Tag Archives: Jonathan Pryce

THE PENGUIN LESSONS – Review

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Baba/Richard the penguins as Juan Salvador, and Steve Coogan as Tom Michel in ‘The Penguin Lessons’
Image: Lucia Faraig Ferrando. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Steve Coogan is terrific in true story-based comedy THE PENGUIN LESSONS which combines a quirky story about an ex-pat English teacher who accidentally acquires a penguin while teaching in 1970s Argentina, just as a dictatorship takes hold. Directed by the FULL MONTY’s Peter Cattaneo, THE PENGUIN LESSONS has some of that same mix of humor and humanity, in a off-beat tale that starts out comedic but ends up being moving, and saying something significant about people in a changing society.

Are penguins and authoritarianism having a moment? Could be. There was MY PENGUIN FRIEND, another true story set in South America, about a grieving man whose life is changed when he is befriended by a lost penguin. And there was the Oscar-winning I’M STILL HERE, about an Argentinian family whose lives are upended by the emergence of authoritarian rule. True, penguins are pretty irresistibly cute but authoritarianism in much on people’s mind right now, although the filmmakers couldn’t know while shooting the film.

Steve Coogan is perfect as a cynical teacher who is disconnected from life and certainly not interested in penguins, who finds a transformative second chance when a penguin joins his classroom, teaching both students and teacher about what is really important in life.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS, based on Tom Michell’s memoir of the same name, centers on an expat British man, Tom Michell (Steve Coogan), who has just accepted a job at a private school in Argentina, just as the political situation is entering a dangerous phase. A bomb goes off in the distance as the new English teach arrives at the stately but rural boarding school, which caters to the children of the wealthy and powerful in Argentina. Michell is greeted by the school’s headmaster, Buckle (Jonathan Pryce), who is nonplussed about the bomb, and quickly leads the new teacher on a tour of the school compound.

As they walk, the headmaster asks the new teacher to recount his resume of teaching positions. Coogan’s Michell describes a list of teaching posts that starts in Britain and prestigious Ivy League schools in the U.S. but then goes through a series of schools of decreasingly impressive schools in Mexico, Central America and South America. “I’m working my way down,” says the new teacher, pauses and adds “Geographically.” Clearly it is more that his location that is going south.

The headmaster points Tom Michell towards the teachers’ residence wing and the new teacher heads for his assigned apartment, which comes with a little balcony and a housekeeper. Michell accidentally surprises the housekeeper, Maria (a delightful Vivian El Jaber), who is partly deaf, who chews him out, establishing herself as a plain spoken person.

Still, the two quickly hit it off, as he does with her out-spoken niece Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio)who also works at the school. A fellow teacher (Bjorn Gustafsson), who seems never to have heard of boundaries, saunters into Michell’s apartment uninvited, introduces himself, and makes himself right at home, much to Michell’s irritation, although he does not toss the intruder out.

Steve Coogan’s teacher presents a serious face to the headmaster but quickly reveals his true self, as a hard-drinking, cynical, snarky man who is going through the motions of life. His students are spoiled and a bit unruly, but Michell launches into teaching them about the greats of English literature anyway while requiring them to speak only English in class. At one point, he gives the students an assignment to work on, and then leaves the classroom. Outside, we see the real reason for the assignment – to take a break for drinking and lounging in the sun.

When the Argentinian military stage a coup and take over the government, the headmaster decides the students would be safer with their powerful families, and shuts the school for a week, at least. While everyone else is worried, Michell quickly and calmly makes plans to leave the country – for a beach vacation in a neighboring country. Unconcerned, he plans to spend his time drinking in bars, hanging out on the beach, go dancing and picking up women. His clueless colleague invites himself along.

The two do pick up a couple of women at a beach-side bar, and pair off. Strolling on the beach with his date, the couple come across gooey black evidence of an oil spill – and a penguin covered in oil. The woman insists they help the penguin and, hopeful of getting laid, Michell pitches right in. They smuggle the penguin into his nearby hotel and clean it up. But then the woman goes home, leaving Michell frustrated and in possession of a penguin.

His efforts to return the penguin to the sea goes nowhere, as the bird has become attached to him. In a series of comic scenes and confrontations with authorities, Coogan’s character tries to hand off the penguin to someone else, only to be told it’s his problem.

