Film Review: "Peter Pan & Wendy" (2023).

From the director of Pete's Dragon comes Peter Pan & Wendy. This fantasy adventure film directed by David Lowery, and adapted by Lowery and Toby Halbrooks. It is a live-action adaptation of Walt Disney's 1953 animated classic Peter Pan, in turn based on the 1904 play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (also known as Peter and Wendy) by J. M. Barrie. Wendy Darling, a young girl afraid to leave her childhood home behind, meets Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up. Alongside her brothers and a tiny fairy, Tinker Bell, she travels with Peter to the magical world of Never Land. There, she encounters an evil pirate captain, Captain Hook, and embarks on a thrilling and dangerous adventure that will change her life forever.

In April 2016, it was announced that Walt Disney Pictures was developing a live-action adaptation of the 1953 animated classic. Lowery was hired to direct, as well as penning the adaptation with Halbrooks. In December 2019, Lowery stated that he and Halbrooks had written an additional "draft-and-a-half" at that point. By 2020, the film was officially titled Peter Pan & Wendy. By early March 2021, Jude Law, Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Yara Shahidi, Jim Gaffigan, Molly Parker, Alan Tudyk, Joshua Pickering, Jacobi Jupe, and Alyssa Wapanatahk were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early August. Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Filming was originally set to begin in mid April 2020, and wrap in August but filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was originally set for a Disney+ release but was later scheduled to be released theatrically. However, in December 2020, the film was officially announced to be released as a Disney+ exclusive again due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The film stars Law, Molony, Anderson, Shahidi, Gaffigan, Parker, Tudyk, Pickering, Jupe, and Wapanatahk. The cast, on the one hand, seemed confused. Specifically, they look like people who just woke up and was told they would be be playing the various roles in a remake of the 1953 animated classic.

The film may be genial and family friendly. But there's entirely too much setup, precious little action, not much magic, and even at one-hundred and nine-minutes it feels at least thirty too long. Nothing like the original. No music sadly. Manipulative and if you're emotional or taking kids, it's a two hanky movie. Kids might like it. Adults will be bored. Great kids' films will always have something there for the adults but there is no appeal here. Children may get lost in a sense of wonder at the new rendition of Neverland, but there are better films out there that would be worth picking up instead. While the film does a fine job of evoking the delight one might feel at flying over the clouds and fighting a horde of pirates, it is less successful in rendering real human emotion.

Simon says Peter Pan & Wendy receives:

Also, see my review for The Old Man & the Gun.

Film Review: "Beau Is Afraid" (2023)

"From his darkest fears comes the greatest adventure". This is Beau Is Afraid. This surrealist black tragicomedy horror film written and directed by Ari Aster. A paranoid man embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother.

In February 2021, A24 announced the film, then titled Disappointment Blvd., with Joaquin Phoenix attached to star in the leading role. The film had been in development by Aster for some time, with a 2011 short film entitled Beau, that would later serve as the basis for a sequence in the feature film, and a 2014 draft of the script that circulated on the internet. Aster has described the film in many ways, including initially as a "nightmare comedy", "a Jewish Lord of the Rings, but [Beau's] just going to his mom’s house", and as "if you pumped a ten-year-old full of Zoloft, and [had] him get your groceries." By late June, Armen Nahapetian, Patti LuPone, Zoe Lister-Jones, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, Kylie Rogers, Denis Ménochet, Parker Posey, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Richard Kind, and Michael Gandolfini rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, with a budget of $35 million (A24's most expensive film to date), principal photography commenced and wrapped in October. Filming took place in Downtown Montreal, and Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Henderson described Aster and Phoenix as "so simpatico ... their way of working together was like they were really old friends. They could get upset and make up in the span of seconds, it seemed. But the work was always the better for it." In early April 2023, during a Q&A session with actress Emma Stone, Aster recounted an incident in which, during the shooting of a "very intense" scene involving LuPone, Phoenix suddenly collapsed and lost consciousness as a result of the physical intensity of his stunts, which included breaking through glass. Initially annoyed because "it was a really good take", Aster realized it was serious as "[Phoenix] was letting people touch him and people were tending to him and he was allowing it".

The film stars Phoenix, Nahapetian, LuPone, Lister-Jones, Ryan, Lane, Rogers, Ménochet, Posey, Henderson, Kind, and Gandolfini. You will enjoy another superb performance by the great Joaquin Phoenix, one of the greatest actors of his generation.

Phoenix is strong in this third effort from Aster. While not as accomplished as his first film, his attention to detail, tone, and cinematography are superb. An interesting mixture of scenes that touch on the absurd and the real, the intellectual and the banal in a constant state of paranoia. The film is an exquisitely visceral cinematic experience that leaves you both physically and emotionally exhausted as the credits begin to wash over you. I did not like the film as much as I appreciated its audacity and the skill that clearly went into making it. This was a stunning work of art that embraced excess with a few positive results. Aster proves what a formally accomplished director he is, and how he totally understands that the medium is all about aesthetic and spectacle.

Simon says Beau Is Afraid receives:

Also, see my review for Midsummar.

Series Review: "American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing" (2023)

From the director of Untold: Malice at the Palace comes American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing. This documentary film directed by Floyd Russ. The 2013 Boston Marathon bombing paralyzed a great American city on what was supposed to be its happiest day. Ten years later, this three-part series delves into the massive manhunt that followed the tragedy, as remembered by the law enforcement officials who brought the bombers to justice and the survivors caught in the crossfire.

On April 15, 2013, the domestic terrorist attack, The Boston Marathon bombing, took place during the annual Boston Marathon. Brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs, which detonated near the finish line of the race fourteen seconds and two-hundred and ten yards (one-hundred and ninety m) apart. Three people were killed and hundreds injured, including seventeen who lost limbs. Three days later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released images of two suspects. They were later identified as the Tsarnaev brothers, who were Chechen Kyrgyzstani-Americans. Following their identification, they killed an MIT policeman, then kidnapped a man in his car. They had a shootout with the police in nearby Watertown, during which two officers were severely injured (one of whom, Dennis Simmonds, died a year later). Tamerlan was shot several times, and his brother Dzhokhar ran him over while escaping in the stolen car. Tamerlan died soon after. An unprecedented manhunt for Dzhokhar ensued, with thousands of law enforcement officers searching a twenty-block area of Watertown. Residents of Watertown and surrounding communities were asked to stay indoors, and the transportation system and most businesses and public places closed. After a Watertown resident discovered Dzhokhar hiding in a boat in his backyard, the fugitive was shot and wounded by police before being taken into custody. During questioning, Dzhokhar said that he and his brother were motivated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that they were self-radicalized and unconnected to any outside terrorist groups, and that he was following his brother's lead. He said they learned to build explosive devices from the online magazine of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He also said they had intended to travel to New York City to bomb Times Square. He was convicted of thirty charges, including use of a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death. Two months later, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. A writ of certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court of the United States, which considered the questions of whether the lower court erred in vacating the death sentence. After hearing arguments as United States v. Tsarnaev, the Court upheld the death penalty, reversing the First Circuit Court's decision.

It was pure madness and there was plenty of blame to go around - but the series does a journalistically sound job of putting events in perspective. It could have happened anywhere, it happened to happen at the 2013 Boston Marathon. And hopefully it never happens again.

Simon says American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing receives:

Also, see my review for Untold: Malice at the Palace.

Film Review: "Suzume" ("すずめの戸締まり") (2022).

From the director of Your Name (君の名は) and Weathering with You (天気の子) comes Suzume (すずめの戸締まり). This Japanese animated fantasy adventure film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. The film is a coming-of-age story for the seventeen-year-old protagonist, Suzume, set in various disaster-stricken locations across Japan, where she must close the doors causing devastation. Suzume’s journey begins in a quiet town in Kyushu (located in southwestern Japan) when she encounters a young man who tells her, "I’m looking for a door." What Suzume finds is a single weathered door standing upright in the midst of ruins as though it was shielded from whatever catastrophe struck. Seemingly drawn by its power, Suzume reaches for the knob… Doors begin to open one after another all across Japan, unleashing destruction upon any who are near. Suzume must close these portals to prevent further disaster.

Shinkai conceived the idea for the film while he was traveling around Japan to give talks about his past works. Shinkai noticed that there were more empty or abandoned areas in Japan due to the country's declining birth rate and aging population, so he thought of writing a story about "mourning deserted places." As a result, the film inevitably turned into a road movie about visiting places. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami served as an influence for the themes in the film. Shinkai also cited Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016-17), and Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore (2002) and short story Kaeru-kun, Tokyo o Sukuu as influences for the film. From January to March 2020, Shinkai and his staff planned the project. In April, they started developing the film's script, which is when the Japanese government declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with TV Asahi, Shinkai mentioned that the pandemic had a less tangible effect on the film's production. After finishing the script in August, the storyboards were drafted from September to December 2021. In April 2021, the production of the animation started. In mid December, the film was officially unveiled during a press conference. In late September 2022, it was announced that the band Radwimps would be composing the score for the film, along with composer Kazuma Jinnouchi. By late October, Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu, Shota Sometani, Sairi Ito, Kotone Hanase, Kana Hanazawa, Matsumoto Hakuō II, Ryūnosuke Kamiki, Ann Yamane, and Aimi were cast.

The film stars the voice talents of Hara, Matsumura, Fukatsu, Sometani, Ito, Hanase, Hanazawa, Hakuō II, Kamiki, Yamane, and Aimi. Thanks to Shinkai and the talented voice cast, the characters' personalities, expressions and movements really pop - it's tough to imagine this story told in any other medium.

