Joel Fry-days / Other Doctor Lives: Paddington 2 (2017, PG)

*Premise spoilers.*

I watched this movie a few years ago and wrote a review for Other Doctor Lives, but I have enough of a backlog of write-ups that I’d not gotten around to posting it—whenever it came time to post about Peter Capaldi stuff, this review was always getting bumped for something newer. But it worked out well, because now it can double as Other Doctor Lives and Joel Fry-days! Although there’s not much Peter Capaldi and even less Joel Fry, it’s still a cute film that was fun to revisit. The brunt of this post will be the review I wrote when I saw it the first time, with bonus Joel Fry observations added in.

Back when I reviewed the first Paddington film, I mentioned how pleasantly surprised I was with it. After the second movie came out, I heard a lot of praise for it, but I didn’t get around to seeing it until several years later, when it popped up on one of the free streaming services. But having crossed it off my list, I heartily agree with the critics and viewers about what a great film it is.

Paddington has picked out the perfect gift for his Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday: a vintage “popping book” depicting all the famous landmarks of London. He buckles down to save up for the present, but before he has a chance to buy it, it’s stolen from the shop. Even worse, Paddington was there when it happened, so now he’s being accused of the burglary! What’s a well-meaning, lovably clumsy bear to do?

I’m not going to pretend that this movie is Casablanca or anything, or even Inside Out or Encanto. It’s not. Of course it’s not. But that’s not to sell it short in any way. Instead, I’d say it reminds me of School of Rock, which I classify as a perfect film because it does precisely what it sets out to do. That’s what Paddington 2 does. It’s absolutely the best Paddington 2 it can be, and that makes for a pretty delightful viewing experience.

There are the more expected elements, such as Paddington’s abiding love for marmalade sandwiches and his uncanny ability to cause whimsical mayhem with his clumsiness—his various attempts to get a job are predictably fraught with calamity and slapstick. There are gentle lessons, wherein he worries that the Brown family will believe everything the papers are saying about him when he runs into his legal troubles. And there’s also so much that’s wonderfully unexpected.

One of those unexpected things is one Phoenix Buchanan, a preening actor who’s desperate to hold onto his fading glory. He’s extra in the best way—at one point, he proclaims, “I am tickled the deepest shade of shrimp!” He keeps his old costumes on mannequins as a sort of shrine to his career, and he occasionally talks to himself in the voices of his characters, from Magwitch to Hamlet to Poirot. His presence in the film is ridiculous and endlessly entertaining, and he offers us a great take on Shakespeare’s famous bit of stage direction from The Winter’s Tale.

I also actually love the scenes where Paddington is in prison, because they show so sweetly and gently what rehabilitation could be like. Surrounded by fellow inmates who are all demonstrably bigger and more imposing than Paddington, many of whom put on a display of toughness, Paddington moves hearts and minds with kindness and marmalade sandwiches. Obviously, the road to reimagining the justice system is more complicated than a CGI bear going, Well, what if we made it nice?, but it’s lovely to see how he and his new friends in prison transform the place, helping each other out as they improve the prison in every way.

The main actors from the first film return here, naturally. Ben Whishaw’s gentle, lovable Paddington leads the way with warmth and quiet humor, and Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, and Julie Walters are all back. Hugh Grant appears to be having the time of his life as Phoenix—it’s a performance that’s so big it borders on panto, but it really works. The film also features the likes of Jessica Hynes, Jim Broadbent, and Brendan Gleeson as a gruff prison cook.

Not much of Peter Capaldi’s Mr. Curry, but what little we get from him is well done. His anti-bear attitudes haven’t changed since the first movie, so of course he feels thoroughly vindicated when Paddington gets in trouble with the law. He goes around crowing I-told-you-so’s like a punk, and he establishes his own Community Defense Force for so-called public safety. I smiled when he exclaims, “I’ve raised the neighborhood panic level to wild hysteria!”

Joel Fry makes the teeniest of appearances. He’s credited simply as “Postman,” although the Browns’ housekeeper Mrs. Bird calls him Joe. His total screentime is under a minute, and most of that isn’t in the foreground of the frame. While the Browns are trying to prove Paddington’s innocence, they need to commit some light mail shenanigans, so Mrs. Bird distracts Joe while Mary gets up to her espionage. As such, he’s more of a plot device than a character, but he does ask after Paddington, and this exchange amuses me:

MRS. BIRD: “Hello, Joe! What a surprise! What are you doing here?” 

JOE: “Ah, you know, posting letters.”

Hee! Very cute. There’s a third Paddington movie, which I haven’t seen yet. Peter Capaldi isn’t in that one but Joel Fry is, so we’ll see what kind of a glimpse we get of him there.

Accent Watch

Peter Capaldi – London.

Joel Fry – Southern British English, I think—he only has a few lines.

Recommend?

In General – If you have any inclination towards kids’ movies/family films, I would. This is fun, charming, and sweet.

