Shows of 2023

Everything Everywhere All At Once

20 May, 2023

Yes! Yes!

Where Marvel completely failed, this movie triumphed. It is wrapped in ridiculous sci-fi, Doctor Who-esque special effects. But the story is a gem. It is about a woman and all the family she loves. It is about all the roles she has to play. It is about the trauma of family, of trying to be everyone to everyone. It is about learning who you are, all of who you are, and healing and acceptance. Oh, and also about a giant space bagel that will end the multiverse.

Strange World

27 Jan, 2023

You cannot watch this movie without thinking back to Indiana Jones, Disney's Atlantis, and Avatar the Last Airbender; but the movie is a direct homage to the exotic explorer genre. On another level, it is a reframing of Disney's Brave, a less than successful story about the intergenerational trauma of a child living up to and/or rejecting a parent's expectations and repairing the damage to their relationship.

Strange World fails to deliver on the human story. The characters conversations and behaviors are too abrupt, like the Cliff Note version of human interaction:

• Dad, I don't want to be an explorer. I like plants.
• Fine, I'll abandon everyone here and that will be the end of this conversation.

The visuals reference Avatar: Legend of Kora for city and character design; and the blue space Smurf version for the fantastic visuals of the wilderness. Imagination runs wild in the visual design, which annoying sounds like R2D2 knock offs.

The plot hits you over the head like an anvil, which like the blue space Smurf movie, ruins so much of the magic.

Shanghai Express

07 Jan, 2023

Watch! The! Classics!

I was blown away. 90 years after it's making, this film still delivers a spectacle. In 1932, people must have lost their minds. Anna May Wong and Marlene Dietrich deliver full characters with costumes, glances, and sparse lines.

From the moment the train leaves the station, you are on a ride through someplace completely different.

The Man Who Never Was

02 Jan, 2023

Mildly interesting, at best. This slow paced movie is interesting not because of anything on screen, but because of the real story behind it. Apparently the silly plot was the real life idea of the real life Ian Flemming, the man behind James Bond.