MOVIES: Jackie Chan with a panda, also a potent Indigenous tale

One film wasn't previewed, three have returned and are more widely available now and the big film of the week gets very mysterious and bloody.

That's what the menu has for us this week:

Panda Plan: 3 stars

Fanatical, The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara: 3 ½ 

Louder the Soundtrack of Change: 4

Smile 2: 2 ½

Yintah: 4

The Wild Robot: 4

Rumours: 2 ½ 

PANDA PLAN: Jackie Chan is back in one of those comedies he does occasionally. Remember Rumble in the Bronx which he filmed in Vancouver? There’s the same cartoonish ambience in this one which he made in Chengdu, China. He plays himself, which leads several characters to recognize the famous star of Kung Fu movies and want selfies with him. Some want to kill him as he’s become the protector of a young panda bear and they want to take it away from him. It’s a nutty story but great fun. Children will like it if you can bear letting them watch all the hand to hand combat in here. Some of it happens around and with playground equipment, including a ball pit like you see at IKEA. In one scene Jackie rides a bad guy like a sled down a factory conveyor.

The plot is also goofy. The panda is a one-of-a-kind. A crime boss who looks like an Arab wants to get hold of it, is willing to spend $100 million to get it and sends a band of mercenaries after it. Jackie encounters some or all of them repeatedly and fights them off each time. That answers one character’s question if he, the movie actor, can actually fight. It’s a running gag and yes he can. His agent  (Xiang Wei) and the woman in charge of the panda (Ce Shi) are with him as they’re chased inside a zoo and a warehouse. They climb high, jump and do slapstick like in a cartoon, all the while carrying the panda. Silly but entertaining. (In theaters) 3 out of 5

FANATICAL: THE CATFISHING OF TEGAN AND SARA: This IS a story about the perils of celebrity, in this case the extreme fan behaviour it can produce. Catfishing is a form of identity theft and it happened to the rock duo Tegan and Sara several years ago. They've kept it secret until now but did talk about it for this documentary by Erin Lee Carr. Tegan recalls that a hacker got into their personal files and then pretended to be her to communicate with her fans.

She calls the hacker Fake Tegan and the film follows the attempts to find the person responsible. No such luck, although a couple of suspects are questioned, one only by phone. But the damage is clear though. The deception caused distrust. That was alarming since Tegan and Sara have a big following in the LGBTQ+ community which needs to be close and supportive. Some fans who thought they had achieved a personal communication with Tegan  turned on her when they thought she had misled them. She was upset that her personal information including her mother's medical status were sent out by the hacker. What motivated him or her? That isn't clear, feeling important or connected maybe, but the film is fascinating for the search and the questions. (Disney+) 3½ out of 5       

LOUDER: THE SOUNDTRACK OF CHANGE: This documentary explores, and celebrates, the power that women have shown in popular music. "As loud and proud as possible," says Selena Gomez one of a long line-up of stars speaking to the issue. Among them there's Chaka Khan, Melissa Etheridge, Linda Ronstadt, Tracy Chapman (her duet with Luke Combs at the Grammies is shown, in part) Rhiannon Gidden (Grammy and Pulitzer winner), H.E.R. who wrote and recorded "I Can't Breathe" and Mickey Guyton who shook up country music with her record "Black Like Me."

There are archival clips of Loretta Lynn, who shook up country music with her song The Pill, The Dixie Chicks, Donna Summer, Tina Turner, Helen Reddy, Dolly Parton and Lauren Hill, all cited as trailblazers in their own way. The film by Kristi Jacobson names them to illuminate how women have fought to break out of the roles music (and society, including politics) assigned them to. It's a very good overview and true. (MAX film streaming at CRAVE) 4 out of 5 

SMILE 2: When a film that cost only $17 million to make and earns $217 million at the box office, as the original did two years ago, you know the studio will want a sequel. Here it is, more of a repeat than a sequel. It’s again written and directed by Parker Finn, only his second movie, and built on a plotline from the first that involves a demonic possession that seems to travel from person to person like a virus. Film one had a therapist recalling what her patients had told her. This time a pop star played by Naomi Scott undergoes the ordeal while she’s also dealing with extreme pressure preparing for a new tour. She needs it to revive her career which she damaged with drug addiction and a scandal. 

