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The BFG
Starring: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, Bill Hader
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Produced by: Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer
Executive Produced by: Kathleen Kennedy, John Madden, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Michael Siegel, Frank Smith, Naia Cucukov
Written by: Melissa Mathison, Roald Dahl
Studio: Disney, Amblin Entertainment in association with Walden Media

Release Date: July 1, 2016
Rating: PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Hello all! A couple of days ago, I was invited by Walden Media to a free screening of their new film, The BFG. So here I am to tell you all about it, and please keep in mind that I did not let the complimentary passes affect my opinion of the film.

I actually don't remember reading the book at all when I was a child, though I'm sure I probably cracked it open at some point. I mean, how do you hang out in any library with books for children and not peruse a Roald Dahl book at some time or other? It's very hard to do. Whether it's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Matilda, or The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), it's just a given that you'll have had some kind of idea of what a Dahl story should be like: playful, clever, a bit weird, and involving main characters who are orphans or in some way disenfranchised. But unlike the film versions of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (old and new) and Matilda (who's all grown up now, by the way), you probably don't have an iconic vision of what The BFG is supposed to look like in real life, because the first film to be made based on the book was made in the cheeseball era of animation.

Anyway, I walked into The BFG with pretty close to a blank slate as one could possibly have. All I knew was it was a Disney interpretation of the classic Roald Dahl story, with Steven Spielberg at the helm. I walked out at the end well pleased. THIS is the iconic BFG we didn't even know we wanted. Mark Rylance does a great job voicing the big friendly giant whose existence is beleaguered by nine other giants who bully him endlessly (some of whom you'll recognize as voiced by Jemaine Clement, Bill Hader, and Adam Godley). Ruby Barnhill portrays the central character, Sophie, who is kidnapped by the BFG to stop her tattling to the whole world about giants, with precocious aplomb. Treat of treats, Penelope Wilton also turns up as The Queen. The late E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial screenwriter Melissa Mathison, to whom the film is dedicated, wrote the well-paced script.

The BFG was both prettily animated and laugh-out-loud funny. As a childless person, I usually try to avoid seeing kids' movies when crowded, not-so-quiet-whisper-filled audiences are likely to be in attendance, but this is one I would recommend seeing right away and with as many young people as possible. At some point, during the breakfast scene, I think, there was a child in the audience belly laughing so uncontrollably, we couldn't help but laugh along with her. And yeah, there is a large percentage of the humor that is fueled by fart jokes, but that's frobscottle for you.

There are parts that are a little bit scary, which is likely what gives it the PG rating instead of G. The giants keep threatening to eat people, after all. After a while we trust that young Sophie is safe with The BFG, who is a vegetarian, and no human is ever consumed on-screen, but there is also sad confirmation that The BFG isn't exaggerating when he calls his fellow giants "man-eaters". Still, the light outweighs the dark in this one. The BFG's day job involves collecting and re-distributing dreams: the fantastical animations and funny labels on the dream jars highlight the whimsy, while Sophie and The BFG's word-mashing repartee bring wit to the fore. 

The effects, costumes, and the rest of the movie's filmcraft elements are interesting (like Sophie's quilt that she drags about for a good portion of the movie--seriously, I am contemplating making one now), but somewhat forgettable. About the only thing I really found disappointing was the soundtrack. Yes, it's a John Williams score, and I suppose he's had enough scene-stealing music in his lifetime that we can let this one slide. It wasn't awful; it just wasn't special. The biggest takeaway from the whole experience is that Ruby Barnhill, who plays the brave orphan heroine with unnatural ease, is a born ham; at several points she made me wonder if Steven Spielberg even had to direct her at all. At 12 years of age she's already got comedy pretty down pat; I hope she gets more opportunities to hone and show off her drama skills, too. 

All in all, The BFG was a whizpopping good time. Bring a child or three with a good sense of humor. 

The BFG debuts on Friday, July 1st, nationwide. Watch some trailers and then check out http://www.walden.com/movie/the-bfg/ for more info.

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Judging by the first few scenes, Sicario looks like a great chance to see Emily Blunt flex her literal and figurative acting muscles – another reminder of the Black Widow that could have been – in the role of a strong female lead working on a task force to take down a Mexican drug cartel. But what actually follows is much murkier and, arguably, much more true to life.

Alethea recently had the amazing privilege of sitting down for a chat with the cast of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (PG-13), coming to theaters everywhere on September 18! Read on for more from the interview with Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Giancarlo Esposito, Ki Hong Lee, Dexter Darden, and Rosa Salazar. Make sure you enter to win a copy of the book signed by the cast (!!!) and a $25 gift certificate so you can go watch The Scorch Trials at your local movie theater*. Remember to use the hashtag #ScorchTrials when you tweet at us about this film!

*US Only, ends 9/17/2015, and if your local theater doesn't have gift cards, I'll send it to the winner some other way. Book prize was provided by, and Screening/Junket were hosted by 20th Century Fox.

Director Wes Ball again helms the cast of The Maze Runner in The Scorch Trials, with T.S. Nowlin adapting James Dashner's novel, the second in the series. The relief that Thomas and the Gladers may have felt after escaping the maze in the first film evaporates as a chopper drops them in the middle of The Scorch, a big, burning, dusty nowhere, and despite the food, clothes, and (finally!) real beds provided by their caretakers, it quickly dawns on them that they've just exchanged one prison for another. 

