The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-03)

A12| Thursday, December 3, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Thursday, December 3, 2020 |A

Clockwise from top

left: ‘A Suitable Boy,’

‘News of the World,’

‘Wonder Woman 1984,’

‘One Night In Miami,’

'Sound of Metal,’ ‘The

Midnight Sky,’

‘Bridgerton,’ ‘Mank,’

'Soul,' ‘The Prom’ and

‘Ma Rainey’s Black

Bottom.’

films such as “The Secret of

Kells.” Main character Robyn is

an English girl who follows her

father on his mission to hunt

down wolves outside their

walled city and tangles with a

shapeshifter her own age. Un-

like the marauding werewolves

in monster movies, the wolf-

walkers embody the rebellious

spirit of a land that English col-

onists are trying to tame.

The contrasting looks of dif-

ferent settings and characters

“show what’s going on in their

internal worlds,” says director

and studio co-founder Tomm

Moore. The town ruled by an

imperious Lord Protector

(based on Oliver Cromwell) is

rendered with blocky lines and

geometric shapes emulating

woodcut illustrations of the era.

But the wilderness beyond and

its creatures are drawn with or-

ganic swirls and sketchy lines.

“It imbues this energy and wild-

ness and freeness that a perfect

line doesn’t have,” says co-di-

rector Ross Stewart.

‘Ma Rainey’s Black

Bottom’

In theaters; Netflix, Dec. 18

The death of Chadwick Boseman

looms over the release of what

turned out to be the “Black Pan-

ther” star’s final performance

on film. He’s Levee, a cocksure

trumpeter who ratchets up the

tension during a recording ses-

sion in Chicago, 1927. Viola Da-

vis plays the tough title charac-

ter, a blues singer in a standoff

with Levee and white record-

company men over control of

her music.

The power of Black artistry

and the exploitation of it are

themes of “Ma Rainey’s Black

Bottom.” The film follows

2016’s “Fences” as part of a 10-

play cycle by August Wilson,

with plans for more adaptations

from producer Denzel Washing-

ton and Netflix.

The movie was shot about a

year before Mr. Boseman died of

colon cancer. None of the actor’s

colleagues knew he was ill, says

producer Todd Black. Likewise,

he thinks viewers will temporar-

ily forget Mr. Boseman’s death

when they get immersed in his

electric performance—sly, funny,

minds,” says Angie (Nicole Kid-

man). They’re supposed to be

ridiculous, but so too are locals

who boo them.

The stage musical on which

“The Prom” is based does not

include a romance between an

older woman and a younger

man. But the movie directed by

“Glee” creator Ryan Murphy

pairs Ms. Streep with a high

school principal played by Kee-

gan-Michael Key in a corsage-

pinned love story. Ms. Streep

took other risks, including but

not limited to rapping over the

closing credits, where she

rhymes “new drama” with “Mi-

chelle Obama.”

‘Wolfwalkers’

In theaters; Apple TV+, Dec. 11

For viewers used to the com-

puter-generated polish of Pixar

and other animation giants, the

work of independent studio Car-

toon Saloon might look surpris-

ingly—perhaps refreshingly—

raw. The directors of

“Wolfwalkers,” the studio’s lat-

est hand-drawn feature film, use

words like “scratchy” and

“hairy” to describe the line

work for certain characters who

inhabit the bodies of wolves and

humans.

Set in 1650, the story pulls

from the mythology of Ireland,

where Cartoon Saloon was

founded 21 years ago and went

on to produce Oscar-nominated

sexy, and explosive—and that of

the ensemble, which includes

Colman Domingo, Michael Potts

and Glynn Turman as Levee’s

bandmates.

‘One Night In Miami’

In theaters Dec. 25, Amazon, Jan. 15

Huddled together in a motel

room in 1964, Muhammad Ali,

Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Mal-

colm X are not yet icons of his-

tory. They’re four men hashing

out their commitments to a civil

rights struggle at a critical junc-

ture, along with feelings of ambi-

tion, duty, anger and fear.

“One Night In Miami” is the

first feature film directed by Os-

car-winning actress Regina King,

who says she tried to humanize

the characters by zeroing in on

their vulnerabilities. “That’s a word

that you don’t hear used in rela-

tion to these men, these luminar-

ies,” she says. “They just dropped

their last names for me.”

