READY PLAYER ONE: 3 STARS
In brand crazy Hollywood âReady Player One,â the new sci fi film from Steven Spielberg, is an everything-old-is-new-again hybrid. Based on the novel of the same name from author Ernest Cline itâs not a reboot or reimagining of a comic book or old film. Itâs an original story that may appeal to folks who say the movies only recycle ideas. At the same time itâs stuffed to the gills with enough pop culture icons to warm the hearts of any nostalgic moviegoer.
Itâs 2045 and the world is a mess. Cities are a hodgepodge of dystopian horrors, overcrowded, polluted and corrupt. For the people, whatever joy can be mined from the desolate, depressing life comes from immersing themselves in a virtual reality world called OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation).
âExcept for eating, sleeping and bathroom breaks,â says Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), âeveryone does everything in the OASIS.â Based on 1980s movies, pop culture and videogames, itâs a technological escape from the all-too-real societal ills that make life miserable. "These days reality,â Wade says, âis a bummer."
When OASIS creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance) died he created a way for Watts and his on-line Gunter palsâegg huntersâto find a way out of their IRL problems. The creator left behind an Easter Eggâif you donât know that an Easter Egg is a hidden game message or image, give up nowâamongst the gameâs familiar pop culture characters. Whoever finds the three keys that unlock the Easter Egg will inherit the OASIS empire. Money, power, the whole nine yards.
Watts, who lives in a vertical trailer park called The Stacks in Columbus, Ohio, along with his digital team the High Five, work to navigate the game and change their lives. In a race against time, they must beat the Sixers, an army of gamers employed by evil corporation Innovative Online Industries, in a war for control of the future.
Think your kids spend too much time playing video games? Get a load of Wade, Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), Aech (Lena Waithe), Daito (Win Morisaki) and Shoto (Philip Zhao). This crowd are best friends, although for most of the movie they have never met on terra ferma. They spend all their time on line, forming friendships, falling in love and eventually fighting for their real life lives.
âReady Player Oneâ takes off like a rocket. Thereâs a lot of set-up and Spielberg finds a way to impart information and keep it lively. He fills the screen with an industrial view of the future, contrasting Wadeâs dour real life with his vivid on line adventures, visually developing the push and pull between reality and virtual reality that fuels the filmâs story. A wild car race, featuring Freddy Krueger, King Kong and the Batmobile, establishes the OASIS in a way that the minutes of exposition surrounding it never could. It also establishes the filmâs love of spectacle over story.
Spielberg dives deep into the VR world, intoxicated by the endless possibilities of mixing-and-matching pop culture iconography with an adventure story. When Wade says, âThe limit of reality is your own imagination,â he could very well be talking to the director. The result is a frenetic film that is fun for a while but the whimsy soon gets bogged down with feverish detail. Itâs a little too long, thereâs too much exposition, too many twists for a story that can be boiled down to the notion that we should spend more time in the real world.
A tribute to âThe Shiningâ is often quite fun and there are moments of levity but it isnât about anything other than the adventure. The commentary on our own virtual lives are never expanded upon. Of a spark of on-line love between Art3mis and Wade, who hadnât yet met outside OASIS, Art3mis says, âYou only see what I want you to see. You donât know me.â Itâs a good starting point for a conversation about what happens when avatars become real people but instead we get more exposition.
âReady Player Oneâ is pure escapism that begs the question, Will there ever be a video game movie that really works? The function of storytelling is vastly different between videogames and film and yet filmmakers try for a amalgam, the best of both worlds. What we usually end up with is what Steven Spielberg finds in his treatment of âReady Player One,â a film that honours the spirit of the games at the expense of great storytelling.
MARY GOES ROUND: 3 STARS
âMary Goes Round,â a new film starring âYouâre the Worstâsâ Aya Cash, has a clever tagline that pretty much sums up the story, âBlood is thicker than vodka.â The story of emotional resolution is part âDays of Wine and Roses,â part âJersey Girl.â
Cash is the title character, a young woman and barely functioning alcoholic. A rough upbringing saw her left to her own devices after the death of her mother. She barely got to know her father (John Ralston) or teenaged half-sister Robyn (Sara Waisglass). In an only-in-the-movies twist sheâs also a substance abuse counsellor who loses everything after a drunk driving charge. Put on extended leave by her job she returns to her hometown, Niagara Falls where she discovers her father is dying of cancer. With the help of an AA sponsor (Melanie Nicholls-King) and a gradual blossoming of self-awareness Mary battles her inner demons.