The second movie picks up the moment the first one leaves off, and lead actor Dylan O'Brien (Thomas) told us what it was like to get back into character. "Everyone was just like, giddy, jumping up in the hallways." Kaya Scodelario (Teresa) confirmed he'd sent them videos of himself jumping in the hotel, "'cause we were that excited". Putting the costume back on reminded Ki Hong Lee (Min Ho) how he felt at the end of the last film, and Dexter Darden (Frypan) reminisced that the cast mates have been able to know each other and feel like a family. Indeed, the group has a relaxed way with each other that makes it difficult to believe it's anything but real camaraderie.

I asked them about the stunts, which O'Brien said were pretty fun. Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Newt) chimed in, "It’s us traveling through this scorched, barren landscape. And so, if we weren’t kind of put to the test ourselves, then I don’t think it would’ve been as realistic." Darden added, "[Wes Ball] just allows us to throw ourselves in. And that’s what gets the real performance."

The Scorch Trials was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in contrast to the greenery of Louisiana where Maze Runner was filmed. Asked about injuries on set, the cast recounted a sprained wrist (O'Brien), a broken ankle (Barry Pepper, who plays rebel leader Vince), and a concussion (Rosa Salazar, who joins the original cast as a possible ally named Brenda). Scodelario, Lee, and Darden all ended up in the hospital at some point. Darden mused, "I think Albuquerque’s just kind of a different beast because you’re dealing with altitude and you’re dealing with less oxygen as well. And this movie was definitely more physical.... I think our bodies were just kind of running down and just saying, hey, slow down a little bit." Scodelario joked that one of them must have taken an ancient relic, but also seriously praised the health care they received, nodding as she said, "Albuquerque Hospital was, by the way, really great."

Regarding their new cast member, veteran actor Giancarlo Esposito (Jorge, a gang leader in the Scorch), O'Brien recalls their excitement and the thrill of meeting him. "Just having a guy like that treating you, treating us like, one of his... It’s so weird for us. It’s such a trip because we admire a guy like that so much. And I’ve seen Giancarlo in movies since I was ten years old."

Scodelario talked about the ease of introducing new people into the mix. She noted how different the original cast's personalities were, and that this diversity is why they get along so well. "By the second, Jacob [Lofland] arrived, he was one of us. The second Rosa [Salazar] arrived, she was one of us... And there wasn’t anyone that was like, “Oh, I’m just going to go back to my room and watch TV.” Brodie-Sangster commented, "It was nice to have new people come in, and they do just, by the nature of it, inject a new energy... it’s quite nice because it reignites your energy for the piece as well."

The group chatted on about good-natured pranks (like Will Poulter, who played Gally, putting love letters in Frypan's apron during the first film's shoot), and forming a band with Ki Hong Lee's stand-in. "We did jam," affirmed Brodie-Sangster, who plays bass. "We should’ve gotten it going a lot sooner," gushed O'Brien, who used to drum for an indie rock band. "We regretted it because we only did it the last couple weeks that we were there. And then we were like, “Oh, my gosh.  Why haven’t we been jamming like this the whole time?” It was really cool."

Next up, we talked to Giancarlo Esposito and Rosa Salazar, the newbies of the group. They both confirmed that the original cast welcomed them in as soon as they arrived. "I gotta say we were welcomed really, really beautifully," offered Esposito, who expanded on working with director Wes Ball, how open he and the rest of the cast were to ideas about their characters that he and Salazar brought to work with them.

Their characters in the film are very closely entwined, but whether they are father and daughter or some other relationship is purposefully vague. "Partners to the utmost, you know?," said Salazar, sipping a green juice. Esposito echoed, "Partners. Exactly." Salazar continued, "It was very ambiguous on purpose, and thanks to Wes, it remained that way. Not all relationships need to be explained." 

Salazar said of The Scorch Trials, "When I read the script, I got really turned on by it, so I read the book. And, you can just devour this book. It's so readable. In a day you're just through it." The book and the film version are vastly different, but Esposito said, "No matter how different the script is than the book that the script is based on, it's always nice because we have a very close family. And what I love about this movie, is that James Dashner [the author] is a part of our family as well, and our writer, T.S. Nowlin, is also quite prolific at translating and bringing that book to the screen." 

Salazar told us a little about herself which relates in a direct way to her character, Brenda. "I feel like I have cultivated this tenacity over the years.  I didn't have a very picture perfect upbringing, so that kind of primed me for life... It was not a huge deal.  I grew up in the foster system, and I emancipated myself, which is a lot better than some people have, but when they hear, like, "Oh my gosh. That's so terrible." And, I'm like, well actually the world can be a pretty bleak and lonely and sort of competitive place, and if anything, it primed me to be able to handle that."

For Esposito, it was about helping others and being part of a group. He said, "What I love about this movie and why I chose it was because we are a family.  That's really it, it's the hand that reaches out that lifts someone else up that is the truth of why we're really here... All we really have here is all these things, whether they be physical things or money, and that's just a tool to be able to help someone else to realize their dream in this lifetime."

"And so I recognized that about Jorge.  He's found a place to save a bunch of people for as long as he can, and that makes him feel good but also allows them, empowers them to be able to have a moment, to be educated, to get strong--whatever it is--to be able to fight the next battle."

Asked what may account for young people being so drawn to books and movies like The Maze Runner series, Esposito alluded to a sense of hopelessness in the world. "I think we're in a state now with young people where they're looking not only to be entertained by movies, but they recognize that there is something different about this one and something more hopeful and deeper about it because this movie allows them to feel like they can be a part of a new world. Because we're just not looking for simply revenge. We're looking for freedom. We're looking to be together, and we're looking to create it in a whole new way."

I hope you enjoyed our coverage of The Scorch Trials! Check out the links below and enter to win the book and some movie money!

