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Sulphur-powered giant shipworm unearthed in Philippines

AN ENORMOUS black worm that lives in the mud of the sea floor and survives on the remnants of noxious gases digested by bacteria has been unveiled by scientists for the first time.

The slimy giant shipworm can grow up to 155 centimeters (five feet) in length, despite living a sedentary life in ocean sediment and apparently eating nothing more than the waste products of the microorganisms that live in its gills.

“We are amazed. This is the first time we saw a shipworm as large as this. Usually, shipworms are only as short as a matchstick and are white,” Filipino marine biologist Julie Albano told AFP.

The shipworm is a not actually a worm at all, but a bivalve — like mussels and clams — and has its own brittle, tusk-like shell.

Also known by its scientific name Kuphus polythalamia, the mollusk is radically different from its smaller shipworm cousins, which burrow in — and digest — wood.

Researchers who analyzed the creature found that although it had its own digestive system, this was shrunken and appeared to be largely redundant.

Instead, Kuphus polythalamia relies on bacteria that live in its gills, which digest hydrogen sulphide — a gas that smells of rotten eggs — from the mud and emit traces of carbon.

The process is photosynthesis in plants, where they take carbon dioxide from the air, use the carbon to grow and expel oxygen as a by-product.

“We suspected the giant shipworm was radically different from other wood-eating shipworms. Finding the animal confirmed that,” said Margo Haygood, a research professor at the University of Utah who also took part in the study.

The discovery of the giant shipworm, a species never before studied, marked the first time scientists had live specimens in hand, according to an article published this week in American journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

“This remarkable species remains to be fully described and explained,” the journal said.

Albano said the giant shipworm was found in the coastal town of Kalamansig in southern Sultan Kudarat province and its bacteria are now being studied for possible pharmaceutical use.

While the odd-looking animals are new to international marine scientists, Albano said, local people have clearly known all about them for years.

“The shipworm is edible, tastes like an octopus,” she said. “Locals eat it and it serves as an aphrodisiac for them.” — AFP

Key leopard population ‘crashing’

PARIS — The leopard population in a region of South Africa once thick with the big cats is crashing, and could be wiped out within a few years, scientists warned Wednesday.

Illegal killing of leopards in the Soutpansberg Mountains has reduced their numbers by two-thirds in the last decade, the researchers reported in the “Royal Society Open Science” journal.

“If things don’t change, we predict leopards will essentially disappear from the area by about 2020,” lead author Samual Williams, a conservation biologist at Durham University in England, told AFP.

“This is especially alarming given that, in 2008, this area had one of the highest leopard densities in Africa.”

The number of leopards in the wild worldwide is not known, but is diminishing elsewhere as well. The “best estimate” for all of South Africa, said Williams, is about 4,500.

What is certain, however, is that the regions these predators roam has shrunk drastically over the last two centuries.

The historic range of Panthera pardus, which includes more than half-a-dozen sub-species, covered large swathes of Africa and Asia, and extended well into the Arabian Peninsula.

Leopards once roamed the forests of Sri Lanka and Java unchallenged.

Today, they occupy barely a quarter of this territory, with some sub-species teetering on the brink of extinction, trapped in one or two percent of their original habitat.

Leopards were classified last year as “vulnerable” to extinction on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of endangered species, which tracks the survival status of animals and plants.

South Africa recently suspended trophy hunting of leopards, though experts agree this is not a major cause of the population decline.

BLEAK FINDINGS
A 2008 census of leopards in the 6,800-square kilometer (2,600-square mile) Soutpansberg Mountains found a robust population of nearly 11 adult cats for each hundred square kilometers (39 square miles).

To find out how the carnivores had fared since then, Williams and his team set up four dozen motion-triggered camera traps across the area, and left them in place from 2012 to 2016.

The cameras captured a total of 65 individual leopards during the four-year period: 16 adult males, 28 adult females and 21 younger cats.

They also fitted eight adults with GPS collars to track their movements — or lack thereof.

Only two of the GPS-tagged leopards survived the monitoring period. Three were done in by snares, one was shot by a local resident whose cattle had been attacked, and two went missing, probably killed since they also disappeared from camera surveillance.

A statistical analysis of the results showed “a 66% decline over a period just over 7.5 years,” the study concluded.

