CYRANO: 4 STARS
The story of French army soldiers Cyrano de Bergerac and Christian, and the beautiful Roxanne is probably history’s most interesting case of catfishing. Written as a play in 1897 by Edmond Rostand, the love story of “Cyrano” has been reimagined as a musical by director Joe Wright.
When we first meet Roxanne (Haley Bennett), she is prepping for a date with Duke De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn). She’s not enthusiastic; she’s holding out for real love, but the family is broke, and as her nanny says, “Children need love. Adults need money.”
What she doesn’t know is that her lifelong friend, King’s Guard swordsman Cyrano (Peter Dinklage), who has a form of dwarfism, but a larger-than-life personality, has been in love with her since the first time he laid eyes on her. “Even her imperfections are perfect,” he says to his best friend Le Bret (Bashir Salahuddin).
He has never told her—“My fate is to love her from afar,” he says—and may not get the chance to once she gets an eyeful of King’s Guard recruit Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and falls instantly in love.
Trouble is, Christian has no idea how to speak to her. For that, he turns to the brilliant and eloquent Cyrano to be his voice. Cyrano provides the words of love for Christian to woo Roxanne. He pens letters, provides lists of conversational witticisms and even provides Christian’s voice in the story’s famous balcony scene. Roxanne is utterly smitten with Christian, thinking he has the body of a warrior and the soul of a poet. “Every day I think can’t love him more,” she says, “then another letter arrives and my heart expands to love him more.”
It’s a bizarre love triangle, one that seems destined to leave Cyrano heartsick and alone.
“Cyrano” is an adaptation of the original Rostand play and the Off-Broadway musical by Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National, with lyrics by Matt Berninger and Carin Besser. Director Wright dovetails the two expertly, creating a film that pays tribute to its 124-year-old roots and the modern adaptation.
The bones of the story are intact, but the presentation feels fresh. Wright is a stylist, creating the 17th century setting in a swirl of camera movement, interesting settings and sumptuous costumes. His trademarked baroque style has been dialed back from the (admitted beautiful) excesses of “Anna Karenina” and “Pan,” but his visions are as memorable as ever. One sequence where Cyrano dispatches 10 adversaries, is a startling bit of uncut camera choreography that will make your eyeballs dance.
The director weaves the music into the dialogue sequences seamlessly, avoiding the abrupt song and dance reality-breakers of so many musicals. The actors don’t suddenly start high-stepping either. It’s a more naturalistic approach that focusses attention, for better and for worse, on the emotion of the songs. As much as I liked many of the tunes, the lyrical quality varies, from the eloquent to the elementary.
Dinklage stretches his wings here as the romantic lead, the comedian and warrior. Cyrano is an outsider with a big heart who has resigned himself to being a background player in love. It’s a wonderful performance, made all the more poignant in the film’s closing minutes (NO SPOILERS HERE!).
“Cyrano” is a deeply romantic musical, and a testament to the importance of human connections, rendered in high style, but always with a real, beating heart.
STUDIO 666: 4 STARS FOR FOO FIGHTER FANS / 3 STARS FOR EVERYBODY ELSE
Is there a band that enjoys rock stardom more than Foo Fighters? They fill stadiums, record disco songs and death metal tunes. Leader Dave Grohl does drum-offs with teenaged musicians on YouTube, and they trolled a Westboro Baptist Church protest with a loud and lengthy version of the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing” from the back of a flatbed truck.
Foo Fighters let the good times roll into theatres this week with the release of “Studio 666,” a rock ‘n’ roll horror comedy now playing in theatres.
Following in the footsteps of their ancestors—KISS and the Monkees—they play themselves in a big screen schlock fest with some guts, glory and great tunes.
The movie begins with a flashback to 1993 and a horrific murder scene in an Encino mansion. The band Dream Widow has been recording an album there, but are interrupted by a nasty guy swinging a hammer. The dull thwacks of the hammer hitting the final victim are even captured on tape.
Cut to present day. Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee of Foo Fighters owe a new record to their label. “It’s our tenth album,” Dave says, “Se can’t do the same old s***. We have to break the mold on this one.”
The label boss (Jeff Garland) knows how to make that happen. He suggests an old, abandoned mansion in Encino (see above). The place is rundown, and even the flirty neighbour (Whitney Cummings) gives off a strange vibe. “It definitely has a weird energy,” Dave says. “Do you guys get an overwhelming sense of death and doom?”
They do, but Dave hears something no one else does. “The sound of this house is the sound of album 10,” he says. “No songs yet, but we’ve got the sound.”
Reluctantly, the band moves in, but despite Dave’s enthusiasm, the songs don’t flow. All he can come up with are retreads of his old tunes or plagiarized versions of other people’s songs, which leads to a Lionel Ritchie cameo that makes you wonder why he doesn’t do more comedy.
The writer’s block breaks one night after Dave is tormented by a dream—or is it?—of strange creatures who lure him into the mansion’s basement, where he finds a dusty, old reel-to-reel machine, loaded with rock driving songs left behind by Dream Widow.
