Well, folks, another year has come and gone for Rhode Island
Movie Corner’s Annual End of Summer Fan Poll. As always, I must start off the
annual Results Post by stating that I couldn’t be more grateful to everyone who
participated in this year’s poll, from all of those who voted to those who
shared it online via social media networks. As a freelance film critic who
hasn’t been posting as much as I’ve done in the past and someone who admittedly
relies mainly on friends and family to spread this annual poll of ours around,
it truly means a lot to know that we’ve been able to keep this growing every
year, especially after the whole ‘I had to cancel the 2020 edition of this
event for blatantly obvious reasons’ ordeal. Case in point, last year’s poll
saw us reach record numbers with a 119-vote turnout, which was the first time
that we accomplished a turnout of over 100 votes. Well, guess what? This year…
we managed to top even that! Yes, folks, this year’s poll saw a new record
turnout of 122 votes. And unlike last year, where nearly half of the votes were
for that year’s champion, Top Gun: Maverick, this year’s lineup of votes
was a lot more spread out across the potential candidates. In other words,
this year’s poll matched the record set by the 2017 polling season with a
whopping 22 films getting represented by your votes. So, let’s not waste any
more time because I know a lot of you are interested in seeing what film won it
all this year. Without further ado, Rhode Island Movie Corner is proud to
present the most popular films from the summer of 2023… as voted by you, our
friendly readers!
ALRIGHT, TO
KICK THINGS OFF, WE HAVE 7 FILMS THAT EARNED ONE VOTE EACH…
BOOK CLUB: THE
NEXT CHAPTER
In 2018, Bill Holderman, a longtime producer for Robert
Redford, made his directorial debut with Book Club, a romantic comedy
headlined by the quartet of Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candace Bergen, and Mary
Steenburgen. In the film, the four play a group of friends who decide to spice
up their personal lives after reading the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey in
their monthly book club. Bolstered by an all-star cast that also included the
likes of Andy Garcia, Don Johnson, and Craig T. Nelson, just to name a few, the
film performed excellently at the box office even when competing against
big-name blockbusters like Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2,
grossing over $104 million worldwide on its modest $14 million budget. In 2022,
a sequel was confirmed with most of the original’s core cast and crew returning
but a notable change in studios; instead of Paramount, Book Club: The Next
Chapter was released under the Universal banner. In The Next Chapter,
the lead quartet of reading enthusiasts embark on a vacation to Italy in
celebration of Jane Fonda’s character’s impending engagement. Upon its release,
the film fared about as well as the original with critics, who felt that the
lead quartet of Keaton, Fonda, Bergen, and Steenburgen worked wonderfully
together despite the lackluster material they were given. But unlike the
original, Book Club: The Next Chapter surprisingly underperformed at the box office, only grossing $29.1 million against a bigger $20 million budget. Some
suggested that this was probably due to the general lack of interest in a
sequel, but in its defense, it did just as well in this annual poll of ours as
the original, which also scored a vote back in 2018.
JOY RIDE
Over the past few years, Adele Lim has established herself
as one of the most acclaimed screenwriters on the rise in the film industry. After
years of working in television on shows like One Tree Hill and Lethal
Weapon, Lim made her feature film debut as a screenwriter with 2018’s Crazy
Rich Asians. While she would ultimately depart the film’s impending sequels
as the result of a pay dispute that would’ve seen her get paid less than co-writer
Peter Chiarelli, there’s no denying that she played a huge role in bringing one
of 2018’s biggest summer blockbusters to the big screen. She would then follow
that up by working on Disney Animation’s first 2021 feature, Raya and the
Last Dragon (co-written by Qui Nguyen), which was similarly acclaimed even
if it was ultimately overshadowed by the studio’s other 2021 release, Encanto.
And in 2023, she made her directorial debut with Joy Ride which, of
course, she had a hand in writing alongside Family Guy alums Cherry
Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsaio. Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu,
and Sabrina Wu star as a quartet of friends who travel to China in the hopes of
finding main protagonist Audrey’s (Park) birth mother so that she can secure a
major business deal that will ensure a promotion at work. After debuting at
this year’s SXSW Film Festival, the film hit theaters in July to highly
positive reviews from critics, who highlighted the strong performances of its
leads and its heartfelt moments that managed to shine amidst all its incredibly
raunchy humor. In short, much like Adele Lim’s first foray into the world of
film, Crazy Rich Asians, Joy Ride was celebrated for its
on-screen representation, effectively proving that raunchy humor isn’t just
reserved solely for comedies headlined by white men.
STRAYS
Apart from their work on a certain animated superhero film
(more on that later) and the revival of their breakout series Clone High as
an exclusive on Max, 2023 also saw the dynamic duo of Phil Lord and Chris
Miller produce a pair of comedies with two things in common; they both revolved
around animals and were both unabashedly R-rated. First, there was the
Elizabeth Banks-directed Cocaine Bear which, as a title like that
suggests, promptly became a full-on viral sensation when it hit theaters back
in February. And then there’s their second summer release, Strays,
directed by veteran TV director Josh Greenbaum. This dog-centric comedy stars
Will Ferrell as the voice of Reggie, a happy-go-lucky Border Terrier who
doesn’t even remotely realize that his owner Doug (Will Forte) doesn’t give a crap
about him to the point where he frequently attempts to ditch him. When the
latest ditch attempt is the most successful yet, thus officially making Reggie
a stray, he meets and befriends three other strays, a Boston Terrier named Bug
(Jamie Foxx), an Australian Shepherd named Maggie (Isla Fisher), and a Great
Dane named Hunter (Randall Park), who help keep him out of trouble. Together, they
decide to get revenge on Doug for all his abuse towards Reggie by robbing him
of “the only thing he truly loves” (and no, I’m not going to elaborate on what
that thing is because I do try to keep these posts of mine as PG as possible).
Upon the film’s release, it proved to be somewhat of a mixed bag with critics;
many felt that, while the film had a good heart, it wasn’t exactly the
hilariously crude canine romp that it was aiming to be. But to make matters
worse, when you come out at a time when none of your stars can actively promote
it because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes… well, that arguably ends up
playing a major role in it becoming a box-office bomb as Strays has only
managed to gross around $36 million on its $46 million budget.
THE FLASH
In 1940, DC Comics writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry
Lampert created the character of The Flash, a super-speed-based superhero who
has promptly gone on to become one of the most prominent members of the DC
Universe and its most famous superhero squad, the Justice League. Several
characters have graced the persona of the ‘Scarlet Speedster’ over the years, from
the OG Golden Age hero Jay Garrick to forensic scientist Barry Allen, with the
latter usually tending to be the most famous of the bunch even though his
heroic sacrifice at the end of DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline in
the mid-80’s kept him out of comics for more than two decades. Naturally, Flash
has appeared in various spin-offs of the comics including, most notably in his
case, several TV shows. Outside of the character’s appearances in multiple animated
series like the Bruce Timm-backed Justice League and its various
spin-offs, the character has also headlined his own live-action shows. There
was the short-lived Flash series from the 90s, which starred John
Wesley Shipp in the title role, and the long-running Flash series on The
CW which starred Grant Gustin in the title role with Wesley Shipp notably
appearing as Barry Allen’s father Henry and, on occasion, reprising his role as
the 90’s series’ version of Barry while also portraying the new series’ version
of Jay Garrick. That series would go on to arguably become the most prominent
installment of the CW’s lineup of superhero shows known as the Arrowverse;
while technically named after the first of these shows, Arrow, The
Flash would end up becoming the longest-running series of the bunch, having
only just concluded this past May after nine seasons and long after its fellow Arrowverse
shows had already ended their runs.
As for Flash’s potential on the big screen, that ended up
taking quite a while to come to fruition. In the early 2000s, several attempts
were made at producing a Flash film, with directors like David S. Goyer and
Shawn Levy attached to it over time without any major success. Of course, there
was also George Miller’s infamously unrealized adaptation of Justice League,
Justice League: Mortal, that would’ve seen Adam Brody (who would later
go on to portray the adult Freddie Freeman in the DCEU’s Shazam films)
cast as Barry Allen before various factors such as the 2007-08 Writers Strike
ultimately led to it being canned. Thus, it wouldn’t be until the development
of the DC Extended Universe that we would finally see the first official live-action take on The Flash, with Ezra Miller cast in the role following their
breakout turns in films like We Need to Talk About Kevin and The
Perks of Being a Wallflower. Like fellow Justice League castmates Ray
Fisher and Jason Momoa, Miller would make their official franchise debut with a
brief cameo in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before taking
on one of the lead roles in the following year’s Justice League.
Naturally, with the confirmation of Miller’s casting and the subsequent plans
for the DCEU being set up, it was confirmed that there would be a Flash solo
film in the works. However, as it turns out, the Flash film would end up
becoming one of the most prominent examples in recent memory of a project that
spent a considerably long and arduous time stuck in development hell… and
believe it or not, this wasn’t just because of all the struggles that the DCEU
experienced in general trying to match the success of the MCU.
Just like what happened with all the attempts to make a Flash
film before the DCEU, several directors went in and out of the project,
from the duo of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to the likes of Rick
Famuyiwa and Robert Zemeckis. As usual, ‘creative differences’ were the main
reason for most of these departures and the script itself underwent several
changes as well, sometimes due to Ezra Miller’s dissatisfaction with it.
Ultimately, Andy Muschietti, fresh off his work on the highly successful
two-part film adaptation of Stephen King’s It, signed on to direct,
which would finally ensure that the film would get made. And despite all those
previously mentioned script changes, it was made clear that, while not a direct
adaptation of it, the film would be heavily based on one of Flash’s most
notable storylines from the comics, 2011’s Flashpoint. The catalyst
behind the launch of DC’s New 52 era, Flashpoint saw Barry Allen
go back in time to save his mother Nora from her mysterious death, which
resulted in his father Henry being wrongly accused of her murder. But while he
does successfully save his mom from her tragic fate, he quickly learns that
this has led to the creation of an alternate universe in which many of his
superhero peers either don’t exist or are at war with one another. Thus, Barry
teams up with an alternate version of Batman (in this instance, Bruce Wayne’s
father Thomas as Bruce is established to have been the one who was killed in
the fateful theater mugging that has always defined the character’s backstory) in
his attempts to set the timeline right.
As for the Flash film, while the same basic premise
of Barry going back in time to save his mom and inadvertently altering the
events of his universe is still there, several narrative differences keep things in line with the DC Extended Universe’s overall timeline. After
Barry successfully saves his mom, he ends up getting stuck in the year 2013,
around the time when he first acquired his powers. As a result, he ends up
crossing paths with his younger and far more immature self, resulting in him
being forced to try and teach the younger Barry how to be a superhero,
especially after he loses his powers when he tries to put 2013 Barry through
the events that made them the Flash (i.e. getting struck by lightning). And
unlike the comics, which were based around an over-arching conflict of a civil
war between Wonder Woman and Aquaman, this film’s main conflict revolves around
the events of Man of Steel; specifically, General Zod’s invasion of
Earth in his efforts to hunt down Superman, who had been living a private life
on Earth ever since he was sent there as a baby. Thus, with no other metahumans
who can help them, the two Barrys end up teaming up with this universe’s
version of Batman; however, instead of Thomas Wayne, it is Bruce… but the Bruce
Wayne from 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns, with Michael
Keaton returning to reprise his role for the first time in more than three
decades. Things only get more complicated, however, when, in their efforts to
try and find Superman, they learn that the Kryptonian refugee who has been
hiding out on Earth for the past several years isn’t Clark… but rather, his
cousin Kara Zor-El AKA Supergirl.
