Tag Archives: Movie reviews

In Defense of Pixar’s Elio

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The next Disney/Pixar movie, Elio, released on June 20th and by all accounts had dismal first weekend earnings. This can be attributed to several things, no doubt. For one, I’ve seen many complaints about the lack of marketing. I’ll be honest, I saw a decent amount of marketing for the movie, including internet ads and the trailer. But I suppose I’m not a good sample because I am chronically on the Disney+ app or watching reruns of Phineas and Ferb and The Owl House on the Disney Channel. In other words, I’m a massive Disney nerd and I always know about every single new release they have. On the other hand, apparently the average adult movie goer did not see much marketing and was barely aware what Elio was, let alone when it was releasing.

This has been a problem with a lot of media lately. Not just from Disney, though it is a major problem at Disney, which has seemed lately to be reluctant to market its Pixar releases. But its been a problem with a lot of recent productions, both film and television. I think, for instance, about a lot of Netflix releases that have come and gone almost without any notice at all. Netflix makes something, refuses to market it in the slightest, and then complains that it did not perform well. Almost as if they are trying to tank some titles.

Anyway, that is certainly a contributing factor. However, as SF author John Scalzi very effectively argued in a thread on BlueSky, this has often been the case for animated science fiction movies. Many excellent animated SF movies have underperformed in the box office through no fault of their own, for reasons I really cannot guess at.

So, for those who maybe weren’t aware this movie existed, or did not feel another underperforming Disney/Pixar movie is worth your time, let me just say: ELIO IS VERY GOOD, ACTUALLY.


I don’t always love what Disney has been doing lately, creatively or politically or economically. For instance, I’ve seen reports that Disney execs made significant last minute changes to Elio to remove a queer character. I hate that. But I’m not surprised by it. In the last few years, Disney has been backtracking the very LITTLE progress they had made in LGBTQ representation very quickly. I don’t like it, but I’m used to it. And while that frustrates me, I do not believe it takes away from the ways in which Elio was genuinely very good. It is beautifully animated, emotionally resonant, and just plain fun.

The basic premise is this: middle-schooler Elio’s parents have recently died (in an unspecified accident). Elio has gone to live with his aunt who works for the Air Force as a space debris analyst and hopes one day to join NASA. Elio is… an odd child, a quirky loner. His aunt feels overwhelmed and conflicted. He feels unwanted and alone. After sneaking into a museum exhibit about the Voyager Space Probe (narrating, to my delight, by Kate Mulgrew, Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager in Star Trek), Elio decides that aliens exist and will surely want him if no one else does. Thus launches his quest, aided by ham radio, enormous rock signals on the beach, and much mischief, to get himself abducted. To everyone’s shock, he succeeds! He makes contact with a group of alien ambassadors who mistake him for the leader of planet Earth. A series of misunderstandings, well-intentioned lies, and general shenanigans ensure. Elio makes friends, his aunt learns to appreciate his quirks, and several crises are averted.


Much like Lilo & Stitch (the original, not the abysmal live action), this movie is about the value of family, the importance of being yourself no matter the opposition, and learning not only to accept but to celebrate diversity, individuality, and general WEIRDNESS. It’s also about the wonder and potential of exploration and space flight, and the endless possibilities of life elsewhere. (It would also be amazing if the movie reignited interest in ham radio, as Contact a few decades ago, lol).

It was a delightful and joyful movie. I got uncomfortably emotional at parts (largely pertaining to wanting to go into space; see my review of Atmosphere for a similar discussion… In fact, the weird resonance between the two was unintentional and surprising). I really hope that people (particularly families) sit up and take notice before its too late.

Movie Review: BARBIE

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Official film poster

The Barbie movie from director Greta Gerwig and lead actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was actually shockingly good. I remember being amused by the trailers, and increasingly excited by the reviews (including the whiny male-tears reviews which made me cackle), but I wanted to go into the movie without too high of an expectation. I’ve been disappointed by hype before. But in fact, it was a bit better than I was even expecting.

