MOVIES: Indiana Jones is back but not at his best, Korea sends a fine action film and PTSD is treated

I wasn't aware that June was PTSD awareness month. But then I didn't know much about the affliction either. A documentary just arrived on a few sites can help with that.

Meanwhile action is the big word today, predominantly with Indiana Jones but also with a smaller and better film called The Childe.

Netflix has an animated film, Nimona, and theatres have one called Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, both with shunning outsiders in their plotlines. I had no chance to preview the Kraken but did see these ...

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: 3 stars

The Childe: 4

Nimona: 3

Here.Is.Better: 3½

Making Time: 2½

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY: You do get your money's worth in this 5th and said-to-be final adventure by the intrepid archeologist. Length, for one thing. Almost half an hour more than any of the previous films. Overly long. Action, for another. A 20-minute sequence early on. Six vibrant set pieces. Indy battling Nazis on top of a moving train. Indy riding a horse through a street crowd celebrating the 1969 moon landing and right into a moving subway train. Harrison Ford having a good time playing the character one more time and scenes and characters out of his past either re-called or re-appearing. They all add well to the saga. And there's an added plus: greater attention to and respect for science. Not many movies mention Archimedes and his study of the displacement of water, let alone make it a plot point. Too bad then that the story eventually falters in that respect.

Back in 1944, Indy and a pal (Toby Jones) discover a disc created by Archimedes 2000 years ago that may be able to locate fissures in time. Yes, time travel. No spoiler. One of the producers has talked about it as key to the story. A Nazi (Mads Mikkelsen) has half of the disc, and, 25 years later, working on the US space program, is still after the rest (for a reason I'll hold back). Indy has the other half and is visited by his old pal's daughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who steals it from him. She's in the illegal relics trade and tries to put it up for auction. Indy disrupts that and a series of chases follow. They're exciting, take us to Morocco and Sicily, even underwater and into the cave of Dionysius. The settings are superb; the direction, by James Mangold (not Spielberg this time) is more than adequate; the film respects its own past. Then it takes a story leap that's flashy but breaks the credibity. (In theaters) 3 out of 5

THE CHILDE: If you want to see a really good action film and you've already caught Extraction II on Netflix, check out this one from Korea. It's exciting, super-energetic (one scene will jolt you right out of your seat) but it's also casually violent.

Good though in that it has a strong story to go along with it. You'll learn a new word “kopino” that Koreans use and malign like half breed. (As for the word in the title, I don't know why it has that extra “e”). Our central character is both. Marco, played by TV-favorite Kang Tae-Ju lives in the Philippines but for the sake of a business deal must find out his background. He goes to Korea to find his father, who it turns out is trying to find him. That's very unusual. He and the mother were only teens when they gave him up for adoption and men like him almost never try to re-connect. It takes about half the film to find out why this time is different. And it's nothing you'd expect. The film keeps us guessing as the mystery deepens and Marco meets half brothers, gangsters and a character who introduces himself as a “friend” and shows up repeatedly. One brother is said to look like a TV celebrity. That's an in-joke because he is also played by a TV star. There are sudden outbreaks of gun battles, gangsters gathering en masse, and a mysterious young woman (Go Ara) showing up now and then to help out. A very good film from director Park Hoon-jung. (In 5 theaters across Canada, one is Calgary, 2 each in or near Toronto and Vancouver). 4 out of 5

NIMONA: Here's a very entertaining animated film that somebody described as sparky. I can't think of a better word for it so I'll use it too for this lively tale set in what looks like both the future and a medieval past. A young knight about to get honors from the queen, accidentally kills her. He claims he's being framed and eventually we do find out what was really going on. Until then we watch a whole world shaping up before our eyes, based very loosely on a graphic novel. And with LGBTQ themes woven in.

The knight with the quirky name Ballister Boldheart is voiced by Riz Ahmed. He's got a boyfriend named Ambrosius Goldenloin and it is their relationship, including an on-screen kiss, that reportedly caused Disney executives to kill this project when they bought the company. New producers finished it and sold it to Netflix. It's edgy and has an irreverant tone typical of graphic novels.

It's wild a story powered by Nimona, a spunky young girl voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz. She comes to help the knight and be his “sidekick” because his ouster is like the shunning she lives with. She's a shape shifter. She can turn into any creature she wants to and in a key sequence becomes a rhino, osterich, ape and a whale. She's called a monster and in one section becomes one. The animation sparkles and the film rails against confining rules set by society, or in this case “The Institute.” And promotes connection. (Netflix) 3½ out of 5

HERE. IS. BETTER: We hear mention of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) now and then but don't know much about it. June has been PTSD awareness month and that makes this American documentary a timely, even valuable, film to watch. It says nearly 13 million people suffer from it every year in the US and follows four as they learn what it is that's afflicting them. Much of the information is new. Researchers within the Veterans Administration hospital system in the US have found that traumatic stress affects one part of the brain and that's slow to heal. Therapy has to work on desensitization and reprocessing.

The four victims are: a politician from Kansas City who had presidential hopes until he suddenly quit because he was "emotionally numb," a soldier who served in Viet Nam and has been haunted by guilt for 45 years, a woman who suffers depression and guilt after serving in both Afghanistan and Iraq and another woman who also served in Iraq and now constantly berates her kids. They're hard-core cases and the film is with them during intimate therapy sessions and their highly emotional stories. One of the woman was raped during her service and called a whore. The Viet Nam vet felt shunned by America when he came home. Nightmares, depression, anxiety are common. The key is re-learning how to be the person they werer before. The film by Emmy Award-winner Jack Youngelson evolves nicely to bring out the stories and explain the science. (VOD. For where, check "just-watch-canada") 3½ out of 5

MAKING TIME: Who would expect that a film about people who make watches would be so interesting? Well this one is because although you do get many scenes of tiny scewdrivers tightening sproketed wheels you also get much more. We see five watchmakers work and explain themselves, learn their backstory and get a feeling for a craft that has almost disappeared. They're rebels; one is tabbed “The Dreamer,” another “The Maverick”. One made a watch that sold at auction for over a million dollars. The one name you will recognize is Aldis Hodge, tabbed “The Outlier.” He's an actor, you might remember him as Jim Brown in One Night in Miami. He rewards his mother with one of his watches. His family was homeless after a fire.

Max Busser started making watches to get his father's attention. For Daniela Dufour it helped her fit in. She's mixed race. Another says “I found a place that I'm good at. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel alive.” Some get very philosophical, marvelling about a device that controls time, asking “What is the nature of God? What is the nature of existence?” or “How will we use the time we are given?”

Director Liz Unna, American born, Montreal educated, now London, UK resident, compiled these thoughts and personal stories into a leisurely but heartfelt essay on horology. (Theaters in Vancouver now, Toronto starting Sunday) 2 ½ out of 5