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rmm> reviews
Surviving, Directing and Balancing
ADVENTURE IS BEYOND THE WALLS, BEHIND THE CAMERA OR ON THE BAR
By Drew Wheeler movies@flagpole.com
THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT (PG 13)
So The Divergent Series is over now, right?
Apparently not, as the franchise based
on Veronica Roth’s increasingly poor YA
novels becomes the latest book series to be
adapted into one more movies than there
are books. As if the prospect of another
Divergent movie was not unfortunate
enough, the third movie, Allegiant, does not
come close to deserving an expansion, espe
cially when the first part seems to complete
Tris’ three-part tale a lot more kindly than
Roth herself did.
After the rebellious events of Insurgent,
Tris (Shailene Woodley) longs to go beyond
the walls of Chicago. Naturally, her tough
boyfriend, Four (Theo James), plans to
follow her, but his mean old mom, Evelyn
(Naomi Watts), leader of the Factionless
that defeated Erudite and their leader,
Jeanine, will not let anyone leave Chicago.
Eventually, Tris, Four, her traitorous
brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort, Woodley’s
cancer victim boyfriend in The Fault in our
Stars), Peter (Miles Teller, Woodley’s boy
friend in the Athens-filmed The Spectacular
Now) and Christina (Zoe Kravitz) find their
way out of the city and run into some sur
vivors led by David (Jeff Daniels). Sidebar:
Why do the protagonists keep trusting that
snake Peter? No acceptable explanation
exists outside of Teller’s occasionally charm
ing delivery of terribly unwitty dialogue.
When Tris and her gang learn the truth
behind David’s motivations, they must
return to Chicago and save everybody from
a fate fairly similar to the one from which
they were saved in Insurgent.
Much like Roth’s books, the Divergent
film franchise gets worse as contact with it
is prolonged. Director Robert Schwentke
manages to come up with a couple of inter
esting ways to convey what is happening
in the characters’ minds, i.e. the memory
serum, but the movie loses its battle with
Roth’s weak world-building and poor nar
rative roadmap. The performers seem as
bored by events as the audience. James has
a calming, stalwart presence and would
benefit from another, better franchise
(maybe one based on Pierce Brown’s Red
Rising?). Woodley needs to cash her checks
and move on to greener pastures, too.
Unfortunately for us all, the franchise will
allegedly continue in The Divergent Series:
Ascendant.
HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT (PG 13) Film lov
ers will rejoice at this insightful, delight
ful look at seminal 1966 cinematic tome,
Hitchcock/Truffaut. Kent Jones’s documen
tary entertainingly recounts the meetings
between Hollywood’s Master of Suspense,
Alfred Hitchcock, and French New Wave
legend, Francois Truffaut. However, one
will most likely spend most of the brief,
80-minute running time wishing to rewatch
Hitchcock’s classics, especially the doc’s
tentpole discussion starters, Vertigo and
Psycho. Filmmakers like David Fincher,
Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Richard
Linklater and more discuss what Hitch
means to them. They also provide their
own interpretations of what sets the mas
ter apart from his directing peers. The
documentary does not provide any spar
kling new revelations about
Hitchcock but should be seen
by all lovers of cinema, espe
cially young ones developing
their appreciation for movies
made before 1970.
THE BRONZE (R) Sadly, most
filmgoers will miss this weakly
marketed, vulgarly comic
feature from writer-star
Melissa Rauch, best known
as Bernadette Rostenkowski
from CBS’s way too popu
lar, “The Big Bang Theory.”
Rauch and her collaborators,
Winston Rauch and director
Bryan Buckley (an Oscar nominee for the
short “Asad”), share the raunchy sports
spirit of Jody Hill/Danny McBride/Ben
Best’s “Eastbound 8/ Down” in this story of
foul mouthed gymnast Hope Ann Greggory,
the bronze medalist at the 2004 Olympics
in Rome. The pride of Amherst, OH contin
ues to coast on the fumes of her celebrity
while her exasperated, mailman father, Stan
(Gary Cole), despairs at the awful adult he
has raised. A tragic event lends Hope the
chance to turn her life around by coach
ing aspiring Olympian, Maggie Townsend
(Haley Lu Richardson). Is Hope mature
enough to give up her chance at free Sbarro
by helping Maggie win the gold medal she
herself was denied by a Kerri Strug-like
injury?
The Bronze has so many opportunities
to go astray, but Rauch and her co-writer
husband take the right turn at nearly every
fork in the storytelling road. They write
Hope as dumb but never too stupid. She is
filthy without being gross. They smartly zig
where you fear they might zag, especially in
the final act where many similar comedies
would blow up their character for the sake
of further dramatic complications.
Pleasant support from Cole and Thomas
Middleditch (so funny on HBO’s excellent
“Silicon Valley”) make up for the movie’s
supposed-to-be-unpleasant antagonist,
Tucker Lewis (Sebastian Stan, the MCU’s
Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes). Too bad
no one will see the movie; here’s hoping it
sticks its landing when it moves to a friend
lier medium. O
Do my hands look small?
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