58 San Diego Reader April 20, 2017
MOVIES
make a distribution deal armed with a script, a director, and $100 million dollars, and people balked. It wasn’t a walk in the park for Eric. People can disagree and say that
the story seems to overwhelm the background or that it trivializes it in some way. The important thing for everybody was, this genocide has got to be addressed. If the Turks, bless their hearts, have the courage to acknowledge what happened and make amends, then maybe countries like the United States can acknowl- edge our responsibility in the genocide of the Native people of America and the black people who were brought from Africa. We paid lip service but there’s no
resolution before Congress as there should be. And there should be restitu- tion paid to both those communities for what they went through and con- tinue to go through. It would change the nature of this country profoundly, as it would if Turkey would acknowl- edge what they did to the Armenians. Then maybe we could avoid what is
going on in Syria and Yemen and Somalia and the Sudan and every other place where ordinary people are suffering the ravages of a geopolitical conflict done for profit and influence and greed.
— Scott Marks
San Diego Asian Film Festival hosts 20 films In spring, a San Diego cinephile’s fancy turns to the Asian cinema. With its 20 film schedule, this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival’s Spring Showcase is the biggest in its seven-year history. The mini-festival runs April 20-27 at UltraStar Hazard Center. This year’s documentary-abundant
lineup includes a pair of features with subjects ripped from today’s headlines. Easily the showcases’ biggest coup is the San Diego premier of the latest from Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters). As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, only one bank — a family business in New York’s China- town — saw criminal charges brought against it by the Feds. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail samples audio tran- scripts from the trial, news footage, and interviews with the major players. James’s dogged documentation makes
for fascinating viewing. Nothing is left to the imagination
in Kim Ki-duk’s (Three Iron) heavy- handed, equally topical narrative fea- ture The Net. A poor fisherman from North Korea accidentally ventures into enemy waters where he’s picked up and brutally tortured by the South Korean government. If repetition is the key to learning, it goes without saying that when set adrift in friendlier harbors, he’s picked up by the North Korean government and put through another round of abuse. The allegory follows an issues-first, subtlety-free plan of attack to telling its simple story that left me cold. Whether you like animation (Win-
dow Horses), romcoms (Yourself and Yours, She’s the Boss), Martial Arts (Mystery Kung Fu Theatre), or docu- mentaries too numerous to mention, there’s something for everyone at the Spring Showcase. Tickets are $9 for members and $12 for non-members. There’s also an All-Access Pass ($65 for members, $100 for non-members) that comes complete with front-of-line privileges. For more information visit
http://festival.sdaff.org
— Scott Marks
MOVIE LISTINGS
All reviews are by Scott Marks, Matthew Lickona, and Duncan Shepherd. Priorities are indicated by one to five stars and antipathies by the black spot. Unrated movies are for now unreviewed. Thousands of past reviews are available online at
SDReader.com/movies.
Beauty and the Beast — Compari- sons — to Disney’s first live-action princess movie remake (2015’s Cinderella) and to the 1991 animated tale of a Beauty who wants “much more than this provincial life” (and the Beast who must win her heart if he is to recover his humanity) — may not be unavoidable, but they are useful. Cinderella strove and succeeded at expanding and deepening the core fairy tale without sacrificing the story’s “timeless classic” feel. In sharp contrast, Beauty imports a modern YA sensibility that extends beyond star Emma Watson’s empowered-young- woman demeanor — “provincial life” is so backward that Belle’s neighbors recoil at the sight of her teaching a child to read and destroy her labor-saving clothes-washing machine as if it were the devil’s handiwork, while the Beast is presented as the victim of a Bad Dad. And it extends further still, to the language — at one point, one character says of another, “We are so not in a good place right now” — and to the presenta- tion, as a homoerotic subtext is here and there elevated to text. (Credit for all this may go to co-writer Stephen Chbosky, of The Perks of Being a Wallflower fame, as much as it does to director Bill Condon, who helmed the last two Twilight movies.) On that score, your mileage may vary; it’s
FILM FESTIVALS
FLEET SCIENCE CENTER 1875 El Prado, Balboa Park 619-238-1233 Senior Monday On the first Monday of every month, seniors 65 and better can enjoy dis- counted admission, a show in the Heikoff Giant Dome Theater, and a lecture about scientific topics. 10:30am lecture, theater show at noon. Monday, May 1, 10:30am
