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ELEMENTAL
**** As our world faces existential threats like a depleted water supply and increasingly deadly wildfires, the best weapon we have is information. So it matters that the Portland-made Elemental is not just a documentary, but a wonderfully constructed documentary that systemically outlines the challenges and failures of humanity’s battle against wildfires—and their impact on both people and the planet. The film, which is narrated by David Oyelowo (Selma), features interviews with world-renowned forest and climate experts, along with a cross-section of individuals impacted by and fighting back against the growing threat. Thanks to director Trip Jennings, it’s a comprehensive look at a war that isn’t lost, but must be redefined (“I have visited with scientists, investigators and firefighters and they have told me again and again that we can have healthy forests and safe communities, and that we can prepare for and adapt to fire,” Jennings says in his director’s statement). Parts of Elemental may be too academic for a wider audience, but the use of drone shots give a dynamic sense of scope to the documentary, while Nick Jaina’s velvety score brings texture to Jennings’ portrait of nature’s wrath and resilience. NOT RATED. RAY GILL JR. 7:30 pm Wednesday, July 20 at the Hollywood Theatre.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
**** An 80-year-old billionaire decides to ensure his legacy by financing the creation of an epic film about…anything. He hires eccentric filmmaker Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz), whose idea to adapt a Nobel Prize-winning novel called Rivalry sets the stage for Official Competition, a satirical adventure from Argentine filmmakers Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn. The film revolves around Lola’s collaboration with movie star Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas) and revered elder theater actor Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez), who are cast in her film as rival siblings. Félix and Iván engage in a strange series of acting exercises (which include suspending a boulder over the actors’ heads as they rehearse), their egos creating comedic friction as Lola cleverly manipulates them. Cohn and Duprat, who wrote the script with Duprat’s brother Andrés, employ precise symmetry and over-the-shoulder shots in conversations to draw the audience in, while using deliberately vapid visuals to enhance the characters’ isolation. The result? A surreal environment that allows Lola, Félix and Iván to gradually fade away from anything resembling normal society, making Official Competition a fascinating and subtly hilarious film to watch. R. RAY GILL JR. Cinema 21.
MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU
** The biggest animated universe in movie history is seemingly on cruise control in Minions: The Rise of Gru—which is of minimal concern to its tiny stars, who seem to be in a universe of their own. A prequel to the Despicable Me trilogy, the film begins with 12-year-old future master of evil Gru (Steve Carrell) living in 1970s suburbia and longing to join the Vicious 6, an infamous supervillain group. The Vicious 6 have just ousted their leader, Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin), and they hold open tryouts for a collection of dubious wannabes in a sequence reminiscent of the audition scene from Mystery Men. That’s just one of many scenarios framed against a vivid ‘70s backdrop that’s glorious to gaze at—you feel as if you’re not just looking at another time, but another world. Unfortunately, the creativity ends with the animation. Gru spends the bulk of the film with the forgettable Wild Knuckles just waiting to be rescued, limiting his interactions with the riotous, gibberish-talking Minions, who fight not only to save Gru, but the movie. PG. RAY GILL JR. Academy, Cedar Hills, City Center, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Jubitz, Living Room, Lloyd Center, OMSI, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin, Studio One, Tigard, Wunderland Beaverton, Wunderland Milwaukie.
THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER
** Thor: Love and Thunder, the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, begins with a graceful homage to The Tree of Life and ends with a tear-jerking climax that could have been written by Nicholas Sparks. It’s a gratifyingly weird film, but it isn’t good—and it casts serious doubts on director Taika Waititi’s next assignment, a Star Wars feature. Chris Hemsworth is back as Thor, the god of thunder and goofy pre-battle speeches, and so is Natalie Portman, who plays Thor’s ex-girlfriend, Dr. Jane Foster. Since the breakup, she’s acquired some serious superpowers—handy, since a mopey and murderous chap named Gorr (Christian Bale) is rampaging through the cosmos. The problem with this plot is that it’s actually four plots. In the name of why-the-heck-not excess, Waititi has made a movie that is simultaneously a somber father-daughter drama, a cheery romantic comedy, an eye-assaulting action spectacle, and a disease-of-the-week weepie. A more deft director (Edgar Wright, perhaps) might have coaxed the movie’s disparate parts to cohere, but Waititi doesn’t care about coherence. As his tactless, trivializing portrayal of a character’s stage IV cancer diagnosis suggests, he’s gotten lost in a maze of indulgent and seemingly random storytelling impulses. Thor: Love and Thunder wants to be witty and it wants to be moving, but its quest to be both is so scattershot it fails to be either. PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Academy, Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, Eastport, Fox Tower, Joy Cinema, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Roseway, St. Johns, St. Johns Twin, Studio One, Wunderland.