Director: Peter Sohn
Starring: Leah Lewis & Mamoudou Athie 
Rated: PG
Runtime: 1 hour & 42 minutes

It's interesting to hear/read critics of my generation (I'm 36) and older who have had more and more trouble relating to Pixar films over the course of the last few years as it doesn't seem to so much be that the movies are changing in quality or intent as much as it is the formula isn't as novel or innovative as it once felt. Not as it once was, but how it once felt, specifically to these generations of viewers. Being present at the beginning of something as groundbreaking as a wholly computer-generated feature can only mean that no matter how majestic or convincing the animation becomes the characters and story are what ultimately remain the hook. For my money, the latest run of originals including “Onward,” “Soul,” “Luca” and “Turning Red” show as much imagination and innate observational humor as anything from Pixar's early days (and this is coming from someone who thinks “Soul” is the weakest of that bunch specifically because it does try too hard) and “Elemental” is no different in terms of offering all the trademarks and cornerstones of a Pixar film as the studio still manages to create broadly appealing adventures for younger audiences while finding an emotional chord to strike with adults, at least as far as this adult is concerned.
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The point being, I'm not exactly sure what to say to convince adults, especially newer ones, that Pixar's films are as strong and affecting as ever (sans maybe “Lightyear,” I wasn't a fan) and that just because the shine may have worn off a bit or the engineering might be a little more apparent doesn't make them work any less. I saw this film with five children ranging in age from eight to one including my three-year-old nephew who has Down syndrome and this was his first trip to the theater. My eight-year-old daughter exclaimed how much she loved it as soon as the credits began rolling, and my (almost) four-year-old son and five-year-old nephew couldn't stop laughing and talking about how funny the movie was (probably a little too much throughout the movie, honestly), and my nephew with Down syndrome not only stayed seated for the majority of the film but sat in awe of the colors and everything unfolding on the giant screen. Granted, the one-year-old did not stay seated the entirety of the runtime, but without all the trailers and traditional Pixar short I think it would have been a different story. Again, the point being, it was just as fulfilling to see their smiling faces watch and react to the film as it was for me to experience this new world and new romance the film created and maybe that's the reason for this adjustment period some newer adults/parents are experiencing. While Pixar has now been around for some time kids who were definitively kids in 1995 are now definitively adults and parents if they've so chosen to be and as viewers who have seen both ends of the spectrum it's more difficult to accept something that felt so exclusively ours as children no longer be made explicitly for us, but that doesn't mean the magic is evaporating ... it just means we may not have shifted gears yet.

As for the movie itself, the metaphor works so far as to exemplify how we can all work together despite our differences emphasizing how it’s always important to make others feel welcome and show kindness rather than judgment. I'm honestly not sure if even my eight-year-old caught the overt feeling of immigration and discrimination analogies though I assume this will only make watching it when she's older even more rewarding. While the world itself begs almost as many questions as the ‘Cars’ universe (how does Wade’s paper notepad not get soaked when he’s writing is the least of the film’s worries), “Elemental” gets more of a pass from me in this regard due to the authenticity it relays. The main plot deals in a somewhat segregated Elemental City where the hierarchy is water, trees, clouds, and then several rungs down sits fire. Said hierarchy has dictated the construction and convenience of the city for each of these elements. As is the case, fire has been somewhat relegated to the outskirts where water has been shut off for years so as to not interfere with or harm fire in their daily lives. A leak occurs after our protagonist Ember (voice of Leah Lewis) loses her temper (something she's working on) and it naturally has to be fixed by a deadline otherwise Ember and her family will lose their shop thanks to literal waterboy Wade (voice of Mamoudou Athie), who also happens to be a city inspector, appears in Fire Town as a result of the leak. At the behest of Wade's boss, he and Ember begin to investigate the leak leading to them spending more time together leading to the romance at the heart of the story. It does seem like at a certain point there might have been a plot element (pun intended) involving some kind of conspiracy happening in order to evict the fire people from their communities - which would have added a whole other layer of commentary to the metaphor - but director Peter Sohn (“The Good Dinosaur”) keeps things simple with a focus more on the character's arcs and circumstances than the main plot device used to propel fire and water together. Because the inciting incident does feel more arbitrary and/or a more typical "movie device" than it does inherent to the story things do feel somewhat anticlimactic in that regard, but the pacing is efficient enough and the investment in Wade and Ember so strong that any questions or qualms don't linger for long.