Ali is still known as Cassius

on the night depicted in the film,

based on a real gathering follow-

ing his championship victory

over Sonny Liston. In the screen-

play by Kemp Powers, adapted

from the writer’s 2013 stage play,

Malcolm X argues for more

forceful actions against racism,

like for Cooke to use his voice

for protest instead of pop croon-

ing. Ms. King says she had been

looking for a historical romance

to direct, but this story fit in a

different way. “This, no doubt, is

a love story,” she says, “a love

letter for Black men.”

HOLIDAY ENTERTAINMENT

TOP: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SEAN MCCABE, PHOTOS: ACORN TV, AMAZON STUDIOS, DISNEY+, HBO MAX, NETFLIX, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS; FROM LEFT: NETFLIX; APPLE TV+; AMAZON STUDIOS; UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

Kingsley Ben-Adir is Malcolm X in

‘One Night In Miami.’

Trevor (Chris Pine), who ap-

peared to meet a fiery end in the

first movie. Newcomers include

Kristen Wiig as a villain who

transforms into a cheetah.

The film, shot in 2018, was

postponed from the summer,

causing worries that it might

seem stale if it held much longer.

Putting it in cinemas now could

provide theater owners some

much-needed revenue, says Ms.

Jenkins. “The theaters very much

asked us to do this and I believe

in it for that reason,” the direc-

tor says. “I hope we are super

helpful to the theater business as

well as the film industry by

showing people are dying to go

back to the movie theaters when

they can.”

‘Soul’

Disney+, Dec. 25

The animation wizards at Pixar

consulted everyone from scien-

tists to spiritual gurus during the

development of their exploration

of life’s essence. “Soul” centers

on Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) a

middle school band teacher

whose big break as a jazz pianist

is still eluding him in middle age.

Just as Joe’s about to get his

shot he dies. Or close to it,

launching the movie into car-

toony speculation about what

happens to us before, during and

after our time on Earth.

The existential journey of

“Soul” covers a range of visual

styles. From the realism of Joe’s

big hands moving along a piano

keyboard, to a netherworld of ab-

‘The Midnight Sky’

In theaters in December; Netflix,

Dec. 23

In a post-apocalyptic tale fit for

our social-distancing moment,

miles of physical and emotional

space separate the characters of

“The Midnight Sky.” A scientist

portrayed by George Clooney is

desperate to prevent a space

crew from returning to Earth,

which has been ravaged by an

unexplained tragedy. Terminally

ill and isolated in an abandoned

Arctic station, Mr. Clooney’s Au-

gustine also must care for a mys-

terious girl he discovers there.

Astronauts played by Felicity

Jones and David Oyelowo are a

couple with a baby on the way,

but they keep their relationship at

a remove as they try to figure out

what happened to humanity back

home. Ms. Jones’s character was

not pregnant in the screenplay,

but while shooting the actress an-

nounced she was going to have a

baby. After considering digital

face-replacement and body dou-

bles, Mr. Clooney, who directed

the film, decided to change her

character’s story arc to include

her pregnancy.

“The film demonstrates how

fragile we are, how fragile the

planet is, how fragile life is,”

says Mr. Oyelowo. “It speaks

about connection being one of

the only things of real value that

we have. To have a film that re-

minds us of that when so much

is being stripped away is not a

bad thing.”

‘Wonder Woman 1984’

In theaters and on HBO Max, Dec. 25

The sequel to the 2017 hit “Won-

der Woman,” this time set in the

1980s era of big hair and break-

dancing, is arriving in theaters

and simultaneously on HBO Max,

a coordinated release that

marked a milestone for a major

action movie. “Wonder Woman

1984” is one of the season’s only

would-be blockbusters that has

not put off its premiere to 2021.

In the follow-up to “Wonder

Woman,” which grossed more

than $821 million worldwide, Gal

Gadot returns as the Amazon

warrior of the title. She is re-

united with love interest Steve

stract shapes and cute munchkin

souls on their way to or from life.

A cranky one trying to avoid exis-

tence (Tina Fey) gets tied to Joe,

leading to odd-couple comedy.

Pete Docter, Pixar’s chief cre-

ative officer, directed the movie

with help from co-writer Kemp

Powers (who also wrote “One

Night In Miami”). For families

who seek out the Christmas Day

release on Disney+, “Soul” could

spark some interesting, possibly

awkward, conversations about

people’s purpose in life.