âMary Goes Roundâ doesnât break new ground. Sobriety dramas usually involved both spectrums of human behaviour, from the lowest points in the characterâs lives to some sort of reckoning and this movie is no different. What it does well is build characters we want to root for. With some dark humour and several genuinely poignant moments director Molly McGlynnâwho loosely based the story on her own lifeâgives Cash, Waisglass, Ralston and Nicholls-King the space to create characters all dealing with some level of shame and addiction but mostly, humanity.
The filmâs expected uptick at the end feels earned, coming with the message that looking beyond oneâs own borders might reveal the path to happiness. Itâs a sentimental end to a story that begins with a harder edge but through strong direction and nice character work, it satisfies nonetheless.
THE CHINA HUSTLE: 4 STARS
âThere are no good guys in this story,â says financial whistleblower Dan David. âNot even me.â Thatâs a grabby intro for a documentary that exposes greed on a level that would make Gordon Gekko blush. âThe China Hustle,â from director Jed Rothstein, is a companion piece to âInside Jobâ and âEnron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,â movies about money manipulation that should send a chill down the back of anyone with an ATM card.
The story really begins after the 2008 stock market crash. Giant losses put companies in the position of having to generate large sums of cash quickly in the global market. David, like many others, looked to China. âIf you want to be a criminal,â says one talking head, âitâs best to go somewhere with no cops. That was China.â
China offered new markets, little oversight and he potential to print money. Cue a stock market feeding frenzy but because foreigners canât invest directly in Chinese companies along came something called the reverse merger, a mix-and-match of American shell companies and foreign entities. It was a recipe for disaster, ripe with fraud and greed, kind of like investing your retirement money in lottery tickets.
Stories of financial malfeasance are so common that âThe China Hustleâ doesnât seem like it will offer anything new. Regular folks put up their savings, lose everything while money managers and banks keep the fees. The story may be familiar but it is compelling. Greed and risk are compelling subjects and the kind of scam carefully detailed here is a prime example of extreme avarice. But why do people get sucked into these situations time and time again? Itâs like the punch line of the old Wall Street joke says, âThis time it is different.â And so it goes. The hope of easy money is irresistible.
You donât need to be a trader to understand âThe China Hustle.â It isnât so much a lesson in economics as it is a film about due diligence and common sense. In the micro the filmâs message can be boiled down to something everyoneâs grandmother said, thereâs no such thing as free money. The larger story is more complicated, like an economic detective story. Itâs a timely one too. This isnât a history lesson.
The events from our recent past detailed here still reverberate and now as the Trump government seeks to deregulate banks even further, it is a story of abuse and lack of oversight that could easily repeat itself.
MAKER OF MONSTERS: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF BEAU DICK: 4 STARS
Beau Dick, who passed away last year at age 61, was an artist and activist born in Kingcome Inlet, a Kwakwakaâwakw village north of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. A new documentary, âMaker Of Monsters: The Extraordinary Life Of Beau Dick,â details his life from apprentice artist, learning to carve traditional totem poles from his father and grandfather, to master craftsman who mixed elements of Japanese manga and other styles into beautiful wooden masks that sell at galleries all over the world.
âMy experience is that anyone who encounters a piece of Beauâs immediately has an emotional reaction,â says Vancouver gallery owner and âMaker of Monstersâ co-producer LaTiesha Fazakas, âbecause his work is so animated and it feels like youâre encountering a character when you encounter one of his masks.â
The same could be said for the man himself. A soft-spoken narrator, he weaves the story of his growth as an artist and First Nations activist throughout this engaging documentary, building a portrait of a person one friend called magical. âYou can see it in him,â she says.
âFor the longest time I couldnât recognize Beauâs work,â says collector Hervé Curat, âand to me that was magic. Too many artists have a fantastic style but they have only one. So many times I have looked at his work and thought, âThat has to be Beau because nobody else would dare do that.â
His work as an artist and activistâwe see his 2013 public copper-cutting ceremony at the B.C. Legislature to protest the disregard of Indigenous treaty rightsâare inseparable but âMaker of Monstersâ makes sure to emphasize the man behind the art and social action. The result is a loving look at the legacy of a charismatic presence whose concern for his peopleâs culture and the environment was genuine and wide ranging. âWho is our family?â he asks near the end of the movie. âAll of us.â