Review: Pete's Dragon

By Chris Feil

It's at the outset of David Lowery's reinvention of Pete's Dragon that the titular beast is intended more as a puppy to our namesake hero. What follows is a sharp left turn from the original's vaudevillian slapstick, with the "boy and his dog" approach used as a distinguishing characteristic from the aimless original and as an easy emotional access point for the audience. Gone are the musical numbers (though the hipster rock is cranked up to 11) and the buffoonery in favor of something more genuinely wraught straight from the heart.

But more importantly, this iteration of Elliott the dragon serves to stir more than just cutesy, cheap surrogate affection. Lowery is unafraid of scaring the kids and making the grown ups weep along the way. What remains is a family film about coping defenses, especially how we lean on our furry friends in the face of trauma.

This nuanced angle is made plain in the film's stunning prologue, confidently announcing those stark differences from its source and the emotional rollercoaster to come. The film is fascinated by moments of magic in the real world, and luckily Lowery has conjured a film that does just that, from Elliott's reveal to the organic emotions it creates. Yep, we finally have some magic at the movies this summer.

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Tweetweek: Top 5 Scorsese, Olympic Spirit, Light Between Oceans

This weeks collection of short amusements features Olympians, a little Scorsese mania (it was going around for reasons we have yet to discover), an impossible dream of a Ghostbusters sequel, and my first impression of The Light Between Ocean which is out soon. It's all after the jump but we'll start with Scorsese... 

#Top5Scorsese
1. The one about NYC
2. The one about gangsters
3. The toxic masculinity one
4. bunch of dudes do stuff
5. Leo

— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) August 10, 2016

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Interview: Paulina García on Her Favorite Actresses and the Political Relevance of 'Little Men'

by Jose Solis

Audiences fell in love with Paulina García as the romantic heroine in Gloria, the Chilean sensation that won her the Best Actress award at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival and other honors along the way (including a nomination here). In that film she gave a delightful performance as a woman ready to find purpose in a life that others thought had lost all meaning. Where in Gloria she exuded a sincere need of approval and warmth, Leonor, her character in Ira Sachs’ Little Men is just the opposite. She’s a woman in full control of her emotions and moods, she seems a little bit too calculating to Brian (Greg Kinnear) who has just inherited a house from his late father Max, from whom Leonor rented a commercial space, and finds himself in the position of having to raise her rent. She’s also intimidating to her son Tony (Michael Barbieri) who lowers his head when asking her for permission to go hang out with his new friend Jake (Theo Taplitz) who happens to be Brian’s son.

But in García’s richly layered performance we see a woman on the edge, she’s about to lose everything she’s worked her entire life for and she refuses to go down without a battle. García is the kind of actor who is eloquent even when she’s not speaking, one of her glances can be more devastating than a Shakespearean soliloquy, a simple “no” from Leonor can contain an entire life history. I had the opportunity to speak to her from her home in Chile, to discuss her work with Sachs, actresses she loves, and why Leonor is such an important character for 2016...

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World Elephant Day

Happy World Elephant Day!

"Happy" might, alas, be the wrong word given how pachyderms have been treated in this world, practically always shamefully despite so much evidence of their intense family bonds, good natures (unlessly treated cruelly and then who doesn't lose their temper?) and their other cute qualities we may or may not be anthropomorphizing. Elephants may go extinct in our lifetime (which is unthinkable) so here are some charitable organizations you should consider supporting if you can that are fighting to save them. 

Elephant activists also suggests never supporting the ivory trade which is easy and never going to elephant attractions (I once rode on an elephant as a child but I didn't know anything about animal cruelty back then) because most of them have taken from their mothers to train them. If you're interested in a good doc on the subject of elephants in captivity -- or rather the ways their captors grapple with the morality of it and how thinking around the topic is changing, I'd suggest One Lucky Elephant (2011) which is about a circus man giving up the elephant he'd raised and lived with for 16 years. It's both hopeful and sad.

After saying all that it may seem hypocritical to share favorite photos of celebrities with elephants (as these beasts have obviously been trained or been living in captivity) but we aren't perfect and can't resist the combo of movie stars and anything glorious that they happen to pose with. A beauty break with lots more photos after the jump including Lupita Nyong'o, Barbra Stanwyck, and Harrison Ford...

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Happy 25th Keith Stanfield

by Sean Donovan

Let's celebrate the 25th birthday of rising actor Keith Stanfield, sometimes billed as LaKeith Lee Stanfield. The young actor has shown an impressive versatility and command of the screen in a brief string of memorable appearances. He’s occupied the supporting casts of such attention-grabbing films as Dope and Miles Ahead, acted as a flashpoint for community grief as Jimmie Lee Jackson in Ava DuVernay’s Selma, and even appeared as a young Snoop Dog in Straight Outta Compton. But those of us who have  kept an eye Stanfield as “one to watch” fell in love with his vital supporting work in Destin Daniel Cretton’s 2013 film Short Term 12. 

In our post-Room world, Short Term 12 feels like a more and more essential document, serving for many as the introduction to the true depth of leading lady Brie Larson’s talents before she found Oscar glory two years later...

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