Finding Dory

Review by Joseph Anthony

Our favorite fishes, Nemo, Marlin, and Dory, are all back in FINDING DORY, the sequel to the now beloved Pixar film FINDING NEMO. Last time around Marlin (Albert Brooks), Nemo’s dad, had lost his son in the Pacific Ocean. His journey to find Nemo led him to encounter many other delightful characters, including a short-term memory loss afflicted blue tang fish, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres).

Luckily for us, Marlin and Dory found little Nemo. As we revisit the gang, everyone is happily living together. Dory still can’t remember a whole lot, but she knows her new family of Marlin and Nemo. As she enjoys her new home, she starts having flashbacks to her childhood with her mom Jenny (Diane Keaton) and dad Charlie (Eugene Levy). Dory starts longing not only to remember more about her parents and childhood, but wants to set out to find them.

And So It Goes

Review by Milan Paurich

Anyone who loves Diane Keaton will experience a whiff of nostalgia when she takes the stage in Rob Reiner’s AND SO IT GOES. Keaton doesn’t sing “Seems Like Old Times” or “It Had to Be You,” but the ANNIE HALL flashbacks linger pleasantly throughout the rest of the movie. It’s like an impromptu reunion with a dear old friend you’d lost touch with.

Since Reiner already made his own ANNIE HALL homage with 1989’s WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, that musical reminder of Woody Allen’s seminal ‘70s masterpiece was surely intentional. Of course, everything about AND SO... feels a tad deliberate and calculated for effect. Still, as predictable and formulaic as much of the film is, it satisfies like the cinematic equivalent of comfort food. (Think breaded veal cutlet with mushroom gravy and a side of lumpy mashed potatoes.)

The Big Wedding

Review by Pamela Zoslov

Everything about THE BIG WEDDING, a comedy written and directed by Justin Zackham, reeks of Hollywood cynicism, from the big-name casting (Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon) to the title “People like big, they like weddings. (Waves cigar.) Call it 'Da Big Wedding.'”

Loosely adapted from the 2006 Swiss film Mon frère se marie, the movie has a familiar La Cage aux Folles premise: a family enacts a social charade to deceive prospective in-laws. In the original Swiss movie, a divorced couple and their alienated children fake familial happiness to deceive the mother of their Vietnamese foster son. The Hollywood version has DeNiro and Keaton as Don and Ellie, a long-divorced couple, pretend they're still married for the sake of the devoutly Catholic birth mother (Patricia Rae) of their Colombian-born adopted son Alejandro (played, via politically incorrect Central Casting, by British actor Ben Barnes). Apart from the chauvinism of portraying a Colombian woman as a rosary-fondling rustic named Madonna, the film sins against comedy by failing to develop its farcical theme. The direction is slack and listless: a climactic scene under the wedding reception tent, in which the characters hurl around vicious accusations and scandalous revelations, is so limp it feels like rehearsal outtakes.