Catch-Up, Part 8: Best Picture Edition

With the Academy Awards coming up, I thought I'd catch up on some of this year's Best Picture nominees. I wanted to check them all off, but I also didn't want to drop piles of cash subscribing to additional streaming services when I've yet to exhaust the ones I'm already paying for. I'm arranging these in reverse order, so the last movie listed is the one I think *should* win.

That said, with one exception I think all of the nominees I've seen range from very good to extremely good. Of the seven movies below, four are separated by a hair - I won't bat an eye if any of those win. All of them deserve it.

I think the movies in spots 5 and 6 are great, but not quite in the same league. I certainly won't be upset if either wins: they're not my picks, but I still really enjoyed them. As for the last movie, well...

7. Don't Look Up (2021)

I find it bewildering that this was nominated for Best Picture. The only thing that makes this standout at all is its weirdly impressive cast, the majority of which, to be fair, does great work in a mediocre picture.

Honestly, "mediocre" might be overly generous. This just isn't well written, directed, or edited. It's a tonal mess that fails to actually deliver on the promise of its premise, which - at this point in time - amounts to screaming the obvious, then kind of muttering incomprehensibly for a couple hours. The central idea is fine (albeit not entirely original - variations on this "joke" have been floating around the internet for a while), but the execution amounts to what might be the most boring version of this movie possible.

One of the movie's largest sins was failing to deliver on the genre. This was, first and foremost, a satire. But satires are really supposed to reflect reality dialed up to eleven; this thing feels muted and understated. Obviously the threat is bigger and more immediate than climate change, but public reaction in the film feels less comically exaggerated than real world responses to that and COVID.

The movie's tone undermines itself, as well. The actors clearly think they're acting in a modern day Dr. Strangelove, but the editing tries to interject pathos throughout. The result is neither darkly humorous nor dark: it's just dull. I get what the flashes of stock footage are trying to convey, but I'm just not feeling it.

I respect the impulse to speak up about climate change, and I share the frustration with a world that refuses to acknowledge the obvious. But, aside from some fun performances, this just doesn't work as a movie, and the point it's trying to make - while absolutely well intentioned - is lacking the teeth it needs.

6. Nightmare Alley (2021)

Full disclosure: I watched this not realizing it was a remake of a 1947 movie, a fact that's kind of significant in terms of how this hits. Having not seen that or read the book both versions are based on, I'm unable to offer any insight on how this compares or plays off of ideas from the source material. Taken entirely on its own merits as a standalone piece of entertainment, this is...

Well, it's a noir from Guillermo del Toro, so it's obviously going to be good. But good and satisfying are very different things, and as the end credits rolled, I was a little underwhelmed. I had a pretty good idea how it would conclude from early on, and it more or less circled back to where I expected, and the few surprises it offered felt somewhat unearned. That said, as soon as I realized this was a remake, everything fell into place. Of course the ending was telegraphed: they're assuming viewers are already familiar. And of course the twists are more inline with old genre conventions than believable character motivations: this is a remake of an old genre movie and older novel.

I get it, and it's well done. Really well done, in fact (though I'm not entirely sold on the Best Picture nomination). Again, it's a good movie. And I loved the first half. But the second half, after the movie shifted away from the carnival, grated on me a bit. Then, as I said, the ending didn't surprise me. These aren't flaws, but ultimately the experience was less than I'd hoped.

I won't be upset if this takes the prize - it really is a good movie - but I think it's a tier below the nominees in spots 1 through 4.

5. King Richard (2021)

This is nothing like I expected. Based on the premise and the fact it was nominated for Best Picture, I assumed this would be a melancholy sports drama with a triumphant ending. Instead, I found myself watching one of the funniest movies of the year. I had a blast.

That's not to say there's nothing dark or serious in the movie - there are a handful of violent moments when Richard is attacked or his family is threatened, and there's some drama in the third act - but those scenes are exceptions in a film that's otherwise a delightful comedy.

What impressed me most was the movie's ability to transform what should have been a major liability into its most effective asset: we all know what's going to happen. Hell, even I know Venus and Serena Williams are the best tennis players in the known Universe, and there's no one on the planet who knows less about sports than me. This should have kneecapped the film: it effectively robs them of the ability to build stakes. Instead, they saw an opportunity to exploit the fact that literally everyone is in on the joke. From the second Will Smith's Richard starts making outlandish claims about his daughters' abilities to rich, white people who think he's crazy, we start chuckling because we know who's actually the butt of the joke. The movie exploits this to amazing effect: it's just wonderful.

If I were ranking this based on my enjoyment, it would be three spots higher. But, unlike my end of year rankings, I'm trying to give my opinion of which movie most deserves the award. And as great as this was, I think the stylistic and tonal complexities of the remaining films place this at a disadvantage.

That said, I'm certainly not rooting against this. Comedies don't get anywhere near enough respect - I'm thrilled this was nominated.

4. The Power of the Dog (2021)

I went into this knowing it was an R-rated western, it had been nominated for a pile of awards, and some of the cast. I naturally went in expecting gun fights and bloodshed, which in hindsight feels kind of silly.

This is, indeed, a western, though it's set quite a bit later than the era that genre is typically associated with. More than that, it's a far more grounded take on the genre. I'm not sure "realistic" is the right word - by its nature, fictional media is rarely if ever realistic - but it's extremely honest about its subject matter. The characters are flawed and believable. None are unbelievably effective or talented. It's a movie set, in more ways than one, in the literal shadow of the mythic west. I should note that it's as much a drama as a western, maybe more so. I'll add it's heavily indebted to a third genre, as well, but I won't reveal which to avoid spoiling the film's resolution.

This is a great movie, but that's not to say it's going to please everyone. The Power of the Dog is slowly paced and keeps the viewer at arm's length from the characters. It's one of those movies where the narrative feels unfocused until the end, at which point everything snaps together. Anyone looking for action is likely going to feel disappointed; those willing to explore the characters on the movie's terms will find this far more rewarding.

To be perfectly honest, I found myself somewhere in between those extremes. The Power of the Dog was masterfully made, but I'd be lying if I said it perfectly aligned with my tastes.

3. Dune (2021)

I've both reviewed this and discussed it on my end-of-year ranking, so I don't really have anything else to say. I'm only including it here to note where I'd put it in these rankings and why. And, for what it's worth, it's held back here for an entirely different reason than it was held back last time.

Unlike the end-of-year thing, I really am aiming for "best" here, or at the very least the movie I think deserves that award (at least from the ones nominated). And there's a part of me that thinks maybe this should take the statue. I certainly won't be bothered if it wins (that goes for most of the nominees I've seen, though).

Dune is sort of an unusual situation, where I think it's the best of these, but not the best movie. To put it another way, it's an experience unlike anything else nominated. It's an engrossing, expertly constructed universe, incredible to see and hear. On every technical level, it's really in its own class.

But it's also half a movie. I don't think that's a big problem for what was being sold, but if we're handing out awards, I think it needs to be taken into consideration. And, when all's said and done, the fact it really isn't a complete film should probably preclude it from taking the prize.

2. Drive My Car (2021)

This is an extremely difficult movie to describe, because any attempt is likely to make it sound boring and pretentious, and part of what makes this so impressive is it isn't. Instead, I walked away feeling like I'd seen something profound, even before I had a chance to finish parsing out what any of it actually meant. And, hell, I'm still not entirely sure, but that's sort of the point. This is about the connection established between the audience and the thing they're watching. It's about translation, communication, interpretation, and the way stories change us and help us overcome trauma. What you make of the ending is up to you.

And, yeah, that would usually register as pretentious, but in this case... it just doesn't, at least not to me. Maybe it's because the movie is extremely methodical in its delivery. Or maybe it's just edited in such a way you can't help but be drawn in - I'm honestly not sure why this works as well as it does.

Regardless, it's a hell of a film. Just a hell of an achievement.

1. West Side Story (2021)

It's a pretty good sign when the biggest issue I can find with your adaptation of one of the most famous musicals in history is there are a couple character decisions that never felt believable in the source material you only mostly managed to smooth over and sell in the context of the movie. Otherwise, this is about as close to flawless as adaptations or remakes get and easily one of the best movie musicals ever made. Visually, it offers a gorgeous world that feels like it's set at the intersection of '60s film and stage. It's an engaging, beautiful accomplishment deserving of the accolades it's received.

