ALISON ROWAT
Finding Dory
Dir: Andrew Stanton
(USA, 2016)
four stars
ONE of the best things about the Edinburgh International Film Festival is the relationship it has developed with those clever folk over the pond at Pixar. The bond, forged under Hannah McGill, means that if there is a new Pixar out that summer, young cinemagoers in Scotland will likely get first peek of it before children in the rest of the UK. So it is that Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo, takes its place alongside Brave, Wall.E and Ratatouille, among others, as an “as seen in Edinburgh first” title.
Finding Dory homes in on the Ellen DeGeneres-voiced character in the 2003 Oscar-winner. Then, her forgetfulness was played for laughs plain and simple. Here, things are a little more complex as we meet Dory as a young fish who can’t “remember well”. In the big wide ocean, this disability can get a little fish lost. Andrew Stanton reprises the best bits of Finding Nemo by way of a catch-up before we get into Dory’s story proper. Will she remember where she came from? Does it matter if she now has a new family and friends? With humour and sensitivity, Finding Dory sets about finding out. DeGeneres’ goofiness can be an acquired taste, but it is one I like, Albert Brooks is a joy again as Nemo’s grumpy dad, and the picture is as beautifully realised as we have come to expect from Pixar. Go on in, the water’s lovely.
Out July 29
ALISON ROWAT
Maggie’s Plan
Dir: Rebecca Miller
(USA, 2015)
four stars
GRETA Gerwig (Frances Ha, Mistress America) stars in another tale of gabby New Yorkers that will either charm or irritate depending on your liking for such comedies of intellectual manners. Here, the titular Maggie (Gerwig) certainly does have a scheme in mind - getting pregnant, with the help of a sperm donor, no strings attached. Then Maggie meets academic and budding novelist John (Ethan Hawke) and falls in love. But John is married to the brilliant, mercurial Georgette (Julianne Moore), so dare Maggie advance any of her plans further? The direction and script are by Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur) and everyone talks a blue streak about their feelings. When matters become too pretentious, Miller and co-writer Karen Rinaldi prick the bubble of pomposity with a good joke or nice line. Moore’s foreign academic is over the top, not always in a good way, and Hawke doesn’t set out to win many admirers as Maggie’s narcissistic suitor. But as so often with every picture she is in, it is the delightful Gerwig who holds everything together with wit, grace, and superb comic timing. Though she is the best when it comes to this kind of American indie, it would be grand to see her widening her horizons somewhat. As she shows in the spikier moments in Maggie’s Plan, there is serious dramatic actress at work here.
Sunday 1.20pm, Cineworld Fountainbridge. On general release July 8.
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