Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Writers: Drew Goddard, Andy Weir
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Milana Vayntrub, Sandra Hüller

Synopsis: Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship light-years from Earth. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing the sun, and save Earth. An unexpected friendship may be the key.

Very rarely can you point to a film about redemption that also serves as a redemption story for its filmmakers. Project Hail Mary fits that description. I won’t go so far as to proclaim it a masterpiece, as some critics seem eager to do in their quote-pull fishing expeditions. Please, leave the narcissism at the door. If Ryan Gosling mugging for the camera in charming, hot-nerd fashion is enough to qualify as greatness, then this film certainly has that in abundance.

With Project Hail Mary, the writing and directing team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller will finally get the respect their names lost after being unceremoniously kicked off Solo: A Star Wars Story. After finding success with films likeCloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Lego Movie, they have finally made their space epic, one with plenty of heart and a comic touch that makes it a pure popcorn crowd-pleaser.

Not to mention, the script, along with the source material, keeps pivoting, making choices that are risky and brave in the world of cinema. While this critic kept waiting for the film to deliver a climactic, cathartic, showstopping third act, Lord and Miller respect the source material’s ending enough to craft a near-perfect marriage of art and commerce that will leave you giddy about what Hollywood studios can still achieve. 

The story of Project Hail Mary follows Dr. Ryland Grace (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling), a former scientist who was blackballed from the academic community for his original, outside-the-box thinking in molecular biology. Now working as an eighth-grade science teacher, Grace spends most of his days calming his students’ fears about the apocalyptic end of the world. The cause is something called “Astrophage,” aka the “Star-Eater.” 

The parasitic alien organism is known for consuming the sun’s energy and, for lack of a better term, dimming it. You are probably thinking, what’s the big deal? Less money on sunscreen. Not so fast. That means Earth would enter a rapidly accelerating Ice Age. The result would be mass crop failures, ecosystem collapse, and eventual human extinction, with every country treating resources as a free-for-all.

That’s when Eva Stratt (Anatomy of a Fall’s Sandra Hüller), head of the Hail Mary Project, steps in. The program is tasked with finding a way to save the sun and, by extension, the world. Right now, the sun will die in thirty years. Somehow, she comes across a paper Ryland wrote that hypothesizes life does not necessarily require water to evolve or exist. It was an original thought that led to Grace being banished to teach sniveling adolescents biology lessons.

Gosling is wonderful in the role, portraying the good doctor as endearingly awkward and almost diffident. Some of the best scenes come with The Bear’s Lionel Boyce, who plays officer/enforcer Steve Hatch assigned to Grace during the project. Ryland solves the most puzzling part of why the alien parasite is dimming the big, bad Helious with simple school project techniques, creating a hypothesis with cardboard, duct tape, and some Skittles.  

Yes, it has that obvious product placement, though it is not nearly as objectionable as the McCafé scene in The Day the Earth Stood Still. 

Surprisingly, Project Hail Mary draws the viewer into an immersive, cinematic world that is funny, heartfelt, and visually awe-inspiring. Adapted from the novel by Andy Weir (The Martian), the film is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, working from an exceptional screenplay by Drew Goddard (World War Z), that is pure popcorn entertainment. And that may be underselling the experience. 

Yes, we should have high standards, but in the age of the streaming wars, it is rare to get a movie that sparks the imagination, fills the soul, and reminds you of the simple joy of watching a big, ambitious story unfold on the largest screen possible. This also doubles as a family movie, with teachable moments you can discuss with your kids about what truly matters in life. It is just as much about exploration as it is a stealthy, beautiful, evocative meditation on family, friendship, and sacrifice.

Yes, there are some plot holes that come with a film like this, with Ryland achieving MacGyver-like levels of miraculous engineering and compressed scientific discoveries. Of course, unlike The Martian, those gaps are largely smoothed over by the introduction of Rocky (voiced by puppeteer James Ortiz). I have left the character mostly out of this review, even though the trailer gives it away, because much of the film’s joy comes from going in with as little knowledge as possible.

Frankly, whatever you think of the picture’s destination, one that lands on a moment of pure, joyous, cerebral optimism, it is the journey that sets Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s creation apart. As a whole, the film is a suspenseful, emotional, and ultimately rewarding ride, the kind of experience that feels almost like cinematic therapy. 

There is an emotional spectacle just as much a journey as the space travel, that goes well beyond the film’s gorgeous, breathtaking visuals. See Project Hail Mary on any screen you want, preferably in a theater, because this is a rare film worth the price of admission, and take the ride of a lifetime.

You can watch Project Hail Mary exclusively in theaters starting March 20th!

Grade: A-

Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Writer: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Stars: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening

Synopsis: In 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein asks Dr. Euphronius to help create a companion. They give life to a murdered woman as the Bride, sparking romance, police interest, and radical social change.

