Movies

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company said on Thursday that it would close the Disneyland resort in Anaheim for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, and just the third time in its 65-year history, because of the coronavirus pandemic.Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure — two adjoining, but separately ticketed theme parks — will close on Saturday morning through the end of the month. Disney’s hotels in Anaheim will remain open until Monday.Disney noted that there had been no reported cases of the virus at the resort.The company said it would continue to pay its employees while the resort is closed. Refunds will be given for hotel bookings during the closure period.Disneyland looms large in the popular imagination as the “happiest place on Earth,” where visitors trade an imperfect world for a perfect one. There is no trash blowing down Main Street U.S.A. Dream big, and the utopian technology of Tomorrowland just might come true. The animatronic figures inside It’s a Small World never stop smiling and singing. The park receives almost 19 million visitors from around the world each year.In recent days, as sporting events, concerts and other mass gatherings have been canceled in response to the pandemic, Disneyland and its bigger sibling in Florida, Walt Disney World, remained crowded. On Wednesday night at 9 so many people were trying to get on Space Mountain at Disneyland that the line stretched more than an hour. Disneyland’s Indiana Jones ride had a 45-minute line. More

Next February, the superhero Shang-Chi will become part of the extended Marvel Studios film universe when “Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings” arrives in theaters. Before that, though, the character, a martial arts expert, will have a five-issue comic book series beginning in June from Marvel Entertainment.The series will be written by Gene Luen Yang, a comic book writer and cartoonist making his Marvel debut. It will be drawn by Dike Ruan, for the present-day scenes, with Philip Tan drawing for the flashbacks. Yang is a prolific cartoonist whose most well-known work is perhaps “American Born Chinese,” which explores issues of identity. He was also named the national ambassador for young people’s literature in 2016 and won a MacArthur fellowship the same year.Yang could not be more excited. “I mean, it’s Shang-Chi,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “He’s probably the most prominent Asian — I guess he’s Asian-American now since he’s moved over here — Asian-American superhero.”When the slate of upcoming Marvel Studio films was announced last summer, the diversity was noted: an Asian lead, an openly L.G.B.T.Q. superhero and a hero with a disability were all part of the mix.Shang-Chi was introduced by Marvel Comics in 1973, at a time when martial arts became popular in America, and had a run that lasted nearly 10 years. But Yang, 46, avoided the character until college. “It’s that same embarrassment I had in third grade,” he said. “There was a second grader who moved here from Taiwan and the teachers really wanted me to be his friend. I felt embarrassed about it and I didn’t know why.”He continued, “It was almost like picking up a Shang-Chi comic would have been highlighting what made me different from the other nerds at the comic book store.”But the world since Shang-Chi’s introduction has changed, Yang said: “I just don’t think that kids growing up today, for the most part, have that same sort of embarrassment. I think for a lot of them, it sort of flipped. You definitely saw that with ‘Black Panther.’ I think that conversation is changing too for Asian-Americans.”Shang-Chi has had a supporting role in many recent Marvel stories, but the new series will put him in the spotlight. The story will shed more light on the character’s past and that of his father, Zheng Zhu, who is a supervillain. “The basic idea that his father is a supervillain is still there; we don’t want to overturn that, but we do want to add some nuance,” Yang said. “Zheng Zhu has been around a very long time. He has other kids besides Shang-Chi, so we’re going to explore some of those sibling relationships.” More

[embedded content]With a $39.1 million domestic opening, Pixar’s “Onward” was considered a box-office disappointment last weekend, at least by the animation label’s elevated standards. Disney usually puts out only one Pixar film a year, but that’s not the plan for 2020. “Soul” is slated to come out in June, and the studio just released the film’s first full trailer.Judging by this promising clip, Pixar may be back on track. Jamie Foxx voices Joe Gardner, a New York City middle-school band teacher who’s about to get his big break as a jazz musician when he falls down a manhole. He lands in the Great Before, an ethereal world where new souls are assigned personality traits before heading to Earth. There, he meets the cynical 22 (Tina Fey), a soul who doesn’t believe life is worth living. As Joe tries to convince 22 otherwise, he realizes he may have a shot at returning to his old body.Directed by Pete Docter, who’s been responsible for some of Pixar’s most emotionally mature films (like “Inside Out” and “Up”), “Soul” gives off an “It’s a Wonderful Life” vibe. The film features jazz tunes by Jon Batiste, the bandleader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” as well as an original score by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who won an Oscar for “The Social Network.”“Soul” is scheduled to hit U.S. theaters on June 19. More

“Inside the Rain” begins as a kind of college caper, although in an unusual location: the student disabilities office. Ben Glass (played by the film’s writer and director Aaron Fisher) is a 20-something film major with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, A.D.H.D., O.C.D. and a host of other conditions.This is Ben’s second attempt at college, but it soon goes awry: romantic disappointments end in self-harm, and a misunderstanding threatens to get him expelled. Determined to vindicate himself and stay in school, Ben enlists the help of an aspiring actress and sex worker, Emma (Ellen Toland), to make a short film about his ordeal.[embedded content]Based on Fisher’s own life experiences, “Inside the Rain” switches erratically between comedy and drama while juggling many half-realized plot threads. But the movie’s strange, inconsistent rhythm ultimately works as a reflection of Ben’s manic and depressive states. Fisher’s performance is disarmingly blunt and deadpan, offering an up-close portrait of mental illness as a banal reality (which often involves negotiations with ill-equipped bureaucracy), rather than the stuff of horror or caricature.If “Inside the Rain” transcends clichés in this regard, it succumbs to them in others, especially its portrayal of women. Emma, whom Ben meets when he defends her from lascivious men outside a strip club, is the classic Hooker With a Heart of Gold. She has no compelling qualities outside of her sensuousness and her desire to help Ben. Rosie Perez also gets short shrift as a smack-talking psychiatrist, the actor’s earnest charm undercut — as is the case with many of the film’s performers, Fisher included — by a weak script.Inside the RainNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. More