The result is that when the school reopens, the English teacher now has a penguin. With his classroom still unruly, he brings the bird, now named Juan Salvador, into the classroom. The penguin certainly gets their attention.

Steve Coogan is the perfect mix of smart, cynical and slovenly as this well-educated slacker. The cast is great, especially Steve Coogan, but Jonathan Pryce does well too, playing the sincere-seeming headmaster who shows a lack of courage when faced with pressure from the new regime but later redeems himself. Vivian El Jaber and Alfonsina Carrocio are sassy and touching, as Bjorn Gustaffsson provided a bit of goofy comic relief and serves as straight man for Coogan’s quips.

The penguin has a strange effect on everyone at school, who start pouring out their hearts to the silent, attentive little bird. Everyone grows fond of the little penguin, even if he is very smelly and not housebroken.

As the new authoritarian regime takes hold, and people starts getting snatched off the street, Michell finds his cynicism challenged.

What starts out as quirky comedy with a cynical man at its center, gradually becomes something more human and moving, all without falling into the saccharin or into falseness. When the film ends with footage of the real penguin, swimming in the school’s pool, tears may brim, in this surprisingly wonderful, touching, human dramedy.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS opens Friday, Mar. 28, in theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

Win Passes To The St. Louis Special Advance Screening Of THE PENGUIN LESSONS

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Starring Oscar nominee Steve Coogan, this poignant dramedy from director Peter Cattaneo follows an Englishman’s personal and political awakening after he adopts a penguin during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history. Also stars Jonathan Pryce.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS opens in theaters March 28.

The St. Louis special advance screening is this Wednesday, March 19 at 7 PM at Marcus Ronnies 20.

Pass link: https://forms.gle/WDJKe7nruwkMTSS1A

Please arrive early as seating is not guaranteed.

Rated PG 13.

ONE LIFE – Review

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Anthony Hopkins as Nicholas Winton in ONE LIFE. Courtesy of Bleecker Street

The moving ONE LIFE throws a spotlight on a British man, Nicholas Winton, who has been called the “British Schindler,” saved far more than one life in the early days of WWII. Anthony Hopkins plays the older Nicholas Winton, who in 1938 had organized a kindertransport, an effort to get hundreds of children, mostly Jewish, out of Prague ahead of the Nazis, but whose heroic efforts were not widely known or recognized until 1988, when he appeared on a popular British TV talk show.

The children and their families had fled to Prague after Hitler seized the Sudetenland, a German-speaking area in the north of the then Czechoslovakia, in 1938, the beginning of Hitler’s plan for conquest. In the infamous appeasement of Hitler, European countries, including Britain, had agreed to Hitler’s demands and ceded the Sudetenland to Germany, with a false promise of peace. ONE LIFE tells the remarkable story of Winton’s heroic efforts to rescue these refugee children but it also depicts the late-in-life recognition for his seemingly-impossible effort that saved hundreds of children.

The idea that the rescue was impossible was the first obstacle Nicholas Winton faced in saving those children. Johnny Flynn plays the younger Nicky Winton who we meet in flashback sequences, along with Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Nicky’s feisty, determined mother Babette (nicknamed Babi), who was among the many people who helped save those young lives. The cast also includes Jonathan Pryce, as the older version of one of Nicky’s friends who helped with the rescue, and Lena Olin as the older Nicky’s wife Grete.

Based on the book “If It’s Not Impossible…: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton” by Nicholas Winton’s daughter, Barbara Winton, ONE LIFE is an emotional film, an uplifting survivors story, with dramatic scenes in both the pre-war rescue portion and the later 1988 portion, when the world – and in some cases the now-grown rescued children – finally learned what the modest Winton done in 1938. In 1988, the modest, reserved retired banker Nicholas Winton was an unlikely guest on the pop-culture British TV show “That’s Life!” and the world finally learned of his remarkable deeds. The historic drama is directed by BAFTA-nominated James Hawes.

Of course, Winton was not the only person who made the rescue possible but he was the last one left alive in 1988 when the heroic deeds finally came to light. And it was Winton who put in motion the rescue that others told him was impossible, although significant roles were played by Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharp) and Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia, who helped to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children before Nazi occupation closed the borders.

