Opening This Week: Weathering with You, The Gentlemen, The Turning
BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN
Makoto Shinkai, director of Your Name, the highest-grossing anime film of all time, returns to the big screen with Weathering with You, a coming-of-age story of epic proportions. After running away from his home in Tokyo, Hodaka finds himself struggling to get by. The gloomy weather and gloomy life possibilities change when Hodaka comes across Hina, a girl with the ability to stop the rain.
The film released in Japan in summer 2019, earning impressive box office numbers. The film’s success meant it served as Japan’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
Critics have been kind to the film, praising its animation as incredible and uniquely palpable.
The English-language dubbing is done by a few familiar names, including Lee Pace, Alison Brie, and Riz Ahmed.
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Not to be confused with similarly titled and themed films, The Gentlemen gives director Guy Ritchie a return-to-form opportunity. Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell, and Hugh Grant co-star.
The Gentlemen is an action movie built around men with money, beautiful estates, and vendettas to be had.Ritchie serves as the ideal director for such a film, channeling his past hits Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch along the way.
After opening at the end of 2019 in the UK, where it has already grossed over $15 million, the film is earning mixed-to-positive reviews from American critics. Those critics comment that the film is less of new territory for Ritchie and more of a salute to what’s made his past films so great. It’s witty, gritty, and surprisingly funny, all while whipping with fast action.
The critics who’ve given the film lower marks mention its brushed with purported anti-semitism, racism, homophobia, and sexism in how it portrays certain characters.
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Directed by Floria Sigismondi, The Turning is a horror film that follows a nanny (Mackenzie Davis) as she cares for two orphans (Brooklynn Prince and Finn Wolfhard) in a mysterious Maine house. The story is dark and disturbing, but the fact that a horror film is getting a January release should bring pause to anyone.
The Turning first entered into development in 2016 thanks to Steven Spielberg, who wanted to be Involved in a horror film. His Amblin Entertainment paved the way for several iterations, including Alfre Woodard signing on at one point. But, by end of 2016 the film had been put on hold. Three years after first entering development, The Turning was finally produced and scheduled for release. Universal, however, moved the film multiple times in 2019 (a bad sign) before finally giving it a January 2020 release.
It premiered this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival where it earned mostly negative reviews.
