Toy Story 4

Nine years after giving us a perfect ending to the Toy Story trilogy, the creators at Pixar have decided the story is not over. Toy Story 3 did not end with the cliche, And they lived happily ever after, though we could have believed that. Instead, in Toy Story 4, we see that while Bonnie promised Andy she would take good care of Woody, he often is not picked for playtime. She simply plucks his sheriff badge off his chest and gives it to Jessie, leaving Woody feeling rejected with the old toys in the closet.

With little playtime and no longer the leader (that’s Dolly’s role in Bonnie’s room) Woody is struggling with his purpose. Then he has a hand in Bonnie creating Forky, a spork figurine, so Woody feels responsible for him. Especially when Forky keeps throwing himself in the trash. When Forky gets lost, Woody takes it upon himself to find him and ends up meeting new adversaries and old friends in an antique shop and a traveling carnival.

From the promos, we all know Woody finds his old flame, Bo Peep, and I love how her story has turned. The beginning of the film, shows us how she left Andy’s house on a sad rainy night. We find out that years later she decided that instead of wasting away in the antique shop for someone to take her home, she became a lost toy, traveling around the park and sandbox in an RC car disguised as a skunk. She’s come a long way from her bonnet wearing days playing the damsel in distress in Andy’s room.

While there’s a lot to think about in this film, one of the best things about it is how comical it is. Forky flinging himself into the trash never gets old. Buzz’s way of discovering his inner voice is perfect for his character. Duke Kaboom’s backstory and posing is hilarious. Ducky and Bunny (voiced by Key and Peele) are wonderful new characters that add some seriously silly moments (especially in the credits). And my favorite laughs came from how the toys left in the RV keep stalling for time and eventually try to navigate the car, without Bonnie’s parents figuring them out.

To be really honest, I thought there was too much Forky and not enough of our old favorite characters. I mean what’s going on with Buzz and Jessie these days? There was so much with them in 3. But this isn’t their story, it’s Woody’s journey, and Forky is a big part of helping Woody get there. I get it, sorry, but I felt like we were left hanging, like that Combat Carl looking for a high five.

There’s a lot of meandering around with Forky to get to the heart of the matter in this story. It’s all about dealing with rejection and finding purpose in your life, even if it’s not quite how you imagined it. Forky wasn’t on board to be a toy at first, but with Woody’s help comes around to the idea. Accepting new roles will come for other key characters as well. And while the ending is not quite the amazing tear jerker 3 gave us, it’s still wonderfully bittersweet.

“I can’t let you throw yourself away.”

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Rocketman

Rocketman follows the structure of a typical modern music man biopic: sad childhood, talent, quick rise, parties-drugs-sex, hitting rock bottom and then redemption. We’ve seen this before in Bohemian Rhapsody, which considering its success, I think this film would like to be compared to. Unlike the Freddie Mercury predecessor, this film focuses mainly on Elton’s rocky years struggling with addiction.

While I’d consider this film a musical and we are shown Elton John (Taron Egerton) and Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell) writing songs together, this film is not all about the music. Instead, it is about Elton’s hard journey to accept and love himself. For so long, Elton hides behind his signature color, sparkle and flare. It can be heartbreaking seeing him try to find his happy stage face behind his huge glasses.

What really sets Rockman apart from other musicman biopics is hat the film often goes into a musical fantasy world. With the story being told by Elton, it makes sense. And at times it can this bit of fantasy can be a powerful tool. A magical moment where Elton and the crowd all seem to float is beautiful and uplifting as his career suddenly rises. Whereas, a low moment at the bottom of a pool singing with his childhood self is wonderfully surreal and helps move the story forward. What can I say, I was a sucker for it.

Just like Elton, this film is visually very entertaining. The fantasy aspect and colorful dance numbers are great and definitely feel like something out of Elton’s mind. But one of my favorite elements were the costumes. The credits highlights some of Elton’s iconic styles the movie recreated. Personally I’m a fan of that Jean jacket with all the patches in the Tiny Dancer scene.l I was also jealous of how Elton has a new pair of glasses in every scene. I stopped counting his glasses at 30.

Honestly, I mulled this film over in my head for a few days before I could honestly call it a great movie. It’s different, unabashedly. And in the end, that’s what makes it so wonderfully powerful. Watching Elton struggle with his addictions and with his sexuality and come out on the other side better than ever is joyful and can bring so much hope to others. Many have always admired his music and unique style and now, with that beautiful opening image of him opening those doors to a new life we have more to look up to. With pride month upon us, this film is a great way to celebrate.

“Where there is darkness, there is now you, and it’s going to be a wild ride.”