The Bride!, for all intents and purposes, throws nothing but punches and refuses to sugarcoat a single frame in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s remarkable, fresh take on Mary Shelley’s creation. That hardly means the movie is easy to sit through. Gyllenhaal’s sophomore effort ( her first was the incredible Netflix film The Lost Daughter) is grueling, repellent, hideous, and depraved at times. Skulls are crushed. Limbs are ripped. Tongues are torn.

However, The Bride! is also feverishly funny and unhinged, the type of gothic controlled chaos whose violence, as Roger Ebert describes in his review of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, is like amusement park violence. Gyllenhaal does a remarkable job of creating a world of ugly people with even uglier souls that is savage, seductive, and subversive. And no, we are not just talking about the main characters. 

The Bride! reflects the classic source materials in a kinetic, highly stylized way. Monsters are not born, they are made. The grotesque creatures are curious, sensitive, and full of untapped compassion, longing for companionship, whose violence is sparked by a world that uses isolation, humiliation, and abandonment to shape them. This Frankenstein’s monster and his bride are products of their environment, living down to the expectations society has set for them. 

This story takes place in 1930s Chicago, where Ida (a phenomenal Jessie Buckley) is enjoying a heavy night of drinking and shellfish in a swinging mob speakeasy. She throws a fit, yelling at the local mob boss, Lupino (Superman’s Zlatko Burić), who tells his henchmen to get rid of her. Clyde (Past Lives’ John Magaro) and James (Air’s Matthew Maher) slap her around and eventually push her down the stairs because she won’t shut that filthy mouth of hers.

Ida falls head over heels, literally, as her skull bounces off several steps until she meets the hard cement floor, snapping her neck. She is buried and forgotten. That is, until Frankenstein’s monster (Academy Award winner Christian Bale) arrives at Dr. Euphronius’s (the iconic Annette Bening) home to ask her to feel compassion for him. Euphoria is well known, perhaps infamously, for reinvigorating the dead. 

So they do what any normal people would do: they go grave robbing, coming across an exquisite-looking dead woman with wild blonde hair in a silky orange cocktail dress that will surely pique the monster’s interest. The wild and reckless Ida is reborn, without a memory of who she was before. The Monster is taken back by The Bride’s chaotic vitality, and a tragic creation that turns out to have a streak of anarchic spirit that cannot be tamed. 

The Bride! works because of Jessie Buckley’s performance. Her portrayal is like a stick of dynamite; volatile, sensual, and feral, a far cry from past Frankenstein adaptations. Buckley’s take on the classic character can be viewed through a feminist lens: Ida’s behavior before and after her death is a rebellion against the rules society has designed for her, refusing to stay within the walls that seek to box her in.

Of course, Bale makes you feel for a character who becomes a gluttonous consumer of love and friendship. Now drunk on companionship, he has a remarkable way of making you feel for the character, then be frightened or disgusted by him. For example, the switch from endearing shyness can, in a split second, turn into monstrous rage. While the story clearly has a horror undercurrent, Bale’s turn drives the search for a cure for loneliness and identity, which is viscerally felt.

Gyllenhaal also makes the film a family affair, with her brother Jake playing a Fred Astaire–like Golden Age of Hollywood star who helps the Monster through hard times. Her husband, Peter Sarsgaard, plays Det. Jake Wiles, who, along with Penélope Cruz’s Myrna Mallow, Jake’s assistant, investigates Frank and the Bride. Unfortunately, that subplot feels forced rather than delicately layered into the story. 

While entertaining, unfortunately, that investigation feels less like a natural extension of the story and more like a narrative obligation. Also, while the feminist rebellion angle is clearly felt throughout the film, Gyllenhaal does find herself doubling down by creating an antihero character out of Ida, with people following her in the media. The layer of subtext is hardly subtle and self-indulgent. 

Though you cannot argue that the film always keeps you engaged and entertained, no matter how vile the movie can be, it becomes thought-provoking. Ultimately, The Bride is worth watching for the lens Maggie Gyllenhaal uses to tell the story and for Jessie Buckley’s electric performance. Maggie Gyllenhaal, beneath all the style and terrific performances, finds the humanity beneath the grotesque. 

You can watch The Bride exclusively in theaters starting March 6th!

Grade: B-

Director: Han Han
Writers: Han Han, Zhou Yunhai, Meng Wenyu
Stars: Teng Shen, Yin Zheng, Wei Xiang

Synopsis: Bearing the glory of being the “King of Bayanbulak,” Zhang Chi once again embarks on his racing journey, aiming not only to win the race but also to achieve something beyond the competition itself.