Right off the bat, fans of the Flashpoint storyline
will most likely be disappointed by the fact that this isn’t a direct
adaptation of it. And to be fair, it’s easy to see where they’re coming from in
some cases as the overall plot of this film, despite all the buzz about it
relaunching the DC Cinematic Universe into its future state under the direction
of James Gunn and Peter Safran, feels surprisingly trivial when it comes to its
overall stakes. It’s also quite limited in terms of plot and character
development, with Flash being the only character in the film to get any sort of
major emotional beats; in a way, it sort of makes sense seeing how the other
characters are from the alternate timeline that will inevitably cease to exist
by the end of it all, but it is noticeable, nevertheless. But just like how Captain
America: Civil War did a great job of working around the weaker parts of
the comic storyline that it was named after, there are some upsides to all this.
Whereas the original Flashpoint involved dozens of characters from the
DC Universe, this film keeps it grounded to Flash and his new allies Batman and
Supergirl, which does help to keep its plot from getting too overstuffed. And
even if there’s not a lot for characters like Batman and Supergirl to work
with, the big emotional beats involving the Flash, namely anything revolving
around his relationship with his mom, are genuinely phenomenal from the phone
conversation that Barry has with his imprisoned father Henry, where we
flashback to the fateful moment when Nora died, to the last moment that Barry
shares with his mom before he restores the timeline to its rightful state, The
Flash does achieve the kind of heartfelt moments that have bolstered many
of this genre’s greatest releases. Really, though, that’s arguably to be
expected from a director like Andy Muschietti, who had already done this before
to great effect on the two It films.
Now, does that mean that this film is perfect? No, far from
it. Like I said before, the casual nature of the plot makes this one of the
most undemanding superhero films to come out in recent years, and while I’m
personally fine with the largely light-hearted and easygoing tone that this
film takes on, this also means that it doesn’t quite reach the epic narrative lengths
that it could’ve gone to. And while I won’t be making as big of a deal about it
as the rest of the internet has… yeah, it goes without saying that this film
could’ve benefitted from a few extra trips through the VFX department because
some of the CGI in this film is considerably under-polished. But thanks to some
fun action set pieces, a strong ensemble cast, and a whole bunch of fun nods to
DC’s extensive media history, there’s still a lot to like about this film. For
one thing, it follows nicely in the footsteps of non-Snyderverse DCEU films
like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Birds of Prey by taking a
character whose initial debut was in a bigger ensemble picture where they
didn’t quite get the chance to become a fully fleshed-out character and giving
them the proper character development that they deserve. This is something that
I’ve always argued to be critical to this genre’s success and, if you ask me,
is one of the main reasons why the DCEU tanked so hard early on because it was
more focused on its visuals rather than ensuring that we’re able to care about
any of the characters who were meant to be headlining the franchise.
But let’s be honest, folks, there’s one elephant in the room
that I haven’t mentioned yet that quite arguably takes precedence over
everything we’ve talked about, and that is the dark cloud that has surrounded
this film for the past several years as the result of the actions of its star,
Ezra Miller. While I won’t go into full details on the matter, in the time that
it took this film to get made, Miller wound up getting involved in a whole
bunch of incidents that ranged from assault charges to being accused of running
a cult. This, in turn, led to reports that revealed that Miller’s erratic
behavior even affected filming at times; as I mentioned earlier, this included
all the instances where they took issue with how the script was turning out. But
unlike what happened on films like All the Money in the World, where
Ridley Scott replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer just one month
before its release, or Army of the Dead, where Zack Snyder had Tig
Notaro replace Chris D’Elia via CGI-based reshoots, it’s clear that Miller
couldn’t have been easily recast for a film of this size and budget. Nevertheless,
it’s undoubtedly clear that a lot of folks weren’t so enthused to see this film
given Miller’s involvement, hence why it ended up becoming one of the biggest
box-office flops of recent memory. A $270 million+ haul is already enough of a
low bar for a franchise like the DCEU, but with a massive budget that may have
reached as high as $300 million… well, that’s not great. While I’m aware
that some attribute this to some folks feeling like the remaining DCEU films
aren’t worth checking out because of the impending reboot, that doesn’t mean
that I think that this film deserved to flop like it did.
Now, to be clear, when I say that, don’t interpret that as
me defending Ezra Miller in the wake of their various scandals in any way
because I’m not. This also extends to me stating that Miller does a good job in
this film, balancing their dual roles as the older, emotionally hardened Barry
and the younger, fun-loving Barry quite well. In short, I’m just one of those
folks who, for the most part, doesn’t like to see a film bomb as hard as this
one did, especially since it’s a far better representation of the fantastical
world of DC Comics than something like Zack Snyder’s Justice League
which, to me, represents the absolute worst of the otherwise wonderful
superhero genre. And yet, at the end of the day, I guess you can say that The
Flash is one of the DC Extended Universe’s best examples of a film that’s
practically a pitch-perfect representation of everything about this truly mixed
bag of a franchise. Sure, it had the potential to be just as great as the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with a weak narrative foundation, questionable
filmmaking decisions that didn’t fit the well-established characterizations of
DC’s most iconic characters, and the most toxic fanbase of all time (which,
given all the toxic film-based fanbases we’ve seen these past few years, is
saying a lot), its overall success rate was split right down the middle. Thus,
I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’s more than ready to embrace everything
that’s set to come out over the next few years under the direction of James
Gunn and Peter Safran.
ELEMENTAL
Many of Pixar’s greatest films were directly inspired by the
lives of those who made them, and that has certainly applied to a lot of their
recent masterpieces. For example, Dan Scanlon’s highly underrated fantasy
adventure Onward was inspired by the strong relationship that he formed
with his brother after they lost their father at a young age. 2021’s Luca was
based on all the summers that director Enrico Casarosa spent as a child living on
the Italian Riviera. Last year’s Turning Red (AKA this writer’s #1
favorite film of 2022) was influenced by director Domee Shi’s life growing up
in Toronto, Canada and the universal struggles of being a teenager. Naturally,
this same mentality applies to Pixar’s latest endeavor, Elemental,
directed by one of the studio’s longtime mainstays, Peter Sohn. Sohn’s
childhood living in New York and his family’s immigrant status helped to create
the world of Element City, in which anthropomorphic personifications of the
four elements (fire, water, wind, and earth) reside. In this thriving
metropolis, a young fire sprite named Ember begins the process of taking over
her father Bernie’s convenience store despite being plagued by a fiery temper.
When said temper puts her family’s store at risk of being shut down, she tags
along with Wade, an overly emotional water guy who’s one of Element City’s city
inspectors, to try and undo the damage that she’s done. Along the way, the two
begin to bond to the point where, despite the longstanding presumption that
water and fire elements cannot mix, they even begin to fall in love with each
other.
As you can tell from that plot synopsis, Elemental is,
first and foremost, a love story and a beautifully executed one at that. This
is mainly thanks to the fact that the lead duo of Ember and Wade are an
instantly lovable romantic pair, with excellent voice performances from Leah
Lewis as the short-tempered yet wholly sympathetic Ember and Mamoudou Athie as
the happy-go-lucky Wade. But amidst all the romance is some timely commentary
on the [unfortunately still prevalent] issues of racism and prejudice, which
allows characters like Ember’s parents Bernie and Cinder to be properly fleshed
out as well. While they are shown to be distrustful towards water elements like
Wade, it doesn’t make them outright ‘villainous’ because of some of the similar
hardships that they’ve been through such as the circumstances that led them to
abandon their homeland and move to Element City and the racism that they faced
upon arriving there, which then proceeded to affect Ember after she was born. In
short, Elemental is truly a story from the heart as it’s a celebration
of love, family, and the beauty of diversity, and with Pixar’s trademark
beautiful animation to match its equally beautiful love story, it’s another
wonderful addition to the studio’s long line of masterpieces. And yet, perhaps
the most beautiful thing about this film… was how it managed to beat the odds and
become a bonafide box-office hit, which is something that we haven’t been able
to say about a Pixar film for quite some time.
To be perfectly blunt, Pixar films have had a rough run at
the box office in recent years, and while I would personally love to pin it all
on those right-wing morons who are irrationally mad about Disney-backed
projects embracing the film industry’s efforts to be more culturally diverse…
in reality, it’s mainly because of everything revolving around the COVID-19
pandemic. It all got started with Onward, which had the unfortunate
distinction of being released just a week before the pandemic started to go into
effect, meaning that it had no time to make any sort of dent at the box office.
As a result, Disney then proceeded to turn the next three Pixar films, Soul,
Luca, and Turning Red, into Disney+ exclusive releases with limited
theatrical runs in major cities. And while many Pixar staff members were understanding
about the decision to move Soul to Disney+, they weren’t so happy about
it happening to Luca and Turning Red as well since, by the time
they came out, efforts to combat COVID-19 were becoming far more widespread. But
at the very least, these three films weren’t entirely hindered by their status
as Disney+ releases as they all did quite well for themselves, managing to become
some of the most streamed films of their respective release years and scoring all
sorts of accolades during awards season. At the same time, though, many have
argued that this resulted in audiences becoming more inclined to see Pixar’s
new releases on Disney+ rather than in theaters. Thus, when Pixar finally saw
their first theatrical release in more than two years with Lightyear… it
ended up becoming a flop, and at first, it seemed like Elemental was
going to succumb to the same fate.
Upon its initial release, Elemental only managed to
do about $29.5 million during its opening weekend, which is the lowest opening
weekend for a Pixar film… since the original Toy Story nearly three
decades ago. And since it, like many other recent Pixar films, had a hefty
budget of $200 million, an opening as low as that made it look like the studio
was going to have yet another box-office bomb on their hands that, again, was
arguably due to how long it took for Pixar to return to cinemas after COVID.
And yet, against all odds… it survived. It had a decent second weekend with
only a 38% loss from the previous weekend and, by the end of its run, managed
to turn things around to do nearly half a billion worldwide, which is a lovely
thing to witness for a film that’s as easy to love as this one. As I’ve said
plenty of times over the years, I’m not someone who subscribes to the “If a
Pixar film isn’t an outright flawless masterpiece, it’s not worth checking out”
mentality that the internet has foolhardily embraced since the studio’s first
critical flop, Cars 2, back in 2011. As a result, this has left perfectly
great films like Onward and Lightyear to be unfairly seen as
‘inferior’ just because they aren’t as well-regarded as all the other
masterpieces that Pixar has made since 1995. And in Elemental’s case,
I’m sure that it’s seen as exactly that in some circles given the film’s
relatively low yet still very much fresh 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (in part
due to a rough early run with critics after its premiere at the Cannes Film
Festival), with a consensus that states that it doesn’t “satisfy as fully as
the greatest Pixar pictures”. Thus, when I hear about how it defied the odds to
become a genuine hit at the box office, I’m left ecstatic because a film like
this is a wonderful anti-thesis to all those expectations that the internet has
placed upon Pixar to keep being one of the industry’s best.
GRAN TURISMO
Easily taking the cake as one of the most unique attempts at
adapting a popular video game into a film, Gran Turismo translates the
PlayStation brand’s definitive racing franchise into a cinematic blockbuster.
But I’m sure that there are a bunch of you out there who are thinking the exact
same thing that I thought when this film was first announced; how the heck do
you adapt a series like Gran Turismo into a film when the source
material is, simply put, a straight-forward racing simulator without any sort of
narrative to speak of? Well, it turns out that you do so by making it a biopic
as this film tells the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a young man from Wales
and avid Gran Turismo player who, in 2011, landed a once-in-a-lifetime
exclusive professional racing contract with Nissan by partaking in their GT
Academy program. Mardenborough’s story is brought to life courtesy of
director Neill Blomkamp, with Archie Madekwe starring as Mardenborough, David
Harbour as his skeptical trainer, and Orlando Bloom as the Nissan executive who
runs the GT Academy program. And against all odds, the film did
surprisingly well with critics upon its release. Outside of the controversial
decision to reframe Mardenborough’s infamous 2015 crash in a manner that was
seen by some as ill-fitting given that the crash resulted in the death of a
spectator, critics praised the film for its racing sequences, Blomkamp’s
direction, and its feel-good vibes. And with a decent $121+ million showing at
the box office, it seems like this has been a nice return to form for Blomkamp
who, after his breakout hit District 9 in 2009, went through a considerable
rough patch as his subsequent projects like Elysium and Chappie did
not score as well with critics as his Oscar-nominated directorial debut and his
attempt at making an Alien sequel ultimately went nowhere.
