Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (PG-13)
A complicated father-son relationship, a fantastical otherworldly realm and Awkwafina come together in the lively Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a martial arts-heavy adventure-filled entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Having people (rather than big robots or something) fighting each other brings an energy to the choreography of many of this movie’s fight scenes that makes them enjoyable to watch apart from just the “who beats who” element.
Shang-Chi, called Shaun when we first meet him (Simu Liu), lives in San Francisco, making a living valet parking cars with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina) and dodging questions from friends about why they don’t buckle down and find jobs that reflect their talents. But then Shaun gets in a fight on a bus — not just any fight, but a prolonged martial arts fight against multiple skilled fighters, including a guy whose arm is a large knife and who IMDb tells me is called Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu). In the process, the men steal an amulet given to Shaun by his late mother (Fala Chen) and Katy learns that her longtime friend has some very supercharged fighting skills. Shaun tells her about his past, which includes the story of his father, Wenwu (Tony Leung), a basically immortal warrior who owes his long life and his extraordinary fighting powers to the 10 rings he wears on his arms. Shaun ran away from home (home being a sort of mountain fortress where Wenwu trains his fighting forces) and his father as a teenager and realizes that the bus fight is a sign his father is coming after him. He is also afraid that his father will send his men after his younger sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). Though they haven’t spoken in years, Shaun is determined to protect Xialing and heads to Macau, where he thinks she lives, with Katy, determined to protect Shaun, in tow.
The movie eventually leads to an Asgard-like other realm — reached not by Bifrost but through a constantly moving maze in a bamboo-like forest — called Ta Lo, which is a green countryside with a bucolic-seeming village and animals like a white fox-ish creature with multiple tails and giant lions. Here, the group meets Nan (Michelle Yeoh), the siblings’ mother’s sister, who, like everybody in this movie, is also a bad-ass (but elegant) fighter.
Ta Lo is very pretty and, much like with the Thor movies and Asgard, the movie is maybe at its best when it’s set in these non-modern-day locations (I would include in that Wenwu’s compound, which has more of an out-of-time castle feel). Especially during the climactic battle (is it a spoiler to say an MCU movie has a climactic battle? I don’t feel like it is), it’s so much easier to forget about trying to make the physics of the battle make sense in our world and just sort of go with this alternate realm situation. These sections help to give the movie a more adventure-y, fantasy feel than some of the more grounded-in-our-world comic book movies.
The clunkier parts of the movie, for me at least, were when it tried to fit this movie into the wider MCU but then it’s been a while since we’ve started a new story with characters not previously teased in a familiar property before they get their own movie (like Tom Hollander’s Spider-Man or Black Panther, both appearing in Captain America: Civil War before their characters’ own movies). So, while it’s clunky, it’s not, to me, fatal or even damaging to Shang-Chi overall.
The performances here are solid. Awkwafina might have been brought in for comic relief but she also offers the viewer entry into this world and she brings a little meatiness to the parts of the story that are about Shaun (and Katy) trying to figure out what their place in the world is. Yeoh is great and brings those Anthony Hopkins-like Serious Actor chops to the movie. Simu Liu is a likeable leading man and, in the grand Marvel tradition of having antagonists who are more charismatic than the movie’s lead, Tony Leung turns in an even more compelling performance that gives Wenwu some layers and human motivation (you can go down a whole internet rabbit hole with that character, though I won’t get into it too much because here be spoilers).
Is it true that even a “yeah sure it’s fine” Marvel movie would feel like a good time at the movies given, you know, all the everything? Sure, yes, that’s fair. (It was delightful to see and hear the Marvel Studios title card in a theater.) But Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings truly is a good time at the theater, with characters that are enjoyable to be around, and, though I also enjoyed this summer’s Black Widow, Shang-Chi brings a nice burst of freshness in the MCU. B+
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton with a screenplay by Dave Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is two hours and 12 minutes long (with two post-credits scenes, which, like, might as well stay) and is distributed by Walt Disney Motion Pictures. It is currently only in theaters though it is reported (Wikipedia and elsewhere) that it will go to Disney+ after the 45-day theatrical window, meaning mid-October-ish.
Cinderella (PG)
The wish Camila Cabello’s heart makes is to be a great dress designer in Cinderella, a live-action jukebox musical version of the classic fairy tale.
I stress the live-action part because in some ways this movie feels like a cartoon — a solid, above average cartoon whose central mission is being bright and fun. The movie also has those classic “TV special” vibes, with a certain family-musical stageyness and some fun stunt casting. I think the “PG” rating is also a significant aspect of this movie. It’s clearly aimed at kids, maybe in the 7 or 8 to teen age range, and that was the level on which I found myself judging the movie as I watched.
Ella (Cabello) ticks the standard Cinderella boxes: lives in the basement of her family home in a once-upon-a-time-ish land, is friends with mice (voiced by James Corden, Romesh Ranganathan and James Acaster) and is forced to serve her stepmother Vivian (Idina Menzel) and stepsisters, Malvolia (Maddie Baillio, who gives the character a fun evil-but-weird energy) and Narissa (Charlotte Spencer), whom the narrator describes as “cray.” That narrator, and in the pivotal scene the Fabulous Godmother, is Billy Porter, who is great, and beautifully costumed as a haute couture take on a monarch-y butterfly.
Instead of dreaming of True Love, Ella dreams of overcoming the prejudice against female business owners and starting her own dress line. Entertainingly, her song of longing is sung to her future self, with a storefront and a customer base.
