Movie reviews: 'Old' is melodramatic, but there are enough thrills to make it time well spent

OLD: 3 STARS

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Nolan River in a scene from "Old." (Universal Pictures via AP)

They grow up so quickly. That’s what everyone always says when you have kids. That old axiom comes to horrifying life in “Old,” the new film from director thrill meister M. Night Shyamalan, now playing in theatres.

Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps are Guy and Prisca Capa, parents to 11-year-old daughter Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and six-year-old son Trent (Nolan River). They are headed for divorce, but before the ink dries on the legal papers, they want one last three-day family vacation at a fancy resort.

“Can you believe I found this place on-line?” says Prisca, taking in the beautiful hotel.

Despite tension between mom and dad, the kids have fun, and when the resort offers an invitation to visit an exclusive beach, they eagerly accept.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” purrs the manager.

Coming along on the day trip is an assortment of other guests, including high strung cardiothoracic surgeon, Charles, (Rufus Sewell) and his family, rapper Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre) and long-married couple Jarin (Ken Leung) and Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird).

A shadow is cast on the day of sun, surf and sand when a dead woman washes ashore on the beach. Trying to call for help, the panicked vacationers quickly realize they are alone, isolated, with no cell service or anyway to get back to civilization.

When the mysterious body decomposes right in front of their eyes, wounds heal instantly and their kids begin to age two years every hour, they realize, in a masterstroke of understatement that “there’s something wrong with this beach.” “It’s hard to explain,” adds Guy.

Is it mass hysteria or is something more sinister happening?

Based on the graphic novel “Sandcastle,” by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters, “Old” has an intriguing premise, one that could sit on the shelf comfortably next to the “Twilight Zone” box set. But the ain’t-it-funny-how-time-slips-away premise is almost undone by painfully bad dialogue and the strangely muted reactions of most of the characters.

When your six-year-old grows up and has a baby in a matter of hours I would expect some deep introspection alongside shrieks and confused looks. Instead, this group is unusually accepting of the beyond-strange situation.

Having said that, Shyamalan is a stylist who creates arthouse horror in “Old.” He effectively builds tension—most of the movie is as taut as a tightrope—and finds interesting ways of showing, not telling, the character’s physical changes, such as blindness and hearing loss. In addition, the really terrible stuff is mostly off screen, an old school Val Lewton technique, that allows the audience to imagine things much worse than he could show us.

Beyond the horror are poignant messages about embracing the time we have and that a life that whips by without memories or experiences is time wasted. As time passes, the movie suggests, leaving things unsaid and undone are the greatest crimes in the timelines of our lives.

“Old” is melodramatic and has a protracted ending that wraps things up without providing much satisfaction, but Shyamalan provides enough thrills to make it time well spent.

JOLT: 3 STARS

Kate Beckinsale is seen in the film "Jolt." (Busted Shark Productions)

After a few years of appearing in adult dramas, “Underworld” star Kate Beckinsale is kicking butt again. The former action star clenches her fists in “Jolt,” a hard-hitting comedy now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Lindy (Beckinsale) gets mad. Really, really mad.

Doctors believe her uncontrolled rage is rooted in a troubled childhood but whatever the reason, no one is safe from her wrath. Loud chewers. Rude waiters. Men who wear flip flops with jeans. It doesn’t take much to set her off.

She’s tried a laundry list of “cures,” but nothing quelled her murderous anger until psychiatrist Dr. Munchin (Stanley Tucci) outfitted her with a barbaric shock treatment that allows her to live a normal-ish life. Still, she could erupt at any time.

The shock treatment, Dr. Munchin tells her, is just one element of her recovery. She must reconcile her past, he tells her, work through her issues and maybe even date.

Reluctantly, she agrees to try some human contact in the form of a dinner date with an accountant named Justin (Jai Courtney). After a rocky start she discovers he’s the first person in ages she doesn’t want to beat bloody for the slightest infraction.

He’s sweet, but unfortunately after their first sleepover, he’s discovered dead, shot in the head.

Heartbroken, she goes on a revenge bender while police (Laverne Cox and Bobby Cannavale) investigate her as a prime suspect in Justin’s untimely passing.

Dr. Munchin advises her to leave it alone, but she can’t. “Some people cry,” she says. “Some write s**t poetry. I hurt people.”

“Jolt” is a bit of blood-stained fun. Zippy, occasionally funny and empowering—“What is it with gross old men always underestimating women!”—it delivers the kind of neck-breaking fight scenes you expect from a movie about a person with violent impulse control issues. Director Tanya Wexler stages several generic-but-frenetic action scenes—a car chase, fist fights—but also manages to inject some life into a laugh out loud escape from a hospital nursery.

“Jolt” is what is often called a Refrigerator Movie. It makes enough sense as you watch it but later, while you stand in front of the fridge looking for sandwich ingredients, you think back and realize there are plot holes big enough for Kate Beckinsale to walk through.

The movie has enough jolts to keep you entertained for ninety minutes, but I’m not sure I am as interested in the set up to a sequel as the filmmakers are.

BEANS: 4 STARS

Kiawentiio and Violah Beauvais in the film "Beans." (EMA Films)

“Beans,” the directorial debut from “Anne with an E” and “Mohawk Girls” producer Tracey Deer, now playing in theatres, is the story of Tekehentahkhwa, a 12-year-old Mohawk girl, nicknamed Beans, during the violent 78-day standoff between two Mohawk communities and government forces during the 1990 Oka Crisis.

