Rise: A slam dunk

Rise (2022) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated PG, for brief minor profanity

Available via: Disney+

By Derrick Bang

In a perfect world, talent would trump race, creed, nationality, citizenship and any other artificial barriers erected to discourage it.

 

But sometimes, even in our imperfect world, perseverance triumphs.

 

Charles (Dayo Okeniyi, center) and his two sons — Thanasis (Ral Agada, left) and
Giannis (Uche Agada) — aren't about to let a little bit of rain interrupt some
high-spirited hoop action.

Director Akin Omotoso’s deeply moving film is based on the jaw-dropping life story of the Antetokounmpo family, and most particularly their resilient, resolute and devoted parents, Charles and Veronika. It’s the sort of saga that makes the rest of us take a hard look at our levels of ambition and productivity.

Given the blend of Nigerian heritage, Turkish and Greek locales, Arash Amel’s script can’t help acknowledging the racism, xenophobia and shelter uncertainty that the Antetokounmpo family face on a regular basis — over the course of many, many years — but the tone is more matter-of-fact than strident (which, honestly, makes each such encounter even more wrenching).

 

The story begins with a brief prologue in Turkey, as migrants Charles (Dayo Okeniyi) and Veronika (Yetide Badaki) are one panicked step ahead of thuggish immigration police. Driven to a drastic decision in order to cross the border — shades of Sophie’s Choice — they successfully flee into Greece.

 

Several years pass. Charles and Veronika work hard at a variety of menial jobs, while raising two young sons, Giannis (McColm Cephas Jr.) and Thanasis (Chinua Baraka Payne). Their meager incomes are supplemented by hawking sunglasses and other colorful knickknacks in Athens tourist zones: a dodgy activity that occasionally attracts the wrong sort of attention from the Greek police.

 

The boys develop an interest in soccer.

 

More time passes. Giannis and Thanasis have grown into lithe, lanky teenagers (now played by actual brothers Uche and Ral Agada); the family has been augmented by additional young sons Kostas (Jaden Osimuwa) and Alexandros (Elijah Sholanke). 

 

Charles and Veronika have begun quietly careful efforts to become legal, but the system is deliberately designed to thwart this: They need proof of “real” jobs in order to achieve citizenship, but they must be citizens in order to be hiredinto “real” jobs. The immigration clerk seems kind, but she’s utterly useless. (We want to reach into the screen and smack her.)

 

The Hundred Foot Journey: A tasty banquet

The Hundred Foot Journey (2014) • View trailer 
Four stars. Rated PG, and quite pointlessly; suitable for all ages
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 8.8.14

This film is as sweetly “old world” as its narrative: unhurried, gently amusing and utterly delectable.

Wanting to atone for his father's most recent prank, Hassan (Manish Dayal, right) bravely
prepares a meal for the notoriously fussy Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). As she gets
ready to taste it, this ritual is observed by her head chef, Jean-Pierre (Clément Sibony),
who knows full well what's about to happen.

Director Lasse Hallström has uncorked another effervescent, food-based fairy tale every bit as enchanting as his 2000 adaptation of Chocolat. That, too, was set in a small French village and based on a charming novel (by Joanne Harris). This new film, adapted by Steven Knight from Richard C. Morais’ equally engaging book, will delight foodies, romantics and those who believe that not all culture clashes must end badly.

And while Hallström’s touch is primarily whimsical, the narrative has a bit of bite, and also a moral that reminds us to follow our hearts ... and that, to quote a certain Dorothy Gale, there’s no place like home.

But while the bulk of Knight’s script is flavorsome, the appetizer-sized prologue is both a mouthful and somewhat difficult to digest. It feels like a massive portion of Morais’ book has been compressed into an abbreviated flashback, showing how the Mumbai-based Kadam family loses its restaurant — and endures horrific personal tragedy — during an unspecified political clash; then moves to London, but finds both the climate and local foodstuffs unappetizing; and subsequently seeks a warmer environment (in both spirit and temperature) during a European road trip.

At which point their vehicle breaks down, fortuitously, outside the quaint little hamlet of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, in the south of France.

“Brakes don’t fail for no reason,” insists patriarch Papa (Om Puri), who views this incident as A Sign, much the way he falls in love with the abandoned former restaurant on the village outskirts. But his family’s efforts to transform this dilapidated wreck into a haven of Indian cuisine — cheekily dubbed Maison Mumbai — are viewed with grim disapproval by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren).

Her Michelin-starred French restaurant, Le Saule Pleureur, is literally just across the country road — 100 feet away — from Papa Kadam’s new venture.

Madame Mallory doesn’t tolerate competition; indeed, she very likely contributed to the failure of the previous eatery across the road. And in a village small enough for her imperious desires to hold sway — much to the distress of the mayor (Michel Blanc, in a small but quite droll part) — the result is all-out war, albeit a skirmish conducted clandestinely, on a battlefield marked by city codes and the local farmers’ market.

A challenge that Papa Kadam embraces with equal enthusiasm.