TALK TO ME
Since its inception in 2012, A24 has become one of the most
revered independent film distributors in the industry, especially when it comes
to its lineup of critically acclaimed horror films that have made filmmakers
like Ari Aster and Robert Eggers some of the genre’s most celebrated
visionaries. This hot streak of theirs certainly continued this summer with the
supernatural horror thriller Talk to Me, which they secured the
distribution rights to at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Directed by brothers
Danny and Michael Philippou, best known as the creators of the horror comedy
YouTube channel RackaRacka, the film follows a group of teenagers who discover
that they can contact spirits with an embalmed severed hand. As to be expected
from an A24-backed horror project, the film garnered much critical acclaim upon
its release, with praise for its script, strong performances (particularly from
Sophie Wilde as the film’s main protagonist Mia and Joe Bird as her best friend
Jade’s younger brother Riley), and practical effects owing to the Philippou
brothers’ background in visual effects. It also managed to become A24’s
highest-grossing horror film at the U.S. box office with a $48.3 million run to
complement its $92 million worldwide cume that makes it A24’s second
highest-grossing film of all-time behind last year’s Best Picture winner Everything
Everywhere All at Once. Thus, despite A24’s general reluctance to create franchises, the Philippou brothers are already hard at work at not only a
sequel but a prequel as well, and while only time will tell how these two
projects will fare by comparison, this first installment was clearly successful
enough with its target audience to notably be one of two featured films to come
out of our poll’s write-in section.
NEXT UP, WE
HAVE 5 FILMS THAT EARNED TWO VOTES EACH
INSIDIOUS: THE
RED DOOR
In 2011, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell
launched their second major horror franchise after their 2004 breakout hit Saw
with Insidious, a supernatural horror flick in which a family’s oldest
child becomes linked to a mysterious astral plane full of demonic creatures. Just
like the original Saw, this low-budget horror flick (which was also an
early producing credit for horror genre mainstay Jason Blum) became a massive
hit at the box office, earning over $100 million worldwide on its meager $1.5
million budget. Naturally, this would lead to the creation of a full-blown
franchise, with Wan and Whannell returning to direct and write Insidious:
Chapter 2, respectively, in 2013. Whannell then proceeded to take over as
director with 2015’s Insidious: Chapter 3, which was not only his
directorial debut, but a prequel centered on the character of psychic Elise
Rainier, played by Lin Shaye. That film would get its own direct follow-up in
2018, Insidious: The Last Key, directed by Adam Robitel, who would then
go on to direct the Escape Room duology. And while none of these sequels/prequels
managed to be as well-received as the original Insidious (which,
admittedly, was a mixed bag amongst critics), they all did excellently at the box office, each managing to earn over $100 million worldwide. But now, in
2023, the series has finally shifted its focus back onto the main protagonists
of the first two films, the Lambert family, with Insidious: The Red Door.
Set nine years after the events of the first two films, Insidious: The Red
Door sees the Lambert family once again haunted by the terrifying demons of
‘The Further’ when their oldest son Dalton heads off to college.
This installment notably served as the directorial debut of series
protagonist Josh Lambert himself, Patrick Wilson, with other series mainstays
reprising their respective roles as well, from Rose Bryne as Josh’s now ex-wife
Renai to Ty Simpkins as their son Dalton. And despite it being more than half
a decade since the release of the series’ previous installment, Insidious:
The Red Door managed to become the highest-grossing Insidious film to
date, defying its initial opening weekend expectations to earn $33 million domestically
(the series’ second-best opening weekend overall behind Chapter 2) on
route to an impressive $189.1 million worldwide haul. But as for its critical
reception, The Red Door ended up being more on par with the previous
three Insidious films with mediocre reviews overall as many critics felt
that the series had officially run its course. That said, though, no one blamed
any of this on Patrick Wilson’s account as they felt that he did a solid job in
his directorial debut, and despite all those lackluster reviews, it’s clear
that the Insidious franchise isn’t going away anytime soon. A spin-off written
and directed by Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight) titled Thread is currently
in the works and ever since the release of Insidious: The Last Key in
2018, series producer Jason Blum has been teasing the possibility of a
crossover with director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill’s Sinister
franchise.
NO HARD
FEELINGS
In 2019, Office writing alum Gene Stupnitsky
made his directorial debut with Good Boys, a raunchy coming-of-age
comedy that centered on a trio of middle-school boys who found themselves going
through all sorts of misadventures that weren’t exactly ‘age-appropriate’ for
them. Upon its release, the film proved to be a critical and commercial hit and
it even managed to become the first R-rated comedy in three years to take the
#1 spot at the box office. Well, Stupnitsky is now back with another scandalous
raunchy comedy with coming-of-age themes, No Hard Feelings, this time
teaming up with Jennifer Lawrence, who stars as a down-on-her-luck woman named Maddie
who answers a unique ad to ‘date’ a wealthy couple’s college-bound son Percy in
exchange for a new car that will help her keep the house that she inherited
from her mother. With a premise like that, it’s safe to say that this film
faced some controversy upon its release as some accused its plot of being a
case of sexual grooming given the decade-plus age difference between Maddie and
Percy. However, others, including those involved in the production, argued that
the film wasn’t promoting that and was instead highlighting just how messed up its
premise is (which, apparently, was inspired by a real-life ad on Craigslist).
Whatever the case, the film did do solidly with critics, who felt that while
the film didn’t quite go all the way with its raunch factor, it, like
Stupnitsky’s previous film Good Boys, did have its heartfelt moments
along with a standout comedic turn from Jennifer Lawrence.
ASTEROID CITY
There aren’t many filmmakers who have left a considerable impact
on pop culture quite like Wes Anderson. Ever since his 1996 feature film debut Bottle
Rocket, Anderson has consistently been regarded as one of the most revered
directors in the industry, known particularly for his unique and quirky visual
style largely defined by his impeccably detailed shot compositions. Naturally,
Anderson’s talents are once again on full display with his latest endeavor, Asteroid
City. Presented as an in-universe televised production of a legendary
playwright’s play about a grieving widower who travels with his children to an
astronomy convention in the titular Asteroid City, where some legitimate
extraterrestrial activity ends up taking place, the film features almost all of
Anderson’s regular collaborators as a part of his trademark stacked ensemble
cast. You’ve got Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe,
Tilda Swinton, and Scarlett Johannsson just to name a few… and yet, not Bill
Murray since he ended up contracting COVID by the time filming began and was ultimately
replaced by Steve Carell. And while it may have ended up being one of
Anderson’s lowest-rated directorial efforts amongst critics, it was still
generally well-received as your quintessential Wes Anderson flick. It also did
quite well for itself financially, grossing over $54 million worldwide on its
$25 million budget. In fact, at a time when some big-name blockbusters weren’t
doing too hotly at the box office, Asteroid City was seen as one of the
summer’s most noteworthy successes, securing the best per-theater average for a
limited-release debut ($142,230) since La La Land back in 2016 and
Anderson’s best opening ever once it hit a wider release the following week
with $9 million.
MISSION
IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART 1
Nearly three decades since its debut in 1996, the Mission
Impossible film franchise continues to be one of the most highly regarded
in the industry. Not only has it arguably become the most definitive project of
Tom Cruise’s career, but ever since 2011’s Mission Impossible – Ghost
Protocol, it’s also become one of those rare franchises that critics have
argued has only gotten better with each new installment. This argument would
become even more relevant once Cruise’s longtime writing collaborator Christopher
McQuarrie stepped in to become the series’ director starting with 2015’s Mission
Impossible – Rogue Nation, with its 2018 follow-up Mission Impossible –
Fallout becoming the series’ most well-received and financially successful
installment to date. Naturally, this meant that the hype for this action
franchise juggernaut was only going to get stronger once McQuarrie and Cruise
began to develop its next two films, which were subsequently confirmed to be
presented as a two-part event. And so, after enduring all sorts of delays (largely
due to, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic), we finally got the first half of
Ethan Hunt’s next epic adventure with Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning
Part 1, in which he and his team find themselves dealing with a sentient
A.I. program known as ‘The Entity’.
As I’m sure you can guess, this long-running franchise continued
to thrive upon Dead Reckoning Part 1’s release as it once again garnered
critical acclaim from critics who once again praised McQuarrie’s top-notch
direction and its spectacular (and practically filmed) action sequences. Plus,
given everything that’s been going on regarding the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes,
this film’s premise of dealing with a rogue A.I. program certainly feels quite
timely, don’t you think? However, to the surprise of many, Dead Reckoning
Part 1’s critical success wasn’t exactly matched on a financial level as it
only managed to gross around $567 million worldwide. Sure, that may not necessarily
seem like a bad total for a blockbuster of this nature, but because the budget
skyrocketed to $291 million, this technically resulted in a loss for Paramount
that reportedly came up to around $100 million. But while there are often
multiple reasons as to why some films flopped at the box office, this is one
instance where there is a single widely accepted reason as to why this
film didn’t do so hot: bad timing. Dead Reckoning Part 1 hit theaters
just one week before this summer’s most talked-about pairing of new releases,
and to make matters worse, one of those films ended up taking over all the IMAX
screens that Dead Reckoning Part 1 was using at the time which,
reportedly, was something that Tom Cruise wasn’t too happy about. So, in other
words, because this resulted in the ideal way to watch this film getting
taken out of the picture, it couldn’t hold on as strongly as its predecessors
did at the box office when faced with serious competition. And yet, given that
it is still one of the most acclaimed films of the year, it’s clear that this wasn’t
some kind of intentional slight against the franchise; as such, we can only
hope that this won’t end up being the case again for this legendary franchise
when McQuarrie and Cruise close out this two-parter with Dead Reckoning Part
2 next June.
(Hey folks, a
quick disclaimer before we continue. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past,
I’m not someone who usually tends to delve too deeply into the political
aspects of films when I discuss them on this site. No, this doesn’t mean that
I’m one of those morons who makes a stink about films “being too political
nowadays”; I’m just in the mindset that politics, as they do in any situation
(not just film discussion), only end up making things ugly. But when it comes
to this next film… this is the rare instance where I’m going to have to break
this rule of mine because this is one of those films, and spoilers, what
I’m about to say is not going to be in this film’s favor. With that in mind,
for those who did vote for this film, let me be clear; this isn’t any sort of
attack on you. I’m not judging you in any way for liking this film because
that’s not what this annual event of ours is about. Everything that I’m about
to say is strictly about the film itself and why I’m not exactly that excited
to talk about it because of all the toxic repercussions behind its massive
success.)
SOUND OF
FREEDOM
Well, when it comes to this year’s poll, there wasn’t even
remotely any surprise when it comes to what film was going to be the most
prominent pick out of our write-in section, Sound of Freedom. This
political thriller is inspired by the real-life actions of Tim Ballard, a former
CIA and Homeland Security agent who founded the non-profit organization known
as Operation Underground Railroad (AKA O.U.R.) to combat the ongoing crime of
sex trafficking. Starring Jim Caviezel in the role of Ballard, the film follows
Ballard’s efforts to rescue kids who have been kidnapped by Colombian sex
traffickers, even going as far as to resign from Homeland Security to ensure
his mission’s success. Upon its release, Sound of Freedom defied all
expectations to become one of the biggest hits of the summer. On just a $14.5
million budget, the film ended up grossing over $250 million worldwide, easily
making it one of the most successful independent films of all time. A large
part of its success can be attributed to the ‘pay it forward’ strategy that its
distributor, Angel Studios, used to promote the film by encouraging viewers to
purchase tickets for those who can’t afford them; this was even used in the
film itself, as a QR code linking audiences to Angel Studios’ website appears
during a post-credit sequence in which star Jim Caviezel talks about the
importance of the film’s message. In fact, this film was so successful that it
even managed to outperform some of the summer’s biggest blockbusters such as Indiana
Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning
Part 1.
