Movie Review

Film Review: THE WASTED TIMES (China/Hong Kong 2016)

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the_wasted_times_movie_posterDirector: Er Cheng
Writer: Er Cheng
Stars: You Ge, Ziyi Zhang, Tadanobu Asano

Review by Gilbert Seah

THE WASTED TIMES is a big-budget highly anticipated Chinese-Hong Kong thriller film directed by Cheng Er and starring Ge You, Zhang Ziyi and Tadanobu Asano released by Chia Lion. The film is slated for a Christmas release hoping to make it big at the box-office for both Asian and western audiences.

From the film’s opening scene – the meeting among Mr. Lu, the film’s protagonist and Japanese collaborators, the artistic design and art direction of the scene are stunning from the lighting to the decoration. The meeting culminates with the shocking dismemberment of a lady’s hand still wearing a jade bracelet.

THE WASTED TIMES is a revenge story, set mainly in Shanghai during the conflict with the Japanese from the 1930’s up to the end of World War 11 in 1945. The elements of love, hatred, and betrayal are on full display in the story. As loyal to his own people and refusal to collaborate with the Japanese, Mr. Lu is ambushed during an important meeting with the Japanese army, but his sister’s husband, Watabe sacrifices himself to save Mr. Lu. Worse still, the Japanese brutally murder Mr. Lu’s children and sister. To avenge their deaths, Mr. Lu’s mistress attempts to kill the culprit but ends up dead.

The story leads to the end of 1945 when Mr. Lu visits the abandoned wife of his former boss, Mrs. Wang. She reveals that Watabe is still alive and did not sacrifice himself to save Mr. Lu, but is actually a Japanese spy responsible for the deaths of his family members and captured her as a slave in his basement. Given this new revelation, Mr. Lu takes Mrs. Wang to the war camp where Watabe is held to finally make him pay for his bad deeds.

If the story sounds confusing, the film is even more difficult to follow. It does not help that director Er is fond of telling his tale in non-chronological order, making it artistic through weird songs (partly sung in English) and also often changing the setting of his film from Shanghai, to the Philippines to Japan. The languages spoken also shifts from Mandarin to Japanese.

The historical film is made more emotional though the introduction of characters like the county bumpkin (and his sexual innocence) who learns the ropes about gang warfare. Er also seems quite interested in the activity of sex as illustrated in the many erotic sex scenes, including an artistically staged one at the back of a car.

Western audiences are unfamiliar with Chinese history and are more often than not, uninterested. It does not help that the history is not explained either. At least the audience will assume (correctly) that the end of the Sino-Japanese war comes at the end of 1945, the end of World War II. THE WASTED TIMES will definitely be a hard sell for China Lion with this film running into stiff competition with Hollywood films like the commercial ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY as well as more artistic flair like the musical LALA LAND.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB_Dj-X51RU

 

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Movie Review: ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (UA 2016) ***1/2

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rogue_one_movie_poster.jpgDirector: Gareth Edwards
Writers: Chris Weitz (screenplay), Tony Gilroy (screenplay)
Stars: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Jimmy Smits

Review by Gilbert Seah

It is finally here and the world is waiting to hear how good (or bad) the $200 million production of the new Star Wars film is. For one, the filmmakers are clear to emphasize that this is a standalone story. By this, they mean that the story, set shortly before the events of the original Star Wars, is not part of the other STAR WARS films, though there are already two more films after ROGUE ONE in the making as ROGUE ONE is the first of three anthology films.

There is not much original in the story of ROGUE ONE. But there is little to disappoint. Again, the film begins with the title, “Long time ago in a galaxy far away..”, though the words are differently laid out. The scriptwriters Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, from a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta ensure the successful formula is untampered with. And there are lots of spectacle, new characters, explosions, exotic futuristic sets combined with exotic setting – space towers emerging from a tropical paradise. At times, the film feels like a James Bond film, where the hero and troops storm the villain’s lair, take him out while blowing everything up.

