The Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020)

Tags

Christmas, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Netflix

To all who would rather be elsewhere,
To all who are feeling alone,
To those who wish Christmases long past
Could somehow return when we’re grown,

To all who are missing a loved one,
To all who wish wishes were real,
To all who are hoping that Christmas
Can brighten a year so surreal,

I know well this plaintive nostalgia,
Yet bypassing cynics’ deaf ears,
I still wish you all Merry Christmas.
May smiles replace all your tears.
________________________

MPA rating:  PG

Two years ago, Netflix delivered The Christmas Chronicles, with one of the more fun incarnations of Santa Claus delivered by the incomparable Kurt Russell. In true commercial Christmas fashion, we now have a sequel to the family-friendly romp, but whereas the first film borrowed heavily from Adventures in Babysitting for its plot, the second film leans a bit more on Gremlins and The Santa Clause 3, with mixed but still enjoyable results.

Teenagers Teddy (Judah Lewis) and Kate Pierce (Darby Camp) are still True Believers two years after their previous adventures with Santa Claus (see first movie), but Kate is now depressed having to spend Christmas in Cancun with her mother’s new boyfriend (Tyrese Gibson) and his young son Jack (Jahzir Bruno). While Teddy was the one with the character arc in the last movie, he’s quickly sidelined in favor of Kate and Jack, who are suddenly whisked away to the North Pole by a mysterious ne’er-do-well (Julian Dennison of Hunt for the Wilderpeople) with designs on Santa’s Village.

The first film was a hodgepodge of admittedly likable ingredients from other movies, and its sequel is much the same, though there are still spurts of inspiration. We get to see more of the North Pole this time, a sprawling collection of specialized toy and candy shops populated by impish elves, which should capture any child’s imagination without the creepy qualities of, say, The Polar Express. And following the first film’s example, this one again includes an exuberant musical number of pure Christmas spirit (featuring Darlene Love) that is worth the price of admission.

It’s rather predictable and not quite as good as the first movie, feeling even more like a farrago of Christmas-themed elements that don’t always fit naturally. The antagonist Belsnickel is particularly meh for the most part, though Dennison does his best to channel cartoonish malice. I did enjoy the new cast members, such as wide-eyed Jahzir Bruno and the larger role for Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Clause, though it was weird seeing Tyrese Gibson as a family man compared with his swaggering ladies’ man role in the Fast and Furious films. I also liked how the story expanded on the series’ Santa mythos as well, even if it also tosses in time travel for a sweet yet contrived reason. The Christmas Chronicles 2 probably won’t become a holiday staple, though there are rumors of a third film in the works, but it’s a diverting watch to remind the world of what a great Santa Claus Kurt Russell is.

Rank:  Honorable Mention

© 2020 S.G. Liput
708 Followers and Counting

A very Merry Christmas to everyone!

The Aeronauts (2019)

Tags

Drama, History, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to review something not usually reviewed, so I decided to provide some thoughts on gravity – the force, not the movie.)

Dear readers, I had overheard the stories about gravity
Long before I put myself at risk to feel it fully.
I didn’t think it quite deserved the talk of its depravity,
But now I can confirm that it’s a mean and selfish bully.

Of all four fundamental forces, gravity’s the only type
That visibly affects mankind and all that it attracts.
It strikes with every trip and fall and when the fruits of trees are ripe,
And tortures people on the scales with inconvenient facts.

It’s true it keeps us on the ground instead of floating into space,
But never has it once allowed a flexible exception.
It’s so obsessed with physics’ laws that when we climb above our place,
It tugs and tells the ground to give a less-than-soft reception.

Though gravity will have its way, its power is not absolute;
A bit of caution and respect can keep its pull at bay.
Few acts of nature are as quick to prophesy and persecute,
But gravity’s control will fade the more we disobey.
____________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I love a good historical adventure drama, and The Aeronauts on Amazon Prime had my attention right from its first trailer. Eddie Redmayne plays James Glaisher, a scientist intent on proving his hypothesis that studying the atmosphere can allow the weather to be predicted, but as with so many 19^th-century visionaries in film, his theories are ridiculed by the Royal Society of London. (Seriously, Hollywood apparently thinks the Royal Society was so narrow-minded, it’s a wonder that anything was discovered at all. I’m sure such disbelief did happen, but I’m noticing it so frequently in these kinds of movies that the villainizing for villainizing’s sake is starting to annoy me.) To prove his ideas, he enlists the aid of the only aeronaut willing to risk such a venture high into the atmosphere, a woman named Amelia (Felicity Jones), whose balloon takes them on a dangerous upward journey.

