Empire of Light

Movie: Empire of Light

Nominated for: Cinematography

How I watched: HBOMax

When I fell asleep: I did not

When it had me: Olivia Colman

When it lost me: Confusion over themes

What systems does it challenge: Racism, Supremacy, Misogyny

Content Warning: Mental Health Crisis, Hate crimes

Here's what I know. Every time Roger Deakins shoots a movie, he gets nominated. Fifteen nominations in 18 years. Is it reflexive at this point? Probably not?  But I can't point to anything special in this movie. It looks wonderful! But it doesn't stand out for its pastels like All Quiet on the Western Front, or its rich color and texture like Elvis, or its sparsely controlled visuals like Tar, or its grandiosity like Bardo. I'm honestly frustrated with myself for having an MFA in Film Production at not being better at spotting talent in this category.

Olivia Colman is unbelievably engaging in this film, as always, and I was invested and cared for the characters and their lives. Even so, something fell short in the assembly of talents here and didn't congeal into the masterpiece it felt like this should have been. Maybe it tried to be about too many things all at once? Racism, sexism, mental health, romance and friendship, changing times and stubborn truths and, of course, the movies. The film just struggled with juggling it all.

It's still a good watch with good performances. I guess I just expected more. 

The Whale

Movie: The Whale

Nominated for: Best Actor

How I watched: AMC

When I fell asleep: No

When it had me: Small moments of truth

When it lost me: Big moments of statement

What systems does it challenge: Religion

Content Warning: Suicide, Abuse

I felt very smug about realizing this was based on a play about 15 minutes into it. It just reeks of the stage, and in some ways suffers form the fact that plays somehow lose their magic quality by being put on the screen. 

That said, it is successful as a movie, as well. The writing comes close to being overly simplistic and too broad, but I think they manage to pull through without losing too much to those tendencies. This is about trauma and its rippling effect on the world around the traumatized, It's about defeat and loneliness and also about the things we hold onto when we are drowning; hope, art, sustenance, fantasy.

Brendan Fraser is really great in this performance and Hong Chau almost steals the show with her conflicted, exhausted and reluctantly deeply caring character. Sadie Sink felt out of her element and I don't know if that was due to her choices or the direction.

I can't decide how I feel about the use of fat suits and make up prosthetics on screen. Many believe that it's essentially akin to black face and must stop. Others think actors need to be allowed to act and take on traits that are different than their own in order to tell a story. I know I don't want gay actors to be told they can only play gay characters, so I err on the side of letting people perform. But I'm open to hearing more opinions on this matter, if anyone wants to talk!

 

Triangle of Sadness

Movie: Triangle of Sadness

Nominated for: Best Picture

How I watched: Prime

When I fell asleep: Third Act

When it had me: comedy

When it lost me: Third Act

What systems does it challenge: Billionaires, Capitalism, Socialism and Communism

Content Warning: I don't know

This movie had a very funny trailer that turned out to mostly be the first scene in the film. Then it had a few other funny scenes and then it seemed to just kind of simmer without going in a particular direction. Then I fell asleep.

To be fair, I attempted three screenings in one day on that particular occasion and this was the last of them, so it was not ideal. I tried to move from one spot to another, grab a snack, check in with my co-screeners. It was no use. I couldn’t stay awake. After, when I quizzed them about the third act, which I missed entirely, they dutifully recited a list of plot points and then shrugged. Not enough to convince me that I had missed the best picture of the year, so I'm not going back.

The highlight for me was when a communist and a socialist argue by looking up competing quotes on their phones, while failing to do anything about the very present and actual crisis that is endangering them in real time. I mean, it seems as if it had something to say at any rate.

This is not a great review. Sorry.

The Batman

Movie: The Batman

Nominated for: Best Sound, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects

How I watched: Regal

When I fell asleep: Oh, yeah, for a bit

When it had me:

When it lost me: a lot

What systems does it challenge: Organized Crime, corruption

Content Warning: Brooding! (JK)

I saw it so long ago. What do I remember first? It was too long! Two hours and 56 minutes! I was mad before I arrived.

