Weekend Watch - The Wild Robot

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the latest release from DreamWorks Animation, the film adaptation of Peter Brown’s book The Wild Robot. The film is written and directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon) and features the voice talents of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor, Stephanie Hsu, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill, and Catherine O’Hara. It follows the adventure of a helpful robot stranded on an island populated only by animals who view her as a potential predator or prey. The film opened this weekend in the U.S., winning the box office in the process. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: A; this is a top 5 film this year for me, and I expect it will be for you as well with its beautiful animation and poignant story.

Should you Watch This Film? Absolutely! This is a film you can watch on your own, with friends, with a significant other, with kids, really with anyone, and you’ll all walk away with something to appreciate.

Why?

                If you’ve seen any trailers for The Wild Robot, you already know that its animation is gorgeous both stylistically and in execution, and that rings true throughout the film, but there have been plenty of animated films in the last decade that are beautifully produced but lack in the story department. This is not one of those films. The voice acting is superb and lends to the story’s emotional weight and poignancy, and the story itself feels just fresh enough to engage even the most cynical moviegoer. While a few minor clichés hold it back from being a perfect A+ film, the story about found family, adaptation, kindness, and even motherhood is certainly one of the most original brought to a mainstream film in the medium in quite some time. It is poignant and important, imparting not just emotional payoffs but actual life lessons that we all need to learn and/or be reminded of in the trying times we live in. This film deserves to be the front-runner for most of the animated awards in the coming award season.

                I came into the theater to watch The Wild Robot expecting quality animation and potentially some emotional beats, but I didn’t necessarily expect to be so wowed by the film’s story and characters. From the jump, we are immersed in this world of wilderness where a robot like the film’s titular protagonist, ROZZUM Unit 7134 or “Roz” (Nyong’o), sticks out like a sore thumb, lacking the ability initially to even communicate with its unsuspecting “customers”. The hilarity and tragedy of Roz’s situation are portrayed excellently as she struggles to find anyone willing to even speak with her after she spends months learning to translate the language of the animals. Eventually her quest brings her an orphaned gosling to adopt and prepare for the coming migration, giving her a new directive – feed the baby goose, teach it to swim, and teach it to fly by the time the rest of the island’s geese undertake their migration ahead of its harsh winters. Roz’s conversations with her less than willing “co-parent” Fink the fox (Pascal) about “programming” and the laws of nature and survival skills mirror concepts that we all are familiar with in our own lives – nature, nurture, social norms, and the competition that society breeds into us. As the film goes on and we see Roz’s gosling Brightbill (Connor) mature into a semi-functional adult goose, those themes become more central alongside the film’s surprisingly profound exploration of motherhood and family, as viewed through the lens of Roz’s role in Brightbill’s life and the lives of the rest of the island’s inhabitants. The film’s final act has a few of its most cliché moments, but it brings everything home in a solid way without feeling the need to put a perfect bow on everything, making it one of the more adventurous mainstream animated films in that area as well.

                The Wild Robot is simply one of the best films of the year so far thanks to its gorgeous animation, skilled voice acting, and poignant story that explores themes relevant to viewers of all ages, engaging not just children, but parents, teens, and single adults as well. It’s a film worth checking out in theaters if possible, especially with its quality animation. Definitely seek it out if it’s playing near you.

Weekend Watch - A Quiet Place: Day One

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the latest film in the A Quiet Place franchise, A Quiet Place: Day One, the prequel directed by Michael Sarnoski (Pig) and cowritten by Sarnoski and A Quiet Place director John Krasinski. The prequel looks at the start of the franchise’s alien invasion in New York City from the perspective of cancer patient Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) as she fights to survive and get herself some pizza. The film also features appearances from Joseph Quinn as a stranded British law student, Alex Wolff as hospice nurse Reuben, and Djimon Hounsou as harried father Henri. The film opened this weekend to mixed but positive audience and critic reviews. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: B; while not as tension filled as the other two films in the franchise, it still finds those moments of terror and humanity that have made the series such a hit.

Should you Watch This Film? If you’re looking for a less intense horror film, this’ll definitely be one you can check out. The characters are strong, and their stories make it worth watching.

Why?

                I don’t know that A Quiet Place: Day One is going to be what everyone was looking for from the prequel film. It doesn’t set out to explain the aliens or their reasons for coming to Earth or even set up some initial fight against them. It simply wants to look at another story within this universe that happens to occur in the first few days of the alien invasion. For me, that’s exactly what I needed from it. I was so worried going in that it was going to try and do too much explaining and worldbuilding and lose any of the pieces that make the first two films so good – the human stories. Instead, this film leans harder into the human element, feeling almost more like a disaster/survival horror than the jumpscare-filled home invasion horror of the first or the postapocalyptic road trip of the second. It’s also helped in this endeavor by the strong performances from Lupita Nyong’o (Us and Little Monsters) and Joseph Quinn (Overlord and Stranger Things) who portray their struggle to survive as something inherently tied to everything that has come before them and their own humanity.