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Happy Comic-Con week, readers! Thuy and I are in San Diego for SDCC as usual. If you aren't, we are sorry, but also, here is what you might conceivably have available to do this week in your area (well, in most areas). If you go out to a movie theater this weekend, we hope you will go and see Me and Earl and The Dying Girl.

I've seen it twice now and am going a third time--can you tell that I love it?

Full disclosure: through a mutual friend, I know Jesse Andrews and have been lucky enough to host him twice at author events in Los Angeles, once for Barnes & Noble at The Americana, and once for the inaugural Pasadena Teen Book Festival (now Pasadena Loves YA). I've hugged him in a library parking lot. I've read Me and Earl and the Dying Girl 4 times, and laughed and cried through each re-read. I've sat on the sofa listening to my husband laugh out loud while reading the book, and shot him "I told you so" looks across the living room. So I knew going into the film that I might be a little biased.

YA Rising Stars with Jesse Andrews, Ann Stampler, Lissa Price, and Allen Zadoff at Barnes & Noble at The Americana in Glendale, CA; photo by Katie Ferguson

The novel, Me and Earl and The Dying Girl, follows Greg Gaines (played in the film version by Beautiful Creatures's Thomas Mann) over the course of his senior year of high school as he befriends a classmate with leukemia (Rachel Kushner, played by Bates Motel's Olivia Cooke). His best friend Earl (played by the highly entertaining RJ Cyler) with whom Greg has been making homages to their favorite films since they were in kindergarten is an unlikely source of wisdom and truth. Along with some kooky parents, played by Connie Britton (Nashville), Nick Offerman (Parks & Recreation), Molly Shannon (SNL), a hardcore history teacher (Jon Bernthal of The Walking Dead), Greg and sometimes Earl try to befriend and entertain Rachel as she undergoes chemotherapy.

I know this all sounds horrible and sad, and not like a fun escapist summer flick, but I promise, though parts of the film are quite sad, much of it is as laugh-out-loud hilarious as the book. It's quirky and wonderful, occasionally crass, but frequently ebullient.

What I expected from the film was this:

• an adaptation of a book about a pair of teens who make their own, inspired-by-cult-cinema, off-the-wall-silly home movies
• a touching but realistic story about illness, death, and grief
• stellar performances by little-known young actors bookended by more name-recognizable actors

Which I got.

What I didn't expect was this:

• Fabulous sets and a weird hankering to visit Pittsburgh 
• Hilarious little stop-motion short films
• Between 2 to 4 floods of tears (I was expecting just one)
• Brian. Eno. Soundtrack.

That Jesse Andrews was able to deliver a great screenplay without a traditional screenwriting background was impressive enough, but that TV director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon was able to pull off such a well-done feature-length movie, and filmed in a little under a month, was even more than I had hoped for. As a fan of the existing work, what you don't want is a director who loses the message of the novel in the endeavor to make a bankable movie using just a skeleton of the book. What Gomez-Rejon managed to do was connect with the heart of the book and translate those emotions--hilarity, confusion, and sadness--into the language of the cinephile. 

Fantastic casting didn't hurt a bit.

Jesse Andrews at Pasadena Teen Book Festival 2014, photo by Katie Ferguson

Oh, and at some point you'll hear a voiceover by Hugh Jackman. Yes, it's the real Hugh Jackman, not an impersonator. Unless that impersonator looks exactly like him and has control of his Instagram:

In short, go see it, you won't be disappointed! And if you check the #MeandEarl hashtag on Twitter, in addition to nice things people are saying about the movie (and by people I mean people with last names like Scorsese and Chbosky) you can find lots of official giveaways going on for clever movie-tie-in swag. I'm a little sad they didn't ask me to give one away! But that's ok, I bought 2 of the Hot Topic movie-tie-in shirts and am contemplating a third. (Because senior year did destroy my life.)

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is in theaters now. 

In the waning moments of Terminator Genisys, Alan Taylor’s attempt to revitalize this moribund franchise, there is a scene where the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and the titular heroes Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese (reimagined by the woefully miscast Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney) are arrested by the local police. When their mugshots are taken, the theme from COPS plays in the background. This is the kind of movie you’ve signed up for when you go and see Terminator Genisys.

It wasn’t all bad going really, though my expectations were generally in the toilet from the outset. We’re talking about the follow-up to Terminator: Salvation or the reboot/relaunch of a franchise that’s been in a moribund state, unable to recapture the magic that imbued T2: Judgement Day with the ability to conquer the box office in the early 90’s. We’re also looking at a franchise relaunch that’s being helmed by the guy that brought you Thor: The Dark World, the next in a line of mediocre filmmakers that have inherited the reins on this series in the wake of James Cameron moving on to even bigger financial pastures. With those sunken hopes in place, I sat back and found that the first 20 minutes or so of Genisys to at least be watchable.

Within that opening frame, Taylor and company attempt to set the stage for why this film should exist in the first place, though it’s a fairly tenuous excuse: John Connor (Jason Clarke, no relation to the above), Reese, and the human resistance that’s in place during the fall of humanity, post-Judgement Day, discover Skynet’s time travel device. Due to Reese’s weird obsession with John’s mother, Sarah Connor, that Courtney completely fails to sell, John picks his right hand man as the person to send on a time traveling journey to protect Sarah and stop Judgement Day from occurring. Sounds pretty familiar, right? Short of an attack on John that occurs during the fireworks that send Reese back in time, you’re looking at a story that’s doing backflips to establish its own relevancy in the shadow of a much better set of films.