ONE LIFE opens with retired banker Nicholas Winton (Hopkins) living a quiet, comfortable life in rural England. As they await the birth of their first grandchild, his wife Grete (Lena Olin) encourages Nicky to finally clear out all the clutter and old files in his overstuffed home office, to make a little more room in the house. The contents of one worn, old briefcase is something she knows will be hard for husband Nicky to part with – perhaps to a library or research center.

We learn that the briefcase has a “scrapbook” that is a record of what Winton did during WWII, when he decides to tackle the long-delayed task while his wife is on an out-of-town trip. Nicky thinks the scrapbook is important and should be preserved but he doesn’t want it stashed away in a library. Instead, he wants it to be somewhere people can access it and learn from it, especially charitable groups facing other near-impossible tasks.

In flashbacks to 1938, we meet young Nicky Winton (Flynn), a low-level accountant with a London investment banking firm, who has a strong commitment to doing good works, as his mother Babi Winton (Bonham Carter) raised him to do. Nicky has taken time off work to travel to Prague to help with refugees who fled there when the Nazis took over the Sudetenland, despite the rising danger of Nazi invasion.. As soon as he arrives, Doreen Warriner (Garai) and Trevor Chadwick (Sharp) put Nicky to work organizing the files of their organization, the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia, with Nicky cracking that he’s “good at desk.”

A visit to the squalid, crowded neighborhood where the refugees are living changes everything for Nicky, when he meets some children suffering there. Moved, he wants to do something to help. When he asks Warriner how the children will survive the coming winter, she grimly replies “They won’t.”

Although Warriner tells Nicky that saving them is practically impossible, Nicky is determined to try to get them out of the country. “If something is not impossible, then there must be a way to do it,” Winton says.

The first problem they encounter is getting lists of refugee children. There are several organizations helping the refugees and they fear of lists of the children will fall into Nazi hands and so they won’t share them. Frustrated, Nicky eventually meets with the leader of one group, Rabbi Hertz (Samuel Finzi). The rabbi is wary of trusting Winton, who was raised in the Church of England, but when Winton reveals that he had Jewish grandparents on both sides, the rabbi decides to trust Winton. That opens the door for others to also cooperate.

With things underway Prague, Nicky calls on his resourceful mother Babi back in London to help with getting permits and finding foster families for the children.

The film moves back and forth in time between wartime 1938 and the film’s present in 1988, when what Winton did during the war finally comes to light. Both portions are moving and have emotional moments, but the ending of the 1988 portion makes the film particularly uplifting.

Anthony Hopkins is splendid as the modest, kindly Nicholas Winton, who assumes that the documents he has preserved are important but does not see himself or what he did that way. The scrapbook records in detail the people and actions of the kindertransport, and even photos, but Nicky thinks it is mostly of interest to other charitable organizations. Always quick to credit the efforts of others, Nicky doesn’t see what he did as heroic but instead is wracked with remorse about the children he couldn’t save when the Nazis suddenly shut down the border.

Hopkins does a lovely job portraying Winton’s quiet determination and appealing modesty, as well as his sweet fondness for children. The rest of the cast is also excellent, including Johnny Flynn as young Nicky. Helen Bonham Carter is particularly delightful as Nicky’s strong-willed, sharp-tongued mother Babi, and her performance adds a needed bit of humor. The scenes with Hopkins as the very serious Winton appearing on the light-weight, pop culture talk show “That’s Life” also offer a touch of comic relief, although it leads to a three-hankie but perfect ending.

The photography is lovely, and the attention to period details in both time periods makes immersion in the story easy. The colors are warm but muted, and the scenes in the refugee settlement with the ragged children, some with pleading eyes and others with irrepressible childish energy, are Dickensian, touching and heartbreaking.

ONE LIFE is a polished, moving period drama featuring a fine cast, highlighting an inspiring story that should be better known, about a man who deserves recognition for saving hundreds of children, simply because he refused to believe it was impossible.

ONE LIFE opens Friday, Mar. 15, in theaters.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

ALL THE OLD KNIVES – Review

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Thandiwe Newton in ALL THE OLD KNIVES. Courtesy of Amazon.

