Firestarter (2022)

Director: Keith Thomas

Cast: Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Michael Greyeyes, Gloria Reuben

Have I Seen it Before: Well, we’ll see, but it has been only a hot minute (see what I did there?) since I saw the original 1984 film, so we’ll see what’s changed up.

Did I Like It: Nope!

You probably want more if you’ve come this far. This remake does manage to improve on a number of deep flaws from the original film. Armstrong and Efron are giving more easily plausible (I’m not going to go as far as to say believable) performance, easily accomplishing the tasks of both behaving as if they were father and daughter, and had ever spoken as humans in the first place.

The special effects are sturdy, if not overwhelming, which is certainly more than can be said for the original, although one has to admit that the only objective difference between the effects here and in the original film is that these effects are only new, and not inarguably better.

The final act is not punctuated with a new mission for Charlie (Armstrong) to expose the evil misdeeds of the people that doomed her parents and damned her out of anything resembling a normal childhood. In the original, the post-truth world we live in can’t help but lead one to wonder how Charlie might expose the truth. Here, it is dutifully ignored.

That will easily be the last nice thing I have to say about the film, and especially the last act. Rainbird and Charlie walk off together in the night, and I can’t even reach into the depths of head canon to make that choice work. Poor Kurtwood Smith very nearly gets the Mark-Hamill-in-The-Force-Awakens deal and may not quantifiably be in the film. Every character—including Charlie—feels like they are barely in the film.

Lora posed the question of whether or not King’s work just doesn’t translate to film well. I think with an IT - Chapter One (2017) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994) that seems an unfair generalization.

But I’m reasonably certain that this King story may eschew any sort of adaptation.

Me and Orson Welles (2008)

Director: Richard Linklater

Cast: Zac Efron, Christian McKay, Claire Danes, Ben Chaplin

Have I Seen it Before: I mean, yeah…

Did I Like It: There are any number of films—both narrative and documentary—about the making of Citizen Kane (1941), the War of the Worlds broadcast, and Orson Welles’ long slow slalom through increasing cultural ambivalence. I’ve watched pretty much all of them, so it is nice to spend a little time with the man before he is a household name. Focusing in on the rehearsals and performance of his famed fascist Julius Caesar ensures that there will likely never be another film treading over the same material. The film’s attempts to recreate that singular production bring us as close to witnessing that event as we possibly can. Linklater fills the film with a vital energy, where a lesser director might have let the material and setting speak for itself.

Except, the film isn’t really about him. Which is fine, as McKay gets the voice and cadence of Welles right, but as with so many who have tried to play him in the years leading up to the making of Kane, he’s already far too old to play Welles. He apparently has played the role occasionally in stage productions, and he might very well be the best possible performer for Welles post-The Stranger (1946) and pre-Touch of Evil (1958). It also helps that Efron makes a level-headed play for material beyond the teeny-bopper fare that brought him initial fame. He brings a refreshing earnestness to the stock character type of the wide-eyed boy who  wants to be a big star. It truly is an engaging depiction of life in the theater, and infuses the notion with just enough realistic romance that even I can feel a bit wistful for not having pursed such a life. His chemistry during a flirtation which never quite blooms into a romance with Clare Danes left me not once dwelling on their staggering age difference… until sitting down to type this review.