To their credit, Taylor and his art direction team do a pretty nice job of recreating the atmosphere of Cameron’s original (and best) Terminator film. At this point, I was filled with questions at the very least, sucker that I am for time travel narratives: Why is Sarah Connor no longer the innocent waitress that she was in the first film? Why is a Terminator now her paternal figure? Why did Matt Smith’s mysterious character attack John? Why is there a T-1000 hunting Sarah and Kyle in the timeline of the first film? It’s an enjoyably dumb time, though admittedly one that’s overloaded with exposition in order to remind viewers what’s happening and why it’s happening (seriously, poor Arnold plays the role of narrative dumping ground just as much as he does stoic father-figure). Yet, in order to avoid falling too far into the Back to the Future 2 retread trap, Kyle and Sarah take another trip in time.

That’s where things fall apart completely.

Taylor’s narrative, once it hits 2017 – the next timehop destination – gives way to weightless CGI battles, a non-starter plot regarding what’s basically an evil iPhone app, and twisty timeline logic that the script simply doesn’t have time to address, nor does it really seem to care to. All of this while establishing a poorly set up relationship between Kyle and Sarah that casts John as the ne’er-do-well suitor and the T-800 as the disapproving father. At this point, the whole endeavor becomes an incalculable mess, full of fan service that ends up making no sense in the context of the current narrative and showcasing action beats that can only be described as tremendously boring.

The structure of Terminator Genisys basically falls into “our heroes are chased by a bad guy, they hide out in a bunker of some sort and explain the plot to one another, arrested, bunker/hide-out, chased by a bad guy, arrested etc.” If I see Arnold throw someone through a wall again, it’ll be too soon. The only real bright spot in the final two-thirds of the movie is when J.K. Simmons pops up on screen as a detective who first encountered Reese and Connor in 1984 as a uniform police officer and has been obsessed with them ever since. It’s a character that’s actually somewhat compelling and has a unique perspective on the ongoing Skynet vs. Connors battle that we’ve seen warmed over so many times, it’s become tedious. As my friend who sat next to me at the screening said: I wish the whole movie had just focused on him.

What Terminator Genisys brought to bear for me is that this is a franchise, much like Jurassic Park, that is drug down by actually being a franchise. The original Terminator was a lean and mean showcase for a hungry young science fiction-minded filmmaker that told a wonderfully executed, done in one, finite tale. Even its first sequel, as enjoyable as it was, was really just an excuse to retell Terminator in 90’s clothes and take advantage of Arnold’s stature as a megastar. It’s been a case of diminishing returns ever since, and it’s possible that Terminator Genisys is the worst offering of the lot. That it exists to clearly perpetuate more sequels, with a post-credits scene that I bet even the writers don’t have an explanation for, may actually make it the worst of the lot. You can say a lot of things about Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation, but at least they had, respectively, a surprisingly downbeat ending and an attempt to tell a different kind story within this universe. Terminator Genisys does neither of these things; it’s just a much blander version of far better films.

There are moments in life, for everyone, when sorrow creeps into our happiest memories. Time passes. We change. We lose things. We lose people. Our past experiences take on a new shape. Occasionally the shift is sharp and profound; an earthquake. Other times it’s gradual and unnoticed; erosion.

But sorrow isn’t always a burden. Sometimes it’s a salve.

Coming from a culture of children’s stories that focus on happy endings for the good guys, it’s a message that’s at once simple and unexpected. Inside Out isn’t concerned with saving the world or ridding it of evil. There are no villains and there is no hero. There’s simply a girl trying to learn the value of sadness and it’s ability to co-exist with joy; the undeniable collusion of the two.

Inside Out  follows 11-year-old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), a happy child whose life is uprooted when her parents decide to move from the Midwest to California. While Riley is our protagonist, we spend most of the movie with Riley’s feelings, exemplified by colorful characters living in Riley’s head and controlling her reactions to the world around her. The leader of that crew is Joy, voiced appropriately by Amy Poehler. Joy is the cartoon embodiment of Poehler’s character from Parks and Recreation, the eternal optimist known as Leslie Knope. She wrangles a crew of Riley’s other emotions, including Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black),  Fear (Bill Hader), and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). Kaling and Smith channel their characters from The Office, each with an edge towards their specific emotion. Black is, well… Lewis Black, and so on.

That’s honestly the whole external plot: Riley is shaken by the move and the loss of her friends, and suddenly Sadness begins to drive her reactions. But it’s what’s inside that counts here. When Joy attempts to take control of Riley’s reactions, Joy and Sadness butt heads and both end up accidentally being cast out of mission control entirely. The two feelings spend the movie trying to understand each other and make it back to mission control in one piece, but with Disgust, Anger and Fear too afraid to step up and take the wheel, Riley stops feeling anything. The word “depression” is never used, but it’s a clearly intelligent attempt to demonstrate what depression looks like to those who’ve never experienced it. Rather than an exaggerated or temporary dose of Sadness, depression is nothing.

Inside Out feels like a movie written by a parent who watched his or her child suddenly learn to deal with more complex emotions; a child learning how one thing can make you feel more than one way, rather than bouncing from one extreme to the next, and how confusing that can be. But it isn’t specifically a movie for children, either. In addition to a crew of fairly adult comedians and a mature message, the world-building is especially impressive, kids movie or not. We have the emotions “driving” Riley, core memories that shape her personality (they look like glowing bowling balls), and other colorful, physical representations of very abstract concepts.