Visually, it’s stunning. The set, prop, and costume design were impeccable. I don’t know how they made everything really look like giant life-size versions of plastic toys, but they did. The colors are amazing. And even in the switch from “Barbie Land” to the “Real World” the cinematography remains bright and light, even while giving way to more realistic color palettes and lighting choices.

opening scene of Barbie movie, with 2001: A Space Odyssey homage

It was also, frankly, hilarious. I laughed so much, folks. So much. I want to talk about this without giving too much away (but it has been out for a few weeks now so I feel some spoilers are inevitable). Let me just say, the movie opens with a sequence that references (nearly shot for shot in some places) to 2001: A Space Odyssey, with Barbie as the black monolith. I immediately cracked up. That was all I needed. The movie had me from that point on. But it kept getting funnier. One thing I appreciated was the layering of humor. There were parts that were clearly meant to be funny to kids, and some sequences that even straight (well-adjusted) men could find amusing. And then there were all the bits that felt like they were just for me. For left-leaning, adult women who grew up with Barbies and understood the dozens and dozens of references that would go right over the heads of younger girls and were probably too niche for other adults. I was probably the person in the theatre laughing the loudest (this is a fairly common occurrence for me, to be fair. I was by far the loudest laugher in the theatre when I saw The Emperor’s New Groove, for instance).

I also think the movie was very smart and genuine. Earnest even, underneath all the jokes and slapstick comedy.

I’ve been paying attention to a lot of the criticisms and complaints about the movie. Obviously, there’s all the conservative straight (mostly white) men so entangled in their own toxic masculinity and patriarchal power, and crying their pathetic man tears over the awful man-hating “woke” movie. And I have nothing to say to or about those people. I’m not wasting my energy on that. But there have also been critiques from the other side of the aisle, from leftist feminist women complaining that the movie is too simplistic, or dumbed-down, or doesn’t push far enough, etc. And that actually bugs me a little.

Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling)

Is the movie particularly nuanced? Of course not. It’s not an academic article on gender theory by Judith Butler. It’s not out here trying to be the next Feminine Mystique, or break new ground in feminist thought. It’s a big-budget summer blockbuster aimed mostly at kids and young women, about a toy, paid for by Mattel. But looked at from that angle – from the angle of a movie built largely to make money, produced by MATTEL – than you have to admit that it’s shockingly smart, with a genuinely good argument/message, and that Greta Gerwig et. al. got a way with a lot. I mean, A LOT.

I mean! There’s a scene where Barbie is shocked to discover the CEO of Mattel is a man, and that there are no men in positions of power in the company. To which the CEO responds (I’m paraphrasing here): “I love women! I’m the son of a woman! I’m the… nephew of an aunt! Some of my best friends are… Jewish!” Clearly highlighting the way he’s so busy trying to defend himself for doing/saying something offensive that he’s forgotten which (of many, no doubt) offensive thing he’s done this time that needs defending. I died laughing.

I’ll also add that while the focus of the movie and the messaging is clearly (and rightfully) on women, their struggles, their pain, their gaze, the movie also still manages to convey the idea that patriarchy and toxic masculinity are just as damaging for the men. None of the men in this movie (least of all Ken) is happy within this system. And the movie is clearly pointing out that they don’t have to feel that way, or live that way!

Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Gloria (America Ferrara)

But America Ferrara’s speech in the last third of the movie was genuinely powerful, and moving, and absolutely stole the show. I saw this movie with my mother, and she absolutely cried during that speech. And she’s a boomer!

Even my brother, who was by far not the target-audience and only came with me out of boredom, admitted that it was funny and enjoyable. Truly, the only demographic who are really not going to like this movie are the thin-skinned white men who are happy to remain in the chokehold of toxic masculinity and enjoy the unjust power that patriarchy has given them. And, frankly, if that’s you, I’d be shocked you’re reading my blog at all. Otherwise, I feel fairly confident that you’ll find the movie at least amusing, if not outright amazing.

