The Wild Robot.

Review #2258: The Wild Robot.

Cast: 

Lupita Nyong'o (ROZZUM unit 7134), Pedro Pascal (Fink), Kit Connor (Brightbill), Catherine O'Hara (Pinktail), Bill Nighy (Longneck), Stephanie Hsu (Vontra), Mark Hamill (Thorn), Matt Berry (Paddler), and Ving Rhames (Thunderbolt) Written and Directed by Chris Sanders (#294 - How to Train Your Dragon and #387 - Lilo & Stitch)

Review: 

"I only engage with projects that take risks, and go to audacious places. But with The Wild Robot, there was also an unusual purity to the world which I never expected to encounter in my career. The animal characters have no cars, jobs, neckties or cell phones. The animals move like … animals!  I knew immediately we had to elevate our visuals so they would allow the emotional wavelengths to fully resonate. Put simply, the style of this film needed to be worthy of the story we were telling."

It probably shouldn't be a surprise that this is based on a children's book (with illustrations that were actually black and white) by Peter Brown. He had been struck with an image in his head of a robot next to a tree when working on a book that stood with him and eventually it came to him as basically an extreme example of a "fish out of water" story that gelled with his love of science fiction and nature. The Wild Robot was published in 2016 and became its own series, complete with a third book that was released last year. Chris Sanders had a daughter that had read the book but hadn't really thought about it until Dreamworks Animation had the rights to the book for possible filming since before the book had been published. He read the book and described it as "at once deceptively simple, and emotionally complex" while believing he was the guy that could bring the book to the screen. A handful of films have been cited by Sanders as inspiration such as Bambi and My Neighbor Totoro, as he had the imagery of each film in his head when reading The Wild Robot and it came to him that a film adaptation had to be visually sophisticated. This is apparently the last Dreamworks Animation film to be produced fully in-house at their studio, as they are cutting costs by using third-party studios for further features (which are distributed by Universal Studios). It happens to be the first animated film directed by Sanders since The Croods (2013).

I'm sure there is no surprise to be found here in saying this is a pretty good feature. It is the execution that matters most when it comes to making a story about kindness and a select group of talking animals stand on its own in crisp entertainment. It is the kind of movie that looks and feels like it would make a neat doubleheader with The Iron Giant (1999), if that makes sense. The hand-painted aesthetic is lovely in establishing the atmosphere that arises when trying to make a film look and feel organic that really should be seen on a screen as big as possible. The 102-minute runtime shows plenty of warmth without being a vessel for cheap songs or bits just for the sake of it. If the books aimed for a sense of being a fable, the film surely has achieved that same effect by making one remember what a connection means to the world around it to go with appreciating a landscape as breathtaking as nature can be. It rests on the shoulders of Nyong'o to make the lead work as well as it does in making the journey of a robot (and accompanying expressions from the salespitcher-turned-naturebot) worth seeing play out, which she does quite well. The pursuit of a task leading to adoptive motherhood is tenderly handled by her to go with Pascal and his trading of snide remarks and advice that is just as effective in showing the importance in following the circle of life. One takes flight when the moment requires one to feel flight and one has the same wonder when spending a few moments away from the island setting in the sheer difference that is apparent in a less-natural world. In other words, it isn't merely just a mother hen story with a cute duck, it really is a neat little coming-of-age story, for which Connor handles that part pretty well. The training sequences of trying to be one with a species (such as flying) is pretty fascinating. There are a few bits of levity provided by O'Hara and Berry while Hsu comes in late for an interesting (if not exactly covered too much) look in trying to do friendly forced compliance for robots. The ending for the film is interesting, mostly because it really does click this as a fable worth looking to and back again that doesn't play a cheap trick on the audience and leaves them satisfied, regardless of if there was a craving for a sequel or not. In general, it is a dazzling movie that has plenty to offer in crisp filmmaking from committed people and voices to match that should play well for just about anybody, which is a worthwhile thing to say when it comes to a film about kindness.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

The Fall Guy.

Review #2207: The Fall Guy.

