Was that really a sequel to ‘The Incredibles?’

Posted on July 15, 2018 by reelentropy

Images courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

4/10 In 2004, after almost a full 10 years of redefining children’s media in the shadow of the Disney Renaissance, Disney Pixar released its magnum opus, The Incredibles.

Pixar had been making waves for years with media that struck a balance between approachability for young viewers and complex conflict for adults, but this movie was clearly on another level. It examined the tension created by exceptionalism within a group dynamic by examining superheroes through a cost/benefit lens and through Syndrome, one of the most recognizable and well-crafted villains ever put to film, all while sharply satirizing the superhero and super-spy movies of previous decades.

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‘Soldado’ is… hoo boy…

Posted on June 30, 2018 by reelentropy

IT”S ALL FUCKING BLUE! Images courtesy Columbia Pictures.

Soldado kicks off with a mass suicide bombing in Kansas after the cartels send Islamic terrorists across the Mexican-American border, a scenario that’s sometimes used to justify harsh immigration laws even though it’s literally never happened. CIA advisor Matt Graver’s (Josh Brolin) solution to this problem is to kidnap a child.

Wow. Wow, this is going to go there whether we wanted to or not. OK.

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‘Hereditary’ an audacious mixed bag

Posted on June 21, 2018 by reelentropy

Hereditary’s absolutely spectacular set design contributes mightily to its atmosphere. Everything about the purpose-built set feels off-kilter and out of place. The shadows always seem longer than they should be, and you can never really see as much as you think you should. Images courtesy A24.

9/10 And now for Hereditary, this year’s “scariest movie ever made.”

The film begins with the funeral of the Graham family matriarch, Ellen, after which her daughter Annie (Toni Collette) begins to see strange things around the house. The family soon falls victim to a terrifying inheritance the grandmother left behind.

Hereditary is a baffling movie from a technical perspective and a difficult movie to recommend based simply on the broad array of responses. I’ve seen people walk out halfway through as the film fails to hit any really exciting notes until its climax, I’ve seen people laugh out loud at that climax, I’ve seen people – like me – completely gripped in terror by the entire movie, and all reactions are correct.

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‘Ocean’s’ movie remade with female cast, sky doesn’t fall

Posted on June 21, 2018 by reelentropy

Image courtesy Warner Bros.

8/10 Oh now this is interesting – what they’ve done is, they’ve taken a movie that was made with an all-male cast, and remade it with an all-female cast instead, and then the trailer didn’t suck, and then the movie didn’t suck, and then the distribution company didn’t turn it into a months-long catastrophe by responding only to the misogynistic aspect of the reception and deliberately ignoring any valid criticisms of their terrible, terrible film.

That’s a really interesting strategy.

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‘On Chesil Beach’ laughably bad with a horrifying message to boot

Posted on June 5, 2018 by reelentropy

I suppose Saorise Ronan could be a redeeming factor. I’ve never really been a fan of hers, but she’s far better than the rest of this movie. Images courtesy Bleeker Street Media.

2/10 The terrible cinematic execution of On Chesil Beach is enough for a negative review in its own right, but we’d also be remiss to look past the film’s horrible underlying message.

On Chesil Beach opens as two newlyweds, Edward Mayhew (Billy Howle) and Florence Ponting (Saoirse Ronan), walk along the titular beach. Both of them are asexual — Ponting in the sense that she’s disgusted by sex and has no interest in it, and Mayhew in that he is the human opposite of an erection. As they spend the afternoon awkwardly negotiating their first sexual encounter, the film flashes back across their upbringing and relationship.

From the very first frame of On Chesil Beach, its infuriating visual motif is established — vast swaths of compositional space. The frame is mostly empty. You spend the majority of the movie looking at nothing. Somewhere between half and two thirds of the vast majority of the shots are empty space.

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