THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER
“Green Book” director Peter Farrelly returns with another hard-to-believe-it’s-true story.
“The Greatest Beer Run Ever” is a Vietnam War movie with a twist. What begins as a light-hearted romp based on a dare becomes a journey of self-discovery and political awakening.
Set in 1967, the film sees Zac Efron play aimless, but well-meaning Merchant Marine John "Chickie" Donohue, a playful patriot who accepts a dare from the guys at his local NYC bar to track down his army buddies in Vietnam and deliver good old American beer to them as a thanks for their service.
“It’s not going to be easy,” he says, “but I’m going to show them that this country is still behind them.”
With a duffle bag full of Pabst Blue Ribbon, he makes his way into the heart of the conflict, getting in over his head, but nonetheless, handing out “sudsy thank you cards” to soldiers on the front lines.
Heartwarming is not a word often used to describe movies based on the Vietnam War, but this is no “The Deer Hunter,” “Platoon” or “Apocalypse Now.” It’s an occasionally glib, often naïve movie that studies the timely issue of the gap between the press and the public, and the horrors of war.
Unfortunately, it meanders along the way to revealing Chickie’s enlightenment.
RAYMOND & RAY
The main characters of “Raymond & Ray,” played by Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke, pack a great deal of emotional baggage on the trip to their father’s funeral.
The leads play half-brothers reunited after five years on the occasion of their abusive father’s death. The funeral is the next day, hours away in Richmond, Va., and Ray is reluctant.
“Are you really going to go, after the things he did to you?” he asks Raymond.
On the subsequent trip, they rehash the sins of their father, and later confront the many surprises that await in Richmond.
This tragicomic story of suppressed rage, of confronting the past, healing and facing the future, is wonderfully brought to life by the leads. The easy-going pacing allows McGregor and Hawke to bite down hard and make a meal of the characters of Raymond and Ray.
McGregor hides a simmering rage under Raymond’s button-down façade, while Hawke gives Ray a world-weary roughness to the free-spirited former musician and addict. They bring a winning combo of frustration and humour to the movie, while Maribel Verdú, as the father’s most recent girlfriend, provides real warmth in this existential look at life.
THE GOOD NURSE
Looks can be deceiving. When single mother and nurse Amy (Jessica Chastain) first meets Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne), she is impressed.
As a co-worker, he is compassionate and knowledgeable. As a friend he steps up to help her through a health crisis and look after her two daughters.
But when people start mysteriously dying at the ICU, could he be responsible, or was it all just a deadly coincidence?
The based-on-a-true-story of one of the most prolific serial killers ever, “The Good Nurse” is a thriller without many thrills. It’s no surprise who the killer is. What is surprising, and effectively portrayed, is the other stuff; the way the hospital attempts to cover their own liabilities, the stonewalling, and outright cover-up. That’s where the shocks are -- the stuff that leaves a mark.
The story is carried by the leads Chastain and Redmayne, who both hand in minor chord, restrained performances that ooze compassion, until they don’t. The change in Redmayne is chilling as he lets his true colours show.
SIDNEY
Sidney Poitier led a remarkable life, one vividly portrayed in the Oprah Winfrey-produced docume1ntary “Sidney.”
His childhood in Nassau provides wonderful stories about his loving parents, seeing a car for the first time, and the wonders of his first glance into a mirror.
His move to the United States is fraught with the threat of violence from the Ku Klux Klan, but tempered by kindness from a waiter who helped him learn to read, using the newspaper as a textbook.
Landing in Harlem, he was introduced to the world of acting, and set on a path that would see him become the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, a civil right activist, and diplomat.
“He doesn’t make movies, he makes milestones -- milestones of America’s progress,” said U.S. President Barack Obama.
With a mix of archival footage, new interviews with Halle Berry, Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Winfrey and others, and plenty of film clips, “Sidney” is a well told story of a well lived life. “When I die,” Poitier said, “I will not be afraid of having lived.”