Cast: 

Ryan Gosling (Colt Seavers), Emily Blunt (Jody Moreno), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Tom Ryder), Winston Duke (Dan Tucker), Hannah Waddingham (Gail Meyer), Teresa Palmer (Iggy Starr), and Stephanie Hsu (Alma Milan) Directed by David Leitch (#905 - John Wick, #978 - Atomic Blonde, #1087 - Deadpool 2)

Review: 

Sure, one may know that there was once a television series called The Fall Guy. But it is fun to do a brief history lesson anyway, so screw it; airing from 1981 to 1986, the show was originally created by Glen A. Larson (the same guy behind such television shows such as the original Battlestar Galactica) that had Lee Majors as the star involving a stuntman that moonlighted as a bounty hunter, with Douglas Barr and Heather Thomas as supporting presences. But the screenplay for this film (as done by Drew Pearce, who previously co-worked on the script of Leitch's Hobbs & Shaw [2019]) isn't really a straight-show adaptation as it is a film in the tradition of loose TV adaptations such as say, Mission: Impossible (1996). Of course, this is the kind of thing that can be interesting to encounter beyond just going for the cynical angle. In the land of adapting various shows or the toy next to oneself for a film, development for trying to make said movie had been in stasis for over ten years before eventually there were rumblings of "unnamed stuntman film" being worked on by David Leitch (who had been a stuntman for a decade before becoming involved in second unit work and eventually films such as Confessions of an Action Star [2005] and John Wick [2014]) to go with Ryan Gosling as star around the 2020s. Apparently, it was Gosling and Blunt who took inspiration from Leitch and his producer wife when it came to their romantic chemistry together.

Really this is more of a case of a charming romcom that happens to be an action film just as well for 126 minutes. It doesn't take too long to find the film as being fairly accomplished in charm that would be right at home to go along the shelf with Hooper (1978) when it comes to charm that I appreciate greatly in making one appreciate the very nature that comes to making movie magic, albeit without being as much of a "good ol' boy" type of arrangement. You get both a playful film with cannon rolls by a car and a few action sequences that doesn't seem to just be a CG screen plaything (or a deepfake, as they say). Gosling pulls off a tremendous performance in the delicate art of refreshing charm seemingly without having to make that much effort to do so. He has a breezy state to him that seems to just coast onto whatever type of encounter is thrust upon him (the narration delivered by him at times is give-or-take when it comes to things, but I go with it), and it seems to work best when paired with Blunt because of how they interact with each other that feels real. Predictable or not, it is the kind of comfort one likes to see in films that aren't necessarily just straight action films, and I'd rather have a familiar charmer anytime. Blunt apparently took her inspiration from people she had met such as Greta Gerwig when it came to playing a would-be director that handles her role with consistent grace and tenacity, probably best represented by a scene in which she utilizes the "script" to make a conversation with a recently reunited Gosling on the set that is the kind of neat chuckle to absorb. The movie utilizes a carefully crafted ensemble of a few good presences that go right down to Taylor-Johnson and his amusing daft nature that works best for the climax to go with a tremendously amusing Waddingham crafted for those who love to believe that suckers really are born every minute. Duke makes an entertaining presence to go alongside Gosling as the film gets going. The movie maneuvers itself well to achieving the shot and chaser for entertaining action that does show a few laughs to make a fun routine time without dragging itself to being too hip in awareness or self-seriously dry. As a whole, I like its approach with some worthwhile practical stunts to go with clear energy shown for the craft of filmmaking that is fit for any era but seemingly more so now more than ever because it is a feature made straight for the love of seeing people kicking other people in the ass on an ideally large screen (home or otherwise).

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Review #1835: Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Cast: 

Michelle Yeoh (Evelyn Quan Wang), Stephanie Hsu (Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki), Ke Huy Quan (Waymond Wang), James Hong (Gong Gong), Jamie Lee Curtis (Deirdre Beaubeirdra), Tallie Medel (Becky), Jenny Slate ("Big Nose"), Harry Shum Jr. (Chad), and Biff Wiff (Rick) Written and Directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

Review: 

“We should be looking to a forward-looking multiverse, because right now this universe we’re in is on a very scary path. And the multiverse is actually a really beautiful, important metaphor for right now because we need to be looking at all the possibilities, not just the one that we think we’re in. And we definitely shouldn’t be looking backwards.”

