Writer. Library person. First in the world to platinum Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two on PS3.
“Hey, come back to Derry and get murdered.”
This is humongous, epic, ultimately triumphant horror fantasy that — while not terrifying — is whimsically gruesome and allowed to lean hard into the cocaine fueled turns of the source material.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Can we talk about across-the-board perfect casting? Okay, this has it. It also has a swelling, bleeding, plucked from a chest heart that will make you believe in shit again.”
“It’s a good lie.”
A finely crafted family comedy exploring the deeper wells of modern Chinese culture and the crucial lies all people find themselves telling in the face of impending tragedy.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Grandmas: hug ’em if ya got ’em. Hug their graves if you don’t.”
“I might just skate.”
As resplendent and transcendent as the trailer, which is no small feat. This is a piece of crafted cinema that is never without substance or the perfect sound, be it music or ambience. Every moment works.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “At least watch the trailer. However you feel when you watch that, multiply it by ten. That is how you will feel while watching the actual film. Then multiply that by ten. That is how you will feel thinking back over the movie on your way home from the theater. You might pass out from the emotion. You probably won’t. Because you’re strong. As strong as this film, even.”
“How am I alive?”
An epilogue I didn’t know I needed that rounds out this long journey of toy sentience in all kinds of emotionally and existentially satisfying ways.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Woody watches the hands of his most recent god literally craft life from nothing and it nearly swallows his fragile sanity.”
“On your left.”
A slight step down creatively from Infinity War but still absolutely everything it needed to be to get people cheering, blubbering, arguing, screaming, losing their minds, abandoning all hope, and shivering with fear unsure of what comes next in their lives in their theater seats.
My VHS Cover Pull-Quote: “Wanda Maximoff could have done this all on her own.”
“That was very cinematic.”
A super stylish and composed neo-noir comedy that has a lot of fun with the tropes of the genre and a killer French pop soundtrack. So high-tone.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “I know, above all else, that life is better and filled with more intrigue when there’s a French pop soundtrack behind it. It’s a shame, then, that I’ve had ‘Kiss From a Rose’ by Seal from Batman Forever on repeat since 1997.”
“Italians ain’t white!”
Certainly the most surreal, unexpected, hilarious, and altogether timely film of the year so far.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “This is one of those movies people should go see completely unaware of what’s about to happen so the less said on this phantom VHS cover the better.”
“What’s that smell?”
A feverish, unsettling nightmare that I can’t seem to wake up from so I’m going to bang my head against things.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Still not awake. Now bleeding. Please help.”
“A man is never alone who has friends.”
Despite some clumsiness and a very basic story about disconnecting to reconnect with what really matters (also, rebellion), nostalgia is a powerful force and I grinned my way through most of this spectacle. Seeing Battletoads, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Chucky, Gundam and the Overlook Hotel all existing and interacting together in one movie worked, perhaps, far too well on me. Plus it fixes quite a few problems from the book and eventually finds it’s way to a beating Spielbergian heart that I haven’t felt since, well, Goonies.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “The set piece in The Overlook Hotel alone makes this whole dang thing worth it. Here’s Spielberg directing characters through his old mentor Kubrick’s masterpiece of horror as a haunted house of sorts. It’s a love letter to the man who helped make him into the director he is today, faults and all. Watching it felt like watching the whole thesis of the film, which stands as a love letter to the rampant artistic and childlike imagination that sits cozily beside the capitalism inherent in pop culture.”
“I missed you every second of every day.”
As with Disney’s last big, originalish non-remake live action movie Tomorrowland, the intention, message, and overall sentiment of A Wrinkle in Time helps to compensate for some structural problems and narrative messiness in some parts. As with all things, it succeeds most when things start getting dark and trippy. Overall, it’s an excellent adaptation of a book long thought to be unfilmable with an inspiring message of self-worth that everyone could stand to hear once in a while.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “I said it’s like Tomorrowland, but I really enjoyed Tomorrowland.”
Nick Perilli