Ironically, the bleak findings helped conservationists and local officials raise money to hire a “community engagement officer.”

“One of the things he does is help local people adopt non-lethal techniques” to prevent leopards from attacking cattle and other livestock, including the use of guard dogs, Williams added.

But the clash between humans and big carnivores, experts agree, is mostly due to humanity’s expanding footprint, especially in Africa, whose population is set to expand by more than a billion before mid-century.

As a result, the habitats of most wild megafauna are diminishing, and getting chopped up into smaller and smaller parcels.

“It is extremely alarming that the trends that we are reporting exemplify trends in large carnivores globally,” Williams said.

Studies in Africa of lions, black-backed jackals, and bat-eared foxes have showed similar rates of decline. — AFP

Strike force: world’s most venomous scorpion in action

PARIS — The world’s most lethal scorpion, the death stalker, has been caught on high-speed camera for the first time lashing out with its lethal stinger, scientists reported Tuesday.

A comparison of half-a-dozen scorpion species shown in ultra-slow motion revealed an unsuspected variety of strike modes, they reported in the journal Functional Ecology.

The death stalker had the fastest lunge of all, with its venomous stinger snapping over its head like a whip at 130 centimeters (51 inches) per second.

It has a no-nonsense trajectory, moving straight toward its target before flicking upward. The emperor scorpion — the world’s largest — has a similar open strike.

Other species, such as the black spitting scorpion, which can squirt venom at a distance, and various members of the hottentotta genus, strike with a more circular motion, forming an “O.”

“We found that different ‘tail’ shapes” — some slim, some fatter — “appear to permit different strike performances,” said senior author Arie van der Meijden, a professor at the University of Porto in Portugal.

To record and analyze the lightning-fast strikes, Van der Meijden and his team built a small platform surrounded by mirrors on all four sides.

They filmed the scorpion strikes from above with a video camera at 500 frames per second, and then created 3-D models with computers.

“Just taking them out of their container and putting them in the arena was enough to get them in stinging mood,” Van der Meijden said.

“All that was necessary to make them strike was touching their pincers with a thin piece of wire.”

Next on the research agenda is to figure out the evolutionary forces which explain why the strike patterns are so varied.

It could be “related to the kind of predators they need to defend themselves against,” Van der Meijden told AFP.

The differences could also arise from the fact that some scorpions rely less on their tail stingers, and more on their pincers to ward off a threat.

Scorpions use their defensive arsenal against bats, snakes, lizards and other predators.

They also use their stinger to catch prey, and during mating.

A 2008 study in the journal Acta Tropica estimated that more than 3,000 people die every year from scorpion bites.

Measuring up to 110 millimeters (4.3 inches) in length, death stalkers (Leiurus quinquestriatus) are found in dry regions of North Africa and the Middle East, where they live under rocks.

Their venom is highly dangerous for adults, and potentially lethal for children, but has been a valuable avenue for drug research. — AFP

Hope for elephants as ivory prices fall: conservation group

NAIROBI — The price of ivory has fallen by nearly two-thirds in the last three years, according to research conducted in China and published on Wednesday by the conservation group Save the Elephants.

At its peak in 2014 wholesale prices for raw ivory stood at $2,100 per kilogram at Chinese markets, but by 2017 the price had fallen to $730 per kilogram, according to the report by two ivory trade experts, Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin.

“Findings from 2015 and 2016 in China have shown that the legal ivory trade especially has been severely diminished,” Vigne said in a statement.

Chinese demand has driven a decade-long spike in elephant poaching in Africa, where the population has fallen by 110,000 over the last 10 years to just 415,000, according to a recent continental survey.

Vigne said both the amount of ivory for sale as well as prices had fallen at 130 licensed outlets in China, reflecting a drop in demand in the world’s biggest ivory market.

The researchers said China’s economic slowdown, plus a crackdown on corruption which sharply reduced the giving of ivory trinkets as gifts to officials, had also crimped demand.

At the end of this month, China’s 34 remaining licensed ivory-carving factories will be closed, after a recent government order putting an end to the legal trade.

But it remains unclear how the closing of the legal market will affect the illegal trade in elephant ivory.

International trade in ivory was banned in 1989, yet poaching continued and has accelerated in recent years, feeding a black market controlled by criminal gangs.