ALL THE OLD KNIVES is an intense political thriller with a relatively unusual framework. Eight years before the principal action, terrorists hijacked a commercial plane in Europe and wound up killing themselves and over 100 others. We learn that from the get-go. The mystery comes from newly-discovered evidence that there may have been a mole in the CIA who contributed to that disastrous failure. The head honcho Victor Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne) assigns his top agent Henry Pelham (Chris Pine) to head up this new inquiry. Primary suspects among his old colleagues are his then-girlfriend Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton) and their veteran department head Bill Compton (Jonathan Pryce).

Pine approaches the task with great reluctance. Newton left him and the spy biz right after the incident, morphing into a suburban mom. Pine still pines for her from afar. The screenplay includes many flashbacks to the time of the tragedy, showing different perspectives and collateral relationships and transactions that may or may not prove who was culpable. Beyond that, the less you know the more intense and suspenseful the viewing will be.

Director Janus Metz and his editing team did well at bouncing us between the film’s then and now without losing coherence. Good work also from the makeup and wardrobe crews makes the casts’ ages look appropriately different for the two periods presented. Among performances, Fishburne’s fans won’t get to see much of their guy. Pine plays it appropriately blank, telegraphing little of his character’s agenda, like a good spy should. Newton is the one who shines brightest, as she continues to defy the calendar. Though closing in on 50, in scenes of that earlier period, she looks no older than her early thirties, even in the less-clad moments.

The film is based on Olen Steinhauer’s source novel and screenplay. I haven’t read the book, but I’d bet his adaptation preserved its best in the transition to our screens. The script is taut, low-key and keeps us guessing until the end. The story presents more emotional layers and complexities than most espionage films. Not only are the embers of Pine and Newton’s old romance in play, but many other friendships and alliances that were meaningful to the players beyond their professional dimension. There’s less action than in most genre entries (no Jason Bourne heroics) but it’s offset by the suspense and tensions throughout Pine’s investigation, resulting in a highly realistic, human-scale package. If you’re seeking entertainment more cerebral than visceral, this one’s a solid choice.

ALL THE OLD KNIVES opens in theaters and streaming on Amazon Prime on Friday, Apr. 8.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE TWO POPES – Review

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(l-r) Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as the future Pope Francis, in Fernando Meirelles’ drama/comedy THE TWO POPES. Photo courtesy of Netflix.

Jonathan Pryce as the future Pope Francis I and Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI are pure delight in the amusing, engaging drama/comedy TWO POPES. Director Fernando Meirelles (CITY OF GOD) and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (DARKEST HOUR) craft delightful odd couple drama/comedy about a meeting Pope Benedict and his successor Pope Francis. Rather than a dry discussion of church policy, Meirelles gives us a charming, kind of buddy comedy, in which these two very different men meet and explore their personal differences and their views on life, to ultimately find common ground.

The story takes place not long before before Pope Benedict’s announcement that he would step down as pope. There hadn’t been two living popes for hundreds of years, and never a case of a pope just choosing to retire, which made Pope Benedict’s decision a pivotal historic moment. Popes are supposed to serve for life, as Pope Benedict’s predecessor Pope John Paul II had, done despite declining health. As Benedict noted his own mental decline, he may have wanted to spare the church a repeat of that. His likely successor was Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the man who he had narrowly beat out when he was elected to the papacy.

The meeting is fictional but allows these two powerhouse actors to show off their skill as they verbally spar, maneuver and one-up each other in an intriguing, often amusing meeting of minds and contrasting personalities. We are treated to a study in contrasts played out by a pair of brilliant actors. The men could not be more different. German-born Benedict is conservative, loves the luxurious trappings and ceremony of the papacy, has very traditional tastes, and is disconnected from the modern world. The future Pope Francis is Argentinian, loves tango and soccer, is a done-to-earth man who is uncomfortable with luxury. His views on the direction of the Catholic Church are more liberal, particularly compared to Benedict’s.

Most of the film focuses on this meeting, but it also flashes back to the meeting of the cardinals that brought Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to the papacy. It also gives a little biography of the Argentine cardinal but not the German-born Pope Benedict, which makes the future Pope Francis more the major character

Jonathan Pryce’s arrives at the Vatican full of confidence that he will be able to get his retirement documentary signed and make a quick exit. Instead, Pope Benedict is unavailable, due to pressing business, and he is told they will meet instead at the Pope’s idyllic summer palace. Clearly the Argentine is imitated, he has no choice.

