Into the Woods

    
      After the enormous success of Frozen (a somewhat decent film), Disney has made an abrupt change in mindset in the making of their movies.  Before, it was all about fresh ideas and CGI.  Now, it seems to be about fairy tale adaptations and musicals (admittedly with a bit of CGI thrown in), which, interestingly enough, were the exact two things that Walt Disney himself was most interested in putting to film during his lifetime.  So you could say that Disney is making a long-awaited return to the spirit of their founder.  But while this may sound like an interesting concept in theory, it can sometimes translate badly onto the 21st Century screen, as evidenced most recently by their adaptation of the Broadway success, which was itself inspired by several Brothers' Grimm fairy tales.
     The film follows four principal characters (an unnamed baker, Cinderella, Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood, played by James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Huddlestone, and Lila Crawford, respectively) on their various quests for various things.  In the first half, the movie is constantly gravitating towards "the baker", his father's foolish mistake of stealing beans and the consequences of that mistake.  His house was subsequently cursed, and in order to lift the curse, he must embark on the quest he has received from the  person whom the magic beans were stolen from, the stereotypical witch (played by Meryl Streep in typical melodramatic fashion).  What makes the quest interesting is that each item he is asked to retrieve belongs to one of the other main characters, characters he has not interacted with before and characters he will be interacting with for the rest of the movie, so the witch is unintentionally making him some new friends (and advancing the plot) with her cruel quest.  He eventually gets all the items from his friends, and creates a potion with them that makes the very old witch young and beautiful(ish) again.  This ends the first half of the movie, and the next half is singularly focused on a giant Jack has inadvertently brought down from the sky to wreak havoc on the townsfolk.
     But there's one interesting little development between those two halves that I feel I must bring up: soon after the witch successfully reverses the aging process, everyone attends a big party, where the narrator informs us that they all lived "happily ever after".  Seconds later, we find out that this is not actually the case when an "earthquake" (it is in reality just the troll) destroys a kingdom tower.  I have no doubt that Disney thought they were being clever when they added in this plot twist, and perhaps it is a little clever, but it ultimately comes off as awkward and confused, and makes the second half a bit of a slog to sit through.  Had they simply expanded a little on the first half and saved the witch's transformation from old to young for the climax of the film, they could've saved the audience quite a few eye-rolls.
     If that were the only problem with Into the Woods, perhaps I could show it some mercy and give it a slightly higher score, but the whole movie has an abundance of tiny problems, tiny problems that become particularly frustrating when you consider it's really not such a bad movie otherwise.  The character of the baker, for one thing, is barely developed at all, except in one forced scene at the end with his newborn child (Oh, did I mention he had a wife? Oh well, I'll get to that later.), and the audience can never attach themselves to him the way they can attach themselves to the best protagonists, perhaps because very little is really revealed about him in the course of the movie.  Minor characters, who do virtually nothing to serve the story, weave themselves in and out of the movie until we're exhausted of them.  This constant presence of useless characters adds to the feeling that we don't really know the useful ones.
     The songs, for all the hype that they're no doubt receiving even as I write this, are generally un-catchy, and in no universe do I believe any of them could ever attain the status of "Let It Go" as a modern standard.  "Your Fault", tenderly placed smack in the middle of the second half, is the worst one here, with embarrassing rhymes colliding with "clever" interruptions as the characters try to figure out whose fault it was that the giant is terrorizing the village in the first place.  It has no melody: I wouldn't even classify it as rap.  If you're going to make an adaptation of a Broadway musical, at least pick one that has catchy songs.
     Other minor problems include an incredibly stupid, unfunny, and disturbing joke about disembodied ankles and feet, two obnoxious princes belting their hearts out about who cares what, and the bizarre death of the baker's wife, right after she had had extramarital relations with one of the obnoxious princes.
     Still, for just about every minor flaw, Into the Woods has a minor success as well.  In the opening scene, probably the best scene of the movie, the four principal characters all sing about going "Into the Woods" in a fun, raucous, and catchy way.  And Johnny Depp is enthralling as usual as a pedophile (he's actually just really hungry) wolf who, faithful to the original story, eats Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, only to get stabbed by the baker moments later.  And the transformation of Streep from old witch to wise middle-aged queen was a brilliant one, if a bit early in the movie for my tastes.  Young Daniel Huddlestone proves to be quite a good singer in his song about giants that I forget the name of right now, and Cinderella's storyline is overall handled well (she has a bit of a personality crisis).
     In the end, Into the Woods is a disappointing and confusing film, for it could have been so great, and there are still lingering hints of greatness, but they are in the end overwhelmed by the inferior second half and some bad plotting throughout.  Let's just hope that Disney tries something in a similar vein to this again, and that next time they get it right, even if it seems that now all we can do is lament the failure of Into the Woods.

