Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases For the Week of  4/27/18

Avengers: Infinity War (PG-13)

Starring: Robert Downey Jr. Chris Evans. Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Zoe Saldana, Tom Hiddlestom, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Benedict Wong

Directed by: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

A decade of Marveldom culminates in he “lets throw everybody together” film, Avengers: Infinity War, where the superheroes “battle for the universe itself.” If you take a moment to ask “didn’t they already do that?” then you spoil the buzz that brings almost everybody else on the surface of the planet to a theater. I’m stoked because my favorites get the best one-liners before things turn deadly serious. Once there,  the shocks to our belief systems collide together in spectacular set pieces from which some of good guys don’t seem to survive. But what do we know? The Marvel Universe seems to be endlessly expanding, and marvelous things could happen in the future version already dubbed Part II. NOTE: The credits take over ten minutes before the “top secret reveal” for the next film appears. So unless power/temperature technician Christopher O. Brooks is your brother and you have to stick around to see his name scroll past, you have plenty of time for a much needed trip to the restroom (after all, the movie is almost 2 and 1/2 hours long!)

3 and 1/2 pieces of Avengers doing what they do best…Avenging toast 

 

 

Summer In the Forest (PG-13) 

Starring: Jean Vanier

Directed by: Randall Wright

And now, for something completely different, how about a film about kindness, goodness and humanity? Entitled, Summer In the Forest, the centerpiece of Randall Wright’s documentary is exactly what it promises— a bucolic summer picnic in L’Arche forest commune north of Paris. What makes this picnic so special, is that most of the people gathered here were labelled “idiots” or “morons” by authorities, and locked away in asylums, until they were rescued by philosopher, social innovator, and former Canadian Naval Officer, Jean Vanier. Now in his 80’s Vanier’s network of communities caring for people with special needs has established itself in over 35 countries—and we catch glimpses of several outposts in this film. But the movie is at its best during the chats with individual residents. Vanier introduces each man with a loving description: “Andre is a child who was deeply wounded;” or “Patrick,” Vanier says with a chuckle, “is completely crazy.” The underlying principle of everything we see is “Acceptance,” with a capital “A.” Amen to that.

3 and 1/2 pieces of a forest of acceptance toast

 

 

Lean on Pete (NR) 

Starring: Charley Plummer, Travis Fimmel, Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Thomas Mann

Directed by: Andrew Haigh

A young man named Charley arrives in Portland, Oregon with his father. Both are looking for a fresh start, and Charley finds it in caring for an aging quarter horse with the same name as the movie. Reality steps in when the horse is scheduled for the slaughterhouse, and dreaming takes over when Charley saddles up Lean On Pete, and the pair head off across the wildlands of Eastern Oregon in search of a safe place.

3 pieces of don’t expect a ride off into the sunset kind of ending toast

Comments? E-mail gilmansergh@comcast.net

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