It’s the weekend again, and that means Film Focus. Here’s Mike Laidman with what’s new in local theaters.


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This week is looking good for everyone, from young to old. It is, after all, not necessarily what a movie looks like on the outside that should influence your viewing decision. Some children’s movies, despite their target audience, can have the most beautiful, deep, and lasting effects. That’s the case with Kubo and the Two Strings, a beautifully animated tale that offers something for all ages.


Don’t miss out on The Great Gilly Hopkins, though, which should warm your heart through and through.


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Mike Laidman


Welcome to another edition of Film Focus. I’m Mike Laidman.


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The Great Gilly Hopkins (2016, Stephen Herek)
Gilly Hopkins is shuffled from foster home to foster home.


A family comedy/drama, The Great Gilly Hopkins follows 12-year-old Gilly, a feisty foster kid with an outrageous scheme to be reunited with her birth mother.


Gilly has seen more than her share of foster homes and has outwitted every family she has lived with. But now, in an effort to escape her new foster mother Maime Trotter's endless loving care, Gilly concocts a plan that she believes will bring her mother running to her rescue. The plan, of course, has some unintended consequences. And when the ploy blows up in Gilly's face it threatens to ruin the only chance she's ever had to be part of a real family.


With fine performances by Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, and young Sophie Nelisse, the film tackles some refreshingly complex issues that are often glossed over in a movie meant for kids.


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Kubo and the Two Strings (2016, Travis Knight)
Kubo must find a magical suit of armour and defeat a spirit.


Kubo and the Two Strings is a stop-motion animation adventure set in a fantastical Japan. Clever, kindhearted Kubo ekes out a humble living, telling stories to the people of his seaside town. But his quiet existence is shattered when he accidentally summons a spirit from his past which storms down from the heavens to enforce an age-old vendetta. Kubo sets out on a thrilling quest to save his family and solve the mystery of his fallen father, the greatest samurai warrior the world has ever known, with the help of his shamisen - a magical musical instrument.


The beautiful animation helps to carry the themes of kindness and forgiveness, and to embrace our own innate imperfections. The story is rich, and transmits its messages through action, expressions, and images rather than just plain dialogue. Truly, if there were to be just one animated movie to see for the rest of this year, then this would be it.