Tomorrowland

Released:  May 22^nd, 2015

Rated:  PG

Distributor:  Walt Disney Studios

Starring:  Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy

Directed by:  Brad Bird

Written by:  Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird

Personal Bias Alert:  not a Disney devotee, not enamored with Brad Bird’s catalogue

7 of 10

            The trailer for Tomorrowland instantly got my attention.  Not for the flying cars or the magical pin or George Clooney.  It was the teenage girl wearing a baggy sweatshirt carrying a ball cap and a money clip.  It was me in all my societal-norms ignoring glory, preferring to dress and carry myself in a way that lets me do whatever the hell I want without having to lug a purse or maintain an outfit.  Watching the film only makes me love this representation more.  The way she presents herself is never commented on, even for a joke, and no ever tells her to get back home to her boyfriend or the mall or any other teenage girl clichés.  It’s a subtly progressive step forward in the portrayal of young women, catering to those of us who have ideas, dreams, and senses of purpose entirely independent of our gender.

            These ideals are exactly the kind of thing Tomorrowland is trying to promote, if in a more broad sense.  The girl in question, Casey (Britt Robertson), is chosen for the adventure exactly because she doesn’t think like everyone else.  She dreams of a better world, or at least one where she can go to space, and stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.  So when a recruiter shows up looking for new blood to go to the futuristic Tomorrowland, she gets a golden ticket pin.

            It’s a tricky role for Robertson as plucky optimist shares a border with annoying twerp, but she always keeps Casey on the right side of the line.  Between this and The Longest Ride, she’s proving her worth as a genuinely likable young actress.  George Clooney brings a toned-down version of his usual gruffness as the guy helping her get into Tomorrowland, but the big surprise is Raffey Cassidy, a child actor who you probably last saw as the younger version of Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman.  She has a very large role here as the recruiter, possibly the most complex of all the leads, and makes it believable every step of the way.  The details of why she’s so great would bring up spoilers, but suffice it to say that she’s an actress you should keep your eye on.

            Where the film drags is in its plot, which doesn’t overly surprise me given its writer/director team.  Brad Bird makes likable films, but they often lack the emotional punch that comes with true greatness.  Damon Lindelof has an even sketchier history, with his writing having been featured in uneven projects like Prometheus, Cowboys and Aliens, and Lost while also creating and writing a very interesting adaptation of The Leftovers for HBO.  Here, there’s a lack of purpose to the whole plot beyond a vague sense of wanting to get to Tomorrowland.  What will happen once they get there is never clearly established, and without that there’s nothing they’re clearly fighting against.  So the story meanders and the climax fizzles.  In fact, they don’t actually succeed at fixing what seems to be the main threat.  They start down the road but don’t complete the task before the credits role.  I guess it’s supposed to be enough that they’re working on it?

Even with this meandering, Tomorrowland never lost my attention.  There’s too much wonder floating around to get frustrated with it, peppered as it is with exciting, imaginative scenes that give the film that Disney sense of magic.  Let’s face it, a world with jetpacks and spaceships and elaborate diving contraptions stay cool long into your adulthood, and Brad Bird delivers the glorious looking world that’s promised in the trailer.  Almost everyone will want to visit Tomorrowland, and the brief time you get to spend there in this film is a satisfactory way to spend your afternoon.

This is a family film, so the events never get too dark or scary.  Still, it’s a strong PG, so beware with very young kids.  Older children and adults will enjoy the film’s inventive action and cheeky sense of humor, although the lack of punch will probably keep it from becoming a Disney classic.

Other Notes:

Ø  I like that the utopia of Tomorrowland includes scientists, artists, and dreamers of all kind.

Ø  That memorabilia store is pretty much my version of heaven.

Ø  Hugh Laurie to George Clooney:  “Age suits you well.”

Ø  This and Mad Max are battling it out for the most beautifully rendered vision of the future so far this year.  I recommend seeing them both to decide which one you want to see come true.