In the opening scene of Pegasus 3, a montage intricately set to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now,” the evolution in the directing skills of former rally car driver Han Han is loud and clear. Whereas the first movie in the popular trilogy of Chinese sports films was an aesthetic (and editing) nightmare, Han began to hone in on his capabilities as an artist in the second installment, with more fluid cuts and sharper camerawork, but it wasn’t perfect. In Pegasus 3, he takes criticisms to heart and crafts a final hour of bravura filmmaking so exhilarating it might as well give Joseph Kosinski’s F1 a run for its money. 

The first Pegasus was terrible. The second was much better, but the difference between Pegasus 2 and 3 is night and day. Instead of retreading the same narrative beats as the previous two films, which saw rally car driver Zhang Chi (Teng Shen) stage a comeback in the Bayanbulak race, Han makes everything grander in scale and scope by ditching the central race of the first two films and prepping Zhang and his partner Sun Yuqiang (Yin Zheng) to compete in the MuChen 100. It’s essentially a longer (and more dangerous) version of the Bayanbulak, but it’s undoubtedly the best thing Han has ever directed. 

Old rivalries become friendships, as Zhang discovers that the team that initially brought them on board has been purposefully sabotaging their chances of competing. It gives Zhang, with the aid of Manager Ye (Wei Xiang), the opportunity to plan an intricate finale to get back at the people who have always doubted them at every second. Nothing is truly reinvented from a narrative perspective, most of it is actually plucked from F1 meets Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo, but the aesthetic experience of Pegasus 3 is second-to-none and is well worth the time you’ll spend in a cinema with a sold-out crowd that will erupt in applause by the time Han reaches his final setpiece and consistently dazzles your eyes and ears. 

It does take a while to get there, and the forward-momentum can be slightly hampered by some lethargic pacing, but Han more than compensates with the trilogy’s funniest comedy and a genuinely heartfelt performance from Teng Shen, whose Zhang Chi is more vulnerable than he’s ever been and is still trying to make ends meet, despite retaining the title of “King of Bayanbulak.” In the more talky opening half, we ruminate more with the protagonist as he grapples with what the world of racing means for him and the friends he’s forged along the way, which makes the resulting propulsive energy of its final race more urgent and tangible. 

The final race is where the movie truly comes to life – a staggering hour-long scene where literally anything can happen, and every camera technique you can think of is employed. There isn’t a single moment where my jaw wasn’t on the floor, as we observe Zhang precisely execute his plan, where not even one step can falter. Of course, this being a movie, the inevitable pitfalls do happen, but how he surmounts them is when the movie is at its most dynamic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a race quite like the one Han visualizes on screen before. The less you know about it, the better, because it takes turns (pun absolutely intended) you will not expect. 

What I can say, however, is that Han draws a cogent message on the use of AI integration and contrasts it with the sheer human willpower of Zhang’s plan. As sophisticated as machines can get, nothing – and I mean nothing – will beat human creativity and feeling. When the inevitable machine vs. human final stretch comes into play, who do you think will come out on top? I could spell it out for you, but the pleasures of watching a film like Pegasus 3 lie in your being transported by Han’s sheer mastery of the visual medium of cinema, who finally shows us the thrills of rally racing in a way no other filmmaker could. It took him several tries for the former racer to get to that point, but one can absolutely say that the third time is indeed the charm.

Grade: A-

Director: Polly Findlay
Writers: Bernard MacLaverty, Nick Payne
Stars: Lesley Manville, Ciarán Hinds, Niamh Cusack

Synopsis: Midwinter Break is a stirring meditation on faith, commitment, and the enduring power of love, as a longtime couple takes a life-changing trip to Amsterdam.

Sometimes, saying nothing at all is more powerful than uttering a word. This was true in Joachim Trier’s (incredible) Sentimental Value, and is the main driving force behind Polly Findlay’s Midwinter Break. Adapting from the book of the same name written by Bernard MacLaverty, Findlay, in her feature directorial debut, thrives in the silence and unspoken words of couple Gerry (Ciarán Hinds) and Stella (Lesley Manville), as the two go on a trip to Amsterdam over the holidays and perhaps fracture their longstanding marriage forever. 

Findlay is best known for her theater work, and she seems to apply the techniques developed in this art form to the medium of film. After all, Midwinter Break is essentially a two-hander between Hinds and Manville as they walk around the streets of Amsterdam and begin to reveal their vulnerabilities throughout their visit. Stella is a devout catholic who feels a close connection to a higher power and is travelling to Amsterdam for ulterior motives Gerry doesn’t know about, but he’s completely oblivious to anything going on since he’s always drinking. To say he has a drinking problem would be an understatement (we see him take his statins with a fairly full glass of whiskey, as an example), which bothers Stella, but she keeps these thoughts to herself. 

There was once love in this couple, but it’s nowhere to be found by the time the film opens. There’s an appreciation, sure, and they don’t mind being together, but the passion at the heart of the marriage is long gone, and has been for at least a decade. We know this because the characters barely look at one another when they’re speaking, and what they’re not saying about themselves reveals more about Gerry and Stella than a litany of extended dialogue scenes, which would’ve turned this filmic object into pure theatrics. 

