MOVIES: Two giants, Wicked and Gladiator II, + five other new films

American Thanksgiving is now a big time for movie fans. Some of the biggest and most heavily promoted titles come out for the holiday. This year they include Wicked and the Gladiator sequel as well as a solid batch of smaller and often better films. Women feature in three, a daring war photographer, three rebellious types in India and women living with restrictions put on them by the Taliban. Plus there are two very good animated films, one definitely not for children. 

Wicked: 4 stars

Gladiator II: 3

Spellbound: 3 ½

Memoir of a Snail: 4

All We Imagine as Light: 4 ½

Bread & Roses: 3 ½

Never Look Away: 4   

WICKED: It’s only part 1 but it’s a good sign that musicals are alive on the big screen. This is a bright and glorious version of the show that’s been huge on Broadway and in multiple stagings internationally. While I haven’t seen any of them, I did get the word from a man who’s seen eight, that this film captures the spirit of the show and only adds or changes things in minor ways. 

You get the back story to the Wizard of Oz, starting from the death of the wicked witch of the west. A girl asks Glinda, the good witch, if it’s true that they used to be friends. Glinda tells that story. They met a Shiz University, were assigned to share a room and, yes, they were friends.

But there were tensions. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) always felt like an outsider because she was born with green skin. Glinda (Ariana Grande, yes the music star) has an easy life because she’s blond and beautiful and people are attracted to her. She’s very good at flirting which she does with the very handsome Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). Elphaba sees that as phoney and self-absorbed and we get a hint that the friendship won’t last. There’s no breakup yet though; that’s to come in part 2 next year. What we get so far is a fun time at the school, with characters breaking out with pretty good songs now and then.  Grande singing “Popular” and the prince singing “Dancing Through Life” are standouts. Elphaba meanwhile has magical powers which she releases accidentally at times but which the headmistress recognizes. She invites her for private tutoring in her magic course. There’s a bit of a Harry Potter feel here and again later when the girls get to meet the wizard (Jeff Goldblum) who is not depicted as shady at all. Director Jon M. Chu, famous for In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians had done right with Wicked. (in theaters) 4 out of 5 

GLADIATOR II: It took a long time and a great deal of back-and-forth work for this sequel to the best picture Oscar winner of 2000 to get to us. And it shows. It’s overworked. At almost 2 ½ hours, it’s too long and at times quite ponderous. The story is dense, similar enough to the original that it feels like a re-make but without the single-focus revenge plot that the original has. Or the powerful rage that Russell Crowe developed there. Paul Mescal’s character doesn’t match his presence though his story is similar. Lost his wife in an early military attack, is captured and made a slave, is discovered as a star gladiator and turns against a tyrannical emperor ruling in Rome. Actually, two of them in this case, a pair of weaklings who come across as more comic than tyrannical. We also miss the twisted menace that Joaquin Phoenix brought to the original. Denzel Washington is the closest we get to a villain. He’s a gladiator boss with power ambitions. 

There’s much talk about corruption and restoring good government. And a rebellion in which for some reason the gladiator becomes a leader. He’s the now-grown character who we saw as a boy in the original film. No spoilers about that here, but there were some unanswered questions about him that are now answered. There’s also a character he’s at odds with, a Roman general played by Pedro Pascal who does have presence; he’s tough. Two others are back from the first film, one briefly, played by Derek Jacobi, the other (more key) played by Connie Nielsen. And, of course, director Ridley Scott, now in his mid-80s and still busy. He brings us big action scenes, some overly-bloody sequences (which were trimmed in Australia) and some doubtful visions in the Coliseum (sharks? Riding a rhinoceros?) The film is big and well-crafted but no match for its exceptional predecessor. (In theaters) 3 out of 5 

SPELLBOUND: Children are sure to like this animated film from Netflix because it has a neat twist on a common story. A girl’s parents have been turned into monsters and she must rescue them. What caused it? Nothing grand like a wizard or an ogre. Common, everyday arguing. Kids will understand and likely will really get into this adventure.

Ellian, voiced by Rachel Zegler, has to go on a long quest, first of all to find out happened, and then find what she can do about it. Her parents are the king and queen of Lumbria, voiced by Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman. Other voices are by John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, Tituss Burgess and Nathan Lane. The producer is the former Pixar head, John Lassiter and the director is Vicky Jenson who has Schrek in her background. Songs are by long-time Disney name, Alan Menken. But kids don’t care about names. They’ll delight in the crisp animation and the fine road trip seeking a lake of light atop a mountain but also taking a side trip into the “Dark Forest of Eternal Darkness.” It’s a magical new fairytale fully in support of good family life. As one of the songs says, Elian wants a return to “the way it was before.” (A few theaters in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal plus Netflix everywhere starting today). 3 ½ out of 5   

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL: An animated film not for children. Adults only will appreciate its quirky, off-balance humor with a definite Australian bent. A magistrate fired for masturbating on the job? He's only a minor character but emblematic of the comic variety here. It's rendered in stop-motion and clay by Adam Elliot who won an Academy Award for a short. In this, his third feature, he piles on tales of misery but brings you back up with optimism before he ends.

