Keep Swimming: Review of Finding Dory

Finding Dory

Director: Andrew Stanton

By Alex Watson

You always forget what emotional experiences Pixar movies can be and how often they seem to always triumph with sequels. Finding Dory is no exception and wonderfully conjures up what was so magic about the first experience and also adds a new poignant emotion that new animated studios offer. Once more dazzling our eyes, this whole adventure feels like a fresh and new swim through the ocean. All the while director Andrew Stanton also makes us think hard about the notion of family and longing to be reunited.

Blue tang fish Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) has begun to recover memories of her old life with her mother Jenny (Diane Keaton) and her father Charlie (Eugene Levy). She was separated from her family as a child and has been searching ever since. When suddenly it hits her that her family lives in California she along with her long-suffering friend Marlin (Albert Brooks) and his son Nemo (Hayden Rolance) set out on another across ocean adventure. Along the way, they will become acquainted with slippery Squid Hank (Ed O'Neill).

Breathe easy (without gills) Pixar fans, Finding Dory lays fresh new ground and doesn't make any of your fond Finding Nemo memories feel trodden on. Starting with a poignant and gut wrench introduction to Dory's early life and her separation from her parents, the hardest heart will melt into a pool of water. Happily settled into her over and over again routine with Marlin where she literally tries his patience, one day her mind reawakens an old memory that makes her world change. Remember she has a family makes her set out to find them but more than that she needs to discover the hows and whys that left her lost and stranded. This is more of a movie of self-discovery than about recovering the past.

Across the ocean (aided by old Nemo favourite Crush the turtle) Dory's adventures takes to the Marine Institute of California (complete with Sigourney Weaver voiceover). While quarantined, she crosses paths with Squid Hank, who is desperate to be sent to a Cleveland aquarium rather than be released into the ocean. The trip through the park is like a mini odyssey in itself as the duo cross paths with a struggling beluga whale Bailey (Ty Burrell) and a near-sighted whale shark (Kaitlin Olson). Best of all are a pair of boisterous sea lions (Idris Elba and Dominic West) who aide Marlin in his quest to find his lost friend. Although the road is bumpy and wet, Dory and Hank strike up and unusually close friendship and it appears the trickster may have more heart than we think (three hearts in fact).

What really scores Finding Dory big points is Stanton's expert handling of the emotional content. Our hearts go through the grinder as each little bit of hope both whithers and dies. Dory is desperate to find her way home but there is a firm lack of closure throughout and a part of us wonders will a happy ending be in store? While it may not elevate itself above Up or Inside Out in terms of storytelling, this picture is a realistic depiction of the horrors children and adults experience someone goes missing. The main element to this tale is about Dory's finding herself again, part of her feels guilty for losing herself in the first place due to her short term memory loss and she is determined to retrace her steps. Her constant in and out memory is smartly not made the butt the films jokes and instead it is a firm message about a child feeling stranded and alone in this world.

Ellen DeGeneres has proven the perfect choice and her chatterbox persona has suited this blue tang like a glove. Impressively she is at ease with the heavier side of this character and effortlessly convinces during the movies sadder content. Albert Brooks reminds us just what a fine voice actor he is (Just watch his Simpsons appearances) and Marlin is the type of overly cautious yet big-hearted character he was born to play. As Hank, Ed O'Neill threatens to steal the picture out from under the two leads with a confident yet neurotic turn. Hank desires to live in a tank for the rest of his life, but Dory might just help him overcome his fear of the ocean.

Finding Dory might just prove to be the big summer competition for Captain America: Civil War and offers the first glorious family offering the year. No one does magic like Pixar and unless animation stops entirely they are unbeatable!

A History of Violence: Review of A Most Violent Year

A Most Violent Year

Director: J C Chandor

By Alex Watson

Set against the often violent and corrupt world of the oil business, J C Chandor's A Most Violent Year is an excellently paced movie. Set against the record violence of 1981 New York, the tension is forever building as what appears to be a bold move turns into something that could derail a dream completely. From here morals become more clouded and events take a turn down a darker and more vicious avenue to show that to achieve the American Dream, sometimes to take more than being honest!

Businessman Adel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is an ambitious man who owns an oil company. Along with loyal wife Anna (Jessica Chastain) they seemingly completely a risky but vital deal to secure a riverside refinery and it appears set that he is due for big things. But his competitors are less than thrilled about business being taken away and seem determined to derail this transaction and set about to oust him by any means necessary. 

Although Adel is determined to stay legitimate, from the very beginning of Chandor's picture it is made apparent he may have to fight underhanded to keep his head above water. What starts as a perfect opportunity of buying a refinery which will give him more access to cheap oil prices and more direct routes for oil imports quickly becomes a living nightmare. Soon his business is targeted from all sides. Suspicious thugs converge on their house along with the Feds, led by assistant DA Anderson (David Oyelowo). Even his long standing bank connections withdrawn on him. Truck drivers are violently robbed at gun point and Anna demands he stop standing aside and begin fighting back.

Corruption swirls in the air, not matter where you look. Adel is desperate not to resort to the gangster style lengths of Anna's 'Cheap Brooklyn Gangster' father. But there is a notion that he cannot build his own empire without a little bloodshed. A morally complex character throughout, he is a hard work who has built his world up by hard work and honest living- something he prides himself on. Essentially he is the ordinary man forced into a desperate place and is now having to fight back against his better judgement.

His relationship with Anna is the main firing point of A Most Violent Year as she is very much the immaculately styled Lady Macbeth figure of Chandor's picture. The daughter of a Gangster, Anna is not afraid to sink to lower than she needs to. One key scene sees her coldy shoot a stricken deer they have hit with their car, because it is easier that way! She is the steely presence and the real backbone to Adel's business and will go to great lengths to protect it. "You not gonna like what happens once I get involved" she breathlessly tells her husband, and we absolutely believe it!

The key firing point of this movie though comes from the excellent chemistry of Isaac and Chastain. As the everyman forced into a corner, Oscar Isaac excels as the conflicted Adel. In what is perhaps his strongest performance of his career, his character is given a resolve that sees him through even the worse situations. His guilt doesnt burden him but instead makes him more resourceful. As Anna, Jessica Chastain lights up the screen as the icy yet supportive and husky wife. Her motives and actions may be questionable, but she is the kind of wife you would kill for as she will help you stay ahead, no matter what!

J C Chandor is quickly establishing himself as one of Hollywood's most promising new directors and A Most Violent Year is a film that holds our attention firmly. The oil business is not one for the faint of heart, but this on screen couple are a pair with hearts of stone and the result is just electric! Shame Oscar missed out these two performances.