There might have been a version of Midwinter Break in which MacLaverty’s book was adapted into a play, and the actors would have had to represent their innermost feelings through exaggerated histrionics, which wouldn’t have worked. Findlay keeps everything subdued for the most part and only reveals the reason why both characters have been drifting apart for a long time when the plot truly requires it. When that happens, it’s also the moment where Manville has to monologue in front of someone she has recently met (played by Niamh Cusack) and deliver a powerful gut-punch that will not only linger with you, but repurpose what came before in a genuinely meaningful way. 

Of course, this critic is trying to be (extremely) vague, not revealing what has caused the fractures in Gerry and Stella’s marriage, but I can say that Manville likely gives the best performance of her career in this. It’s a role that thrives on silence, until the unspoken feelings are too hard to bear and Stella must let it all out and reveal it all. When this occurs, it might be hard for you to hold back tears, because the emotions in Manville’s face, which have been built up throughout the film’s brief runtime, all cascade down in a monologue filled with immense, raw power. 

The final scene is also an exemplary demonstration of both Manville and Hinds’ acting talents, as Gerry and Stella reckon with their own beliefs and ask themselves if staying together is truly worth it. I’ll let you discover this incredible sequence on your own, but it’s clear that audiences are sleeping on this simple yet emotionally impactful film that does a lot more by thriving on minimalism and sitting with the two protagonists grappling with an unfulfilled life than by making them speak about these feelings. It might be a little too standard on the filmmaking side, but it also doesn’t need to be flashy. 

That said, the final image will probably stay with you forever, as Gerry and Stella now realize what’s most important about living in a world they don’t understand, and that has brought them massive amounts of pain. When this happens, you might gain a different understanding of your own life and perhaps see the world differently. In any event, don’t let this movie fly off your radar.

Grade: B+

Director: Frank E. Flowers
Writers: Joe Ballarini, Frank E. Flowers
Stars: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Karl Urban, Safia Oakley-Green

Synopsis: A Caribbean woman gets her secret past revealed when her island is invaded by vicious buccaneers.

The high seas of making a film with pirates aren’t easy to navigate at all. Filmmakers don’t want to make another Cutthroat Island, they want to make another Pirates of the Caribbean. The vacancy of this kind of movie has been reduced to zero with the new film, The Bluff. The Bluff stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Ercell Bodde, who is  a housewife who’s awaiting the return of her husband Captain T.H. Bodden (Ismael Cruz Cordova) and his ship’s crew. The two share a son Isaac (Vedanten Naidoo) and T.H. ‘s sister Lizzie (Sofia Oakley-Green). Their home, Cayman Brac, is a little slice of paradise. Locals are able to raise their kids, work, and enjoy the weather every day without interference from others that aren’t welcome. That’s until Captain Connor (Karl Urban) and his men wash ashore searching for something that’s rightfully his.

Chopra Jonas is our lead and she gives a decent performance as Ercell. She doesn’t play her character as a damsel in distress. Ercell gives it her all by fighting these unwanted visitors with guts and grit. Protecting her family is her main priority and if she has to cut men from their upper torso down to their toes, then so be it. Jonas’ background as an actress in Bollywood films has always been one of her strengths as a performer because she’s an absolute pro in action sequences. The first thing I ever saw her in was the ABC series, Quantico. My eyes were fixated on her and the way that she commanded the audience with her beauty and her performance as an action performer.

As the movie goes on, we find out that Ercell has a secret life that she had before her husband came into the picture. She lived a life of swashbuckling and crime after being forced into it as a child by Captain Connor. Connor kidnaps her husband, T.H., after he finds his gold on their ship, they sail back to Cayman Brac, and that’s where the real story begins. Ercell turned into a killer in order to survive on the high seas with Connor. During a battle with others Ercell stabbed him and took his treasure. That brings us back into the present. Chopra Jonas and Urban try to sell the confrontation between the both of them but the blandness of the script doesn’t allow for the two to give us great performances. I know Karl Urban is known for his role as Butcher on The Boys but his acting as a villain in this didn’t make me feel anything. He wasn’t intimidating, scary, or a villain with traits to be frightened by. One thing I did notice was how he was constantly rubbing some sort of drug inside of his mouth. It looked like seaweed but it gave him the energy he needed to fight everyone that wasn’t in his crew. 

Pirate movies were made to be filmed on location. There’s no way that you can capture the magic of an actual island via green screen. It feels very manufactured and cheap when productions shoot beach and island scenes on a soundstage. Director Frank E. Flowers made a great decision to set principal photography in Australia because you feel the authenticity of the landscape. This was definitely a plus for me because they use the location to their advantage as much as they can. The action sequences are all heightened by the location. The cinematography from Greg Baldi was decent when there wasn’t any unnecessary cgi. 

