Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis star in the Wachowskis’ sci-fi/fantasy mashup JUPITER ASCENDING
JUPITER ASCENDING (Lana and Andy Wachowski, 2015)
Opens Friday, February 6
www.jupiterascending.com
Lana and Andy Wachowski have followed up their 2012 adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas with the sci-fi mashup Jupiter Ascending, which was initially supposed to be released last summer but instead is hitting theaters on February 6, as Earth is passing between the sun and Jupiter. The stars and planets might not quite be in alignment for the film, which is taking quite a beating from most critics, but it turns out that Jupiter Ascending is actually rather fun, even if it’s not quite as stupid as you want it to be. (Hey, any movie that delves into the “royal bowels” is fine with us.) Essentially, the Wachowskis (the Matrix trilogy, Bound) have taken just about every sci-fi/fantasy film and franchise you can think of — Star Trek, Star Wars, Men in Black, Terminator, Highlander, Lord of the Rings, the X-Men, Superman, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Blade Runner, E.T., The Wizard of Oz, Logan’s Run, Gravity, Wings of Desire, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and yes, that is Terry Gilliam himself in an homage to Brazil) — put them in a blender, and mixed them together to come up with a space opera about a toilet-scrubbing Cinderella, born Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), who is discovered to be the genetic queen of a powerful world that harvests planets. She finds a protector in the splice hunter Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), who seeks additional help from the grizzled Stinger Apini (Sean Bean), as Jupiter’s “children” — the evil and twisted Balem Abrasax (Eddie Redmayne), the handsome playboy Titus (Douglas Booth), and the beautiful and elegant Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) — all want to regain possession of Earth away from the “reccurence.”
JUPITER ASCENDING boasts big-time set design, often in lieu of story
Set in Chicago and the multiverse, Jupiter Ascending likes everything big, preferring special effects and production design to plot credibility as the Wachowskis attempt to tell a King Lear-like story about family and power. There are too many chase scenes that go on too long, and there are only so many dazzling sets you can see before becoming frustrated. Tatum and Kunis actually make for an engaging pair, even if so much of their relationship makes no sense. But there’s a sly grin lurking below it all, from Michael Giacchino’s bombastic score, which references horror films, to John Toll’s overblown cinematography. Oh, did we forget to mention it’s all in 3-D as well? Sure, there’s not a whole lot of originality in this popcorn muncher, but there’s still plenty of silly fun to be enjoyed. The Wachowskis had us at “royal bowels.”
To many, the fall of Saigon immediately brings to mind images of men, women, and children climbing the gate at the U.S. embassy, desperately trying to board American helicopters and escape the country as the North Vietnamese army approached. Director and producer Rory Kennedy takes viewers behind the scenes of that madness in the harrowing and revealing documentary Last Days in Vietnam. Kennedy, the youngest daughter of Bobby and Ethel Kennedy, and editor Don Kleszy have woven together remarkable footage from 1970s Vietnam as more than a dozen insiders share their compelling stories, which play out like a gripping thriller with a surprise, emotionally powerful ending. At the center of it all is the late U.S. ambassador Graham Martin, a stubborn patriot who continually refused to vacate the embassy until it was almost too late. U.S. Army captain Stuart Herrington gets personal as he talks about trying to help potential refugees. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and White House press secretary Ron Nessen discuss President Gerald Ford’s attempts to persuade Congress to fund a major evacuation. CIA analyst Frank Snepp and Special Forces advisor Richard Armitage delve into the military’s plans, while South Vietnamese Navy captain Kiem Do, South Vietnamese Army lieutenant Dam Pham, and Vietnamese student Binh Pho tell what it was like from their vantage points. USS Kirk chief engineer Hugh Doyle, USS Kirk captain Paul Jacobs, and Marine pilot Gerald Berry reveal stunning stories of bravery and daring during the evacuation on land and sea and in the air. If you think this is old news, you’re mistaken, as the film offers a whole new perspective on this seminal moment in the history of two nations — and it’s nearly impossible to watch it without thinking that something similar might occur in Iraq and Afghanistan soon. An American Experience production and nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, Last Days in Vietnam is screening February 8 at 7:30 as part of the Maysles Documentary Center series “Oscar Buzz Presents” and will be followed by a Q&A with Kennedy (Ethel, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib); the series includes such other Oscar-nominated and shortlisted films as Laura Poitras’s Citizenfour, Sam Cullman, Mark Becker, and Jennifer Grausman’s Art and Craft, and Al Hicks’s Keep on Keepin’ On.
Thank goodness Lukas Moodysson changed his mind. After his 2009 film, Mammoth, and the death of his father, the Swedish director of such indie faves as Show Me Love, Together, and Lilya 4-ever was extremely depressed and considering quitting the movie business. But he was eventually inspired to make a happy film, and the result is the absolutely delightful We Are the Best! A liberal adaptation of his wife Coco’s semiautobiographical graphic novel Never Goodnight, the film, set in 1982 Sweden, follows the adventures of thirteen-year-old best friends Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin), a pair of outsiders who think they are rebellious punk rockers, making statements by running down the up escalator at the mall and writing an anti-sports song. Joined by fourteen-year-old Christian classical guitarist Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne), they form a punk band to rival middle school heavy metalers Iron Fist. Determined to show that punk is not dead, they futz with their hair, attempt to bond with a teen-boy punk trio, and try their darnedest to gel as a band, even though drummer Bobo and bassist Klara don’t really know how to play their instruments. All the adults in the film, primarily Klara’s parents (Lena Carlsson and David Dencik), Bobo’s mother (Anna Rydgren) and her strange friends, and the two youth recreation leaders (Matte Wiberg and Johan Liljemark, real-life members of the band Sabotage), are pretty goofy themselves, not exactly your prototypical role models, so silliness pervades in wonderfully funny ways.
