By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
The new, upbeat romantic comedy “Love, Simon” has already broken records: it’s the first major studio PG-13 wide-release, playing in multiplexes, to revolve around an openly homosexual adolescent.
Based on Becky Albertalli’s 2015 YA novel, “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda,” the narrative introduces popular, 17 year-old high school senior Simon Spier (Nick Robinson), who ruefully notes he’s never ‘the leading guy.’ Instead, he’s relegated to being ‘the best friend.’
So Simon decides: “I’m done living in a world where I don’t get to be who I am. I deserve a great love story.”
Affable Simon lives in an idyllic Atlanta suburb with empathetic parents (Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel) and younger sister (Talitha Eliana Bateman), plus a trio of supportive pals (Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr.).
But Simon hasn’t ‘come out’ yet. His reluctance leaves him open to blackmail by a Drama Club classmate (Logan Miller) when his mysterious ‘virtual’ love interest is revealed.
“I’m supposed to be the one who decides when and where and who knows,” Simon responds.
It seems that Simon, utilizing the pseudonym ‘Jacques,’ has been corresponding on the school’s chat board with another anonymous student, dubbed ‘Blue,’ who is also gay. As suspense builds, Blue’s identity is kept secret until the sealed-with-a-kiss climax.
Adapted by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger (TV’s “This is Us,” “About a Boy”), it’s directed by teen-savvy Greg Berlanti (TV’s “Dawson’s Creek,” “Brothers & Sisters”), who notes: “There’s as many different LGBTQ experiences as there are different kinds of people … and, hopefully, this film makes it easier for them to tell their story.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Love, Simon” is a sweetly sincere, sensitive 7, a timely, yet different coming-of-age story.
Movies for and about seniors, like “The Leisure Seeker,” are few and far between, particularly when Helen Mirren teams up with Donald Sutherland for a nostalgic journey.
John Spencer (Sutherland) is a retired English professor, devoted to the works of Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Herman Melville. Although he can quote verbatim from literary works, he’s becoming increasingly debilitated from Alzheimer’s/dementia, which renders him incapable of remembering even the most mundane details — like what day it is and his wife’s name.
So it’s caregiver Ella Spencer (Mirren) who suggests they climb into their 1975 Winnebago Indian RV, nicknamed the Leisure Seeker, for one last road trip from their home in Wellesley, Massachusetts, to Key West, Florida. It may be a ridiculous idea, she concedes, but what do they have to lose?
Enjoying simple pleasures, they stop at familiar campgrounds. At night, they look at photographs of family and friends that Ella projects onto a makeshift screen. That leads to reminiscing about particular incidents during their decades-long marriage, while accusing each other of alleged infidelities.
Inevitably, their narrative delves into death and dying, particularly the idea of “choosing” how one dies.
But their adult children (Christian McKay, Janel Moloney) had no idea their parents were leaving and are worried because Ella is also gravely ill, masking her pain with medicine and whiskey.
Donald Sutherland delivers a finely textured portrait of a dignified scholar in decline, while Helen Mirren imbues Ella with genuine warmth, despite her contrived Southern accent.
Working from a script he co-wrote, based on Michael Zadoorian’s novel, Italian director Paolo Virzi (“Human Capital”) never settles on a consistent tone, perhaps because it’s his first English-language film.
So it never measures up to Jane Fonda/Robert Redford’s “Our Souls at Night” (2017) or Blythe Danner/Sam Elliott’s “I’ll See You In My Dreams” (2016).
On the Granger Gauge, “The Leisure Seeker” is a gentle, bittersweet 6 — notable for its performances.
Anticipation of the international box-office propelled “Pacific Rim Uprising,” the generic sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 “Pacific Rim,” which flopped in the United States but made millions overseas.
Laden with special-effects, its sci-fi plot pitted humans against the Kaiju, alien-engineered sea monsters that emerged from a multidimensional gateway, known as the Breach, on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.
Sacrificing his life, Gen. Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) was one of the original’s heroes. Ten years later, mankind’s preservation is in the hands of Stacker’s rebellious son, Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), who notes, “I am not my father … my generation, we were born into war.”
A former Jaeger pilot, Jake makes a tidy sum from selling parts salvaged from decommissioned Jaegers, those giant human-shaped robots operated by co-pilots who mind-meld with the machinery and each other.
“If you can steal what no one else can,” he says. “You can live like a king.”
Spunky 15 year-old Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) is also after parts for her small, one-pilot Jaeger that she dubs Scrapper.
When Jake and Amara are apprehended by the authorities, they’re dispatched to train the next generation of Pan Pacific Defense Corps pilots at a Chinese military base, where Jake gets into a rivalry with Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood, who resembles his squinty-eyed father Clint).
Significantly, Guillermo del Toro (Oscar winner for “The Shape of Water”) is not directing this time ‘round. Instead, Steven S. DeKnight is at the helm, working from a simplistic script by Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder and T.S. Nowlin, based on characters created by Travis Beacham.
Rounding out the cast, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman return as eccentric scientists Dr. Newt Geiszler and Dr. Herrmann Gottlieb, plus Rinko Kikuchi as Jake’s adopted sister, Mako Mori.
Owned by the Beijing-based Dalian Wanda Group, Legendary Pictures backed this project, filmed in Australia and China.
On the Granger Gauge, “Pacific Rim Uprising” is a frustrating 5, featuring mindless, metallic mayhem.
(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.)