Good Feels on Wheels

Last week, I went to the Indy Film Fest, here in Indianapolis, to see Good Feels on Wheels, a film written and directed by Ronald Short. I’ve written before about Ronald and his filmmaking passion that he’s been pursuing since his teens. While he’s made numerous shorts and a web series, Good Feels on Wheels is his second feature film and will be at other film fests in the near future.

In Good Feels on Wheels, Opal (Stephanie Thoreson) travels to Austin, Texas to meet a long-distance fling and gets stood up. Rather than stay in with the creepy dude she’s renting a room from, she ventures out, gets drunk and ends up sleeping with her rideshare driver. The next morning, he’s gone and Opal awkwardly meets his roommate, Wyatt (Ronald Short). Maybe Wyatt’s a nice guy or into Opal or just feels bad for her, but he invites her to come on his deliveries so she can go out and see all of Austin.

Thing is, Wyatt is delivering marijuana, which leads us to meeting so many colorful characters. There’s the pot dealer, Jenna (Giselle Marie Muñoz), with some primo gummy bears. A sweet, hippie couple that love embarrassing Wyatt. Then there’s a gamer with such a large social media following that Opal has seen his feed, Rickleberrypie420 (Temple Baker). He’s a fun to watch douchebag. And my favorite was, Candace (Peggy Schott) an older woman with a newfound sense of freedom, who perhaps helps Opal steer herself towards happiness. Her scene has a thoughtfully comical twist. All these unique characters feel so fresh and come alive with their almost Tarantino style of conversation.

At the center of this film is Opal, Wyatt and their budding friendship that turns romantic. We watch them and at times it feels more like hanging out than being a fly on the wall. We connect with them, root for them, share in their joys and sorrows. You could hear a pin drop as the audience leaned in and held their breath at their nearly missed opportunity while on mushrooms in the pool.

But more important than romance or recreational drug use, we get a sense of the older-millennial problems Opal and Wyatt are facing Though Opal is trying and working hard, life just isn’t working out like she had planned and the dreams she dared to chase just aren’t fulfilling her.  For both, there’s a striking sense of loneliness and wonderlust that often go together here. The themes struck a real chord for me as I suspect they would for others my age.

In the end, Good Feels on Wheels delivers those good feels as promised. It’s partially a love letter to Austin, and wholly a delightfully sweet, warm, character driven film with poignant ups and downs that really hook the audience. I’m so proud of the talented filmmaker Ronald has become and I cannot wait to see what he makes next.

“Uh, one thing I do need to mention before we start, though. My delivery job; it’s kinda, how do you say…illegal.”

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For more info on Ronald Short and his latest films check out shortpicturesindependent.com

Missing Link

In Laika’s newest animated film, a British adventurer, Lionel (Hugh Jackman), seeks out the elusive sasquatch. He does this not for research or sport, but to secure a place in some high society club. You see, his peers look down Lionel. They don’t consider his work worthy and they just plain don’t like him or want him around. Nonetheless, Lionel is determined to prove the small-minded men wrong.

After a long journey, Lionel finds the sasquatch (Zach Galifianakis) and to his surprise, he’s a delightful and gentle creature. He’s sweet, polite, speaks perfect English and all around his cave are books he stole from the village to teach himself to read and write. Lionel dubs the creature, Mr. Link (though he later names himself Susan). Susan tells Lionel that he’s lonely and wants to live where other creatures like him are. Together, and picking up Lionel’s old colleague, Adelina (Zoe Saldana) they journey across the world to the Himalayas to find Shangri La, a fabled city of yetis.

As with all of Laika’s previous films, the stop-motion animation here is a sight to behold. Every movement is so fluid and every character’s expressions are so rich it’s easy to forget we’re watching photographed puppets. Susan especially feels so authentic and unique, from his shape and size to the way his arms swing. The team at Laika are masters of their craft and it shines in every frame. Stay during the credits for an amazing behind-the-scenes look at that beautiful scene with the elephant. My son saw it and literally said, “Wow!”

There are two main lessons in Missing Link that I rarely see in movies aimed at children. First, is the sad realization that not everyone is going to like you/want to be your friend/want you around. This comes up right away with Lionel, and sadly later with Susan. In real life, it can be a difficult pill for a kid to swallow, and like Lionel, kids might go about trying to win the haters over. However the second lesson helps deter from that: You don’t need to seek out validation. Simply knowing your own worth is gratifying and no one else needs to tell you so. I love the way Susan,  Lionel and Adelina come to terms with themselves and allow themselves to be happy and free.

“You are a great man, but I deserve greater.”

Oscar Predictions 2018

Can you believe how crazy this year has been for the Academy Awards? First there was that news about a “Popular Film” category being added in the middle of the year. Thankfully that didn’t happen. Then there was the whole Kevin Hart fiasco that led to the show having no host, we’ll see how that works out. Then there was the idea to not perform all the songs nominated for best song, that was a mistake. Then there was the completely asinine idea to not broadcast four awards in an attempt to save a few minutes. Thankfully, that idea was tossed out after multiple big name directors and a shit-ton of film twitter spoke out against it. #presentall24 worked! Great job, guys! We won!