There’s a lot to like about The Aeronauts, not least of which are the visual wonders the pair encounter, from swarms of butterflies fluttering along air currents to the rainbows backed by mountainous clouds. As they get higher, the danger sets in as Glaisher especially struggles with the rarefied air and extreme cold. The high-altitude thrills keep the adventure from boredom, and regular flashbacks provide steady doses of character development along the way. Both actors do a fine job as well, reuniting without the romance five years after their pairing in The Theory of Everything, and it was nice to see Himesh Patel from Yesterday as a scientist friend of James’.

Yet for all its quality, The Aeronauts feels somehow lacking. Perhaps it’s because of its tenuous claim to being based off a true story. James Glaisher indeed made a historic balloon flight, but it was with a man named Henry Coxwell, making Amelia a composite character of other female balloonists who, while a laudable figure, feels shoehorned into the story. Certain elements do strain believability and historical accuracy, but The Aeronauts still does its best to build a grand scientific adventure on its half-fabricated foundation. It entertains doing just that, which is good enough for me.

Best line: (Amelia Wren) “You don’t change the world simply by looking at it, you change it through the way you choose to live in it.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
684 Followers and Counting

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Tags

Action, Drama, Mystery, Netflix, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem about a letter of the alphabet, so I went through the week and compiled couplets for each day.)

The M in Monday dips and dives
And puts a strain on all our lives.

The T is Tuesday’s cruciform,
The closest shelter from the storm.

The W is Wednesday’s smile,
As crooked as a crocodile.

The T in Thursday spreads each arm
In peace, surrender, and alarm.

The F in Friday has buck teeth
That shield a smile underneath.

The S is Saturday’s great treble,
Quite the sinner, saint, and rebel.

The S in Sunday tries to swerve,
But hits Monday and hits a nerve.
__________________________

MPA rating: TV-MA (strong R)

Netflix films can be hit-or-miss, but when a good one comes along, its relegation to a single TV streaming service makes it feel perhaps more underrated than if it had received a theatrical release. Released to theaters in Europe and Asia but to Netflix elsewhere, What Happened to Monday falls somewhere between hit and miss, but it still feels underrated for the things it does well. The dystopian thriller takes a familiar dystopian threat like overpopulation and runs with it in a way not seen before.

Actors seem to enjoy the test of inhabiting multiple characters and playing off themselves, but Noomi Rapace snagged a special challenge here, playing seven identical sisters raised in secret to protect them from the government’s rigidly enforced one-child policy. Although siblings are simply put into cryostasis, the septet’s grandfather (Willem Dafoe) kept them off the books entirely and fashioned a singular identity of Karen Settman; each girl is named after a day of the week and takes turns going out as Karen Settman on the day of their name: Sunday on Sunday, Monday on Monday, etc. However, when Monday doesn’t return at the end of her day, the other sisters find themselves in danger and must figure out what happened to her and her ties to the politician who first advocated the one-child policy (Glenn Close).

It’s no secret that I love science fiction, and What Happened to Monday is the kind of unique genre tale I enjoy, usually more than the critics do. The plot zips along without a moment of boredom, and Rapace does wonders with a script that doesn’t quite manage to make each of the Settman sisters stand out. Some are easy to pick out (Saturday has blonde hair, Friday is mousy and wears a knit cap), while others don’t really distinguish themselves much (Tuesday and Wednesday). Nevertheless, Rapace breathes personality into the ones that matter most, and the effects allowing her to interact with her doubles are top-notch.

Many films on Netflix don’t seem to bother holding back on their TV-MA ratings, and sadly the same is true for What Happened to Monday, marred by several bloody deaths and a gratuitous sex scene. It’s really a shame because the film otherwise warrants repeat viewings. Some twists are hardly surprising to anyone familiar with the dystopian genre, but it still holds plenty of mystery and thrills to overcome the occasionally thin characterization. It even ends up with a surprisingly pro-life sentiment by the end. It’s far better than its mixed reviews indicate, and if you can overcome the R-rated content, it’s one more what-if example of why I love sci-fi.

