Entertainment
Review: Kindness is the takeaway in the Holocaust-era-set 'White Bird: A Wonder Story'
In 2017, the film “Wonder” was a surprise critical and commercial hit for Lionsgate. Adapted from a children’s novel by R.J. Palacio, the film starred Jacob Tremblay as young Auggie, a boy with the facial deformities of Treacher Collins syndrome who teaches his family and peers about the importance of kindness. (Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson co-starred as his parents.) Naturally, a sequel, adapted from one of Palacio’s “Wonder” spinoff books, was quickly green-lighted by the studio.
It’s now been seven years since “Wonder” came out, and the long-awaited sequel, “White Bird: A Wonder Story,” which has been plagued by delays both pandemic- and strike-related, is finally hitting theaters. Directed by Marc Forster and written by Mark Bomback, “White Bird” is very loosely connected to the original film, but it takes a more global, historical approach to the same message about the importance of small but high-stakes gestures of kindness.
Bryce Gheisar returns as Julian, Auggie’s bully from “Wonder,” who has been expelled from school for his cruelty. Now himself the new kid at a new school, he struggles to fit in. But Julian has the opportunity to reinvent himself, which is underscored by a surprise visit — and lesson — from his grandmother Sara (Helen Mirren) that completely changes his perspective on how to move through the world.
Thus unfolds the real story of “White Bird,” which isn’t about Julian, who serves merely as a framing device and a tenuous link to the world of “Wonder.” “White Bird” is actually Sara’s story of her childhood in Nazi-occupied France and the harrowing events she experienced as a young Jewish girl there.
If you’ve ever watched (or read) young-adult Holocaust films or fiction, “White Bird” will feel familiar. It takes a similar tack to real-life stories such as Anne Frank’s. Teen Sara (Ariella Glaser) is the adored and privileged daughter of a professor and a doctor (Ishai Golen) living an idyllic life in a small French village. Drawn to the handsome Vincent (Jem Matthews), she and her friends scoff at quiet Julien (Orlando Schwerdt), who is disabled from polio. Insulated from the harsh realities of occupation until laws limiting the freedom of Jews encroach on her town, Sara’s family makes plans to escape, though they are unable to outrun the Nazi roundups.
Sara, though, manages to escape into the snowy woods, and Julien escorts her through the underground sewers away from the school to his family’s barn where he stows her away, and where he and his parents (Gillian Anderson and Jo Stone-Fewings) care for her. She will remain there, in hiding, until the forces of fascism that have infected her community must be reckoned with. But the story is about the connection she forges with Julien, and the circumstances that allow her to learn to evaluate character through shared humanity and bravery, not status and power.
The strength of “White Bird” lies in its performers, especially Glaser and Schwerdt, who deliver complex, nuanced takes on young people experiencing global atrocities on an intimate scale, while also trying to navigate the complications of connecting as teenagers. They are both excellent and keep the film emotionally grounded.
Forster presents a somewhat sanitized view of the Holocaust that is sobering but digestible for younger audiences. The pastoral setting remains picturesque and almost fairy-tale-like. As recounted through Sara’s memories, it has a kind of glowing haze about it, almost too beautiful at times. Computer-generated flowers bloom before our eyes. A cranberry-red coat stands out starkly against a snowy winter background. It’s an interesting stylistic choice (and one you may have seen in another much-celebrated Holocaust movie), but it speaks to the storytelling element of the film, the way our brains craft memories that might be more vivid and lovely, even after decades.
As a “Wonder Story” and a Holocaust story, the messaging of “White Bird” is unsurprising though important: Empathy matters, especially in action, and that often, caring for others can mean putting one’s own self in danger, but we should do it anyway. In the grand tapestry of human existence, we are all connected. It may be a message we’ve heard time and again, but it’s one that bears repeating.
Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
‘White Bird: A Wonder Story’
Rating: PG-13, for some strong violence, thematic material and language
Running time: 2 hours
Playing: In wide release Friday, Oct. 4
Movie Reviews
Bagheera movie review: Sriimurali shines in Prashanth Neel’s homegrown Batman flick
Bagheera movie review: Indian filmmakers’ romance with the vigilante genre has seen some hits and numerous misses, mostly due to the lack of a convincing story. Unlike typical heroes, these characters do not have superpowers or resources, but rely on courage, wit, and a strong sense of justice. Some directors, like Shankar, have found the near-perfect formula. Now, Kannada filmmaker Dr Suri has given us Bagheera, starring Sriimurali, along with Rukmini Vasanth, Prakash Raj, Garuda Ram, Sudha Rani, Achyuth Kumar, Pramod Shetty and Rangayana Raghu. (Also Read – Bagheera actor Rukmini Vasanth: Even if you’re a star kid, there’s a learning curve in the film industry)
What’s Bagheera about?
Little Vedanth dreams of becoming a superhero, but eventually becomes a cop like his father. But the twist is that he still has dreams of being a superhero. Though he knows he doesn’t have superpowers, he believes he can take on the biggest evil of them all (in this case, bad man Rana played by Garuda Ram). As an IPS officer, Vedanth combats the usual crimes, but as Bagheera, the superhero, he takes on an organised crime syndicate that is involved in illegal organ trade. Director Dr Suri has divided the film into seven chapters, and we are taken through how Vedanth becomes Bagheera and eventually succeeds in his mission.
Bagheera is Dr Suri’s Batman
Bagheera is clearly like Batman and the director Dr Suri has said that he intended it to be like the popular superhero character. Given that the director loves superhero films and comics, it is not surprising that he chose this theme. But it’s ace director Prashant Neel, who has written the story that Dr Suri has brought to the silver screen. The connection between them ends there as Dr Suri has given the film his own stamp and one can see that there are gaps in the execution style. For instance, in some scenes Bagheera has not really been amped up for those goosebumps-inducing moments and the romantic track brings down the pace of the film, unfortunately. Any romance has to seamlessly connect with the main story and here it’s a little jarring.
How do the performances fare?
Sriimurali comes back to the big screen after a gap of three years and the making of this film has not been easy on him either. He sustained serious injuries twice during the shoot, but he is the core of the film. His performance, especially in the action scenes, stands out. He has delivered the dual-shaded role with finesse, and his portrayal of Vedanth and Bagheera resonates with all as he is a common man-turned-superhero who wants to deliver justice. Rukmini Vasanth (who plays Dr Sneha) is a fine actor, but her character hasn’t been really explored and given ample weightage in the film. Also, a stronger and more terrifying villain than Garuda Ram would have added more gravitas to the film.
The verdict
Technically, the film is pretty sound and the cinematography by AJ Shetty and the music by B Ajaneesh Loknath are good but not outstanding, which is what is expected from a superhero film to elevate those key moments. The editing by Pranav Sri Prasad could have been tighter as well. Having said that, the action choreography by Chethan D Souza does stand out and makes the film enjoyable. The director has ensured that action scenes have been crafted and captured visually in a way that it keeps the audience invested in Bagheera’s victory and the film as well. On the whole, Bagheera is a homegrown Batman film that is mostly entertaining and a new genre for Kannada filmgoers to explore.
Entertainment
Review: In 'Emilia Pérez,' a musical heightened by danger, passion pours out like a confession
A lawyer, a kingpin, and his wife walk into a musical, and “Emilia Pérez” is born, Frenchman Jacques Audiard’s full-bodied, colorful epic about transformation, redemption and finding one’s voice in a hard world. But also, because this is still an Audiard film, it’s about what we can never escape.
Never one to ignore how rich the crime genre can be in girding his tales of pain and release (“A Prophet,” “Dheepan”), the writer-director has taken his biggest swing yet with “Emilia Pérez,” using its Mexican milieu of cartels and suffering as the basis for a full-throated Spanish-language sing-a-thon built around a gender re-assignment — one that effectively, if unwittingly, triggers a nation’s ache for change. That’s a full plate for any filmmaker, even someone as experienced with interior turbulence as Audiard.
