Movie Review: American Fiction

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A brilliant dramady.

Mixing over the top satire with heartfelt family drama, is no easy feat. It is even more impressive how this movie does this seemingly effortlessly. This is really a film that will make you laugh out loud, while moving something inside you.

The premise of the movie is truly wonderful. A black author writes many books that make no money. When he is criticized for his books not being "black" enough and when a very stereotypical "black" book becomes a major hit, angry he writes as a joke a book featuring every black stereotype and sends it to publishers as a joke. However, it turns out to be a major success and makes him tons of money. This very premise shows satire at its best. It takes a true comment on our society and takes it to an extreme. Sometimes satire can end up feeling more clever than actually funny. However, that is not the case here. The humor is not only very clever but laugh out loud funny. I laughed much more often and harder than I thought I would going in. The whole audience was laughing out loud with me. This movie is also not afraid to take risks with its humor. It has no problem making us laugh, while feeling uncomfortable at the same time. 

Yet this movie is just as much of a character study and a family drama as it is a comedy. Our main character is a complex and fascinating character. While he is easy to relate to him, he is a very flawed character. The film never plays down his flaws but presents them in ways that can sometimes make him seem unlikable. Yet this never goes too far to the point where we ever completely cease to like him. This is because just as much as his flaws are easy to see, he also very much has his good qualities to him. Because of this, he comes off as a true three-dimensional character. He feels completely like a real person and over the course of the movie, we get to know him just as well as we know ourselves. This makes the family drama much more effective. The family drama, like the comedy, has no problem making its audience feel uncomfortable at times. Many of these more dramatic scenes are truly heartbreaking. We grow to not only care about our main character but his family as well. All of our main character's family members (as well as his girlfriend) also are very well-rounded characters that feel completely real to us. What is even more incredible is that this drama, not only doesn't get in the way of the over-the-top comedy, but it also perfectly complements it. 

This is simply a wonderful movie. 

Movie Review: The Beekeeper

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B-

A typically dumb fun, Jason Satham action movie. 

This film is exactly what one expects from this type of action movie. Yet fans of these movies won't care because the filmmakers clearly understand just what people enjoy about them. The action scenes are very well staged and filmed. They are unashamedly over the top and have all the gory R rated fun, an action fan can hope for. The main character is unquestionably very cool in the best action film fashion, one could hope for. The part is of course played perfectly by Jason Satham who brings his usual action hero charm. Yet even beneath this incredibly cool and tough exterior, he is still a very good-hearted guy, and it is very easy to care for him. The storyline is unpretentious and moves at a fast fun pace. 

If you really want to, you can pick out probably 10,000,000 or so things that make no sense. You can also at every moment tell exactly what is going to happen next. The supporting characters are not that interesting either. However none of this, is what audiences will go see this film for.

This is not a great movie but it does provide its audience with exactly what they want.  

The All-New Super Friends Hour: The Invasion of the Hydronoids (1977)

 

This is the first segment of the second episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends teaming up with a special DC Comics guest star. 

In this cartoon, Batman and Robin team up with Aquaman to stop the Hydronoids, an underwater alien race with intentions of taking over the Earth. 

This is a very fun cartoon. The designs of the villains are wonderful and reminiscent of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. They are also very fun and threatening villains. With how easily they capture Aquaman and set him against Batman and Robin gives this cartoon a wonder sense of suspense. The action scenes here are also simply a lot of fun, especially as Aquaman's powers are turned against Batman and Robin. The whole cartoon also moves at a very quick and fun pace. 
  
Just a quick and fun little superhero adventure. 

Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears (1988)

 

A really fun made for TV movie.

As this film starts Ranger Smith is dreading Yogi waking up from hibernation and making his spring and summer miserable. Yogi naturally does just this and neither Ranger Smith nor any of the park rangers under him can seem to stop Yogi. However, the park rangers are not the only ones keeping a close eye on Yogi. A race of aliens ruled by an evil king are watching him as well. The aliens kidnap both Yogi and his little buddy Boo Boo and create many copies of both Yogi and Boo Boo to take over the Earth. Now that the evil king has these robotic clones, he shoots the real Yogi and Boo Boo into outer space. The real Yogi and Boo Boo must stop these aliens from taking over the world. 

What makes this movie work so well is despite having a larger scale storyline than the classic Yogi Bear shorts (though the classic Yogi Bear short, Space Bear (1960) has a somewhat similar (but still smaller scale) story), the focus of his film is similar to that of the classic shorts. That is to say that this film focuses on silly cartoon comedy. All the gags involving the Yogi and Boo Boo clones being loose in Jellystone are reminiscent of the classic Yogi cartoons in the best way possible. There is lots of great slapstick in these scenes. However, what makes this slapstick work so well is the reactions from Ranger Smith. He is the perfect straight man to all this cartoon comedy. As well as being true to the spirit of the classic cartoons, this movie also is more visually attractive than the average Yogi cartoon. The background artwork in the scenes during Cindy Bear's song number or when Cindy is climbing the mountain is simply fantastic. These scenes are lovely to look at while still being true to the spirit of Yogi bear. Of course, the main attraction to a Yogi Bear movie is seeing the characters we love. This film perfectly understands why we love these characters and they have rarely been more likable than they are here. Not only are the characters likable as individuals but their interactions with each other are also delightful. 