Best line: (Sunday, quoting their father) “Seven minds are better than one.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
684 Followers and Counting

The Wandering Earth (2019)

Tags

Action, Drama, Foreign, Netflix, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write about items gathered during a walk. In my house, I latched onto a nearby globe and decided to write about the planet at large, even though the film is more about disaster than discovery.)

What ancient cartographer could have imagined
A world as small as this?
Back then, the maps ended without a true edge
In blurry oblivion. One would allege
A brand new discovery, and they would wedge
The new land upon the abyss.

And now we know everything, satellite-view;
No land is left to miss.
But now we look upward and see a frontier,
More blurry oblivion. Scorning the fear,
We still must endeavor to find what’s not here.
We just can’t abide an abyss.
___________________________

MPA rating: TV-MA (it’s a PG-13-level movie, but the English subtitles have more F words than the original Chinese for some reason)

When you think of Chinese films, science fiction isn’t a genre that immediately comes to mind, but The Wandering Earth might change that. Based on a 2000 novella and released through Netflix outside of China, this big-budget blockbuster is like Asia’s answer to Michael Bay, a solar-system-spanning disaster flick that is just over-the-top enough to work.

Anyone remember the Spongebob episode with the Alaskan bull worm threatening the town, where Patrick says they should just take Bikini Bottom and push it someplace else? Well, that’s the brilliant idea the future world leaders in this film came up with to escape an expanding sun. Studding the earth’s surface with enormous rocket engines, they push the planet out of its orbit toward a safer system while most of the population retreats underground to escape the freezing surface. Years into the journey, the roaming planet gets caught in Jupiter’s gravity, forcing young adult Liu Qi (Chuxiao Qu), his sister, and their accomplices to fix one of the failing engines and save the world, while his father (Jing Wu) on a space station tries to do the same.

With tiny people causing planet-level effects, everything in The Wandering Earth is on such a humongous scale that even its semi-plausible elements seem utterly ridiculous, yet the earnestness of the characters and coolness of the visuals make the suspension of disbelief possible. In creating China’s first big sci-fi movie, the filmmakers certainly went all out with their emulation of similar Hollywood blockbusters: collapsing ice towers, a single-minded AI to fight, huge explosions, questions about saving the many vs. the few, last-minute heroics and touching sacrifices.

There’s a reason it made $700 million, making it the third highest-grossing non-English film ever. (Netflix has an English dub, but I’d only watch it if you absolutely can’t stand subtitles or want fewer obscenities.) I don’t know how the current pandemic will affect China’s film industry, but The Wandering Earth is proof that it can compete with Hollywood on special-effects extravaganzas. I wouldn’t say it’s better than films like Armageddon or Sunshine, but it’s certainly bigger.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
679 Followers and Counting

I Am Mother (2019)

Tags

Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller

Mothers care,
And mothers bear
The heavy weight
Of a child’s welfare.

They guard the gate;
They mind and wait
Until that child
Can negotiate

The world so wild
And be exiled
From all that Mother
Once reconciled.
_________________

 
MPAA rating: TV-14 (aka PG-13, mainly due to heavy themes; nothing gratuitous)

It’s a good time to be a fan of science fiction, and Netflix has been supplying a steady stream of it, with I Am Mother immediately catching my eye with its trailer. One part dystopian sci-fi, one part psychological thriller, it’s a futuristic chamber piece that keeps the audience guessing as it asks whether humans or robots are the more trustworthy.

The film starts with some unknown catastrophe that prompts a robot called Mother (voiced by Rose Byrne) to activate in an underground facility and begin the development of one of thousands of embryos stored there. We then cut to 38 years later, when a girl only referred to as Daughter (Clara Rugaard) grows into a teenager with Mother as her sole teacher and companion. (And if you recognize a discrepancy between the 38-year time skip and the teenage girl, rest assured that there’s a reason.) Daughter, however, entirely trusts and helps Mother, who has warned her of radiation outside, but the arrival of an injured woman (Hilary Swank) who warns her against her robotic guardian throws everything she’s ever known in doubt.

