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    • Movie reviews: 'American Fiction,' 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' and 'The Iron Claw'

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    AMERICAN FICTION: 4 ½ STARS

    The smart, funny and insightful “American Fiction,†winner of this year's Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award, is a satire that sees Jeffrey Wright as an exasperated novelist who confronts racial stereotypes by writing a book that forces him to balance hypocrisy with selling out.

    An adaptation of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure,†the film stars Wright as Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, an author and English Lit professor frustrated that his publisher rejects his latest work as not being “Black enough,†while another book, “We Lives in da Ghetto†by Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), is heralded by critics as a modern masterpiece.

    As Monk struggles personally—his brother Cliff (an excellent Sterling K. Brown) is experiencing a massive life shift while his mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams) is in decline, and will soon need a care home, which the family cannot afford—his professional life turns upside down.

    “Monk,†says his agent Arthur (John Ortiz). “Your books are good, but they’re not popular. Editors want a Black book.â€

    “They have a Black book,†says Monk. “I’m Black and it’s my book.â€

    Angry, on a whim he bangs out “My Pafology,†a satire of Golden’s book under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh. Filled with tired and reductive stereotypes of gang violence and broken homes, his gag novel becomes a publishing sensation, receiving an offer of a $750,000 advance and huge marketing campaign.

    Monk is the only person, it seems, who gets the joke. “It’s the most lucrative joke you’ve ever told,†says Arthur.

    It may have started as a joke, but Monk needs the money. If he accepts the offer, however, does that mean he’s perpetuating tropes that play into what he regards as “Black trauma porn�

    “American Fiction†finds sharp humor in identity politics, perception and culture wars. Serious in its message but playful in tone, it can cut to the quick. In one scene, Monk and Golden, the only two Black jurors on a literary panel, are castigated to by the white judges to “hear Black voices.†It is one of the film’s funniest scenes, but the performative nature of the sentiment is all too realistic.

    As Monk, we see Wright in a different sort of role. Given the chance to flex his rarely-used comedy muscles, he excels, playing up his curmudgeonly character’s conundrum to maximum effect. It’s bittersweet. As he watches the fictious Stagg R. Leigh’s book become successful. It confirms his feelings about the biases of the publishing industry. He reacts with a mix of outrage and humour. It’s a bravura work that hopefully means it won’t take 30 years to give Wright another leading role in a theatrical release.

    Giving Wright a run for his money is Brown who steals every scene he’s in. His character Cliff is a mess, pushing personal boundaries as a man coming out of the closet and building a new life. Like Wright, Sterling creates a character that gets laughs, but the laughs aren’t shallow, they come from a deep well of pain and Cliff’s lived experience.

    Director Cord Jefferson's “American Fiction†asks why stereotypes of Black trauma are so prevalent in entertainment by not so subtly satirizing the process and the people who create the limited view of Black life in books and on screens. It is insightful but never forgets to entertain.

    THE IRON CLAW: 3 ½ STARS

    Steeped in tragedy and trauma, “The Iron Claw,†a movie about the Von Erich wrestling family starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White and now playing in theatres, isn’t a sports movie. Set against the backdrop of professional wrestling, the movie is a study of toxic masculinity and how the sins of the father can be visited on their sons.

    The film begins with Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) patriarch of the championship Von Erich wrestling dynasty. Early in his career, in an attempt to create a villainous heel persona, he changed his name from Jack Adkisson to the German sounding Fritz Von Erich. The switch purposely stoked post-war animosity and made him a wrestler audiences loved to hate.

    In the ring he was a relentless competitor, the purveyor of the deadly Iron Claw, his much-feared finishing move that squeezed his opponent’s face into mush. Outside the ring his drive to win saw him push his sons Kevin (Efron), Kerry (White), David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons), into the family business.

    “Now, we all know Kerry's my favourite, then Kev, then David, then Mike,†said Fritz. “But the rankings can always change.â€

    Under Fritz’s hardnosed guidance, the Von Erich’s became one of the first wrestling families to become popular, winning championship belts and fans for their high-flying, acrobatic style but their accomplishments are tempered by tragedy, which son Kevin blames on a curse brought on by the family’s adopted name.

    “Ever since I was a child, people said my family was cursed,†Kevin said. “Mom tried to protect us with God. Dad tried to protect us with wrestling. He said if we were the toughest, the strongest, nothing could ever hurt us. I believed him. We all did.â€

    “The Iron Claw†is about sports, and clearly, stars Efron and White spent time in the gym to prepare for their shirtless bouts in the ring, but like all good sports movies it isn’t about the sport. It’s about the universal subjects of tragedy, brotherhood, brawn and bullies. The backdrop may be unusual, but anyone who has ever been browbeaten by a bully will find notes that resonate in the Von Erich story.

    At the heart of the film are Efron and White as sons Kevin and Kerry. Both hand in performances etched by their physicality but deepened by the emotional turmoil that envelopes each character.

