TOY STORY 4 (Rated G)

Launched in 1995, “Toy Story” marked a major milestone in animated moviemaking as the first fully computer-animated feature film. But there’s so much more to the franchise than Pixar’s trailblazing artistic technology.

The character-driven franchise hooked audiences young and old to stay attached to the story of beloved toys like the relatable pull-string cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), the delusional Space Ranger with an identifiable catch phrase.

That “Toy Story 4” has come to fruition nine years after the third installment is remarkable in that “Toy Story 3” seemed like the end of the line for Woody and company when Andy, heading off for college, no longer needed his toys.

Yet, Andy’s handoff of the toys to live with Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw), a young friend of the family, turns out to be, just like in life, a situation where every ending is a new beginning.

With Woody and his friends moving on, transition is a big thematic piece of the fourth chapter. For one thing, Woody, now consigned to the closet, must adapt to a new role but he makes sure to remain very much in the picture.

Confident about his place in the world, Woody’s priority is to take care of the young Bonnie, and as she approaches kindergarten with a little apprehension, the cowboy stows away in her backpack so that he may stick by her side.

During the arts and crafts class, Woody retrieves a discarded spork from a trash can that enables Bonnie to shape her own toy, Forky (Tony Hale), by adding googly eyes, pipe-cleaner arms, popsicle stick feet and red waxy lips.

Well aware of his origin, Forky declares himself trash and not a toy, leading Woody to show Forky why he should embrace being a toy and give up his desire to jump back into the nearest trash receptacle.

Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang, including newcomer Forky, accompany Bonnie on a vacation road trip to in the family’s RV to the tourist town of Grand Basin to enjoy the big carnival where plush toys hanging in game booths eventually get liberated.

Before reaching this destination, Forky leaps from the moving RV to escape his newfound role of Bonnie’s toy in search of a trash heap, while Woody, adhering to his self-appointed duty as a protector, sets off in hot pursuit.

While Buzz and the other toys fret about losing their friends, Woody and Forky, hiking along a desolate highway, finally catch up to the gang but not without encountering some distractions.

The tourist town has a secondhand store with a lamp in the window that Woody spots as the one from his former home that was adorned with the porcelain doll Bo Beep (Annie Potts), his long-lost friend.

Slipping into the store through a mail slot, Woody and Forky search for Bo Beep but instead, at first, find a host of other toys, including Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), her creepy ventriloquist dummy henchmen, and daredevil Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves).

A vintage pull-string doll, Gabby Gabby has a manufacturing defect in her voice box that has left her sounding anything but adorable, and hence a toy that would not be inviting to be adopted by any child.

Gabby Gabby proves to be borderline creepy herself when she takes Forky hostage because she has the misguided notion that if she could purloin Woody’s voice box that she would finally get the love and affection of the store owner’s granddaughter.

The antique store is the closest thing to a chamber of horrors for any toy so unfortunate to be trapped by Gabby Gabby and the foreboding ventriloquist dummies who patrol the premises with a looming quietness that is inherently unsettling.

Meanwhile, Bo Beep has left the old lamp behind, transforming into an adventurer to enjoy life on her own terms as she rides around in fake skunk mobile with her diminutive sidekick Giggles McDimples (Ally Maki).

The reunion between Woody and Bo Beep is arguably the emotional core of the story, where the cowboy stands tall, just like the hero of any Western, and the porcelain doll, unlike a fairy-tale character, is a free spirit whose strength and sarcasm belie her delicate exterior.

The magic of the “Toy Story” franchise comes in large part from the view of the world from a toy’s perspective, with Woody being the wisest one of the bunch and Buzz probably the most comical.

Welcome additions to the series include the carnival prize stuffed animals Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele) and Canadian action figure Duke Caboom, who imagines that he has the fearless confidence of doing Evel Knievel-style motorcycle stunts.
“Toy Story 4,” perfectly flawless family fare, appears to be likely the franchise’s fitting last chapter suffused with genuine feelings of love, friendship and loyalty that deliver the proper coda of a masterful animated franchise with astonishing heart and soul.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1939 classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, July 9, at 1 and 6 p.m.

Entry to the film is by donation.

This adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s fairy tale has something for all ages: strange lands, funny moments, scary moments, a dazzling assortment of imaginative characters, songs that take us over the rainbow, a peerless Judy Garland performance, and meaningful messages in abundance.

Continuously enthralling, this is one hardy perennial you will never tire of watching. It’s a must-see on the big screen.

The movie is sponsored by Jean Mead and Vivian Wilson.

Rated G. Run time is 1 hour and 47 minutes.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Actor-singers age 18 or older are invited to audition for the original stage musical “Even In Shadow” which will be shot on video in Lake County.

Actor-singers and singers who are non-actors (18 or older) also are welcome to audition for the soundtrack, which will be recorded in-studio before the video is released.

This is a great opportunity for those who may not match the look or visual age of one of the characters but can deliver a fitting vocal.

Information on the production is on the Web site, www.eveninshadow.com, with a list of characters and their sides.

You may audition online or come to one of the live auditions listed below.

Live audition dates are Thursday, July 11, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, July 13, at 1 p.m., at the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church Friendship Hall, 5340 Third St.

The deadline for online auditions is Monday, July 15, at 11:59 p.m.

I’m afraid that if I’d asked my grandparents what the past was like they’d say it was “hard,” and that would be it.

But Megan Arlett is privileged to have a grandmother who knows how to enchant us with colors and odors and sounds. Arlett was born in the U.K., grew up in Spain, and now lives in Texas.