Moving the action to the summer palace, with its beautiful gardens and airy palace, gives the film a visually appealing setting for this battle of wills. The two actors are top of their game, as the men engage in a kind of cat-and -mouse that takes the confident cardinal down a notch and puts the quiet, other-worldly pope in charge. Once the men finally talk, there is a connection, a bond, that forms as they explore both their differences and common humanity and faith. The back-and-forth provides an entertaining, often amusing, exchange that is a complete delight. In a wonderful scene late in the film features the two men, the current pope and the future one, watching a soccer game, cheering on their respective teams.

They offer very different broad visions for the future of the Catholic Church without getting into specific topics like married priests or changing the church’s view on divorce. There is brief mention of the child abuse scandal but like other issues, it is not discussed in depth. Mostly, it is the contrast of personalities that is the focus and whether the church should adapt to the modern world or be a bastion of unchanging values.

The beautiful setting adds to the enjoyment of the film. One of the highlights of the film is a later scene in the Sistine Chapel. Because they were not allowed to film in the actual Sistine Chapel, Meirelles built a perfect replica, but larger to better accommodate filming. The effect is stunning, and warming as it is the setting for a pivot moment between the two characters.

More a study in character with a historic and faith background, THE TWO POPES has appeal for any audience, and as a vehicle to showcase two outstanding actors at the height of their powers, it is a delight and one of the year’s best.

TWO POPES opens Friday, Dec. July 13, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

THE WIFE – Review

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Glenn Close as Joan Castleman, listening as her novelist husband gives his acceptance speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony, in THE WIFE. Photo by Graeme Hunter, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics ©

Glenn Close gives one of the best performances of her career in THE WIFE, a drama exploring the relationship of a long-married couple as the husband, a famous author, is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. The drama peels back the layers of the relationship and the inner life of the wife, while exploring society’s shifting attitudes towards women’s careers, with both gripping performances and an engrossing and timely story.

There is that old saying “behind every great man is a great woman,” a phrase that seems to praise that woman while also leaving her in his shadow. The relationship between brash famous author husband Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) and his quiet, elegant wife Joan (Glen Close) seems the epitome of that saying. The couple is also a study in contrasts: Joe is outgoing, egotistical and loves the spotlight, while Joan is shy, self-effacing and reserved. Yet it is clear from the first scenes that Joe is barely functional without his wife, who organizes his life as well as smoothing over the many ruffled feathers Joe leaves in his wake. Like many long-married couples, there is a kind of short-hand between them, and there is also a mix of affection and annoyance on the part of the wife.

Joe winning the Nobel Prize in 1992, a time of expanding opportunities for women, brings other tensions to the surface, feelings and facts that Joan has been struggling to ignore. It is more than emotional support and organization that Joan brings to her marriage to Joe. Once a promising author herself, she chose to bury her own ambitions when she married Joe, and instead put her energy into promoting his career. It is a decision many women of her generation made, one with a high cost for the truly talented.

Swedish director Bjorn Runge and scriptwriter Jane Anderson turn Meg Wolitzer’s gripping 2003 novel into a compelling drama that not only captures to nature of this kind of traditional martial arrangement but also on the disparate treatment female and male authors receive from publishers and from readers in the earlier eras. But lest you think this is something from the distant past, when women authors like George Sand had to write under a man’s name, remember that the author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowlings, used a gender-neutral pen name to avoid that very prejudice. In the case of Joan Castleman, once a promising writer in college in the 1950s, giving up the battle for recognition to join forces with a male author, a published college professor who already seemed on his way to literary success, might have seemed like a good compromise. Certainly it is a compromise talented women had been making for generations, subsuming their own ambitions to serve the career of a husband.

 

Still, the film’s strong suit is Glenn Close’s performance. Close has been nominated for Oscars six times without winning and her performance here has the goods to finally nab her the win. Close plays a woman who is often opaque to those around her, the one who diplomatically steps in to smooth over gaffs by her famous husband and then fades back into her background role as supportive wife. But Close always gives one the feeling it is a role Joan is playing, and that both intelligence and secrets lie beneath her polished surface. In Stockholm, under the pressures of the Nobel Prize hoopla, Joan’s facade and reserve start to crack, finally exploding in emotional fury. Close conveys all Joan’s complex feelings, and her turmoil underneath as well as the polished surface, with brilliance.