In classic Pixar tradition, the animation and design only continue to push boundaries in terms of photo realism and innovation. The juxtaposition of the more storybook designs of the characters against the photorealistic backdrops make for some genuinely striking imagery. Maybe it's just refreshing to see computer-generated images where artists have been given the time to pour so much love and detail into their work that it is actually breathtaking, but some of the renderings and compositions here are downright gorgeous. Speaking of beautiful renderings, the relationship between Ember and Wade is absolutely the heart of this story and just as integral to that working is Ember's journey of feeling indebted to her parents to simply feeling thankful for them. That growing out of a "repayment" mindset to more of a “fulfillment” one even if it might not be fulfilled in the way her parents always envisioned is one portrayed through both Ember and her parents coming to terms with these truths. Wade is both a representation of a different perspective as well as the perfect counter-balance and compliment to Ember's (literal) hot-headedness as I really liked both lead voice performances, but Athie's full-on embodiment of this extremely compassionate, overly-sensitive, but wholly supportive figure is completely winning and the highlight of the film. The creativity on display in the construction of the city and the sheer amount of dad-approved puns only add to the enjoyment of the film on a surface level, but this tale of forbidden love where the chemistry and depths of everything the film is working to comment on and express will only become more appreciated both upon repeat viewings and as audiences who saw this young grow older. Also, they somehow credibly age fire which is just ... damn impressive.

by Julian Spivey
 
Today is Tom Hanks' 67th birthday.

Sometime late in my high school tenure, I became addicted to consuming as many great movies as I could. I don't know why this happened. It's like a switch just flipped and all of a sudden I was like: "Hitchcock! John Ford! James Stewart! More! More! More!"

My brothers and I used to talk on the phone to our grandparents every Sunday morning. Grandma would ask us about our week and if we did anything interesting or exciting. I told her of the movies I'd see that week - the most recent had been Jonathan Demme's 1993 legal drama "Philadelphia" starring Tom Hanks as attorney Andrew Beckett.

Beckett is a senior associate at Philadelphia's largest corporate law firm and has concealed his homosexuality and the fact that he's an AIDS patient. He's eventually fired. He believes it to be because of AIDS discrimination.

It's a powerful movie and performance by Hanks, who would win his first of back-to-back Best Actor Oscars (along with "Forrest Gump") for it. If you've never seen it you definitely should - it's streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

My grandmother told me Hanks was one of her favorite actors, but she hated "Philadelphia." She didn't think it was a film I should be watching. Hanks played heroes to her, just not Andrew Beckett. She recommended "Saving Private Ryan." The horrors and violence of war were much more appropriate in her eyes than gay people and a disease that tore through its community.
Andrew Beckett was perhaps Hanks’ bravest performance.

Even as a teenager, I knew my grandmother was wrong.

I grew less and less interested in those calls.

Director: A.V. Rockwell
Starring: Teyana Taylor & William Catlett 
Rated: R (language) 
Runtime: 1 hour & 57 minutes

​It is interesting to see the reverberations of director Barry Jenkins' influence and presence in film infiltrate the way other modern filmmakers tell their stories. Obviously, the representation of characters and lifestyles that are not as frequently portrayed in cinema will be a common thread among upcoming black directors, but A.V. Rockwell’s feature debut also tends to feel as organic and orchestral as both of Jenkins’ features; torn from the same cloth, if you will … both intimately authentic while being of a scale more about circumstance than scope.
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More than an impressive debut, Rockwell conceives and executes with a fluidity that feels so assured it’s not hard to deduce how much she believes in this story. It is the contrast of how specific that story is while playing against the backdrop of these large cultural shifts that are unfolding that is maybe the most impressive facet as it is again the reverberations from a few that can either lift up or erase whole subsets of the population. Obviously, “A Thousand and One” is about the struggles of black people surviving in a system they didn’t design and more specifically, the role of black women and how both cultural expectation and gentrification play into these struggles in Harlem in the ‘90s through to the turn of the millennium, but it’s also a coming of age movie and a movie of mothers and sons that uses the world around it to challenge and strengthen those developments and relationships. 

Teyana Taylor is a major reason for the effortless cool conveyed in the tone as her Inez makes everything she does - even her most questionable decisions - feel warranted. Inez is a hard worker who doesn’t ask for much and appreciates what she builds even if it might feel like very little by comparison. What’s heartbreaking and what Rockwell really insists on hammering home is how, no matter Inez’s resilience or work ethic, she is always fighting an uphill battle. Whether that be the men in her life, the stereotypes, her past, or the new owners of her building, there is always someone trying to thwart the spirit of this woman who only desires to create a loving, nurturing family environment and do right by them. Unfortunately, only the approved can afford the American dream. 

The cinematography from Eric Yue and the score from Gary Gunn are also highlights of the film as they somehow manage to capture the sounds and spirit of ‘90s New York on what one can only assume was a smaller budget.

