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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 16 September 2019

If you’ve had young children at some point over the past two decades, you’re likely to be familiar with Dora the Explorer.  She’s the central figure in an animated TV show, produced by Nickelodeon, which premiered in 2000 and featured 178 episodes.  The 7-year-old solves puzzles, overcomes obstacles, and interacts with a monkey and a talking backpack (no, she’s not on drugs).

Taking Dora’s simplistic story and turning it into a live-action movie would have been a tricky assignment but the creators have taken a few chances and been rewarded for their efforts.  We’ve seen this before from director James Bobin (Flight of the Concords) and co-writer Nicholas Stoller who successfully reinvigorated an old franchise with The Muppets (2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014).

The gutsiest decision has been to go with an older version of the much-loved character.  There’s a quick-fire introduction to the younger Dora but for the most part, the one we see in the movie is a 16-year-old played by Isabela Moner (Sicario: Day of the Soldado).  She was born and raised in the Peruvian jungle with her two wise parents (played Michael Peña and Eva Longoria) providing a broad education.

The writing team have fun with the character in the opening act.  Dora’s parents are going on a lengthy exploration to find a hidden Inca city and rather than take their daughter with them, they’ve arranged for her to spend time with her cousin in Los Angeles.  Instead of living in the wild with a talking backpack (just thought I’d mention it again), Dora will have to interact with people, develop social skills, and adjust to life in a formal school.  She’s a “fish out of water” and her talkative, outgoing nature sets the stage for several humorous scenes.

The remainder of the film sees Dora and her newfound school friends return to Peru to locate her parents who have gone missing.  They’re pursued by a team of hapless villains who are hoping they’ll be led to the lost City of Gold where they’ll find fame and immense fortune.  It’s reminiscent of adventure franchises like Indiana Jones and National Treasure as our heroes decipher clues in pursuit of the end goal.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold has had added publicity here in Australia given it was a Hollywood production shot largely in South East Queensland in late 2018.  The locations used include Tamborine Mountain, The Old Museum, Brisbane Airport and the Palm Beach Currumbin State High School.  The film will also lift the profile of young Australian actors Madeleine Madden and Nicholas Coombe who have been cast as Dora’s friends.

The film never takes itself too seriously which is part of the reason it will entertain younger audiences.  Isabela Moner also deserves praise for her lead performance.  The Dora we’ve seen in the TV show is fairly one-dimensional but Moner adds a great deal more to the character.  In finding the right balance of intelligence, goofiness and energy, she’s created someone who is both funny and credible.  The role could easily have been overplayed (but thankfully it’s not).

Whether this becomes part of a longer running series will depend on box-office.  I’m not sure if a sequel would boast the same level of creativity but if they can keep this cast and crew intact, I’m happy for them to give it a go.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 04 September 2019

I’ll admit to being surprised by the success of It when released in September 2017.  Made on a relatively small budget of $35 million and featuring no A-list actors, it pulled in more than $700 million USD at the worldwide box-office (ranking it 13^th for the year).  Here in Australia, it topped the charts for two consecutive weekends.

While I realise I’m in the minority, I wasn’t a huge fan given the rushed narrative, sluggish character development and so-so performances.  It seems as if New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures have heeded my advice for this second instalment by slowing the pace and increasing the running time.  It Chapter Two clocks in at a lengthy 2 hours and 50 minutes – the 2^nd longest studio release in Australia this year behind Avengers: Endgame.  You’ll need water and snacks!

The film picks things up 27 years after the original ended.  Bill, Beverly, Ben, Richie, Eddie and Stanley have all grown up, left the small town of Derry, and achieved varying levels of professional success.  The only member of the self-described “Losers’ Club” who still resides in Derry is Mike.  When a few children in town go missing, Mike gets on the phone to his childhood friends and instigates a reunion.  He wants to follow through on the pact they made as youngsters – if It ever appeared again, they’d return to Derry to finish him off once and for all.