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Save the Elephant’s founder, said it was a critical but hopeful moment for the future of elephants.

“With the end of the legal ivory trade in China, the survival chances for elephants have distinctly improved,” Douglas-Hamilton said.

“There is still a long way to go to end the excessive killing of elephants for ivory, but there is now greater hope for the species.” — AFP

Planet protection plans: participate, pledge, preserve

ON MARCH 25, everyone is encouraged to participate in turning off their lights for just an hour — from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. — in celebration of the annual Earth Hour organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The main switch-off event will be at the SM Mall of Asia complex from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

According a WWF-Philippines press release, this year’s campaign urges millennials in particular to be the “climate change leaders and advocates of tomorrow” by, for instance, sharing their participations on their social media accounts to create more awareness and engagements.

“While the theme of Earth Hour remains ‘Shining a Light on Climate Action,’ we took to heart the role of the youth as the key to further propel the country into [being] a climate-resilient [country]. We continue to engage and encourage the public to emphasize that together we thrive,” Joel Palma, WWF Philippines president and CEO, was quoted as saying in the release.

The annual global campaign, which started in 2007, is more than just a symbol. “It aims to bring concrete solutions at a time when the challenges of climate change and environmental issues are all too real, yet showing the power of collective climate action,” said Gia Ibay, Earth Hour Philippines director, in the release.

The Philippines, one of the first member country participants and also one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, earned the title “Earth Hour Hero Country” as it topped global participation records from 2009 until 2012.

The WWF and the Earth Hour organizations worldwide have been raising both support and funds for access to renewable energy, protection of wildlife and their habitats, and building a sustainable tomorrow. Interested donors can visit the main Earth Hour website, and choose to give donations of $25, $50, or $100. The Earth Hour-Philippines website for donations is currently under construction.

MALL GOER DONATIONS
One of WWF-Philippines’ fund-raising projects is the Individual Donor Program (IDP) which targets mall goers. WWF-Philippines ambassador Luis Manzano became a fundraiser for a day at Glorietta 4 on March 16 as he encouraged random shoppers to participate in IDP.

Mall goers can now contribute to WWF’s ecological sustainability initiatives by going to the Glorietta mall booths or logging on to the WWF Philippines web site. They can either make a one-time donation or make monthly donations P500, P700, or P1,000.

The P500 donations will go towards training public school teachers in sustained environment awareness. The P700 donations will support tuna fishermen in the Ilocos Norte, Bicol Region, and Mindoro; while the P1,000 donations will go towards protecting the Tubbataha Reefs which serve as the food provider for people who rely on fish as their primary protein source.

The Glorietta 4 booths will be open until April. The locations of other mall booths nationwide are yet to be finalized.

WWF Philippines is working to combat climate change, alleviate poverty, conserve wildlife, and help transform lives through sustainable livelihood programs. It currently has 13 project sites: Tubbataha Reefs and Cagayancillo in Palawan, Donsol in Sorsogon, Mt. Iglit-Baco Mountain Range in Mindoro, Ipo Watershed in Bulacan, Hamilo Coast in Batangas, Pasquin in Ilocos Norte, Mamburao and Apo Reef in Occidental Mindoro, Tawi-Tawi, Sta. Rosa in Laguna, Davao Gulf, and Samal Island. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

Florida eco-friendly town opens for business

PUNTA GORDA — With a farm-to-table restaurant, driverless shuttles, homes built with the latest green techniques and a massive solar farm to offset energy use, Florida’s first sustainable town is now open for business.

The buzz about Babcock Ranch, an eco-friendly city of the future and the largest development of its kind in the United States, drew more than 15,000 people out this month for a peek.

“We are building a new town from the ground up and that just doesn’t happen very often,” said Syd Kitson, a retired American football player who dreamed up the vision for Babcock Ranch over a decade ago.

“We can do it right from the very beginning, and that is what we have set out to do,” he told AFP.

Kitson bought the 93,000-acre (38,000-hectare) ranch in southwestern Florida in 2006.

He sold most of the land to the state as a wildlife preserve, keeping 18,000 acres for his plan to build an environmentally friendly town on one half, setting aside the other half for open spaces and nature.

