Multiplex Madness
Babes
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Comedy
Director: Pamela Adlon
Starring: Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, Sandra Bernhard, Stephan James, Hasan Minhaj
Directed by Pamela "Bobby Hill" Adlon in her directorial debut, Babes stars comedian Ilana Glazer as a woman who finds out she is pregnant after a one-night stand with a man who died the very next day. Now, with the future of being a single mother, she carries the baby to term with the help of her already two-time child-bearing bestie, played by fellow comedian Michelle Buteau, offering her guidance and emotional support. The film is very much a woman-made comedy that is targeting other women, getting frank about women things, trying to make boyfriends uncomfortable while their girlfriends either nod their heads or laugh themselves silly. Some parts are pretty funny, but it's also a movie that feels like it's playing itself up to the audience by cramming too much deadpan awkwardness in every given scene. Its vibe is inconsistent, feeling like Woody Allen to Billy Crystal to even the Farrelly Brothers, all distinct flavors that work in isolation, but tossed in together, become a bizarre puree of mixed tones. Ilana Glazer is likely keeping to her own tonal style that works for her stand-up, so I can't be mad at her for leaning into her personality (it's often the smartest thing an artist can do), it's just having issues gelling in longform narrative, and when she tries to mix in sentimentality, the movie just feels junky. I kinda feel the same way about it as I did the audacious queer comedy Bros from a few years ago (lol, Bros and Babes, this is fate), where its forgetting good comedy isn't really just audacity by itself, even if the product still doesn't end up suffering all that much because of it. Those looking for a girls' night out with a few laughs will probably want to check it out. I'd absolutely not dissuade that, it just doesn't hit a home run for me.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Action
Director: George Miller
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, Lachly Hulme
It's been a long wait. Not as long as the wait for Fury Road, but I think most of us assumed Mad Max was out of gas after Beyond Thunderdome, and I'm not sure anyone was really "waiting" for it. George Miller then took his franchise that most fondly remembered as an 80's relic and just casually threw out one of the most insane action movies ever made and dropped the mic. In this age of IP, pressure is on to follow that up somehow, though Miller's hopeful Furiosa spin-off was put on the backburner as Miller and Warner Bros. went to court for earnings from the last movie. Nine years, a settlement, and a genie movie later, Furiosa finally tells her origin story.
Taking over the role from Charlize Theron, Anya Taylor-Joy plays Furiosa, a girl from the post-apocalyptic "Wasteland" who was orphaned at a young age and given up into slavery. Years later, in the midst of tensions between factions that may lead to war, Furiosa seeks revenge against the gangleader who murdered her mother and stole her from her home. To be frank, those wishing for more of Fury Road's hyperviolent and stylized escapism will get it in spades. Like Fury Road, Furiosa is an action extravaganza that continues the Mad Max tradition of being a revved-up, vehicular stunt show. If there is any difference between the two films, it's that Furiosa is more of a sprawling film than Fury Road. Fury Road was a chase movie, while Furiosa is a biblical epic, telling of one woman's journey in multiple episodes, spanning decades. The film furthers the status of the Mad Max series as a sort of apocalyptic Greek demigod mythology, with each film telling of a trial for its characters, who vanish into the night only to appear when the next one comes about. Taylor-Joy is magnificent in the title role, while Chris Hemsworth is a delightful ham in the antagonistic role of a dangerous idiot. The movie isn't the taut thrill-ride that Fury Road was because it has too much plot, but because it's such an encompassing character journey that still maintains the high-octane action that the series is known for, it still rises to the occasion. Depending on one's taste, it's also arguably a better movie. But you wouldn't be blamed for prefering one over the other.
What? Review's over.
Okay, fine, I'll say it: "Can't we just get beyond Thunderdome?"