Close goes through a range of emotions – frustration, affection, opaque reserve, patience, rage – as Joan, a woman who has made a kind of pact with her husband which seemed like the best choice at the time. The flashback sequences both describe how that happened and illustrate the daunting obstacles that ambitious women writers faced in the repressive, sexist atmosphere of the 1950s and early’60s. To Joan, it looked much easier to marry a rising writer than to become one.

Close is teamed with Jonathan Pryce as her husband, a pairing that could not be better. Close and Pryce are excellent together, but the film is really Close’s. Pryce provides the perfect foil for Close’s fine, nuanced performance, right there in their shared scenes but never trying to steal her fire. The delicacy of that casting is part of why now is the right moment for this film, and why it took ten years to make it. Ten years ago it was hard to find an actor of big enough standing to star in a supporting role in a film titled THE WIFE.

From time to time, the film flashes back to the couple’s early days, giving us insights on how they arrived at this point. Those segments begin when the couple met, when she was a promising student in his creative writing class at an East Coast university. Annie Starke plays the young Joan, while Harry Lloyd plays the young Joe. Young Joan is both talented and beautiful, capturing the professor’s attention despite the fact that he is married. The pair’s romance also reflects a literary trend of the time, mirroring post-WWII social changes, with a brash young man from a working-class Jewish family becoming romantically involved with a blonde young woman from an upper-class WASP family.

Starke, who is also Glen Close’s daughter, does well outlining young Joan’s meek but ambitious character, and the resemblance between them helps as well. Harry Lloyd, who will be familiar to some from his role as Viserys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones,” plays the younger Joe as a dominant personality, even a bully, divorcing his wife to marry talented, pliant Joan, and laying the foundation for the older couple’s relationship. Elizabeth McGovern delivers a memorable performance, as a frustrated woman author whose career is doomed by the sexist literary attitudes of the late ’50s and early ’60s, in a pivotal scene for Joan.

Also helping fill in the picture of the Castleman’s marriage is Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater), an oily would-be biographer who has trailed them to Stockholm, probing for background for his book, and their grown son David (Max Irons), an aspiring author brooding over the father’s lack of approval. David’s presence draws out details of family dynamics, while Nathaniel’s efforts to cozy up to Joan provide some entertaining and revealing scenes for Close’s character.

THE WIFE is a striking drama delving into the heated emotional territory of one long-married couple’s relationship but set against the sweeping social changes towards the creative work of women since the last half of the previous century. Even more, THE WIFE is a tour-de-force showcase for the considerable talents of one woman, Glenn Close, a performance that could win her that long-deserved Oscar.

THE WIFE, in English and Swedish with English subtitles, opens Friday, Sept. 7, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

DOUGH – Review

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Dough Key Still

DOUGH is a warm-hearted little British dramedy starring Jonathan Pryce (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) as an old Orthodox Jewish baker who is struggling to keep his family’s bakery going, in a tough East End London neighborhood. When his assistant quits, Nat agrees to hire the teen-aged son of the bakery’s African immigrant cleaning lady, not realizing his new assistant is a Muslim.

While this is not a film for serious cinephiles, it has found an audience on the film festival circuit and is now making the leap to wider distribution. The gentle little cross-cultural comedic drama draws its appeal more from its likable characters and their believable relationships rather than its overly familiar plot or comedy, some of which is summed up in the film’s tagline “Dough: It’s not the only thing getting baked.” The charm of this crowd-pleaser is not the contrived humor or stiff subplots that motivate the characters but those surprisingly well-drawn characters, fine acting (by Pryce in particular), its gentle exploration of religious and cultural differences, and its underlying message about friendship and tolerance.

Widower Nat Dayan (Pryce) is worn down from trying to keep the Kosher bakery he inherited from his father afloat. The bakery is in a neighborhood people often describe as “changing” but really, this one has already changed. Customers from the once mostly-Jewish neighborhood have moved away, and business is dwindling. Still, Nat can’t let go of the family tradition, going in early in the morning to make the bread and cleaning up litter in front of his tidy, modest shop.

