Buzz Blog

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget ***
It’s not a ground-breaking piece of work, but Aardman’s 20-years-in-coming sequel manages to combine engaging filmmaking with a thoughtful central premise. After the events of the original Chicken Run involving an escape from a chicken farm, Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) are living with the rest of their fowl friends on an isolated island, raising their chick Molly (Bella Ramsey). But a chicken processing plant has opened nearby, and Molly’s interest in the outside world leads to the need for a rescue operation. With most of the original voice cast replaced, the character continuity is less important than a generally well-crafted adventure as directed by animation veteran Sam Fell (Flushed Away, ParaNorman), with satisfying production design including the elaborate, Bond-villain-appropriate lair of the story’s antagonists. The story itself, meanwhile—co-written by original Chicken Run writer Karey Kirkpatrick—offers both a cautionary tale about helicopter parenting and a reminder that those who believe in justice don’t have the luxury of sitting out the fight when they don’t immediately feel threatened. It all gets a little bit busy in the third act, and feels like the climax drags on longer than necessary. That’s more forgivable when you get the sense that everyone involved is actually putting in the effort to create something beyond the extension of a brand. Available Dec. 15 via Netflix. (PG)

The Disappearance of Shere Hite ***
Director Nicole Newnham’s profile of pioneering 1970s human sexuality researcher Shere Hite takes on a particularly interesting perspective when viewed through a contemporary lens of online anti-science rhetoric: It’s about how much people refuse to believe a thing is true if they don’t want it to be true, or if they can point to an anecdotal example for whom it’s not true. Hite proves to be a fascinating character even aside from all that, as Newnham digs into her work as a model (including pulp paperbacks and a James Bond movie poster) and her personal flamboyance, all of which made it easier, upon the publication of her controversial books like The Hite Report, for critics to attack her on a personal level for not meeting some standard of scientific “seriousness.” But the best material emerges as Hite comes under siege for conclusions about sexuality and gendered relationship dynamics that freak people out, leading to absurd scenarios like having to defend her research methodology on TV panels with a bunch of actors. It’s a bit surprising that the most personal content—like Hite’s diaries and other writings, as narrated by Dakota Johnson—ends up adding less to the story than simply observing Hite dealing with the public, but that alone makes for a depressingly timely tale of how dangerous inconvenient facts become to some people. Available Dec. 15 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (NR)

Fallen Leaves ***1/2
A cinematic tone that amounts to “deadpan sentimentality” isn’t an easy needle to thread, but Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s first feature in six years hits just right if you’re on the same wavelength. In contemporary Helsinki, working-class folks Ansa (Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) are muddling through their lives, occasionally missing their chance at connection, before finally spending a day together—then perhaps being separated again by fate. Kaurismäki efficiently builds the idea of how unfair the world seems to his protagonists, between penny-pinching capitalism, radio news covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Holappa’s depressed day-drinking and more. He presents it all in a way designed mostly to evoke wry smiles, with the lead performances capturing people who almost don’t dare to let themselves imagine a scenario where they could be truly happy. Yet Kaurismäki provides sporadic bursts of swelling strings and shots of autumn landscapes, and the filmmaker’s own obvious cinephilia—including a wonderfully silly movie date in which Ansa and Holappa see Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die—here drifts into nods towards romantic classics like An Affair to Remember. Movies can show us the world as it is, or the world as we wish it would be; this feels like Kaurismäki’s surprisingly effective attempt at having it both ways. Available Dec. 15 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (NR)

The Family Plan **
It’s not exactly a new premise—everything from Unforgiven to A History of Violence to John Wick to Nobody has done the “reformed killer-turned-domesticated guy pulled back into his old life” thing—so it’s easy to tell when the problem is the execution, not the concept. Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg) is the suburban husband and dad with a secret past, who’s found by his ex-associates after 18 years of trying to hide from his former life. Still trying to keep the secret from his wife Jessica (Michelle Monaghan) and two teenagers (Zoe Margaret Colletti and Van Crosby), Dan hits the road from Buffalo to Las Vegas—and what ensues should be a mix of action beats and sincerity as the family pulls closer together once they’re all allowed to be their authentic selves. But as reliably great as Monaghan is at Jessica reveling in a taste of pre-mom life, director Simon Cellan Jones and screenwriter David Coggeshall can’t find enough interesting hooks or genuine laughs between all the fistfights, car chases and shootouts; they’re too busy leaning into the Morgans’ baby perpetually giggling at all the carnage. The bigger problem is Wahlberg, who just doesn’t seem to have it in him to convey the simple dad, devoted Dan is supposed to have become. And we know, because we have more than a few examples of what that should look like. Available Dec. 15 via AppleTV+. (PG-13)

Wonka ***
See feature review. Available Dec. 15 in theaters. (PG)