BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [May 2018]

Proud Mary
All The Money In The World
Molly’ Game
THE VIDIOT
fresh and funny
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN
Being the ringmaster of a circus means that
you get your pick of the freaks to marry.However,
that rule doesn’t apply to the host in this
musical because he’s already wed.
Following a string of dead-end ventures, entrepreneur
P. T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) finally
finds his calling under the big top. After trading
in his curio exhibit for the real-thing, adding
a trapeze artist (Zendaya) and a songbird
(Rebecca Ferguson) to his menagerie, Barnum
then partners with an eminent dramatist (Zac
Efron) to bring his show to the masses. Seduced
by his success, Barnum now risks losing his wife
(Michelle Williams) and his performers.
While this socially conscience reinterpretation
of Barnum’s real life has a number of toe
tapping tunes and dance numbers to its credit,
as well as a dynamic performance from Jackman,
it is completely fictional and misleading.
Incidentally, circus sideshows still exist;
they’re just called Walmarts now.
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
You know you’ve made it when strangers
kidnap your children for ransom.
So, for the industrialist in this drama, payoffs
are just part of everyday life.
When her son is taken hostage Gail Harris
(Michelle Williams) asks her father-in-law J.
Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) for the
$17M ransom to free him, but the oil magnate
flatly refuses for fear it will encourage copycats.
He does, however, hire ex-CIA agent Fletcher
Chase (Mark Wahlberg) to look into his grandson’s
release. But when the payment is delayed,
the kidnappers send the heir’s ear in the mail.
Based on the real-life events of 1973 that
brought the reclusive miser into the media
spotlight, exposing his cruelty and stinginess to
the world, director Ridley Scott and cast tell a
compelling and complex tale of the failings of
fortune and family.
Incidentally, avoid kidnapping middle children
as they yield the least amount of ransom.
​MOLLY’S GAME
Poker is one activity where the facially deformed
can really clean up. Unfortunately, the
action in this drama is only open to handsome
Hollywood actors.
From slinging suds in a nightclub to hosting
an underground poker match for her boss that
included celebrity players to eventually running
her own game, Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain)
was on top of the world by 26. But when an
unspecified celebrity (Michael Cera), doesn’t
get a cut of the take he forces Molly out of LA.
Things go better in NYC, until the mafia and
FBI reshuffle her deck.
The Greatest Showman
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, this
18 | MAY 2018 • BEATROUTE
BY SHANE SELLAR
adaptation of Bloom’s own book is reinterpreted
through the acerbic scribe’s witticisms and
rapid-pace repartee. Thankfully, his writing skills
translate to behind the camera, where he gets a
powerhouse performance from Chastain.
Fortunately, you can make up gambling
losses to a movie star by pirating their next
blockbuster.
INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY
Scientists have concluded that monsters live
underneath beds because they drink kid pee.
Fortunately, the fiend in this horror movie feeds
off of fear, not tinkle.
When medium Elise (Lin Shaye) agrees to
help the new owner of her ancestral home
get rid of the evil spirits within, she takes the
opportunity to reconnect with her estranged
brother (Bruce Davison) and family. But when a
creature called Key Face captures Elise’s niece’s
soul to feed upon, she must travel to the astral
plane to reclaim it, and destroy the entity that
has hounded her family for years.
While this prequel, and fourth installment
in the metaphysical franchise, ties nicely into
the original movie, the mystical realm concept
has definitely run its course. What’s more, the
key-centric villain is utterly laughable, while the
scares are predictable.
Besides, this lady should just be thankful that
her childhood home hasn’t become an infill.
PROUD MARY
You don’t see many hitwomen around because
they refuse to kill anyone who is cute.
Luckily, the button lady in this action movie
only has ugly marks to eliminate.
When contract killer Mary (Taraji P.
Henson) takes in an underage hustler, she
is forced to kill his connected boss in order
to gain his freedom. But when Mary’s boss
(Danny Glover) is blamed for the hit, it
sets off a turf war with Mary and her ward
caught in the middle. Meanwhile, Mary’s
unexplained guilt towards the child becomes
clearer as the bodies pile up.
Although it harkens back to the violence
of the 1970s Blaxploitation genre, this
modernization of those urban actioneers
lacks their social conscience. Instead, this is
just a muddled mess with highly improbable
action scenes, lackluster dialogue and a
clawless performance from Henson.
Incidentally, female assassins would be
more successful if they stopped sending
condolence cards.
He’s the Burnt Toast of the Town. He’s
the…. Vidiot
Four Films in May
April (snow) showers bring May films. Can you think of a better
place to usher in spring than a cool, dark theatre or a hip coffee
shop after dark? Neither can we.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is an universal
experience which every creature must endure. Boonmee (Thanapat
Saisaymar) has led a tumultuous life and now is facing death
due to a kidney disease. Sister-in-law Jen (Jenjira Pongpas) and
caretakers help for Boonmee in his home in the jungle. Over the
course of the film the ghost of Boonmee’s wife appears to him as
help, his son returns as a type of yeti, and additional otherworldly
creatures appear. With firm subject matter, Director Apichatpong
Weerasethakul uses surrealist themes for the subject of
death.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives plays at the Globe
Cinema on May 5 at 7 p.m.
The Great Silence is a spaghetti-western directed by Italian director
Sergio Corbucci. Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a mute
due to bounty-hunters slicing his vocal cords. Silence joins a
team of outlaws and a widow (Vonetta McGee) in a showdown
between corrupt bounty hunters. A star of many Herzog films,
Klaus Kinski plays Loco, the leader of the blood thirsty bounty
hunters. This film shows the extents taken for survival, disregarding
whether the audience will find the choices favourable or not.
Corbucci was influenced by the deaths of both Malcolm X and
Che Guevara. With this he intertwines politically-driven themes
within the film.
The Great Silence Screens at the Globe Cinema on May 12 at 7 p.m.
Lowlife is separated into four vignettes showing pieces of each
character. Crystal (Nicki Micheaux) is a motel owner who houses
undocumented immigrants. One night she is raided due to
Teddy (Mark Burnham), a man of many trades who sells organs
taken from these workers or forces them into prostitution. El
Monstruo (Ricardo Adam Zarate), is a Mexican wrestler with
simmering anger issues working for Teddy. We meet the ex-convict
Randy (Jon Oswald) fresh out of prison with a swastika
tattooed on his face. Regardless of the raid, Crystal comes to
Teddy asking for a kidney for her husband who soon may die.
This strange crew of individuals come together in a messy plan
of getting an kidney for Crystal’s husband. Lowlife is brought to
the screen by Ryan Prows who provides a journey of adrenaline
rushes, tender moments, and dark humour at its finest.
Lowlife opens May 4 at the Globe Cinema
The Big Sleep stars the seductive couple of 1940s Hollywood,
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, with Bogart playing
detective Philip Marlowe. General Sternwood (Charles Waldron)
hires Marlowe to handle a blackmailer out to get his daughter,
Carmen (Martha Vickers) and meets her husky-voiced sibling,
Vivian (Bacall). As the case goes on Marlowe becomes entangled
in murders of porn dealers and gambling houses in which Vivian
spends most nights. Director Howard Hawks delivers the classic
Raymond Chandler tale as a film noir showing the seedy underbelly
of life and the consequences of being witness to it.
EspressoKino presents The Big Sleep at The Roasterie on May 10 at
9 p.m.
• CHLOE LAWSON
FILM