HALL OF NATIONS
Presidents Way at Pan American Rd., Balboa Park
House of Norway: Movie Night This is our 2nd quarter movie night. We will be showing Kitchen Stories, a Scandinavian film about researchers observing bachelors in their kitchens. There will be refreshments and snacks. Friday, April 28, 5:30pm
LA PALOMA
471 S. Coast Hwy. 101, Encinitas 760-436-7469
of 66 & Nowhere, filmed in SD with an all SD soundtrack. Their sister project, Sunday Hustle, is featured in the coveted “hitch-hiking to San Diego to avoid the mob in Chicago” scene with their track, “Walking Too Fast.” The world premiere debuted at the Landmark Ken Cinema on February 4 and another showing is scheduled for Thursday, April 20. XIV will be performing at the after party again with local act Jason Hanna and the Bullfighters (also on the soundtrack), hosted by the Kensington Club, and intends to film live footage of the event for the new single, “Breakdown” with GSO’s team. Your ticket not only shows support of our local SD film industry and gets you into the movie, it gains you entrance to the after party/music video shoot for the XIV single, “Breakdown” (limited number of entry for each of the video shoot scenes). Thursday, April 20, 7:00pm
PEARL
1410 Rosecrans St., Point Loma 619-226-6100
Bella Vita Party Benefit for Surfing Madonna Oceans Project and San Diego Ital- ian Film Festival. Screening of the Italian surf movie Bella Vita. Pre-party featuring organic Italian wines, appetizers from chef Rob Ruiz and Cucina Migrante and Gaia Gelato. The film’s director, Jason Baffa, will host a Q&A following the movie. Saturday, April 22, 5:00pm
LANDMARK KEN
4061 Adams Ave., Kensington 619-283-3227
66 & Nowhere Local down-tempo/trip hop band XIV has teamed up with local film production company GSO Productions to promote this year’s full-length movie release
Dive-In Theater A weekly “cinema social” combining eclectic film selections, food and drink, and conversation. The event takes place at the poolside lounge and theater located outdoors and connected to Eat at The Pearl. Scheduled films are projected onto a 10’ x 13’ foot projection screen with full sound, overlook- ing the vintage, oyster-shaped swimming pool. Guests are invited to enjoy a range of classics, blockbusters, foreign, and independent features from The Pearl’s private library. Showtime is at 8 pm, food is served until 10 pm, and bar’s open until 1 pm. Wednesday, April 26, 8:00pm, Wednesday, May 3, 8:00pm, Wednesday, May 10, 8:00pm
REMINGTON CLUB II
16916 Hierba Dr., Rancho Bernardo 858-673-6340
Film Discussion Class: Sleeper Woody Allen takes a 200 year snooze after an operation and awakens in a totalitarian future where he is enlisted by underground revolutionaries (Diane Keaton, John Beck) to help overthrow the police state. 1973. 89 minutes. Presented by the Con- tinuing Education Center at Rancho Bernardo, with instructor Ralph DeLauro, in the second
floor Multipurpose Room. (858) 487-0464. Wednesday, April 26, 7:00pm
Film Discussion Class: Fahrenheit 451 Famed French New Wave director Francois Truffaut’s searing cautionary fable is a glimpse into the oppressive future where books are the opiate of the people. Illicit literature is burned by Firemen, one of whom (Oskar Werner), becomes inspired by a suspended teacher (Julie Christie) to question authority and become an outlaw. In English. 1966. 112 minutes. Presented by the Continuing Education Center at Rancho Bernardo, with instructor Ralph DeLauro in the second floor Multipurose Room. (858) 487- 0464. Wednesday, May 3, 7:00pm
SCHULMAN AUDITORIUM AT CARLSBAD CITY LIBRARY
1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad 760-602-2049
Carlsbad Film Series: La La Land Nomi- nated for 14 Academy Awards, this original musical about everyday life explores the joy and pain of pursuing your dreams through telling the story of an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) and dedicated jazz musician (Ryan Gosling) who struggle to make ends meet in a city known for crushing hopes. Movie special features begin at 5:30pm 2016, PG-13, 128 min. Wednesday, April 26, 6:00pm
SOLANA BEACH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
120 Stevens Ave., Solana Beach
The Burden The film tells the story of fossil fuel dependence as our greatest long-term national security threat and why the military is leading the transition to clean energy. RSVP:
camille@solanapres.org. Sunday, April 30, 11:45am
UCSD PRICE CENTER 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD 858-534-6467 Miwa Matreyek Double Feature Miwa Matreyek’s performances create a metaphor- laden fantasy world that is always grounded in reality. The World Made Itself is a visual and musical journey through the history of the universe, from its beginning to the ever complex world of humans. Filled with a child’s sense
