Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

A fact of life: We’re going to die

New movies opening this week: The Light Between Oceans, Morgan, and more

Gene Wilder flashes a little amiable menace in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Gene Wilder flashes a little amiable menace in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

That title reads better — or gets read better, anyway — with Orson Welles’s voice. So here’s a little snippet on mortality from F for Fake that I pretty much adore in this video.

Video:

Orson Welles in F for Fake, Chartres

Go on singing, indeed. This week saw the death not only of comedy great Gene WilderScott’s obit is here — but also character actor John Polito, whose turn as the Italian mobster Johnny Caspar in Miller’s Crossing is a big part of why that film sits firmly in my all-time Top 10. Critics of the Coen Bros. sometimes say that they make movies about movies instead of movies about life. Maybe so, but it’s done so well here that it seems a thoroughly worthwhile approach. Caspar’s opening monologue on ethics beautifully echoes the opening of The Godfather, both in the way it looks and the way it sets the theme.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Alas, they won’t be bringing Miller’s Crossing back into theaters to honor Polito’s passing, but they will be showing two Gene Wilder classics: Blazing Saddles and the famed children’s Nazi parable Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. And while we’re on the subject of posthumous big screen honors, please let me put in another plug for the Digital Gym’s Abbas Kiarostami retrospective, which focuses this week on Like Someone in Love. Five — count ’em, five — stars from Mr. Marks.

A final word (for now) on death and the movies: Woody Allen was once told that he was a happy child until about age five, which he recalls as the age when he figured out that he was going to die. And so began a knock-down, drag-out tragicomic boxing match between Allen and the Reaper. Death has certain victory on his side, but Allen has gotten in some excellent shots along the way. Netflix has a fine intro-to-Woody documentary available right now, titled simply, Woody Allen: A Documentary.

Movie

Light Between Oceans

thumbnail

After a tour of killing Jerrys in the Great War, bachelor Tom (Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender) returns to Australia, where he plans on settling down as a lighthouse keeper. Isabel (Oscar winner Alicia Vikander) is the town looker, making her, in accordance with Hollywood’s rule of keeping up surface appearances, the girl in the picture. Those who witnessed writer-director Derek Cianfrance’s debut feature Blue Valentine know how much he enjoys making his characters (and audiences) suffer. Not surprisingly, the steady torrents of anguish (and all that artificial light designed to bleach out the suffocating interior closeups) make these oceans difficult to access. After a pair of miscarriages, Isabel decides that fate has destined her to play mother to the little girl who washes up on shore in a rowboat. This is Cianfrance’s one chance to lighten the load, to unleash a little visual magic to boost the narrative contrivance, and all he can summon are handheld shots of crashing foam. Enter baby mama Hannah (Oscar winner Rachel Weisz), who quickly gets hip to the couple’s game. Isabel is such an irrational, unlikeable cur that at any minute, one expects Hannah to scream, “The dingbat stole my baby!” A melodramatic slog.

Find showtimes

Perhaps to avoid distracting from Wilder Week, the new release schedule is thin in terms of both quantity and quality. Best bet is probably Disorder, a PTSD drama that makes the case for Matthias Schoenaerts as the star of a John Rambo TV series. (Heard a couple of my fellow critics tossing the idea around before a screening, and dang if it wouldn’t make good contemporary television — the First Blood entry, anyway. Call me, FX execs, and I’ll put you in touch with the proper parties.)

After that, you’ve got not one but two disappointments featuring the normally compelling Rachel Weisz: midlife-crisis pic Complete Unknown and the suffering-drenched The Light Between Oceans. This is why we can’t have nice things, I guess.

Oceans also stars Alicia Vikander, who was so good in last year’s Ex Machina, which was so much better than this week’s female-AI flick, Morgan.

