By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Jake Kasdan strikes gold again with “Jumanji: The Next Level,” continuing family-friendly fantasy he introduced in “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (2017), in which four teenagers get sucked into playing a mysterious video game in which they ‘become’ intrepid explorers.
It’s now a year later, and Spencer (Alex Wolff) is coming home from college in New York to visit his family and friends over winter break. Feeling anxious and awkward, he once again turns to the magical game, hoping to assume to confident persona of Dr. Smoulder Bravestone (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson).
But the game has a different twist. Suddenly, Spencer’s grouchy Grandpa Eddie (Danny DeVito) becomes muscle-bound Bravestone and Eddie’s estranged pal/ former business partner Milo (Danny Glover) turns into genial “Mouse” Finbar (Kevin Hart), the zoologist
Spencer’s friends also assume their avatars. While Martha (Morgan Turner) again plays Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), football star Fridge (Ser‘Darius Blain) becomes portly cartographer Prof. Shelly Oberon (Jack Black), while bubbly Bethany (Madison Iseman) is somehow left behind, temporarily.
They’re all searching for Spencer. Plus, there’s the pickpocket, Ming Fleetfoot (Awkwafina), who figures prominently, since the only way they all can escape Jumanji’s challenge this time is to recover a gem from the barbaric tyrant, Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann).
Does the inventive plot by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg and director Jake Kasdan sound confusing? It is, at times, but it’s also great fun watching these actors playing against type and trying to imitate one another. And, yes, Colin Hanks and Nick Jonas reprise their previous roles in cameos.
Plus there’s lots of FX action, including an attack by hundreds of angry, fast-running ostriches and an escape on spinning, suspended rope bridges while they’re being pursued by ferocious mandrills.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 20, “Jumanji: The Next Level” is a perilous, body-swapping 7 — and stay through the credits.
Clint Eastwood’s new docudrama “Richard Jewell” purports to be about an innocent victim persecuted by the FBI and the media. Instead, it vilifies a female reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a demeaning characterization that even actress Olivia Wilde finds distasteful.
In 1996, Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) was a security guard who was suspected of placing a bomb in Atlanta’s Centennial Park during the Olympics. Journalist Kathy Scruggs (Wilde) broke the story that Jewell was under investigation, supposedly after trading sex for the tip from an FBI agent (Jon Hamm).
At first acclaimed as a hero, Jewell was subsequently depicted as a frustrated gun owner who lived with his mom (Kathy Bates) and had a history of aggressively misusing his power. His only defender was attorney Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell).
Based on Marie Brenner’s 1997 Vanity Fair article “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell,” screenwriter Billy Ray and director Clint Eastwood perpetuate a misleading, misogynistic depiction of female journalists.
Kathy Scruggs died in 2001, so she cannot defend herself, although her colleagues deny that she ever slept with a source. Atlanta-Constitution editor-in-chief Kevin Riley decries the film’s “malicious fabrications … at a time when journalism’s under almost constant attack, it seems irresponsible.”
Scruggs’ former editor Bert Roughton adds: “She was boisterous and often pretty profane, but she was also a pro. They made her seem as if she was this viper who was willing to do anything to get a story. Having known Kathy — that just couldn’t be less true.”
And Oliva Wilde said, “I do not believe Kathy ‘traded sex for tips.’ Nothing in my research suggested she did … I cannot speak for the creative decisions made by the filmmakers, but it’s important to me that I share my personal take on the matter.”
At the Atlanta premiere, Eastwood shrugged, “Kathy Scruggs was a very interesting personality, and she did find the answer to it. So how she did it, nobody probably will ever know.”
On the Granger Gauge, “Richard Jewell” is an inexcusably sexist 6, which is a shame because it trivializes a thought-provoking concept.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is a proverb dating back to the 11th century’s French Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who wrote, “Hell is full of good intentions and wishes.”
That’s perhaps the best way to describe Trey Edward Shults’ “Waves” about an upper-middle-class, African American family in suburban South Florida. Ronald Williams (Sterling K. Brown) is a domineering father who thinks he’s doing all the right things to keep his volatile 18 year-old son Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) on the right track.
When Tyler decides to become a star wrestler, his demanding dad not only rigorously works out with him, flexing in front of a mirror, but insists that the family, including his wife Catherine (Renee Elise Goldsberry) and Tyler’s younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell), attend every meet.
Feeling stifled, Tyler keeps a serious shoulder injury secret, stealing his dad’s Oxycodone to help with the pain. And when Tyler discovers his girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie) is pregnant, he keeps that secret too.
Shults’ script structure suddenly changes when tragedy occurs. There’s a tonal shift to quiet, teenage Emily’s perspective, as she builds an emotional relationship with a new boyfriend, Luke (Lucas Hedges).
Writer/director Trey Edward Shults (“Krisha,” “It Comes St Night”) very slowly builds to the pivotal crisis, weaving a complex web of pain, guilt, love and forgiveness. And some of it was very personal:
“My dad (artist Kelvin Harrison Sr.) is an insanely good musician, so he really wanted me to be the best jazz pianist and trumpet player that I could be. But the practice and performing (proved so rigorous) — that I finally told him, ‘This is not fun anymore. It’s not a hobby; it’s not setting me up for anything. It makes me resent you … and it’s making me resent this craft.”
On the Granger Gauge, “Waves” is an overwrought, anguished 6, a domestic melodrama, reflecting parent-child pressures.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