I give Into the Woods stars out of 10.
    

Annie (2014)

    

     A movie critic's job, or at least the highest ideal he or she should strive for, is to always review movies objectively, never letting personal bias and prejudice get in the way.  And as a prominent movie critic, I always do my best to never stray from this ultimate goal.  But occasionally, very occasionally mind you, there comes a movie so great that it completely shakes my whole perception of movies up, to the point where I don't even know what the word "bias" means anymore.  These sorts of movies only come every 10 years or so, but they are my pride and joy as a film critic.  And I was surprised to find that, upon exiting the theater, I believed the 2014 remake of Annie to be one of these sorts of movies.

     The film is faithful to the 1982 original in song and message, but aside from those two vital components, it is truly its own movie.  Upon watching the "new" Annie, one gets the constant feeling that a dam has finally broken in family entertainment, and the floodgates are now wide open for classic, unique, and poignant family fun at the movies.  Sarcastic and wry enough to charm the adults, and silly and innocuous enough to touch the little ones, every moment in Annie is bursting at the seams with witty dialogue and sharp film-making.

     The film begins drolly enough: a quaint little red haired girl is finishing her quaint little report on William Henry Harrison.  It is not funny, clever, sentimental, or effective, and it's a pretty bad way to begin an otherwise phenomenal movie.  Then the moment we've all been waiting for arrives: little Annie (Quevenshane Wallis, who might remember from her surprise Oscar nomination for "Beasts of the Southern Wild") takes the stage and gives her big important report on Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  It's a subtle nod to the 1982 original (which was set during Roosevelt's presidency), and it works beautifully, even as she leads the class in an infectious chant in order to teach them about them about Roosevelt's New Deal.  This is where the movie really begins.

     Things roll along smoothly, with some sublimely shot scenes of New York City.  It is here where we meet Annie's friends and their foster mother Miss Hannigan, a nefarious child-hater played expertly by Cameron Diaz (who really does have a much better singing voice than you'd expect).  They then proceed to sing a trite version of "It's A Hard Knock Life," complete with buckets and mops that nobody really wanted to see.  When Miss Hannigan tells the girls "less singing and more cleaning", you can't help but agree with her.  Still, I must applaud the filmmakers on their choice to revamp the old Broadway music.  The hip hop beats really add a nice touch, though it doesn't quite redeem "Hard Knock".

     But then there's a stellar performance of "Maybe" from everyone but the cynical Pepper.  Will Stacks (Jaimie Fox), a wealthy cell phone entrepreneur who also happens to be running for mayor, saves Annie from a car wreck in a rather moving scene.  He takes her home with him, where they soon develop a special bond that it's impossible not to love them for.  She helps him get up in the polls, and he helps her deal with the loss of her parents, so there's a complex symbiotic relationship beneath the surface of a seemingly simple daddy-daughter dynamic. 

     Things play out from there just as you'd expect them to, (complete with fake parents and movie premieres) but the one thing I'd like to highlight is the film's brilliant critiques of the film industry.  During the movie premiere, for one thing, it is pointed out that product placement is the only thing that's keeping the film industry afloat.  And that is so true.  It must have taken a lot of guts for them to say that, since it's likely they'll get a lot of backlash from greedy Hollywood moguls in the near future.  And then, in a wickedly funny scene. Cameron Diaz's character lampoons the idea of a musical, recognizing that it's odd for characters to randomly burst into song.  She is truly correct in this observation, and while it may come across to some as self-parody, her enigmatic performance of the line dispels any notion of irony.

     That leads me to one of my favorite parts of the movie: the humanization of Miss Hannigan as a villain towards the end.  Too many movies fall into the trap of having a completely unlikable, unrelatable villain.  But in a surprise twist, Miss Hannigan is revealed to be a truly good woman at heart who just plays the cards she's dealt to the best of her ability.  Thus, an extremely complex character emerges, one that goes far beyond the usual confines of a kiddie flick.  And that's the general takeaway you get from Annie: it's so much more than just a copycat of its original, and so much more than just your average family film.

     But like most legendary films, Annie is not without its flaws, the main one being the very unfunny and tasteless joke of Will Stacks spitting mashed potatoes on a poor, mistreated hobo.  Still, in a way, the flaws are what make the movie truly fascinating, and truly full of depth.  The constant references to social media only add to the feeling of sleek, modern brilliance.  This is not an old-fashioned movie.  This is a fantastic movie, and quite possibly a revolutionary one.  During a memorable helicopter flight, Stacks says to Annie: "Sometimes just what you're looking for is right in front of your face."  When watching "Annie" on the big screen, you can't help but say the same thing about a dying industry that just might have received a new burst of life in the form of a little girl called "Annie".

I give Annie stars out of 10.