Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast Good picks for the Week of 12/29/17—In Toasty order Thor: Ragnarok (PG-13) 4 pieces of much needed lightness in the often dreary Marvel Universe toast Coco (PG) 3 and 1/2 pieces of an enjoyable holiday treat toast Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (PG) 3 pieces of they got me when they hired Dwayne Johnson toast Star Wars: The Last Jedi (PG-13) 3 pieces of could have been GREAT, but the marketing-driven, tangential story-lines slow things down toast Wonder (PG) 3 pieces of everyday miracles toast

In Darkest Hour, it's 1940,the Nazis are invading France, and the 21 mile width of the English Channel seems to offer scant protection for Great Britain. Rising to the challenge is British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (played by Gary Oldman in full speechifying mode), and the nearly miraculous mobilization of Dunkirk. We’ve been awash with different actors portraying Churchill, and it seems obvious that capturing the totality of this larger-then-life, once-in-a-century individual, is beyond the powers of mere mortals. One distraction is that the musical score fails at presenting the nuanced reality of these goings-on, and is often so loud that it drowns out Churchill’s wisdom.

All of Guillermo Del Toro’s movies are lush, intensely sensual imaginings filled with dreamlike wonder. In The Shape of Water, sexuality is finally allowed to take center stage. The sexy woman part is an unlikely candidate named Elisa Espisito (Sally Hawkins)—a mute, mousey, and orphaned Baltimore cleaning lady who mops up blood in a top-secret laboratory. The blood comes from “The Asset” (Doug Jones), an amphibious Creature From the Black Lagoon-stye humanoid stolen from the Amazon River. Late one night, Elisa discovers The Asset housed in a murky-water aquarium and makes contact by playing music on her portable record player and feeding him hard boiled eggs. Overhearing the plan to dissect The Asset for scientific research, Elisa whisks him away to her own apartment where he lives in her bathtub. Growing closer, the pair make semi-amphibious love before his hiding place is discovered by the Bible-thumping, military-industrial-complex mad scientists and Cold War Russian spies. Wow!

For decades, the consensus was that writer/director/producer Ed Wood’s 1959 film, Plan 9 From Outerspace was the worst movie ever made. The notoriety was so great, it prompted late-night TV marathons, a special showing in Santa Rosa, and a Hollywood movie about the making of the film starring Johnny Depp as Ed Wood. Then, in 2003, Tommy Wiseau, wrote, directed, produced and starred in a feature-length Indie he called The Room. The plot involved Tommy, his almost always topless girlfriend, Lisa and her “secret” affair with Tommy’s best friend. It almost ends with Tommy’s graphic suicide by handgun. The result was “marginal” at best, until it won the 2004 Best Feature Audience Award at the New York International Independent Film Festival. Since then, the movie and its maker have acquired cult status—especially among the students at colleges and universities that offer a degree in filmmaking. Now, in The disaster Artist, James Franco stars and directs a film about The Room in which he plays Tommy Wiseau. Like Depp did with Ed Wood, Franco plays Tommy as a dedicated “artiste” who truly believes he is making a good movie. Since we audiences are much more sophisticated and worldly-wise, we see the humorous aspects of the endeavor, and revel in the disaster that unfolds. Especially fun for those who make (or wanna make) Indie films toast

In Sean Baker's The Florida Project, the ironically-named Magic Castle and Futureland motels sit next to each other in Kissimee, Florida. This is close enough to Walt Disney World that Halley, the single mother of 6-year-old Moonee can regularly shake down the tourists and steal food to survive. But prostitution is much more lucrative (especially when she steals cash and valuable park passes), so she begins servicing “tricks” after locking her daughter in the bathroom. The motel manger discovers what is going on, and threatens Halley with eviction and a call to Child Protective Services. It sounds depressing, but since we see things through a child’s eyes, everything is accepted as “normal,” and the Florida Project would make a great compare-and-contrast double-bill with Lady Bird toast