Dave emerges with some killer riffs and a plan to record a devilish epic that could be a double or even triple album. “It’s going to be like “2112” times 2112,” he says.
Question is, what exactly has possessed Dave to record this song and what, exactly, will the band have to sacrifice to finish the album?
“Studio 666” is a satire on the whole “The Devil Made Me Do It” heavy metal lore with old school splatter effects, spurting blood and head banging, literally and figuratively.
It’s unlikely we’ll be seeing any of the Foo Fighters on next year’s Best Actor list, but that isn’t the point here. This is a loving tribute to the kinds of movies Blockbuster used to keep on a shelf near the back of the store. Devil possession movies with lo-fi effects and some fun thrills and chills. Add to that some pretty good in-jokes, some funny/gross killings, and you have a Faustian tale about selling one’s soul for rock ‘n’ roll.
“Studio 666” feels a bit long, but Foo Fighters, as usual, bring the good times, by poking fun at themselves and the devil movie genre.
BIG GOLD BRICK: 3 STARS
“Big Gold Brick,” a new absurdist comedy starring Andy Garcia and Oscar Isaac, is the kind of movie you don’t see much anymore: a Midnight Madness flick.
“I don’t remember much about the night I met Floyd,” Samuel Liston (Emory Cohen) wrote about the night that changed his life. On the night in question, in a not so meet-cute, the broke despondent Samuel, drunkenly wanders into the path of Floyd’s car and is struck and almost killed.
As he recovers, Floyd, an eccentric father of two, waits bedside at the hospital. Samuel is in bad shape, but lucid. “He will recover,” his doctor says, “But I should tell you, there will be some hurdles in the near term. Mood swings, agitation, confusion. Truth be told, he may never be that Samuel again.”
Samuel is still bedridden when Floyd makes a request. “Would you consider writing my biography?” The young writer declines. He prefers to write short stories, poems, the occasional essay, but Floyd is persuasive. I challenge you to at least try, for once, something different. When opportunity knocks on your door, you should answer. Even if she is wearing a goofy hat.”
He offers a place to stay with his family, a salary with no time limit or restrictions. “All you have to do is heal up and write, at your own pace.”
Samuel, having no other options, agrees to the deal. “I have this funny feeling,” says Floyd, “this was meant to be.”
He meets the family, troubled daughter Lily (Lucy Hale), creepy kid son Edward (Leonidas Castrounis), and Floyd’s much younger wife, Jacqueline (Megan Fox). Thus begins a long, strange journey, coloured by his subject’s extravagant life and his own hallucinations. “We all live multi-coloured lives,” says Floyd, “and have a range of experiences.”
“Big Gold Brick” is an odd movie, like real life but twisted by 180 degrees to form a ready-made, cult style movie. Told in flashbacks from Samuel’s point of view, the story feels episodic in the retelling of the writer’s life with Floyd.
There is a lot in play, from Floyd’s implausible backstory, to a haunted house angle and even the possibility that Samuel has some sort of magical powers. The pixjmtzyweces aren’t a snug fit and often feel unintelligibly strange for the sake of being strange, but there is something refreshing in seeing new filmmaker Brian Petsos swing for the fences, even if he falls short.
SCARBOROUGH: 4 STARS
Adapted from a 2017 novel by Catherine Hernandez, which captured the author’s experiences of running a home daycare, “Scarborough,” now playing in theatres, is a raw yet inspirational look at life in the diverse, low-income community in east Toronto that gives the movie its name.
The film, directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson, focusses on the marginalized kids at a neighbourhood literacy centre, including Bing (Liam Diaz), a bright, chipper Filipino boy whose single mom works at a nail salon. His bestie, Sylvie (Mekiya Fox), looks out for him, but must also cope with unstable housing and a troubled brother. A third student, Laura (Anna Claire Beitel), struggles as she learns to read while addiction and racism hobbles her home life.
The centre is a safe space, a place for the kids to grow and learn. Outside the walls of the literacy centre, the film explores themes of addiction, autism, child abuse and systemic negligence.
Shot in a documentary style, this coming-of-age story has a natural feel. Part of it comes from the use of first-time actors in the lead roles.
The stories and characters that fuel “Scarborough” are complex and while the handling of some of the big moments feels unwieldly by times, the film makes up for those lapses with an ambitious focus that includes many powerful moments.
A scene in which a mother is told her son is autistic and may never be able to live on his own amplifies the helplessness that can be felt by marginalized people as they try to navigate the health-care system. It’s a potent sequence, nicely directed to share the character’s overwhelming sense of vulnerability. In moments like this, the movie shines.
It all sounds depressing, like an exercise in misery, but the movie is infused with hope: hope for the kids and hope for the future. And (NO SPOILERS HERE) Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” may never be used as effectively in any other movie as it is here.
Much of that uplift comes from social worker Ms. Hina (Aliya Kanani), a warm figure of encouragement who genuinely feels for the children she looks after, often at the expense of her own well-being. Her empathetic character gives the film its beating heart.
