Weekly Watches: October 2, 2024
Sharing Our Team's Recent Discoveries: Weekly Watches with 100 Movies Every Catholic Should See
The Wild Robot (2024)
Directed by Chris Sanders.
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This film has already proved to be an overnight box-office sensation (its the first original animated studio film to open above expectations since Covid), but it also marks the end of an era. This is the last DreamWorks animation film to be animated entirely in-house, all subsequent films from the studio will be relying heavily on outside vendors after this year (which is exactly what Illumination Animation does), but if this is the final "true DreamWorks film," it's a great note to go out on. This is one of the best animated films I've seen in a long time: directed and produced (respectively) by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the dynamic duo behind Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Croods, it tells the story of a service robot (Lupita Nyong'o) abandoned in the wilderness, who, lacking any human being to serve, takes it upon herself to serve the animals around her. Once she learns their language, she can speak to them, and ends up making an alliance with a fox, Fink (Pedro Pascal) to help raise a young orphaned gosling (Kit Connor). The story ends up being a surprisingly nuanced and poignant tale about what it means to be a mother (as my own mother, who enjoyed the film, can attest) and the animation itself is stunning. Hopefully, following in the footsteps of recent hits The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, this can continue to bring the studio closer to being the excellent Disney/Pixar rival Jeffrey Katzenberg always intended it to be
Love &Â Friendship (2016)
Directed by Whit Stillman. Starring Kate Beckinsale and Xavier Samuel.
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Immediately after talking to Whit Stillman last week, I was looking for one of his films as a nightcap and lo and behold, his Jane Austen adaptation was available on Prime! It's based off an Austen I was not familiar with (Lady Susan) and looked like a lot of fun so the missus and I settled down to watch it.
Boy oh boy, is it fun. Outrageously fun. I think I finally understand what people mean when they say a comedy is "wickedly funny" because I think that's exactly how I would describe Love and Friendship. My problem with those movies is that usually the "wickedly funny" protagonist is supposed to be sympathetic in their vice, cleverer than everyone around them and allowing us, the audience, to laugh with them at these silly rubes. I don't find that funny at all, frankly, and I believe such stories to have been extremely detrimental to the moral character of our society. Love and Friendship, on the other hand, does not portray our protagonist Lady Susan as sympathetic at all. Sure, she barely faces any real consequences for her wickedness and her brazen vice is so outrageous that it's funny, but the film clearly portrays her as in the wrong. It's her virtuous daughter Frederica who gets the happy ending, setting this apart from other such films in my experience.
The film is also just so wittily written and so funny, which is to be expected of course from Stillman. So many lines and situations are laugh out loud funny, and it's a credit to Stillman that he crafts dialogue that I found it hard to distinguish from Austen's own words. The acting is excellent and it is just overall delightfully outrageous, never taking itself too seriously but also never breaking the fourth wall or giving the audience a big wink to ruin the immersion. It's lovely and was the perfect date night movie we were looking for.
Capricorn One (1977)
Directed by Peter Hyams. Staring Elliott Gould and James Brolin.
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Sometimes the truth is hidden in plain sight. Broaching a topic that at the time of the film’s release, was rather taboo, this incredibly fascinating sci-fi/conspiracy thriller deserves wider recognition today. Made during the post-Watergate 70s era of paranoia, it seems to have struck a chord with the audience of the day, becoming one of the most financially successful independent films of the era. Conspiracy films tend to maintain their relevance remarkably well over time (JFK, The Manchurian Candidate), and Capricorn One is no exception. At the core, the film wrestles with the age-old conundrum of perception, optics and what makes something true, with an eerily relevant look at the great length those attempting to pull the wool over our eyes will go. It is quite easy to find oneself going down various rabbit holes after viewing this one, but even from a purely filmmaking perspective, Capricorn One remains intriguing and distinctive. To begin with, O.J. Simpson, The O.J. Simpson makes his feature film debut in a bid to start an acting career. The layers of irony are not lost, especially in the scene where his character flees from the authorities. The film features a rollicking Jerry Goldsmith score, and a slew of thrilling action set pieces featuring government helicopters in pursuit of a crop-dusting biplane, all executed to perfection with live action stunts. While certainly with its flaws, from some cardboard acting to a sluggish first act, Capricorn One represents one of the more unique films I’ve seen recently, something I think pretty much everyone should check out.