Heigh-Ho

Live action Snow White updates classic with nods to modern world

Andrew Burnap and Rachel Zegler in Snow White.

Photo by Giles Keyte

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made history in 1937 as the first-ever animated feature film from the then-fledgling Walt Disney Productions. As fate has it, it may also be the last of the classic Disney films to receive a live-action remake (of their big movies released prior to 1970, only Bambi and The Sword in the Stone have not been remade). And given the quality of the live-action remakes, that is a good thing, as few have come close to recreating the magic of the originals.

This new Snow White (minus the now politically incorrect second part of the title) stars Rachel Zegler as the titular princess who, in truly classic Disney form, loses both of her parents at an early age, leaving her to toil under the thumb of her stepmother, the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). An encounter with Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), the leader of a group of bandits, opens her eyes to how bad things have become under the Evil Queen’s rule, and a kind-hearted action puts her on the Queen’s bad side.

Forced to flee to the nearby forest, Snow White is taken in by a group of seven (inexplicably CGI) little people, who are solely in charge of mining the area’s vast jewel resources. Snow White, the group of bandits, and the miners find they have common ground in opposing the Queen, and they soon set out to bring some sense of normalcy back to the kingdom.

In the hands of director Marc Webb and writer Erin Cressida Wilson, this new version of Snow White sits in a middle zone of being neither very good nor very bad. It plays on the nostalgia many viewers will have of watching the original when they were children, but also adds in some updates that could be viewed as subtle commentary on the modern world, even current American politics.

Versions of songs from the original like “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” remain, but songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (along with Paul Feldman) have added a slew of new songs to make the film more current. Some of them make an impression, like “Waiting on a Wish” and “Princess Problems,” but the issue that arises is they sound too much like the Broadway world from which the songwriters come, giving an anachronistic feel to the decidedly old-timey story.

The film maintains a pleasant and solid pace that keeps it watchable throughout. There are odd elements like never really getting to know the bandits — really just resistance fighters against the Evil Queen — and miners, but that’s part and parcel of the classic story. Snow White still doesn’t exactly exude girl power, but the film’s excision of the song “Someday My Prince Will Come” points to a certain amount of autonomy it gives her.

Zegler proved in West Side Story that she has musical chops, and she shows her worth as the title character here. She embodies Snow White’s changing demeanor well, and can really belt it in her signature songs. Gadot is fine as the Evil Queen, but it's a one-dimensional role with little nuance. Unfortunately, nobody else stands out, which doesn’t allow the film to reach beyond its traditional limits.

On the sliding scale of live-action Disney remakes, Snow White makes it on the positive side of the ledger, but not by much. It offers up a few new good songs, a solid lead performance, and a slight subversiveness epitomized by giving a new definition of “Who’s the fairest of them all.”

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Snow White opens in theaters on March 21.

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Movie Review

Spine-chilling new horror movie Undertone puts podcaster in jeopardy

Photo courtsy of A24

Nina Kiri in Undertone.

While the horror genre is still capable of producing some innovative filmmaking, most of the output tends to fall back on jump scares and other tropes to deliver their terror. So when a film like the new Undertone tries something different, it should be applauded for the effort, even if it’s not as successful in its execution.

Evy (Nina Kiri) is a podcaster who co-hosts a show called Undertone, which focuses on paranormal videos and sounds they find on the internet. Her co-host, Justin (Adam DiMarco), lives in London, so — for kind of contrived reasons — in order to make the time difference between them work, Evy records at around 3 am her time. Evy — who lives at home with her bedridden, dying mother — is the skeptic of the two, consistently debunking clips that Justin presents to her.

Her doubts are tested when Justin brings in a series of 10 audio clips that purport to be about a boyfriend recording his girlfriend as she talks in her sleep. The audio begins in a lighthearted manner and quickly turns creepy and then sinister as unexplained things start happening. Evy senses that what she’s hearing is bleeding into her own world, especially when inexplicable actions take place in her mother’s bedroom.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ian Tuason, the film is effective early on when it introduces the story concept. Making great use of sound design, Tuason essentially puts the audience inside Evy’s head, where every little sound is heightened. Setting the podcast sessions in the middle of the night ups the anxiety level for both her and the audience.

However, as the film goes along it gets a little tedious watching Evy listen to the audio, even as Tuason attempts to keep the film dynamic by moving the camera around her. The premise of the story — progressively going through 10 clips — and Tuason’s framing of shots that focus as much on the background as they do on Evy seem to promise more interesting results than actually transpire.

What ultimately holds the film down more than anything is its lack of different viewpoints. The only other person who’s actually seen is Evy’s mother, who is unable to speak. Evy speaks to Justin, another friend, and a doctor over the course of the story, and while each broadens our understanding of Evy somewhat, none of them make her a truly three-dimensional person. Getting a little more information about her history might have helped the story work better.

Kiri does her level best to vary her acting in the various podcast scenes, and even when they start to get repetitive, she remains compelling and watchable. It’s difficult to judge the other actors based on audio alone, but knowing that DiMarco also starred in season 2 of The White Lotus helps to visualize him and his acting style.

Undertone does well in creating a spine-chilling mood, but it needed something beyond that to become a truly great horror movie. Tuason shows some promise as a filmmaker, especially in the way he uses the camera to create tension, but a more complete story will serve him better the next time around.

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Undertone is now playing in theaters,

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