    Efron digs deep in a career best performance. As Kevin watches his family fall apart, he slips into a depression, afraid that the curse is real and may affect his own wife (Lily James) and kids. For such a physical film, it’s internal work that reveals a well of emotion and sublimated anger underneath the character’s bulky frame.

    White has a showier role, but as Kerry, the son who pays a huge personal price for wanting to please his overbearing father at any cost, he is more outward in his reactions to the story’s twists, but the sadness he carries with him is palpable.

    Maura Tierney does a lot with little as mother Doris Von Erich. A stoic figure, when her buried feelings threaten to overflow, the look on her face has such quiet intensity it speaks louder than words.

    McCallany has a much larger role. He is the catalyst, the bully who pushed his sons toward the ring by any means necessary. He’s the movie’s obvious boogeyman. Trouble is, the family can’t see it until it is too late.

    “The Iron Claw†is a slow-moving, sombre movie that looks beyond the ring to focus on the price this family paid for success.

    AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM: 2 ½ STARS

    Jason Mamoa returns as the universe’s most famous merman in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,†the last film of the DCEU, now playing in theatres.

    “I’m the King of Atlantis,†says Arthur Curry / Aquaman (Mamoa). “Half a billion from every known species in the sea call this place home. But that doesn’t mean they all like me.â€

    Angriest of all the seafarers is David Kane / Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a pirate and high-seas mercenary who holds Arthur responsible for the death of his father. Jesse Kane perished when his hijacked Russian nuclear submarine flooded with water. Aquaman could have saved him, but refused. Now, Black Manta wants revenge and is prepared to use the dark magic of the cursed Black Trident to get it.

    “I’m going to kill Aquaman,†he says, “and destroy everything he holds dear. I’m going to murder his family and burn his kingdom to ash. Even if I have to make a deal with the devil to do it.â€

    Like I said, he’s angry.

    To stop Black Manta from destroying everything important in his life, Aquaman decides to join forces with his estranged half-brother, Orm Marius / Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson). Trouble is, the former King of Atlantis is being held in a desert jail for crimes against his old kingdom. Wearing a camouflage suit, Aquaman liberates Orm, and reluctantly, the former king agrees to battle Black Manta.

    “I don't know what lies ahead,†says Aquaman as they begin their adventure, “but we can't leave our children in a world without hope.â€

    “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom†has the vibe of an episode of the Saturday morning cartoon “Super Friends.†A mix of goofy humour and action, it delivers spectacle, but ultimately feels like it is hobbled by too much exposition, too much muddy CGI, not enough character development and not enough Black Manta. After a messy first hour of set-up, it catches a wave in the second half, but even when it picks up, the stakes are never high enough to match the first drama of the first film.

    Mamoa is game. He understands that Aquaman is a mix of kitsch, charm and action chops -- “There are those who think I'm ridiculous,†he says -- a mighty underwater superhero who rides around the sea courtesy of a giant sea monkey. But the tonal shifts, whether because of reshoots or rewrites or just jerky editing, often make for disjointed viewing. The fine balance of humour and emotion isn’t as carefully calibrated here as it was in the first movie, and the character’s sudden temperament swings, from beast mode to jokester, are jarring.

    Abdul-Mateen II is underused. He’s a villain with relatively little screen time whose thirst for retribution is matched only by his ability to make the silly, retro-sci-fi Black Manta suit look cool.

    Many movies have been fuelled by revenge, but here it quickly becomes a McGuffin, the thing that gets the movie in motion, but is soon forgotten as other plotlines crowd it out of the picture. His scheme to speed the warming of the planet by detonating his store of orichalcum fuel is the work of a supervillain, for sure, but is underdeveloped.

    “It has to be stopped," says Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) in a textbook definition of understatement.

    Of the supporting characters, Wilson is given the only character arc. From disgraced leader to unlikely hero (no spoilers here), he’s as stoic as Aquaman is playful, but, nonetheless, delivers the film’s funniest scene (again no spoilers here, but it would not be out of place on the icky reality show “Fear Factorâ€). His presence, however, allows the film to explore a redemption storyline that gives the otherwise generic plot a bit of juice.

    Amber Heard fans, and haters, may be divided by her appearance. Supporters will think she is underused, while the haters will think she takes up too much screen time. Suffice it to say, she is a supporting character who appears throughout but has little to do with the main action.

    “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom†has its moments (stick around for the amusing mid-credit scene), but the script’s choppy waters, and a low stakes storyline, offer a low reward.

    MIGRATION: 3 STARS

    “Migration,†a new animated film from Illumination Studios, starring the voices of Elizabeth Banks, Awkwafina and Kumail Nanjiani and now playing in theatres, is a story about broadening horizons, set against the wild blue yonder.

