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Lit Trivia: Do You Know These Classic Screen Adaptations of Popular Books? – The New York Times
Book Review|Lit Trivia: Do You Know These Classic Screen Adaptations of Popular Books?https://nyti.ms/3NYKd2g More
Source: Movies – nytimes.com More
A boy befriends a colorful creature in this animated film that struggles to maintain a consistent tone.With its expressionistic, skillfully lit pastels, “My Father’s Dragon” appears, at first, to be a high-tier cartoon for young sophisticates, as one might expect from the Oscar nominee Nora Twomey, who previously directed “The Breadwinner.” Enter the dragon, Boris (Gaten Matarazzo), who promptly shoves a blocky paw into his armpit and squeezes out an air fart.For better and worse, Meg LeFauve and John Morgan’s freewheeling adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s 1948 children’s novel keeps the title and scant else. This tale opens on a boy named Elmer (voiced by Jacob Tremblay), whose cloyingly idyllic childhood collapses when his mother (Golshifteh Farahani) goes broke, forcing the pair to move to a grim tenement in the city. The excitement doesn’t start until the second act when Elmer ventures to Wild Island to steal Boris, calculating that a dragon exhibit could salvage the family fortune. However, the island’s fanciful inhabitants — rhinos shaped like lozenges, baby crocodiles who resemble purple-eyed paisleys — have been convinced by a blustering gorilla (Ian McShane) that Boris must remain in their servitude to prevent their fragile homeland from sinking into sea.The film’s mix of tones is as wild as its setting. In one moment, the story insightfully explores the emotional turbulence of characters who feel pressured to pretend that everything is under control even as they suspect they’re hurtling toward catastrophe; in another, an over-caffeinated whale (Judy Greer) squeals “Yaaaaas!” It’s one part doom cloud, one part squirting prank flower — an uneasy balance that’s united only by stunning visuals which sweep the audience along even when the gags stumble.My Father’s DragonRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More
Darren Le Gallo’s drama stars two real-life parent-child duos — Dustin and Jake Hoffman, and Sissy Spacek and Schuyler Fisk — as lonely small-towners looking for love.“Sam & Kate” is the kind of film in which a car breakdown kindles a romance, fireworks provide the backdrop for a first kiss and a misplaced box (almost) ends a relationship.It’s a story about serendipity, except the signs from the universe that drive Darren Le Gallo’s film, a drama about finding love after loss, feel a little too … plotted. Twists of fate lose their magic when they’re obvious as clumsy script contrivances.If there’s a ring of truth to the film, it’s in the casting. The movie stars two real-life parent-child pairs: Dustin Hoffman and Jake Hoffman play a father-son duo, Bill and Sam, while Schuyler Fisk and Sissy Spacek appear as Kate and her mother, Tina. Sam is an aspiring artist who has returned to his hometown to take care of the ailing, cantankerous Bill; Kate, a bookstore owner, is grieving a personal tragedy (the details are revealed gradually) and trying to manage Tina’s hoarding problem.Sam asks Kate out and is gently turned away, but — per the fantasies of many a spurned man — he persists, and she finally gives in.Sam and Kate are such broad archetypes that it’s hard to feel the depth of their scars or the spark of their chemistry. The younger Hoffman’s messy hair and hangdog face do little to explain why, exactly, Sam is such a sad sack. The effervescent Fisk is mostly tasked with smiling sadly — until, of course, Sam draws Kate out of her shell with his supposed charms.The parents, however, fill out their thin roles with an authentic melancholy that “Sam & Kate” struggles otherwise to muster. Underneath Bill’s orneriness and Tina’s neuroses, one glimpses two aging actors confronting their own mortality with touching candor.Sam & KateRated R for crass language and some scenes of pot smoking. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters. More
Almost 30 years after “Pulp Fiction,” these kings of cool team up for a Hawaii-set action feature that isn’t as much fun as it sounds.An action movie starring John Travolta and Bruce Willis that shares a title with a 1987 Guns N’ Roses song sounds like one of those fake movies joked about on “Seinfeld” or “30 Rock.” And yet “Paradise City” is a reality of sorts, albeit an uncomfortable reality.This movie was completed before it was announced that Willis would step away from performing after being diagnosed with aphasia, which affects the brain’s language center, and before upsetting reports of Willis’s struggles on set and of the accommodations he sometimes required.In his relatively short on-screen time, Willis, playing a hard-bitten bounty hunter shooting his way through Maui, appears relatively alert and aware. But his one scene with Travolta, who plays a fat cat trying to secure mining rights on Indigenous Hawaiian lands, was clearly achieved through editing, and many of Willis’s other exchanges don’t have him sharing a frame with his co-stars. More than once it sounds as if his dialogue was dubbed in by a similar-sounding actor. It’s a far cry from 1994’s “Pulp Fiction,” in which Travolta and Willis had minimal, but crucial and memorable, on-screen interactions.Directed by the action veteran Chuck Russell (“The Mask,” “Eraser”), the scenario of land-grabbing and righting wrongs mostly centers on do-gooder mercenaries played by a laconic Stephen Dorff and a fresh-faced, but not exactly sure-footed, Blake Jenner.The movie’s generic quality is spruced up by eccentric plots points (go-go dancers who also serve as undercover eco-activists, a nice Andy Sidaris-like touch) and kooky dialogue, as when the villain played by Travolta observes, “The only thing I’m scared of is me. And I am me, so there’s nothing to be scared of.”Paradise CityRated R for violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More
