Image ©Disney Entertainment
Lightyear movie
Caged Birds
(Corinth Films DVD)
Walter Sturmer is Switzerland’s celebrity criminal, the man who keeps escaping from prison through ingenuity and daring. He’s a master of disguises, dashing and ironic. Babs Hug is that country’s famous defense attorney for radical causes. She’s a fanatical absolutist, humorless and embittered by childhood physical maladies that continue into adulthood. Their relations are testy—and one element of suspense in Caged Birds is wondering whether they will ever kiss and get it on. In Hollywood, the answer would be yes, but this is Switzerland …
“Inspired by true events,” Swiss director Oliver Rihs sets Caged Birds in the early ‘80s era of Red Army Faction terrorism across Europe. Hug is linked to those groups and begins to understand that their dream of destroying oppression is an abstraction of freedom for humanity with no concern for individual lives (outside of their own). At the other extreme, Sturmer’s idea of freedom is the exhilarating high of racing across the limits. Caged Birds is a thriller and a meditation on the many meanings of freedom. Is freedom whatever makes us happy? Can people be given freedom? Do most people want it? (David Luhrssen)
Photo: Cornith Films
Caged Birds
Caged Birds
The Beatles and India
(MVD Blu-ray)
The Beatles first public encounter with India looks embarrassing today for the worse-than-stereotypical depictions in Help. Put that aside and one finds, in the new documentary The Beatles and India, a genuine interest led (no surprise!) by George Harrison. John Lennon was fascinated for a time, Paul McCartney was curious and Ringo Starr, one imagines, found it all a lark.
Director Ajoy Bose gathers original interviews and seldom seen archival footage to illustrate the East-West, Anglo-Indian cultural exchange that became fluorescent in the ‘60s. In London, the Asian Music Circle had been mounting Indian concerts since 1953 but drew little notice until The Beatles, intrigued by the mournful drone of the sitar, showed up. Harrison began studying the instrument under master musician Ravi Shankar and as The Beatles pivoted eastward, young Indians embraced the new look and sound of the British Invasion.
The story culminates with The Beatles’ 1968 sojourn at the ashram of the Maharishi, meditating alongside The Beach Boys, Donovan, Mia Farrow and their ilk. Starr was first to split, followed a few weeks later by McCartney. And then Harrison and Lennon became suspicious of the Maharishi’s eagerness to exploit their fame. Was the smiling guru a prophet of happiness, a charlatan or a bit of both?
Their stay at the ashram resulted in several Lennon songs, starting with the blissful “Across the Universe” and concluding with a bitter put-down of the Maharishi, “Sexy Sadie.” Harrison continued studying sitar and delving into less dubious manifestations of Hindu philosophy. The Beatles and India is fascinating for anyone interested in ‘60s culture. (David Luhrssen)
Lightyear
(In Theaters June 17)
Director Angus MacLane (of Toy Story) pitched his Buzz Lightyear origin story to Pixar. Having traveled 4.2 million light-years to a hostile planet, Buzz (voiced by Chris Evans), his commander (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and their crewmates (voices of Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn and others) are marooned. Along with his robot companion, a cat named Sox, Buzz tests a space-time shortcut they hope to use to get back home. Though Buzz perceives the test as brief, he returns to find 62 years have passed. The crew is under attack by Emperor Zurg (voice of James Brolin) and the emperor’s minions, a ruthless robot army. Buzz and a new team of Star Command recruits seek a means of beating the aggressors or escaping. Praised for its originality, humor and heart, the $200 million dollar budget of this PG-Rated film, allows its simultaneous release in both theatrical and IMAX formats. (Lisa Miller)
Spiderhead
(Streaming on Netflix, June 17)
Joseph Kosinski directs this adaptation of the George Saunders short story “Escape from Spiderhead.” Chris Hemsworth portrays visionary pharmacologist Steve Abnesti. He experiments on murderers who receive reduced sentences in exchange for taking his mind-altering drugs. The inmates are housed at Abnesti’s state-of-the-art penitentiary, a gorgeous waterside mansion equipped with first class amenities. Miles Teller appears as Jeff, a prisoner given drugs that boost his attraction to female convict Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett). Then Abnesti tells Jeff he must hurt her using a pain-inducing drug, or risk being hurt himself. Author Saunders is more interested in examining humanity’s dark side than he is in happy endings. As Hollywood adapts his tales to the screen, we’ll see whether it has the courage of Saunders’s convictions. (Lisa Miller)
