Mary Poppins Returns

When you've got  a theater star like Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton), a director like Rob Marshall (Chicago) and Uncle Walt Disney's Money ($130MM), you're bound to have a Spectacle with a capital S. 

Mary Poppins Returns does not disappoint as a singing and dancing spectacle, but as a story line, the English Nanny coming to save the hapless Father from the difficult single parent task is as dated as the midcentury era where it became so popular.  In fact, the storyline is kind of hard to remember, but they make it easier to follow as you will see.

Emily Blunt does a wonderful star turn.  She looks great in every scene.  Not a hair or a eyelash out of place.  But she could be better utilized that simply looking good.

Best parts are the big singing and dancing scenes.  Plus the Disney dream scenes.  And some nice cameos.

Big budget entertainment with familiar characters and backstory, but a pretty basic Clock-is-Ticking plotline.

*** of 5

Free Solo

From the filmmakers of one of my favorite recent movies Meru comes this similar climbing story of Alex Honold, who does rock climbing with no supporting rope- called free soloing.  One false move and you fall to your certain death.  In fact as they say in the movie, just about everyone who does free solo has died.

So what better challenge than to scale El Capitan in Yosemite National Park?  But our hero is not dumb.  Unfeeling?  Selfish? Single minded?  Perfectionist? Borderline Aspergers?  All yes.  But not dumb.

The fun part is how they tell the story to include all of these aspects.   Honold is an accomplished climber and he took great effort to prepare for this climb, mapping out the route in great detail and spending much practice time.  Most everyone around him wanted to support him, but also wanted him not to do it - too risky.

As the great supporting actor cameraman said,  "I can't look at this".