    The story focusses on the Mallards, a family of ducks who lead a quiet, happy life on New England’s bucolic Moosehead Pond. Mack (Kumail Nanjiani) is the protective father who keeps his kids, son Dax (Caspar Jennings) and daughter Gwen (Tresi Gazal), in line by telling them terrible stories of the perils of predators in the world outside their watery home.

    When another flock uses the pond as a pit stop in their migration south, it sparks the imaginations of Dax, Gwen and mother Pam (Elizabeth Banks). Mack is not as inspired. He says he’ll only leave the pond if he can find a safer place for his family to live, but the rest of the family wonder what exciting things are happening beyond their little corner of the world.

    “I don’t want to miss out on life because you’re afraid to leave this pond,†Pam says, scolding Mack.

    Mom and the kids are keen to hit the sky, see the world, and migrate to tropical Jamaica for the winter. Mack is reluctant, but is convinced to take flight with Pam, the kids and his curmudgeonly Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito) in tow.

    “There’s a whole world we’ve been missing out on,†Pam says. “Things we didn’t even know existed.â€

    At a stop in New York City they liberate homesick Jamaican parrot Delroy (Keegan-Michael Key) from his prison inside a Manhattan restaurant, run by a Chef (Jason Marin) who specializes in duck a l’orange.

    “What’s duck a l’orange?†asks Gwen.

    “It’s you,†says Chump (Awkwafina), the hardnosed leader of an NYC gang of pigeons, “with l’orange on top.â€

    As they try to stay off the chef’s menu, the Mallard’s migration morphs from vacation, to journey of discovery as they are exposed to the great big world.

    “We’re going to finish this crazy, wonderful adventure,†says Mack.

    “Migration†is a fun, but slight, movie for the whole family with good messages about personal growth and overcoming fears. The lessons are simple, presented in a likable, fast-paced fashion, that don’t try too hard to moralize or teach. It’s a lighthearted adventure with none of the darkness implied by the presence of co-writer Mike White of “White Lotus†fame.

    From the mild horror of an encounter with an elderly heron (Carol Kane) who may or may not have a taste for mallard chicks, to the chaotic landing in NYC, the epitome of all of Mack’s fears, each of the big set pieces offer up a new high-flying adventure. It’s episodic, which offers up the chance for the Mallards to interact with new characters at every stop, providing variation in the story, and new opportunities in each chapter for situational humour.

    “Migration†doesn’t have the same anarchic brashness as Illumination’s “Despicable Me†films. If you’re hungry for more Minions madness, be sure to arrive on time to see “Mooned,†a stand-alone short from the Minion Universe that opens the show. It rounds out “Migration’s†brief run time (under an hour-and-a-half) and contains a healthy dose of Minion magic.

    Slight, but funny and fast-paced, “Migration†is an enjoyable, escapist movie with lively voice work—kids will love baby duck Gwen—and an adventurous spirit.

    THE ZONE OF INTEREST: 4 STARS

    You do not exit “The Zone of Interest,†the latest from director Jonathan Glazer, now playing in theatres, with the words, “I really enjoyed that,†spilling from your lips. Loosely based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis, it is a study of the banality of evil that is unsettlingly ordinary and hauntingly uncomfortable.

    A largely plotless, slice-of-life of the comings and goings of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and with his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), “Zone of Interest†paints a picture of a typical family.

    Set in 1943, Hedwig runs the house, raises their five kids with the help of nannies and maids, and tends to the couple’s gardens. Rudolf works next door as the Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. As the kids play in their large yard, swim in the pool and have friends over for birthday parties, in the background the unimaginable horrors of the camp can be heard. The cries of anguish, gun shots and barked orders fall on deaf ears in the Höss household, where life goes on as normal.

    Höss’s facility at delivering death earns him promotions, which threaten to uproot his family from their beloved country home to the mean streets of Berlin. Showing the kind of concern for his family he could never muster for his victims, the Commandant arranges for his Hedwig and the kids to remain in the house while he is on the road, laying the roadmap for Operation Höss in which 430,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in 56 days.

    Director Glazer never goes inside the camp. Instead, he focusses his camera, by and large, on the family. The disconnect between the imagery—smiling children in the pool, Hedwig and her mother lounging in the guest bedroom—and the sounds emanating from the camp, is devastating.

    Composer Mica Levy’s score is confined to the beginning and end, with only an additional burst of music here and there. The absence of music becomes deafening, forcing the ear to focus on the brutality we can hear but not see.

    It harkens back to old horror movies like Val Lewton’s “Cat People,†which understood that it’s the things you cannot see, that you must be forced to imagine, that will have the greatest impact. Glazer knows whatever we think is happening on the other side of the wall between the house and the camp, will be worse than anything he could show us. “The Zone of Interest†presents an intellectual atrocity that burrows into the brain and will not soon be forgotten.

    “The Zone of Interest†is a singular film. Confident in its uneasy, experimental execution, unblinking in its representation of the facilitation of evil, it isn’t an easy watch, but will resonate long after the end credits have rolled.  

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