Pattinson was fine; the casting felt mostly great for this. They went very noir which I should have loved. The visuals were pretty stunning. So why didn't I like it?

It was a noir mystery wrapped inside a mafia movie and shoved into a comic book superhero franchise. It's a cinematic turducken! Which, I guess is just too much for me to swallow. This movie wasn't too long because they couldn't make decisions in the editing room, it was too long because the couldn't make decisions in the writing room. They crammed too much plot in which made the whole thing feel messy to me. That being said, it is deserving of its nominations and maybe deserving of a second look from me some day? Maybe, maybe not.

All That Breathes

Movie: All That Breathes

Nominated for: Best Documentary Feature

How I watched: HBO Max

When I fell asleep: No

When it had me: Care for Birds

When it lost me: Not really

What systems does it challenge: War, oppression, Planet abuse

Content Warning: Animal Harm

This film had careful attention to shot selection, lively and interesting subjects, precise editing and content that draws you in. Add them together and you get a really lovely meditation on the meaning of life.

This deals with pollution and bird rescue in Mumbai. In the background are political unrest, humans vs. environment, deep friendship and what it takes to keep hope and continue striving.

With a high emphasis on shots with reflections, including many that juxtapose human and animal struggle within the same frame and one that made me gasp with its gorgeous capture of a plane reflected in a field of trash, you are constantly invited to see the world from a new perspective or in a way you hadn't considered before.

There is struggle, sadness, anxiety and hope and intermingled very masterfully. I've been waiting for a gem! I found one!

To Leslie

Movie: To Leslie

Nominated for: Best Actress

How I watched: Apple TV

When I fell asleep: Nope

When it had me: Royal

When it lost me: Acting in one scene

What systems does it challenge: Is alcoholism a system?

Content Warning: Addiction 

A super small move that packs a big emotional punch, this had great performances throughout. We've all seen movies about addiction but this movie tries to offer us something new but highlighting the opposite of addiction, which is connection. 

There are connections that serve us and those that very much do not. There are connections that you can never escape and those that you would never want to. There are connections that make perfect sense and some that leave you scratching your head. In the end, the choices you make about where to connect and where to disconnect can make or break your life.

One character, Royal, really elevated the movie for me. Without him it would have been a fine movie with plenty to offer but including him added mystery, concern, humor, heart and surprise. It felt like a lesson for me as a perpetually new-at-this screenwriter. Include some weirdness in your otherwise predictable drama; it can boost everything around it.

There was controversy about this film's nomination. I don't feel that Andrea Riseborough doesn't deserve the nomination, but I still feel like Viola Davis is woefully absent.

Fire of Love

Movie: Fire of Love

Nominated for: Best Documentary

How I watched: Disney+

When I fell asleep: nah

When it had me: great style!

When it lost me: not really

What systems does it challenge: Traditional Living

Content Warning: some animal and human harm

This documentary had a great style and pacing! I was really blown away by what the team that made this accomplished because it really felt like a team effort. I could see the hours of pulling footage for just the right moments, hours of tracking down stock footage to fill in as needed, hours of aligning images, animating footage, editing, editing, editing! Wow!

There was the most beautifully animated moment. It showed that the couple grew up close to each other and said, "Both were dreaming while the plates beneath them shifted imperceptibly." (It was something like that, I'm quoting from memory.) You saw a sort of cartoon image of their homes, in a quiet town and all of the layers of the earth in motion. It was the single most romantic and remarkable line of almost any movie I have seen this year.

It has quirk, great footage and a unique story, excellently presented. Great film! 

Living

Movie: Living

Nominated for: Best Actor

How I watched: Pasadena's new Landmark Theatre, the last screening for this film

When I fell asleep: I did not

When it had me: Credit sequence opened with a bang!

