Paddington in Peru (c) Sony Pictures
Film Review: Paddington in Peru
In Cinemas
The successful series of Paddington films, based on the Michael Bond books, have always been wholesome fun surrounding the British bear with the marmalade addiction, with just a bit of gleeful, campy villainy to keep it interesting. In the first film in 2015, it was Nicole Kidman as a maniacal taxidermist; in the 2018 sequel, it was Hugh Grant as a thieving hammy actor. Now we have Antonio Banderas as a tour boat captain in the Amazon searching for buried treasure, in which he believes Paddington holds the key. But, no shade to Banderas, he is not the one who steals Paddington in Peru because there are singing and dancing nuns in this year’s edition, and they are led by the always smiling Olivia Coleman. And as much I love Coleman, she rarely plays just a happy, optimistic character (her film résumé includes The Favourite and The Lost Daughter), but here as the joyful Mother Superior (occasionally with a guitar), she outshines.
Paddington in Peru (c) Sony Pictures
Worryingly (but always with a smile) she contacts Paddington (voiced expertly again by Ben Wishaw) to inform him that his beloved Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton), who lives in the Home for Retired Bears in Peru, seems withdrawn. The nun believes a visit from her ex-pat nephew would cheer her up. So, with his adopted family in tow (including Hugh Bonneville and Emily Mortimer, filling in for Sally Hawkins), Paddington finds out his aunt has since disappeared, leaving behind clues that she might be searching for the lost city of El Dorado. Although horribly ill-prepared to travel into the Amazon rainforest, Paddington and fam do just that, and well, hilarity, mostly of the farcical kind, ensues. While not as successful as the first two films, this third outing (directed by Dougal Wilson from a script co-written by original director Paul King) has enough charm to overcome the endless Indiana Jones-type adventures (I would rather Paddington explore the urban jungle of London). The cast (including stalwarts Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent) plays it all with a straight face and earnestness, which helps. And then there’s Coleman. She played the scheming Mrs. Scrubitt in another, recent family film, Wonka, but this time she’s all sunshine and lollipops (although as we find out, that sunny disposition may have side effects), elevating this trip to Peru to First Class.
Film Review: Oscar-Nominated Live Action Shorts
In Cinemas
Arriving just in time for Valentine’s Day to your local art house theater is the annual offering from ShortsTV in which all the Oscar-nominated shorts are bundled into three omnibus collections by category (live action, animated and documentary). I was able to catch four out of the five live action films (I was unable to see Nebojša Slijepčević’s Palm d’Or Shorts winner at Cannes: The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent), but here are my thoughts on the other four.
A lien (c) A Lien
A Lien
When Bowen Yang read the Oscar nominees last month from the prompter, he pronounced the title as “Alien,” which could be right, as the film is about an undocumented man (with his American wife) who goes for his interview at the USCIS only to be confronted by ICE. This film by Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz is incredibly timely and political, although at 15 minutes, we don’t get to know the couple before things get dicey. Still, very suspenseful and anger-inducing.
Anuja (c) Netflix
Anuja
A sort of companion piece to Payal Kapadia’s feature film, All We Imagine as Light, Adam J. Graves’ short, co-produced by Mindy Kaling, is about two young sisters living hand-to-mouth on the streets of Mumbai as they work in a horrible sweatshop. Although they have an unbreakable love and bond, the younger sister is faced with an opportunity to possibly escape this life, but without her sister. The film is enhanced by the acting of these two actresses and the vivid and often dangerous life in urban India. Also showing on Netflix.
I'm Not a Robot (c) I'm Not a Robot
I’m Not a Robot
The funniest and most lighthearted film of the bunch I saw (if you consider soul-searching fatalism a happy topic), Victoria Warmerdam’s short deals with a Belgium woman at her job, having trouble figuring out the CAPTCHA puzzle on her computer to prove she’s not a robot. Although the second half is eerily similar to the plot of a film in cinemas right now, the first part, with the poor woman frustrated with modern technology, is totally relatable.
The Last Ranger (c) Six Feet Films
The Last Ranger
A gorgeously shot film, Cindy Lee’s short takes place in an animal sanctuary in the deserts of South Africa, where Litha (Avumile Qongqo) works to protect the endangered rhinos from poachers, who are paid big money for the rhino’s horn. There’s also a second story about a poor family that lives nearby, and although how these two stories intersect may feel emotionally manipulative, the ending and its message are powerfully rendered.
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