The Washington Post Weekend - USA (2020-11-27)

THE

WASHINGTON

POST

.

FRIDAY,

NOVEMBER

27, 2020

EZ

ga as Leroy Logan, the son of a

similarly oppressed West Indian

immigrant who tried to change

the system from within by becom-

ing a police officer; “Alex Wheatle”

tells the real-life story of a young

Brixton man who overcame aban-

donment, neglect and harrowing

persecution to become a popular

children’s book author. The most

personal film of the series, “Edu-

cation,” tacks closely to Mc-

SMALL FROM 15 Queen’s own childhood, during

which he was almost lost to Eng-

land’s punishingly caste-based

school system.

Singly and taken together, the

films of “Small Axe” create a po-

tent portrait of individuals, as

well as an entire community, that

have been virtually erased from

the cinematic record, along with

the suffering they endured from a

cruel and hostile system. Along-

side those tales of oppression and

resistance, “Lovers Rock” pro-

vides the balm of seeing people at

their most liberated, nourished

and self-sustaining. By bringing

these stories to light with such

clarity, feeling and immersive sen-

sory detail, McQueen performs a

powerful act of restorative jus-

tice: His is a cinema not just of

intoxicating beauty but of pro-

found healing. At one point in

“Red, White and Blue” Leroy Lo-

gan notes that the authorities who

routinely hound his friends and

family are playing a long game. So

is Steve McQueen and, if “Small

Axe” is any indication, it’s one that

he's indisputably winning.

[email protected]

Movies

BY MICHAEL O’SULLIVAN

For anyone who missed “The

Croods,” — the animated 2013

comedy about the survival strug-

gles of a family of cave-dwelling

Neanderthals — and their en-

counter with a more advanced

hominid, in the form of the Ryan

Reynolds-voiced Guy — the new

sequel opens with a brief pro-

logue, bringing us up to speed for

the next chapter in this highly

fanciful retelling of the Dawn of

Man. As “The Croods: A New Age”

gets underway, the titular family

— Nicolas Cage and Catherine

Keener as Grug and Ugga Crood,

with Emma Stone as their now-

besotted teenager daughter Eep,

all gaga for Guy — have piled onto

the back of their rainbow-hued

saber-toothed tiger (other family

members in tow) to explore the

world beyond their humble cav-

ern.

The film’s central tension aris-

es when the protagonists run into

the Bettermans, a family as

evolved as the Croods are primi-

tive, who live in a paradisiacal

encampment with bedding,

showers and the like. They’re

gatherers to the Croods’ hunters,

and the culture clash between the

two clans fuels the serviceable

narrative.

A side plot involves the roman-

tic rivalry between Eep and the

adolescent Dawn Betterman (Kel-

ly Marie Tran), whose social-

climbing parents (Peter Dinklage

and Leslie Mann) think that Guy

is a better match for their child

than he is for Eep and her knuck-

le-dragging kin. The theme of

female empowerment — centered

on the growing friendship be-

tween Eep and Dawn, and incor-

porating some climactic heroics

on the part of other female char-

acters, including Eep’s grand-

mother (Cloris Leachman) —

tempers the dumb, throwback

dynamic of two girls fighting over

a boy.

Ugga, indeed.

A scene in which Eep and

Dawn go out joyriding on the

Croods’ big cat — and from which

Dawn returns loopy on bee ven-

om after a sting — e stablishes

that this tale is not going to cling

to fossilized cliche.

But the anarchic spirit of the

film suggests the screenwriters

(brothers Kevin and Dan Hage-

man, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan)

may also have been a little high on

bee venom when they wrote this

thing. One of the modest delights

of the original film was its imagi-

native use of hybrid animal spe-

cies that never existed: bear fish;

piranha birds and such. That

quality continues — to an almost

absurd degree — in “A New Age,”

whose climax involves such trip-

py “Croodaceous” creatures as

wolf spiders, punch monkeys and

a confrontation with a spiny man-

drilla: a behemoth that is part

gorilla, part mandrill, part spiny

anteater and part King Kong.

Okay: So nobody said the mov-

ie was a lesson in paleobiology.

What you (or your impression-

able kids) might take away from

this larky, slightly lunatic film is a

moral about social collaboration

and community. Those things are

signs of cultural sophistication —

evidence that we’re not troglo-

dytes anymore — that, sadly,

sometimes seem sorely lacking

these days.

[email protected]

PG. At area theaters. Contains

peril, action and rude humor. 95

minutes.

Ratings guide

Masterpiece



Very good



Okay



Poor



Plus

New movies available

online 18

Common Sense Media 19

Opening next week

Frances McDormand plays

a woman who has lost

everything in the Great

Recession in Nomadland.

A fairy-tale wedding is

threatened by the groom’s

cancer in All My Life.

Two men who have just

discovered that they’re

related take a road trip in

Half Brothers.

Editor’s note: Several movie

theaters in Northern Virginia

and Maryland have re-

opened, with policies in place

to make moviegoing a safer

experience. These policies in-

clude: reduced auditorium

seating capacity and socially

distanced concession check-

out; enhanced cleaning pro-

tocols and hand-washing by

employees; mask require-

ments (except while guests

are eating or drinking in the

auditorium). For more infor-

mation on specific policies

that have been implemented

— and such perks as contact-

less concession ordering, via

Showplace Icon’s Icon Extras

app — v isit amcthe-

atres.com, cinemark.com,

bowtiecinemas.com,

angelikafilmcenter.com/mo-

saic, cinemaartstheatre.com,

universitymalltheatres.com

and showplaceicon.com. Re-

gal Cinemas recently an-

nounced the temporary clo-

sure of all its theaters, while

the AMC and Cinemark

chains plan to remain open

for now. Theaters in the Dis-

trict remain closed.

The Croods: A New Age 

Neanderthal story with some smarts

PHOTOS BY DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

The animated sequel

centers on a clash

between cultures

TOP: In the animated

sequel “The Croods: A

New Age,” a family of

Neanderthals meets a

more evolved family.

Actors providing the

voices include Nicolas

Cage, Catherine Keener,

Peter Dinklage, L eslie

Mann, Cloris Leachman,

Clark Duke and Kailey

Crawford. ABOVE: Rival

teens Eep Crood, left,

and Dawn Betterman are

voiced by Emma Stone

and Kelly Marie Tran,

respectively.

Unrated. Available on Amazon

Prime Video. “Red, White and Blue”

will be available Dec. 4. “Alex

Wheatle” will be available Dec. 11.

“Education” will be available. Dec.

18. Contains profanity, violence,
    disturbing material and mature
    themes. 68-126 minutes per
    installment.