As heavy as all of this sounds, it’s really the opposite – Inside Out manages to do all of this while being bright, fun, and a surprisingly hilarious movie. It’s fresh, clean air. The voice talent is a huge part of that, as well as the small moments we spend watching the emotional control centers of other characters (just imagine what the Emotional HQ of a hormone-driven teenage boy looks like and you’ll get the picture). But at the end of the day the credit is most likely down to Pete Docter, the film’s writer and director. Docter was the driving force behind Pixar’s 2009 feature, Up, which took home an Oscar for best animated feature.

It’ll be a huge shock if Inside Out doesn’t end up with similar accolades, and in my mind it’s a contender for best picture awards, animated or not. It’s not easy to pull off a movie that says something intelligent without being heavy-handed; that remains rooted in reality while living in imagination. But every now and then the planets align, the Movie Gods smile upon us, and we get a widely-popular, successful film that deserves every bit of it.

Here’s hoping (and knowing) that’ll be the case here.

It’s often said that the writers on Lost were just making it up as they went along; weaving the most impossible scenarios into the yarns of the story, hoping an explanation or ending might surface after-the-fact.

If that is, in fact, how Lost was written, it’s easy to argue that Damon Lindelof‘s latest writing venture takes the opposite approach. With a script credited to Lindelof, Jeff Jensen, and director Brad Bird, Tomorrowland feels like a concept or idea (or a philosophy, even) that was fleshed out into 15 minutes of story in the writers’ room. That 15 minutes of story was nestled into the movie’s ending, and 90 minutes of “robots-are-chasing-you-run!” were tacked on ahead of it. A movie that knew where it wanted to go, but had no idea how to get there.

Given the movie’s title and inspiration, it’s awfully hard not to compare it to one of Disney’s rides – waiting more than an hour for an experience that lasts minutes.

The premise of Tomorrowland centers around Casey (Britt Robertson), a rebellious, intelligent teenager who has a knack for understanding how things work. When Casey is gifted a mysterious pin by a child named Athena (Raffey Cassidy), she realizes she has a key to another world where ambitious minds can meet. She enlists the help of a grumpy man named Frank (George Clooney) to help her escape a gang of robots that have started chasing her for the pin (…it’s genuinely as abrupt as it sounds), and they work together to get back to Tomorrowland.

It’s also worth mentioning that several people (primarily bystanders) die on-screen in Tomorrowland, but the violence is glossed over so quickly that it’s simultaneously jarring and forgettable. I’m not opposed to violence showing up in movies, but I prefer if it has a purpose in the story. Here it’s to show that bad robots are bad. Got it? Bad robots. Bad.

It’s not all bad stuff, mind you – the movie’s peak features a Home Alone style house that’s been booby-trapped by Clooney’s character – but after several successful directorial efforts from Bird, including The Incredibles, it’s hard not to consider this one a misfire.

The break-out success of this film, if anything is to be remembered from it, will likely be Robertson’s performance. For a hollow character in a hollow film, Robertson manages to lend enough personal ticks and mannerisms to Casey to make her likable. It may not be a particularly challenging part, but Robertson’s Jennifer-Lawrence-like persona shines through.

Lindelof has already taken to the press to say that this is a movie fanboys will be too cynical to like. While it’s true that Tomorrowland offers a more optimistic look at our future, rather than pining over a world of zombies and destruction, I don’t think it’s the premise that will kill the film’s good will. In fact, I think that’s one of the few and only reasons I’ve seen cited for people enjoying it.

Instead, Tomorrowland spends the majority of it’s running time on bad action (pro-tip: don’t see this movie right after Mad Max: Fury Road) and then decides to clumsily tell, rather than show, its message in a few final moments. Regardless of Lindelof’s claim that this movie isn’t for cynics, the problem isn’t with the viewers. The problem is that a fortune cookie philosophy served at the end of a bad meal doesn’t make the food taste good.

Oh my…

That’s a decent way to start a review, right? After walking out of tonight’s screening of Mad Max: Fury Road, I had so much built up energy inside of me, I literally had to jump around outside of the theater. Quite a few critics have been hailing George Miller‘s return to his seminal franchise as a “masterpiece”. As far as movies that live and die on their action spectacle go, you can consider me one of the converted.

This fourth entry in a series that hasn’t seen a new film in 30 years is basically a reboot, though you could also see it as a sequel to Beyond Thunderdome in a sort of James Bond sense. Tom Hardy steps into the role originally inhabited by Mel Gibson, and his version of Max Rockatansky basically picks up where his predecessor left off. The world has continued to devolve into a hellish landscape in a way that would make George Romero jealous, but any newcomer to Miller’s post-apocalyptic fever dream will find themselves easily able to grasp the central details: Max is a former cop whose family was murdered, and he now wanders this scorched earth attempting to survive. Max gets caught by the minions of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a sort of steampunk Darth Vader/Papal-figure, who is treated like a savior by his men and farms women for their wombs and breast milk. While Max is imprisoned, Joe’s leading lady, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) makes a break for it with his prized concubines, which sets off a chain of events that finds Max, Furiosa, the neurotic yet redeemable Nux (Nicholas Hoult), and a set of kick-ass ladies (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton) on a wild chase as they attempt to lose Joe’s rolling army in dusty desert.