(Side note: also, all the memes have been GLORIOUS online.)

Movie Review: Strange World

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Today, I want to talk a bit about Strange World, Disney’s newest full-length animated feature film.

Strange World released last November, and it did not do well in theatres. Very few people went to see it, which is a shame. Admittedly, I didn’t see it in theatres either. I waited until it was on Disney+ because of the continuing pandemic issues (which are particularly bad here in Texas where the idiots live). But from what I’ve heard the biggest problem was the lack of proper marketing/publicity. No one knew the movie existed! Or when it was out in theatres! There were almost no commercials for it on tv, only a handful of ads on places like Youtube (where most people still skip ads), no merchandise tie-ins with McDonalds or toys released ahead of the movie (which is standard practice! Sometimes the toys start popping up a full 6 months or year before the movie comes out!). NOTHING.

It is believed by many (including me) that this was probably an intentional decision by some of the higher-ups at Disney. ‘Cause here’s the thing: Strange World features the first interracial married couple/family in a full-length Disney animated film. It features a gay main character, whose gayness is not remarked on by a single other person in the movie as anything but completely normal (though I will say that after the fact, I saw several articles claiming that this was Disney’s ‘first gay romance’ and it is no such thing. That is really overstating the matter. The character IS gay. It’s not subtext. He very clearly states that he has a crush on a boy. But that element is background detail to the actual plot. There’s no ‘romance’ involved). It also features a plot that is a very blunt, hard-hitting, unapologetic allegory for our current environmental crisis and our over-reliance on fossil fuels.

Certain parts of Disney audiences (such as me) have been demanding, for years, better representation and diversity in Disney films, which Disney higher-ups have been pushing back against in various ways — mostly due to a fear of losing more conservative audiences in the US, and the entirety of the very lucrative and very conservative Chinese markets. It’s all about the money.

So, Disney finally gives us what we’ve been asking for, a very diverse and progressive story in which they clearly told the animators: “have fun! Go nuts!” and the animators totally brought it. And then they don’t ADVERTISE THE MOVIE AT ALL. And, unsurprisingly, the movie TANKS at the box office because no one knows it exists. But now Disney can point to the abysmal sales and wave their hands and say: “see! You said you wanted this, but then no one came to watch it and it failed, which means no one really wanted it at all and we can go back to what we were doing! We tried! Really! It’s not our fault the market isn’t there for this kind of thing! Back to the old standbys!”

The Disney higher-ups wanted it to fail, so that they would have an excuse to not do it again. I firmly believe that. And it’s a shame because the actual creators: the writers, the animators, the voice actors, etc. absolutely WANT to do this kind of thing, and want it to work and do well. And frankly, they KILLED it with this movie. It’s fucking GREAT. AND NO ONE SAW IT.

Let me expound on the actual movie now, for a bit.

Strange World, Disney’s 61st animated feature film, was written by Qui Nguyen, directed by Don Hall, and stars Jake Gyllenhall, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, and Lucy Liu. The first thing that appealed to me when I finally DID see any trailers or commercials about this movie was the great 30s or 40s style pulp scifi feel of it. It’s even a hollow-earth story! And the movie as a whole really holds up to that early vibe.

The movie opens in Avolonia, a country completely isolated by surrounding impenetrable mountains, with an economy and culture that has grown stagnant. The great explorer Jaeger Clade (voiced by Quaid) has made it his mission to cross the wall of mountains to discover what exists beyond their lands, and bring new hope for the future to Avolonia. To that end, he drags his teenage son, Searcher (Gyllenhall), with him (very clearly against his will). But when Searcher discovers a strange plant in the mountains that releases electrical charges, he and the rest of their exploring crew realize that the plant is the key to their future prosperity and decide not to continue the journey. Infuriated, Jaeger continues on alone while Searcher returns home with the plant they call Pando.