But he’s also made one of his most satisfying movie movies to date by centering the experiences of three (and eventually four) fierce women, rather than his usual brooding men. Audiard pushes them all into a type of feverish, Almodovar-adjacent melodrama that suits his instinct for sensorial cinema. It’s not surprising he understands the crazy tone-and-texture logic of a musical number, aided by editor Juliette Welfling’s rhythmic (but never overdone) cutting.
First up in the scenario is Zoe Saldaña’s Rita, an overworked lawyer tired of wasting her talents on defending violent men, yet drawn to the proposition offered in private one night by fearsome cartel lord Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón): Help facilitate a secret transition surgery and the world will have one less bad guy and one more fulfilled woman. Two, ostensibly, if you count the payday that will allow Rita to move on from her job. Then again, subtract one, if you consider Manitas’ unsuspecting, much younger wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), who is whisked away to Switzerland with their two children under the ruse of imminent danger, then made to believe her husband has been murdered.
It’s all pulp-operatic enough already, with declarative, percussive tunes from Clément Ducol and Camille adding pop to the feelings (rage, concern, longing) of any given scene. But it’s when the story jumps ahead four years, and wealthy, glamorous Emilia Pérez (Gascón) stages a run-in with a stunned Rita, that the movie’s second-act narrative sows a richer tapestry of showstoppers and laments. Emilia, drawn emotionally to reconnect and revise her old life, manipulates everyone’s destinies back to Mexico City: Restless, lonely Jessi moves in with generous, unheard-of “cousin” Emilia, the kids get a doting new (but somehow familiar) aunt, while Emilia and Rita — now friends and allies — start an NGO to help anguished women locate missing husbands and sons. Love even blooms for Emilia with a distraught widow (a wonderful Adriana Paz).
Invariably, there are off-melody complications in everyone’s quest for joy. In “Emilia Pérez,” as in many Audiard films, a new life, no matter how emboldening, is merely a holding pattern until the past comes roaring back. No wonder, then, that a filmmaker as attuned to tenderness and violence as Audiard has found the stuff of his metaphor-laden genre dreams in the story of a trans queenpin emerging from a toxic male shell. It all percolates in the shadowy urban allure of Paul Guilhaume’s cinematography, especially as it plays across its leading ladies’ faces, turning skin into a mood palette, burnishing all the musical interludes.
None of it would work, however, without the command of this justifiably Cannes-honored cast. Gomez’s spikiness feels like an asset the movies should be fostering and Gascón’s sensually charged portrayal wouldn’t be out of place anchoring a classic Hollywood woman’s noir. But the real knockout is Saldaña, a compassionate audience surrogate and urgent energy source. Musicals — good ones, imaginative ones, like “Emilia Pérez” — have a way of rocketing underappreciated talents into the stratosphere and, in a sequence like the hard-edged, dazzlingly choreographed “El Mal” number, in which she slices a scorn-filled path across a gala benefit of rich hypocrites, it’s easy to believe Saldaña could be the most versatile screen actor around.
‘Emilia Pérez’
In Spanish, French and English, with English subtitles
Rated: R, for language, some violent content and sexual material
Running time: 2 hours, 12 minutes
Playing: In limited release Friday, Nov. 1; on Netflix Nov. 13
Movie Reviews
Cranky Craig’s Movie Reviews – We Live in Time
WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY)
We Live in Time
This is a very good film. It is very well acted. It is well crafted. It has emotional resonance, but it really doesn’t have a plot and barely a story.
If you like Andrew Garfield this film is a must. He is fantastic in this film. Every moment with him is authentic and well earned. Florence Pugh is also fantastic in this film. If you love good acting and movies about love and relationships, then I highly recommend this.
Written by Nick Payne and Directed by John Crowley
Copyright 2024 WWNY. All rights reserved.
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