Towards the third act of the movie we’re left with predictable plot points that have been done before, supporting characters with no real development, and some effects that don’t look convincing. While I’m happy to see Priyanka give a better performance than she’s had since Quantico, I really hope that she can pull off a surprising performance in another genre. Karl Urban is just using elements of his performance as The Butcher in The Boys. At this point in his career, I hope that he’s still able to switch things up like Liam Neeson. The Bluff will give audiences a nostalgic feeling of older movies focusing on pirates. Unfortunately, the feeling fades away when they realize that decent action sequences and bad dialogue aren’t enough to push this boat to shore.

Grade: C-

Director: Nick Corirossi
Writers: Nick Corirossi, Armen Weitzman
Stars: Armen Weitzman, Nick Corirossi, Sarah Ramos

Synopsis: Jack Jr, Miles Jr, and the gang are back for one last wine-related journey set forth by the mysterious “Sommelier.” Joined this time by Puck, a fan of The Napa Boys comics, the group will learn about love, loss, friendship, and viticulture.

Who would’ve thought that the ever-growing, multi-million dollar Napa Boys IP would reach its fourth installment, and a spinoff entirely focused on The Napa Girls bowing out in theatres soon? Well, here we are with THE Napa Boys 4: The Sommelier’s Amulet, and fans of the comics – and prior films – will not be disappointed. After Napa Boys 3: Return of the Grape, the franchise had peaked, but somehow director Nick Corirossi has given us a bolder, more thematically rich entry than its predecessor. How he pulled it off feels like a miracle, and yet here we are. 

Of course, I’m joking. The Napa Boys is not part of a franchise, although this movie is introduced as the fourth installment of a longstanding intellectual property and runs with it, which could prove disconcerting for audiences, but is, in actuality, one of the greatest troll jobs I’ve likely ever seen. Not all of it works, and I suspect many will hate this feeble-minded, pea-brained comedy that seems to throw every joke targeted at four-year-olds in a blender and see what sticks. 

Did I laugh? Yes. More than once? You bet. There’s something so stupid about it that your eyes eventually can’t look away, even during a sequence that involves, as a character would mildly put it, “shit and cum.” That scene is definitely the most disgusting, unbelievable thing about this extremely dumb movie, yet its sincerity can’t be overstated. At any moment where you think Corirossi will open up the film to give some texture to the characters, from the sex-crazed Jack Jr. (played by Corirossi himself), the depressed Miles Jr. (Armen Weitzman), or the Napa Boys superfan Puck (Sarah Ramos), who wants to be a part of a group of wine aficionados who travel to Napa County for the Great Grape Festival, he does the exact opposite. 

None of the characters has a modicum of development, nor are they people you’d want to spend time with. They’re all ridiculously selfish, perverse, and completely misogynistic towards any women they meet. That may be why some audiences will be immediately put off by the film’s gross-out humor and attempts at empty provocation, and there definitely are some jokes that don’t land as well as others (sadly, more often than not). Anything revolving around the main antagonist, Squirm (Paul Rust), is a bit more childish than funny, but perhaps that’s the point?

The thing is, this movie is utter nonsense. In fact, it’s pure nonsense, distilled from the nether regions of stupidity. You can’t get any more nonsensical than that. You’re either fully on board with it from the moment it opens and consistently tests your patience, or you aren’t. In my case, I love any good movie that blatantly antagonizes its audience and directly tells them, “You are wasting your time, and we’re going to make sure you realize this,” although it might not be the stroke of genius Corirossi might have hoped for. Still, the visual gags and DIY inventiveness of its filmmaking are as good as Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which more than makes up for the movie’s so-so verbal humor. 

That said, there are a number of incredible quotes, such as “Napa Valley is the closest Earthly embodiment of Cesar Catalina’s vision for Megalopolis,” or “Don’t shoot up your school! If there’s anything that ruins the vibe in America, it’s a school shooting.” If this level of dark – almost niche – comedy doesn’t make you laugh, perhaps this thing isn’t for you. However, if you’re a sucker for a generational shitpost, you’ve come to the right place. Everything feels so off, yet the actors are perfectly in tune with the atmosphere they want to convey. They want you to embark on this crazy, nonsensical journey and have a bit of fun, even if it’s likely going to offend many, many people. 

But Corirossi doesn’t care, and neither should you. However, one has to recognize that this movie won’t be for everyone, and there will be critics (and audiences) who will say that The Napa Boys is one of the worst movies ever made. I am not one of those people, even though I appreciate Quentin Dupieux trolls more than this film. Bring on The Napa Boys 5 and The Napa Girls. The world needs real cinema, now more than ever.

Grade: B+

Director: Daniel Chong
Writers: Daniel Chong, Jesse Andrews
Stars: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm

Synopsis: A 19-year-old animal lover uses technology that places her consciousness into a robotic beaver to uncover mysteries within the animal world beyond her imagination.

