Reviewing Movies

So it’s a tear-jerker, how could it be other. It’s also confirmation of the challenge of making a decent movie from a half-decent book. Young love is one thing but add the fact that both young stars are dying of cancer and it ups the ante. Ansel Elgort is as pretty as billed. Laura Dern who played the teacher who was dying in October Skies plays Hazel Grace’s mother. Willem Dafoe Van Hoeten the much vilified author. That the young pair visited Anne Frank’s attic home adds additional irony. Nat Wolff plays Augustus’ friend who loses his eyes and emotes enough for all three. If nothing else this movie illustrates that challenges facing those who surround and support cancer sufferers and the injustice of hospital rules that restrict visits to immediate family.

As the ten-episode season starts we’ve jumped seven months. A lot seems to have happened in that time. As a mole betrays top-level secrets Hal begins having bizarre dreams. Ben decides to pass on surgery to remove his implants if it means losing his strength, needing glasses again and asthma meds. Matt is suddenly a gangly rebellious teenager. Tom has returned with a new alien and the handsome Robert Sean Leonard is unrecognizable as the reclusive mad scientist Kadar. Tom and Ann Glass have a baby girl Lexie who shows preternaturally precocious tendencies only to her mother. The action this season centres around Charleston. Episode 7 provides a flashback that shows life in professor Tom Mason’s household pre-invasion and a chance to see the cast in unique roles. Cut through all the sci-fi, the action-adventure and it is still the family relationships that hold this series together.

The title may be Joe but remind Cage of the adage about being cast with children and animals for this movie belongs to Ty Sheridan as Gary the boy/man trapped in a family with an abusive father. It is his life that drives the story arc. Gary’s father is played by a rubby plucked from the streets of Austin Texas who didn’t live to see the movie screened, he doesn’t so much act as play himself. By all means watch the supplemental material on this DVD if for no other reason than to see footage of Larry Brown the author of the book upon which this is based. As those additions explain turning a book into a movie entails deciding what you consider the essential storyline and cutting out the rest, in this case more than 90% of the book including Gary’s sister Fay whose story is the book’s sequel. There is violence, the pumping of Cages’ naked butt in rut, villainy, brutality but the director’s light touch and sympathy for his characters fails to portray anyone as evil or gruesome. Definitely read the book before you rent the movie.