I honestly don't know what else to say - this was a fantastically well-made movie. It's one of Spielberg's best films, which is saying quite a bit.

Movie Review: The Adam Project

The Adam Project blends goofy sci-fi action with a serious exploration of grief and trauma, and it probably should have just stuck with the goofy stuff. That's not to say the drama is particularly bad, but even at its best it's sort of a buzzkill. The comedy mostly works, the action is pretty good, the genre stuff is solid... the serious stuff is a bit boring. Not excruciatingly so, but it just doesn't connect enough to compensate for taking time and attention away from the fun, adventurous stuff going on.

And I think it needs stressing: the fun stuff is actually quite a lot of fun. It's not particularly original or abnormally well done, but for a B-grade PG-13 kid's flick, it's significantly better than it has to be. The Adam Project has a by-the-numbers feel, but that doesn't stop the stuff that works from being fun, even when you can see and hear the "influences."

And let's be clear: the influences are readily apparent. Even if you overlook the fact that 80% of its adult leads are Marvel alums, The Adam Project clearly yearns to be an MCU movie in general and a James Gunn movie in particular (if you wrote a computer algorithm to mimic Gunn's needle drops, I'm pretty sure it would have made the same choices). Throw in a touch of Star Wars (and maybe a little of the 2009 Trek reboot), and you've got a good idea for the style and tone. Honestly, the most baffling part of this production is that it was picked up by Netflix instead of Disney+.

As a movie, this feels hollow but still mostly good. This is disposable, derivative entertainment, but as long as you come to terms with those limitations there's a lot of fun here. A lot of the credit rests with the editing and effects work, which manages to consistently be good enough to maintain the energy. I also think the cast and director deserve credit. The characters aren't particularly complex or interesting, but they're entertaining and cool. Imagine a slick comic book, and you'll have a good idea of what to expect from the bulk of the film.

While I keep bringing up Marvel, I'll say the movie this most remined me of was actually Zathura (though there's a pretty big Marvel connection there via that movie's director). In addition to some shared ideas, it went for a similar tone and mostly succeeded. That said, I don't think this is nearly as good, largely because Zathura managed to integrate its emotional journey better with the genre stuff.

I should also add something about The Adam Project's overuse of references. Oh, yes, this movie is self-aware, and it wants you to know it. This was also an issue in the last movie Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds collaborated on, Free Guy, but I found it far more grating here (side note: if you haven't given Free Guy a chance yet, it's kind of great - by far the better of the two). I'm not sure how what to make of Levy signing on to direct Deadpool 3. Obviously, those meta-references are going to be far more appropriate, and it's certainly stylistically the kind of thing he's interested in. But while Deadpool 3 is a good fit for Levy, I'm not convinced he's a good fit for it: he's not an especially interesting director, and even at his best he feels like he's mimicking other filmmakers. But, hey, Free Guy was really good, so here's hoping. Deadpool 2 felt kind of generic and lacking in directorial voice, too, so there's a good chance this will at least be a lateral move.

Since I'm me, I'm going to say a little about the genre elements, particularly the time-travel stuff. The Adam Project does a good job establishing its rules quickly and effectively. That said, the third act gets a little sloppy around execution. I'm not sure I consider this a flaw, though. My guess is there were earlier drafts of the script that checked all the boxes and remained faithful to the rules and logic of the story. I'm also guessing the pacing was significantly worse in those drafts. I'm trying to avoid spoilers here, but they actually had the tools necessary to "resolve" the movie according to the established rules with an extra five or ten minutes of explanation and problem solving... all of which would have broken the pacing that was already strained around the dramatic resolution. Skipping ahead via generic movie magic was probably the lesser of two evils.

At the end of the day, The Adam Project is a mediocre film but a pretty good time. There's a lot to nitpick here (as I just illustrated), but let's put things in perspective: the fact this was basically okay instead of godawful feels miraculous when compared against the sort of things coming out before the MCU raised the bar. Look, I grew up in the '90s, and I can think of maybe two or three PG/PG-13 genre movies from that entire decade that can match this. The Adam Project isn't great cinema by a longshot, but for a direct-to-streaming kid's time-travel flick, it's plenty good enough.

Movie Review: Turning Red

Turning Red is great. It's gorgeously animated, extremely funny, and emotionally effective. It's Pixar quality without being overly beholden to the studio's usual formula. It's a wonderful movie, and you should go watch it immediately.

Also, it's weird as hell in ways I honestly wasn't expecting. I want to be clear, this isn't a complaint. If anything, I was impressed with the movie's willingness to deviate from the norm, though there were occasionally choices I found slightly distracting. For instance, the film is quite explicitly set in 2002. The movie goes out of its way to establish and remind us of this several times. But with the possible exception of a Tamagotchi, nothing unique to that era felt particularly relevant to the story or setting (the Tamagotchi served a fairly large role, but it would have been easy to replace it with something else). I can't find an obvious reason for setting the movie in this particular era, though I can't think of any reason to prioritize using a less specific time.

Again, that's not a complaint. While I found the decision slightly distracting, it was a small price to pay for the experience of seeing something that looked and felt different than anything I've seen from Pixar to date. And make no mistake: this is absolutely something new.

I'm not talking about the lead character or themes, either - I'm talking style. The movie is set in Toronto, but it's a version of Toronto bathed in pastels. I understand aspects of the look were inspired by anime, but the effect doesn't match anything I can think of. It feels almost like a three-dimensional watercolor painting, or maybe a kid's picture book. I'm not sure why they chose to match this style with this story, but it absolutely works. On paper, I almost think it shouldn't: this is a coming of age story - I'd expect something more realistic would be a more obvious choice. But while I'd be pressed to explain the rational behind this style, the effect is nothing short of inspired. I was pulled in by the visuals immediately.

It's a good thing, too, because while the style won me over at once, the comedy did not. The humor in the first act felt a bit too over-the-top for the otherwise grounded opening. Until the movie introduced its magical elements, I was ready to dismiss it as a beautifully animated movie that didn't quite work tonally.

I should have had more faith. As soon as the second act started, all the setup started paying off. The jokes landed, the characters developed depth, and I was invested. From that point on, everything worked for me. And, hell, I'm not even a furry.

Oh, yeah. Did I mention this movie is kind of about furries? I don't mean that in the conventional sense, where you could argue anything about were-creatures or animal transformation might be of interest to furries. I mean, the look of the main character's transformation absolutely appears to be a direct reference to that subculture.

Again, a weird choice for a kid's movie, but it absolutely works in context. That sentence is basically the movie in a nutshell: this is the sort of movie Pixar doesn't made. It's in a different style, from a different point of view, and is set in the last place and time you'd expect from this studio. Domee Shi is far from the directorial voice the studio is known for. Thank God they they could see the value of that voice, because Turning Red is fantastic.

I really hope this represents the philosophy we'll see driving the next era of Pixar. As much as I've loved the studio in the past, they too often lean on structures, tones, and styles they've used before. Turning Red delivers all the quality Pixar is known for, but it does so in its own way, from a fresh perspective. I loved it.

Catch-Up, Part 7: Assorted Genre

Oh, right. I'm actually supposed to be posting these. Some of these writeups are more than a year old. I was collecting them for when I had enough to post. Then I had enough and just forgot.

Oops. Guess you get a long list this time.

As a reminder, these are recent-ish movies I didn't bother giving full reviews, usually because they weren't recent enough to justify one. In a few cases, I just didn't have enough to say to warrant a full length review, but still wanted to collect my thoughts. The theme this time is assorted genre, which is a nice way of saying I had a bunch of unrelated stuff I wanted to post about.

November (2017)

This is almost certainly the most obscure entry in this list, at least as far as American audiences are concerned. It's also the weirdest, an Estonian horror/fairytale film about a medieval village contending with dark forces, magic, the plague, and more.

I wanted to see it in part because of it's extremely loose connections to Christmas movies, though I was never under any illusions I'd be able to justify writing it up for Mainlining Christmas. Still, the winter folklore elements intrigued me, so I wanted to give it a watch anyway. And it was...