Then, the global financial crisis struck in 2007 and Kitson’s plans ground to a halt.

But as the economy recovered, builders regained interest in the project and began purchasing parcels.

Momentum began to accelerate in the last few years.

Bulldozers are still a common sight and vast empty spaces remain, but builders are hard at work erecting homes that in the next two decades will host a community of some 50,000 people.

“The first phase is going much quicker than we thought,” Kitson said.

“You are going to see a lot of people living here very, very quickly.”

FUTURISTIC FEATURES
A handful of model homes have been completed, and during a two-day Founders Fest this month, visitors streamed in and out to see the latest in energy-efficient designs, along with outdoor kitchens, high ceilings, swimming pools and front porches with rocking chairs.

“It is beautiful,” said visitor Jason Brewer, who came for a look around this time last year and said he is amazed at how much work has been done since then.

“People are excited to see how things are going to turn out,” he said.

The first home — a brand new lakefront house with two bedrooms and a den — was recently sold to a pair of retirees for $460,000, about twice the average home sale price in the area, located north of Fort Myers on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The homeowners are expected to move into their new digs in May.

Some visitors expressed concern about the prices, and wondered if they’d ever be able to afford to buy there.

Babcock Ranch spokeswoman Lisa Hall said that in the coming years, a series of smaller villas and apartments are expected to be built with a price range of $180,000 to $220,000.

These lower-priced units will be mixed in with the larger homes, so as to avoid segregating the town according to residents’ incomes, she said.

SOLAR FARM
A key feature of Babcock Ranch is the adjacent 440-acre solar farm, which provides enough energy to the local utility, Florida Power and Light, to offset the energy use of nearly 20,000 homes.

Employees navigate the streets using electric cars, which they charge up with orange cords when parked.

A cherry-red, driverless, battery-powered shuttle called EasyMile, one of just a few in use across the country, is also being tested to transport up to 12 people at a time from place to place.

“Some people are nervous, others are excited” when they see a shuttle with no driver, said Neal Hemenover, chief information officer at TransDev North America.

The shuttle travels barely half a mile at a time, at a speed of less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) per hour, and stops automatically if anyone steps in front of it.

Otherwise, Babcock Ranch aims to be a walkable city with 50 miles of trails — five miles of which are now complete.

A space for container gardens is already fenced off, and crops grown in the area will recycle irrigated water, said Hall.

The iconic feature of many Florida communities — a golf course — is not yet planned, but could be if enough golfers move in.

“If we do (a golf course), it will be operated to the highest standards of sustainability — irrigation with re-use, low-impact fertilization, etc.,” said Hall.

A public elementary and middle school is being built, and should open in the late summer. It is already filled to capacity.

The notion of living in a brand new, sustainable town appealed to 14-year-old Abby White.

After kayaking on one of the new lakes, she paused for a bite to eat in the town’s restaurant and told her mother how much she wanted to live there.

“It feels like what we need to do for our future,” she said. — AFP

Curbing pollution can prevent 3M Chinese deaths a year: study

PARIS — China can avoid three million premature deaths each year if it slashes a type of fine particle air pollution to UN recommended levels, a study said Wednesday.

The average daily particle concentration in 38 of China’s largest cities between January 2010 and June 2013 was about 93 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) of air, researchers reported in The BMJ medical journal.

This was way over the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 20 ug/m3.

The measurement applies to so-called PM10 particles, which are less than 10 microns or 10 millionths of a meter across — several times thinner than a human hair.

Generated by the burning of coal and oil in cars and power plants, but also forest fires, volcanic eruptions and dust storms, airborne fine particles can penetrate into the airways to cause respiratory problems.

They also blacken buildings and contribute to acid rain.

Over 350,000 deaths were reported in the 38 Chinese cities chosen for the study in three-and-a-half years, said the researchers.

They calculated that every 10 ug/m3 increase in daily PM10 concentrations was associated with a 0.44% rise in daily deaths, mainly from cardiorespiratory ailments such as asthma and chronic lung disease.

People over 60 had a higher risk of death from particle pollution, and women were more affected than men, said the team.

Extrapolating to the country as a whole, China “would save three million premature deaths each year” by reducing the daily PM10 level to the WHO standard, they calculated — likely a conservative estimate.