Early on in the documentary “The Dog Doc,” one of the veterinarians working at the Smith Ridge clinic in South Salem, N.Y., mentions that each animal who comes into the clinic is blood tested and offered a nutrition plan based on the results. It’s the first time in “The Dog Doc” that the standards of care practiced at Smith Ridge deliver a jolt. In this compelling film, it’s not the medical miracles that most impress. Instead, the movie makes its biggest impact with treatments that feel like common sense.The director Cindy Meehl focuses her film on Smith Ridge, and on Dr. Marty Feldstein, the veterinarian who started it. Feldstein has spent his life advocating for a more holistic approach to medicine in animals. He treats dogs with vitamins and supplements, and he focuses on diet and noninvasive surgeries as an alternative to the more aggressive treatments typically recommended within the profession.[embedded content]Feldstein has been accused of eccentricity, and he is happy to dress the part. He has the affect and attire of a former hippy, wearing puppy-patterned coats for consultations. But Feldstein is serious about his work, and the film addresses the criticisms and accusations of quackery that have plagued him.Though this sometimes means the movie adopts a defensive posture, it also means that the audience is clear on what the veterinarians at Spring Ridge recommend. This is not a homeopathic approach that denies the validity of vaccines or surgery, but rather one that sees those treatments within a larger plan for total health. For audiences who don’t mind being jealous of sick dogs, “The Dog Doc” is a thought-provoking look at what is missing from modern medicine — for animals and for people.The Dog DocNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. More

Right off the bat, a new movie written and directed by Sally Potter does not take it easy on the viewer. It opens with plain white-on-black titles followed by the sight of Javier Bardem in a bed, in a barely furnished apartment. He lies alone, staring at the ceiling, grunting and mumbling. His guttural utterances are sometimes more frightening than pitiful.What is ailing this man? It’s never revealed. Later in the movie, when Bardem’s character Leo has been examined by a doctor after a fall, the practitioner tells Leo’s daughter (Elle Fanning; her character’s name is not shared until almost the very end of the movie, but is done pointedly) that the resulting cut is not serious. But he then expresses concern for Leo’s “underlying condition.” Whatever it is, it is making life impossible both for him and his daughter, whose devotion seems to know no bounds.“The Roads Not Taken” shows a day in the life of this Leo — and of two others. The incapacitated Leo who’s exiled himself in a tatty Brooklyn flat is tormented by visions of his other potential lives. In one, he lives in Mexico with his first love, Dolores. In another, he lives on a Greek island where he smokes, drinks, writes a bit and flirts with women a third of his age.[embedded content]The three alternate lives have one unifying feature: They all look like a form of hell on earth. Potter’s film preaches a variant of the “you can’t stop what’s coming” ethos articulated in “No Country for Old Men” (a Coen brothers’ movie for which Bardem won an Oscar), and it insists that whatever joys are in living, its miseries are heartbreaking and potent.The film also evokes the poet Philip Larkin’s line, “Man hands on misery to man,” particularly with respect to Leo’s relationship with his daughter. Leo’s a writer, and she aspires to be one. “You sacrificed your family for a book?” a young woman on the Greek island asks Leo, incredulous. In the New York setting, Fanning’s character loses a potential job while taking care of her father.Potter delivers her vision here in a form that’s perhaps too raw, too undistilled. There’s precious little lightness negotiating with the dark. Her lack of compromise is, as always, admirable — as is her way with actors. Laura Linney and Salma Hayek, among other cast members, do great work. But this is a movie one is apt to recommend with a caveat of “if you’re up for it.”The Roads Not TakenRated R for language and themes. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. More

Every “Oh wow” in “Human Nature” is matched by an “Oh no” somewhere down the line. Together, these two competing emotions — excitement and unease — make for one pretty fascinating documentary.The film, directed by Adam Bolt, explores Crispr technology, which, broadly speaking, can be used to snip out problematic parts of DNA — say, a portion that causes an illness — and replace them with different DNA, thus curing the ailment. Some versions of the process are already being deployed; this is, by and large, science fact rather than fiction.[embedded content]Employing Crispr for gene-editing has the potential to radically change human, animal and plant life. Besides removing unwanted DNA, Crispr might also be applied to add desired traits to an organism. As expected, there’s discussion of “designer babies,” eugenics and “improving” our species. There are enough ideas here to inspire a thousand sci-fi novels, not the least of which is a clip of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia warning about the possibility of creating a soldier who cannot feel fear or pain.In place of a narrator, Bolt employs a first-rate crew of bioethicists, geneticists and researchers to guide the film, and provides interviews with patients who have diseases that could soon be cured. Chapter titles like “Brave New World” and “Playing God” set the tone, as does a shrewd score and some well-used animation that illustrates the basics of DNA.Thorny questions arise throughout “Being Human” over what we are and what, if anything, we should change about ourselves on a cellular level. Though the film usually takes a hopeful, pro-Crispr outlook, uncertainties still linger, as do fears over the future. As one biologist says, this isn’t just the start of a new era for the world — it’s the end of our beginning.Human NatureNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. More