When it lost me: It did not

What systems does it challenge: White Supremacy

Content Warning: Nah

Based on: Akira Kuroasawa's Ikiru

Living was a really good watch, start to finish. The opening credits were a throwback to the 1950s. That's when the movie was set and presenting it like a movie of that era helped to establish the world immediately. Bill Nighy was really fantastic throughout and I felt throughout that the director always knew where he was taking us and how we would get there. And guys, it's under 2 hours!

I'm going to tell you that the movie is about divesting from white supremacy because that's how I received it. I wouldn't be surprised if that not what most people saw. Bill Nighy receives some news that shakes up his world and encourages him to make changes.

He begins as a quintessential supremacist. Not in the active sense that his life is about denying rights to others, but in the passive sense. He has bought into the system and all that it trains us to be and he doesn't ask questions. He is the head of a county department. He is respected/feared/disliked for his work and that's as it should be. In his position he creates bureaucratic red tape to slow down progress and change or to occasionally halt it all together, forever watch guarding the status quo. Conformity is important, as all that work in his world wear bowler hats and nearly identical suits. Emotion is eschewed and there is no hint of self expression in his life. He's a perfect englishman.

Once he knows he wants to and needs to change he begins to break the rules and drop all of the lessons of a supremacist empire. He admits to not having answers, he asks for help. He engages in self expression through song. He loses the bowler hat and decides he is fine with nonconformity. He behaves (somewhat frivolously) and seeks guidance and companionship. 

And finally, he decides to no longer stand in the way of progress. These changes are not always huge but they are hugely significant in the hands of Bill Nighy. There is a great deal of humor and care in the story. Characters are treated with a certain amount of love even when they are in the wrong. It all boils down to one question; what does it mean to live?

The more I write about it, the more I think I really loved this movie. I haven't seen the original version but I'll be sure to seek it out now.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Movie: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature

How I watched: Prime

When I fell asleep: I wish

When it had me: No!

When it lost me: Before it began

What systems does it challenge: Social Media, ?

Content Warning: I don't know

When I saw the trailer for this film last year I felt a sinking feeling. It looked like it was an animated movie that was different enough to garner a nomination and I was right. In my mind, it was going to be some kind of experimental, imaginative French film and I wasn't particularly interested. I would have preferred the experimental French version in my head to the movie I watched yesterday. I think I have trouble connecting to animation, so part of this is my fault. Let me just own up to that right from the start.

This movie was absolute torture for me. I found the voice of the titular character really annoying. I struggled with any kind of logic to what the Shell actually was and what it was capable of. He understands jail, but not cities. Bread never molds in his world. He is sometimes capable of extraordinary feats of engineering and yet incapable of simple tasks.

At first I thought he was a hermit crab but he's more of a sentient craft project with a googly eye that has functional tear ducts. In his family there are also Chex mix cereal squares (and an unused tampon!) so are they just inanimate objects possessed by spirits or demons? The movie made me feel dark thoughts, so I naturally I tried to find dark answers.

The overall theme seems to be one of community vs. isolation, which is a very worthy topic for our time. But I really got nothing out of it. I would love to hear from people who liked this movie so I can get a clearer picture of how to view it.

Aftersun

Movie: Aftersun

Nominated for: Best Actor

How I watched: Prime

When I fell asleep: nah

When it had me: small moments of connection

When it lost me: cuts to a rave?

What systems does it challenge: unclear

Content Warning: Mental Health, possible self harm

This movie was a sweet poem about a vacation for a dad and his 11 year old daughter. That's it. It's really all you get.

You begin to feel that this particular vacation may have been the last and thus has gained particular importance, but you never understand why. There are lots of interesting shots and lovely moments. It wasn't a hard watch by any means. It was just a little trip for you to take.

Decision to Leave

Movie: Decision to Leave

Nominated for: Best International Film

How I watched: Prime

When I fell asleep: I nodded off midday! But I recovered

When it had me: stunning visual style

When it lost me: ?

What systems does it challenge: marriage, perhaps?