Still bitter that his son Stephen (Daniel Caltigirone), a successful lawyer, chose not to continue in the business the family had run for over 100 years, Nat still cannot just let it go. When his apprentice baker leaves for another job, Nat is forced to quickly find a replacement. His hard-working cleaning lady Safa (Natasha Gordon) brings her son Ayyash (Jerome Holder) in to apply for the job. They immigrated from Darfur without Ayyash’s father, and she worries about the teen growing up without his guidance. Desperate, Nat hires they boy, even though he will have to teach him everything. Ayyash wants work but is leering of working for a Jewish baker, harboring misconceptions. In fact, the teen is selling marijuana – and continues to do so while working at the bakery. Predictably, some pot accidentally gets in the dough and, suddenly, the bread is flying off the shelves.

DOUGH has been playing film festivals, particularly Jewish ones, to sell-out crowds and building strong word-of-mouth. To be clear, this is no high-brow, art house cinema film (something its director John Goldschmidt acknowledged in a recent interview with this writer). It also is not a typical Hollywood film. In fact, it is the kind of film Hollywood no longer makes, and as such, it fill a niche for a certain audience, with its simple, human story.

The film pairs Pryce, a well-respected British stage and screen actor, with newcomer Jerome Holder. Pryce is marvelous, and the characters form a convincing father-son relationship, something they both need. The relationship is warm and even often funny, as they two play off each other beautifully, and explores how getting to know a person can change hearts and minds. Nat discovers his new assistant is Muslim early on his first day, when the baker comes out from the back room (where he has been praying) and finds the boy praying too. Nat is surprised, even unsettled – it never occurred to him the African family was Muslim – but quickly his thoughts shift to business, saying “Well, do that in the back – customers might see you.” It is a gentle kind of humor, and the film is often at its best when it taps into that cross-cultural theme, showing similarities between Muslim and Jewish traditions, such as hand-washing and praying at the beginning of the day, as the two get to know each other. Word gets out about the Muslim assistant, and both Nat and Ayyash have to confront some racism and religious intolerance.

Pryce, who is not Jewish, really does looks the part of the old baker in his full beard, and his strong performance really holds the film together. Holder works well with him, and has plenty of youthful appeal as a teen still finding his place in the world. Additional human relationships and characters sweeten the mix, with adorable Melanie Freeman as Nat’s young granddaughter Olivia, Andy de la Tour as Nat’s longtime pal Saul, and Pauline Collins as wealthy widow Joanna Silverman, who has her eye on Nat. All the actors craft charming, believable characters and relationships.

Dough (11)

The story is set in Ilford, an East London neighborhood that actually underwent the kind of changes depicted. The film set replicated exactly the interior an real London Kosher bakery, and Pryce learned bread-making at a famous London Jewish family bakery, Grodzinski’s. Consultants from Darfur and a rabbi were also on hand to ensure the film’s details were authentic.

The dramatic part is warm and charming but the same cannot be said for the comedy plot, which is sometimes staler than three-day-old-bread. Where the film’s characters are just talking, and even when they are tossing off a few zingers, the film is believable and even funny. When it goes off into contrived plot, it seems forced and awkward. Besides the standard “old folks getting stoned” humor, the overloaded plot also adds in a couple of one-note villains, a competitor wanting buy up the property (Philip Davis) and an sinister drug dealer (Ian Hart). The thing is, the characters and they way they interact, particularly the leads played by Pryce and Holder, actually feel very real and down-to-earth, when not weighed down by the too-familiar plot devices. One wishes the film had a better, more believable story for these appealing characters to inhabit.

Still, the film’s success on the festival circuit signals that it is striking a chord with those audiences willing to overlook its flaws for its genuine warmth. Credit for that goes to the actors, and a director, John Goldschmidt, for giving them the space to work. “Dough” is not a film for serious cinephiles but it is feeding a need for an audience hungry for this kind of warmhearted, hopeful story.

DOUGH opens on April 29th, 2016 at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac

OVERALL RATING:  3 OUT OF 5 STARS

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Jason Schwartzman’s LISTEN UP PHILIP Official Trailer Lands

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A complex, intimate, and highly idiosyncratic comedy, LISTEN UP PHILIP is a literary look at the triumph of reality over the human spirit. Check out the brand new trailer below.

