Restoring the sound of Sleeping Beauty (1959)

In honor of her 60th.

#5: Hellboy (2004)

I am not Del Toro's #1 fan.

I am also not experimenting with new layouts, the formatting is uncooperative today.

He's a very capable ideas man, but those ideas often get lost in fantasy and imagery on the screen. And sure, screen is a very good place to show that, but at some point, you want to stop winding through the woods and get back upon the path.

I've seen "Pacific Rim" (trim off about 20 minutes and we're okay), "The Shape of Water" (Fine) and "Pan's Labyrinth" (Interesting). "The Devil's Backbone" is on the to-watch list, and "Crimson Peak" is not.

#4: If Beale Street Could Talk

Mr. Jenkins seems to like those unusual narrative choices. Moonlight ("- Best Picture - Moonlight") had 3 sections, and Beale Street had a lot of asides that are common to a story like this - Pointing out how shit life was (is) for black people in the unjust country that is America. That anti-blackness is not just reserved for white people or cops, that belief in stereotypes run rampant no matter what race you are.

That the first black person you see is the one that did the crime, that your trauma will ruin someone else's life and, oh well.

Stephan James and Kiki Layne are just so sweet and hopeful it made me cry.

Unlike Moonlight, this is not nominated for Best Picture, or Director, but there is an Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress for Regina King, and Best Score. Better than nothing.

I have long, long thought that the faith Black Americans have in a white God is misplaced and useless, and I'm glad there is a movie where it's clear that the God-loving black people are, frankly, pieces of shit.

Disasters.

Abhorrent.

No one is light-skinned except arguably one side character.

Tyler Perry is shaking!

2018: The Year in Podcasts & Youtube Shows.

There was plenty to listen to in 2018! Many new discoveries, including...


The DIS
A Disney-oriented site (wdwinfo.com) slash travel agency (Dreams Unlimited) that focuses on the guest experience, dining reviews, and the business side of the Disney parks, from World to Land, and even Japan;

With spark, wit, and rapport for days, I love listening to the podcast for each park (Stateside) every week. There's also a side Universal show for those parks as well.

#3: Smallfoot

This was going to be "Life Itself", but my god, what a viscerally unpleasant movie. I got about 20 minutes into it and said "Nope, it's not gonna be me,".

2018's Non-Entity in the Animation game (Oh wait, there was also "Summer Vacation"), "Smallfoot" is probably the most clearly childish, strictly for the little, little kids animated movie of the year.

Despite hearing Zendaya's song for this ages ago (it would be a real contender in a less forgettable movie), the singing caught me a bit off guard. The lyrics to the first song are especially pedestrian. "Rio 2", this ain't.

Also this movie is the main characters learning to not just listen to what religious-minded elders say and question the world they live in and be thoughtful citizens of the world.

By far, it's the most creative, interesting, and non-trite part of this movie.

 Everything else is paint by numbers from the cinematography to the character tropes. This could have been an incredibly smart contender if they didn't wrap a good idea in a standard package.

There's also a heavy undercurrent of new ideas changing old roles in society, leaving individuals with questions about who they are and where they fit.

Call it the coal miner - solar energy parable.

#2: The Favourite

Perhaps 'tis a strange way to put it, but there's a weird...1/4th fish-eye lense happening on occasion. I counted twice within the first four minutes alone.

It swoops from one end of the long hallways to a character at the other end.

Nicholas Hoult is surprisingly good in this foppish, detached kind of role. I wish he was getting a bit more attention for this performance.

I can't say I've seen too many roles of Emma Stone's - The Croods stands out, and the first hour of La La Land - so it's far too early for me to say "She's playing herself" when I have such a small frame of reference, but...more research is needed.

If anything, I certainly did not expect this movie to be about two cousins trying to curry favor with a queen out of her mind by fucking her.

That's ... the most concise way I can sum up this movie.

Besides that tiny bit of Lanthimos flair where you get the feeling that this is an alternative universe because of minute details in the actions of the characters. It's certainly not as ... ominous as The Killing of A Sacred Deer. It's funny in a "Oh, who expected the posh English royals to act this way, hur hur," but the humor stops pretty quickly.

I think this has a far better chance of being nominated for Best Picture over Mary Queen of Scots.

#1: Bird Box

So far, people are lamenting it as "The poor man's A Quiet Place", but it certainly has a better setup and element of mystery than that movie to me.

In retrospect, it's like A Quiet Place + Annihilation, though nowhere near as impactful as the latter.

There's also a difference between "Aliens are here, shut up," and "Mass hallucinations are making everyone go insane, so maybe don't look around your surroundings."

Nothing in movies is wholly original, after all.

Happy to see Trevante Rhodes in things again ("Again", as if he stopped working. I simply didn't see The Predator or 12 Strong) as the most reasonable and survival-minded person in the group outside of the white man everyone thought was an asshole but was reasonable about not letting randos into the house.

The idea of these two people going on the run with kids they found in the aftermath is pretty interesting, as well as the tiny bits of humanity they show the children (Who are, for the longest, just named Boy and Girl) just wish it was a better movie.

The Screenplay: Destroyer / BlackKklansman / Mary Poppins Returns

Happy New Year, and happy Award Season!

We're kicking off the 6th of Jan with the Golden Globe Awards, the biggest precursor to the Oscars for reasons unknown.

And instead of waiting for screeners, I'm just going to read the screenplays instead. Of course, these are not full fledged reviews as we're not seeing performances, camera work, or settings. Just how the story plays out.

And my god, do we have some doozies. Three, in fact, from here.

Annapurna's Destroyer, Focus Features BlackKklansman, and Disney's Mary Poppins Returns.