Lindsay Lohan stars as an amnesiac who falls off a mountain and in love in this Netflix holiday romance that is all too familiar.“Falling for Christmas” isn’t a Hallmark Channel original, but it certainly resembles one. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A gallant blue-collar widower strikes up an improbable romance with a wealthy, stuck-up heiress betrothed to a cocky himbo who is written expressly to be disliked. The rich young woman and the blue-collar guy don’t have much in common at first, but she soon shows a predilection for domestic labor, making it clear that she can be reformed. But her fiancé is irredeemable, because he’s on his phone a lot and uses terms of endearment like “angelcakes.”The obligatory twist on the formula in this case is that the heiress, Sierra (Lindsay Lohan), comes down with amnesia after a skiing accident, leaving the generous Jake (Chord Overstreet) to care for her over the holidays at his rustic lodge. (Her amnesia seems curiously selective: She doesn’t remember her name or where she’s from, but everything about her personality remains intact.) As they wait for her memory to be recovered, Jake and Sierra bond over various nondescript holiday activities, most of which feel like they were improvised on set — gingerbread house food fights, cavorting in the snow.Meanwhile, Jake is struggling to keep his lodge afloat, which he blames on “people booking Airbnbs.” It’s interesting to consider the parallels between the effect Airbnb has had on the hospitality industry and what streaming platforms like Netflix have done to traditional broadcasters like the Hallmark Channel. The director, Janeen Damian, doesn’t seem to have considered it. At one point, in a truly shameless bid for self-referential humor, Sierra is disrupted in bed by the gonging tu-dum of the Netflix logo and an ad for another Netflix holiday movie. If this is the standard we’re dealing with, I’d rather have amnesia.Falling for ChristmasNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More
This documentary follows one Afghan general, Sami Sadat, to tell an emotional story.Matthew Heineman’s latest documentary, “Retrograde,” wisely does not attempt to provide a comprehensive account of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Shot over the nine months following the confirmation of the U.S. withdrawal in early 2021, the shrewdly observant film sticks with one Afghan general, Sami Sadat, to tell an emotional story that feels as significant as any analysis of troop numbers.At first, Sadat and his men receive training from the Green Berets. But when the Americans must leave, the Afghans soon feel overwhelmed — their fragile-looking flag speaks volumes — and are increasingly besieged by Taliban forces. The notably youthful Sadat does his best to solve whatever comes his way, whether it’s a matter of arranging military strikes, helping ebbing morale or working on equipment shortfalls. There’s cockpit footage from helicopters, and Sadat makes a harrowing convoy trip.But this isn’t a profile or a battlefield documentary. The slide into defeat is expressed through faces at Sadat’s command posts more than with blood on the front lines. The filmmakers single out potent vérité scenes of vulnerability, fear and sheer nerves, like when Sadat keeps waving off an underling who warns of worsening battle conditions. When he and his men later hole up at a governor’s compound as Taliban fire crackles nearby, the desperation is palpable.The attention to detail conveys these feelings without coming across as polemical (though the depiction of helpful U.S. soldiers rings a tad effortful). A lingering shot of a dazed Afghan woman at Kabul’s airport during the August chaos around the Taliban takeover suggests a reply to the famous 1984 National Geographic cover — as if history is repeating itself with fresh suffering.RetrogradeNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters. More
A young Black editor is set on winning back her ex-boyfriend this Christmas — even if it means breaking up his relationship.One of the mainstays of Mariah season, as devotees of Mariah Carey’s Christmas music have christened the holidays, is Christmas movies, from classic comedies to the contrived romances created by the Hallmark Channel. As many of these films teach us, part of leaning into the holiday spirit is suspending cynicism and embracing cheerfulness and cheesiness. By this measure, “The First Noelle,” directed by Patricia Cuffie-Jones for BET+, certainly fits the bill.This romantic comedy follows an ambitious young book editor named Noelle (Novi Brown) who attempts to win back her ex, Terrance (Todd Anthony), after he returns home for Christmas with a new girlfriend, coincidentally also named Noelle (LaLa Milan). (The former goes by Noe, while the latter goes by Elle.) When Noe’s boss at Ryse Publishing expresses interest in signing Elle as an author, Noe struggles to balance her plan for romance with her aspirations at work.In the world of “First Noelle,” all the authors are Black and have written best-selling work, and Noe’s boss, a Black woman, is a titan in the publishing industry. Sadly, this dynamic does not reflect the industry’s real-life demographics: According to a survey by the children’s book publisher Lee & Low Books, only 5 percent of the work force is Black.But it’s hard to become immersed in this aspirational alternate reality because of the movie’s pun-filled and often unbelievable dialogue, as well as lackluster performances delivered by the lead actors. At one point Noe decides whether she wants to look like “chestnuts roasting on an open fire or mistletoe” when choosing an outfit, and several grown adults talk earnestly about writing letters to the North Pole. And some of the tropes in the film — the woman trying to steal another woman’s man, questions about whether it’s possible to “have it all” — feel outdated.Still, for those who love (or love to hate-watch) Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas movie marathon, “First Noelle” could be worth viewing.The First NoelleNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. Watch on BET+. More