Anger rages in Philip (Jason Schwartzman) as he awaits the publication of his sure-to-succeed second novel. He feels pushed out of his adopted home city by the constant crowds and noise, a deteriorating relationship with his photographer girlfriend Ashley (Elisabeth Moss), and his own indifference to promoting the novel.

When Philip’s idol Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce) offers his isolated summer home as a refuge, he finally gets the peace and quiet to focus on his favorite subject—himself.

Following up his critically acclaimed The Color Wheel, Alex Ross Perry scripts and directs a complex, intimate and highly idiosyncratic comedy filled with New Yorkers living their lives somewhere between individuality and isolation.

Schwartzman leads an impressive cast including Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter and Jonathan Pryce, balancing Perry’s quick-witted dialogue and their characters’ painful, personal truths. With narration by Eric Bogosian, we switch perspectives as seasons and attitudes change, offering a literary look into the lives of these individuals and the triumph of reality over the human spirit.

LISTEN UP PHILIP was produced by Washington Square Films (the company’s follow-up film to the acclaimed All Is Lost) and Sailor Bear Productions, the team behind last year’s Sundance hit AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS.

LISTEN UP PHILIP opens in select theaters October 17. Available on iTunes and On Demand October 21.

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G.I. Joe Movie Recruitment Video – “Do You Have What It Takes?”

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Get excited because the time has come for a new force. Will the Joes overcome COBRA? Watch the new Cobra Special Forces recruitment video for G.I. JOE RETALIATION.

Check out the brand new clip.

A follow-up to the 2009 release of G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, which grossed over $300M worldwide, Paramount Pictures, MGM and Skydance Productions, in association with HASBRO, commenced the di Bonaventura production of G.I. JOE RETALIATION.

In this sequel, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. The film stars D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Stevenson, Channing Tatum with Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson.

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Photo credit: Jaimie Trueblood. Center left to right: Luke Bracey plays Cobra Commander and Byung-Hun Lee plays Storm Shadow in G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, from Paramount Pictures, MGM, and Skydance Productions. 2013 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Hasbro and its logo, G.I. JOE and all related characters are Trademarks of Hasbro and used with permission. All Rights Reserved.

Directed by Jon M. Chu, and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner, from a screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick based on Hasbro’s G.I. Joe® characters.

G.I. JOE RETALIATION hits theaters in real D 3D & Digital 3D on March 29th, 2013.

http://www.gijoemovie.com/

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https://twitter.com/gijoemovie

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River Phoenix’s Last Film DARK BLOOD To Premiere At Miami International Film Festival

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Organizers of the 30th edition of Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) announced today the North American premiere of River Phoenix’s final film, DARK BLOOD directed by George Sluizer, co-starring Jonathan Pryce and Judy Davis. 20 years after its making, the film will be shown for the first time in North America at the 30th Anniversary edition of the Miami International Film Festival (March 1-10, 2013).

Jet-set Hollywood couple Harry (Jonathan Pryce) and Buffy (Judy Davis) travel through the desert on a second honeymoon, trying to save their marriage. Their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere leaving them to find shelter in Boy’s (River Phoenix) beaten down shack, unaware they will become his prisoners. Boy’s wife died of leukemia after nuclear tests occurred in the desert leaving him alone and far away from society. Buffy is seduced by Boy’s honesty and vulnerabilities, while Harry represents everything Boy hates about the civilized world and its culture. Buffy decides to sleep with Boy to buy the couple’s freedom, but these circumstances will push Harry to the edge, leading to a terrible tragedy.

DARK BLOOD was 80% complete when River Phoenix passed away in 1993 and the uncompleted film disappeared into a vault. In 1999 Sluizer heard that the footage was going to be burned to make space and with less than 48 hours notice, he saved the film, engineering efforts to get the entire film moved to The Netherlands. The footage then sat for more than ten years until last year when Sluizer set about finishing the film. The film finally premiered overseas to a standing ovation in the fall of 2012 at the Dutch Film Festival.

“Dark Blood is a film of legend, one of Hollywood’s great mysteries,” said MIFF Executive Director Jaie Laplante. “The tragic loss of River Phoenix’s outstanding talent is still profoundly felt 20 years later. We are proud that George Sluizer has honored Miami as the place to finally share his remarkable collaboration with Phoenix and the other great artists involved with Dark Blood.”