It all starts with the escape of young Jyn Erso as a child as she witnesses her mother shot dead and her inventor father (Mads Mikkelsen) taken away to create a planet destroyer for the Empire. With this weapon, the rebels would stand no chance of winning the battle for the galaxy.

So, the Rebel Alliance recruits the grown up Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) after freeing her from prison, to work with a team including Cassian Andor (Diego Luna from Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) to steal the design schematics of the Empire’s new superweapon, the Death Star. That is about it for the story, leaving the film plenty of time for action, spectacle and more action and more spectacle. Music is by Michael Giacchino with pieces taken from the original score by John Williams.

The enmity between Cassia and Jyn inevitably turns into romance. But the romance is executed in good taste without distraction from the action at hand. The two are just shown holding hands in the key scene.

The choice of a female protagonist heroine as in the last STAR WARS film last year is a good one, given these politically correct times. After all, Princess Lea, a key Star Wars character is female and key to the whole saga.

The main villain of the piece is played with sufficient relish by Ben Mendelsohn next to the odd appearances of Darth Vader. But the new characters that steal the show are played by Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen. Have the Chinese taken over? The new droid K-2SO,(Alan Tudyk) a Rebel-owned Imperial enforcer also makes a new welcome non-human hero.

As in last year’s THE FORCE AWAKENS, reviewers were asked not to reveal plot points or twists. In THE FORCE AWAKENS, these included the death of Hans Solo and the end appearance of Luke Skywalker. In ROGUE ONE, there ares equal surprises to please the fans.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=frdj1zb9sMY 

 

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Film Review: THE APOLOGY (Canada 2016) ***

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the_apology_movie_poster.jpgTHE APOLOGY

Director: Tiffany Hsiung
Writer: Tiffany Hsiung

Two important reasons why a documentary should be made are the uniqueness of the subjects or stories that need be to told. For THE APOLOGY, the subjects are – as the titles inform at the start of the film – ‘grandmas’ or ‘comfort women’. These are the young Asian girls (Chinese, Korean, Filipino) who are forced into the sex slave trade by he Japanese during the Japanese occupation. The Japanese are clearly the hated villains in the piece. Hsiung makes sure the point gets across. Unrepentant, the Japs, especially the politicians claim that the trade was necessary and show no remote sign of remorse.

The director of this importance piece, a NFB (National Film Board) production is appropriately Asian – Tiffany Hsiung, who will be present to take questions from the audience in Toronto on December 6 and 8, with Q&As at both Toronto and Vancouver screenings as well.

THE APOLOGY follows the personal journeys of three “grandmothers” (almost equal screen time devoted to each) — Grandma Gil in South Korea, Grandma Cao in China, and Grandma Adela in the Philippines. Some 70 years after their imprisonment in so-called “comfort stations,” the grandmothers face their twilight years in fading health. As former “comfort women,” they were among the 200,000 girls and young women kidnapped and forced into military sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. After decades of living in silence and shame about their past, they know that time is running out to give a first-hand account of the truth and ensure that this horrific chapter of history is not forgotten. Whether they are seeking a formal apology from the Japanese government or summoning the courage to finally share their secret with loved ones, their resolve moves them forward as they seize this last chance to set future generations on a course for reconciliation, healing, and justice.

Hsuing occasionally resorts to sentimentality when she choses to film the tears of the grandmothers or their family or even the audience listing to the stories during press conferences. There is no need to. The stories are strong enough.

There is always something very moving about watching elderly ladies on the screen (especially when they are laughing) or on stage. Their craggy features and deep voices relay that these are human beings with important stories to tell from their experiences. When they are especially older, with ailments that inhibit their ability to walk or hear or see, the effects are even greater.

Will the grandmothers win their much sought of apology at the end? The fact that the Japanese are so stubborn is a curiosity. They have committed so much bad deeds during the World War II and in the past, much worse in Asia (according to many Asians) than the Nazis, that apologizing would only show them to be a more sympathetic race and not hurt their reputation.

