Finding a host for the Oscars has become quite the quest in recent years. There are reasons for that. For starters, it’s a lose-lose proposition. You could think you are nailing it, but there will always be a vocal minority to shoot you down. Also, even though I’m in the group that always watches, it’s just a fact the viewing audience is dropping for all award shows. I was in the camp that wanted John Mulaney to host, but he didn’t want to. Since the committee didn’t appear to want three straight Kimmel years, they had to find a new option. It was announced this week that person is Conan O’Brien. He is perfect for this. He has experience and is not afraid to bomb. If anything, he feeds on it. He should make what is quickly appearing as a drab evening into a fun affair possibly. On to the reviews!
Stop-motion animation is not a form of storytelling one just chooses to use. It’s a form that takes years of production to make things work. When it’s executed the way it supposed to be, something special happens. “Special” is not the word I would use for Memoir of a Snail. That word just doesn’t fit with what the film is about. There is nothing “special” about Grace, our main character. She is just a lonely person who seems to just be collecting tragedies as much as she collects snail related stuff. That isn’t to say this is depressing. This film to me shows the importance of having someone in your life. Grace’s life turns around for a bit when she meets Pinky, an energetic, elderly lady. The film has a consistent sense of sadness up until the end, where it leaves you with a feeling of contentedness. For the film itself, this isn’t for kids. Setting aside the adult parts of it that earns the film the R rating, the level of boredom kids will feel during this is real. Nothing exciting happens, and the film has a consistent drab color scheme. While the young ones won’t get anything out of it, this should definitely be part of a solid Best Animated Film category in March.
There are films I thinks much less on than others, and ones I think are better than many think there are. This kind of falls in the latter. If you come into it knowing what you are in for, you might have a fun time. It is dumb, but it it isn’t trying to be anything other than that really. This is a movie about Santa getting kidnapped on Christmas Eve. The head of North Pole security (the E.L.F.), played by Dwayne Johnson, and a hacker, played by Chris Evans, have to then find him so Christmas won’t be canceled. It is just clever to work at times, but it is what it is. I don’t think there is anyway a movie with this plot could be any better than what we have here. I do think this will play better when people watch it at home closer to Christmas in the future. The funny rumor I read for this was this was thought by Amazon as the beginning of a new franchise. Yeah. That isn’t happening now based on how things are going this weekend for it.
On the plus side, I guessed this round of Screen Unseen correctly again. Less positive, this film is a slog to get through. I thought my love of WW2 films would help through this, but it really didn’t. What we have is an over 2 hour film telling the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who was against the growing Nazi influence in the Church. It takes so long to get to his inevitable end point, and it is basically “Nazis are bad, we need to stop them”. Nothing groundbreaking here, and nobody really stands out. Jonas Dassler obviously has the most to do as Bonhoeffer, but he isn’t allowed to do much that is interesting. Back in Chicago, I watched The Brutalist. My review for that will be posted in a few weeks, but just know it’s 3 hours and 45 minutes long. I thought that film was long to sit through, but Bonhoeffer by the end felt longer than that one.
I love going to Carousel of Progress at Walt Disney World. That has always been a special 20 minute ride for my family. On it, you follow John and his family as the progress through time. As the theater rotates, each segment is a different time period. I bring all this up for a specific reason. That is basically what Here was to me. As the camera never moves, we watch as time moves on in the area we are watching. Zemeckis shows us dinosaurs, Native Americans, Colonialists, inventors, pilots, and families all over centuries of time. We go back and forth between all these time periods all through the film, but the bulk of the time we spend is with the Young family. With them, we see the Hanks’ character through his life. We see him as a child with his parents, then we see him with Robin Wright’s Margaret, then as those two deal with life together. A popular thing people have an issue with is the de-aging on characters, but that didn’t bother me too much. I just wished this film was little more focused. I didn’t mind the non-linear storytelling, but I would have cut a could have the time periods, mainly the inventor and colonial eras. They didn’t really add anything. This isn’t one of the better Zemeckis films like Forrest Gump or Cast Away, but it is far from one the bad ones.
It’s finally time next week! After weeks of movies that didn’t have that excitement behind them, we are finally in the real holiday season, and it starts with two bangers. Gladiator II and Wicked have very different audiences that they are trying to pull in. Sure, there are people like in the middle section of that Venn diagram, but not that a whole bunch. Wicked has a pretty loyal fanbase from the Broadway side, and Gladiator has one from the 2000 original (that won Best Picture). they key difference between those two films and how the box office could go is a simple thing: Wicked is PG, and Gladiator II is R. That is why I think Wicked might go big this weekend.
- Wicked (Part One)
- Gladiator II
- Red One
- Heretic
- The Wild Robot
The point of the season I’ve been saying would be fun is finally here. Gladiator II and Wicked (Part One…) are finally out this weekend. I see one of them Wednesday, but I’m holding the other until next week so I can watch it with my Dad. I’ll let you guess which one that is. Also, tomorrow night is week 2 of 4 straight Mystery Mondays.
Mitten Film Nerd 
Leave a comment