And yet, as neat as it may be to see an independent film
stand toe to toe with major studio blockbusters in this era of
blockbuster-driven fare… I personally wish that a much different film was
getting all this attention because this one has ‘super shady AF’ written all
over it. For starters, because this is a political thriller that was released
by a studio primarily known for religious projects, that means that this has
become one of those films wholly championed by right-wing-minded audiences. And
yes, in this instance I’m specifically referring to all those racist and sexist
morons who I’ve repeatedly criticized these past few years for all their relentless
whining about franchises like Star Wars and the MCU having the
‘audacity’ to make greater efforts to embrace diversity. Thus, with a film like
this that is clearly more suited to their political sensibilities, it’s
not too surprising to see that they have wholeheartedly embraced Sound of
Freedom for being, as they’ve undoubtedly put it, ‘a big f*** you’ to their
‘woke adversaries’ like Disney. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that, at one
point, this was originally going to be released under the Disney banner since
it started out as a 20th Century Fox production before it was
shelved when Disney bought Fox in 2019? Believe me, those jackasses haven’t
shied away from mentioning that whenever they talk about this film. It also
doesn’t help that star Jim Caviezel and the man that he plays in the film, Tim
Ballard, have both openly promoted the BS theories spread around by the QAnon
cult that falsely proclaim that, among other things, folks in the Democratic
and Hollywood communities are key players involved in a global sex trafficking ring…
and yes, they’ve even promoted this s*** during this film’s promotional
circuit.
Ironically, though, it turns out that some of the people
involved in this film’s production are exactly the kind of folks that guys like
Caviezel and Ballard are so vehemently opposed to. A month after the film’s
release, one of its funders, Fabian Marta, a man who had been quite vocal on
social media about his ‘success in getting the film away from Disney’, faced
felony charges for child kidnapping. And while the charges against him were, in
fact, recently dropped, he’s also been confirmed to have hosted ‘Sugar
Baby/Sugar Daddy’ parties aimed towards all ages (emphasis on ‘all ages’). One
of the film’s executive producers, Leo Severino, has also been accused of
grooming minors, including his own wife when she was just a teenager; in other
words, yikes times infinity. And then… there’s Tim Ballard himself. Not long
after the film came out, it was revealed that Ballard had recently parted ways
with O.U.R.; at the time, his departure was linked to ‘ethical issues’. But
recently, the full extent of those ‘ethical issues’ were revealed as he’s
currently being sued by several women on the charges of grooming, sexual
harassment and misconduct. Add in the fact that, as it turns out, the main plot
of this film was an event that Ballard had absolutely ZERO involvement
with… and, well, hopefully, I’ve now given you a crystal-clear idea as to why
this isn’t exactly a film that I’m super eager to talk about.
Now, for the record, despite everything that I’ve just
talked about, it has been made clear several times over (including from the
film’s director, Alejandro Monteverde) that the film itself has nothing to do
with QAnon culture. Caviezel and Ballard’s off-screen nonsense is, to be
perfectly blunt, the only reason why QAnon has even been linked to it at all.
And yet, I’d argue that, nevertheless, QAnon’s relentless toxicity has cast an
undeniable shadow over this entire production. For all its talk about its ‘noble’
intentions to stop the crime of underage sex trafficking, the fact that much of
its supposed ‘true story’ was blatantly fabricated for dramatic effect and
several key players of its production have basically committed the exact same
kind of atrocities committed by its main antagonists (including the man who
serves as the film’s ‘holier than thou’ protagonist) ultimately results in all
this coming off as incredibly disingenuous. And if that wasn’t enough, this has
also been one of those films that its fans are so passionate about that anyone
who dares to say anything bad about it is deemed ‘part of the problem’ (yet
another reason as to why I usually don’t bring up politics on this site). And
so, with all that in mind, it goes without saying that the chances of me ever watching
this are about as likely as me watching one of those BS ‘documentaries’ from
Dinesh D’Souza or anything that Gina Carano has done since she shot her own
career in the foot and got kicked off The Mandalorian; zero-to-none.
ALRIGHT, NOW
THAT WE GOT ALL THAT NONSENSE OUT OF THE WAY, LET’S MOVE ON TO THE THREE FILMS
THAT, FITTINGLY, EARNED THREE VOTES APIECE…
THE BLACKENING
One of the most well-known and widely mocked tropes that is
often tied to horror films is the old cliché of having a black character be the
first to die. Given all the sociopolitical moments of the past few years that
have brought greater awareness to the ongoing fight against racism, it only
makes sense for the horror genre to take a more satirical approach to one of
its most infamous points of discussion. This is where we get a film like The
Blackening, directed by Tim Story (Barbershop and the 2000’s era Fantastic
Four films) and based on a 2018 short film of the same name by the Chicago-based comedy group 3Peat, with group member Dewayne Perkins both starring in
the film and co-writing the script with Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip). The
film follows a group of friends who take a trip to a cabin in the woods to
honor the holiday of Juneteenth, where they are soon targeted by a mysterious
killer who subjects them to a sadistic game to prove just how black they truly
are. As the film’s poster tagline hilariously states, “We Can’t All Die First”,
and upon its release, the film did solidly with critics, who felt that it
delivered plenty of great jokes thanks in large part to its top-notch cast. And
while a $18.6 million run at the box office may not seem like much, it only
cost about $5 million to make and became the best-reviewed film of director Tim
Story’s career with an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
TRANSFORMERS:
RISE OF THE BEASTS
In 2007, Transformers, one of the most popular media
franchises of all time thanks in large part to its best-selling toy line and beloved
animated series adaptation in the 80’s, spawned its first live-action
adaptation thanks to a big-budget blockbuster from the master of Bayhem
himself, Michael Bay. This, of course, paved the way for the franchise to
become even more of a staple of the pop cultural zeitgeist as the films have
collectively grossed over $5 billion worldwide. However, at the same time, all
that success at the box office hasn’t stopped it from being a perennial
punching bag amongst critics. While the first Bay-directed Transformers film
did relatively fine with critics, all 4 of the Bay-directed sequels (2009’s Revenge
of the Fallen, 2011’s Dark of the Moon, 2014’s Age of Extinction,
and 2017’s The Last Knight) were downright slaughtered by critics, many
of whom viewed them as an affront to cinema with their nonsensical plots,
childish (and often stereotypical) sense of humor, and for being a prime
showcase of Bay’s notoriously bombastic directorial style. And while this never
stopped the series from being a hit with audiences, with both Dark of the
Moon and Age of Extinction managing to do over a billion worldwide,
it did reach a breaking point with The Last Knight, which ended up
experiencing franchise lows in both its critical reception and commercial
performance, only grossing around $600 million on its massive $200 million+
budget. Thus, as The Last Knight officially ended Bay’s run as the
series’ director, it was clear that it was in desperate need of a creative
overhaul.
It got just that in 2018 with the series’ first spin-off, Bumblebee,
a 1980s set prequel and the first installment not to be directed by Michael
Bay (who was still involved as a producer). Upon its release, the film defied
all expectations to become a genuine hit with critics, who felt that it was the
antithesis of everything that came from Bay’s films and a far better
representation of its source material. This, in turn, helped to give the series
the kind of revival that it desperately needed, thus paving the way for its
next installment, Rise of the Beasts. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. (Creed
II), the film shifts its setting from California in the 80s to Brooklyn,
New York in the 90’s as a down-on-his-luck former soldier and an undervalued
museum intern team up with Optimus Prime and the Autobots to save Earth from
being destroyed by the planet-sized Unicron. To do so, they team up with
another group of Transformers known as the Maximals, who have animal-based
alternate forms and have been protecting a cosmic transportation device known
as the Transwarp Key from Unicron and his constituents, the Terrorcons. As the
film’s title and premise suggest, its biggest selling point is that it serves
as the live-action debut of characters from one of the Transformers franchise’s
most popular spin-offs, Beast Wars, which was headlined by a computer-animated series that ran for 3 seasons from 1996 to 1999.
As someone whose experience with this franchise mostly stems
from the live-action films, admittedly I can’t say for certain how successful
this film’s take on the Beast Wars characters is in the eyes of longtime
Transformers fans since, as I noted earlier, the films’ portrayal of the
franchise’s most popular characters has often been one of its most
criticized aspects. But if anything, Rise of the Beasts does a good job
of following the examples set by Bumblebee to give the film franchise a
greater sense of character depth than what we got out of Bay’s films. Following
in the footsteps of Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie Watson from Bumblebee,
Anthony Ramos’ Noah Diaz and Dominque Fishback’s Elena Wallace are some of the
franchise’s most likable human protagonists and they don’t overshadow the
Transformers themselves as much as the human characters in other Transformers
films have done before. As for the Transformers, the film wisely avoids the
pitfalls of films like Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon by
keeping its ensemble relatively small rather than overstuffing itself with
characters that barely get any screen time. Sure, some characters still don’t get a lot to work with, but for the most part, the film allows just
enough time for its most prominent characters to stand out such as Pete
Davidson’s Mirage AKA the Bumblebee to Noah’s Sam Witwicky. Director Steven
Caple Jr. also does a great job of maintaining the vibes of the film’s 90’s
setting, which helps to give this entry of the franchise its own unique
cultural identity, especially once the film moves from New York to the majestic
landscapes of Peru and the legendary Machu Picchu.
Now, as anyone who’s followed this site for a while may
recall, I’m one of those rare folks who, contrary to popular opinion, genuinely
enjoy the live-action Transformers films. While I do very much
recognize that the 5 films directed by Michael Bay are quite arguably a major
case of ‘style over substance’ and all have their own unique shortcomings (e.g.
Age of Extinction’s infamously hefty runtime, Revenge of the Fallen’s
narratively aimless first half, etc.), I still find them to be largely
entertaining popcorn flicks. Like I said before, I don’t have much history with
Transformers outside of these films, hence why I don’t get too worked up
over how these films have brought the titular ‘Robots in
Disguise’ to life on the big screen as much as those who grew up with them in
the ’80s. That said, though, while it may not be my ‘personal favorite’ of the
bunch, I do recognize why 2018’s Bumblebee was seen by many as the
franchise’s best installment, namely by giving it the kind of emotional depth
that was, admittedly, quite lacking in the first five films. While I
wouldn’t say that Rise of the Beasts is ‘as successful’ in that regard,
it still does an excellent job of moving on from the days when this franchise coasted
solely on its visuals and action sequences. As such, it’ll be interesting to
see where the series goes from here, especially given this film’s unexpected
twist ending in which Noah is recruited to join Hasbro’s other big-name
multimedia franchise, G.I. Joe.
