Finding Dory

“I’m Sigourney Weaver, thank you for joining us”

There’s possibly nobody on Earth more excited for Finding Dory than Ellen DeGeneres, and this is very much her movie, however the stakes are high with this latest Pixar release. Their track record for sequels is second-to-none, and Finding Nemo is arguably one of their most well regarded films. Thirteen years on, does the Finding story really have the legs for a sequel?

Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) is an amnesiac. She’s also a fish. After returning home from the adventures of the first film, Dory struggles to fit in on the reef. Yet after a telling flashback, she remembers a key detail about her childhood and how she and her parents became separated. Darting immediately off into the distance, her friends Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence) - after calming her down - agree to help her look for her long-lost parents.

After the usual warm-up act from Piper - possibly the most adorable Pixar short to date - Finding Dory takes no time to remind us who the new titular character is, “My name’s Dory. I suffer from short-term memory loss”, certainly not the last time we’ll hear that phrase. After a life-story in well-handled flashbacks, we pick up essentially where we left off. Whatever may have happened to Dory, Marlin and Nemo in the short time-period that we’ve skipped, it’s clear that we haven’t missed anything important. Soon enough we’re following the trio on a quest to find Dory’s parents in what turns out to be a much lighter, safer chapter in the series.

Sure, Finding Dory is just as entertaining as the original, and continues the kids/adults balance that Pixar films handle so well, but despite several set-ups and the immense challenges posed to the marine trio, it doesn’t feature any real moments of peril like the first, or manage to traverse the emotional peaks and troughs that you might expect of it.

The Australian talent is sadly gone (not surprising as it's largely set in a different part of the ocean)

which means so are the suspiciously well-meaning vegetarian sharks, a source of entertainment and danger in the original. In the handful of scenes where there are challenges to overcome, we’re far from the edge of our seats. Before we even have the chance to experience any palpable tension, the situation is quickly resolved (often thanks to one of the various new characters and their slightly too convenient attributes) and Dory, Marlin and Nemo are able to continue onward, with little to no impact on the plot or character development.

It may not have the depth, but the story is at least well written - particularly the dialogue. There was a real danger that more focus could turn Dory into the Jar-Jar Binks of the series, but her forgetful yet bubbly personality stays surprisingly well balanced. Thankfully, the animation stays true to the original, with only small-improvements here and there that all but the most hardcore of fans wouldn’t notice. Thomas Newman’s soundtrack is good for the most part but doesn’t have the same energy or mix of raw emotions that his OST for the first film did (a real contender for best Pixar soundtrack).

Finding Dory kind of feels like it’s missing something. At its best, it’s regularly witty and light-hearted fun that works for both parents and kids - with a great moment involving Louis Armstrong, a truck and slow motion - but it doesn’t challenge its younger audience with moral hurdles or the emotional punch that we’ve come to expect from the better Pixar films.

Love The Coopers

I love Christmas movies. I've grown up with every single one you can imagine, from conventional ones like Home Alone and The Santa Clause to more adult ones like Scrooged and Bad Santa. Even cheesy ones like Christmas With The Kranks (when you think about it, Tim Allen has been in a lot of them). So when I came to watch Love The Coopers, I thought it was going to be a cheesy one, especially since it stars Diane Keaton. I wasn't expecting a movie about divorce, unemployment, political differences, child abuse, sexuality and, least of all, a magic dog voiced by Steve Martin.

Charlotte Cooper is hoping to bring her large family together for a big happy Christmas. She wants this desperately because it will be the last Christmas she has before her and her husband Sam (John Goodman) get a divorce after forty years of marriage. Everyone of their relatives are living their own troubles. Charlotte's sister Emma (Marisa Tomei) gets arrested for shoplifting, her divorced son Hank (Ed Helms) is having financial troubles, her daughter Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) can't face her mother's disappointment and her father Bucky (Alan Arkin) is struggling to express his love for the much younger Ruby (Amanda Seyfried).

The drama outweighs the comedy heavily in this movie about a supposedly happy time of year. Some of the themes alluded to are quite obvious, such as Sam and Charlotte's divorce and Hank's redundancy, but others, like Ruby's abusive childhood, are a little harder to identify. The most heartbreaking part of the movie comes when Officer Percy (played by a hard faced Anthony Mackie), the officer who arrests Emma, reveals that he could never live up to the expectations of his mother, despite the fact that she is welcoming of his homosexuality.

This film has a lot of weird film techniques that I would not expect in one like this. Whip pans and crash zooms that you'd expect in some Paul Greengrass political thriller are used liberally and with almost every character's situation. I found the use of an extreme close-up on Olivia Wilde but not on the person she was talking to very unnerving, but I suppose that might be a personal taste issue.

As you'd expect from an ensemble film like this, everyone brings their best. The standout performances for me come from Amanda Seyfried, Timothée Chalamet, Anthony Mackie and June Squibb. All of these actors have a small parts, but they all make them their own roles. Especially June Squibb, who doesn't love her? Anthony Mackie is almost unrecognisable without his signature facial hair and Amanda Seyfried brings her character an underlying pain that I didn't even know she could pull off.

Despite all these deep and dark themes, the film does come together nicely at the end. It's definitely one worth watching if you like Christmas movies, but not really too much of a stretch for comedy fans.

And So It Goes

All of Diane Keaton's recent romantic comedies are just the same movie, I'm sure of it. Just throw in another older male actor for her to fall in love with, be it Jack Nicholson, Kevin Kline or Harrison Ford. This time it's Michael Douglas' turn.

In this rather formulaic rom-com, Douglas plays a veteran realtor, Oren, who lives in a condo that also houses three other families. His neighbours find him curmudgeonly and abrasive, including next door neighbour Leah (Diane Keaton), a wannabe lounge singer. Oren's life gets turned upside down when his son delivers Oren's granddaughter to his place because he is going to jail. Of course this little girl melts Oren's heart.

I wouldn't say this movie is unoriginal, but it is definitely lacking life. The jokes in the movie are passable and the one's that got me the most were when Douglas' character was irreverent in front of children but that's about it.

Both Keaton and Douglas are better actors than the performances they gave in this movie. And if you want a little more variety of performances in this movie, you're not going to get any. Frankie Valli and Rob Reiner (as if he wouldn't put himself in his movies) have cameos and I thought the Frankie Valli one seemed a little out of place.

Verdict: If you are over the age of fifty and/or like any of the following movies (Somethings Gotta Give, The Big Wedding, Darling Companion) you will like this movie. If you aren't, I would avoid this movie like the plague.