The Primrose Railway Children, on BYUtv

In 1905, you could avoid gossip and scandal by moving to the outskirts of town. It is basically impossible today, but the best option Sarah Robinson can think of to shield her family from venomous tongues is a trip to a backward wireless dead-spot, like the Scottish Highlands. She needs to level with her kids, but the motivation for their sudden relocation is a difficult subject to broach in Julian Kemp’s The Primrose Railway Children, based on Jacqueline Wilson’s contemporary re-conception (or whatever term you might prefer) of Edith Nesbit’s classic children’s novel, The Railway Children, which premieres this Sunday on BYUtv.

Precocious young Phoebe Robinson always felt closer to her intermittently-employed animator father Rob than her annoyingly responsible and disciplining mother Sarah. As a result, she takes his sudden absence particularly hard. Initially, her mother tells her and her siblings—kind of popular but still highly self-conscious older sister Becks and bookish, slightly-on-the-spectrum brother Perry—their father is in Japan for a pitch meeting, but that story will not hold for long.

Indeed, their sudden “holiday” to the Highlands still seems suspiciously ill-timed. Even in this small town, Mo, the owner of their rental cottage, acts weirdly solicitous. Of course, Becks rebels against the new smart phone prohibition, so she enlists Phoebe help to find their dad’s number in their mother’s phone and scrounge up some change to call on a pay phone. Meanwhile, Perry is fascinated by the local “heritage railroad,” a retro rail tourist attraction that is more about serving tea than transit from point A to point B. Nevertheless, the steam engine so fascinates him, Barbara the engineer takes him under her wing—until Phoebe pulls her siblings into serious trouble.

At least in one respect, Wilson’s sprucing up Nesbit’s concept makes a fair amount of sense. In the 1905 novel, the missing father had been unjustly convicted of espionage. For the modern retelling, Rob Robinson only has himself to blame for his absence, which leads to a very frank discussion regarding how adults need to accept personal responsibility for their actions. Arguably, the messages for younger people might be more on-point in Primrose than previous Railway Children.

School’s Out Forever

Initially, there was speculation type-O blood might be resistant to Covid-19, but subsequent studies say it isn’t so. However, type O-negative can take heart from their exclusive immunity in Scott K. Andrews’ Afterblight Chronicles YA trilogy. Yes, that’s a right, it’s an apocalyptic epidemic. Doesn’t that sound fun for a change? Sadly, the vibe is not nearly as snarky as the key art suggests. Instead, the end-of-the-world is rather glum business in Oliver Milburn’s School’s Out Forever (based on book #1), which releases in theaters and on VOD tomorrow.

The bad news is a mystery virus is about to wipe out ninety percent of the world population. The good news is Lee Keegan will not have to tell his dad he has been expelled from his elite boarding school. Unfortunately, his mother (a microbiologist working at some kind of secure facility) insists he return to the presumed safety of St. Marks. Since that is where she will come looking for him, that is where he reluctantly goes.

There, he finds his hot-tempered trouble-making mate Sean “Mac” MacKillick is largely running the school, despite the more reasonable advice of Mr. Bates, the last surviving teacher, and the nurse-matron, who is only a few years older than her students. A combination of fear and loose discipline also brings the kids into conflict with a local militia group.

Instead of wise-cracking his way through the resulting chaos, Keegan worries and pouts, which might be more realistic, but is far less entertaining. In fact, the film gets rather dour and downbeat. We have all seen plenty of serious-as-a-heart-attack end-of-the-world viral outbreaks on-screen, going back to the original The Stand, if not before. Frankly, at a time like this, we need to laugh at Armageddon, but Milburn’s adaptation only offers a handful of darkly comedic chuckles here and there.

Waiting for Anya

Writing holocaust-themed novels for the young adult market is a tricky proposition. Adapting them for the big screen is even trickier. Mark Herman’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas did a better job of it than the 2008 film generally gets credit for, because it gets pretty darned honest and tragic down the stretch. The challenges are even more apparent for this big screen treatment set amid the picturesque Pyrenees, blessed with excellent grazing land for sheep and conveniently located a stone’s throw away from Spain. A teenaged shepherd does his best to aid and comfort a small group of hidden Jewish children in Ben Cookson’s adaptation of Michael “War Horse” Morpurgo’s YA novel, Waiting for Anya, which opens today in Brooklyn.

Jo is a better shepherd than a student, but he still flees in panic at the sight of a bear. He is a little defensive when he discovers a mysterious stranger witnessed the full incident, but he quickly understands the man has more to lose than he does. Benjamin is in fact a Jew who escaped the transports, who made his way to his widowed mother-in-law Horcada’s mountain farm, hoping his missing daughter Anya will also make her way to their agreed rendezvous point. The not-knowing is killing him, but he is still determined to help the half dozen or so children who have also found refuge with Horcada.

After meeting one of the little urchins, Jo agrees to shuttle supplies from town to Horcada’s remote farm house. However, he remains rather confused by the situation. The National Socialists stationed in town, with Vichy’s blessing, seem like agreeably rugged outdoorsy types to him, especially “The Corporal,” who seems to have misgivings over the way his colleagues have prosecuted the war. Grieving his daughter lost during an air raid, the NCO tries to take Jo under his wing. He also has unexpected affection for a developmentally challenged village boy, whose knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time will become a major source of tension throughout the film.