Okay, one last thing
about Sound of Freedom and that’ll be it. Remember how I noted that it
was so successful that it managed to overshadow big-name blockbusters like Indiana
Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Well, about that…
INDIANA JONES
AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY
Indiana Jones is a franchise that needs no
introduction. The brainchild of director Steven Spielberg and writer George
Lucas, this love letter to the classic film serials that both Spielberg and
Lucas grew up on has easily been one of the most revered and influential
franchises of all time. It gave Lucas his second major franchise after Star
Wars, it further cemented Spielberg’s legendary career as a director, and
it gave star Harrison Ford the second Lucas-created definitive role of his
career after previously bringing everyone’s favorite space smuggler Han Solo to
life in Star Wars. And sure, the second installment, 1984’s Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom, may have attracted enough controversy due to
its dark and intense content that it straight-up influenced the creation of the
MPAA’s PG-13 rating alongside fellow Spielberg-backed projects Gremlins and
Poltergeist, but all in all, the original trilogy of 1981’s Raiders
of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and 1989’s Indiana Jones and the
Last Crusade is up there with the original Star Wars trilogy as one
of the most beloved trilogies ever made. Thus, almost exactly like what
happened with Star Wars when Lucas decided to continue the story with
the prequel trilogy, things got interesting when, after years of speculation
and false starts, Lucas and Spielberg revived the franchise in 2008 with Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was one of the
biggest hits of the year at the box office, it incurred the same level of
intense polarizing reactions amongst audiences as the Star Wars prequels.
Just like those films, expectations clearly got the better of fans, who were
thrown off by developments like the scene where Indy survives a nuclear bomb
test by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator or the fact that the whole film
ultimately revolves around aliens. And even though others have argued that this
isn’t that big of a stretch compared to some of the most outlandish moments in
other Indiana Jones films, it still left Crystal Skull being regarded
by many as the ‘black sheep’ of the franchise. Nevertheless, even after that
film’s release, it seemed like we’d get another sequel; once again, though, it
took a little bit for this one to come to fruition, all the way up to Disney
purchasing Lucasfilm in 2012 and securing the franchise rights to both Star
Wars and Indiana Jones. However, in a shocking turn of events, it
was revealed that Steven Spielberg wasn’t going to direct what was shaping up
to be the series’ final installment as he wanted to let someone else bring
their own vision to the franchise; that someone ended up being James Mangold,
fresh off Hugh Jackman’s legendary send-off as the Wolverine, Logan, and
2019’s Grade-A crowd-pleaser Ford v Ferrari. And while Mangold and his
crew may have had to endure a few roadblocks during production, ranging from
the obvious COVID-enforced delays to injuries sustained by Harrison Ford, the
stage was finally set for the last hurrah for our favorite archeologist. In Dial
of Destiny, Indy teams up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw to find Archimedes’
Dial, an ancient Antikythera device that is also being sought after by Jurgen
Voller, a Nazi astrophysicist currently masquerading as a NASA scientist who
looks to use the Dial’s supposed ‘time traveling’ abilities to go back and
correct the mistakes of Hitler’s regime.
First off, despite what folks who feared the worst when
Spielberg backed out as director may have thought, the change in director
thankfully doesn’t hurt the film in any way as Mangold maintains practically
every major narrative and visual vibe from the Spielberg films and does so to
great effect. Like all the other films, Dial of Destiny succeeds in
being a light-hearted and thrilling action-adventure with plenty of great
action set-pieces and visuals, with Mangold opting not to go the route that Crystal
Skull did and utilize as many practical effects as possible. Yes, there is
the controversial use of de-aging to present a younger Indy during the film’s
opening sequence, but apart from that, Harrison Ford’s age is properly acknowledged
for the bulk of the plot, which allows for some solid moments of devastating emotional
poignancy. By showing some of the rough patches that Indy has been through
since the events of Crystal Skull (specifically, the tragic loss of his
son Mutt during the Vietnam War and his subsequent separation from Marion) but
then resulting in a happy ending where he reconciles with his wife in a nod to a
classic romantic scene between them from Raiders, the film does a great
job of reflecting its status as the final Indiana Jones film to convey a
touching ‘end of an era’ mentality.
Of course, Harrison Ford is great as always in the title
role, having never lost a step with Indy’s trademark gruff and snarky yet endearingly
imperfect persona while the previously mentioned bits of pathos revolving around
Indy’s post-Crystal Skull status help make this one of Ford’s best overall
performances in the role. He’s then paired brilliantly with Phoebe
Waller-Bridge as Indy’s goddaughter Helena who, contrary to what a certain part
of the internet alleged would happen, doesn’t overshadow Ford in a way that
would imply that she was being primed to take over the franchise. Instead,
she’s simply a natural companion to Indy in line with the franchise’s best
leading ladies. Really, any major criticisms that I have towards this film are
minor at best; namely, it’s arguably a bit too overlong. Dial of Destiny is
the longest Indiana Jones film to date, clocking in at just over two and
a half hours, and to be perfectly blunt, this is one of those films where you
can feel the brunt of that hefty runtime. To be more specific, there are a few
instances here and there where one could arguably condense or combine a few
sequences together to help give this film a kind of pacing that’s more in line
with the previous four films. But aside from that, Dial of Destiny is a
worthy finale to this legendary series; as such, it’s rather disheartening,
then, to see that this ended up being one of this summer’s biggest flops at the box office.
Dial of Destiny only managed to gross around $384
million worldwide… its budget was reportedly as high as $300 million. Going off
of what I mentioned earlier, all those delays that the film had to endure
during its production were arguably the biggest factor behind its expansive
budget; nevertheless, I’m still surprised that this didn’t do better than it
did because even if Indiana Jones isn’t necessarily as big of a
franchise as Lucasfilm’s other major IP, Star Wars, it’s still beloved
enough of a franchise that it surely could’ve done well financially. In a lot
of ways, it had the adverse effect of what happened with Pixar’s Elemental.
Both films debuted at Cannes, AKA what is widely regarded as the toughest
festival in the industry for mainstream releases, where they both received
mixed to negative reviews from critics, undoubtedly making them seem like they
weren’t worth checking out. Thankfully, once both neared their release dates, they
managed to get a lot better reviews; but whereas Elemental managed to
hold on and become a genuine success story at the box office, the same couldn’t
be said for Dial of Destiny. Heck, for all we know, this film probably became
a victim of the continuing culture war that right-wing-minded morons have been
waging against the likes of Disney and Lucasfilm for their alleged ‘wokeness’.
Whatever the case may be, this is very much a prime example of how a film’s
performance at the box office shouldn’t be seen as a direct indicator of its
overall quality. I’m not saying that Dial of Destiny is the ‘best’ Indiana
Jones film, but as a touching send-off to one of the most beloved cinematic
heroes of all time, it does exactly what it sets out to do.
THE FOLLOWING
FILM EARNED A WHOPPING FIVE VOTES AND, FOR THE LONGEST TIME, WAS THIS YEAR’S
RUNNER-UP TO THE TOP FIVE
FAST X
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that it’s been more than two
decades since audiences were first introduced to Dominic Toretto and his family
in 2001’s The Fast and the Furious. At the risk of repeating a statement
that has been said numerous times over, what started out as a simple street
racing franchise has gone on to become one of the industry’s biggest juggernauts.
Ever since 2011’s Fast Five defied all expectations to become the
series’ first genuinely well-received installment amongst critics, the Fast
and Furious franchise has consistently dominated the box office, with
2015’s Furious 7 and 2017’s Fate of the Furious both managing to
do over $1 billion worldwide. That said, though, by the time Fate of
the Furious came about, the franchise’s penchant for increasingly
over-the-top action sequences that defy all sorts of logic and implausible
melodramatic plot twists made it more of a punchline in the eyes of the film
fan community. It certainly didn’t help that Fate of the Furious presented
some incredibly controversial plot developments such as the decision to turn Furious
7’s main antagonist Deckard Shaw into more of an anti-hero despite his
involvement in the death of fan-favorite supporting player Han Lue. Thankfully,
the series got some much-needed reinvigoration when director Justin Lin, who
had led the series’ revival in the 2010s, returned for the first time since
2013’s Fast and Furious 6 to direct 2021’s F9 which, in the eyes
of this long-time Fast and Furious fan, felt more in line with the
franchise’s peak era of the early 2010s. As such, when it was announced that
Lin would return once again for what was reportedly shaping up to be the
series’ grand finale (more on that later), it seemed like the unstoppable force
that was Fast and Furious was going to come to the best conclusion that
it possibly could’ve achieved.
But that all changed in a shocking turn of events when Lin
ended up leaving the production just one week into filming. It was then
reported that this was largely due to a series of arguments that Lin got into
with star/producer Vin Diesel over the state of the production, including
Diesel’s habit of not showing up to set on time, the supposedly finished script
going through a bunch of rewrites, and the fact that they hadn’t even managed
to cast one of the film’s main antagonists yet. In a lot of ways, this eerily
mirrored the infamous feud that Diesel had gotten into with Dwayne Johnson
during the production of Fate of the Furious, which led to Johnson opting
to bow out of the franchise as well apart from his 2019 spin-off Hobbs and
Shaw. One particularly heated argument between Lin and Diesel resulted in
the former proclaiming that the film wasn’t “worth his mental health” and officially
bowing out of directing it while still being involved as a writer/producer.
Thus, the latest installment of Universal’s biggest film franchise suddenly
found itself in serious trouble as the film’s budget continued to grow even
without a replacement director hired all the way up to over $340 million. Former
franchise directors like F. Gary Gray, David Leitch, and James Wan were
approached for the job but they all had other commitments. Thankfully, a replacement
was eventually found in Louis Leterrier and the film was finally able to be
finished. In Fast X, Dom and company find themselves dealing with their
most dangerous villain yet, Dante Reyes, the son of Hernan Reyes (the Brazilian
drug lord that they had taken down in Fast Five) who is hellbent on
destroying Dom’s family for what they did to his.
Right off the bat, it goes without saying that the best part
of Fast X is its main antagonist, Dante. Jason Momoa gleefully embraces
the character’s downright psychotic behavior to be an undeniable scene-stealer,
and while it admittedly isn’t saying much in the context of the entire
franchise, Dante is easily the best Fast and Furious villain to date. Not
only is he a delightfully over-the-top villain, but he also genuinely succeeds
in being a legitimate threat to Dom and company, always managing to be one step
ahead of them despite all their best-laid plans. And this, for the most part,
helps to alleviate the fact that, at this point in the franchise’s run, it’s
very much reached the ‘been there, done that’ point where it’s arguably peaked
when it comes to how over the top it gets. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Fast X is
still full of the series’ trademark ludicrous stunts and ridiculous plot twists
such as the continued process of bringing back characters who were long
presumed to be dead, but after F9 finally did what audiences had been
speculating for years and have an action sequence set in space, it’s kind of
hard to top something like that. And remember what I said before about how this
film was originally intended to be the grand finale of the series? Well, by the
time shooting began, it was revealed that this would at least warrant a
two-part finale… and then, by the time the film came out, Diesel revealed
that there was now a full-on trilogy of films planned. With that in mind, it’s
arguably not a good thing that we’re at a point now where this series is, at
the risk of an obvious pun, starting to run on fumes.
But for what it’s worth, Fast X still has just enough
of everything that Fast and Furious fans have come to expect from the franchise
to satisfy them. Heck, I’d say the film even deserves a ton of credit for its
willingness to end on such a ballsy cliffhanger in which the fates of several
key characters are left unclear. As I’ve said countless times before, we’re at
a point where you’re either still on board with this series regardless of how
silly it gets… or you’re left utterly baffled as to why this series is still
going strong no matter how many times it’s jumped the shark. And while I’m
still a part of the former camp, I do feel that the loss of Justin Lin as the
series’ director is noticeable. Now, to be clear, this is nothing against Louis
Leterrier; even with all the well-documented chaos that occurred during this
film’s production in mind, Leterrier keeps the ship from sinking to produce a competently
made big-budget action blockbuster. But as I noted earlier, I’d argue that
Lin’s return to direct F9 was crucial to that film’s success because,
given his status as Fast and Furious’ most prominent director, he was
able to restore some of the franchise’s soul that had quite arguably been lost because
of all the controversial narrative developments in Fate of the Furious.