Well, it was extremely bizarre. I know I already said that, but it bears repeating. The movie is sort of a mashup of ideas and characters from European folklore, all jumbled together. I believe the idea was to convey the feeling of life in the middle ages, complete with the superstition, fear, and uncertainty that would have been ever present. To that end, the Devil appears several times as a sort of comical figure (albeit a dangerous one). Likewise, the plague is personified as a character (albeit not always as a literal person). There are also automatons powered by souls, wandering ghosts, and the main character is sometimes a werewolf.

If that sounds like a lot, it is. And the movie doesn't really attempt to make it coalesce into a coherent story. This is more about feel than narrative. The area the movie really shines is in the visuals. It's shot in black and white, though that description doesn't begin to convey just how mesmerizing all of this is, appearing at times more like illustrations.

I wouldn't say I loved this one, but I definitely admire what was accomplished. This is definitely one of those times the things that didn't work for me were clearly intentional, rather than flaws, but the relatively light story and occasionally nonsensical continuity didn't entirely win me over. Regardless, it's a fascinating movie that succeeds in what it sets out to do.

Sonic The Hedgehog (2020)

I feel a little embarrassed admitting this, but I mostly enjoyed this thing. For what it's worth, I think this is as close to a good adaptation as a property like this could reasonably aspire to. I say close, because there are several areas where improvements wouldn't have been hard, starting with the color grading. The world looks drab and grey, which might be fine for a suspense, but... this is a kid's adventure, right? Like, it's supposed to be a cartoon, isn't it?

That and half the dialogue qualify as low hanging fruit: easy issues that could (and should) have been fixed. But the other half of the dialogue is solid. Not great or intelligent or anything, but funny and entertaining. Likewise, the video game superhero stuff is fun. Nothing to write home about, but compared to what I was expecting, it wasn't bad.

More than that, this threads a needle virtually every previous video game adaptation fumbles and successfully delivers something that feels connected to its source material without being abysmal. For context, this is pretty similar to Rampage in terms of quality, but that movie only connects with its source on the flimsiest, most superficial of levels. On the other end of the spectrum, Mortal Kombat does a pretty decent job capturing the flavor of the games, but it fails miserably as anything resembling a movie. Sonic walks that line pretty well, all things considered.

Is it good? God, no. But it's okay. Disposable. Kind of fun. Think the better late '90s/early '00s CG/live-action hybrids. That's a far cry from a ringing endorsement, but in the scheme of things... I didn't dislike it, so take from that what you will.

Save Yourselves (2020)

For the most part, this movie was a lot of fun. The two leads play off each other brilliantly, and the central conceit of the movie - a hipster couple trying to survive an alien invasion they spend the first third of the movie failing to notice - is hilarious.

Where the movie stumbles a bit, at least for me, is in the finale. I didn't hate the ending, but it also feels too on-the-nose, like they're trying to transform the central comedic gimmick into a theme. 

But the rest of the movie was funny enough I'm inclined to give it a pass. This makes fantastic use of its limited budget, to a degree I almost wish they'd had less money for effects. It already evokes old British TV sci-fi, and I honestly think a version literally made with those limitations would be even more effective.

Still, a nice gem of a movie worth checking out.

Tenet (2020)

This is closer to a magic trick or a complex math problem than a movie, but I actually like magic tricks and math, so... yeah, I dug this. It's a shame the characters were paper thin and boring, and obviously it would be great if someone could talk with Nolan about the whole "being able to understand the dialogue" thing, but the central gimmick was honestly a blast to watch.

The Invisible Man (2020)

I feel like this one's been covered, and there's not much more to say than, "Yeah, it was pretty great."

It lost a little steam at the end - I'm rarely a fan of "double-twist" endings (i.e.: endings where there's a last minute wrinkle that seemingly subverts where you thought the story was heading, but then it's revealed that wrinkle was a fake-out, and the original thing turns out to be true) - and... yeah, this does that. It kind of works with the theme, so it's not entirely superfluous, but it's pretty easy to imagine a version of this movie that's fifteen minutes shorter and delivers the same punch. To put it another way, this didn't need a fourth act.

But that's a minor quibble. While the ending could have been more succinct, it was still satisfying. And the movie as a whole was well constructed and executed. Also, well acted: Elizabeth Moss is amazing.

The real selling point here, though, is the conceit. This updates the "invisible man" premise in a way that's compelling, disturbing, and psychologically believable. It's science fiction done right.

The Dead Don't Die (2019)

The Dead Don't Die is kind of a blend between independent film and schlocky B movie. Think an updated, self-aware take on Plan 9 from Outer Space.

It's self-referential to a degree that's jarring, but that's intentional. The movie wants to poke its audience and watch us squirm. It's quite a bit gorier than the average comedy/horror hybrid, particularly given how heavily it leans towards comedy, but - again - it wants you to squirm. It wants to play with your expectations, your confusion, and - at times - your frustration.

I didn't like this anywhere near as much as Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai or Only Lovers Left Alive, but I still liked this quite a bit. But then I like slow-burning comedies where the goal is less to make you laugh than to build a complex, multi-layered joke over the course of a movie. That's not to say there aren't conventional jokes in the movie, but this is one of those movies that's mostly a comedy by virtue of being a joke itself.

For the record, that's just one of at least dozen ways it's "meta."

This definitely isn't for everyone. Hell, I don't even think it's for every fan of Jim Jarmusch. But I appreciated it.

New Mutants (2020)

This is one of those times I need to separate a comic book adaptation into its quality as a movie and its quality as a superhero movie, because the schism is even more pronounced with New Mutants than usual. As a film, this fails miserably: the dialogue is clunky, the tone is uneven, the characters are underdeveloped... I could go on, but you get the gist. This isn't a good movie.

And yet... I'd rank it above at least half the movies in the Fox X-Men franchise, including several that are significantly better by any rational set of metrics. Because while New Mutants is bad, it's also kind of a blast. And it's a blast in the way comics are a blast: it leans into the weird, unexplained, non-reductive logic of its source material and just... puts that on screen.

When X-Men was originally adapted more than two decades ago, a decision was made to streamline decades of continuity crossing numerous genres into what was seen as the core of the franchise. In other words, they started with the premise that the X-Men were sci-fi characters in a relatively grounded sci-fi world. Anything that didn't conform to that was dropped.

I understand why they made that call, and it's hard to fault the logic, but... Well, as someone who likes comics, I've always missed all the weird stuff. Superhero stories can be told as science-fiction, but really they're significantly larger and stranger. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the source material knows some mutants have powers that make them adept at using magic.

New Mutants, for all its flaws, embraces that: there's inexplicable, weird magic in the movie. Sure, it ostensibly ties back to mutation, but it's still explicitly magic. And I'm not even talking about the giant demonic bear. The genre content of this movie is, well, bonkers in the best possible way. On top of that, it looks pretty great, too. When this movie cuts loose, it's a metric ton of fun.

Does that excuse the rest for being a dull, by-the-numbers YA adventure flick? Not really. But honestly I'd gladly sit through a bunch of scenes of teenagers regurgitating cliched dialogue in exchange for a third act full of comic book mayhem than endure yet another "pretty good" X-Men movie too timid to actually put the fun stuff onscreen.

One last thing, with the caveat I'm about spoil the one thing in this movie that probably shouldn't be spoiled: how the hell did the first mainstream Marvel/DC superhero movie built around a same-sex romance come out without making a splash? I mean, I know we all had a lot on our minds that year, and New Mutants was hardly critically acclaimed, but fans have been demanding better representation in these for decades and this... actually delivers.

I kind of think Fox dropped the ball by withholding this for so long. If this had been released a few years earlier (i.e.: back when it was originally supposed to come out), I think it would have been huge. Sure, critics would still have shredded it, but between the queer romance and the comic book logic, this would have had a real shot at building a fanbase. 

Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)

So... did dubbing win the war when I wasn't paying attention? I ask because I've been running into foreign animated movies streaming where there was no longer an option to see them subtitled.

My issue with dubbing is largely that I'm often left wondering if I actually saw the right movie. Was the replacement dialogue an accurate translation or were excessive liberties taken to line up speech to mouth movements?

