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The Wild Robot (2024)
Filmmaker(s): Chris Sanders

After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.

Programmed At the front I have to say that both the adults were affected, cried, emoted. This is a Mommy story in a sea of Daddy stories, especially animated ‘family’ fare. It pulled on some formulaic strings, enough for me to say that this knows the...


Published September 15, 2024
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Twisters (2024)
Chase. Ride. Survive.
Filmmaker(s): Lee Isaac Chung

As storm season intensifies, the paths of former storm chaser Kate Carter and reckless social-media superstar Tyler Owens collide when terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed. The pair and their competing teams find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.

Surrey with the Fringe on Top It might be enough to build a movie around special effects that don’t involve a fight or monsters. These usually fall into the catastrophe category. The key to that category it seems, is the noir necessity that the catastrophe happens...


Published August 25, 2024
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The Instigators (2024)
Worst. Heist. Ever.
Filmmaker(s): Doug Liman

Rory and Cobby are unlikely partners thrown together for a heist. But when it goes awry, they team up to outrun police, backward bureaucrats, and a vengeful crime boss.

Boston Underachievers Here’s what I think happened. These sorts of films are all about the characters, and some substantial part of that is either the skill of the actor, or whether the actor is more or less like the character. Willis, McQueen, Newman, Bogart, Wayne for...


Published August 15, 2024
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Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
Filmmaker(s): Mike Mitchell

Po is gearing up to become the spiritual leader of his Valley of Peace, but also needs someone to take his place as Dragon Warrior. As such, he will train a new kung fu practitioner for the spot and will encounter a villain called the Chameleon who conjures villains from the past.

Green Noodle of Wisdom There are three interwoven stories in this edition, which for apparent cost savings does not have the furious five. So this is a one-hero show. The dominant thread is the father-son story. I guess I can understand why this so deeply plays in...


Published July 1, 2024
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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Fury is born.
Filmmaker(s): George Miller

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

Maxxed out I understand how this was made. ‘Fury Road’ was a mess, a rescued, done-over-several-times mess that few people involved thought would work, but it did. So the studios were eager to make another, and Miller already had the prequel sketched because he needed a...


Published June 29, 2024
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Inside Out 2 (2024)
Make room for new emotions.
Filmmaker(s): Kelsey Mann

Teenager Riley's mind headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone.

Lassiter Layers Decades ago, I had the charter to ‘study Hollywood’, ostensibly as a model for virtual enterprises, but that extended into my now serious study of folding in film narrative. One expression of folding is the play within the play, where you have narratives and narrative...


Published June 23, 2024
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The Fall Guy (2024)
Fall hard.
Filmmaker(s): David Leitch

Fresh off an almost career-ending accident, stuntman Colt Seavers has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job.

No Stuntman This film, and every comment I’ve seen seems to not be aware of 1980s ‘The Stunt Man”. That was a similar setup, but before the noir device evolved to the comedic. In the earlier film, the fact of the stunt guy being so was...


Published June 20, 2024
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The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
Discover the first special forces mission in history.
Filmmaker(s): Guy Ritchie

During World War II, the British Army assigns a group of competent soldiers to carry out a mission against the Nazi forces behind enemy lines... A true story about a secret British WWII organization – the Special Operations Executive. Founded by Winston Churchill, their irregular warfare against the Germans helped to change the course of the war, and gave birth to modern black operations.

Slap in the Face Richie is not on my list of filmmakers to admire, but he has indeed made some admirable films, with probably the best being ‘Snatch’, a layering of noir and introspective humour, with harpsichord. They are jaunty, unique, personally cinematic. One might say...


Published June 4, 2024
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Dune: Part Two (2024)
Long live the fighters.
Filmmaker(s): Denis Villeneuve

Follow the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, Paul endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

Melange In my comment on Part One, I noted that the complex charm of the books would in this part be flattened to basically two things: vast engagements with the environment, and action scenes: armies and heroes fighting. This is an action movie, alas, though the...


Published April 12, 2024
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