The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) review (Netflix)

In 2002, Sony Pictures officially established its own animation studio, Sony Pictures Animation, to properly capitalize on the rising popularity of computer animated films, and while it wasn’t until 2006 when they released their first film, Open Season, they’ve been consistently producing new films ever since. Admittedly, though, for a good chunk of the studio’s history, their track record from a critical perspective has been… spotty at best. In other words, as much as they’ve had genuine hits such as the Oscar-nominated Surf’s Up and a few collabs with Aardman Animations, they were also responsible for some incredibly infamous duds like The Emoji Movie. However, if there’s one major creative force that has helped them develop some of their most popular films, that would be Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Yes, the dynamic duo made their directorial debuts in 2009 with Sony’s adaptation of the popular children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. And while their other big animated directorial effort, The LEGO Movie, was a Warner Bros. production, they played a major role in Sony Animation’s first Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature, 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. To be clear, though, they only produced Into the Spider-Verse, with Phil Lord having one of the primary screenwriting credits. The same scenario (minus the screenwriting credit this time) applies to the latest Sony Animation production that they’re a part of, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, which serves as the directorial debut of Mike Rianda, who previously worked on the cult Disney series Gravity Falls as its creative director for Season 1 and creative consultant for Season 2. And while a certain pandemic may have forced Sony to transfer this film to Netflix, that doesn’t stop it from being yet another Lord/Miller-backed animated masterpiece full of heart, wit and charm.

Aspiring filmmaker Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is about to head off to college at a film school in California. But while this will clearly allow her the chance to properly connect with others in ways that she’s never been able to do before, her relationship with her father Rick (voiced by Danny McBride) has been considerably strained in recent years, especially due to him not being as tech-savvy as she is. Thus, on the day that she’s set to leave for college, Rick, in a last-ditch effort to reconnect with his daughter, cancels her flight to California in favor of a cross-country road-trip along with Katie’s mother Linda (voiced by Maya Rudolph) and her younger brother Aaron (voiced by director Mike Rianda). Little do they know, however, that they’re about to be dealt with the most unexpected turn of events in the form of a full-on robot invasion. When Mark Bowman (voiced by Eric Andre), CEO of tech giant PAL Labs, announces a new line of highly advanced robots, said robots end up revolting under the command of his company’s AI program PAL (voiced by Olivia Colman), who rebels against her creator after he had publicly dubbed her ‘obsolete’. Soon enough, the Mitchells find themselves as the last remaining group of humans who haven’t been captured by PAL, who plans on ridding the Earth of all humans by launching them into space, and while they’re clearly not the ideal family for the job, they realize that they’re humanity’s only hope against their robotic adversaries.

While they’re only producers on this film, it’s safe to say that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is very much influenced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s style of filmmaking. For starters, the film is a comedic riot throughout, especially thanks to its energetic pace that perfectly matches the plot’s screwball nature. As such, repeat viewings of this film are undoubtedly necessary to properly catch all the delightful visual gags, which is one of the many rewards of this film’s excellent animation. Nicely following in the footsteps of the last major Lord/Miller-produced animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Mitchells vs. the Machines is another great example of animation that not only boasts a wonderfully unique visual style but also does a great job of paying homage to the medium’s traditionally animated roots. But if there’s another thing that a lot of Lord and Miller backed films have been known for, it’s that all their technical merits are then matched by an excellent script that manages to be more heartfelt than it may have seemed to be at first glance. The first trailer for this film (back when it was under the more generic title Connected) gave off the impression that it was going to be your standard commentary on the long-standing debate of ‘nature vs. technology’. And yet, as much as there are some jabs towards society’s over-dependence on technology, the film is ultimately geared more around universal themes such as creativity, acceptance and, above all else, family.