Based on the promotion and advertising, it’s easy to think this is a simple horror flick.  Instead of having a scary doll or a scary demon, we have a scary clown.  Those that have read Stephen King’s epic 1,138 page novel will know it’s about much more than that.  It Chapter Two has its fair share of formulaic thrills but it digs deeper and has something to say about friendship, bullying, trauma and perhaps most importantly, the complex transition from childhood to adulthood.

Writer Gary Dauberman (Annabelle) and director Andy Muschietti (Mama) do a better job handling the material this time around.  There are potent sequences (like when they go off and find “tokens”) that help provide insight into the characters’ scarred psyches.  These scenes are both creepy and informative.  That said, it’s hard not be frustrated watching everyone talk endlessly while continually skirting around the issues that trouble them.

I wasn’t wowed by the big finale but with a stronger cast and some well-choreographed set pieces, It Chapter Two improves on its predecessor.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 September 2019

It’s a premise we’ve seen before.  A group of “nerdy” school kids try to ditch their naivety and find love and/or popularity amongst their fellow classmates.  Great examples that come to mind include She’s All That, Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You, Easy A, American Pie, Superbad and Booksmart.  These films provide humour while also emphasising the worthy message of “to thine own self be true”.

Good Boys puts a slightly different spin on the genre by focusing on three boys who are younger than the norm.  Max (Tremblay), Lucas (Williams) and Thor (Noon) are 12-year-old kids on cusp of adolescence and who have a lot of thoughts running through their head.  As Max succinct says at the start of a new school year – “we’re in the 6^th grade and I want to start doing 6^th grade things.”  

What Max is largely talking about is girls.  He has his eyes on the shy Brixlee (Davis) but he’s completely inept when it comes to romance and seduction (as you might expect).  When invited to a “kissing party” thrown by a popular classmate, Max sees it as an opportunity to finally interact with Brixlee and, if all goes to plan, land his first kiss.

What follows is a series of misadventures as these three kids, who go by the name of the “Beanbag Boys”, prepare for party.  They start out by using the internet to learn how to kiss a girl but by film’s end, it’s morphed into a very different journey involving drugs, alcohol, sex toys, weapons, cops and a funny/creepy guy played by Stephen Merchant.  Suffice to say Max, Lucas and Thor now have a changed view of the world and their friendship.

The storyline doesn’t flow as smoothly as it should.  There are times when it feels like a bunch of unrelated skits.  One example is an odd sequence where they harness the courage to run across an 8-lane freeway with peak hour traffic.  Some might get a laugh out of it (not me) but it doesn’t seem to have much of a connection to the broader story nor does it add anything in terms of character development.

Qualms aside, Good Boys is still a winner in terms of laughs and entertainment.  Writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (largely known for their writing work on the US version of The Office) have created three cute, foul-mouthed characters that will win audiences over.  It’s hard not to be amused as they misinterpret words (e.g. nymphomaniac) and try to act older than they are.  Lucas wins bonus points because of his compulsion to tell the truth at the worst possible time.

Finishing on a strong note with a hilarious musical number, Good Boys is good stuff.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 September 2019

As we’re told in the opening titles, The Farewell is “based on an actual lie.”  Writer-director Lulu Wang was born in China but immigrated to the United States with her family following the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.  She was just 6 years old at the time.  It was in 2013 that she received word that her grandmother, still living in China, had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and had just a few months to live.  Wang and her parents then made a quick, emotional trip to Changchun (in north east China) to see their beloved matriarch one last time before she passed away.

Here’s the catch – no one had told “Nai Nai” (a Mandarin term for grandmother) that she was dying.  The family thought it best to protect her from the inevitable anxiety so that she could enjoy her final days.  As it would look suspicious if all of Nai Nai’s extended family descended on her home for an unexpected visit, a cousin’s wedding was brought forward and used as the excuse for everyone to get together.