Content Warning: Suicide

Decision to Leave is part crime drama and part romance. The crime drama portion uses the stunning visuals I mentioned above. Lots of interesting ways to show the main detective investigating and interacting with evidence and suspects. We get a glimpse inside the mind of this capable detective at work. One transition in particular made me gasp out loud...what can I say? Once an editor, always impressed with juxtaposed footage. It's that feeling when the work is so good, you wish you had done it.

There are many characters who grapple with the "decision to leave" in a variety of ways; leaving a marriage, a job, a city, a country, or even their life. Even so, I felt the more central issue of the film was desire. What does a life look like without desire versus with it? How do you handle desire when it surprises you? What will it drive you to do? How does it affect you to feel desire or to feel desired?

The story was a fun journey for me. I was never quite sure what was coming next and the surprises were enjoyable. It feels like one that I will keep thinking about.

Close

Movie: Close

Nominated for: Best International Film

How I watched: AMC

When I fell asleep: my eyelids grew heavy in the third act

When it had me: beautiful french country side

When it lost me: sports!

What systems does it challenge: Patriarchy

Content Warning: Homophobia, Self Harm

This movie is about a sweet relationship between two teen boys, gone wrong. It's a sad movie and it's not very long. It is very slow and ponderous and it doesn't state much of anything outright. It just leaves you to think about the relationships. I like this about International films, for sure, but the spareness of this one gave me so much time to think, I started thinking about to do lists instead.

For some reason we spent a lot of time watching one kid play sports. Like, a lot of time. I grew impatient with it.

This sort of felt like a short film that was stretched out as far as it could go. The imagery was beautiful and much care was taken with the emotional threads, but in the end it fell a bit short for me.

RRR

Movie: RRR

Nominated for: Best Original Song

How I watched: Netflix

When I fell asleep: Impossible

When it had me: From the start

When it lost me: I don't believe it did

What systems does it challenge: Imperialism

Content Warning: British Supremacy, Abuse, Some animal violence (but you are pre-warned it is all CGI)

This movie really won the hearts of my whole family. My husband's colleague recommended it and we LOVED it. It is a Tollywood film so you know to expect magical realism, big fights, big dances and epic stories. RRR delivers on all of that with extremely charismatic actors, absolutely insane "stunts" and a really kickass score.

The film is about two famous real life heroes of Indian rebellion and asks the question, what if they had met, become besties or even platonic soul mates? It manages to be laugh out loud funny at times, deeply disturbing at other times while always maintaining the highest of stakes and the whole way through, you just can't wait to see what happens next!

This film has already been rewatched at my house an alarming number of times for how long it is. It's looooooong. Three hours and 7 minutes. (Which in this case, does not make me angry; they pack a ton of story in!)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Movie: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song, Best MakeUp and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects

How I watched: AMC, a long time ago

When I fell asleep: I did not

When it had me: Beautiful Visuals

When it lost me: The fights

What systems does it challenge: I'm not clear

Content Warning: I don't think so (It's been a while since I saw it.)

This movie felt as if they had a script all ready to go and then something tragic happened and they had to throw out that script and come up with a new one, with a  new main character in a short span of time. Which, is what happened.

The movie gives us a very lovely memorial to Chadwick Boseman and his character, gorgeous visuals, wonderful characters, well-acted, a lovely world to return to and beyond all of that, kind of a jumbled mess.

There was a lot of interesting stuff in the film that really had me bought in but in the end felt unresolved. Issues of Faith and Science and how they compliment each other and when they don't. Can you lead a people when you don't share their faith? Can faith look different to a scientist but still be valid? Really cool content and I don't know what decision the character made about it in the film.

There was deep, engaging conversation between the main character and the villain. How do you protect resources? Are you ethically required to share them? Where does protection cross over into needless aggression? These two people were communicating and seeming to hear each other on very nuanced matters and then minutes later they were fighting to the death and it wasn't clear to me why the conversation even stopped.

It was a jumble of good and baffling moments with a weird tacked on Martin Freeman story line added in. 