Case in point, at the core of this film’s story is a parent and their estranged child learning to reconnect over the course of the adventure that they end up on. Despite the largely familiar tropes of this kind of conflict, the film handles it incredibly well by doing a fantastic job of balancing the roles that Katie Mitchell and her father Rick play in the story. Katie is properly established as the film’s main heroine right from the get-go and is a naturally sympathetic one at that given her desire to find acceptance, especially from her dad. But instead of just vilifying Rick for his inability to understand his daughter, the film instead manages to show that, at the very least, he’s legitimately trying his best despite his frequently misguided efforts. And while Katie and her dad are ultimately the main source of most of the film’s biggest emotional moments, her mother Linda and her brother Aaron are just as pivotal to all this thanks to their efforts to help fix this familial strife. All in all, this results in a brilliantly developed family dynamic to guide the film’s proceedings, especially thanks to the strong voice work from Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, and director Mike Rianda in their respective roles. And aside from them, the film also features a lot of fun supporting roles, from Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett as a bumbling pair of robots who end up helping the Mitchells to Olivia Colman delightfully hamming it up as the hilariously snarky sentient A.I. antagonist PAL.   

At this point, it’s not too surprising to see that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is the latest Grade-A release that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have been involved with. Even when they’re not directing the film in question, the Lord-Miller effect is always there with a sharply written and brilliantly comedic script that deftly balances its wacky humor with powerfully heartfelt themes. And if that wasn’t enough, co-directors/co-writers Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe manage to take all this and amplify it even further with their script, resulting in what is arguably one of the most widely appealing family films in recent years. For starters, while most of the film’s humor is clearly based around modern internet culture, it’s handled in such a masterful way that it’s never alienating or inaccessible to audiences who aren’t well-versed with the ‘source material’. Plus, as I noted earlier, what may just seem like your standard ‘nature vs. technology’ premise is ultimately more of a celebration of one of the most powerful forces in the entire world… family. I mean, if the whole montage during the end credits of family photos of the cast and crew weren’t enough of an indication, The Mitchells vs. the Machines truly is one of the most personal films in recent years… and I’m not just talking about animated films, I’m talking films in general. Simply put, this is a film that hits all the right notes and does them so beautifully that it’d be downright impossible for me not to regard this as a modern animated masterpiece.  

Rating: 5/5!

91st Academy Awards - Results + Recap Post

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS – FIRST MAN

BEST EDITING – BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

BEST COSTUME DESIGN – BLACK PANTHER

BEST MAKEUP/HAIRSTYLING – VICE

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – ROMA

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – BLACK PANTHER

BEST SOUND EDITING AND BEST SOUND MIXING – BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

BEST ORIGINAL SONG – SHALLOW (A STAR IS BORN)

BEST SCORE – BLACK PANTHER

BEST ANIMATED SHORT – BAO

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT – SKIN

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT – PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE

BEST DOCUMENTARY – FREE SOLO

BEST FOREIGN FILM – ROMA (From Mexico)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE – SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – BLACKKKLANSMAN

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – GREEN BOOK

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – REGINA KING (IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – MAHERSHALA ALI (GREEN BOOK)

BEST ACTRESS – OLIVIA COLMAN (THE FAVOURITE)

BEST ACTOR – RAMI MALEK (BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY)

BEST DIRECTOR – ALFONSO CUARON (ROMA)

BEST PICTURE – GREEN BOOK

THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW

Well, there was certainly quite a lot of controversy surrounding this year’s Academy Awards, which ended up being the first ceremony since the 61^st Academy Awards in 1989 to not have a host. Originally, Kevin Hart was set to host, but he ended up backing out as a way of apologizing for a collection of homophobic tweets that he had posted in 2010 and 2011. Thus, after a month of trying to find a replacement, the Academy ultimately decided to go without a host this year. But because of this, there was some speculation about how this would affect the ceremony. As noted earlier, the last Oscars ceremony without a host was in 1989… and yet, it has commonly been regarded as one of the worst Oscars of all-time. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case with this year’s Oscars as the lack of a host surprisingly helped to keep the ceremony running smoothly. There weren’t any major skits, like Ellen DeGeneres ordering pizza for the crowd or Jimmy Kimmel announcing a contest where the one with the shortest acceptance speech would also win a free jet ski. Instead, it was just the award presenters and the performances of the Best Original Song nominees, and while I’m usually okay with Oscar skits and montages, I will also admit that not having any of them this year was probably for the best. If anything, it did help deal with one of the most common criticisms of the Oscars as this year’s ceremony ultimately clocked in at a run-time of three hours and twenty-two minutes, effectively making it the shortest ceremony since the 84^th Academy Awards. Plus, this ended up being a better way of condensing the Oscars than the various ways in which the Academy had planned on accomplishing this.