Wang penned a screenplay about her experience but struggled to find a studio who was interested in making it her way.  Some wanted to turn it from a drama in a comedy.  Others wanted to Hollywood-ise it by adding Caucasian characters and a romantic interest.  It wasn’t until Wang told the story on the popular radio program This American Life in 2016 that the project took flight.  Producer Chris Weitz (About a Boy) heard the show, met with Wang and helped secure the finance.  The finished product earned rave reviews at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with A24 buying the rights (after a fierce bidding war) to distribute the film in cinemas across the globe.

The Farewell is beautifully told.  When it hits you, it hits you.  There’s a particularly poignant scene where Nai Nai tells Billi (the character based on Lulu Wang) that when it’s her turn to get married, she’ll throw an even bigger banquet than that provided to her cousin.  It’s a tough moment for Billi knowing that she must smile and keep up the charade despite knowing that her grandmother will never live long enough to see that day.

While it’s an extremely personable story, the film also has something broader to say about the world and its cultural differences.  Billi has long struggled with her identity given she’s of Chinese heritage but was raised almost entirely in America.  Given the significant differences between the two countries, she’s unsure about her core “beliefs” and where she belongs.  The fact she’s struggling to find meaningful employment only adds to her insecurities.  It’s a breakout performance for Awkwafina (Ocean’s 8, Crazy Rich Asians) who relies more on body language than dialogue in bringing credibility to the role.

With lots of nice flourishes (such as the occupants of an adjoining hotel room) and some memorable characters (it’s hard to go past Nai Nai’s open, unfiltered nature), The Farewell celebrates diversity whilst recognising the emotional similarities that connect us.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 10 September 2019

What do Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Sex and the City and South Park all have in common?  They’re part of a fast growing list of successful television programs that have brought to the big screen in movie form.  The latest addition is Downton Abbey, a 52-episode show that followed a group of rich folks and their servants at a fictitious Yorkshire country estate in the early 20^th century.  It aired between 2010 and 2015 and took home an Emmy in its first season for best miniseries.

As someone who hasn’t seen a single episode, I’m perhaps not the best person to be reviewing this film.  It’s obviously targeted at fans of the show but for those new to the material, I’m proof that you can still be entertained.  Newbies will struggle to appreciate the intricate relationships between the many characters (it’s tough enough to remember all their names) but the dialogue is sharp and the narrative relatively simple.

I should have expected the film’s charm and wit given the person behind it, Julian Fellowes.  The British writer won the best original screenplay Oscar in 2002 for the brilliant genre-twisting Gosford Park (a rare A+ from me).  Downton Abbey was conceived as a spin-off of Gosford Park but eventually became a stand-alone project.  With credits including Vanity Fair, The Young Victoria and The Chaperone, it’s clear that Fellowes loves to shine the spotlight on class society in historical periods (with a particular focus on Great Britain).

Set in 1927, this two hour movie is structured around a particular event.  King George V and Queen Mary are going on a short tour through northern England and as part of their travels, they will be spending roughly 24 hours at Downton Abbey.  It’s a huge honour for the Crawleys, the wealthy family who reside at the stunning residence, but it’s also very exciting for the servants who will get a one-in-a-life opportunity to cook, clean and serve for their beloved monarchs.

There’s no shortage of storylines to follow and it’s impossible to list them all in this short review.  Some subplot are rushed and don’t get the attention they deserve (such as that of a butler who visits an illegal establishment) but on the whole, Fellowes has done an admirable job of balancing them all up.  These are interesting characters and you’ll quickly invest in their fate.

The cast is superb and it’s no surprise to see 84-year-old Maggie Smith as the standout in a role that won her three Emmy Awards.  As the take-no-nonsense Violet Crawley, she’s an “expert in every matter” and has the perfect insult for every situation.  Smith gets the best of the one-liners but there’s still plenty left to share around amongst the likes of Kevin Doyle as a nervous footman and Joanne Froggatt as an astute housemaid.

Featuring the familiar music of John Lunn, Downton Abbey captures the era and is jolly good fun.