Flash forward 25 years, and Searcher is a Pando farmer, who is regarded as a hero for bringing this plant back to Avolonia and thus ushering in a new era of modern technology including enormous airships and all the things one might expect with electrical power. His wife, Meridian (Union), and his son Ethan (Young-White) work the farm with him. However, Ethan longs for adventure, unknowingly very similar to Jaeger, the grandfather he has never met, and who is presumed dead somewhere in the mountains. Ethan also has a massive crush on his friend Diazo – a fact that is treated with the same kind of “isn’t he so cute” attitude as if the crush were a girl rather than a boy.

Everything changes when Callisto – once a member of Jaeger and Searcher’s exploring crew and now the President of Avolonia – arrives on a massive airship, and announces that Pando is dying. In order to save their way of life, Callisto asks Searcher (the expert on Pando) to travel with her to an enormous hole they have found in the mountains that appears to lead to a hollow-earth-type place and what they believe to be the SOURCE of Pando. Unsurprisingly, Ethan stows away, and Meridian follows, and when the airship descends into the hole to find a wondrous, bonkers world that exists beneath the mountains, the adventure really gets going.

From there, a lot happens. They are attacked by various creatures. They, of course, find Jaeger who has been trapped in the hollow earth for the last 25 years. Ethan becomes more and more enamored of adventuring, making Searcher feel as if he is being abandoned again, just like his father left him all those years ago. And throughout it all, there is a message of learning to coexist with the nature and creatures around you, rather than simply steamrolling over everything and believing you know what is best for the world. The conflict comes to a head when the travelers realize that Pando might be hurting everything, and will ultimately lead to their doom even if it is expedient in the interim, and must make a decision about how they will face the future not only for themselves but for all of their people.

It is not a subtle message. And frankly, GOOD ON THEM. Sometimes the themes need to be heavy-handed if you hope to get anyone to even notice, let alone pay attention. Especially these days. And it’s a message that works, and is worth hitting you over the head with.

On top of that, it’s also just a really fun movie! There’s a lot of humor and running gags throughout the movie. The family conflict between Jaeger, Searcher, and Ethan is touching, and relatable, and comes to a satisfying conclusion. The action sequences are enjoyable. And visually, it’s a joy to behold. Like I said, the studio clearly told the set and creature design animators to just got to town, go wild and they did not hold back! They went as bonkers as they could manage, and obviously had a blast doing it, and the visuals are just STUNNING. Colorful, and strange, and imaginative, and funny, and just so much fun.

So, all of this is just to say, essentially: if you missed out on this movie in theatres, like most of us did, and if you maybe didn’t even know it existed, I highly recommend you go check it out now! It’s on Disney+ right now. Make a family night of it – pop some popcorn, turn the lights down, grab the kids (if you have them, lol), or settle in by yourself with a glass of wine (like I did), and enjoy! I promise you won’t regret it!

Movie Review: Godmothered

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Last week I said I had a couple holiday movies I wanted to review, and I posted the first one (for Happiest Season), and then completely forgot to write the second one! So, here I present to you my movie review for the other new holiday movie I watched over Christmas break: Godmothered.

Godmothered is a Disney movie that was released directly to Disney+ on Dec 4th, starring Isla Fisher and Jillian Bell. It is clearly in the tradition of Disney holiday movies meant for whole families, and I frankly: I thought it was really REALLY cute!

The basic premise is this: Jillian Bell plays Eleanor, a fairy in training in “The Motherland” to become a Fairy Godmother, only she discovers that no new fairy has been made an official Godmother in YEARS because there are no more missions. And there are no more missions because people on Earth have stopped believing in magic and happily-ever-afters. The head-Godmother Moira, played by Jane Curtin (which was both strange and amusing), announces that the Motherland is officially going to be closed, and all fairies will be made into Tooth Fairies. Eleanor decides she won’t accept this: she finds a single mission, a wish from a little girl named Mackenzie, and goes to Earth to give Mackenzie a happy ending and prove that Godmothers are still needed.