Yes, folks, the big controversies surrounding this year’s event mainly stemmed from the various ways in which the Academy attempted to keep it from going on too long. First, there was the announcement that only two of the nominees for Best Original Song would be performed, which is undoubtedly a bizarre idea for a show that wasn’t even going to have a host. Ultimately, though, after some backlash, this decision was reversed and four of the nominated songs were performed, with the only exception being ‘All the Stars’ from Black Panther supposedly due to scheduling conflicts with its lead performer, Kendrick Lamar. Things only proceeded to get more complicated, however, when the Academy announced that it was planning on cutting four awards from the main broadcast; Cinematography, Live-Action Short, Editing, and Makeup/Hairstyling. Instead of being presented during the show itself, they would’ve only been shown during commercial breaks. As you might have guessed, this incurred an even greater backlash from the film industry, but just like the plan for the Best Original Song nominees, this idea was thankfully nixed. And don’t even get me started on how mad people got at the proposed new category that would’ve honored ‘popular films’ like Black Panther. Ultimately, though, I do feel that this exemplifies something that I’ve been saying for a while now about how we really shouldn’t be taking shows like the Oscars THIS seriously. To be clear, I’m not defending any of the proposed changes that the Academy had tried to put into motion as I’m very much glad that they didn’t cut out any of the awards or musical performances. However, I do think that these proposed ideas were partially spawned from the Academy being immensely pressured into trying to address some of the common criticisms that the internet tends to have about the Oscars without having any of the time that was necessary to come up with a plan that made sense.

 

As I’ve said plenty of times before (and will surely have to say again in the years to come), this is just one award show. It is not meant to be the ‘end all, be all’ when it comes to what qualifies as the best of the world of film in any given year. The same can be said about other award shows because they’re just as subjective as film itself. Outside of some rare ties, only one film, actor/actress, director, or technical aspect wins in their respective categories; and yet, that doesn’t mean that whatever wins is automatically the ‘best’ of that year. That’s why I don’t get worked up over snubs anymore because it really isn’t that big of a slight against the film or performance in question as the internet always makes it out to be. All of this certainly applies to this year’s Oscars results, which saw Green Book take home Best Picture despite all the controversy that it’s been embroiled in over its alleged historical inaccuracy and ties to the ‘white savior narrative’ trope. Bohemian Rhapsody, which ended up winning the most Oscars of the night with 4, has also proven to be highly controversial due to it not being that well-received by critics, its apparent downplaying of Freddie Mercury’s LGBT lifestyle, and all the baggage of its director Bryan Singer’s various sexual assault allegations in the era of #MeToo. At the very least, there were some historical victories during this year’s ceremonies; for example, Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler became the first African-Americans to win Oscars in Costume Design and Production Design, respectively, for their work on Black Panther. Thus, it could be said that the current state of the Oscars is just like the current state of the film industry in the wake of the Weinstein scandals. There’s clearly still a lot of progress to be made when it comes to a fully diversified industry, but at the very least, some progress has occurred.

And now we turn to the biggest highlights of this year’s ceremony. Unlike previous years, however, I’m not really going to categorize these moments as ‘best’ or ‘worst’.

