‘THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING’: Rated PG

The legend of King Arthur comes alive in the modern world when the titular hero of “The Kid Who Would Be King,” a 12-year-old British lad, stumbles upon the Sword in the Stone at a demolition site.

One thing to know about this kid-friendly adventure is that, aside most notably from Patrick Stewart appearing as Merlin the Magician and Rebecca Ferguson as the sorceress Morgana, the central characters are mainly children.

For reasons that are seemingly unrelated to Brexit or not, the United Kingdom is in a state of division and chaos, as newspapers blare headlines of impending war and its unthinkable consequences.

The country’s savior is an unlikely school kid named Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis), who along with his nerdy best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo), is bullied by classmates Kaye (Rhianna Dorris) and Lance (Tom Taylor).

Fortune as well as a heavy burden fall upon Alex’s shoulders when, in the course of being chased, he happens upon the Excalibur sword and manages to extricate it from a concrete block at a construction site.

A confluence of events, and not just that he has devoured books on King Arthur, convinces Alex that he’s the Chosen One, in other words the once and future king, even if Britain’s Royal Family is already well-established.

The fun part is when the young Merlin (Angus Imrie) shows up disguised as an awkward, socially inept new student at Alex’s school, and fitfully reveals his magical powers in ways hilarious and weirdly offbeat.

When the young Merlin sneezes, he often turns into an owl or becomes his older self (the Patrick Stewart version), adding gravitas to Alex’s mission to save England from the army of undead knights that rise up out of the ground seeking to snatch the Excalibur sword.

The villain is, of course, the evil Morgana, who has been trapped for centuries in a tangled web of vines but now rears her ugly head at the prospect of snatching the Excalibur so that she might plunge England into darkness.

Alex and Bedders, our intrepid heroes, are spurred by young Merlin, recharging himself by devouring chicken nuggets, on a journey to Stonehenge as a gateway to the island of Tintagel, which is linked to King Arthur and ground zero for the clash with Morgana.

Just as King Arthur united his foes, Alex and Bedders form a tenuous truce with Lance (shades of Sir Lancelot) and Kay, as the quartet of classmates come under the tutelage of young Merlin for the eventual showdown with the dark side.

Alex and his own Knights of the Round Table make their last stand at Dungate Academy, enlisting the student body for a climactic showdown of good versus evil.

With an army of heroic kids, “The Kid Who Would Be King” plants its flag firmly in the camp of entertainment for adolescents. In that respect, the themes of courage and honor resonate for some energetic fun.

‘BLACK MONDAY’ ON SHOWTIME

Shades of “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Gordon Gekko, and just about any film about Wall Street or with its name in a film title, are all you really need to know about Showtime’s dark comedy series “Black Monday.”

The title refers to the stock market crash of October 19, 1987, and how things evolved over the period of one year preceding this financial calamity, as told from a comically cynical point of view.

The first scene is jarring in that it starts with the day of the crash, when a red Lamborghini limousine parked in front of the Stock Exchange becomes the landing pad for an apparent suicidal window jumper.

Flash back to one year earlier and Don Cheadle’s Maurice “Mo” Monroe, acting pretty much like his immoral management consultant in “The House of Lies,” runs an outsider brokerage firm called the Jammer Group.

Fueled by massive amounts of cocaine and an inflated ego, Monroe manages his motley crew of traders as if they were all residing in the fraternity of “Animal House,” where the high spirits of John Belushi and Tim Matheson and the rest run amok.

In other words, and to an even greater extreme, the Jammer Group’s traders are foul-mouthed boors who would run over their own mothers to scam clients and execute big payoff trades.

Standing out in this group of sexist sharks is the lone female Dawn (Regina Hall), almost equally crude as the guys, but also Monroe’s ex-girlfriend who just might be the brains, if not the voice of reason, of the whole operation.

Then along comes Andrew Rannells’s Blair Pfaff, a naïve newcomer who has put together a trading algorithm that could be revolutionary. He’s quickly marked for victimhood by the manipulative two-faced Monroe.

“Black Monday” is full of swagger and brutal satire as it mercilessly mocks the brokerage world. It’s also crude, indulgent, outrageous, offbeat and darkly funny, almost as if the script was penned by David Mamet.

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

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center’s Restore Project features printmaking - drypoint etching with artist Nicholas Hay this Saturday, Feb. 2, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Adults and children age 11 and up of all levels of art making experience, from newbies to professionals, are invited to attend this inspiring class for just $5.

“We’ll use a drypoint technique to draw into a plastic plate with a metal etching pen,” explained Hay. “Participants will be able to make changes and refinements to their image and run their plate through the press several times during class. The process of printmaking is quite magical, and anyone who likes to draw can create compelling images.”