THE APOLOGY is a deeply moving documentary that was both the the runner-up for the important audience Award at the 2016 Toronto Hot Doc Fest and the Winner of the Cinephile Award for best Documentary a South Korea’s Busan’s International Film Festival.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/159796075
 

 

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Film Review: OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY (USA 2016)

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office_christmas_party_movie_poster.jpgDirectors: Josh Gordon, Will Speck

Stars: Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T.J. Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer

OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY, the comedy, about an office party gone haywire is not novel in its idea or conception. The office here is some software tech called Zenotek. The CEO Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston) tries to close the branch of her hard-partying brother Clay (T. J. Miller). Clay and his Chief Technical Officer, Josh Parker (Jason Bateman) must rally their co-workers and host an epic office Christmas party in an effort to impress a potential client, first name Walter (Courtney B. Vance) and close a sale that will save their jobs. It is not a revolutionary storyline, but one that has potential for high jinx comedy. Directors Speck and Gordon (BLADES OF GLORY and THE SWITCH) has fashioned this office party comedy using all means they can get their hands on. The result is them getting their hands too full.

OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY will be inevitably compared to other party comedies like the teen PROJECT X and the Blake Edwards/Peter Sellers collaboration THE PARTY. Like both films, OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY is about the party that escalates slowly out of control. Here, a dressed up Jesus rides a white horse right down the office cubicles. The building high rise windows get smashed and almost every male gets a blow job.

In THE PARTY a painted elephant gets washed with bubbles everywhere while all the surrounding trees and electricity poles get wrecked outside the party house in PROJECT X. But the problem with OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY is that just when the party gets funny, right after Walter accidentally gets coked up, the film is taken out into the open where an unfunny car chase takes place ending with the car racing to make a drawbridge – a stunt that is does not come off that funny.

The Russian mafia takedown does not generate much laughs either.
The script takes the plot of saving the company too seriously. The audience is supposed to believe that Josh’s romantic interest, Tracey (Olivia Munn) has invented some internet communications portal. Who really cares? If one can remember, THE PARTY hardly and any plot but an Indian actor accidentally invited to a Hollywood party and accidentally causing havoc.

The cast contains some bright talents – some funny but some not. Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon (she played Hillary Clinton on SNL) is winning as the politically correct HR person, thought the script has to rely on her sex and fart jokes. (She is called the farty lady). Courtney B. Vance is also a scream. Bateman and Munn have straight roles while Miller is not funny at all. Jennifer Aniston is quite game for anything and she does the Meryl Streep role in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Her character makes two grand entrances (remember Streep’s unforgettable 10 minute entrance to the Prada building at the film’s start?) to the brother’s company.

Considering the cast and talent involved in OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY, the film could have come up with a higher hit and miss laughter ratio. Still, my bet is the film doing well at the box-office, with a film milking the perfect festive holiday theme of an office party.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_itBfEC_TI

 

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Film Review: THE FOUNDER (USA 2016) ***

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the_founder_movie_poster.jpgDirector: John Lee Hancock
Writer: Robert D. Siegel
Stars: Linda Cardellini, Nick Offerman, Michael Keaton

 THE FOUNDER an American biographical drama that tells the story of of Ray Kroc, the self-claimed founder of McDonald’s. Whether he is the true founder or not, it is up to the audience to decide, but the film written by Robert Siegel and directed by John Lee Hanccock tries to reveal the real story, warts and all.

Just as THE FOUNDER could serve as an educational film on business success strategies, it could also be a classroom model for ethical practices.

The film follows the trail of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a salesman for milkshake mixers to restaurants – indeed a hard sell. After receiving word that a small diner is ordering an unusually large number of milkshake makers from his company, Ray decides to go visit the enterprise in question. What he finds is a highly popular diner by the name of McDonald’s. Ray is immediately struck by the fast service, the high-quality food, the novelty of disposable packaging (versus cutlery) and the family-focused customers who regularly consume the food.

