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| Courtesy of Disney |
(Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence. Available on Disney Plus.)
The canceled theatrical release of Mulan, Disney’s live-action remake of its 1998 animated classic about a Chinese daughter who disguises herself as a man to take her ailing father’s place in battle, might be one of the biggest entertainment-related casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic. Audiences will still get a chance to see it starting this weekend on Disney Plus (if they’re willing to pay a staggering $30 for “Premier Access,” in addition to the standard monthly fee), but I imagine it would’ve been awe-inspiring on the big screen.
Acclaimed filmmaker Niki Caro keeps much of the animated film’s magical realism, but it’s at the expense of the songs (although the new version’s score will sound very familiar to fans of the original) and overtly cartoonish characters like Mushu. However, those who experience the remake’s sweeping vistas, epic martial arts battles and gorgeous production design might consider it a fair trade.
Mulan also boasts a jaw-dropping cast. Yifei Liu, phenomenal in the title role, is supported by some of the most talented, respected Asian actors in the industry. Donnie Yen, Li Gong, Jet Li, Jason Scott Lee, Tzi Ma and Rosalind Chao are all outstanding. Mulan is one of my favorite movies of 2020 and easily Disney’s best live-action remake since Pete’s Dragon in 2016.
Grade: A
Bill & Ted Face the Music
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| Courtesy of Orion |
(Rated PG-13 for some language. Now playing in select theaters and available On Demand.)
Fans of 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey have been waiting nearly 30 years for the third (and likely final) installment in the trilogy. Keanu Reeves skyrocketed to superstardom following the second film’s release, which always made his willingness to return to the role of time-traveling doofus Ted “Theodore” Logan seem like polite lip service for something that was never going to happen.
Instead, three decades after he last played the role, Reeves, as well as Alex Winter – who plays Ted’s lifelong best friend Bill S. Preston, Esq. – is back in Bill & Ted Face the Music. It probably won’t appeal to mass audiences, but I had a blast. Fans of the cult franchise will be happy to know that returning screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon have crafted a movie just as goofy and endearing as its predecessors.
Years after hearing they would write a song that would save the universe, the duo still hasn’t done it. They have wonderful wives (Erinn Hayes and Jayma Mays) and daughters (Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine), but middle-age has hit hard. Out of nowhere, they’re warned by yet another visitor from the future (Kristen Schaal) that they have 78 minutes to come up with the song or the entire universe will be destroyed. With no time to lose, Bill and Ted team up with their families, old friends and famous musicians to prevent disaster.
Devoid of cynicism and full of goodhearted characters, Bill & Ted Face the Music is the rare bit of nostalgia that actually builds on the previous films rather than coasting on their memories. Reeves genuinely commits to playing Ted again, clearly having a blast instead of seeming like he’s doing a favor for his friends. Winter, a talented actor and filmmaker in his own right, is equally terrific.
What’s more, the big finale is very sweet, tying the narrative threads of all the movies together with a moment that hit me right in the dad-feels. That’s particularly true since I watched it with my daughter, who caught up with the earlier entries a couple of months ago.
Grade: B
Last Friday, the shocking news that we’d lost Chadwick Boseman, one of this generation’s greatest actors, to colon cancer hit me hard. That’s a weird thing to say about someone I never met, but I don’t think I’ve been this torn up about a famous person dying since Robin Williams back in 2014.
Because I heard the news so late in the evening, I had trouble sleeping afterward. That’s partly because my daughter and I have been going through the Marvel movies in order and, as fate would have it, we’d just watched Black Panther earlier that afternoon. We had about 30 minutes left in Avengers: Infinity War when my phone started going crazy. As you can imagine, the end of that movie hit even harder than it had previously. I saw firsthand how powerful Boseman’s performance as T'Challa/Black Panther was to everyone, but especially young people like my daughter.
His death also made me think back to my main criticism of Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, namely that the filmmakers sidelined one of the franchise’s most compelling actors to focus on less interesting characters. In hindsight, knowing what Boseman was going through during those intense, highly physical shoots, it makes perfect sense that they would try to alleviate some of his burden while still giving him arguably the most cheer-worthy moment of the Endgame finale.
That he shot those movies – plus Marshall, 21 Bridges, Da 5 Bloods and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (which hits Netflix later this year) – while undergoing chemotherapy and surgeries makes the mind reel. As does the fact that his circle of family, friends, and colleagues was tight enough that word about his illness never got out to the general public. He wanted his work to be the primary focus, not his personal struggle.
It also puts Boseman’s entire filmography in a different light, realizing he was aware there was a limited amount of time to leave his legacy. People cracked good-natured jokes about how he seemed determined to play every prominent Black man in American history. Now we know why. He wanted to use his all-too-brief moment in the spotlight to bring attention to the lives and accomplishments of those trailblazers.
I’m devastated and angry that we don’t have decades of Boseman’s work to look forward to. I’m gutted that we never got to see him branch out into writing and directing, which were his focus during his time at Howard University. But I’m thankful for all the great performances he gave us in just a few short years. He’s going to be mentioned in the same breath as Heath Ledger and John Cazale, the actor who only starred in five films before his death in 1978, all of which were nominated for Best Picture (three of them won).
Denzel Washington, who helped finance Boseman’s study at a prestigious University of Oxford theater program, put it beautifully: “He was a gentle soul and a brilliant artist, who will stay with us for eternity through his iconic performances over his short yet illustrious career. God bless Chadwick Boseman.”
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