                Technically, the film remains on par with the prior films with a strong sound design, solid visual effects, and another bout of creative cinematography that you really only get from horror films. The oppressive silence isn’t quite as pervasive here as in the past films, but in the moments of true tension, it returns to amp up that heart rate just a bit more at each small sound. The creatures feature a bit more prevalently in this film, and any time you get to see them up close, the visual design holds up as something not quite knowable and immediately horrifying. The camera work continues to do a great job adding to the tension of the scenes, and it all comes together so well to give us another strong, if slightly less terrifying, horror film.

                By focusing on the characters, the film does lose some of that intensity that we’ve become familiar with in the first two films, and I think that’s why we’re seeing some of those less than stellar reviews. The first film really blended those two elements together better than so many horror films, and the second continued in that same vein. This one swings back and forth between the human drama and horror sequences more than actually blending them, but it still works because of how well-executed the human element is. Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn play well individually and off of each other thanks in large part to each of their abilities to emote, leaning into the gimmick of these films by communicating so well without words. Quinn plays the supporting character so well, portraying empathy and desperation in equal parts so well, and he really gives the story the extra oomph that it needs to really resonate. Obviously, though, Nyong’o is the showstopper here, showing us from the jump how versatile her acting bag is. Here, she plays Sam as this cynical, jaded woman without any real reason to hope, but she manages to find those moments worth celebrating even as the world falls apart around her, and we believe it the whole time thanks to the combination of solid writing and her amazing acting abilities. By the time the credits roll, we’ve seen her progress through a satisfying and believable character arc that reminds us all of why life is worth living – to eat pizza and connect with other people.

                A Quiet Place: Day One might not answer all the burning questions that we have about the start of the alien invasion, and it might lack some of the horror chops of the previous installments, but it still turns in a decently scary survival flick with a truly compelling story about people, which is the core of the Quiet Place films anyway. It’s probably not going to be what everyone wants it to be, but for me, I can now definitely say that I just want to keep watching stories of different individuals in this postapocalyptic world much more than I want to understand how any of it works. This film is currently in theaters, and if you’re looking for a solid thriller, this is the one to go see this weekend.

Weekend Watch - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where, each week, we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the follow-up to 2018’s wildly successful Black Panther. This film stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, and Dominique Thorne in what is easily one of Marvel’s best outings since the end of Phase 3 (Endgame and Far from Home). Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: A-; the overall feel of the film is great, even if there are some minor flaws.

Should you Watch This Film? Yes, and do it in a theater if you are able. It looks and feels great, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, even if you didn’t love the first one.

Why?

                Wakanda Forever is a culturally and emotionally rich film, paying beautiful tribute to the passing of Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman, while also giving its ensemble of characters plenty of space to establish themselves as the new players in the MCU. Its runtime can be a bit daunting at 2 hours and 41 minutes, but it fills its time well and never seems to drag. It paces itself well, bouncing back and forth between scenes of mourning, action sequences, introductions of new characters, and scenes of plot development, keeping its audience engaged in each with gorgeous cinematography, quality acting, a brilliant score, engaging characters, and fun action sequences. Visually, aside from some minor CGI issues here and there, this film is as stunning, if not more so, as its award-winning predecessor, showcasing director Ryan Coogler’s capabilities as a director on an even greater scale.

                The performances that go along with the visuals go a long way in making this film as great as it is. Most of them are not giving anything awards-worthy, but they play their roles well and make the characters come to life. Letitia Wright gives a performance that makes the character of Shuri legitimately likable with emotional depth and reasoning behind her decisions. Tenoch Huerta plays Namor with all the charisma, power, and even menace that the character requires. Even Danai Gurira and Lupita Nyong’o bring real character to their portrayals in a way that some MCU side characters don’t always get. Dominique Thorne as the newly introduced Riri Williams might be the film’s low point in its acting, though not for lack of trying. Her character feels a bit more shoehorned in, and so her performance feels out of place and gets a bit lost at times, but her potential is definitely there. The film’s best performance comes in the form of Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda. She dominates the screen every time she is on it, bringing a new weight to the character as a mother in mourning for her family who also happens to be queen of one of the most powerful nations in the world – it’s a brilliant performance that rightfully has been receiving some fringe-level awards buzz.

                Through all of its length and characters, Wakanda Forever’s through line is an engagement with the concept of mourning, which allows the film to serve as a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman in the process. I was not sure how the actor’s tragic passing would impact this sequel going in, but having seen the film, I can say with surety that the filmmakers and performers pay homage to the actor and his character in a way that is both moving and true to the film’s story, weaving Shuri’s, Ramonda’s, and Nakia’s grief into the fabric of the narrative, celebrating Chadwick’s/T’Challa’s life without dwelling too heavily on his death. The film moves its audience, giving them the opportunity to mourn as well while looking forward to the next phase of the Black Panther saga – waiting to introduce a new figure to the costume until everyone has reached something close to acceptance.

                Wakanda Forever shines in this new phase of the MCU thanks to some of the best acting Marvel has yet produced, an engaging story that pays tribute to the past and looks forward to the future, and excellent technical work on the part of Coogler and the rest of the production team, all of which far outweigh the film’s perhaps excessive runtime caused by some mildly unnecessary additions to the plot. This currently sits in my top five films of the year. I anticipate some of the more “film-y” films to knock it out by the time it’s all said and done, but this was a phenomenal time. Go see it if you have the opportunity.