After that, there ain’t nothing left but The Hollars, which Scott might review if he’s feeling brave.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Woodpeckers are stocking away acorns, Amorous tarantulas

Stunning sycamores, Mars rising
Gene Wilder flashes a little amiable menace in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Gene Wilder flashes a little amiable menace in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

That title reads better — or gets read better, anyway — with Orson Welles’s voice. So here’s a little snippet on mortality from F for Fake that I pretty much adore in this video.

Video:

Orson Welles in F for Fake, Chartres

Go on singing, indeed. This week saw the death not only of comedy great Gene WilderScott’s obit is here — but also character actor John Polito, whose turn as the Italian mobster Johnny Caspar in Miller’s Crossing is a big part of why that film sits firmly in my all-time Top 10. Critics of the Coen Bros. sometimes say that they make movies about movies instead of movies about life. Maybe so, but it’s done so well here that it seems a thoroughly worthwhile approach. Caspar’s opening monologue on ethics beautifully echoes the opening of The Godfather, both in the way it looks and the way it sets the theme.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Alas, they won’t be bringing Miller’s Crossing back into theaters to honor Polito’s passing, but they will be showing two Gene Wilder classics: Blazing Saddles and the famed children’s Nazi parable Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. And while we’re on the subject of posthumous big screen honors, please let me put in another plug for the Digital Gym’s Abbas Kiarostami retrospective, which focuses this week on Like Someone in Love. Five — count ’em, five — stars from Mr. Marks.

A final word (for now) on death and the movies: Woody Allen was once told that he was a happy child until about age five, which he recalls as the age when he figured out that he was going to die. And so began a knock-down, drag-out tragicomic boxing match between Allen and the Reaper. Death has certain victory on his side, but Allen has gotten in some excellent shots along the way. Netflix has a fine intro-to-Woody documentary available right now, titled simply, Woody Allen: A Documentary.

Movie

Light Between Oceans

thumbnail

After a tour of killing Jerrys in the Great War, bachelor Tom (Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender) returns to Australia, where he plans on settling down as a lighthouse keeper. Isabel (Oscar winner Alicia Vikander) is the town looker, making her, in accordance with Hollywood’s rule of keeping up surface appearances, the girl in the picture. Those who witnessed writer-director Derek Cianfrance’s debut feature Blue Valentine know how much he enjoys making his characters (and audiences) suffer. Not surprisingly, the steady torrents of anguish (and all that artificial light designed to bleach out the suffocating interior closeups) make these oceans difficult to access. After a pair of miscarriages, Isabel decides that fate has destined her to play mother to the little girl who washes up on shore in a rowboat. This is Cianfrance’s one chance to lighten the load, to unleash a little visual magic to boost the narrative contrivance, and all he can summon are handheld shots of crashing foam. Enter baby mama Hannah (Oscar winner Rachel Weisz), who quickly gets hip to the couple’s game. Isabel is such an irrational, unlikeable cur that at any minute, one expects Hannah to scream, “The dingbat stole my baby!” A melodramatic slog.

Find showtimes

Perhaps to avoid distracting from Wilder Week, the new release schedule is thin in terms of both quantity and quality. Best bet is probably Disorder, a PTSD drama that makes the case for Matthias Schoenaerts as the star of a John Rambo TV series. (Heard a couple of my fellow critics tossing the idea around before a screening, and dang if it wouldn’t make good contemporary television — the First Blood entry, anyway. Call me, FX execs, and I’ll put you in touch with the proper parties.)

After that, you’ve got not one but two disappointments featuring the normally compelling Rachel Weisz: midlife-crisis pic Complete Unknown and the suffering-drenched The Light Between Oceans. This is why we can’t have nice things, I guess.

Oceans also stars Alicia Vikander, who was so good in last year’s Ex Machina, which was so much better than this week’s female-AI flick, Morgan.

After that, there ain’t nothing left but The Hollars, which Scott might review if he’s feeling brave.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Trump names local supporter new Border Czar

Another Brick (Suit) in the Wall
Next Article

Escondido planners nix office building switch to apartments

Not enough open space, not enough closets for Hickory Street plans
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.