In the case of Mary and the Witch's Flower, it might make a difference. The animation was gorgeous, but the story was, well, incoherent. Since I only watched the dub, I don't know for certain whether character arcs were sacrificed to avoid moments of awkward translation. Then again, the reviews seem to agree there wasn't much substance here, and I'm assuming at least a few of them got to see alternate versions.

As presented, this was fine as a facsimile of Miyazaki. But there are plenty of better options out there. I can't imagine recommending anyone seek this out when there are countless better alternatives.

Game Night (2018)

I've been hearing good things about this comedy for years now, but I never found a chance to see it. I finally got around to it, and...

Yeah, pretty much what I expected. That's not a bad thing - again, I expected it to be good, and it was. I was really impressed with the digital miniature effect they pulled off in establishing shots. Plus, Rachel McAdams was hilarious in this. All in all, it made for a fun movie.

Not sure it'll be all that memorable, though. To be fair, comedies rarely are, which is why I usually don't prioritize seeing them (which in turn is why it took two years to get to this).

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
At this point, the Fast & Furious series has devolved into the equivalent of a cartoon, culminating in what may be the dumbest installment yet. And I'd like five or six more just like this, if that's not too much trouble.

No, seriously, I loved this. It's basically the GI Joe movie we wanted instead of the ones we got (side note: I haven't seen Snake Eyes yet, so don't read this as an indictment of that). The villains are COBRA or AIM or some other ridiculously evil group bent on world domination. The movie recycles the premise of the worst Mission Impossible movie, but makes it work.

I don't care that Hobbs is a watered-down version of the guy we met four or five movies ago. I don't care that there's literally no way to reconcile Shaw's turn from ruthless killer in Furious 7 to the well-meaning renegade in this movie. I don't care that the premise, setting, and physics of this franchise have been retconned to a point nothing makes a damn bit of sense when compared with earlier installments.

Hobbs & Shaw is juvenile, absurd nonsense in the vein of every '80s cartoon I watched growing up. More please.

F9: The Fast Saga (2021)

Basically, everything I thought about Hobbs and Shaw applies here, as well. These movies are GI Joe at this point, complete with absurd super-science vehicles and comic relief. I realize a lot of people consider that a bad thing, but - honestly - I just think they're fun as hell. The jokes are funny, the over-the-top action is funny, and the drama is really funny.

Is this the best in the series? No, probably not. Though, to be honest, I'm at a point where I'm finding it harder and harder to separate which installment had which plot and introduced and/or redeemed which villain. Also, I don't think I care - these things are popcorn. But they're really good popcorn, and my only regret is there's supposedly an end coming. I'd prefer these just went on forever.

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Dark Fate is tough to bucket. It's not exactly good as a whole, but most of its component pieces are excellent. The premise is comprised of layers of inspiration, but the script is, well... bad. The pacing is a mess, and some of the dialogue (particularly when the movie is trying to be serious) is hard to sit through.

But having acknowledged those flaws, Dark Fate dumps a metric ton of moments, characters, scenes, and ideas, each "worth the price of admission." The action is great, thanks to some inventive redesigns. Mackenzie Davis's Grace is a fantastic addition to the franchise mythology, Sarah Connor is somehow even cooler than she was in T2, and "Carl" is one of the best twists we've gotten in years. Likewise, the politics driving the story are fantastically thought-out, and there's some fascinating depth behind the archetypes of the film's three leads.

The skeletal structure underneath Dark Fate is damn near perfect; it's just the overlying skin that's weak. Moments that shouldn't be spelled out are made a bit too explicit (Carl's last line is an obvious example), and the constant barrage of action gets a tad monotone. I'm convinced with a little work on the script this could have rivaled the first two installments of the series. As is, it's still a damn enjoyable experience.

Creed II (2018)
There was really no chance this was going to be as good as its predecessor, but that's so high a bar I feel bad just bringing it up. Creed is easily one of the best sports movies ever made, a successor to Rocky as good or better than the original.

And Creed II is... well, it's pretty good. It's a solid movie, but it doesn't manage to deliver the gravitas that came naturally with the last installment. Something feels off with almost every character arc: the ideas are there, but I kept feeling like the movie was pulling its punches.

Side note: I feel bad about that pun, but I'm leaving it in, mostly to punish myself for writing it. Come on, Erin - you're supposed to be better than that.

At any rate, I found this enjoyable but ultimately unfulfilling. To its credit, this felt like an extension of Creed, which is no small accomplishment. I'm not sure there was any chance this wouldn't be a little disappointing following in that film's shadow.

Still, the big fight resolved perfectly, so they stuck that landing.

That's right. Stuck the landing. Because one boxing pun was already pushing it.

Palm Springs (2020)
I went into this with high expectations, largely due to the stellar Rotten Tomatoes score. Maybe I'd have been off not knowing more than 90% of critics gave it a pass, because I found the experience something of a mixed bag.

For what it's worth, I thought there was more good than bad. I like the spin on a time loop, both in how it worked with theme and its SF connections. I read a few books on the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics back in college, and it was refreshing to see those ideas integrated into the metaphysics of the story. If what I just wrote is meaningless, don't worry - you can choose to watch this as a typical time loop story in the vein of Groundhog Day. But if you know what to look for, this actually plays with theories of the multiverse where time doesn't exist independently from alternate dimensions. It's all background, but it's definitely there. I was impressed to see that level of depth.

I was happy with the nerd-stuff, so you can probably guess my problem was with the narrative. To be fair, it was only with half the narrative, specifically Andy Samberg's character's arc. He plays Nyles, a character I was initially excited by. There was a great premise behind him, but I didn't feel like it paid off the way Cristin Milioti's Sarah's story did. Her arc felt complete and compelling, and I loved the twists and turns her story took.

But Samberg's didn't work for me. I honestly felt like it was missing an entire act where he should have grown and changed as a person instead of just... suddenly just realizing everything he needed to develop. The ending felt hollow to me, and that's a shame. If they pulled off the conclusion, this absolutely would have landed on my shortlist of great low-budget SF movies.

It's still good, thanks to the premise, concept, and cast. But I wanted it to be great, and it just missed the mark.

Bill and Ted Face the Music (2020)

This certainly wasn't what I expected.

I'll admit it's been a while since I saw the first two installments in this series, but this felt different than I remember. Not necessarily worse, mind you: just different. More than that, it felt different in the opposite way these things usually feel different. When a franchise vanishes for two or three decades than reemerges with a sequel, there's sort of an unspoken rule the new installment is going to be darker than the originals.

This was basically a kid's movie.

Which... okay, I guess you could make a case the first two were, as well, but assuming I'm remembering right (again, it's been a while), they kind of skirted the line between kid's humor and teen comedy. Maybe that's splitting hairs, but I expected something a touch more grownup, particularly given the themes of Face the Music.

Is any of that an issue? Not really. There's nothing inherently wrong with kid's movies, and this is a solid family-friendly comedy. It's funny, sweet, and entertaining enough. I don't expect it'll be as memorable as the first two, but it's a worthy successor.

My only substantive complaint is I felt like the movie underplayed the significance of its third act twist. Said twist wasn't exactly surprising - I doubt I'm alone in knowing where this was heading from the first trailer - but it was a good direction to take the story. I wanted them to explore the significance around that reveal, but instead they just kind of wrapped everything up.

Still, this was a solid comedy and a good conclusion to the series. Maybe it could have been more, but... well... this is Bill and Ted we're talking about. These movies were good, but they never came close to being great or profound or anything. I can hardly fault the third movie for maintaining that quality.

2021 Retrospective

2021 broke me. I mean, I think this year broke all of us, but I'm not talking existential quandaries, psychological breakdowns, or emotional issues. It probably left a mark in those areas, as well, but for now I'm talking about how I categorize media. In past years, I tried to differentiate between TV movies and "real" movies. This of course has become more and more difficult over time, as movies intended for theaters have been redirected to streaming and movies made for streaming have gotten bigger. I sort of went by instinct for the last few years, and I probably could have again this time, but...

Ultimately, I decided I didn't care enough about being fair. So this time, the list includes everything - every single movie I saw in 2021 that was released domestically this year. All of them.

