Fly Me to the Moon works in its throwback atmosphere. From the recreated news footage to the editing akin to 60s TV to the sets and costumes, it all feels like a fun throwback to the 1960s. Watching the film, you get a good sense of not only how it felt to be in the film's setting during the 60s but also a general sense of how it felt to live in America in the 1960s.
Horizon: An American Saga is an ambitious concept detailing the rise and fall of the American West in a multi-movie saga that follows multiple people.
Michael Sarnoski's intimate dramatic sensibilities lend themselves surprisingly well for A Quiet Place prequel. Within the tense set pieces of A Quiet Place: Day One, there's an intimate character drama about finding genuine connection in a world of seemingly unending bleakness.
Inside Out 2 is a satisfying follow-up to the first movie. Like all good sequels, there's an inherent charm to stepping back into the world and characters from its predecessor.
Though its synopsis makes you picture an action film featuring a 90-year-old woman, Thelma has a much more chill, laid-back tone. Much of the film's comedy stems from how it turns mundane aspects of its 90-year-old protagonist's life and treats them like action movie tropes, complete with a bombastic soundtrack and over-the-top sound effects
The Bikeriders is a pretty conventional rise-and-fall crime movie and features a structure that kept me from engaging with it as much as I wanted. But it's well-acted, and the filmmaking is pretty solid.
The Watchers certainly shows Ishana Night Shyamalan to be a promising filmmaker. But its also got a lot of quirks in its screenplay that holds it back.
Furiosa is an unconventional prequel. Where most prequels mean to explain the origins of iconography from their predecessors (which Furiosa does, and to satisfying results), Furiosa also means to explore aspects of its world that Fury Road couldn't due to the simplicity of its narrative.
The Strangers has its fair share of intense moments. There are moments of well-handled, pent-up tension that gets released through relatively well-handled jump scares. But that means little if the characters followed throughout the 90-minute runtime are this unlikable and frustrating to watch.
I've always been a bit mixed on the concept of Muppets From Space. Gonzo has always been one of my favorite Muppets, so I do like seeing him in a leading role in a Muppet movie. But what I've always found made Gonzo such a compelling character is that he lacked a distinct identity, that he was content just being a "whatever."
Bound is an incredibly gripping directorial debut for the Wachowski's. The two clearly understand their female characters, crafting a story of two women who cling to each other as a means of escape but that soon spins into a genuine affection for each other. It's a film steeped in intimate close-ups and flirtatious dialogue, making the early parts of the film so gripping to me.
Somehow, after multiple viewings, something finally clicked, and I found myself finding new beauty in Up. For a film about an old man flying his house with balloons, it stands as one of Pixar's most grounded films. In the first ten minutes, you get a beautiful, realistic portrait of a loving couple. You see Carl and Ellie's relationship grow and develop as they deal with the hardships of life, all through simple visuals and Michael Giacchino's lovely score.
Slacker is one of the loosest movies I've ever seen. There's no plot, only a sequence of conversations, each one a fascinating array of random conspiracy theories, political opinions, or philosophical thoughts. There's no specific lead character either, as the film goes from one character to the next in the loosest structure. The film will follow one character's conversation, only to follow the next character who passes by.
When revisiting Inside Out after all these years before seeing the sequel, I was astounded at how imaginative the film still is. There's so much creativity put into crafting this world inside the mind of a little girl. From core memories to islands of personality, each part of the world-building contains some fascinating representation of the human mind.
When Muppet Treasure Island puts its focus on just being a Muppet pirate adventure, it's a ton of fun. There's an inherent charm to seeing these Muppet characters sailing the seven seas, and the film is complete with all the overly theatrical sets and costumes you'd expect in a Pirate movie.
Like many Studio Ghibli movies, When Marnie Was There contains a chill, relaxing, slice-of-life structure. But for most of the runtime, that structure works less to provide this comforting feeling, as in most Ghibli movies, but more as a way to reflect the melancholic emotions of its main character, Anna.
Like most Studio Ghibli movies, The Secret World of Arrietty contains a gorgeous, wonderfully detailed world that I loved spending time in. Any scene following Arrietty or the rest of the Borrower characters has such a wonderfully vast, larger-than-life feel, with the animation providing this beautiful sense of scale to everything.
Though Flawed, Jim Henson Idea Man does everything the film can to act as a lovingly made tribute to Jim Henson and all the warmth, kindness, and passion he exuded
