An involving 'Planet of the Apes' tale

   Kingdom of the Planet of Apes brings welcome freshness to a franchise that began in 1968. A mashup of big issues -- the tyrannical perversion of once-noble ideals, among them -- add thematic weight to the movie's vividly imagined surface.

  Employing ever-improving motion capture technology, director Wes Ball tells the story of young chimp Noa (Owen Teague), an ape who wants to please his father, the head of the Eagle Clan of apes, now the planet's dominant species. 

    Ball quickly informs us about the world we're in. A mysterious virus has caused humans to regress. They're no longer able to speak. The same virus has givenapes the ability to talk, although they retain many of their animal traits.

   A masterfully conceived cliff-climbing sequence introduces Noa, whose village soon will be ravaged by a band of masked-ape marauders. After the devastating raid, Noa embarks on a quest to rescue captured members of his clan, including his mother (Sara Wiseman).

  Noa isn't alone on the road. He's joined by a sagacious orangutan (Peter Macon's Raka) who introduces him to the now-forgotten philosophy of Caesar. A key figure in several previous movies, Caesar promoted pacifism and compassion among apes. 

  A young human (Freya Allan's Mae) rounds out the traveling trio. Although she looks like a feral creature, Mae harbors a secret. Once revealed, her intelligence shocks Raka and Noa, a familiar but still satisfying series ploy.

   Focusing almost entirely on apes, Kingdom doesn't want for a convincing villain. The ferocious Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) tries to entice Noa, who's eventually captured, into becoming an ally. Proximus wants to penetrate an abandoned human facility that houses technology he believes will enhance ape capabilities, and, more importantly, secure his dominance as king of all apes.

   Ball handles the movie's action -- a battle on a bridge and the ultimate confrontation between Noa and Proximus -- with skill and verve. 

    Will we see Noa again? The finale, set in Proximus' seaside city, exposes Mae's previously hidden motives, leaving the door open for additional movies.

     It's too early to complain about the length of summer movies (Ball's runs for two hours and 24 minutes) or to cavil about the endless perpetuation of big-screen series. Ball deserves credit for making room for genuine character development and for minimizing human presence.

    The eerie beauty of its landscapes, some dotted with the lonely remnants of human construction, add to the movie's power. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes proves a worth addition to a long-running series that still has life in it -- even if it takes a big CGI boost to create it.

   

A slender but smart comedy

"The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

    So goes Humphrey Bogart's famous line from Casablanca, a smart reminder about the importance of personal problems in a world full of trouble.

    It's a memorable line. but don't repeat it for the characters in director Nicole Holofcener's You Hurt My Feelings, a comedy about characters suffering through what might be called mini-crises.

      Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Beth, a writer whose first book, a memoir, scored a modest success. Beth revealed that her father often was verbally abusive, not exactly a shocker on the level of being chained in a cellar, but it evidently did the trick.

      Riding a small wave of success, Beth tried her hand at a novel. Her agent wasn’t impressed.

     Already depressed and facing a growing loss of confidence, Beth suffers more mood deflation when she overhears her husband Don (Tobias Menzies) tell her brother-in-law (Arian Moayed) that he didn't like the book either.

     Don's confidence also is beginning to crack. Patients say he's not helping them, and one couple (Amber Tamblyn and David Cross) spend session after session trading bitter barbs. When they finally decide to quit therapy, they deliver Holofcener's best joke.

      Beth's interior designer sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) seems to operate on more solid ground than the rest of the cast, even when a client tests her patience by insisting that she find just the right lighting fixture, one that reflects the client’s true self.

      The woes continue. An actor, Sarah's husband (Moayed) is shattered when he's fired from the play in which he finally found work. 

      For Beth, Don's overheard confession proves confounding, particularly because he consistently praised her work during the writing process. 

       And if he lied about that, what else might he have been lying about? 

      Another question arises: When should encouragement be subordinated to the honest expression of one's feelings?

      Beth herself is a chronic over-praiser. Her son (Owen Teague) works in a pot shop. She's sure that the play he's writing will be terrific.

     Only Beth and Sarah's mom (Jeannie Berlin) can be counted on not to hand out plaudits.

      Slender but enjoyable, You Hurt My Feelings doesn't feel like a movie that wants to change anyone's life. Even better, it only takes Holofcener a refreshing one hour and 33 minutes to involve us with characters who have trouble seeing beyond the narrow frame of their own lives.

      That wouldn't be us, would it?