Within the recent years of Pixar’s output, the famed animation company hasn’t been “washed” per se, more so in a lull, post the doldrums of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their string of theatrical releases post their three straight-to-Disney+ films have ranged from complete creative and financial misfires like Lightyear to sequel mega hits and struggling new originals like Inside Out 2 and Elio, respectively. While none of their films (besides Lightyear) have been poor in quality, they’ve often missed the spark that made Pixar films so distinct in the first place and have remained in a somewhat average state, which is why a film like Hoppers is so important within its placement in the Pixar catalog. Director Daniel Chong of Cartoon Network fame brings an absurdist charm of heart and humor to the 3D-animated medium that is completely unique to the landscape of Pixar in ways, adding a new flavor to their films that is sorely needed. The film blends an unhinged nature of shock and infectious energy that might throw some off, but Hoppers’ delightful quirks and strong message of unity amongst nature add up to a truly delightful experience and one of the best Pixar films of the current decade.

Hoppers starts its clever premise from the view of our lead, Mabel (Piper Curda), at a young age. Mabel has always longed for nature and protecting the animals of her community to the point of attempting to steal class pets and free them into the wild. She feels her aspirations and care never felt by anyone until she forms a special bond with her grandmother Tanaka (Karen Huie). The two shared a love for animals and the plights of protecting the environment by any means necessary, learning to be at peace with the elements of the world, on top of a glade where they would go to sit and view the world’s beauty each day.

Now in the present day, Mabel is an energetic 19-year-old college student, wanting to make her grandma proud after her unfortunate passing, but protecting their sacred glade from local mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm), who is driving animals away from there to complete the construction of a brand new highway for the city of Beaverton. Mabel is stumped on how to stop her plans until she discovers her professor, Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy), is testing out an experiment she just finalized, where humans can now “hop” their consciousness into incredibly realistic robot animals, allowing the species to connect with one another. Mabel goes rogue with the tech and transfers her mind into a robotic beaver in order to find more beavers and animals alike to help her stop Jerry’s plans, but along her journey, she makes insane discoveries about the animal world that are beyond her wildest dreams.

Hoppers’ log line is just as absurd as the experience of watching the film’s zaniness unfold, but the inherent wild nature of the story is exactly what makes it stand out amongst other Pixar originals. Films like Elio and Elemental had otherworldly premises but lacked a truly compelling hook that made their more compelling angles extremely predictable as their stories unfolded. For some, Hoppers will have the opposite problem of being a bit too unhinged, but that’s what’s so great about it. Chong and writer Jesse Andrews craft such a delightfully unpredictable story that’s intriguing to explore across so many multiple avenues that the bounds of Hoppers’ humor and chaotic energy are distinct in all of the best ways. 

When the story further introduces the world of these and the character of King George (Bobby Moynihan) the humor starts flying a mile per minute with its goofy idiosyncrasies, dark jokes, and conversational humor making it the hardest I’ve laughed at an animated feature in years (always appreciate an Avatar joke), aligning perfectly with the humor of Chong’s Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears, but what ends up even more creative is the use of the hopping technology itself. In many ways, the heightened sci-fi feels like a mix of Back to the Future and Studio Ghibli, and as the hopping between multiple humans and different species of animals escalates, it leads to some of the most wildly deranged series and third acts ever conceived for a Pixar movie, and it only makes Hoppers more of a blast. 

This isn’t to say that Hoppers doesn’t have its fair share of emotional and poignant highs, too, as the film blends its quieter themes and absurd plotbeats beautifully. The film’s connection to themes of preserving our environment and unity amidst our differences is present throughout many films, but the characterization of Mabel, specifically how she feels helpless in multiple sections of the film, is the driving force. Mabel is insanely lively throughout the film, going to great lengths to save the glade, no matter how far things escalate, and she feels the need to do so because a lot of the time it feels like she’s the only one who cares about changing the world for the better. 

I love how much the film delves into not only the complexities of how much you can do to change things within your certain role in the world, but the overarching theme of how nature being what can connect us even through the worst of human conflict as people and animals alike even characters that completely oppose each other like Mabel and Jerry find their own connections by the end. It’s not groundbreaking material, but it represents an emotional core that will resonate with adults and children alike, and Piper Curda’s spirited vocal performance only further elevates that.

Even the film’s animation, despite not being too different from the modern norm, has its own edge to stand out amongst the crowd. Pixar is well renowned for the quality of their film visuals and that remains no different here; the art style lends itself will to louder and wackier moments and touching emotional beats alike and it style showcases that it isn’t afraid that things don’t look nearly as realistic as the animation within other pixar films and it lends itself well to the tonal indications of this world. 

