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The news from the Academy Awards shocked some people this week. The Academy said that from now on the members who want to vote for the annual awards will have to see all the films nominated in the category they’re dealing with. Seems reasonable enough but it revealed that there members who voted after seeing only some. It's easy to see how that could be. It takes a great deal of time to watch them all.
How, or even if, that affected the outcome is open to speculation. Not all that much, I'd guess. And maybe not worth getting excited about. But those are the new rules.
Of this week’s new arrivals, I've seen these:
The Accountant 2: 2 ½ stars
Sea Lions of the Galapagos: 4
The Island Between Tides: 3 ½
Cheech and Chong's Last Movie: 3 ½
On Swift Horses: 3
THE ACCOUNTANT 2: It was almost 10 years ago that the original came out, did well at the box office but then drifted out of mind. Then recently, it came back as a hit on Netflix and so this sequel is well timed. I wish it were better though. Writer Bill Dubuque and director Gavin O’Connor have squeezed too much story into it; the parts don’t mesh well, sometimes conflict and overshadow the positive new angles.
Ben Affleck’s character and many from the original are back. He’s called in when a client (J.K. Simmons) is murdered but had the smarts before he died to scratch “find the accountant” on his arm. The Treasury Department agent (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) who chased him in the first film does call him in and he calls in his brother (Jon Bernthal) to help because this case turns out to be too big for one.
Too big for the film too because it reaches into multiple angles including sex and cheap-labor trafficking migrants from south of the US, a pizza factory that employs them, their children confined in a camp in Mexico (and ordered eliminated). There’s Trump material here although it seems that it’s Americans who are heavily involved. The mystery starts with a photo of a family from El Salvador but that part remains unclear, as is the role of a blonde hitwoman. She’s seen by young computer hackers using face recognition but not identified. They, by the way, are autistic, as is Affleck’s character, but that too is underdeveloped.
His bond with his brother is better explored although you’ll have to go back to the original to find why they are so different, one methodical and legal, the other a hitman. They talk about it but can’t explain it, although their attempts and their general interactions are both funny and signs of brotherly chemistry. That’s where this film is best. That and one vibrant scene in a country bar when Affleck joins a rousing crowd in line dancing to “Copperhead Road.” Much later there’s heavy violence to resolve this cluttered story. (In theaters) 2 ½ out of 5
SEA LIONS OF THE GALAPAGOS: Disney’s annual nature documentary is again a real treat, both visually and for the information it sends. And since I saw it with two grandchildren, who loved it, I know that its method, anthropomorphizing a story of a sea lion’s growing up, family and setting out on his own , works very well. As the previous films did.
This one debuted on Disney+ on Earth Day but I imagine it would really impress on a giant screen. Director Hugh Wilson and a team of cinematographers caught spectacular scenes both above and under the water. You see the sea lions swimming among thousands of fish, herding many into a cove to catch them, chomp on single ones, miss many, get out-worked by pelicans in one fabulous scene, and in another carry on a speedy hunt for giant tuna fish.
We follow a young sea lion that Brendan Fraser in the narration calls Leo. (I assume the photography came first and the producers imagined a story around it.) His mother has to hunt for food to produce milk to feed him. He looks sad-eyed at times; the script imagines why. He’s trying to find his place in the world. The packs these animals live in are mostly females, controlled by a beachmaster who doesn’t want other males around. Eventually Leo has to leave the pack. He, the script says, is searching for a new home where he can start his own family. (You can see why that resonates with our children.) He has trouble making friends, encounters a wide range of exotic creatures, iguanas, albatrosses, snakes and giant sharks that he must avoid. He chases one away by nipping at its tail. Terrific scenes and there’s a companion feature, Guardians of the Galapagos, that shows how the filmmakers did it. (Disney+) 4 out of 5
THE ISLAND BETWEEN TIDES: (re-titled in the US as The Lost Daughter) is billed as a horror film but don't turn away. It's hardly that at all; its a mystery, a supernatural and a ghost story, very engrossing but not a horror. It's also a bit of a time-travel story. As one character puts it: "We make time in a straight line but it's coming back again and again. There's no way out." In other words time and people never go away. Everything that was here, still is. "Are you from long ago?" he asks. It's a puzzle and it'll keep you rapt trying to figure it out.