As such, he was the main reason why I was personally still hyped for the Fast
and Furious films to follow… and why his departure from Fast X was a
disappointing (yet wholly understandable in Lin’s case given everything that
he’d been dealing with) development. This is all ultimately reflected in Fast
X itself as a largely mid-level entry in the series that’s by no means its
worst but also not exactly one of its best, either. Thus, while I’m still up to
see how this will all lead to the series’ ‘supposed’ grand finale, I
would’ve been a little bit more invested in it if Lin hadn’t been screwed over
and was able to finish what he started because, from a directing standpoint, no
one does Fast and Furious films better than him.
THIS YEAR’S
RUNNER-UP TO THE TOP FIVE, WITH SIX VOTES…
HAUNTED MANSION
While there have been many iconic attractions to come out of
Disney’s extensive lineup of theme parks, there is arguably no attraction
that is more beloved than the Haunted Mansion. While he sadly never
lived to see it come to fruition, the Haunted Mansion was one of the
many potential developments for Disneyland that came to be under the
supervision of Walt Disney himself before he died in 1966. First conceived as
a walkthrough attraction known as the ‘Museum of the Weird’, the Haunted
Mansion would undergo the same transformation as its fellow iconic New
Orleans Square attraction Pirates of the Caribbean by becoming a
ride-based attraction instead, taking riders on a journey through the realm of
the supernatural in their very own ‘Doom Buggies’ to visit the mansion’s 999
happy haunts who are ready to come out and socialize. Immediately becoming a
smash hit with guests upon its official debut on August 9th, 1969,
the Haunted Mansion has since gone on to become a staple of Disney
Parks, with subsequent versions of the ride added to both Walt Disney World in
1971 and Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 while alternate versions known as Phantom
Manor (Disneyland Paris) and Mystic Manor (Hong Kong Disneyland)
opened in 1992 and 2013, respectively. At the same time, it quickly became a
beloved staple of the pop cultural zeitgeist if based solely on all the fan
works that have been made from it utilizing its iconic characters such as the
Hatbox Ghost, a character that had originally been cut from the ride when it
first opened due to technical issues but has since been properly installed in
the ride in recent years. As such, it seemed only natural that the spooky yet
ultimately delightful antics of the Mansion could be translated into a
cinematic adaptation.
Disney would end up doing just that in 2003 with the first
feature film adaptation of The Haunted Mansion, directed by Rob Minkoff
(one of the co-directors of Disney Renaissance hit The Lion King) and
starring Eddie Murphy as a realtor who, along with his family, ends up trapped
in the titular mansion. But despite a pedigree like that behind it, 2003’s Haunted
Mansion ended up being a critical dud despite a decent showing at the box office as critics felt that the film didn’t succeed in being either scary or
funny. And while it has gone on to amass a cult following amongst those who were
kids when the film came out, it seems like most Haunted Mansion fans
weren’t too big on it, either, for how it didn’t quite capture the vibe of the
Mansion. As such, this is one instance where Haunted Mansion couldn’t
compare to Pirates of the Caribbean; whereas that ride’s film adaptation
defied all expectations to become a blockbuster franchise for Disney, Haunted
Mansion was seen as another one of Eddie Murphy’s notorious early 2000’s
flops. Nevertheless, plans were eventually made for another adaptation, and for
Mansion fans, their hype for this new version skyrocketed when it was
announced who was working on it, the one and only Guillermo Del Toro. Sadly,
Del Toro’s version ultimately fell to the wayside not long after he bowed out
of directing it in 2013; a few years later, the new adaptation of Haunted
Mansion would finally see the light of day under the direction of Justin
Simien, director of 2014’s Dear White People. In this new version, a
widowed nurse and her son move to an old mansion in New Orleans, where they
quickly learn that it’s haunted. Unfortunately, any of their attempts to escape
result in a ghost following them home, resulting in them recruiting the aid of a
priest, a disillusioned astrophysicist, a psychic, and a professor to try and
deal with the sinister spirit known as the Hatbox Ghost that’s responsible for
all this chaos.
For fans of this iconic ride, the new film adaptation of Haunted
Mansion is one giant love letter to its source material as it’s chock-full
of visual references to it from a whole bunch of ride-accurate recreations of
some of its most beloved bits of iconography right down to the fact that the
two mansions featured in this film are modeled after the two U.S. incarnations
of the ride. The main mansion that the characters end up in is, of course,
modeled after the original Southern Plantation inspired Disneyland attraction
whereas the mansion belonging to Alistair Crump AKA the Hatbox Ghost is based
on Walt Disney World’s colonial/gothic-influenced rendition of the ride. As for
the film’s overall tone, it does manage to match the ride’s brilliant balance
of spooky yet family-friendly haunts and light-hearted moments of levity with a
few dashes of dark humor. Now, sure, it does take a little while for the film
to get going, but once its star-studded ensemble cast is fully brought
together, that’s when it truly starts to shine. Simply put, it’s just fun to
watch a bunch of likable main protagonists played by the likes of Owen Wilson,
Danny DeVito, and Rosario Dawson go through everything from the stretching room
to conversing with Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis). Heck, the film even manages
to achieve some legitimately effective emotional moments by way of LaKeith
Stanfield’s character Ben, the previously mentioned disillusioned
astrophysicist who tragically lost his wife several years prior. His efforts to
overcome this loss (which are then naturally exploited by the Hatbox Ghost)
provide some great bits of emotional poignancy that, at the same time, don’t
clash with the film’s overall tone; instead, it feels like a natural way of
imbuing some character into this world of happy haunts.
And so, in conclusion, I must admit that it’s hard to say
for certain whether this new version of Haunted Mansion managed to
satisfy the entirety of the ride’s dedicated fanbase. Like any major property
out there, it’s safe to assume that this film clearly must’ve been saddled with
intense expectations that it would’ve never been able to fully overcome, and
for all we know, there are plenty of folks out there who are still upset by the
fact that we never got to see Guillermo Del Toro’s take on it. And yet, at the
end of the day, I’d argue that this is ultimately the most ideal cinematic take
on its beloved source material that we could’ve gotten. It’s by no means a
masterpiece, but at the same time, it’s clear that director Justin Simien and
his team had nothing but pure affection for the Haunted Mansion and
that’s very much apparent when watching the film. And sure, the film may have
fared poorly with critics and ended up flopping at the box office, only
grossing around $117 million on its $150 million budget; many attributed this to
the fact that the film arguably suffered the exact same fate as Disney’s 1993
cult classic Hocus Pocus by being released in the summer rather than the
far more fitting Halloween season. That said, though, consider this; before I
added one more day to this year’s event’s polling process, this film had only
garnered a single vote… by the end of this year’s event, it pulled off one of
the biggest upsets in the history of the Summer Fan Poll and managed to finish
as the runner-up to this year’s Top 5. With all that in mind, I won’t be
surprised if this film manages to become a new cult classic in the years to
come. Obviously, I don’t speak for the entire Haunted Mansion fandom,
but as for this Haunted Mansion fan, I was ultimately quite satisfied
with what we got.
ALRIGHT, FOLKS,
THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME FOR THIS YEAR’S TOP 5! COMING IN AT FIFTH PLACE WITH SEVEN
VOTES…
SPIDER-MAN:
ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
2018 proved to be a monumental year for everyone’s favorite
web-slinging Marvel superhero Spider-Man. Sure, part of that involved Tom Holland’s
endearingly dorky version of the character being snapped out of existence by
Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, but nevertheless, he was still a vital
part of that $2 billion grossing cinematic juggernaut. Later that year, Spider-Man got to revel in the creation of a highly successful video game franchise
thanks to Insomniac Games’ AAA blockbuster Spider-Man, which promptly
became one of the most acclaimed superhero video games of all time. And
finally, that December, Spidey would be blessed with his first theatrically
released animated feature, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, developed
in large part by the dynamic duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Now, to be
clear, unlike their other big hits like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and
The LEGO Movie, this wasn’t a film that they directed; still,
their filmmaking sensibilities were very much in play with this ambitious
animated superhero flick. Focusing on newer Spider-Man Miles Morales, who first
debuted in the comics back in 2011 and has since gone on to become a major fan
favorite, the film saw the young teenage prodigy begin his journey to become
the next web-slinging superhero with the help of fellow Spider-People from
alternate dimensions. Upon its release, the film became a massive hit with both
critics and audiences, earning that year’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature and
being regarded by many as the best Spider-Man film to date. And while a
$384 million run at the box office may not seem like much compared to the
franchise’s live-action releases, it was clear that its fans were more than ready
for a follow-up, which we would finally get in 2023 with Spider-Man: Across
the Spider-Verse. Plus, to make this all even more exciting, it was then
revealed that Lord and Miller’s script was big enough to turn the continuing
adventures of Miles Morales into the first half of a two-part superhero epic.
Set a little over a year after the events of Into the
Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse sees Miles finally taking his
own journey across the various dimensions of the Multiverse, where he learns
that Miguel O’Hara, an alternate universe Spider-Man from the year 2099, has
assembled the Spider Society, a group of the best Spider-People from across the
Multiverse who work to protect it from being torn apart. However, Miles soon
finds himself clashing with Miguel over the latter’s ways of maintaining multiversal
order, especially once he learns that the only thing keeping it from collapsing
are ‘Canon Events’ that all Spider-People are allegedly tied to that usually
revolve around the death of important figures in their lives such as a loved
one or a police captain. And unfortunately, in Miles’ case, this is about to
apply to him in both ways given that his dad Jefferson is a police officer
who’s about to be promoted to Captain and, thus, is now fated to die at the
hands of the Multiverse’s newest threat, the Spot, a former scientist from
Miles’ dimension who gained interdimensional powers when he wound up getting
caught in the destruction of the Kingpin’s collider. Sure, the character’s
backstory is primarily set up in a comedic sense given that part of it involves
a call-back to a visual gag from the first film where it's revealed that he was
the Alchemax scientist that Miles threw a bagel at, but as the film goes on and
the Spot begins to become more powerful, it is made abundantly clear that he’s
by no means someone who’s just, as Miles calls him at one point, your average
‘villain of the week’.
Just like Into the Spider-Verse, one of the biggest
strengths of Across the Spider-Verse is its writing as Lord, Miller, and
co-writer Dave Callaham craft a script that not only raises the stakes from a
narrative standpoint as all good sequels do but also thoroughly maintains its
predecessor’s deeply layered character-driven nature and penchant for strong
emotional beats. By directly tackling the subject of the ‘death of a loved one’
trope that has always defined the Spider-Man mythos, we get some utterly
devastating emotional moments in this film as Miles sees just how much this
affects his fellow Spider-People as he desperately tries to prove that he can buck
the trend and stop his ‘Canon Event’ from happening without it resulting in the
destruction of the Multiverse. As a result, he comes to odds with not only his
new acquaintances like Miguel O’Hara, this story’s anti-hero whose aggressive
actions overshadow his personal tragedies and arguably good intentions, and
even his closest friends like Peter B. Parker who, thanks to Miles, turned his
life around to the point where he’s now a father, and especially his love
interest Gwen Stacy AKA Spider-Woman, who’s very much on equal footing with him
as this film’s protagonist; it’s just as much her story as it is his. It opens
with her backstory and how she lost her Peter Parker, which then led to her
coming into conflict with her father, police captain George Stacy, who blamed
Spider-Woman for Peter’s death and has been hunting her ever since. Things only
get more complicated when Gwen’s father finally learns about her secret
identity, but by the end when she reunites with him and he reveals that he quit
the force, she realizes that Miles was right and that a Spider-Person’s ‘Canon
Event’ can be reasonably prevented.