‘Bridgerton’

Netflix, Dec. 25

The new eight-part series from

executive producer Shonda

Rhimes uses some sleight of

hand to mash 1800s England

with 2020 culture. Are the em-

pire-waist dresses from Jane

Austen’s closet or an aspirational

Instagram feed? Classical instru-

ments play music that, on closer

listening, turn out to be pop hits.

And society accepts an intermin-

gling of Black and white royalty

and coupledom without any Re-

gency Era gasps.

Instead, the heaving bosoms

of “Bridgerton”—and there are

many—are saved for the stuff of

early 19th-century marriage mar-

kets. Women are property, men

are rakes and everybody wants

what they can’t have. Then the

plot twists.

“For us, the fun was the idea

of an inclusive version of history,”

says Betsy Beers, an executive

producer of the series, based on

the romance novels by Julia

Quinn. Some period touches felt

too dowdy for the show even if

they would have been accurate.

“There are no bonnets in the

world of ‘Bridgerton,’” says series

creator Chris Van Dusen. “These

characters were chic, they had the

swagger and the style, they were

the celebrities of the time. When

someone is watching the show,

we wanted them to look at these

characters the way the characters

would be looking at themselves.”

‘News of the World’

In theaters Dec. 25, streaming on

demand in January

Civil War veteran Capt. Kidd

(Tom Hanks), who travels the

country reading newspaper sto-

ries to rowdy crowds for a living,

is a master of early infotainment.

He also is a broken person in

need of healing, which begins

when he helps an abandoned

white girl who had been kid-

napped and raised by the Kiowa

tribe of the Great Plains.

The Kiowa people asked that

only members of their tribe play

Kiowa characters in “News of the

World,” and that their endan-

gered language be featured, says

director Paul Greengrass. The ac-

tress playing the orphan studied

Kiowa. “There are about 300 liv-

ing fluent speakers,” says Pau-

lette Jiles, who wrote the 2016

novel on which the film is based.

“I was hoping if people heard Ki-

owa in the film they would get

some interest in helping save the

language.”

Universal Pictures is releasing

the movie in cinemas on Christ-

mas Day. It won’t stream until

January. “They want to put a flag

in the sand,” Mr. Greengrass says

of the studio. “At a certain point,

you can’t be in the theatrical mo-

tion-picture business without re-

leasing films.”

Tom Hanks’ Capt. Kidd must help an abandoned girl in ‘News of the World.’

‘A Suitable Boy’

Acorn TV streaming service, Dec. 7

Director Mira Nair was shooting

“A Suitable Boy,” an adaptation

of a Vikram Seth historical novel

set in 1951, when she mentioned

to her brother that she was stag-

ing an erotic dream sequence.

“He said, ‘Erotic dream? But it’s

a period film,’” recalls Ms. Nair.

“Like we’re in straitjackets and

chastity belts.”

The BBC One production is

Ms. Nair’s first miniseries. It

is based on a huge novel—

even “War and Peace” is

thinner than this 1,488-page

paperback. “I have carried a

torch for the novel since the

day it was brought into the

world,” says Ms. Nair, an In-

dian-American filmmaker,

whose movies include “Monsoon

Wedding.” “It was a portrait of a

time when we as a country had to

find ourselves.”

The saga of four families is

set four years after India’s

bloody partition and indepen-

dence from the British. It re-

volves around a mother’s search

for an appropriate match for her

last unmarried daughter.

The six-part series features a

Hindu-Muslim romance whose

kissing scene against the back-

drop of a temple recently out-

raged politicians in India. “At its

foundation is an eternal ques-

tion,” Ms. Nair says. “Is it possi-

ble to be happy without making

others unhappy?”

‘The Prom’

In theaters Dec. 4; Netflix, Dec. 11

The story is set in the angst fac-

tory of high school, where Emma

(Jo Ellen Pellman) has been

barred from taking her girl-

friend to the prom. A gang of

self-absorbed Broadway per-

formers led by Meryl Streep and

James Corden are desperate for

good press. They take up

Emma’s cause, storming small-

town Indiana like the troops at

Normandy.