Meanwhile, King Rowan (Pierce Brosnan) is trying to convince Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine) to marry, perhaps Princess Laura (Mary Higgins) from the neighboring kingdom, who will help the united royal families rule all the lands from here to the sea monster, as she points out on a map. But Robert is having none of this; he wants to be in True Love when he marries. Queen Beatrice (Minnie Driver), bored with her life of standing next to the king and waving, isn’t in any hurry to push her son into a loveless marriage and meanwhile Robert’s sister Princess Gwen (Tallulah Greive) is just trying to get someone to listen to her ideas about wind energy, anti-poverty programs and the catapult-industrial complex. When Robert sees plucky Ella at a royal ceremony — she climbs a statue of the king to get a better look at the goings on and then suggests King Rowan consider some bleachers when he yells at her for being on his statue — he is smitten and slums it to mix amongst the common folk and find the girl who won his heart with sass-talk.
When peasantly attired Robert finds her, he tries to convince Ella to go to the upcoming ball for his princely self, meant to give him a chance to meet Miss Right. Ella is uninterested until he says that he knows some fancy people and can help her find potential clients for her dressmaking enterprise. Thus does she start designing the dress, which is ruined by the disapproving stepmother and so on, hitting the standard Cinderella beats with a plucky modern twist.
Watching modern, say the last 25 years or so, filmmakers deal with Cinderella as a character is always entertaining. The 1950 Disney character is kinda drippy by modern standards (at least, as I remember her; though I liked the movie in my youth it isn’t one I’m eager to revisit with my kids), and in their more recent uses of her, such as in the live-action 2015 Cinderella, they’ve seemed to look for ways to highlight her non-waiting-for-a-prince character traits. In that movie, they made her intelligently kind. In 1998’s Ever After: A Cinderella Story (which is rated PG-13), Drew Barrymore’s take on the character is also a more can-do girl, who can wield a sword and does her best to look after her friends. (Both of those movies, along with the TV movie Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella from 1997 with Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, are on Disney+, should you want to make it a multi-feature Cinderella movie night.)
Here, Cinderella (and many of the movie’s supporting female characters) has ambitions in a world that doesn’t usually allow women to have non-marriage-related ambitions, and the movie gives its prince longings that are more emotion-driven. Which, yay! — good for letting everybody live their truth, even if it is unsubtly conveyed. I feel like if you view this as a bit of family entertainment geared to kids, it makes sense and feels appropriate for the movie’s messaging to be fairly blunt. As a parent, I’ll take blunt messaging that leans in the direction of kindness, being who you are and standing up for yourself over a more nuanced telling where a girl appears to be finding her happiness because she found her prince.
The show itself is also rather bluntly staged, with its townsfolk singing “Rhythm Nation” in the square and the stepmother explaining the facts of life with “Material Girl.” It’s loud and colorful and fun — almost cartoony but in a way that works for gather-round-the-TV family entertainment.
The movie’s performances are all somewhere on the scale of completely acceptable to “this actor is having a good time.” Galitzine is perfectly suitable and the movie has fun with Brosnan but it is, of course, the women’s show: Cabello is charming and can sell the comedy as well as the singing. Menzel is exactly what you’d expect from “Idina Menzel as the stepmother” and the movie has to work at times to make her not the star of this show. Minnie Driver also seems to be having a fun time, and throughout there are some solid supporting characters and cast who all have the right “welcome to our theatrical production; hey ma, look at me!” vibe. B
Rated PG for suggestive material and language. Written and directed by Kay Cannon, Cinderella is an hour and 53 all-singing, all-dancing minutes long and distributed by Columbia Pictures, who sold this to Amazon and thus it is on Amazon Prime.
FILM
Venues
AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry
amctheatres.com
Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com
Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com
Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem
Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com
Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Drive, Manchester
anselm.edu/dana-center-humanities
The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com
LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com
The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org
O’neil Cinemas at Brickyard Square
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com
Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com
Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org
The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com
Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456
Shows
• The Shakedown (1929), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Thursday, Sept. 9, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth. Tickets start at $10.
• Time Is Up (NR, 2021) starring Bella Thorne and Benjamin Mascolo, will screen Thursday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. at Cinemark in Salem and Regal Fox Run in Newington.
• The Card Counter (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Friday, Sept. 10, through Sunday, Sept. 12, at 12:45 p.m., 3:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.
• The Alpinist (PG-13, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Friday, Sept. 10, through Sunday, Sept. 12, at 1:15 p.m., 4:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m.
• David Byrne’s American Utopia (NR) will screen at O’neil Cinemas in Epping on Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m.
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch (R, 2001) at Rex Theatre on Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to Motley Mutts Rescue. Tickets cost $12.
• National Theatre Live Follies,a broadcast of a play from London’s National Theatre, screening at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord on Sunday, Oct. 3, at 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15 ($12 for students).
• National Theatre Live Cyrano de Bergerac, a broadcast of a play from London’s National Theatre, screening at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord on Sunday, Oct. 17, at 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15 ($12 for students).
• Frankenweenie (PG, 2012) at the Rex Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 17, 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to Motley Mutts Rescue. Tickets cost $12.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (PG, 1993) at the Rex Theatre on Monday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to Motley Mutts Rescue. Tickets cost $12.
• The Phantom of the Opera (1925) a silent film starring Lon Chaney with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis on Thursday, Oct. 21, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth. Tickets start at $10.
• Nosferatu (1922), a silent film directed by F.W. Murnau, on Thursday, Oct. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester, featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission costs $10.
• The Big Parade (1925), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Thursday, Nov. 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth. Tickets start at $10.
• National Theatre Live No Man’s Land a broadcast of a play from London’s National Theatre, screening at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord on Sunday, Nov. 21, at 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15 ($12 for students).
• National Theatre Live The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time a broadcast of a play from London’s National Theatre, screening at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord on Sunday, Dec. 5, at 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15 ($12 for students).
Featured photo: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Courtesy photo.