Lo! And behold, however: the wish is old, and Mackenzie is now an adult woman with two children, working at a failing trash-news station. She is widowed, miserable, and has mostly checked out of her childrens’ lives. When Eleanor arrives, Mackenzie is understandably skeptical and then HORRIFIED when she discovers that Eleanor really IS magical. Mayhem and hijinks ensure, during which Eleanor decides that Mackenzie’s happily-ever-after must mean that she should fall in love with her attractive, charmingly-geeky coworker at the news station, aptly named Hugh PRINCE, who must SURELY be her TRUE LOVE. Eleanor causes several disasters and highly embarrassing situations (I am very sensitive to secondhand embarrassment and squirmed through a couple scenes). And the movie ends, of course, happily, but perhaps not in the way one might expect.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was sweet and charming and funny. Clearly, it must be safe for children, but I found for the most part that it played as much to adults who would understand and empathize with Mackenzie’s disillusionment with romance, happy endings, and life in general. Isla Fisher and Gillian Bell are wonderful in the movie. They’re funny and played off each other very well. Santiago Cabrera, who plays Hugh Prince, was (as I said) charmingly-geeky and adorably idealistic. Even the two children were pretty good (and I usually find child actors in these kinds of movies either FAR too twee, or just plain-old BAD). Quite a few scenes made me laugh out loud, and even the more cheesy scenes weren’t TOO cheesy. But what I really appreciated about this movie was the ENDING.

AND HERE WE GET INTO A SPOILER FOR THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE! CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

At the end of the movie, following all of Eleanor’s failed attempts to get Mackenzie and Hugh together in the belief that this is the ONLY TRUE Happily-Ever-After, Mackenzie comes to a realization. Eleanor has succeeded in giving her a Happily-Ever-After (despite Moira’s claims that she has failed and therefore the Motherland will close as planned), NOT because she’s in love with Hugh, but because she has reminded Mackenzie how to enjoy the small things in life, and helped her reconnect with her children. She announces (to a rather large audience) that her True Love is her CHILDREN, that they give her life meaning and happiness. She says that there is no single kind of True Love, and no single kind of Happily-Ever-After. And then the  camera pans to a father looking at his son, a grandson looking at his grandmother, etc etc etc. And folks it was FANTASTIC. It was such a great message! 

The movie hints to possible future development between Mackenzie and Hugh, but the happy ending does not HINGE on that fact AT ALL. And it was WONDERFUL.

So yeah… I really enjoyed this movie. I think it’s a great movie for families, and possibly also a great movie for adults who are perhaps lonely or disillusioned with life in general. At the very least, I bet it’ll make you smile for a little while! 

Movie Review: Happiest Season

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I haven’t been watching a ton of movies lately. Mostly, I’ve been re-watching the same dozen or so movies (mostly Disney movies) or tv shows over and over again for months, because it brings me comfort. I read something once about how people with severe anxiety tend to rewatch the same handful of things over and over again because you already know what’s going to happen and you don’t have to deal with the tension or fear of uncertainty, or cliffhangers, or whatever. I’d say this is pretty accurate. I also don’t really watch anything too dark or heavy lately, even if I have seen it before and know that it’ll end up ok. I’ve been sticking to gentler, happier things (don’t ask me how many times I have watched Hilda or Phineas & Ferb lately; the number has got to be in the dozens by now).

But I did watch two new holiday movies over Christmas, so I figured I might as well offer a couple movie reviews over the next few days.