Hoppers fits alongside Turning Red in the Pixar oeuvre, while taking a bigger swing in both style and tone that will inevitably not meld with all viewers, but Hoppers is a welcome change of direction in nearly every avenue for the studio. It’s a weird, chaotic comedy blending emotional nuance and lovely craziness that features the studio at the most creative level they’ve been from a writing perspective. Hoppers is one of the best Pixar films released in the 2020s, and the type of innovative energy that the studio needs more of. A pure delight through and through.

Grade: A-

Director: Rod Blackhurst
Writers: Rod Blackhurst, Brandon Weavil
Stars: Fabianne Therese, Russ Tiller, Michalina Scorzelli

Synopsis: Macy, a young woman, is abducted by a monstrous figure intent on raising her as their own child.

Rod Blackhurst clearly adores Tobe Hooper’s 1974 slasher classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and has put all his efforts into making his feature, Dolly, a replica of abject madness in the South. Therein sits the primary issue with Dolly (scripted by Blackhurst and Brandon Weavil). Where Tobe Hooper’s film was in part investigating the economic failures in society that could create a family of cannibals in rural Texas, Blackhurst has no thesis beyond, “There’s a creepy masked killer with a creepy house in the creepy woods with creepy dolls.” And while most would admit that dolls in horror films are indeed creepy, and a killer who wears a porcelain doll’s mask is likely to unsettle, it’s not nearly enough to hang an entire movie on. Yes, Dolly is gore-tastic and will likely make the viewer squirm in places, but even at under 90 minutes there is almost no plot and the plot points given are either irrelevant or scratchings of poorly copied homework.

Split into chapters for no discernible reason, Dolly begins inside the home of the masked menace (Max Lindsey). A giant woman dressed in a red child’s playsuit cutting the fingers off a beheaded corpse. Flies buzz around the body and Dolly’s emotional state is telegraphed by using signs of hand posturing and stimming related to non-verbal autism. It’s one of the film’s greatest sins to decide to project intellectual difference and assumed disability as monstrousness. Yet here we are with it on full display. Dolly’s world is deeply infantilized with dingy floral wallpaper and dirty lace frills meeting shagpile carpet and doll after doll after doll. Dolly’s domain spreads out to the woods where she (presumably) has decorated the forest with her unending collection of vintage fetishes. An open grave is attended by a circle of dolls where the corpse will lay. Dolly is remarkably strong, lifting the body as if it were made of tissue paper. Dolly is “disturbed” yet methodical. Violent in moods, yet able to plan. Dolly is a terribly drawn character – the monster who wants to mother.

Macy (Fabienne Therese) plays with her boyfriend Chase’s (Seann William Scott) daughter Evy (Eve Blackhurst) in a car before he drops her off at his aunt’s house. Chase has plans to propose to Macy on a hiking trip. As Chase is speaking with his Aunt Macy, she is facetiming her sister Rachel (Kate Cobb) about how she’s not sure she wants to be a mom to anyone, especially as their mother was a monster. Macy does adore Chase and Rachel assures her that Macy will be a good mother. Macy’s uncertainty about her ability to mother is plot padding as it doesn’t pay off in any manner. Whatever her mother did is also abandoned as a plot device. The primary take away from this section is Chase is serious about Macy, and she about him, and soon they will be in one of his favorite places, a vast forest where he will ask her to be his wife.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that this forest is also the forest where Dolly has created a bizarre garden of corpses and doll attendants. Macy and Chase come across the doll forest and Chase notes, “This is new.” Macy takes it all as a joke, or an art project and plays kissy with dolls who could represent Chase and herself. Chase would prefer she didn’t, and they go on to the scenic outlook where he plans to propose. Before he can do so they hear an odd lullaby from a toy radio and Chase decides to investigate. What’s waiting for him is Dolly and her shovel (Leatherface had his chainsaw, Dolly has her shovel). Chase approaches her gently, trying to assist her. For his trouble he is picked up like a doll himself by Dolly (Max Lindsey’s wrestling physicality is used to good effect) choking under Dolly’s grip. Dolly then throws him on the ground and uses the shovel to cut into his leg and then split his mouth so his jaw is hanging only by tendons. 

Macy had jokingly told him not to go off the path but becomes concerned when he doesn’t return. She finds him positioned against a tree and Dolly ready to take her for her own. Although Macy is faster than the lumbering Dolly, she trips and knocks herself out in the woods. When she awakes she is dressed in babydoll clothing and placed in a cradle inside Dolly’s nursery. From that moment on, it’s a fight to the death so Macy can escape her deranged captor who thinks Macy is her baby.

Blackhurst then decides to go full Tobe Hooper madness, although his horror is gynocentric. Big “babygirl” wants to mother little Macy (everyone is little in comparison to Dolly). Any transgression by Macy is met with violence that’s familiar to Dolly. Dolly tries to feed her baby and when Macy refuses slop and the bottle, Dolly pulls out her breast which Macy takes a solid bite from.