The story is a melancholy saga told by an old woman voiced by Sarah Snook, who you'll remember from Succession. She’s sitting at a friend's deathbed and later, scattering her ashes, as she tells her own life story. There will be moments of levity but much more sadness to get through. 

She and her twin brother (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee when older) were born premature. Mom died in childbirth. Dad, with multiple medical issues, dies a few years later and the kids are taken by child services. They're sent to foster homes, but far apart in separate states. They ache to be re-united and write letters frequently. She's with hippie types who let her be free to do what she wants. He's with devout types and made to work on their farm while they push religion onto him. Naturally he sets a church on fire as part of an escape plan. She, meanwhile, has retreated into a shell (figuratively, because she collects snail figurines and tells this story to her favorite one). Can she get together with her brother again? You'll be absorbed to find out and enjoy the whimsy and the misery in this fine film. (In theaters) 4 out of 5 

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT: There’s magic too in this film from India (in co-production with three European countries). It gives us three strong women who work in a Mumbai hospital and try to overcome some of their problems with a trip out of the city bustle to a small country town. Cities help you forget things, one says. They’re after a revival of sorts. One, nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti), has a husband from an arranged marriage away in Germany and no longer phoning her.  But he does send her a rice cooker which she cherishes. Her friend Anu (Divya Prabha) is in love with a young Muslim man, a probable no no in Modi-led India. She has to sneak times to be with him. 

A third nurse, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a widow, is about to be evicted from her house because a developer is pushing to rebuild. She complains about how the lower classes are treated by the rich. All three are rebels of sorts but the film highlights their friendship. It brings in small details from everyday life to show how they support each other and subtly use that to muse about women’s rights. Subtly, though, not forcefully under Payal Kapadia’s direction.  And in a very Indian context, with its strong belief in fate and destiny. A surprise bit of magic realism (a dream perhaps) seems out of place for a while, but does support the theme. It’s a film that’ll move you as it did the judges at Cannes that awarded it the Grand Prix this year. It’s the first time a film from India took that prize. (In theaters) 4 ½ out of 5 

BREAD & ROSES: A few months ago we had a film about a Canadian group that talks about the difficult life for women in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over again. What they said is backed up and witnessed in this potent documentary. Women’s rights are restricted in many ways. We know that education is blocked to them. But it is now illegal for a woman to take a taxi cab alone. I hadn’t heard that before. There are many more examples, often small and petty ones, cited in this documentary about several women who have the courage to protest. 

One is a dentist, who has been ordered to remove a sign from her office building because it indicates she’s a woman. Two are activists and one is a former government employee. They’re seen at demonstrations where tear gas is used on them. Some graphic sequences show protesters being beaten by police acting on assignment by The Ministry of Virtue and Vice. Thanks to cel phone technology we get scenes like women chanting “Education is our right” and “we will not be silenced.” In one clip children chant “We want the Taliban to die.” That seems set up but it’s effective anyway. The film directed by Sahra Mani is a visceral look at the issue and also a strong example of women supporting each other. And their resilience. (Streaming on Apple TV+) 3 ½ out of 5   

NEVER LOOK AWAY: A second film this year about a woman working as a war photographer. Lee (portrayed by Kate Winlet) worked in World War II. Margaret Moth (real name Wilson) saw and filmed grim scenes in Desert Storm, in the Georgian civil war, in Bosnia, Sarajevo and Lebanon. Her goal was to get “in tight” to “show the story in the raw.” People behaving badly, as she put it. There’s high praise for her  in this documentary from colleagues like Christiane Amanpour, at CNN, who calls her fearless, a Texas TV editor (ex-CNN) who says she didn’t cover politics, but preferred getting right into a hurricane. War, to her, was the ultimate drug because of the adrenaline it roused. 

The film by Lucy Lawless has many examples of the battles she filmed. And interesting memories: “She smoked cigars with Gen. Schwartzkopf.” There are personal details from siblings (about her dark moody drawings and that she had no interest in family life). She wasn’t a “breeder” somebody quotes her saying. And memories from a former lover, a journalist in France, who says they made love everywhere. On one assignment she was badly injured and facially maimed. Cancer eventually killed her at age 59. This film by Lucy Lawless is a fine tribute to a woman who “did what she wanted”. (Theaters in Toronto and Vancouver) 4 out of 5