Weekend Watch: Lightyear, Brian And Charles, Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
Space Rangers, a soulful robot and a sexual awakening.
Image Credit: Disney/Pixar
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Buzz Lightyear gets real, a robot buddy gets built, and Emma Thompson gets sexy. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
Let’s get the elephant (or the panda) in the room out of the way first, shall we? While Lightyear is perfectly solid entertainment, made with the studio’s traditional passion and attention to detail – and yes, I know there was and still is a pandemic going on – but it irks me that something with such inventiveness and flair as Turning Red was shipped off to live on Disney+ plus while this latest offering is given the full-on cinematic release and publicity blitz.
Though I fully acknowledge that the likes of Red and Soul found their audience on the streamer, I’d still like for them both to have been allowed to wait and handed the big-screen treatment. It’s not like animated movies don’t take several years to make, right? Creators on other projects would be delighted to get more time, even if the finance department floor would be littered with torn hair chunks. Pipeline, schedule, return on investment… I get it.
Digging into Lightyear on its own terms, this new Toy Story spin-off boasts the clever conceit that it’s the movie young Andy watched in Pixar’s 1995 CG animated classic and fuelled his obsession with the Buzz Lightyear toy who initially gives Woody and co. such headaches.
Here, in the “real” world, Space Ranger Buzz (Chris Evans, bringing all the gallantry and gusto of his Captain America days with a bonus of bluster) is on a mission with 1200 colleagues when their ship becomes stranded on an unforgiving alien planet teeming with living vines and insectoid nuisances. Feeling responsible for the incident, Buzz throws himself into getting everyone home, participating in test flights for a fuel that can power their ship to hyperspeed. Yet in every test, four minutes pass for Buzz, while four years slog by for those still on the planet. A montage showing how that affects Buzz, best pal and fellow Ranger Alisha Hawthorne (brought to vibrant vocal life by Uzo Aduba) and everyone else aims for Up-alike heartstring-pulling but rarely reaches the same power.
There’s plenty to like about Lightyear, which later heads off into more straightforward threat/macguffin/life lesson territory, not the least of which is the sumptuous animation and cinematography that director Angus MacLane, DOPs Jeremy Lasky and Ian Megibben and their team bring to the look of this movie. It’s par for the course that Pixar would make their movies beautiful, but this pushes several boundaries in how the characters interact with the world around them.
When you’re not marvelling at the scenery or vegetation, the characters offer enough fun to make this a ride worth taking – I’ve already talked about Evans and Aduba, but there are the likes of Taika Waititi, Keke Palmer, Isiah Whitlock Jr. and even MacLane himself providing good voice work. And not forgetting the scene-stealing robot cat Sox, brought to life by Pixar veteran Peter Sohn, who is great value whenever he speaks. Or just exists. Expect the toys based on the character to fly off the shelves as quickly as the Buzz figures in Toy Story 2.
As a film, this is funny enough and knowing enough, and respectful enough about sci-fi of the 1970s and 80s to work on its own terms. It’s just that Lightyear only ever feels like… enough. As in good enough. Which from Pixar means it’s a slight disappointment.
Lightyear is in US and UK cinemas now.
Image Credit: Focus Features
A little like Lightyear’s inclusion of Sox, Brian And Charles is also about someone finding companionship with artificial life. In Jim Archer, David Earl and Chris Hayward’s wonderful, tiny tale of one man and his robot, however, we’re talking far from cutting-edge technology.
Charles – or to give him the full name he picks, Charles Petrescu (Hayward) – is more a collection of spare parts and odds and ends cobbled together by Brian (Earl), the very definition of a low-key British eccentric. Scruffy, daffy and enthusiastic, he lives alone in a cottage in Wales and invents all manner of unusual gadgets... Most of which fail spectacularly.
While he’s usually a cheerful chap, the recent long winter has led our hero to dip into depression, and to combat it, he attempts to build a robot. Combining such unlikely elements as a mannequin’s head and a washing machine, he somehow manages to create Charles, who slowly evolves from childlike to wayward teenager, albeit always sounding and looking a bit like Bamber Gascoigne.
The friendship gives Brian the confidence to go out and about more, though that does bring him further to the attention of village bully Eddie (Jamie Michie) who steals Charles for his and his greedy teenage daughters’ amusement.
Yet Charles also helps Brian come out of his shell and start to gently, quietly court Hazel (Sherlock’s Louise Brealey), a shy local woman living with her domineering mother. The story here is a sweet and amiable one, so don’t expect high drama.
Yet Brian And Charles doesn’t need epic scope or a blockbuster budget to win you over – it succeeds by being utterly delightful and poignant. Adapting their short (also directed by Archer), writers/stars Earl and Hayward infuse such life into their creations that you’re swept away into a persuasive, humble story of one man and his robo-pal. Credit also is due to Brealey, who gives Hazel shades and soul. She’s long since proved she can triumph in roles such as this one, and it’s always a pleasure to see her back on screens.
Staunchly keeping to its low-fi, handmade feeling, Brian And Charles was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and deserves all the garlands it can garner.
Brian And Charles is on limited release in US cinemas now and arrives in the UK on 8 July.
Image Credit: Searchlight Pictures
At this point in her career, Emma Thompson is so effortlessly excellent in what she does, that it’s almost enough to just say, “Emma Thompson is in it. Go and watch it.” Which can’t always compete with the vagaries of filmmaking and could lead to you accidentally seeing Dolittle.
With Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, you’re on far, far safer ground. Because while Thompson is typically magnificent, everything around her is on the same level. Essentially a two-hander with just a couple of other roles, this could be a play but never feels stage-bound. Instead, Katy Brand’s script and Sophie Hyde’s direction crackle, always leaving room for Thompson and co-star Daryl McCormack to weave their shared tapestry across the screen.
Nancy Stokes (Thompson) is a retired teacher who feels unfulfilled in life and in love. She got married and had two children, but now that she’s a widow, is reflecting on her time and finding it wanting. And that’s especially true when it comes to sexual activity. Instead of picking up a book of erotica, she instead hires handsome sex worker Leo Grande (McCormack).
Nancy’s naturally a ball of nerves, fluctuating between wanting to cancel the whole thing and reverting to her more confident teacher side. Leo, meanwhile, is all calm and charm, easy-going and trying to put Nancy at her ease.
It’s a film of warm laughter and emotional tightropes, precise and yet intimately human, confronting expectations about ageing and sex, and power dynamics between partners of different backgrounds. This is performance as tennis match: Thompson serves superbly and McCormack returns. As they meet more often, layers are peeled back, emotions harden and tough truths come to the surface, but never in a stereotypical fashion.
I’m heartened to see that Leo Grande is receiving a cinema release in the UK. It’s not an IMAX blockbuster, but the dialogue, direction and acting all reward the sort of focus it’s harder to manage at home.
Good Luck To You, Leo Grande is on 200 screens in the UK from today and on Hulu in the States.