“We are liberals from Broad-

way,” announces Trent (Andrew

Rannells) after bursting into the

school gym in a “New York

City” t-shirt. “We are here to

open your hearts and your

In ‘Wolfwalkers,’ humans inhabit

the bodies of wolves.

L

ike so many rituals this

year, Hollywood’s holiday

rollout is happening

mostly online. From big-

budget movies to lure

families over Christmas,

to serious-minded films to at-

tract award nominations,

they’re appearing on digital

platforms, often at the same

time (or soon after) they debut

in theaters.

It’s a tradeoff for filmmakers

who know fewer people will see

their movies in the ideal setting

they had envisioned. “The

movie plays much better on a

big IMAX screen,” says director

Patty Jenkins, whose “Wonder

Woman 1984” is hitting theaters

and IMAX screens wherever

they’re open on Christmas Day,

the same time it arrives in liv-

ing rooms on HBO Max. “Cer-

tainly the experience is far bet-

ter the bigger the TV and the

better the sound. It hurts a lit-

tle bit to think of people watch-

ing it on their phone, but they

do inevitably anyway.”

Even with concerns about

the future of the theatrical ex-

perience, there is convenience—

and a broad selection of proj-

ects from some of Hollywood’s

biggest talents. Below, some

highlights from the films and

series coming over the holiday

entertainment season.

‘Sound of Metal’

In theaters; Amazon, Dec. 4

In “Sound of Metal,” Riz Ahmed

plays a metal musician who

abruptly loses his hearing on

tour, then washes up in a halfway

house for recovering addicts who

are deaf.

Mr. Ahmed learned drums and

sign language to play the drum-

mer, Ruben, who struggles to

cope. “Everything I thought I

loved and everything that gave

me meaning is gone, so who am I

now?” the actor said in an inter-

view, summing up his character’s

state of panic and anguish.

Director Darius Marder says

the sounds in the film—and the

distortion and absence of them—

needed to be as immersive as

Mr. Ahmed’s performance. Super-

vising sound editor Nicolas

Becker, who helped craft the

soundscape of space in “Gravity,”

used stethoscope microphones to

record Mr. Ahmed’s breathing,

swallowing and other interior

noises that become more pro-

nounced as Ruben’s hearing

recedes.

The use of captions (including

one that gives the movie its title)

is intended both for deaf viewers

and those who can hear, Mr.

Marder says: “Captions bring hear-

ing people closer to their aware-

ness of sound itself and what we

take for granted.” The director la-

ments that the majority of the

movie’s audience won’t experience

it in cinemas designed for superior

sound. He suggests that unless

viewers have top-notch home-the-

ater sound at home, they should

watch “Sound of Metal” while

wearing headphones.

‘Mank’

In theaters; Netflix, Dec. 4

Herman J. Mankiewicz had a long

career in Hollywood before co-

writing the 1941 classic “Citizen

Kane.” He is credited with dream-

ing up one of the best special ef-

fects in movie history, when black-

and-white Kansas turns to color in

“The Wizard of Oz.”

Yet he battled

doubts about his

own seriousness.

“Citizen Kane” was

his bid to change

that. “Mank” shows

the alcoholic

screenwriter dictat-

ing the first draft of

a script—co-au-

thored by Orson

Welles—that would

bring new literary

subtlety to movie-

making.

Director David

Fincher and his

late father Jack

Fincher, who wrote

the script for “Mank,” related to

the notion of an artist whose best

work had not yet been required of

him. In the early 2000s, as his fa-

ther battled cancer, Mr. Fincher

brought up the screenplay on

their drives to chemo appoint-

ments. “It harkened to more nor-

mal times,” he says. “It was pretty

clear he was not going to survive

this and see it.”

Years later, after his father

died, Mr. Fincher was finishing

his work on the Netflix series

“Mindhunter” when a top Netflix

executive asked what he wanted

to do next. “Mank” was his an-

swer. The movie idea he had bat-

ted around for 30 years had fi-

nally found a home.

Amanda Seyfried plays Marion Davies in ‘Mank.’

WHAT TO

WATCH DURING

THE HOLIDAY

SEASON

‘Wonder Woman,’ Meryl Streep, George

Clooney and even more Hollywood A-listers

are coming to a small screen near you

BYELLENGAMERMAN

ANDJOHNJURGENSEN

PERSONAL JOURNAL.

NY