Those who know dystopian fiction might be able to guess the most likely explanation for what’s going on (though perhaps not all of it), but I Am Mother thrives on its atmospheric uncertainty. Mother seems to be a dutiful, even tender parent to Daughter, yet sci-fi has shown us too many times that advanced robotics are rarely sympathetic to mankind. Similarly, Swank as the unnamed woman knows more of the world and shares a common humanity with Daughter, yet she’s a survivor whose motivations are similarly hazy. There are lies and accusations of lies that can’t be proven, forcing Daughter to choose who has her best interest at heart and letting themes of truth, trust, and motherhood play out as only sci-fi can.

Both Swank and Rugaard are excellent in their roles, while Byrne makes a surprisingly good female HAL, and the effects are every bit as impressive as a big budget Hollywood version of this story might have been. In many ways, it’s a coming-of-age story, one that shatters the Bechdel test while delivering a thriller that may have familiar elements but still delivers on its thought-provoking suspense. There are plenty of Netflix movies that only got there because they wouldn’t make it as a big-screen film, but I Am Mother is not one of them.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
644 Followers and Counting

 

I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story (2019)

Tags

Biopic, Drama

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to take inspiration from some random pages of the dictionary, so I landed in the M’s and tried out a Japanese tanka, which is like an extended haiku.)

Misfortune had made
A mahogany maiden
Misery’s magnet,
But one maternal mercy
Made flagging hope manifest.
__________________

Rating:  TV-14

Hallmark and Lifetime seem to be the most prolific producers of made-for-TV films, and I suppose I’ve always been under the impression that they focused more on quantity rather than quality. Surely, a worthy TV film will come from HBO, not Lifetime.  Yet that supposition was proved wrong by I’m Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story, a film I wish would get some Emmy or Golden Globe love come awards season.

Set in the 1970s and based on a true memoir, Regina Louise’s story could have ended in obscure tragedy but for the intervention of one woman. A thirteen-year-old black girl (played by Angela Fairley) abandoned by her preoccupied parents, she finds solace at a children’s shelter, where counselor Jeanne Kerr (Ginnifer Goodwin of Zootopia) offers her the love and support she’s always craved but never known. Yet the system separates them by force, partly to preserve Regina’s black identity from a white adoptive mother, and the antisocial girl must depend on what she learned from Miss Kerr to escape a downward spiral.

I’ll go so far as to name I’m Somebody’s Child as one of my new favorite TV movies. It’s a film that will break your heart and warm it in equal measure. I can only imagine how many foster kids are out there dreaming for the kind of bond that Regina forms with Miss Kerr, and, as well-meaning powers that be spoil it, the plot’s turn into One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest territory only highlights how broken the system is, unable to recognize what an individual child really needs and deserves, namely love regardless of color.

Luckily, Regina Louise’s story is not the tragedy it could have been, ultimately redeemed to teary-eyed sweetness. It’s a beautifully acted true story, a testament to the power of adoption and the difference one person can make in the life of their unlikely someone.

Best line: (Miss Kerr) “I’m not the right race, but I am the right mother for her.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
627 Followers and Counting

 

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Tags

Drama, Western

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for an abecedarian poem, where each line starts with a different letter of the alphabet. I took it one step further and increased the number of syllables with each successive line; the first as one syllable, and the last has twenty-six. I wish I could have made it rhyme more, but it was a fun exercise.)

A
Better
Case of cruel
Death and dream-fueled
Effort you’ll rarely
Find than the flourishing,
God-led western growth from miles
Hence to the hard-fought backyards of
Impatient, heedless Americans.
Joy at the progress through storm and disease;
Key victories that confirmed our destinies
Like blood-sprayed signs pointing home that we only would
Make the effort to clean off once we had arrived there;
New frontiers made bitter with tears as roads were paved with loss;
Once-famed pathfinders and desperadoes yielding their roles to
Pioneers that now populate our history books or else lived
Quietly, blazed their trails, and fed the good earth in anonymity;
Royals and natives losing what they believed was theirs forevermore; and
Stubborn, sweet, semi-sane civilians of fortune and sacrificial service ―
These all made the struggle west what it was and the world what it would one day become.
Underneath the present-day complaints of destructive white expansion or the rosy
Visions of mythical men taming the wild as few Americans today ever could,
We must acknowledge that they were as human as we, as prone to sin and improbable grace,
Experiencing a world unknown, a battle against oceans, forests, mountains, prairies, and selves.
You may judge them as you may someday be judged; they lived for themselves, not for history books or for the
Zealous people who write them. Legends and monsters were once mere humans before hindsight made them less or more.
_____________________

MPAA rating: R (solely for violence)

The Coen brothers certainly know how to make a western. After pulling off the unlikely feat of a worthy remake of True Grit, they brought to life a diverse collection of short stories in this Netflix anthology film (which was apparently meant to be a series at first). Whether it be wagon-training on the Oregon Trail or discussing human nature in a potentially symbolic stagecoach, the Old West has rarely been so mythologized as it is here, painting a broad canvas of cheery gunfights, dark satire, and quiet desperation.