Premature deaths are defined by researchers as people dying before reaching a certain, expected age for their peer group. Many of these deaths are considered preventable.

“Our findings suggest that adopting and enforcing tighter air quality standards in China will bring about tremendous public health benefits,” said the study.

China, India, Iran, and Indonesia are among the countries hardest hit by air pollution. New Delhi, for example, has been known to exceed PM10 levels of 700 ug/m3.

Another important measure of air pollution is so-called PM2.5 fine particles, whose diameter is 2.5 microns or less.

They are a particular source of worry for health monitors as they are light and tiny and can reach even deeper into the lungs. The study focused on PM10 pollution. — AFP

There are aliens out there says director Ridley Scott

PARIS — Alien creator Ridley Scott says he’s convinced that there are aliens out there — and one day they could come for us.

There are aliens out there says director Ridley Scott

The veteran director said late last month that he believed in higher beings as he prepared to release the sixth episode of the sci-fi horror series, Alien: Covenant.

“I believe in superior beings. I think it is certainly likely. An expert I was talking to at NASA said to me, ‘Have you ever looked in the sky at night? You mean to tell me we are it?’ That’s ridiculous.

“The experts have now put a number on it having assessed what is out there. They say that there are between 100 and 200 entities that could be having a similar evolution to us right now.

“So when you see a big thing in the sky, run for it,” he joked.

“Because they are a lot smarter than we are, and if you are stupid enough to challenge them you will be taken out in three seconds.”

Alien: Covenant, the second of the prequel films, is set in 2104 on board a spaceship carrying 2,000 cryogenically frozen colonists to a distant planet when they chance upon an uncharted paradise.

But their voyage soon turns into a gory nightmare that makes Alien’s original “chestbuster” scene seem tame in comparison.

‘Hideous beyond belief’

The “neomorph” aliens in the new film are based on the goblin shark “which has a jaw which hinges in two ways. It’s scary, hideous beyond belief actually,” Scott said.

The 79-year-old British-born director — who was also the brains behind Blade Runner — said he never tired of scaring people out of their skins.

“When I did the first Alien I had to get a sense of responsibility because the reaction to the kitchen (“chestbuster”) scene with John Hurt was beyond anything I expected — and it was not good,” he told AFP.

“But the film was very successful because people are perverse.”

He said he could not believe the terror he had created when he went to see people watching the film.

“Everybody was half underneath the seat watching by the time you get to the kitchen scene. There was a woman underneath the seat with her husband holding her. I said this is not healthy.”

Scott, however, claimed that he was unshockable.

“Nothing scares me. I have a 9mm (pistol),” he said.

“If there is a problem I tend to close down into calm. When you walk in the morning on a film and 600 people turn and all look at you, that is scary,” he said.

Alien: Covenant has a religious subtext, the director insisted.

He said he was “agnostic,” but this did not stop him making a film about Moses, Exodus: Gods and Kings, in 2014.

“Either religion is the greatest trick played on mankind. Or it is not, and that poses some great questions, and this film is a great context for those,” he said.

The film sees Irish actor Michael Fassbender return to his role as the cerebral android David which he played in the last prequel Prometheus in 2012.

But this time with a twist. Scott uses him to pose questions about the nature of humans.

“There is an artist in there somewhere,” Fassbender said in an earlier interview. “There’s definitely an ego in there… So again these are very human things.

“We all want to leave something behind after we go. There’s a legacy of some sort that we’ve left behind,” he added.

Scott, who was knighted in 2003, is about to make a film about the Battle of Britain during World War II, when the Royal Air Force fought off the German Luftwaffe. — AFP

Beat of a different drum

This being a sequel it would be smart of me — obligatory almost — to declare that lightning doesn’t strike twice, that James Gunn has sold his soul to the corporate suits at Marvel, that this lacks the freshness of the original and so on and so forth.

Beat of a different drum

Might be true — is true, arguably — but what the hell I enjoyed it anyway.

The first Guardians of the Galaxy was a come-from-behind monster hit, Gunn’s basic idea being that plot A (quest for metal egg housing all-important all-powerful Infinity Stone) served as background to plot B (Peter Quill’s [Chris Pratt] quest to surround himself with surrogate family), the inversion of priorities being Gunn’s way of standing apart from all the other oversized projects being squeezed out of the Marvel Studio pipeline.

