"The Wild Robot" - Review

Introducing the ROZZUM Unit 7134: for all of your needs! Do you have a task which needs accomplishing? Then contact your Rozzum 7134 (Lupita Nyong'o), currently operating on an island free of humans - where the unit ends up interacting with all kinds of animals, and adding all new elements of her programming along the way...

Dreamworks are back, baby!
I went into this knowing nothing about the source material (a children's book which apparently director Chris Sanders loved) or the film proper, wanting something a little more relaxed after the emotionally knotted roller coaster of "Anora".
I cried 3 times.
From director Chris Sanders (of "Lilo and Stitch", "The Croods" and "How to Train Your Dragon" fame, as well as co writer of "Mulan"), this thing thus has some pedigree and experience: all of it put to magnificent use. The film looks like a watercolour, building upon that previous strong of 3D CGI Dreamworks stuff, making it look a lot more pleasant than films of late, and there are some absoultely breathtaking images throughout, almost ripped straight from a picture book or an art gallery (as cliched as that may be) and used to spectacular effect. It's a seriously pretty film: not "Kubo" pretty, but lovely nonetheless. The score by Kris Bowers (his first for an animated film) is the highlight: soaring and beautiful music, got me choked up frequently. Nyong'o is a treasure, as always, and absolutely carries this film with her performance, but the supporting cast are no slouches: Kit Connor does a good job, Pedro Pascal is always wonderful, Matt Berry plays a beaver who makes a "bullshit" joke, and Stephanie Hsu almost steals the show as a fellow robot. It's a tad rushed in parts, but its central story about teaching a goose to fly, and how kindness and coming together should be seen as survival instincts rather than weaknesses, makes up for it. It's a lovely film.

"The Fall Guy" - Review

Stuntman Colt Sedars (Ryan Gosling) drops out of the industry after a particularly nasty accident. He seems content to be parking cars and living a quiet life until producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) tricks him into coming back to help his old flame and true love Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) with her movie. It's Jody's first time directing and whilst she's annoyed to see Colt, her leading man Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has gone missing. To save the project and prospects of the love of his life, and maybe win her back, Colt embarks on a quest to uncover the missing action star, getting into all sorts of hi-jinks in the process...

The trailer is a touch misleading. Marketed as another action film from the guy who made "Bullet Train" (which is good clean fun), this is actually closer to the Burt Reynolds movies of the 1970s: throw a bit of everything into a blender, hit "pureee" and slather it over a love story. The framework is a sort of wacky, rekindled old flame romance which Gosling and Blunt could play in their sleep. It's honestly a kind of charming throwback in that regard, something we genuinely don't get anymore, though the latter half leans a lot more into the action movie almost like methadone to wean viewers into it. The action scenes are good, the pace bounces along rather nicely, and Stephanie Hsu has a cameo and is always welcome. Plus Winston Duke is good in this.

"Joy Ride" - Review

Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) grew up as best friends: largely because they were the only Asian kids in their tiny town, and because the fiery, punchy Lolo protected Audrey on the playground from a racist. Now, the high-flying overachieving lawyer Audrey is about to embark on a business trip for her firm to meet a client in China; and the artistic, foul-mouthed, free spirited Lolo (voted "Most Likely to Get Arrested") comes along not just as her best friend, but her translator! After all, ever since they were kids, Audrey has wanted to find her birth mother in China, and Lolo decides that this is the chance to do it. However, the latter also neglected to mention that her awkward K-Pop loving cousin "Deadeye" (Sabrina Wu) will be joining them... Whilst she's in the neighbourhood, Audrey also decides to catch up with her old college room mate Kat (Stephanie Hsu), a wild child sex machine now working as golden girl leading lady in a prestigious TV show called "The Emperor's Daughter" and engaged to her hot, chaste Christian leading man Clarence. The quartet begin a road trip which devolves into shenanigans and evolves into friendship and struggles with identity.

We saw this at a "Screen Unseen" preview a month or so before it comes out, and had 2 walkouts in the first 5 minutes. I'm glad that they left then, because this movie is fucking filthy.
It's also hilarious.
A depraved, wildfire, highly energetic road trip movie with 4 excellent comedic actors (Sherry Cola is an immediate standout and rightly so as the raunchy, borderline degenerate maniac and supportive best friend Lolo; but Stephanie Hsu had me pissing myself, and Sabrina Wu is one hell of a find); all 4 of the cast feel like rounded characters to boot. The lazy review is to say "Asian Bridesmaids", and whilst Stephanie Hsu (can we have a Stephanie Hsu movie every year please?) plays it with madcap Rose Byrne energy, and some will compare Lolo to Melissa McCarthy's star-making performance (and there is even a cameo from Annie Mumolo, writer of "Bridesmaids" as Audrey's mother), the movie evolves into its own hedonistic thing, with an effervescent and horny energy of its own. A sequence involving drugs on a train has some choice lines and had my partner and I crying with laughter, only to be followed up with a 6-way sex sequence/dance-off a few minutes later, where Stephanie Hsu is attempting to hide how horny she is, and it killed me- and yet still it had the sheer nerve to also feature character growth and development in its double-cunnilingus concussion basketball masturbation extravaganza.
In between rapid fire delivery, a breakneck pace and a rendition of "W.A.P" which goes beyond what is shown in the trailer (I will not say more), there comes the movie's real strength of balancing these pussy-tattoo shenanigans and foul mouthed gags about anal sex with its resonant emotional core - a woman's search for her identity when she doesn't feel quite at home in this world anymore, and maybe won't even find it here... Daniel "Turbo Chad" Dae Kim has an incredibly sweet cameo, but the emotional core and heart of the film lies comfortably with Park (whom you can tell is a theatre actor, not just from her EXCELLENT vocals on "W.A.P". Fun fact: she played the part of Gretchen in the "Mean Girls" musical and I can 100% see it) and her journey, as well as some tender moments with friends both new and old... Lolo and Kat have an excellent catty dynamic, but it doesn't drag too long. Deadeye is charming and funny without being annoying (looking at you, Kate McKinnon) and it is just such a damn good time. I applaud Adele Lim for her triumphant debut, and am keen on all of these guys going far.

"Everything, Everywhere, All At Once"

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is a stressed out owner of a dry cleaner's, determined to stay afloat during the impending audit by battleaxe IRS employee Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), a visit from her distant father (the always wonderful James Hong), her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) bringing her girlfriend round and hoping to be accepted, and her cinammon roll of a husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) has a secret... At the IRS building, something strange happens...

This movie is spectacular, there is no other word for it. A sumptuous banquet of creativity, wonder, imagination, insanity and unhinged wonder - Daniels have shown us what cinema is supposed to be about. The ideas are "mad", yes, but only because we're not used to such freedom of creativity on screen, because all too often there is a tight stanglehold on the sort of things that are, you know, good. The directors keep a tight reign on the madness (leaping onto dildos, in a sequence which had me crying with laughter, luchadore cock battles, eating chapstick to gain superpowers, James Hong in a home-made mech suit) with a touching, and genuinely sweet introspective examination of nihilism and existentialism, as well as the relationship between Evelyn and her family. Nothing matters, so embrace things you love. After all, what do you have to lose?
The film is gorgeous to behold, has editing which dreams are made of (I'm in awe that the makers created an entire marble bust of Michelle Yeoh's head for a split second editing gag, same with an animated sequence) in moments which flicker by with genuine talent and skill. It's slick and smooth as butter.
And in a movie where James Hong Tokyo-Drifting his wheelchair at a luchadore at super speed is only, like the 8th weirdest thing to happen in those ten minutes, there is a lot to love.
Every person is going to have a favourite part, or moment, or thing they love. Personally, it's the little things: I loved that the shots of Evelyn and Waymond in the "successful" world looked like something from "In the Mood for Love", and a sequence involving rocks. The aforementioned dildo sequence is a highlight too, I was crying with laughter, and "Raccoon" gag pays off wonderfully.
Each and every scene is packed with something new, some other detail you may have missed, and I reccommend this movie whole-heartedly