Each of the six tales is unique and presented as installments of a short story collection; they feel authentic in that short story way, and indeed two of the segments are based off stories by Jack London and Stewart Edward White. Tim Blake Nelson is probably the most memorable character as the titular Buster Scruggs, who revels in his gun-slinging superiority while crooning tunes and conversing with the audience. The lightness of this first story is deceiving, though, and the film isn’t afraid to be downright depressing. In fact, of the six yarns, only one has what could be considered a happy ending, but even the film’s sadder moments are punctuated by insightful and poignant themes, such as the selfishness of man or the rugged unfairness of this place called the Old West.

Not all of the stories are equal, of course, the weakest being James Franco’s laconic bank robber tale, which seemed to exist solely for the sake of some last-minute, literal gallows humor. Everyone I’ve read seems to agree that the title of best (as well as longest) belongs to “The Girl Who Got Rattled,” an achingly realistic segment in which Zoe Kazan steps out of her usual roles and proves her skill as an actress.

What I loved most about The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was its script. The dialogue, antiquated, eloquent, and clean, was a joy to listen to, and it’s proof positive that you just don’t need strong profanity for an Oscar-worthy script. (Sadly, its screenplay was only nominated, along with Costume Design and the song “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings.”) Unfortunately, it still earns its R-rating for the sometimes jarring gun violence (Buster Scruggs himself is the worst offender), but it’s still an uncommonly good member of a recently uncommon genre, full of gorgeous cinematography and seasoned thesps in all-too-brief roles, such as Nelson, Franco, Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Brendan Gleeson, Tyne Daly, and Saul Rubinek. It’s a sign that the western genre is ripe for resurrection and that the Coens are perfect for the job.

Best lines: (Buster Scruggs) “There’s just gotta be a place up ahead where men ain’t low-down and poker’s played fair. If there weren’t, what are all the songs about? I’ll see y’all there. And we can sing together and shake our heads over all the meanness in the used-to-be.”

and

(The Englishman) “You know the story, but people can’t get enough of them, like little children. Because, well, they connect the stories to themselves, I suppose, and we all love hearing about ourselves, so long as the people in the stories are us, but not us. Not us in the end, especially.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
627 Followers and Counting

 

Duel (1971)

Tags

Drama, Thriller

(For today’s NaPoWriMo prompt, we were to write a poem that ends with a question, so I tried to channel the underlying panic in this thriller. On a side note, I’m not really this paranoid in real life, just seen too much Criminal Minds lately. 🙂 )

Don’t you know that dangers lurk where many do not dare to dream,
And folk who look so ordinary prove much darker than they seem?
Don’t you know and don’t you care
That predators are lurking there,
Where no one thinks to be aware
Until they do not have a prayer?

I’ve seen the CSI shows, and I know the nightly news.
There are murders out on Main Street, there are allies who abuse,
There are hedons on the highway, there are fiends among our friends,
And I fear the day when bubbles pop and ignorant bliss ends.
This one may well be the day
When someone snaps and goes astray,
When thin decorum’s stripped away
And black and white are turned to gray.

Is your neighbor one of those with skeletons beneath their floors?
I know they’re out there; you do too, yet never thought to think of yours.
It’s paranoia, some will say,
While hearts of darkness have their way.
Is not the deadly viper’s nest
Where no one would have ever guessed?
_________________________

MPAA rating:  PG

I watched Duel strictly out of curiosity to see Steven Spielberg’s very first film as director, even if it was a TV movie at the time. Coming four years before Jaws, Duel served as a practice round for the thrills Spielberg had yet to deliver. It’s apparently considered one of the best TV movies ever, but I think it has weaknesses and mainly serves as evidence of how Spielberg improved as a director.

