The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Adventure/Family/Fantasy: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Starring: Mackenzie Foy, Jayden Fowora-Knight, Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman

Directors: Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston

Rated: PG (Violence and moments of peril)

 Movie Review: Eye candy and well-known actors are pluses for this adventurous tale. However, the performances play second fiddle to the brilliant visual distractions. 

The story is elementary writing that remains family friendly while adding nothing resounding to the “Nutcracker” realm. 

Clara uses a magical key to unlock a parallel world where her late mother has governed as queen of four realms. Clara (Foy) meets leaders, clever rodents and brave and noble soldier Phillip (Fowora-Knight) in the new world. 

Her new home away from home is in turmoil as a pending war against the Fourth Realm, a place ruled by Mother Ginger (Mirren), is near.

The family feature manages to create nifty visual effects and set designs, but it fails to create a lasting story. It is a simplistic narrative hidden by diversions to distract. The adventure is plentiful, yet “Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is not memorable.

Grade: C (About two out of four realms are engaging.)

Suspiria

Horror: 2 hours, 32 minutes

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton and Chloë Grace Moretz

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Rated: R (Nudity, violence, thematic elements, strong language, sexual references and gore)

Movie Review: “Suspiria” is a remake of the pivotal 1977 movie directed by Dario Argento, which he cowrote with Daria Nicolodi. Like the 1977 version, the current feature is a horror movie that gradually becomes more evident as it continues. 

It is an effective movie of artistic visualizations, but its presentation is not one that many audiences may agree with initially. This is not an energetic thriller or slasher. It is a traditional horror similar to those of yesteryear that has dramatic moments. It works if one can sit through the mystery it creates yet never remedies fully. 

Determined young dancer Susie Bannion becomes part of a world-renowned dance ensemble. She quickly becomes part of a dark mystery surrounding the dance company that engulfs her, the company’s artistic director, Madame Blanc, and grieving psychotherapist Dr. Josef Klemperer. 

The dance institution is a front for a powerful witches’ coven. 

Luca Guadagnino is the director of “Call Me by Your Name” (2017) and “A Bigger Splash” (2015). He knows how to take a movie and make its characters pivotal players in equally essential narratives. He makes his screenplays to have depth, and he directs characters in a manner that each actor becomes an individual study of humanity. 

His style is similar here. However, the movie is overly long, more than two and a half hours, a horror movie that has some unclear portions.

Despite its weirdness, Guadagnino manages to make the movie interesting because it is a well-acted photoplay. Swinton, Johnson, Moretz and others are intriguing, especially Swinton who plays several roles. 

Guadagnino has worked with Swinton in seven movies, including “Tilda Swinton: The Love Factory” (2002), “The Protagonists” (1999) and “I Am Love” (2009). They both know how to make good movies together.

“Suspiria” is a well-done movie with good visual effects, but it is an overly long horror of gore and violent imagery. The latter overpowers the prior.

Still, Guadagnino directs the movie in a Stanley Kubrick manner. He bravely gives audiences a unique horror movie, one that cunningly happens like the setting of a calm sunset. However, when night falls, this darkly themed movie leaves one wanting some light shed on unresolved concepts.

Grade: B- (It is bewitching enough, but it remains a puzzling mystery, too.)

*Playing in larger cities

The Happy Prince

Biography/Drama: 1 hour, 45 minutes)

Starring: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Emily Watson and Colin Morgan

Director: Rupert Everett

Rated: R (Sexual content, nudity, strong language, violence, and brief drug use)

Movie Review: Rupert Everett writes, directs and stars in this longtime project. “The Happy Prince” is one of the uninspiring additions about Oscar Wilde.

As Oscar Wilde (Everett) lies dying in a Parisian hotel room, the comical literary figure poignantly reflects on his past in England, France and Italy. He thinks of his societal exclusion and time spent in jail because of his sexuality. 

He thinks of his wife, Constance Wilde (Watson), and their children. He especially recalls his happy yet turbulent relationship with Alfred Bosie Douglas (Morgan). Through it all, the flamboyant Wilde keeps his wit and maintains an ostentatious lifestyle.

The movie consists of Wilde reminiscing about his past. The movie handles this via a series of flashbacks. The constant flashbacks are annoying. Time is difficult to grasp because of this. The rest of the movie is comprised of squabbles between Wilde and a few of his nemeses.

Everett plays Wilde adequately. He is not the problem. His directing of his own script is.

The setting is enticing, and the characters are intriguing on the surface, but the movie appears to only scratch the surface of these people. Everett does not give one a chance to know any of the online personas, so it is difficult to care for these people. Therefore, their efforts are insignificant as portrayed here.

Grade: C- (Not a happy movie observer.)