The Longest Ride

Released:  April 10^th, 2015

Rated:  PG-13

Distributor:  20^th Century Fox

Starring:  Britt Robertson, Scott Eastwood, Jack Huston, Oona Chaplin, Alan Alda

Directed by:  George Tillman Jr.

Written by:  Craig Bolotin

Personal Bias Alert:  not a romance fan, immediately suspicious of anything Nicholas Sparks

4.5 of 10

            Can a name be a genre?  If any can, it’s Nicholas Sparks.  Even the casual moviegoer knows what they’re in for when that name flashes across the screen.  Star-crossed lovers, soft lighting, attractive leads.  They’re fairy-tale romances, the kind where love conquers cancer, dementia, and AIDS (okay, not the last one).  Emotions are encouraged, and there’s a box by the door where your brains should be left behind.  Needless to say, some people love his films and some hate them.  Some, like myself, grew up in a generation where there was always a girl squealing about how many times they’d watched A Walk to Remember or were dragged to The Notebook only to come out ragging about how unrealistic its portrait of dementia was.  That last one’s a true story from my life, so if you’re wondering where I come down on the Sparks spectrum, I firmly hate them.  But even the most begrudging viewer must admit that the Sparks films have hit on a pleasure center that exists in a fair number of people.  There is definitely a clamoring for these stories, and The Longest Ride is an inoffensive way to satisfy the need.

            In this, the tenth Sparks adaptation, the romantic leads are a bull rider and an art student, two people from different worlds whose lives cross for a brief, earth-shattering two months.  Yep, this film supposedly takes place over two months, a period of time that seems impossibly short given how many connections, dramatic turns, and feelings are crammed in.  In fact, there’s a B-plot involving an older man recounting his own marriage that’s nearly as time-consuming and jam-packed as the main storyline.  Yet for all this plot, none of it goes very deep.  Like most Sparks movies, the complications drift around behind the romance, only existing to complicate love instead of giving the characters any real sense of self.  But this is clearly something that the people want, so a reviewer can only shrug their shoulders, dock off a point, and move on, being careful not to dismiss the whole thing simply for being a lightweight.

            The main trio of the bull rider, art student, and dying man, are played by Scott Eastman, Britt Robertson, and Alan Alda, respectively.  Alda, obviously, needs no introductions or assurances that he can handle this material.  Eastman and Robertson were the wildcards going in, each with a decent amount of experience but no roles they can really hang their hat on.  Given their much larger roles on the horizon, The Longest Ride will likely be their forgotten introduction to wider audiences, but it’s still a charming turn for both of them.  They have solid chemistry, perform their modest roles with heartfelt familiarity, and succeed in making this innocuous love story fairly effective.  Compared to Alda’s remembered romance, theirs is downright grounded, and the ease with which Eastman and Robertson sell their romance is almost entirely to thank for it.

            The flashbacks with Alda, which takes place through letter reading (gag me), is the far more saccharine love story, and its combination of too-tall tales of war and dreadful dialogue sinks the whole section before it ever has a chance.  Alda and the actors who portray the young couple are fine.  It’s simply an overwrought story that feels rather unnecessary, and at nearly two and a half hours long, The Longest Ride suffers under the weight of this extra plot.

            And yet, these extra flourishes fit perfectly into the Sparks formula.  The problems keep coming for both couples until the release of tension becomes a necessity.  The emotions these moments engender are as cheap as the jump scares in a churned-out horror flick, but the formula is so smoothly presented here that it all slides by without much offense.  The only remarkable thing about The Longest Ride is its utter blandness, but at least its laziness won’t piss you off.

Other Notes:

Ø  The dialogue is so trite that there were numerous times my brain called word-for-word what the next line would be.  I refrained from saying them out loud only out of respect for my fellow moviegoers.

Ø  Speaking of my fellow moviegoers, I didn’t hear any crying, but people seemed pleased when they left.

Ø  You’d think the cowboy hat would make Eastman look more like his father, Clint, but it was a moment without the hat, when Scott scrunched his face into a scowl, that he most resembled his father.