What felt like the biggest dramatic movement of the film actually happened in the end credit scene, which was, again, baffling.

I'm very sorry for this family of film makers to not only have lost someone so dear to them but then to also be required to keep to a schedule that might have made this follow up not nearly as amazing as it could have been.

 

Navalny

Movie: Navalny

Nominated for: Best Documentary Feature

How I watched: HBO Max

When I fell asleep: once toward the end

When it had me: Contemporaneous Footage

When it lost me: It didn't

What systems does it challenge: Putin

Content Warning: I don't think so.

I knew Alexei Navalny was Putin's most vocal/most famous critic. I knew there had been an attempt on his life and that he ended up in a Russian prison. This documentary covers that whole period with up close and personal footage from his family and supporters and is filled with surprises.

I LOVE a good investigation and this move includes one with some jaw dropping results. It's that moment where I think how did this documentary film maker luck into this story!

Getting to know the Navalny's was interesting. They were different than I would have supposed; more western and less ruffled by the life threatening danger they face. There were insights into Alexei, the politician, but in some ways the movie provided more questions than answers. It feels certain that if he survives and Putin doesn't, he will lead Russia one day. But that feels a long way off.

This was a very satisfying watch.

Babylon

Movie: Babylon

Nominated for: Best Costumes, Best Production Design, Best Original Score

How I watched: Apple TV

When I fell asleep: I think I drifted at the very end

When it had me: a scene about filming with sound

When it lost me: the trailer

What systems does it challenge: I can't tell if it is challenging or celebrating systems

Content Warning: Self Harm, Addiction, Non-Consensual Acts, Rape, Abuse, Mental Health 

This movie was THREE HOURS and NINE MINUTES! I'm furious.

When I saw the trailer with its frenetic style and the celebration of debauchery, I inwardly cringed. I was worried that this was going to be one of those movies where debauchery was the whole point. After watching the movie, I'm still not clear about the whole point. 

The film begins with a party that assaults your senses with an absolute barrage of insanity and all of that promised debauchery. It feels gleeful and celebratory. It feels like I should be longing for the good old days of the wild beginnings of Hollywood. Yes, a woman is murdered and it will be covered up and yes, property is being destroyed, and yes, addiction is running dangerously rampant but look how free everyone is! Look at the unrepressed dancing! So I'm confused about whether Hollywood is the protagonist or the antagonist. I think it's both in this film and that is why it is unfortunate to sit through three hours of a movie that is fighting itself.

There was a similar confusion around Margot Robbie's character for me. There is no better description for her in almost every role than the Manic Pixie Nightmare Girl and here she was turned up to 11. Is she a poor girl, bent on stardom that is being abused by Hollywood or is she a monster that grabs at everything around her without asking for permission first? I feel like we should care about what happens to her but she doesn't care about anything so maybe not?

We see the circus-like atmosphere of shooting silent film with no regulation, protection or unions. Everyone is in constant danger, people are dying and being replaced and none of it matters but the dying of the light. It's grotesque and awful, really. But it's also presented in a slapstick way with a shrug of the shoulders and a shake of the head, almost as if to say, "It was crazy, right? These guys were legends for working like this!"

I will say that I absolutely loved the sequence where they try to shoot a film with sound for the first time. Here's a sequence where I think they got the balance correct. This was a lovely short film about the trials of film making with all of its love, hate and mania. Everyone is struggling and hating each other until they finally get the take right and then they celebrate like a family. The punchline is that somebody died while they were getting it right. It's sort of presented like a joke where at the end you shrug and say, "Eh, that's the business, right?" It works so well.

But please don't make the whole movie a cute little joke about Hollywood. You are asking me to sit for three hours! Please make it something more.

By the end of the film I started to think a decision had been made. The film makers now want me to understand that Hollywood is bad because it destroys people but THAT message just made me wish I was watching Nope again. Jordan Peele knew how to tell THAT story with rich metaphor and no ambiguity.

It was TOO long and I was disappointed.

