ARTS 2924 August 2019 THE WEEKFilmAfilm built almost entirely around the premise that
it’s funny when children swear “won’t win everybody
over”, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent.
But fans of the lowbrow will enjoy this “rowdy”
comedy aboutatrio of foul-mouthed 12-year-olds
who resolve to learn how to kiss girls by spying on
their teenage neighbours. For all their bluster, the
boys are essentially clueless about adult business, said
Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. “They didn’t even
kiss!” one complains, after watching online porn.
Asajoke, it’s notabad one, said Tim Robey in The
Daily Telegraph–but unfortunately the writers of
this “doltish” comedy seem to have had no others. Instead of developing this story, about boys
enteringaworld they don’t understand, they simply dreamed upaseries of sexually suggestive
situations over which the hapless youngsters could be “dangled”, to get cheap laughs from adults.
Admittedly, the “kids say the funniest things” running gag gets repetitive, said Ben Travis in Empire.
But alongside it there are some touching meditations on friendship. The film hasa“dollop of
sweetness” to cut against the vulgarity, and the boys themselves turn in “winning performances”.Good Boys
Dir: Gene Stupnitsky
1hr 30mins (15)Lowbrow summer comedy
★★★Adapted from Anna Seghers’s 1944 novel, this
“tightly coiled” arthouse thriller is aboutayoung
German refugee who has fled from Paris to
Marseilles. There, he assumesadead writer’s identity
in the hopes of gettingatransit visa to the US, and
falls in love with the man’s widow. What’s striking
about the film is that although German director
Christian Petzold evokesadistinct atmosphere of the
past, he has transposed the action to what seems like
the present, said Simran Hans in The Observer. The
cars and clothes are contemporary, and Nazis are
never actually mentioned. The idea is to encourage
us to see this “existential riddle” ofafilm as an allegory, said Donald Clarke in The Irish Times.
Georg (Franz Rogowski) could beaJew fleeing fascist persecution, or someone caught up in
Europe’s current refugee crisis. It’s this “overlaying of history in Petzold’s vision–ringing
disturbingly few changes, because some things never change–that impresses most”, said Tim Robey
in The Daily Telegraph. The film’s love triangle plot line, remixing “Casablancawith sepulchral dabs
ofVertigo”, works less well, and rather “dampens the film’s dramatic charge”.Transit
Dir: Christian Petzold
1hr 42mins (12A)Arthouse thriller about
exile and alienation★★★★“No one was clamouring” forafeature-length, live-
action adaptation of the children’s cartoonDora the
Explorer,said Helen O’Hara in Time Out. But it
turns out to be “weirdly likeable”. Isabela Moner
plays Dora,ateenager who was brought up in the
rainforest by her archaeologist parents, but who is
now learning to survive the wilds of an American
high school–until her parents go missing. At this
point, she quits school and leads her awestruck
classmates on an expedition to Peru to find them.
Some elements of the film don’t work, said Clarisse
Loughrey in The Independent:avillain in the form of
atalking fox (Benicio del Toro) sits uneasily in the live-action setting. As for Dora’s CGI pet monkey,
it is so hyperactive you’ll want to strangle it, said Nigel Andrews in the FT. Her pals from LA are
also “tiringly upbeat”, even when coming under attack from scorpions and spears. There are some
good jokes, and Moner “has charm and energy”, but “if this is the foundation foralive-action
franchise, the creepers may already be finding the cracks in the project’s masonry”.Dora and the
Lost City of Gold
Dir: James Bobin
1hr 42mins (PG)Live-action version of
the TV cartoon★★In the run-up to Casey Affleck’s Oscar win in 2017, it
emerged that he had been sued for sexual harassment
in 2010 (a case he settled, while also protesting his
innocence). The allegations have continued to haunt
him, and his reputation has suffered. That may be
why the actor-writer-director’s “beautifully crafted”
new film has arrived with little fanfare, said Geoffrey
Macnab in The Independent.Asci-fi drama with a
slow-burning intensity,Light of My Lifeis set in a
future in whichaplague has all but destroyed the
female population. Affleck playsaman who must
move through this post-apocalyptic landscape passing
off his 11-year-old daughter (Anna Pniowsky) asaboy, to protect her. Affleck has recruitedatop-
notch cinematographer to evokeamournful mood, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph. Little
happens, but he builds suspense “through inaction”. The performances are excellent, said Bilge Ebiri
in The New York Times. But behind the camera, Affleck is less effective. His directorial style is just
too low key. The result is that although we’re “immersed” in the film, we’re not “involved” in it.Light of My Life
Dir: Casey Affleck
1hr 59mins (15)Downbeat sci-fi drama
with Casey Affleck★★★