Spiderman: Homecoming ###-1/2
This latest in the ongoing franchise takes a new spin on this Marvel classic. Everyone is younger in the film… except Tony Stark, who remains ageless and now acts as a father figure to Peter Parker. Tom Holland plays Parker so goofily klutz-like that you start to wonder why anyone would want damn Spidey around anyway. Yet, since he appeared in the last Marvel sensation Captain America, he’s now signed in for good…or until he’s too old to play the role. The plot revolves around Michael Keaton as the ‘Vulture’, a demolition and scrap metal engineer who oversees a crew cleaning up after the Avengers' alien-trash-heaped mess. However, when S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up, he retires to a life of crime selling deadly Ultron tech to the highest bidder. Throw in some nifty action sequences and laughs, and we have the makings of yet another fun Spiderman series. I just miss Sam Raimi’s interpretations!
Viceroy’s House ###-1/2
The intricacy of dealing with a subject like British subjugation and relinquishing of powers in cinema is usually a rather less-than-easy endeavour. It's like being a US citizen right now...you’re always guilty no matter what! The discreet ambience of Viceroy's House contextualizes the partition of India and the establishment of Pakistan. Hugh Bonneville as Viceroy Mountbatten and X-File star Gillian Anderson, as his long-suffering wife, are spectacular in their leading roles. However, Manish Dayal and Huma Qureshi steal the show by giving relevance to the plight of their people after the British have left. Director Grinder Chadha’s ancestors were part of this very story in history and her personal touch spills persistently and lovingly onto the screen.
Tanna ####
Australian documentarians Bentley Dean and Martin Butler provide an alternative interpretation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet on the tiny Vanuatu island of Tanna. What results is a fantastical, tribal story told through celluloid and reality. The film is compiled from images and goings-on in the Yakel tribe’s everyday life. It’s entirely in the Nauvhal language and is cast from non-actors who live a normal life on location. Dean and Butler focus on two timely stories. One is told in the traditional sense, used to teach a young tomboy named Selin the meaning of respect, using Mother Nature as the most vital reference point. The second, tells the tale of Selin’s older sister, the beautiful Wawa, who falls in love with the chief’s orphaned grandson Dain. However, when a hostile attack occurs not long afterwards, a chain of events change the tribe’s spiritual rites and rules forever.
Inside ###
The lights dim, the movie starts and one of the first images you see is Barcelona-based actor Maarten Swan driving down a long stretch of road at night with his beautiful, blonde, pregnant wife, played by Rachel Nichols. The gruesome death that occurs immediately after sets the ball of terror in motion. Unfortunately, the film only grips you again like this towards the finale, when a new antagonist appears, played by the impeccable, sultry Mexican-American actress Laura Harring (Mulholland Drive). It has been a while since someone made revenge killing look like a Sade video honed by the Marquis de Sade. Here, Harring and director Miguel Angel Vivas excel at it, and though it’s not quite as harrowing as its French predecessor L’Interior (2007), it still makes for a jolting thriller.