Ray meets with the two brothers who own and operate the diner. Maurice “Mac” McDonald (John Carroll Lynch) is elder and more simple-minded but extremely hard-working. Richard “Dick” McDonald (Nick Offerman) is younger and known for being an ideas man. Ray is given a tour of the kitchens and immediately is struck by the strong work ethic displayed by From them, Kroc acquires the fast food chain, growing it to a full state business to much more. His marriage to Ethel Fleming (Laura Dern) eventually lands in divorce with him marrying one of his franchise owners.

The film takes its time to get the audience on the side of Ray Kroc. Ray is depicted as a hard-working salesman with initially good honest practices with solid family values like caring for his loving wife. As greed gains control over Ray with the McDonalds empire expanding, Ray resorts to unethical tactics to take control over the two brothers. His marriage ends as well though the details are not shown on screen. He learns more about the dirt in the business and in his own words, he would drown a competitor by sticking a hose up his mouth. So, director Hancock slowly shifts sides as Ray’s good side eventually erodes when he finally cheats the brothers out of their agreed 1% stake in the business.

Michael delivers another outstanding performance as Ray Kroc, a man that the audience can both admire and despise. Patrick Wilson is largely wasted in a small role as the husband of the girl Ray stole to be his second wife. Offerman and Lynch play the brothers perfectly.

If Ray was depicted totally as a scheming unethical cheat, the film would turn away both its audience and McDonald’s customers. McDonald’s has become an American icon and Hancock is smart enough to treat the material as well as the character of Ray Kroc with respect. Besides Kroc has also demonstrated that the American dream can be achieved from pure persistence.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX2uz2XYkbo

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Film Review: THE OTHER HALF

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the_other_half_movie_posterDirector: Joey Klein
Writer: Joey Klein
Stars: Tatiana Maslany, Tom Cullen, Diana Bentley

Review by Gilbert Saeh

THE OTHER HALF is a Canadian romance drama between one grief-stricken man and a bipolar woman suffering from Rapid Cycling Bipolar 1 Disorder.

Chosen to open the Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival in Toronto this year, which serves as a warning that the film is not an easy watch, the film shows no attempt at easing the audience towards its subject. The result is therefore, yes – a film that is not an easy watch.

The film features two prominent TV actors, Tom Cullen (2016 SAG winner/ensemble cast – TV’s Downton Abbey) and Tatiana Maslany (2016 Emmy winner/lead actress – TV’s Orphan Black). The two actors also serve as executive producers which implies the film being a love project for the two. The film’s simple story follows the couple, Nickie (Cullen) and Emily (Maslany) from the time they first meet (it is love at first sight), to their brief separation to the romance at the end where something happens (not revealed as would be a spoiler). They meet at the same time as another couple (Mark Rendall and Deragh Campbell), who interesting enough, face problems as well but for other reasons. The romance is not helped by Emily’s parents (Henry Czerny and Suzanne Clement). They believe the couple should separate and perhaps try again once Emily is normal. Clement is the actress featured in many of Xavier Dolan’s mentally disordered dramas (LAURENCE ANYWAYS, I KILLED MY MOTHER, MOMMY).

The film’s message is simple enough. Love conquers all. But as it is a fiction film, anything goes.

In a way too, THE OTHER HALF is a personal film with the director’s friends and family helping out. Klein’s father, a doctor with a background in English literature, advised on the script. Klein’s sister, a psychiatrist, helped prep Maslany before the shoot. His brother did Emily’s paintings.

The film, shot in Toronto, feels like Toronto from the familiar streets and the signature streetcars that often come into the frame.

For a film featuring mental disorder, the film contains many disturbing club scenes, shot in dim lighting with strobe lights, lasers and annoying sounds and music.

For a couple with disorders (Nickie also loves to fight), it is surprising that the couple never gets into any heated fights – only into minor arguments that are easily resolved. The one scene in which Emily freaks out at home and has to be handcuffed by a cop is the most effective one showing realistically, the mental anguish. Other than that, the film falls into the same story line about troubled couples – the parents refuse to help, the couple struggles on their own, and final survives.