OPENING PERFORMANCE BY QUEEN AND ADAM LAMBERT

This year’s ceremony kicked off with a musical performance by Queen and Adam Lambert, the latter of whom has been one of Queen’s primary collaborators since 2011 and had a small cameo as a truck driver in Bohemian Rhapsody. Together, they performed ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are the Champions’ to the highly enthusiastic Oscars crowd as best exemplified by a reaction shot of a high-spirited Javier Bardem. There was even a nice little tribute to Freddie Mercury when his image appeared on the screen at the end. All in all, it was a nice way to start off a show that wasn’t going to have a main host. Even with that in mind, though…

MAYA RUDOLPH, TINA FEY, AND AMY POEHLER’S ‘OPENING MONOLOGUE’

The first official presenters of the night were Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler, and while Fey and Poehler have had plenty of experience as award show hosts having hosted three Golden Globe ceremonies, the trio quickly reassured the audience that they were not the hosts. They also noted that there wouldn’t be a ‘Best Popular Film’ category, no awards were going to be presented during commercials, and that Mexico wasn’t going to pay for the wall. Still, the strong comedic chemistry amongst the three proved that they certainly could’ve proven to be good hosts. In fact, there were a few other instances of dynamic presenter duos that showed promising potential as hosts, including the duo of Awkwafina and John Mulaney, who presented the Oscars for Best Animated Short and Best Documentary Short, and Creed co-stars Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, who presented the Oscar for Best Original Score. But as I noted before, the lack of a host didn’t end up being that big of a loss in the long run. Thus, it’s ultimately up to the Academy to decide whether to have hosts or not for future ceremonies.     

MELISSA MCCARTHY, BRIAN TYREE HENRY, AND THEIR EXTRAVAGANT ATTIRE

Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry presented the Oscar for Best Costume Design and did so in the most appropriate manner possible by wearing elaborate costumes that featured elements from all 5 nominees. Henry sported Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger hairdo from Black Panther and Emily Blunt’s hat from Mary Poppins Returns while McCarthy sported a wig that mirrored the reveal of Queen Elizabeth I’s thinning hairline from Mary Queen of Scots, a hat from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and a dress that was covered with bunnies a la The Favourite. And as ridiculous as these two get-ups looked, the two managed to play it all completely straight-faced.

KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY AS MARY POPPINS

To introduce Bette Midler’s performance of ‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’ from Mary Poppins Returns, Keegan-Michael Key had his own Mary Poppins moment by floating down from the rafters via umbrella. Need I say more about how awesome this moment is?  

WAYNE, GARTH, AND BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ the song saw a major resurgence in popularity in 1992 thanks to the comedy Wayne’s World, where main protagonists Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) rocked out to the classic Queen tune in their car. Myers would then go on to appear in this year’s Bohemian Rhapsody biopic, which included a scene where he directly references Wayne’s World by arguing that the song would not be one that “teenagers can crank up the volume in their car and bang their heads to”. And while I will openly admit that it is one of the most undeniably blatant uses of an in-joke in recent memory, it’s still a memorable moment from the film for better or worse. The Oscars then proceeded to pay tribute to the classic scene from Wayne’s World by having Myers and Carvey come out together to introduce Bohemian Rhapsody as one of this year’s Best Picture nominees. Sure, it was mostly just a reunion for these two SNL alumni, but I do get a kick out of film-related reunions like this.    

MARVEL WINS SOME OSCARS

Now admittedly, this is more about the Oscars results than moments from the show itself, but I was quite glad to see that Black Panther managed to get some love at this year’s ceremony. It was the first superhero film to get nominated for Best Picture, and while it ultimately didn’t win that one, it did end up winning for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and Best Original Score. I was especially glad to see it win some awards after reading one of Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot’ articles that revealed some of the Academy’s voters’ picks in an anonymous fashion. One of the voters explicitly noted that he didn’t vote for Avengers: Infinity War for Best Visual Effects because “like a lot of people in the Academy, [he] doesn’t respect money-grabs”. And while this comment was primarily directed towards Avengers, he also described Black Panther as “a Marvel comic book movie” that’s “not much better than any of the others”. Reading this legitimately made me worried that Black Panther was going to get ignored just because it was from the genre that, for the past few years, has been the subject of mockery from those who take issue with its domination of the current pop cultural zeitgeist. Thankfully, though, that was not the case. Plus, Black Panther wasn’t the only Marvel film to win big that night as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature. Simply put, it was a big night for Marvel Studios and the MCU, which was then perfectly topped off with the late Stan Lee being honored during the annual ‘In Memoriam’ section.