Women Talking

Movie: Women Talking

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay

How I watched: AMC

When I fell asleep: nah

When it had me: dropping truth bombs

When it lost me: a song cue

What systems does it challenge: Patriarchy, Religion

Content Warning: Sexual Assault, Domestic and Religious Abuse, Self Harm

Based on: Women Talking by Miriam Toews

I was raised with misogyny. It's baked into my bones. When I heard the title of this movie, I responded with the appropriate knee jerk reaction; "ugh, that sounds boring". Because women talking must be either useless prattle or a hyper-sensitive nag session. I see it in myself now and I am able to redirect my thoughts, but it galls me that my first instinct is to say the thing that makes me aligned with those who have more power.

The movie is an excellent argument against my learned reaction because it proves the importance of women talking. Women talking leads to catching predators, support and healing, expressing fears, processing emotions, planning for the future, envisioning a better world. Women talking is good everywhere but essential under a system of oppression.

The acting is searingly good, the movie clips along at a nice pace and we are afforded some wonderful visuals. However, the magic for me was in the nuggets of truth about sexual assault. One woman describes the crime against her as "a banishment from what's real" another claims that worse than the assault was that "they made us disbelieve ourselves." Trauma and betrayal are expressed her in poetry and in scalding honesty.

There are small callbacks to their assault; the severity of their experience is not downplayed but the viewer is saved from having to wallow in the violence and trauma of those events. Their is pain and confusion in the women's responses to their treatment but the focus if the film is forward looking, philosophical and honest.

The conversation covers a seemingly endless sea of angles on misogyny, rape and systems of power. It covers victim blaming and not-all-men and forgiveness versus revenge, anger, depression, helplessness and empowerment. And the note I left with was one of gratitude to have listened to women talking for almost two hours without interruption. They didn't have to face their attackers, suffer new attack, manage defensive responses, shield themselves from backlash, justify their accounts or modulate their tone to suit someone else. I just got to hear Women Talking and witness the importance of that simple yet radical act.

Watching people sit and talk is not exactly cinematic by design but somehow Sarah Polley makes it really work. The movie clocks in at under two hours and you know I love that! This would be a top pick for editing if it were up to me. It's not cutting tons of action but it is its own unique challenge and it was done well.

Blonde

Movie: Blonde

Nominated for: Best Actress

How I watched: Netflix

When I fell asleep: at the very end

When it had me: Just never

When it lost me: Every turn

What systems does it challenge: Golden Age Hollywood, Patriarchy

Content Warning: Suicide, Rape, Child Abuse, Forced Medical Procedures

Based On: Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (a work of historical fiction)

I'm going to write this review as I watch.

Oh, baby Jesus! This movie is 2 hours and 47 minutes. I'm so angry!

We begin with trauma dumping. From child abuse to assault-as-dues into the industry, setting up Marilyn's fragility in some stilted and awkward ways.

Ana de Armas sounds nothing like Marilyn but she has captured a vibe. She's playing Marilyn as an exposed nerve, like an actual electrical filament that is sparking and twitching from feeling too much and healing too little. She is vulnerable, needy and electric. It's so gross that everyone is going to just grab on to her and touch her to make themselves feel something.

So far the movie has no score. It is spare and bleak and numbing. It feels like I'm sleep walking and I can't take 3 hours of this. Oh no, more male control and abuse! That turns into a kaleidoscopic menage a trois?! Wow, this shit is weird. We're doing an imaginary spaced out relationship thing.

There's a little synth score. Kind of white noise/mood. So many places to cut! I'm re-editing as I go. I am SO bored.

Hey! I didn't guess this movie would have a POV shot from Marilyn's cervix! I wonder if we'll be returning to that one later? (yes)

It's historical FICTION, I just found out! Gods damn it. I'm stuck back in the movie Spencer, all over again.

They are playing Marilyn as an absolute idiot. It's difficult. This movie feels abusive. Maybe that's the point? But I don't like it. The Whitney Houston movie really loved Whitney, which felt right. I don't know what this is.