THE OTHER HALF is an ok film with performances and everything passable in all departments. Yet, there is nothing that will draw a crowd to see the film. Who really wants to watch a film of a a troubled couple with mental disorders? The film also provides no insight about the disorder or how a couple can manage through the difficulties.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvPHGgZB5ys

 

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Film Review: JACKIE (USA/Chile/France 2016)

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jackie_movie_posterDirector: Pablo Larraín
Writer: Noah Oppenheim
Stars: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig

Review by Gilbert Seah

Chilean director Pablo Larrain has made a name for himself with critical hit films like NO and TONY MANERO. But he is an odd choice for the English speaking film biography of the true American icon JACKIE, based on the life of Jackie Kennedy just after her husband, John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

The story follows the events immediately following the assassination. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Natalie Portman) is being interviewed by a reporter, Theodore H. White (Billy Crudup) for Life Magazine. The film plunges the audience into the devastation using a series of finely crafted flashbacks that cover the fateful day in Dallas, Jackie’s return to the White House, arrangements for the President’s funeral, and her time spent accompanying her husband’s coffin to Arlington Cemetery.

The film is a slow count of what happens. It is the coping of a violent death of a loved one. The film is very American despite being directed by a non-American. The sequences complete a moving portrait of a grieving woman — a widow and mother struggling with overwhelming tragedy and attention. Yet the core of the film is formed by quiet, profoundly intimate moments: Jackie’s conversations with her children, her brother-in-law Robert Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard, also at the Festival in The Magnificent Seven), one of her aides (Greta Gerwig), journalist White (Billy Crudup), and a Catholic priest (John Hurt). Larrain loves the close-ups of Jackie. The scenes between Jackie and the priest are done in a flashback within a flashback.

Portman does a fine job as Jackie Kennedy. She often looks aloof though she says that she is not and concerned about the children and the funeral procession. I don’t recall how the real Jackie spoke, but Portman always speaks with her mouth wide open, which I gather is the way the real Kennedy spoke.

For a non-American, the tasks offered to the former First Lady of restoring the artefacts of the White House may seem trivial. Jackie often moves around the different rooms drowning vodka or popping one of her colourful pills, always with a cigarette in one hand. She might not seem convincing when she says she cares so much for the children, but that is the way she was in real life during those times. Non-Americans might either find everything totally boring for incidents portrayed that do not concern them or be totally in awe of anyone being so involved in Americana.

One of the tasks Jackie was in charge of was looking after the White House. In the film’s best segment, an inspired one no doubt, Jackie is seen moving about the house, cigarette in one hand, popping pols, pouring drinks or arranging letters to the tune and lyrics of the song CAMELOT. Camelot, the perfect place to be is Jackie’s White House.

JACKIE emerges as a rare film about America as seen through the eyes of a foreigner. It is a queer piece which alternates between looking really artificial and surreal, but that might be Larrain’s intention.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZTXv5NpgaI

 

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Film Review: SADIE’S LAST DAYS ON EARTH

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sadies_last_day_on_earth_movie_poster.jpgDirector: Michael Seater
Writer: Michael Seater
Stars: Helene Joy, Munro Chambers, Ricardo Hoyos

Review by Gilbert Seah

SADIE’S LAST DAYS ON EARTH is advertised as a teen comedy – a genre of film many moviegoers tend to avoid. To be fair to this genre of films, there have been many classics like FERRY BUELLER’S DAY OFF, SIXTEEN CANDLES or even exceptionally funny ones like LICENCE TO DRIVE and WEIRD SCIENCE. The key to teen comedies is to have a very identifiable teen like a loser trying to break out of his or her mould in a very identifiable situation that every adult has been in.

In SADIE’S LAST DAYS ON EARTH, modern teenage anxiety and the universal desire for acceptance from others and ourselves are explored through the protagonist Sadie. The teen in this story appears to be driving herself into a secluded mould of loneliness.