The film begins with a scene that sets the theme for the film. Tekehentahkhwa (Kiawentiio) and her mom Lily (Rainbow Dickerson) are meeting with the head mistress of a tony Montreal school called the Queen Heights Academy. When the interviewer has a tough time pronouncing her name, Tekehentahkhwa, eager to please, blurts out that everyone calls her Beans. It’s the first indication of the subversion of the tween’s true identity, but it won’t be the last in this riveting study of a girl finding her place in the world.

In the larger world a stand-off is brewing between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec who plan on building a golf course on sacred burial grounds. News footage from the 1990 conflict fills in the details but Deer tells her story from the POV of Beans and her family as they cope with racism, a dwindling food supply and the influx of police and barbed-wire fencing in their community.

Refused service by local grocers and terrorized by angry mobs—“If you don’t want us your land, don’t come to ours!”—Beans, her sister Ruby (Violah Beauvais) and mother make their way home, only to be attacked by raging townsfolk who hurl rocks at their car.

Beans falls in with a group of older kids, led by April (Paulina Alexis), a tough talking teenager who teaches the younger girl how to access her fighting spirit and survive amid the crisis.

“Beans” is the story of a youngster forced by circumstance to grow up fast. She absorbs influences from her parents, who have differing views on her educational needs, her new friends, crisis and, above all, uses her intuition to become the person she needs to be. Deer ties things together with a closing shot that simply and beautifully captures the full extent of Tekehentahkhwa’s journey.

The search for identity is not a new concept in coming-of-age films but the First Nations context here, combined with Kiawentiio’s breakout performance, make “Beans” important, vital cinema.

CREATION STORIES: 3 STARS

Ewen Bremner as Alan McGee in the film "Creation Stories." (Burning Wheel Productions)

Near the end of “Creation Stories,” the story of record industry giant Alan McGee now on VOD, a young writer promises one day to write a story that matches his ego.

“That’s a very noble ambition,” he snaps back. I’m not sure if she ever wrote the story, but director Nick Moran and screenwriters Dean Cavanagh and Irvine Welsh certainly have. “Modesty gets you nowhere,” McGee says.

Ewen Bremner, best known as Spud from “Trainspotting,” plays McGee, a wannabe punk musician who put down his guitar and picked up bands like Jesus and the Mary Chain, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine and Oasis for his U.K. indie label Creation Records. Told in the tried-and-true biopic form of a celebrity interview, the movie is a series of flashback vignettes of McGee that illustrate his answers. The format is old hat but allows Moran to zip through the story at a break neck speed.

The pace captures the spirit and drug fuelled joie d vivre of the times, but feels disjointed. It’s a scattershot movie that packs twenty pounds of story into a ten-pound bag. According to the movie, like a Scottish Zelig, McGee is here, there and everywhere but always in the right place at the right time. He’s front and centre in every scene, it’s his life story after all, but as we careen through McGee’s chaotic life, the side characters get lost. Particularly the musicians who made Creation so successful.

It often feels like a story, as the young writer played by Suki Waterhouse promised, that plays up to McGee’s ego courtesy of a constant stream of platitudes.

Luckily at the centre of it all is Bremner. His charismatic performance is the glue that prevents the disparate parts of the story from blowing a part. His likability holds our interest even as the story goes the way of so many other celebrity biographies—the dreaded time in rehab and/or involvement with politics. The rip-roaring stride of the film’s first half slows as “Creation Stories” searches for some elusive depth. Even then, Bremner is compelling, even if the skin-deep portrait of the music executive becomes less so as the movie nears the end credits.

“Creation Stories” is chirpily nostalgic for the heady days when Creation Records struck gold with records that resonated with millions of people. What it isn’t sentimental for is the actual music, McGee’s true legacy.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD: 3 STARS

Aramis Hudson, Ryder McLaughlin, and Nico Hiraga are shown in the film "North Hollywood." (Illegal Civ)

Imagine a mix-and-match of the teen comedy of “Superbad” and the slice-of-life vibe of “Dazed and Confused,” and you’ll have an idea of what “North Hollywood,” the new skateboarding dramedy now on VOD.

Michael (Ryder McLaughlin) is on the cusp of one of the great rites of passage, high school graduation. It’s time to figure out how he will begin the next phase of his life. His father Oliver (Vince Vaughn), who has worked construction all his life, wants him to go to college, move up in the world and put their North Hollywood neighbourhood in the rearview mirror.

“Every day I told myself my son wasn’t going to be some random nobody, just another guy who didn’t make it. That is not the life I want for you.”

Trouble is, Michael doesn’t share his father’s dream.

The gangly altar boy just doesn’t see his future in the inside of a text book. He wants to be a pro skateboarder.

“I’m going to go to college and I’m also going to skate. Pops, I’m telling you,” he says, “I’m nice on the board.”

“Your focus needs to be going to college,” dad replies, but like so many teens Michael thinks he knows best and tries to build relationships with professional skaters to kickstart his career. Along the way he also falls into his first love with the goal-oriented Rachel (Miranda Cosgrove).

“North Hollywood” is a coming-of-age story that examines the choices young people make. Should he follow his dream? Or give it away for the life Rachel and his father have in mind.

“North Hollywood” doesn’t break a lot of new ground narratively, but its focus on the characters and male friendship elevates a typical coming-of-age story. A showdown between Michael and his lifelong friend Adolf (Aramis Hudson) is simple, but raw. It cuts to the essence of what happens when one person in the equation grows faster than the other. It’s a theme “North Hollywood” builds on throughout, as Michael morphs from confused teen to someone who will chart his own course in life.

It’s effective but understated. Likable performances that get under the skins of their characters ensures that this is more than a skateboarding film. Like all good sports inspired stories, the sport is secondary to the universal lessons contained within. Michael learns a lesson in balance, both on a skateboard and in life.