Assayas’s film, too young to have been at the barricades during the “events of May,” struggle with the latent contradictions of a utopian impulse that failed. “Be realistic: Demand the impossible” was one slogan of that moment, and the teenagers in Mr. “May” means 1968, when strikes and protests threatened the government and seemed to promise a new surge of revolutionary energy.
SOMETHING IN THE AIR MOVIE MOVIE
In French the movie is “Après Mai,” which has a more specific meaning (and also figures in the title of a memoir Mr. The dreary English title seems to have been plucked from a handbook of generically evocative expressions suitable for bad pop songs. In any case, I don’t mean to be harsh, only to establish a context for my somewhat ambivalent admiration of “Something in the Air,” the new film by Olivier Assayas (born in 1955), set in France in the early 1970s. Or maybe it is, since the habit of relentless self-exploration - the reverent documentation of every cause, mood and fad - looms large among their cultural contributions. It’s not the fault of those born from 1946 to 1964 that their intimate, formative experiences have become the stuff of pop-culture cliché. A sensitive child, growing up amid social and political turmoil, feels misunderstood by parents and the universe and discovers what a character in “A Serious Man” memorably called “the new freedoms.” Sex, drugs and heartbreak line the path to a sadder, wiser understanding of life, in which youthful rage and idealism are blunted but not entirely abandoned.
And on the way to it, the laughs will be balanced by wild action and teary sentimentality.Baby-boomer coming-of-age stories are about as rare as superhero movies or career-girl romantic comedies, and no less bound by conventions. There are also lots of other spells that might or might not go wrong, from a disguise spell to a growth spell to a levitation spell.īecause this is a Disney/Pixar concoction, you can safely wager that there will be a happy ending, even if it’s tinged with a touch of the bittersweet. Yes, there’s a Guardian Curse attached to any quest for the Phoenix gem. And though she’s given up her own quest days to run a kid-friendly, magic-themed restaurant, it doesn’t take much convincing to get to track down her trusty old Curse Crusher sword from the pawn shop. So, does this mean that magic is back in the world? The Manticore (Octavia Spencer, showing off some great comic timing) - you know, that “winged lion scorpion lady” - thinks so. Oh, no! Are Ian’s dreams of finally meeting his dad going to be shattered? Of course not! Without telling mom what’s up, Ian and Barley hop in the van, head out to find another Phoenix gem (it’s a quest, remember?), and in one fell swoop have an adventure and get to know each other. To explain that, here’s a partial story spoiler: Only part of dad goes through rebirth. Soon after, the Phoenix gem is destroyed, then the spell does work - sort of - and “Onward” begins to feel like its creators are making the story very strange just for the sake of making it strange. But any resemblance to that film quickly vanishes when the spell doesn’t work. Sounds like someone’s seen Spielberg’s “A.I Artificial Intelligence” a few too many times, as that has a similar major plot device. It’s a wizard stick, along with a complementary Phoenix gem which, when used in tandem with a special rebirth spell, will bring dad back for 24 hours.
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