Allow me to emphasize the word chase, as this activity is what makes up literally 99% of Fury Road‘s running time. This is a film that is pretty thin on plot, but bustling with sheer momentum, action set-pieces, intricate design work, and the most rocking score I’ve heard in a film of this type in some time. Through the mostly desert surface, Max and company are pursued by white painted men with explosive muskets, pirates with spiked cars, mercenaries wearing clothes made of bullets, and of course Joe himself. On display is literally every deathrace cliche reinvented for the screen and taken to the next logical extreme. It’s a film so high octane, that Miller even speeds up the action, and envelops it in biting humor, in a move reminiscent of the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet; and it goes to show that Miller, even at 70, is a filmmaker is still willing to learn and adapt to new influences. Mad Max: Fury Road feels like the work of a much younger and hungrier director, and his collaboration with comics giant Brendan McCarthy (who both co-wrote the screenplay and provided much of the design work, and boy does it ever show!) may have done much to reinvigorate Miller post-films like Happy Feet.

However, despite the onslaught of Michael Bay style pyrotechnics, Miller still takes the time to give focus to the character dynamics of this rag-tag bunch that’s formed by circumstance. Rather than cardboard cut-outs, each character feels like a fully-fleshed individual via sparse dialogue and taut performances. The script is the definition of “show, don’t tell”, as exposition is kept to an absolute minimum. Perhaps the biggest and most welcome surprise is that Max isn’t even really the star of the show, though Hardy is quite good in the role, as that honor goes to Furiosa. Theron’s shaved head, mechanically-armed warrior may very well be the closest thing we’ve had to a new Ripley, and I think you can easily argue that this is Theron’s Aliens. I doubt she’ll be up for Oscar consideration, as this is  the kind of film that voters almost never go for (Sigourney Weaver‘s nomination came when the field for actresses was relatively slim), but I would wholeheartedly support a Best Actress campaign in this case. She’s that good.

This added focus on Furiosa also underscores an important point; it’s one of the most feminist action films in recent memory. Fury Road centers on a group of women taking their own agency and pushing against patriarchal rule. While this franchise has always had an undercurrent of pacifist themes, Miller has laser-focused his message, to a point where one interaction at the midway point of the film ends up stating the obvious: this is what happens when old white men run the world unchecked. That may rankle some feathers in the audience, but this is an action movie that isn’t just empty spectacle or aiming for the lowest common denominator. This is a motion picture that’s actually about something with a strong point of view, and that’s worth standing up and applauding for. It’s basically the film equivalent of an album by The Clash dropping in the middle of a sea of bad arena rock.

Mad Max: Fury Road began filming in 2012, and had to undergo reshoots in 2013 (and this of course follows the 25 years of development hell that the film underwent just to get to there). We often take issue with productions that have to undergo that dreaded process, but Mad Max: Fury Road is a diamond of an exception and proves that as an audience, it behooves us to trust in auteur vision, especially in the action arena which so sorely needs it. Much like Bong Joon-ho‘s Snowpiercer last year, Miller paves the way for what these films should look like and the level of care that needs to go into them. This effort proves that, sometimes, you really can go home again.

To every other movie releasing this Summer: good luck!

Thank you so much to 20th Century Fox and Big Honcho Media for inviting us to a screening and Q&A with the cast of The Maze Runner. Directed by Wes Ball and based on the YA novel by James Dashner, the film adaptation will be released on Friday, September 19, 2014.

The movie stars Dylan O’Brien as Thomas, Kaya Scodelario as Teresa, Will Poulter as Gally, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt, Aml Ameen as Alby, and Ki Hong Lee as Minho.

After the screening, the main cast (minus Aml Ameen) answered some questions for a mix of bloggers, reviewers, and fans. We hope you enjoy the trailer and event recap, as well as the photos, including stills from the film (used with permission) and photos from the Q&A session by our friend Katie Ferguson (pocketofgreen).

The Maze Runner follows Thomas (Dylan O'Brien, Teen Wolf), a young man whose memories have been wiped clean before he wakes up in the center of a giant labyrinth. The other boys subsisting in The Glade, the green heart of the maze, especially their de facto leader, Alby (Aml Ameen, Lee Daniels' The Butler) quickly absorb him into their community. Their day-to-day routine is tense, but the boys seem to have organized themselves well enough to get by despite their straitened circumstances. The letters W.C.K.D. are stamped on various things, including the provisions that arrive with each new arrival, but no one can remember what it stands for.

Thomas's fascination with the maze, which at night is filled with monsters called Grievers, arouses distrust in another boy, Gally (Will Poulter, We're The Millers), who blames Thomas for all of the strange occurrences following his appearance. This includes the appearance of the first and only girl, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario, Skins). After one of the runners who goes out daily trying to find a way out of the maze shows signs of having been infected with a zombie-like affliction, events quickly take a downward turn. What is W.C.K.D.? Why are they in the maze? And most importantly, can they get out before it's too late?

Photos by Katie Ferguson

Cast Q&A

Asked if they thought the world ran better with or without adults, Will Poulter remarked on the wide range of ages among the cast members, from then 12-year-old Blake Cooper (Chuck) to Aml Ameen, who is nearing 30. The 21-year-old Poulter talked about how they all got along very well and became very close, then quipped, "Don't get me wrong. Some adults helped us make this."

Throughout the Q&A, the cast members seemed really friendly with each other. Asked what it was like to be on set with "just a bunch of dudes", Kaya Scodelario replied:

Dylan O'Brien cut in, saying, "But still polite," and Scodelario agreed. " We just had so much fun as a group... a lot of the boys' girlfriends came on set and sisters and stuff like that. So, there were females to interact with. But in the words of Aml [Ameen], I am quite laddish anyway."