of scientific wonder and rich in surrealism, this engrossing live performance combines animation and movement theater. In Myth and Infrastructure the artist’s shadow is constantly present as the world around her shifts and transforms, integrating her body into her own fantastical imagination, in which she traverses oceans, cityscapes, and domestic spaces to con- jure dreamlike scenes. The performance features original music by Flying Lotus, Careful, Anna Oxygen, Caroline, and Mileece. Wednesday, May 3, 8:00pm
ULTRASTAR MISSION VALLEY AT HAZARD CENTER
7510 Hazard Center Dr., Mission Valley 619-685-2841
when you get to the animated Beauty that things get rough: Ian McKellan makes a fine, melancholy Cogsworth the clock, but the rest of the enchanted servants come off hammy and campy, while Kevin Kline seems lost as Belle’s father and Luke Evans turns alpha male Gaston into a bigger cartoon than the original. To say nothing of the workaday new songs and the lumpen inelegance of the CGI Beast. But oh, those fantabulous sets! 2017. — M.L. ★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Born in China —Disneynature is a word. Or rather, it’s a name. Or rather, it’s a brand identity. “It’s not nature…it’s Disneyna- ture.” This time ‘round, the good people at Disneynature are teaming up with the good people of China for a look at Chinese wildlife that centers around a baby panda bear. (IN WIDE RELEASE)
The Boss Baby — Surprise! Dream- works’ latest is not simply an exercise in sticking Alec Baldwin’s Scotch-mellowed tycoon’s rasp in the mouth of a CGI infant and chuckling at the juxtaposition. Instead, this story of a boy’s troubles when his baby brother arrives serves as a rousing defense of familial love as a good that can’t be commodified, and the family itself as a community that can’t be corporatized. Most magical of all, it’s a celebration of childhood imagination — that old-fashioned force that imbues ordinary life with extraordi- nary significance and wonder, all without the benefit of any sort of digital device. (It’s telling that the parents’ cameras are old-style, and even The Boss Baby’s hotline to headquarters is a corded, rotary toy.) Director Tom McGrath has the good sense to treat all this serious stuff with the lightest of touches, instead guiding the kiddies in the audience to focus on a battle between puppies and babies for human affection, the grown-ups on Baldwin’s quippery, and everybody on the oft-crossed line between fantasy and reality in the mind’s eye of a child. 2017. — M.L. ★★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase Twenty-one films over eight days, from beauty- queen tales to political dramas to topsy-turvy comedies to musical celebrations. The 7th annual SDAFF Spring Showcase is the biggest yet. Following 2015’s theme of Cinema Little Saigon and 2016’s China Now, April 23 features the original curated series Right to Resist: From 9066 to 2017. The series will highlight stories of resistance to Japanese American incarcera- tion during WWII and connect them to stories of South Asian and Muslim Americans today. Screenings that day are free for youth under 17. Tickets available online and on-site at UltraStar Mission Valley. Thursday, April 20, 7:00pm, Friday, April 21, 5:00pm, Saturday, April 22, 1:00pm, Sunday, April 23, 1:00pm, Monday, April 24, 3:00pm, Tuesday, April 25, 5:00pm, Wednesday, April 26, 5:00pm, Thursday, April 27, 7:00pm
Colossal — Other than a prologue flashback to a Transformerzilla-ish creature attacking South Korea, there’s nothing irregular about the setup for this story of an irresponsible drunk (Anne Hatha- way) who gets kicked to the curb by her boyfriend and moves back into her parents’ abandoned home. Whether she wants it or not, the only one offering assistance is a former childhood admirer and grown- up town barkeep (Jason Sudeikis). Their bad-blood backstory doesn’t officially surface until the third act, but it’s apparent in Sudeikis’ every movement. It’s best that writer-director Nacho Vigalondo never once tries to explain how Hathaway, and subsequently Sudeikis, telepathically control the aforementioned Michael Bay rejects from the safety of their neighbor- hood playlot; that might have sapped some of the fun of watching the duo go all Rock’em Sock’em Robots through the streets of Seoul. If you’re in the mood for a monster movie, revenge-tinged romance, social satire, or simply a good time at the multiplex, consider Colossal entertainment. 2017. — S.M. ★★★★ (ANGELIKA FILM CENTER; ARCLIGHT LA JOLLA; LANDMARK HILLCREST)
The Fate of the Furious — Late in the race, the fast-cars franchise twists open the nitrous and roars back to life, thanks to a standout villain (an icy cool Charlize Theron), a pleasing measure of self-con- sciousness about its own tropes and themes (what is family, anyway?), and better writing and humor (nitrous is also laughing gas, after all). We open with stars Vin Die- sel and Michelle Rodriguez honeymooning in Havana, and just like that, the obligatory street race feels like it makes some sense (even as it beggars belief). Yes, we’re still
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