Dennis Weaver plays David Mann, an ordinary salesman on his way to a business meeting, who drives into the desert and passes a large tractor-trailer. Before long, though, he realizes that this truck’s driver has it in for him, repeatedly antagonizing and threatening his life. It’s a simple premise (reused in other films like Joy Ride) that Spielberg makes the most of, finding new ways to make the truck into an enemy while always keeping the driver anonymous, a faceless and relentless enemy not unlike the shark in Jaws.

However, even 90 minutes seems to be too long for the simplicity of this plot. It certainly has its moments, especially when the truck becomes more actively villainous toward poor Mr. Mann, but I found myself getting bored over time, which is never a good thing for a thriller. There was just too much of the truck looming behind and passing and being passed, while a sweaty Weaver frantically looks over his shoulder at it, sapping the tension through sheer repetition. Plus, the conclusion is left too open-ended, offering no resolution for anything outside of the truck plot.

Even so, for a TV movie, Duel is far better than a lesser director might have made it. Right from the first shot, Spielberg does the unexpected, providing a first-person driving view from the car’s perspective as the credits start. The film overall proves his unique talent but also how much further it grew with time and practice. This ain’t Jurassic Park, but we wouldn’t have Jurassic Park or Jaws or many other such films without it.

Best line: (Mann) “Fill it with Ethel.”   (Gas station attendant) “As long as Ethel doesn’t mind.”

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
617 Followers and Counting

 

Next Gen (2018)

Tags

Action, Animation, Comedy, Family, Sci-fi

 

The world’s an easy place to hate,
For it hates all too frequently.
And anger tends to escalate
The more it’s met with enmity.

One pain of heart
Can sow and start
A seed of hate
To germinate
And grow until
There’s no goodwill
For world or friend.
They all offend!
Life’s all about
The lashing out,
For no one cares
Or answers prayers;
Of that, they do not have a doubt.

But wait…
And hesitate to hate,
Just long enough to listen clear.
The world itself is quite the weight,
But others bearing it stand near
To show you how to persevere.
___________________

MPAA rating:  PG

It might be easy to write off a film that borrows plot elements from other stories as freely as Next Gen does, but this Chinese-American cartoon based on a graphic novel and delivered by Netflix manages to be more than the sum of its parts. Set in a futuristic world where personable robots are a ubiquitous household accessory, young robot-hating loner Mai (Charlyne Yi) becomes unlikely friends with an experimental droid called 7723 (John Krasinski) that might be able to save both her from herself and the world from a robot takeover. That description alone will probably conjure memories of The Iron Giant, Big Hero 6, and I, Robot, and Next Gen wears those similarities on its sleeve. Yet there’s more to appreciate beyond the familiar “boy and his robot” storyline (or “girl and her robot,” in this case).

As I said, Next Gen’s biggest touchstone would have to be Big Hero 6, not only with its big friendly robot mascot but also its urban setting of Asian-Western fusion, with Chinese characters instead of Japanese. But this Netflix film has some intriguing differences as well. One of them is the extent of robot normalization, which goes beyond that of I, Robot. Almost every device in this world is semi-sentient, and while a lot of potential questions surrounding that aren’t even broached, it’s an intriguing setup. Mai’s mother (Constance Wu) is obsessed with her Q-Bot companions and their developer, the Steve Jobs-esque Justin Pin (Jason Sudeikis), and it’s not a coincidence that the robot fascination mirrors the distraction of smartphone use. It’s also worth noting that Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics apparently don’t apply, specifically the one about robots not harming humans, since a group of bullies order their robots to beat up on Mai for them.

Beyond the setting, there are some deeper than normal themes at play as well. Mai is resentful of her father’s abandonment of her and the way her mother uses robots to cope, and when she meets 7723, it’s only his weapons and the destruction they create that catch her interest. She’s quite angry and cynical for a cartoon protagonist, and interestingly, it’s 7723 that has to remind her to not lose her humanity when lashing out at the world.  7723 also has a struggle of his own; he values every minute spent with Mai, yet his memory cache is limited, forcing him to choose which memory files and systems to delete and make room for more. It’s not every cartoon that tackles existential questions reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so Next Gen’s themes are definitely a step above the usual “follow your heart” storyline we’ve seen all too often.

