September Movies Part 2: The Wild Robot, Transformers One, His Three Daughters

I was felled by Covid for a good part of this month so didn't go out to the movies as much. But I have rallied in this final week. One of these movies is the best thing I've seen in a long while, and the other two were equally engaging in different ways. Dive in to find out which!

The Wild Robot: I didn't know much about this animated film going into it, apart from the fact that Lupita Nyong'o voiced the main robot. But oh, was I in for an absolute treat. Written and directed by Chris Sanders, based on the book by Peter Brown (a book that you can be sure I have now requested from my local library), this is a sumptuous and moving story about what happens when a robot named Roz is shipwrecked on an island that is only inhabited by wild animals. Designed to help humans, she must adapt to speak to these animals, who are all understandably scared of her, and figure out her place in the world. 

Roz befriend a fox named Fink (voiced by Pedro Pascal) and accidentally becomes "mother" to a gosling that she hatched after crushing his nest. That gosling grows up to be Brightbill (Kit Connor), and Roz is determined to help him learn how to swim and fly so he can get ready for his annual migration with the other geese. Along the way, we get a story about being an outsider, becoming a family, conservation, protecting the planet, using technology for good rather than evil, and just a whole host of other themes and topics that keep swirling around and overwhelming you with their complexity and narrative richness. 

Overlaying all this narrative is the drop-dead gorgeous hand-painted animation that deserves to be in a museum. The way Roz moves and navigates this island is fun to watch, but every single animal, tree, and river is also depicted lushly and beautifully. This is a very funny movie -- Matt Berry voicing an annoyed beaver and Catherine O'Hara as an opossum who is burdened by her many children were particular highlights -- but it is also an incredibly moving film that made me teary at multiple points (I was probably also nudged to tears by Kris Bowers's sublime score). It is so wonderfully sweet and delightful, and I demand it receive an Oscar nomination, because it's one of the best animated movies I've seen and profoundly stirred my heart.

Transformers One: Before going to this movie, I read a few sentences that said this was the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron on the planet of Cybertron. I was vaguely aware of those words, but as someone who has never watched a Transformers movie and has only hazy recollections of the cartoons from when I was nine, I will confess that I was probably not this movie's target audience. Unlike my husband, who proceeded to enjoy this movie thoroughly.

The voice cast is great, with folks like Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jon Hamm, who are all adept at providing ample amounts of comedy at the beginning and then high drama towards the end. The animation is also fantastic, particularly during battle/racing sequences when the inventiveness of these Transformers and their ability to morph into different shapes is on full display. It's also a fun and engaging story, even for someone like me, who had no idea who these characters were or any of the lore but could easily spot the classic tropes of an origin story and figure out where we were headed. This is a film that probably has a lot more appeal to Transformers fans, but if you're just a casual moviegoer who is desperate to see something new, this film offers up a perfectly entertaining time.

His Three Daughters: Written and directed by Azazel Jacobs, and starring the powerhouse trio of Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olson, and Natasha Lyonne, this is a story about three sisters who are taking care of their father during his final days as he enters home hospice care. I know that sounds grim, but this is more of a story about family dynamics and the extremely complex relationships between sisters. Each of these women are incredibly different, and they each have unique bonds with each other, further complicated by the fact that two of them are biologically related while the other is "only" a half-sister but is the one who has been taking care of their father all along. 

I won't say much more, because this is very much a character study where you need to get all the little pieces of family history revealed to you bit by bit to put together a complete portrait of the little resentments and misunderstandings that have been building up in these women over the years. They love each other, but that love is complicated by all this prior history and baggage, and watching them air it all out in this extremely fraught setting is both stifling and exhilarating. This is also a very New York movie, taking place in that claustrophobic apartment, and the soundtrack of a passing subway train or the buses and garbage trucks rumbling by made me feel right at home. 

This film has been hyped and lauded by many critics, and while it is phenomenally acted, I did find myself left a little cold. Yes, it's a great story, but the climax felt a bit overwrought to me, and overall, I had a sense that this would make a better play than a movie. Perhaps it's because I have never been particularly fazed by the idea of mortality, but I found myself more fascinated by the psychological complexities of the characters while not actually moved by their difficult circumstances. Please watch this film and then enter into a raucous debate with me about why I should feel differently!

September Movies Part 1: Blink Twice & Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

I got back from my honeymoon and immediately headed to the movie theaters to see what September had to offer. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised!