Please register in advance for all Restore classes at http://www.middletownartcenter.org/restore, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 707-809-8118. Space is limited and reservations are required.

MAC encourages folks to come to several classes, to hone skills, learn new ones, and develop a body of work. Participants may also work on monotypes during this class. Printmaking and writers workshop participants are invited to submit work for inclusion in MAC’s second chapbook.

The first, Resilience, a community reframes disaster through art features the work of 22 poets and 17 printmakers who participated in the Resilience project last year, and is available at MAC and on the MAC website. You can preview the book at www.middletownartcenter.org/resilience-chapbook-excerpt.

In the coming weeks Restore participants will begin to collaboratively plan a new Art Trail on Rabbit Hill. A guided tour with naturalist Ed Dearing, and planning meeting are scheduled for Feb. 16 at 1 p.m. to inform an Art Trail design that responds to this specific site and its recovering environment.

This project is part of a partnership with the Lake County Land Trust, stewards of Rabbit Hill. MAC welcomes anyone interested in joining this enriching community project to join the guided walk on Feb. 16 and one or many Restore classes.

The Restore project provides Lake County residents with low-cost art classes and the opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials and techniques. Classes take place most Saturdays or Sundays through May 2019 and include monthly writers workshop, printmaking, sculpture and mixed-media classes.

Restore offers a writers workshop with Lake County Poet Laureate Richard Schmidt on Feb. 9, from 1 to 5 p.m. On Sunday, Feb. 10, also from 1 to 5 p.m., Emily Scheibal will guide participants through creating waste molds for plaster casting. A woodworking workshop with Marcus Maria Jung will be offered on Sunday, Feb. 17, also from 1 to 5 p.m. at MAC.

The Restore project was made possible with support from the California Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from local organizations, businesses, and individuals. Visit www.ca.arts.gov to learn more about the California Arts Council’s work in communities and schools throughout California.

Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29. Be a part of the growing arts scene in Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by participating in classes, or by attending one of the many arts and cultural events at MAC.

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or “Like” Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up to date with what’s happening at MAC.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The regular monthly Fiddlers’ Jam at the Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum will be held on Sunday, Feb. 3, from noon to 2 p.m. in the museum’s barn.

Food and beverages will be available for sale.

This month’s raffle basket is a hearts and flowers theme complete with fresh flowers from Flowers by Traci and a Gift Certificate from Woody’s, both of whom are located in Kelseyville.

The Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum is located at 9921 Soda Bay Road, between Kit’s Corner, Kelseyville and Lower Lake. Look for the museum flag.

Visit www.elystagestop.org or www.facebook.com/elystagestop, or call 707-533-9990 for more information.

There are so many fine poems in Richard Robbins' new and selected poems, “Body Turn to Rain,” published by LynxHouse Press, that I had a difficult time choosing one to show you.

This one, though, with its tablecloth trick, is one of my favorites.

Robbins lives in Mankato, Minnesota, and teaches at Minnesota State.

Old Country Portraits

My lost sister used to try the trick
with the tablecloth, waiting until
the wine had been poured, the gravy boat filled,
before snapping the linen her way

smug as a matador, staring down
silver and crystal that would dare move,
paying no mind to the ancestor gloom
gliding across the wallpaper like clouds

of a disapproving front—no hutch
or bureau spared, no lost sister sure
the trick would work this time, all those she loved
in another room, nibbling saltines,

or in the kitchen, plating the last
of the roast beef. How amazed they would be
to be called to the mahogany room
for supper, to find something missing,

something beautiful, finally, they could
never explain, the wine twittering
in its half-globes, candles aflutter, each
thing in its place, or so it seemed then,

even though their lives had changed for good.

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 ©2017 by Richard Robbins, "Old Country Portraits," from Body Turn to Rain, (LynxHouse Press, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of Richard Robbins 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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A special Saturday Night Jazz Club show featuring the songs and legends of Billie Holiday will be performed by the Stella Heath Sextet on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m., at the Soper Reese Theatre.

Tickets are now on sale for $20 with open seating.

Featuring some of the Bay Area’s finest jazz musicians, this show brings back the electric and intimate feeling of seeing Lady Day live in a 1930’s Jazz Club.

Drawing from some of Holiday’s most recorded tunes such as, Blue Moon, Billie’s Blues, God Bless the Child, and Strange Fruit, to name a few, the sextet also revives some of the earlier and lesser known tunes she interpreted.

The concert will feature lead singer, Stella Heath, invoking the vocal stylings of Billie Holiday; Neil Fontano, piano virtuoso from Sonoma County; Jason Bellenkes, rich and inventive on tenor saxophone and clarinet; Trevor Kinsel, interchanging between upright bass and cornet; and percussion legend Pete Lind on the drum kit.