When Pixar writer/director Adrian Molina’s brainchild, Coco was released in Mexico on the recent Dia de los Muertas (Day of the Dead), the film about a musically-gifted 12-year-old boy who runs away from his “no-music-allowed” home and stumbles into a parallel universe-de-muertos populated by humorous skeletons and prophetic spirit-animals quickly became Mexico’s highest-grossing film of all time. Coco’s problem is that he must find his way back to the land of the living before the day is done, or be stuck with the dead ones forever. Sounds simple enough, except there are so many distractions for a music-obsessed youngster. Every being on the other side loves to create and play music including his feisty, long dead, great, great, great grandmother Imelda, the charismatic troubador, Hector, who willingly agrees to help Coco—but still must stop occasionally to sing a song or three, a very friendly stray dog named Dante, and Miguel’s favorite musician Ernesto de la Cruz—a 1940’s crooner killed by a freak accident with a church bell. The opening scenes are crammed full of exposition, but once they are liberated from the constraints of the conventional “real-world,” the animators have created a masterpiece of wild sights and sounds where the “other side” appears to be a happy, and very musical place to be.

Writer/director Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age movie, Lady Bird proves that the universality of high school angst can be fresh, alive and exciting. The title is the nick-name of a Sacramento teen attending an all girls Catholic High School. Longing to escape to New York City, Lady Bird attempts to expand her circle beyond her perpetually sunny Best-Friend, and develops an experimental crush for a boy in the all-boys Catholic school. A moody drummer soon becomes boyfriend #2, but, to Lady Bird’s dismay, he is even more disappointing than boyfriend #1. Unlike most teen movies, parents are critical to the gestalt that is Lady Bird (both the character and the movie). There are interactive scenes between mother and daughter that are miniature masterpieces in a movie filled with astoundingly well-crafted performances. This film is a winner!

Director Kagonda has created a film to watch in the early afternoon so you can spend some time afterwards appreciating what you have just experienced. The story involves what happens when a world-class Korean architect slated to give a talk about the celebrated modernist buildings of Columbus, Indiana is hospitalized. His grown son is stuck in the Midwestern city, but finds companionship with a young librarian as they both try to cope with what life has dealt them, but it is so much more—a poignantly beautiful piece of conversational filmmaking where buildings become part of the cast.

I’m surprised the opening music isn’t Peter, Paul and Mary singing “If I Had a Hammer,” for that is the premise of the impressive film, Thor: Ragnarok. Thor, the mighty God of Thunder and Lightning, has lost his beloved talisman and is imprisoned on the other side of the (Marvel?) universe. Meanwhile, Hela, the Goddess of Death is hastening Ragnorak (the prophesied End of Times) to Thor’s Asgard homeland. A long role of odd characters helps Thor in his mission to thwart extinction, including the Incredible Hulk, who first appears as his opponent in a kill-or-be-killed gladiatorial contest. The destructive fight is presented with the same tongue-in-cheek humor that has always made Thor a likable character, but changes the audience’s assumption that the Hulk, is just angry grimaces. Surprisingly, these two incredibly different heroes become buddies who delight in trading one-liner zingers with each other. Marvel purists will probably cringe at all the light hearted jibs and jabs, but they will love the over-the-top climax of the film. I credit screenwriter Eric Pearson and director Taika Waititi for making everything work so well.

Faces Places (PG) 4 pieces of toast Octogenarian Agnes Varda makes another compelling “slice of life” documentary as she travels across the French countryside with photographer and street artist JR. This time, she confronts remnants of her Nouvelle Vague previous life Jane (NR) 3 and 1/2 pieces of toast Paleoanthropologist Jane Goodall’s career as a professional “wait and watcher” is beautifully preserved in Brett Morgan’s astounding doc. The audiences gets the chance to wait and watch as Jane finally gains acceptance from her beloved chimpanzees, and the primate rituals observed in the wild are mirrored by Jane and her National Geographic photographer husband. One flaw is the jarring music and fast-paced editing techniques Morgan unwisely uses to “jazz things up a bit.”