Of course, there are some hoops the film creates for itself that it didn’t necessarily have to jump through such as subplots with William Catlett’s “Lucky” whose performance I enjoyed, but whose arc felt a little more contrived than necessary along with a third act “twist” that is certainly dramatic but almost felt included only as a way to get to a final note for the movie to play. Abandoning some of these more cliched aspects might have allowed more room to develop not only Inez’s relationship with her son, Terry (who is played by three different actors across 11 years - again, those Jenkins reverberations), but his development as well; giving more real estate to his time with his friends, his adventures in dating, and why he clashes with his mother on certain things.

This is definitely Inez’s story, but even with everything the film is attempting to accomplish, both Inez and the key relationship in her life sometimes feel underserved. Keeping the lens a little tighter to convey the bigger statements might have made them more impactful and poignant.

​"A Thousand and One" is streaming on Peacock. 

Director: Nicole Holofcener 
Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies & Michaela Watkins 
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour & 33 minutes

In the last few years, as I continue to get older, I’ve come to feel or maybe realize how silly this whole system we’ve constructed to provide ourselves with structure and organization can be. This is especially true when it comes to creative endeavors as there are seemingly too many people in the world and too many serious things to deal with for a single person to spend so much time on something so vain and ultimately, probably, something so superfluous in the scheme of things. It would seem writer/director Nicole Holofcener shares this mild existential crisis in her latest film as represented largely by Michaela Watkins’ character who can’t help but feel her interior designer gig is less and less essential by the day. Are we all just spinning our wheels in order to stay busy and avoid the big questions? Of course, but while Holofcener acknowledges the severity of her character’s somewhat snobbish self-involvement by having them talk flippantly about real-world problems, it is the exacting nature of her dialogue and fully drawn performances from her actors that really hammers the pragmatic feelings home. 
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As “You Hurt My Feelings” is both a film about communication as well as largely narcissistic New York City intellectuals there is a constant overriding question of purpose, of relevancy, and of an idealism that can never really be reached thanks in (most) part to the fact intellectuals and more specifically creative intellectuals typically have such large insecurities and such strong cases of imposter syndrome that even when they accomplish a goal there is never true satisfaction and they will always strive for more because there is always someone else doing the same thing who is more successful. In essence, a perfect sect of people to show how damaging and affecting even the smallest crack in confidence can be.

Holofcener’s central conceit for her latest is a great example of being extremely specific while speaking to universal themes and situations but is also naturally a gateway to other conversations she’s interested in or became of note during her writing process. Sticking with her main idea, most of these strands have to do with how we talk to one another, the different dynamics of different relationships, and how - despite feeling intrinsically linked - a person is not solely defined by the things they create. Whether this is in reference to Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Don’s (Tobias Menzies) son whom they have seemingly done more damage to than they realized (the son and his conflict with his parents being the weak link in the film for me personally) or the new book Beth is writing that she learns her husband, Don, hasn’t been completely honest with her about in regard to his opinion of it. Beth’s relationship with her sister and mother (Jeannie Berlin), Don’s relationship with his Brother-in-Law (Arian Moayed), his patients (Don’s a terrible therapist), and even his own vanity are all on the table as is most of the baggage that comes with them and Holofcener largely lands the plane on each successfully. The writer/director’s dialogue is so good and so very strong that when paired with such well-realized performances as it is here the mostly egotistical issues discussed in the film become as empathetic as they are entertaining.

​“The Blackening” is a throwback of sorts to the satires that dominated the early aughts in the wake of the runaway success of “Scary Movie,” which for someone who became a teen at the beginning of the millennium, is oddly comforting even if the overall execution is fairly slight. Director Tim Story (“Barbershop,” “Ride Along”) has been coasting for some time, relying on the charisma of his casts and your most basic set of filmmaking tools to pump out middle-of-the-road, largely comedic fare that offends no one and entertains most, but choosing to take on something like “The Blackening” seemed as if it might be a chance for Story to do something more daring; a social satire that turns genre stereotypes on their head? Provocative, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. That said, the charismatic cast is completely winning (co-writer Dewayne Perkins, Melvin Gregg and Grace Byers standing out especially) despite Story's inability to enhance the comedy while falling completely flat in regard to the scares whereas the screenplay (which Perkins co-wrote with Tracy Oliver) thankfully offers both plenty of humor and potent observations that feed off the old premise/new protagonists idea to keep the fun (and most of the characters) alive.

​“About My Father,” directed by Laura Terruso, is an old-school comedy that goes for as much heart and story as it does laughs even if it only succeeds about half the time in each aspect. As someone who’s not really a fan of Sebastian Maniscalco’s stand-up comedy, I kind of expected worse, but he’s enlisted enough heavyweights to support him here that the film easily meets its modest objectives. Speaking of heavyweights, the scene between Robert De Niro and Kim Cattrall is the best in the movie and their chemistry is palpable while David Rasche absolutely kills it and almost steals the film entirely.