The first is for Happiest Season, streaming on Hulu, and starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis. You probably saw commercials for this at some point, and possibly a bunch of people talking about it online right after it came out. (Ha! Came out! How apropos!). Happiest Season is a Christmas movie, first and foremost, and it is also one of a very small number of LGBT/queer holiday films. Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis play lesbian couple Abby and Harper. Abby doesn’t like Christmas, because it reminds her of her parents who died when she was 19. Harper wants to get her girlfriend into the holiday spirit and so invites her home for Christmas — only to reveal at the last possible second that she is not actually OUT to her family, and that Abby will have to pretend to just be a roommate Harper is bringing home because she had nowhere else to go for the holidays. All this deflates Abby’s plan to propose to Harper on Christmas eve.

As it turns out, Harper’s family are a) stinking filthy rich, b) politically-motivated (her father is running for mayor), and c) absolutely TERRIFYINGLY HORRIBLE PEOPLE. The parents, played by Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber and completely obsessed with giving the appearance of a perfect family (perfect, here, of course defined by very conservative values), and Harper and her three sisters are all back-biting bullies who are constantly fighting for supremacy and their father’s apparently-limited attention and love.

Meanwhile, poor Abby has been thrown to the wolves of this family with little warning or support from her girlfriend, who has turned into a completely different person before her eyes. Add in Harper’s ex-boyfriend, who clearly wants to rekindle their relationship (spurred on by Harper’s oblivious parents), and everything is sure to go to shit very quickly. In the middle of all this, Abby meets Harper’s ex-girlfriend Riley, played to perfection by Aubrey Plaza (can I just have a movie about HER character?), who knows well how Abby feels: she was likewise hidden away by Harper throughout their entire relationship, until Harper eventually outed Riley in a panic at the prospect of being caught.

So, let’s get down to brass tacks: I was so excited about the prospect of a qeer-women holiday movie when this first released, and  there are certainly parts of this movie I really liked. Kristen Stewart was wonderful in the role and she did a great job of coming across as sweet and earnest and more than a little heartbroken. Aubrey Plaza, as I said, was a delight. Probably the highlight of the whole film (unsurprisingly) was Dan Levy, playing Abby’s best friend. He’s saved from being the stereotypical token “sassy gay friend” by the fact that, of course, half the characters are gay. And, of course, because Dan Levy is just that FUNNY.

But it is flawed. The secondhand embarrassment of several scenes, when Abby is put in awkward situations, was so bad I literally couldn’t watch them. I had to fast-forward (thank god I hadn’t been able to watch this in theatres!). Harper’s parents are HORRENDOUS. And Harper spends most of the movie abandoning, gaslight, and emotionally-torturing Abby. Because this is a Christmas movie, we all know going on that there’s going to be a magical reconciliation at the end. Every Christmas movie has one, some more forced and unbelievable than others. This one takes the cake for unbelievability. Harper at NO POINT does any real thing to earn Abby’s trust or forgiveness. Nor does anything in the plot make us believe for a SECOND than Harper’s parents would just magically flip a switch and be okay with Harper’s sexuality at the end. And yet, that’s what we’re left with at the end.

Several reviewers (such as this article from Screenrant, and this blog post, just to list a couple) and many comments on Twitter have said the same thing I’m going to say: the chemistry between Abby and Riley was MUCH more believable by the end, and I think a more emotionally-honest and satisfying ending would have been if Abby broke up with Harper and got together with Riley, and Harper had to learn to accept her own sexuality on more honest and mature terms. All of this is frustrating because I am torn: on one hand, I have been dying for (and am very grateful for) a movie about lesbians that didn’t end with tragedy. SO MANY lesbian romance movies end with the couple breaking up in the face of societal pressure, or one or both of them dying, and I am SICK TO DEATH OF IT. But on the other hand, THIS particular happy ending just didn’t feel EARNED by the story in any real way. So… I’m stuck somewhere in the middle.

All in all, I’d give Happiest Season maybe a 3 stars out of 5?

One thing I can say for this movie: I have been playing around with the idea of writing my own queer-women-rom-com for awhile now, and this movie pushed me over the edge to actually trying to DO it. I’ve been sketching out notes and outlines for about a month now, so we’ll see how that goes…