Sixteen-year-old Sadie Mitchell (Morgan Taylor Campbell, SPOOKSVILLE, THE KILLING) is convinced the world is about end. The script does not go into detail where she gets her source or the reason she is so convinced. This is obviously a big flaw as the whole film’s credibility hinges on this fact. Undeterred by the naysayers, Sadie has two weeks to ready herself for the coming apocalypse. The film goes with the titles counting down the last days of earth – as if it was going to happen. Sadie has a list of things she needs to master (a sort of bucket list); survivalist cuisine, knitting, but there are other things…personal things; go to a high school party, kiss a boy, and most importantly, get her best friend Brennan (Clark Backo, SHOOT THE MESSENGER) back. These are silly items, unfortunately only important to Sadie, and not to the audience or anyone else in the film for that matter. Within the first few minutes of the film, the audience is quickly detached from the heroine as well as the film. Armed with survival supplies, blueprints and escape routes, Sadie finds an unlikely ally in Jack (Ricardo Hoyos, DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION) who shows her that her last days on Earth might not be so bad after all.

Just one day before Sadie’s predicted last day, the town suffers a minor earthquake. Suddenly, the entire town believes Sadie’s prediction of Earth’s Last Days. There is of course, such a thing as a minor earthquake happening, so it is ridiculous to see the entire town turning into Chicken Littles.

The film’s corny message is that one should live life fully – as if the end of the world is near. Sadie also suffers from insecurity. Too many of the film’s character have to remind her that she is smart, funny and bold – which in my opinion, she is not.

Enough is enough. The film is so unwatchable and the characters so annoying (example: Sadie’s mother with an Australian accent; Sadie’s dj classmate with a fake British accent), that one soon begins counting down the minutes this film will end.

From the same director and writers of PEOPLE HOLD ON, SADIE’S LAST DAYS ON EARTH will likely be as forgettable as their first movie, which thankfully (about group of friends gathering together before a wedding ), I did not see.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLvcFfEMGRM

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Film Review: SUGAR MOUNTAIN (USA 2016)

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sugar_mountain_movie_posterDirector: Richard Gray
Writers: Abe Pogos, Abe Pogos (story
Stars: Jason Momoa, Cary Elwes, Anna Hutchison

Review by Gilbert Seah

 SUGAR MOUNTAIN is the location in Alaska where two brothers device a scam in order to get the money to pay off debts and have a new go on life.

Deep in debt to a local thug (upcoming actor Jason Momoa soon to be seen on AQUAMAN and JUSTICE LEAGUE), Miles (Drew Roy) persuades his girlfriend Lauren (Haley Webb) and brother Liam (Shane Coffey) to help fake a disappearance in the Alaskan wilderness around the town of SUGAR MOUNTAIN. The plan is to sell the story. But unknown to Liam, who is the main subject of the film, Miles has also other secrets that get in the way. Worst still, Liam is in love with Lauren. While the town works together to find Miles, the local chief of police, Jim Huxley (Cary Elwes) begins to suspect foul play. As he closes in on the truth, Liam struggles to conceal the hoax, and in the process exposes a secret that rocks him and Lauren to the core. Now the two are struggling to stay one step ahead of a sadistic thug and the tenacious cops before Miles is gone for good.

Performances are believable by the relatively unknown young cast. It is good to see Cary Elwes (THE PRINCESS BRIDE) nine in the role of the cop father after a long absence in films.

Being shot in Alaska, the film is expectedly gorgeous to look at. From the first scene of Miles lost in the mountains of snow to the boat (the Viking) cruising down Alaskan waters to the mountain sides where the search for Miles is carried out, cinematographer John Garrett never fails to astound. Garrett won the 2015 Emerging Cinematographer Award recipient (American Society of Cinematographers). There is also a remarkable shot scene where the couple find themselves close up to an angry bear.

