Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
We’ve been covering a run of fairly dark and troubling films of late, which is only fitting given that we are all of us traveling together through dark and troubling times. And while we’ve enjoyed this recent run, it seemed advisable to change things up a bit and bring some light and laughter back into the column.
Enter Paddington.
Hugely beloved in British culture since his inception in 1958, Paddington Bear finally made the jump to live action in 2014 with a feature film co-written and directed by Paul King (cultishly adored for his work on The Mighty Boosh) and featuring Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington, a young talking bear from “Darkest Peru” who is uprooted from his peaceful life and sent to London to seek a new home and family.
Paddington also stars Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins as Mr. and Mrs. Brown, the family who assist the young bear, Nicole Kidman as a renegade taxidermist, and supporting roles for Jim Broadbent and Doctor Who (Peter Capaldi, but we have him as the Doctor for THREE MORE MONTHS).
Paddington was a surprise critical and commercial success and a sequel is due later this year with the same cast and creative team. So we put it to the team to see how well this picker-upper picks us up during these final dog days of summer.
Did you get a chance to watch along with us this week? Want to recommend a great (or not so great) film for the whole gang to cover? Comment below or post on our Facebook or hit us up on Twitter!
Farewell, Tobe Hooper
On a sadder note, we at Two Cents were greatly by the recent passing of Tobe Hooper, one of the most important voices in American genre and independent cinema. Please take a look back at some of our previous entries on Mr. Hooper and his work: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2; and Poltergeist.
Next Week’s Pick:
Is It Stephen King’s best known story? The killer clown in the sewer would certainly seem to be the most iconic creation in the horror maestro’s legendary career, and with the new adaptation set to drop on Friday, a new generation is primed to re-learn the meaning of fear.
But is It King’s best known? Another claimant to that title is The Shining, in large part due to Stanley Kubrick’s notorious, Jack Nicholson-fronted adaptation. King famously loathed the film, and contemporary critics largely agreed with him. But The Shining is today regarded as one of the great classics of the horror genre, even if some King-partisans continue to assert that Kubrick missed the mark.
So we put it you: Do the haunted corridors of the Overlook Hotel still pack their frightening power, or was Uncle Stevie on the mark in the first place?
The Shining is available to stream on Netflix Insant.
Submissions can be sent to [email protected] anytime before midnight on Thursday.
Our Guest
Brendan Agnew
You ever get furious with your past self that you waited so long to watch a movie? That’s me with Paddington right now.
Apart from being a distressingly timely parable about hospitality and immigration, apart from perfectly appealing to a basic human decency that is paramount to a thriving society, and apart from putting several well-earned skewers in insular bigotry and discrimination and destructive colonialism…it’s just a marvelous family film on every level. You could teach a screenwriting class with the way it handles planting and payoff, the editing is a ballet of comedic timing, and the overall sensibility rests in the juncture between sly dad jokes and Looney Tunes antics that make Wallace and Gromit so appealing.
I’m absolutely steamed that I waited so long to watch this, but on the other hand, it’s impossible to stay mad. Paddington is a 95-minute ear-to-ear grin that pairs a big great with something genuinely worth opening your heart to. It’s…like coming home. (@BLCAgnew)
The Team
Despite being the guy who covers the most kids films and has the most questionable “crap filter” (allowing me to enjoy stuff that others loathe), there are periods of time where I simply cannot stand kids programming unless it has a darker edge. This means that when my kids throw on the new Netflix reboot of The Worst Witch or something of that sort, I’m cool; on the other hand, if it’s any other kids film, I’m so out. With that said, I’m currently in this mode, this my experience with Paddington was less than positive.
The first time I watched this, I must have been in similar mind frame as I couldn’t even make it through. This time I did, but only because Brendan made me. And, while it’s not a bad film, I just couldn’t enjoy myself at all.
It was fine and all, but I’m going back to my watch a bunch of horror and dark shit in my room now. (@ThePaintedMan)
Sincerity is hard. Warmth is hard. Kindness is hard.
They’re hard enough in real life, but in art, they often seem all-but impossible to depict without toppling over into unearned schmaltz and drippy sentimentality.
So when someone nails it, when someone crafts a sincere, warm film that exudes kindness from its frames and does it with skill and panache, the results are magic.
And Paddington is magic. Relentlessly funny and visually audacious, Paddington is also a heartwarming ode to found families, and a testament to the way that acts of generosity and kindness, small or large, reverberate and spread. It’s a film about how flawed people can find the best version of themselves and come together to accomplish something good, truly good.
Sincerity, warmth and kindness are hard, but they’re always worth doing all the same, and films like Paddington are a tribute to why. (@TheTrueBrendanF)
I didn’t grow up reading the Paddington books. I was peripherally aware of them but they never really crossed my path — my impression was that they were from a different generation. Not that that’s a bad thing, I was a voracious reader who enjoyed the adventures of the Hardy Boys, Happy Hollisters, and Boxcar Children.
Anyway with that in mind, rebooting an older property can be disastrous, trying to attract new viewers with no knowledge or love of it, while also appeasing the nostalgia or more mature sensibilities of older fans. Or worse, ignore both and aim down the middle. I mean, who the hell was the target audience for the ultraviolent The Lone Ranger? Not kids or seniors.
That makes Paddington all the more special endearing. A warm and utterly lovely adventure with a little bear and his new family. Ben Whishaw is easily one of the most charming actors alive, and he brings incredible life to his role as Paddington, who is mischievous, but also kind, polite, and innocent. This is a film where the villain’s plot is almost extraneous; the core is just enjoying the family of characters interact. (@VforVashaw)
Watch it on Netflix:
Next Week’s Pick: