Peter Rabbit movie review: splat the bunny
Tosses out the very sentiments that make Beatrix Potter’s work so beloved and so enduring in favor of the sullen bratty championing of cruelty and disenchantment. Nihilistic money-grubbing garbage.
family/kids
Early Man movie review: primordial goop
A huge disappointment, crude and simple compared to Aardman’s earlier, more sophisticated and multilayered work. No satire or subversion, just a bog-standard triumph-of-the-underdog story.
Ferdinand movie review: no bull, it’s wonderful
Goofy, charming, faithful to its sweet source material, and all while advancing the standard “Be yourself” message with fresh challenges to gender expectations.
Daddy’s Home 2 movie review: the father away, the better
Goes well beyond the typical mindless array of slapstick and humiliation to reach disgusting new depths of coarseness. Not just appalling, but actually dangerous.
Wonder movie review: learning to be nice to a paragon
Reminders to be kind are all very well, but it’s time to move past the idea that it’s up to people who are different to inspire everyone else to be better people.
Paddington 2 movie review: wrap yourself up in this bear hug
There is such kindness here, such humanity, such warmth and optimism. This is a fantasy of unique scope and astonishing emotional depth beneath the silliness.
Ballerina (aka Leap!) movie review: lowering the barre
Cheesy Euro ballerina-porn cartoon is full of dated animation, cringeworthy attempts at humor, bizarre anachronisms, and a terrible message for little kids.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie review: a brief look at the long and the shorts of it
Sweet, subversive, and absolutely hilarious, at once a snarky superhero sendup and an unironically joyful celebration of friendship and imagination.
Cars 3 movie review: road to nowhere
Three movies in, and this world of sentient driverless cars still creeps me out, and still does nothing except advertise a mountain of related merch for kids.
Smurfs: The Lost Village movie review: how do you solve a problem like Smurfette?
An adventure crammed with junky slapstick and garish animation that seems to believe it is feminist, but only doubles down on Smurfily regressive notions of gender.