The film may have too many elements in common with Your Name and Weathering with You, but it's a gorgeous movie with magnificent visuals and music.

Simon says Suzume (すずめの戸締まり) receives:

Also, see my review for Weathering with You (天気の子).

Film Review: "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" (2023).

"Let's-a go!" It's The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This animated adventure comedy film directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, written by Matthew Fogel, based on Nintendo's Mario video game franchise, and produced by Illumination. While working underground to fix a water main, Brooklyn plumbers Mario and brother Luigi are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world. But when the brothers are separated, Mario embarks on an epic quest to find Luigi. With the assistance of a Mushroom Kingdom resident Toad and some training from the strong-willed ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach, Mario taps into his own power.

After the critical and commercial failure of the live-action film Super Mario Bros. (1993), Nintendo became reluctant to license its intellectual properties for film adaptations. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto became interested in developing another film during the development of the Virtual Console service. Following the November 2014 hack of Sony Pictures, emails were released, revealing that Sony had been attempting to secure the film rights to the Mario franchise for several years. Through Nintendo's work with Universal Parks & Resorts to create Super Nintendo World, he met with Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri. In November 2017, reports emerged that Nintendo was collaborating with Universal and Illumination to make an animated Mario film. In January 2018, Nintendo announced that the film would progress with Miyamoto and Meledandri co-producing. In January 2020, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa stated that the film was "moving along smoothly" with an expected 2022 release date. In September, production commenced. In August 2021, it was revelled that Horvath and Jelenic were hired to direct. In September 2022, the film's title was announced as The Super Mario Bros. Movie. In addition, it was announced that Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Kevin Michael Richardson have been cast. In October, production wrapped. The film was animated by Illumination Studios Paris in Paris, France. In addition, Brian Tyler was hired to compose the film's score. In March 2023, post-production commenced.

The film stars the voice talents of Pratt, Taylor-Joy, Day, Black, Key, Rogen, Armisen, Maniscalco, and Richardson. Pratt was able to sell himself as the titular plumber in large part because of the obvious fact that he understood the movie was only taking itself but so seriously. Black, in particular, gets to flex a muscle audiences haven't seen from him in about a decade.

The film is a great time that is well worth watching in the theater if for nothing more than its gorgeous visuals. It’s a film that you can take the whole family to and everyone will find something to enjoy. The film generally works and is a reasonably enjoyable, fun film. Considering what has happened with video game-based films in the past, that's high praise at this point. The film makes sure to provide tons of fan service that will be appreciated by the masses of Mario fans across the globe.

Simon says The Super Mario Bros. Movie receives:

Also, see my reviews for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and Minions: The Rise of Gru.

Film Review: "Air" (2023).

"Some icons are meant to fly." This is Air. This biographical sports drama film directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery. The film reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. This moving story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.

Convery had the idea for the film while watching the segment of how Nike signed with basketball player Michael Jordan and created the Air Jordan in the documentary miniseries The Last Dance (2020), and soon after made a research on the subject. The script later appeared on 2021's Black List under the title Air Jordan. In April 2022, it was reported that the script had been bought by Amazon Studios for $125 million, with Affleck and Matt Damon teaming to star in the film, while Affleck would direct. Although not directly involved with the film, Jordan met with Affleck prior to the beginning of production and gave the project his blessing, asking for four changes to the script. Jordan asked for the inclusion of George Raveling, his assistant coach on the 1984 United States men's Olympic basketball team, who was the first to recommend that he should sign with Nike. Jordan also asked that Howard White, vice president of Nike's Jordan Brand and his personal friend, be included in the film. This directly led to Affleck casting Tucker, with whom he had long wanted to work and whom Jordan knew. He also asked for the removal of Tinker Hatfield as a character, as Hatfield, despite working at Nike at the time, was not involved with the creation of the Air Jordan. Finally, Jordan asked the roles of his parents, James R. Jordan Sr. and Deloris Jordan, to be extended, and the casting of Davis to play his mother, who was instrumental in making his mind about meeting and signing a deal with Nike, was his idea. Affleck and Damon did heavy uncredited script revisions to accommodate Jordan's asks. By late May, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, Matthew Maher, Gustaf Skarsgård, Barbara Sukowa, and Jay Mohr rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early July. Filming took place in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California. The film was originally slated for a streaming-only release on Amazon Prime Video, but Amazon Studios eventually decided to release the film theatrically following strong results from test screenings.

The cast masterfully interpret the professionals and figures involved in how Nike signed with Jordan and created the Air Jordan.

As a director Affleck's impressive, expanding on the promise he showed in Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo. He's adopted a much lighter style for Air, with a zippy curve-ball narrative spins from wit to drama.

Simon says Air receives:

Also, see my review for Live by Night.