Yes, that includes all the crappy Christmas movies I sat through for Mainlining Christmas.

As always, these are ranked from my least to most favorite, which won't always perfectly match my opinion as to which are better or worse. I know we're talking gradations of subjectivity, but I do genuinely believe there's a difference.

There are a lot of movies I didn't get to, either, particularly recent theatrical releases. I want to see Eternals and Far From Home, but between having a young kid and there being - you know - a goddamn pandemic, it's just not worth it. Everything below was streamed or watched on Blu-ray. There are a few places it probably made a difference, but who knows?

Before I get started with the list, there's one "movie" I need to revisit that - try as I might - I just can't rank. It's simply too unique an artifact, for both better and worse, to compare against anything that came out this year.

NOT RANKED: Zack Snyder's Justice League

I wrestled with whether to include this. It's somewhat unique among modern movies, to the point I hesitate to use the word at all. It almost feels more like a miniseries stitched together, which makes sense, since at one point it was literally going to be released as a miniseries.

There are aspects to this that are absolutely worthy of praise. Some of the effects are jaw-dropping: for all his faults, Zack Snyder knows how to deliver on spectacle. And some of the character beats are fantastic. But the pacing here was just awful, and the tonal shifts were in some ways worse than the theatrical version.

My main takeaway was that we got two versions of Justice League, and both were completely wrong. The 2017 movie was a studio-mandated mess devoid of vision, while the Snyder Cut was... well, it was entirely the vision of a guy who probably shouldn't have had full control of something like this. He's a good director who needs someone competent holding the reins, but the executives producing Justice League in 2017 were about as far from competent as you can get. 

What Warner Bros should have made in the first place is a version that looked like this but was cut to around 2.5 hours. I still don't think that would have been a great film, but it could have been fun, impressive, and had an impact. Neither version we got really worked, and yet both have merits.

The Snyder Cut is just too self-serious and bloated to be good. At the same time, there are too many great moments and incredible images for it to be bad. I really can't fairly rank this against conventional movies - it's an entirely different creature.

29. Love Hard

Usually, the subjective approach is mainly a factor on the other end of this list, where the top spot is won by something great that appeals to me personally and beats out other great movies. Love Hard, however, exists on the opposite side of the spectrum: it's being punished because I hate it. And while this isn't great or really even all that good (I think "fine" is a fair assessment), my hatred comes from a few directions.

Put simply, this movie succeeds in doing things I hate and fails in areas I love. The former primarily refers to the style of awkward, uncomfortable humor it employs competently. The latter references its subject matter and choice of pop-culture references, none of which it displays a shred of comprehension about.

On top of that, the movie is (with apologies to those of you sick of the word) problematic. It comes disturbingly close to embracing a regressive misogynistic ideology that is all too real. If you can overlook that, you might find this enjoyable - again, it's not badly made. But all that was a deal breaker for me. I couldn't stand this thing.

28. Father Christmas is Back

Almost certainly the worst movie on this list, Father Christmas is Back is saved from the last spot by virtue of being forgettable. This thing just kind of landed with a thud, like a turd hitting a floor, an image I assure you is in this movie. The experience of watching is an empty experience I took virtually nothing away with. But in this case, that also means I didn't finish the movie with any real animosity. If ever there was damning with faint praise, that would be it: I didn't care about this enough to hate it, so it beats out a better movie. Take from that what you will.

27. A Castle for Christmas

Lacking even a basic understanding of cinematic language, A Castle for Christmas makes me reconsider both my ranking and my assertion that Father Christmas is Back is the worst movie on this list. But while Father Christmas was empty, this is a cinematic vacuum sucking in all feeling. It is, I think, less than empty, offering little indication a script was written before, during, or after production. It was a romance that couldn't manage to put its leads on screen together long enough to provide any sort of justification for a relationship, instead filling its runtime with numerous musical montages that did nothing to move the nonexistent story forward.

But, hey, some of the music was all right, and Cary Elwes played one of the leads (they even did his hair up like Westley when they wanted him to come off as likeable). So, I guess that's enough to edge out Father Christmas is Back on this ranking. Close call, though.

26. Home Sweet Home Alone

This was, of course, bad, but so were Home Alones 2 through 5. Hell, the original isn't all that good, either.

This iteration complicates the situation by fixing the underlying problems with the first movie (and all subsequent films), at the expense of everything that made any of them at all appealing to anyone. That sacrifice probably would have bothered me more if I'd actually found any of those appealing.

Even so, the improvements are entirely cerebral - I respect what the script sets out to do on a structural level. Unfortunately, it doesn't manage to be funny or endearing in the process, so I can't say I particularly enjoyed the experience beyond taking a little bit of pleasure out of deconstructing how the franchise was deconstructing itself.

25. Mortal Kombat

I liked this more than a lot of critics - probably more than half, honestly - but the best I can do is "mediocre." To be fair, there's some really good stuff in the movie. Most of that was also in the trailer, but it still counts. In addition, the first half flirts with crossing into "so bad it's good" territory, which isn't a bad goal for this type of movie. But it becomes less fun as it goes, which is unfortunate.

To its credit, it never takes itself too seriously, I like the opening, and a lot of the Sub-Zero sequences are great... but that just isn't enough.

24. Those Who Wish Me Dead

A lot of people have pointed out Those Who Wish Me Dead is basically Cliffhanger in a forest fire, which is accurate but oddly forgets Cliffhanger was Die Hard on a mountain, making this at minimum a second gen knock-off.

Rating the movie's quality is unusually tricky, because the question I keep running into is "compared to what?" It doesn't really hold its own against, well, the two movies I just mentioned, but... is it supposed to? This was clearly made on a lower budget and was aiming for less excitement and more of an emotional connection. And, in that regard, it sort of kind of works. Maybe?

In some ways, it's caught in a catch-22: Jolie is great in the lead role, but her very presence keeps raising expectations for both quality and spectacle. Fair or not, the movie can't keep up with its lead.

That said, there are a handful of impressive choices here. I like that the movie subverts your expectations regarding heroes and action clichés by having Medina Senghore basically come out of left field and turn out to be the actual badass. Sure, Angelina gets her moment, but everyone who underestimated the pregnant lady lived to regret it (albeit briefly).

But despite some decent swerves, the movie still feels a little too much like a generic '90s action/disaster mashup. Yes, it innovates a bit here and there, but the same can be said for basically any movie from that decade it's emulating. And it doesn't help that the effects frankly fall short of most memorable movies from that era.

This is certainly fine if it's what you're in the mood for - it's decent enough for what it is - but that's certainly not a ringing endorsement.

23. Reminiscence

Here's the thing: I'm honestly a sucker for this stuff. I mean, I like science fiction, and I like noir, and when you put them together, I almost always like the result.

And yet... I did not like this movie.

Okay, to be fair, I liked the setting. The post-apocalyptic coastal cities were fascinating; at once eerie and beautiful. I found that aspect compelling.

Unfortunately, the stuff going on in that setting was boring. There were some interesting ideas, but the dialogue was clunky and the voiceover distracting. On top of all that, the editing felt like it was drawing everything out to an agonizing degree. This was hard to sit through. And, again, I generally really like this stuff. Hell, I gave Mute a pass.

22. Flora & Ulysses

I feel like Disney has a long tradition of making movies that feel like they'd be better imagined as pilots to TV shows, and this falls firmly in that camp. The content comprising this was enjoyable - very enjoyable, in fact - but the overall movie lacked substance. I liked the characters and the jokes, but it felt like whatever story or theme drove the book was lost in adaptation. Every scene feels inspired and entertaining, but it didn't really add up to anything meaningful. You can get away with that in a television series, but movies need more payoff than this delivered.

Still, the cast and dialogue alone make this worth seeing. It was fun - shame it wasn't good.

21. Raya and the Last Dragon

There was a period in the late '90s/early '00s when Disney animation seemed intent on constantly sabotaging its own attempts to move in new and interesting directions. Remember Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire? Those were clearly the product of creators eagerly trying to push Disney out of its comfort zone, only to have their efforts watered down by executives demanding anything and everything be crammed into their movies. At least that's my impression based on the finished product - I'm not researching any of this. 

