MOVIES take us back to Wakanda, to the Montreal underworld and to more Indigenous cinema

One movie is the undisputed big one this week, maybe for the rest of the autumn. I know of entire families that will be going to see it. It’s my first review today. If you’re not intending to go out to a theater though, notice that two big series are back streaming again. Both are multi-Emmy winners for previous seasons. The Crown started its 5^th season this week on Netflix, and on CRAVE The White Lotus is now two episodes into a second season. Except for Jennifer Coolidge, the cast are all new. They play tourists in Sicily and so far I found the comedy is turned up a little but the cynicism is just as trenchant as last time.

Elsewhere you can see these:

Black Panther Wakanda Forever: 3 ½ stars

Rosie: 3 ½

Kings of Coke: 4

Paradise City: 2 ½

Manifest West: 3

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER: Ryan Coogler had a difficult task here and he succeeds admirably in one aspect, not so much in another. The job? How to make a sequel to the massive hit that was the first movie. (over $200 million box office on its first weekend, seven Oscar nominations) when the star has since died of cancer? Fans revered Chadwick Boseman as the king of the fictional African nation and black fans especially enjoyed the Afro-futurist ambience in the film. Coogler rightfully shaped the sequel to honor his memory and included a strong theme of grieving, both for the actor, and for the king by his people. That works extremely well.

But this is a Marvel film. We have to move forward. We have to replace the king, get to an inevitable and big splash of action and, as in the comics this all comes from, deal with colonialism and the stealing of natural resources by world powers. It takes a complicated story to do all that.

Wakanda has a rare mineral called vibranium, defends itself at a UN conference by opposing an American delegate but won’t join with another country that also has the mineral and wants an alliance. That’s an underwater city called Talokan (Atlantis in the original comics) ruled by Namor, played by Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta. He flies in by wings on his ankles, thanks to the vibranium he wants to hide from the world. To do that he wants to find and kill an American scientist who has invented a detection device. She’s a young MIT student as the late king’s sister and the army’s female general find out when go to investigate. That leads to a war between the would-be allies, and some pretty good Marvel battle sequences. The film also drags at times while a succession drama is going on. Actors Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira and Angela Bassett, as the king’s mother, shine in it, though Julia Louis-Dreyfus not so much as a CIA boss. (In theaters everywhere) 3 ½ out of 5

ROSIE: Families come in many forms says this first film from Gail Maurice. She’s a Metis, known as an actor for TV shows like Trickster and films like Night Raiders and therefore part of the growth of Indigenous cinema we’ve seen in Canada recently. That alone makes it worth your attention. The warm-hearted tone here about love and acceptance is another reason, even though it could use some toughening up.

It plays too easily I feel. These characters are all struggling with being rejects. Rosie (Keris Hope Hill) is a young Indigenous girl whose mother has died and is delivered to her aunt Frederica (Mélanie Bray) in Montreal. Fred, as she calls herself, scavenges thrown-away items, makes art out of them but hasn’t yet been able to sell any of it. Next door are two drag queens Mo and Flo (Alex Trahan and Constant Bernard) who have their own issues of rejection, one by a crabby father. Down the sidewalk there’s an Indigenous panhandler. The examples are piling up and in a variety of ways Rosie brings positive vibes into their lives. “We’re a crazy little family,” either Mo or Flo says. Maurice is making the point that thrown away or not, everybody deserves love and is capable of giving it. Nice. Easy to say, but nice. (In theaters in eight cities now, including Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver, with more soon) 3 ½ out of 5

KINGS OF COKE: There’s almost a tone of pride, certainly of respect, in this portrait of a criminal gang. It earned Montreal labels like “the bank robbery capital of North America”, “perhaps the most criminal city in North America” and sadly: “a city of many coffins.” Wow, Canadians can do big things too, you might secretly be thinking when you hear them. I’m sure that’s not what investigative journalist and now filmmaker Julian Sher had exactly in mind. But this is an engrossing documentary and a great story.

It starts in the 60s and 70s. Italian and French gangs controlled crime in the city and a small Irish gang rose up to challenge them. They started as busy bank robbers and found easier money in drugs. They controlled the port and therefore what could be imported. They went so far as dealing directly with drug lords in Columbia and supplied much of North American with cocaine. They had a hitman nicknamed “Mad Bomber” and provoked a gang war, a crime commission investigation and the suicide of a top RCMP official who was suspected of complicity. Just like in almost every crime movie, the gang rose fast, split and by the 90s and beyond, collapsed. The film tells it all without romanticizing, but with punch.Much of that comes from the people who talk: reporters and authors Dan Burke and D’Arcy O’Connors, other observers and even ex-criminals. (Streaming on CRAVE) 4 out of 5

PARADISE CITY: Completists may be interested in this film. It seems to be the last one for Bruce Willis (because of a medical condition) and the first one he appeared alongside John Travolta, since Pulp Fiction, 28 years ago. Mind you, they’re not alongside each other very much. They only appear together now and then in this not very thrilling crime story. Willis plays a bounty hunter in Hawaii, who is killed early on trying to find a drug cartel operative. We see him again in flashbacks but the main action is with his son (Blake Jenner). He’s trying to find his dad’s killer and joins forces with another bounty hunter (Stephen Dorff) who was his dad’s friend until a mistunderstanding about a wife broke them up.

Travolta plays a local VIP who’s raising money for a political candidate but is known to indigeous leaders as a developer who is about to destroy paradise by building on sacred lands. There’s a lot of potential there and that’s boosted by a plot point about a group of exotic dancers helping with an investigation. They find out things faster than the police, it is said. There’s corruption, a fear that local lands will be strip mined and more. It’s not thrilling though. It’s lethargic, directed by Chuck Russell who has a history going back to 1987, mostly with genre films. The producer and co-writer is a Canadian, Corey Lange from Victoria. (available digitally) 2 ½ out of 5

MANIFEST WEST: Mel Gibson’s sons are responsible for this cautionary tale about trying to live off the grid. Louis co-wrote and co-directed it and Milo stars as a father who leads his family out of the city (where the radio has constant chatter about the world going wrong) to a remote house on the edge of a forest. “We make the rules now,” he says. He soon finds there are limits though.

Mom learns to handle a gun so she can hunt. But she’s uncomfortable and not well. The kids are to be home schooled. The younger one is hurt to learn that pioneers killed off Indians. “Why” she asks. The older gets involved with some teens who drink and breathe in aerosols at a party. An inspector orders the dad to fix the septic system, which he has no ability to do, but tries anyway. A woman from child welfare comes to check on the kids . When the dad objects, the cops come and the story gets into the TV news. He also snaps at a women who is talking nicely to his kids in a store aisle. The moral is clear: moving to the country is no escape; you’ll be bringing all your problems along anyway. (VOD and digital availability) 3 out of 5