Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

THE BREADWINNER: A UNIVERSAL STORY TOLD THROUGH ANIMATION

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews November 27, 2017

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Only in today’s world could a story set in Afghanistan come to fruition through the collaboration of studios in Ireland, Canada, and Luxembourg…and the participation of an American named Angelina Jolie. The Breadwinner is both credible and moving because these dedicated storytellers relied on cultural advisors for authenticity and knew that the characters and their plight would have universal appeal. If you’ve seen such animated features as The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea you’ve experienced the exceptional work of Cartoon Saloon, a studio based in Kilkenny, Ireland. Breadwinner director Nora Twomey served as co-director on Kells and head of story on Song of the Sea. She approached the adaptation of Deborah Ellis’ best-selling young-adult book The Breadwinner with screenwriter Anita Doron and a talented team of designers. Their goal was to show how one brave…

BOMBSHELL:THE HEDY LAMARR STORY

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews November 25, 2017

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It’s no longer news that 1940s Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr invented the technology we use in cellular phones and other wireless communications. But the story behind that seeming anomaly is still fascinating, and Alexandra Dean has told it well in her entertaining documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. How a legendary beauty devised this groundbreaking concept and never received recognition—let alone a dime—for it is at the heart of this chronicle. Born Hedwig Kiesler in Vienna to Jewish parents, the constant in Hedy’s life seems to have been notoriety. She embarked on an acting career in her teens and caused a sensation in Gustav Machaty’s Ecstasy (1933) where she not only appeared naked but simulated an orgasm. She married a wealthy munitions manufacturer who was extremely jealous and…

THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS: A HOLIDAY GIFT

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews November 22, 2017

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Who among us couldn’t use a little good cheer right now? The Man Who Invented Christmas supplies just that, in a fictionalized story about how Charles Dickens devised A Christmas Carol at a low point in his career. Dan Stevens is extremely likable as the animated author. The year is 1843. Oliver Twist has made him a worldwide celebrity and led to a wildly successful lecture tour of the United States. But Dickens’ subsequent books are flops and he is living beyond his means in an elegant London townhouse. He has a contentious relationship with his ne’er-do-well father (Jonathan Pryce) and his relationship with his wife is strained because of the pressure he feels to deliver another popular novel…going so far as to publish it himself, at great expense. Dickens collected…

DARKEST HOUR: HISTORY IN THE PRESENT TENSE

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews November 22, 2017

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It’s easy to portray Winston Churchill in a heroic light with the benefit of hindsight. Darkest Hour reveals how isolated he was when he accepted the post of Prime Minister in 1940 and expressed his firm belief in waging war against Hitler to the bitter end. He had virtually no support and was surrounded by formidable foes. This ambitious film takes what we know as history and captures the immediacy and uncertainty of that fateful period. Director Joe Wright and screenwriter Anthony McCarten take us inside Churchill’s world—a dark place, for the most part. If you’ve ever visited the Imperial War Museum in London you know how authentic this is. Strategies were argued and crucial decisions made in this claustrophobic atmosphere, in a nest of rooms and…

COCO: CELEBRATING A COLORFUL CULTURE

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews November 21, 2017

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Pixar movies always look good, but Coco is in a class by itself. Ablaze with eye-popping color, every widescreen frame is filled with richly detailed settings and appealing characters. Any concerns about overlap or redundancy with Jorge Gutierrez’s impressive The Book of Life (which also dealt with Day of the Dead) should be put aside. Coco has its own story to tell, which it does with gusto and great respect for the culture it depicts. The movie opens with a mariachi band playing “When You Wish Upon a Star” over the Latinized Disney logo. How can you not smile in response? Scenes continue on that high note (pun intended), using traditional Mexican paper cut-outs to provide the exposition we need to engage in the story. Next we meet our vivacious, wide-eyed…

WONDER: CYNICS NEED NOT APPLY

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews November 18, 2017

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Wonder is a beautiful movie, and Stephen Chbosky was a perfect choice to direct and co-write it. The author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, who directed his own screen adaptation, isn’t afraid of honest emotion. What’s more, he is clearly in touch with his younger self. That alone would make him a candidate to translate R.J. Palacio’s best-selling young-adult novel to film. Wonder is a tearjerker that earns our tears by drawing us into its world and giving us a deep connection to its leading characters. Auggie (Jacob Tremblay) has had 27 operations by the time we meet him, at the age of 10. He suffers from craniofacial syndrome, which causes everyone who sees him to stare—in horror, disbelief, or in some cases pity. He knows this…

MUDBOUND: REAL LIFE, NOT SO LONG AGO

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews November 16, 2017

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Mudbound is easy to admire but tough to watch at times. It tells a truthful tale from America’s not-so-distant past, contrasting the lives of two families—one black, one white—struggling to eke out an existence as sharecroppers in Mississippi during the 1940s. No one has it easy in this hardscrabble life. In adapting Hillary Jordan’s best-selling novel, director Dee Rees has tried to avoid the obvious but can’t sidestep the inevitable. Her film takes place at a time of segregation, injustice, and blind hatred. It is also a period of coexistence, but that uneasy détente hangs by a thread. The versatile Jason Clarke plays the head of the white family, a stubborn man who’s not very bright but still has what Rees calls the “currency” of his…

CATCHING UP WITH BLU-RAYS

WHAT’S NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN MARCH

A NEW BOOK FROM MALTIN AND MALTIN

STOLEN FACES

A BIT OF CRUMPET

WHAT’S NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN FEBRUARY

ADAM SANDLER AND ME