This film’s top-notch writing is then thoroughly matched by its
spectacular animation which, just like its predecessor, perfectly captures the
comic book style in animated form. Plus, given this film’s expanded scope as it
travels across the multiverse, we also get an incredible variety of animation
styles and color palettes as the film goes through its uniquely styled worlds and
characters, with no two ever being fully alike. In short, just like the first
film (and fellow Lord/Miller-backed hit The Mitchells vs. The Machines),
this is very much one of those films that will require multiple viewings just
to catch every single delightful easter egg/visual cue in it. Alongside the
great returning players from the first film, we also get a whole bunch of fun
new characters such as Karan Soni’s happy-go-lucky Indian Spider-Man Pavitr
Prabhakar and Daniel Kaluuya’s British punk rock rebel Spider-Man Hobie Brown. And
then, to top it all off, this film ends on one hell of a cliffhanger to set up
the next installment, Beyond the Spider-Verse, where Miles seemingly
returns to his universe after managing to evade Miguel and the Spider-Society
only to quickly discover that he didn’t. Instead, he ended up in the universe
where the radioactive spider that gave him his powers came from; one where his
dad is the one who died, not his Uncle Aaron. And while Uncle Aaron is still
living a criminal lifestyle, he’s not this universe’s Prowler… this universe’s
Miles is. Luckily for Miles, Gwen has now established her own squad of Spider-People,
consisting of both old and new allies, to do whatever it takes to rescue him.
It goes without saying that upon Across the Spider-Verse’s
release, it proved to be just as big of a hit as its predecessor was with both
critics and audiences. Not only did it manage to be on par with Into the
Spider-Verse from a critical reception standpoint, but thanks to all the
positive hype that was built up from the first film, Across the Spider-Verse
managed to surpass its predecessor’s box-office haul by grossing nearly
$700 million worldwide. Now, as anyone who’s followed this site for a while might
recall, I had a bit of a controversial stance towards Into the Spider-Verse back
when it first came out in that it wasn’t my #1 favorite animated film of the
year. That was nothing against the film, for the record, as I genuinely did
love it and it made my Top 10 that year. Instead, it was more a case of what
usually happens with me where I don’t get swept up in the film fan community’s
habit of overhyping certain films to the point where other films get unfairly dunked
on by way of them being compared to the one that everyone’s gushing about. If
you need any further examples of this, just look at every summer blockbuster
that came out in 2015 that wasn’t Mad Max: Fury Road or wonder why I’m
one of the rare people who doesn’t have Captain America: The Winter Soldier as
their #1 favorite MCU film. But as for Across the Spider-Verse… it’s
right near the top of my list this year. What can I say? It’s a straight-up
masterclass in animation, storytelling, and love for the comic book medium.
IN FOURTH PLACE
WITH THIRTEEN VOTES…
GUARDIANS OF
THE GALAXY VOL. 3
It’s hard to believe that there was once a point in time when
James Gunn wasn’t going to be directing the third Guardians of the Galaxy film.
I won’t delve into this too much since I’ve done so already in the past, but to
make a long story short, alt-right morons got mad at Gunn for insulting their
beloved President Trump one too many times and thus tried to do something that
they claim to hate and cancel him by digging up old, outdated, offensive tweets
of his. And while this did result in Gunn being temporarily fired from Guardians
3, this cancellation attempt of theirs ultimately failed in spectacular
fashion as Gunn was then picked up by Warner Bros. to helm the DC Extended
Universe’s best installment, The Suicide Squad. In fact, Gunn now holds
the key to the DC Comics kingdom as he and producer Peter Safran are preparing
their much-needed full-on reboot of the franchise. Thankfully, though, before that
development was put into motion, Disney reverted their decision to kick Gunn
off Guardians 3, thus allowing one of the superhero genre’s best
directors to finish what he had started back in 2014 with Guardians of the
Galaxy Vol. 3, a film that puts our beloved band of intergalactic a-holes
through one hell of an emotional wringer. After a run-in with Adam Warlock, the
latest artificial creation of their old foes the Sovereign, Rocket Raccoon
suffers a potentially fatal injury that his friends are unable to fix by
themselves. Thus, the only way they can save Rocket from certain death is to
confront the one who created him, the High Evolutionary, a cruel and depraved genetic
scientist who has spent many years trying to turn all ‘lesser beings’ into what
he deems to be a perfect society.
I’m not even going to mince words here when I say that Guardians
3 is easily the darkest MCU film to date in terms of the narrative content
that it tackles. Gunn doesn’t hold anything back when it comes to delving into all
the inhumane things that the High Evolutionary did to the likes of Rocket and
his fellow creations as a part of his twisted ploy to play God. In doing so, it
easily makes the High Evolutionary (brilliantly played by Chukwudi Iwuji in his
second major collaboration with Gunn after starring in the Peacemaker TV
series) one of the MCU’s best villains to date as he more than succeeds in
being an utterly detestable villain with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And
by finally tackling the backstory of who James Gunn has often cited as the true
‘main character’ of the trilogy, Rocket, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 truly
comes full circle on an emotional level as it closes the character arcs of not
just Rocket but also the other Guardians in beautifully cathartic ways that
thankfully never involve killing any of them off. Whether it’s Peter Quill AKA
Star-Lord finally returning home to Earth to reunite with his grandfather for
the first time since he was taken from Earth in the 80s, Drax embracing a new
role as a father figure to the genetically engineered children that they rescued
from the High Evolutionary’s ship, or Mantis heading out on her own to find her
true calling in life, it’s safe to say that Guardians 3 more than
delivers on the franchise’s trademark emotional poignancy.
And yet, even with all the incredibly dark and unsettling moments
that occur in this film, James Gunn still gives us all the things that we’ve
come to expect from a Guardians of the Galaxy adventure to efficiently
balance it all out. As dark as it often gets, there are still plenty of great
humorous moments that largely stem from the ensemble cast’s top-notch banter. In
a time where MCU films have been facing a lot more scrutiny over the quality of
their CGI, the Guardians films have consistently boasted some of the
franchise’s best visuals with each new film looking even better than the last.
And, of course, this wouldn’t be a true Guardians film without a
kick-ass soundtrack, whether it’s having the acoustic version of Radiohead’s
‘Creep’ playing over the somber opening credits sequence (a far cry from the
more upbeat opening credits sequences from the previous two films but, of
course, thematically appropriate in this instance) or the Beastie Boys’ punk
rock anthem ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ playing over an epic long-take fight scene.
With all that in mind, I have no qualms in proclaiming that the Guardians of
the Galaxy franchise is one of the rare instances of a film trilogy where
every subsequent follow-up is better than the last, with the grand finale now
proudly taking its place as my favorite non-Avengers MCU film. From this
point on, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will forever be my primary
example of how to effectively retort the increasingly common stance that many
internet types have sworn by in recent years that argues that superhero films
ain’t worth s***… because with a masterpiece like this, James Gunn has very
much proven that this will never be the case.
AS WE GET INTO
THIS YEAR’S TOP 3, I WANT TO START THINGS OFF BY CELEBRATING THE MAJOR
ACCOMPLISHMENT THAT THESE FILMS HAVE ACHIEVED. HAVING EACH EARNED AT LEAST
TWENTY VOTES APIECE, THEY ARE THE BEST-PERFORMING FILMS TO COME OUT OF THIS
ANNUAL POLL OF OURS OUTSIDE OF TOP GUN: MAVERICK’S RECORD-SHATTERING
TURNOUT FROM LAST YEAR’S EVENT. IN THIRD PLACE WITH TWENTY VOTES…
THE LITTLE
MERMAID
Having already produced new live-action adaptations of their
biggest 90’s hits such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The
Lion King (even though that one’s technically still an animated film), it’s
only natural that Disney’s recent trend of producing live-action adaptations of
their animated classics has finally gotten around to tackling the one that
started it all for that era, 1989’s The Little Mermaid. Calling Disney’s
adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale one of the studio’s
most important releases would be a massive understatement as it’s widely
regarded as the film that saved Disney Animation almost single-handedly. In the
80s, Disney began to experience a string of underperforming releases,
culminating in the notorious flop that was 1985’s The Black Cauldron; in
fact, things were bad enough that there was a legitimate point where Disney
Animation was almost shut down entirely. But upon its release, The Little
Mermaid proved to be the studio’s biggest hit in years, securing phenomenal
reviews from both critics and audiences and winning two Oscars for its music,
courtesy of the legendary duo of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Thus, this
success paved the way for one of Disney Animation’s greatest eras, the Disney
Renaissance, where the studio would create even more successful cinematic hits
such as Beauty and the Beast, the first-ever animated film to earn an
Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and The Lion King, which still
stands as the highest-grossing traditionally animated film and best-selling
home video release of all-time. Meanwhile, the impact of Alan Menken and Howard
Ashman’s award-winning music (this was, after all, the first Disney film to
earn an Oscar for Best Original Song since Mary Poppins all the way back
in 1964) was pivotal to Disney Animation’s move to revitalize its penchant for
animated musicals. While Ashman sadly passed away two years after the film’s
release due to AIDS, Alan Menken continues to be a mainstay of the studio to
this day, which includes, of course, his work on the modernized soundtracks for
the live-action Disney remakes of the films that he worked on.
Of course, like any of these recent Disney live-action
remakes, the new adaptation of The Little Mermaid, directed by recent
studio mainstay Rob Marshall (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,
Mary Poppins Returns) had to deal with the inevitable scrutiny that it
would face from those who question the need to remake an indisputable Disney classic.
Unfortunately, this scrutiny would also end up delving into, to put it
bluntly, racist territory once it was announced that Halle Bailey, actress and rising
pop star who first made it big alongside her sister Chloe as part of the group Chloe
x Halle, was cast in the lead role of Ariel. Yes, folks, even in the year 2023,
the same folks who got mad that a black stormtrooper was going to be one of the
main protagonists of the Star Wars sequel trilogy couldn’t fathom the possibility
that a black actress would be playing one of the most famous fictional
characters of all-time (emphasis on the word ‘fictional’). And unfortunately, this
hasn’t been the only instance this year of young Disney actresses incurring the
wrath of the most moronic parts of the internet through absolutely no fault of
their own. Earlier this year, there were plenty of folks who wouldn’t shut up
about actress Yara Shahidi taking on the role of Peter Pan’s trusted sidekick Tinker
Bell in David Lowery’s Peter Pan and Wendy. And as it turns out, Halle
Bailey wouldn’t be the only live-action Disney princess to get unfairly s*** on
by the internet as Rachel Zegler also got hit with this hard when she was cast
as Snow White in the upcoming remake of that film. So, in short, you can chalk all
this up to yet another instance of the right-wing’s one-sided culture war
against Disney due to the latter’s sheer audacity to (*checks notes*) properly reflect
the growing diversity of the film industry in both its storytelling and
creative talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Thankfully, Bailey proves all her biggest critics wrong as
she’s very much the heart of the film. Flawlessly conveying some amazing
onscreen charisma and an innate sweetness that perfectly fits the character of
Ariel, Bailey presents a wonderful new spin on one of Disney’s most beloved
heroines that stands toe to toe with Jodi Benson’s version of the character
from the original animated classic. She’s then backed by an equally terrific
supporting cast, with Jonah Hauer-King being a perfect leading co-star to her
as Prince Eric as this version of the story efficiently follows in the footsteps
of the live-action remake of Cinderella by establishing a legitimate connection
between the two outside of the development of their romantic relationship.