It’s unsurprising that Dolly is a result of some tremendous trauma inflicted on her in the backwoods house of horrors. A wheedling voice through the wall (Ethan Suplee) attempts to help Macy get free and Macy, being not the brightest spark, listens to it. Trap after trap must be overcome for Macy to find her way back to civilization, and most of the time it’s pure dumb luck that gets her over the line.

Dolly has some very good practical effects (and some very bad SFX) and the cinematography by Justin Derry shooting on 16mm gives a particular crackle to the proceedings, as does the score by Nick Bohun. However, it barely exists as a script and drags itself from one gross out to the next with no care for the why and how of a narrative. Dolly wants to be a throwback, so much so one of the characters is called Tobe. What Dolly is amounts to very little. Great if you’re after something that acts as a particularly mindless slasher/survival horror. Not so great if you’re after a functioning work that goes beyond the premise of “Dolls, girls, women, mothers… horrifying!” Blackhurst relies on throwing enough blood and bone-cracking around that no one will notice how incredibly slight, hackneyed, and generally offensive his movie is.

Grade: F

Director: Kevin Williamson
Writers: Kevin Williamson, Guy Busick, James Vanderbilt
Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Isabel May

Synopsis: When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the town where Sidney Prescott has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target.

The next chapter in the Scream franchise is not horrendous. It is certainly not great, just eye-openingly unpleasant and, at times, lazy. The 2022 relaunch recaptured what made the original films clever, addictive, and humorously meta, a rare horror film that was in on the joke and always smarter than its built-in audience. However, the filmmakers never looked down their noses at the fanbase or the genre’s staples.

That’s what makes Scream 7 so disappointing. The madman behind the slasher horror phenomenon, Kevin Williamson (I Know What You Did Last Summer), finally steps behind the camera after writing the original thirty years ago. Williamson co-wrote the script with Guy Busick, whose breakout script for Ready or Not, like Scream decades earlier, reinvented the horror genre with staggering results.

Yet, Scream 7 has no laughs, comic relief, or magnetic appeal. The slasher scenes are tepid, lacking cleverness, and settling for brute brutality without emotional stakes. The plotting is vapid, the tone is all over the place, and the self-referential humor is now a distant memory. The final product is hubristic, displaying an unearned confidence rooted in the names on the marquee and an intellectual property that has reached creative exhaustion. 

Another point of contention is that the opening scene, a franchise staple, does nothing to set up the movie other than serve as a red herring. A true-crime superfan, Scott (Jimmy Tatro), and his girlfriend, Madison (Landman’s Michelle Randolph), visit the site of the gruesome murders at Stu Macher’s (The Life of Chuck’s Matthew Lillard) residence. Scott retells a rumor that Stu may still be alive, roaming the area after having his head smashed in by a television set.

The scene is lazy, not to mention narratively untethered, creating a hollow inciting tease. (After watching the movie, you’ll understand there is no reason for the sequence to exist.) This leads to the return of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who is raising her family in Pine Grove. Sidney is married to Mark (Joel McHale) and is trying to keep their daughter, Tatum (Isabel May), from letting her boyfriend (The Fabelmans’ Sam Rechner) sneak into the house at night.

From there, the film becomes rinse-and-repeat well past the point of nostalgia. Sidney receives a phone call from Ghostface. There is a slight twist here that I will skip to avoid spoilers. The infamous villain tells their old friend that they are about to murder her daughter at school. The script still operates on the basic principle that, in this day and age, no cloud-based surveillance systems, cell phone tracking, or even plain old locks on doors exist.

There are very few surprises in the latest chapter of Scream, which had to find a new trajectory after Melissa Barrera was let go after social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war, and Jenna Ortega left after the franchise pivot. That would be like taking the original without Sydney and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). The result is a paint by the bloody numbers brutality that does not have nearly enough fun with the script as it should.

Williamson and Busick’s script settles into a tired rhythm. They set up a killing, insert nostalgic callbacks to previous chapters, then repeat. All scenes are so loosely connected, the film unfolds like a first draft, or so is chopped from cast changes, comes across as stitched together storyboard. In addition, the big reveal of who the killer is is easily the biggest letdown and is nothing more than a tribute-killing trope. 

The ending combines two clichés from hour-long dramas. First, if you’ve watched movies as long as I have, you know that when a recognizable actor from the 2000s appears in a small role, they’re part of the plot. Then there’s the eye-rolling reveal of a close family friend, which is something anyone can see coming. It’s remarkable how little thought went into the execution, with ineptitude masked by one gruesome killing.

Scream 7 is a chapter that betrays the slasher thriller’s legacy. A franchise that taught multiple generations how to survive a horror film now outlines how to leave one behind, and without regret. 

You can watch Scream 7 only in theaters starting February 27th!

Grade: D+