Quill’s Walkman incarnates Gunn’s approach to Marvel Studios filmmaking. Pop in Awesome Mix cassette; slide on earphones, plug in jack; moonwalk to own (as opposed to Marvel’s) unique beat — keeps supervillains from drawing a bead, keeps girls (alien human otherwise) from collecting their wits enough to say “no,” keeps oneself looking unaccountably cool.

In Vol. 2 the filmmaker signals his intentions early on with a swirling long-take shot of the Guardians battling a space octopus in the background, Baby Groot (offshoot from the original picture’s Groot, both voiced by Vin Diesel) tripping to the rhythms of ELO in the foreground. Ballsy idea pulled off with style; the challenge is to maintain that carefully achieved myopia for the rest of the movie’s 130 minute running time.

Lord knows Gunn tries. He does touch gloriously giddy heights, as when Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper) demands a piece of Scotch tape from his sorely beleaguered colleagues — but the sequence is quickly followed by yet another outsized CGI battle sequence, blowing one’s memories of the scene (not to mention good feelings) out one ear. Gunn unfortunately is following two conflicting impulses: the need to make the familiar surprising again (fairly successful); the need to top what’s happened before with bigger and better yet still the same (with rapidly diminishing returns). He does best following his more perverse instincts — like casting the still-charismatic Kurt Russell as Ego the Living Planet, a small-scale god and Quill’s reputed father (Quill as with all orphan heroes has highborn origins), then pitting Ego against Quill’s adoptive father Yondu (Michael Rooker) in the young man’s heart. Leading-man Russell vs. character actor Rooker? “I’m your father!” vs. “I’m gonna eat you!?” Snake Plissken vs. Henry? The competition is so lopsided it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

Gunn is helped in no small part by the B cast: the aforementioned Rooker and Russell, plus Karen Gillian as the menacingly blue Nebula, who hides more pain in her than previously suspected (or thought possible). Rooker is a particular triumph; thought he had been mostly wasted in the previous installment, glad he’s finally been given his due — and a brief moment center stage — here.

Gunn’s action sequences have improved somewhat — he’s at his best allowing us a tangential view, with either Baby Groot sashaying in the foreground or in brief glimpses from out a tunnel entrance; when depicted upfront (as with the Sovereign fleet) they’re your standard-issue CGI snorefests, thousands of ships lined up like so many Aryan mosquitoes (though to his credit he slyly parodies said image by likening control of the ships — basically robot drones— to arcade-style video games).

Gunn does do one thing right, render his color palette as bright and garish as ever. Ego’s eden-like planet is painted in a scheme so kitschy it would give the late Thomas Kinkade waking nightmares; during a cremation late in the film flames bloom in all colors of the rainbow; later when friends and ships come visit, how do they pay tribute? Space fireworks of course. Too many colors is too many, but way too many (to the point of causing temporary blindness) can be just right (glad I saw this in 2-D; the added dimension might have been too much).

Same goes with the soundtrack — are “My Sweet Lord” and “Father and Son” too sentimental? Perhaps, but they’re Gunn’s sentimental favorites, and I suspect he’s trying to do here what Dennis Potter did in his dramas: using cheap overfamiliar melodies in such a way as to give them fresh power. Does he succeed? Liked their use just fine myself, but understand how some folks might be unwilling to follow.

Let’s be clear on one point: Vol. 2 is unabashed junk food — but well-cooked junk I submit, crunchy and salty with plenty of powdered cheese. Not very nourishing but I do get to lick the powder off my fingertips afterwards.

MTRCB Rating: PG

What to see this week

7 films to see on the week of May 12-May 19, 2017

A Silent Voice

A Japanese animated film, A Silent Voice revolves around a boy, Shoya, who bullies the new girl in class, Shoko, because she’s deaf. After she is forced to transfer school, Shoya is himself bullied and ostracized by his classmates. Years later Shoya is tormented by his past behavior and decides that he must see Shoko once more. Directed by Naoko Yamada. “A Silent Voice resonates as an authentic depiction of adolescent vulnerability and the uniquely cataclysmic perils of teenage life,” writes James Marsh of the South China Morning Post.

