Thanksgiving Roundup: Zootopia 2, Frankenstein, Train Dreams, Rental Family, Sentimental Value

Jeremy BeckReviews
The fox in Zootopia 2; Oscar Isaac in Frankenstein; Joel Edgerton in Train Dreams; Brendan Fraser in Rental Family; Renate Reinsve in Sentimental Value

In a perfect world, I’d use this website to write long-form reviews of every new movie I watched. Sadly, I lack both the time and the talent to do so. Yet my combination of OCD and narcissism compels me to always register my opinions in some fashion—typically via Letterboxd, where I can scribble down two-paragraph capsules that convey my overarching thoughts without adhering to the formal style and detail of a proper review. (For example, I never found the time to review Hamnet, but my spoiler-heavy Letterboxd blurb digs into that film’s majestic ending.) I try not to shill for corporations, but whether you’re the dorkiest of cinephiles or just a casual viewer, it’s a free and useful app, and—what was I saying about narcissism again?—if you’re ever searching for my thoughts on a movie that I didn’t review here, you can likely find them there.

This week, though, rather than choosing a single title to highlight, we’re going rapid-fire through some recent releases—a blend of audience-pleasing blockbusters, independent fare, and streamers that Netflix refused to let you see in a theater. Let’s get to it. Read More

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Wicked: For Good review: Make Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored

Jeremy BeckReviews
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked: For Good

Did you know that the Yellow Brick Road was paved with slave labor? That Munchkins were subjected to a despotic travel ban? That Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum can’t really sing? These revelations and more emerge in Wicked: For Good, the droopy, flabby conclusion to last year’s spirited introduction. Less a coherent second act than an endless culmination, this tepid musical makes sure to answer all of your burning questions about the lore of Oz, like how the Tin Man lost his heart or whether Dorothy was in fact a total brat.

The executives at Universal are surely not regretting their decision to split Wicked, the Broadway hit from Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman (adapting Gregory Maguire’s novel), into two parts—not when the first raked in over $750M worldwide and the second is already smashing bespoke box-office records. But the motivation behind this maneuver was always commercial rather than artistic, and even as For Good profits financially, it suffers a painful storytelling cost. Read More

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The Running Man review: Sprint the Legend

Jeremy BeckReviews
Glen Powell in The Running Man

Glen Powell is a charmer. Yes he’s obscenely good-looking, but he also possesses a natural magnetism—a glint in his eye, a spark in his smile—that draws you toward him. Hit Man, Twisters, and Anyone But You may be of varying quality, but Powell is roguishly appealing in all of them, elevating the material with his calibrated carelessness. The Running Man, the new science-fiction movie from Edgar Wright, attempts to nudge the actor’s inherent allure into a different register, envisioning him not as an amiable romantic lead but as a bruising, brooding action hero.

“I’m not angry,” are the first words we hear from Ben Richards (Powell), in a tone that indicates the opposite. Myself, I am hardly incensed by The Running Man, but I nonetheless find it misguided and dispiriting. Not only does it fail to leverage the skills of its leading man, but it also struggles to work as a piece of blockbuster filmmaking. For a movie ostensibly focused on speed and excitement, it is oddly sluggish and sullen. Read More

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Predator: Badlands review: All Riot on the Western Hunt

Jeremy BeckReviews
Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi in Predator: Badlands

In Alien, Ian Holm described the titular xenomorph as a creature “unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.” The Predator, the snarling extraterrestrial villain of Fox’s other flagship sci-fi/horror franchise, is marginally more humanoid, but it’s similarly ruthless; in the 38 years since Arnold Schwarzenegger christened it “one ugly motherfucker,” it’s never betrayed any sense of compassion. Still, beneath its primal bloodlust there has always lurked a hint of, if not humanity, then at least sincerity. Whereas the Alien is driven by evolutionary imperatives, the Predator carries itself with a certain swagger, busting heads and ripping out spinal cords with taunting superiority. It doesn’t kill because it has to; it kills because that’s what makes it happy.

So it isn’t entirely a subversion that Predator: Badlands envisions its central beast not as a savage lone wolf but as a scorned member of a functioning society. Its main character, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), may have the flattened snout and black dreadlocks from Predator flicks of yore, but he is initially defined by his relative weakness. Dek isn’t a murdering machine; he’s just a little brother, one who’s desperate to impress both his elder sibling and his disapproving father, the latter of whom dismisses him as a runt. Inferiority complex, daddy issues, obsessed with cool toys—Predators, they’re just like us! Read More

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Bugonia review: Alien vs. Redditor

Jeremy BeckReviews
Emma Stone in Bugonia

Have you noticed that the world is falling apart? That corporations wield enormous power? That the mega-rich are infiltrating the government to advance their own agenda at the expense of the working poor? Teddy has noticed. More than that, he’s determined that our ongoing societal collapse stems from a particular form of unchecked immigration—one that has nothing to do with national borders. That’s right, according to Teddy there’s a more insidious invading force at work: aliens.

Bugonia is the latest whatsit from Yorgos Lanthimos, the fiendishly inventive filmmaker of such marvels as Poor Things, The Lobster, and The Favourite. It isn’t as great as those movies, lacking their conceptual ambition and their ravishing craftsmanship. But it is nonetheless a potent and arresting work—an intimate, suspenseful thriller that also tackles modern discontent with satirical ingenuity and sobering clarity. Read More

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