This movie may not be a great work of cinematic art, but it doesn't try to be. It simply wants to be a fun Christmas themed action/comedy about two polar opposites (pun intended) working together to save a kidnapped Santa Claus. In this respect the movie works very well. The film never takes itself too seriously and never asks us to do so either. Because of this, it is easy to enjoy the silly comedy that is often quite funny. This is especially true with how well Chris Evans and The Rock play against each other here. The buddy cop dynamic between them allows for some very good comedy moments and even makes some jokes that would have otherwise fallen flat kind of work. Also great is the wonderfully oddball casting of J.K. Simmons as Santa Claus. This is not a casting choice any of us would have expected and the movie has fun with this. At the same time, he is a very good actor and plays the part very well, capturing the warm heart we all associate with Santa. It is a shame he couldn't have gotten more screentime. This movie also is surprisingly not afraid to lean towards the darker side when it turns its focus to the villain. Because of this the villain feels surprisingly creepy and gives this movie a real sense of suspense. Yet this is never taken too far to lose the film's lighthearted Christmas charm.
This film does have its flaws though. The subplot between Chris Evans' character and his young son, feels much too rushed and underdeveloped. Because of this there is no real emotional connection to this part of the story. Either more time had to be given to this subplot, or it needed to be dropped. As it is, the subplot simply feels like it is there because most movies of this type have similar subplots. There is a lot of CGI throughout this movie and very little of it is very good. I often found myself too aware that I was looking at CGI that it took me out of the fantasy.
This may not be a new Christmas classic, but it is a really fun holiday watch.
This movie follows a 12-year-old girl whose parents seem to have little time for her. Her drug dealer father (who does actually care about her, just doesn't make the time for her) is engaged to a woman that she hasn't even met before, while her mother is living with an incredibly abusive boyfriend. She instead finds the care and attention she is looking for in a strange young man (who most would simply ignore), who is trying to find the father he never knew. The story may sound like your typical coming of age story and in some ways is. However, what sets it apart is how it is told. This film has moments of fantasy mixed in with the coming-of-age drama, but these moments are for the most part treated as if they are completely natural. Most of them are never even brought up again. Such sequences were quite daring for director/writer Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank (2010), American Honey (2016)), but they pay off perfectly. This gives the film a sense of magic that may not make logical sense but feels emotionally honest. This whole movie feels emotionally honest. Our main character is instantly easy to care about and relate to. Though she may have her flaws, we see and experience everything through her eyes and feel everything she feels. Young actress Nykiya Adams (in what is incredibly her first movie role) adds so much to how real this character feels with a deeply human performance. Barry Keoghan also brings a lot of humanity to her father making him a deeply human character under his many flaws. The movie may occasionally dip into sentimentality, but it does so in an honest way that seems to flow naturally from the story and characters.
This movie takes what could have been your average coming of age film and turns it into something much more powerful.
This movie is about a young girl who has to live with her grandfather when her dad tries to pay off some debts he can't possibly pay. Her grandfather has a ghost cat, in other words a cat that walks and talks like a person and lives forever. For the first two acts, this film is a wonderful combination of a slice of life story and an over-the-top fantasy comedy. This film works best when handled in this vein. The mixture of a realistic coming of age tale and these more fantastical elements is simply charming. It makes you feel like you have traveled to this world and just living there in a way that movies that are pure fantasy oftentimes don't. It also gives the majority of this film a laid-back feel that makes it a pleasure to watch. This also works because our main characters feel real to us. While we do like them, they are not without their flaws and these flaws just make them seem more real. The humor in this movie may not always be laugh out loud funny but it did make me smile and it fits the laid-back nature of most of this film.
The problem with this movie is in the third act when it drifts fully into the fantasy realm. Here it becomes your typical action/fantasy anime with little to make it stand out. The action scenes also make this movie lose its laid-back charm. It is during these scenes that the film kind of lost my interest. Luckily after all this, the film does have a strong ending.
Despite a weak third act, the rest of this movie is a pure delight.
Hello, my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with what is widely considered to be one of the greatest cartoon shorts ever made, Duck Amuck (1953). This short film has been analyzed as much as any live action feature and is sometimes considered to be a great commentary on the film medium itself. However, none of this was on the minds of anyone making the cartoon at the time. Director Chuck Jones would later say, "We started out, I sat down and started drawing, and I came up with the opening and it was just an idea that he runs out of background. From that point on it happened right on the board. We didn't even have a story as such, we made one afterward, but there wasn't one as we were making it." He would even state that the iconic ending didn't even happen until the last week of layout. This cartoon reached the number 2 spot in Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons and still delights audiences whether they are seeing it for the first or the 100th time.
Quiet Please (1945) was the third Tom and Jerry cartoon to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. It's competition that year included Disney's Donald's Crime (1945), George Pal's Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945), Warner Brother's Life with Feathers (1945, the debut of Slyvester), Terry Toon's Mighty Mouse in Gypsy Life (1945), Walter Lantz's Poet and Peasant (1946) and Columbia's Rippling Romance (1945). A scene from this film was recreated in the opening for the 1975 Tom and Jerry TV show. This scene features Tom chasing Jerry and coming to a stop when he sees Spike sleeping. The gag of Jerry making a drawing of Tom and writing "Stinky" underneath was reused in an episode of TV's The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, called New Mouse in the House (1980).