On top of that, it’s a quality production, with fluid animation and some pretty awesome action sequences. One explosive scene in particular is one continuous tracking shot with no cuts. I already love those kinds of scenes in live-action, and, although it probably doesn’t require quite as much effort to pull off, I like that the technique is being used more and more in animation. (I could also cite the opening scene of The Secret Life of Pets or Diamond’s big fight scene in the anime Land of the Lustrous.)

As self-aware as it often is, it’s a shame that Next Gen feels obligated to conform to a few clichés, like the bully inevitably deciding “Hey, sorry I beat you up. Let’s be friends.” Likewise, Mai’s mother is pushed into a “you were right, I was wrong” confession that is so fast, it felt like the screenwriter checking off a plot requirement.

I will also say that Next Gen is probably better for older kids, and not just because of its deeper themes or a sudden death scene. There’s a funny running joke where 7723 can translate the barks of Mai’s excitable dog (Michael Pena), bleeping out his more profane words. I guess it’s on the level of any number of reality shows these days, but I don’t exactly welcome it when a kids’ cartoon features even the mouthing of the F-bomb.

Next Gen isn’t perfect, but it comes closer to Big Hero 6 than I would have thought possible from a Chinese production company I’d never heard of. There’s a lot to love about it and how it addresses moving beyond tragedy and anger while remaining a fun and sweet adventure, and I certainly hope that this and other animation houses outside the mainstream can continue the high quality displayed here.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
590 Followers and Counting

 

Flavors of Youth (2018)

Tags

Animation, Anime, Drama, Romance

I’ve had the chance to learn and grow
From where I was ten years ago,
And though time’s neither fast nor slow,
It’s galloped past me even so.

I know,
I know,
I’m not that old.
Not old enough to be consoled
For past regrets and words untold
When still on destiny’s threshold.

Yet worry knows no age or race.
It’s but a trace time can’t erase,
Not even at its breakneck pace.
And such are truths we all must face
As past and future we embrace.
_____________________

Rating: TV-PG (nothing objectionable, just themes best appreciated by adults)

For those who loved Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name, it’s naturally a grueling wait for his next anticipated feature, but in the meantime, CoMix Wave Films, the production studio for Shinkai’s movies, has filled the gap nicely by teaming with the Chinese animation house Haoliners. In place of Shinkai, Flavors of Youth has three different directors, each delivering a dramatic entry for this Netflix anthology film. Surprisingly, the result is a satisfying substitute that boasts both visual beauty and honest emotion in equal measure (as well as a solid English dub).

While the names and settings are clearly Chinese rather than Japanese, Flavors of Youth has all the aesthetic quality of a well-crafted anime film, and while Japanese animation can so often be associated with explosive battles and yelling, this belongs to the more introspective and relatable side of anime. The first of the three short stories revolves around a young man’s memories of the San Xian noodles he ate while growing up, which may seem overly simple, but the true-to-life details and poetic narration by narrator extraordinaire Crispin Freeman (of Haruhi Suzumiya fame) added to its impact. The second film was a bit less engaging for me, focusing on two sisters in the fashion world, but the story ended nicely and didn’t detract from the film overall. The third, though, entitled “Shanghai Love Story,” is especially affecting with its likable characters and sad irony, and any fan of Shinkai is bound to admire it.

While the themes are far from niche, I felt that the individual stories were aimed precisely at people like me, twenty-somethings uncertain about the future and nostalgic for good ol’ days which weren’t all that long ago yet seem to be fading before our eyes. The first story best encapsulated these sentiments and the way that memories and regrets always outlive their source. Cherished businesses close, loved ones die, and modern replacements never quite reach the glory of our recollections and hopes.

Yet unlike some other films I could name (I’m looking at you, 5 Centimeters Per Second), Flavors of Youth doesn’t settle with being depressing and finds hope in the promise that comes with building off those precious memories. This anthology may fall that little bit short of greatness, but those who enjoyed Shinkai’s work, such as The Garden of Words, should not miss it; just don’t expect another Your Name, and certainly nothing supernatural. I feel like I’ve grown fonder of this film since first seeing it, thanks especially to an after-credits scene that barely tied the stories together, and it’s a gratifying sign that Shinkai’s influence is clearly spreading. There are several anime films I’m dying to see this year, especially Maquia and Mirai of the Future, so I’m grateful that Netflix supplied this wistful little film while I wait.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
589 Followers and Counting