Waiting for Anya is a well-intentioned film, but everyone in it looks way too healthy, even the hidden children. Unlike the devastating confrontation with reality Striped Pajamas builds towards, Cookson manages to avoid any graphic depictions of atrocities. In fact, there is only one incident of violence for evil’s sake that viewers have already been primed to expect, with an annoying sense of tragic inevitability.

The Changeover

Laura Chant is a “sensitive.” That sort of means she has the “Shine.” It also means she could possibly transition into a full-fledged witch, but there is no guarantee the process will be safely completed, just like there is no guarantee obnoxious teenagers can successfully evolve into mature adults. Chant has very personal and pressing motivation for fulfilling her witchly promise, which raises the stakes considerably in Stuart McKenzie & Miranda Harcourt’s The Changeover, opening today in Brooklyn.

From time to time, Chant gets premonitions, but her over-worked, working-class mum does not want to hear about that. Instead, she just wants Chant to shut-up and take care of her little brother, Jacko. You could say she has not done so well on that score, but it is hard to be prepared for the danger represented by Carmody Braque. He happens to be a larva, a supernatural parasite that sucks the life-force out of their victims. Tragically, Braque managed to sink his hooks into Jacko, after he tricked the lad into “letting him in.”

Channt is definitely out of her depth, but she finds an ally in her brooding classmate, Sorenson Carlisle, a witch (not a warlock), from a long line of witches. His mother and grandmother could have some helpful advice for Chant, whereas her mother just nags and nags.

Based on New Zealand YA author Margaret Mahy’s 1984 Carnegie Medal-winner of the same name, The Changeover is one of the better films based on YA novels, but admittedly, its only competition is the greatly underappreciated Before I Fall. It is not saying much to argue it is much better than I Still See You, November Criminals, and Fallen, which it most definitely is. A lion’s share of the credit is due to Timothy Spall, who is jolly fun to watch chewing the scenery as Braque.

Th crafty Spall is indeed fun to watch, but Erana Janes is quite compelling as Laura Chant. Nicolas Galitzine is rather dull as Carlisle, brooding teen witch, while Lucy Lawless is frustratingly underemployed as his mother, Miryam. Still, the ensemble definitely exceeds the low expectations viewers might have for another YA movie adaptation. In this case, Changeover’s deep roots, stretching all the way back to ’84 arguably suggest this story has some staying power. In fact, there are some rather intriguing elements to Chant’s psychological and paranormal battle with Braque. Frankly, it probably deserves better than its excuse-me-once-a-day run at the Kent Theater in Brooklyn, but that’s what it has. Recommended for fans of supernatural teen fiction, Th Changeover is now playing in select cities.

Sundance ’17: Before I Fall

Popular teenager Samantha Kingston has one day to grow up and become a decent person. Ordinarily, that would not be nearly enough time, but this is a Groundhog kind of day. It usually ends with her and her friends dying in a car wreck, but it turns out she has even more profoundly bad karma to level in Ry Russo-Young’s Before I Fall (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Kingston and her three BFFs know they are “mean girls” and they embrace it. Their queen bee Lindsay Edgecomb is by far the meanest of the pack. Ally Harris is the brainy one (by their standards) and Elody is the ditzy one. Kingston would probably be best described as the passive one, up until this fateful day. It is Cupid’s Day (the PC variation on Valentine’s Day), which is a big deal at their school. To perversely emphasize popularity, the school has institutionalized a rose delivery ritual. Kingston and her mates will be showered with roses, but not Juliet Sykes, their favorite bullying target.

After horribly humiliating Sykes at a kegger thrown by Kent McFuller, Kingston’s not so secret nice guy admirer, the fab four drive off into a fatal accident, at which point the day restarts for Kingston. Initially, Kingston assumes she can break the cycle if she can prevent the accident, but after another Cupid Day goes by, she realizes she will have to save Sykes too.

In fact, screenwriter Maria Maggenti’s adaptation of Lauren Oliver’s YA novel goes through many iterations of the momentous day, but each one covers very different narrative (and even thematic) terrain. It might be cheesy and manipulative, but it never drags. Despite Kingston’s necessary introspective self-examination, Russo-Young keeps the pace snappy and includes some subtle, unforced echoes from previous go-rounds.

Believe it or not, the ridiculously attractive young ensemble also demonstrates some impressive dramatic chops. Zoey Deutch takes a star-making turn as Kingston. She shows considerable range and holds up to the pressure of carrying the film—in each and every scene. Cynthy Wu and Medalion Rahimi add some surprisingly offbeat charm as Ally and Elody, respectively, while Logan Miller’s McFuller develops some surprisingly touching chemistry with Deutch. However, young Erica Tremblay as Izzy, the young sister Kingston is nearly too late to appreciate, steals every scene she appears in.

Nobody could deny Fall gets massively sentimental and schmaltzy. By the same token, credit must be given for how effectively it unfolds. It is probably the guilty pleasure at this year’s festival.  Recommended for its target audience of young adult girls, Before I Fall screens again this Friday (1/27) at Sundance Mountain Resort and Saturday (1/28) in Park City, as part of this year’s Sundance.