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if the Oscar ceremony lasted seven hours. I’ve complained before about having to stay up too late, especially in the years I was pregnant, but I really don’t mind. I love it. Following these films has kinda become my life’s work (if you can’t tell by this insane blog) and I would stay up all night to watch the Oscars. I say, give the world of film its one night and stop trying to cut it short.

Anyway, let’s play that one game I like where we pretend that we can only have 5 best picture nominations. Like it’s the good old days before 2009. My pick 5 would be:

The Favourite, Roma, Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman and Vice

My official predictions are…

Actor: Rami Malek

Actress: Glenn Close

Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali

Supporting Actress: Regina King

Director: Spike Lee

Original Screenplay: The Favourite

Adapted Screenplay: BlacKkKlansman

Cinematography: The Favourite

Film Editing: Vice

Production Design: Black Panther

Costume Design: Black Panther

Makeup and Hairstyling: Vice

Original Score: BlacKkKlansman

Original Song: Shallow from A Star is Born

Sound Mixing: Bohemian Rhapsody

Sound Editing: A Quiet Place

Visual Effects: Solo

Best Documentary: Free Solo

Short Documentary: Period. End of Sentence.

Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Foreign Language Film: Roma

And Best Picture? Honestly, I have no idea what The Academy will pick. The more I study the Oscars the more it seems like the actual winner of this award does not matter. Some losers become better remembered classics than most winners. Many times we can look back at a runner up and say we “weren’t ready” for the one to win. I think that’s what we’d say if Roma loses, since there’s never been a foreign language film taking home the big prize. Safe winners would be A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody or Green Book. Vice is political enough  to split votes, I would be surprised if it won, but it would be cool if it did. It would be very cool if Roma, The Favourite or BlacKkKlansman won.

But in all honesty, I hope Black Panther wins. I know that sounds cheesy and what every twelve year old wants, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. To bring such amazing diversity and empowerment to kids in superhero form is great, but to do it so amazingly well that appeals to the masses and keeps an amazing story, then hell yeah it should win. Black Panther is my personal pick for best picture. Eat your heart out, you fancy Academy voters.

Enjoy Oscar night!

Roma

About his newest film, Roma, Alfonso Cuarón has stated, “There are periods in history that scar societies and moments in life that transform us as individuals. Time and space constrain us, but they also define who we are, creating inexplicable bonds with others that flow with us at the same time and through the same places. Roma is an attempt to capture the memory of events that I experienced almost fifty years ago.”  In Roma, we witness a year in the life of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio). She’s a young maid to a middle class family in Mexico City, where political turmoil is brewing. Over the year, Cleo gets pregnant and together with the family faces abandonment and harrowing life and death situations.

Cuarón captures some amazing details that feel right out of an old memory. The badly-tuned marching band coming down the street, the car that can barely fit in the gated driveway, and a home full of taxidermy old dogs feel like weird snippets from childhood memories. Even the way the camera pans through the family home feels nostalgic.

One of my favorite scenes is the New Year’s Eve party that turns into a wildfire. The image of all these people outside in their party attire, holding drinks and passing buckets of water around to throw on the fire is amazing. Add in the kid in his astronaut outfit and that one guy in the big costume singing makes the whole thing feels wonderfully surreal. His singing mixed with screams as the tree falls one of the best moments of the film.

I feel a need to warn readers of one of the most intensely heartbreaking moments I have ever seen in film. ***Spoiler Alert*** The scene depicts Cleo giving birth to a stillborn baby. The camera unflinchingly captures the whole scene in one long shot, which I’ve heard was only done once and with real doctors for authenticity. It is so very authentic and as a mother to two young children it is heart wrenching. I was shocked and so upset by the scene that I had to pause the film until I had stopped sobbing. I’m so glad this was on Netflix so I didn’t cause a scene in a theater. Never has a film made me cry so hard, ever.

Roma is nominated for an astounding ten Academy Awards. These include best foreign language film, cinematography, original screenplay, production design, sound editing, sound mixing and Best Picture. Yalitza Aparicio, who has never acted before is nominated for best actress. Marina de Tavira is nominated for best supporting actress. And Cuarón has earned his second nomination for best director.

The roles of men and women in Roma are drastically different. The men, mainly Antonio and Fermin, abandon their families. Antonio is so clueless that his own children see him out running the streets with his mistress. And Fermin is so heartless he cruelly tells Cleo to leave him alone and is part of the riot that breaks out. It’s awful to see him pointing a gun at his unborn child. Whereas, the roles of women are to keep order in the face of all this chaos. Cleo keeps house and gets ready for a baby. Sofia keeps her family together. And in the climatic beach scene, Cleo saves two of the children, despite not being able to swim. I think it’s easy to see Cuarón respects the women in his life who have faced so much adversity.

