These are early times at the movies. For the first time since pandemic shootings began in the US in March, a handful of movies are coming to theaters – but not digitally at the same time. Theaters are currently reopening in some parts of the US, but will remain closed in others. Meanwhile, they are turning together internationally; Christopher Nolan’s Tenet plays already in several countries, although it will not hit most American theaters until the first weekend of Labor Day.
One movie that hits theaters and is like a digital hair or purchase Bill & Ted Face the Music, which concludes the trilogy that began with an excellent adventure in 1989 and continued with a false journey in 1991. The new film – which is absolutely delightful – follows Bill and Ted (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves), now fathers of teenage girls (Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine), as they try to write the song that will unite all humanity. (If you will not remember, we found out in the first movie that they will be revered in the distant future.)
Almost every original cast reunites for the film, with the addition of some fun new members, such as Jillian Bell, Holland Taylor, and Kristen Schaal. It’s a sweet, funny, heartwarming torso, and a worthy conclusion to a very trilogy. (You can rent FandangoNow, buy at various services, or watch in your local theater.)
As adaptations of classical literature become a little creative
Another great movie this weekend – but now only in theaters – is The personal history of David Copperfield, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1850 novel, directed by Armando Iannucci (Veep, In the loop) and starring Dev Patel.
It is Iannucci’s specialty that making satirical crafts takes on the absurd ways in which power functions in politics. The personal history of David Copperfield is also satirical, though it is a softer, less biting period piece than Iannucci’s phenomenally sharp 2018 film. The death of Stalin.
The Dickens adaptation features Patel as Copperfield, surrounded by a stacked cast that includes Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Ben Whishaw, Gwendoline Christie, Benedict Wong, and Peter Capaldi (as a pitch-perfect Mr. Micawber, the role that’s t he seems born to play). It retains an abundant sense of humor in its exploration of class and social norms, though the film is ultimately loving.
Like the character he plays – a young man with literary aspirations who dangles from relative to relative after his mother marries the sadistic Mr. Murdstone and maintains all sorts of mischief on the road to success – Patel is British, born and raised and raised in England. But unlike Copperfield, Patel was born to parents who emigrated from India. That casting choice has given meaning to the exploration of the story of social strictures and the long history of anti-Indian sentiment in England. And it means that the white characters who have themselves above-crusty and respectable, compared to the serious and set-up Copperfield, look even more comparable in comparison. Iannucci makes his point.
Mar The personal history of David Copperfield is hardly the first adaptation of a classic novel to fiddle with its source material in surprising ways – sometimes just for fun, and sometimes to make a point.
So if you do not – or simply do not want to – go to the theater this weekend, you can still enjoy a delightfully original retelling of an old story. Here are some of our favorites.
The Lion King (1994)
In the rare case of arcs, The Lion King conveys a story that looks suspiciously like that of Shakespeare Hamlet to the African savannah, and put it under a pride of lions, whose royal family has some problems with jealousy and claims to the throne. Simba, the young prince, is Hamlet; his uncle, Scar, murdered Simba’s father, King Mufasa, and took over the throne. Mufasa appears as a ghost to offer advice to his son. Nala is Ophelia, Simba’s lover, though fortunately she does not go crazy by ignoring and drowning him. And the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of this savannah are Timon and Pumbaa, who are just walking around. William S. would be proud. –Alissa Wilkinson
How to see it: The Lion King streams for Disney + subscribers. It is also available to rent or purchase digitally on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
On Baz Luhrmann can always be counted on to think outside the box, and in the case of Romeo + Juliet – which Shakespeare adapts from an older story, as he often did – Luhrmann swings big. The film draws directly from the text of The Bard, but now the Montagues and Capulets are against mafia families in America’s nineties. They do not duel with swords; they have guns. The names of a few characters have been updated, and a few details have been redesigned. But the spin of the mid-90s, which is remarkably effective and helped accelerate the then-rising stars of Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio, is familiar and fresh. The original piece was written for an audience of around 1600, but old resentments and star lovers were as common in the declining years of the 20th century as in the time of Shakespeare. —AW
How to see it: Romeo + Juliet is streamed for Starz subscribers. It is also available to rent digitally or buy on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, or Vudu.