Tickets are available at www.soperreesetheatre.com; at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; or at the theater box office two hours before show time.

The theater telephone is 707-263-0577; Travel Center phone is 707-263-3095.

‘GLASS’ Rated PG

Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan might be a polarizing filmmaker in that his body of work engenders a range of emotions, pro and con.

“Glass” is certain to draw mixed reactions from audiences to prove the point.

The hardcore fans of Shyamalan’s films will tout “Unbreakable” as one of his masterpieces, along with films like “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs.” Those same folks are more likely all in for “Glass.”

Remembering “Unbreakable,” released almost two decades ago, is essential to understanding “Glass,” and the most recent “Split” fits into the equation as well. Both previous films provide key characters that complete an arguably botched trilogy.

Returning from the first film are Bruce Willis’ David Dunn, lone survivor of a train wreck, and Samuel L. Jackson’s Elijah Price, otherwise known as Mr. Glass given his brittle bones that shatter as easily as a porcelain dish.

In the present, David Dunn, who sells home security devices, roams the streets of Philadelphia as a vigilante fighting crime. He has an ability to divine a person’s criminal bent by merely brushing up against someone. His supernatural power is backed up by physical attributes.

Meanwhile, James McAvoy’s Kevin Wendell Crumb, established in “Split,” suffers from dissociative identity disorder. The multiple identities that reside with him include The Beast, a fearsome creature that has imprisoned four teenage girls in an abandoned warehouse.

Wandering around in a hooded poncho, Dunn pursues the superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters that result in a fierce showdown that ends up with both men being captured and detained at the Raven Hill Psychiatric Hospital.

Confined like prisoners, they come under the forced care of Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who specializes in treating a specific type of delusion of grandeur, namely people who believe they are comic-book characters.

Kevin Crumb is the most puzzling character because he has about two dozen personalities, including a nine-year-old boy, a matronly British woman, and a sexual predator.

A long time patient of Raven Hill, Elijah Price now rests permanently in a wheelchair and is so heavily sedated that most of the time he just stares off into space, a shell of his former self.

Eventually, all three men are engaged in a battle of wills. For his part, Price awakens from his stupor and engages his brilliant mind to wreak havoc on the hospital’s surveillance system to plot an escape.

As is his wont, Shyamalan contrives a scenario that focuses on the grand opening of the tallest new building in the City of Brotherly Love. The ensuing climactic battle falls far short of expectations.

The best thing about “Glass” is McAvoy’s frenetic portrayal of a wildly unpredictable and frightening individual. The rest of the film is a slog through a jumbled mess of disappointments. “Glass” shatters upon closer scrutiny.



‘THE PASSAGE’ ON FOX NETWORK

An adaptation of the best-selling trilogy by author Justin Cronin, “The Passage” focuses on Project Noah, a secret medical facility in Colorado where scientists are experimenting with a dangerous virus that could lead to the cure for all diseases.

But, of course, we know that tinkering with hazardous medical procedures could have a bad outcome, particularly when the opening gambit is an expedition into the Bolivian highlands to find a man supposedly 250 years old who turns out to be a vampire.

The most interesting thing about “The Passage” is the relationship that develops between 10-year-old Amy (Saniyya Sidney), an orphan chosen to be a test subject, and Federal agent Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), who is tasked with delivering her to Project Noah.

The tone of this series is set by Amy’s narration. In the early going she notes that she didn’t use to believe in monsters but has changed her opinion. Her declaration that this “is how the world ends” provides an emotional hook to get involved with the series.

On the trek from Memphis to Colorado, Agent Wolgast, troubled by the death of his own daughter and the dissolution of his marriage, ditches the mission and becomes in essence Amy’s surrogate father.

They both go on the lam, dodging shootouts and high-speed car chases before seeking refuge at a Wisconsin farmhouse. Their safety turns out to be very elusive during an intensive manhunt.

Meanwhile, terrible things are happening at Project Noah where death row inmates have become guinea pigs in experiments that are not working out as planned. Dr. Fanning (Jamie McShane), infected in Bolivia, has become Patient Zero.

Fanning and other test subjects, including Shauna Babcock (Brianne Howey), manage to plant themselves into the nightmares of the project’s staff, demonstrating a power beyond the typical vampire neck bites.

While the lead researcher, Dr. Jonas Lear (Henry Ian Cusick), begins to harbor ethical doubts and others get queasy, internal conflicts that could get interesting loom on the horizon.

The best reason to watch “The Passage” is the chemistry between Saniyya Sidney and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. We root for their survival.

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