Movies

Disney “Opens-up” with “Beauty & The Beast”

Be Our Guest

Oh musicals. You either love them, or hate them. Personally, I love them. I applaud those who have the talent to sing, dance, and the appreciation doesn’t even stop there. The amount of work that goes in for the writing and score? Oh and the sets. They usually are so fantastic.

So, that being said, I had the pleasure of watching Disney’s live-action rendition of Beauty & The Beast. It was absolutely charming. The casting is fantastic, and Emma Watson does a lovely job as Belle.

The Beast finally gets his own song! “Evermore,” performed by Josh Groban, (Dan Stevens in the movie) is lyrically beautiful. We finally see the change in the Beast. I’ll sure be listening to this on the daily!

Facing Criticism

Those who are up in arms over LeFou’s homosexuality are just pesky mosquitoes distracting from the huge milestone for Disney. Instead of another sensitized Disney movie in fear of “offending” anyone, they have their first openly-gay character. Really, for anyone who is offended, they should recheck their priorities.

Conclusions

If you have been toying with the idea of seeing Beauty & The Beast, I recommend you choose on going. If children are keeping you away from the theatre experience, I suggest paying a bit extra and treatyoself to a VIP Experience. 19+ and buy a pitcher? Need I say more?

Review of “La La Land”

Oh. What a lovely day to spend Christmas Day watching La La Land in theatres with the whole family. VIP of course.

La La Land is a refreshing break from most content that is currently available. Most content – it would seem – is heavily focused on sex, fight scenes, etc. Directors want to “wow” us, and think more money on big visual scenes will do the trick.

Instead, La La Land returns to an innocence of movie age where the writing plays a main role, and the on-screen chemistry will be the main feature. Both Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have great on-screen chemistry, and are able to tell a beautiful story of two drawn to helping the other achieve their deepest dreams.

Honestly, there isn’t much more to write. It’s a musical that won’t disappoint you. It provides you with all the feels, and will have you smiling like a bloody idiot in the theatre.

“Here’s to the ones who dream / Foolish, as they may seem / Here’s to the hearts that ache / Here’s to the mess we make”

Beasts of No Nation

Saw my first TIFF film ever, and what an experience. We saw the second showing of Beasts of No Nation, which is a Netflix original film starring Idris Elba and introducing Abraham Attah (he deserves all the awards). Beasts of No Nation is an adaptation of Uzodinma Iweala’s book published in 2005.

In sum, this is about a civil war in an unnamed African country. It centres on the experiences of Agu, whose life transforms drastically. At the start of the film we see this happy child using his imagination, support from his father and mother, and love for life. His town later becomes unprotected from the military, ensuing complications for Agu: he finds himself recruited as a child soldier.

Going into the movie, I was unsure how much gore would be shown. Compared to my initial thoughts, there were not as many scenes that were uneasy; much of it was tame or insinuated. I would say there are three points during the film that are difficult to watch.  Nevertheless, by making you uncomfortable it allows you to reflect.

I hope to see Oscar wins for this film. Abraham Attah – who is only 14 – is remarkable. It is astonishing that this is his first film as he is able to display a range of emotions on demand.

Beasts of No Nation will be available on Netflix on October 16th, and will be featured in select theatres.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Saw this movie tonight, and decided I enjoyed it so much that it deserved a posting. The movie stars Armie Hammer (you may remember him from The Social Network) and the lovely Henry Cavil (beardless but still Clark Kent-ish).

Synopsis: Really all you need to know is that it’s the classic partners-who-can’t-get-along story with a paring of an American spy and Russian Spy during the 60s. It’s based on the television show that aired during the mid 60s.

The movie features some great classic jokes, fun spy gadgets, REALLY good car chases x 2 (not even kidding) and some good acting from Armie Hammer. His Russian accent is believable and his performance is convincing.

What I enjoyed about this movie is that it has a good take on the classic spy movie. It’s refreshing in a way because of the shots. Many of the close-up shots were well taken, and were not like some shots where they are super-exposed — they worked for the movie. It was also enjoyable that they played around with multiple shots on the screen, split screens, and experimentation with repetition.

Even though there are some moments that are expected, cheesy jokes and a classic ending, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would watch it again (Just because Hammer is THAT good in it.)