The script by Abe Pogos based on a story by Pogos and Catherine Hill is interesting enough with sufficient plot twists towards the end. But the film would have world better if it was darker and more violent. One expects these elements in a film advertised a a dark thriller. But most important is the happy ending that is credible enough. The film works best when the audience is not sure what is happening on screen is part of the plan or going on for real.

SUGAR MOUNTAIN is a tough sell being a small budget movie released in the month of December in stiff competition with the big league films like ROGUE ONE, FANTASTIC BEASTS, DR. STRANGE, MOANA as well as smaller budget critical acclaimed hits like MOONLIGHT. To be fair, SUGAR MOUNTAIN is not a bad film, but it is not that remarkable a film either. But it is an earnest film, with a lot of effort put in and is a welcome change in a month where thrillers are noticeably absent.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29KpXJVT3IM

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Film Review: SING (USA 2016) ****

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sing_movie_poster.jpgDirected by Garth Jennings

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly

Review by Gilbert Seah

Garth Jennings, director of the not-so-successful THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and the excellent SON OF RAMBO seems an unlikely choice for director of the 3D computer-animated musical comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment (the DESPICABLE ME films). But Jennings who also voices the old secretary Matilda, the glass-eye popping iguana in the film, proves a worthy choice.

The age-old plot of SING involves the protagonist, here in the form of a cute koala (Matthew McConaughey) putting up a show in order to save his failing theatre. He comes up with a brilliant scheme to save his stage: put audience members on it. “Real talent from real life,” Buster declares. Buster is determined to host the world’s greatest singing competition, and, given the overwhelming response to his call for participants, the show might just lay claim to that title. After an exhaustive (and entertaining) audition process, his lead contestants left are an exhausted mother of 25 piglets, a timid adolescent elephant, a porcupine with punk, a rodent con artist with Sinatra-esque chops, and a gangster gorilla eager to change careers. Each is as desperate to change their life as Buster is to rescue his business. Who will win? It doesn’t really matter as all eventually do their part to save the theatre. Jennifer Saunders of ABS FAB does the voice of ex-diva a sort-of patron for Moon’s theatre as she is rich beyond means.

SING is undeniably a feel-good movie with an extra coating of sweetness that stretches credibility to the limit. If the film was not animated, it would never get away with the premise. But animated feature are supposed to be totally crazy and not matter how unbelievable, any crazy premise will always work to its favour.

Water has always been difficult if not impossible to animate. Disney’s THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE (from FANTASIA) with Mickey Mouse demonstrated that. But now with computer animation, all is possible. In SING, Buster Moon decides to create an elaborate lighting sequence for his show using squids in a huge water tank that ends up leaking and blowing up. All this is an excuse to showcase the studio’s impressive modern animation with computer aid using water. No complaints here, as the sequence is one of the film’s best animated, as in the time lapse rebuilding of Moon’s theatre near the end of the film. Disney and Pixar are faced with stiff competition here.

The impressive cast of actors and singers include Reese Witherspoon as Rosita, Seth MacFarlane as Mike, a small white crooning mouse with a big Frank Sinatra-esque voice and an arrogant attitude, Scarlett Johansson as Ashley, a crested porcupine punk rocker, John C. Reilly as Eddie Noodleman, a Suffolk sheep and Buster’s partner, Tori Kelly as Meena, a teenage Indian elephant with an exquisite voice, and severe stage fright,Taron Egerton as Johnny, a Cockney-accented mountain gorilla, who wants to sing and Nick Kroll as Gunter domestic pig and Rosita’s German-accented, very optimistic and bubbly dance partner.

SING is by no means a faultless feature. It falls into the trap of having too many characters for its own good and not knowing when to shorten its story. The film also hurdles at too fast a pace, as in the father gorilla escaping jail to see his son perform.

The film features more than 85 classic songs from famous artists all more than adequately performed by the animated characters as well as a few catchy original songs.

Like Moon going all out to save his theatre, one cannot help but root of writer/director Jennings in his worthwhile effort and awarding him an “A” for effort.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7uGHY-t80I

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