Now we join our good friend Dinky Duck in The Timid Scarecrow (1953).
Now we will join our friend Toby the Pup, Down South (1931). While Charles Mintz was producing Krazy Kat cartoons for Columbia, he decided to create a separate series of cartoons for RKO, these starring a character named Toby the Pup. To head this series Mintz handed the duties to Dick Huemer, Art Davis and Sid Marcus. Dick Huemer had been a major contributor to the style of the Fleischer studio earlier and this is probably why these shorts have a Fleischer-type feel to them. Huemer, Davis and Marcus would later be the major creative factors for Columbia's Scrappy cartoons (also produced by Mintz).
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Now for a Walter Lantz cartoon starring Jock and Jill, Ghost Town Frolics (1938). This is the only Jock and Jill cartoon. If there were plans to make this a full series it didn't pan out. Watching the film, it is understandable why. The cartoon is quite creative and full of fun gags. However, Jock and Jill don't have much in the way of personality or anything to make them stand out from similar cartoon characters of the same time.
Now for a silent stop motion film, Green Pastures (1926). Yes, I think the horse looks like Pokey too.
Now for a true Disney classic, Alpine Climbers (1936). Though this film teams Mickey, Donald and Pluto, it follows the same format as the Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons that Disney made around this time. Like those films, here each of the characters goes his separate way and has a separate adventure. Mickey tries to collect an eagle's egg. Donald tries to pick flowers. Pluto has a run in with a St. Bernard dog (designed by Joe Grant). This other dog actually has a name, and that name is Bolivar. The character however is unnamed in the film, nor would he ever be used again in an animated cartoon. Instead, the character would be named in the Disney comics. He started appearing in 1938 in Al Taliaferro's Donald Duck newspaper comic strip. Bolivar would soon become the family dog of the duck family and would even be a reoccurring character in Carl Barks' beloved Donald Duck comic books. Despite this being an odd name for a cartoon animal the name had almost been used before. A cartoonist named Pinto Colvig (best known to cartoon fans today as the original voice of Disney's Goofy) was interested in entering the making of animated cartoons when sound came to the movies. He felt due to the fact that he was a cartoonist, who was also capable of doing various voices and playing multiple musical instruments, he felt sound cartoons were a wonderful opportunity for him. He created a character named Bolivar the Talking Ostrich. Teaming with Walter Lantz (later of Woody Woodpecker fame), he made a film with this character called Blue Notes (1928). In this film, the animated ostrich interacted with a live action Pinto Colvig. Unfortunately, this film is considered lost and despite Colvig's best efforts, a series never materialized. Colvig would however talk much about this ostrich in later years, however Lantz would barely ever mention the character. It may be possible that Al Taliaferro named the dog character after Colvig's ostrich character, but there is no real proof either way. Alpine Climbers would be reissued to movie theaters in 1948. The short film would make its TV debut on an episode of TV's Disneyland entitled, The Adventures of Mickey Mouse (1955). The following is a review of Alpine Climbers from a 1936 issue of World Film News. "I laughed immoderately at the latest Mickey Mouse, Alpine Climbers. The spectacle of the frozen Pluto getting tiddly with his savior, a St. Bernard with a handy keg around his neck is wonderful. - Ian Coster"
Now to end with a very educational short film.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
The 50 Greatest Cartoons edited by Jerry Beck
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by David Gerstein and J.B. Kaufman
This movie tells the story of a coal merchant who accidently discovers the horrors of how young girls at a convent are being treated. He is conflicted because the nuns running that convent are very powerful. He wants to help the girls but is afraid of what might happen to his own family if he does. This conflict and inner turmoil are truly the focus of this film. Seeing this tears at his own heart and we are forced to face the question of what we would do in his place. A film built on inner turmoil is of course very dependent on the actor playing the lead. Luckily this is one of Cillian Murphy's (who won an Oscar for his lead performance in last year's Oppenheimer (best screen performances. Even during quiet scenes in which he has little to no dialogue he perfectly conveys everything that is going through his mind. If it wasn't for this performance this movie would have nowhere near the emotional impact it does. Yet his performance is not the only thing that makes this movie great. This is a slower paced film, but this slower pace works perfectly here. This movie starts off as slice of life story of this family (a happy family enjoying Christmas contrasts perfectly with what will come later). This lets us understand perfectly who this man is and his relationship with his family, which of course will become the heart of story as it goes on. Because of this the emotional moments hit much harder. This film also benefits from more subtle storytelling. The film never dwells on showing us the horrors the young girls are being subjected to. Most of them are implied rather than shown and the ones we see are never shown in a gratuitous way. The fact that much is left to our imagination, especially in a scene where a girl is begging our main character to take her away if only as far as the river, makes these scenes all the more disturbing. Some scenes simply send chills down my spine as if I was watching a horror movie. The subtlety of this movie even comes down to the basic storytelling. We see many flashbacks to our main character as a child, the transitions here are seamless and never disrupt the flow of the film (at first you may not notice that these are flashbacks, but you will catch on quick).