Blink Twice: The directorial debut of Zoe Kravitz (who also co-wrote the screenplay with E.T. Feigenbaum), this movie really threw me for a loop. I spent the first hour thinking it was entirely too vibey and going nowhere, and then all of a sudden, things took a thrilling (but somehow also hilarious) turn that had me on the edge of my seat with a big smile on my face.

Naomi Ackie and Alia Shawkat star as Frida and Jess, two women who are waitresses at an event for Slater King (Channing Tatum), a tech billionaire. Halfway through the party, they change into fancy dresses and infiltrate the party as guests, where they quickly get thrown into King's friend group. They all have a great night, at the end of which, King invites Frida and Jess to fly back with him and his friends to his private island. This is the stuff that dreams are made of, right? Well, yes, but also...nightmares.

For the first half of the film, everything is a bit of an ethereal drunken and drugged up bacchanal on the island and everyone seems to be having a great time. But then, Jess starts to feel like something is a little bit off. And that's when the fun/horror begins. This movie proceeds to be an amazing feminist romp and takedown of the patriarchy, and there's a particular line that Frida delivers to a character played by Geena Davis (yes, she's on the island too!) that feels like it is a commentary on how women of color feel all the time when a white woman chooses to ignore their plight in favor of a rich white man instead. This is an extremely weird but self-assured little movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: I had no memory of the original 1988 film, so I first watched it in the morning before I saw this sequel in the afternoon. If it's been a while since you've seen the original, I highly recommend you do the same, because I do not think anything in the sequel would have made much sense to me if I hadn't prepped beforehand. I'm sure the story can stand alone, but it's a much richer tale when you already know who all these characters are and what happened to them thirty-six years ago.

The sequel is essentially a retread of the original, except this time around, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), is all grown up and now has a teenage daughter of her own, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Astrid is a typical teenage girl who hates her mom, and now Lydia can empathize with her stepmom, Delia (Catherine O'Hara), for the hard time she always gave her as a teenager. When they have to return to Winter River for a funeral (natch), Astrid gets into trouble, and the only way Lydia can save her is by invoking Beetlejuice's name three times. And thus, much mayhem ensues.

It's silly but perfectly entertaining if you loved the original. Special effects have obviously improved a great deal since 1988, but this film still keeps some of the kitschy special effects from the 80s for peak nostalgia value. And the soundtrack is particularly delightful, including a nod to one of my favorite Bee Gees songs. If that's sufficiently intriguing, head right over to the theater and check out what happens when the juice is loose!

More Summer Binges: The Outlaws, Angry Young Men, The Perfect Couple, Sunny, The Change

Yes, yes, you didn't think I spent the summer just bingeing Emily in Paris did you? I found many more random old and new shows to catch up on, and now here are my suggestions for what you should be streaming next.

The Outlaws: Created by Elgin James and Stephen Merchant (who also co-stars), I had never heard about this show before, but when I started watching, I ate up all three seasons with a big ol' spoon. My god, what an astonishing delight. The show follows a group of Brits (and an American expat, played by THE Christopher Walken!) who all find themselves doing community service for a range of infractions. There's a socialite Instagram influencer, an Indian-Polish teenager who crumpled under the pressure to be a perfect student (can anyone here relate *cough*), a nightclub bouncer who is trying to make a better life for him and his sister, a former conman, a mediocre lawyer, a strident Black community activist, and a white middle-aged businessman who is fed up of the woke police.

As you can tell, they all have different agendas, wildly different worldviews, and at first, it seems impossible that this group is ever going to get along. But then...stuff happens. I can't tell you what, because with only six episodes a season (five for the third), this show is economical and brimming with twists and turns that you need to experience for yourself. Suffice to say, this motley crew will have to band together after they get into trouble and need to dig themselves out of an ever-deepening hole. Every actor is doing impossibly great work, and the writing is pitch-perfect, with my particular favorite nuance being the fact that Merchant takes every opportunity to have various people mock the way he looks. It is just an absolute joy from start to finish, funny, touching, and a thrilling caper that will keep you on the edge of your seat. And as a compliance professional, let me just say, I greatly enjoyed the deep dive into money laundering that you will get along the way. 

Angry Young Men: This is a three-part documentary series about the Bollywood writing partnership of Salim-Javed, i.e. Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, who wrote a series of blockbuster scripts in the 1970s that came to define an entire era of Bollywood cinema. Now their kids, namely Salman Khan, Farhan Akhtar, and Zoya Akhtar, have produced this documentary, helmed by director Namrata Rao, to give us some insight into how this partnership came about and what makes these two men tick. I have of course heard of these films, like Deewar, Sholay, Seeta aur Geeta, etc. but had no idea they were all written by the same duo. I had no sense of what a tour-de-force they were in the 70s, particularly instrumental in making the career of Abhishek Bachchan and other actors who are now household names. 

