In-Review: September 2024
A review of The Wild Robot, Home Video Releases, and more
October promises some “prestige” movies and is also a perfect time to sit back and enjoy a horror movie.
The Palme d’Or winner, Anora, will start theatrical engagements later this month. I went up to Boston recently and caught a screening of the film and while the first half was exactly what I expected, I was pleasantly surprised by the second half. For those unfamiliar with Anora, the movie stars Mikey Madison as Anora, a sex worker who gets mixed up with the son of a Russian oligarch. A friend of the podcast, Eric Marchen, and I were talking about Anora and how it feels a lot like a Coen brothers movie, a cross between Fargo and Preston Sturges. I can see why audiences and critics have fallen in love with it.
Outside of Anora, the other October release I’m looking forward to is Edward Berger’s Conclave. I believe I talked about it in a few newsletters now, but the film stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini, which instantly made it a top pick. Add in the fact that it’s got some good Catholic Church Pope drama and I’m down.
In the last newsletter, I shared some excerpts from a recent interview that might help inspire you to watch a horror movie or two this October. As for myself, I’ve already started watching a few Japanese Horror selections on the Criterion Channel and a new 4K disc of The Hitcher from Second Sight.
After the paywall, you’ll find a mini-review of The Wild Robot and some links I’ve found interesting this week. Remember that this newsletter exists because of your support and if you’d like to subscribe that’d go a long way to supporting this newsletter.
Here are the movies I caught up with in September:
If you’d like to follow what I’ve been watching, you are welcome to follow me on Letterboxd.
Home Video
New to 4K UHD from Paramount is A Quiet Place: Day One and back catalog release Bringing Out the Dead.
A Quiet Place: Day One is the newest entry in the A Quiet Place franchise, this time leaving the story of Emily Blunt and company behind. Instead, the drama of this feature takes place in New York where hospice patient Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) just wants some damn pizza, but aliens had to invade. While desperately trying to survive, she comes across numerous potential survivors including Eric (Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn). As far as spin-offs go, Day One is a really solid feature. It requires no knowledge of the previous entries in the series and despite the ultimately low-stakes plotline, Nyong’o is absolutely equipped to drive this often wordless adventure forward.
Make no mistake though, A Quite Place isn’t devoid of sound. Its reliance on sound frequently makes it one of the most exciting franchises around and that helps this release stand out as a tech demo for the format. When you have a quality movie, mixed with top-class sound and video, A Quiet Place: Day One comes with my wholehearted recommendation for home video.
Bringing Out the Dead has long been an anticipated catalog release. Released in 1999, the Martin Scorsese-directed film hasn’t seen a home video release since the DVD days. The Nicolas Cage drama isn’t among Scorsese’s best works, but completists have been begging for an updated restoration of the title. Now they’ve got it as part of Paramount’s “Paramount Presents” line. While not every title in the line has been a slam dunk, more often than not, Paramount has delivered exciting catalog titles. If you’re a fan of Bringing Out the Dead, this is easily the best it has ever looked for home video.
The other new home video release that I had an opportunity to review was Criterion’s new 4K of The Long Good Friday. I knew the reputation of this movie was quite strong—I just didn’t realize how much I’d love it. Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, The Long Good Friday is about a gangster looking to make a real change, but one by one his closest allies are being killed off. I thought I’d seen a good amount of gangster movies, but this was certainly one that I had missed out on previously. If you’ve never seen it either, this new Criterion edition comes recommended.
Podcast
Mini-Review: The Wild Robot
Based on the book series of the same name by Peter Brown, Dreamworks The Wild Robot is a triumph. Directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon), The Wild Robot follows the adventures of ROZZUM unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o), a crafty red fox (Pedro Pascal), and an adorable Canada goose named Brightbill (Kit Connor) who is raised as the robots’ child. It’s a gorgeously animated feature with plenty of standout sequences, but it also has the power to tug at your heartstrings. It’s easily the best thing Dreamworks has made in some time.
The ROZZUM unit, which I’ll be calling ‘Roz’ from here on out, crash lands in an unfamiliar location. Programmed only to serve its master and complete its task, Roz immediately strives to complete its task. The only problem is that the only living things that could possibly communicate with it are animals. Once it learns the language of the animals, Roz is hopeful it can complete a task, but completing a job is never as easy as it seems. What follows is some generally frightening sequences as Roz frantically tries to escape the claws of a bear—crushing a goose nest in the process. All that remains is a single egg, and Roz makes a promise to care for the egg until it is ready to take of itself.
Despite the main characters being a robot and a goose, it’s easy to see ourselves in those roles. As the goose grows, the robot grows attached to its child. As I was leaving the theater with my family, I heard a little girl talking to her grandfather about the movie. He had asked her if she enjoyed the movie, and she responded that her grandmother was crying. The Wild Robot can certainly conjure up many feelings.
The Wild Robot is a beautifully crafted and emotionally resonating film that is absolutely a winner. It’s rare these days that I leave an animated feature and I’m craving a sequel, but I need to see the other books in the series adapted. That or I guess I’ll need to buy them for my child, so I can read them too. [A-]
Links
While I’m sure time is quickly evaporating to see Megalopolis in theaters, Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri argues that the film has already won. Won what? That’s for you to decide.
Joker: Folie a Deux was supposed to be the big box office/prestige offering that Warner Bros. would’ve loved this Fall. Not likely now. I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that they’re going to put all their future Awards support behind Dune: Part 2.
I haven’t been watching the new Marvel series, Agatha All Along, but apparently, it is doing something right.
Do you need a Robbie Williams biopic in your life? What if I told you that instead of Robbie Williams playing himself there’s a CGI monkey!?
Do you need recommendations for horror movies to watch this October? Polygon runs a list annually highlighting some interesting picks.
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