Peter Capaldi – A soft maybe. If you’re watching it purely for Capaldi, you’re going to get ten minutes tops of him in a fairly undemanding role, so it might not feel worth it. But whenever he is onscreen, he’s entertaining.

Joel Fry – Naw, he’s hardly in it.

Warnings

Some “don’t try this at home,” scary moments for kids, a little gross-out humor, and some thematic elements.

 

Joel Fry-days: In the Earth (2021, R)

*Premise spoilers*

*Note: right up top, don’t get anywhere near this movie if you have any type of seizure disorder. Flashing/strobe effects galore.*

This is a wild horror movie, and I still don’t know what to make of it. It’s interesting, it’s brutal, it only has six characters and yet is somehow kind of overstuffed, it’s weird and trippy, and it’s probably not as Capital-I Important as it thinks it is. But I found myself with oodles of affection for the two main characters and Joel Fry is fantastic in it, so here we are.

Dr. Martin Lowery volunteers for a supply run to see his former colleague, who’s been studying mushrooms and soil fertility in a national park outside Bristol. Alma, a park guide, leads him on the two-day trek through the forest to Dr. Wendle’s camp, but something is very wrong. No one’s heard from Dr. Wendle in months, and there’s something strange in the woods. Could it be connected to Parnag Fegg, the folkloric spirit of the forest?

This movie was filmed in 2020 and takes place during the pandemic, although the virus plays less of a narrative role within the film and more a thematic and practical one. When it comes to themes, the idea of isolation and disconnection is important, both among people and between humans and nature. We certainly look at the danger of being alone for too long. And as for the more practical function, I’m assuming COVID was a factor in making a movie with such a small cast out in the middle of nowhere—when I say it only has six characters, I mean literally six, and two of them aren’t even in it for very long.

The story? Honestly, I’m writing this review just after watching the movie, and I’m still trying to get my head around it. Like Requiem, it’s the sort of horror movie where it’s not immediately obvious if you’re dealing with purely human horrors or if there’s something supernatural in there too. The film comes at the central mystery from two angles, religious/mystical and scientific/natural, although elements of one bleed into the other. Unsurprisingly, Martin and Alma get tangled up in all of it, and their physically-taxing but predictable supply run becomes a dangerous headtrip full of nightmare fuel for the both of them.

Strong acting all around. I really love Ellora Torchia as Alma—Torchia looks familiar to me, but while IMDb shows me I’ve seen her in several things, I can’t really place her in them. Alma is hyper competent and half Martin’s size, and she’s determined to get him through this safely, come hell or high water. But for all her skills and toughness, she’s also not a superwoman. She gets terrified, she cries, and not all of her ideas for getting out of their situation pan out. In short, she’s amazing but human, and Torchia’s ground performance is just excellent. Reece Shearsmith, who I always think of first for his brief appearance as Patrick Troughton in An Adventure in Space and Time, is very good as Zach, a man Martin and Alma encounter living in the forest. He’s able to be creepy in this down-to-earth, almost nonchalant way, which keeps you feeling off-kilter throughout his scenes. Rounding out the main cast is Hayley Squires as Dr. Wendle. I’ll avoid spoilers on how she comes into play within the film, but Squires is very effective in the role. And since, again, the cast is so small, I’ll also mention John Hollingworth and Mark Monero, who are working out of the lodge on the edge of the forest where Martin quarantines at the start of the movie.

And then there’s Joel Fry as Martin. Oh Martin, my hurt/comfort babygirl! Even before all the creepy/trippy stuff really gets started, my man is having the worst week of his life. He’s cold and wet and doesn’t know how to put his tent together. On their trek, they have to keep stopping to rest because he’s spent the last fourth months stuck inside without exercise during a pandemic. When their shoes get stolen, he immediately cuts his foot, staggers through the woods on a makeshift crutch, and then cries as it gets stitched up. 

Look, Martin is not equipped to handle any of this. He doesn’t have wilderness skills, survival skills, or street smarts, and once the creepy stuff does start going down, he’s freaked out basically the whole time. But he’s here, he’s trying, and he doesn’t want to die. And, wonderfully, he also really wants to be there for Alma in the way that she’s there for him. He doesn’t always manage it, but he comes through for her when it counts the most. As they go through this harrowing, bewildering experience together, their whole dynamic is great, and I love them both.

Something I love about Joel Fry is that his characters rarely cry in a “tough” or stoic way. The whole scene of Martin’s injured foot getting stitched up is so, so good. Horror fans might focus more on the creep factor of the situation or the gross shots of the gash in his foot, but throughout, I’m entirely focused on Martin: how he tries to brace himself but still instantly writhes in pain, how his hand shakes as he covers first his eyes, then his mouth, and how he whimpers as Alma gently tells him he’s doing really well. Just the fact that Martin cries when he’s scared or in pain—not only when he’s sad—is something you wouldn’t see a lot of male actors do. I love that Fry doesn’t shy away from giving us characters who are really sensitive. That’s so great to see, especially for a Black man.