Yes, this is a hagiography, with many talking heads from famous actors, directors, and critics raving about their work, but the most fascinating moments are when we get to hear directly from the men themselves, as well as their ex-wives and current wives. For men with convoluted love lives, they seem to have really lucked out in terms of the women they married, and the film paints a rather cheery portrait of non-traditional families. But the best part is when we just get to hear these men speak and share a little bit about their difficult childhoods, and their deep desire for fame and recognition. Were they arrogant and brash? Yes, everyone agrees on that. But were they absolute geniuses? Yes. If you have the slightest interest in Bollywood, this documentary is a wonderful ode to Hindi cinema and these two remarkable writers who were the first to demand attention for the craft of screenwriting that was hitherto considered an inessential component of filmmaking. Unfortunately, the documentary makes the point that writers still don't command much respect in Bollywood, but Salim-Javed are still the gold standard that all writers aspire to when penning their scripts. 

The Perfect Couple: This just came out two days ago on Netflix and I've already binged all six episodes, so that's all you need to know. Developed by Jenna Lamia, directed by Susanne Bier, and starring Nicole Kidman, this is a perfectly paced murder mystery that doesn't take itself too seriously. Kidman stars as Greer Garrison Winbury, a rich author of detective novels who has a "cottage" on Nantucket, where she spends the summer with her wealthy family, which includes her supposedly doting husband, Tag (Liev Schriber), and their three sons. One of those sons, Benji (Billy Howle) is getting married to an outsider (i.e. working-class person) named Amelia (Eve Hewson), so the show takes place during that wedding weekend. When a body washes up on the shore, the whole family is thrown into disarray and every possible person comes under suspicion as they have excellent motives and nebulous alibis. 

It's sumptuously shot, excellently acted, and the Bollywood actor Ishaan Khatter even shows up as a close family friend, which was an utter surprise to me (though might explain why the title sequence of this show is reminiscent of a Bollywood number). Every episode ends on a delicious cliffhanger that will have you slamming the Play Next Episode button at regular intervals, and everything is wrapped up in a satisfying bow - no spoilers, but I promise you won't be left with any irritating loose ends. The show is based on Elin Hilderbrand's novel of the same name, which I have not read, but the show does deviate from the novel in numerous ways that all sound much better to me. So hop on the couch and get excited for a fun summery mystery.

Sunny: Created by Katie Robbins, based on a 2018 novel by Colin O'Sullivan, this slightly futuristic show stars Rashida Jones as Suzie Sakamoto, an American expat in Japan who is plunged into grief when her husband and son are killed in a plane crash. When her husband's company presents her with a "homebot" (a robot that can help you around the house) named Sunny to help her during this difficult time, she is initially resistant, but she gradually starts to warm up to this robot. And in doing so, she discovers her husband designed Sunny, and had a whole life that she knew nothing about. Her mother-in-law (played by the lovely Just Ongg) keeps evading questions about his past, and as Suzie gets Sunny to try and dig into her memories, they find themselves going deeper into a mystery that involve the yakuza and all manner of shady dealings. Over its ten episodes, the show is pretty vibey and has a somewhat erratic tone, sometimes playing into robot comedy, and then veering into dark drama and mystery. But it was compelling enough to keep watching from week to week, and now you can binge it all in one fell swoop. If you're a fan of mysteries, Japan, futurism, or Rashida Jones, this should be the next show on your watchlist, but if you're looking for a tidy narrative with a satisfying conclusion, you might want to try The Perfect Couple instead.

The Change: Created and written by Bridget Christie, this is a weird but weirdly touching little show about Linda (Christie) a woman who hits 50, starts the menopause, and decides she needs a break from being a wife and mother for a while. She packs up her stuff, hops on a motorcycle, and heads off to the Forest of Dean, on a quest to find a time capsule she left in a tree when she a little girl. Which tree? Who knows, let's hope she find it! When she gets there, she rents out a camper van from some strange sisters (played by Minca Dolan and Susan Lynch) and finds herself getting more and more involved in the bizarre lives of the local town's inhabitants. Meanwhile, back home, her incompetent husband, Steve (Omid Djalili), is overwhelmed as he discovers how much silent labor his wife has been putting in over the years to keep their lives tidy and functional. If you enjoy British "comedies" and aren't looking for a huge commitment, you can easily knock this show out in a few hours and have a few chuckles and quiet moments of profundity along the way.