MTRCB Rating: PG

Come and Find Me

Claire and David’s idyllic relationship abruptly ends after she disappears without a trace. As he searches for her, David discovers that she was living a double life. Written and directed by Zack Whedon, the film stars Aaron Paul, Annabelle Wallis, and Garret Dillahunt. Nick Schager of the Village Voice writes: “Most like-minded films spend approximately 20 minutes on the same material covered by the entirety of Come and Find Me — a fact that leaves this mystery from writer/director Zack Whedon (brother of Joss) feeling insufferably drawn out.”

MTRCB Rating: R-13

The Bride

In mid 1800s rural Russia, there was an unusual practice of photographing dead relatives. Svyatoslav Podgayevsky writes and directs this horror movie in which a photographer of the deceased buries his dead wife with a young virgin to revive his dead wife’s soul inside the young virgin’s body. Things go terribly wrong. The film stars Aleksandra Rebenok, Victoria Agalakova, and Vyacheslav Chepurchenko. Nezavisimaya gazeta’s Natalia Grigorieva writes: “Shot in the twilight, in the pouring rain Bride is woven from cliches [translated from Russian].”

MTRCB Rating: PG

Touched with Fire

Popular with the critics on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, which gave the film a healthy 70% “fresh” rating, Touched with Fire revolves around two poets with bipolar disorder who meet in a treatment facility. Their chemistry drives each other to new artistic heights but they must ultimately must choose between sanity and love. Written and directed by Paul Dalio, it stars Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby. Moira MacDonald of the Seattle Times writes: “Dalio, who based the film (his directing debut) on his own struggles with bipolar disorder, establishes a gentle, honest tone that never wavers — and demonstrates a knack for vivid imagery that makes him a filmmaker to watch.”

MTRCB Rating: R-13

Bliss

Iza Calzado plays a successful actress who is gravely injured during the production of a film. Disabled, she finds herself under the care of her cruel husband and an unusual nurse, and soon finds herself trapped in her own home and starts to fear for her sanity. Written and directed by Jerrold Tarog, it also stars Ian Veneracion, Shamaine Buencamino, and Adrienne Vergara. Calzado was awarded the Yakushi Pearl Award at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2017 for her performance in this film. Andrew Heskins of easternkicks.com writes: “True, the mystery of the film may not exactly keep you guessing to the final reel, but when the journey is this much fun it doesn’t have to. This is a well-constructed, intelligent slice of entertainment that does exactly that. Highly recommended.”

MTRCB Rating: R-18

One Step

A Korean romance starring Sandara Park as a singer who forgets her past after a tragic accident. But a strange melody she hums in her sleep may help her remember her past. Directed by Juhn Jai-hong, the film also stars Han Jae-suk.

MTRCB Rating: G

Our Mighty Yaya

A Regal Entertainment comedy about a plain but sympathetic woman from the province who is hired as a nanny for an affluent family in Manila. Ai-Ai de las Alas stars in this film directed by Jose Javier Reyes.
MTRCB Rating: G

Go see Gifted

Movie Review
Gifted
Directed by Marc Webb

Go see Gifted

SOMETIMES YOU LOVE a movie even as you realize it’s far from perfect.

That’s what I’m here to tell ya. I loved Gifted even though I realize it’s far from perfect.

Yes, the screenplay creates a big ongoing courtroom conflict that could have been more readily resolved a half-dozen other ways.

Yes, the tear-soaked drama often crosses the line into unabashed, old-timey movie sentimentality.

And yes, any film with a lovable, one-eyed cat named Fred that winds up on death row at one point isn’t exactly being subtle about grabbing for your heart.

I wasn’t much bothered by any of that, because I cared so much about the characters and I wanted things to work out for them, and maybe you’ll feel the same way after you see Gifted.

Go see Gifted

Chris Evans is, of course, best known for playing Steve Rogers/Captain America and he’s quite capable in that role, but Evans has the opportunity to flex different sets of acting muscles as Frank Adler in Gifted, and the result is maybe the best work he’s ever done. (Evans also gets to flex his actual muscles, as the Florida coastal locale of the story and his job as a boat mechanic afford plenty of opportunity for that.)

Frank acts like a crabby old man in a young man’s shell as he keeps his head down and tries to keep his interactions with the outside world to a bare minimum, but we know from the get-go this guy’s heart is in the right place.

