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Creative Dinosaur Mayhem Thrills at the End of Oak Street

In the wake of Jurassic Park and its groundbreaking dinosaur effects, one of the popular imagined ideas for its potential sequels was to take the dinosaurs off the sequestered island and put them in a more recognizable and immediate environment. Spielberg did this briefly at the end of The Lost World where a T-Rex is unleashed on San Diego, but subsequent movies for whatever reason had no interest in going there. Then finally, 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ended on the clear note of dinosaurs off the island and unleashed into civilization. However Jurassic World: Dominion came along next and tossed out that premise for the familiar very promptly. I wonder if David Robert Mitchell saw that and figured he would make his own ersatz sequel to Fallen Kingdom that did in fact take advantage of the concept of dinosaurs infiltrating our everyday lives. Because that is what The End of Oak Street feels like, a movie that really is what any of those Jurassic World films should have ...
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Futurama Reviews: S11E03 -"Lords of the Ring"

A story inspired by Larry Niven’s Ringworld series and yet it still gets named after the work of a more prominent genre legend. It is a cool thing to see manifested in Futurama anyways though, especially given how few adaptations of that story and concept have actually made their way out of literature. It is a reminder of how nerdy the writing staff on this show is, who in the early days often mined the more obscure avenues of science-fiction as much as the iconic ones. It comes here in the context of a story that is also interesting if perhaps not very original. We’ve seen a few times now on the show the evolution of a civilization out of something mundane – "Parasites Lost" , "Godfellas" , "A Clockwork Origin" -the last of which this episode has the most in common with given it is another case of one of the Professor’s experiments evolving an entire world and civilization. "Lords of the Ring" doesn’t compare to any of those, a story more conv...
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Nirvanna Plays the Rivoli

It is astonishing to me that Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie has taken off so much as a near-instant cult movie hit. Not because it is a scrappy independent film with no notable stars. Not because it is produced with a seemingly DIY crudeness. Not even because it plays with time travel as a concept and is ensconced in 80s movie throwbacks -particularly Back to the Future . But because of an aspect to the movie that is best crystallized in a moment where Matt (Matt Johnson) confirms he is in the year 2008 by a series of references that culminates in him seeing a billboard advertising Q with Jian Ghomeshi. I’m astonished that Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie has taken off so much because it is so extremely Canadian. The Ghomeshi joke is one of at least a handful in this film that I have to believe goes over every American’s head. Hell, there are even a couple jokes specific to Toronto in the film that I didn’t catch. But I can definitely comprehend the other ways this very stra...
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One Night Only is a Sex-Negative Rom-Com in Both Subject and Spirit

Somehow, I didn’t expect the movie about a dystopia where casual sex is illegal to be particularly anti-casual sex itself. The characters bemoan the status quo of their world every so often and there are anti-mandate proclamations all around, but most people seem to shrug it off as an annoyance  more than a genuine infringement on civil liberties. There is a disillusioned apathy with the government suppression (someone comments “this is what you get when you’re a one-issue voter”), musings about getting around it or bringing it down are not taken seriously, and it is even bestowed a kind of legitimacy by the end. Of course, One Night Only is not a movie very interested in the implications of its premise. Rather the premise is just an excuse for a series of scenarios befitting a generic enemies-to-lovers rom-com. Director Will Gluck and writer Travis Braun perhaps did not think through what they were actually saying by attaching this novel kind of synopsis to a more conventional for...
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The Criterion Channel Presents: Wise Blood (1979)

Celebrated American author Flannery O’Connor published two novels and dozens of short stories and novellas in her lifetime. Yet for whatever reason, John Huston’s Wise Blood from 1979 is the only movie adaptation of her work, namely her first novel. A couple years ago, Ethan Hawke semi-adapted some of her stories into the fabric of his biopic Wildcat , but there they are presented in a context apart from themselves. Wise Blood is the only case yet of her story unfiltered -written and produced by Benedict and Michael Fitzgerald, who knew O’Connor personally, as an apparently very faithful translation of her narrative style and voice. It is an intriguing movie -a good one- though I understand at its conclusion why there have not been others. Wise Blood is a dim satire on both religiosity and atheism. It is about a young man called Hazel Motes, played by a still very baby-faced Brad Dourif, who has returned from war disillusioned by faith and inspired to channel that through his own f...
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Futurama Reviews: S11E02 -"Our Flag Means Medical Coverage"

Now here is an episode that really doesn’t waste a moment. I really like when Futurama decides to explore a corner of its universe that is relatively untapped. Space pirates are an established element, even if just on a couple occasions ( “Godfellas” most notably), but “Our Flag Means Medical Coverage” now gives them greater attention and a funny and interesting context. Of course it is also an episode about one of the regular structures of the series, D.O.O.P, and some interrogation of its own practices and leadership in a curious if thinly explored political conflict. A nice dichotomy to present alongside some enjoyable new worldbuilding. It begins with D.O.O.P President Glab marking a controversial new allegiance with the dictatorial Vampire Empire by delivering to them a grand gemguliam crystal piano. Zapp Brannigan and Kif are of course assigned with its transport while Fry and Bender have been hired to make the actual delivery. But D.O.O.P’s Admirella is suspicious of the whole...
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A Brand New Day for a Bold New Spider-Man

The persistent motif across the MCU’s Spider-Man movies has been growing up. It began by following the titular hero through his latter years of high school , and reached its peak in Spider-Man: No Way Home , in which by the end Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is thrust into adulthood rather dramatically by the death of his aunt and the choice to have everybody forget he exists -including his beloved MJ (Zendaya). That film concluded with a very humbled Peter deprived of most of his connections and resources, living a solitary existence in a squalid apartment while fighting crime as his alter ego, revealing his true identity to absolutely nobody. An unusually bold choice for a franchise that likes to position its heroes as privileged celebrities. The harsh realities of maturity were on his doorstep, and it promised tremendous development for the series’ future. That promise is delivered on in Spider-Man: Brand New Day , for the most part. While some of the usual Marvel traits in script, ...
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