Asked what was the most challenging and fun stunt they had to do on set, O'Brien laughingly recalled a 12-hour day spent hanging from wires, shooting a scene where he's climbing or hanging from vines in the maze: "They would just bring me food. They didn't want to lower me because it would just take a lot more time." He also had some takes where falling leaves and debris from the maze walls kept getting in his eyes, and how the director handled that:

One of the bloggers asked the cast which of their previous characters they've played in other films would survive the longest in the maze, Ki Hong Lee (The Nine Lives of Chloe King), who plays Minho, said none of his previous roles would compare to the characters in the book.

The cast talked about running (hate it!),  passionate fans (love them!), and portions of the book that didn't make the cut. O'Brien mentioned the Beetle Blades, scurrying mechanical creatures thought to be spies for the bigger, deadlier Grievers, and how they derailed the story too much and got left out of the final version of the movie. Poulter referred to a gag reel which he hopes will be on the DVD, because it "speaks a lot to our professionalism. It's 20 minutes of us cracking up and not doing our jobs properly."

The whole group also weighed in on the lack of romance in the film. Poulter concluded that there were enough emotions and relationships running among the Gladers themselves, that throwing in a romance amidst the bromance, as Lee called it, would have been really weird. 

Scodelario said, "[Teresa]'s purely about survival. And that's so brave and so kind of against the grain nowadays with female characters in films. So, I really liked that.  And it's like Dylan said, there would be no time for them to be like, oh, let's go for a little walk in the forest together—"

"In the Glade," Thomas Brodie-Sangster finished the thought. O'Brien added that he hopes that the flirty scenes they shot don't end up on the DVD. "I think it works without it," agreed Scodelario, followed by nods and murmurs of agreement by her cast mates.

The Maze Runner opens nationwide on Friday, September 19, 2014.

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Synopsis: When Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) wakes up trapped in a massive maze with a group of other boys, he has no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D. Only by piecing together fragments of his past with clues he discovers in the maze can Thomas hope to uncover his true purpose and a way to escape. Based upon the best-selling novel by James Dashner.

Rated: PG-13
Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee
Directed By: Wes Ball
Produced By: Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen

If I Stay

Release date: 22 August 2014

Directed by: R. J. Cutler

Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley

Based on the novel If I Stay by Gayle Forman

DiNovi Pictures/Warner Bros.

Based on Gayle Forman's best-selling young adult novel, If I Stay follows talented young cellist Mia Hall (Chloë Grace Moretz) after her family is involved in a fatal car accident. Her spirit wanders the halls of the hospital where her body lies in a coma, watching her loved ones grieve, remembering her life, and trying to decide whether she will wake up or go towards the light.

While the film adaptation is fairly faithful to the events of the novel, the forgettable dialogue fails to hit the right resonance. Lip-biting Mia comes across as stuck-up, pretentious, and flat--a disservice to Moretz, whose Hit-Girl character from the Kick-Ass movies proves she is capable of a wider range of expression. Her handsome rocker boyfriend Adam (the scrumptious Jamie Blackley) is by turns charming and cheesy. Their on-screen attraction smolders, but moments that should have flared fizzle instead. Fans of the book might swoon over their mawkish declarations of love, but the screenplay produces nothing even remotely as memorable or quotable as The Fault in Our Stars's simple but heartfelt "Okay? Okay."

The Halls's family life is much more compelling than Mia's budding romance. The adults surrounding her are drummer-turned-teacher dad Denny (Joshua Leonard), riot-grrrl-turned-travel-agent mom Kat (Mireille Enos), and the ever-supportive Gramps (Stacy Keach). Enos burns with pent-up energy, from her vibrant growl of a voice to her flaming hair to her staccato walk. Leonard's eyes light up with awe and pride as Denny realizes his daughter is a much more talented musician than he will ever be. Keach's bedside scene is the only one that moves me to tears: Gramps pours his heartbreak out and, just for a moment, pierces the veil between himself and Mia's lingering soul. 

A killer soundtrack could have saved If I Stay from its own snoozefest. It's serviceable, don't get me wrong. The poignant Saint-Saëns "Le Cygne", other cello pieces, and even the songs composed for Adam's fictional band Willamette Stone manage to imbue some otherwise lifeless scenes. But for a story set in musically rich Portland, Oregon, one has to wonder why no Portlandian bands are on the soundtrack.

Some visual choices were also a tad confusing: the outfit Mia wears for their snow-day outing is much more suited to a breezy California winter than snowy Oregon; a tight, too-bright close-up of Mia screaming in the hospital's hallway frames her more like a spoiled brat having a tantrum than a genuinely distraught young adult who has lost everything she holds dear. Top that off with Moretz's face super-imposed on someone else's body whenever Mia has to play the cello, and you have a hot mess of a movie.

I wanted to like it, I really did. But everything was too clean, while the audience was reminded now and then that life is messy, and that that's just how it is. Adam's tidy rehearsal space, perfectly-coiffed Mia (who looks like she spends an hour at the salon every morning before school), and the Halls's too-neat cottage would have benefited from a little grunge to make the setting more believable. In the end, I'd rather have watched a not-so-pretty cellist with medium acting chops, a script that better translates the emotions and not the plot, and a less-glossy production.

If I Stay is in theaters now.

My review of the film The Thief Lord, which originally appeared in the now-gone May 2006 issue of The Edge of the Forest.

I was surprised to learn that the film version of Cornelia Funke's book The Thief Lord
had been released straight to DVD. This is usually a sign that the movie stinks. The Thief Lord remains my favorite of Funke's books, so it was with no small amount of fear that I sat down to watch the DVD.

It helped that it's been over two years since I read The Thief Lord, so I had few instances of "that wasn't in the book" or "how could they have left out such and such."

