Failing to make sense of the photorealistic ‘Little Mermaid’ adaptation

Posted on June 23, 2023 by reelentropy
Going through images for this post, it’s easy to notice how little the bright, sunny blues of the promotional material have in common with the actual movie, which mostly looks like this, barely visible, sparsely decorated and sad-looking. Ariel looks like she’s imagining she’s in a brighter movie surrounded by ocean murk. Images courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

The Sea of Siciliy- Ariel (Halle Bailey) is a teenage trans mermaid who needs bottom surgery so she can go to the surface and catch some dick. Her father, King Triton (Javier Bardem), could transform her into a human at any moment, but he thinks it’s too dangerous, so she seeks help from the local drag queen, Ursula (Melissa McCarthy). The sea witch makes Ariel a Faustian bargain that gets her into much more trouble than if her father had just been supportive.

The Little Mermaid is a quietly powerful story about not only self-determination, but internal and external identity. When Ariel trades her voice for the ability to pursue Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), she is unknowingly loaning out the only thing he will recognize her by, the only thing about her that he even remembers. What aspects of yourself can you give up before you aren’t you anymore? How much do the people who care about you value the things that you might change?

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Fast X: one more ride before it finally dies

Posted on June 19, 2023 by reelentropy
I’m not a cartoon tree, I’m Captain America! Images courtesy Universal Pictures.

2/10 That’s it. I’m tired. I’m done trying to search for the best in these movies. They’ve made a tenth Fast/Furious movie, and it sucks.

Los Angeles- 10 years after that notorious vault scene in Fast Five, Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) is inserted as an extra into the scene – he’s driving the car that whips out a minigun at the tail end there, that was Jason Momoa all along. He’s the son of Hernan Reyes, the drug lord they were ripping off in that scene, and after spending a decade masturbating I guess, he’s back for revenge!

Dante Reyes wants to make Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel, who also produces) suffer by threatening his friends, whom Toretto is known for ostentatiously asserting as “family,” and also his actual family, he does have a wife and child and they are in danger.

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Charlie makes his mark in ‘Fool’s Paradise’

Posted on June 19, 2023 by reelentropy
Ken Jeong is putting in just as much clownwork as Charlie playing Lenny the publicist, a listless promoter from a small Canadian town who screams at every possible moment that he’s “a somebody,” crying out the principal dream of Hollywood that the fool isn’t capable of having. Image courtesy Roadside Attractions.

8/10 It’s strange to be reminded how niche “Always Sunny” still is.

Los Angeles- Legendary English actor Sir Tom Bingsley (Charlie Day, who also writes and directs), currently starring in a Billy the Kid biopic, won’t leave his trailer. The fed-up producer (Ray Liotta) drives past a homeless person, referred to in the script as the fool (also Charlie), who is a dead ringer for Bingsley, and uses him to complete production. Despite being apparently mute and described by doctors as “having the mind of a Labrador retriever” who knows how to do nothing but confusedly imitate the people around him, the fool is propelled to Hollywood stardom and eventually a mayoral run.

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Rodriguez’ ‘80s action movie ‘Hypnotic’ written in ‘00s, released in ‘20s

Posted on June 19, 2023 by reelentropy
Images courtesy, and I am not making this up, Ketchup Entertainment.

5/10 Hypnotic, writer/cinematographer/editor/director/producer Robert Rodriguez’ sci-fi/noir action thriller starring Ben Affleck may have been a box office bomb and an objectively bad film, but it’s still a guilty pleasure of mine. I know now that it’s a cheap knockoff of Memento and The Matrix that has so much overlap with Inception as to be completely eclipsed by it, but I can’t help it! I have such strong memories from when I saw it first in 2003.

Sorry, that’s a typo – I meant 2023. This movie just came out.

Austin, Texas, summer- Austin Police Department Det. Danny Rourke (Affleck) is in occupational therapy to recover from the abduction of his 7-year-old daughter and subsequent divorce. Soon after he leaves the office, a bank robber called Dellrayne (William Fichtner), who seems to be able to command bystanders to do his bidding, implies that he knows where Rourke’s daughter is. Rourke descends into a world of “hypnotics,” powerful government-trained psychics, hoping to find his daughter.

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‘Beau is Afraid,’ the Odyssian anxiety attack

Posted on June 13, 2023 by reelentropy
Images courtesy A24.

9/10 In the first shot of Beau is Afraid, Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix and Armen Nahapetian) is born.

47 years later, Wassermann, who has grown into a man ruled by breathtaking anxiety and paranoia, is getting ready to visit his mother, Mona Wassermann (Patti LuPone and Zoe Lister-Jones), to commemorate the death of his father, who died before Beau Wassermann was born, but as he’s getting ready to leave his apartment, his keys and luggage vanish. The film sets off on an odyssey divided into four roughly equal legs – first, Wassermann manages his anxiety while he tries to find his apartment keys and make his flight. Then, after being run over, he is trapped in a surgeon’s home. Then he runs off into the woods for a stretch, and then he finally hitchhikes his way to his mother’s house, where the final leg takes place.

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