An education (2009)
An education, a simultaneously effervescent and melancholy film directed by Lone Scherfig and starring Carey Mulligan, is based on a memoir of the same title by British journalist Lynn Barber. (The chapters that specifically inspired the film were also published in Granta.) But it has the bones of a different, older story, which is why Mulligan’s character, 16-year-old Jenny, reads. Jane Eyre in her English class, and why her teacher asks English in advance if Jenny’s older new friend is a “Mr. Rochester figure.” He is in the least possible way. What follows explains why An education is the only effective Jane Eyre modernization I have ever encountered: because it understands that when you move Jane Eyre from the 19th century you have to reckon with the fact that Mr. Rochester becomes a villain. –Constance Grady
How to see it: An education streams on Netflix.
Wuthering Heights (2012)
Andrea Arnold is hardly the first filmmaker to adapt Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, but she’s the first to portray Heathcliff as Black, who throws the whole story in a different light. Like at David Copperfield, the social distributions of Wuthering Heights jump into even bolder relief on the screen once race enters the photo. (This is also Arnold’s only film starring a male protagonist.) The film is a wild, cold, blistering tale of the story, in which orphaned Heathcliff (Solomon Glave) is treated badly by Hindley, the son of the family that Heathcliff ingested while holding a heavy passion for the daughter, Cathy (Shannon Beer). Years after he was expelled, Heathcliff returns (now played by James Howson) to the country house to find Cathy (Kaya Scodelario) married. And revenge is not sweet. –AW
How to see it: Wuthering Heights is streamed for Topic.com subscribers. It is available to stream for free (with ads) on Vudu and Crackle. And it is available to rent digitally or buy on iTunes, YouTube, Google Play and Vudu.
The story of Princess Kaguya (2013)
Studio Ghibli’s The story of Princess Kaguya is based on a Japanese folktale from the 10th century, The story of the bamboo cutter. That it’s not exactly an adaptation of a book you’ve seen in the library – instead it’s an illustration of one of Japan’s most famous stories. A poor bamboo shooter finds a baby a baby sleeps in a bamboo shoot, and takes her home. He and his wife immediately begin to think of this special child as not only worldly, but divine. She has to be a princess, she decides, and that’s how she chooses to raise her.
Princess Kaguya grows up from her rural, simple lifestyle, but as she grows older, she is banished to live a beautiful royal life in the city – with servants attending her and suitors following her – all the way to her. spit. Kaguya knows that her high status is what her parents dreamed for her so that she could live the privileged life they never had. But Kaguya has other ideas for herself.
Director Isao Takahata, in his latest film before his death in 2018, transforms this classic story into a beautiful, magical journey. Each frame looks like a ukiyo-e print in motion, kinetic and detached from the physical world. It is as wonderful to watch as it is heartbreaking; the animation style conveys both fear and the deep sadness of the source story. I doubt the movie will convince many viewers to look up the original folk tale, but they will surely escape knowing all their wonder and sorrow. –Allegra Frank
How to see it: The story of Princess Kaguya is streamed on HBO Max.
Mrs. Macbeth (2016)
Mrs. Macbeth is based on a Russian novella, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, published by Nikolai Leskov in 1865 (and, interestingly, in the Dostoevsky magazine called Epoch). But, in the hands of two Brits, playwright Alice Birch and director William Oldroyd, the story migrates to the United Kingdom and also deviates from the end of the novella. It’s a story of a woman who decides that she has, at last, had enough of the abusive, stifling, cruel men she has to live with – her dominant father-in-law and estranged husband – and takes her revenge. Starring Florence Pugh before she became a sensation for films like Midsummer en Little women, it’s cold, beautiful, shocking, and just a little delicious. –AW
How to see it: Mrs. Macbeth is available for digital rental or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
Also new and remarkable this week
- Epicentro, a non-fiction portrait of post-colonial Cuba, begins playing in virtual theaters on August 28th. (You buy a virtual ticket through one of the theaters listed on the movie’s website, and get a rental link; the proceeds are shared between the theater and the distributor.)
- Well everyone comes on Netflix on August 28th. Directed by Brett Haley (Hearts Beat Loud, The hero) and in the lead role Moana‘s Auliʻi Cravalho, it’s an adaptation of Matthew Quick’s YA novel Sort of Like a Rockstar, about a talented teenager who tries to keep her homeless a secret.
- Lingua Franca was released on August 26 on Netflix through the distribution company Ava DuVernay. A love story about a trans Filipina caregiver who is undocumented and trying to get a green card, the film made history at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 for the first film directed by and featuring an open trans woman of color which was displayed in competition.
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