Nor am I interested in researching the behind-the-scenes situation with Raya and the Last Dragon, a similarly beautiful setting and intriguing premise undercut with... well... everything. And I do mean just about everything.

The core is really neat. There's some wonderful fantasy, along with some exhilarating action. But then there's also a bunch of fandom-referencing anachronistic dialogue. And some comic relief. And the dragons are basically designed to look like the main characters of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (also, the story and theme appear to be lifted from an episode of that show, but let's ignore that for now). And then there's a quartet of side characters who are basically imported from Looney Tunes.

None of these ideas are inherently bad. The fandom stuff is jarring, but had it been sustained or gone somewhere, it could have potentially made an interesting statement on our assumptions around fantasy tropes and clichés. But they don't sustain it: most of the dialogue is stylized to mimic standard fantasy conventions, so when they start chatting like teens chatting online, it's just confusing. Likewise, the ridiculous comic relief gang consisting of three magic monkeys and a super-powered baby are actually kind of funny if you look at them in isolation, but in the midst of an already overcrowded movie, they're mostly just confusing.

Like I said before, I haven't taken the time to research whether there's evidence this movie was the result of studio interference, but that's certainly the impression I got watching it. It's a mess of random ideas, conflicting tones, and mismatched styles that has enough genuinely good moments to somewhat redeem itself, but not enough to be more than - or even equal to - the sum of its parts.

20. 8-Bit Christmas

This is one of those movies that manages to be "good enough." It's funny and engaging enough, but it doesn't leave much of an impression. That's not entirely a bad thing - this was made in an attempt to duplicate the inexplicable and unearned success A Christmas Story has enjoyed, so it shouldn't be too surprising it sticks with a similar formula. The goal is to make a movie that's always amusing but never compelling, something you can leave on in the background to entertain the kids.

19. Jungle Cruise

I'm not really sure what to say about Jungle Cruise, a movie that was much better than it probably should have been but still was basically just fine. Conceptually, it was clearly an attempt to mashup The Mummy and the first Pirates of the Caribbean film - rarely have movies been more upfront as to their influences. To a degree, it was successful, or rather successful enough: it manages to repackage more of the magic from those than I'd have expected. But at the same time, there's a sense of artificiality about the whole thing, like it's being assembled competently, but there's barely an ounce of inspiration in the whole ordeal. It's not just that the movie lacks any real originality, but that's certainly a factor.

And yet the characters are fun, the world is interesting, and the adventure distracting enough. The movie never really feels good, but it manages to stay entertaining enough not to outstay its welcome. Hardly high praise, but - again - I'm honestly shocked it didn't turn out significantly worse. "Fine" is probably more than we should have hoped for. 

18. Black Widow

In some ways, Black Widow reminded me of Thor: The Dark World, and I don't entirely mean that in a bad way. A lot of people remember The Dark World as the worst entry in the MCU, and... okay, there's a case to be made. But for all its faults, it's also got a lot of great stuff. Hero Loki basically got his start there, and the third act was delightfully absurd.

Like The Dark World, Black Widow is a tonal mess with an underdeveloped villain, but it also gave us some fantastic new characters, with David Harbour's Red Guardian being the prime example. The opening was a great spy story, and that middle section with the "family" together was an absolute joy.

But for everything it got right, it stumbled in its attempt to maintain a tone or bring its themes together. I had fun - this is still Marvel, after all - but it's one of the series weaker entries.

17. Retfærdighedens Ryttere [Riders of Justice]

More an exercise in existentialism than an action flick, Riders of Justice is thoughtful and surprisingly poignant. It takes an archetype who'd be worshipped in a conventional genre flick and instead makes him genuinely uncomfortable to be around. It's a smart, compelling movie that challenges how we look at action heroes.

That said, the ending feels off to me. Like, really off. It's not exactly that I dislike it, it just that it doesn't quite align with what came before. And I can't help but think that may be because it was a last-minute addition. 

16. My Little Pony: A New Generation

The smartest thing A New Generation does is not compete with Friendship is Magic. Tonally, it settles for "conventional CG animated movie", as opposed to "epic fantasy/comedy/superhero cartoon." While this is - in my opinion, at least - less interesting a target, I don't think there was any chance it could instantly match (or even approach) Friendship is Magic on its own turf.

As a fairly conventional animated movie, this is pretty good. And it retains enough of the whimsy, humor, and fun of its predecessor to be worth watching. On top of all that, the villains are basically Trump supporters, so bonus points for that.

Also, having Ken Jeong reprise his role as Chang (using virtually the same arc as season 3, no less) was a nice surprise. Not bad for a non-Pixar CG movie.

15. In the Heights

I mean, it's great. Quite a bit better than its placement on this list would imply, but even if I were aiming for objectivity rather than personal preference, I'd still be at a loss how to rate something like this. Do you consider the musical on its own merits, or just try and judge how well it was adapted for the screen? Do you penalize your rating for areas the two mediums can't possibly bridge?

I'd be at a disadvantage, anyway, since I never actually saw In the Heights performed. But I can still make out some of the spots where decisions were made to transform the show into a movie. It's always a tough call - which conventions stay, which go, which are treated diegetically, which are imaginary, what should be treated seriously, what's a joke... Err too much towards realism, and you lose the spirit of the material (looking at you, Sweeney Todd); too far the other way, and you're left with something that feels cartoonish (I don't hate Disney's Into the Woods, but I think it falls into this trap).

In the Heights walks that tightrope, and it makes it look easy. It delivers a world that feels larger than life but still somehow grounded and believable. It's not my favorite movie musical by a longshot, but honestly I think it's one of the best, particularly as an example for how you actually make these work.

That said, I think there's a limit to what it can do with the material. That's not a slight against the material, mind you - I think this material is great as a stage musical. But stage musicals don't need a strong, central protagonist, while movies do. There's a bit of awkwardness around the show's desire to be about a community and the movie's desire to be about a character. I don't think they made a mistake here - more that they got caught in a catch-22 that came with adapting the play.

Regardless, the movie's great. Amazing cast, amazing design, amazing direction from [checks notes] the guy who made GI Joe: Retaliation (Jon M. Chu honestly has had one of the weirdest career paths in Hollywood). This one really, really works.

14. A Boy Called Christmas

Despite numerous flaws, this won me over with a core that was impressively sweet and honest. On top of that, this featured some genuinely beautiful images and effects (the shadow story in particular stuck with me). I really enjoyed this, despite a weak narrative and some major tonal issues.

13. Godzilla vs. Kong

Compared to most showdowns of this kind, Godzilla vs. Kong is fairly streamlined. It's less interested in why the title monsters are fighting than in the sheer spectacle of the showdown. This is neither a good nor bad strategy on its own: it just means the movie will sink or swim on the quality of that spectacle. And fortunately this one delivers. It looks awesome, so it doesn't really matter that Godzilla blasting a hole to the center of the Earth makes, for countless reasons, absolutely no goddamn sense. Nor does it matter that the villains are able to upload an energy signature that instantly grants them unlimited power.

You can nitpick this to your heart's content, but it won't change the fact the experience of watching this was a ton of fun.

12. Encanto

There's a lot to love here, but I really want to highlight just how not Disney this Disney animated flick is. First, it's a fantasy where the stakes are essentially limited to one family. Not even their lives: this is really about whether or not they lose their home. I mean, really the stakes have more to do with their emotional health and relationships, but still: no kingdoms hinged on the outcome, the fate of the world isn't being decided, the balance of nature isn't at risk... just a family drama. How refreshing.

Likewise, I think this was the first Disney animated movie with a female protagonist in decades which wasn't about the fact it wasn't about her being a princess who falls in love. This wasn't following the Disney formula, but it wasn't subverting it, either. It was its own thing. What an incredible concept.

And its own thing was pretty damn good. It's sweet, with a great soundtrack and lovely animation. So. Why isn't this higher?

Well, first of all, this is pretty high on the list as it is. But what I feel is missing is a bit more surprise. The movie establishes its premise pretty fast, and the rest of the film plays out more or less as expected. The themes, in particular, are pretty clear in the first fifteen minutes, and the movie doesn't throw many curveballs at us.