You may or may not know the directing duo of "Daniels", comprised of two directors in Kwan and Scheinert, who met at Emerson College while studying film; they did a variety of stuff together, starting with two short films in Swingers (2009) and Puppets (2010), which can be found online. They did several other things together such as television episodes and music videos (such as for the song “Turn Down for What" by DJ Snake and Lil Jon) before they made their feature debut with Swiss Army Man (2016), which evidently involves a man and a farting corpse. Scheinert directed The Death of Dick Long (2019) solo, so this in effect makes this film Scheinert's third effort and second for Kwan. When they had shown Swiss Army Man to their parents and had numerous conversations about it, the reflections of the duo on their apparent need to make something so strange to go with the difficulty of their parents in understanding it that proved an inspiration. I had first heard of the film earlier last month, but it was only in the last week of April that I had the chance to see this film in my local theater (the result of a film that expanded from an initial limited release - go figure, expand a release and people like me might actually see it rather than flock to "streaming" like a defeated sheep), and it took little time to convince myself that this might be a useful curiosity to see.

As one imagines, sometimes you must sneak in sincerity under absurdity when it comes to a journey of finding balance and understanding within beautiful chaos. This is in a movie that involves hot-dog fingers and sentient rocks, for example. But describing things that happen to occur in a movie isn't exactly a succinct answer for a movie like this, one that threads itself carefully on the matter of choices, not so much just being a movie about multiple selves, since the "chosen one" to potentially save things is possibly just the one with the most failures, for example. It results in a movie that is a hodgepodge of genres fitting for its title - action, sci-fi adventure, thriller, coming of everything, black comedy...but it really can be construed as a movie of finding the middle ground between oblivion and meaning. Yes, it has a quick pace to action scenes at times, but it never loses sight of doing some philosophy to go along with things at the end. In the end, it results in a brilliantly messy movie that maneuvers its way through 139 minutes with a warm-hearted sense of self that may very well become a curiosity to watch again and again just to think about how far the rabbit hole can go. In other words: the key to everything in a movie about family strife happening everywhere all at once is communication, complete with a family triangle that is yearning to have things acknowledged by the other. In that sense, I applaud the movie for managing to not fall into the modern trap of trying to build itself so high only to fall on its own hype, or to put it in more blunt terms, not huffing its own supply and interrupting its own flow. As such, this seems just the right kind of movie ideal for Yeoh, one that requires an actress to put on many hats (as the expression goes) in being the key focus of an organic mold of melancholy and resolve that allows for both a flurry of action sequences alongside touching moments spent with either Hsu or Quan for family interest, whether that means trying to roll with the growing sense of genre anarchy or other things. You may remember Quan from his childhood roles in films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and The Goonies (1985), but you might be surprised to hear that this is in fact his comeback feature, as he had actually stepped away from acting (due to a lack of opportunity for roles) for work behind the camera. It is evident fairly early that he has not lost a step here, since he proves quite endearing in keeping the balance of the film on the right level with kindness and charm in each of the three personalities he inhibits here (ranging from the husband wanting to sneak divorce papers for actual attention to the confident "Alpha" husband). Hsu provides the key center to the proceedings in terms of a family dilemma that essentially explodes into multitude family dilemma with suitable timing that taps well with Yeoh in expressing the doubts and fears that come within paths that could spring curiosity or nihilism (especially when one's trauma of disappointing a parent has sprung in two generations), and she balances well with the conflicts presented here for engaging drama that makes her a quality presence. The film is built on the main trio, but Curtis and Hong do partake in their own moments to share for interest that one would expect from veteran presences like them, whether that involves a dry auditor that draws a few amusing moments or an eccentric charmer, respectively. By the time the movie draws to its ending, it does so without becoming dripped in false notes, which works out when wanting to finish making a movie that uses the idea of a "multi-verse" as a metaphor that seems timeless and therefore right on target. Honestly, the rating for this film took a bit of time to think about, because it really is a fun time for anyone who wants to see something original in their movie experience that seems like a labor of love more than just a laborious experiment in filmmaking. It does so with a break-neck pace that rewards its viewers with a useful emotional journey that details the meaning of empathy in a weary world (or worlds, in this case) with the right cast to make a worthy adventure that may be one worth looking into again and again, a wonderfully messy mix of action and clarity. 

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.