My first thought was relief; the young actors playing Prosper, Bo, the Thief Lord and the other children are perfect. The movie was filmed on location in Venice, and the city, with its mix of old and new and with hints of magic everywhere, was beautifully captured. Readers who loved the book will enjoy this film; and viewers who didn't read the book will have no problem following the story.

The film captures the essence of the book: Brothers Prosper and Bo escape the selfish aunt and uncle who send Prosper to an orphanage while keeping the adorable younger brother. Once in Venice, the boys are happy to be together but have run out of money. Luckily for them, they meet the mysterious Thief Lord, Scipio, who looks after them along with several other homeless children. The Thief Lord is infamous, and has been hired to steal a valuable object; the reward would keep his adopted family safe. But the boys' aunt and uncle are hot on their tale and Venice is no longer safe.

In the book, magical realism didn't appear until the end; in the movie, from the start Bo sees things that others don't, letting the viewer know that this isn't just another runaway movie. For the most part, the special effects worked well; but, particularly towards the end, there were a few things that fell flat. (Having adult voices come out of children's sized bodies, for example; and Scipio's horrible hair in the final scenes.) It was also funny how things on the page fell a wee bit flat on the book; the first time The Thief Lord is addressed as "Scip" it sounds like "Skip" the ultimate preppy name. It makes the Thief Lord look silly, rather than cool.

The other children – Hornet, Riccio, and Mosca – were great, but because of the time limitations of film their characters were not fully developed. I was most disappointed in Hornet, or rather, the lack of screen time for Hornet. There are books around, and we do see Hornet reading a book (which IMDB says is Funke's own Inkheart!) but I think more could have been done to show Hornet and her books. And the movie reveals to the viewer Scipio's dual identity sooner t

(500) Days of Summer. 2009. DVD from Netflix

The Plot: The relationship of Tom and Summer, two twentysomethings. He believes in love at first sight and finding your one true love; she, in being friends and that there is no such thing as love.

The Good: Tom's and Summer's relationship is modern (he the romantic, she the cynic); their story has highs and lows, sweet romance and deep hurts. It is primarily Tom's story, his friends, his family, his dreams. Summer is the girl he falls for, more complex than he understands. When he is happy, his world is a music video; sad, and its raining outside and all is dull and gray. (500) Days of Summer is a beautifully written and acted look at the life cycle of a relationship.

While the story of Tom and Summer alone would make an interesting film, what ups the greatness of this is it is told out of order. First meeting, post-breakup, flirtation, first kiss, a series of disjointed days that seem at first glance to be confusing. It works: the different scenes show a building story arc, the contradictory behaviour of people, and, somehow, despite the nonlinear story telling, character development. I've watched it a few times now, and each time have enjoyed it more and more.

There is a little bit of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl to Summer, in that at first we are told that everyone loves her. She works in an ice cream store, sales go up; she rents an apartment, she gets a break in rent. And, of course, she's cute, listens to interesting music, wears great clothes. Ultimately, Summer is not such a girl. She may be Tom's dream girl, yes, in the sense that Tom falls in love with her at first sight and becomes a bit obsessed with her. Summer is honest from the start of their relationship that she doesn't want a relationship, isn't looking for love, and wants to be "just friends." Tom's own passions, own desires, cloud his thinking and he ignores her. His ignoring who she is (and isn't) doesn't turn her into a MPDG. All Summer teaches Tom is what any relationship teaches a person: people are people and cannot be made into what they are not. Along the way, Tom takes ownership of his life instead of drifting and waiting for "the one". Reading this article by the screenwriter makes me think that Summer was originally written as a MPDG (reading that article creates intense dislike in the pity party the screenwriter throws himself), and was saved by a good director, editing, and great actors.

Final point: I just adore Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his work. Between this and Brick, I think I'd watch him read the phone book and he would make it smart and sexy.

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© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

Variety has now posted their review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and it contains much praise for the sixth installment in the Harry Potter film series. Noting that director David Yates "displays noticeably increased confidence here, injecting more real-world grit into what began eight years ago as purest child's fantas," and has made a film that is "film is clear-headed and clean-... Read the rest of this post

The Toughest Critics in New York Take Their Seats!

It's Newberry Award season and my fourth grade classes just read The Tale of Desperaux and got a special suprise when our principal allowed us to attend The Tale of Desperaux movie.

The project started with a First Book distribution which gave each child a copy of the book. We got more excited as we started to watch all the movie signs and television commericals.

Here is what we have to say -

Kristina

"If I was a critic I would give four stars to the movie, "Tale of Desperaux. Why, you ask?, because the original book gave a lot of parts, but the movie was exciting in my opinion. What I like from the movie was that they mentioned mouseworld and ratworld."

Lauren

"The thing I don't like about the movie is that they take out alot of important parts and put not so important parts in and they switch evertything around."

Rodolfo

"My reaction was so excited when the movie started. I got comfortable and started eating my popcorns. The movie was funnybecause Desperaux was born with long ears. My favorite part is when Desperaux did not get scared when the the school teacher showed a dangerous knife."

Vartan

"I would say the book was better than the movie. I think the movie needed more action too it."

Valentina

"I like saying Desperaux, Desperaux, Desperaux, Desperaux Tilling." The movie was great, but I truly love the book. It has more detail and it's longer which made it much better.

Rosie

"What I did not like about the movie was there were lots of parts missing of the story and they didn't put lots of action in the movie."

Overall, it seems that the book was the overwhelming class favorite. Stay tuned as we learn more about what the Newberry medal is in the upcoming weeks and listen for the exciting announcement of the 2009 Winner.

HELLO! From Desperaux