Still, a really good movie, just not as memorable as I'd have liked.

11. Luca

Luca is lovely, both visually and as a story. It isn't a grand epic or even a small story told with the weight of a grand epic (Pixar loves those). Instead, it's a simple coming of age story with hints of romance. It's funny, sweet, and effective. I liked this one a lot. 

10. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

The family drama stuff was fine but kind of by-the-numbers. The epic fantasy sequences are solid - I enjoyed them quite a bit, largely thanks to how weird they were allowed to get - but they always felt a bit CG heavy. The action in general was really good.

In short, no major complaints, but nothing to justify placing this anywhere near this high on  the list. Until, that is...

It's the stuff with Shang-Chi and Katy. Particularly them at the end. It was just an absolute joy seeing how little becoming superheroes really changes them. Give me a damn Disney+ show that's just Simu Liu and Awkwafina hanging out at karaoke bars when they should be preparing for battles where the fate of the multiverse hangs in the balance. I'd watch the hell out of that.

9. The Green Knight

There's a lot that I could say about The Green Knight (hell, there's a lot I've already said), but the truth is it's less the thematic complexity than the visual style that appeals to me most. This movie is just gorgeous to look at.

And on top of that, yeah, it's Arthurian. God I love those legends. And despite countless tries, it's been four decades since the last good adaptation came out. Bonus points there, as well.

The reason it's not higher is mainly because I find aspects frustrating. To be fair, I'm pretty certain those aspects are intended to be frustrating. I get the ending, appreciate why it's clever, and I respect the choice. It works for me intellectually but not emotionally, if that makes sense.

Well, honestly, it still works for me emotionally, just not enough to bump it into the top tier. I have a feeling I might find myself regretting that in the future. This feels like one of those movies I might wind up revisiting a lot, particularly because it's a Christmas story.

8. The Matrix Resurrections

Easily my favorite installment in the franchise, Resurrections approaches its subject and world with a playful sense of glee missing from the originals. It's weird, funny, and experimental in ways you'd never expect from a film of this scale. It's not at all unusual for nostalgic reboots to be about the relationship between the originals and the fans (the Disney Star Wars, for example, goes this route), but I don't think I've ever seen a movie be this honest about where it comes from and where it wants to go.

More than that, this movie is wish fulfillment. It's the cinematic equivalent of its creator playing with her toys and daring audiences to whine about it. I know that's upsetting some people, but I found the experience refreshing and genuinely joyful.

7. Cruella

Yeah. I think it is this high.

Some of this might be expectations - I really didn't expect much out of this - and some it is that this particular blend of stylized, self-aware quirky character study just works for me. The movie definitely has problems, starting with the much-maligned death of Cruella's mother and continuing through to the unwelcome post-credit sequence.

But for all its faults, this was also an unapologetic supervillain period story. In short, this is a Disnified spin on Joker, which it turns out would have been a lot better that way. What Cruella understands that Joker doesn't is that supervillains should be, well, fun. And this is ridiculously fun. A lot of the credit goes to Stone, who sells the lead and carries the movie. But it's also worth noting the dialogue is actually solid for its genre.

The real surprise, though, is that the movie isn't interested in moralizing. Sure, it's got lines it won't cross, but despite ostensibly being a kid's movie, it never tries to tell the audience it's wrong to steal or seek revenge or torment one's enemies. Cruella is a criminal, and the movie celebrates that, freeing the movie up to have fun with her schemes. I could have done without the obligatory "learn the true meaning of family and friendship" stuff, but why quibble?

This is easily my second favorite Disney live-action remake after Jungle Book. I'm glad I gave it a chance.

6. The Mitchells Vs. The Machines

I'd say this one caught me off guard, but the truth is by the time I got around to watching it, I'd heard it was pretty damn awesome. Fortunately, knowing it was going to be great spoiled absolutely nothing, and I still had a blast. The jokes were hilarious, the drama was touching, and the animation was delightfully bonkers. This was great.

In fact, it was so great, it almost made a run for the top of my list. What holds it back a bit are a few sequences (mainly action beats) where the movie went for slapstick when I wanted something else. This is, of course, a minor quibble, and a subjective one at that. But as I keep pointing out, this is a subjective list.

Overall, I loved this movie. The characters were completely ridiculous and utterly absurd, and I still cared about them and - in a weird way - they felt real to me. That's a hell of an accomplishment.

5. The Suicide Squad

This was a weird, convoluted movie. Structurally, it was far more similar to the first Suicide Squad movie than I was expecting, between the flashbacks, cutaways, and use of music. Obviously, though, it was far superior. The humor, emotion, and thematic core were among the best we've seen in the genre.

I rewatched this several times, and the characters keep growing on me. The movie is a lot of fun, and also surprisingly thoughtful. At times, it can become downright poetic: the flashback with Ratcatcher almost feels like a fairytale.

I really like this one.

4. Hilda and the Mountain King

Okay, this one is cheating. I don't mean I'm cheating by putting it here - I mean the movie is cheating by using unfair tactics to climb its way this high, despite being significantly less expensive. Hilda and the Mountain King is a Netflix movie that concludes a storyline running through the animated series, Hilda. The movie is done in the same animation style with the same voice cast.

Which... okay, first of all, none of that's a bad thing. The animation in the series, while simplistic compared to big budget movies, is gorgeous and evocative. The cast is great, and the writing is on par with the best in the medium. The show is just amazing.

The "cheating" part comes from the fact the movie requires the series to work. It's a direct continuation to a cliffhanger at the end of season 2, and the character arcs all build on established storylines. This isn't a standalone movie in any sense - it's the next chapter. Possibly the final chapter: I'm a little unclear on whether they're making more or not.

Basically, this movie is standing on the shoulders of the series, and I'm effectively reacting to it as if it's all one emotional journey. Is that fair? Who gives a crap? Hilda is amazing, and this movie is a satisfying finale. Go watch it all immediately. 

3. The Harder They Fall

This is probably the closest thing to a flawless film I saw this year. Every element, every choice, every shot, and every edit just felt perfect, resulting in one of the most fun pieces of entertainment I've encountered in a long time.

The only reason this isn't higher is that - by necessity - the movie's intellectual themes and emotional themes don't entirely work together. As I said in my review, I don't consider this a flaw: on the contrary, it's a major part of the reason I think this movie is brilliant. But it does hold back my enjoyment a hair. If this were a less impressive year, I don't think that would be enough, but honestly 2021 was about as close to a 4 or 5 way tie as this gets.

2. Dune, Part 1

Should this be a spot higher? Maybe. It was so close. I loved every minute of this movie. It was one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, and I don't doubt for a second it would be my #1 pick for the year if I'd seen it in an IMAX theater, as it was intended.

But I didn't see it that way, and - honestly - I kind of resent the implication that I should have to. Even without the pandemic, I'm busy. I've got a young kid, and free time is a rare luxury. I'd have loved to see this on a big screen, but it wasn't going to happen this year.

If I was rating this on a best to worst scale... honestly, I think that would have been harder, because I'd have to consider whether cutting a narrative in half at a fairly arbitrary point is an objective flaw. I didn't mind that - I just wanted so see some sandworms and space ships in a movie where the dialogue and direction didn't distract from the beauty. And damn did this overdeliver on that promise. It was just a joy to watch.

But was it my favorite movie of the year? Not quite. It might have been my favorite cinematic experience, but it's not the one I look back on with the widest grin. Close call, though. Really damn close. 

1. Shadow in the Cloud

This movie shouldn't work.

It doesn't have the budget to pull of its effects, the premise is significantly more complex than it has to be, there are multiple major tonal shifts... I have no idea how this got made.

But I'm so glad it did. The sheer audacity of Roseanne Liang's directing, coupled with some phenomenal acting from Chloë Grace Moretz, just sell the hell out of its outlandish, gonzo ideas and set-pieces. The movie's main action sequence looks completely unrealistic - they clearly didn't have the money to match their ambitions - and I almost think that helps it. Modern big-budget productions would have relied on visual effects instead of acting and editing. Because this couldn't trust its effects to wow audiences, it had to find other solutions. Or maybe Liang and Moretz are just that good.