This movie does have its flaws though. One is that the songs are bland and mostly forgettable. There is little to make them stand out among the songs in other Hanna-Barbera movies. The Space Bear Shuffle song is almost embarrassingly bad. Also Boo Boo having a crush on a space bear feels like a wasted opportunity as it is incredibly rushed.

This movie was directed by Don Lusk and Ray Patterson. Don Lusk had previously been a Disney animator working on some of Disney's best animated features and shorts. His work with Hanna-Barbera began as early as the 1960's. Ray Patterson had worked with William Hanna and Joseph Barbera all the way back in their Tom and Jerry cartoons of the 1940's. The film was written by Neal Barbera, the son of Joseph Barbera, who also wrote another made for TV Yogi Bear movie, Yogi's Great Escape (1987) and the theatrical Hanna-Barbera feature film, Rock Odessey (1987). This film also marked the last film for voice actor Daws Butler (the voice of Yogi Bear). This film is also part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10, a series of 10 made for TV movies starring famous Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters. 

Movie Review: Shining for One Thing (Yi shan yi shan liang xingxing)

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A moving romance film from China. 

The most important ingredient to any romance movie is that we care about the relationship between the main characters. This may sound like an obvious statement, but it is in this department that too many of these films fail. Luckily this film works very well in this department. We truly care about these characters, both as individuals and as a couple. As they film goes on, we want more and more to see a happy ending for this couple. This is also a very handsome looking movie, that has a wonderful almost dreamlike quality look that is simply a joy to look at. Even the scenes inside a rowdy bar having a wonderfully fun look to it. In the scenes inside that bar, there is always something going on in the background that makes the environment more real to us. 

Partway through this movie, it takes a turn to a more sci-fi fantasy type of storytelling. This is both one of the movie's strongest strengths and one of its biggest flaws. What this film does with this sci-fi type of storytelling is very clever and effective. It ups the ante for the romance story making us have an even deeper connection to these characters. It also leads to a very emotional and clever ending to the film. However, when this change to a more fantastical type of storytelling first happens, it comes out of left field. It is not properly built up to and the sudden and abrupt change simply takes us out of the movie. 

This movie also unfortunately has some very bland supporting characters, and some its humor falls flat. 

 Though this movie is flawed, the things that work are truly excellent. 

Movie Review: Origin

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

While not a perfect movie, it does have moments of true cinematic brilliance. 

This film is based off the true-life story of Isabel Wilkerson and how in the wake of the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin, she wrote the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents which talked about the mistreatment of black people through US history and the connection to caste systems in other countries. At its best this film becomes less of a typical movie but rather a visual essay (reminiscent of great filmmakers like Agnes Varda and Jean Luc Godard). This is especially true during the scenes in India. These scenes are done very effectively in a documentary style and there are times, when you almost forget that you are not watching a documentary. The result is masterful. Using this type of filmmaking wonderfully draws us into the words we are hearing and the message that is being conveyed. We feel almost like we are traveling to India and sharing this journey of discovery along with the main character. Expert filmmaking also comes in the form of how this movie masterfully weaves multiple stories together. We cut from modern day to the old south to nazi Germany. There is no traditional cutting or transitions between these different places and time periods. However, that is not needed here. In the style of the best visual essay type of films these stories are connected to each other through both emotions and the message, they are trying to convey. Because of this the weaving together of these various times and places works wonderfully. It gives us context that makes everything the film has to say hit closer to home. The movie is also full of very intelligent dialogue that discusses very complex questions (that have no easy answers) in very thought-provoking ways. 

 As brilliant as this movie can be when it is at its best, it falls flat when it tries to be more like a traditional biopic. When the film focuses on the main character's personal life, it can be oddly ineffective. The romance is never fleshed out and we never grow to care about their relationship. Because of this there are some scenes that are supposed to be emotional that simply don't work. Unfortunately, the scenes involving her mother are similarly ineffective. Also while this movie has very intelligent dialogue when discussing complex topics, the dialogue during some everyday conversations can feel a bit awkward. This can make one wish that the film fully committed to the type of visual essay storytelling that it did so brilliantly. 

While this movie can be quite uneven at times, the moments of truly brilliant filmmaking are so great that I can't help but recommend it to any cinephile. 

Video Link: Joe Besser | The Forgotten Stooge | A Docu-Mini