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Disney

Raya and the Last Dragon movie review: warrior princess

Sun, Mar 28, 2021
10 comments

The Disney paradigm is hard at play again here, its familiarity offset by its inspiration in Southeast Asian culture and mythology. Sweepingly told, gorgeously animated, and audaciously optimistic.

| 10 Comments

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm movie review: punching way the hell up

Thu, Oct 22, 2020
3 comments

A work of breathtaking audacity. This is as perilous as comedy gets, and it’s very, very funny, often shockingly so. Sacha Baron Cohen’s scathing cultural strikes land like extinction-level asteroids.

| 3 Comments

Mulan (2020) movie review: girl (and film) at war with the world

Fri, Sep 11, 2020
11 comments

Acceptably inoffensive, if less than wholly engaging. At least Liu’s strong, stately Mulan is a wonderful role model for girls who aren’t much interested in conformity and adhering to expectations.

| 11 Comments

Artemis Fowl movie review: falls foul of itself

Sun, Jun 14, 2020
12 comments

A disaster of a kids’ fantasy caper; feels like it’s making up the plot as it goes. A mishmash of manufactured wonder: characters barely sketched, action seemingly setting up future DisneyWorld rides.

| 12 Comments

Onward movie review: the Pixar road goes ever on

Fri, Mar 06, 2020
10 comments

Don’t let the Pixar curve throw you: familiar this quest may be, but it’s full of magic and wonder and humor and melancholy, and set in a fully realized fantasy world. Not a masterpiece but very good.

| 10 Comments

The Call of the Wild movie review: a very good boi (mostly)

Wed, Feb 19, 2020
3 comments

An old-fashioned kiddie adventure, sweetly earnest, equal parts scary, funny, exciting, sad, and happy, with only a bit of uncanny valley in its CGI doggo star. Definitely had something in my eye.

| 3 Comments

The Rescue movie review: China’s Coast Guard at action-thriller work

Fri, Jan 24, 2020
3 comments

This Michael Bay–esque love letter to China Rescue & Salvage may be propaganda, but its enjoyably bonkers melodrama and grippingly engaging action are a lot less obnoxious than any film Bay has made.

| 3 Comments

The Gentlemen movie review: sufficiently advanced crime

Thu, Jan 16, 2020
1 comment

Guy Ritchie ups his game on his signature subgenre with a hilariously sublime crime comedy that acts as mirror on the legit world and oozes with crackling cynicism about culture and politics as well.

| 1 Comment

Frozen II movie review: the thaw sets in

Tue, Dec 03, 2019
12 comments

There’s magic here, and elemental spirits, but no magic and nothing elemental, metaphorically speaking. Rote and smaller than its predecessor. Even the songs are bland and forgettable.

| 12 Comments

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil movie review: mistress of what now?

Wed, Oct 16, 2019
9 comments

An apparently unfairly maligned “wicked witch” has to be redeemed again. Anyway, bitches be evil, crazy and traumatized, or sweet dumb personality-free near-morons. You know, for kids!

| 9 Comments
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