Shadow in the Cloud isn't afraid to be weird. It's audacious and bizarre on a level you don't see often enough. I've seen the whole thing at least four times already, and I've lost track of the number of times I've rewatched the last act. It's a movie with something to say - something important to say, no less - but honestly what keeps pulling me back is how much fun the ending is. The energy is just off the charts, and I find the resolution about as satisfying as any I've ever encountered in this genre. I know a lot of more hardcore horror fans disagree, but I just love it.

Conclusion

I honestly think this was a pretty good year for movies and TV shows. Also, literally nothing else. Entertainment was good, the world has just been abysmal. Between the seemingly endless line of nightmare variants consistently popping up the minute it feels like things might be improving, the barrage of environmental disasters, and the ongoing concern for the stability of US democracy, things kind of suck.

But, hey, WandaVision was pretty rad, and I really liked a bunch of those movies. So... I guess we should take the rare win where we can get it. Here's hoping we continue seeing good movies in 2022.

Also, let's hope some of that other shit gets better, because I am really, really tired.

Movie Review: The Matrix Resurrections

In March of 1999, I was just wrapping up my first year at college. I went to a school that didn't have majors, but for all intents and purposes I was studying philosophy. I was also a huge fan of genre, including science-fiction. With all that background, you'd probably assume I loved The Matrix. Well... no, not really.

I saw it at a packed midnight showing, and when the movie ended, I remember thinking, "That's it?" I'd thought the action was good (though it didn't leave me in awe, the way it did so many in my generation). And I thought the characters were fine and all, but the underlying ideas kind of struck me as simplistic. Fair or not, the basic story boils down to a rehash of Plato's Cave Allegory, an idea that struck me as an interesting place to start, but a bit cliché for a central twist.

Basically, The Matrix wasn't weird or imaginative enough for me. It was a solid adventure flick, but - at least as far as my brain could discern - not much more. I honestly couldn't understand at the time why it was considered as groundbreaking as it was.

I'll admit I was a bit snobbish. And if I could go back in time and inform myself that the philosophy 101 stuff wasn't everything going on, I'd do so.

The point is, I never really loved The Matrix, and I thought less of the sequels. The second and third movies actually checked off the boxes I wanted in terms of philosophical depth and a more developed world, but the pacing just didn't work for me. My opinion of those was always that they were really good as a philosophy dissertation and really bad as movies.

In short, I never loved any movie in this series.

Until now.

Resurrections, the fourth installment in the series, is a delight. I know it's divisive as hell, and it's easy to see why (more on that in a moment), but it finally gives me what I've always wanted out of the series: real, honest-to-god weirdness delivered in an intelligent manner.

I feel like I should drop a spoiler warning here. I'm not exactly going to go into the plot of this thing, but I think any discussion about the experience of seeing Resurrections is going to require some details and aspects that aren't apparent from the marketing. There's a real chance you'll be better off learning about these things before watching, though I'm really glad I went in blind.

Last chance if anyone wants to jump ship, pay for a month of HBO Max, and watch it now.

All right then. Let's discuss this batshit crazy ode to joy and love. Because, first and foremost, that's what it is. The original was a sort of dark, modern folktale that ended on an ambiguously hopeful note. The sequels went even darker, trying to show that sacrifice was necessary to enact change. This one...

It's a fairytale. When I say that word, I don't mean it in a dark sense, either. This is literally, unapologetically, completely a fairytale set in the world of the Matrix. It's closer to Jupiter Ascending than to the other Matrix films.

It looks back on the original films honestly, celebrating what made them meaningful to many, while at the same time critiquing elements that inadvertently empowered hate groups. It also rejects the cynicism that lay at the heart of the originals, choosing instead to embrace hope, love, and forgiveness.

To appreciate the degree to which Lana Wachowski has transformed the franchise, I think it helps to look at the number of named characters killed over the course of the movie. I don't mean characters who died between Revolutions and Resurrections (of which there are several) but the number who actually die in this installment.

The number is zero. No one dies. Not one major character - or minor one, for that matter - is killed (unless I'm forgetting something). Some almost die, but the importance of protecting each other is given a higher priority this time around. Meanwhile, vengeance isn't. This is a rejection of grim, bleak storytelling.

This movie has a sense of humor and a love for the bizarre. The fourth wall becomes a running joke, and the movie delights in playing with the audience's relationship and understanding of the franchise. I'm sure some viewers will interpret all this as a joke at the expense of the franchise. And, to be fair, it kind of is - the movie doesn't take itself all that seriously. This is, at its core, a self-referential film exploring the very nature of returning to a franchise decades later. It essentially shrugs off concerns of fan service by refusing to be anything but. Only in this case, the fan being catered to is the co-creator of the franchise.

This is the story Lana wants to tell for the sheer joy of telling it. These are her toys, and she's going to play with them the way she wants to. And it's a genuine pleasure to watch her having so much fun.

The movie is far from perfect, of course. The second act drags a bit, and there really weren't any action beats delivering iconic, awesome moments like we got in the original (though the movie kind of addresses that by poking fun at the assumption there should be).

But those are minor complaints. I had a lot of fun watching this, and - as long as you set aside any expectation this will or even should try and recreate the feel or flavor of the original - I think you might, as well.

Movie Review: The Harder They Fall

The Harder They Fall is an intellectual film that explores and contextualizes the history of its genre, but it's also just fucking fun as all hell to watch. It's like someone made one of the year's best popcorn flicks and fused it at a molecular level with a graduate-level lecture on film history, somehow without sacrificing one iota of either. And that... it's just... I'm kind of speechless.

Let's start with the brainy stuff. The movie is, obviously, a western. Not a parody of westerns: it's wholly operating within the rules of that genre. I think this is key to understanding The Harder They Fall: it's not breaking or bending those rules but rather exploiting loopholes.

Westerns have always prioritized myth over reality, they've never worried about anachronisms, and they've always been maybe a quarter step away from being musicals. These elements are intrinsic to the genre. The Harder They Fall just tweaks some of the conventions to generate something a little more modern.

I don't mean "modern" in a sense of differentiating this from history - again, westerns aren't set in the actual historical west anymore than Disney fairytales are set in the historical middle ages. When I say this movie modernizes the western, I mean it's what the western would (or at least should) have evolved into if the genre had never gone out of fashion. If they'd remained as popular for the past forty years as they'd been in the previous forty and had been able to continue innovating, I think this is what they'd have grown into as the genre matured. 

All of which is interesting but almost besides the point, because - as I said at the start - this thing is just delightful. It's got the dialogue of a Marvel film (the really good ones, I mean), top-notch action, as much style as anything I've seen this year, a hell of a cast, and a great soundtrack tying it all together. The movie is hilarious and engaging. Every character in it is likeable, including the antagonists. It's just a wonderful experience, start to finish.

All of this does come with a bit of a price, however. Not a steep price, but still one I feel I should mention. The experience works as a whole, but I'm not sure it actually works better than the sum of its parts. To be clear, this isn't a complaint. The movie delivers everything it promises and then some. And, at the risk of contradicting myself, it does amount to something larger - that's what the first part of this review was about.

The point of the movie is that history is more than the actions of a handful of straight, white men, and if westerns are mythologized history, said mythology must extend beyond that limited scope. There's nothing intrinsic to the western genre that should limit it to white people - in fact, expanding both the scope of the characters the genre is exploring and the scope of music and culture it incorporates has the potential to revitalize that genre. The movie effectively makes that argument simply by existing and being that good.

It's a hell of an intellectual accomplishment coupled with a hell of an entertaining piece of art, but all that doesn't leave much room for an emotional core. That's not to say the movie lacks emotion altogether; the emotional beats are solid. But they're solid in the way really good blockbusters are solid: this movie is a bit formulaic. It kind of has to be - it's operating within the blueprint of the genre to demonstrate how different the end product feels when the style is updated and the characters aren't photocopies of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. If they'd changed up the formula too much, they'd risk this being less of a western, which would diminish the point.

That does mean sacrificing a bit of emotional resonance, but the trade-off is more than worth it. This thing is easily one of the most intriguing and enjoyable genre films of the year. If you're paying for a Netflix subscription, you owe it to yourself to watch this.