It's funny that Marilyn only owns one pair of pants in this movie. To be clear, they are GREAT pants.

Each scene, grosser than the last.

Holy shit, her fetus is talking to her. Out loud! Sorry for the spoiler, but it's kind of important that you do not watch this movie.

This movie is obsessed with "daddy issues". Getting more surreal now; faces with enlarged mouths, speeding through footage, locations changing mid scene, Marilyn vomiting onto the camera lens. The stuff with JFK is super disgusting. I feel sick. Who actually watched this? How did it get nominated?

So bloated and troubling. I fell asleep with my cats and had to rewind for the last two minutes. Thank the gods it's over.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Movie: Avatar: The Way of Water

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects

How I watched: AMC Dolby, with the seats that shake a little so you don't fall asleep! Smart.

When I fell asleep: Nope

When it had me: Zoe Saldana

When it lost me: Often

What systems does it challenge: Invasion, Colonization, Genocide

Content Warning: Animal Harm

Overall, I would say this is a fine movie that didn't need to be quite so overblown. I didn't hate it but, even so, right now I can mostly only think of complaints.

The visuals looked like a video game to me. I remember Avatar (the first one) feeling like a real place but maybe that is just a weird memory. I wasn't blown away by new vistas on Pandora because it just felt like a (really good) game.

I got confused by the lack of concern about mining, stealing of resources and invasion in this movie. The only concern was one family hiding. They didn't clarify if the fight would continue in their absence.

There was a slightly patriarchal vibe. Jake is kind of a typical American father that rules from a grumpy place of fear. I guess it makes sense given his background, but they have always driven home how adaptable he is and able to grow and change with new influences. Just not in this particular case, I guess. 

The story line I found most engaging was of a character, Miri, who has a mysterious origin and some interesting and as yet, untested, powers. I'm intrigued by her, so that's something positive!

My favorite scene by far was one of Zoe Saldana kicking ass.

Do I even have to mention that it was too long? Everyone! Just go cut 30 minutes out of your movie! If you've never made a movie, just cut 30 minutes out of ANY movie! Better yet, give the movies to me! Let me show you how to make them shorter! Please!

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Movie: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Nominated for: Best Animated Feature

How I watched: Netflix

When I fell asleep: I wish

When it had me: Italy

When it lost me: too many pinocchios!

What systems does it challenge: Fascism

I am so tired of watching Pinocchio movies. There have been at least 24 film versions made and three of them were released in 2022! There was one made in 2019 and it feels like I just watched it last year. I swear that supply is higher than demand, at least in my household.

What's the same this time? Pinocchio is annoying! He's always naive and carefree in the most dangerous and self-centered manner and spends the majority of the film making the absolute worst decisions. He gets warned about consequences and ignores them over and over again and then fixes it in the last ten minutes. I understand that this is analogous to children and their process of learning their place in the world or growing a superego to balance out their id, but at this point I just seethe at Pinocchio because I've seen this story so many times! How has he not learned yet???

What's different this time? Del Toro's story takes some departures from what you've seen before and links the story to the fascism in Italy during WWII. This gave it some depth (and sadly, relevance) and made it more interesting that a simple re-telling of the Disney movie. The naivete of the main character almost serves as a shield against the virus of fascism. If someone hasn't bought into any systems yet, then I suppose, they are less susceptible to falling in line with peer pressure and political manipulation. Maybe Del Toro is telling us that children will save us from fascism. I'm raising some of Gen Z and I admit to clinging to that hope with him.

In other news Cate Blanchett pulls an Alan Tudyk and voices a monkey that only communicates in grunts, growls and whimpers. So that's something.

Some of the rules set up by this version felt shaky and the movie even ends on a question. Rather than feeling like a whimsical open ending that allows you to decide something for yourself, it felt like the story teller gave up. It was like, "Well, our story ends here, we never decided where this was going." Kind of a weak way to go out if you ask me, but I'm not a fan of ambiguous endings in general.