There's terrific eerie atmosphere built here by the directors Austin Andrews and Andrew Holmes, who are from Vancouver and filmed this up coast in Prince Rupert.
A young girl wanders off one day, spends days on a mysterious island and thinks hardly any time has passed when she returns. Years later, now a family legend, there's a repeat. She, played by Paloma Kwiatkowski, is now a young mother, is intrigued by the story that her sister (Camille Sullivan) recalls for her and goes back to the island. This time it’s a couple of decades before she's back. Again she thinks it's been no time at all. Her son (David Mazouz) is now older than she is and full of paranoia about ghosts, time that doesn't move and memories of a hanged man. And a man trying to kill him. It's too complicated to unravel more right here but you'll have a good time working on it as you watch. The story was originally a play written back in the 1920s by J. M. Barrie and has been artfully transferred to the myth-abundant British Columbia coast. Adam Beach appears briefly twice, once just long enough to tell the old raven and salmon myth. (Theaters in Toronto and Ottawa, has already played Prince Rupert, watch for it elsewhere). 3 ½ out of 5
CHEECH AND CHONG’S LAST MOVIE: They were huge in the 1970s carrying their loose stoner humor into stand-up gigs, records and movies. Eight of them, which drew both praise (Pauline Kael apparently) and pans (Siskel and Ebert definitely). Here's a documentary that tells exactly how they got there and lets you appreciate their status yourself through lots of movie clips, TV interviews and now, them chatting amiably on a road trip in the desert on the way to a roadhouse called The Joint. Naturally. They were big advocates of marijuana and are frequently seen smoking it. That was way before it was legal.
Most interesting to me is how they got together in the first place. It was in Vancouver. Tommy Chong was born in Alberta. Cheech Marin came from Los Angeles as a draft dodger. They got involved in the music scene and with an improv comedy group and parlayed that into a major career. They rode the upsurge of hippie rebellion with their laidback speaking style, their street-level patois and their anti-straight society comedy. Lou Adler, the big record producer, recorded them, financed at least one early movie and joins them on the road trip, sitting in the back seat, adding to the memories, which about him are not always positive. Nor is what happened to Cheech and Chong's friendship. Cheech became controlling; Chong resented it. That was it. They debate the details. For us it's a fascinating bio of a duo who were huge and had a major effect on comedy. (In theaters) 3 ½ out of 5
ON SWIFT HORSES: Early on I felt this would be a sexy, steamy tale like in one of those paperbacks you could find years ago in drugstore racks, from imprints like Midwood and Beacon. It has that atmosphere. The people here are working-class or lower; they’re breaking rules and following their carnal desires. A love triangle seems to be developing when a couple (Daisy Edgar-Jones and Will Poulter) is visited by his brother (Jacob Elordi) who introduces himself with a sly wink. They’re a suburban couple trying to get established in San Diego; he’s a soldier back from the Korean war, a card shark and a gambler. A stable, suburban life doesn’t seem in the offing but what does develop is a big surprise: two gay relationships.
Julius, the newly-arrived brother, almost immediately splits for Las Vegas where he gets a job watching for something he knows well: cheating at cards. He looks down from a window in the ceiling to spot it. Also up there is a Latino. Before you know it they’re kissing and in bed. Later they travel to Juarez, Mexico.
Meanwhile, the sister-in-law, Muriel is inspired by him to do her own thing. Following up on talk she overhears in the diner she works at, she starts betting on horse races, winning big and making it possible to buy a house. She also breaks out of conservative confines by acknowledging that she’s bisexual. She starts an affair with a Latino woman who is an activist arguing against a highway project that will destroy her family’s house. These themes of asserting who you really are run throughout this film. They’re crowded in, based on a novel by Shannon Pufahl, turned into a script by Bryce Kass and directed by Daniel Minahan, who has done television including five episodes of Game of Thrones. It’s well-acted, a bit low-energy and though unusual, will keep your interest as a rare look at people who feel forced to hide their gayness. (In theaters) 3 out of 5
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