The Garfield Movie
Sight
The Garfield Movie
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mark Dindal
Starring: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillen, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, Snoop Dogg
Based on the long-running comic strip/media empire, The Garfield Movie attempts at an origin story for the tubby tabby, who is adopted off the street by his owner, Jon. Years later, Garfield and his canine best friend, Odie, are kidnapped by a feisty feline to attract the attention of Garfield's estranged father, and subsequently get sucked into a milk heist at a local dairy farm. Garfield is a tricky character to adapt to film, because it's difficult to relate an actual story without betraying Garfield's lazy spirit. Garfield has lasted as long as he has because he's a character that is ideal for short form, be it three-panel comics or ten-minute Saturday morning cartoon segments. One of the reasons Garfield & Friends is one of the most beloved children's cartoons in history, and honestly still kinda holds up today, is because it understood that hit and run comedy was what worked for this franchise. But when you get Bill Murray to play Garfield for eighty minutes in a movie, it feels strained, because it wants to be a movie more than it wants to be...well, Garfield.
Flash forward to this animated reboot of the Garfield film franchise (it's Garfield's third film, or sixth if you include direct to video ventures), which sees Chris Pratt playing the icon, and it seems like only partial lessions were learned. One of the things the movie does well is that it litters itself with brief jokes, like you'd see in a comic panel, which is where the character is always at its brightest. The cartoon world is more animated and flavorful than in the live-action films. And, quite frankly, Odie is an absolute scene stealer in this movie. Most of the most amusing gags in this movie belong to the dim-witted fido. The problem with The Garfield Movie is the same problem with the original Garfield movies...it's trying to make a movie out of Garfield. It feels like it needs to justify its existence with something more intricate than you'd normally see Garfield do, and while it's humor is in-character, the story really isn't. The movie has enough of Garfield's spirit, though its plot tends to get too complicated for the character. Garfield doesn't do complicated. He works with extravagant, which is why the climax is a highlight, but complicated exhausts him. Working in Garfield's father is an interesting touch, because we've met Garfield's mother over the years (notably in the excellent TV special Garfield on the Town), but never his dad, but giving Garfield daddy issues is something that isn't really suited to his personality. Sentimentality also has rarely suited the character, unless it's done in a very specific way (Garfield on the Town is still a frame of reference), and The Garfield Movie juggles that with more plot than the franchise can handle, while also maintaining the comic-strip nature of the character, and strains itself in doing so. It's a cute diversion movie for families with young children, but it feels like they had thought too hard in the wrong places and not hard enough in areas where this movie could shine.
Sight
⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama
Director: Andrew Hyatt
Starring: Terry Chen, Greg Kinnear
Nobody can make a true story feel fake quite like Angel Studios. Their one-dimensional approach to dramatization is very much a vibe that they intentionally achieve, but to be fair, that's because bigger studios don't make movies like this often, so they have to fill the niche, and studios certainly don't put them to a higher standard when they do. Sight is a movie that understands the theory of drama but doesn't understand the presentation. It will show events, but never with detail or interest. It's a movie that firmly believes compelling storytelling lies in zooming in on actors delivering feel-good smiles while nodding, while conflict is always in lack of immediate success despite progress or in traumatic backstories caused by non-characters who inflict pain for no reason and vanish from the movie. The film itself tells the story of Dr. Ming Wang, telling of his challenging upbringing in China to developing groundbreaking procedures in medicine that let the blind see again. It sounds like an amazing story. It deserves an amazing movie. Sight is not it. Sight is a bland generic chore that has absolutely nothing to keep a viewer from playing with their phone throughout its duration. Greg Kinnear does his best to inject some personality into the proceedings, but he's the only one that doesn't come across as if he's sleepwalking through this whole ordeal.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Back to Black ⭐️⭐️1/2
Challengers ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dune: Part Two ⭐⭐1/2
The Fall Guy ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ⭐️⭐️1/2
I Saw the TV Glow ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
IF ⭐️1/2
The Strangers: Chapter 1 ⭐️1/2
New To Digital
Civil War ⭐️⭐️1/2
The Fall Guy ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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