By Anne Brodie
Here, Robert Zemeckis’ history of a place over its lifetime of millions of years, ice ages, extinctions, renewal, and modern times takes an unusual approach to storytelling. A home sprouts up in the last century where primordial ooze had been and where meteorites had crashed, and people lived in the house over generations in this one little spot on Earth. The action is set in the front room, the window overlooking the mansion across the street, with furniture, constantly changing, ringed around a fireplace. The room comes to life as its inhabitants enter, move in and out, linger or leave. The camera is there and there only. Nothing exists anywhere else. Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, who made Forrest Gump with Zemeckis, are Richard and Margaret. They have a couple of kids and their time together is played out for on this ersatz front room stage. Life events that happen in all families are short and sharp, the mood and tone changing as Richard and Margaret fall in love, marry, have kids, raise and release those kids, and start losing parents, separate, and start ageing and forgetting things. Its poignant and on the nose, sentimental tears for those inclined, as in Forrest Gump. We watch the families that lived there before they did, a diverse group of folks, some staid and hidebound, others easy going and inventive, some sexually active, some not so much, all living their lives for us to recognise. Voyeuristic. It stays grounded in the reality of everyday life, so nothing truly extraordinary happens, except for its original style /concept. War, economic change, job loss, education gained, birth, death, and emotional flux indicate that we change and things aren’t all that dramatic. Its sweetly sad and easy viewing, i.e. not much drama except the primordial segments, a slide show in soft focus, based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire. The ageing and de-aging FX are darned impressive. In theatres now.
Martha Stewart created a moment that I doubt will ever be repeated in our culture. Called the original influencer, that’s hardly the word to use to describe the power and magnitude of “Martha Stewart”. She was the biggest thing to hit culture back in the 80’s, and remain so, and became the first American “self-made female billionaire”. At once terrifying, with valuable, seemingly limitless knowledge to help us create the “perfectly perfect” home, her voice is hypnotic and soothing, crisply comfortingly, as she delivers her instructions. Reports emerged that she was condescending, impatient and dismissive of others, and maybe that’s what fascinated us; her cool temperament, different from the previous standard in warm celebrity homemakers like Betty Brocker, Dorothy Draper, Elsie de Wolfe, and in Canada Kate Aitken, solid, jolly, middle-aged matrons. Martha was singularly beautiful and glamourous even in her wellies and barn coat. And she had all the answers. In her 100 books or so, numerous television series and specials, she shared her secrets, showing exactly how to make a cassoulet, a bed, a garden. God forbid you make a mistake, then noise of her temperament landed in the tabloids. When she was arrested and jailed for insider trading and lying to the FBI, they pounced. Stewart had it all and lost it all, including Board positions on big corporate boards. Would she be able to bounce back? R.J. Cutler’s spellbinding documentary simply called Martha tells the whole story, mostly via her own words. She was shockingly candid – her marriage, love affairs, being dumped, remarks about others, and impatient. Many years ago, I travelled to Turkey Hill, her home in Westport, Connecticut, the subject of several of her books, for a press event. She was mercurial, but friendly enough on introduction. She stayed with the press corps a few minutes, meeting each one, then vanished, not to be seen again, leaving her sister to entertain and serve the refreshments. Martha digs for the roots of her fascination with homemaking and cooking and that pursuit of perfection, no wonder she is the way she is. What’s next? The musical? Oh, Stewart has nothing but insults for Cutler now that she’s seen the final cut. Ouch. On Netflix now.
John Williams whose body of film scores is the most easily recognised in the history of cinema, is the master of clever musical abbreviation. None like him. His best-known pieces are simple passages of three, four and five notes that eloquently and immediately call up the flood of emotion the films gave us. Steven Spielberg acknowledges that if he hadn’t had Williams, his films wouldn’t have had the impact they had, that he couldn’t have done some without him. And many top filmmakers, composers, conductors, and musicians, Chris Martin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Kate Capshaw, Gustavo Dudamel, J.J. Abrams, Chris Martin, Ron Howard, Chris Columbus, George Lucas, Itzhak Perlman, Lawrence Kasdan, Yo-Yo Ma, Ke Huy Quan, James Mangold, Alan Silvestri, David Newman, Thomas Newman, Seth MacFarlane, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Branford Marsalis all have their say in what manages to sidestep becoming a hagiography. The man deserves all the kudos. He revolutionised, and kept alive, orchestral scores for film. He still writes music with a pencil, doesn’t know how to use the computer to make it faster, maybe that important. Subjects talk about certain passages and the deep effects they have, their reflections on William’s unique place in cinema history and his massive contribution to the art of film. His score for Star Wars has a second life in live orchestral performances in front of light sabre wielding audiences at the Hollywood Bowl. That’s a first. So many firsts. Williams is a once in a lifetime talent, as this doc so vividly illustrates. Today on Disney+.
Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, a two-part documentary takes us behind-the-scenes and the first year of Prince William and The Royal Foundation’s Homewards program to change perceptions and demonstrate that it’s possible to end homelessness. We follow his five-year program in six locations across the U.K. with unique access. He seeks wisdom from those who have experienced homelessness across a series of moving encounters, and in interviews. The Prince credits his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales for inspiring him. His Homewards team to studies homelessness and takes action; he plans to build supported housing on his own land. And it aims to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated. It has been established in Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Lambeth in London, Newport, Northern Ireland and Sheffield, with space, tools and expertise to create innovative solutions, aided by national awareness campaigns, local storytelling and homeless persons’ stories. Disney+ did not give the media review access to the series. Premieres today on Disney+.