While this is a more dramatic role, given all the horrors Martin is entangled in, Fry still brings some nice levity in moments. I adore this scene, early in the trek, when Martin and Alma are setting up camp. As he struggles with his tent, Martin keeps up a running commentary, mumbling, “Everyone’s good at something. Some people are good at some things, other people are good at other things. It’s normal. It’s completely normal. Grown up in a city, I don’t know how to do these things.” Then when Alma offers to help him, he looks over and exclaims, “You’ve finished yours?”, dropping his tent in his surprise. I already liked Martin, but this was the moment I knew I was going to love him.

Accent Watch

Maybe a tiny bit posher than Fry’s own accent? It’s hard to tell.

Recommend?

(Note: both of these are, again, with the big caveat of “not if you have any type of photosensitive disorder!!!”)

In General – Maybe. I still haven’t sorted it all out in my head, but the performances are great, the cinematography is stellar, and I do find it interesting.

Joel Fry – Oh yes! Martin, my beloved—this is another fantastic performance from Fry.

Warnings

Intense flashing/strobing effects, graphic violence, disturbing images, language, smoking, and strong thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives: I Am Dina (2002)

This is quite the film. I’m not quite sure what I think of it. It has a lot of intense, depressing moments but also surprising flashes of humor, and the protagonist practically dares you to like her. For certain, I can say it’s a striking movie.

As a child, Dina’s mother is killed pretty horrifically in an accident, one her father blames her for. In his grief, he washes his hands of Dina, and she grows up half wild, with no one showing her affection but her kind tutor. When she reaches adulthood, Dina’s life becomes a series of adventures and misfires: travel, her music, lovers, and more. Wherever she goes, she’s headstrong and ferocious. Dina’s fascination with death follows her throughout her life.

It's a Norwegian film, based on a novel. I’ve never read the book, but to me, the film feels like it combines the misfortunes of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the escapades of Tom Jones, and the gothic sensibilities of Jane Eyre, all filtered through a thoroughly Scandinavian bent. I don’t know whether it all works, but it’s compelling.

The film covers a lot of ground, such that it’s held together more by its characters and themes than by a clearly driven plot. It’s interesting to watch Dina alternately draw in, enrage, and unsettle those around her, with her indifferent manners, wildly stubborn independent streak, and offputtingly intense gaze. She causes trouble for some and solves problems for others, but her foremost interest is usually herself.

As I said, after young Dina witnesses the accident that kills her mother, she develops a lifelong fascination with death. Whether watching a public execution with rapt attention or considering killing an inattentive lover, death is never far from her. When she sees someone on the verge of death, she repeatedly murmurs, “Look at me,” wanting to see in their eyes the moment when they let go.

The cast draws from around Europe—mainly Scandinavia, but with a few French, British, and Scottish actors thrown in for good measure. Perhaps because of that, the film is performed in English rather than Norwegian. Marie Bonnevie, who I’ve seen before in Another Round, gives a full-throated performance as Dina, anchoring the film with her intensity. The movie also includes Pernilla August (Shmi Skywalker from the Star Wars prequels) as Dina’s doomed mother and Mads Mikkelsen as the shifty stepson of Dina’s husband. (That husband, by the way, is played by Gérard Depardieu, so ugh to that.)

Christopher Eccleston doesn’t have much of a presence until the second half of the film, but once he and Dina meet, he takes on a pretty prominent role. He plays Leo Zhukovsky, a Russian national whose travels take him to Norway. Other characters enjoy poking at his revolutionary ideals, demanding to know whether he’s an anarchist and belittling the servants to “demonstrate” that the working class is too ignorant to need liberating. He claims to be no one; he is only his mission.

Dina is taken with Leo from the first. He’s unlike the other men in her port village, as she notes, “Does not smell like a seaman, and he reads Russian poetry.” He’s the only person whose gaze is as piercing as hers, although his is warmer. As she watches him casually, confidently brush off the aspersions the villagers cast on his political views, you can feel her world shift on its axis.

I really like how Eccleston plays Leo. He’s a revolutionary with a talent for rubbing elbows in finer society, and while he certainly rubs some the wrong way, he does it in an offhand, almost cheerful manner. As others try to “gotcha” him with questions about his ideology, he snaps off nonchalant bon mots like, “You cannot steal property. Property is theft,” and, “I happen to be the first of my generation, just as you are the last of yours.” He often has an untouchable air about him, unruffled, but when he shows his feelings, it’s clear he feels deeply. There’s an excellent scene where he’s responding to something that Dina says in a desperate situation, and his smile cracks as his laughter shifts to the verge of tears.

Accent Watch

Russian.

Recommend?

In General – Maybe. Like I said, I haven’t quite made up my mind about the film, but it was definitely an experience.

Christopher Eccleston – I think so. Eccleston uses a deft hand here, deepening an already interesting character with his performance.

Warnings

Violence (including rape,) disturbing images, sexual content, language, drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements (including suicide.)