Meanwhile, Melissa McCarthy is utterly delightful as this film’s version of fan-favorite
Disney villainess Ursula while Jacob Tremblay, Daveed Diggs, and Awkwafina are
all terrific as the voices of Ariel’s sidekicks Flounder, Sebastian, and Scuttle,
respectively. Add in some solid aquatic-based visuals and one of the best
overall revamps of any Disney animated classic’s soundtrack to date and you have
another successful live-action Disney remake which, as anyone who’s been following
this site for a while surely knows, is a collection of films that I unconditionally
support in full no matter how much they piss off their biggest critics. As I’ve
always said, unless there ever comes a point in time where the original films
aren’t readily available in some form (which, in the age of Disney+, seems highly
unlikely), these remakes do not harm the legacies of their animated
counterparts in any way because they’re not meant to replace them. And while The
Little Mermaid may not have reached the billion-dollar heights that the
likes of the Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin remakes managed to achieve,
the fact that it was nearly the runner-up in this year’s poll implies that, if
you ask me, it’ll most likely end up being one of the most well-regarded of all
these live-action remakes in the years to come.
THIS YEAR’S
RUNNER-UP, WITH TWENTY-ONE VOTES…
BARBIE
When it comes to the biggest names in the toy industry, there
aren’t many who can hold a candle to the impact and legacy of arguably the most
famous doll of them all, Barbie. First created in 1959 by Ruth Handler as a
means of providing her daughter Barbara with a different kind of doll that wasn’t
just a representation of an infant to give its owner the ability to play out
the role of a parent, the Barbie line has made billions upon billions in
revenue for the company that Handler founded with her husband Elliot, Mattel. And
while all this success has led to some controversy over the years, usually over
the ongoing debate of whether the line promotes an unhealthy and unrealistic
body image mentality for its target demographic, there’s no denying that Barbie
continues to be a staple of the pop cultural zeitgeist. Of course, a key part
of this is the character and franchise being adapted into several mediums
outside of the toy industry, including film. However, it is interesting to note
that, up until this year, the Barbie franchise has never had a theatrically
released film; instead, the 42 Barbie films that have been made since
2002 were all direct-to-video animated features. That said, plans for a
live-action Barbie film have gone back as far as 2009, with the likes of
Amy Schumer, Anne Hathaway, and Gal Gadot being considered for the title role.
Ultimately, that honor would go to Margot Robbie, who also produces the film
alongside her husband Tom Ackerley through their production company LuckyChap.
Meanwhile, directorial duties would go to Greta Gerwig, fresh off her Oscar-nominated
films Lady Bird and Little Women, who co-wrote the script with
her husband Noah Baumbach.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is truly a unique film in terms
of its overall execution. The film is primarily advertised as a meta-comedy in
which Barbie and her long put-upon ‘boyfriend’ Ken (Ryan Gosling) leave the
idyllic world of Barbie Land and travel to the Real World when Barbie finds
herself going through a major existential crisis. And on that note, this film
is utterly hilarious from beginning to end as it truly delivers on all sorts of
wonderfully wacky bits of humor, including plenty of moments where it isn’t afraid
to poke fun at some of the Barbie franchise’s most notorious aspects.
That said, though, this isn’t a case where the film is trying to be a cynical
deconstruction of its source material; instead, it’s clear that Greta Gerwig
and company do have a lot of respect for the Barbie franchise, thus
resulting in a film that is chock-full of references to the franchise’s
extensive history right down to some major deep cuts for those hardcore fans. And
then, amidst all the wacky shenanigans that Barbie and Ken get into, the film
also delivers some unexpectedly powerful emotional moments. Yes, folks, a film
about plastic dolls manages to hit you with some poignant commentary on topics
such as the human condition, the struggle to understand one’s place in life,
and a condemnation of the toxic patriarchy. And while there are some folks out
there who’ve argued that the latter theme was handled in an incredibly
heavy-handed manner, it’s impossible to deny the relevancy of it all.
Buoyed by an all-star cast headlined by Margot Robbie,
pitch-perfectly cast in the title role, and Ryan Gosling, who’s easily the
biggest comedic standout of the film as Ken, a top-notch visual/production
design that flawlessly captures the Barbie franchise’s trademark bright
and colorful aesthetic, and superb direction from Greta Gerwig, Barbie is
nothing short of a Grade-A crowd-pleaser. Simply put, the reason why this film
works as well as it does can best be summed up by one of its marketing taglines;
“If you love Barbie, this film is for you… if you hate Barbie, this
film is for you”. In other words, this film successfully manages to appeal to both
Barbie fans and those who aren’t instead of just being geared solely
towards the former. For fans of the franchise, this is basically one giant love
letter to it full of delightful Easter Eggs that cover practically every single
era of Barbie’s extensive history. But if you’re, say, like me and not
even remotely a part of this franchise’s target demographic, that doesn’t
matter in the slightest because, simply put, this is a very well-made film that
works as both a wacky comedy and a heartfelt character drama. As such, it’s
very easy to see why this swiftly became the biggest film of 2023, earning over
$1.4 billion at the box office, thus giving Greta Gerwig the well-earned
distinction of being the first solo female director behind a billion-dollar juggernaut.
TO BE PERFECTLY
HONEST, FOLKS, I THOUGHT THAT BARBIE WAS GOING TO BE THIS YEAR’S CHAMPION
SEEING HOW IT WAS EASILY THE BIGGEST CINEMATIC HIT OF THE SUMMER… AND YET, THERE
WAS ANOTHER FILM THAT DID EVEN BETTER IN THIS YEAR’S POLL. AND WHEN IT COMES TO
THE FILM IN QUESTION, YOU NEED NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER… THAN THE OTHER HALF OF THE
VIRAL DOUBLE FEATURE THAT BARBIE WAS CONNECTED TO. YES, FOLKS, AFTER
PREVIOUSLY WINNING IT ALL BACK IN 2017 WITH DUNKIRK, CHRISTOPHER NOLAN
BECOMES THE FIRST TWO-TIME WINNING DIRECTOR IN THIS ANNUAL POLL OF OURS THANKS
TO THE TWENTY-FOUR VOTES THAT WERE GIVEN TO…
OPPENHEIMER
Yes, folks, this is now the second time that a Christopher Nolan
film has defied the odds to become the champion of our annual poll, and in this
instance, I must admit that I was even more taken by surprise by this turn of
events than I was when Dunkirk won in 2017 over the presumed
fan-favorite that was Wonder Woman. I mean, I figured that, at the very
least, Oppenheimer would manage to get some votes given the strong
reputation of its director and all the hype surrounding its release because of
it being directly paired with Barbie, a double feature affectionately
dubbed Barbenheimer… but I didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. And
yet, this can all serve as a prime example of how this film has managed to hold
its own even though it goes without saying that Barbie, being part of a
prominent IP, was always going to end up being the bigger hit at the box office.
Sure, Barbie may have grossed over a billion worldwide, but thanks in
large part to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, Oppenheimer came this
close to doing so as well, grossing over $954 million worldwide. Not
only is this an impressive feat for a 3-hour dialogue-driven R-rated biopic not
tied to a franchise, but it also became the biggest box-office hit of Nolan’s
career outside of The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
Heck, this success even translated to the film’s home video release as physical
copies of it straight-up sold out barely a few days after it hit the market, undoubtedly
buoyed by Nolan’s public comments on the strengths of physical media over
streaming services. That was, after all, one of the key factors behind his
decision to part ways with Warner Bros and take this film to Universal after
the former’s controversial simultaneous theatrical/streaming strategy with
their 2021 slate. Ultimately, though,
this can quite arguably be seen as a return to form for Nolan after his
previous film, Tenet, had to deal with all the inevitable complications
that affected the films that made the risky move of getting released in theaters
right at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oppenheimer sees Nolan tackling his first biopic project
as it covers the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who
headed the Manhattan Project AKA the government program that created the atomic
bomb. But while there’s plenty of time spent focusing on Oppenheimer’s work at
the Los Alamos Laboratory, the film also tackles other major moments in
Oppenheimer’s life such as the scandalous government investigation that he was
connected to over his alleged ties to the Communist Party as the U.S.
transitioned out of World War II into the Cold War. The security hearing that
Oppenheimer had to undergo that resulted in his government security clearances being
revoked and a subsequent Senate hearing on the matter attended by the man who secretly
orchestrated Oppenheimer’s downfall, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis
Strauss, serve as the framing device for this life story which, in a surprising
turn of events, sees Nolan pull back considerably on his trademark penchant for
non-linear storytelling. Oh sure, it’s still there in many noticeable ways, but
not to the extreme level that Nolan has gone to in some of his other films. And
despite what I noted earlier about this being a three-hour behemoth of a film
that’s primarily just a bunch of dialogue-based sequences, there’s never a dull
moment as Nolan flawlessly captures the essence of the ‘race against time’
mentality that Oppenheimer and his team were dealing with in their efforts to complete
their work on the first-ever nuclear weapon before the Nazis could beat them to
the punch. In other words, it’s truly saying something that a film like this
could pull this impeccable feat off to the point where, by the time it gets to its
biggest set-piece, the Trinity Test, there’s still an hour to go.
And yet, another key reason why this film works as well as
it does is because of how character-driven it is which, admittedly, hasn’t
always been one of Nolan’s strong suits as a filmmaker. But in this instance,
it all works perfectly as we truly get to understand everything that J. Robert
Oppenheimer went through to, in his own words, “perform this miracle” up to, of
course, the utterly terrifying possibilities of what might happen to the world now
that nuclear weapons have been made a reality. This all comes together brilliantly
in a film that, as to be expected from a Christopher Nolan production, is a
full-on technical masterpiece in every conceivable way, such as how it serves as
another instance of Nolan’s love of practical effects which led to a legitimate
(and, thankfully, non-deadly) recreation of a nuclear explosion. Meanwhile, as
for the film’s cast… well, let’s just say that this might be the most stacked
ensemble cast in cinematic history. And even if this does mean that some folks
in the cast are just there for a scene or two, everyone involved does a
fantastic job with standout performances from Cillian Murphy, one of Nolan’s
most prominent regular supporting players now promoted to leading man status in
the title role, and Robert Downey Jr. as Oppenheimer’s AEC associate turned
petty rival, Lewis Strauss.
In conclusion, as I’ve surely noted in the past, I’ve been a
big fan of Christopher Nolan’s work over the years. That said, though, that
doesn’t mean that I’m one of those folks who views him as a perfect filmmaker immune
to any sort of criticism (in other words, for the uninitiated, Nolan’s biggest
fanboys were basically the precursor to the likes of the Snyder Cult back
before toxic film fandoms truly became mainstream). Case in point, some of you might
recall that I was surprisingly ambivalent towards his previous film Tenet,
which is a stance that I’ve never had toward any of his other films. But as for
Oppenheimer… this might arguably be the best film that Nolan has made in
quite some time. In true Nolan fashion, he elevates your standard cinematic
biopic by producing an impeccably crafted cinematic epic that presents a
thoroughly engaging recreation of one of the most important moments in American
history while also providing a chilling reminder of its potentially
catastrophic consequences. And if that wasn’t enough, he does so without fully
abiding by his usual filmmaking tendencies while still giving us a film that is
unmistakably Nolan-esque. Thus, with all that in mind, it’s easy to see why
this is currently being hyped as one of the award season’s most prominent
contenders. In retrospect, it’s also quite interesting to speculate how
this film would’ve turned out had it not been tied to one of the most talked
about double-feature releases in recent years. And yet, regardless of all that,
it very much earned its status as the 2023 champion of RIMC’s Annual End
of Summer Fan Poll.
And with that, we finally
conclude the 2023 edition of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Annual End of Summer
Fan Poll. Once again, I extend nothing but full gratitude to everyone who
helped make this our biggest year yet. I apologize for the fact that it took me
way longer than it probably should’ve to finish this year’s Results Post, but
even with that in mind, I couldn’t be happier with this year’s results. As
always, I look forward to seeing how things will turn out during next year’s
event, where we’ll celebrate the tenth anniversary of this site’s most prominent
tradition. It’ll be a summer where big-time franchises like Mad Max and Planet of the Apes make their triumphant return to the big screen and established
icons like Pixar and Deadpool take their next big steps into cinematic glory.
Who will be next year’s champion? Stay tuned!