Frank has had custody of his seven-year-old niece Mary (McKenna Grace) ever since Mary’s mother committed suicide when the girl was an infant. Even with their modest circumstances and Frank’s make-it-up-as-you-go-along approach to guardianship, they seem to be doing just fine on their own, until the time comes for Mary to get on the school bus and start the first grade.

This is the thing about Mary. She’s a mathematical genius, a one-in-a-billion prodigy. On the first day of class, it takes about five minutes for Mary’s teacher, Bonnie (Jenny Slate), to realize this kid should NOT be wasting her time adding two plus two.

This sets in motion a chain of events that includes the school’s principal (Elizabeth Marvel) offering to place Mary in an ultra-expensive school for gifted children, and the arrival from Boston of Frank’s estranged mother, Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan), a wealthy, domineering presence who would have to warm up to have ice water in her veins.

Evelyn, a onetime math prodigy herself who was obsessed with pushing her daughter to greatness, has learned of her granddaughter’s prowess, which suddenly makes the child interesting to Evelyn. She swoops into town, meets Mary for the first time, gives Mary an Apple MacBook loaded with math texts, and announces she will be taking custody of the child. See you in court, son!

Go see Gifted

The screenplay by Tom Flynn is filled with sharp dialogue and warm, funny vignettes, but also some pretty big leaps of credibility, especially in the increasingly escalating emotions of the courtroom battle. (Evelyn has a scene on the witness stand that’s the cold-hearted mother’s version of Jack Nicholson’s self-destructive diatribe in A Few Good Men. It’s an amazing piece of acting from Lindsay Duncan, but it’s so theatrical you’ll feel as if you just walked into a Broadway play.)

Octavia Spencer supplies heart and humor as Roberta, the property manager/next-door neighbor who is always using her master key to enter Frank’s place and meddle in his life. (Frank pretends to be annoyed by this, but he is eternally grateful to have Roberta in his life — and more important, in Mary’s life.) And Jenny Slate gives a wonderfully modulated, sympathetic performance as Bonnie the schoolteacher, who tells Frank there’s no way they get involved, ahem.

In a role that requires much math talk and even more serious emoting, McKenna Grace is an irresistible force. Evans and Grace are sensational in their scenes together, whether it’s low-key bantering about the nature of her morning breakfast or waterworks-inducing separations and reunions.

Gifted isn’t the best or most sophisticated or most original film of the year so far, but it just might be my favorite. — Chicago Sun-Times/Andrews McMeel Syndication

Rating: ★★★★
MTRCB Rating: PG

What to see this week

4 films to see on the week of May 5-May 12, 2017

The Circle

WHEN MAE (Emma Watson) is hired to work for the world’s largest and most powerful tech and social media company, she sees it as an opportunity of a lifetime. As she rises through the ranks, she is encouraged by the company’s founder, Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks), to engage in a groundbreaking experiment that pushes the boundaries of privacy, ethics and ultimately her personal freedom. Directed by James Ponsoldt, and also starring John Boyega and Patton Oswalt. The film is very unpopular with the critics on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, which gave it a measly score of 16%. “As a satire, The Circle might have been worth a few giggles, but as a deadly serious drama, it’s laughable in an entirely different way,” wrote David Sims of The Atlantic.
MTRCB Rating: PG

Luck At First Sight

A VIVA FILMS rom-com, Luck At First Sight is about a gambler who believes that a girls is bringing him good luck. Then they fall in love. Directed by Dan Villegas, it stars Jericho Rosales and Bela Padilla.
MTRCB Rating: PG

Eat Local

AS BRITAIN’S vampires gather for their once-every-50-years meeting in a quiet countryside farmhouse, a detachment of Special Forces vampire killers find that they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Directed by Jason Flemyng, it stars Charlie Cox, Mackenzie Crook, and Vincent Regan. “Suffice to say that patience comes to who knows how to wait. This is certainly not the film of the century nor the break, but it is that the script, the plot, the protagonists (and their arrival to the image) are simply fabulous! It is true that this feature has airs of Assault on Precinct 13 but not that and especially, especially with a very, very British humor and actors/actresses perfectly involved in their roles,” writes Charles de Clercq of Cinecure.
MTRCB Rating: R-13

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