You know a movie is adrift when you spend the running time admiring the grooming. As in the animated 2016 “Moana,” a Polynesian teenager (Catherine Laga’aia) sets sail to save her starving people by returning a heart stone to an island spirit. The plucky girl goes off into the breach with a cocky demigod named Maui (Dwayne Johnson) in a catamaran that continually pitches them into the waves, soaking them both so often that the hair and costume teams do an impressive job calibrating whether each scene’s look should be drenched, damp or sun-baked. Yes, the most riveting thing about director Thomas Kail’s live-action “Moana” is watching painted cloth dry.
-
Follow Us!