I Ask My Grandmother What Trinidad Was Like in 1960

Paradise with a thousand stings, she replies.
Deep blue and blazing sky. Incessant cicadas,
scuttle of bug and roach. Fleas, mosquitos,
the threat of scorpions. Men leaning on doorposts,
crowding the bar. Smoking, drinking,
laughing descendants of slaves. Fire coral burns,
reef-edge barracudas. Truly lovely.
Matriarchal, she says, women with eight children
by many different men. The men would leave
as the spirit took them. I want
to know all the forces one can call spirit.
Tall, swaying fronds of the sugar cane fields.
Distant roar heralding a downpour. Snapping turtles.
Nearby shanty town, she says,
streets full of rubbish, rats in the gutter.
I admired the colonial-style homes, she says.
Colonial, I say.
Separate servant quarters and grounds
filled with samaan trees, the balconies overflowing
with hot-colored orchids and the locusts drawn close
by the palatial lights, colorful and clawing,
their hooks sunk deep into the bare skin of a sweating back.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Megan J. Arlett, “I Ask My Grandmother What Trinidad Was Like in 1960,” from Third Coast, (Spring/Summer, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Megan J. Arlett and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – On Saturday, June 29, The Farallons will return by popular demand to perform at the Coffee House Concert Series.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. at Fore Family Winery, 3020 Main St. in Kelseyville.

The Farallons put on a sensational performance last year to a nearly sold out crowd.

The Petaluma trio brings its special “folk and roll” sound using three-part harmonies and great instrumentation.

Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased at www.uuclc.org, Watershed Books in Lakeport and at the Fore Family Winery.

Some tickets may be available at the door, though seating is limited.

The concert is sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County and hosted by Fore Family Wines.

‘SHAFT’ (Rated R)

During the era of Blaxploitation cinema in the early 1970s, Richard Roundtree was the original macho private detective and the epitome of cool when the exploits of John Shaft first came to the big screen in the eponymous “Shaft.”

Even though Samuel L. Jackson may be a senior citizen, he still has what it takes to be the man of action who punches first and asks questions later as he works the tough streets of Harlem in the 2019 version of “Shaft.”

This reboot is a combination of action and comedy, which should be obvious from the film’s trailer, but more than that, it is unapologetically retrograde for its swaggering action and its political incorrectness.

Jackson’s John Shaft is everything you might expect for a tone lifted right out of the Seventies. There is plenty of outdated sexist lingo and more than a few expletives, including Jackson’s signature curse word (which we’ll leave out of this review).

An early flashback reveals that Shaft is in a relationship with Maya (Regina Hall) and they have a baby boy. Another violent ambush convinces Maya that it’s time to get out of Harlem for the safety of their son.

In the present day, Shaft’s progeny is JJ (Jesse T. Usher), a buttoned-down MIT graduate who now works as a data analyst in the Manhattan office of the FBI. His world is far removed from that of the father he has never known.

When his ex-junkie best friend meets a mysterious untimely death, JJ needs the kind of help that only his streetwise father can provide to navigate Harlem’s heroin-infested underbelly.

Imagine the shock for Shaft when meeting his adult son, who recalls with disappointment all the inappropriate holiday gifts from his father including porn magazines and a box of condoms at an age when he hadn’t even reached puberty.

Soon thereafter, the jokes are flying when Shaft muses that Maya raised a “white boy” who by his manner of meticulous fashion sense and grooming allows for the facile jab that casts him as manifestly metrosexual.

Unlike his tough, playboy father, the mild-mannered JJ hates guns, drinks coconut water and hasn’t got the gumption to ask his longtime crush Sasha (Alexandra Shipp) out on a date.

As Shaft and son team up to run rampant through tenement buildings and the mean streets of Harlem, there may not be any logical or persuasive storyline, but that doesn’t really matter.

To prove the Shaft genetic traits may yet course through JJ’s veins, Shaft’s own father, now played by the iconic Richard Roundtree, gets in the act for a climactic showdown with bad guys that requires a vast supply of weapons and ammunition.

The throwback attitude of “Shaft” is almost certain to engender a dichotomy between a mostly satisfied audience and probably the majority of critics who may have their finely-tuned sensibilities offended.

“Shaft” shouldn’t be taken seriously by anyone. Its irreverent spirit deliberately mines the humor of the Shaft family generational gap. Mindless fun at the expense of Shaft’s character as a cultural icon is what is offered.





‘CITY ON A HILL’ ON SHOWTIME

In the early 1990s, Boston was rife with violent criminals emboldened by local law enforcement agencies in which corruption and racism was the norm (and racism may still be a vexing issue in this supposedly enlightened city according to the Boston Globe’s reporting).

The ten-episode series of “City on a Hill” running on Showtime creates a fictional account of African-American Assistant D.A. Decourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge) driving change during a tumultuous time in an unwelcoming city.

More than anything, it’s not surprising that this series, executive produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck among others, bears familiarity to Boston crime movies such as “The Departed,” with Damon as a career criminal, and “The Town” directed by Affleck.

Coming from Brooklyn and a stranger to the ways of Beantown, Decourcy forms an unlikely alliance with corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran agent Jackie Rohr (Kevin Bacon) who has the morals of an alley cat.

Ordinarily, the uncouth, brash Jackie, who snorts coke and cheats on his wife, and the straight-arrow, principled Decourcy would not work well together, and at first Jackie is scornful of a black prosecutor.

But then, Jackie is contemptuous of just about everybody on either side of law, which is evident when he inserts himself into the thick of an investigation of armored car robbers from Charlestown, a working-class Irish community.

The two lawmen, whose lives are further complicated by conflict with their wives, are on a path that should lead them eventually to the gang of robbers led by Frankie Ryan (Jonathan Tucker), who is incongruously a devoted family man with a day job at a local supermarket.

“City on a Hill,” based on the first three episodes made available for review, looks promising for a gritty crime drama where the characters, even the secondary ones, stand out as fascinating for their troublesome prejudices, shortcomings and conflicts.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.