by the previous installment of the MCU.
d – Jon Watts
w – Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers (Based on the Comic Book by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko)
ph – Matthew J. Lloyd
pd – Claude Paré
m – Michael Giacchino
ed – Leigh Folsom Boyd, Dan Lebental
cos – Anna B. Sheppard
p – Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal
Cast: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya, Jon Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, Angourie Rice, Tony Revolori, Remy Hii, Martin Starr
Stuber
After crashing his car, a cop who’s recovering from eye surgery recruits an Uber driver to help him catch a heroin dealer.
Lazy buddy comedy with awkward staging and no chemistry between its two leads.
d – Michael Dowse
w – Tripper Clancy
ph – Bobby Shore
pd – Naaman Marshall
m – Joseph Trapanese
ed – Jonathan Schwartz
cos – Leigh Leverett
p – John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Dave Bautista, Iko Uwais, Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Karen Gillan, Amin Joseph, Mira Sorvino
Yesterday
After a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, a struggling songwriter wakes up to discover that he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles.
Just another excuse for Boyle to jerk around with some hollow theatrics. Here he dispenses with logic altogether, getting to play with a premise (typical of its screenwriter/producer) that auspiciously abandons any kind of serious stakes. The whole thing is childish and masturbatory.
d – Danny Boyle
w – Richard Curtis
ph – Christopher Ross
pd – Patrick Rolfe
m – Daniel Pemberton
ed – Jon Harris
cos – Liza Bracey
p – Danny Boyle, Richard Curtis, Bernard Bellew, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Matthew James Wilkinson
Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran, Kate McKinnon, Joel Fry, Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Harry Michell, Sophia Di Martino, Sarah Lancashire, Alexander Arnold, Karl Theobald, Vincent Franklin, Justin Edwards, Ellise Chappell, Lamorne Morris, Camilla Rutherford, James Corden, Elizabeth Berrington
Ophelia
Ophelia comes of age as lady-in-waiting for Queen Gertrude, and her singular spirit captures Hamlet’s affections. As lust and betrayal threaten the kingdom, Ophelia finds herself trapped between true love and controlling her own destiny.
An additional entry in the manner of film that begins with its main spin-off character stating “You may think you know my story…” Um, in fact I do know your story, everyone does, but you decided to change it and now you want me to care? Tom Stoppard of course wrote the definitive version of this kind of thing back in the 60s. Since then, it has become a rather fashionable recapitulation in movies these days, but in reality it's just derivativeness in a dress.
d – Claire McCarthy
w – Semi Chellas (Based on the Novel by Lisa Klein)
ph – Denson Baker
pd – David Warren
m – Steven Price
ed – Luke Dunkley
cos – Massimo Cantini Parrini
p – Daniel Bobker, Sarah Curtis, Paul Hanson, Ehren Kruger
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, George MacKay, Clive Owen, Tom Felton, Sebastian de Souza, Devon Terrell, Daisy Head, Dominic Mafham, Anna Rust, Mia Quiney
Child’s Play
A contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror film that itself was based on an episode of the TV series The Twilight Zone.
Unnecessary remake that clumsily mixes 1980s nostalgia with contemporary humour. At least it’s 90 minutes.
d – Lars Klevberg
w – Tyler Burton Smith (Based on the Characters Created by Don Mancini)
ph – Brendan Uegama
pd – Dan Hermansen
m – Bear McCreary
ed – Tom Elkins, Julia Wong
cos – Jori Woodman
p – Seth Grahame-Smith, David Katzenberg
Cast: Mark Hamill, Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry, Gabriel Bateman, David Lewis, Ty Consiglio, Beatrice Kitsos, Hannah Drew, Kristin York
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