“We are alone. No matter what they tell you, we women are always alone.”

Black Panther

Like many film enthusiasts, I enjoy the Marvel films with their colorful array of superheroes, out of this world adventures and big budget effects. They’re not always my favorite, but they are a fun escape. When I saw Black Panther I knew this was so much more than a simple superhero film. Never before have I seen such a fun and energetic Afrocentric film. This was a wake up to how immersive, thoughtful and dynamic a superhero film can be.

In Black Panther, Prince T’Challa (Chadwick Bosman) becomes king of Wakanda, his technologically advanced home hidden in the African jungles. His role as king comes with super powers given to him by a special herb grown by his people, and some amazing tech created by his little sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright). She’s like the Q to his 007 while keeping a playful sibling dynamic, I love their scenes together. T’Challa finds a chance to prove himself when intelligence learns the whereabouts of an old enemy, Klaue (Andy Serkis). But when the mission doesn’t go as planned, the secrets of Wakanda become compromised and an outsider comes in to challenge T’Challa for the throne.

Just like Wakanda is hidden and isolated from the world, Black Panther feels very isolated from the rest of the Marvel Universe. While watching this film, I’m not waiting for Tony Stark to drop in, nor do I want him to. When Stan Lee makes his cameo it’s nearly out of place, and a fun reminder that this is a Marvel movie. Black Panther is very much it’s own action adventure proudly displaying its unique culture, style, rules and values.

One of the most powerful struggles in this film is not the physical struggles we see between T’Challa and Killmonger or the epic battle that breaks out, but a moral question. T’Challa knows Wakanda is strong and has more than enough resources, but should he share them with the world, or keep them hidden as past kings have done? W’Kabi warns T’Challa, “You let the refugees in, they bring their problems with them, and then Wakanda is like everywhere else.” What it really comes down to is whether to honor tradition or do what is moral right, and that theme comes up multiple times for T’Challa as well as others in this story.

I cannot get through this review without discussing Michael B. Jordan’s character, Killmonger a bit. As a half-Wakandan born and raised in Oakland, his story is so important to bring fresh perspective to T’Challa. While T’Challa and his Wakandan elders have lived well and free from persecution, Killmonger has seen first hand how rough the lives of most black people around the world. He wants to use Wakanda’s resources to arm persecuted people all over the world so they can rise up against their oppressors. His ideas are born out of hatred seeking revenge, a product of American racism and Wakandan abandonment. In the end, I love how T’Challa wants to help him but Killmonger knows better, “Why, so you can lock me up? Nah. Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships, ’cause they knew death was better than bondage.”

Visually, this film is phenomenal and I cannot get enough. While most films set in Africa focus on jungles, savannahs or rough dirt floor villages, Wakanda is far from that. There are glittering skyscrapers, flying vehicles, a levitating train system. And yet it’s not all chrome and bland, instead buildings are decorated in beautiful murals, some looking like graffiti. My favorite set is Shuri’s lab, bright and glowing chrome, with a wonderfully flowing layout, with African inspired decor winding down the walls. Even when things look primitive, like spears or cloaks, there’s hidden tech powered by Wakanda’s vibranium and it is so cool. All the costumes and sets are so wonderfully inspired and colorful, there are always new details to pick up.

Black Panther is currently nominated for seven Academy Awards. They include costume design, production design, sound editing, sound mixing, original score and original song for All the Stars. And most impressive and deserving of all, Black Panther is the first superhero movie ever nominated for Best Picture. I doubt Black Panther will sweep but I would love to see this movie win the big one.

With my four year old’s love for superheroes, I’ve let him watch most of Black Panther. I fast forward through gun fights and he asks me to skip the ritual combat scenes, yet he loves the car chase, as do I. He loves the first scene in Shuri’s lab and now calls his socks sneakers, while stomping quietly. But something amazing happened about halfway through watching Black Panther with my son. He looked at T’Challa and innocently said, “That black man looks like my friend from school.” He named the little black boy in his class specifically. Trying not to make a big deal of it, I said, “He kinda does, doesn’t he? It’s pretty cool that there are superheroes that look like your friends.” He answered, “Yeah, and we can all be super!” I love this! My little boy is showing me how important representation is in film! And I am so happy that there is a great, cool, fun, empowering superhero movie full of strong men and women of color for him to grow up on.

“I have seen gods fly. I have seen men build weapons that I couldn’t even imagine. I have seen aliens drop from the sky. But I have never seen anything like this. ”