She’s forced to recall the night she had a driving accident that killed her boyfriend. She has suffered back pain ever since that turned her to strong painkillers. When she visits her dealer to get more  we see that he’s possessed, kills himself by slamming his face with a weightlifting disc and in effect transfers the possession to her. Makes sense in the context of the first film and sets up what’s to come. Very bloody body horror scenes follow. The pop star’s behavior gets increasingly erratic; she gets hysterical, badly messes up a speech at a fundraiser, yells a lot and has her mouth ripped wide open sideways and more. Are these delusions? Is she suffering extreme anxiety on the eve of the tour? Or maybe from the demands of high-level stardom? It would be good if it was that, an allegory for extreme celebrity. But it’s hard to tell for sure. It’s the bloody gross-out horror and the jolts from jump scares that you’ll remember much more. (In theaters) 2 ½ out of 5 

THREE FILMS THAT HAVE RETURNED OR BECOME MORE WIDELY ACCESSIBLE:

YINTAH: After a brief theatrical run and festival showings, this very strong documentary is now available wider. It's been on CBC GEM for a while and now Netflix has it available in Canada, the US and the UK. When I reviewed it back in June I called it the most powerful of the recent films about Indigenous issues here in Canada. It shows a protest against a pipeline project in Northern BC that split communities. Hereditary and elected chiefs took opposing positions but the film concentrates on the front lines where protesters and RCMP met face to face.

Yintah is the traditional name for the territory and two women, Freda Huson and  Molly Wickham, both Witsuwit'en chiefs, are the lead protesters. "We are powerful and we don't fear you" one says. Pipeline workers were called "Invaders". "You are trespassing. This is our land." Filmmakers Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano followed the opposition to the project for several years. The film is full of passion and insight. (Netflix) 4 out of 5 

THE WILD ROBOT: It’s been a hit in theaters and is now available digitally. You can buy or rent it and have a perfect family evening with a film that’s bound to survive as a classic. It plays like a simple story in which a robot meets the natural world but deals with deeper questions like what are we, what are we programmed for and do we have to be controlled by that programming? Of computers and robots it’s an easy question to ask. It’s pertinent for living beings also, including animals. They exist to eat each other but do they have to be predator and prey? The answer is too idealistic here but, taken from Peter Brown’s best-seller book, animals can learn to get along with each other. A good message to let your young ones discover even if it’s not like that in real life.

The film directed by animation veteran Chris Sanders has rounded up a big-name cast to tell it. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o voices Roz, the robot that crash lands on an island populated by animals only. There’s a fox (Pedro Pascal), a goose (Bill Nighy), also Catherine O'Hara, Ving Rhames and Mark Hamill. The animals are moved to join together and become a co-operative lot. They’re inspired by Roz who cares for a young orphaned gosling who starts thinking the robot is his mother. They come together. There’s even a connection between living things and technology. Self-discovery is the main theme and that’ll be a valuable memo to pass along to your kids. The film does it with heart, humor and very good animation. (Still in some theaters and available to buy or rent at Apple TV, The Microsoft Store and Amazon Video) 4 out of 5

RUMOURS: This film is getting better notices than I think it deserves. It has a good time making fun of world leaders but is pretty obvious and somewhat adolescent doing it. Cheeky is one word for it, disrespectful is another especially since it doesn’t explain what it is criticizing. Except for this: when the leaders of the G-7 countries meet to respond to a crisis (unnamed) they struggle to come up with a statement and only run through platitudes. That happens. Not most of the rest of what happens in this film, by Winnipeg’s specialist of the nutty and twisted, Guy Maddin, co-directing with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson).

The leaders include Cate Blanchett as the Chancellor of Germany, Charles Dance as the president of the USA and Roy Dupuis as Canada's prime minister. He’s dealing with some kind of scandal (also unnamed). There’s an archeological dig of bog people nearby (watch out for zombies) and a giant brain in the woods where the leaders get lost. Should they message "A black storm comes" or "A new dawn is coming"? There are funny bits in this film, but only bits. (In theaters) 2 ½ out of 5