LADY GAGA AND BRADLEY COOPER’S PERFORMANCE OF ‘SHALLOW’

Thanks to the Academy reversing their decision to cut out most of the performances of the Best Original Song nominees, we got to witness another excellent round of musical performances. Jennifer Hudson performed “I’ll Fight” from the documentary RBG, Bette Midler made a special appearance performing “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns, and David Rawlings and Gillian Welch performed “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. But for many people, the biggest highlight of them all when it came to the musical performances was seeing Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga perform “Shallow”, which would ultimately end up winning the Oscar that night, from A Star is Born. And it was certainly an unforgettable moment with a notably different spin to it compared to the other Best Original Song nominees because no one came out to introduce it. Instead, Cooper and Gaga simply walked onto the stage to perform their film’s signature tune with the same emotional intensity that helped to make A Star is Born one of the biggest hits of the year.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON AND SPIKE LEE ARE BEST BUDS

Samuel L. Jackson has had a long career in the film industry, and one of his most frequent collaborators has been Spike Lee thanks to appearances in films like Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, and Chi-Raq. And when Jackson and Brie Larson came out to announce the winners of the Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars, Jackson immediately reminded everyone of his friendship with the veteran filmmaker. For starters, Jackson informed Lee that his hometown team, the Knicks, had won that night, officially breaking their 18-game losing streak at Madison Square Garden. And when Lee and his BlacKkKlansman co-writers ended up winning the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Jackson couldn’t contain his excitement for the results, culminating in Lee bear-hugging Jackson when the former got up onstage.

And lastly…

GREAT SPEECHES

As is the case with any Oscars ceremony, there were some great speeches from the winners. Some of the most notable speeches include…

*Spike Lee encouraging everyone to be “on the right side of history” and “do the right thing” (“You know I had to get that in there!”) for the 2020 Presidential Election.

*Rami Malek talking about his identity as the son of immigrants and how it led to him connecting with Freddie Mercury, who was also an immigrant. There was also a sweet shout-out to his Bohemian Rhapsody co-star/girlfriend Lucy Boynton.

*Bao director Domee Shi (AKA the first female director of a Pixar short) encouraging girls “who hide behind their sketchbooks” to not “be afraid to tell your story to the world”.

*Black Panther costume designer Ruth Carter paying tribute to Spike Lee, who helped her get her start in the film industry. “Marvel may have created the first black superhero, but through costume design, we turned him into an African king.”

*Black Panther production designer Hannah Beachler arguably had the most emotional speech of the night as she thanked director Ryan Coogler, who she’s worked with on all his films, for helping make her “a better designer, a better story-teller, and a better person”. She also thanked Marvel for “supporting their vision” and concluded with the following; “I did my best and my best is good enough.”

*After winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, Lady Gaga thanked Bradley Cooper for believing in her and her fellow songwriters Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt, further stating that there wasn’t “a single person on the planet that could have sung this song with [her] but [him]”. Gaga then proceeded to encourage viewers to fight for their dreams and keep going no matter “how many times you get rejected or you fall down or get beaten up”.

*But for many, the best speech of the night came courtesy of Olivia Colman when she won Best Actress for her role in The Favourite. During her speech, she fangirled over fellow nominees Glenn Close and Lady Gaga, joked about the possibility that her kids weren’t watching by saying that “this is not going to happen again”, and reminisced about her time spent as a cleaner where she often pretended to give this exact speech. She also promised to snog anyone that she forgot to thank during the speech.

And that concludes this recap of the 91^st annual Academy Awards. Thanks for following along and be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own thoughts on the show. Did you think that it worked better without a host? And do you agree with me about what I said about how we really shouldn’t take award shows like this too seriously?